Author: storiesinamerica

What would happen if we dropped one of our nuclear bunker busters on a nuclear facility in Iran? Check out this video from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Since the Bush administration hasn’t bothered to discuss human casualties in any of its plans to attack Iran, it’s important to note the number of innocent people who will be killed from a bunker buster attack.
Also, check out today’s Democracy Now interview with Retired Colonel Sam Gardiner on Iran war plans:

AMY GOODMAN: You were quoted on CNN on Friday night, saying the question isn’t if we would attack Iran, that military operations are already happening. What do you mean?

COL. SAM GARDINER: Well, the evidence is beginning to accumulate that a decision has already been made to use military force in Iran. Now, let me do a historical thing, and then I’ll tell you what the current evidence is. We now know that the decision and the actual actions to bomb Iraq occurred in July of 2002, before we ever had a U.N. resolution or before the Congress ever authorized it. It was an operation called Southern Focus, and the only guidance that the military — or the guidance that the military had from Rumsfeld was keep it below the CNN line. His specific words. The evidence that we’ve already —

AMY GOODMAN: Keep it below what?

COL. SAM GARDINER: The CNN line. In other words, I don’t want this to appear on CNN, okay? That was his guidance to the military, you can begin to bomb Iraq, but don’t let it appear on CNN. You’re catching your breath.

AMY GOODMAN: Yeah.

COL. SAM GARDINER: I think the same thing has happened, and the evidence — let me give you two or three evidences. First of all, the Iranians in their press have been writing now for almost a year that the United States is involved inside Iran conducting and supporting those who conduct military operations, attacks on military convoys. They’ve even accused the United States of shooting down a couple airplanes inside Iran. Okay, so there’s that evidence from their side.

I was in Berlin three weeks ago, sat next to the Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and I asked him a question. I read these stories about Americans being involved in there, and how do you react to that? And he said, oh, we know they are. We’ve captured people who are working with them, and they’ve confessed. So, another piece of evidence.

Let me give you a couple more. Seymour Hersh, in his New Yorker article, said that there are Americans in three locations operating inside Iran. Another point. We know that there is a group in Iraq, a Kurdish group called the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, that crosses the border from Iraq into Iran, and they have taken credit for killing numbers of revolutionary guard military people. And the interesting part about that is, you know, we tell the Syrians, ‘Don’t let that happen. Don’t let people come across the border and stir things up in Iraq,’ but we don’t seem to be putting any brakes on on this unit. So, you know, the evidence is pretty strong that the pattern is being followed.

Now, the question that really follows from that is “Who authorized that?” See, there is no congressional authorization to conduct combat operations against Iran. There are a couple of possibilities. One of them is that it’s being justified under the terrorism authorization that occurred in 2001. The problem with that is that you would have to prove a connection to 9/11. I don’t think you can do that with Iran. The second possibility is that it’s being done under the War Powers Act. I don’t want to get too technical, but the War Powers Act would require the President to notify the Congress 60 days after the use of military force or invasion or putting military forces in a new country under that legislation, and the President hasn’t notified the Congress that American troops are operating inside Iran. So it’s a very serious question about the constitutional framework under which we are now conducting military operations in Iran.

It’s been humorous and pathetic to watch the right-wing spin the story about the six generals who have ‘come out’ (literally) over the past two weeks to criticize Rumsfeld and call for his resignation. Here are three examples:

“I think we need a fresh start … We need leadership up there (the Pentagon) that respects the military as they expect the military to respect them.”
-Maj. Gen. John Batiste, commander 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, 2004-2005

“A lot of them [other generals] are hugely frustrated. Rumsfeld gave the impression that military advice was neither required nor desired” in the planning for the Iraq war.
-Lt. Gen. Wallace Gregson, former commander of Marines forces in the Pacific Theater

“Everyone pretty much thinks Rumsfeld and the bunch around him should be cleared out. [Rumsfeld and his advisers have] made fools of themselves, and totally underestimated what would be needed for a sustained conflict.”
-Army Maj. Gen. John Riggs

I belong to a few conservative email groups and the headline of the day is: Six Generals: Big Deal, That’s a Small Number.

