Ya know, with all their claims of “Rugged Individualism” they sure are some whiny little shits.

The truth hurts, don’t it?

Happy to see that the Sacramento Bee is running Doonesbury, even though I guess they felt *compelled* to take the precaution of running it on the Editorial Page. At least it’s there.

Funny (not ha ha) how telling the truth about this scurrilous shit makes one almost a pariah, or at least placed specifically so that the rightwing isn’t “upset” too much by being confronted with factual reality.

I have no doubt that the whiiiiiing pearl clutching letters to the Editor from “concerned conservatives” who are just being so incredibly *victimized* by Gary Trudeau’s truth telling will be begin in 5…4…3…

Nice touch with the scarlet letter “A”.

“Do your parents know you’re a slut? Surely they suspect.” Touche, Trudeau — that pretty much summarizes the whole patronizing knickers-in-a-bunch attitude of the withered old men in the GOP who can think of nothing better to do than regulate women’s uteri.

How sad that such a Victorian mindset is apparently shared by several editors of our “free” press…

Here in Orygun our delicate sensibilities are being kept safe from either wand or D’bury violation!

In Ace’s world, “student at Georgetown Law” = “shiftless.”

The misogyny is strong in that one.

Best phrase in the week’s strips: “The Republican men who run Texas…”

Does Ace of Spuds somehow think we don’t already know he’s an asshole? Does he feel it necessary to remind us? It’s so…needy.

I’m grateful to Trudeau for this; it somehow slipped under the radar that Texas already has this law.
There was actually a lawsuit about it, and the Fifth Circuit found it okay, so it just went into effect.

But it passed before the Occupy movement gained steam, before the critical mass of Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia’s outrageous ALEC-inspired laws. Heck, I even credit Rick Santorum for bringing women’s attention to the attack on contraception and basic women’s health care. He was so outrageous that a lot of people sat up straight, looked around, saw what was going on, and got engaged.

You can read “Doonesbury” every day like I do at GoComics.com:

http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/

So how does one (me mostly) find these things a week in advance?
I’m pretty current on my collection but a week’s head start would keep me from missing the really good ones.

Inquiring minds need a good laugh.

I hope that we have a more substantial arguement for the election of Obama this fall than the GOP “war on women”. It is hard to believe that the majority of independents or moderates actually think that the other side is plotting against the freedom of women. And to push it as a major issue can, and likely will, make us look a little paranoid and seeing cabals where there are few to be found. Limbaugh aside, we will not make much hay insisting that the Catholic Church should be forced to believe the way that our government thinks that they should.

Jobs, China’s role as our banker, Iran, do we fight in Afghanistan, gas prices and a whole number of other topics are more likely to bear on the outcome of the election.

The Baltimore Sun moved Doonesbury to the editorial page years ago, which pissed me off, but it’s running this week. “Shaming room” indeed.

WOW… check this out

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/13/fired-for-using-birth-control-it-could-be-possible-in-arizona/2

just… wow

Rampant misogyny.

If they can talk about “lady parts” in Congress, surely the newspapers have nothing to fear from printing Doonesbury. They are, after all, supposed to “inform” us.

Or here…
http://www.doonesbury.com/

I think the title of the post is misleading. It should be something along the lines of “The Republican War on Women” or the “Conservative War on Women.”

Personally I prefer the former to the later.

The CWOW’s are pissed cause the only men they know that are getting any action are dems or independents. I am pretty sure it will stay that way for a long time.

Well, being someone of the dudely persuasion, I’m taking my cue from women themselves on this matter. And from what I’m reading and hearing, the extent and depth of anger among women on this topic extends well beyond renowned women, feminazis* and otherwise, to “regular women” living their “regular lives”. [*Thankyewverymuch, Rushbo!]

This thing seems to hit women right where they live, in their day-to-day lives, or at least in that part of it that my dudely perspective does not equip me to understand in a ‘down-in-my-bones’ kinda way. So, I shut up and I listen, and if not-insane wimmen are pissed (and they are), and they present reasons as to why they are pissed (and they have been; pretty damn good reasons too, AFAICT), then dammit, I’m gonna be pissed too (and I am).

Perhaps one or more of those of the dudettely persuasion – or better informed dudes than me – will take the time to give you a better answer. That’s about the best I can do, other than digging up some links – too busy for that now, but if this question is still hanging later this evening, I’ll try to do so.

ETA, I just noticed I didn’t address your main question, regarding relevance to the election. Well, women are a significant voting bloc, and my guess is that pissed-off women are going to be a larger and more significant bloc. So there’s that…

And from here in the capital of Wandistan :

“Monday’s strip appeared in the ‘Classifieds’ section of the Austin American-Statesman.”

