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Archive for the ‘Feminism’ Category

My Back Yard

Posted in Feminism, Human Rights, Humanism, Indigenous, Justice, Politics, War, tagged , , , , on February 25, 2010| 2 Comments »

Prisons, asylums, pedophiles, crooks, other felons who have completed “rehabilitation” (Whatever that might mean these days.) halfway houses, shelters: proximity to all these can change a home’s value.

I have a home. I have thought about what it might mean if someone with a criminal past takes up residence nearby. Call me a bleeding heart liberal, but confronted with the idea of these folks next door, I am undisturbed. People who have completed their sentence should be entitled to reenter the public stream. If I learned that some of these folks were still more dangerous than my other neighbors, I would become alert, but I would jump to the arguments of improper rehabilitation, inadequate understanding of the nature of human behavior, like that in pedophiles, poverty, pain, inadequate upbringing and subsequent failure of personal accountability. However, under the existing law they were entitled to try and begin anew. Rather, existing law should be rewritten to better address failures of rehabilitation, and rehabilitation, itself, should be changed.

I have great difficulty however, with the idea of a group of people moving into my neighborhood who are unrepentantly dedicated to the twin propositions of hatred and separatism. Since I choose to embrace the diversity of humanity, and I am a woman, I am a co-habitator and enemy of such groups; worthy therefore, of shooting, or maybe worse, since the bullet may have more value than me. It’s a personal conundrum, that the price of diversity means enmity, and that I would choose restriction for those who would shoot me as some form of first amendment rights, but have not yet done so. This is how I feel, and I am unable to reconcile it.

Consider then, Oregon, one of my favorite places, the home of relatives, and my husband’s childhood. Now, it is true that Eastern and Southern Oregon tends to the more conservative side. There are, as well, there are other rightist themes about. WorldNetDaily is alive and well in Roseburg. As a nest for right wing rabid bats, certain areas have found themselves over the years to be dripping in guano. Yet, it is no small thing when an Idaho Chapter of the Aryan Nations announces their intent to locate to John Day, Oregon.

From the perspective of a Californian, I also don’t like the idea that in a national emergency, Highway 395, the main backdoor road riding the spine of California and dipping into Reno, could be subject to the bottleneck of survivalist separatist antics of a racist group like the Aryan Nations. It smacks of the bad side of the TV series “Jericho”.

So though I have avoided it, finally today, I joined Facebook. HERE is why.

Don’t let this happen, John Day!!!  John Day is too beautiful a place to drip in guano.

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This ‘n That

Posted in 51 Percent, Congress, Feminism, Finance, Health and Food, Health Care, Justice, Politics, War, women, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2010| 1 Comment »

I’ve just been so busy with some home remodeling and the new shop, I really haven’t had time to post.  However, I hope you all are keeping up with events.

Did you read Dakinikat’s financial innovation post, HERE, over at the Confluence?

BlueLyon reports the stats that Nevada now has the highest percentage of underwater home loans in the Country at 70% – truly an astonishing figure. California, by comparison, only comes in at 35%.

Marching and petitioning are at the top of the list today.

The AFL-CIO is asking for signatures to their petition HERE, to keep Whirlpool from closing their last shop in the US that makes refrigerators. The Evansville plant has a long history and a fine working base. Whirlpool took Stimulus money and now wants to move the plant to Mexico.

BlueLyon is asking you to boycott FedEx. (I think that would also mean Kinko’s since they are the same company.) HERE is why.

The Women’s National Law Center is asking you to do a virtual march and send an email HERE to Congress. Let them know that being a woman is not the same is a “pre-existing medical condition”.

Send your thoughts to Senator Carl Levin on Blackwater (XE Services). It’s hilarious, in a deeply twisted way, that Blackwater (now XE Services) was able to divert hundreds of guns, including 500 AK-47 assault rifles intended for the Afghani Police, and pass them out like popcorn amongst themselves. Remind me again, for whom these people are working and why we need mercenaries? Blackwater’s contract to protect diplomats in Afghanistan ends this year, but the Defense Department is looking at them to train Afghan police. In the way of things political, I imagine the reason we are now addressing these complaints are those upcoming contractual events. Blackwater still hasn’t returned all the weapons. I’ll bet they can’t, with reports about that some weapons were sold on the black market.

Here is Senator Levin’s latest statement on the hearings being conducted today.

