Komen for the Cure is abandoning women in need.
There’s a new and ugly development in the GOP’s War on Women. The Forced Birthers have enlisted an organization — Komen for the Cure, which scores of women have relied upon both to prevent breast cancer, and as a support network when fighting breast cancer — to help undermine the rights of women to make decisions about their bodies for themselves.
In a press release today, Planned Parenthood announced that The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation will no longer provide Planned Parenthood the more than half million dollars in grant funds which Planned Parenthood uses to provide breast health education, screenings, and referrals for mammograms.
Turns out that Komen’s new Vice-President of Public Policy, Karen Handel, is a Forced Birther, and even ran for governor of Georgia on a platform of defunding Planned Parenthood. Thus, it seems that Komen for the Cure, the purpose of which is to help women, has been taken hostage by Karen Handel and her right-wing Forced Birth views which undermine women and women’s reproductive choices. In her own words, “Since I am pro-life [anti-choice] I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.”
The mission of Planned Parenthood? Lady, what are you talking about? The mission of Planned Parenthood is to provide health services, including breast cancer screening and education to primarily poor women who otherwise cannot not afford such services. That is 90% of what Planned Parenthood does. The “mission” of Planned Parenthood aligns with the “mission” of Komen for the Cure — or, at least, it did. Abortion comprises approximately 3% of the services Planned Parenthood provides.
Furthermore, just as the Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion services, I presume that the Komen grant money previously provided to Planned Parenthood is used specifically for breast-health, and not for abortions.
Komen claims that it is refusing to fund Planned Parenthood because of the charity’s “newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities.” Planned Parenthood is the subject of an investigation led by Florida Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Asshole) to “make sure” that no federal funds are being used for abortion services (even though the Hyde Amendment already prohibits it.)
As I wrote in September, it’s a bullshit investigation designed to undermine Planned Parenthood and subvert its purpose out of fealty to the religious right. And, it seems clear to me that Komen for the Cure adopted its “new criteria” specifically so it could hang its hat on Stearns’ bullshit investigation and then throw up its hands: “Whelp! What’re ya gonna do?”
Horse shit. It’s a cowardly move calculated to stave off any backlash for its decision by avoiding any discussion of the true reasons behind its sudden about-face when it comes to funding Planned Parenthood.
Ultimately, this is nothing less than an outright betrayal of women.
From the Washington Post:
The nation’s leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates — creating a bitter rift, linked to the abortion debate, between two iconic organizations that have assisted millions of women.
The change will mean a cutoff of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly for breast exams.
Planned Parenthood says the move results from Komen bowing to pressure from anti-abortion activists. Komen says the key reason is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress — a probe launched by a conservative Republican who was urged to act by anti-abortion groups.
The rupture, which has not been publicly announced as it unfolded, is wrenching for some of those who’ve learned about it and admire both organizations.
“We’re kind of reeling,” said Patrick Hurd, who is CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia — recipient of a 2010 grant from Komen — and whose wife, Betsi, is a veteran of several Komen fundraising races and is currently battling breast cancer.
“It sounds almost trite, going through this with Betsi, but cancer doesn’t care if you’re pro-choice, anti-choice, progressive, conservative,” Hurd said. “Victims of cancer could care less about people’s politics.”
Planned Parenthood said the Komen grants totaled roughly $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before, going to at least 19 of its affiliates for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services.
What a cruel irony this decision represents: The most renowned breast cancer awareness foundation is abandoning women (and some men, too) in need of breast-health services (primarily poor women and women in rural areas), and potentially leaving them to die, all in the name “life.” It’s sick.
It’s time to send Komen for the Cure a message that it should reconsider its decision to participate in the partisan politics that are playing out on the backs, breasts, and in the uteri of women in this country. I hope you will join me in no longer donating money to Komen for the Cure and will instead direct your donations directly to the Breast Health Emergency Fund which Planned Parenthood established to fill the funding void and to continue providing the breast cancer screenings and care previously supported by the Komen Foundation.
Contact Komen for the Cure here: 1-877 GO KOMEN(1-877-465-6636) and sign this petition.
[This article by Alicia Staley is an interesting and somewhat appalling read. Seems to me spending 17% of a 331M budget on research “for the cure” is pitiful. Then again, I don’t have any experience with well-funded charities. The budget for my literacy gig is, like, four dollars.]***It’s worth pointing out yet again that President Obama outright refused any cuts to Planned Parenthood during last spring’s budget crisis. Boehner asked for cuts and President Obama refused:”Nope. Zero.” (I wrote about it here.)
[via WaPo; via Planned Parenthood]
[cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
Hello! It’s me again. I’m back, for better or for worse. In sickness and in health. Til scotch do us part. I’ll likely GBCW at least three more times before November. You’ve been warned. -ABLxx
West of the Cascades
Yea ABL, any version!! Booooo Komen!
chopper
well i’ll be dipped in shit.
amk
Welcome back. Good topic for re-entry too.
lamh35
hot damn!
Cricket
This is disheartening. It’s another reminder that this fight isn’t about abortion, but about women’s health.
The anti-abortion movement is also against access to birth control and vaccines that prevent cervical cancer. How much plainer can they be in declaring that their cause is about punishing women for having sex? Hell, given the religious affiliation of most of the movement they’re probably still mad at us for Eve and the apple.
magurakurin
good times to be sure. I’m in.
cheers and welcome back.
no snark intended.
And Cole’s rant about this was pretty awesome. Did that help bring you back?
Interrobang
What’s the over-under on whether Handel believes that abortions cause breast cancer? I’m betting that’s quite a lot of it right there. I mean, not that forced-birthers won’t find any misogynist nail to hang their vile hats on, but still…
General Stuck
ABL 2.0 – teehee.
Glad you are back home, ABL!
er, I mean second home
clayton
Back and Bold ABL.
This place has been all whiny I’m too fat and stupid recipes for too long.
We have to stick together.
Today I heard that even self-selected sterilization is a problem.
Can we get the government out of the bedroom already? Perhaps then people could focus on work.
Or something.
Alison
Glad to see you back for this important subject. I am so ragingly pissed about this, not the least because Komen already was such a bullshit “charity” for the reasons you note among others…and now they’re just doubling down on being totally full of crap and malarkey. Way to make it clear you don’t actually give a shit about women’s lives, notably low-income women.
