A few days ago, I posted on my blog, New Wave Grrrl, about the gaps surrounding Sarah Palin’s purported policy priority of addressing the needs of children with disabilities. I questioned the McCain-Palin ticket’s ability to put our money where their mouths have been on the subject of more funding for people with special needs. On October 24th, Palin gave a speech in my home state of Pennsylvania, on just what she and John McCain planned to do in order to better serve children with disabilities.
Although Palin’s speech was heartfelt, and I believe she truly cares about disability issues as a parent and as an aunt of children with developmental disabilities, her speech and the so-called McCain-Palin plan for children with special needs (which comes less than two weeks shy of Election Day) still falls flat, and still lacks any real promise of change in the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.
One glaring reason for this is the complete lack of policies that support people with disabilities beyond childhood. People who live with physical, developmental, cognitive, and multiple disabilities need various levels of care and support services throughout their entire lifetimes, in order to achieve a better quality of life and live fully within their communities. This includes not just vocational services for people with disabilities who can and want to work, but actual Medicaid dollars to fund the programs that provide for independent living in the community and not in State institutions, regardless of the severity of one’s disability.
We are only days away from the most scary important presidential election of our lives. And, it’s getting more and more ugly with each passing day. So…For the sake of my sanity, and yours, let’s have a little chuckle.
Saturday Night Live Video – George Bush Endorses John McCain and Sarah Palin
I’m getting pretty sick of the “Joe the Plumber” stuff. Joe isn’t even a licensed plumber, and he blatantly lied to Barack Obama, with his question on the economy. Now, the McCain Campaign is using this in negative ads. I don’t see how having more people “claim” to be Joe the Plumber, over and over, is a smart campaign move? And, this ad is just ridiculous. Let me know what you think in comments.
So…What are they saying? Are they just like Joe the plumber, who makes over $250,000.00 a year? Do they know that guy isn’t a licensed plumber and doesn’t make even close to the income he claimed, and he never had any intention of buying a small business? Do they know, that under Barack Obama’s plan, Joe the plumber would have his taxes lowered? Do they realize, that unless they have incomes greater than $250,000.00, their taxes would be lower too?
What do you think of all the “Joe the Plumber” hoopla? Are you sick of it? Let me know in comments.
“The Time Warner Summit: Politics 2008,” held at the Time Warner headquarters in New York City and co-sponsored with CNN, was a corporate branded event with big name heavy-hitters taking on questions about media, news, and the election. After attending both days of the conference, it reinforced my belief that digital media was the future for pushing out women’s stories, concerns, and dialogues.
There were many prominent women featured. Campbell Brown, CNN Anchor, moderated the opening keynote roundtable comprised of four men. Candy Crowley, senior political correspondent at CNN, spoke during the Media Power vs. Political Power session. One of the most dynamic speakers over the two days was Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN. Her persona and delivery style popped during the discussion with colleagues that included Wolf Blitzer and Fareed Zakaria and former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke.
Whether you consider women and minorities successfully enmeshed in the total media picture
or their specificity overlooked, depends upon your point of view. But the conference was a definitive contrast to presentation I recently attended at St. John’s University, which totally focused on the intersectionality of race and gender with the election story. There, a majority of the speakers were law professors presenting academic work.
The Time Warner symposium included one panel entitled Women and the 2008 Election: Playing Politics with Gender–Media, Candidates and the Majority Vote. Led by Lisa Witter, Fenton Communications COO and co-founder of SheSource — a “brain trust” of female experts — six women explored women as swing voters and the cultural phenomenon of Sarah Palin’s candidacy. In reference to Michelle Obama, they also discussed whether you could be an outspoken black woman without being described as “angry” by media pundits.
As Witter pointed out while speaking to a full room of women — “Wish there were more you!” she joked to the sprinkling of men — 59 percent of primary voters were women. At the end of the discussion, Carol Jenkins, Women’s Media Center president, posed questions going forward for the media. She called for continued examination of “who is calling the shots, who is making the decisions, and who is missing from the picture.”
With the understanding that women do not getting their narratives adequately told — if told at all — the need for a fresh playing field is palpable. In the new media, women have an opportunity to create their own communities and their own brands. Whether on the left or right of the political spectrum, a mommy blogger or a political blogger, women are flooding the Internet. This was borne out by a BlogHer/Compass Partners survey found 36.2 million women were actively participating in blogs. Of women online, 53 percent were reading blogs, 37 percent were posting comments, and 28 percent were writing or updating blogs.
In recent weeks, the McCain campaign has been attacking ACORN, a widely respected voter registration organization, claiming ACORN knowingly participated in “voter fraud.” In reality, this is just another calculated attempt by the McCain campaign and the RNC to suppress new and marginalized voters.
