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Today's Stories June 27, 2007 Marjorie Cohn Targeting Dissent: FBI Spying on the National Lawyers Guild June 26, 2007 Jonathan Cook Divide and Rule, Israeli-Style Ralph Nader Sicko and the Politics of Health Care Corporate Crime Reporter Which Side Are You On, Michael Moore? Ron Jacobs Are the Neocons Really Going? Martha Rosenberg Mad Cow in God's Country John Chuckman China's New Weapons Denny Haldeman Ethanolics Anonymous Anthony DiMaggio Free Speech Hypocrisy at the Supreme Court Stephen Fleischman The Tightrope Economy William S. Lind Legitimacy, Toujours Legitimacy Website of the Day The CIA's Family Jewels   June 25, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Goodbye to the City on the Hill Jennifer Loewenstein The Triumph of US / Israeli Policy in Palestine Bob Anderson The Grooming of Bill Richardson: New Mexico's Nuclear Governor Robert Pollin The Realities of Microlending Patrick Cockburn Chemical Ali Faces the Hangman: the Life and Crimes of al-Majid Eva Liddell Why They Want to Fire Ward Churchill Dan Bacher Democrats and the School of the Americas: 42 House Democrats Back Torture Academy Larry Atkins The Case of the Judge and the $54 Million Pair of Pants: an Embarrassment, Not an Argument for Tort Reform Mark Brenner SEIU Ends Nursing Home Partnership James Rothenberg Hillary Does Iraq Website of the Day "A Long Train of Abuses" June 23 / 24, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Zyklon B on the US Border Jeff Taylor The Foreign Policy of Barack Obama Oren Ben-Dor Israeli Apartheid is the Core of the Crisis in Gaza Gary Leupp In Defense of Academic Freedom: the Ward Churchill Case Robert Fisk The Bumbling Envoy David Rosen The Hidden Cost of War: Genital Injuries, Prosthetic Devices and the War on Terror Russell Mokhiber Ins and Outs for 2008: Up with Spoilers! Alison Weir USA Today and the USS Liberty Robert Fantina The Floundering Congress D. K. Wilson Of Gangstas and Spearchuckers, Sex and Zulus Nicole Colson Litigating Gitmo Stephen Soldz, Steven Reisner and Brad Olson Torture, Psychologists and Colonel James Dave Lindorff Exodus of the Puppets: Bush's Incredible Shrinking Coalition Benjamin Dangl Cerámica de Cuyo: a Profile of Worker Control in Argentina Michael Dickinson The Catholicization of Tony Poets' Basement Davies, Engel, Gerard and Orloski Website of the Weekend Incarcerex: a Drug War Video   June 22, 2007 Andy Worthington A Tunisian in Gitmo: the Story of Prisoner 660 Sherwood Ross Corporate America's Deadliest Secret: the Big Profits in Biowarfare Research Eliana Monteforte The Torture Academy Robert Weissman Things Can Be Different Richard Rhames Farmer Preservation Christopher Brauchli Bush and the Uighurs: an Encounter in Albania Ramzy Baroud Chronicle of a Chaos Foretold Ehud Krinis, David Shulman and Neve Gordon Facing an Imminent Threat of Expulsion: Palestinians in S. Hebron Hills Need Your Help! David Michael Green If Reid Were Rove Kathryn Webber Boycotting DePaul Website of the Day Stop Me Before I Vote Again!   June 21, 2007 Peter Linebaugh The Day of the Rope Natsu Saito The Regents and Ward Churchill: Now is the Time to Speak Out Ron Jacobs The Intimidation of a Vet Saree Makdisi The West Chooses Fatah, But Palestinians Don't John Stauber Blessed Unrest: an Interview with Paul Hawken Scott Liebertz Fox News and Venezuela: an Analysis of How the Network Deliberately Misinforms Its Viewers Tom Clifford The Ghost Prisoners Robert Jensen The Last Sunday? Michael J. Smith Who Among Us Will Step Up to Destroy the Democratic Party? Jeb Sprague Pain at the Pump in Haiti Website of the Day Dion: Hey Paris June 20, 2007 Omar Barghouti A Secular-Democratic State Solution Andy Worthington Repatriated to Torture Margaret Kimberley Supreme Injustices: the Bush Court Robert Weissman Sicko, Part One: the Human Tragedy Russell D. Hoffman Time to Choose: Meltdowns or Solar Power? Rannie Amiri Mideast Alight Stephen Lendman The New York Times vs. Hugo Chavez Dave Lindorff Democratic Disconnect David Swanson Booing Hillary: Platitudes from the Drone Machine Anne Dachel Autism & Vaccines: Why are They Afraid to Look? Website of the Day Revolution By the Book   June 19, 2007 Ralph Nader Hillary's Stock and Trade: the NAFTA Two-Step Dr. Shepherd Bliss Torture's Long Reach Bill and Kathleen Christison Demostrating Against the Catholic Church in Santa Fe Jeff Leys Swarming Congress: Building a Resistance to the 2008 Iraq War Supplemental Funding Bill Dave Zirin The Unforgiven: Barry Bonds and Jack Johnson Chris Floyd Hitchens Takes a Roll in the Hay Ben Terrall Iraq Union Leaders Speak Out Against the Occupation Anthony Papa Veronica's Story: a Dying Wish to Governor Spitzer VIPS Countering Terrorism: How Not to Do It Linda Flores Criminalizing the Classroom Website of the Day Sign On to the Iraq Moratorium June 18, 2007 John Ross The Annexation of Mexico Paul Craig Roberts The Reign of the Tyrants is at Hand Martha Rosenberg Let Cheney at Him: Richardson the Oryx Hunter Norman Solomon War at the Remote Don Santina Memo to the Queen: Bobby Sands Died for Your Sins Isabella Kenfield Landless Rural Workers Confront Lula James Brooks America's Guilty Silence Eva Liddell Planning to Lose: Democratic Stratagems Sam Husseini Clinton Health Care Scam Revisited Akiva Eldar Ariel Sharon's Dream Website of the Day Frank Zappa: the Cop Interview   June 16 / 17, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Psychopathology of Shrinks John Halle Finkelstein and "The Progressive" Robert Fisk Welcome to "Palestine" Andy Worthington Return to Torture? Uri Avnery The Gaza Cage Fred Gardner Paris Hilton's Punishment: a False Parable Saul Landau Our Gang of Thugs: The 1970s as a Context for Terrorist Violence P. Sainath Heaven Can Wait: Creditors and the Widows of Vidharbha Missy Comley Beattie Calling Evil Its Name Alan Gregory When ADM Comes to Town: Killer Tax Breaks for Wildlife Destruction Walter Brasch Bush and the Philosophy of Swiss Cheese Website of the Weekend Obama Girl   June 15, 2007 Alan Farago View from the Construction Crane: Sex, Taxes and Real Estate Scams in Miami Andy Worthington The Ordeal of Ali al--Marri Michael Simmons Terrorizing Artists in the USA Franklin Lamb Blowback Across Lebanon: The Failed Sunni Army Solution Gary Leupp The Day After We Attack Iran John Ross Ballot Burning Time in Ol' Mexico Website of the Day The American Rationalist   June 14, 2007 Michael Donnelly Charred SUVs and the End of Citizen Eco--Activism Faisal Kutty Scare Canada: The No--Fly List's False Sense of Security Harry Browne Ireland's Green Party Sells Out Charles Jonkel From the Arctic to Yellowstone: Bears in a World of Indifference Steven Higgs Murder in a Small Town: "Gay Panic" in Indiana? Bruce Dixon Black Power Through Low Power Radio Bruce K. Gagnon What Do We Do Now? A 10--Step Plan for Antiwar Activists Website of the Day Finkelgate June 13, 2007 Glen Ford Obama's Siren Song Marjorie Cohn Repression in Oaxaca Bill Christison A Grave Injustice at DePaul University Charles Jonkel Bears in a World of Indifference Silvia Cattori "I Was Not Prepared for the Horrors I Saw": an Interview with Hedy Epstein Richard Gott Racism and TV in Venezuela Firmin DeBrabander How the Neocons Misread Machiavelli William S. Lind The Perfect (Sine) Wave: Bombing Railroad Stations in Iraq Keith Rosenthal Workers Score a Victory at Harvard Website of the Day GOP and Monty Python Explain: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" June 12, 2007 Jeffrey St. Clair How to Sell a War Paul Craig Roberts The Neocon Threat to American Freedom P. Sainath India's Plutocrats and the Press Ralph Nader The Biggest Scam in the World Omar Waraich A Black Day for Pakistan's Press Dave Lindorff Things Your Media Momma Didn't Tell You Harvey Wasserman Confessions of an Anti-Nuke Jerk Malini Johar Schueller It Takes a Bomb Ramzy Baroud War Foretold: Mark Twain and the Sins of Empire Website of the Day Palestinian Chronicle Needs Our Help!   