And now these wingnut bastards in Congress will see that their ridiculous “investigation” is having an impact, and the crazy will only multiply. LORD HAVE FUCKING MERCY.
TPTB at Komen are invited to dine on a pretty pink package of lightly salted rat dicks.
cintibud
Welcome back!
Keith G
That was quick.
RinaX
@General Stuck:
You know, I clicked on this to post a single “tee-hee” of my own!
clayton
Where’s that?
Jay
I’m rooting for a post from someone that gets all the way into Hadaassah Lieberman’s role in this. I wish I could yell at her directly but I’m sure she’ll just hide behind her husband, Droopy Dog. In any case, I don’t think husband and wife hold women in very high regard (Yeah, you heard me, Joey Shortride. Asshole.).
SarahT
Welcome back ! Just sorry that it took the Komen Foundation’s repugnant, disgraceful, evil behaviour to bring about your return.
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
Welcome back.
Betty Cracker
W00t! SO damn good to see you back!
And yeah, I’ve long been skeptical of the Perky Pink People. As noble as the founding intentions may have been and as sincere as the folks who take part in events and make donations are, that organization long ago morphed into Big Charity. Feh.
joeyess
Quietly marching toward the realization of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Betsy
Glad to be reading your great stuff again, ABL, very glad.
Susan G. Komen is NOT an organization whose purpose is to help women. It is overwhelmingly a marketing gimmick for corporations.
Slap a pink coloration and a ribbon on product X, all of a sudden, it sells.
kc
Welcome back, ABL! I’m glad you and Cole kissed and made up.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
The Komen folks can go fuck themselves. Planned Parenthood has saved hundreds of thousands more lives than Komen could ever imagine. Though Komen has far and away the better PR campaign. Not one thin dime of mine will ever head to Komen – not that it has before but for other reasons.
If people want to walk, let them do a NAMI walk. Everybody knows about breast cancer, and there’s no stigma. People are faced with lack of treatment for mental illness to this day due to stigma and poor policies based on stigma. I’d encourage more support of NAMI and none of Komen, now that we know of the forced birth agenda.
As if any of the forced birth folks give a rat’s ass about a fetus once it’s crossed the cervical rubicon. Until of course, it can tote an M-16, then they care again, as those folks are useful for foreign oil exploration.
clayton
Asshat is back.
Please Keith, tell me about your breast cancer, seriously, or your connection to it. Do you have a friend — a guy — who had it and now you feel free to be flippant about it?
Or maybe you know a woman who had it — noticed I used the past tense. Tell us please who you or someone you know came back quickly from a tumor or cancer.
Your personal stories are welcome here.
joeyess
Tbogg invites us all to make a donation to Planned Parenthood in the name of……
Citizen_X
Yes, this is shitty news, but the good news is: you’re back, ABL! Hey hey, good lookin’!
jenn
Yay! Nice to have you back. Bummer on the reason. But at least it has me reaching for the checkbook (supporting PP has been on my to-do list for awhile – and this has pushed me over the edge). Thanks for the info on the “effectiveness” quotient – I had no idea that Komen was that shitty. 17% is horrible.
MariedeGournay
The anti-abortion movement’s slogan: Die for Darkseid.
Violet
Holy cow! ABL’s back.
I’ve heard a lot of negative stuff about Komen for awhile now. I know people that won’t donate to Komen but give to other breast cancer organizations when they want to support breast cancer research. They’ve told me that Komen spends too much on their overhead and not enough on research. Some of the folks who told me this were doctors.
tBone
If Cole’s righteous Chunky Bobo rant earlier today was the makeup sex, it was suitably epic. Glad to see you back, ABL!
beltane
I’ve never been a big fan of the Susan G. Komen foundation. Other than sponsoring rather lavish, feel-good fundraising events that promote a feeling that people are “doing something” about breast cancer “awareness” (because women weren’t scared shitless about breast cancer before the Susan G. Komen Races for the Cure), I’m not sure what they do exactly. It’s not like they were providing actual health care to uninsured women.
It is also important to keep in mind that any so-called women’s medical advocacy group that takes a religiously motivated stand against Planned Parenthood is also unlikely to support meaningful research into cures, as such cures may involve DNA extracted from potential humans.
Paulk
Very glad to see you back, ABL! It didn’t quite seem like the Juice without you.
pete
Welcome back, ABL
That nice Mr Bogg has a constructive post on this topic, also, too. He suggests not just donating to PP but doing it in the name of Karen Handel at Komen. Full details, addresses, etc at the link.
LT
The irony of coming back on this subject after the accusation you made about Cole – oy.
dsc
yeah! we missed you so hoooooorayyy!
and my note to the SGF was short:
Roxie
Welcome back!
pete
Welcome back, ABL!
Betsy
As Twisty Faster said,
“Komen is a marketing facilitator. They do not reduce breast cancer occurence. They do not reduce breast cancer deaths. All they do is hook up sanctimonious shopaholics with corporate leeches who want to shine up their tarnished public images.”
Also see http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2010/10/15/its-gratuitious-erotica-month/ and http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/01/26/good-news-bad-news-2/
for more on this vicious, pornulated scam.
Steve
I am super upset about this. I came home and started ranting to my wife about it. I plan to let Komen know just how I feel.
jenn
@jenn: Actually, then I read the link – it’s not quite as bad as that – 17% of Komen’s income goes to research for a cure, but overall around 80% goes to a combination of research/education/screening etc. That’s a lot better. I feel better about all the pink crap I’ve purchased over the years. They still suck for this decision to turn their backs on a huge source of medical help for poor women, though!
SarahT
@joeyess:
Done and passed along. Thanks for the link.
beltane
@Violet: My husband once participated in one of these fundraising events. It was a very elaborate dragon boat race that must have eaten up most of the proceeds to produce. I kept asking everyone involved what the money they were raising was going towards and the only answer I got was “cancer awareness”. Sorry, but I found it unconscionable that with all the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised that not one penny of it seemed to go to actual treatment or research.
kay
Hi ABL!
Welcome back.
Comrade Mary
Hi! Hi! Hi! Nice to see you, ABL!
