MOMocrats™

Guest Post: Disappointed Doesn’t Cut It Anymore: A Mother’s Rebuttal of President Obama’s Plan B Politics

The MOMocrats welcome this guest post, written by Kate Stewart. Cross-posted with permission from Amplify.

Disappointed doesn’t cut it anymore.

Disappointed, angry, dismayed -- these are only some of the emotions I am feeling this afternoon after hearing President Obama's poor excuse for restricting access to Plan B One Step.

I am also scared.

Scared about the health of my daughters.  As the mother of two daughters, just like President Obama, I try to use "common sense" as much as possible. But, also like President Obama, I am not a doctor; I am not a scientist. I use my own judgment when it comes to things I am confident I can handle -- a case of the sniffles, a little cold. 

But, I also understand that it is my responsibility as a parent to know when I don't know all the answers and it’s time to turn to experts. And that, apparently, is where the President and I disagree.

When my daughter’s pediatrician gives me medical advice, I listen. Carefully. American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine make recommendations about my daughters' health, that matters to me. A lot. And I believe it should.

 Today, President Obama has made the irresponsible – and nearly incomprehensible -- decision to support HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ move to block the FDA from expanding access to Plan B One-Step emergency contraception. Whether the President’s decision was motivated by well-intentioned ignorance or political cowardice is beside the point. Either way, this move will adversely impact millions of women, particularly young women, across the country.

Guest Post: The Way to Confound Bachmann - Your Kids?

Last month, MOMocrats entered into a competition at the Circle of Moms community to find the 25 most popular political blogs written by mothers. Thanks to your votes, we made it into the Top 10 -- along with some of our other favorites. Plus, through the Circle of Moms list, we've been introduced to several new progressive voices, like Shannon Drury of the Radical Housewife (#3), who kindly offered us this account of an up close and personal encounter with now-official Presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann:

As a longtime activist in the service of feminist and other social justice causes, I have spent more than my fair share of time in the Minnesota State Capitol.  And because I believe that politics is an all-ages activity, I like to take my two kids.  

This was easier when they were small, as Elliott and Miriam were in the capitol session of 2006.  I dragged them and a stroller full of one-year-old Miriam’s junk to a hearing that involved regulating abortion procedures in our state so stringently that the “choice” in “pro-choice” would be meaningless for all but wealthy urbanites, the types who had access to everything anyway.  My sister and her four-year-old son joined us.  Great pals as well as cousins, Elliott and Aidan liked any opportunity to hold signs and chant as loud as they could, proving my oft-held theory that there are no finer activists than energetic little boys.  Yet even these two grew tired of flapping “PRO-CHOICE PRO-FAMILY” signs, taking their first opportunity to sneak away from their mothers in search of greater kicks.

“STOP THAT,” came the inevitable bark of an irritated stranger.  

A slender, finely-coiffed brunette had her gaze fixed on the boys, who were zipping in between a marble alcove and a copper bust of some long-dead former legislator.  My cheeks reddened as I plopped Miriam in my sister’s arms, mentally preparing for a heartfelt apology and a promise that the children in my care would stop behaving like overcaffeinated puppies.  Until I got a closer look at the woman’s face, that is.

I realized that my children were being admonished by Michele Bachmann, a state representative from Stillwater.

Rarely am I able to identify Minnesota legislators outside my home of Minneapolis, but Bachmann was making quite a name for herself in state politics, and not always for the reasons that she hoped.  I wouldn’t have recognized her if she hadn’t been exposed for hiding in the bushes outside a LGBT rights rally outside the capitol building the session before.  Why was she hiding there?  Bachmann never quite explained this herself, but the universally held opinion was that she couldn’t resist a peek at the folks she’d spent her tenure in the Minnesota legislature demonizing.  That very day, in fact, I’d passed by a gentleman holding a homemade sign with the words “HATEMONGER” scribbled across her headshot.  

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: It's Time For Congress To Act On The Paycheck Fairness Act

This week's MOMocrats MOMochat dealt with the legal ramifications of this week's Supreme Court decision to dismiss the class action discrimination suit against Wal-Mart. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) also has something to say: 

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked up to 1.6 million women from suing Walmart for sex discrimination in a class action lawsuit. The court's 5-4 conservative majority sided with business over women, claiming that Walmart's well-documented wage and hiring disparities are coincidences and not a result of a persistent culture of discrimination.

