Hey there…Good morning.

It’s a bit slow out there. What’s going on? I haven’t heard too many comments about Ailes’ behavior in the media, nor here. Wha’at?! We can call out Cosby on his atrocities but what about Ailes?

Here’s something excellent to chew on from the Huff Po. 

Newt Gingrich On The ‘Everyday Danger’ Of Being Black In America

The former House Speaker has become a de facto adviser to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a former House Speaker whom presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is reportedly vetting for vice president, said Friday that black people in the U.S. “are substantially more likely to be in a situation where the police don’t respect you, and where you could easily get killed.”

“Sometimes, for white people, it’s difficult to appreciate how real that is,” Gingrich said during a Facebook Live conversation with former Obama administration official Van Jones. “It’s an everyday danger.”

“If you’re an African-American, then you’re raising your teenage boys to be very careful in obeying the police,” Gingrich said to Jones, who is black and the father of teenagers. “Literally, their lives are at risk [if they interact with police], and they can see that on television.”

The former House Speaker’s comments came as the nation collectively mourned the five Dallas police officers who were killed on Thursday following a peaceful demonstration against police brutality. The protest was prompted in part by police fatally shooting two black men earlier this week ― Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

“If you’re a normal Caucasian,” Gingrich continued, “you don’t see that, because it’s not part of your experience. What we need is to have a conversation about mutual experiences.”

Gingrich also admitted that he has not always understood the disparity between how white Americans and black Americans are treated.

“It took me a long time, and a lot of people talking to me, to understand that if you are a normal white American, the truth is that you don’t understand being black in America,” Gingrich said. “You instinctively underestimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk” that black Americans face.

Gingrich, who appeared on stage with Trump in Cleveland this week, has emerged as a top contender for the Republican vice presidential nomination. He has also become a de facto adviser to Trump, who is mounting his first-ever national political campaign.

Gingrich initially chided Trump for his “inappropriate” remarks on Indiana-born federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel, but later defended the candidate, saying that he did not think the comments were racist. Trump claimed the judge’s Mexican heritage would keep him from being able to fairly preside over a fraud suit filed against the now-defunct Trump University program.

Gingrich said Trump had learned his lesson about the racist attacks, and had “moved toward a more controlled, more civil approach.”

Gingrich’s talking points from Friday could provide some much-needed insight for Trump, who has a decades-long record of allegedly racist business practices and public statements.

Both Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton canceled campaign events they had planned for Friday. The Trump campaign has not announced when, or if, Trump and Gingrich plan to appear together again.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.

CLARIFICATION: Language has been added to clarify Gingrich’s response to Trump’s comments on Curiel. 

*****

Readers: I don’t agree with everything this video is saying, (not in the least), but I do know one person I can reach across to. What about you? Lots to say here. Start talkin’.

Helena 1: I hear ya. It isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time. Thanks for your concern. I HOPE you’re well.

Alycedale: Me too. And no I agree that you don’t need to explain why women wait but I’m glad you did for the ignorant men who can’t seem to figure it out on their own.

I’ll will add too, to the dimwits out there who still don’t get why she waited so long. Unless you have been harassed or raped, please don’t judge the time frame a woman may need to speak out.

A woman speaks out against her perpetrator when she is good and ready and only she knows when that is. Only she knows when she feels safe or when she feels she can handle the attention she is going to receive from speaking out. Hell, some women have blocked it out from them memory until something triggers it and the memory surfaces, and then she speaks out.

And just for the record, Larry: I may not like the way some of the women on FOX throw women under the bus or debase them, but I don’t condone the sexual harassment or worse, rape of women and certainly not because of their bad behavior. Only a man would put those two in the same paragraph as if they have something in common. That’s the problem with most men, they don’t see the difference. They think being sexually harassed to give up a little pussy is in the same category as women dissing women. It isn’t. That just shows you how little regard and respect men have for women.

Any other thoughts? Blog me. 

✌🏽&❤️

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good morning. 

And the story continues.

From NYMag:

Six More Women Allege That Roger Ailes Sexually Harassed Them

Gretchen Carlson and Roger Ailes. Gretchen Carlson and Roger Ailes. Photo: Noam Galai; Getty Images; Wesley Mann/FOX

Fox News host Gretchen Carlson may be the highest-profile woman to accuse Roger Ailes of sexual harassment, but she is not the first. In my 2014 biography of the Fox News chief, I included interviews with four women who told me Ailes had used his position of power to make either unwanted sexual advances or inappropriate sexual comments in the office.