One “Bush Can Do No Wrong” voter wrote, “Bush has an alternative means of dealing with these as*wipe Generals!  Recall them to active duty and assign them for indefinite duty at various hot bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.  They are not doing their country any good by providing more fodder to the Terrorist Daily News and its affiliates of the NYT, Wash. Post, LA Times, Boston Globe and the Dispatch (Eatonville, WA). We’ve got all too many generals running around with big mouths.”

So one minute, these generals are to be praised for their sacrifice and service to this country and the next, they are a**wipes. Gotta love the right-wing’s loyalty and class.

Here are a few comments from the intellectual patriots over at FreeRepublic.com:

Not all generals are great military men….just good pentagon politicians….

Oh, gee. What do six generals out of thousands know about war?

Hey, Rummy ain’t perfect, but I’ll take him over any of these lame-brained generals who retire then criticize.

Monday morning quarterbacking is all it is……useless, except to aid and abet and enourage the enemy…and the democrats. I’m glad Bush is supportive of Rumsfeld and caving to these self aggrandizing idiots.

Are these generals hold overs from the Kinton regime and have some sort of axe to grind? What general worth his salt dosen’t think that he knows better than the next guy up the chain of command? If they had the balls, why did they not speak up when they were on active duty?

These people have clearly never served in the military or they wouldn’t be asking, “Why didn’t they speak up when they were on active duty?” If they did serve, they would know that speaking out is not allowed, writes former Marine Stephen Pizzo in an article called “Permission to Speak Freely:”

When an officer has a particularly sticky problem with the actions or orders of a superior officer, s/he can “request permission to speak freely, sir.”

Well, that was tried, by Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, who was promptly and unceremoniously “shit-canned.” (Another term my fellow vets may find familiar.)

The Pentagon’s civilian leaders sent a clear message to the rest of the Pentagon brass: “Do what we want, or we’ll find a junior officer who will.”

With the “permission to speak freely” option off the table, the brass was left only with their prime directive: Civilians rule.

In other words, speaking out now is a very big deal. “Never in my life did I ever expect to hear these kinds of things coming out of the mouths of such men. Never,” writes Pizzo. The generals’ statements should be taken very seriously, especially as the man who they believe should step down now has his eyes on Iran.

“There will be firm confrontation with these people who disrespect religious sanctities and social values.”
-Iranian Commander Morteza Talai, commenting on the country’s crackdown on women who dress “immodestly and inappropriately.” The crackdown is scheduled to begin on April 21.
Reproductive Rights

Owens sinks morning-after pill – Denver Post
Gov. Bill Owens on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have made it easier for women to get emergency contraception. The rejection of House Bill 1212 is the second time in two years Owens has disappointed women’s health groups and elated abortion foes. This year’s bill would have given pharmacists an unprecedented power in Colorado – the ability to dispense medication without a physician’s prescription. In his veto message, Owens said the bill “strays radically from the accepted norms of medicine” by shifting prescribing power to pharmacists. He added that the medication is currently “widely available” with a physician’s prescription.

Anti-abortion petition drive supported by GOP committee – AP
Organizers of an anti-abortion petition drive say they have received a boost from a resolution adopted by the Michigan Republican Party. Michigan Citizens for Life is campaigning to define a person as existing from the moment of conception in the state constitution. The group wants to spark a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Campaign organizers must submit at least 317,757 valid signatures of Michigan voters to state election officials by early July to qualify for the November ballot. The Michigan Republican State Committee, at a meeting last weekend, unanimously passed a resolution supporting the Citizens for Life petition drive.

Anti-abortion amendment killed in House panel – The City Paper
A House panel voted to kill a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday that would have removed any guarantees of a right to an abortion within the state’s constitution. Earlier this year, the full state Senate had approved the constitutional amendment with a vote of 24-9. But with the House subcommittee killing the proposed amendment, the move is likely halted until 2007 at the earliest.

