Global gag rule overruled
From The Nation:
GAG OVERRULED: On January 23, one day after the thirty-sixth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, President Barack Obama overturned the Mexico City policy, aka the global gag rule, which barred US funds for overseas health organizations that so much as mentioned abortion in their work. Score one for women's rights, women's health, free speech and international family planning. Contrary to David Brooks, who, while admitting total ignorance, opined on The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer that the gag rule had no practical effect, the International Planned Parenthood Federation estimates that it lost $100 million in US funding. The Marie Stopes International family planning organization closed down four programs in Kenya, Ethiopia and Nepal. Meanwhile, funding that had gone to family planning was shifted to evangelical groups promoting abstinence. If Obama restores US support for the UN Population Fund--vetoed for eight long years by George W. Bush on bogus charges that it funded forced abortions in China--the dismal picture for women's reproductive health in the developing world will surely brighten.
Still, it's insulting that healthcare so essential to women's well-being is dependent on the good will of the president, like some kind of medieval boon. Can you imagine, say, funding for heart disease being swapped in and out of the budget depending on whether a Republican or a Democrat occupies the White House? To please right-wing Christians, women in far-off lands suffered fistulas and other horrible pregnancy-related conditions, wore themselves out physically and emotionally in childbearing and died in great numbers from pregnancy, labor and illegal abortions; children died in infancy, were impoverished and orphaned. For now, that's over. But in four years? Eight years? KATHA POLLITT
Related:
- Washington Post: Funding Restored to Groups that Perform Abortions, Other Care
- ABC News: Obama Overturns ‘Mexico City Policy’ Implemented by Reagan
- Seattle Times: President Obama wisely kills abortion "global gag rule"
- Guardian UK: Barack Obama reverses 'global gag rule" on family planning organisations
- 뉴시스: 오바마, 해외 낙태 지원단체 기금 제한 철폐. 낙태를 돕거나 낙태 관련 정보를 제공하는 가족계획 단체들에 대한 정부의 재정 지원을 금지하는 정책을 폐지했다.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: abortion, funding, gag rule, ObamaDREAM Act on Change.org
An update on a previous post about the DREAM Act:
"Pass the DREAM Act - Support Higher Education for All Students" was voted as one of Top 10 Ideas for Change in America on Change.org. The press blurb:
... today we held a press event at the National Press Club in Washington DC to announce the winners of the competition. The 10 winning ideas reflect the diverse interests of the millions of people calling for change across the country, and include ideas for securing universal heath care, LGBT rights, and sustainable green energy. All winning ideas can be viewed at www.change.org/ideas.
The winning ideas were accepted on behalf of the Presidential Transition Team by Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media and the person who oversees our second-favorite website, Change.gov. Macon then addressed the attendees of the event, which included nonprofit leaders and grassroots activists, and spoke about the importance the administration will place on citizen-driven efforts like Ideas for Change.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: DREAM Act, illegal immigration, immigration, Obama, politicsKoreatown voters for McCain/Palin
Here's an interesting tidbit from an email alert from the Korean American Coalition, quoting from an exit poll conducted by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), and released through their Demographics Research Project website:
Of those interviewed for the Koreatown Exit Poll, nearly 45% identified themselves as Democrats and nearly 37% as Republicans, but President-Elect Barack obama lost by six percentage points to Senator John McCain, 46% to 52%, amongst Korean American voters in Koreatown.
In contrast, Korean Americans in the greater Los Angeles County supported Obama 60% to 40%. (APALC found that Asian Americans supported Obama 68% to 30% overall.) Wonder why McCain support is stronger in Koreatown?
Shameful, but not surprising given the conservative character of the immigrant Korean community. I sure wish the tide would turn, though.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: Korean American, Koreatown, Obama, Republican, voting“Uncritical Exuberance?” by Judith Butler
This essay has been circulating over email. I can't find the original source, so I'm re-posting it here.
Uncritical Exuberance?
Judith Butler
Very few of us are immune to the exhilaration of this time. My friends on the left write to me that they feel something akin to "redemption" or that "the country has been returned to us" or that "we finally have one of us in the White House." Of course, like them, I discover myself feeling overwhelmed with disbelief and excitement throughout the day, since the thought of having the regime of George W. Bush over and gone is an enormous relief. And the thought of Obama, a thoughtful and progressive black candidate, shifts the historical ground, and we feel that cataclysm as it produces a new terrain. But let us try to think carefully about the shifted terrain, although we cannot fully know its contours at this time. The election of Barack Obama is historically significant in ways that are yet to be gauged, but it is not, and cannot be, a redemption, and if we subscribe to the heightened modes of identification that he proposes ("we are all united") or that we propose ("he is one of us"), we risk believing that this political moment can overcome the antagonisms that are constitutive of political life, especially political life in these times. There have always been good reasons not to embrace "national unity" as an ideal, and to nurse suspicions toward absolute and seamless identification with any political leader. After all, fascism relied in part on that seamless identification with the leader, and Republicans engage this same effort to organize political affect when, for instance, Elizabeth Dole looks out on her audience and says, "I love each and every one of you."
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: election, Obama, politicsKorean American moms for Obama
Thanks to my friend Grace -- here's a great little endorsement.
My favorite moment:
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: election, Obama, politicsCategories
Archives
Recent Comments
- kaguya: omg…. I hate this reality….
- Alexis Martin: last year i was so addicted with the Bejewelled game and i played all night’~.
- dotorious: Very funny! And how surreal that must have been. I wonder if the dude would go back to wherever he came from, and mutter in shock,...
- Bonnie: I always though that the similarities between 원어민 and 원주민 were funny too. It’s startling being in Korea for a while (as a white...
- dotorious: of course. it’s funny, actually, the similarity (and vast difference) between 원어민 and 원주민.
Recent Photos