And fuck Komen and their fellow travellers with a stack of rusty garden implements of your choice.
pixelpusher
Welcome back, ABL. We need your brand of hot sauce!
beltane
@jenn: “Education” is a rather ambiguous term in this context, and I think the screening part of their mission has just vanished.
Dick Dastardly
Magical. I’ve got to start scrolling past ABL’s posts again. I see your principles lasted about three weeks.
ABL
Hi everyone and thank you. It’s nice to be back!
Warren Terra
I’ll read the post and thread later, and perhaps comment substantively, but firstly: Welcome Back, ABL!
PhoenixRising
This is why I bleed green, not pink.
Flying Monkeys: “omg boys dressing as girls, omg planned parenthood, omg telling girls that contraception prevents pregnancy, stop funding the evil Satanic Girl Scouts!”
GSUSA: “…whatever. Who wants to buy some Thin Mints?”
That’s how you talk to these numbskulls.
Komen Foundation already had me at Fuck Yr Empinkening of Everythang. They have now been promoted to Burn a Pink Teddy Bear for Equality.
-love, Phoenix
(cancer patient, lifetime Girl Scout)
ABL
@Dick Dastardly: you could have done that scrolling thing you mentioned on this very post!
i look forward to never seeing you in one of my threads again.
Linnaeus
Had a feeling we’d be seeing a return of ABL. Can’t help but think of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVS3WNt7yRU
joeyess
@SarahT: my pleasure.
kc
“Pink Stink;” ha! Just saw that headline in a Google search. I hope enough people raise hell about this for Komen to know they really stepped in it,
Alison
@Dick Dastardly: We’re all so glad to know that hating ABL is more important to you than the serious content of this post. And I’m sure she’s just in tears because you don’t want to be her friend.
GFY, seriously.
BethanyAnne
The thing that strikes me about this is that it’s a pile of shit for Komen to step in. They can’t get out. If they back down, the Right will scream bloody murder. The Left already is. Opting in to the partisan battle simply is a stupid move on their part, no matter what side they join – and they can’t do this sort of move without it being perceived as joining a side. Frickin’ short sighted morans.
joeyess
Oh. Welcome back, ABL. Really.
MikeJ
@beltane:
No, they were providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to Planned Parenthood who then used the money to help poor women. What the fuck do you think has everybody so upset?
jeff
Great to see you write here again! Thanks!
When nonprofits become successful, one of the next hurdles is how they deal with public/private conflicts and the ideologies of donors/grantmaking organizations.
beltane
@PhoenixRising: Thank you! I no longer feel that Barbara Ehrenreich and I were alone in loathing the pink be-ribboning of this disease.
numfar
Welcome back ABL!
Fuck you, Komen.
Betsy
Slate is a ass, but this was pretty good and revealing about the pink marketing scam.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2010/10/sink_pink.single.html
jenn
@beltane: Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. I just hadn’t processed that the 17% number was related specifically to research, and thought the remaining 83% went to overhead and shit, so I was feeling extra foolish that when I’d needed pens (etc) I’d spend the extra bit to buy pink shit. Finding out that it wasn’t quite as bad as I’d originally implied, I figured an erratum was necessary! And I know several breast cancer survivors for whom running the Race for the Cure has been an empowering and motivating thing, so I don’t want to entirely dismiss the entire foundation, even as this move on their part has me looking for other groups to support.
clayton
Sorry for your poor scrolling finger. I doubt it will aver be female or have cancer.
Rejoice! at that.
Your principles must have the staying power of South Carolina. I’m just guessing, of course.
AA+ Bonds
Curves Gym: also a fascist organization dedicated to turning women into breeding cows for the Wehrmacht
This shouldn’t be a surprise though: nominal support for breast cancer research is the last desperate hope of the anti-feminist seeking support of women, anyone remember McCain 2008?
The Other Chuck
@Betsy:
If the net effect is more money for research than the immediate alternative, I’m not going to begrudge it. See also Bono, Red, One.
The fact that the foundation is apparently being run by anti-choice wingnuts however, makes my position crystal clear.
eemom
somewhere in Texas, Cornered Stone just self-combustulated.
Tee hee.
joeyess
@Dick Dastardly: You know, why do you have to be a dick on her first come-back post? You couldn’t wait until she pissed you off with a topic that you really disagree with? You have to come in here and just be a prick on a topic pertaining to the health and welfare of poor women and their already limited access to healthcare? “fuck dem sick bitches, ABL’s back and dat’s more turible dan dem bitches dyin'”.
You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?
Good to know.
BethanyAnne
to continue my thoughts, such as they are :)
Another effect of simply joining the partisan battle, on either side, is that big companies like the one I work for aren’t going to donate to a political cause. I think we donated something like 165k last year? Not much, I guess, but we won’t be doing it this year – not once word gets out. It’ll look too much like taking a side, and we don’t do that (publicly).
beltane
@MikeJ: But it was Planned Parenthood doing the actual screening. Without Planned Parenthood, the Komen fund is pretty much worthless and seemingly on its way to being the next wingnut welfare charity.
kay
Doesn’t this seem like a completely avoidable PR disaster for them?
Really. I don’t think they should get any donations because they’re this stupid.
“Let’s jump into this war, and pick a side!”
Really. It’s like charity malpractice.
AA+ Bonds
I have two family members who lived through it, but still, when I see a pink ribbon on an SUV (and it’s always an SUV), I think “drunk Republican pediatric nurse”
gwangung
Ah, welcome back ABL.
The universe DOES feel “righter.”
DId you bring some rusty pitchforks with you?
AA+ Bonds
@kay:
Their top donors are probably all Callista Gingriches
Alison
Also, I’d like to suggest to folks who want to donate to PP – if you can afford to, consider setting up an automatic monthly donation. You can do as little as like $5 a month, and speaking as someone who used to work in development for a nonprofit, those automatic donations are great – they save the org money because most places will pull your name from most if not all of their other direct mailings, and they take care of the “Oops I keep meaning to donate” problem that so many of us have, even when we really do want to give.
Mr Stagger Lee
Welcome Back ABL! I think one thing that the Komen people has proved they are part of the Cancer Industrial Complex. What has this organization done for low income women with breast cancer? As a matter of fact is their any group that advocates for low income people with cancer.