This is unacceptable. In the U.S. today, women are paid only 78 cents on the dollar that men make. If the highest court in the land won't protect women from discrimination in the workplace, then we must stand together and demand action from Congress.

Please join me in urging my colleagues in Congress to act on The Paycheck Fairness Act now. Go to OffTheSidelines.org/EqualPay to stand with me in support this crucial piece of legislation.
The Paycheck Fairness Act would accomplish several important things including:

• Close loopholes in The Equal Pay Act to ensure that employers have a legitimate business reason for paying women less for the same work
  
  
• Prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who discuss their salary with co-workers
  
  
• Update the Equal Pay Act to make it more in line with the class action procedures available under other anti-discrimination laws
  
  
• Level the playing field for employers, so those that pay fairly are not at a disadvantage.

But this issue is not just about fairness. Achieving equal pay for women is also about economic recovery and rebuilding the American middle class. If women were paid what men are for equal work, America's GDP would rise by up to 9 points. Since women are often the primary breadwinners and caretakers for families, a rise in their pay would mean a higher quality of life for their children.

Women are now a majority of the workforce and they earn graduate degrees in larger numbers than men. Women are the economic drivers of our economy yet we are still discriminated against every day because more often than not, men are the ones in the boardrooms and the executive suites making the hiring decisions.

That's why I created Off The Sidelines, to make women aware of these disparities and the necessity that they get more involved in the issues that affect them every day. As a first step, please speak out by adding your name to the petition at OffTheSidelines.org/EqualPay.

Thanks for standing up for equal pay for women. We have a long way to go but together we can work to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act and take an important first step toward revitalizing our economy and achieving fairness for women in the workplace.

Guest Post: Is Tyell Morton a Criminal, Or Just a Foolish Kid?

Guest blogger Joni Reynolds from Ebony Mom Politics alerted us to the Tyell Morton case, which we subsequently read about on The Root and AlterNet. We asked her to contribute a post about it:

On May 31, 2011, Tyell Morton did a very foolish thing.

Morton, a senior at Rushville High School in Indiana decided to do what he thought was a harmless senior prank. Dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and wearing latex gloves, Morton planted a package (containing a blow-up doll) in the girls’ restroom. When it was discovered, all hell broke loose.

Photo credit: FreeTyellMorton.org; Used with permission

The Indiana State bomb squad was called to the campus and the school was evacuated. Morton had been caught on the surveillance cameras. He admitted putting the package in the restroom; he was arrested and charged with felony criminal mischief.

Prosecutors find nothing humorous about Morton's prank, which school officials say cost them over $8,000. Morton not only missed his graduation, but he faces the possibility of spending eight years in prison if convicted.

Rush County Prosecutor Phil Caviness is taking this case very seriously. Caviness said, “In this post-Columbine world, that’s what you get when these kinds of things happen.”  

People, it was a senior prank. Did the action rise to the level of a Columbine comparison? It was foolish and stupid, but is this the kind of thing that should send a young man to prison?

Morton has no criminal record; he is simply a young man who did a very stupid thing. He should not go unscathed, but the punishment should fit the crime. He should have to pay the cost of the evacuation, and community service would be in order -- but to send this young man to prison would be a real crime.

For more information on this case, visit www.freetyellmorton.org. Add your name to the petition urging Indiana to pursue charges that are commensurate with the facts of this case here.

Joni Hudson-Reynolds is the author of the daily political blog Ebony Mom Politics. Reynolds brings insight and wit to her daily entries as she informs, empowers, and inspires her readers. Reynolds is married and the mother of two teens. 

The Right Priorities For Our Working Families by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

The 2010 election was a mandate for one thing: creating jobs and strengthening our economy for the long term. I heard that message loud and clear from New York families in every corner of our state, and I am working with my colleagues in Congress on solutions that will help create good-paying jobs and get the economy moving again for everyone.

But, instead of focusing on rebuilding the economy, House Republicans have unleashed an extreme ideological attack on America’s women and working families with HR 1, the first bill they introduced this Congress.

The House-passed bill slashed critical funding for prenatal care, including $750 million from nutrition programs for pregnant women and infant children.