The Senate passed their version of the jobs bill this morning. I’ll have more on it later.

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Happy 90th LWV!

Posted in 51 Percent, election reform, Feminism, Feminist Majority, Justice, Politics, voter reform, Women's Rights, tagged , on February 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

League of Women Voters Celebrates Milestone Birthday

Washington, D.C. – The League of Women Voters celebrates its 90th birthday on Sunday, February 14th. Known widely for its voter education efforts, this non-partisan, government watchdog group has been an American institution since 1920.

http://www.lwv.org/AM/Template.cfm?Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=14807

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Black History Month

Posted in Congress, Feminism, Human Rights, Humanism, Justice, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

February is Black History Month.

What does it mean to you?

There are well-known established sheroes and heroes of all sorts and stripes that might deserve mention in this month.  However, I want to discuss the month from a slightly different angle.

One of the events likely to occur under rightist governments, such as the previous one we just endured, is the erosion of children’s rights. Right-sided governments are more likely to work under the premise that children’s rights are those of the parents, rather than the children themselves. One example is the constant struggle over whether to allow young people the right to privacy in their visits to doctors and their personal health choices.

We are the keepers of the largest prisoner base in the world. As is prevalent elsewhere in other age groups, minority children are still more likely to suffer the brunt of unequal treatment. In this light, The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) took particular hopeful note in January of President Obama’s stated intention over increased enforcement in his State of the Union Address.

01/28/2010

It’s Time to Step Up Enforcement of Children’s Rights

By Richard Cohen

[After a drastic decline in civil rights enforcement by the U.S. Justice Department over much of the past decade, President Obama’s declaration during last night’s State of the Union Address that his administration is “once again prosecuting civil rights violations” is a promising sign…]

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/its-time-to-step-up-enforcement-of-childrens-rights

We will have to wait and see whether the SPLC’s hope is fulfilled. In any event, one my heroes for the month would include the folks at SPLC.

A recent event on a different subject deserves scrutiny. As expected, the unemployment numbers, for the Nation as whole, in January looked better than previous months at 9.7%. I doubt this number truly represents the actually unemployed, since January, as will March, represented merely an end to those folks whose unemployment simply ran out. This is one of the great scams perpetrated by the cycling of employment funds, as people are dropped off the employment dole.

The DOL’s Economic News Release, dated Feb. 5, 2010 contains this tidbit:

[..In January, the number of persons unemployed due to job loss decreased by 378,000 to 9.3 million. Nearly all of this decline occurred among permanent

job losers.  (See table A-11.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) continued to trend up in January, reaching 6.3 million. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of long-term unemployed has risen by 5.0 million. (See table A-12.)…]

Upon review of Table A-11 one learns:

[…Among the marginally attached, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in January, up from 734,000 a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)  Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.5 million people marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities…]

That means the number of discouraged workers is up by 366,000 people or 33% from a year ago. Since the long term unemployed is also trending up, and they are the next to be changed to discouraged workers and chopped off the unemployment figures, unless Congress acts, two things are likely to happen. The unemployment figures will get better shortly and most of these people will still not have found jobs.

While several other groups are higher (Black 16-19 ears old of both sexes was 43.8%!), for Black American men, January’s seasonally adjusted rate was 19.7%. The Root says “Despair has become Banal”, in their article on Black unemployment.

Today, I saw a commenter on another blog asking why there is no “White History Month”. Although, the commenter was attempting to be flip, it is a fair question from another viewpoint.

Wiki says:

[.. Some African radical/nationalist groups, including the Nation of Islam, have criticized Black History Month. Some critics, including actor Morgan Freeman, contend that Black History Month is irrelevant because it has degenerated into a shallow ritual.[6] He says that it serves to undermine the contention that black history “is” American history.[7]..]

We all need rituals and traditions. The comfort us and are shorthand touchstones for our memories and self-awareness. They remind us of the struggles we have endured and sacrifices we have made.  They provide us with aspirational models of humanity. However, they can also lull us into somnambulism over our current position. So I think that Black History Month is a commemoration that can still raise our consciousness. As a shorthand symbol for a few well-known people, also can prevent our growth.