General

Balancing AIDS prevention – Boston Globe Editorial
In 2003, Congress required that one-third of all US money spent on preventing AIDS overseas be used for promoting abstinence and fidelity. Ever since, there have been complaints that this was getting in the way of efforts to fight the disease. Now, Congress’s investigative arm has confirmed that the requirement is short-changing other prevention programs, including the use of drugs to prevent transmission of the virus from mothers to children.

Groups ask judge to toss out restrictions on AIDS funding – AP
A U.S. government ultimatum making federally funded health groups providing HIV prevention services pledge opposition to prostitution has “spawned a First Amendment nightmare,” a judge was told Thursday. Lawyer Rebekah Diller, asking the judge to reject the measure, said three U.S. public health organizations serving as key partners in government efforts to stem the spread of AIDS internationally and receiving government funding want to speak freely.

Duke case reopens wounds for black women – AP
The young black women can almost finish each other’s stories. They go to a party, a concert, a nightclub. Twenty-somethings of all colors are flirting and dancing. And then it happens. Inevitably, a woman says, a white man asks her to dance erotically while he watches. Or he grabs her rear end. Or asks for sex, in graphic detail, without bothering to ask her name. Black women have been talking about this for a long time now, but the conversation has heated up since accusations surfaced that white Duke lacrosse players raped a black student they had hired as a stripper and shouted racial slurs at her.

Women Flock to Thai Hospitable for Affordable Care – Women’s eNews
With 46 million U.S. citizens living without health insurance–and millions of others underinsured or unable to get adequate care–a growing number of U.S. women are flocking to a Thai hospital for treatments they can’t afford at home.

International

Iran to crack down on skimpy dressers – IranMania
Iranian police are poised to launch a fresh pre-summer crackdown on women disrespecting the Islamic dress code, AFP reported. “Unfortunately we see some immodestly and inappropriately dressed women who violate the rights of others,” the hardline Jomhuri Islami newspaper quoted Tehran’s police chief as saying. “There will be firm confrontation with these people who disrespect religious sanctities and social values,” Commander Morteza Talai said, adding the clampdown will start on April 21.

Young Saudi women test feminist waters – Toronto Star
In Saudi Arabia the sexes don’t mix freely. A woman cannot travel with a man who is not her brother, father or husband. Arriving at the doors of a girls’ school in Jeddah, I was asked to wait outside, blocked from entering until some of the young women inside were moved to a private room. From the empty courtyard, cleared prior to our arrival, I could see curious eyes peeking through the windows. I was the first male ever to enter the school.

Forty rapists a year get away with a caution – Daily Mail
Up to 40 rapists a year are being cautioned and allowed to walk free instead of facing jail terms, it emerged today.
Home Office documents revealed the number of people cautioned for rape has more than doubled in the past decade, while the conviction rate has fallen steeply. Figures for 1994 show that 19 people were cautioned for rape, but by 2004 that number had risen to 40.

I always thought it was strange that Americans would favor bombing a country without knowing anything about it. That’s why the timing of this story is all the more interesting. It sounds like Iran, a country with 70,000 HIV-infected citizens, has a more comprehensive AIDS prevention program than the United States.

“Iran now has one of the best prison programs for HIV in not just the region, but in the world,” said Dr. Hamid Setayesh, the coordinator for the U.N. AIDS office in Tehran. “They’re passing out condoms and syringes in prisons. This is unbelievable. In the whole world, there aren’t more than six or seven countries doing that.”

AIDS activists say they’re surprised Iran’s government and religious leaders so openly advocate discussing the disease and efforts to prevent it. According to a Knight Ridder report, it took 30 meetings just to create a slim AIDS-awareness handbook for Iran’s conservative high schools:

A drawing of a condom disappeared early on; a photo of a syringe survived. A mention of sexual transmission was approved, but only with a reminder that sex before marriage is forbidden.

Even after the government’s wordsmiths were satisfied, AIDS workers in Tehran had to take the book south to the holy city of Qom, the spiritual center of Iran’s all-powerful clergy. To everyone’s surprise, the clerics endorsed it.

