Los Angeles National Organization of Women President Endorses Palin
October 5, 2008Shelly Mandell, President of NOW LA endorses Palin!
“America, this is what a FEMINIST looks like!”
“There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.”
UPDATE:
Just Shelly Mandell, not LA’s NOW
UPDATE 2:
Hillaryorbust and Gretawire report that this may cause a domino effect:
I am hearing rumblings…apparently the endorsement of Governor Palin (and Senator McCain) by LA’s President of NOW Shelly Mandel is making it ’safe’ for other high profile feminists to endorse McCain/Palin. The thinking is twofold – one; that it is time for a woman and two; that Governor Palin wants to work across party lines… This is a giant change in politics…
What do you think about this?This is so important. I have spoken to quite a few Democratic women who are upset about Obama and don’t like him, but feel guilty voting Republican. With women like Mandell supporting Palin, it gives permission and a reason for many disaffected female Democrats to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.
This is important for women seeking equal opportunity in the workplace and so many other aspects that women have been fighting for for so long. Remember, abolition of Roe v. Wade does NOT make abortion illegal as so many liberals would like you to believe. Abolition of Roe makes abortion a state issue as it was before Roe. No state in the union will illegalize abortion inasmuch as it applies to a mother’s health and rape.
Trust, But Verify 
Sara Palin, by her own admission is “anti-choice”, even when pregnancy is caused by Rape and/or Incest.
Ask Sara Palin what her position is regarding sex education for high school students, which includes explaining “how babies are made”. Possibly she skipped this class to go hunting.
Personal choice and the way people govern are two different things. Palin does support giving a pre born infant a chance at life in her own fam’s case but does not extend that ideology to executive assertions.
As an example, please read the following link from msnbc
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26643098/
GREGORY: Let’s talk about the issue of abortion. Obviously, critics of hers, Democrats primarily, say that her view is extreme, that she wants to outlaw abortion even in the instance of rape, only protecting the mother’s life if it were to come to that. Again, back in this debate, she spoke about abortion more generally. Let’s watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If your daughter were pregnant or your son was involved in a pregnancy, what would your reaction—before marriage or something like that—what would be your reaction and advice to him or her?
PALIN: Again, I would choose life. And certainly, I’m quite confident here that you’re going to be asking my opponent the same scenarios.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will. If your daughter had been raped, would that be something—
PALIN: Again I would choose life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREGORY: That’s the position that she’s outlined. What is her record as governor on abortion?
MYERS: Interestingly as governor, she has not pushed the issue. There were times, for example, that members of the state legislature, who had anti-abortion bills to add more restrictions, wanted to bring those bills up as part of special legislative sessions on other issues. And Governor Palin said no. She has not proposed any added restrictions on abortion. And Alaska has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country.
California NOW has issued a statement reaffirming support for Obama/Biden and repudiating Shelly Mandell’s support of Palin.
Copied from the website of The National Organization for Women:
NOW PAC Endorses Obama-Biden
NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy stated, “Women of all ages, races and ethnicities are coming together in support of Sen. Obama and his pledge to fulfill this country’s promise of equal opportunity for our daughters as well as all our sons.”
Learn more
Not Every Woman Supports Women’s Rights
NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy said, “Sen. John McCain’s choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.”
[…] Wizbang:. Shelly Mandell, President of NOW LA endorses Palin ! “America, this is what a FEMINIST looks like!” “There’sa place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.”[Continue Reading] […]
Im a product of a rape…………..1st and foremost- I have had the hardest life anyone could possibly live. MY mothers parents decided she should have me..well guess who skipped out on me at age 4. Who wants to raised your rapist kid. Not her. Well I have been sucidal my entire life..Im paranoid to date..what if we are related? I hated my life..and just now some 40 something years Im actuallygetting a grasp..but when I hear about Palin and her rape victims dont get abortions..come talk to me ..life is hell..and those who say God is the answer..your all knowing and forgiving god…cant even see pedophiles in his church..why would I put any cred it towrd him..he couldnt have protected my mother? Or make the rapists have erectily dysfunction..nothing..so thos who choose life wait til they are brutally raped…walk one mile in my shoes…
As posted on Salon.com:
SUNDAY OCTOBER 5, 2008 18:00 EDT
Madeleine Albright strikes back
If you’re going to quote the wisdom you find on Starbucks cups, you really should get it right. Sarah Palin got it very wrong Sunday.