It denies more than 5 million American women access to breast and cervical cancer screenings that could potentially save their lives.

Their budget cuts affect early childhood education deeply—cutting over $1 billion from Head Start, and nearly $40 million from child care, depriving nearly 370,000 children from the early learning needed to put them on a path to a bright future.

And despite the overwhelming demand from the American people for Democrats and Republicans to work together to invest in job creation policies, House Republicans slashed nearly $1.5 billion from the job training programs we need to prepare America’s workforce for the jobs of today and the high-tech jobs of tomorrow.

But, more than these dollar figures and the irresponsible budgeting and priorities from Republicans, this debate is about the working families who rely on these resources to make ends meet each day. From the single mother who will no longer be able to provide nutritious meals for her young children to the young woman in who will no longer have access to the early cancer screenings that could save her life to our children who will never walk through the doors of a university years from now because the doors to early education are being closed to them today. We cannot slash and burn our way to a healthy society and a thriving economy.

These are the wrong priorities for New York and the wrong policies for America.

Instead of marginalizing women, Congress must get to work on policies that can foster job creation and fuel economic growth. I have a range of proposals that can help get us there.

I have authored legislation that empowers more women and minority-owned businesses with the resources to help guide these budding entrepreneurs to be leaders of our economy, opening up access to the credit they desperately need to get their businesses off the ground.

I have also authored legislation to support the increase of young girls and minorities in the fields of math and science to generate the leaders we need in emerging high-tech industries that will be the future of our economy.

I’m fighting to make child care more affordable for working parents so they can continue working and advancing their careers, closing wage gaps that for too long have held women back from the fair economic opportunities they need.

And, as our troops return home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and our women veterans become one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless veteran population, I’m partnering with businesses and working to provide them with tax credits in exchange for hiring recent veterans so our heroes have better access to good-paying jobs after serving our country.

These are the priorities that I am urging my Republican colleagues to join me on. And we can all do our part—because this debate isn’t just happening in the halls of Congress. It’s happening in each and every one of our communities, at kitchen tables and living rooms, in our schools and in our churches. It’s up to all of us to get off the sidelines and join the effort to protect our families and the resources that keep our communities safe, healthy and thriving.

We will not stand for this attack on America’s women and working families.

It’s time to focus on real solutions that will create jobs and build our economy for real strength and stability—not just for the fortunate few but for every American.

Urgent Call to Action: GOP House Pushing Anti-Woman Agenda

In November the American people sent a loud and clear message to Washington: work together to get the economy moving again. And during the lame duck session and then over the past few weeks, I was encouraged by the ability of Republicans and Democrats to come together to work for the American people. But now, just two weeks into the new Congress, it appears Republicans in the House are already seeking to end that spirit of cooperation.

They have introduced HR3: The No Taxpayer Funded Abortions Act, which would restrict women’s access to affordable reproductive care and even deny care to women when their lives are in danger. This bill would severely undermine women’s rights.

I hope you’ll join me in fighting this dangerous piece of legislation by signing this petition and sending a message to Washington that we must preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose.

Even as Republicans lament that the government is being too intrusive in people’s lives, it seems that the very personal, private and often painful issue of ending a pregnancy is one area they are determined to regulate. Tragically, the consequences of this intrusiveness could prove disastrous to the health and well-being of women across America.

The Republicans likely have a large enough majority in the House to pass this bill, but we must block this bill in the U.S. Senate. Earlier this week, Senator Blumenthal and I sent a letter to all of our colleagues in the Senate, urging them to oppose similar legislation.

In the letter we wrote:

We must work together to stop these bills in their tracks, as they represent an unprecedented effort to restrict women’s access to reproductive health care and to their trusted health care providers.

I pledge to you that, just as we did with the Stupak Amendment, we will organize our fellow Senators to make sure we defeat this legislation. Can I count on you to join us in this fight to make sure Republicans and some conservative Democrats don’t succeed in chipping away at a woman’s right to choose even further than they already have?

Please sign this petition and show my colleagues that the grassroots is behind us.

Thank you for your support.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

Cross posted from the Huffington Post.