Women are a bit over 50% of the population of this country, and as a woman and the parent of a woman “women’s issues” happen to be important to me. I am not and my daughter is NOT a special interest group. No ones religious views should ever have any bearing on our health care decisions, or what medications our medical insurance pays for. If the Health Care bill mandates that birth control must be fully funded by insurers then that’s the law. No one but my medical provider and I should have any say in what tests are needed before a medical procedure.

Stopping the wars is very important, keeping the economy from going off the rails is also important but the ability to control our own medical and life decisions is no less important. This attitude is no different than the idea (which, sadly I have heard expressed in my liberal circle of friends) that my daughters gay and lesbian friends should work on something “more important” than marriage equity and the ability to adopt if they wish. How is fighting for human rights “less important”??

Yes, there are lots of important issues, but clearly the contraceptive/abortion wand invasiveness has hit a (pardon) Mother-lode. Effects not only on women, to be sure.

The constant use of the phrase “graphic imagery” is really offensive. Having already seen the “I thee rape” panel I am at a loss to imagine what he could ink that is graphic, that one certainly isn’t.

I hope you can move away from the obvious belief that those who matter – who have control, power, authority and duty to govern – are all male. You are not the only citizen here, nor does your gender give you the inherent right to determine the correct path and response to achieve the Promised Land.

The systematic attack on more than one half of the citzens of this nation, on the basis of their gender, is the most fundamental issue in the country at the moment. Everything else is secondary, for everything else, every other action is conducted with the consent and advice of the citizenry -as a whole-. If that whole is shattered, if half of the citizens are no longer effectively citizens, then every decision from here on out is suspect. The country is transformed. The decisions of the country are illegitimate.

Doonesbury increases the wattage shining on conservative ideology, and we all know they prefer to operate in the dark alleys where no one is watching as they change the world to their liking. Sort of like how a family man seeks out a hooker, which they unsurprisingly, seem to also know a lot about.

And if there’s anyone who knows about rent-a-cooch, it’s Ace of Spades. Taking a wild guess, that’s the only he gets laid, past, present or future. Certainly future if women in his neighborhood hear about the outburst above. I suppose he could take a Thai sex tour, they don’t speak or read much English among the eleven year old set. Of course there’s always his old booty call Mary Palm and her five daughters…a weeping Ace looks down at his hand and sobs out “You’ve never let me down or gotten uppity with me! It’s you I truly love!”

You can thank me for that image later.

Trudeau’s Doonesbury has been a vehicle for rabble rousing from way back…nice to see he hasn’t lost his touch!

It is hard to believe that the majority of independents or moderates actually think that the other side is plotting against the freedom of women.

Really? Not to be rude (honest), but you find it “hard to believe” that indies or moderates might think that “Republicans” are plotting against the freedom of women? Where’ve you been lately? That might sound rude, but I seriously don’t see how you can *miss* what “Republicans” have been up to over the past few weeks. It’s pretty damn blatant from where I stand. Yes, I DO think that “Republicans” are waging an all-out battle against the freedom of women, and we’re not just talking about reproductive rights, quite honestly.

Might want to check out the Internet or a newspaper or even “mainstream” tv “nooz” if you’re missing out on that much. Best.

if requiring a woman to undergo an intentionally shaming Ultra sound procedure because Texas decides a woman doesn’t know what she’s doing when she has an abortion or a perfectly normal 30 year old woman is called a slut a whore and worse in the national media FOR DAYS ON END simply because she talked about the problems other people had getting birth control pills – and add to that constant attacks on Planned Parenthood and the recent deranged gibberish being spouted about the girl scouts. I think you can say the “war on women’ is well and truly underway.
it’s not about abortion – it’s not about birth control, its about the control of women’s bodies by well Men in power.
As an election tactic well on this issue, the GOP just walked up to the Democratic party and said ‘hit me with this stick’. The war on women is a winner on several levels – i’d think moderates and such would hesitate to vote for a party that has a lot of their major figures going about yelling slutty slut slut slut! And the other thing is exposes for all to see the hateful inhumanity that lurks at the heart of the conservative moment. How can a party that so loathes women be really concerned about jobs, families, health care or anything other than blowing stuff up and slut shaming. if the Democratic party does not beat the gop with this big dirty stick until they beg for mercy they are fools.

War on vaginas? They’re doing it wrong….

Oopps. Don’t know how that made it as a reply to you.