Iran’s progressive AIDS program has been so successful, it’s being exported to Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and other Muslim nations:

“I told my colleagues in the United Arab Emirates, ‘You’re not more rigid than us. We’re the only country in the world where it’s the law to wear a head scarf, where it’s a pure Islamic government, where you can’t drink,'” said Dr. Arash Alaei, one of Iran’s most respected AIDS researchers. “If we have a prevention program, why don’t you?””

In a region where other Muslim governments ignore the epidemic, quarantine HIV-infected people or preach abstinence as the only solution, Iran’s approach is especially remarkable.

It still doles out floggings to Iranians caught with alcohol, but it gives clean syringes and methadone treatment to heroin addicts. Health workers pass out condoms to prostitutes. Government clinics in every region offer free HIV testing, counseling and treatment. A state-backed magazine just began a monthly column that profiles HIV-positive Iranians, and last year the postal service unveiled a stamp emblazoned with a red ribbon for AIDS awareness. This year the government will devote an estimated $30 million to the program.

Many AIDS workers feared the worst after ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected and said AIDS wasn’t a priority:

The education minister stopped the printing of pamphlets for young students, saying they needed revisions, Setayesh said. Another government official told Alaei that the red handbook he’d worked so hard to publish was embarrassing to Iran’s image. It was uncertain whether distribution would continue.

Then Iran’s characteristically unpredictable president surprised AIDS workers at a governmental meeting on the intertwined problems of opiate addiction and HIV by coming out in favor of distributing methadone.

AIDS activists are optimistic that the programs will continue. “Four years ago, if you talked about condoms, you couldn’t go on the air,” said Dr. Arash Alaei, referring to state-run television. “This year, they said, ‘You are free to say what you like.’ I just kept saying, ‘Use condoms. Use condoms. Use condoms.'”

Perhaps Dr. Alaei could teach Bush about condom use. Bush’s overseas abstinence education programs are failing miserably, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office. The State Department is even requiring countries to cut back on existing programs that provide education and condoms to sexually active people, according to the Global AIDS Alliance:

A public statement issued earlier this month by Global AIDS Alliance noted a GAO survey of 17 countries that receive aid from the US government for anti-AIDS work. GAO found that most of the countryies view the policy of teaching condom use along with abstinence made little sense.

Many countries participating in the survey told the GAO that State Department requirements diminish the effectiveness of all of these education programs.

Global AIDS Alliance director, Dr. Paul Zeitz called for congressional intervention to reverse State Department requirements. “There has been deep concern with this policy,” Zeitz said, “from the European Union, UN officials, African experts, religious organizations and others, and it has been fully justified.”

“Lives are in the balance, and so we need Congress to step in quickly to fix this policy,” he said.

This is great news. Hawaii became the first state in the country to legalize abortion in 1970 and lawmakers have voted to protect that right even if Roe v. Wade is overturned:

Lawmakers said there is so much more opposition to abortion nationally since Hawaii’s landmark abortion law was approved in 1970 that they want to make sure there are protections in place.

Hawaii lawmakers are worried about South Dakota’s governor signing into law a bill to ban almost all abortions. There are 10 other states looking into laws to limit abortions.

With the addition of two new conservative members of the U.S. Supreme Court, some fear abortion rights could be overturned.

After heated debate, state senators passed a bill they said will protect Hawaii’s abortion law against legal challenges.

“It is important to keep a woman’s right to an abortion, safe, legal and accessible,” Democratic Sen. Roz Baker said.

Republican Governor Linda Lingle is expected to sign the bill within the next few weeks.

It’s important to note that Hawaii is one of the most pro-choice states in the country (NARAL gives it a B+). There are no major abortion restrictions  — such as waiting periods, mandated parental involvement or limitations on publicly funded abortions — often found in other states, and every single county in the state has an abortion provider,  according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Governor Lingle signed legislation in 2003 allowing pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception to women without a prescription. Hawaii also provides eligible low-income women with state funds for abortion and requires health insurance plans to cover prescription contraception.

What a concept. Hawaii has measures in place to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Must be the fresh air, dolphins and beautiful sunsets.

