<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^>^<^> .....................Catt's Claws # 82 November 16, 1995...................... ..................... A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber...................... ................................................................................ To subscribe: email and in the body of the note type -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Honest to George Washington, we don't make these things up. Even White House spokesperson Mike McCurray said, "There's no conceivable way he would have said anything like that." Ah, but he did ... along with his remarks about letting Medicare and the health of the older people of this nation "wither on the vine." According to an Associated Press news story, House Speaker Newt Gingrich was miffed because President Clinton didn't spend time with him on Air Force One while they were returning from Yitzhak Rabin's funeral in Israel - and that Gingrich's spoiled brat attitude led to this week's shutdown of the government. We quote, without permission, part of the AP story (and it isn't taken out of context): The lack of contact and their having to exit through the rear of the plane were "part of why you ended up with us sending down a tougher continuing resolution," Gingrich said in an extraordinary exchange with reporters at a breakfast meeting. The resolution, a stopgap measure to keep the government running for a brief period, was vetoed by President Clinton on Monday. "This is petty, I'm going to say up front it's petty and Tony (Blankley, his press secretary) will probably say that I shouldn't say it, but I think it's human," Gingrich said. In other words, Gingrich's feelings were hurt so he stopped the paychecks of hundreds of thousands of government workers and services to all of the American people. Gingrich and company fail to mention that the resolution Clinton vetoed would have tied the administration into supporting a SEVEN-YEAR budget plan that hasn't even been finalized by the Republicans. Someone ought to check Gingrich's immunization record ... This guy's out of control. ....................... * ........................ As more and more facts come to light about the so-called Republican revolution at the polls November, 1994, the more we beginning to realize that many of their seats were won through outright fraud, or really raunchy methods that would make Richard Nixon green with envy. We won't mention the case of House Speaker Newt Gingrich himself who had a secret war chest gained through nefarious means, but we will point out the case of Representative Enid Waldholtz (R-Utah) who spent $1.8 MILLION in a last minute media blitz that beat Democratic incumbent Karen Shepherd. When the feds started looking into that election money chest (which Rep. Waldholtz said on HER SWORN financial disclosure was HER MONEY) her husband disappeared and Little-'ole-innocent-me Enid quickly filed for divorce. Seems that Enid's parents LENT her $4 million from which she and hubby financed the last minute whirlwind of ads and meetings - and now that he's gone, it was ALL his fault. By the way, 'ole Enid, 37, says that her hubby had access to $2 million when he disappeared. Seems strange she didn't know about the other money but she promptly knew about the $2 mill getaway boodle. Why don't I believe Enid Waldholtz - a corporate attorney in private life? All that money glazed the eyes of the Republican powers that be and quickly elevated Enid to a seat on the powerful Rules Committee, the first freshman congressional representative in 70 years to be so honored. Well, Enid, I guess your hubby's skipping town, etc. marks the end of your V-P hopes ... it's no big secret that the Republicans are eyeing their "broad line" in Congress for the V-P now that Christine Whitman, Governor of New Jersey, has tarnished a bit. ....................... * ........................ The $41,000 that the Saudi court ordered 16-year-old Sarah Balabagan to pay as blood money has arrived at the United Arab Emirates. The appeals court overturned the death sentence it had levied against Balabagan for stabbing 85-year-old Almas Mohammed al-Baloushi to death in June 1994, when he tried to rape her. She had been sentenced to seven years in jail but a new trial requested by the rapist's son - there was never a question about the rape - resulted in the death penalty. Led by the Philippine government, people from around the world objected and petitioned for the girl's release. From all indications, the blood money payment does not remove the 100 lashes whipping penalty. ....................... * ........................ OK, most women are the caretakers of their families. Some of us remember the good old days of skinny hot dogs before the age of chemistry in a bun. Now, for the latest: soon (if you can stand to read the labels on hot dogs) there will be a new additive called "mechanically separated" poultry which means the bones of the animal which have tiny, itsy-bitsy pieces of meat attached to it after the butchering process may now be ground into a paste and made part of your friendly hot-dog ... Ah, how lucky you are if you have a Nathan's around ... please tell me Kosher isn't going to accept this ... ....................... * ........................ New York is the third state after Vermont and Massachusetts to recognize the right of a person in a homosexual relationship to adopt the partner's child, according to Suzanne Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the gay rights group, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. The top court for the District of Columbia has also legalized such adoptions. "Gay parents, like non-gay parents, want the best for their children," said Lambda's Beatrice Dohrn, who represented a lesbian couple in the case before the New York Court of Appeals. "The court's ruling will allow any parent in the state to better provide for their children's needs and interests." Needless to say the Republican Religious Supremacists with their simplistic little minds think otherwise: Rev. Duane Motley of Spencerport (these guys do LOVE titles!), head of the Christian Coalition-affiliated New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, said: "The best environment to raise a child is a family environment, where there is a man and a woman together, married. We think the court greatly erred." OK, bub - what happens when there is no responsible man such as occurs in more than 60% of the families in American today? When are these religious supremacists going to wake up and smell reality? It must be that incense ... or are they using inhalant activated LSD ink in those books they brainwash their followers with? Just what is at state in all this? Something extra for lesbian couples? Hardly. It is FOR THE CHILDREN, with which the Revs of the Christian Coalition can't be bothered with after they are born. By allowing unmarried partners to adopt, the court can guarantee that the children receive a range of financial benefits that are now in question such as child support, inheritance, health insurance, pension rights, Social Security benefits - all those benefits that would be available if a *straight* person adopted a child. "Little children come unto me..." Where is Christ and love in the Christian Coalition? ....................... * ........................ Two WOMEN in Congress had the guts to stand up and quickly object to Rev. Lou Sheldon giving the morning prayer at the U.S. House of Representatives. Sheldon has made millions out of being a notorious anti-gay and anti-lesbian fanatic, blaming almost all the ill of the universe on them. " (He) has made a living bashing gays, lesbians and persons with AIDS," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif. Sheldon "preaches that homosexuality is 'the most pernicious evil today' and has written that 'gays and lesbians live perverted, twisted lives that feed upon the unsuspecting and the innocent, like our children,'" Woolsey said in a protest letter she is circulating among House members to send to Speaker Newt Gingrich, himself a verbal opponent of homosexuality - although a number of gay men are part of his various political organizations and support him. Rep. NIta Lowey, D-NY, said Sheldon shouldn't have been given the "official stamp of approval" that an appearance on the House floor implies. Lowey joined Woolsey at a news conference. Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., is responsible for Sheldon giving the prayer. ....................... * ........................ Rosa Marie Hartford who took a 13-year-old girl across state lines for an abortion has been charged with interfering with the custody of a child under a Pennsylvania law that requires parental consent in the case of minors seeking abortions. Hartford's stepson, Michael Kilmer, 19, is charged with raping the girl and impregnating her. Hartford, 39, could face six years in jail, but the district attorney said he would not push for jail time. Lawyers from the Center for Reproductive Law & Policy in New York called the case a historic challenge to abortion rights. "If we permit any local prosecutor to bring these types of charges, we would totally undermine the rights of young women to choose abortion," said Kathryn Kolbert, vice president of the center. The prosecutor said it was a case of parental rights not abortion rights, "I'm not trying to make any political statements here. Maybe the defense is, but I'm not," he said. Hartford, of course, is no angel in this matter. Any child would have been proof positive of her stepson having sex with the girl. ....................... * ........................ Barf bag at ready? The operative words are: "After working hours? A Canadian judge ruled that a Roman Catholic priest is still a priest even after he sexually assaulted children and the judge ordered the Antigonish diocese in northern Nova Scotia and the child molester, Father James Mombourquette to pay a former altar boy $23,000. In a 46-page report, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge rejecting the church's argument that it wasn't responsible for what its priests did after "working hours." "Father Mombourquette was conducting himself as a parish priest and, although he removed his clothes as part of the assaults, he remained to the then child a priest," the judgment said. Mombourquette pleaded guilty in 1991 to sexually abusing four boys. Three other diocese priests were also convicted of abusing boys. By the way, it is estimated that about 12% of all sexual child rapes are of boys - so figure that for every boy who is molested, there are 88 girls, but somehow, none of those girls get a chance at their rapers the way the boys do. Something is wrong with this picture. Statistically, for every Fr. James Mombourquettte there must be five or priests who probably raped girls but we don't hear about those ... nor are the girls able to get anyone to hear *their* stories and get revenge. Something is VERY wrong with this picture. ....................... * ........................ The obituaries of Florence Greenberg, 82, a recording industry pioneer who helped discover The Shirelles, The Kingsmen, and many other acts of the '60s and '70s, contains the quaint, but familiar wording: "Greenberg was a Passaic housewife when she got into the music business." As if Elvis or Sinatra were born musicians? Or how about great actors who were waiters before they got their break? Well, you get the idea of how successful women are belittled in the male-dominated press. Greenberg who died last month was one of the first women ever to run a record company and was an executive at Tiara Records when she had The Shirelles record their first record, "I Met Him on a Sunday." The girls were friend of her daughter, but NOTE THAT SHE WAS ALREADY IN THE BUSINESS, gentlemen of the press. In 1959, she formed her own record company, Scepter Records, and produced The Shirelles' No. 1 hit "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" Over the next 17 years as head of Scepter, Greenberg developed talent, choose songs and selecting album cover art. Among the Scepter hits under Greenberg were the Isley Brothers' "Twist and Shout," "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsmen, "Walk on By" by Dionne Warwick and "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" by B.J. Thomas. Thank you, our Jewish mama of the music business, Florence Greenberg. ....................... * ........................ Brian Dugan who is serving two life terms for two unrelated murders has confessed to the killing of a 10-year-old girl that another man is in jail for. However, Dugan has refused to testify in the case unless he is given immunity from the death penalty. In other words, he testifies and frees the other guy without any additional penalty. The prosecutors in Wheaton, IL, say that the new DNA tests which clear Rolando Cruz do not change their theory that there were more than one man involved. The con game of one lifer confessing a crime to let a buddy out of jail is growing all too common. ....................... * ........................ Has anyone else noticed that the big noise about an outside prosecutor being named to investigate House Speak Newt Gingrich has been quietly hidden behind the men's room door? The good 'ole boy's men's door, i.e. Don't listen for the flush, though, unless it's because of Gingrich's own diarrhea of the mouth. ....................... * ........................ Kathleen asks in anyone knows about the play on words and numbers in the naming of the French birth control pill here in the U.S. "RU-486 does not sound so innocent as --Are you for 86? The expression "to 86" means to reject, discard. It's a standard enough slang expression that it's even in my Random House Webster's dictionary. What I'd like to know is how and why it was named this ... And how it is that I've never seen anyone in the media even mention that a pre-prejudicing and moral questioning was built right into the pill's name. Heard anything yourself?" ....................... * ........................ Aye, tis the day for Kathleen's. I received a number of great answers for a method to record Web addresses that I get via email to a form I can upload into Netscape without having to (many times incorrectly) hand copy into a notebook and then transfer to Netscape. Kathleen said, "I know the answer to that." All one has to do is highlight the pertinent line, use copy on the email program or ctrl-ins, reduce the email program, bring up the notebook in Windows, paste in the info, and go back to the email program. Add as much info as you want as many times as you want. Save and then in Netscape, reverse the process. So simple. Now - The next problem, if anyone would care to take it is, where does the name Maplethwaite come from. Think it's in\from a British novel ... ................................................. The URLs to the most current weeks' worth of Catt's Claws set up on the Web by Laurie D. T. Mann, the Feminist Webitor, are: http://worcester.lm.com/women/is/cattsclaws.html The FTPs for Catt's Claws being archived by William Affleck-Asch, are: ftp://ftp.eskimo.com/u/f/feminist/ (or NCFTP open ftp.eskimo.com cd /u/f/feminist/) The FTPs for Catt's Claws being archived by Dorothy Dean are: FTP.execpc.com ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to istuber@cswnet.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. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<<