First Lady Michelle Obama's First 100 Days

President Obama has a work ethic like nobody's business. Already, in the space of 100 days, he's signed laws (or reversed harmful Bush-era policies) that benefit women in 14 different key ways.

But there's no moss growing on First Lady Michelle Obama either. And it's clear there's a supportive dynamic between the legislation President Obama signs and the causes Mrs. Obama champions. Within days of moving into the White House, President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and Michelle Obama led the celebration of the signing and tribute to Ms. Ledbetter.

Unite for Hunger and Hope

Bloggers Unite and Heifer International have teamed up to raise awareness about world hunger today with the Unite for Hunger and Hope project. Bloggers Unite invites bloggers everywhere to join the effort and write a post about world hunger.

Previously on MOMocrats.com, we have featured several organizations that fight hunger and poverty both in developing countries and here in the United States:

Share our Strength fights childhood hunger in the U.S. by raising public awareness about hunger, organizing fundraisers, and awarding grants to hunger organizations and food pantries. MOMocrats partnered with Quaker Oats last year help to raise money for Save our Strength. 

Meds and Food for Kids is an organization that saves children from starvation in Haiti, one of the countries hit hardest by last year's spike in global food prices, by providing families with nutitional supplements created using locally grown ingredients; the group also teaches the local Hatian farmers who provide ingredients for their product new and better agricultural techniques and food safety methods. MOMocrats interviewed the founder of Meds and Food for Kids, Dr. Patricia Wolff, last December. 

Unicef also fights childhood hunger and poverty worldwide; in January, MOMocrats interviewed Dr. Brandao Co, UNICEF's chief of nutrition in Afghanistan, a country where agricultural production has been devastated by two decades of war, and current conflict makes it difficult for agencies to move food and medical supplies to the communities that need them. 

You can help fight world hunger by joining today's Bloggers Unite event, by donating to or writing about one of the organizations listed above, or by donating nonperisable items to your nearest food pantry.

SCOTUS Weighing Voting Rights Act

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States is hearing Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District #1 v. Holder. The case centers on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

To borrow from SCOTUS blog's wiki:

Congress made part of the 1965 Act permanent and nationwide in its binding effect – the part that outlaws any state or local “voting qualification or prerequisite to voting” or any procedure that denies or abridges the right to vote based on “race or color.” But another part of the law – Section 5 -- was aimed mainly at the states in the South where there had been a sustained history of racial bias in voting. That part – Section 5 – was not made permanent. Initially, it was to be in effect for five years. But Congress has since extended it – in 1970 for five years, in 1975 for seven, in 1982, for 25, and, most recently, in 2006, for 25 more years, running through 2032.

I urge everyone to read about the case and consider the implication of overturning or gutting Section 5. Yes, in this case the Utility seems to be wanting to make voting easier but think big-picture... Yes, the U.S. has "made undeniable progress in ensuring the voting rights of citizens of all races," as Utility alleges. But to think that minority voters are fine now, and we can just do away with Section 5 is ludicrous at best and malicious at worst. Just look at the list of amici (friends of one side or other) for the appellee -- from the Asia Pacific American Bar Association to the North American South Asian Bar Association to the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses to the Navajo Nation.

CPSAN is audiocasting the oral arguments and will archive them on CSPAN 3.

Go read it: Blow-you-away incredible slideshow of President Obama's 100 Days

Whitehouse.gov has an incredible slideshow of President Obama's first 100 Days. It's not the usual posed formal photos---this shows the real work, the real fun, the real moments, the inside experience.

Take a few minutes to browse through. It's incredible.

Senator Roland Burris supports National Equal Pay Day, co-sponsors Paycheck Fairness Act

Today is National Equal Pay Day, a fact that has nearly been lost amidst swine flu, ill-conceived flights by escorted planes over NYC, Senator Bunning grandstanding against Governor Kathleen Sebelius' nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the nation rocking announcement by Senator Arlen Specter that he is converting to Democrat.

However, considering that the original legislation intended to equalize pay between men and women was passed in 1963 and women still only earn on average 78 cents to a man's dollar, it's a day we can't afford to overlook.

Senator Roland Burris (D-IL) hasn't forgotten. Today, he made a floor speech in support of Equal Pay Day, and announced his co-sponsorship of the Paycheck Fairness Act. According to Burris' press release, this Act is ". . .the first significant update to the landmark legislation of the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The bill, S. 182, would encourage employers to follow the law by creating substantial incentives, strengthening penalties for equal pay violations, and aligning it more closely with other civil rights legislation: closing loopholes, prohibiting employer retaliation, improving federal outreach and strengthening enforcement."

Specifically, some of the loopholes closing include:

• tougher criteria and requirements that employers prove that the difference in compensation is exclusively to related to job performance, and is not based on a sex of the employee.
• to clarify and determine whether compensation is fair and not different based on sex, compensation comparisons can be made between employees even if they do not work at the same physical place of business.

Senator Burris, in his Senate floor speech explained why he is co-sponsoring the bill, "Over the course of a 40-year career, women could lose as much as one million dollars to the gender age gap. Nationwide that means roughly $200 billion of lost income every single year. With families across America tightening their belts and working harder than ever to make ends meet, it would be a serious failure on the part of this Congress to ignore this call to action. With this in mind, we must move swiftly to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act."

Consider that more carefully: women could lose as much as one million dollars to the gender age gap. Nationwide that means roughly $200 billion of lost income every single year.

