Nicely done. Wraps it all up in a nice (pink) ribbon.

Thanks to everything that’s been posted on this, by TBogg and others, and to the enormous outrage shown by people on the intertubes, I feel a lot more hopeful about things in general and women’s rights in particular than I did a few days ago.

I’d remind the Komen Foundation of an old (and sexist, but nonetheless true) joke about why we didn’t used to send women to war.

Because they don’t know when to quit.

Decades ago, the rule for counter-terror strike teams was this: “Shoot the women first.” Because female terrorists were far more deadly and, if they said that they’d kill the hostages, they would. The men, in comparison, would waffle about pulling the trigger.

Amen, Tbogg. We have seen what’s behind the curtain and we no likee.

WOLVERINES!

audjsc

It’s now known that SGK is a Republican group. That’s good to know – especially in an election year. If the Dems have the good sense to use it against Tea Party people running for Congress.

Lesson learned, here. Direct donations to Planned Parenthood from now on, and skip completely the wingnut, Stepford Wife agents in the middle who skim millions for salaries and perks.

As for cancer research, I’ll find better ways to make direct, cash contributions.

Holy cow! You havent seen the West Wing yet? A wonderful series, both in story and production…. Until about the fifth season when Sorkin left. Most powerful episodes for me: “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen” and “Cathedral” (Both second season, I believe)

As commie atheist said, nice wrapup. Rule of thumb I learnt a long time ago: Don’t piss women off.

John Cole FTW:

But the important thing now is to not back down. Komen is backpeddling, which is good, but it doesn’t change who they are. All that has changed is that they realized they were just a tad too brazen this time around. The nature of the beast has not changed, the same people who cut stem cell funding to Hopkins and other universities are still there, the folks who attempted to play petty partisan games by attacking Planned Parenthood are still there, and they will do the same sorts of things in the future, only this time they will try to be more sophisticated in the PR efforts. Keep up the pressure. Keep calling companies and pressuring them to drop Komen. Don’t do what liberals always do and stop just because it appears we have won. Keep your foot on their neck, no matter how many times Nancy Brinker whimpers “uncle” through mealy-mouthed PR releases. We need this to be an object lesson in pain for anyone else who wants to try some bullshit like this in the future.

Basically, pretend you are a Republican and we are talking about ACORN.

That’s it. (And before you point out that ACORN didn’t actually do anything wrong, let ME point out that THAT’S NOT THE POINT.) Keep the pressure on and keep the pressure on and keep the pressure on until Komen dries up and blows away.

“We need this to be an object lesson in pain.” Because that’s how free markets are supposed to work.

Here’s a little holiday episode from the West Wing for your enjoyment, Tbogg.

“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”

This gives rise to an argument: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the opposite. The answer is that one would like to be both, but since it is difficult to combine the two it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to make way. For generally speaking, one can say the following about men: they are ungrateful, inconsistent, feigners and dissimulators, avoiders of danger, eager for gain, and whilst it profits them they are all yours. They will offer you their blood, their property, their life and their offspring when your need for them is remote. But when your needs are pressing, they turn away. The prince who depends entirely on their words perishes when he finds he has not taken any other precautions. This is because friendships purchased with money and not by greatness and nobility of spirit are paid for, but not collected, and when you need them they cannot be used. Men are less worried about harming somebody who makes himself loved than someone who makes himself feared, for love is held by a chain of obligation which, since men are bad, is broken at every opportunity for personal gain. Fear, on the other hand, is maintained by a dread of punishment which will never desert you.

Thanks for everything you did on this, Tbogg. I sense this was personal for you. It is for me, too, and a lot of us ’round here, I suspect. (Jane, take a bow).

My favorite lines from West Wing:

Josh: “The personal computer…”

Leo: “A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography? Where’s my jet pack, my colonies on the Moon?”

RIP John Spencer

But sometimes, once in a great while, the internet is a good thing. Komen was called on its bullshit because like-minded people can communicate with each other and organize to do something about it.

Kudos to all.

