MOMocrats

California Supremes Overturn Gay Marriage Ban

(From the SF Chronicle's Pride 2004 Wedding Album, a non-stop weep-for-joy fest. Aren't they a beautiful family?)

I melt at weddings. There's so much hope, promise, and happiness at a wedding. There's also no little amount of drama, but part of the pleasure is that the drama gets resolved pleasingly. (Mostly.) And it's often more fun to attend than it is to be one of the principle cast members, so to speak.

I got misty with joy when San Francisco legalized gay marriage and the town experienced a flurry of weddings after marriage licenses were issued at the city and county clerk's office, because a couple of friends had finally decided to tie the knot now that they could. (They aren't the ones pictured above, btw.) And I've always loved San Francisco's Gavin Newsom, aka Mayor McHottie, as fellow MOMocrat CityMama's dubbed him, for throwing open the door to people in the LGBT community who want to get married.

As you can imagine, as soon as the environmentally-correct millet was thrown, lawsuits were filed to define marriage as a union specifically between a man and a woman. It took about a month before that door was slammed shut. But recently, the Huffington Post reports that the California Supreme Court recently handed down a 4-3 decision saying that domestic partnerships are not equivalent to marriage (they are instead sort of "separate and unequal" to marriages, to borrow a phrase).

Dreams of a Mother: Have Something to Eat

What I dream for the world is that we all eat a good meal, three times a day, with two small snacks. By good I mean nutritious and tasty. By all, I mean ALL. Every last person.

Being hungry is a primal worry. If anxiety had a sound, it would be the gurgle of stomach juices rumbling in an empty stomach. Every new mama has "Failure to Thrive" engraved on her heart as Fear About Your Infant #1. When a baby loses weight instead of gaining it. When you can see the ribs on a toddler. When a kid is peckish. Refuses to eat or has problems eating or gaining weight. When your mama looks at you and clucks, "You're looking thin. Are you eating well?", no matter how old you are. Invariably you'll hear or perhaps you've said, "Here, have another helping."

Elizabeth Edwards testifies before US Senate on Funding The Cancer Fight, Healthcare reform

Elizabeth Edwards and Lance Armstrong are backing legislation sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, that would create a more comprehensive approach to fighting cancer. Both testified before the U.S. Senate today on the importance of cancer research, prevention and treatment funding.

Christine-Modern English

Dockworkers Display War Opposition Strength in Historic Ports Shut Down

Rank and file members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which includes some 25,000 men and women, took matters into their own hands on Thursday to protest the war in the largest one day strike since the invasion of Iraq.

All along the West Coast, ILWU members shut down the ports, grinding business to a halt.

J.B. Powell at The Huffington Post described Friday the estimated effect on business.

"A spokesperson at the Port of Oakland citing John Martin and Associates economic analysis, said that $1.2 trillion in business activity flows from West Coast ports each year. She reported that it costs between $50,000 and $100,000 for each ship delayed for a day from docking. Officials, she said, planned for the strike and diverted ships, but the action kept at least one ship from docking in Oakland. There are 29 ports up and down the coast."

Acting on a motion from a a recent caucus of members, the workers defied the wishes of even their own International union's officials who argued against the strike, but said they supported the members' right to protest. Jack Heyman, a local officer of the ILWU who wrote the resolution to strike, said in a Democracy Now broadcast Thursday the action of the ILWU members directly demonstrates the power of resistance workers possess.

"Well, what this action was was raising the level of struggle from protest to resistance, and we’re hoping that these kinds of actions will resonate to other unions and workers. It’s already catching on with some of the port truckers. Actually, they’ve been doing actions for quite awhile. While it’s not mainly based on the war—I think they’re very much affected by the high price of fuel—they’ve been shutting down ports over that issue, but also immigrant rights, because many of them are immigrant workers. And I hope that this will be an example to other workers that we have the power, we’ve got to use it. And that’s how we can bring this war to a halt."

Telling of the committment to speak out, ILWU member Angela Benjamin, brought her 8 year old son, George, to the rally, missing a day's pay to show her support for the war opposition.

"My father was a Vietnam Vet and he died in 1969," Benjamin said. "So it's important for me to be here to protest this war. I have a personal idea about what's going on."

-Christine Modern English

Go Read It: Hillary's "Obliterate Iran" Remark and the Overseas Response

Maybe the one big piece of news that came out of the otherwise content-free ABC News debate was Clinton's stance on the "what-if?" situation where Iran uses nuclear arms to attack Israel. Clinton spoke about maintaining an "umbrella of deterrence" and that the U.S., under her lead, would "obliterate Iran"--with nuclear weapons, if need be--to protect our ally Israel.

It wasn't a mistake, she said it again when interviewed a few days later.

Contrast this with Governor Bill Richardson's more reasoned comments on Iran:

Clinton's remark disappeared into the ether, we were all so rightly annoyed at the overall vapidity of George Stuffin'envelopes and Chuck Gibson's moderation of that so-called debate.

But the international press certainly sat up and noticed--go read it here.

On citizen journalists and the validity of accounts

The fireball that has erupted over a comment made at a fund raiser has knocked me off my feet. Over the past few days, what amounts to a standard, though creatively written account of another political event/fund raiser by a citizen journalist has become the fuel for an insane amount of intolerance described here that is almost as hateful as the thinking Barack Obama is being labeled for with his remarks on economically disadvantaged small-town people.

