Memorial Day

On this Memorial Day, we at MOMocrats pause to remember all the men and women who gave their lives for the sake of their country.

In the name of all the LGBT soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice while being forced by military policy to keep the most important relationships in their lives a secret, we hope that this year finally brings the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell, because heroes deserve to live their lives in the open.  

And in the name of the more than 1,000 Americans who have lost their lives fighting in Afghanistan, and for the sake of those of our children who are young enough to have never known a time when their country was not at war, we continue to wish for peace.

Go Watch It: Gulf Oil Spill on National Geographic

Tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT, 9 p.m. CT, the National Geographic Channel will air a documentary special on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, featuring exclusive video of the disaster and interviews with rescuers who witnessed the immediate aftermath of the explosion that caused the spill, and helped save the remaining crew.

As what may well be the worst environmental disaster in North American history continues to take shape, putting miles upon miles of ocean habitat and coastline ecosystems at grave ecological risk, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that the explosion itself also took the lives of 11 oil rig workers and put over 100 more workers, as well as their rescuers, in mortal danger.

What Not to Wear -- Elena Kagan Edition?

I'm a little sad that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan and her White House handlers appear to have given in to the running media 'Kagan is a fashion frump/is she a lesbian' fascination.

This is what Kagan looked like when President Obama announced her nomination -- boxy suit jacket in an odd shade of green with a wash-and-wear kind of look with make-up and hair -- a no-nonsense look from a woman who's got more important things to think about than mascara and eye liner.

And that should be okay. We need Supreme Court justices to be smart, not fashion forward.

1,000 Americans Dead in the Afghanistan War

It's a terrible milestone to have reached. So much sacrificed by military families; so many deaths of Afghan civilians. How many years is too long? How many dead is too much to bear?

Set aside the corruption at Blackwater/Xe, or that the defense budget grows at the expense of spending at home. Let the pain of lost loved ones among Americans and the civilians who bear the brunt of the war in Afghanistan unite us in resolving to end this war.

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

Democrats, Gulf Coast demand BP pay oil spill cleanup and other costs, refuse to pass along cost to taxpayers

The Gulf Coast region relies heavily on fishing and tourism as an economic base. Both are decimated by the ongoing and ever-expanding oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tourism is projected to be a $20 billion business annually, and fishing is $1.8 billion in Louisiana alone. 

The environmental impact of the oil spill is huge, "The magnitude of the problem for fish and wildlife depends on how long the well continues to leak oil and where and when it touches land, said Karen Foote, marine fisheries division administrator for the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department.

Foote said marshes may suffer long-term damage from the oil spill. The Louisiana coast includes 3 million acres of wetlands that serve as a nursery for game fish such as speckled trout and red drum and are currently nurturing the brown shrimp crop to be harvested by the state’s fishing fleet."

In the last week, Congress and the Gulf Coast tourism industry have demanded that BP be held financially accountable for these losses.

In AdAge.com, "Gulf Coast's $20B Tourism Biz Asks BP to Foot Advertising Bill" article, Michael Bush reports

"Even as BP struggles to control the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and government authorities and scientists struggle to determine the extent of the environmental damage, Gulf Coast states have landed on a way for the oil company to start making amends: shoring up their tourism industry with advertising dollars.

Authorities in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida have turned to the energy giant to fund ad campaigns, fearing that their summer-tourism business will disappear as major media outlets continue to fill the news cycle with reports and images of the catastrophe. There's a lot at stake. According to figures cited by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Gulf of Mexico's shores and beaches stretching from Texas to Florida support a $20 billion tourist industry.

"We just want to get the word out that we are open for business," said Kenneth Montana, president of the Harrison County Tourism Commission, the convention and business district bureau on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

On Monday, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stated that BP had to be held accountable, and asked for support to prevent any government bailouts

Watching the tragic consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico these past few weeks-from the economic pain of local businesspeople to the environmental degradation-has been positively gut-wrenching.

So I was appalled yesterday when a Senate bill to hold oil companies accountable for their actions and require them to pay the full cost of their deadly mistakes was blocked by a single Republican dissenter.

We can't let one of the worst environmental catastrophes in decades go unpunished, and we can't allow something like this to ever happen again.