AA+ Bonds
It’s this simple
Breast cancer research/fundraising is the ONE women’s issue Republicans are allowed to support
When this comes through, Komen’s donations from certain wealthy donors on the right will triple, quadruple, and they’ll make all their employees donate too
clayton
If you think that seriously, you are fucked.
If you think that is funny or cutting, well join the crew of men who have no clue because they have no conscious.
You choose.
ShadeTail
There haven’t been nearly as many shithead trolls in this thread as I expected. In fact, there’s really only been one so far. I’m amazed.
ramalamadingdong
I am of the opinion that your kerfuffle with John triggered his insomnia. Glad you are both back. He will sleep like a baby tonight.
AA+ Bonds
@clayton:
Nope, 100% true, it hardly means breast cancer research is a bad idea
joeyess
@kc: Komen doesn’t care. Komen’s new Vice-President of Public Policy, Karen Handel is a teabagger of the highest order and a recipient of a Sarah Palin endorsement.
Komen is officially in the business of killing Planned Parenthood and scamming the public out of millions of dollars in donations, paying their executives BIG money, and generally not looking to cure a fucking thing.
In other words: It’s a grift.
Yutsano
Wifey might come back. Also. Too. YAY!!
beltane
@jenn: When you were giving to them, they were giving to PP so it was not a waste of your time or money.
AA+ Bonds
@joeyess:
Oh ho ho, there we are – thanks for the tip-off
Betty Cracker
@BethanyAnne: That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Way to slice the golden goose in half, pink ass-berets.
Lynn Dee
Fabulous! Welcome back, ABL.
Great cause to weigh in on.
Martin
@kay:
Yep. Hanlon’s razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
I don’t know what led to this – did the Komen board get packed with Republicans trying to make a point like some waylaid school board? Or did the thousands of screaming mouthbreathers drown out the silent majority again? But the only way that they couldn’t see this as anything but a PR disaster is if they are either simply unaware of the world around them, or if they intended this to be a PR disaster.
mikefromArlington
They are having a three day walk in DC…. Stage a protest… Explain what they have done to the participants and pass out literature and get people’s reaction to it on video. Swarm the news cameras.
Stop the war on women. I suggest start with a Facebook page ABL. Start it here with a post.
AA+ Bonds
@clayton:
And FYI I have an increased risk of breast cancer myself as a direct relative of two survivors (as those two individuals prefer to be called, pace Ehrenreich) so in fact I would benefit personally by shutting up and letting the research community lie down with dogs
kay
AA+ Bonds, why do you always assume conservatives are such master strategists?
Maybe it was just a bone-headed stupid decision, and they didn’t think it through.
I refuse to treat these people as presumptively brilliant. I don’t think it’s true.
PhoenixRising
@Mr Stagger Lee: well, no. But we thank you for playing!
Seriously, everyone with cancer becomes low income at some point. It’s just a question of what financial reserves you had to start with. For ezample: My insurance company, Syphylitic Weasel Health Partners, has referred me to various charities to cover my travel to places with oncologists who can treat me. Because dawg knows they can’t be expected to either hire doctors or fly me someplace that did! and if I don’t have the money to pay for treatment out of state, oh well.
We are okay only because my wife is a professional negotiator who scares the crap out of the insurance company’s PR team. And the last “member” who got services this good was a state senator’s wife. May she rest in peace, and may he get over the delusion that her care was typical.
beltane
@AA+ Bonds: But you have to remember that anti-choice wingnuts are also anti-science. I expect that the only research to emerge from this organization is of the variety that finds correlations between contraception and breast cancer, etc. The SGK Foundation is tainted now, a breast cancer version of Concerned Women for America. They have betrayed the millions of women who supported them in good faith.
pseudonymous in nc
So, about the same as the combined salaries of Komen’s CEO and new GOPper public policy SVP. Priorities, priorities.
Lab Rat
Welcome back ABL!
Great post, as always.
Constance
So happy to see you back.
AA+ Bonds
@kay:
How is this brilliant? Act conservative, get conservative money.
That plan can be, and is, thought up and executed by plenty of complete idiots all over this country every year
Look at all these chuckleheads who “ran for President”
BethanyAnne
@kay: Yeps, what I was thinking, but better put :)
Gretchen
I missed you, ABL! So glad you’re back.
I already emailed Komen and told them that I’ve done many Races for the Cure, but I’ve done my last one, and the money will be going to Planned Parenthood from now on. I think they’ve really stepped in it this time.
AA+ Bonds
@beltane:
Wouldn’t surprise me.
msskwesq
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Absolutely Agree. Also, I’m so happy to see ABL back on BJ!
sixers
Ha. What a predictable joke ABL is.
CaliCat
Komen is officially a pro-life group now with a pro-life agenda and their pink propaganda is everywhere. What a nightmare.
beltane
@pseudonymous in nc: That’s what Mitt Romney gets for a couple of speeches. Pocket change for the 1%ers. Perhaps some billionaire with respect for women will be able to make up the difference.
GregB
Support Planned Parenthood, boycott the Khomeini Foundation.
Anya
Welcome back, ABL!
Everyone, please make sure to let Komen know that you are disgusted with their disgraceful decision of putting politics ahead of the lives of poor women. If you have a facebook or twitter account, please take a moment and let them know how disgusted you are. Also, too, if you can, send Planned Parenthood some love by donating, and public support via facebook and twitter.
bigfatdrunk
Great to see you back here, ABL, especially speaking out about this atrocity. Well done.
/overt brown-nosing
Roger Moore
Well, this got me off my ass to make my annual contribution to Planned Parenthood, and angry enough to double it. Fuck you, Susan Komen.
patroclus
This is terrible news because, heretofore, the Komen Foundation has had a sterling reputation in raising awareness of breast cancer. For numerous years, my alma mater, TCU, has devoted a huge effort to help the Foundation and its mission, including Pink Out football games (which have caught on widely), organizing the entire campus to produce and participate in a video by alum Tim Halperin, who wrote a really great song “We Fight Back” specifically for the Komen Foundation; hosting special events that brought celebrities and luminaries (and potential big checks from people like Mark Cuban). It really has become an all-school thing, that everyone participates in.