I hate feeding trolls — they never seem to get full and they leave crumbs all over the place. If you’re not a troll, I apologize for speculating that you might be.

You are at least someone who self-identifies (via your screen name) as a male of advanced maturity. If you thought that your scolding would carry more weight because of your gender and maturity, you came to the wrong place.

Many of us here have gray/grey hair, all of us know there are a lot of very important problems that need to be addressed, and most of us are offended by the disgusting viewpoint of so many Republicans that women should be shamed into behaving as something other than free and competent adults.

Trudeau has been doin’ this for years.

Check out
and subsequent panels for lots of truth and laughs.

Trudeau has been doin’ this for years.

Check this out
and subsequent panels for lots of truth and laughs.

Sorry about the double post. I never know how this stuff works.

There is some hope that the absolute idiotic and reactionary position of Republicans on this matter might serve to throw cold water in the faces of independents and others who don’t follow issues but feel some obligation to vote. Just maybe, some of them will begin to take a look at the equally absurd Republican positions on the issues you mention.

What Would Wembley Say?

Not a troll, and not surprised at all that the posts here take exception with what I said. Notwithstanding that, everyone posting here will vote for Obama when it comes right down to a decision between Obama and Romney or Santorum. The real consideration is to not allow the Republicans to win in November and to that end the indies and the moderates are the most important blocs. And I am not certain that they as a group see the coming election as a battle to stop a “war on women”. Gas prices will probably prevail.

“How can a party that so loathes women be really concerned about jobs, families, health care or anything…”

Pretty much This.

And I am not certain that they as a group see the coming election as a battle to stop a “war on women”.

Huh…no women in these demographics? Or not ones that have sex?

As a fellow graybeard, I couldn’t disagree more with your observations. But I sure do believe that the RNC is going to be working overtime trying to deal with the 25 point gap that polling is now showing for women who will be voting Democrat in November. There will be a lots of “no big deal” and “lets change the conversation to other issues” as they try to make 2012 about the economy and not their conservative social agenda. Sorry, no sale.

All of the others are minor by comparison. It isn’t like giving Mr O another term is going to change the military-industrial-security complex at all: he’s at least as bad on that as Shrub was. But he’s better for women and some minorities than any of the GOP wanna-bes, all of whom seem to be competing for the title of ‘Meanest Bigot in the Country’.

I don’t take exception to what you said; I just think you’re wrong to believe that these issues aren’t that big of a deal for a whole lot of people – not all of them women, even. The GOP hasn’t made a distinction between married and unmarried women in their slut-shaming campaign and I’d be willing to bet there are a whole lot of married women who also don’t take kindly to being called a dirty whore because they take the Pill. I’ll go further and wager that a good many of those women’s husbands aren’t too keen on the idea that politicians will be deciding how many kids they will be supporting.

You said, “It is hard to believe that the majority of independents or moderates actually think that the other side is plotting against the freedom of women,” and you might think that now…but you haven’t seen the ads yet. The ones that mock the party of “small government” for now wanting to dictate the size of people’s families, determine private medical decisions for us and so on and so forth. The hypocrisy of claiming to want to “get government out of people’s lives” while at the same time trying to cram government up women’s vaginas hasn’t eluded even a lot of conservative women, who may not show up in November or may, if they do, decide to take revenge in the privacy of the voting booth.

Women hold grudges. This will not end well for the Republicans.

Dude, you need to get out more. GWPDA and JennOfArk have already given excellent responses, but I think maybe you need to google “GOP War on Women” and click on a couple of the links you find there.

Like this one.

Or this one. Kathleen Parker, by the way, is a conservative Republican.

Or this one.

Those are just from the first page of links. Then there is this graph.

Plotting against the freedom of women? No, they’re no plotting. They’re doing it out in the open. And this:

we will not make much hay insisting that the Catholic Church should be forced to believe the way that our government thinks that they should.

…is very troll-like. No one is forcing the Catholic Church to do anything, pal. Just requiring that their insurance companies provide contraception coverage, and only for their non-church-related employees. Don’t know if you are a troll or not, but that’s a pretty stupid thing for you to say.

update on the Doonesbury gutless publisher front: San Antonio Express-news is trying to have it both ways: an old strip is on the usual comics page place, while the new one is back on the editorial page.
They did run it there (ed page) for years, then several years ago when they shrank their ed/op-ed space (along with the whole paper and the reporting staff), moved it back to the comics. along with Mallard Fillmore, which of course is not the least bit comic.