Local GOTV Report: Voter Registration at the Abbot Kinney Festival

The success of the Democratic Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign in this year's election is more crucial than ever. Guest blogger Sarah Auerswald reports on her experience in Southern California.

I did my first voter registration drive at the Abbot Kinney Festival in Venice. It’s largest street festival in Southern California and organizers had hoped to really capture a lot of new voters there.

The Democrats are aware of the reality: that people generally don’t care about mid-term elections and certainly won’t turn out to vote in the same numbers they did when President Obama was elected.

So their strategy is to make sure new voters get registered – and then empowered to vote – and to encourage people to request their own vote-by-mail ballots, eliminating any excuses like having no time to get to the polls.

I was inspired to volunteer when I heard Marta Evry speak recently. She’s a community organizer and the blogger behind Venice4Change, and she really hooked me.

She said that if Democrats don’t turn out in November, California will have Meg Whitman for Governor. And that’s all it took; I signed right up.

It was a ridiculously hot day in Venice, and of course, most people weren’t there to speak to a woman with a clipboard, but I did manage to sign a few people up – and Marta Evry had a whole team of people with clipboards there, all of whom managed to register over 300 voters.

And even though we didn’t actually register quite as many voters as we would have liked, we did of course remind people about the upcoming election.

Betsy Butler, the Democratic candidate for the 53rd district in the California Assembly (Ted Lieu’s former seat), was on hand to help, as well as one of her opponents in the primary, Nick Karno. It’s all for one and one for all now, among the Democrats. We’re uniting to see our candidates get elected.

Guest Blogger Sarah Auerswald is the blogger behind Mar Vista Mom and Sarah’s Blog.

MOMocrats Guest Post: The Jungle Revisited: Production, Safety and the Next Disaster

In 1906 Americans were riveted and horrified by “The Jungle”, Upton Sinclair’s novel which vividly described the sickening working conditions of Lithuanian immigrants in Chicago’s meatpacking plants. This muckraking bestseller, with its underlying call for government intervention and regulation, in no small part contributed to the creation of what is now the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Today we often think of the era before Teddy Roosevelt as a dark age, an era where workers could get swallowed into vats of lard and end up in the sausage on our breakfast table.

Over one hundred years later, in April 2010, Americans watched in horror as coal miners in West Virginia were also swallowed up, paying the ultimate price for working for a company that by many accounts, views its workers as disposable. As the details of the tragedy unfolded, the cavalier attitudes of Massey Energy and its CEO became widely known: the culture of placing profits ahead of the very people dragging coal from of the earth; the regulatory citations; the open hostility towards unions and their own internal safety mechanisms. Most of us, who can’t even begin to fathom what it takes to summon the courage to work in a coal mine each and every day, could only shake our heads in sadness.

Months later it was déjà vu all over again. An oil rig explosion in the Gulf took the lives of 11 workers. Again, BP’s striking disregard for worker safety (as evidenced by reams of violations) became public knowledge. Millions of Americans then got to the business of voicing our collective outrage at environmental degradation that we can barely wrap our heads around.

In the first instance, we targeted our collective wrath upon Massey CEO Don Blankenship. He was a cartoonish villain of a guy who all but sneered, twirled his mustache and bought judges on camera (ok, so that last part at least, wasn’t on camera). After the second disaster, BP CEO Tony Hayward – the millionaire who “want[s] [his] life back” - was the focus of our bulls-eye. Later, Americans, along with our President, eventually channeled this anger on the obscure DOI-based Minerals Management Agency, with its sex and drugs and rubber-stamping of deep-water drilling permits.  These are all valid targets in the short term, but how do we possibly prevent the next “tragedy” if we only view these disasters as aberrations, as isolated incidents in our industrial economy?

