MOMocrats™

Breaking News (Not!): President Obama is actually a stalwart moderate (But Why Don't You Know This?)

My husband liked Barack Obama way back in 2004, "Mark my words," he said, "That man has what it takes to be President, and I'll be his biggest supporter."

I listened and studied. While Obama seemed eloquent, intelligent, and bursting with potential, I was not as enamored as my husband. "I don't know," I said, "He doesn't seem that progressive, and I really think we're going to require a ton of progress when we get Bush out of the White House. The next person is going to have to be a rolling stone."

Then again, I've always leaned slightly more liberal than my husband, who, when I met him, thought the Libertarians had a pretty decent point. At the end of the day, though, we're both well-anchored realists who recognize that our nation needs government and both parties were highly invested in Big Government.

Note: I strongly believe that if we must have Big Government -- and since it seems we will regardless of which party rules -- it better be For The People. In other words, I advocate heavily for social policy. I want any legislation that restricts personal rights and freedom ousted and never again mentioned (Don't Ask Don't Tell, No Same Sex Marriage, to name a couple) and require that any social policy strictly benefit the good of us, the citizens, and ultimately of our society (improved education, consumer protections, infrastructure and security, to name a few).

By the time the 2008 Democratic field narrowed to Barack Obama, I had extensively researched him and found him all right. 

"His rhetoric is excellent, his charisma is amazing," I told my husband, "But his narrative is dreadful. His policies and positions are really middle of the road. I don't see a big changing of the horse in our future."

My husband just shook his head.

MOMocrats Interview: Jim Meffert

Last week MOMocrats writer Jaelithe Judy had the chance to speak with Jim Meffert, a Democrat running for Congress in Minnesota's Third District against incumbent Republican Erik Paulsen, who was elected in 2008.

A former president of the Minnesota State PTA Board, a member of the P-20 Partnership for Education, and the the executive director of the Minnesota Optometric Association, Jim Meffert is also a father of three. 

Listen to the interview below, or read the transcript. 

Meffert_Interview_MOMocrats

Jim Meffert: I'm going to get get my wife hooked up with you guys.

Jaelithe Judy: That's great.

She's a professional musician — clarinetist — and has extremely strong opinions, on everything! Which is fantastic. And frankly, about a year ago when we were looking at getting into this, she and I would gauge where we were at with getting into the race. She was at 70% on day one; I was at about 50%. And she said, you've got to get out and do this. So she would be great to connect with.

We definitely like opinionated women at MOMocrats.

And I tell you, I don't know if you know any of my background, but, being on the board of the state PTA, and I was chair of a group called the Minnesota Children's Platform Coalition, and worked with Every Child Matters, and so I have spent my entire, my volunteer career, around strong women trying to do the same that you're doing — trying to get families involved, trying to talk about how we help families and kids, talking about parents' involvement in schools. So, anything that I can do to help you guys also, to broaden the audience and broaden the discussion, let me know, because we've got to use campaigns to do that too.

Well thanks, I appreciate that! Well, I have some questions for you if you're ready.

Dear Women Who Shop at Wal-Mart: We Need More Advocates in Congress, Wouldn't You Agree?

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post wrote a post called "Tough Love for Obama." It's a quick read.

Marcus writes:

I spent a fascinating evening last week listening via video hookup to focus groups, 30 women in all, in three battleground states: Pennsylvania, Missouri and Colorado. These were, literally, Wal-Mart shoppers -- the retail giant sponsored the discussions -- screened to exclude committed partisans of the left or right and split evenly between 2008 supporters of Obama and John McCain.

Insurers Announce End of Child-Only Insurance Policies

If you think this week is a time for celebrating as the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act going into effect this week, think again.  For you skeptics (myself included!), today comes the announcement from several major insurers that they will drop certain policies that would cover children who have pre-existing conditions rather than comply with the new law and lose money for their shareholders.

Yeah, that's just the kind of country we apparently live in.  I'm waiting for the next shoe to drop in the not-entirely-unexpected insurance story I call, "Is Anyone Surprised?"

Read more about it:

Washington Post: Some Insurers Halt New Child-only Policies

Wall Street Journal: Some U.S. Health Insurers To Stop Selling Child-Policies

NPR: Health Insurers Skirt New Requirements

Forbes: Do Health Insurers Have a Moral Obligation to Sick Children?

Politics Daily: On 6-Month B-day of Health Law, Will Patient Protection Win it Some Love?

Image by Joanne aka PunditMom.

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"...

What a Five-Year-Old Needs to Know About Sex

Last week, after a tempest-in-a-teapot on Twitter that covered birth control, comprehensive sexual education vs. abstinence-only, Title X, CEDAW, and political minorities vis a vis Madison’s Federalist Papers, someone tweeted, “The only thing a 5yrold should need to know about sex is...well...nothing.”

Shortly thereafter, I saw Logan Levkoff debating Peter Sprigg, of the Family Research Council, on Fox News over proposed curriculum changes in Helena, MT.