With this news, that consensus is now lost. The Foundation is now tainted by its actions and its association with science-deniers. I will certainly not contribute any money or any more time to it. I am disgusted by this pathetic behavior.
a.j.
ABL Welcome backkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!
I’m a lil esscited, in case you couldn’t tell ;)
AA+ Bonds
@kay:
The larger point is that the right isn’t brilliant, but like everyone else in power nowadays, they have an entire private industry where they pay a lot of educated people ungodly amounts of money to create, disseminate, and execute strategies
This is relatively new – this is the culture of consultancy, which has taken over business and politics alike
The issue is not that these strategies are devastatingly successful – the whole business is neither an art nor a science but a grift, a Godless priesthood – but that attempting to detect these strategies, and refining one’s hypotheses based on observations, allows a better chance of predicting the right’s institutional behavior
And it is fun for me to try to do this, it’s my version of tracking Katy Perry and Russell Brand through the tabloids
hamletta
I got your pink ribbon, bitches!
That is all.
burnspbesq
@kay:
Absolutely. Dead Charity Walking, starring the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
If you want to give to an organization that is actually making a difference in funding cancer research, try the V Foundation. If you want to plug the gap in PP’s budget created by this travesty, you know what to do.
robertdsc-PowerBook
Welcome back, ABL.
msskwesq
@ABL: ignore the shitheads, ABL. don’t feed the trolls! you are far too good to waste your time!
Anya
@Yutsano: As her hubby, shouldn’t you storm out when she left the place? Internet husbands are lousy.
joeyess
@AA+ Bonds: This one is an even better tip-off.
Tbogg takes it all down in spectacular fashion.
Cacti
Unless the Komen foundation can credibly point to their alternative plan that will provide the same level of access for breast cancer screening in lieu of Planned Parenthood…
Then they’ve made a conscious choice to sacrifice women’s health for an anti-abortion political agenda.
When someone tells you who they are, believe them.
a.j.
ABL Welcome backkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!
I’m a lil escited, in case you couldn’t tell ;)
AxelFoley
@MariedeGournay:
Another comic book junkie here. Yay!
ABL’s back! Double Yay!
different-church-lady
Somewhere in the Trollosphere, a bat light was just lit…
AA+ Bonds
@joeyess:
HAHAHAHA YESSSSSSSS
beltane
Instead of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure they should have the Susan G. Komen Pray for the Cure.
AA+ Bonds
@AxelFoley:
It would have been great if Morrison had kept the Kirby politics :/ we could really use some New Gods right now
Anya
@patroclus: I saw a movie on Saturday and one of the coming attraction movies was “Pink Ribbons,” Inc (here’s the trailer). The story focuses on how women’s experience with cancer became all about corporate marketing and cute pink ribbons.
beltane
@Anya: How timely.
pseudonymous in nc
@Anya: based on this book, I assume. You almost have to admire the so-very-American capacity to embrace what Samantha King calls “consumer-oriented philanthropy” — to substitute “buying crap” for advocacy and activism. Almost.
SarahT
@CaliCat: PLEASE don’t call these people ‘pro-life’: ‘Pro-Fetus’is much more accurate, or just ‘anti-choice’. They certainly don’t give a rat’s ass about women’s lives, or even post-birth children !
ellie
I gave some money to Planned Parenthood tonight because of this and will do so again in the future. I also contacted SGK and told them how appalled I was by their decision.
Nicole
The SGK Facebook page has a post up about Energizer’s financial contributions to them. Seems to me some angry letters to the company couldn’t hurt.
pragmatism
YAYBL
Jewish Steel
AY BEE EL! That is just the dopest thing I have seen all day. This blog is a better place with you all up in it.
@kay: Charity malpractice. Couldn’t agree more. How could they not see that they were alienating around half of their potential contributors? Atonishing.
policomic
In spite of the bad tidings you bear (RE: Komen), glad to have you back, ABL.
smith
I tweeted them to let them know I donated to Planned Parenthood in their “honor.” I doubt they’ll care, but it felt good to get it off my chest.
Satanicpanic
I read about this somewhere else. What a stupid, shortsighted move.
Roger Moore
@PhoenixRising:
Nit: it’s not that people necessarily become low income when they get cancer* but that they face incredible expenses. They’re not exactly the same thing.
*Though they certainly can become low income if they’re so sick they can’t work and lose their jobs. Yet one more reason it’s insane to tie health coverage to employment.
JGabriel
Welcome back, ABL/Imani!
.
Jamie
I actually used to give money to Komen. Two survivors in my family, who were helped by them.
I just informed them today that that money would now be going to PP.
Welcome back, ABL! And the biters can hate me. Or something like that.
Brian S
Welcome back ABL. I’ll fire the pie filter back up (though I can’t say I ever turned it off, really). I’m making a donation to PP on payday and sending a note to Komen to thank them for motivating me to do it.
Anya
@beltane: It was a very interesting trailer. I am definitely going to see. I asked all of my facebook friends to post it on Komen’s wall. But for some reason, they keep deleting it.
@pseudonymous in nc: Thanks for the recommendation. I will get it from the library. I just finished the final Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books, so I am looking for something non fiction.
P.S. b-quote fail. The last paragraph was supposed to be in the block-quote.
patroclus
@Anya: Well, up until tonight, I didn’t mind all the unproductive glitz so long as the money they raised actually went to great causes like Planned Parenthood, which actually provides breast cancer screenings to women who otherwise couldn’t afford it. But now that they’ve sacrificed their reputation in furtherance of an anti-woman agenda and won’t fund such screenings, they are now nothing more than yet another sleazy anti-choice right-wing media group more concerned with politics than women’s health.
It’s such a shame. TCU basically turned over the entire fricking campus to the Komen Foundation one day each year and this has been going on for almost a decade, with virtually unanimous support from all facets of the university community. It’s been a HUGE deal; growing every single year.
Now, it’s all utterly wasted. This is a terrible, pathetic move by the Foundation and they have completely lost my support.
