Boycotting South Dakota....

[femrap]

I was over at Kos where there is a diary on boycotting this state...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/25/8124/93505

There were lots of great links and good ideas. I emailed the governor...then I looked around on the website and checked out his wife, Jean Rounds, who it turns out helps out with a Domestic Violence Shelter...which is linked on the site as well. I wrote to them offering assistance if it came to the point where a rape victim needed an abortion and had to go to another state. HOW FUCKING SADISTIC AND CRUEL ARE THESE LAWMAKERS IN S. DAKOTA?

It just infuriates me.

This Gov, Micheal Rounds, has both a wife and daughter....and I guess he is thinking it would be OK for them to be raped, impregnated, and then forced to carry the fetus to term. I asked this Governor how he was going to deal with the custody of the child...because after all the rapist will have every right to partial custody. They'll just all be one happy family! GRRRRRR.

So please send Gov. Michael Rounds an email....I want his inbox stuffed with emails when he goes to work on Monday...THX!

When did rapists and men who rape their female relatives get all of this power? I am so mad I could spit nails.

Anyway, I am emailing everyone in South Dakota this weekend....the tourist board, manufacturers with 500 employees or more, Citibank, John Morrell meat packers, Iams pet food, Gateway, Link Snacks (LSI) that makes beef jerky, Starmark Cabinetry....there's even a South Dakota Certified Beef website that lists the farmers that participate and their phone numbers.

I thought the DU feminists and progressives might want to participate with this boycotting, emailing, and phoning effort. I really want to bankrupt this state. Come Monday, I am going to get on the phone and let rip!

I have a Citibank Credit Card that I will be cancelling....so I was searching for a 'socially responsible' one to replace it...and there are only 3 or 4 of them out there...I was shocked. Check out ShoreBank Pacific...their card is called Salmon Nation and $ goes to helping the NW environment. If you have a Citibank credit card, please cancel it! They're the 3rd or 4th largest employer in that putridly governed state....!!! Thx.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Just happened to get a new Citibank card in the mail today

Promptly cut it up and will inform them that I'll no longer be doing business with them.

[femrap]

2. I am calling Citibank on Monday....

I am not giving one red cent to the state of S. Dakota. Either Citibank, as a major employer in S.D. puts some pressure on the Legislature to eliminate this sadistic law or we get credit cards from the state of Delaware or better yet ShoreBank Pacific.

You wanna play with my uterus, I'll play with your wallet.

[eridani]

14. Now you know what to do with those business reply envelopes

I ran out of bankruptcy bill edumacational material to send back to them. Now I can do a rant about South Dakota and include that. Brighten the days of people who open these envelopes for a living!

[bloom]

3. I haven't seen so much about the sponsor of the bill on DU

"In the coverage of South Dakota’s bold new law to reduce women to the legal standing of cuttlefish, not much attention is being paid to the fact that the main sponsor of this legislation is a female Democrat. Senator Julie Bartling is her name, and that’s her mug shot. I’ve included it so you can gaze upon her oddly cheerful visage and contemplate what it must be like to live with your head permanently implanted inside the large intestine of the patriarchy."

http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/?p=139

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/23/AR2006022300204.html


The only hopeful thing is that the bill is so stupid it will be overturned.

[femrap]

4. Senator Bartling is a 'tamed women'...

one of those who fears the Single, Fertile Woman that plans on seducing all supposed faithful husbands....

By denying these women abortions, she has now gained some control and power in her life...personally, I think it would be easier to just put her hubby into one of the newly fashioned chastity belts! Senator Bartling has bought this patriarchy's bill of goods...she is nothing without a husband and she must do everything she can to keep him so he will protect her....from those rapists, I guess.

Usually there is something in the background of these tamed women that makes them behave like Senator Bartling....her father cheated on her mother or vice versa. Her husband may have strayed. Maybe she received a huge amount of Catholic brainwashing as a child. Or maybe she feels she needs to have power over others....and since it can't be men, she'll go after those fertile women.

I wonder what Bartling's story is....???? You gotta work hard to be as cruel and unfeeling as she is....

The list of sponsors I saw was primarily men though...of course, it's OK for them to be cruel and unfeeling....right?

I'm still focusing on the Governor....maybe he will stop this.....before it goes to the Courts. This is just another step down the slippery slope. I'm waiting for the law where all post-menopausal women are forced to become 'Soylent Green!' After all, what good are we if not to incubate?

[Katherine Brengle]

6. I am married and have no fear of single women lol----

I'm sure that some of these uptight conservative types probably do, but I don't think it is necessarily a fair argument in general terms...

