I didn’t know about this until my friend Madeleine Perry tweeted it, so I thought maybe you didn’t either. It’s the Obama-Biden Tax Cut Calculator. This video explains it. Instead of fighting over tax cuts, who gets them and how much they’ll yield, we can just figure it out here. Give it a try.
Tag: politics
Kim Gandy Would Be a Perfect Director of the Women’s Bureau
This is Kim Gandy, currently moving toward the end of her second term as President of the National Organization for Women – known to most as NOW. Throughout her tenure she has been a fierce, sensitive and sensible advocate for women's rights and the rights of women as workers, whether at WalMart or West Point. (see her bio here or at the bottom of this post*) The initiatives she's launched have raised visibility and prospects for issues ranging from equal rights to violence against women, and she's been a national political force for women and girls. As a modern leader and early adopter of the Web, she has been a frequent speaker at online conferences including BlogHer, and Fem 2.0 among others. She is also, warm, smart, funny and determined.
Now she is a prime candidate to become Director of the Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor, a job she was born, and trained, to do, and there is a vague but nasty smear campaign emerging from a new organization that has very little track record and claims what appears to be a non-partisanship. I don't want to give them any more traffic by linking to them. But believe me, Kim Gandy, (full disclosure: I have worked a bit with her on a broad women's initiative) is a spectacular leader, committed to the equality and well-being of all women. If she is chosen, she will use her vast experience – and her vast network – to serve the women of this country with determination and political savvy.
We need and deserve her as our advocate in the Women's Bureau, and any who question her commitment or capacity are, in my view, sadly mistaken. Please ignore any groups detracting from her and her dedication to the safety, equality and success of American women and
those around the world. And if you're so inclined, you might want to post about it yourself!
*Kim Gandy – President
Kim
Gandy is serving her second term as president of the National
Organization for Women, elected by the group's grassroots members in
2001 and again in 2005. She has served as a national officer of NOW
since 1987 and in state, local and regional leadership positions since
1973.Gandy also is president of the NOW Foundation, chair of NOW's Political Action Committees, and serves as the principal spokesperson for all three entities. Gandy oversees NOW's multi-issue agenda,
which includes: advancing reproductive freedom, promoting diversity and
ending racism, stopping violence against women, winning LGBT rights,
ensuring economic justice, ending sex discrimination and achieving
equality for women.Since 2001, Gandy has led NOW's campaigns on issues ranging from
Supreme Court nominations to the rights of mothers and caregivers, from
Social Security reform to ending the war in Iraq. Through grassroots
political action, Gandy helped increase the women's vote and change the
face of Congress in 2006 and is leading the organization's efforts
around the pivotal 2008 elections.Gandy regularly appears in print, television, radio and Internet
media, and she appreciates the enormous impact the media have on
women's lives. Under her direction, NOW has continued a decades-long
commitment to media issues, such as expanding women's opportunities in
the broadcast industry, increasing news coverage of women's issues, and
improving the portrayal of women and girls in advertising and all media.During Gandy's presidency, NOW celebrated its 40 year anniversary,
organized conferences on issues affecting women of color and women with
disabilities, campaigned against Wal-Mart as a Merchant of Shame, and
expanded efforts to win equal marriage rights and benefits for same-sex
couples. Through the creation of NOW's Campus Action Network
and the Young Feminist Task Force, Gandy has demonstrated a commitment
to reaching out to young women and encouraging their leadership in the
organization.During her first presidential term, Gandy was one of the lead organizers of The March for Women's Lives
in 2004. Gandy was a key organizer of the 1989 and 1992 marches, and
her expertise in mass actions helped ensure that 1.2 million activists
made the 2004 march for women's reproductive freedom the largest and
most diverse grassroots mobilization in our nation's history.In the legislative arena, Gandy served on the drafting committees for two groundbreaking federal laws: the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which gave women the right to a jury trial and monetary damages in cases of sex discrimination and sexual harassment, and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act,
which has dramatically decreased the daily violence at abortion
clinics. In addition, Gandy led the fight against anti-abortion
terrorists through the landmark racketeering case NOW v. Scheidler, which was in litigation for two decades and reached the Supreme Court three times.In 1991 Gandy directed the WomenElect 2000 Project, a nine-month
grassroots organizing and recruiting effort in Louisiana which tripled
the number of women in the legislature, elected the state's first woman
Lieutenant Governor, and helped to defeat former Klansman David Duke
for Governor.A long-time activist, Gandy served three years as Louisiana NOW
President. She was elected to the NOW National Board in 1982 and held
the position of Mid-South Regional Director for four years before being
elected to national office.Gandy graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 1973 with a B.S.
in mathematics. Her NOW involvement inspired her to attend law school,
and she received her law degree in 1978 from Loyola University School
of Law, where she was a member of the Loyola Law Review and the
National Moot Court Team. Gandy went on to serve as a Senior Assistant
District Attorney in New Orleans, and later opened a private trial
practice, litigating countless cases seeking fair treatment for women.Currently, she resides in Silver Spring, Md., with her husband Dr.
Christopher "Kip" Lornell, an ethnomusicologist and part-time Professor
of Music at George Washington University. They have two daughters,
Elizabeth Cady Lornell and Katherine Eleanor Gandy.
Fem 2.0 Where Are We Going? Notes from a Conference (A Special Tuesday Tour)
It's the morning after the remarkable event that was Fem 2.0, and I want to think a bit about what yesterday meant. Fem 2.0 is a new entity whose leaders organized a conference on the future of feminism and women's issues. Sounds like old stuff, but it's not. Because of their vision and connections, the organizers, especially Shireen Mitchell, Heather Holdridge, Liza Sabater and Gloria Pan were able to attract women who think about these issues but don't always attend the usual central-casting women's gatherings. Combined with them: several of the "rock stars" of 2nd and 3rd Wave feminism – from Gen Y to Boomers, as well as stars in the blogger universe.
For the first time I saw, at the same meeting, women my age and older, Gen X and younger, institutional and independent, white, black, brown and Asian – all terribly accomplished, articulate and thoughtful. The goal was to work toward the elimination of barriers among these varied groups to allow more focus on the issues that unite us. I know that sounds like Barack Obama and maybe his style increased the reception for this call to meeting, but it was really quite remarkable.
Gathered were institutional "rock stars" like Eleanor Smeal, President of Feminist Majority Foundation and publisher of Ms. Magazine, Kim Gandy, President of NOW, and Karen Mulhauser, former head of NARAL – all fierce veterans for women's rights, Rene Redwood of Redwood Enterprises and Ann Stone, introduced to the assembled as VP of the National Women's History Museum, which she is. She is also the courageous founder and long-time leader of Republicans for Choice – a group that, for many years, was enormously unpopular in Republican circles. It wasn't easy.
Alongside them as stars, but emerging more from the world of 2.0: Elisa Camahort Page of BlogHer, Kristen Rowe-Finkbeiner of Moms Rising, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon and RH Reality Check, and Tedra Osell of Bitch PhD, among others. For the first time that I know of, the cohorts that these women represent were in the same rooms, talking to each other not only about feminism, but also about the factors (age, geek level, parent status etc) that divide them.
Many people have posted detailed descriptions of parts of the day. Here are a few: Jen Nedeau at Chang.org offers a nice summary. Laurie White live-blogged several sessions including the one at which I spoke. Momcrats (no surprise) were out in force and report here. Friend, house guest and major league blogger Jill Miller Zimon sums up the plenaries and some other events.
I'm sure there will be more; if there are enough I'll do a follow-up. The day was very important to most of us and if I haven't convinced you, read some of the accounts. Sometimes barriers among allies are tougher to overcome than those among adversaries. Fem 2.0 gave us a real start. They deserve our thanks. And have them, from over here where I sit.
Artists for Obama: A Few of the Many
I’ve been kind of out of it all week. Post-Inaugural ennui, worries, lots of appointments… whatever it was, it really sort of shut me up. But when I saw the Obama video I’ve posted just below here, I started thinking about all the creativity that the campaign, and this presidency, seem to have engendered.
Then a friend sent me this. I admit I’m a sucker for this kind of music, but it really is a combination of politics and joy that only such a campaign could have inspired.
We all remember Wil.i.am’s Yes We Can. And Ron Howard as Opie. And Sarah Silverman. And even Paris Hilton.
And this, one of my favorites, just for the discipline.
I guess Les Miz must really resonate, because here’s another one.
Of course these are only examples; there are dozens, probably hundreds more – and if you count the images, posters and paintings, many many more. If this kind of creativity goes toward solving our problems, we’re in good hands. Either way, it’s exciting (at least to me) to realize how many vocabularies came together to speak for this new president in the long journey that got him here.
Shabbat Shalom
With this photo of the Captial on Inauguration morning as we walked out of Union Station, I wish you a lovely weekend – our first with our new president. See you Sunday
Shabbat Shalom – Welcome to the last weekend of Bushitude!
Oh Sarah! (Palin) But Could She Be (A Little Bit) Right?
Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water…. there she is again! This time, though, some of what she says is creepily unsettling. This loads slowly but is worth the wait – we can talk about it after you watch it.
Here’s the thing: Do you really think people, especially journalists, would have been so cruel to an “unwed mother” whose parents were progressive politicians? Or to a Rockefeller or even a Bush? Throughout the interview, Palin raises the issue of class, and of the attacks on her kids; we’ll touch on that in a minute.
During the campaign, I wrote about Palin and the class issue, and the sad parallels to Paula Jones. The fact is that Sarah Palin isn’t sophisticated, that she’ be a popular Girl Scout leader or Women’s Club president in the life that existed when I was a kid – around the Mad Men era. Maybe that would have been OK if she’d known more, or been less cruel and incendiary in her speeches. Her inherent lack of sophistication and experience, what William Galston has called “a celebration of ignorance” enabled much of the class snobbery the followed. But follow it did; not in the “she’s not our kind” sort of way – it was far more subtle than that. More in the collective realization of the “cool people” that she was a WalMart, polyester lady thrust into a J Crew sort of world.
Now. Let’s think about the kids. The family itself was kind of a throwback I guess. And their omnipresence – thrust onto the stage – was weird. But when Elizabeth Edwards was criticized for taking the kids on the road during the campaign, feminists and others leapt to her defense. When Al Gore Jr. was arrested in a DUI it was a “private family matter,” not a continuing object of ridicule. Somehow though, the way this pregnancy and relationship has been portrayed has been cruel and tawdry without casting much light on Palin, her tenure or her philosophy.* And remember the whole “mommy wars” thing – did Palin put her career ahead of her kids? One person who wrote consistently well about this is PunditMom. Take a look.
None of what I’m saying here justifies what Palin stood for or did as a candidate. She was, and is, a scary person hiding behind “adorableness.” But we need to think about the mainstream coverage of her campaign and how much of it derided matters of class and family, not policy and ideology. There was certainly enough of that substantial stuff to keep any reporter busy.
What do you think?
*I am not talking about conversations concerning issues of choice, sex education or contraception but of the less substantial, more visible harumphing.
Edgy, Funny Prop. 8 “Musical” — Hilarious or Horrible? Doogie, Jack Black, CJ (aka Juno’s stepmom), Maya and more
I missed this one* so figure maybe you did too. I promise to be back with a "real" post soon but it's pretty provocative so wanted to share it. (Read more about the battle over Proposition 8 here.) There are a lot of comments on the original page that call it blasphemous and it's certainly edgy – but well – what do you think?
*For background on the video, try this.
Obama, McCain and the Power of Words
I'm working on a big new post on a weird topic but in the meantime, the always original David Wescott has done, (at the suggestion of his wife), a very interesting word cloud comparison. Basically, he created clouds for the election night speeches of President-elect Obama and Senator McCain. Both the differences and the similarities are striking. Take a look.
Obama’s Economic Team, Yeah They’re Good But I’m Excited about Melody!
I started writing about this as the announcement was made and got called away. Now I discover that my friend and very wise colleague PunditMom has basically said everything I would have said – so go read her evaluation.
I still want, though, to share my sense of this remarkable woman. It's very exciting. Melody Barnes, now a top adviser to President-Elect Obama, is one of the most impressive, decent and unpretentious people I've worked with in Washington or anywhere else. She's smart, she's interesting, always open, funny and committed. She is a wonderful choice. Since she's been working with the transition for some time it's no surprise, but it still says a lot that she's there. Here's a interview with her that will give you an idea of her thinking and of the way she responds; calm, orderly, thoughtful and usually, wise.
Not much detail, I know. My own experiences with her were peripheral and intermittent but this I know: her presence in the Administration is yet another piece of evidence supporting what I wrote yesterday. The values, outlook and core of this Administration offer more and more hope that they're bringing smart, capable and "no drama*" people with them as they take over in these very difficult times.
*Yeah, yeah I know but Larry Summers is just one guy.