Anya
@smith: They will care. They are about marketing and this will give them a huge marketing headache. They’ve been deleting wall posts furiously.
smith
@Anya:
I hope you’re right and that they will care.
phoebes-in-santa fe
You know, isn’t SGK based in Dallas? I wonder if a bunch of rich Republican women got hold of it and took over? Stranger things have happened.
Zelma
As everyone has noted, welcome back ABL. I’d miss your posts.
I’m glad that this action is getting some press. I have a very personal interest is all this. First, I am a beast cancer survivor. I have recently agreed to serve on the advisory board of the local Komen grant program. I live in a strange county: rich resort towns along the coast and the highest poverty rate in a rich state inland. (Or as we call it, off shore.) For many women in most of the county, the Komen grant is the only provider of breast cancer screening and support.
Yet I am also a staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood. Over forty years ago, shortly after Griswold v. Connecticut, I depended on its services in said state to allow me to avoid pregnancy (before and after marriage) and complete my graduate degree. I support the PP with as much generosity as possible every month.
I am tempted to resign from the advisory board in protest, but am torn because I know how important its activities are in a very underserved area. I will certainly register my protest but wonder which is the greater good.
Perhaps this new controversy will help to highlight what I fear is a much under-covered aspect of the current Republican campaign: its animus toward women’s autonomy. The female front pagers at Balloon Juice and other liberal websites and Rachel Maddow frequently point out the anti-woman stance of the Republicans, but I usually feel that it is not a pressing issue to many posters and commentators who tend to be more male than female.
I had an interesting conversation with my cousin tonight. A Republican, she is actually leaning towards Obama. She hates Newt and distrusts Romney. But she suggested that she likes Santorum. It took me one minute of describing Santorum’s position towards abortion and birth control to convince her that he is an unacceptable candidate.
Like me, my cousin is a woman “of a certain age” who remembers (and experienced) the frightening days before Roe v Wade. Like me, she remembers what it was like when women were forced to bear children they didn’t want and couldn’t care for. Like me, she understands that denying women the right to control their own bodies (and their own sexuality) demeans them and makes them second rate citizens. But like many other women who are busy with their lives and the daily struggles of this current unforgiving economy, my cousin is not really aware of what a Republican victory would mean for women’s most basic rights. And this is because we Democrats are unwilling to point this out clearly and unequivocally.
No one “likes” abortion; it’s a sad choice to have to make. But it must be a woman’s choice and no one else’s. We have to make these issues more central and clearer. These are winning issues with many women if they are cogently and effectively presented. We have to do better.
Gee, I’ve never written such an extensive post before. I guess this really resonates with me.
Scamp Dog
What in the world possessed them that made them put someone like that on their board? That’s a stunning example of either not vetting prospective board members, or not thinking through what they’d probably do on the board. No matter which is is, it’s FAIL!
slag
I’m with kay. What an idiot move by Komen. First to hire this waste of a uterus from Georgia and then to engage in this battle. Not only will Planned Parenthood get money from me on Komen’s behalf, but from now on, Komen walkers will be getting nothing more than the ol’ stink eye. Assholes.
ETA And for perspective’s sake, I should probably add that my mother died from breast cancer at age 53 so I’m not remotely inured to the horrors of breast cancer. Fuck these people for the disservice they’re doing to women everywhere.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
Does this mean you’re back? I hope so. It’s about damned time.
Anya
@patroclus: When I read this at Jezebel this afternoon I was so furious. I wanted to go home and burn all the pink crap I purchased throughout the years. Although, I hopped of the pink cart once I got more information about the use of women’s suffering for corporate marketing.
I hope all the campuses around the country are mobilized in support of PP and against Komen Foundation and their rightwing masters. I am fucking tired of fuckwits who politicize women’s health.
Uriel
@AA+ Bonds:
No. Just no.
Also welcome back ABL. I’m sure Timmy will be so pleased.
ETA- Don’t get me wrong, I loves me some Apokolips. But the rest of them? Gash. Worst roster ever.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Hi Imani,
Thanks for coming back! You’ve got a great voice and I enjoy reading you here (and at your own site).
Thank you very much for this post. It’s infuriating, but the actions of Komen’s management need to get the widest audience possible.
Take care.
Cheers,
Scott.
Midnight Marauder
@kay:
I feel like they rarely think their cunning plans through. They just rely on their belief that they can bully into submission anyone who dares to call them out on their bullshit.
Usually, they are correct in this assumption.
Montana
Yes! Welcome back. I enjoy your voice.
BonnyAnne
It is ridiculous, how happy I am that you have posted on this, ABL. A) cuz I hates me the SGK, and B) eeeeeeeeee ABL eeeeeeeee! Actually made my night, etc etc. Excitable fangirl is excitable.
Welcome back, also, too!
thalarctos
Yay! Glad you’re back!
Sorry it had to be this topic, but very happy to see you anyway.
MaxB
I’m happy to see you posting here agin, ABL. The place just ain’t the same without you.
Made my donation to PP.
AA+ Bonds
@Uriel:
:( I think liberalism could probably stand to reabsorb lessons from its WWII/1960s past through Orion, Mister Miracle, and Barda:
1) No one is born evil,
2) No one can be made evil,
3) No one has to stay evil.
Orion was traded to New Genesis so that he could infect it with evil, Scott Free was taken in return so that he could be corrupted, and Barda was both bred and raised to cause pain and torment. But ultimately, Darkseid fails in every way – and the story was always meant to end with Orion’s victory over Darkseid.
These aren’t even lessons that I truly buy, neo-Hobbesian that I am, but they were what gave us anything and everything good that the liberal consensus brought to America, and they’re the lessons given to us by a scrappy veteran with a personal vision who fought tooth and nail to see it realized, without compromise, by his own hand.
Anyway, if you haven’t read Morrison’s Mister Miracle, it’s well worth the multiple artist change-ups, and honestly I’d suggest Seven Soldiers across the board – whether or not you tend to like Morrison. The whole thing is in two hardcovers now.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Zelma:
And a beautiful post it is. What a difficult position you are in.
slag
Any chance of getting a Planned Parenthood ActBlue page for this issue? It would be a pleasant change of pace to see a leftwing blogospheric Voltron form on behalf of privacy rights and personal sovereignty.
suzanne
Happy happy that you’re back.