* On a side note…There are already problems in Florida with voter suppression. I just heard this on our 11 o’clock news…
Because foreclosures are so high here, if your home has been foreclosed on, you can not use that address to vote. You must file papers with a new address, or not vote. The news report stressed, that anyone caught voting using an address from their foreclosed home, will be subject to arrest (3rd degree felony), and a $5,000 fine. The report is not mentioning that this form of intimidation is considered voter suppression, on the contrary, it is warning anyone who has not had their address changed, they better not attempt to vote. I was shocked, the news stations in Florida, are actually aiding in voter suppression.
Yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sat for an interview with KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Colorado. In response to a question sent to the network by a third grader at a local elementary school about what the Vice President does, Palin erroneously argued that the Vice President is “in charge of the United States Senate“:
Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”
PALIN: That’s something that Piper would ask me! … [T]hey’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.
Take a look at a clip from another typically vapid and disastrous Sarah Palin television interview and see what it looks like when the reporter is actually uninterested in clarifications or follow ups. I guess that’s what Palin has moved on to these days. Local affiliate interviews with reporters who won’t ask anything hard.
But that doesn’t actually mean Palin gives correct answers. Oh, no! Far from it! All it means is that the reporter asking the questions doesn’t give any indication of being aware that the answers are incorrect.
If women are going to be taken seriously they need to be held to the same standards as men. A man who said something so incredibly ignorant would be pilloried.
This latest gaffe, actually implying that the vice president has legislative authority, makes what she said with Couric seem harmless. This woman has no business being anywhere near the White House. John McCain’s judgment is a joke. Making America pay for it through a possible Palin presidency is dangerous.
And, adding insult to injury…
Guess how much the RNC is shelling out during this economic crisis for Sara Palin’s wardrobe???
What do you think? Should Sarah Palin understand what the “actual” job of the vice president is? Or, do we just expect that if McCain is elected, Sarah Palin can do what ever she wants to do?
Personally, I don’t think she is stupid (at least on this issue). I think, if elected, she plans on ignoring the constitution every bit as much as the Bush administration did. Let me know what you think in comments.
If you apply the Sarah Palin standard the majority of the people who lost their lives in that big-city, eastern, liberal bastion of New York City would not be considered as “real Americans”. Nor would those “Washington insider” Pentagon employees or the majority of passengers on Flight 93 meet the Palin standard.
And when you think about it, a large number of US troops probably do not meet the Palin “real American” criteria either.
Of course, as suggested by Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), the media can always conduct an in-depth investigation to see if members of our military are “pro-America”. After all, swearing an oath of allegiance isn’t enough proof. And if you don’t tow the GOP line, being a decorated general and former Secretary of State doesn’t count for much either.
Colin Powell Endorsing Barack Obama. See full video from Sunday’s Meet The Press…
What do you think? Are you influenced by Colin Powell’s endorsement? Do you think this endorsement will have an effect on the outcome of Election? Let me know what you think in comments.
Last November 26 as the race for nomination began in earnest I posted an Open Letter to the Candidates. I think it relevant that I now post it again with a few additions highlighted in bold.
Well, since it is here and easy to step onto, I am pulling out the soapbox this morning. This is an open letter to all the presidential candidates about what I want from my next president. Here it is not in priority order since I don’t want to make this too hard:
Have you heard the latest phrase from the McCain-Palin stomp speech? It consists of two very powerful words. “I’m angry.” To place the statement in context, Palin has said, “There is anger about the dealings of insider lobbyists, anger about the greed of Wall Street, and there’s anger about the arrogance of the Washington elite, and there is anger about voter fraud.” McCain has himself said, “You’re angry and I’m angry too.”
However, the issue I have with the “angry” statement is this: What are all these angry people supposed to do with their anger? The election is not until November 4th. Until then, are folks to let their anger simmer until it boils over into something ugly? God forbid McCain actually loses the election— then what are they to do with their anger? Are they to do as some extremists in the McCain-Palin crowd have suggests when they shouted “Off with his head,” Kill him! Get him!?”
McCain may want to say that he is utterly appalled, and state that he totally rejects Congressman John Lewis’ reference to John Wallace, in his condemnation of McCain’s campaign rally etiquette. However, the fact is, if McCain refuses to fiercely and immediately— on-the-spot—denounce such statements that come from the crowd at his campaign rallies, he is inadvertently condoning them.
I believe that that Congressman John Lewis—in his statement that “McCain and Palin were sowing seeds of hatred and division”— was simply saying that to allow such unbridled anger and hatred to bubble up and fester is dangerous, and has the potential—if unchecked—to lead to violent acts on the part of some. The campaign has a responsibility to not incite it, allow it or condone it.
Answering the question, Where are all the women political bloggers? Well, if you are here, you have found them. We are dedicated to giving women bloggers a voice, starting with our list of over 500 women political bloggers. And now, in addition to guest bloggers, and our growing community, we will also feature regular contributing editors.
