Letters to the Editor
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Hit 'er again, Babs!
The simple fact that the wingnuts went batshit over it tells you everything you need to know.
"Oh, no, we never condone these barren, man-free semi-women taking important jobs meant for men." Except, of course, when they're subservient republican cocksuckers (in a bad way) like Rice.
It's the wingnut hypocrites who are really insulting Condi by implying she can't deal with a few mild questions from a senatorial grandmother.
If Condi wants to play in the big boys' sandbox, she's going to have to take a few clumps in the face.
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What Should We Expect?
One of the hopes I had for a Democratic victory last November that is would silence the neocon noise machine. I recognize now that it was a misplaced hope from the start. (I can still have hopes that the Democrats will show that the people who really know how to govern are in charge of at least Congress now.) I should have known that the neocon noise machine would be up to the same old same old regarding charges against Democrats. In fact, with the Democrats in control of Congress, it may actually free up the noise machine from any restraints of showing responsibility.
The fact is that it is a galling now as it was in Vietnam that Congress and the President sends other folks off to die and doesn't have to risk anything personally itself. Boxer's comments were right on.
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no problem
Since she included herself in the statement, I think Boxer was just pointing out that all these warmongers have no one to lose in actual battle. Not Cheney, not Rumsfeld, not Bush, not Rice, not most of Congress, not any of these decision makers who so blithely started this huge sucking quagmire.
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This is another "point of view" scandal
Remember when Kerry brought up Cheney's lesbian daughter, and the right-wingers went wild. In their minds, Kerry had insulted the family of the Vice-President. Most liberals didn't understand the issue - in our minds, this was, at most, a very minor "gotcha". We don't perceive being a lesbian, or having a lesbian daughter, as a particularly bad thing. We simply can't understand why the right-wingers would be so upset about a comment related to homosexuality.
Once again, a liberal unintentionally stepped on a cultural land mine. In the right wing world, not having children is a very bad thing. A childless woman is, at the very least, a subject of pity. A conservative childless woman is a victim of either poor choices or tragedy. Commenting on the barrenness of a childless woman is cruel to the point of being vicious. Liberals tend to assume that a woman who is career-oriented and doesn't have children made a choice in her life and is perfectly happy with that choice, so mentioning that a woman doesn't have children is no big deal. In their minds, Boxer seriously insulted Rice and Kerry seriously insulted Cheney. But we liberals are going to have a very hard time understanding why they feel that way.
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So, is Boxer admitting that her own opinion is irrelevant?
Of course not. She clearly feels that her anti-war position is the correct one and that Rice's opinion is wrong.
Boxer's point is that neither she nor Rice, for different reasons, have any immediate family members in harms way is a strawman. Does her point make them both equally qualified or equally unqualified to have an opinion on the matter? Of course, any military intervention anywhere is going to place stress on military families, but if the majority of them expressed their support for the war, I doubt Boxer would support that opinion.
I'd have to say that Rice's background as a national security advisor and, now, secretary of state not only makes her qualified, it *requires* that she form and share her opinions on such matters.
Boxer's view on the matter is rather naive.
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What is Boxer had said this to a man?
I have no children, and am a guy. My wife and I are happily child-free, and plan to remain in this blissful state. If this question had been put to me, would it have naturally cast doubt on my ability to have children? I don't think so...it seems to me that the people who are freaking out about this are doing so simply because they believe that a woman is just a walking uterus. They can't see any other explaination, and get upset when confronted with their own prejudices. Just my opinion.
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Much ado about nothing , again...
The right-wing punditocracy's phony outrage about this non-issue is on par with Chimpy's crocodile tears.
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Truth hurts as Fox
rushes to try and shore her up...they are her guys after all...
Fact is the statement is true and was not maliciously presented. Condi has nothing personal to lose save her reputation..and as Dylan said when you ain't got nothing; you got nothing to lose..
Apparently it was praise worthy to question patriotism but not to point out the lack of any stake in the game for Condi...in Fox's view....where truth is relative and news subjective
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Box her
I want to assure you all that I did indeed go "batshit" over this bit of hate-speech from Boxer, and there is no doubt -- NO DOUBT -- that if the same words, word-for-word, punctuation-for-puncutation, nuance-by-nuance, had been uttered by Mitch McConnell or Jeff Sessions, or even Arlen Spector, there would already be gigabytes of pontificating over the meaning we should attach to the latest Republican misogyny.
Personally, what I'd like to do is to perform a social experiment in which I pick out an opportunity to say virtually the same thing to a childless feminist Democrat in another context. And report back on the results. But of course I know the results. Predictably, she'd be insulted, and rightfully so. So in saying this, I ought to know that she'd be insulted. Maybe she wouldn't be, but I ought to expect that she could feel insulted. And if I said to her it on national televsion in the course of a Senate hearing under oath, I'd expect to be called a very bad name for my outrage.
Any questions?
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Diane's post
Diane's explanation sounded spot on, very illuminating, well done.
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Dick Cheney's Daughter is a Lesbian!
Remember when the wingnuts got hysterical over that one? When did they ever care about a lesbian before, except maybe to insult one?
This Boxer/Rice thing is the same issue. It's all about the rightwing playing their tired old, dog-chewed victim card.
Hey wingnuts?
Hey Condi?
Boo fucking hoo.