Many of you have had the pleasure of reading posts over the years from RLMiller. She has posted prolifically on Climate Change, environmental issues and is pretty much beloved by this community. I am a little biased on this point though considering I met her down in DC for a SEIU/Occupy protest two years ago. Regardless she has been an active voice here and online - especially on twitter.
The GOP has been trying to say that Democrats or liberals in general are wrong about their pronounced war on women! That they harbor diversity of all kinds. Well Jeff Gorell (R CAND, California-26) is trying to unseat Julia Brownley and on twitter posted this picture of his supports to show the GOP doesn't have any problem with women at all.
Correction: Brownley is defending the House seat (7+ / 0-)
in CA26, and State Senator Geoff Gorell is the challenger.
Gorell's people have been grasping at straws all summer... His campaign seized on a Brownley mailer that featured generic stock photos of people in uniform. One smiling model in navy-looking attire was actually wearing the women's uniform for the German Air Force.
"An insult to our veterans!" they cried.
Jefus! The Department of Defense prohibits political campaigns from using actual U.S. military uniforms logos and insignia... and Germany has been a stalwart NATO ally since 1955. Any WWII vets who are miffed about this photo need to bury the hatchet.
Brownley's campaign responded by 'splaining the rules and pointing out that Gorell had violated the DoD directive on use of American uniforms in his previous mailer.
Brownley:1, Gorell:0.
Gorell is a Navy reservist and hoped to make much of that fact among the district's active-duty and retired personnel. But Julia Brownley has scored some good headlines for her work on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and she's evened the score in that regard.
She'll win this, but first-term Congressional Reps are the most vulnerable. and the RNC is throwing money at Gorell. No race should be taken for granted.
“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing
he was never reasoned into” - Jonathan Swift
by jjohnjj on Sat Aug 23, 2014 at 02:29:42 AM EST
Republicans have never had a war on women you see! There are no ALEC bills circulating across the country attempting to control reproductive rights! There are no measures out there in flux trying to limit women from voting! They have never had a problem attracting people of different ethnicity's because they are really inclusive and always have the most diverse representation from their folds of aging white folk.
So seeing this image on Twitter - and being an amazing Democrat she posted a response in a snarky manner:
EGADS!! The response from the right has been drastic enough to turn a twitter comment into front page commentary at RedState. Republicans are never lacking in faux outrage when someone points out the observable. Normally I would leave this sort of diary to Hunter but RedState is attacking one of our very own. The faux outrage manifested on twitter in the form of:
The Gorell campaign was also devastated and issued this statement from another one of the women in the photo:
“I’m Latina. I’m dismayed that, today, someone could be ignorant enough to make assumptions about my heritage and my culture because of the color of my skin.” Chantelle Limon
Well I'm sorry that people made assumptions about your skin tonality from a photo. I really am. It's not like the Republican party isn't 91% Caucasian or anything. It's not like they primarily have a base of affluent white people. As a light skinned Latino myself I understand fully the privilege that is associated with people thinking you are one thing and not the other.
RLMiller has been a tireless champion for many progressive causes. Moe lane goes so far as to state for some unknown odd reason:
Confirmation of that here. I would be mildly surprised that the woman is hesitant to use anything except her initials, except of course that I know that the progressives that she panders to online are much more likely to take someone seriously if they thought that she was actually a male. Well, that and the fact that her radicalism might raise awkward questions in her actual line of work, even in California…
She uses manly initials and that is why we like her writing! That must be it! The secret to having your blog posts read far and wide on the internet is sexism! Oui Vey.
This is only a small matter deserving attention. I know there are many larger stories going on in the world right now and I'm following several diligently. It is worth noting the comparable nature of our front pages between us and RedState. They are so small that one of our bloggers - however beloved here - is worthy of trashing publicly, loudly, and placed prominently on their front page.
I won't link to their trash here but feel free to check it out yourself. My advice for you RLMiller - where ever you are in time right now - is to keep doing what you are doing, and know that no right wing smear or post against you should ever discourage your from continuing your work.
We need you.