Yes, we need to calendar for next December a reminder to check on whether or not Komen goes ahead and grants the 2013 funding to PP. And if they don’t, start a new firestorm.

re: West Wing. Lawrence O’Donnell is so full of himself, I usually don’t watch his show. But I gotta admit, as a writer on that show he outdid himself. He played a clip last night of the live debate between Repub pres candidate played by Alan Alda and Dem Santos, played by Jimmy Smits. O’Donnell prefaced it by saying he wrote the scene he always wanted to hear in real life – a Dem attacked by a wingnut for being a “liberal”…who fights back and takes on the word proudly.
He talked way too long setting up the clip, as usual. But the speeches in the clip…performed beautifully…were the kind that make a liberal sit up proud. Props for that.

I hope SGK does become a much less prominent organization if it doesn’t go out of business altogether.

But I’m a bit queasy about driving the stake into their heart ala ACORN, and here’s why: while I think people should know that SGK is overlarded with salaries and other expenses and doesn’t spend as much of its funding on its mission as it should, and while I also think that all potential donors have a right to know that the organization is pursuing a rightwing political agenda, if people are ok with that and want to give them money, that’s their business. I’d add that I certainly see nothing wrong with letting companies know that you, as a consumer, now see the pink ribbon as a warning not to buy a product, while also letting them know that you would look kindly upon them supporting some other, non-politicized group that uses most of their funding for their mission.

But as for killing the foundation? There are other things more worth the effort.

Also, as to the right’s whines that it was Komen’s money to decide how to give and that PP was playing some kind of dishonest shakedown game on them, it is to laugh. As with the consumer protection agency, the right is all about helping whoever is trying to help themselves to your money hide their true agenda. Komen certainly has the right to de-fund PP’s grants, and the public who never suspected before that the foundation had a right-wing agenda has the right to never again support SGK. That’s not a “shakedown;” that’s just the way things work. If you don’t want a political agenda to alienate your donors, you shouldn’t pursue one.

I’m surprised someone hasn’t used this scene yet.

Like the Republican Party, Komen doesn’t deserve a second chance. Ever.

Seems a number of folks are watching The West Wing. I’m on season four of that, and I just downloaded two other shows that never lose their appeal. The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

These shows almost make me teary-eyed for the open-minded, progressive, and small-L liberal society we once had and took for granted.

PS. I second the emotion of all the posters who said Thank You, for staying on this story. It is much appreciated.

You express what so many of us feel about shitty disgusting people but lack the ability to articulate in quite the same wonderful way. So thank you.

Well put, sir, well put. My mother was a survivor and I will never forgive Komen for this. Ever.

A petition to fire Karen Handel.

Fire Karen Handel, & Get Back to Your Mission
http://www.change.org/petitions/fire-karen-handel-get-back-to-your-mission

Merci tbogg, from me, my Mom, my Aunts and my female friends.

Yeah it got pretty terrible at around season 5.

I’m sort of like TBogg, I was living abroad and caught a couple rerun episodes of the third season on the English language channel (the non-dubbed one, with subtitles) and went out and bought all three seasons, and then eventually the rest. The later ones are okay, but it’s those first two or three seasons that really sing.

It wasn’t until they did an episode about a poet that was possibly the most moronic thing I’ve ever seen that I realized it was probably somewhat the same with the politics (despite Lawrence O’Donnell writing and producing some of it), and that DC insiders probably sat around rolling their eyes as well, but it all sounded right to me since it’s not my world. Fun still though.

Agreed on the thanks expressed by so many, what great coverage, tbogg.

Guess who was intimately involved in all of it? I hope he wore protection. Ari Fleischer: http://www.thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/03/418797/exclusive-ari-fleischer-komen-planned-parenthood/

Well hot damn! This daughter of a breast cancer survivor couldn’t be happier to hear that Komen can’t un-shit the bed. I can finally point to the reason that I refused the October Blue Jeans 3-day walk pinkwashing and took hell for it. There’s gold in them-there “cure” hills, but pull back the curtain and its more American Chemical Industry deflecting from cause (in my opinion – don’t want to get sued for having an opinion) which may or may not include environment just in case uppity gals golooking in their shopping carts. Just sayin’
And TBogg, you just keep upping my “opinion” of you as a man, dad, husband and Basset wrangler. Don’t go changin to try and please me, I love you just the way you are.

OT, but for Halloween one year I had a costume like the one in the photo on this post. Except, mine was funnier, because since I don’t have knockers like that, and didn’t have an alien baby replica, I just duck-taped a plastic T-rex to my stomach, pulled on a cheap men’s undershirt, rammed the plastic dinosaur’s head through a hole in the shirt, and sprayed the whole thing down with vampire blood.

