The national Planned Parenthood organization listed $126 million in assets in 2007. Cecile Richards made $385,163 (PDF). The state chapters whose employees put their lives on the line so women can have the right to choose deserve support and protection within the Democratic party that she is not providing.
NARAL paid Nancy Keenan $145,538 from the Foundation (PDF) in 2007, which listed total assets of $4,119,329. But the NARAL PAC reports $87,125 cash on hand as of September 30, 2009.
They knew this was coming since at least July 1 — and they didn’t even raise money for the fight.

 
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/06/van_jones_resigns.html?wprss=44

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5itKcwMMlf6EtyLvYW9VjF2xcVK7gD9AHPMJG1

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/09/06


Commentary: 

I'm equal parts heartbroken and furious. 

Why I am heartbroken: 

Van Jones is one of my favorite people in this world.  He's a shining light for me in a political system which is otherwise very, very bleak.  I'll never forget the first time that I saw him speak; finally!   Someone who understands the importance of intersectionality and can articulate that importance with succinct, articulate, thoughtful, and humorous prose.

When his book, "The Green Collar Economy" hit the shelves, I didn't have money to spend on a hard cover book, but I couldn't stand to wait for it to come out on paperback.  My local library didn't have it, so I sat at a big name bookstore chain and read the whole thing all in one sitting.  As I read it, I fought back tears.  Two kinds of tears, really. 

1. Tears of sadness and despair as I read his description of the utterly racist, classist, and imperialist environmentalist movement
2. Tears of joy as he outlined a clear and viable solution to the current environmental and economic devastation - building a populist environmentalist movement for all people, one which doesn't just cater to the most privileged members of society.  one which recognizes and acknowledges the role which oppression plays in environmental movement.  one which isn't just about buying priuses or caring about polar bears. 

Environmental justice for all people, and for all species. 

....In other words, The Real Damn Deal. 

Even more fresh in my mind, I will never forget the most recent time that I saw him speak: Power Shift '09, in Washington, DC.  His speech is up in the info page of my profile.  Please watch it, if you haven't already.  I'll quote a bit at the bottom of this post for those of you who can't view it or who are hearing impaired.  [My fingers can't type fast enough and I'm very tired, for now, but I can try and transcribe more if folks want me to, at a later time.]


Why I am furious: 

Van was basically forces out of his job - which he was very good at - because he had the guts to speak truth to power.  All of the news articles say that he "resigned" but I have been working in politics for long enough to know that that is just a nice fancy code word for, "cull yourself, please." 

He issued a statement this morning which affirms his grace and humility, and I thank him for that: 

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide. I have been inundated with calls -- from across the political spectrum -- urging me to 'stay and fight.' But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future."



Check out the comments of the washington post article.  Not only are people saying that Van is a racist [uhhm, no.] but they are also trying blow him off as a "nut jb" a "commie" etc.  Someone actually says that "green is the new red" - and NOT in a joking way, hah!

For the record, there's been a website out there for awhile now which talks all about the Green Scare:

www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/green-scare/

... and now, I notice that there seems to be a new one - which I accidentally went to just now, heh.

greenisthenewred.org/


So, in planning to write this post, I was like, OK, I need to write this in a way which is accommodating for folks who are outside of my pedagogy.  Not everyone lives in the U.S, not everyone who lives in the U.S knows who Van Jones is, etc.  I went to pull up Van Jones' bio for all of ya'll who don't know him.  Here are the auto-fills that dogpile.com suggested:

• Van Jones ___ Green Jobs 
• Van Jones ___ Apollo Project [sic: it's actually apolloalliance.org/about/mission/ ]
• Van Jones ___ communist
• Van Jones ___ green czar
• Van Jones ___ biography
• Van Jones ___ quote about being a radical communist anarchist

www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/09/024444.php

I spent an hour yesterday on a call organized by the White House regarding health care and inequality of coverage and services for women. It's an important issue, especially since women have the most to gain from better health care provision.
It was important enough to the WH that Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from Health and Human Services, Melody Barnes who is chairperson of the WH Domestic Policy Council and Tina Tchen, Deputy Director of the White House's Office of Public Engagement were all on the call.
The interesting thing?
It seems activist women are less than certain about a Democratic commitment to fighting for reproductive health rights. Every question except one was about reproductive health issues and the current mishmash of bills.
At one point, I asked about "reproductive conscience" issues and whether the Administration would be pushing for express language in the health care bills preventing prescription refusals or refusals of medical care under standard practice guidelines. Sec. Sebelius explained that the President had issued an EO rescinding the overly broad "conscience rule" from the Bush years back in February which she thought was sufficient.
They are also currently working on rules dealing with allowing for conscience objections while making certain that health care is not compromised.
Does that mean care and reproductive rights will again be compromised? She didn't say, but I'll certainly be following up on that.
When I reiterated that, living in a rural state like WV, women could be severely limited in where they could get health care, and that poorer women, especially, might have difficulty with transportation to another clinic or pharmacy miles away from their home? Sec. Sebelius indicated that she understood that very well, and that was certainly being taken into consideration. But those issues were being tackled separately from the health care bill itself.
And then?
Tina Tchen from the White House Office of Public Engagement stepped in to say that it wasn't "productive to talk about issues outside the health care process."
In other words, don't muddy our waters by asking inconvenient questions?
Pardon me if I don't take that suggestion to heart. MORE

In another online forum we had a conversation about this TV show. The show is about child beauty pageants for very young girls (and a small number of boys.) The reaction of the people in the forum to the show was almost universally negative. It was called "horrifying" and "child abuse" etc. People wondered "how can these mothers dress their daughters up like little sluts?"

I wasn’t going to write an introduction to this article, but it hit me that there is no way I can get around it due to the nature of the content below. Before you read this article you need to understand that no look or body type that you desire to carry is wrong. This article is not about knocking the “skinny girl” or “bulky lifters.” The purpose of this article it to finally give a definition of what the average population believes to be bulky . What you choose from there is your personal journey.