Do I need to get into all the reasons why one might expect a man who has campaigned for last 15 months or so all over the U.S. to know better than to phrase his remarks as such? Well, that is not where I'm headed, and quite frankly, I say this with all honesty, it often falls on deaf ears. However, I do intend to speak out for my citizen journalist colleague, Mayhill Fowler, with whom I, and a number of other of other contributors, have written on The Huffington Post's Off the Bus since June of last year.

Mayhill, as far as I have known, is unabashedly supportive of Obama. She also has very keen eyes and ears as her writing attests. She is very artful at describing the scene and the atmosphere as well as the reaction she experiences at campaign events. Over the last several months, I have read her many posts, of which a vast majority are favorable to Obama's campaign efforts. And I have followed with a slight sort of envy her outright dedication to covering the campaigns, which isn't always possible when you have young children under foot as I do.

Therefore, I am appalled at the amount of backlash she has received for having written her account of this expensive San Francisco fund raiser. I have attended numerous campaign events and throughout my years training as a journalist, I've covered events, people, issues I did and did not care about, much as a citizen journalist or any journalist for that matter would cover. Some were favorable to an idea or candidate I supported, some were critical. But, all were written from the truth as I believe Mayhill's account was written.

What I don't understand is how ordinary Americans can go on the defensive over the work of a citizen journalist, who is more like they are, than any big name paid reporter on any big news operation anywhere.

The value in the citizen journalist's account is that, unlike the paid reporter, they work for free. They are beholden to no one but themselves. And therefore, they are under no  obligation to write, cover or opine about subjects but from their own unique perspective.

We must remember the amount of varying viewpoints, accounts, thoughts and questions citizen journalists may pose is the very cornerstone to the idea a free press, most crucial in this age of corporate controlled big media.

Let us not become so embedded in our support of a candidate at the expense of free thought and dissent that we forget the underlying foundation that allows our candidate his or her platform in the first place.

-Christine Modern English

Olympic Torch Protests Around the World

It started in London where protesters attempted to grab the torch and snuff it out.

It continued in Paris where the torch was extinguished three times and the relay was eventually cancelled.

And today, as the torch is due to arrive in San Francisco, the only US stop on its world tour, protesters scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl banners that read "One World. One Dream. Free Tibet '08" and "Free Tibet." Awesome.

The Olympics are not supposed to be political, and one could argue that the United States—especially right at the moment in time—doesn't have a human rights record to be proud of, but I am delighted to see the Free Tibet issue getting so much attention.

I don't want anyone to get hurt and do feel kinda sorry for the torch bearers. I'm not sure what the point of trying the extinguish the torch is since there is back up flame, but at the same time,  I am really amazed at the world wide effort to protest.

Nancy Pelosi has encouraged San Franciscans and the world to protest. The Mayor of San Francisco is asking people to protest the cause and not the athletes who will be running or wheeling with the torch. If London or Paris any indication, the scene in San Francisco is going to be ugly. We're not that organized a city, trust me. And the protest is sure to test the limits of The Most Patient Police Force In The World.

I wonder if the San Francisco relay will be canceled?

Stefania Pomponi Butler not only is CityMama but she plays one on TV.

Clinton, Obama Silent on Winter Soldier, Silence on The Responsible Plan, Progressives Divided

Last Thursday over 30 Democrat challengers publicly presented their support for "The Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq," assembled from existing congressional legislation by national security experts, retired generals, and Congressional candidate Darcy Burner. As of this week, The number of Democrat endorsees of the plan has risen to 45.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have yet to acknowledge the Iraq withdrawal plan crafted by members of their own party, and it appears there is little pressure from the press to question them on it.

The two candidates' also continue their refusal to acknowledge Winter Soldier, the public testimonies of Iraq War veterans that occurred this month in D.C. and one of the most important anti-war events in over 3 decades. If their refusal is any indication, the American public would be waiting a very long time to hear any mention of the Iraq plan.

Five Years Later: What about Iraqi Women?

Three years ago, at the State of the Union Address, President Bush acknowledged a woman in the audience: Safia Taleb al-Suhail. She is a leader of Banu Tamim tribe and Ambassador to Eqypt, married to a Sunni Kurd. She lost her father to Saddam Hussein’s regime. For her, life is better five years after the American invasion.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for millions of other Iraqi women.

On the whole, Iraq is a more dangerous place today for women than it was five years ago.

A rise in theocracy-seeking political parties and the appearance of Al Qaeda in Iraq -- something that only happened after we invaded -- has meant a more restrictive life for millions of women. A 2003 report from Human Rights Watch found a significant number of women and girls were not reporting incidents of sexual violence for fear of honor killings and social stigmatization. Given the disarray of the police force in Baghdad and other cities, as well as a lack of public utilities needed for forensic examination, even when complaints are reported, they often go uninvestigated.

Iraq War Blogswarm -- John McCain, His Bad!

Al Qaeda is in Iran training people to go into Iraq.

That's what John McCain said yesterday while in the Middle East, standing at a press conference with Senators Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman. The only problem is that both Graham and Lieberman started looking sort of sheepish and uncomfortable as McCain was talking.  And finally Lieberman leaned over, whispered in McCain's ear and told him, uh, the intelligence doesn't show that -- turns out there are insurgents but no one can prove it's Al Qaeda.

Oops!  His bad! 

No need for the person who wants to be President of the United States to have a firm grasp of the facts, right? Why am I talking about Iran when it's the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq?  Because this is how Iraq started -- little lies.