STAGGERINGLY PERNICIOUS

Give us a break! We are not so ignorant that we cannot see through an explanation like that. The Bushies are scraping the bottom of the barrel for excuses for their frackup in Iraq.

It may seem just fine to all the president's men to deprive women of years of liberty and freedom but this was not what Bush stated when he initiated his preemptive war. He and dear Laura both gushed about how women would be beneficiaries of his war.

Now it appears that their whole schimoliga of women's rights has been scratched and even the activist that George and Laura touted will be leaving Iraq for greener pastures. So tell the women of Iraq that they must wait a hundred years or so to get the civil rights they had under Saddam.

Iraqi women enjoyed secular, western-style equality for more than 40 years. Most females have no memory of living any other way," writes Digby. "...we have now officially failed more than half of the Iraqis we supposedly came to help. We have "liberated" millions of people from rights they have had all their lives.

To call the Bush administration COLD on the importance of women's rights is an understatement. Maureen Dowd reports that a former CIA Middle East specialist, Reuel Marc Gerecht, said on Meet the Press that U.S. democracy in 1900 didn't let women vote. If Iraqi democracy resembled that, "we'd all be thrilled," he said. "I mean, women's social rights are not critical to the evolution of democracy."

Anybody want to lose all our civil rights and start over? Think about what it would be like to go back in herstory in this country. Only a few years ago, it was okay for a husband to rape his wife. Most women did not have access to a college education and those that did work were poorly paid as nurses, stenographers or waitress.

A hundred years ago women in America could not even vote. They could not own property. They had no rights, not even to their own children who could be taken from them at the whim of her husband or another male family member.

Divorce? Fergitaboutit. Women were property pure and simple. They could be bought and sold despite laws against this because they had no standing to complain under the law. Her church insisted that she honor her husband and obey him even when he sold her body to his friends.

Do you like it so far? Well if so, stay tuned as the confirmation hearings are coming and it appears that Judge Roberts is a shoo-in according to several sources. His record shows that he is in the Bush camp all the way aiming to deep six Roe v. Wade.

Moreover, he is on board with the administration's devaluing of women. Referring to the "gender gap" favoring males over females in workplace wages, he wrote that the notion of equal pay for women of "comparable worth" was a "staggeringly pernicious" concept.

He questions "whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good. Of course, to him the common good means male common good, but where would women, and our world be if it wasn't for our courageous women lawyers and doctors and teachers and scientists and representatives and senators and artists and writers and...?

Happy August 26th to you all but don't hold your breath waiting until it becomes the first WOMAN'S NATIONAL HOLIDAY that the powers that be think merits a day off.

gapperserve@peoplepc.com

2005-035

Copyright 2005 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: gapperserve@peoplepc.com.

G e n d e r G a p p e r s   ^{T M}