Another Top Ten List - issues NOT being covered in the news

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You may approve of the information given below. You may find it appalling. At the very least, it brings up a different "issue", and that will perhaps be somewhat of a welcome relief. You can only hammer the "war on terror" so much, and there are other things that ought to concern us.


Top Ten Bush Administration Assaults on Women and Families

10. Throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Bush's first choice to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Mary Sheila Gall, opposed efforts to regulate baby walkers, baby bath seats, bunk beds, and voted to eliminate the standard for fire-resistant sleepwear during her ten years on the commission (she was appointed by Bush's father). Gall's rationale for putting children at risk? Parents should take more responsibility for protecting their infants. Gall was the first Bush nominee officially rejected by the Senate (notably, when it was under Democratic control).

9. Even more ironic than rain on your wedding day.

Bush chose Nancy Pfotenhauer, president and CEO of the right-wing Independent Women's Forum, to serve on the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women. The IWF actively opposed the Violence Against Women Act. According to IWF's web site, "The battered women's movement has outlived its useful beginnings."

8. But women are already 1.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs!

Bush slammed the door shut on the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach, which worked with women's advocacy groups on public policy and political issues. His 2004 budget eliminated funding for the Women's Educational Equity Act to promote equity for girls and women in education.

7. Juggle this.

Under the guise of helping working families, particularly working mothers, the Bush administration proposed' tHe so~called FariilyTime' Flexibility Act to abolish federally mandated overtlme pay for .. workers. Democrats prevented this bill from coming to the floor, but Bush pushed the new rules through the Department of Labor and said he'd veto any legislation that attempted to block the rule changes.

6. Head Start/False Start

Bush appointed Wade Horn as assistant secretary for family support in the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. As president of the National Fatherhood Institute, Horn said that low-income kids whose parents aren't married should be last in line for Head Start and other benefits. Horn tried to back away from tnese statements at his confirmation hearings. Then, after Horn's appointment, HHS began to offer special services to welfare recipients - if they agree to marry.


5. So now do we need a Department of Homeroom Security?

Secretary of Education Roderick Paige called the National Education Association, which represents teachers across the nation, a "terrorist organization." Paige later said his comment was a bad joke. The union angered Paige by raising concerns about Bush's signature No Child Left Behind Act, which his administration has refused to adequately fund.

4. Did we say medical privacy? We meant medical piracy.

The Bush Department of Justice attempted to subpoena the medical records of women who had abortions, claiming they needed the records in their efforts to defend a challenge to the so-called partial-birth abortion ban, signed by the president last year. The Department of Justice dropped its efforts to collect records after a judge ruled that the action would threaten women's medical privacy, but the DOJ is still pursuing records from other providers.

3. Barefoot,cpregnant, and in sync with their inborn nature.

President Bush chose Leon Kass, MD to head the President's Council of Bioethics. Kass has written, "For the first time in human history, mature women by the tens of thousands live the entire decade of their twenties - their most fertile years - neither in the homes of their fathers nor in the homes of their husbands; unprotected, lonely, and out of sync with their inborn nature."

2. Physician, heal thyself.

In June 2004, Bush re-appointed Dr. W David Hager to the Food and Drug Administration's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Hager has written about Christ's ability to heal women's illnesses and reportedly refused to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. Hager was the leading force behind the FDA's rejection of over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception, over the overwhelming recommendation of two FDA advisory panels.


1. It'll be a cold day in Miami...

The Senate in July 2004 approved Bush's nomination of James Leon Holmes to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kansas. Bolmes, an anti-Abortion Rights activist, supports a Constitutional amendment to ban all abortions and said that "concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami." Holmes has also spoken out against the separation of church and state, and co-wrote (with his wife) an article proclaiming that, "The wife is to subordinate herself to the husband... and... place herself under the authority of the man." Holmes' views on women's rights can be summed up in his belief that supporting feminism ultimately contributes "to the culture of death."

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