Out of the history of the Civil War, the movement of Black Americans into the industrial cities that first offered employment as a consequence of the industrial age, and then the world wars, stratifies Black Americans today in those same cities: Chicago, Oakland, Richmond, Detroit, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, etc. When we gave up our own industry to cheap land, cheap and unorganized labor, non existent safety and health standard of other countries, and greed, we did something else. We left that labor pool behind with the hazardous waste of non-modernized factories. This is just as, right on schedule, after a twenty-year depreciation valuation ends, Toyota is now doing with NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA. Another 20 years and Texas will weep for her squandered land as well.

We are not there yet. I agree that Black History is American History. I also agree with President Obama’s premise that regions SHOULD be targeted to reduce unemployment. However, this CANNOT be the only thrust. Does he really mean that little sop over being a president for ALL the people meant that he could not push for employment from a civil rights perspective? I think it showed real fear on his part.

This statement simply does not track with the recent health bill that included line items galore toward insuring that minorities, tribes, veterans and women got dispensation in the package. This is a bill he would have signed and continues to promote in some version.

Black history is being made right now. History in the making is murky and often unclear. However, here are my employment sheros and heroes for the month: Al Sharpton, Benjamin Jealous, Marc Morial, and Dorothy Height, who even though the snow prevented her attendance, had the right message to deliver to this meeting.

I hope Congress will listen to them when the time comes, as well. Civil rights is an ongoing “becoming” backed by those who are willing to demand it.

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Thoughts about Howard Zinn

Posted in Feminism, Human Rights, Humanism, Politics, women, tagged , , , on February 10, 2010| 3 Comments »

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

Frederick Douglass

(From the People’s History website)

Last week when Hubbie and I were out scrounging for items to put into a little shop we have begun, we ran across a copy of Howard Zinn’s time honored book, “A People’s History of the United States 1942-present”.  As everyone knows, Zinn died last month at the age of 87.

He was a member of the “Lost Generation”.  Though some are now attributing that term to the young of the current day, affected by our current economic crisis, the term was first used by  to Gertrude Stein via her mechanic, and usually referred to those born in the wake of WWI.

Perhaps, only those souls remaining of that period can really understand it, but imagine what it meant growing up then. First, families were traumatized in WWI, with many who made it home broken and bent, then, the loss of financial stability and so much more of the Depression, and then the growing certainty that you were born just in time to die in WWII.  So many of the writers of this period echo this kind of angst and pain, from Steinbeck to Hemingway to Wolfe.

From unfolding European events to: suffrage for women, the tent cities, and the lynchings, and the forced labor of African Americans in the aftermath of the Mississippi Flood, to the Dustbowl, hatred of the Japanese Americans on the West Coast, and the effects of Prohibition, mobsters and the FBI, the period lasted only 24 years. Even as international actors strutted their way toward the hurricane that would be WWII, it was yet, most assuredly, a period in which there was plenty of focus on the struggles of the common woman and man.

So much was experienced in a direct and visceral way by the Lost Generation. Perhaps it was a natural thing then that, as a common man himself, Howard Zinn, would develop the historical viewpoint that he did.

I thought Ralph Nader had the best idea for his commemoration. That is, we should remember him by organizing.

In deference to Ralph, however, I think too many of us don’t even know who Howard Zinn was.  We must pass this knowledge forward. Knowledge is one of the critical elements of organizing. History that is not taught, is lost. Education lacking the People’s History is not full education.  Read or reread, Zinn’s books. Visit the links Ralph provided in his blog:

www.zinnedproject.org

http://www.peopleshistory.us/

http://www.thepeoplespeak.com/

www.howardzinn.org

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Laura Chinchilla

Posted in 51 Percent, ERA, Feminism, Feminist Majority, Health Care, tagged , , , on February 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

As Anna rightly commented over at Violet’s place, it’s  a far more urgent thing we do to opine about the touch points clasped in a woman’s hand, than discussing the reaching arms of a woman who will now lead a country. How else would we stay in our proper little hole? Women still carry things. Men don’t. Ergo, women should have notes and be gracefully prepared for the unexpected, men should arrive to speak at awaiting TelePrompTers which always work. Did no one notice how oversized purses a had become again the required fashion?

The mark of the subordinate.

If we really had gotten past that trap, men would be sporting the biggest ones with the brightest logos.

Runners don’t carry purses. Women in charge don’t carry baggage. Their secretaries do.

But no, let’s discuss and apologize and defend and berate the triviality of how one  woman makes a speech – something most of us can’t even do very well. Let’s not discuss the portent and meaning of the first woman elected president of Costa Rica, who also has strong views on right to life, separation of church and state and misunderstands the use of “Morning-after Pill”.

