To subscribe or unsubscribe: irenestuber@delphi.com !^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^! ! Catt's Claws ... a feminist newsletter ... March 19, 1995 ! !^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^!^! WAHOO - It may be an accident, but finally one of the leaders of the women's movement instead of attacking President Clinton - the ONLY person that stands between the Contract Out On America(n women) and you - is actually backing him up...and then took half of it away. In a recent rally to support affirmative action organized by perennial presidential hopeful Jesse Jackson, NOW president Patricia Ireland said White House officials assured women's advocates that Clinton supported affirmative action programs based on sex. Then she added, I am disturbed that we don't have a clear, firm statement already." Hey, Patricia - how often does NOW give out immediate clear, firm statements without review after review with all the officers and lawyers ... and news releases that are corrected and corrrrrecteeed? That's one of the big complaints from the grassroots. We can't get anything out of national headquarters without delay after delay after delay ... Clinton's press secretary had a firm response in the affirmative action debate and we'd better all engrave it on our foreheads so we don't lose our way from night to morning: "What is a greater concern to you: New Gingrich and those in the Republican majority who would like to roll back affirmative action ... or the president of the United States who is trying in a sensible way to have a national conversation on this issue which results in good, common-sense policy." When did affirmative action (which I wholeheartedly support) become written in stone? Truly, aren't there some things that should be changed? Society is fluid, things change. Aren't liberals supposed to be the ones who embrace the future while the conservatives embrace the failed past? Why should we be afraid of examination? ....................... * ........................ In an attempt to override the safeguards in the constitutional division of the president, the congress, and the supreme court, the republicans attempted to set aside a presidential order barring federal contractors from permanently replacing striking workers. The news story about Clinton's safeguarding of U.S. workers was small, but next to it was a BIG picture of a benign, Buddha-like Gingrich who was saying that the proposed republican cuts in job training, community service programs, public housing, summer youth jobs, education and food air for women and children was part of their Contract Out on America and were needed to balance the budget by the year 2002. A return to slavery and no equal pay for women would help just as much, wouldn't it Newt? Clinton's proposal for $5.4 billion in aid to 40 states for disasters which is part of the package failed to get mentioned ... remember what I printed in the last Catt's Claws issue: In 1965, financed by grants from the Adolph Coors Foundation (the beer people), the Education Research Institute was established by the American Conservative Union with the aim of training radical rightists as newspaper reporters to change the direction of what they perceived as liberal reporting. OUR NEWS FROM WASHINGTON IS MANAGED NEWS - AS WE ARE NOT GETTING THE TRUE PICTURE OF WOMEN'S LIVES AND CONCERNS IN OUR MEDIA, WE ARE also NOT GETTING THE TRUE VIEW OF WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE CLINTON WHITE HOUSE. Why is such thinking a stretch? Just who will profit if Clinton fails? PS- by the way, GOVERNOR Clinton drove me bonkers for the ten years ... until a very astute political authority patted me on the head and said "don't you recognize the British-style of governing, of letting things simmer until a consensus is reached? He always gets what he wants. It's just highly convoluted maneuvering that the simplistic-minded press and people-sheep can't follow. His aim is consensus." Isn't consensus what the women's movement and grassrooters are always preaching about - not dictatorship from the top? ....................... * ........................ An activist's voice wanting to network with other activists against hate- monger Bob Enyart: "Bob (racist, supremacist, homophobic, misogynist) Enyart is syndicated into the Kenosha, Wisconsin, community thru channel 55WHKE Kenosha. Members of the Unitarian Universalist church and other members of the community are active in organizing an economic boycott of the station's sponsors because of the hate he promotes. "I personally debated him regarding his supremacy on television. Senator Feingold (Wisconsin) has been actively pursuing whether he has violated FCC regulations in his broadcast. Activists from Kenosha take turns suffering the nausea of watching his show to call in and question his hatred and male supremacy. We would love to connect with larger groups of flush Bob activists." (signed) IN%"Chipigogos@aol.com" (How about calling the movement to end Enyart: entrailing Enyart?) ....................... * ........................ By the way, read and weep the items in Clinton's 1994 Crime Bill that will go by the boards if the republicans bow to the religious supremacists: * The requirement that sexual predators and those who prey on children be required to register with state law enforcement agencies and police to notify communities when they are released. * Requiring the testing of defendants in rape trials for the AIDS virus if requested by the victim - and evidence of prior sex offenses - even those for which charges were never brought - may be introduced. Other points of Clinton's Crime Bill that are under the Republican gun are a woman's right to sue an abuser in federal court, new shelters for battered women, better training of police and court personnel to handle domestic violence cases better, federal penalties for spouse abusers who cross state line to commit such violence and requirements that all state enforce each other's "stay away" orders. Yes, the G.O.P. which took the U.S.A. from the richest nation in the world to the largest DEBTOR nation in the world in just 12 years now THEY want to balance the budget on the backs of women and children. ....................... * ........................ Outrageous Practices; The Alarming Truth About How Medicine Mistreats Women by Leslie Laurence and Beth Weinhouse, published by Fawcett Columbine is essential reading. The authors point out that nine of 10 breast cancer patients could have had lumpectomies, yet more than half undergo mastectomies, and women whose kidneys fail receive fewer transplants than afflicted men. They point out that doctors continue to prescribe oral contraceptives, despite the lack of information on long-term effects. (Hey, but we KNOW what the effects are long-term without such contraceptives...early death for constant pregnancies. I personally wonder why there aren't more studies (any?) being done on the effect of smell to discourage or lead the little tadpoles to their deaths? We use it with other animals...) ....................... * ........................ "I think white women and women-of-color can get together on a shared agenda. But, if you try to minimize race and gender by saying, "it doesn't matter what I am, I'm just a human," you're being unrealistic with yourself, to others and to the political agenda. This is in the gay community, the women's movement, the workplace, at home, and in gender roles." -- Amara Perez, _Moon_Magazine,1993. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to irenestuber@delphi.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information and is NOT sponsored by any organization. <<<