The Political Voices of Women

During the past few weeks it seems that events in US politics have been moving at light speed. It’s certainly more than this blogger can keep up with. Fortunately, as I member of the Political Voices of Women Community I can count on my fellow members to keep me up to date. Here are excerpts of a few blog posts from our community. Enjoy,

From “Baker’s Dozen About Obama” by Ellen Keim

Here are thirteen of my “Obamic” impressions, for what they’re worth:

First of all, I hope people can separate what they think of Obama–either his track record or the man himself–from the historical fact of his presidency.

Second, I can’t even imagine how much pressure he feels to be the best for fear that he may ruin the chances for another black candidate.

Third, I never thought he was the “Messiah” as some did, so I never expected him to be super-human. Some people are getting disenchanted because they expected perfection and instant gratification.

Fourth, I don’t think people are giving him enough credit for what he has done, either because they don’t agree with it or because it isn’t their pet project.

Fifth, he hasn’t been President for all that long. Considering the messes he inherited, we should expect fixes to take longer than a year.

Sixth, I don’t think we have seen the positive effects yet of the way he has reached out to the Muslim community around the world.

From Marcia G Yerman, “Thoughts for a New Decade: What I Wish for Women“

As we move into a new decade, I can’t help looking over my shoulder at all the things I would like to leave behind.

VIOLENCE: Number One – Violence perpetrated against the female gender. Whether it is domestic violence behind closed doors in the United States, acid being thrown in the faces of young girls in Afghanistan trying to attend school, or rampant rape as a tool of war…It must end.

DYSFUNCTIONAL HEALTH CARE: I would like to discard health care that doesn’t take into account the needs of women, and policies that don’t speak to the disparities in care for all members of the female community at the local, state, and national levels.

UNEQUAL CHANGE: I would welcome a roll back on the wage disparities between a woman’s paycheck and a man’s, taking into account a gap that is even larger for women of color. Moving forward, I would like more support for women working in the services sector, where wages are lower and benefits are commonly non-existent. More legislated awareness for the work/life balance issues that often drive women to choices based on the need for flexibility, as they seek to mesh family responsibilities with a career agenda, would be helpful.

From Margaret, “Free Speech and Corporations“:

Over the weekend, I posted a link on my Facebook page to a Keith Olbermann commentary on the SCOTUS decision that was issued on January 21, 2010. Now, I’m not a fan of Olbermann as a general rule, but I found what he had to say pretty much nailed what has me concerned about this decision. I don’t often publish anything on Facebook that is politically oriented, but I feel as if this decision has such far-reaching implications that it transcends “politics” and really has the potential to impact my daily life. In short, it scares the living crap out of me.

And from Onedia Hayes Sylvest, “Lifting the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy — Those Arguments Against Sound Familiar“:

I am a retired navy commander. I retired in 1994 just after the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy was begun. I thought it was insufficient then and I thought the reasons for taking such a half-baked (read another word there) stand was a little brass short of what it should have been. I also heard lots of reasons (and some of those are being repeated now by such people as John McCain) that sounded remarkably familiar.

When I first entered the Navy women did not have pants in their uniforms, they had to leave the service if pregnant, their husbands could not be claimed as “dependents” without proof that the navy woman provided at least 51% of his monetary support. We did not have top ranks or positions, there were no women with stars on their shoulders and we were denied access to many jobs/skill areas solely because of our gender. Women could not serve on ships or on aircraft and the primary reasons offered sounded almost identical to those I heard in 1993 and that I am hearing now.

I know that I served with gays and lesbians in the navy. Most were talented and dedicate. Some were not or even disruptive. However, neither the talent and dedication nor the poor performance and disruptive behavior were caused by their sexual preferences. The same traits and performance were equally present in both heterosexual and homosexual service people. In those days if you wanted to get someone eyeballed by the chain of command then feed the rumor of homosexuality. In my early days many people even assumed that women in the military were probably lesbians and if not they were either looking for a husband or were not of good moral character. The environment bred, I think deliberately, some level of hostility to any who did not fit the accepted image of what a sailor, CPO or officer should be. In the 70′ the primary targets were women and homosexuals.

This is just a sampling of what women are saying.

Want to read more? Why not join us and make your voice heard.

You can follow Jill on this historic speech at her blog Writes Like She Talks.

Link:  Barack Obama’s “Closing Arguments” Speech

SEE FULL VIDEO OF THIS OBAMA SPEECH HERE

Hi everybody.  GREAT NEWS!  Me and my daughter are going to the Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton Rally, in Orlando tomorrow.  We both have press passes to cover the rally.  Woo-hoo!  How cool is that?

We will be live blogging and hopefully getting some video interviews from the press room.

The rally doesn’t start until 6pm, but, I plan on posting some of the “behind the scenes” stuff, throughout the day.  This is the first time I am doing anything like this, so I’m not 100% sure what to expect.

Oh, and even though I’m somewhat new to the Twittering thing, I’ll be doing that too.   You can tweet me at…

http://twitter.com/catherinemorgan

Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll get a chance to meet Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.  Either way, it’s gonna be quite the mother/daughter adventure.  Well…That’s it for now, come back tomorrow and see how we’re making out. 

Just in case you missed it…Here is the full video of tonight’s Presidential Debate. Did you watch the debate? What did you think? Who won? Did you learn anything new? Let me know in comments.

Our very own Pamela Lyn, from Pam’s Coffee Conversation, will be live blogging the Palin/Biden debate tonight on Twitter.  If you would like to join her, here is her twitter link…

https://twitter.com/pamelalyn

I’m not a twittering pro, but I will be following Pamela tonight.

For more information on how you can use twitter to follow tonight’s debate, check out this video.

Pamela also recommends the C-SPAN: Debate Hub for even more debate coverage, I have to agree, C-SPAN is doing a great job with their election coverage.

Also See:

Pre-Debate:  Sarah Palin

Pre-Debate:  Joe Biden

Here is an interesting video on how best to use Twitter to follow the Debate. Will you be twittering the debate?

Here is a guest post from community member Marcia G. Yerman, who also blogs at The Huffington Post.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

I knew something was up when I turned on my computer and saw a number of e-mails that had similar subject titles. The two standouts were, “Please Respond and Forward” and “Women Say No to Palin.”
As I opened them, each featured the same text in the body, with different introductory clauses.
“We must do something;” ”Please sign this;” “I am outraged by McCain’s choice.”
I was beginning to get the concept.

The letter began:

“Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,
We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement
of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party.”

The note raised the issues of Palin’s stated beliefs and record, and questioned her preparedness to
“become the second-most-powerful person on the planet.” It featured a sentence that clearly
articulated, “We are not against Sarah Palin as a women or a mother,” making a point to take theconversation out of the personal realm, where much of the discourse has recently been.

It went on to say:

“First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold
our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our nation.”

The site, Women Against Sarah Palin, is housed at blogspot. It has a clean design and features quotes from “American feminist role models,” photos, information and activist links (including a “Register to Vote!”), in addition to the blog archive. One of the letters is from Margaret Sanger’s 30-year old great great niece.

I spoke to Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston, the originators of the letter. Both women hail from California, and are associate editors at Modern Painters magazine. They were taking their daily work break, with a walk around Chelsea, discussing the choice of Palin as Vice-President. Latimer came up with the idea that they “had to do something.” She clearly emphasized that they were “not in the habit of calling out women.” However, they did feel that they needed “to come out as women because she [Palin} doesn’t represent our interests.” Kilston said, “McCain is the one to blame,” and stressed that that she opposed Palin on the basis of “her lack of experience and her positions.”

Read more »

I am happy to announce that this weekend, our Political Voices of Women Community has surpassed 100 members.  Our growing community is a mix of political opinions and affiliations, from liberal to conservative, and everything in between.  [see community here]

The Political Voices of Women (main site), began as a list of 100 women political bloggers.  In less than a year, that list has grown to well over 500 (see list here).  We now have a growing community, and have recently added twelve contributing editors…

• Kay B. Day
• Sarah Granger
• Tami Winfrey Harris
• Pamela Lyn
• Patricia Murphy
• PunditMom
• SJ Reidhead
• Suzanne Reisman
• Janet Shan
• Dana Tuszke
• Tracy Viselli
• Jill Miller Zimon

In addition to our regular contributors, we also have many guest bloggers each week.  The Political Voices of Women is becoming a powerhouse of women political bloggers.

Our community members can contribute posts to our blog, and often these posts are used as guest posts on the primary site.  Here are some of our most active community members…

• Penny Ronning – The NonSilent Majority
• Deb Della Piana – Turn Left Hypocrisy.com
• Emily D – Political Artwork
• Marcia G. Yerman – The Huffington Post
• Anita S. Lane -Unconventional Politics
• Card-carrying Buddhist – No Blood For Hubris
• Just Wondering – Vim and Vinegar
• Nancy Hill – Build Peace
• Carol Gee – South by Southwest
• Zaftig Redhead -The Zaftig Redhead
• Doris Anne Bearlieu – Life’s Ultimate Test
• Emily Kronenberger -  New Wave Grrrl

Members can comment on posts, start and participate in forum discussions, promote their personal blogs, upload videos and images, make new friends, and more.  Our main site is open to both men and women, but our community is strictly women…I think the all women aspect of our community promotes “real” and “honest” discussion, without the need for visoral and personal attacks.  Even though we often disagree within the community, we also want to promote a safe place for these disagreements, so respectful disagreement is what you will find here.

If you are a woman who blogs (or would like to blog) about politics, I hope you will consider joining our community.

[Cross-posted at BlogHer Health & Wellness]

This is the thing…Blogging about politics is very stressful.   And, we all know what stress can do to our health.

Do you blog about politics?  Is politics making you stressed?  Is your blood pressure running a bit high?  Are you getting more headaches than usual?  Are you losing sleep because you’re blogging to all hours of the night?  Does the release of poll numbers give you heart palpitations?  Do you ever get the urge to lock yourself in a dark room and not come out until after the election?  If you have answered yes to any of these questions, you may be suffering from Political Blogger Stress Syndrome (or PBSS).

There is no medicine or treatment for PBSS [Although, give the pharmaceutical companies some time, I'm sure they will come up with something...expensive], and many sufferers don’t even realize they have it.  So.  What can we do to combat the symptoms of PBSS?

Read more »

This is an excerpt from life’s journey…

how much truth can we handle?

i used to rail against people who were happily in denial. you know the folks who are still rah, rah for america and who believe that we are a democracy spreading democracy around the world. i am beginning to think i should let them be. the truth seekers have lost. most folks believe that this upcoming ‘election’ in america will be about change. i don’t believe it will be. everything i thought i knew about america; everything i learned in my history and social studies classes- was lies. lies and propaganda. i thought i was beyond caring about that these days but apparently, i am not.  — read full post at life’s journey