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100208 – Monday Ketchup

Posted in 51 Percent, Congress, ERA, Feminism, Finance, Justice, LGBT, Politics, women, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 8, 2010| 1 Comment »

Yesterday, a coin initiated the Super Bowl XLIV. Today it blasted into outer space. NASA still has panache.

Photo by nasaimages.org

Space Shuttle Blasts off on Last Night Flight

Shuttle Endeavour blasts off on last planned night launch, taking new room to space station

By MARCIA DUNN

The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

[Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit Monday on what’s likely the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station….]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=9774512

You know, I really don’t care what plastic Best Foods/Helmann’s is using, or what the reduced shelf breakage is; I want glass mayonnaise jars back!! Yes I know, glass takes energy to produce, but so does plastic, Every time I pick up a jar, I want to fling it down the aisle.  Who really knows what’s in this flavor of the month container? So, in light of that little tantrum,  I found that Mother Jones has put out an interesting article on the corrolation between Bisphenal ingestion in mothers and increased asthma in children.

Moms Get Plastic, Kids Get Asthma?

— By Julia Whitty| Wed Feb. 3, 2010 6:18 PM PST

[More bad news on the health effects of bisphenol A (BPA), that organic compound used as a building block in many plastics—including in plastic water bottles, food packaging, sunglasses, and CDs….]

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/01/moms-get-plastic-kids-get-asthma

On February 4th, after waiting for more than nine months, and without the vote of yet to be sworn Scott Brown, M Patricia Smith, was finally confirmed as the Solicitor for The Labor Department. The vote was 60-32, with 3 not voting. Republicans have opposed Smith over the HELP (A wage watch effort.) program in New York.  One wonders however, after the final vote tally, what the game was really about. Would a filibuster have lasted any longer? If the 60 votes were there, why not get it over with?

OSHA inspectors were on site in Middletown Conn. this weekend, in the aftermath of the construction site explosion where at least 5 workers were killed and 12 were injured. The Solicitor is arriving at a momentous time.

Also, on February 4th, Martha Johnson was finally confirmed as Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA). The Senate gave her the green light in a vote of 96-0, with 4 not voting.

Johnson waited ten months because of a concern Senator Kit Bond had about whether the GSA should close a federally owned building and relocate to leased space. Ridiculous!  Why should this have happened? What was the Senate game?

Finally, the Iowa Independent reports, that in a flurry of inanity and bad timing, (Didn’t the POTUS just tell the world that “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” had to go?) two State of Iowa Republican legislators are attempting to get certain forms of  bullying excluded from their anti-bullying bill passed in 2007. Apparently these two don’t think the words sexual orientation or gender identity ought to be in there. Jason Schultz and Matt Windschitl, shame on you!!! These Repugs have got to go!

GOP lawmakers want to exclude gay students from anti-bullying bill

By JASON HANCOCK 2/8/10 1:15 PM

[A pair of Republican state legislators has introduced a bill that would remove protections for gay, lesbian and transgender students from an anti-bullying law passed in 2007.

State Reps. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, and Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, sponsored the legislation to remove sexual orientation and gender identity as definitions used for purposes of protecting students in public and nonpublic schools from harassment and bullying…]

http://iowaindependent.com/27342/gop-lawmakers-want-to-exclude-gay-students-from-anti-bullying-bill?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IowaIndependent+%28Iowa+Independent%29

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Happy Early New Years!

Posted in 51 Percent, Feminism, Health Care, LGBT, tagged on December 30, 2009| 2 Comments »

I’ll be offline for a few days. I have another project, upon which, I am working. I’ll be back on the 6th of January. So have a Happy! Happy! Follow the advice from the National Women’s law Center and be prepared. Take your condoms and other health products with you. You never know what might happen!

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#253 – After it Landed

Posted in Feminism, Humanism, Justice, Politics, War, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Is everyone else watching this media ping-pong?

We find out that:

“Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has been briefed on the incident aboard Northwest Airlines flight #253 and is closely monitoring the situation.

We learn that Mr. Abdulmutallab may have boarded without a Passport? The flight originated in Amsterdam. Hello!?

We learn the system is “working”? However, Secretary Janet Napolitano sure is glad those passengers were on board and: Thanks!

By the way, she says, expect boarding delays and new screening.