MOMocrats Guest Contributor/Former West Virginian Roxane Dover: In Memory of Sen. Robert C. Byrd

Living in Silicon Valley while penning this tribute to my late West Virginian Senator, I note that part of my appreciation for him parallels my appreciation for living here, in this land of start-ups where you can screw up and start again.  This is the land of opportunity and of momentum, of forward-thinking and of constant change.  In my view, the late Senator Byrd modeled all of those things that make Silicon Valley great.  He had some reprehensible moments in his younger life, but he asked (and found) forgiveness for it; and he modeled a commitment to the greater good that many of today’s politician’s lack.  Like me, a child of a coal miner, Senator Robert C. Byrd cared deeply about poverty in America, and his legacy of good works will be long-lasting.  Here is my humble tribute:

Growing up in West Virginia, I could be assured of two things: church on Sunday and Robert Byrd in the Senate.  First elected in 1959 when my mother was only 12, Senator Byrd was elected to his ninth term in the Senate three years ago despite his advanced age (he died at 92).  This spoke volumes about West Virginia’s commitment to the man dubbed “The King of Pork,” a term that will offend all but West Virginians.  Byrd had some despicable things in his past – I’ll write about those in a moment – but, above all, Byrd had a commitment to improving the lives of my fellow West Virginians.  He called it what it was: poverty.  And he did everything in his power to make life a little less poor for West Virginians, spearheading the pouring of Congressional appropriations into the state -- which, to this day, has the best roads in the nation.  Why?  Highway repair and improvement creates jobs, and Senator Byrd knew that; he brought billions of dollars to West Virginia though a myriad of federal projects.  West Virginia scored the FBI fingerprinting lab among other top-dollar projects because of his hard-lobbying for our poor little state.  Bluntly, West Virginia will be set back decades without him.  It took that long, at least, for him to wield the power that he did to direct money to our state.  And frankly, Jay Rockefeller (also D-WV), the state’s other long-term Senator, doesn’t hold the same sway despite his prominent family name.  (Perhaps this is because he is not “from” West Virginia but, rather, carpet-bagged from New York.)  For a state that has little to offer other than its coal and an equally-steady export of people – for there are no jobs – harder times are ahead.

Widows of Our Veterans Will Stand Beside Glenn Beck

A few days ago, fellow MOMocrat Jaelithe forwarded all of us a story about Glenn Beck's involvement in fundraising for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.  While at first glance this sounds pretty benign, it turns out that SOWF is using tax free donations to the organization to pay for Glenn Beck's latest rally at the Lincoln Memorial. 

As someone who is heavily involved in another non-profit organization dedicated to helping military families, I was absolutely floored that SOWF would align itself with such a polarizing individual and possibly put its non-profit status at risk by participating in a rally with Glenn Beck. 

Make no mistake, the event is billed as a rally.  And while the donation page for the event touts its compliance with IRS regulations and claims to be non-partisan, I find it difficult, if not impossible, to believe that politics will not be a part of any "rally" with Glenn Beck.  This is, after all, the man who seems to have dedicated his professional life to stamping out pretty much everything Democrats and progressives stand for.

I was also disturbed because my husband, who recently retired from the Navy after 20 years of active duty and reserve service, works for a small government contractor that donates to SOWF.  My husband and I are both horrified that he may be indirectly working to benefit a charity that aligns itself with the venom-spewing Glenn Beck; a charity that apparently has no problem alienating some of the very people it purports to support, if they happen to be progressives.

While researching this very disturbing topic, I discovered that a friend and fellow military spouse was already all over Glenn Beck and his shady fundraising activities.   So without further ado, please welcome guest poster Angela Jean. 

I am a military wife.

Each of you will already have a picture in your mind of a woman holding small children while embracing her husband as he heads out to war.

She will be holding back tears and one of the children will be clutching her leg, while holding an American Flag.

In reality, we know that the pictures are more diverse, that simplicity can’t define a military wife. But in our minds, the image is imprinted along side these words:

Pride, Honor, Sacrifice, Dedication, and Strength

Now, imagine those words being used to describe Glenn Beck.

How do you feel? Disgusted? Incredulous? Angry?

Maybe you understand how I feel.

Glenn Beck, standing beside widows of Special Operations Troops and Veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, will stand at the base of Abraham Lincoln's feet to address the American people on August 28, 2010, the anniversary of Dr. King's I have a dream... speech. He calls the event “Restoring Honor.”

Standing before him will be a sea of Americans. They will all have something in common. All will be conservative to the core and will have traveled side by side with other Tea Partiers and 9/12ers, Oath Keepers and Secessionists. All will claim to be non-partisan, though they lie on the same end of the political spectrum.

Beck has a plan. It is actually called "The Plan," and it will address the course of our nation for the next 100 years. Like other malcontents before him, he believes he knows what is best for his own nation.