This is great!

Or maybe I should say this is refreshing.

Usually when you get one of these scandals and they start throwing guys in suits off the cliff, they have the good taste to say they're going to spend more time with their families or something.

Not Karen Handel, though. Her letter of "resignation" embodies the nasty, snarling tone that we've also gotten from the boss. "I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it."

In addition, rather than stick to the story that the defunding of Planned Parenthood was based on their concern for organizations that are under investigation, the letter also confirms what activists and analysts have been saying: that the decision was politically motivated to distance Komen from Planned Parenthood.

At the November Board meeting, the Board received a detailed review of the new model and related criteria. As you will recall, the Board specifically discussed various issues, including the need to protect our mission by ensuring we were not distracted or negatively affected by any other organization’s real or perceived challenges. No objections were made to moving forward.

"Well, I think one of the benefits that has come from this saga is now the broad majority of Americans realize the Komen connection to the world's foremost abortion provider," Brian Harris, the director of Tennessee Right to Life, told The Christian Post. "Millions of pro-life Americans – who have momentum now – will know to avoid any involvement with Komen until they become consistently committed to protecting all human life."

Got that? The anti-choicers were agitating to cut off Planned Parenthood, they were happy when the Komen group went along with their demands, and they got pissed off when Komen changed their minds.

In addition, Handel has now confirmed that the investigation excuse was bogus, and that their decision was political.

Maybe they should have given Handel a better severance package, huh?

The haters behind the Susan G. Komen Foundation

It's less than a week after the giant Komen fiasco and people are still asking what seems like an obvious question: How could such a principled, benevolent organization get so badly led astray?

If you look at the people at the top, the people making the decisions and pulling the strings, not only is the answer obvious, but the question is seen as badly misguided.

We'll touch lightly on the big boss, who went on MSNBC in the midst of the controversy to lie about their decision, and has so far paid no price for her actions.

Let's just take one step down the corporate ladder, though, and see who's running the organization.

First in this rogues' gallery must be Karen Handel, a right wing former Georgia Secretary of State who was endorsed by Sarah Palin to "fight what the federal government will want to do to our states" when she ran for governor. Even before she was hired by Komen,, Handel was saying "since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood."

Another key player, an outside consultant rooted in the extreme right, is the odious Ari Fleischer, whose prior job was telling lies for George W. Bush. When Komen was looking for a new Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations they called on Fleischer to run the search. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood. You might consider that a pretty normal question, except that Fleischer was already on record as an enemy of Planned Parenthood. In his book, Taking Heat, Fleischer criticized Planned Parenthood as a partisan, ideological organization that receives undeserved positive coverage in the press. In 2001, Fleischer said that the Clinton administration verged too far to the left on family planning efforts because “if Planned Parenthood wanted it, the previous administration favored it.”

Finally, from the outside the anti-woman, anti-choice forces were supported by Charmaine Yoest, who runs Americans United for Life, who has been attacking Planned Parenthood for years. Americans United for Life has, for the past year, aggressively pushed Congress to end Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. It has also drafted model legislation that states can use to bar abortion providers from receiving federal funds. Nine states have passed such laws, although the Obama administration has blocked their implementation. If you think this is the end of her war against Planned Parenthood, think again. Ezra Klein reports that she darkly warns that she will be "be looking at their other supporters". It was her work that got the bogus Congressional witch hunt against Planned Parenthood started.

So there you have it. The Komen organization is closely tied to a variety of anti-woman hate groups, and there isn't any sign that's going to change anytime soon.

Boycott Susan G. Komen Foundation

Breaking from all over: The Susan G. Komen Foundation has announced that it will cut off all funding for breast cancer screenings to Planned Parenthood.

Or, to be more specific, they conveniently just adopted a new policy barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. According to Komen, this applies to Planned Parenthood because it's the focus of an inquiry launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., seeking to determine whether public money was improperly spent on abortions.


You know what Planned Parenthood is. It's the group with chapters all across the country that provides health care to women and men in such vital areas as family planning and cancer screening. In so doing, Planned Parenthood has probably done more to reduce abortions than any other single organization.

And SGK? The behemoth plastering every product and event it can get its hands on with pink, and spending over a million dollars a year bullying any other organization that even comes close to its "For the Cure" trademark.

Planned Parenthood received $680,000 in 2011 and $580,000 in 2010 from Komen for breast-cancer screening and related services. Nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams were supported by Komen grants.

This is a new low. While they claim they are trying to protect the purity of their funding, it seems more likely that they're trying to protect themselves against association with the anti-choice, anti-sex attacks leveled against Planned Parenthood.

The Susan G. Komen message boards are being flooded with comments from women protesting this betrayal of women's health concerns. I encourage you to add your voice.

There are also "Boycott Susan G. Komen" groups popping up on Facebook, and here's where I suggest caution. If you read the group descriptions, at least one of these groups is an anti-choice cause basing its attacks on the fact that SGK was giving money to Planned Parenthood. The group to join is the one I just linked to, not the Boycott Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, which is the anti-choice group.

So today would be a good day to join the Facebook group, let them know how seriously you take this attack on choice and women's health, and contribute to Planned Parenthood's Breast Health Emergency Fund.