[femrap]

9. Of course not all married women fear the SFW....

you, obviously, have NOT been tamed. Right?

[Katherine Brengle]

10. Amen to that!

If anyone has been tamed, it's my husband, lol.

But on a serious note, our wedding ceremony consisted of the usual legal mumbo-jumbo and then a reading of the "marriage" section of The Prophet--all about being together but maintaining our individuality. It was awesome.

"You were born together,
and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when the white wings
of death scatter your days.

Aye, you shall be together even in the
silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between
the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together, yet not too near together.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress
grow not in each other's shadow."

(I actually had our officiant take out the past about God, as neither of us practice any religion.)

[femrap]

12. That is how true love between and among

people is....no bonds. Thanks for sharing....beautiful words.

[Katherine Brengle]

16. thank you :)

"make not a bond of love" is also my favorite part.

[Warpy]

5. Hard to boycott a state with so little appeal

unless you're a jingoist who gets all teary eyed over Mt. Rushmore (which some of us see as vandalism of natural beauty) or you're a biker headed for Sturgis.

However, I didn't know about Citibank and Iams. I did know about Gateway. I don't use that stuff and don't plan to in the future.

On edit: I wonder if it's occurred to the impoverished folks on the reservations that they might be able to circumvent state laws on abortion clinics the way they did on gambling casinos and excise taxes on gas and cigarettes. It could be another money maker for them, opening a women's clinic in a reproductive slavery state!

[Katherine Brengle]

7. Actually, about a billion dollars funnels into SD every year from tourism-

the big motorcycle rally at Sturgis takes place there, the Badlands, great skiing and camping--there are a lot of tourist attractions in South Dakota. (And Mt. Facemore, lol.)

[ismnotwasm]

8. There you go!

Stugis. An interesting exersise in mysogony in many--but not all areas. But a major source of revenue for the state. I have a libertarian friend who is biker (Bandito-- He cracks me up because he regularly runs for city council, and loses, in his suburbanian town. His candidate picture looks nothing like the guy I know.) Anyway, I'm making phone calls to SD, but I'm going to feel this guy out, we don't agree particularly politically, but this is one issue we see eye to eye on. I'm going to see what his plans are. Those bikers can be a HUGE force. I know a lot of bikers, I just don't hang out with them much. But I think they can be mobilized on this issue.

[Katherine Brengle]

11. I emailed all of the H.O.G. chapter directors in MA and RI today--

asking them to boycott the Sturgis rally. So far, one of them emailed me back--he said that though the group has no political affiliation and wouldn't feel comfortable getting directly involved, he is going to tell the members of his chapter about the situation and my request and allow them to decide for themselves.

I'm hopeful for more similar responses--especially from the Ladies of Harley who I wrote to.

I'll keep you all posted.

[femrap]

13. Thanks....isn't there a place say in N. Dakota or Iowa or

Nebraska that would love to host the event??? I don't live around there...but if it does bring in lots of $, maybe another city/town would be interested in hosting the H.O.G.s

[Katherine Brengle]

17. that's the information i have been sending them--politely asking if they

will consider relocating the event to "a state that protects a woman's right to make her own healthcare decisions and protects women's fundamental human rights" (i.e., the right not to have to bear the child of a rapist).

So far, I have only gotten a response from the chapter closest to me, but we'll see. If some of these larger prog and pro-choice orgs would get on board, we'd have a lot more pull with the public...

[Katherine Brengle]

15. I am totally on this--did an oped yesterday, doing a radio interview

tomorrow or the next day. I also contacted Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and MoveOn to see if they would get involved.

I've also been emailing HOG chapters to ask them to boycott Sturgis this summer, emailing SD legislators and the governor.

I am exhausted, lol.

But I 100% agree with you--giving power to violent abhorrent criminals and taking it away from women who have been victimized so horribly is not acceptable to me.

[CornField]

18. I'm so happy to see this happen

Our family was planning to visit SD for our summer vacation. I have contacted the governor's office, the tourism bureau and the vendors we had already made arrangements with to cancel those plans and to explain why we were choosing not to visit at this time.

[femrap]

19. Thank you for cancelling.....

What was their reaction?

[CornField]

20. No response from the state groups

One vendor didn't even let me finish -- hung up on me. I'm pretty glad that one didn't get my money. LOL!

The others were mostly apologetic, but understanding. One B&B owner asked me how the economic and home-buying situation was in Iowa. She was extremely upset by the actions of her legislature.