Next: Pink Electric Chairs!
In case Komen hadn’t satisfied its desire to paint itself as a right-wing organization with its defunding of Planned Parenthood, it wanted to make it very clear to all of us where it falls on the political spectrum:
Just in time for the rising backlash to its self-created public relations disaster, the Susan G. Komen Foundation—which announced this week that it would pull its funding from Planned Parenthood—has teamed up with Discount Gun Sales to market pink handguns.
An unknown portion of sales will be donated to the Komen Foundation’s Seattle branch in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It retails for $429.99 [sic'd]:
I really think it would be special if Texas would dye the chemicals it uses to execute innocent people pink. Imagine the positive publicity!
….Or maybe Komen is trying to fool us into thinking it has caved.
Let’s call it “wakes up to reality,” not “caving” or the next thing you’ll know, they’ll give up all pretenses and fund only Botox injections for rich white women.
Is that a breast cancer research gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Feh. Keep an eye on ‘em. They’ll just try to do it again, but more quietly.
Defund the bastards and end the gravy train for the wingnuts in charge of this charade.
Considering the apparent increase in funds raised by Planned Parenthood, and the likely declines in funds raised by Komen, the point is somewhat moot.
i hope to god that planned parenthood says “the chalice is poisoned and komen and its scumbag board should go fuck themselves and we’re no longer interested in their disgusting money.”
We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.
[insert wry observation about horses and barn doors here]
Yeah, I think that particular rat is well and thoroughly fucked.
‘Politics,’ like ‘interests,’ are always something the other side has.
At this point Komen’s can’t clean up the shit it’s dumped all over its brand, although it can stop dumping.
Caving without a thorough purging–and I doubt they’ll really purge–won’t do them any good with the left, and caving regardless will leave the right wing bitter, angry, and targeting Komen like they’ve targeted ACORN and Planned Parenthood. Komen’s going to see diminished revenues going forward no matter what.
I was already angry enough that, if action isn’t taken, I planned on a little civil disobedience with respect to their posters and flags all over NYC advertising the Race For The Cure.
And I’m a dude. I can only imagine how someone like Amanda M. would react.
I think the executive board has to be “future endeavoured”
Personally, even sacking the board isn’t enough. One side effect of this brouhaha has been a lot of information coming out about Komen’s history. Now I know that Komen has a longstanding practice of lobbying against government funding of mammograms for poor women because they want funding done through means that enrich Komen. I know that over half of Komen’s spending goes to administrative overhead and “awareness” in an era in which breast cancer awareness is no longer a significant issue. I know now about their history of suing people for using the color pink or the phrase “for the cure.”
My best guess is that the real reason for the cave was essentially to stop more information of this sort from coming out. The cave is more-or-less a political wash given how the right-wing works. My next guess is that this means that there’s more information showing a history of self-dealing and corruption at Komen that would come out if people continued with their current focus on Komen.
From my perspective, for Komen to seem like a legitimate organization going forward it’s not enough for Komen’s board to be sacked. Komen needs to throw open its books to public scrutiny and do something on the order of giving Planned Parenthood a permanent seat on the board.
A permanent seat for PP makes little sense. Adding some women’s health professionals and decreasing the Dallas Junior League representation is probably a better goal.
I would pay to attend board meetings if Komen added Cecile Richards.
BTW, Komen’s website was hacked.
There is a special place in hell for people who post tiny-ized URLs without indicating where they link to.
I only copied the link I clicked, sorry.
Has nae to do with politics: Komen would brand most anything pink, provided that they got a sufficient cut of the proceeds.
And speaking of horses and barn doors, there’s been a lot of dissatisfaction building up over the years about how Komen runs itself, but people have been content to look the other way. People won’t be so willing to look the other way now.
Sorry, I can’t be bothered to respond — I’m too busy smoking pink crack.
Supporting breast cancer while obliterating one’s mind–that’s a policy we can all get behind!
So wait – you’re in favor of breast cancer now?
Obviously as I am a moral monster.
But is it official Komen crack? If it isn’t, your dealer better hope that Komen doesn’t hear about it.
The next season of Breaking Bad will feature Walter White’s new meth recipe, which gives a pink tint to the finished product.
You jest, but…
Here’s what Komen is really afraid of people finding out:
Too late. Pandora’s out of the box, and isn’t going back in.
The question is has hope escaped the box already or will shutting it at least retain that scrap?
Between that, and the heightened awareness that SGK isn’t the only breast cancer charity in town (just the most visible), it’s a big ol’ can of worms that isn’t easily resealable.