Did you catch that? Peter Spriggs is all a flutter over the possibility of teaching kindergartners “the names of the male and female sex organs.” In other words, teaching kids the correct names of their own body parts.

Work. Life. Policy.

MamaBee recently opined about her ambivalence about work life policy and her upcoming BlogHer panel with Morra Aarons-Mele on the same.

MamaBee wondered: Wearing my manager hat, I bristle at the idea of government involvement in how I manage my employees.  How can government possibly understand the unique needs of my business and workers?  I’m all for legislating anti-discrimination and family policy — equal pay; affordable, high-quality childcare; and paid family and sick leave, for example.  But I’m having a hard time getting my mind around how the government can practically be involved with flexible work.

I wonder how we can continue without government intervention. I’ve no doubt that MamaBee is a terrific manager but that’s my point: she is one manager. For most U.S. employees, your work life balance, your ability to telecommute, to have flextime or comp time, to have paid time off, or to job share, is only as good (or bad) as your manager, your department head, your unit, and/or your company. Most of us are one job reclassification, downsize, merger, acquisition, or reorganization away from instantaneous disappearance of our work life policies.

Who Doesn't Want More Healthy Moms and Babies?

In light of our abysmal maternal health statistics -- we're 39th in the world, behind Canada, tiny Malta, Croatia, Serbia, and the United Arab Emirates -- the U.S. needs to make every effort to promote and improve maternal health. Knowing that 1.5 trillion text messages were sent in the U.S. in 2008, several groups have teamed up to create text4baby, a mobile messaging service to promote the health of pregnant women, new moms, and their babies.

Yesterday I attended a briefing sponsored by Women’s Policy, Inc., the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, the Office on Women’s Health, and the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (HMHB) Coalition to promote this terrific new initiative.

Text4baby is a free service that provides thrice-weekly messages to pregnant women and new moms during the first year of their child’s life. The messages focus on health and safety – everything from where to find tobacco cessation services, to appointment reminders, to breastfeeding education, WIC eligibility, safe sleeping, and child care.

Among HMHB's many partners is the Department of Defense Military Health System (yahoo for not overlooking our military families!) and MTV, which is featuring the service on 16 and Pregnant. 

MTV Shows

If you want to sign up (FREE!) just text “BABY” to 511411 (“BEBE” for Spanish).

Go Read It: Wellpoint (Blue Cross Blue Shield) Health Insurance Targeted Breast Cancer Patients for Rescission

You may recall the greed of Wellpoint, a health insurer that thought it could raise premiums for California purchasers of individual insurance by 39% and do it with impunity.

After much deserved brouhaha, including passage of a health insurance reform law designed to prevent this kind of extortion from happening in the future, one of the results of the conflagration over the proposed rate hike in California was a scheduled review by an outside agency. Their assessment would inform a decision on premium increases by the California Insurance Commission. The deadline for Wellpoint to provide the California Department of Insurance with justifications for rate hikes is May 1, 2010, with a decision released shortly thereafter.

Keep that in mind when you read this long, exhaustively detailed story documenting how Wellpoint used computer algorithms to identify women who developed breast cancer in order to cancel their policies.

Please let the following executives at Wellpoint know exactly how you feel about their rescission policy for those unlucky enough to have breast cancer.

• Angela Braly, CEO, Wellpoint (Blue Cross Blue Shield's parent company): Wellpoint’s Indiana headquarters: 120 Monument Circle Indianapolis, In 46204, (317) 488-6748
• Brian Sassi, Executive Vice President, President and Chief Executive Officer Consumer Business, Wellpoint: 1 Wellpoint Way, Westlake Village, CA 91362-3893, (805) 557-6655 or (805) 557-6333
• Cheryl Leamon, Public Policy and Governmental Affairs, Wellpoint: cheryl.leamon@wellpoint.com, (317) 488-6748

While you're at it, let GOP gubernatorial candidate and current California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner know he'd better deny Wellpoint's proposed rate hike if he has a hope in hell of running for governor: 916-492-3500 Sacramento state capitol offices; CA residents 1-800-927-4357.

Cynematic writes at P i l l o w b o o k. She'll be directing a short film soon which has nothing to do with health insurance, thank goodness. Because that would be a horror show.

Happy Tax Day!

 No, really. Happy Tax Day!

We at MOMocrats get as annoyed as any normal person by the tedious piles of tax paperwork we have to fill out each year to do our social duty. (I mean, seriously: we're a bunch of writers. We have to fill out the Schedule C.) And of course, there are some government programs we are disappointed to see our tax dollars going toward.

But as patriotic Americans, we're also genuinely proud to know that we help pay for many of the public sector agencies and government programs that make this country a better place to live, and so we're happy, on this tax day, to reflect on all the good the hard earned cash we're parting with can accomplish.

Here are some of the things MOMocrats writers actually like paying taxes for:

Julie: I am happy to pay taxes because I know it helps fund schools and I do believe that solid, well-rounded education is a cornerstone of a great culture.

I am happy to pay taxes because I know it helps fund CHIP, and knowing that kids get needed health care is crucial to me.