The Political Voices of Women

There is an interesting dialog on the issue of Pro-Life, going on at BlogHer. Shannon has written a post titled Why I’m Pro-Life (there are already over 50 comments).

I wasn’t always pro-life.

In the early ’90′s, I was a card-carrying, sign-waving, Clinton-campaigning pro-choicer. I held to the notion that a fetus couldn’t fully be life, since it was dependent entirely on another for its existence. And I believed the notion that abortion is unfortunate, but it wasn’t any of the government’s business.

I wish I could point you to a specific point on my journey where my views shifted entirely. There was no dramatic morning where I woke up suddenly pro-life. My thoughts on the subject have meandered down many roads before winding up where they are today. I’ve been asked to tell you why I believe the way I do. — read full post at BlogHer

This is how I feel about the subject…

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The Recession Question — by Catherine Morgan

The economy is an important issue to voters, and the voters are getting a lot of mixed-messages about the economy. Is it good? Is it bad? Are we in a recession? Should we be spending or saving? As far as I am concerned…It doesn’t matter what you call it, but the economy is on shaky ground for many Americans. Here is a look at some of the recent news on the economy…

READ FULL POST AT THE Care2 Election Blog

Is The U.S. Economy on a Solid Foundation? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Care2 Election Blog)

Bush says the economy is on a solid foundation. Really? I’m a little skeptical on this one.

The jobs report came out yesterday, and sent the stock market into a tail-spin…It appears I’m not the only person skeptical about Bush’s “solid foundation”.

Wall Street fell sharply Friday after the government’s much-anticipated employment report for December showed that the economy added just 18,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate climbed to 5 percent, the highest since November 2005, from 4.7 percent.

Can our economy really be on a steady foundation? Unemployment is on the rise…

The U.S. economy edged a step closer to recession in December by producing only 18,000 new jobs, its worst performance in four years, and sending the unemployment rate to a two-year high of 5 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. – read full article

We are in a Housing and Lending Crisis…

Of the several trends boding ill for the U.S. economy in 2008, the most troubling is what’s going on in real estate, which is to say not much in sales and nothing upward in prices and property values. This is not just a housing or mortgage or market problem. It’s an economic problem, and the people who want your vote in 2008 had better have some ideas to address it. – read full article

The Dollar continues to fall and Gas prices continue to rise…

Don’t expect to see the prices drop anytime soon, either. Oil experts predict price increases will continue to rise into spring.
According to the Energy Information Administration, a statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, gas prices could peak close to $4 a gallon by summer.

Personally, it seems to me that our economy is in some trouble. And, I would really like to hear the presidential candidates address these issues, and let the voters know what they plan on doing to improve our economy if elected. What do you think?

This is from a post at Pacific Views.

George W Bush created a bigger mess than even Herbert Hoover according to Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz. (via Digby)

Nouriel Roubini wants to see the world’s Central Banks start lowering interest rates now in face of the deepening financial crisis that will come of the US hard landing. He believes that only fast action can reduce the real damage that is coming.

To conclude, as it is obvious to any sane person when your home is on fire it is not a good time to sit in front of the burning building to discuss the merits of the moral hazard of fire insurance on your incentive to recklessly smoking in bed or debate the additional damage to your home coming from excessive use of fire hoses (the risk of higher inflation down the line). When your home is on fire and there is serious risk of fire contagion to all of your town and beyond you want the entire fire brigade to provide enough liquidity to avoid entire edifice and town burning to the ground. And using hand-held and hand-carried buckets of water while pondering the intellectual merits of moral hazard of fire insurance in order deal with a major five-alarm fire – rather than using immediately your global fire brigade – is delusional. So it is time for the international central banks’ liquidity fire brigades to turn on the hoses and dealing with this most dangerous global fire.

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This is from a post from Pam at Pandagon.

I was up getting dressed this AM and heard a report by Ali Velshi, CNN’s senior business correspondent, about the latest “bend over” practices by credit companies.

Some of these sharks are bumping the interest rates of customers up to 30% — even if they never miss a payment, never are late sending in a payment — simply because their credit score dips a few points.

What’s wrong with this? Your credit score can take a hit for simply opening a new card account with a retailer (Velshi cited a department store card as an example). It can also take a hit if your credit is checked by vendors too frequently in a short period.

This practice is so egregious that CNN reported that both Citicorp and Chase have announced that they will cease doing this; Congress is looking into the matter since it’s clear most credit card companies refuse to police themselves as they rape customers with otherwise good credit history. (AP):

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* Also see:  Majikthise

This is from a post at Nailing Jello to the Wall.

If you took out one of those adjustable rate mortgages, or if you’re swimming in credit card debt, it could be a lot worse. Actually, it already is: the national debt is growing at a rate of about $1 million per minute. So in the time it took you to come to this blog and read this paragraph, the national debt has probably gone up another million. And each day, it adds up another $1.4 billion. Yes, billion, with a “b.”

And you thought your financial problems were bad!

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This is from a post at The 13th Juror.

“Doing better” than one’s parents has long been a key element of the American Dream. The story, embedded in our history and our literature, suggests any person can start from humble beginnings and achieve great wealth, or at least reach the middle class.

But is it true?

The “rags to riches” story is much more common in Hollywood than on Main Street, says a new report from the Economic Mobility Project. Only 6% of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom move to the very top.

Other findings include:

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*see the faces of hunger

This is from a post at BlueBloggin.

Over 1.3 million people, one in six New Yorkers, cannot afford enough food, with queues at soup kitchens getting longer, anti-poverty groups say.

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger says the number of people who use food pantries and soup kitchens in the city increased by 20% in 2007. … food distribution points are struggling to meet demand. Increased poverty as well as government cutbacks in food aid effect more and more indigents.

No Thanksgiving turkey

“This annual survey of food pantries and soup kitchens shows that more working families, children, and seniors are being forced to seek emergency food,” Joel Berg, the coalition’s executive director, said in a statement.

“Given that hunger continued to increase in the city, even when the economy was still strong last year, it is no wonder that now, when the economy is weakening, lines at pantries and kitchens are getting even worse.”

Some food outlets said their federal supplies of food had been cut by as much as three-quarters.

According to a survey, 59% of New York’s food programmes, up from 48% last year, said they did not have enough resources to meet demand.

The US Department of Agriculture says 12.6 million households nationwide, or more than 30 million people – 10% of the population – did not have enough food at some point in 2006.

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