To prove how competent everyone is they haul another Nigerian man with diarrhea off the same plane the very next day.( All right, two days later!)

In the mean time Congressman Peter King says he doesn’t like Napolitano’s “tone”. Does that mean she’s failed as woman? Or she didn’t have a man’s “tone”? WTF? No one questions whether the 48 hour wait was purposeful for the Prez. King displayed a great example of how to ask the wrong questions and look like a real sexist idiot.

We learn that, yes, SHS Napolitano, said something inane yesterday but gee, we only have forty screeners to prevent this kind of thing in the entire country. It’s the Republicans fault. I’m not sure why that matters, since the flight DIDN’T ORIGINATE IN THIS COUNTRY.

Mike Littwin at the Denver Post reminds us that WE are the front line on “War on Terror.” I like that sentimental reference to a Bushian statement. (Terrorism, not Terror.)

We then learn that it is the weak minded Liberals who caused this incident.

Jake Tapper had some ideas about who can claim success in a foiled bomb attack.

(Hint. It’s us; we decided to stop being sheep to 1960’s passenger protocol.)

Speaking of protocol, we learn from Carol Lee over at Politico that we are observing presidential protocol in action as to how unexpected problems are handled. I don’t know why this is news. Obama showed us how he managed problems the night of the McCain/Obama debate. He’s pretty cool all right; He lets the other chickens run around.

Then we find out that some Yemeni jihadists are claiming this schnook’s actions are a result of our bombing them. However, Obama calls them out, cuz doncha know, this guy left Yemen BEFORE the bombing occurred. This of course means we knew he was coming, we just didn’t know what for. Never mind that the Yemeni air strike was on the 17th, and Abdulmutallab didn’t show up in our flight zone until the 25th.  I guess Yemen is in some sort of bubble, and once you leave there you lose all contact with everyone. However, since we have already pretty much committed to cleaning up terrorists everywhere, for the foreseeable future, I imagine this kind of incentive doesn’t hurt.

President Obama gets HIS tone in gear and says: “His Administration ‘Will Not Rest’ After Attempted Terror Attack”.

Then we find out that just maybe, but we aren’t sure, there is a Guantanamo link. Is it real or is it incentive? Hmm.  Hey, I’ll tell you what, the Prez is ON IT!

He’s gonna get those plane bomb plotters. Not only that, US terrorism databases and air travel screening are gonna get checked.

While we are pondering this, over at the Secretary of State’s office Mr. Ian Kelly is telling the press that they did everything right. Yes, they could have pulled Mr. Abdulmutallab’s visa, but in June when they issued it, there was no reason to. They put the father’s concerns into the database, but it wasn’t their job to kick the Undie Bomber off the plane. He was flagged on November 20th. It was someone else’s job to watch him, (National Counterterrorism Center) and no, Nigeria has said they have nothing to do with this.

Then we find out that systemic failures are the Republican’s entire fault, and especially DeMints! (Or maybe the Unions!?)

Today, we get the official grand update from the Prez. Yep, it’s systemic failure all right, it was there before he was Prez, (So sure as shootin’ it’s the Republican’s fault.) and we are ON IT!

In the mean time we get to ponder to possible mind meanderings of another lost soul and his possible relationship to Stockholm syndrome, a life confined by the strictures of expectation, perfectionism and naivety. He was on the Internet telling the world that he was lonely. He was 23, trying not to have sex and rebelling against his parents’ meat choices. He essentially runs away from the Dubai school his father wanted him to attend and winds up on a plane to it’s sister city with a bomb. Why go on that plane?

Great balls of fire! The symbolism just reeks.

Assuming anyone else in Yemen really planned this, as opposed to just sending a schnook to his probable death, I’m wondering why he or she picked a Detroit flight. With 44,000 empty homes and a still floundering economy, it seems an odd choice to make a show.

It’s the reality. There are schnooks everywhere. 300 or more could have died. And didn’t.

Thank you, crew, passengers, and especially, Jasper Shuringa!

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CA Rep. Radanovich retiring

Posted in 51 Percent, Election, Feminism, Politics, voter reform, tagged , , , on December 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

For District 19 Fresno Area, Politico reports:

Radanovich retiring

[Rep. George Radanovich (R-Calif.) announced this afternoon that he won’t be seeking reelection and endorsed a Republican state legislator to succeed him in office….]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1209/Radanovich_retiring.html

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