Leave it to women to promote a peaceful solution between growing U.S. and Iran tensions. The effort is being spearheaded by Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, and Jody Williams, an American who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to outlaw the use of land mines:

“Shirin and I feel a particular responsibility to let the world know that the people of Iran and the United States do not support violent resolution of this crisis,” Williams said.

The new Women Nobel Peace Laureates’ Initiative also includes Betty Williams of Ireland, Rigoberta Menchu Tum of Guatemala and Wangari Maathai of Kenya.

“No more military attacks. No more war,” they said in a written statement. “We demand a nonviolent world where human security is the basis of our common global security.”

Ebadi and Williams believe they can have an impact. Thirteen years after Ebadi began advocating for women’s rights in Iran, the government changed course and decided that Islam did not forbid women to be judges.

“Now we have a few women judges,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. “When women unite, you can see the results. This is our philosophy.”

Perhaps they are being a bit too optimistic with regards to a peaceful solution. After all, they are dealing with an administration that prides itself on lying and getting away with it. As the violence in Iraq continues, the same people who lied about WMDs are using similar rhetoric about Iran. Just replace the word ‘Iran’ with ‘Iraq’:

Denouncing Iran’s successful enrichment of uranium as unacceptable to the international community, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the U.N. Security Council must consider “strong steps” to induce Tehran to change course. “This is not a question of Iran’s right to civil nuclear power,” she said while greeting President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Moasogo of Equatorial Guinea. “This is a question of, … the world does not believe that Iran should have the capability and the tehnology that could lead to a nuclear weapon.”

In an interview this morning on Democracy Now, Seymour Hersch, author of “The Iran Plans: How Far Will the White House Go?”, said the Bush cabal really has no idea what’s going on Iran because we haven’t had diplomats there for over 20 years and Bush refuses to talk to anyone in the know because they might disagree with him:

Iran has come hat-in-hand to us. A former National Security Council adviser who worked in the White House, Flynt Leverett, an ex-C.I.A. analyst who’s now working at Brookings, wrote a piece a month or so ago, maybe six weeks ago, in the New York Times, describing specific offers by the Iranians to come and ‘let’s deal.’ Let’s deal on all issues. I’m even told they were willing to talk about recognizing Israel. And the White House doesn’t talk. And it’s not that he doesn’t talk, it’s that nobody pressures him to talk. There’s no pressure from the media, no pressure from Congress. Here’s a president who won’t talk to people he’s walking us into a confrontation with.

And what about nuclear capabilities?

Nobody has any illusions. Iran undoubtedly would like to get in the position where they could have the capability and the know-how and the materials, the enriched materials, to make or fabricate a nuclear weapon, sort of an on-off switch. They’d like to be able to toggle it. But the best guess, even the Israelis, who are, of course — they view Iran as an existential threat, Israel does. The Israelis, they can tell you that Iran is anywhere from two to three years at the best, by their estimate, from actually being in a position to do it. But the American intelligence estimate, which was published last summer by the Washington Post, what they call the N.I.E., the National Intelligence Estimate, an official document, said something like eight to ten years away.

‘So, what’s the rush?’ is what I’m hearing from the military people and the diplomats involved. What are we setting red lines for about small pilot production?

Juan Cole, a man who is more knowledgeable about the Middle East than Bush, writes:

Despite all the sloppy and inaccurate headlines about Iran “going nuclear,” the fact is that all President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday was that it had enriched uranium to a measely 3.5 percent, using a bank of 180 centrifuges hooked up so that they “cascade.”

The ability to slightly enrich uranium is not the same as the ability to build a bomb. For the latter, you need at least 80% enrichment, which in turn would require about 16,000 small centrifuges hooked up to cascade. Iran does not have 16,000 centrifuges. It seems to have 180. Iran is a good ten years away from having a bomb, and since its leaders, including Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei, say they do not want an atomic bomb because it is Islamically immoral, you have to wonder if they will ever have a bomb.

Wouldn’t it be fun to ask Bush a question about centrifuges?

