A mother’s milk : Lone Star Times

A mother’s milk

by The Panda Man · 06/02/2005 9:39 pm

You’ll enjoy this. While compiling my recent story on the Minutemen, I came across this gem on Sheila Jackson Lee’s government web page. It seems that in early May, the intrepid Congresswoman co-sponsored the Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2005.

According to the press release:

“The purposes of this act are to promote the health and well-being of infants whose mothers return to the workplace after childbirth, and to clarify that breastfeeding and expressing breast milk in the workplace are protected conduct under the amendment made by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978.”

Wait, it gets better:

The Act serves to cover four purposes: to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding by new mothers, to provide tax incentives for businesses that establish private lactation areas in the workplace, to provide for a performance standard for breast pumps, and to allow breastfeeding equipment to be tax deductible for families.

In the interests of equality, I am curious to know (but afraid to ask) what male equivalent to “private lactation areas” the congresswoman would support.

Meanwhile, the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space remind us of one of the congresswoman’s shinier moments:

The Congressional bonehead award goes to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) who, on a visit to JPL, asked if Mars Pathfinder had taken an image of the flag planted there in 1969 by Neil Armstrong! Quipped Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) to the Washington Times: "We just don’t teach enough science." Worse, Jackson Lee, who represents Houston, is a member of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee. Perhaps some committee reassignments are in order…

Welcome to the world according to Sheila Jackson Lee: NASA sends probes to Mars looking for the flag from the 1969 landings, women are lactating in closets at work for tax breaks, while non lily white Hurricane “Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K” threatens the Gulf Coast.

Would it make you feel any better if you knew that Representative Jackson Lee is a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security?

I didn’t think so.

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Comments

12 Responses to “A mother’s milk”

gregg on June 3rd, 2005 at 7:32 am

Sheila Jackson Lee has been representing her mostly poor black protected district for many years now. The area is still mostly black and poor. Do these people expect results from their representative at some point or do they just keep voting her into office year after year?
Don Milsop on June 3rd, 2005 at 9:08 am

It gets even better when you consider at that time, Queen Sheila’s gerrymandered district included NASA. But the quote about taking a picture of the flag on Mars is nothing. Please recall after the shooting in Capitol and Tom Delay’s office, Congresswoman Jackson, in describing the action, refered to the Capitol rotunda as a “giant carnivorous building”.
Lindsay Ogden on June 3rd, 2005 at 9:32 am

I would think that conservative family values would encourage the connection of mother and child. While many women choose to return to work, their effort to provide sustenance to their infants should be lauded and supported. While breast-pump tax breaks may irritate the Libertarians among us, I wonder if any wealthy, corporate-minded conservative has ever refused to take advantage of tax loop holes to benefit himself. Why shouldn’t a family benefit from the choice to nourish their child properly? The consumption of breast milk has been shown to reduce illness in children, thereby increasing the productivity of parents in the work place. The economy will get the money back in terms of total productivity. And God will be pleased that his littlest ones are getting the nourishment He intended for them.
John H. on June 3rd, 2005 at 10:52 am

“The area is still mostly black and poor.”

Are you suggesting that with other representation, they wouldn’s still be black?
Mahlon on June 3rd, 2005 at 12:08 pm

I have it! Nothing against mothers and healthy babies, however…..How about introducing legislation to abolish the U.S. Department of Education (which is truly unconstitutional)and take the billion$ we’d save every year to send Shiela and her minions to Mars to pick up Neil’s flag! She’d be out of our hair for a few years and we’d have less of the nonsensical proposals presented and passed that cost the taxpayers money and make her feel good about doing something "for the children"! Any seconders?

JEREMY WEIDENHOF ADDS: Sounds like an effective use of NASA’s resources to me.
Erika D on June 3rd, 2005 at 1:51 pm

"In the interests of equality, I am curious to know (but afraid to ask) what male equivalent to “private lactation areas” the congresswoman would support."

I’m really curious now to know what the male equivalent to lactating is… since you want an equivalent to the private lactation areas…

Oh, that’s right - males don’t lactate, so there would not be one.

Perhaps your feeling of being discriminated against would be softened if you men were provided with a family room at work, but since you don’t bring your children to the office with you, it would be another moot point.

- Erika

JEREMY WEIDENHOF RESPONDS: Ladies, ladies please. I see that some of you have taken offense at my story, but allow me to point out that it was simply a light-hearted look at some of Representative Jackson Lee’s efforts at tackling the serious issues of our day. I assure you that none of the men here at LST have anything against breasts, feeding, or lactation.
Lee Hopkins on June 3rd, 2005 at 3:04 pm

I am suprised she did not think it was Lance Armstrong.
Kathy on June 3rd, 2005 at 4:11 pm

Hurricanes are destructive, mindless, have no sense of direction, show up at the most inopportune time, monopolize the media, and costs taxpayers money………………..Let’s call them “Sheila Jacksons”.

My father, Mack Price, gets the credit for this clever response to her absolute waste of time comments about Hurricane naming.
Gary Stover on June 3rd, 2005 at 6:05 pm

Sheila Jackson Lee [D ], the Congresswoman from Texas who helped co-sponsorship of the Breatfeeding Promotion Act of 2005 proves what I have been saying about the perverted DNC under Howard Dean, and the Democratic Party as a whole, What a bunch of Boobs !”
Al on June 4th, 2005 at 12:09 pm

I had the pleasure of being in Bill Archer’s district for a few years until the democrats did their gerrymandering (yes, the dems also are guilty of gerrymandering). They then left it up to the courts to redraw the district lines instead of doing the work they were elected to do (this seems to be a problem with the democrat party). Anyhow, I ended up in Sheila Jackson Lee’s gulag. Talk about taxation without representation. SJL is a perfect example of why afirmative action doesn’t work.

I was able to escape her district by moving since the Republicans saw fit to protect her district when they had the power to redraw district lines. You may remember when the democrats fled to Oklahoma and then to New Mexico rather than do the job they were elected to do.
Smacktle on October 9th, 2006 at 12:03 pm

The male equivalent of a lactating area for men would be a masterbater station. Hey, men have their needs too!
LivelyDJ on October 9th, 2006 at 12:31 pm

SJL has been an embarrassment for so long it’s scary. From the time she was in council here.

Problem #1 is we don’t seem to be able to find a conservative to run against her. Who the money in the party will back to get down in the dirt with her. Because it would be a dirty campaign. A major part of her voting block is also the heights and Hispanics. What they need to be slapped in the face with is a list of everything she has promised and not delivered, a list of the boneheaded comments she has made and the things she’s been busted for. Like use congressional money to have a car take her from her home in DC to her office. That’s less than 3 blocks btw.