Hit of the party!!

Yeah…I was a faithful fan for the first three years, then…not so much. I hadn’t realized until that clip that Jon Stewart’s throwaway line the other night – something about Jimmy Smits is who tv shows bring in to save themselves when they’re about to jump the shark…or something, funnier …

I don’t know that I ever thought WW was the authentic experience of working in the WH, but loved it for stuff like that debate scene – the way you wish it was, the president you wished we had.
Which is why I rarely watch reruns…the contrast is too depressing. But the writing so often sparkled, made you wanna repeat it…

U NEVER SAW TEH WEST WING?????

And, btw, Atrios tells us that Ari Fleischer was who chose Little Miss Handel….

Whooop!

Yes indeedy! Ari was behind this whole “apolitical” attack on Planned Parenthood:

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/03/418797/exclusive-ari-fleischer-komen-planned-parenthood/

And just because I can:

http://www.wavsource.com/snds_2012-01-29_4574132805919209/tv/gomer_pyle/gomer_surprise.wav

Tbogg: Friend To Breasts Everywhere!

These women have already fought off and survived cancer. What do you think they’ll do to a weakened and panicked Susan G. Komen Foundation?

Even when they didn’t survive – they leave friends and relatives who will remember. And SGK won’t be on those lists.

I’ve got a friend/neighbor who does the run every year for the various faimly members who’ve survived (and not); this whole debacle is where I will point her to when I explain that I can not in good conscience contribute a dime to the voracious money-gathering machine that is Susan B. Komen, especially since less than 24 cents of every dollar goes to actually, you know, helping further the cause of breast cancer awareness, research, etc.

No pink, ever again. Thanks for your hard work on this one Tbogg, currently no one deserves your sharp pen more than these grifters.

Tom. Stellar works, man. The wimminfolk remain the greatest force for human rights in this whole US political scene and if you’re ever hijacked and held hostage by the likes of illiberal alien dogfaces like Coulter, Bachmann, Geller, Malkin, etc, you can bet they’ll ride a 40 Baskethoundie team in to the rescue faster than Jonah Goldberg can down a side of santorum.

And if that happens, I want the video rights.

It’s all true. Ari Fleischer, indeed. To use that well known phrase, Nobody Could Have Predicted….THAT ANY PROJECT COORDINATED BY ARI FLEISCHER WOULD TURN TO SHIT.
Some people have the gift of gold, Bushies have the gift of Santorum.

Good Job Tbogg. Lovely art work!

@Lesley, why would you want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?
You just got a lecture not to do what liberals always do, grab defeat from the jaws of victory.

Boobies are back! Thank Yew

Arrgh — the WAV stopped being a WAV and redirects to an Amazon page.

Here’s the YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6_1Pw1xm9U

Yup. Don’t let up, because they won’t. Ever.

Boobies are back! Thank Yew

or Boobie is back! Thank Yew. depending on the type of BC a body might have had.

PP ought to go on the offensive and go after SBK’s core business – fundraising for breast cancer awareness. I trust them to do this mission without allowing political considerations to play on the health issues of woman’s health. The fact that Koman is actively trying to keep out public funding on the same issue tells me that their whole reason for existence is to fundraise first and find a cure second….or maybe even a lower priority somewhere after social politics.

But wait, there’s more: evidently, last November, the Komen Foundation decided to no longer fund embryonic stem-cell research, which kind of transforms them from a charity into a seriously anti-choice advocacy group with tax-exempt status. Their decision has serious implications for cancer research:

“That means the loss of $3.75 million to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, $4.5 million to the University of Kansas Medical Center, $1 million to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, $1 million to the Society for Women’s Health Research, and $600,000 to Yale University. That’s a loss of nearly $12 million dollars in research money to eradicate breast cancer this year alone.”

Go here for more:
http://www.care2.com/causes/susan-g-komen-foundation-also-stops-funding-embryonic-stem-cell-research.html

Nope, break them for both reasons, they have a right wing agenda that is bad for women, and they are lousy at spending money that actually helps the people that they are supposed to be helping. So, if it went somewhere else, you would have more bang for your buck. Also, they spend waaaaaaaaaaaay too much money on their management board, which should work for expenses if not free, since they are rich. The bitch who runs the place makes 400k a year and she was already rich.