The crisis is not one of nuclear enrichment, a low-level attainment that does not necessarily lead to having a bomb. Even if Iran had a bomb, it is hard to see how they could be more dangerous than Communist China, which has lots of such bombs, and whose Walmart stores are a clever ruse to wipe out the middle class American family through funneling in cheaply made Chinese goods.

What is really going on here is a ratcheting war of rhetoric. The Iranian hard liners are down to a popularity rating in Iran of about 15%. They are using their challenge to the Bush administration over their perfectly legal civilian nuclear energy research program as a way of enhancing their nationalist credentials in Iran.

In the end, says Cole, it’s all about rallying the base. I’d like to think Bush’s base will see through the bullshit this time around, but many hardcore conservative are already in favor of dropping the bombs. Fox News is basically advocating the same thing.

Reproductive Rights

Abortion bill passes, 50-14 – The Spokesman-Review
When the House took up its business this morning, it jumped right back in to the abortion debate with SB 1482a, the bill to fine doctors who don’t follow “informed consent” rules requiring women seeking abortion to be given state-funded literature. “It’s noble, it is good, it will empower women and most importantly, it will save lives,” said Rep. Janice McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls, the bill’s House floor sponsor. That was McGeachin’s closing debate, and with no further ado, the House voted 50-14 to pass the bill, which now goes to the governor’s desk.
Women urged to use extra protection – News.com.au
It takes two to tango is the message behind a new national health awareness program urging women to doubly protect themselves from sexually transmitted disease and unwanted pregnancy. Launched in Sydney today by Sexual Health and Family Planning Australia, the program – called It Takes 2 to Tango – advises women to use both the contraceptive pill and condoms. The campaign was targeted at 16-25 year olds, who “are at the highest risk of sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies”, SH&FPA senior medical officer Kathy McNamee said. Nearly 17 per cent of Australian women fall pregnant in their teenage years, while more than 170,000 women have contracted chlamydia, an STD which can lead to infertility, since 2000, according to SH&FPA.

RU-486 Ruled Out in 1 of 2 Recent Deaths – AP
Health officials said Monday they have ruled out the abortion pill RU-486 in one of two deaths in women who had taken the drug. The second remains under investigation. The one death was unrelated to either abortion or use of the pill, the Food and Drug Administration said. The second woman showed symptoms of infection. Four other women have died of a rare but deadly infection after undergoing pill-triggered abortions.

General

Karpinski Raises Doubts About Military Sex Assault – Women’s eNews
The highest-ranking official to lose a job because of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal is speaking out about sex assault in the military. But some advocates say she doesn’t help the cause.

Politics

Rounded up – Salon.com
Nineteen-year-old Nadin Hamoui and her family were arrested and jailed for nine months after 9/11. Their visa had expired, but their real crime was being Syrian.

First female Muslim takes the bench – The Arab American
As the first Arab American to sit on the 3rd Circuit Court of Wayne County, Charlene Mekled Elder knows she plays an important role. Not only does she carry the weight of serious decision making, but she serves as a role model for Middle Eastern women around the globe. Appointed to the Wayne County 3rd Circuit Court by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Elder embarks on a new phase in her career at the age of 36 — marked by a balanced commitment to her profession, her family, and her community. Also, she is the first Arab-American female judge in this circuit to speak Arabic fluently. Elder’s press release says she is also the first female Muslim to hold a judicial position in the country.

International

Tehran to introduce all-women minivans – IranMania
Public transport authorities in the Iranian capital will soon introduce women-only minivans, amid regular complaints of harassment on ordinary mixed-sex buses and taxis, AFP reported. The new 11-seater minivans will also only be driven by women, Tehran bus chief Mohammad Ahmadi Bafandeh told the Etemad-Melli newspaper, promising that “women will have easier transport conditions” when the service starts in June.

Pro-choice South Dakotans have until June 19 to collect 16,728 signatures to put the state’s abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest on the November ballot. According to a report in the LA Times, they’ve already collected a third of the signatures required from all sides of the political spectrum:

Spotting three teenagers with clipboards as he walked up to the Sturgis post office, Jack Hoel, 74, broke into a grin.