And it appears she won’t be the last, either. In recent days, more than a dozen women have contacted Carlson’s New Jersey-based attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, and made detailed allegations of sexual harassment by Ailes over a 25-year period dating back to the 1960s when he was a producer on The Mike Douglas Show. “These are women who have never told these stories until now,” Smith told me. “Some are in lot of pain.” Taken together, these stories portray Ailes as a boss who spoke openly of expecting women to perform sexual favors in exchange for job opportunities. “He said that’s how all these men in media and politics work — everyone’s got their friend,” recalled Kellie Boyle, who says Ailes propositioned her in 1989, shortly after he helped George H.W. Bush become president, serving as his chief media strategist.

Six of the women agreed to speak with New York publicly for the first time. Two spoke on the record; the others requested anonymity for reasons that include shame and fear of retribution. “I didn’t tell my husband, it was so mortifying,” said Marsha Callahan, a former model who says Ailes harassed her in the late ‘60s, shortly before he became Richard Nixon’s media adviser.

Ailes is clearly trying to keep these stories out of the press and the courts. Late on Friday, his lawyers filed a motion in federal court in New Jersey seeking to move Carlson’s lawsuit to arbitration, which would prevent witnesses from being called in court. “Plaintiff’s ploy of filing in Superior Court to justify her shameless publicity campaign against Roger Ailes should not be countenanced,” Ailes’s lawyers argued. Carlson’s lawyers responded in a statement: “Roger Ailes is trying to force this case into a secret arbitration proceeding…Gretchen never agreed to arbitrate anything with Mr. Ailes.”

Ailes’s spokesperson Irena Briganti did not respond to requests for comment. (Update: Ailes’s outside council Barry Asen has now responded to the new allegations. His statement can be found at the bottom of this post.)

Here are the women’s accounts:

Kellie Boyle, 54

Former Republican National Committee field adviser

This was back in 1989. I was 29 and living in New Jersey. My husband worked at CNBC and he said, ‘Roger Ailes is coming in to be interviewed, would you like to meet him?’ I said yes! I’d worked in political communications for the Republican National Committee; so Roger Ailes was like a God. I’d read his book, You Are the Message, and I used it for a lot of training I did for candidates.

I introduced myself in the green room and he was very charming and said, ‘Would you like to visit my office downtown sometime?’ A week or two later I went in and mentioned to him I was going down to D.C. the following week to sign a major contract with the National Republican Congressional Committee. He said, ‘I’m going to be in D.C. too. Would you like to have dinner before you go in?’ So we had a nice dinner at a restaurant in Union Station.

There was nothing untoward about it at all. He had a driver and a car, and after dinner he said, ‘Can I take you to your friend’s?’ So we get in the car and that’s when he said, ‘You know if you want to play with the big boys, you have to lay with the big boys.’ I was so taken aback. I said, ‘Gosh I didn’t know that. How would that work?’

I was trying to kill time because I didn’t know if he was going to attack me. I was just talking until I could get out of the car. He said, ‘That’s the way it works,’ and he started naming other women he’s had. He said that’s how all these men in media and politics work — everyone’s got their friend. I said, ‘Would I have to be friends with anybody else?’ And he said, ‘Well you might have to give a blowjob every once in a while.’ I told him I was going to have to think about this. He said, ‘No, if you don’t do it now, you know that means you won’t.’

The next morning I show up to get my assignment and was told the guy I was supposed to be meeting with was unavailable. Back in New Jersey I got a call from Roger Ailes. He said, ‘How’d your meeting go?’ I said, ‘Actually he wasn’t available and I’m hoping to hear back from him.’ He said, ‘Ah, well, I’m sure you will. Have you changed your mind yet?’ I said, ‘I’ll have to pass, Roger. I’m married and really committed to my husband. No offense.’ He said, ‘Well, we’ll be in touch.’ And that was that.

A couple weeks later, I called a friend who was very high up in the RNC and I asked him what happened. He said, ‘Word went out you weren’t to be hired.’