Therefore, while it is true that the 2007 number is up slightly (1 cent) from the 2006 number, as Senator Burris said, "Even in my own lifetime, I have seen changes few could have imagined. But, for all the progress we have made, there is still a very long way to go."

The legislation does not include a projected timeline to close the pay gap, but Senator Burris is clear that he feels the time is overdue.

BREAKING NEWS: Arlen Specter Leaving GOP for Democrats

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has announced that he is leaving the GOP to become a Democrat, and will run as a Democrat in his upcoming re-election bid in 2010. CNN has reported that constituents who were visiting Specter on an unrelated matter in his Washington, D.C. office burst into applause when he told them about his decision.  (What does that say about the state of the GOP??)

I wonder if this is why Chris Matthews decided not to run for that seat. Maybe Matthews has a little inside info he was keeping to himself? And, if so, was it a conflict for him not to report it as news???

And poor Al Franken. This can only mean the GOP will really throw their resources into keeping him out of the Senate, because if (when? fingers crossed!) he gets seated, the Dems will have reached the magic filibuster-proof number of 60!

I guess I can forgive Specter now for being a little rude to me on that Amtrak train last year when I said hello and told him my parents live in his state.

Will Efforts to Halt Spread of Swine Flu Be Hampered By U.S. Sick Leave Policy?

As part of their effort to contain the spread of the strain of swine flu that has reportedly killed at least 149 people in Mexico, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is advising Americans who feel sick with flu-like symptoms to avoid public places and stay home from work or school. Parents are advised to keep sick children out of schools and daycare centers until they have been symptom-free for at least 48 hours.

But with no federal regulations requiring employers to grant their employees paid sick leave, many American workers may find it difficult to take such advice. Due to exemptions for part-time employees and employees of small businesses, only about half of all working Americans are even eligible for unpaid medical leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

In contrast, worldwide, 145 other countries mandate that employers provide their employees with some sort of paid sick leave or emergency medical leave; the United States has one of the least generous medical leave policies in the industrialized world, ranking 21st among industrialized nations. 

Low-income, hourly wage workers like retail store employees, restaurant wait staff, and child care center workers — some of the very people most in contact with the public on a daily basis as an integral part of their jobs — are among those least likely to have paid sick leave, or even the ability to take unpaid days off to recuperate from illness or care for their children without seriously risking their employment. What will these workers do if they or their children become ill, and they are forced to choose between having enough money for rent and food, or following the CDC guidelines?  

MomsRising recently posted about the potential negative impact of U.S. sick leave policy on government efforts to control the spread of the swine flu, and has created an online petition asking the U.S. government create new legislation to require employers to allow their employees time off for legitimate health emergencies in the interests of public health.

Go Read It: Frank Rich on the Bush Administration, Torture, and Justifications for the Iraq War

Bush, but especially Cheney, would have the nation believe that information culled from torturing Abu Ghraib detainees "helped prevent another 9/11" and "kept us safe."

But that claim is worse than wishful thinking; it's untrue. Instead, Bush-Cheney authorized torture for a far worse purpose--so argues Frank Rich in an editorial in the NYT today.

Increasingly, evidence shows that torture was authorized by the Bush White House to extract information from detainees to manufacture information supporting an otherwise non-existent link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, in order to bolster rationalizations for the United States' "pre-emptive strike" on Iraq. Not only is torture wrong, in this case the moral blight was a tool to mitigate the original moral blight: dragging the nation into war under false pretexts, when the Bush White House knew no connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein existed.

Now that the truth is emerging, the question is: what do we the people do with it? I'm talking to all people of voting age in this country, no matter who you voted for in the past election. Do we even care? At the very least, don't we owe the families of 4,278 Iraq war dead a reckoning from the commander-in-chief who asked the ultimate sacrifice of them in bad faith?

Run, Mama, Run: Congressional Candidate Judy Chu Answers Political Bloggers' Questions, Part 1

Recently Dr. Judy Chu made herself available to numerous political bloggers to answer questions about her background and her positions on several local initiatives that are up for a vote during the May 19 special election. I was pleased to be on the conference call, as throughout the 1990s, I'd heard a great deal about her time as mayor of Monterey Park, and how the demographics of the San Gabriel Valley were changing now that many immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the People's Republic of China were settling there. Now, much of the San Gabriel Valley is Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants, ethnic grocery stores, small ethnic businesses, Latino eateries, and tutoring academies for children.

Dr. Chu, a community college professor and former Garvey school board member, city council member, then mayor, has had a lengthy career based in the San Gabriel Valley. After several years as mayor of Monterey Park, she ran for California State Assembly and served there for three terms. From there, she successfully ran for the State Board of Equalization, the nation's only tax policy-making entity staffed with elected officials. She now serves as Vice Chair of the State Board of Equalization. Just a few days ago, she received the endorsement of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Viillraigosa.

New EEOC Guidance on Caregiver Discrimination

My word of the day is "irony."

I was supposed to attend the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hearing about updated guidance on caregiver discrimination in the workplace for a live blog. Then my nine-year-old daughter got sick and was home from school, so I couldn't attend. Fortunately, there are other ways to skin a cat, and the EEOC made sure I got the links to their documents and the testimony.

The updated EEOC guidance is in response to the ever-increasing numbers of jobs being lost in this tight economy and the fear that employers may, in times of needing to cut jobs, use inappropriate and illegal criteria when it comes to working parents and other caregivers. There might be instances when job cuts can't be helped, but using care giving responsibilities as an excuse is often prohibited by federal law in a variety of circumstances.