“I can’t wait to sign,” he said. “I was going to go out looking for this petition.”

Hoel is a staunch Republican in a county that twice backed President Bush with nearly 75% of the vote. “You have to be, in South Dakota, or you get extradited,” he joked.

But Hoel disliked the thought of politicians interfering in a family’s most intimate decisions. “It’s too personal to be legislated,” he said.

It’s unfortunate that it took such an extreme law to wake people up and make them realize that the anti-choice crowd is serious about controlling women’s lives and bodies, but isn’t this the way it always works? The movement that has transpired in response to the law is incredibly exciting and encouraging:

On college campuses, in tiny farm towns, in tanning salons, on golf courses and in city parks, more than 400 volunteers are circulating petitions. They are organized by the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, which in turn is funded by major abortion-rights supporters such as Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

“I greatly appreciate your doing this,” Priscilla Massey-Swan, 46, told the three high school seniors who had skipped calculus to gather signatures.

The teenagers, who live in Rapid City, had worried their low-cut jeans, chunky necklaces and silver toe rings looked “too hippie” to earn them respect in this Black Hills town of 6,400, most famous for its annual motorcycle rally. “We should have brought Wranglers,” said Morandi Hurst, 17.

But as they filled up their petitions, their mood lifted, and they made plans to canvass even smaller towns. “I have renewed faith in the people of South Dakota,” said Serri Graslie, 18. “This is turning out much better than I thought.”

It’s also refreshing to read about the wide range of people who are signing the petition:

Flipping through his paperwork outside the Rapid City courthouse, volunteer Gary Heckenlaible, 60, spread his arms wide in exultation. “Man, we’re just zipping!” he cried.

He and his friend Shirley Frederick, 69, had collected signatures from harried mothers and brusque lawyers, from a young soldier on leave from Iraq and from an elderly Catholic woman who looked about furtively as she signed, afraid her bishop would find out.

Eileen S. Roggenthen, 57, signed with a flourish. She felt obligated; it was a form of atonement. After all, she had voted for three of the lawmakers who supported the ban. She had known they were antiabortion, but said she was more concerned with their views on agriculture.

“I thought I was an informed voter,” Roggenthen said. “I didn’t know they were so gung-ho on this.”

Even though I’m vegan, this was my favorite quote in the story:

“If someone would have told me four weeks ago that we’d be getting this level of support, I would have said, ‘You’re a liar,’ ” Heckenlaible said. “I’m enjoying this like I enjoy a 20-ounce steak. It doesn’t get any better.”

Heckenlaible said he gathered 75 signatures in less than two hours.

If you’d like to support these incredible efforts, visit South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families.

This list is compiled daily at StoriesinAmerica

“Probably a dozen times or more, I tell them abstinence is the only 100 percent protection against pregnancy and diseases. I say that all the time. If we lived in a perfect world, in a bubble, just saying ‘Don’t do it’ would be great. But it’s not a perfect world. Kids have STDs, they have HIV, they’re getting pregnant. This stuff happens. If we’re truthful and we arm them with a little bit more information, that’s just smart.”
–Candee Stuchlik, a ninth-grade sex education teacher at Heights High School in Wichita, Kansas, speaking to The Wichita Eagle about a proposal that would require abstinence-only sex education across the state

Reproductive Rights

Board of Ed to discuss limiting sex education – The Wichita Eagle
Should sex education classes stop at “Just say no”? Some members of the Kansas Board of Education think so, and are pushing for a change that would require abstinence-only sex education across the state. Under a proposal to be considered at the board’s meeting Tuesday in Wichita, districts that teach more than abstinence could risk losing their accreditation.

Deaths After RU-486 – NY Times Editorial
Reports that up to six American women and another woman in Canada have died after pill-induced abortions in recent years are making the regimen based on RU-486 look a lot less attractive than once thought. Conservatives in Congress and anti-abortion organizations are demanding that RU-486 be withdrawn from the market. That seems premature given the uncertainties and small number of deaths in a still-unfolding story. But women seeking an abortion will need to weigh the risks and benefits carefully before deciding which method to choose.