The GOP VP nominee told a crowd that none other than Democrat Madeleine Albright, President Clinton’s Secretary of State, once said “‘There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.'” Albright never said that: the Starbucks cup actually had the right quote, which is “There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.” (Nico Pitney has the screenshot.)
I don’t think that quite applies to Palin, who presided over a Wasilla, Alaska government that charged rape victims for their rape kits. And in fact, Albright’s office sent this statement to Salon: “Though I am flattered that Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics. This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women.
“The truth is, if you care about the status of women in our society and in our troubled economy, the best choice by far is Obama-Biden.”
— Joan Walsh
That is extremely wrong of her. My god, I wonder how she can sleep at night. She replaced “help” with a synonym “support.” I would hate to see the outrage people aim at Obama’s “very wrong” statement of 57 states, I mean that is almost the same as 50, right?. Or when he cited visiting “New Pennsylvania,” almost the same as Pennsylvania, except New Pennsylania is where the NittaLLy Lions play according to Obama. It must have been like a NU-CU-LAR (misspelled on purpose) bomb when Biden cited FDR being on tv in 1929 when in fact FDR was not president at the time and tv was experimental and in limited use. Regardless, a gaffe is a gaffe and we call it against the bad guys so anyone should be able to call gaffes against us, but to overstate a gaffe as getting it “very wrong” is beyond ridiculous. 57 states is 14 percent very wrong, “help” to “support” isn’t.
As for rape kits, there is no prof that Palin supported it, as you noted, she only presided over it – http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_sarah_palin_make_rape_victims_pay.html
What misses the point in this exchange is whether or not feminism in 2008 is limited to the womb. When looking back at Roe v. Wade, decided by 9 men (the only woman involved in the court decision was Jane Roe (who regrets her involvement in this – http://www.nysun.com/editorials/roes-regrets/77677). Feminism used to be about equality between men and women. The NIneteenth Amendment paved the way for other points of equality which women still fight for today such as equal pay, equal ability to achieve corporate ascension, and the ability for a woman to retain her femininity in the workplace without having to become a man. I would love to see some proof that Gov. Palin is against these aspects of feminism.
That is why Shelly Mandell said about Gov. Palin, “this is what a feminist looks like.”
Thank you Shelley Mandel for coming out in support of ‘Cuda Palin..
The defining moment for me as a life long Orange County Demorcratic married for 5 years to an Irvine based Mortgage Banker, came shortly after Palin and her family stepped down from the stage to uproarious applause. In the crush to exit the stadium, a middle-aged woman wearing a cowboy hat, a red-white-and-blue shirt and an obvious eye job gushed to a male colleague “She totally reminds me of my cousin!” the delegate screeched. “She’s a real woman! The real thing!”
Here’s the thing about Los Angeles women that Michele Obama does not understand. We proudly send our kids off by the thousands to get their [edit] blown off in foreign lands to allow you to drive around in your SUV filled with Middle Eastern Oil, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while we spend our winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, and leave us living off credit cards and happily shop at Wal-Mart while they move our jobs to China and none of it matters. As long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer us a likeness of a loudmouthed Middle American. I will drop my giant sized bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the sizzlin’ picante dust from my lips and I will rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving my life or anyone else’s, but simply because it appeals to the narcissism that substitutes for my personality, because that image on TV looks just like the woman I see in the mirror every morning.
Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is right with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system,she is a symbol of how little we are asked to do in return for the total surrender of our political power. And this country loves her, cheering every step of the way. Because unlike you Michele Obama, most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be [edit] by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.