June 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The War on Journalists Paul Craig Roberts Losing the Economy to Mythology Uri Avnery 40 Bad Years: the Rot of Occupation Norman Solomon The Silence of the Bombs Eva Liddell Paris Hilton Doesn't Do Dishes: How Barbie Stood Up to Allen Ginsberg Rannie Amiri Groundhog Day in Pakistan Rachel Voss Poetry and Politics in Nassau County Christopher Brauchli A Wild West Tale, Starring Rev. Dobson and Bill O'Reilly D. K. Wilson Untangling Michael Vick from the Dogs Website of the Day Paris, Mixed Up June 9 / 10, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Dissidents Against Dogma George Ciccariello-Maher Behind Venezuela's "Student Rebellion": Who's Pulling the Strings? Saul Landau An Interview with Ricardo Alarcon, Vice President of Cuba Robert Fisk Believe It or Not in the Middle East Brian Cloughley Troop Support: Deceptions and Insipid Sentiments Ron Jacobs Condoleezza Rice Names the System Ward Boston Searching for the Truth About the USS Liberty Conn Hallinan Dark Plots in Byzantine Beirut Leonard Peltier The Ongoing War on Native American Religious Practices Lawrence Davidson Israel's New Anti-Boycott Task Force John Ross Mass Nude-In Complicates Church-State Scuffling in Mexico Kate Allan Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing Fred Gardner Ignorance Marches On Stephen Fleischman Little Boy, Fat Man and Iran Monica Benderman Reading Tom Paine in a Time of Crisis Geoff Bailey A Real Oil Conspiracy: Gouged at the Pump Missy Beattie Faith and War Patrick Dyer A Democrat Revs Up Ohio's Death Machine Tim Lengerich Dispelling the Cowboy Myth: an Interview with George Wuerthner James Irani and David Rahni Perspectives on the Arrests of Iran-Americans in Tehran Gary Leupp The Unfair Treatment of Paris Hilton Michael Tillery The Heart of a Sportswriter: an Interview with David Aldridge Michael Simmons Beating Off the Squares: the Hipness of Anton Rosenberg Poets' Basement Laymon, Davies and Ford Website of the Weekend This is Sea Shepherd!   June 8, 2007 Serge Halimi What Sarkozy Learned About Politics from the US Patrick Cockburn The Turkish Incursion Jeffrey St. Clair Israel's Attack on the USS Liberty, Revisited   Paul Craig Roberts The Secret War William Blum What If NBC Cheered on a Military Coup Against Bush? Joshua Frank Swing-State Strategy: Looking for a Spoiler Lance Selfa How the Six Day War Changed the Middle East Dave Lindorff A "Criminal Conspiracy" in the White House Lawrence Ferlinghetti The Summer of Love: Flashbacks of a Human Be-In Website of the Day Robert Pollin: "Making the Federal Minimum Wage a Living Wage" June 7, 2007 Marjorie Cohn The Prison is the War Crime Soldz, Reisner and Olson: A Q & A on Psychologists and Torture Soldz, Reisner and Olson, et al: An Open Letter to Sharon Brehm, President of the American Psychological Association Paul Craig Roberts Losing Iraq, Nuking Iran Bill Quigley "How Long Must We Support a Mistake?" Silvia Cattori Sailing to Gaza Carl G. Estabrook What the June Bug Is: Politics in the Dismal Season Ellen Taylor Free the Tweakers!: The Good News About Meth Corporate Crime Reporter BAE Systems, Prince Bandar and the $2 Billion Account at the Riggs Bank Brenda Norrell Torture Training at Ft. Huachuca: Two Priests Face Prison for Exposing Torture in Arizona D. K. Wilson What Gary Sheffield Really Said Kevin Zeese Iraq Occupation Coming to a Head Over Oil Website of the Day How the Press Expired June 6, 2007 Alain Gresh Countdown to War on Iran Gary Leupp Poddy's Crazy Prayer: Bomb Iran, For Israel and America! Steven Sherman The Perils of Humanitarian Intervention Bruce Dixon Is Bill Gates Trying to Hijack Africa's Food Supply? Corporate Crime Reporter The Professor and the Nukes Brian M. Downing The Iraq War and Presidential Politics Ron Jacobs Luv n' Hate: a Different Take on the Summer of Love George Bisharat The Mirage of the Two State Solution Nicole Colson Over to You, Dante: Falwell's Ministry of Hate Bruce K. Gagnon From Italy to Guam: A Global Peace Movement is Taking Shape Website of the Day How the Democrats Should Treat Bush   June 5, 2007 Michael Neumann Canada in Afghanistan Jonathan Cook The Shin Bet and the Persecution of Azmi Bishara David Vest The Democrats' War Robert Fantina America's Cuba Policy Hoffman, Parsneau and Chowdhury CounterTerrorism as International Healthcare John V. Walsh Shaming the