John Naughton has already pointed us to this superb, sustained rant from Keith Olbermann, of MSNBC, about the pernicious, and highly dangerous, rhetoric dripping from the mouths of increasingly desperate Republicans during these final stages of the US Presidential race. He does not miss his targets!
Elsewhere, we have the faintly nauseating sight of Sarah Palin pretending to be a feminist — this from the running mate of a man who, according to an open letter from a feminist campaigner picked up by the Huff Post:
- voted 19 times against increasing the minimum wage (the majority of minimum wage earners are women) before he finally voted for it because it included business tax cuts.
- voted to gut the Family and Medical Leave act and opposed expanding its coverage.
- opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would restore women’s ability to fight wage discrimination in the courts, telling women our problem was that they ‘needed to get more education and training’.
- voted NO on the Violence Against Women Act and NO on funding for the Office of Violence Against Women.
- voted NO on starting the US Army’s Breast Cancer Research Program, which has funded hundreds of millions in breast cancer research
- voted NO on reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and supported Bush’s veto.
- opposes a woman’s right to choose, and Palin herself opposes legal abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
- voted to terminate federal funds for family planning
I can see more than a little difficulty in building a feminist platform on that record. Perhaps, though, Sarah Palin has ‘real American’ definition of feminism?
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