The Palin speech was a political masterpiece, one of the most ingenious pieces of electoral theater this country has ever seen. Never before has a single televised image turned a party’s fortunes around faster
But watching Palin’s speech I had no doubt that I was witnessing a historic, iconic performance. The candidate sauntered to the lectern with the assurance of a Laguna Beach beauty walking into a weekend charity function. And immediately launched into a symphony of snorting and sneering remarks, taking time out in between the superior invective to present herself as just a humble gal with a beefcake husband and a brood of healthy, combat-ready spawn who just happened to be innocent targets of a communist and probably also homosexual media conspiracy. She was completely without shame and , awing a room full of hardened reporters with her sweet line about the high-school-flame-turned-hubby who five children later is “Still my guy.” It was absolutely beautiful … like watching Gidget address the Reichstag.
Within minutes, Palin had given TV audiences a character infinitely recognizable to virtually every American; Palin herself burned this political symbiosis into the pages of history with her now famous line about the “Difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick, In her speech, Palin presented herself as a raging baby-making furnace of middle-class ambition, the kind of American who believes in the right God and the willingness to secure oil for our nation and my Black on Black Cadillac Escalade
The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; we want them to be media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflective prejudices of their demographic, as we would for a reality-show contestants or sitcom characters.
Sarah Palin is the real deal , and in the end it won’t matter that she’s got an unmarried teenage kid with a bun in the oven. But the thing about being in the reality-making business is that we don’t need to worry much about vetting; there are no facts in our candidate’s bio that cannot be ignored or overcome. Palin belongs to a church whose pastor believes and rightly so that all criticisms of George Bush Come from Hell and wondered aloud if people who voted for John Kerry could be saved. Palin herself has been proclaimed on video that the idea for a recent oil-pipeline deal was God’s Will. She accurately described the Iraq War as a task that is from God and part of a heavenly Plan. She correctly supports teaching creationism and Abstinence only in public schools, opposes abortion even for victims of rape, has denied the science behind global warming and attends a church that seeks to convert Jews and cure homosexuals. Which is why Palin has only grown in popularity as more and more of these revelations have come out.
The same goes for her experience. As governor of Alaska, Palin presides over a state whose entire population is barely the size of Memphis. This kind of thing might matter in a country that actually worried about whether its leader was prepared for his job But not in America. In America, thank God, it only takes 2 weeks in the limelight for the whole country to think you’ve been around for years.
Here’s what a Palin / McCain Presidency represents: a modern day true American who proudly wears Country First buttons on their boobs and chant U-S-A! U-S-A! at the top of our lungs while our kids live off credit cards and Saudis buy up all the mortgages in Kansas
The truly great thing about Sarah Palin isn’t that she’s unqualified, or a religious zealot, or unable to educate her own daughter about sex. No, the greatest thing about her is what she says about us: That you can [edit] us for eight solid years, and we’ll not only thank you for your trouble, we’ll sign you up for eight more years, if only you promise to stroke us in the right spot for few hours around election time.
Democracy doesn’t require a whole lot of work of its citizens, but Obama actually wants us to work. The joy of being a consumer is that it doesn’t require thought, responsibility, self-awareness or shame: All you have to do is obey the first urge that gurgles up from your stomach. And then obey the next. And the next. And the next.
And when it comes time to vote all you have to do is put your Country First Just like that lady on TV who reminds you of your cousin. U-S-A, Baby. U-S-A! U-S-A!