Official Antiwar Movement Richard Cretan Yellow Dog: The Strange Love of Martin Amis and Tony Blair Adam Engel Days of Dread: an American Tale William S. Lind The News from Anbar: Has Al Qaeda Over-Reached? Myles Hoenig Free the Oaks! Cut Down Those Yellow Ribbons! Jim Minick Lead-Foot Nation Website of the Day Punk Rock Soap Opera June 4, 2007 Nizar Latif An Interview with Moqtada al-Sadr Diana Johnstone Sarko and the Ghosts of May, 1968 Gregory Wilpert RCTV and Freedom of Speech in Venezuela Paul Watson The Anchorage Whale Killing Bureaucrats Summit Susan Rosenthal, MD How Cindy Sheehan Unmasked the Democrats Richard Ward The Right of Return to New Orleans Eva Liddell Don't Support the Troops Zahi Khouri Four Decades of Occupation Evelyn Pringle The FDA, GlaxoSmithKline and the Avandia Disaster China Hand About Those North Korean Benjamin Franklins ... Karyn Strickler George W. Bush: a "Ficeist" Leader Website of the Day The Guantanamo Files   June 2 / 3, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Last of the Texas Outsiders Marc Levy Iraq Dead Ahead: a Brief Military History and Civilian Guide to Arlington National Cemetery Martin Smith Camilo Mejía's War: From Foot Soldier for Empire to Rebel for Peace Diana Johnstone Great Power Meddling in Kosovo John Ross The Oaxaca Volcano Stews Uri Avnery On Generals and Admirals Sunsara Taylor This is Not a Story About Cindy Sheehan Richard Neville Were the Hippies Right? P. Sainath The Farm Crisis and 100,000 Indian Widows Missy Comley Beattie Let's Roar Nisrine Abiad and Victor Kattan The Hariri Tribunal: a Fait Accompli? Rannie Amiri Lebanon, Bush and the Three Stooges Margot Pepper Deconstructing "Return to Sender" Eric Stewart Censorship and Cop Brutality in the New Bison Wars Ralph Nader The Halberstam Camp Dan Bacher A Victory for the Fish Shaun Harkin and Sandy Boyer Irish War Protesters on Trial Richard Rhames Selling Five Acres in Crawford Frederick Hudson The Rediscovery of Ella Fitzgerald Poets' Basement Lindorff, Landau and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Gimme Shelter June 1, 2007 Dave Marsh The FBI and the Godfather (of Soul): James Brown's FBI Files Saul Landau Return to Cuba: 47 Years Later in Havana David Phinney How the Baghdad Embassy Was Built: Forced Labor and Worker Abuse Robert Jensen The Bigot and the Boycott Stanley Heller Arrest Robert McNamara Yifat Susskind Indigenous Women Fight Back Robert Weissman Corporate Power Since 1980 Paul Buchheit Africa and Its Discontents William S. Lind The Folly of Maximalist Objectives Sherwood Ross 78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes Stephen Lendman Terrorism Defined Website of the Day Desert Autonomous Zone May 31, 2007 Robert Bryce The Language Barrier Patrick Cockburn Killing with Impunity: Iraq's Militias Under the Surge Gary Leupp Appropriate Disillusionment: the Despair of Cindy Sheehan and Andrew Bacevich Kathy Kelly Being Hope Marjorie Cohn The Unitary King George Chris Kutalik and Tiffany Ten Eyck Fallout from the Sale of Chrysler: Jobs, Health Care, Pensions, All in Jeopardy Corporate Crime Reporter Zheng Xiaoyu Meet Lester Crawford Dave Lindorff Our Monica: a Hero of the Constitution Website of the Day Know Your Rights!   May 30, 2007 James Ridgeway The Bi-Partisan Con on Synthetic Fuels Franklin Lamb Lebanon and the Planned US Airbase at Kaleiaat Terrence E. Paupp Withdrawal Symptoms Uri Avnery To the Shores of Tripoli Alan Maass and Jeffrey St. Clair The Green Masquerade: Corporate America's Latest Counter-Attack Rock and Rap Confidential Watching the Detectives: the Political Censorship of Hip Hop Ralph Nader Taming the Giant Corporation Nirmal Ghosh China, CITES and the Fate of the Tiger Jean Daniels Dealing Democrats: Folding to Mr. 28% Tom Barry Meet Robert Zoellick: Bush's Pick to Head World Bank Website of the Day Petuuche Gilbert on the Rights of Indigenous People May 29, 2007 Stephen Soldz Shrinks and the SERE Technique at Guantanamo Eliza Ernshire Refugees Forever: Inside Bedawi Camp Ron Jacobs The Exit of Cindy Sheehan Dave Lindorff Whatever Happened to Signing Statements? Evelyn Pringle What Qualifies Bush to Lead Iraq War Mike Whitney Bush's New Middle East David Swanson How We Got Here: The Democrats and the Antiwar Movement John Holt Gating Montana, Part Two: the Feedback Loop Cynthia McKinney Dreaming of a True Memorial Day Martha Rosenberg Mad Cows, Mad Pigs and the Horse Slaughter Lobby Website of the Day The Ruminant May 28, 2007 Bill Quigley Katrina Activists: "Less Meeting, More Fighting" Col. Dan Smith The Paranoid and the Dead Cindy Sheehan Why I Am Leaving the Democratic Party Dr. Susan Block Dr. Laura's Little Monster Jeeni Criscenzo What I Learned About Being a Dickhead Douglas Valentine Memorial Day: a Poem Website of the Day Peace TV     Subscribe Online

June 27, 2007 Abortion Rights Under Assault, Where is the Women's Movement? The Deadly Consequences of Compromise By SUNSARA TAYLOR Back in March of 2006, South Dakota State Senator Bill Napoli described the rare circumstances in which he felt an abortion might be permissible: "A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it." Earlier this month, Senator Sam Brownback, a prominent and "legitimate" contender for the Republican presidential nomination went even further, saying, "Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that's been raped? ... We need to protect innocent life. Period." Not That Exceptional As shocking as these statements sound, the reality is that Brownback and Napoli's comments are not that exceptional. Despite the fact that enough women in this country have been the victims of rape or attempted rape to more than fill the entire cities of New York and Los Angeles as well as the states of Minnesota, Alabama, Wyoming, and Utah, to this "pro-life" movement, a look at dozens of websites of the leading "pro-life" organizations, including the National Right to Life Coalition, Feminists for Life, Pro-Life America, Focus on the Family, and others, reveals that they all oppose abortion even for victims of rape. At its core and from its inception, the "pro-life" movement has been driven forward by biblical values that insist on the domination of women by men and that women's essential role is as breeders of children. This has been true from the days of major clinic blockades where Christian fascist groups like Operation Rescue would lead crowds to pray for god to "break the curse of independence" on women to the most recent Supreme Court ruling restricting late-term abortion that claims to be "protecting" the interests of women by forcing them to have children they may not want. These forces have been brought into the ruling structures of society on all levels--and have much initiative in implementing their program. People need to ask themselves: what have things come to when a "legitimate" candidate for President of the US can seriously put forward such a program and it is not met with resounding outrage and opposition? And what does it mean when the debate over abortion can be framed by whether or not women who become pregnant through rape should be allowed to have an abortion? How did we get to this? The real question in the battle around abortion is this: Will women be forced to bear children against their will? Without control over their own reproduction--without abortion on demand and without apology--women cannot be free. The movement that wants to ban abortion is not motivated by any concern for life. The fact that there is not a single "pro-life" organization in the country that upholds the right to birth control for women shows that what this movement is really all about is taking away a woman's right to control her own reproduction. The Deadly Path of Compromise and Ceding the Moral High Ground This assault on women's lives has been assisted at every point along the way by some in the "opposition" who have conceded to the moral and political terms advanced by those seeking to subjugate women and who have refused to take on the barbaric biblical literalist lunacy of the "pro-life" movement. For years, the Democrats and way too much of the pro-choice movement have accepted the lie that there is something morally wrong with abortion. Bill Clinton implied this when he brought forward the