As I said on twitter, “Let’s put it behind us” is the Cri de Couer of those who don’t want their future bad acts interpreted in light of their past bad acts
It’s a funny joke, but it’s “dye” not “die”
/pointless pedantry
I find this quote from Komen’s apparent reversal to be problematic:
Yeah, right. I’m sure the charges related in this story were not at all politically influenced:
So, is it safe to say that Komen has aborted this policy?
Sadly, no.
The cave is excessively weasel-wordy. It reads like a non-apology apology, an effort to sweep disaster under the rug in the hopes that people will stop checking your floors for dirt sometime soon and you can then do away with the rug.
As far as I can tell they aren’t saying that PP will continue to get funding, only that PP is eligible again. Doesn’t really change anything. It’s a non-reversal reversal.
They also never threatened to pull funds that were already granted. They only eliminated PP as eligible to apply for future grants
Or what Joe said below :-)
But the original change in policy was to take away their eligibility. Here’s the original policy change:
And now they’re reversing that, saying that they will be eligible for new grants:
This is a complete reversal of what they stated they were going to do.
They just find some other way to deny the grant, then, and try to keep it hush-hush.
They can reverse the official policy, but it’s pretty clear that they’re trolling for some reason to defund PP.
Good luck with that. I don’t think they could get away with it if they tried, after the past week.
It’s pretty clear someone was. We’ll see how this all shakes out.
I’m thinking that what they do going forward is largely dependent on the feedback they received from their whales.
If even a few of the foundations that give them money even hinted at pulling grants, their $150mm revenue stream dries up pretty quickly.
Which doesn’t mean that PP will receive any grants. (No, they never said they would defund PP’s existing grants, only not renew them.)
I gather that much of the funding happens at the local, not board, level. So the latest announcement may well make a difference there. But the statement from Komen is just a nice big plate of waffles designed to take the heat off. It would be a pity if it worked.
Neither did the status quo ante. Maybe Komen will scheme some other way to screw Planned Parenthood over the next months and years, but their statement today is an unequivocal reversal.
I’d hate to see your notion of equivocation.
becomes
My idea of equivocation would involve a statement that isn’t a direct contradiction of the statement they’re disavowing.
YMMV.
Changing fom de jure unfunding to what? Maybe de facto unfunding. Until PP gets a new grant I don’t trust them
The old policy is dead. Long live the new policy!
Brilliantly, Komen has now painted itself as weak and shifty — to both sides.
This is the time to request heads on pikestaffs, or as Actor so beautifully put it above, the future endeavoring of the Bored [sic, since I typed it]. Early retirement for the boss would be good, too. The brand is in big trouble, don’t let it climb back up.
Komen is Heath Shuler. I like that analogy.
It isn’t just Planned Parenthood that may have funding cut due to politics:
What gets me isn’t just the sponsoring a gun for cancer research – its that the amount actually given to Komen (never mind how much actually goes to cancer research) is “unknown.”
“Unknown.” Its like they’re begging us to consider how tiny the amount donated to actually fighting cancer will be after you’re done buying your $429.99 gun.
Question: is that a lot of money for that make and model?
Street price looks to be about $300
326.99 from the manufacturer’s website.
That actually isn’t the manufacturer’s website, it’s a gun dealer in Wisconsin who set up a Walther-specific sales site.
The actual manufacturer website has it for $379.
http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=13152&storeId=10002&categoryId=43804&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=43326&top_category=43326
My mistake. Thanks for the correction.
Prices may vary, but the Seattle gun shop in question, which will give the unknown portion of cash to Seattle’s local Komen branch, has regular versions of the Walther P-22 listed for $379.
So the retailer is charging $50 more for the Komen version. I bet Komen gets less than $50.
A “Pink Camo” version of the same gun is $399.
The most common euthanasia solution for veterinarians is already hot pink, to keep from getting it mixed up with anything more benign.
Which means that, if I know anything about Texas, they are already using it.
Here is a trailer for topical documentary.
An interview with its maker.
And its not even an American-made gun. These people are truly Republicans, and, just as you should never, ever vote for Republicans, you should never, ever, ever give Komen one tiny penny. Matter of fact, if you’re feeling energetic, you can write one of the corporations they’ve pink-washed and say you will never buy their product again.
Leaving everything else aside:
A pink handgun! Could one possibly get more Freudian?
The dirty secret is that Kormen is actually a pretty shitty organization. The upside of this controversy is that it has made it OK to call them on being shitty.
Tough to put that toothpaste back in the tube, regardless of what they do on PP.