Marsha Callahan, 73

Former model

This was either ’68 or ’67. At the time he was producing The Mike Douglas Show, and I had a call from my modeling agency about the show. I got a call directly from Roger asking me to come down and to make sure I wore a garter belt and stockings. This was right after pantyhose came into use, and I said, ‘Why would you want me to do that instead of pantyhose?’ He said, ‘If your legs look good in a garter belt, I’ll know you have great legs.’

So I go into his office and right away he says, ‘Sit on the sofa and lift your skirt up.’ I had to do these different poses. And then, I recall very clearly, he said he’d put me on the show but I needed to go to bed with him.

I was a really shy girl, but I was a little cheeky so I said, ‘Oh yeah, you and who else?’ And he said, ‘Only me and a few of my select friends.’ I said, ‘Well, if you think I have star quality and you can make money off my looks, I don’t think it’d matter if I went to bed with you or not.’ And he said, ‘Oh, pretty girls like you are a dime a dozen.’

The interview ended quickly. I was called in to do the show and I remember passing Roger in the hallway. He pretended not to know who I was.

Susan*, 66

Former model

I was 16 years old living in Radnor, Pennsylvania. I was sent over for a walk-on part on The Mike Douglas Show in the winter of 1967. It was 6:30 in the evening and the place was totally closing up. Ailes took me into this big office and locked the door with a key. He reclined on a couch in a seating area under a map that had flags of all the cities they were syndicated in. He proceeded to pull down his pants and very gingerly pull out his genitals and said, “Kiss them.” And they were red like raw hamburger.

He was pretty meticulously dressed, with long white shirttails coming out. It was like he was just at the end of a long day and I was supposed to know what to do. I was a kid, I’d never seen a man’s privates before.

I jumped up, but the door is locked and nobody’s out there. He chased me around the office and at some point it dawned on him that this just wasn’t going to happen. He finally pulled up his trousers. He was very angry and rushed over to his desk, pulled open a door and had a reel-to-reel tape recorder going. He said to me, ‘Don’t tell anybody about this. I’ve got it all on tape.’ I think he knew I was sixteen.

Jane*, 62

Former model/actress

It was around 1984; I was about 30. I had just arrived in New York. My agent was hoping to get me into broadcasting. I had an appointment with Ailes. He had a camera set up and a little desk and a script for me. It was a cooking kind of thing, talking about food and what not.

After he taped me, he locked the door and said he didn’t want any interruptions. I figured out pretty quickly there was no job and this was just ruse. He pulled out a garter belt and stockings and told me to put them on. I was very nervous; I didn’t know what to do. He was standing there and I put them on. He wanted me to model them for him.

After that, something sexual took place, but I blocked it out of my mind. I don’t know if I engaged with him orally or he engaged with himself. I felt I was being used for his sexual satisfaction. I felt very threatened. He wanted me to take the lingerie home for the next time. I said, ‘No thank you, I don’t want to keep it for the next time.’ I left and I knew I’d never return.

Through the years I felt like a horrible person because I allowed this to happen to me and I didn’t just say fuck off and walk out of the room. My husband doesn’t even know.

Diane*, 69

Media consultant 

This is something I’ve carried with me and haven’t told anybody. I was just appalled to read about Gretchen’s story and see how he’s behaving after 50 years. This was so long ago. I was in college doing some modeling work with an agency in the Philadelphia area. This would have been late ’65 or early ’66; I would have been 18 or 19 years old.

A bunch of us girls at the agency were called over to audition for him for some sort of skit on The Mike Douglas Show. He had a room and one by one he would take us behind closed doors. When my turn came I went in and he didn’t waste any time. He grabbed me and had his hands on me and he forced me to kiss him. When I recoiled he said, ‘Well, you know no girls get a job here unless they’re cooperative.’ I just pushed him away and ran out of there. He was like, whatever. So, no job for me. He did hire several of the girls from the group, but I don’t know what they had to do to get the job.

Pat*, 65

Former TV producer

It was 1975. I had a degree in mass communications. A college friend said, ‘Come to New York.’ I got an interview with Roger Ailes. I remember I met him not at some big TV office; it was at his apartment on Central Park South. I don’t remember his exact words, but his message was: If you want to make it in New York City in the TV business, you’re going to have to fuck me, and you’re going to do that with anyone I tell you to. I was afraid he was going to pin me down. He was a big guy and I’m not big at all. He could have overpowered me.

