The War On Women

Photo courtesy of Big Girl In A Straight World

There is no war on women… War is what’s going on in Syria. War on women, is what the Taliban did to that poor Pakistani girl.

But that said, this whole binder thing, has opened my eyes like no other. I can remember when we women had things much worse. For example, if we refused sex, we’d get fired and had no recourse to sue. “Shouldn’t have asked for it was all the police would say.” So from that perspective I’d have to say I was intrigued, but a little distant from all the angst todays Republicans were bringing to bear….

Delaware Liberal had a conversation about Morning Joe after the debate, when the female brought up the binder issue, and Joe Scarborough and his male friend, jumped all over her… Don’t bring up that slip of the tongue, it has no relevance to this election.” In a sense, they dismissed her as stupid, right there on national television.

If they’d thought about it beforehand, I’m sure they’d phrase it differently. Obviously there were major items that the male mind was still struggling to grasp from the night before. Like who was the tougher guy? Who won? Who had the best offense, best defense? They couldn’t be bothered by a joke about binders when the candidate probably didn’t even know how funny what came out of his mouth was…..

But what Mitt said, burns with a hot flame in the consciousness of every woman that hears it. Because we’ve heard it all before. It’s not the words being spoken; it is the hidden disdain lurking underneath what is being said….

Here is how Mitt came across… “Wait, there are women voters too. Do we have any women on our staff? We need some women as window dressing. Bring me some binders of women. I want to pick a couple out…. so I can say I have one working hard under me… ha ha…nudge, nudge. (and while you’re out there, pick up a couple of knee pads, will you?)… We’ve heard it all before. Sometimes to our faces, thinking they are funny and we are just like them so we will approve, but usually we hear about it second hand, and act like it comes with the job…

It does come with the job.

Not saying we don’t have fun with it too. We’re human. But most men we work with have more harassment nooses around their neck than a drunk queen on Bourbon Street has beads… They are so lucky we haven’t hit the button for that trap door….

Here is what you men don’t get. Mitt Romney ran the Olympics, worked at Bain Capital, campaigned for Governor and won all before this incident. Are we to assume no women were involved in “trustworthy” positions during the previously 20 years, so now, he had to study binders full of women, to find one to hire?

That is the anger behind this women in binders. It has nothing to do with binders, or resumes, or diminutive women living out in plastic cover cardboard with three silver rings inside….

It is that Mitt Romney, at that point in time, did not feel women were equal to men. They were flawed, they had periods, they had children, they couldn’t stay late but had to be home by 5! Sheesh. How can a government run, when it’s workers have to be home by 5? Oh well, she’s just window dressing, we’ll humor her and let her dally home each day. I’ll count on my men for the real work I’ll need…

Then, you compare this glaring example of someone who pays lip service to women, who understands he needs “window dressing” when it comes to women, and you realize that even if you made the company twice as much profit as did any man, this Mitt Romney guy, would pocket it, dismiss your contribution, and reward someone else for the work you did…..

It happens to every woman. Mitt Romney is THAT guy.

So when you compare it with his answer to the Lilly Ledbetter Act, and he said he would not support it, and several weeks ago, when asked if he’d rescind the act when he got into office, the answer, .. after looks back and forth between staffers, was literally… “Uhhh, we’ll get back to you on that one.”…. when all those are taken into account, Mitt Romney is THAT Guy… Oh, I’m glad to have some women in the office, it seems like home, can you get me some coffee, I’d like two sugars, and one cream please, and then you can dust those shelves over there. They get dusty when I’m out campaigning… ”

And that is why the binders are so important. They show us he is THAT guy. The one we trade departments to get out from underneath, the one we look for new employment, because opportunity has stopped at HIS desk, the one that in the middle of the night, upsets our whole family routine, because he infuriates with his smug condescending nature….

Women work twice as hard as men. Men can’t keep a house running for shit. I know a lot of men. As soon as they get home, they are done. Window dressing here or there. But food needs fixed, kids need bathed, floors need mopped, the bills need paid…. “Honey, the Eagles are playing tonight… you got this… ok?”

So, is there a war on women? If you mean like Syria… of course not. But America when it saw the psychological tools that were used to keep blacks down in the South, was appalled. American (except for Southern Radicals) collectively said, “you can’t treat people like that.”

Would you have called that a war on blacks? You could have and explained you were speaking metaphorically. And that’s what we women are doing now. Speaking metaphorically. There IS a war on women. It is meant to keep us in our place.

“You tell, anyone, … you are fired, got that lady?”

Halliburton to IRS: “Return to Sender….Address Unknown….”

If I were in charge of an oil company, very few would think it unusual for me to move my headquarters to Houston or Dallas. After all, how could I be a player in oil, if I didn’t rub shoulders with Cliff Barnes and J. R. Ewing………………

So why should it be a surprise that Halliburton, an oil field servicing company, should announce it’s intention to move their headquarters to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates? This move marks the high tide mark of American energy. America’s oil and natural gas resources are in decline.

We are expected to believe they are moving there for the weather. Due to the clouds surrounding this company, because it’s former owner is our country’s Vice President, one would be remiss not to wonder if this was a covert attempt to cover up wrong doing, just in case some future political climate change  were to rain down corporate subpoenas.

The US government has paid Halliburton over 25 Billion $ in government contracts. Halliburton earned over 2.3 billion last year in profits. 60% of that came from, operations in the US: servicing domestic oil fields. That conversely means that up to 40% was earned overseas, mostly from Iraq. Roughly over $920,000,000 in profit was earned just last year from services rendered in and around Iraq.

Remember, no American company would ever be allowed to get close enough to even sniff Iraqi oil, had we not chosen to go to war…….

So when one hears of the shadowy steps that this administration took to justify its military action in Iraq,… and if one faintly remembers how they went to war, despite all public arguments to the contrary, ….and finally, if one remembers that not one of the reasons for which we invaded, turned out to be correct, ……………..then one has to ponder, how the sole creator of this nation’s energy policy, wound up turning out to be the war’s strongest advocate, and………. who’s company in just in one year has profited just under one BILLION$ from our actions, ………………One has to wonder how this person will look when his action is investigated by a Democratic House and future Democratic Senate.

Moving this company to Dubai, offers protection from legal liability. It preserves records where the Federal Government cannot touch them.

It also keeps American hands out of the lucrative oil field cookie jar. For having sunk 25 BILLION $ into Halliburton’s pockets, it would be quite un-Republican to pay a tiny fraction of that back in the form of taxes……………………………………….

Da plane, Da plane

Nancy, Nancy, forget da plane.

Remember it’s not about what this country can do for you, but about what you can do for this country………