Coming this week: The Texas Social Studies Standards Showdown

Image via Wikipedia

On May 19th, the Texas Board of Education will meet to approve the final Social Studies curriculum and textbook changes that caused such a stir back in March. Since that meeting, even more changes have been proposed which, if adopted, promise to rewrite history for Texas schoolchildren to the conservative narrative. Uber-winger Don McLeroy's proposals:

• Undermine the doctrine of separation of church and state. McLeroy wants to substitute an unintelligible standard asking students to "contrast the Founders' intent relative to the wording of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause, with the popular term 'Separation of church and state.'"
• Attacking social programs. McLeroy proposes children "discuss alternatives to long-term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare" as a solution to the current ratio of workers to retirees. This is a particularly odious theme, given that the ratio will be entirely different by the time these children are at the peak of their careers.
• Skew focus toward conservatives. McLeroy's logic is this:

  "This is relevant to assessing the policies of the various ideologies that have shaped where we are as Americans," said McLeroy, who has joined with other members of his board bloc to put a more conservative slant on the social studies standards. For example, high school students will have to learn specifically about leading conservative groups from the 1980s and 1990s in U.S. history, but not about identified liberal or minority rights groups.

• Removal of all references to the terms "justice" and "equality".

Wall Street Needs a Little Estrogen Enhancement Therapy

Do you know these women? You should.

Because they're pretty much the only thing that stands between us and the next financial collapse of the American economy.

TIME Magazine's cover story last week was called, The Sheriffs of Wall Street. And those sheriffs aren't who you might expect -- they're Elizabeth Warren, head of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (better known to us as TARP), SEC Chair Mary Schapiro and FDIC Chair Sheila Bair. These are women who should be in everyone's address book, because we all ought to be sending them thank you notes (and I bet they wouldn't mind a little FTD bouquet, either!).

The TIME article takes a look at the ongoing battles these three are fighting to put our economy back on the right track and the uphill fight they're facing because the men who are used to being in charge don't want to change the regulatory status quo.

Elena Kagan Isn't Experienced Enough for the Supreme Court? Really?!

Saturday Night Live had an especially timely segment on Weekend Update this week called, "REALLY?!"

Government officials didn't check the no-fly list until the plane with Faisal Shahzad was ready to take off? Really?!

Two TSA agents got into a fist fight when one made fun of the other for -- *ahem* -- the size of certain body parts one observed as the other walked through the X-Ray machine at security?

REALLY?!

Well, here's another one we can add to the list -- this headline in the print version of the Washington Post, " High Court Nominee Never Let Lack of Experience Hold Her Back." (The online headline for the same article is different, "Elena Kagan: '10th Justice' Has Deep Legal Knowledge But no Bench Experience."

So thank you Seth, Amy and Tina, for letting me borrow this -- REALLY?!

Run, Mama, Run: Beth Krom for Congress in California's CD-48

A woman's platform is a good one for America. Public safety, education, health care, sustainable energy... no matter what it is. This is a time for women to exercise the right to vote. Women have to find cookie jar money to fund good candidates. If everyone just gave $10...if women had $10 on a horse, they'd pay attention to a race. [emphasis mine] --candidate for Congress Beth Krom

It was just Mother's Day, and after the hugs and tributes, it's time to think about improving the lives of women and girls in this country every day. If we aren't all mothers, we women are certainly daughters, nieces, sisters, and aunts. And if we do a simple thing like vote in every election up and down the ticket, we can really turn this country around. I recently had the good fortune to interview Beth Krom, a Democratic candidate for congress challenging the Republican incumbent John Campbell in the 48th district of California.

Conventional wisdom's written off Orange County/Southern Caifornia as the all-too cozy home of hardcore anti-choice Republicans like Darrell Issa (CA CD-49), John Campbell (CA CD-48), and Dana Rohrbacher (CA CD-46). But as Krom points out, the demographics of her home district in Orange County are changing and in 2008 Obama won the 48th congressional district by a slim margin (49.3% to 48.6%) over McCain. I'm not a handwringer worried about a GOP onslaught this November. I think it'll be about what it's always about: who has the better and more motivated support that's willing to GOTV. And after talking to Beth Krom, I think she has an excellent chance at winning.

See what Beth Krom has to say over the jump.