I remember running out of that apartment like my hair was on fire and standing on the sidewalk crying, thinking, What’s that guy think I was, a prostitute? In one second my dreams were shot. He’s going to blackball me everywhere, I’ll never get another interview, I’m not good enough — all that stuff a 20-something girl thinks. It wasn’t, that guy’s a son of a bitch and I should have kicked him in the balls.

*Pseudonyms.

Update: Roger Ailes’s outside counsel, Barry Asen, has released the following statement regarding these new accounts:

It has become obvious that Ms. Carlson and her lawyer are desperately attempting to litigate this in the press because they have no legal case to argue. The latest allegations, all 30 to 50 years old, are false.

*****

Readers: This piece of shit  Ailes is disgusting. We think Cosby was bad enough. I have a feeling we’re going to find out this pig was even worse. More than a dozen women have come out – I have no doubt this is the beginning of something big.

If a man can get away with the things he has done in this day and age, one can only imagine what he did to all of these women back then when there was no one these women could turn to. To live with the shame, embarrassment, feelings of not good enough, passed around like a pieces of meat, thoughts of “What did I do wrong?“ No outlet to voice as they have now.

Ailes was a sick man back in the day but it looks like nothing has changed. He’s still preying on women which shows he still has absolutely no respect for them.

Good for Carlson and these other women for speaking out. Creeps like Ailes need to be exposed. I don’t care how many years he has gotten away with it. His luck has just run out.

Thoughts? Blog me.

✌🏽&❤️

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

 Good Sunday Morning!

From the Huff Po:

Roger Ailes Clearly Underestimated Gretchen Carlson

On “Fox and Friends,” Gretchen Carlson was the archetypal dim blonde on the couch, sitting between two men and struggling to understand the crazy ways of the modern world.

“I just wanted to see how much of an insult it is to be called an ‘ignoramus.’ Since I didn’t know what it meant, I just googled it,” she said in one segment on what The Washington Post has called “TV’s dumbest news show.” At another point, she struggled to do grade-school math.

The dimness of the caricature she played on TV was still bright enough to catch the eye of the “The Daily Show,” which produced this must-watch segment:

Carslon’s act fits squarely within the ethos of a news network that thinks first and foremost about the attractiveness and sex appeal of its on-air female talent. The roving camera high up above Megyn Kelly’s (not coincidentally glass) desk, for instance, is known as a “leg cam.” Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes once reportedly called a host on air and demanded, “Move that damn laptop, I can’t see her legs!” Carlson has said she wasn’t allowed to wear pants on “Fox and Friends.”

A Fox News employee told The Huffington Post’s Michelle Fields that Ailes often talks about the way he hires on-air talent:

“He always brags to people about how he doesn’t do polling or testing when he chooses his on-air talent. He told me that if he was thinking of hiring a woman, he’d ask himself if he would fuck her, and if he would, then he’d hire her to be on-camera,” the employee said. “He then said if it was a man he’d think about whether he could sit down for a baseball game with him and not get annoyed of him. If he could, then he’d hire him.”

For Ailes, on-air women were nothing but bodies for viewers.

Carlson wasn’t terribly convincing at playing an idiot: She comes off too much like somebody smart trying to figure out how to look dumb. Ask any moron you know, and they’ll be able to tell you what an ignoramus is.

As Jon Stewart discovered, Carlson was valedictorian of her high school class. She graduated with honors from Stanford University and studied at Oxford University. She was a classically trained violinist.

She’s no ignoramus, but she played one on TV.

But she was also crowned Miss America. Did Ailes, the veteran pitchman, start to believe his own pitch ― that Carlson was in real life the dimwit she pretended to be on air?

If so, it may account for Ailes’ epic miscalculation and underestimation of Carlson.

On Wednesday, Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes, accusing him of long-running pattern of abusive behavior. She alleged Ailes he ogled her in his office; asked her to turn around to view her backside; commented frequently on her physical appearance; and demanded sex, then fired her when she turned him down.

She also accused Steve Doocy, her “Fox and Friends” co-host, of engaging in a “pattern and practice of severe and pervasive sexual harassment” that included “mocking her during commercial breaks, shunning her off air, refusing to engage with her on air, belittling her contributions to the show.”