Fuck you, Handel. Wondering how many donations you’ll cost your employer before you get handed your own ass. I have a feeling it won’t be long.
Soonergrunt
Welcome back, Milady. And dare I say, fuck the haters!
AA+ Bonds
@Midnight Marauder:
Oh, they “think it through” all right. They have offices full of people working full time to think, and think, and think about how to coordinate these things and carry them out, and white papers, contingency plans, risk management, the whole ISO-standard platter. It is a business, it pays a lot, and you’ll never even know the names of most of their people.
It doesn’t mean their strategies work. But they are there, and they can be discerned, and their behavior can be predicted, and what successes they do have can be countered.
And when that doesn’t happen, they can do damage. They didn’t take down Clinton, but they managed to impeach a sitting President over consensual sexual behavior, and steal the 2000 election, and plunge us into never-ending war.
They helped turn a left-wing response to Wall Street’s misdeeds into a pro-Wall-Street faux-populist “rebellion” just two years later.
I can’t say it enough times: read Blinded by the Right. Your eyes will open.
The entire analysis of the right-wing media, of the “vast right wing conspiracy”, owes a huge debt to David Brock – a man who was a part of it for a very long time, and when he got sick of being the token gay, he decided to do everything he could to show the rest of us his world.
Hence MediaMatters.org – another thing you should read, and daily.
Death Panel Truck
@clayton:
I share Keith’s sentiment.
My mother died of breast cancer 29 years ago. Or does that not count?
Jibeaux
Gave PP $50. They were my primary care provider in college, so I really owe them more. Probably set up a recurring donation when I can afford it. February unfortunately is brutal budget-wise.
Ms.B
Welcome back, ABL
What a fucking relief to see you here again.
I’m always late to threads on BL, but this one is so personal it doesn’t matter that I’m talking to myself, pretty much. I was lucky enough to have breast cancer at stage 0 (ungodly lucky) but had to have a mastectomy. I’d been to the Komen walks before, but only one since having cancer. I got so many goodie bags of absolute plastic junk, t-shirts I’ll never wear. Imagine how much money is spent on that crap? Money and stupid plastic stuff donated to Komen for walks that could go to actual research or treatment so companies get their advertising.
And now this, which doesn’t surprise me much, really, but that’s it. All moneys to PP.
Dee Loralei
I am so fucking glad you are back! Dear God, I have missed you! (Yes, I know we do that twitter thang, but, still….)I have missed you woman! Consider my disgust with the Komen Foundation emailed to them.
YAY!!#HappyImaniisbackdance!
Cain
F@ABL:
But how? He’s got both his hands on his wanker..!
Welcome back, madame good to see you here again! :)
CaliCat
@SarahT:
Yeah, I get it, Sarah, but I don’t think referring to them as “pro-life” is such a bad thing. They’ve already made sure that moniker connotes something quite different than what it means. Anyway, imo, that train left the station a long time ago and no amount of re-branding by us liberals will change how the anti-choice people are viewed in this country. You’re either with them or against them. Sorry if I seem pessimistic, but I don’t think the term “forced birth” is going to catch on no matter how often we use it.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Well holy moley and good golly! :)
Whatever the upgrade is, bring ABL v2.0 on! Welcome back you Angry Person!! ;)
When I heard about this today I told my wife and daughter about it since they are runners and have been supporting the Run for the Cure for years now. Both of them are surprised by the move and are letting the SGK organization know that they screwed the pooch on this one. They are not supporting anything SGK, including endorsed products, and will instead support PP since it’s clear to them which organization not only cares about women but does something about it.
Shout it loud ABL!
freelancer
This brought and instant shit-eating grin to my mug! Yay! Never leave, or if you do, say that “it’s complicated” next time.
<3
Grover Gardner
Made my donation to PP, signed the petition and posted on the SGK message board.
pacified
perhaps the posting of cole’s pic was part of the deal getting ABL 2.0 to appear.
Yutsano
@Cain:
Uhh..eww.
And I knew that make-up sex was gonna be teh HAWT!!
CaliCat
@Grover Gardner: That’s great, Grover, I need to follow suit!
Odie Hugh Manatee
Calling these assholes “pro-life” is wrong, they are Pro-Birth. The reason is because once the child is born they don’t give a shit what happens to it if it isn’t white and doesn’t grow up to be one of them. They don’t give a shit about anything but the birth, nothing else, even if it’s the result of a rape or ends in the death of the Mother.
Most importantly of all (in their view) is that it punishes girls and women for having sex.
They like that.
@Dick Dastardly:
I see that you failed on your first attempt at passing by her post without commenting and I predict that you will continue to do so. Why?
Because haters like you have to hate. See ya around!
Odie Hugh Manatee
My wife said that she can’t wait to hear an announcement soon that SGK will fund breast exams through those conservative women’s health centers. You know, the ones that are there only to try and talk women into not having abortions and do little else for them?
She says that the lines at those clinics ought to be pretty short.
Nancy
God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world. Welcome back ABL.
Tbogg has a link to sign a petition to Komen.
Carolinus
I’d like to see SGK’s chief scientific advisor asked if his grant recommendations have changed, and if so, why:
http://ww5.komen.org/AboutUs/ScientificAdvisoryBoard.html
http://www.mlive.com/opinion/muskegon/index.ssf/2011/11/letters_letter_clarifies_komen.html
http://apps.komen.org/Forums/tm.aspx?m=200701
…
Yutsano
@Odie Hugh Manatee: OT: saw the Dem won Wu’s old seat. Not predicting anything off that since it was Portland, but any time we can get wingnut tears an angel gets its wings.
opie jeanne
ABL!!!! LOVE YOU!
So glad you’re back.
As soon as I got the email from PP I posted it on FB this afternoon, and a lot of my friends and family didn’t know about it until then. Their reaction was gratifying.
Phil Perspective
@Jay: Speaking of HolyJoe, it was the Woman Who Shall Not Be Named that 18 months ago, or so, spilled the beans that Komen wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and was likely just a RWNJ front.