OC Cutie,
Actually, Barack Obama doesn’t “want us to work.” He wants to “require” everyone to chip in. Sounds like something Russian, dontcha know? You may not like it, but the Constitution protects the right of us “consumers of created-reality” to consume created-reality. If we want to sit next to you and get fat together on your Doritos, well, we can. Obama’s idealogy aims at turning that right on its head. The liberals in this country, and you sound like one, believe that they know better than the greater masses, thus they belong in government and the greater masses should allow government to get larger, more powerful, and control additional aspects of their life (education, healthcare, insert whatever and regulate it), because, “we know what’s good for you.” The problem is, in a world full of liberals, I cannot imagine you cheese and wine folks picking up a gun and defending this country. Moreover, if there are any guns left in this country, I doubt you would know how to use one effectively. So, what happens is WE consumers of created-reality cling to God and Guns, defend your ass by default, and slowly inch up the intellectual ladder you believe we are so low on. I’ll give the masses this, they are getting pretty smart at figuring who YOU are, where YOU have infiltrated this society (mass media & schools for the most part), and what you truly stand for (social justice at any expense, even if it costs our country its backbone and balls).
Best,
Sarah Palin
I want to personally congratulate all the good ladies of LA NOW for their courage and common sense to NOT toe the Democratic part line. I am an average citizen Q (with a slightly above-average in socio-political issues) and was wondering where all the feminists were vis-a-vis Gov Palin and the incessant, deranged attacks by the mainstream media on Gov Palin and her family. I don’t agree with NOW for their political and social stances but the courage shown by Ms Shelly Mandel and her cohorts at LA NOW, deserves a lot of accolades. If women don;t support fellow women in places of public resopnsibility, then who will? LA NOW has proven to all of us that they stand for ALL WOMEN, not just liberal Democrats.
Kudos to LA NOW from a regular guy in flyover country!!
Pro or anti life are all very general terms. Do you think it is possible to be both at the same time?
Josh,
Obviously you didn’t listen to Shelly Mandell. Almost her first words were the statement that she DID NOT represent LA NOW. Therefore, I would say that it was more than disingenuous of her to mention her connection to NOW. Shelly Mandell was not showing courage but rather was capitalizing on her association with this organization.
FYI: the National Organization FOR Women is just that. It is NOT The National Organization OF Women and consequently many men who truly believe in parity are members.
American voters deserve to hear the Republican positions on the very important issues facing them today. Wink, Blink and You Betcha are entertaining but do not shed light on the issues.
John McCain has shot himself in the foot. With his choice of Palin as a running mate he has turned the Republican campaign into a “dog and pony show”.
Claris,
“Pro or anti life” are incorrect terms. “Choice” is what it is all about.
“Choice” is whether I want to get a Brooklyn Lager or a Harp with my veggie burger.
“Choice” is whether I want to get my friends a toaster or a blender from their registry.
“Choice” is “should I be a Mets or Yankees fan”
“Choice” is “hmmm, the 6 will take a little bit longer to take me to union square, but the 4/5 isn’t here yet, should I wait for it?”
Terminating a human life is not a flippant whim that can be done over a Dunkin Donuts coffee while waiting for the light to change on 57th street.
Clarisa, the question does not come down to pro-life or anti-life when it comes to the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade. It comes down to the main difference between AMERICAN conservatism and AMERICAN liberalism – federalism. Before Roe v. Wade, abortion was legal in the majority of states to varying degrees and more states were coming around. The Roe court found a fictional right of privacy in the Constitution which federalized abortion law. The standards of what people find acceptable in California are different than those in Alabama. If Californians want their partial-birth, I won’t support it, but it is the will of the people. The metes and bounds of laws should be based on the constituency the laws seek to protect.
Only a man would define “Choice” in utilitarian terms ~ a beer, a toaster or whatever. Can a man truly feel the anguish and despair of making a decision to terminate a pregnancy? A woman with several children whose mate walks when she tells him she is pregnant ~ a young girl made pregnant (raped) by her father or another man or a gang. The scenarios are many and real. No woman “wants” an abortion. Maybe you need to be a woman to understand this definition of “Choice.”
“Choice” is not about politics or state standards and needs to be made legal in every state. Shelly Mandell delt a blow to women by supporting Palin and John McCain who would attempt to overturn Roe. If a man could become pregnant, “Choice” would not even be an issue.