Last year, Carlson opened up a bit about some of the harassment she’s faced over the years (although she didn’t then disclose the treatment by Ailes):

The first incident came when I was nearing the end of my term as Miss America. I was thrilled to schedule a meeting with a top TV executive in New York who promised to help me gain entrée to the business. He called a bunch of shows and sang my praises, and then he took me out to dinner. Afterward we got into his car and he gave the driver the address of the friend I was staying with. As we sat in the backseat, he suddenly threw himself on top of me and stuck his tongue down my throat. I pulled away from him, horrified. As we reached my friend’s apartment building, I jumped out of the car and fled. When I got upstairs I started crying. I thought I had done something wrong.

Carlson advocated that people stop seeing sexual harassment as a “women’s issue” and stop blaming the victim.

“Even when I was harassed, I always knew that my brains and talent were responsible for my success, not my looks,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, I still have to put up with the constant drumbeat of ‘lookism.’ People think it’s okay to refer to a professional woman as a ‘blonde bimbo.’ We should refuse to tolerate this attitude when it occurs.”

Ailes denied Carlson’s allegations Wednesday, dismissing her (in the statement below) as a disgruntled employee who wanted to get back at the network for not renewing her contract. The response is similar to what other women often face when they accuse a man of sexual harassment: questions about their motivation, their timing and their sincerity. It was a surprisingly unoriginal rejoin from a legendary public-relations knife-fighter.

It turns out there was at least one fool at Fox News ― it just wasn’t Carlson.

*****

Readers: Well? Thoughts? Blog me. 

Glowbal Ambassador: Welcome! Thanks for commenting. I can see you are new here. I noticed that you made a comment to two other readers (Betty #42, June #43) who were responding to your first comment. I’m bringing it up here because you responded back on the previous day instead of the most present day. (See Rule #3 Posting Comments in the left hand column of the blog under “Blog Rules of Conduct.”) No problem. I’m sure they’ll see it now. I’m here to help. By commenting on any other day other than the most current day, your comment may not be seen by others. Being that you responded to these sisters, I’m sure you would want them to see and read your recent response!

Newbies: Please see the “Blog Rules of Conduct.“ When posting a comment in regards to any past or archived article, please post your comment on the present day to keep the conversation contemporary, and to ensure that your comments are seen by everyone, especially the ones you are personally responding to. :) Thank you!

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

 ✌🏽&❤️

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good Morning!

Hi, Devin: Of course. I had a feeling this was your thing. Would love to hear more, so yes please.

Hi, Lin: I HOPE to as well. I don’t see it being a problem as long as we women stick together and make it happen. Speaking of making it happen…wow. You girlz really went for it, supported each other, rallied together, and succeeded in getting your first female leader. Amazing! So happy for you! I’m speechless. I hope the women here are reading and can get excited enough to do what you all did together. YOU are the inspiration. Thank you for all the wonderful wishes and support.

I can’t help but dedicate this write to you, the rest of the girlz, and all the readers who commented on this victory for women. It shows that when women succeed, things happen. Lots of wonderful things happen. Social Butterfly: I gave gratitude. Nice, Ruth, AF: I agree!

Wonderful Women of The World is usually a write reserved for Sundays, but you can bet this year I will be including them on any day that I please. Here’s a WWOTW Stephanie Toti featured in a write from the Huff Po:

This Lawyer’s First Supreme Court Case Just Decided The Fate Of Abortion Rights

Stephanie Toti, 37, is arguing the biggest abortion case of the decade before the Supreme Court next week.

It was pouring rain, but the Capitol Police would not let the 26-year-old and her colleagues pitch a tent. So they laid in sleeping bags on the concrete, miserable, huddled together. The next morning, they stood in line in their soaking-wet clothes, hoping to get seats for oral arguments in the most important abortion rights case of the last decade.

After camping in the rain all night, Toti and her co-workers — junior employees at the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy group that defends abortion rights around the globe — managed to nab a few spots in the last row.

“Some of our colleagues who had tickets to the arguments came around in the morning and brought us suits so we could change our clothes after we got into the courthouse and be appropriately dressed,” Toti said. “I remember sitting in the back and thinking, ‘Wow, this courtroom is so big!’”

Toti’s side lost. In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the high court upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act — a federal law passed in 2003 that prohibited a specific kind of surgical abortion procedure.

Now, a decade later, Toti is preparing to argue her first Supreme Court case — the most significant abortion trial of this century. On March 2, she’ll take the lead in oral arguments on Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a case that could determine whether women in Texas and across the country will have access to abortion services in their communities.