Anti-abortion group targets home of clinic worker – Sioux City Journal
An anti-abortion group has a new strategy: It plans to picket the homes of all employees of a Bellevue abortion clinic. The group Rescue the Heartland recently picketed the home of one, Karen Pender, until she received a protection order against the group’s director, Larry Donlan. The group sent at least two letters to employees of the clinic run by Dr. LeRoy Carhart, giving the employees two weeks to quit or face protests at homes.

Site’s neutrality questioned – ArgusLeader
The South Dakota Health Department’s Web site contains links to a Sioux Falls organization that lobbied in favor of the state’s near-total ban on abortions, despite a disclaimer that prohibits links to politically affiliated sites. But officials from the health department and the governor’s office, citing a 2003 law requiring a state Web site for abortion alternatives, say the question isn’t nearly that simple. Almost two years ago, Gov. Mike Rounds asked the state library board to shut down a teen section of the state library’s Web site that included a link to the Planned Parenthood Federation, which Rounds at the time called a political group that hires lobbyists. Rounds subsequently ordered a review of all external links on all state Web sites.

Birth control emerges as hot issue in election year – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Saturday’s rally in front of the Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood seemed to hark back to the 1960s. One picket asserted in big type: “The Government Should Not Have the Power to Force Women to Have Children!” And some of the 100 or so gathered on the lawn gasped when Kim Gandy, the national president of the National Organization for Women, pointed out that the Supreme Court didn’t rule in favor of an unmarried woman’s right to contraception until 1972. In Illinois and especially Missouri – where abortion long has reigned as the No. 1 hot-button topic – that debate appears to have been nudged aside this season by flaps over birth control. Some blame changes in public policy. Others tie the shift to politics.

Kansans for Life calls for removing abortion ed amendment – AP
Kansans for Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, wants lawmakers to remove a proposal that would require school sex education classes to include details about various abortion procedures and fetal pain. Kansans for Life said in a news release that removing the amendment should make the bill, which would require more information on records of abortions, “non-controversial.” Abortion rights advocates have said the bill was intended to produce more burdens for doctors and clinics.

Politics

Number of women legislators low in Alabama, Southeast – AP
When Tammy Irons won a special election for an Alabama House seat last month, she did so without giving much regard to the politics of gender. “I think it’s great that more women are getting involved in politics. But I hadn’t thought about whether this job was best for a man or a woman,” said Irons, a Democrat from Florence. Her election, however, made her the 16th woman in the 140-member Alabama Legislature, allowing Alabama to discard the distinction of being tied with South Carolina for having the smallest number of women in the legislature in the Southeast. But Alabama’s percentage of women in the legislature – 11.4 percent, just above South Carolina’s lowest-in-the-nation 8.8 percent – is still far below first-place Maryland’s 34.6 percent and less than half the national average of 22.6 percent.

International

From home of Kashmir’s head priest, a ‘feminist’ magazine – The Sunday Express
Kashmir’s head priest and Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is among the Valley’s prime newsmakers. Now his wife Sheeba Masoodi is making news as a founder editor of She, Srinagar’s first women’s English quarterly magazine with a strong “feminist” theme. Launched today at Kashmir University’s Gandhi Bhawan, the contents of the first issue created quite a splash with some speakers criticising a piece on teenage dating.

Syria breaks taboo on violence against women – Reuters
Syria has broken a taboo by presenting a high profile study on violence against women, which found that one in four married women gets beaten — usually by her husband or father. The study, released this week by the state-run General Union of Women and funded by United Nations Development Fund for Women, sheds light on the nature and extent of violence against women in Syria. It also coincides with calls for a campaign to raise awareness of the problem. The results of the Syrian survey appear in line with studies in Egypt, Britain and the United States, but campaigners said it breaks new ground simply by drawing attention to the issue.

Families Vie With Boom Economy for Emirati Women – Women’s eNews
In the United Arab Emirates a booming economy and progressive government offer women wider employment and educational opportunities. But some young women say traditional attitudes keep them from venturing too far from home.