WTF is going on in the "Feminist" community?

Seriously - we're going to have to come up with a word other than feminism if they keep associating it with Hillary Clinton, Emily's List, and the irrational women who think staying home or voting for John McCain is a sane thing for an adult American woman to do. I can't believe so many women are supporting Hillary in spite of her race-baiting, threats to obliterate Iran, her attempt to manipulate tensions between the Jewish and African American communities, her ridiculous attempt to ride her husband's coat tails, her bold faced lies, her whining about sexism and finally, her unbelievable failure to bow out gracefully and let the Dems bask in the glory of making history by nominating Barack Obama. Clinton has been a complete embarrassment to women and I can't understand why so many don't see that.

First, I want to acknowledge that there was blatant sexism in the media coverage of Clinton's campaign, and some of it really was beyond the pale. It is also not lost on me that Chris Matthews only backed off a bit once Media Matters for America called him on it, taking a formal complaint from an organization run by men after ignoring years of complaints lodged by women. It got to the point, however, where any criticism of Clinton was labled sexism and the critic labeled a sexist. I found plenty to criticize, and I don't think that label applies to me. I think we need to get back in touch with what feminism means.

Emily's List is currently supporting a female candidate in Memphis that is using racism, homophobia and anti-semitism against an incumbent male who is pro-choice and pro-LGBT. What the hell are they doing? I thought the idea was to elect pro=choice candidates. Do they now support any woman for any office, no matter what her positions are? That is absurd!

Feminism has many definitions and a lot of women make a lot of money parsing, defining, theorizing and creating them so they can publish books and theses and dissertations about it. The bottom line, though, is that feminism has to be inclusive and address issues of social justice- things like racism, colonialism, violence, war, hunger, poverty, civil rights for everyone and defending a woman's right to choose- or it's meaningless. Electing more women to office is great, but they have to be the right women. There are feminist men who would be much better choices than some ultra-conservative women. We can't just play a girls-only game while we live in a society with both men and women. (I do think that it might be a good idea to develop women-centric communities or neighborhoods, but that's not the state we currently live in.)

If John McCain wins the presidency, kiss Roe v. Wade goodbye. He has made it clear that he'll nominate conservative judges like Samuel Alito, and he'll make sure abortions are banned. The Global Gag Rule will keep killing women all over the planet. We'll continue to endanger our kids by offering "abstinence-only" education that leaves them unprepared to deal with a world of AIDS and STDs. Poor children will still have no health insurance, just like their parents, and single mothers will be without resources if they are abandoned by partners or isolated from family or friends. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue. Lives, especially the lives of women and children, are at stake here.

Obama is the nominee and we have to make sure he wins.

Hillary Unhinged - please, somebody make it stop...

Let's say I believe that it was just a gaffe on Hillary's part when she said that she's staying in the race because Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June so it was too early for her to quit. No, those were not her exact words but that's what every body thought when she said it. Let's put her remarks into context.

Very early in this campaign, Barack Obama began receiving threats, to the point that Senator Durbin requested that the Secret Service go ahead and start protecting him.

The Secret Service appears to have been lax in its duties at large Obama rallies.

Secret Service personnel were recently disciplined for placing a noose in their offices in harassment of African American employees.

People constantly compare Barack to JFK, to Bobby Kennedy, Michelle to Jackie Kennedy, and the Kennedy family has embraced his candidacy. MLK and Malcom X are frequently mentioned in reference to him as well.

Hillary Clinton did way too well in Appalachia, and Barack only campaigned on the fringes of the area. He is widely considered a Muslim, unamerican, the anti-christ, and a potential enemy of the state in the region, where he is commonly referred to as Hussein. Hillary and Bill have race-baited and provoked "color arousal" at every turn in this campaign.

MIke Huckabee recently joked about someone pointing a gun at Barack during a speech before the NRA.

These may all be unconnected elements of a vast aand eventful campaign season... or they may be a pattern no one is seeing yet. I'm not in a position to judge which is the case, but I think most people would be aware that one should be unusually circumspect in invoking images of assassination in this particular campaign. So, you might understand that to some of us, it kind of looks as if Hillary is staying in the race in case Barack gets shot. Yes, a person would have to be a sociopath to hatch such a plan. I never used to think of Hillary that way, but her scorched earth tactics in this campaign, in which she has championed the Republican nominee over her Democratic rival and seems to be theatening intra-party war if she is not handed the nomination or at least the VP slot, have given me reason to reconsider.

You readers know that I struggled over my choice of whom to support in this campaign. I now find myself in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar position of agreeing with the elite male bloggerati in choosing the Obama movement over the Clinton establishment. I no longer feel any guilt in rejecting this woman as a presidential candidate. A person who would make such a grossly inappropriate statement has no business getting near our foreign policy. Our needs are great and our task overwhelming. We need a leader made of much saner stuff than this.

I'm praying for a Super Delegate wave of movement to the Obama camp this weekend.