The case challenges the constitutionality of two Texas abortion restrictions passed in 2013 that were designed to shut down most of the clinics in the state. The decision will not only determine the fate of abortion access in Texas; it will also send a signal to other states about the appropriateness of similar laws.

Most litigators who argue big cases before the Supreme Court are white men who have done it before. An elite group of 66 lawyers — only eight of whom are women — argued nearly half of the cases before the high court from 2004 to 2012, according to a 2014 Reuters analysis of 17,000 attorneys. Some of those attorneys have argued dozens of cases before the court, and nearly half of them are graduates of Harvard or Yale law schools who clerked for Supreme Court justices after graduation. That narrow representation turns the court into what the Reuters investigators described as an “echo chamber.”

But in the most consequential abortion rights cases, the reproductive rights movement has repeatedly turned to relatively inexperienced women.

Sarah Weddington (WWOTW!)was 27 when she argued and won Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion throughout the United States. Weddington had no previous experience with the high court. “Because I hadn’t been able to get a job with a law firm, I didn’t have any real experience,” Weddington told Ms. Magazine last year. “I had done one adoption for my uncle, some divorces for people with no real assets to divide up, a couple of wills for people with very little money. I had not done Big Law.”

In 1992, reproductive rights advocates chose Kathryn Kolbert (WWOTW!) to represent them in the case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which challenged a Pennsylvania law requiring a 24-hour waiting period and spousal notification before a woman could obtain an abortion. Kolbert, then a 40-year-old attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, had only argued one case before the Supreme Court, but she claimed a narrow victory over Pennsylvania’s Republican attorney general. The court ruled that states can regulate abortion, but cannot place an “undue burden” on the right to obtain one. 

Being underestimated is “frustrating, but motivating,” Toti said.

In the 2010 midterm elections, a new crop of ultra-conservative Republicans swept statehouses across the country, bringing with them a fresh determination to rid the country of legal abortion. Over the next five years, these lawmakers passed an unprecedented number of abortion restrictions that shut down dozens of clinics across the country. Their strategy was simple: Instead of passing outright bans on legal abortion that would be difficult to defend in court, states passed so many new regulations on abortion clinics and doctors that few providers would be able to meet the requirements and stay open.

In 2013, Texas enacted two of these so-called TRAP laws (“TRAP” stands for Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers). The laws mandate that all abortions take place in ambulatory surgical centers, or mini-hospitals, and that all abortion providers must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The extensive renovations required to turn a clinic into a mini-hospital, such as specific hallway widths, large janitors’ closets and new ventilation systems, are too expensive for most clinic owners to undertake. And hospitals in Texas often refuse to grant admitting privileges to abortion providers for political or religious reasons that have nothing to do with the doctor’s experience or safety record.

By the middle of 2014, 20 of the state’s 42 clinics had shut down, forcing many women in poor, rural areas of the state to travel up to 300 miles to the nearest clinic. Women’s health advocates complained that the restrictions did not appear to be medically necessary — abortions are already remarkably safe, and in the event of an emergency, hospitals have to admit women whether the doctor performing the abortion has admitting privileges or not. “These laws don’t provide any material benefit to abortion patients,” Toti said.

In August 2014, the Center for Reproductive Rights — with Toti as lead counsel — sued Texas, arguing that the new restrictions were irrelevant to women’s health and imposed an unconstitutional burden on their access to safe and legal abortion. Toti won in district court and lost in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In November, the Supreme Court agreed to take the case.

Toti’s task in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt is to convince the court — specifically, Kennedy — that the new regulations are not medically necessary, that lawmakers passed them with the sole intent of eradicating legal abortion in Texas, and that the rules do indeed impede women’s ability to exercise their constitutional right to an abortion.

Her team has taken a novel approach in its argument, submitting a document to the court in which 113 female attorneys share stories of their own abortions and explain how access to the procedure allowed them to break the cycles of poverty, abuse and teenage motherhood in their families and rise into successful careers.

The state of Texas will argue that the clinic regulations are necessary to protect the health and safety of women. “The state has wide discretion to pass laws ensuring Texas women are not subject to substandard conditions at abortion facilities,” Ken Paxton, Texas’ attorney general, said in a statement when the Supreme Court agreed to review the case last November.