slogan "safe, legal and rare" and Hillary Clinton took this even further when she said that abortion is a "tragic" choice. In a similar vein, many, like Planned Parenthood, have increasingly taken to defending birth control against growing attacks by arguing that it is the most effective way to prevent abortions. Two things about this must be said. First, fetuses are NOT people. A fetus is a subordinate part of a woman's body and has the potential to become a human being only by developing over the course of months as a subordinate part of her biological processes. Aborting a fetus is NOT murder and it is not something that should be apologized for. Abortion and birth control are absolutely necessary to women's ability to control their own lives and destinies and as such they are liberating and very good things! Second, too many abortions taking place is not the problem we face! 87% of counties in this country do not have any abortion access. Several states only have one abortion clinic and most of these isolated clinics are under constant siege, repeatedly bogged down in politically motivated legal reviews and restrictions. The women who seek their services confront countless legislative and financial obstacles. Due to the physical and legal threats against doctors who provide abortions and the lack of abortion training in most medical school curricula, the number of doctors trained and willing to provide abortions is shrinking. Far from needing to reduce the number of abortions, what is needed is a robust fight to dramatically extend safe and unstigmatized abortion access! The conciliation by many in leadership of the pro-choice movement with the notion that there is something undesirable about terminating a pregnancy, and that abortion should be reduced, has had a disarming effect on this country's pro-choice majority. It has had a devastating impact on the thinking of millions that pro-choice organizations have failed to wage an unrelenting and unapologetic battle against this ideological assault, and instead have continued to funnel their energies and resources into supporting what they insist is "the best we can hope for""Democrats who refuse to stand up against this Christian fascist juggernaut. For example, a new documentary, Unborn in America, details many of the tactics of the anti-abortion movement (beginning, significantly, with a Focus on the Family training session discussing why abortion is wrong even in cases of rape). What was striking, and heartbreakingly frustrating, in watching this film was both the level of widespread rage among the people against the assaults on women's reproductive freedom and the lack of any coherent ideological or political opposition to these assaults. Over and over again, pro-choice people were shown confronting the anti-abortion activists with tremendous anger and disgust, but over and over again they themselves acknowledged they think abortion is something that should be avoided and reduced. The nightmarish impact of this conciliatory trajectory on people's lives can be seen starkly in the Democrats' refusal to filibuster the appointments of either Justices Roberts or Alito last year. The result has been a recent draconian ruling by the Supreme Court upholding a ban on a procedure dishonestly called "Partial Birth Abortion," criminalizing a procedure that reduces pain, risk of complications, and even death for women having abortions. Justice Kennedy enshrined much of the logic that views women primarily as breeders into legal precedent when he wrote, for the majority, that the state has an interest in fostering a "respect for life," and that "Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond the mother has for her child." This decision will certainly cause some women to die for lack of the necessary medical procedure and lay the basis for sending the doctors who try to help them to jail. Even more ominously, it has laid the basis for further moves to elevate the "rights of the fetus" as equal to or above those of women. In a very real way, this decision is a big step towards bringing into being the kind of Bible-inspired future