The rabble at Ace of Spades is something else. I visit the shithole on occasion. Its as bad as the Geller site.
It fun to visit A of S because there is no login, no accounts, so you can post as anyone. Ratfucking can be entertaining. Be forewarned: leave your logic and reason at the door. White hood required.
RaMad had an unverified poll regarding the race of voters in the AL and MS primaries. 97%+ white, 2% black, 1% other.

Concern troll greybeard is concerned. Since he has shown that in his universe half the population doesn’t count, I have a polite message for him – Go suck Santorum & STFU.

Well, Greybeard, I’m gratified to see that, during my unintended long absence,* others have filled in the blank spots I feel like I left. As a self-absorbed eccentric bachelor hurtling through middle age, I’m not exactly in my comfort zone here, hence the shutting-up-and-listening bit.

Dunno if you’re a troll or not, since that goes to commenter intent, and I can neither do the mind or heart-reading necessary to make that call, absence some kind of ‘tell’ that pops up in your writing. Also, you reminded me of occasional chats with my late and much-missed mother, who would more-or-less just roll her eyes when I explained that fuel costs were bound to trend upward over the long term, and that such price increases could not always be explained – at least not solely – as a conspiracy between the oil companies and the elected politicians they bought; she always went with the conspiracy and price collusion explanation (I’m sure she was correct on more than one occasion, though). As the keeper of the family budget, gas prices were almost an obsession with her.

In this case, though, I think that even she – extreme introvert that she was – would see that a line has been crossed here by the GOP, where women’s health is concerned. Also, don’t you think some of those independent and conservative women will also be alarmed by the attempted roll-back of women’s health options by GOP politicians? My reading suggests this is, and will continue to be the case.

And I think Mom would wonder, as I do, why you think that both issues could not be dealt with at once in the campaign. If fuel prices becomes an issue, most likely our corrupt media will be largely behind the rabble-rousing (unless the costs shoot clean through the roof, in which case the issue will require less media pimping). One media response activity within the Obama campaign can deal with this, while the war on women can be countered largely through the Obama campaign’s formidable grass roots organizations. I guess we’ll see, but like others, I suggest you so some homework; starting with commie athiest’s links (see comment @42) wouldn’t be a bad start.

I googled “gas prices” and “war on women” in a single search, to try to figure out where you might have come up with your premise. Been watching/reading Faux Nooz, have ya? Or maybe you went to something like this (by the way, the author doesn’t appear to be exactly a scholarly type, being associated with this organization).

I’m not saying gas prices won’t be a campaign issue, but I think you’re being spun. The GOP fucked up badly, and they are desperately trying to divert attention elsewhere.

*Deadlines suck. In fact, the existence of deadlines logically and definitively proves the nonexistence of a loving God. QED ‘n’ shit.

Hey Greybeard, I was just thinking how we can bring equity to this issue: some guy-related legislation. I’m open to ideas, but here’s something to get the ball rolling…

Legislation should be introduced requiring all men to have tattooed – on their penises – total penis length for flaccid and erect state. Call it – I dunno – the Truth in Hard-On Rule, or something like that. And in fairness, those wishing to opt-out of this requirement will be permitted to get an image of Gloria Allred tattooed on their chests, over the word Whipped.

Now Greybeard, here’s the part you’ll like: Within this same legislation will be a resolution, calling for the private-sector petroleum producers to reduce their prices, and calling for the international markets to just stop buying so gosh durn much petroleum (lower demand = lower supply, you know), and just calling on everyone to, you know, chill.

Whattaya think?

Well, Greybeard, looks like at least some of the Villager media (Totebag Division) are buying into the whole price-of-gas-OMG-WTF-Help!Help!Help! shtick, according to the guest “reporters” on Diane Rehm’s Friday morning show on NPR. Not saying they won’t be wrong; on the other hand, it’s good for their business model – enables pants-on-fire reportage style, while not bringing on the wrath of the wingnuts (unlike the GOP War on Women). So their motives on this are deserving of suspicion.

For all the problems I have with Rehm – a true DC Villager, though more on the ‘B Team’ – she and her staff are real good in their selection of what questions and comments get on air. Long-time American rank-and-file hypocrisy on this topic were noted. And that could be a problem for Obama; decades of car culture, and relatively cheap gas, combined with promises by our politicians to maintain that doomed status quo, have established a deeply engrained set of political conditions that could really vex BHO. He can’t totally ignore the fires stoked on this issue by goopers and opportunistic big media. But that’s no reason to ignore the War on Women. He probably needs to acknowledge the former, but he absolutely cannot ignore the latter.