The death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia earlier this month does not change much about Toti’s case. If Kennedy sides with Whole Woman’s Health, the Texas restrictions will be struck down. But if he sides with the state, that will create a 4-4 tie, which will mean that a lower court decision that upheld Texas’ abortion restrictions will stand.

As she prepares for next week’s oral arguments, Toti is trying to avoid psychoanalyzing Kennedy. Instead, she is practicing with experienced Supreme Court lawyers who shoot rapid-fire questions at her in moot courts, interrupting her as the justices will. These dress rehearsals can be humbling.

“There have definitely been moments of remorse,” she said. “Everyone’s jumping in and asking these really hard questions, and I reach a point where I’m like, ‘When is this going to end?’”

At the gym or at the grocery store, Toti listens to audio recordings of past oral arguments on her headphones. Sometimes a dream about the case will wake her up in the middle of the night, and she’ll jump out of bed to scribble down the ideas cycling through her head. The notes rarely make any sense the next morning. “I’m not going to give you a specific example,” she said, laughing, “because I don’t want to tip off the other side to the kind of nonsense I’m coming up with.”

When the Supreme Court agreed to take the case, Toti’s bosses briefly considered replacing her with a more experienced Supreme Court lawyer. She lobbied to keep the case, noting that she had already taken the lead in district and appellate arguments. She convinced them. When she found out she’d argue the case, she was “really excited,” she recalled. “And then, you know, a moment later, slightly terrified.”

Lawrence, her co-counsel, isn’t as worried.

“Stephanie knows the case backwards and forwards,” he said. “Every nook and cranny of the case, she knows. That is an asset that cannot be undervalued.”

“I would not have wanted anyone else to argue this case,” he added. “Including myself.”

*****

Readers: The story may be out about the SCOTUS decision to reject Texas’s attempt to block access to abortions to women in its state, but the story to be told about the woman who argued it before that court deserves my blog time too. Talk about commitment to her fellow sisters. This woman has got it going –  Toti is focused and tenacious even in the face of men not respecting her position as lead counsel. I so applaud her for her efforts, for her “dream ideas,” for hanging in there under intense pressure. Yes, millions of women counted on her and she didn’t disappoint.

As usual it takes a female to make clear the negative impact laws men pass to impede the equality of women and their right to determine their own health care. Since no man can truly walk in a woman’s shoes, he can certainly try to obstruct progress, and unfortunately he has in the past, but he can’t understand the negative impact of his laws, nor will he care as much about them because those laws don’t affect men.

The proof is in the fact that three relatively inexperienced women have argued and won the three most important cases in America history. 

This is a more staggering feat than one would imagine on first blush until one learns that there is an elite group of 66 lawyers who have argued nearly half of the cases before the high court from 2004 to 2012, according to a 2014 Reuters analysis of 17,000 attorneys, and only 8 of them have been women.  I believe my point about men not truly understanding applies here too. This is where sympathy ends and empathy takes over.

Can you imagine what women could do for women, for the country, if we were in power positions? I can. 

If women wake up, they will see why all the more this demands a woman get her chance to not only change the often draconian laws men have passed to the detriment of women, but to promote new legislation that will right the ship. I for one am ready for it, and am planning on doing my best to ensure that our girl Hillary is our next president. I KNOW there are plenty of women who will join me. I’m counting on all of you. The time is now and there is no better time than now. #I’mWithHer.

Herbert: How lucky are you?! I wish I could’ve been there to see our President. It would’ve been one of the highlights of my life.

So nice to hear all about PRIDE from so many of you! Janice: Wow – so many films being shown. Cool. I didn’t know about that. Thanks for letting me know. Please Brittany et al: Send me notice of your PRIDE events ahead of time and I’d be happy to include them in my write next year! Karen: Thanks for the heads-up for Oakland in September.

Patricia: I love the idea too. He’s got my vote.

Ohh. I love ending on an up note. 

Your turn, Blog this BABE. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Good Morning!

Woo hoo! A victory for women!! Great news. 

Thank you SCOTUS…Specifically: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, along with Stephen G. Breyer, who wrote the majority opinion, and Justice Anthony Kennedy.