Chuck Butcher
@Yutsano:
A part of Portland running out to the coast, lots of rural and suburbia. CD3 is also there.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i think its odd, komen has been in the business of making breast cancer awareness(and fundraising) everyone’s business. in their effort to broaden the scope of their operations, and work the mainstream they have even gotten mlb and the nfl on board. pink bats, gloves, cleats, spikes, etc…
they have been selling the line that breast cancer is everyone’s business, and when it comes to raking it in, they want everyone involved.
but when it comes to doling it out, they have become quite particular about who’s breasts they care about. i mean if breast cancer touches everyone’s life, then shouldn’t they be everywhere?
the bible thumpers are occupying our ivory tower.
hamletta
@Carolinus: Yeah, it’s gonna get ugly.
The people who care about such wacky ideas as women’s health are going to speak up, and if they don’t, people will be asking why.
Even though this decision kame from a Krazy Kristian, a lot of mainline churches will be reconsidering their participation if this decision outlasts its PR explosion.
debbie
The women I know who do work for Komen will be rethinking their involvement. Most of them also work with PP.
Colleen
Glad to see you back ABL. I never raced in any of their little races or supported them any way but you can bet I’ll be at their next little rally with some info for the dupes who support these pinkers. Tbogg has some good links in his story on these scammers.
Keith G
@clayton: Your emo chatter is almost humorous. My comment had nothing to do the immoral decisions of the evil doers at Komen, or cancer, or even the quality of this well written post that I will share with friends. I was just noting mercurial behavior.
Scott
Late to the party ’cause I went to sleep early last night, but YAY, ABL!
And Komen can suck it. I already know more than one cancer survivor who can’t stand pink ribbons — I’m hoping this shutters them for good.
Arclite
Baby came back!
Sweet!
mothra
You know, I used to believe that The Handmaid’s Tale was a good book, but overblown. Wrong again. These folks have no bottom. They are in a state of panic and crisis about the complexity of the modern world, Andrey their solution is to come down hard on the rest of us till we are subdued.
mothra
Kindle keeps changing my words. “And they”, not Audrey.
lacp
As many other commenters have pointed out, Komen is pretty much a fraud (and I do work for a nonprofit, so I have a pretty good idea of how bad that ratio of program expenses to total expenses really is). And the clown with his goddam federal investigation (on our dime!) can stick it where the sun don’t shine.
Welcome back, ABL…in whatever version you prefer!
MattMinus
I guess some shitty, thin skinned blogger realized nobody reads the grio…
Wilson Heath
Welcome back!
Going to the emergency fund link now.
elftx
fuck fuck fuck Handel and her political minions..signed the petition and will boycott anything associated with this pitiful excuse of a helping foundation
Brutusettu
Back to part of why the defunding happened, I’m sure that getting pregnant isn’t a health concern, and any woman that gets pregnant and doesn’t get any healthcare or health related tips will surely have not elevated health risk of dying.
—
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20427256/ns/health-pregnancy/t/more-us-women-dying-childbirth/#.Tyk53YFfRqw
U.S. maternal mortality rate was 12 per 100,000 live births in 2003
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5511a1.htm
1.5 maternal deaths 100,0000 per abortion in 2001
2.5 in 2002
bjacques
Welcome back ma’am!
The lost moolah from being the middle(wo)men for Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening funds alone is a massive PR FAIL. You know that internet, the thingy with all the tubes in it, that helped Democrats outspend Republicans in 2008? Well you PISSED IT OFF! Awhile ago, as it turns out.
I guess in a way this fits their mission of raising breast cancer awareness, since I bet a lot of people didn’t know PP do breast cancer screenings (I’d honestly never thought of it, and I did women’s clinic defense many moons ago). As perhaps does getting the attention of a well-known internet site, one of whose founders is fighting breast cancer right now counts as raising awareness to.
Somewhat related, the Dutch affiliate of Pink Ribbon was busted for general uselessness last fall. Ladies who lunch and throw lavish parties, pinkwashing for Estee Lauder, merchandising of junk and little money going to the actual cause. They tried to pick a fight with a local writer who had lost a breast to cancer, and predictably lost.
SGK’s politics are stupid enough, but they’ve also opened the question about their fitness for purpose in a time when donations are especially precious.
Cris (without an H)
Dear friends and family who vote Republican: you are objectively pro-cancer.
Samara Morgan
please come back ABL.
this site is dying without you.
Paul in KY
@Dick Dastardly: You poor baby. Hope you don’t get carpel tunnel syndrome from all that awful scrolling.
Paul in KY
@Zelma: Excellent post.
Paul in KY
@CaliCat: Well, as long as you air-quote it, then you can use it…
Also, glad to see you back, ABL.
etherealfire
ABL, just de-lurking to say I am so very glad you are back and it’s good to be reading you at BJ again!
etherealfire
ABL, just de-lurking to say I am so very glad you are back and it’s good to be reading you at BJ again!
Tonybrown74
@Death Panel Truck:
Because a reply to an asshole post that doesn’t even mention your name is ALL ABOUT YOU.
Get outta here with that shit!
Mnemosyne
Oh, man, I missed ABL’s triumphant return. That’s what I get for actually spending an internet-free evening with my husband.
Welcome back, ABL!
metricpenny
Welcome back ABL! I’m happy that you and your baby daddy made up. I figured you would as soon as the child support payment was due again. LOL!
The Komen Foundation has decided to become a fool for the republican party. Unfortunately there’s no cure for stupid.
Gravie
I just made a $50 donation to Planned Parenthood. Thanks for providing the mechanism. And welcome back!
Oh, OK Then...
Got an email from the Greater Nashville Affiliate. They wanted to reassure me that “We at the Greater Nashville Affiliate are not part of these overarching decisions.”
Why? “Currently, Planned Parenthood does not receive funding from the Greater Nashville Affiliate.”
So there you are. Their funding in the Nashville area is unaffected.
Good of them to set me straight. They were already on my s*%t list, I just didn’t know it until today.
ellie mae clampett
Anyone see the hypocrisy of a charity cringing to the so-called “pro-life” right wing frothing at the mouth freaks while denying living sentient impoverished women the right to screens? Anyone, anyone? Karen Handel, failed republikkkan candidsis of Georgia (of course), the “media relations” pig in part responsible for this travesty at Komen is a sight. Shame on Komen! They need to reverse their ill-advised fail. (Karen H. is a pancake makeup wearing fundamentalist beyootch.)