Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Democrats Can Win On Abortion

I wrote before about how abortion is a wedge that works against the Republican Party. The Hill has an article on how NARAL helped Democrats win Congress.


Last year the group polled in a handful of districts where it played in Arizona and Pennsylvania. This year, it polled in 22 “mainstream American” districts — 19 of them Republican-held — and Quinlan said the results led him to believe NARAL “can swing that election” in those districts.


Quinlan noted that “nearly two-thirds of all pro-choice women in these districts identify as either moderate or conservative, while pro-choice independent and Republican women overwhelming identify as either moderate or conservative.”


Quinlan said the findings illustrate that 59 percent of independent-voting women favor legal abortion in all or some cases. He also found that 34 percent of all Republican women in those districts think abortion should be legal in all or some cases.


Democrats can beat the Christian Right and protect a woman's right to choose. In fact, it is in their best political interest. They need to stop listening to political advisors that put Democrats in a ditch.

Terri Schiavo and South Dakota were major defeats for the Christain Right. The Republican Party moved women to the left on abortion and end of life issues. Democrats have an opportunity to bury people like Bob Jones and Jimmy Swaggart. The former is a racist and the latter is addicted to hookers. These are people the GOP pander to to GOTV. It has nothing todo with Christian values. Swaggart and Jones are hatemongers whom love to throw stones. The GOP don't care as long as these pseudo-Christians help the party stay in power.

Facebook has NARAL as a cause. You can contributed or fundraise for NARAL.

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2 Comments:

At September 27, 2007 12:54 AM , Blogger Elizabeth Schmitz said...

From Schmitz Blitz: schmitzblitz.wordpress.com


Verizon: The Fox News of Phone Plans

Or just the FCC? I get confused sometimes, anyway….

Interesting bit from NYT today over Verizon’s refusal to allow customers to receive text updates from NARAL. Verizon has cited their right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages. From the article:

The dispute over the Naral messages is a skirmish in the larger battle over the question of “net neutrality” — whether carriers or Internet service providers should have a voice in the content they provide to customers.

“This is right at the heart of the problem,” said Susan Crawford, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan law school, referring to the treatment of text messages. “The fact that wireless companies can choose to discriminate is very troubling.”

In turning down the program, Verizon, one of the nation’s two largest wireless carriers, told Naral that it does not accept programs from any group “that seeks to promote an agenda or distribute content that, in its discretion, may be seen as controversial or unsavory to any of our users.”

Very interesting how Verizon’s status as a private corporation are what allow it to overstep the bounds set for our government with regard to the First Amendment.

Also interesting how I happen to be a Verizon customer who was denied access to both Obama and Mormon ringtones. I guess if one really wanted to be involved in text activism, they could just switch plans.

 
At September 27, 2007 4:41 PM , Blogger Swampcracker said...

I just saw this update at Echidne's site:

Saying it had the right to block "controversial or unsavory" text messages, Verizon Wireless last week rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon's mobile network available for a text-message program.

But the company reversed course this morning, saying it had made a mistake.

"The decision to not allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect, and we have fixed the process that led to this isolated incident," Jeffrey Nelson, a company spokesman, said in a statement.

"It was an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy," Mr. Nelson said. "That policy, developed before text messaging protections such as spam filters adequately protected customers from unwanted messages, was designed to ward against communications such as anonymous hate messaging and adult materials sent to children."

Mr. Nelson noted that text messaging is "harnessed by organizations and individuals communicating their diverse opinions about issues and topics" and said Verizon has "great respect for this free flow of ideas."

The other leading wireless carriers had accepted the Naral program, which allows people to sign up for text messages from Naral by sending a message to a five-digit number known as a short code.

Text messaging is a growing political tool in the United States and a dominant one abroad, and such sign-up programs are used by many political candidates and advocacy groups to send updates to supporters.

But legal experts said private companies like Verizon probably have the legal right to decide which messages to carry. The laws that forbid common carriers from interfering with voice transmissions on ordinary phone lines do not apply to text messages.

 

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