:: Look who's sorry now!

Oh, the little songbirds here are going to be sorry they invited me to post...especially since I'm so full of vim and vinegar after reading Katha Pollitt's column from the May 14 issue of The Nation. Yow! I have long been concerned (ok, completely ticked) that pro-choice groups have contributed to the (little-n) nation's discomfort about abortion by refusing to talk about abortion. We wring our hands about how the anti's have influenced our language about abortion -- starting with "partial birth abortion" and down to calling gynecologists who terminate pregnancies "abortion doctors". But pro-choice groups are no more comfortable talking about abortion than my moderately pro-choice Midwestern relatives! Are we surprised when the misogynist, anti-choice language takes hold?

Meanwhile, back in old Mexico, pro-choice groups are actually saying the A-word, and using the old pro-choice slogans when they take to the streets: "MI CUERPO ES MIO" ("My body is mine") shouted from handmine signs and gorgeous posters all over town. Not surprisingly, the Catholic opposition has vowed to block women from entering clinics that provide abortions. Now where do you suppose they got that idea? Do you suppose they'll start posting the names and addresses of doctors that provide abortions too? Read more!

:: Happy Equal Pay Day

Today is Equal Pay Day. Bet ya didn't know that. Today symbolizes the day when the average woman's wage catches up to average man's wages from the previous year. This is how far into each year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year. The average African-American woman or Latina will be celebrating sometime in May.

Clinton has put up a nifty wage gap calculator on her campaign website. Go see how much it would suck to live in Mississippi.
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:: I Was Going To Say That

I was going to say that the civil war in Iraq (yeah, I said it - civil war) is beginning to look a lot like the conflict in Northern Ireland. But, Eugene Robinson beat me to it. Maybe it is the walls. Or the fact that both are conflicts between two sects of the same religion and two peoples who look an awful lot a like. Or the fact that each side points to wrongs perpetrated thousands of years ago (Battle of the Boyne anyone?) as justification for car bombs today.

Maybe former US Senator George Mitchell needs to get to work on this Iraq thing. Read more!

:: A Break From All This Seriousness

The NYTimes has a cute article on men's underwear titled "But What if You Get Hit by a Taxi?" Best line: "Who doesn’t want to dress younger? No one wants to think, ‘I want to look old and grumpy.’"

[DC must be an outlier. I see plenty of people around here striving for precisely that look. I'm surprised we haven't heard about men purposely plucking out their hair to simulate male pattern baldness. And don't get me started on the white pantyhose / navy blue pumps. Clearly this guy has never heard of Talbots.] Read more!

:: Awesome

Check out this clip * of a Saudi newscaster schooling a Saudi cleric on women’s rights and intellectual freedom. She is tough as nails. This is why I love feminists from other countries - unlike our dear leaders, they say what they mean, not what's printed on their message boxes (or triangles, whatever). No, I'm not getting any work done today. Why do you ask?

*But don't read the comments from the YouTubers. Trust me, it will only hurt your brain. Read more!

:: Get Back Under Your Rock, Goddammit!

Update: Yesterday Wolfie blew off a meeting with the WB board, and the WB board decided to start an "urgent" investigation into whether the WB should blow off Wolfie, with a decision expected the week of 23 April.

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This is the latest on the World Bank's "other" scandal - no, not the girlfriend one... this is the one I wrote about here. But just to recap: one of Wolfie's deputies, a likely Opus Dei minion, oversaw a revision of the Bank's country strategy paper for Madagascar that removed the references to family planning, contraception, etc. Activists kicked up a fuss, European government ministers got chuffed, and now we hear from said deputy (Juan Jose Daboub) that it was all a misunderstanding... this is from a leaked internal WB memo written by Daboub:

“Regarding the Madagascar CAS, none of the editorial changes that were made at my direction changed, or intended to change, the Bank Group's program in the area of family planning. These changes were simply intended to clarify what I understood to be the Bank's role in this area, given the roles of other donors… I am here to carry out professionally and faithfully the Bank's policies. The policy on Reproductive Health is clear, had been endorsed by the Board and in place for many years; it has been followed by the President, the Staff and me, as reflected in projects and programs brought and to be brought to the Board. We understand and respect our partner countries' decision on this subject.”

Oddly, Daboub's statement contradicts real life, at least according to WB staff and a Government Accountability Project investigation. As reported by the LA Times:

Yet internal e-mails obtained by the Government Accountability Project appear to indicate otherwise. Referring to Daboub as the "MD," an acronym for his title as managing director, Madagascar country programcoordinator Lilia Burunciuc wrote to colleagues on March 8, 2007: "One of the requests received from the MD was to take out all references to family planning. We did that."Burunciuc added that this is "a potential problem for us" because Madagascar had made a "strong request for help" on family planning in the document, which serves as a three-to four-year plan for the goals a country wants to achieve with the bank's help. Madagascar identified improved family planning as one of its national commitments.

Yet a copy of the report includes edits and deletions, which a bank staffer said were made by Daboub's office, showing that specific targets to boost contraceptive use were cut and broader aims were rewritten. In one graphic, the words "improved quality of health services to ensure easy access, affordability and reliability" were inserted in place of "improved access and provision of contraceptives."

For a good analysis of how this situation reflects on Wolfie, read this op-ed by the Guardian’s Sara Bosley. Sample:

If [Daboub's] conscience prevented him from carrying out bank policy, he should quit. If he does not quit, he should be sacked... What this episode suggests is chaotic management. How could Mr Daboub unilaterally change the bank's reproductive health policies? Perhaps because his boss is not concentrating. The answer, surely, is for the pair of them to pack their bags.

Wolfie’s situation has only gotten more precarious, and his resignation is expected as soon as today. The main scandal – or the only scandal, in the world according to WaPo – has only gotten worse. More from the Guardian:

In recent days evidence has emerged that a contractor for the US government working in Iraq said in 2003 that it was ordered to hire Ms Riza as a consultant on governance issues. The order was issued by Douglas Feith, then undersecretary of defence. Mr Wolfowitz was deputy secretary at the Pentagon at the time, and Mr Feith's boss.

Apparently, outside of the Bush administration, people are held accountable for their misdeeds and mistakes. Of course, if that were Bush administration policy, the only people left in the White House would be the blue and pink collar workers. Read more!

:: On No They Didn't!

We told them over and over again that the Presidential election mattered. We told them in 2000, we told them in 2004. We told them that if President Bush was elected he would appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court. We told them he liked Scalia and Thomas. That he wasn't going to appoint another Souter like his dad. We told them that the right to choose hung in the balance. They elected him anyway. And what did he do when given the chance - he appointed Roberts and Alito. And with their new found conservative majority the US Supreme Court has unpheld an abortion ban. "In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, which Bush signed into law in 2003, does not violate a woman's right to have an abortion."

Sometimes I hate being right.

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