How will this ripple effect other States? Read on…

Here’s the write from the NY times:

Abortion Ruling Could Create Waves of Legal Challenges

Dr. Willie Parker at Reproductive Health Services of Montgomery in February in Montgomery, Ala. Dr. Parker, a roving doctor who performs abortions at two clinics in Alabama and at a clinic in Mississippi, said on Monday that the Texas decision was “a huge victory.” CreditMelissa Golden for The New York Times

The latest admitting-privilege law, though a weaker one than that in Texas, is due to take effect on July 1 in Florida. Gov. Rick Scott said he was studying the implications of Monday’s Supreme Court decision. The Florida law allows clinics, as an alternative, to have a general transfer agreement with a nearby hospital, but it is unclear whether all of the state’s clinics can comply.

The clearest and probably quickest effect of the Supreme Court decision will be in the other states with admitting-privilege laws — which mainstream medical groups say are medically unnecessary, and which clinics in some regions cannot meet because of hostility to abortion.

Such laws threatened to force the shutdown of four of five clinics in Alabama, three of four clinics in Louisiana and the sole abortion clinic operating in Mississippi. Given Monday’s decision, none of the laws in those states, or in others where similar requirements are temporarily blocked, including Kansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, are likely to survive.

Robin Vos, the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, said in a statement: “Today the court has put women’s health and safety on the back burner for the profits of Planned Parenthood and abortion providers.”

He added: “As a pro-life legislator, I will continue to support legislation that protects the life of an unborn child and the health of the mother.”

On the other side of the issue, Dr. Willie Parker, who as a roving doctor who performs abortions at two Alabama clinics in cities where he cannot obtain admitting privileges and at the one clinic in Mississippi, said with relief that the Texas decision was “a huge victory.”

After years in which ever more forceful anti-abortion laws spread in the South, he said, “now the chain reaction can go in the other direction.”

Admitting-privilege requirements that are now in effect in Missouri, North Dakota and Tennessee may also come under new challenge. Five other states, besides Texas, impose some form of surgery-center standards on clinics performing abortions in the first trimester. The effect of the new ruling may have to be considered state by state, legal experts said.

While surgery-center laws outside Texas have forced a few clinics to shut down, the laws in several states including Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Virginia allow for waivers to the strict requirements, allowing some existing clinics to be exempt from rules governing, for example, storage space or flooring materials; the Texas law struck down Monday was, by comparison, inflexible.

Because the Supreme Court case was focused on provisions that were justified in terms of women’s health, the ruling is likely to have a less direct effect on some other contested abortion restrictions such as waiting periods or ultrasound requirements.

But the same standards would presumably apply to legal efforts to restrict nonsurgical, medication abortions in the name of protecting women. Battles are underway, for example, in some rural states over whether doctors can remotely prescribe abortion-inducing drugs. The greatest effect of the decision may come in the future, as the battle over abortion takes new forms.

Nancy Northup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the New York-based legal group that represented Texas clinics before the Supreme Court, said, “This opinion makes it clear that the court is going to look at the stated justification for a law, and look at the burdens it imposes.”

“It’s about making sure that regulations are truly justified,” she said.

For now, the Supreme Court is expected to make sure that states where cases are pending, like Louisiana and Mississippi, follow the principles laid out on Monday.

*****

Readers: I’m soo sick of men making comments, no…decisions, about women’s health as if they have a vagina of their own and the ability to give birth. Last time I checked they don’t. That’s a nod to you, Paul Ryan, and all the other anti-abortionists who want to control women and their rights over their bodies. They aren’t concerned about protecting women’s health like they espouse.

How is it better for a woman’s health, when the state a woman resides in to get an abortion severely limits her access to safe and legal procedures? How is it better for a woman’s health when she is in a desperate situation and may resort to an unlicensed rogue practitioners because she has no other choice? How is it better for a woman’s health when all she wants is to have an abortion but is faced with stressful situations from abortion clinics who, discourage her desires, make her go through long waiting periods, and mandate fetal sonograms?

I don’t know about you, but if that’s your way of protecting my health, I want nothing to do with you, thank you. Just let me make my own decisions freely as I should be able to since abortion is legal.

I can’t believe that in this day and age we’re still talking about and fighting over this. We have the right to have an abortion but those who oppose are always trying to make it hard for women to exercise that right. I will echo Hillary’s tweet:

This is a victory and a good reason to celebrate. AND we aren’t done yet.

What’s on your mind? Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"