Do you not understand what would happen if Roe were overturned? Are you ignorant of pre-Roe law or are you deceptive. Overturning Roe would not illegalize abortion, it would make a it a non-federal issue, which would make abortion a state issue and in either of the situations you mentioned, most states would immediately have recourse to murder the unwanted child. Using a buzz word like “choice” denigrates human life.
turn in your vagina, Mandel (you don’t deserve to be called Ms.). I never believed in femi-Nazis until I heard this twisted drivel. YOU may deserve what you get if Sarah is in the White House, but I DON’T and neither does any woman with both a womb and a brain.
Kudos to Shelly Mandell. Women remain as repressed as ever. We still ascribe to the same male political establishment as ever. We are more than our sexual organs including our wombs. The fact that Hillary Clinton, a strong , experienced and intellingent politician didn’t make the Democratic choice to run as President speaks volumes. Stop listening to the stupid media and Hollywood and do your own work. It’s a sad state of affairs for women when Paris Hilton becomes a spokeswoman of politics.
The internet is a wonderful thing, do your own work and learn what the platform is for both parties and what each candidate really is proposing- stop listening to the media speak and all of the media talking heads.
Sue
Seattle
I do not want John McCain and/or Sarah Palin to be in charge of this country. There is a one out of five chance of a president dying in office, and if McCain is elected, he will be the oldest elected president in American History. In saying so, Palin would take office of President, and screw up everything! Everytime I listen to her speeches, I cringe! How can she spend more time bad mouthing Obama and less time focusing on the more important issues that America faces? Is this the kind of leadership we are expected to look up to? Also, how can she call herself a Feminist if she is pro-life? I am a woman I totally believe that we should embody the fundamental right of choosing for our bodies. I love babies and I want to be a mother one day, but I think that at least having the “choice,” opens up more choices in the future. With an increase of sex education in schools and accessability to contraceptives and protection, we could hopefully see an impact on young girls to make better choices. Too many children are having children, and like I’ve always believed: “IT STARTS AT HOME.” Parents-pay attention to your kids. Give them your time.
Lets also look at the ignorance of some McCain supporters. How can you say that the opposing presidential candidate is an “Arab?” I mean c’mon. I don’t know what she’s reading, but I do know who she’s hearing. Its all of these lines that McCain/Palin are feeding to them. Old people don’t know any better, and to say words like “palling around with terrorists” in your speeches that insinuate hatred, obviously shows what kind of message the Republican Party is sharing. How is this positive and productive for Americans?
This election is gonna go down in history and I seriously can’t wait till its over! Reasons why I’m voting for Obama:
-he understands that America is fed up with bullshit
-he understands that America being in the war is costing billions and billions of dollars per month, and wants out. yay! we don’t have to be the asshole Americans that just intrude on foreign territory and change their political ideology.
-he’s working for me, he’s leading for me.
-his eloquence, his intelligence
-he was born in Hawaii
-he doesn’t have any negative ties in Congress, no lobbyists
-he’s too smart and too strong to be corrupted or manipulated
-Obama is a true leader-his poise tells me so.
-Finally, he’s not ignorant. He wants to lead this country, and he is at the prime of his life.
Obama/Biden ’08
Aloha from Hawaii
Well it’s been three weeks since Shelly Mandell endorsed Palin and if anything Palin has become more conservative. Palin is not a feminist, and there’s no hope for her becoming one.
Hi Jane,
Thanks for coming to the site. Please don’t find my following questioning to be antagonistic because I really just want to hear (or read in this case) other people’s ideas of what makes a feminist a feminist in 2008. Holding the abortion issue aside and looking at feminism from a historical viewpoint beginning with women’s suffrage, traveling through equal pay and position and balancing feminity with success, it would seem that Sarah Palin is the product of decades of feminisist work. Again, I do not mean to be antagonistic, I would just like to hear your thoughts on it
[…] Liberal Gender Traitor and President of the LA Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW) Shelly Mandell finds the new Obama ad which features Governor Palin to be offensive: Shelly Mandell, president of […]