Brownback and Napoli are advocating. What About What the Bible Says? The Bible (and the Koran, the Torah, and other major religious works) present creation myths that reflect both people's ignorance at the time of how humans evolved, and the interests of a rising exploitive class that embedded patriarchy (the domination of women and the family by men) into the structures and culture of society. In other words, what the Bible says is reactionary and oppressive, and it's not true. The moral code in the Bible (and other major religious texts) reflects (and enforces) the way that society was organized at the time, with widespread slavery and extreme oppression of women. The Bible blames women for the "fall of man," claiming Eve lured Adam into biting the forbidden fruit and thus getting cast out of the mythical Garden of Eden. As punishment for this alleged wickedness, "god" decides to make child-birth excruciatingly painful and to insist that a woman's "husbandwill rule over her." (Genesis 3:16) Later, in 1 Timothy 2:14-15 the Bible explains the way for a woman to be redeemed for having committed the original sin is "through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint." In this way, the Bible insists that women's particularly sinful nature necessitates their tight domination by men and enshrines child-bearing as the most essential and god-ordained role for women. Flowing from this, anything a woman does to control her own body, her own sexuality, or her own reproduction is a violation of god's will. On the other hand, all kinds of things done by men--including brutal and violent things--to control the lives, sexuality, and reproduction of women are not only upheld but insisted on in the Bible. (See Numbers 31:7-18 or Deuteronomy 20:10-14, for instance, for examples of rape being commanded as a tool of war.) This view of women is at the core of the anti-abortion movement and this is why, for all their many faces and all their shifting angles of attack, the movement to end abortion has increasingly brought people like Brownback and Napoli into the mainstream. Two Fundamentally Opposed Views on Women There is absolutely no reason to seek any kind of compromise with anti-abortion forces or to accommodate in any way with their exaltation of traditional values. Instead, what is needed is an uncompromising and unapologetic repudiation and rejection of this framework Either we will live in a society centered on the idea, and corresponding laws, that women's fundamental role is that of breeders of children and the property of men, together with all the attendant brutality, degradation, shame and rape--OR--we will fight to create a society in which women are recognized as full and equal human beings in every regard, free to play a full role in engaging in all realms of life, and revolutionizing society--not being "mommies first." This kind of society requires that women have complete control over their own reproduction and lays the basis for putting an end to the oppression of women, including the epidemic of rape. Having children, when it is planned and wanted, can bring a lot of joy. But being forced, pressured or shamed into having a child is a form of forcible control over a woman's body and life that is no less oppressive than rape. In today's situation, it is not enough to profess opposition to the most extreme wing of the anti-abortion movement. One must go on the political, ideological and practical offensive against the whole package of biblical-literalist and traditional values--together with waging an uncompromising struggle for abortion and birth control on demand. And a whole different, liberating vision of a society where the chains that bind women are shattered, where women and men relate with equality and mutual respect, and where together we set out to put an end to all forms of injustice and exploitation must be brought forward and fought for. Sunsara Taylor writes for Revolution Newspaper and sits on the Advisory Board of The World Can't Wait ­ Drive Out the Bush Regime. She can be reached at: sunsarasworld@yahoo.com

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