<^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 137 ... December 11, 1996......... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber......... comments to istuber@direclynx.net who is solely responsible for the contents <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> May we wish the elected officers of the National Organization FOR Women a Christmas Carol - a visitation from Feminists Past. Let Catherine East, Susan B., Elizabeth Cady, Abigail Adams, and the 1,500 women who were murdered last year by the men closest and dearest in their lives visit them in their dreams this Christmas. For anointed-four have announced a new campaign for which thousands upon thousands of dollars and the full resources of the National Organization FOR women will be devoted to for the next two months. It is UNBELIEVABLE ! Is it to force manufacturers to recall airbags that are killing women? (The operative word is KILLING. Like in dead. Airbags are also maiming and permanently injuring women - as well as children - but noooo. This isn't their campaign). Are the officers of the National Organization FOR Women organizing a big campaign to force the men of the military to do something about the rapes and sexual harassment of thousands of women in the army, navy, marines, etc.? Forcing these male-only clubs to allow women to have their own chain of command for complaints woman-to-woman instead of having to go through man after man after man after man like a prostitute down on her luck having to take on all comers and calling it the chain of command? NOOOOOOO (That's no with emphasis). Are the officers of the National Organization FOR Women organizing a big campaign to organize for a pitched battle in congress to save President Clinton's veto of the D&X procedure? The overturning of his veto will cost women's lives. That's like in DEATH. Are the officers of the National Organization FOR Women organizing a big campaign to step up the campaign against battered women, calling for more shelters, calling for better training for judges, stricter laws on stalking, etc., because women are DYING. They are being permanently maimed. That's like in DEATH! Are the officers of the National Organization FOR Women organizing a big campaign to help repair welfare reform? Noooooooo - although they said welfare reform was one reason they wouldn't support President Clinton. Are the officers of the National Organization FOR Women organizing a big campaign to set up a health fund within their organization to help unemployed or underemployed women get affordable health insurance? Noooooo. Are the officers of the National Organization FOR Women organizing a big campaign to step up of their project to force a Japanese car company to end its blatant sexual harassment? OK - so you're tired of seeing what the officers of the National Organization FOR Women aren't doing. You want me to tell you what they ARE doing. Right? I keep shaking the envelope looking for a funny face that says JOKE! But it ain't there. Dated 12-06-96 (the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre) in NOW's nice white broadside large envelopes with $0.55 postage (parish the thought that these immortal words should be folded and go into a cheap #10 envelope), there is a News Release, a special little inset and a total of 7.3 sheets of paper, 12.3 pages of reading material, for -- come on -- GUESS. Bet you weren't even close to guessing what project took thousands of feminist dollars and weeks of planning by the dwindling staff at national. OK - here is the headline of the covering news release: NOW BACKS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE DECISION IN HAWAII WITH PLANS FOR VALENTINE'S DAY EVENTS NATIONWIDE. I kid you not. Page two of the packet is a memo from Patricia Ireland, Rosemary Dempsey, Kim Gandy, and Karen Johnson: "Any decision will certainly be appealed, with the final outcome delayed for at least two years. Two years is too long to be silent about the injustice faced by lesbian and gay couples on a daily basis." Pages three and four is an "Issue Report" which includes the line "NOW is the only feminist organization that is a part of the National Freedom to Marry coalition, which coordinates grassroots, legal and legislative strategies to win same-sex marriage." (We wonder why.) Page 5 is a "Suggested Actions," which include a mock wedding ceremony on the courthouse steps (but not a demonstration about poor and hungry women). Page 6 (gag) is "Suggested Chants and Songs" including "I love her, she loves me, homosexuality/People think we're just friends, but we're really lesbians." Page 7 is "Organizing Ideas" includes suggested phone banking, flyers, mailing, and an event which "caters to lesbian, gay bisexual and straight activists. We can't afford to exclude anyone from our efforts." Page 8 (none of the pages are numbered) is a sample letter to the editor. This is followed by a "Sample Press Release" followed by a copy of the National Day of Action in Support of Same-Sex Marriage (one of the few resolutions adopted at the national conferences that the officers have done anything about) followed by Marriage Q&A. Well, the girls who are the officers of NATIONAL NOW don't know - nor does anyone - how many lesbian and gay couples there are in this nation who want to get married. But we'll bet the family farm that more women are beaten in a week than there are lesbian couples seeking to be formally married. That more women will be killed, raped, and beaten, more women will go hungry, more women will need medical assistance that isn't available than there are lesbian couples who want to get married in the next year. This is not to say that discrimination against lesbians and gay men is not wrong, immoral, indecent, or illegal because it is. IT IS! But it is a matter of priorities, ladies, priorities. Y'all know since three of the four of the National officers are attorneys that demonstrations are not going to change the laws as they make their slow and tedious way up the ladder to the U.S. Supreme Court. What you are doing is creating busy work to keep your members occupied so they don't look to carefully inside the beltway. There are dozens and dozens of gay and lesbian organizations that have the time and the money to further the cause of same sex rights. They are and they should. Those who put gay rights above the rights of women should join those organizations. But there is only one National Organization FOR Women. Saving a woman's life is more important than a marriage ceremony - gay or straight. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . This past week we have been amused (after we stopped being furious and pounding on the wall in frustration) at the stuff that was written previous to and about the appointment of Madeleine Albright as U.S. Secretary of State, the highest rank a woman has ever held in the United States. One might argue about a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court in the importance rating game, but since Albright is now fourth in line for what can only be called the unthinkable, the deaths of the President, Vice-President, and Speaker of the House would make the her, as Secretary of State, the head of the nation. We saved our biggest inner fury at the attempts by some feminists to play "1984" by ignoring what they said only two days before in raw nasty tones to the President, words that implied that Clinton wasn't trying. Wasn't keeping his word although he had said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. What these vaunted feminist "leaders" actually did was show how little contact they have with the seat of power and so have to depend on the "haven't got a clue" rumor articles of the journalists and media pundits who have a track record slightly worse than that of seer Jeanne Dixon. We quote: "As President Clinton begins his second round of Cabinet and lower level appointments, he seems to be backtracking from his 1992 commitment to `make the Cabinet look like America.' He talks about adding Republicans to the Cabinet, and unidentified Administration spokespeople are quoted hoping for the resignation of Attorney General Janet Reno, and dissing Madeleine Albright's abilities to serve as Secretary of State." Within 24 hours President Clinton named Albright. These "leaders" had condemned the best friend women have ever had in the White House on the basis of "unidentified Administration spokespeople." Then there was this little note in one of this nation's better newspapers, "In the meantime, some anonymous White House aides who were opposed to Ms. Albright went so far as to suggest that she was only in the second tier of likely candidates, apparently hoping to make her so." Men like William Safire pull down big bucks and the almost to a man dismissed the idea of Albright being named with typical masculist contempt. And columnists in newspapers with a history of anti-administration actions and anti-feminist tendencies are trying to undermine Albright's many, magnificent qualities. A recent article in the NY Times, although written by a woman, has all sorts of little sly digs thrown in that would make any reader who didn't know better think she was the Magnificent Madeleine. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . For several years now we have said, PLEASE investigate Bill Clinton's record while he was governor to show how he governs and what makes him tick. Why did we have NO doubts about Albright being named (besides her being backed by Hillary and V-P Gore and Tipper?) Because while Madeleine Albright was teaching at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University during the dark days of the Reagan-Bush administration, she held weekly salons at her home to which she invited prominent politicians and academics to discuss current events and foreign affairs. And one of her guests on a number of occasions was the governor of the small, unimportant state of Arkansas. Yes, Bill Clinton, an alumni of Georgetown, was anointed by Dr. Albright for a place at the national democratic table long before he ever got his name in Who's Who. Come on guyz and galz - get with the program and start doing some good journalistic work. Bill Clinton admires strong women ... he was raised by one, he married one, his daughter is one ... Virginia Clinton Kelley, you done good with your boy. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . We received several notes about our stand against the legalizing of Thalidomide to be used to combat cachexia in AIDS patients. Needless to say, some of them were vicious. But the one we liked was this one from CK ... "Subject: Thalidomide, what is it good for? Huh! Absolutely NOTHING! "We live in a screwed-up world. But you obviously knew that. "The most effective anti-cachexia drug we have is THC (aka"pot"), and yet any mention of this in the "mainstream" will get you laughed at. And while it's probably not a *great* idea for a pregnant woman to go tokin' on a doob, it is not remotely likely to cause the same problems as thalidomide. Great googely-moogely! "Of course, we all know that pot is the real killer. Yuk, yuk. So I guess we'll just have to take our thalidomide and be quiet like good slaves." Yep, those of the tokin' experience know that the munchies strike nano seconds after the high starts ... The reason the unstopping war against pot that goes on and on in this country is that it can be home-grown which leaves out all the profits of cocaine, drug mobsters and their well-bribed politicians and law enforcement agents, and of course the drug companies who manufacture Thalidomide - and cigarettes. Sure, they care about health. Balderdash ... . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Guessy who is among the leaders of the Republican party trying to pull the "lamb to slaughter" routine on women. None other than Christine Whitman who is being listened to very carefully by the Republican leaders since she pulled off that trick to win the New Jersey governor's mansion. Gov. Whitman, as you remember because Catts have long memories, claims to be pro-choice but hid under the bed when the religious right took charge of the Republican convention to call for strong, constitutional bans on a woman's right to control her own destiny and body. She supported Dole who supported the amendment. Some pro-choice! "We can't be a national party if we're going to be a party of white males," Whitman was recently quoted by Associated Press at a Republican leaders conference. She agrees with those who say that the party needs to find a more positive way of describing the changes they hope to bring about. How to do that? Shrub, the junior namesake son of ex-president multi-millionaire George Bush who succeeded in buying the Texas governor's mansion explained: The Republican Party must put a compassionate face on a conservative philosophy." In other words, both Whitman and Bush say: LIE. The Republican's own survey contradicted the claims that married women deserted Clinton for Dole. There was "leakage" but the Rep poll said that the exit polls that marked married women went 48 to 43% for Clinton was incorrect and it was actually 52 to 41 for married women, and among all women 59 to 35%. Men, however, failed to capitalize on the men's gender gap and were only able to come up with a 49 to 39 margin. The Republicans are studying ways to paint their philosophies in a positive light and hide their anti-woman, anti-poor, anti-black, anti-equality philosophy, under slick Madison Avenue lies. One wonders how they can boast about their fiscal conservatism and wisdom since it was the Republicans who through their tax cuts for the richest amongst them changed the U.S. from the richest nation int eh world to the greatest debtor nation in the world. Houdini Whitman may show the way - but first she has to get reelected in a state where a lot of women have wized up and are no longer going to be led astray by those blinded by the closeness to power such as the former president of NJ NOW who rammed approval of Whitman through, some say without approval of NOW members. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Well, well, well - those of y'all who have been brainwashed into thinking that the payscale is equal, y'all of the Xgeneration - look at the X Files where Gillian Anderson is flaming mad because she just found out that her co-star David Duchovny is getting paid TWICE as much as she is. A few letters to the Fox network might help their thinking as they toy with the idea of writing Anderson out of the script and getting another pretty face - she's just another set of boobs, isn't she? Just like Cybill Shepherd was on _Moonlighting_. . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . Cybill Shepherd is becoming quite a power in Hollywood! Flat statement without any fear of contradiction. How do we know? Because she's getting the classic "the woman is a bitch to work with," that people like Barbra Streisand is always getting. Like Streisand, Shepherd says that some "people" have a hard time working with a woman with a strong sense of herself and a great deal of power. In her Cybill TV show which keeps getting better and better (Oh, MaryAnn!) Shepherd is doing a takeoff on the crotch sniffing that the networks did in the old _Moonlighting_ TV series days when they eclipsed Cybill to make a star out of what's his face whose claim to fame is murder, mayhem, and a filthy mouth. And now that front cover of Spy where a nude Demi Moore (sans nipples) is crawling up Bruce Willis. How money talks. Tis said that Willis forced the movie moguls to make his wife the highest paid actress in Hollywood. Back to Shepherd, she's been having a blast taking off on the "I'm worth it shampoo commercials and recently a parody on Willis and his sexual harassment actions on _Moonlighting_. The Cybill show on Monday nights is sheer joy. Plus it shows REALISTICALLY the friendship between women, not the poisoned filth that male producers and actors and writers like to portray women with the Adam syndrome. (What's the Adam syndrome? "Not me God, Eve made me do it...") . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Tom Daschle (D-S.D>) has never chaired a committee or shepherded a major piece of legislation through the Senate and yet he is coming out the leader of the Democrats in the Senate ... Daschle was badly tainted in the unresolved scandal when he helped a friend circumvent the barring of his friend's planes by the Forest Service. The planes had been approved by the FAA. Linda Hall, the deputy administrator of the FAA, married Daschle in 1984. After investigations (sic!), Daschle was cleared of any misbehavior but the company B&L was no longer used by the Forest Service. Now this is the guy who says - in spite of the lop-sided vote of women for the Democrats - that he is going to lead the fight to overturn Clinton's veto of the D & X, late term abortions. This is the leader of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate! Not all the sleaze in congress is on the Republican side. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . ??