Meet Two Democratic Women Candidates for Texas State Board of Education: Rebecca Bell-Metereau and Judy Jennings

There are ideologues front and center in the classroom where instead there should be teachers and students.

Two highly qualified women in Texas have stepped up as State Board of Eduction (SBOE) candidates so they can roll back some of the more outrageous changes to the curriculum that non-educators with a fringe agenda have imposed on Texas schoolbooks.

Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau both believe teachers and educational experts should determine what's taught in classroom.

FROM A PRESS RELEASE:

Pro-Choice Leaders Unite For Kuster

CONCORD, NH – National and state pro-choice leaders joined together today in New Hampshire to offer a united endorsement for Democratic congressional candidate Ann McLane Kuster.

The group of endorsers included the founder of EMILY’S List, the President of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and the Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire, as well as a group of New Hampshire pro-choice activists. Combined, these groups count well over 30,000 New Hampshire voters as active supporters.

“Annie Kuster has been a consistent champion for a woman’s right to choose, and that is why the entire pro-choice community has united to stand with her in this election – beginning with her primary less than two weeks away,” said Ellen Malcolm, the founder and Chair of EMILY’S List, a leading group dedicated to electing pro-choice women.

“The voters in New Hampshire’s Second Congressional District are looking for a champion of women’s health,” said Steve Trombley, President & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. “Ann McLane Kuster is that candidate. She will stand up for women and families and put commonsense health care needs ahead of ideology and politics.”

"As someone who has worked with Annie, I can attest to her commitment to the values of freedom and privacy that we hold dear in New Hampshire," said Pilar Olivo, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire. "Without question, Annie will become a leader in Congress on issues important to women and their families."

“I can’t tell you how honored I am to have the support of every single major pro-choice group in this election. These are the groups that stand up for women and I’m proud to have them standing with me,” said Kuster. “My campaign for Congress is about bringing a new approach to Washington that focuses on what’s best for people, not politics as usual. There is no question that on this issue, what’s best for people is that we don’t have politicians trying to interfere between a woman and her medical provider.”

Kuster has also been endorsed by the National Organization for Women, the National Women’s Political Caucus, Women’s Action for a New Direction, the Women’s Campaign Forum, and the Feminist Majority PAC.

Born and raised in Concord, Ann McLane Kuster has a long history as a community activist, author, public policy advocate, and attorney with deep roots in the Granite State. She worked with New Hampshire colleges to create the UNIQUE 529 College Savings Program to help families save for their children to attend college, and worked with a coalition of health care providers to create the Medication Bridge Program that distributes free medication to New Hampshire families and seniors who cannot afford the high cost of prescription drugs. She has served as a board member or advisor to the NH Charitable Foundation, the Trust for Public Lands, Child and Family Services of New Hampshire, the United Way, and many other community groups. She and her husband Brad live in Hopkinton and have two sons who attend college in New Hampshire.

Democrats: Trick or Vote, November 2010

"Shhhh. We're playing the quiet game."

DUDE!! The Trick or Vote people are back! Twentysomethings, bah! --it's the political junkies with kids who've been 29 for years now who nearly pee their pants with excitement at this combination of costumes and political doorhangers.

Democrats, Independents, and Moderate Republicans: The Hard Right Wants You to Run for the Hills. Run to the Polling Booths Instead.

November 2010 is a referendum on Republican obstruction extremism.

Keep repeating this phrase when dangerous nonsense happens, like...

This weekend, when rodeo-clown Glenn Beck and his Neo-Westboro Baptist Church, sure to be given wall-to-wall coverage by the cable tv Nonstop Carnival of Evil/Stupid, arrive in Washington, DC. Last August, it was nonsensical "death panels" pushed by a cheeto-stained Facebooker that managed to get everyone into a stir. It's amazing the damage one mean person in her pajamas can do from the basement of her home in the outer reaches of Wasilla.

Let's face it, while August may be the "silly season," ever since about March, 2009, the hard right has done nothing but drag the GOP in a more conservative direction. Like bad cosmetic surgery that pulls too tight, any further right and the GOP's ears will meet behind its head like a clasp on a cheap purse--any further right, and Pol Pot will be wondering why he didn't think to burn some Qu'rans first.

Happy Equality Day: We've Come a Long Way. Maybe.

As you can see from the clip above, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is a very capable, knowledgeable, intelligent woman. I don't live in New York, but from what I've seen and heard and read (in the news and here on MOMocrats), she is doing a terrific job of serving her constituents.

So I could not help but roll my eyes at the news that at a debate this week, one of the men vying to be her opponent in the November election characterized her as "an attractive woman." 

Happy Equality Day, Senator Gillibrand. I bet you thought it was no longer acceptable to dismiss powerful women by focusing on their physical attributes. 

You say you've never heard of Equality Day?

It's may not be an official holiday, but August 26 is an important date in our history. Today is the 90th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment which extended the right to vote to the women of the United States.

To paraphrase a catchy little advertising jingle from my youth: We've Come a Long Way. Maybe.

In 1979, only 3% of the people elected to the US Congress were women. Today, we've got 90 -- including 17 Senators.

That's still less than 17% of 535 seats in the combined chambers of Congress. After all, women make up nearly 51% of the population. We're nowhere near the point where we can claim equal representation.

We have some interesting races going on in my home state of California. We are already represented by two female Senators, with one of them in a heated re-election race against a female opponent.

And if GOP candidate Meg Whitman succeeds in her bid to become Governor, all three of our top elected offices will be filled by women.

My point is that today, women really are a political force. Imagine how much more we could do if we looked beyond what's reported on network news, learned about the issues and actually bothered to vote. It may come as a surprise to MOMocrats readers (who tend to be politically involved), but large numbers of women do not exercise their hard-fought 19th Amendment rights -- especially unmarried women. 

Page Gardner of Women's Voices, Women's Vote writes eloquently on the organization's blog today:

In 2008, of the nearly 51 million unmarried women who were eligible to register to vote, only 35 million did register. That means 16 million women who could have voted did not even register.

Until recently, that figure included Meg Whitman, who famously didn't vote for 28 years.She says she was too focused on family and career to make the time. Sadly, those are the same reasons cited by most women who choose to stay on the political sidelines.

Few of them are billionaires like Whitman, or mere millionaires like Fiorina. I think it's commendable that these two former businesswoman want to serve the people of California. But as I am diametrically opposed to their stance on nearly every issue, they won't get my vote. (Both candidates are anti-choice, pro-Prop 8 and think tax cuts are the solution for everything; Whitman claims she can fix California's $19.1 billion deficit without raising taxes by running the state like a business -- a promise similar to what we heard seven years ago from Arnold Schwarzenegger. And we all know where that has got us.)

I think both Whitman and Senate candidate Carly Fiorina would be nightmares if elected. But I also think true equality means that women have the right to be just as wrong on the issues as some men.

Happy Equality Day!

Donna Schwartz Mills can usually be found on her personal blog about life in Southern California, SoCal Mom.

Does Dana Loesch think or is she just a Luntzian robotron?

I am not a feminist. I am a woman who has assumed I have the same right as anyone else to choose my own course, make my own future, and do so on equal footing with men. I believe the government exists to serve citizens, not to act as an authoritarian axe or discriminate against one class of citizens over another.  I really don't care if moms stay at home or work. I've done both, both have advantages and disadvantages., and I'm not out to overturn patriarchy. I actually like men.(see note below) I'm married to one. I get along well with them. Those who act like idiots don't get any attention from me.

I respect those liberal women who call themselves feminists but personally resist 'isms' in general as a personal matter.

Now that you know a little about my perspective...

I debated about whether to take on the latest turd Dana Loesch dropped on SFExaminer.com in the form of an op-ed column or ignore her. Other than being the latest Ann Coulter wannabe, she hasn't said much original for the past year or so. (Yes, I snark. It serves as a reminder not to take her too seriously.)

The Sarah Palins, Michele Bachmanns, and other members of the "feminist right" can always be counted on to echo the newest Luntz talking points through the echo chamber. Now that Betsy McCaughey, Pamela Geller and Dr. Laura have been thoroughly discredited, they just pick up some other woman looking for her five minutes of fame and hackery. Dana is the newest candidate. Not the first and she won't be the last.

Do conservative women -- especially intelligent ones (yes, they do exist) -- ever wonder why the party faithful finds the dumbest, most extreme groupies to deliver their message? Republican cynicism at its best -- pay lip service to women's equality but find the ones dumber than a rock to deliver it. Bachmann, Foxx, Palin, Angle....need I say more?

At any rate, this little litany of smashes against "liberal women" is classic Luntz/Rove framing, and deserves a thorough debunking.

Let's begin with her assertions about Avastin, a drug originally developed to treat colon cancer.

This past month, liberal feminists made more hay made over Palin's "mama grizzlies" talk than the matter of the Food and Drug Administration jerking Avastin off the market. Avastin is a drug used to treat late-stage breast cancer and has been shown to extend the life of some breast cancer patients by five months, but was deemed "cost-prohibitive" by the government.

Not so much. This is one of the high dangers of fast-tracking cancer drug approvals before the clinical trials really prove their efficacy. (It's a big word, Dana. Look it up.) The FDA didn't "jerk Avastin off the market" in order to leave late-stage breast cancer patients adrift without a lifeline, even if Dana Loesch says so. The FDA pulled Avastin because it was ineffective against late-stage breast cancer. Out of three clinical trials, it was only reported as effective on one patient. One. single. patient. And that was in the first trial.The second trials, conducted with more controls, yielded no positive results.

As a conservative woman, you'd think Dana Loesch would appreciate this: Avastin costs $50,000/year. Is it really conservative to spend $50,000 for an ineffective treatment? Really?

Moving on to her litany of complaints about "liberal feminists"...

Operation Iraqi Freedom is Over, or, What Makes The Right Mad is That We're Winning

August 18, 2010: combat troop withdrawal from Iraq began ahead of schedule. There are now 50,000 soldiers left behind in Iraq to oversee general security. By winning, I don't mean we won this war. I mean it's a victory for those who opposed the war that we elected a new president who did what he promised.

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I'm still dazed that the cause that burned so fiercely in me for the past seven years--fury that inspired me to become a political blogger, rage that pushed me out into the streets along with hundreds of thousands of other people despite news organs slavishly devoted to pushing Bush's message, a white hot resolve that kept me fired up to elect a president who would respect rule of law and reject the Bush doctrine--now has suddenly come to an anti-climactic end.

Millions mobilized around the world to protest this unjust war.

Now it ends not with a bang, but a whimper.

Go Read It: Gendering the Birthright Citizenship Debate

If the talk by various lawmakers of repealing "birthright citizenship," or citizenship by virtue of being born on U.S. soil, sounds surreptitiously anti-woman, it is. It's as familiar and toxic as the right-wing's bogeyman, the "welfare queen." Only, this is a way to transfer the negative feeling conservatives have attached mostly to African American women to Latina (and Asian) women instead. It's hateful talk and it's spreading from the home of racial-profiling law SB1070, Arizona, to Texas.

The idea is the same: dehumanize women of color and their children, characterize them as dependent on social programs meant for "real people," and deny their families dignity and legitimacy. By denying children of immigrants citizenship, 14th amendment repealers hope to deport undocumented parents and their citizen children, thereby uprooting and breaking up families.

It's an ugly trick and as old as the hills. Claims about reliance on social services are not even true. And it definitely speaks to the lesser impulses of our country and makes a mockery of the sentiments embodied by the Statue of Liberty.

Feminists need to read it: Gendering the Birthright Citizenship Debate, by Michelle Chen, Colorlines.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k. She was 6 years old when her parents, immigrants from China and permanent residents of the U.S. at the time, became U.S. citizens. She is a citizen of the U.S. by virtue of being born in the state of Wisconsin. She'll get into the face of anyone who thinks repealing birthright citizenship is a worthwhile idea--that means you, Senators Kyl & Graham.

Mama Grizzlies have a message for Sarah Palin

I guess she didn't think much of it. Ewoks? Really?

Housing Policy Needs a Green Makeover (Sustainable Communities Are Part of the Work/Life Issue)

Several months ago, I wrote a lengthy post suggesting ways to use the mortgage crisis as an opportunity to help people facing foreclosure by helping them build and tap green equity in their homes. I also pointed out how to green housing policy by using tools like location efficient mortgages to reshape urban/suburban residential and commute patterns.

I'm excited to read that the Obama administration is holding a summit today to re-examine federal housing policy. Like the author of this Grist article that points out how housing policy can incorporate green climate/energy elements, I'm hopeful that the newly-launched Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (headed by my new heroine, Shelley Poticha) can start to undo our unwieldy, car-dependent way of living and working. It really will take the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, and the Housing and Urban Development agencies working together to achieve this. Consider residential rehab the flip side of the climate/energy bill we never saw emerge from the Senate this Congressional session. Also consider the 70+ years of highway-centric city and regional planning we've had that needs to be reworked.

As someone who lives in Los Angeles, city that's the poster child for car-culture obsessed fossil-fuel dependency run amok, I think it's notable that we Californians voted to RAISE TAXES to fund high speed rail that would connect San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even we see the need for a new vision of working and living.

A small, practical step that builds on what's been done before would be to have Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, two of the biggest federal loan guarantors, prioritize location-efficient mortgages in the products they underwrite. A bigger challenge will be to get big banks on board. Convince them this is a new market, and the greedy pigs profit-seeking banks'll probably jump at the opportunity to revitalize the moribund real estate market.

Let's wean ourselves off foreign oil. And as the BP Gulf Oil spill disaster has shown us, domestic oil isn't the silver bullet solving our oil dependency problems either. Wouldn't you rather be able to take a high-speed train or light rail to work, instead of spending 2 or more hours a day in a car stuck in traffic (time out of your life you'll never get back to play with your kids or just relax)?

Greening our housing policy may just be the way to do it.

UPDATED TO ADD on August 20, 2010:

I'm loving the Grist folks for keeping their eye on this issue too--here's a post about energy efficient mortgages and a bill Senator Michael Bennet says he'll introduce after the August recess. Bennet is up for re-election, so let's make sure he's around to lead the effort to get the Sensible Accounting to Value Energy Act (pdf) passed. From the Grist post:

"Energy-efficient mortgages" have been available for years, running on the premise that borrowers who spend less on utility bills have more money available for mortgage payments. But they've been an underused niche product that few buyers or even lenders know about. The SAVE Act would take the concept and apply it to all government-sponsored mortgage enterprises, such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration. Those three entities currently guarantee more than 90 percent of new loans, so the bill would have a profound effect on ramping up home efficiency.

"The big news is that this would become a part of every federally backed mortgage," said Cliff Majersik of the Institute for Market Transformation, an efficiency advocacy group that helped draft the bill.

Energy efficient homes would cost less to run, and thus affect how big or small a mortgage a borrower would need. Both energy efficient mortgages and location efficient mortgages (that value proximity to public transit), are tools for reshaping society and could really change how we live and work in positive, and sweeping, ways. Pay less for an environmentally-friendly house that has better transit options for getting around your community? Sounds great to me.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k. She tweets advice to DNC politicos at @cyn3matic and tends the MOMocrats Facebook page.

A few words from the amateur left, if you please

I could rant about how stupid I think Robert Gibbs was to actually say what many think, but I'm not going to. Since I'm not a member of the professional left now or ever, it didn't apply to me. Let them fight the battle.

So I won't rant about Gibbs. But I want to say what drives me crazy. See that over there ? --> -->

Look at the headlines. Michelle Obama on a skewer, despondent Dems, dumbass ethics charges aimed at Maxine Waters and real ones aimed at Charlie Rangel, and the never, ever, ever ending drumbeat about how midterms are terrible, awful, just miserable for Democrats.

I call bullshit. I'm tired of hearing about how depressed the little Dems are, or how Elizabeth Warren MUST BE NOMINATED OR ELSE THE SKY WILL FALL. (BTW, I'm an Elizabeth Warren fan but my goodness -- she is not the sun and the moon and everything in between either!). I'm tired of hearing how the White House has screwed liberals. Screwed? Really?

Back when I was contemplating the end of my first marriage, I saw a therapist mostly because I was afraid of what divorce would do to our son. She shared a profound truth with me then, and it's stayed with me since. Here it is, for all of you:

No matter what you do or who you are, you'll screw it up somehow.

 She was absolutely right. For all the sound and fury, the only thing Barack Obama can count on is this: No matter what, he will piss someone off. The only question then becomes how to piss the fewest off and still get the job done.

Take the public option, for example. It remains the holy grail of grudges among the professional left. Nary a day goes by that I don't read something from someone using that as an example of what a failure he's been. Never mind that the public option, as crafted by this Congress, covered almost no one and was more of a gift to insurers than Americans. Never mind all that, because in the minds of the professional left, it is an example of the White House betrayal of those who elected him.

Never mind that it was Congress who sent it to him that way, it's still his fault.

Dear MSM, Mock Us and Ignore Us at Your Peril

The media love to mock women in the political world by using sexist terms that demean us and make us out to be something not worthy of serious consideration. We saw that time and time again during the 2008 presidential election as talking heads not-so-subtly suggested that Hillary Clinton was only a viable candidate for national office because we felt sorry for her after Bill cheated on her. And instead of focusing on Sarah Palin's qualifications, or lack thereof, as John McCain's running mate, the media focused on her looks and questioned whether a mother of five with young children still at home was up to playing with the big boys.

There's still plenty of that when it comes to powerful women -- one of the most recent examples is an article in the Washington Post about Elizabeth Warren, where they question whether she is a "zealot" because of her passion to help middle class families in these horrible economic times. When I see things like that, it's hard not to wonder whether a man in that position would have been described differently -- I'm betting a male counterpart would be described more positively as something like a "devoted advocate" rather than a "zealot," which has such a negative inference. (Not to mention the fact that the article was, yet again, another story about a politically powerful woman that got placed in the Style section. But that's another post for another day.)

Another increasingly common phenomenon I've been noticing is that some news outlets just act like we don't exist, implying through omission that it's just the big ol' menfolk who are out there trying to make change, with hardly a woman to be found!

The most recent outrageous example is a Politico article entitled, More Bloggers Throwing Hats in Ring.

CA Prop 8 Overturned

When people hate you, you have to LOVE HARDER. (Paraphrasing Van Jones here.)

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Some religionists and others who believe that discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender folk should be legal will of course appeal. The fight isn't over.

But they'll be met with legions of us who believe in our hearts that equal protection under the law means everyone is included. That's who we are in America, that's who we really are.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

Go Read It: Same Sex Marriage and the Proposition 8 Vote

Finally, some analysis of the data taken from voters as they left the polls in November, 2008, when the California anti-gay marriage referendum, Proposition 8, was on the ballot.

One big question after the election: Who moved? Six weeks before the vote, Proposition 8 was too close to call. But in the final weeks, supporters pulled ahead, and by election day, the outcome was all but certain.

...

The shift, it turns out, was greatest among parents with children under 18 living at home — many of them white Democrats.

...

The lesson: It's not enough to make the case for same-sex marriage. It's also important to arm voters — particularly parents — against an inevitable propaganda attack. And it's crucial to rebut lies so parents don't panic.

We at MOMocrats knew this about parents--that's why we had post after post after post after post here on the site (maybe 9 or 10 in all) reassuring parents. We also knew religious conservatives who backed Prop 8 have made deep, dangerous incursions into Latino and Asian Pacific American communities via their churches, and we reached out to APA parents with bilingual video PSAs made on shoestring budgets to help counter this.

I just hope leadership on the marriage equality efforts can absorb these painful, but important lessons and take different steps in the future. When Prop 8 passed, we were horrified and hurt too. Maybe not as much as the people directly affected, but we were right alongside you. Mobilize your allies. We have to validate each other. We will do all we can, but we need your guidance, help, and resources.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

A Woman Who Supports Gay Rights & Marriage Equality Boycotts Target

I applaud this woman for publicly withdrawing her purchasing power from Target.

Recently the corporation donated $150,000 to the Republican candidate for the gubernatorial campaign in Minnesota, Target's home state. This sparked ire from LGBT groups, who demanded to know how Target could support an anti-marriage equality candidate at the same time as they supported gay rights and causes.

As mentioned by Randi Reitan, boycotting Target will be hard, because it's convenient to shop there and it's a handy place to pick up gifts for kids and grandkids. Soon it'll be time to stock up on back-to-school stuff. But I admire her allegiance to her cherished LGBT family members and friends, and her quiet, principled stand.

Corporations and marketers want to court women because they know we control the purse strings. Sometimes I detest being treated as if I'm merely Giddy Shopper Lady. (I mean, I am all that, AND more. Heh.) What if we could take that same power of the purse strings and use it for good, not evil? Together we could really get Target's attention. Maybe we could even get them to do the right thing--be consistent in their support of LGBT causes.

Cynematic's cobwebby blog is P i l l o w b o o k.