MOMocrats™

Women Who Rock Politics & Tech

They're not all moms and most of them are not bloggers, but there are a bunch of incredible women who are leading in the emerging field intersecting technology and government via politics and policy, nonprofits and advocacy. They have founded organizations, written about digital democracy, or developed tools to implement it.

To highlight the fact that the root of Netroots isn't all men, I put as many of these women as I could find into one list at - where else? The Political Voices of Women. Here's the list. Check it twice. Remember the names, because you'll be seeing them again.

The MOMocrats' New Shoes

I'd like to take a break from our regularly scheduled political programming for a moment and highlight the fact that the MOMocrats are not only smart but stylish as well. If the Emerge adage is true that we should donate at least as much as our most recent pair of shoes to a political candidate, MOMocrats who visited San Francisco for BlogHer may be in trouble.

Friday, several of us who are also part of the Silicon Valley Moms Blog Group (from New York, DC, LA, Chicago and more) got together for new head shots, networking and shopping at Saks on Union Square, courtesy Saks, Chevy (GM), and Yahoo as sponsors. What transpired was an unplanned attack on the shoe department. Beth arrived first, buying power red Stuart Weitzman pumps (shown above right) worthy of any woman in Congress.

Moms Need Help in California Family Court System

I'd like to take a brief aside from POTUS politics and look at an issue in California related to families, domestic violence prevention, and social justice. As a recent article in Capitol Weekly put it, the issue is about improving oversight and accountability in the process of how child custody disputes are handled, i.e. some good moms (and dads) are getting screwed by the process, and there's something we can do about it.

Please read the Capitol Weekly article for more details.

Also check out the two YouTube video clips:  PART ONE & PART TWO

The audit request is slated to be heard at an early August 2008 JLAC Committee hearing in Sacramento. While Speaker Pro Tem Lieber is busy gathering legislative co-sponsors for their request, they are recruiting as many organizational supporters as they can to generate support. They have been coordinating meetings with the CA Commission on the Status of Women, California NOW, the CA Partnership to End Domestic Violence and the Legislative Women's Caucus, all of whom have helped as they finalize the JLAC request. They still need more support from all organizations committed to racial justice and gender equity; protecting women and children; demanding clean, accountable government; and/or protecting civil and human rights.

(For more information, contact Kathleen Russell Consulting.)

Obama Steps Out As the Environmental Candidate

Finally. The moment came when I felt like it could happen. I was already officially supporting Senator Obama, but yesterday as I sat down on the plane at JFK international airport, I noticed other passengers watching him in a press conference on CNN, so I turned my TV on.

Within moments, Senator Obama was saying what I had been waiting to hear for months: he wants to approach the environmental crisis the same way JFK himself approached getting to the moon, only with an even more aggressive goal. And I suddenly felt as if my plane was going to the moon. Finally we have the opportunity to elect a leader at a pivotal time in history who will make the policies we so desperately need to have a chance at saving the planet. I always knew he could do it, I knew he could rally people, and I knew if he could work with Al Gore, they could make it happen. But I hadn't seen the evidence. Yesterday I did.

Virtual Hugs to Elizabeth Edwards Who Still Rocks Our World

Elizabeth Edwards took the stage at the Personal Democracy Forum today virtually - via Skype. As her flight was cancelled at the last minute, she was unable to make her in-person slot for us or "Good Morning America" so she did them both from home. As I watched the program - questions from PDF cofounder Andrew Rasiej directed to Elizabeth, who was projected on a huge screen in the theatre at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall - I wanted to go up and give her a big virtual hug from all of us at the MOMocrats and the Silicon Valley Moms Blog & sister sites, but since it was no easier to do from that venue than this one, I decided it was better done from here. (It was the request everyone made when I said I was "going to see Elizabeth Edwards at PDF". They said "give her a hug for me!")

So here, Elizabeth, is a big virtual [**HUG**] from all of us, along with an official invitation to blog here any time you like. One of the apropos questions Rasiej asked of Elizabeth during the program (sorry, I just can't use her last name in this forum - seems too formal) was about what she was going to do next with "her constituency" and she, of course, replied that she would like to liveblog more and cross post more about policy issues important to her. So since I couldn't just stand up and yell to her that she could blog for us any time since she would have caught every third word, we're asking here. Please, pretty please!

Weekend Watch: Candidate Reps Debate on Twitter

As a promotion to get ready for the Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) '08 conference about technology's use in politics and government, the PDF organizers are running an online debate through Twitter starting tonight, going through Tuesday night. Here's the announcement.

Follow the debate via Twitter @ anamariecox, MikeNelson, and LizMair. Cox will be moderating. She's a Time blogger. Mike Nelson will represent the Obama campaign as an outside advisor on tech & policy, and Liz Mair works for the RNC directing online communications, so she'll take the McCain side.

Summize.com is one way recommended by PDF organizers to hone in on the thread, hashtag #pdfdebate. Check it out!

MOMocrats Meet Kathleen Sebelius

We came, we saw, we liked her.

As Kathleen Sebelius walked into the San Francisco home Friday evening, she had a light, relaxed air about her.  Glennia and I happened to be near the door, so we greeted her and I immediately told her I was from Kansas, blathering something about how my parents met while working in the state Capitol building in Topeka hoping to make her feel welcome.  She was graceful and kind, we spoke about the MOMocrats (she liked our buttons) and I asked how we can help her out.  It was an open-ended question, but I mentioned the VP nominee posibility.  She seemed genuinely surprised by the question and made it clear: "those discussions haven't even started yet."  And later "there's nobody picking out drapes."  Then she said something about waiting until Tuesday.

Super Tuesday.  It used to be about states like California.  Now it's about South Dakota and Montana.  Sebelius spoke as an endorser and surrogate for Barack Obama, so the point here was that she believes based on the numbers that he will have enough delegates to be the official nominee on Tuesday.  Two states will make a difference. We'll see.

Kathleen Sebelius: Taking the Next Step

When I first heard Kansas had a Democratic woman governor, I thought someone was playing a joke on me. "In Kansas? No way!" I said. Having spent the first 18 years of my life in Kansas, growing up in a red state with parents active in the Republican party (my dad was an assistant Attorney General in the 60's), I had heard stories about women in the state legislature who didn't believe women should still vote, I left for college right before evolution was outlawed, and when I first had the chance to vote, my choices were Bob Dole or Bob Dole. How times have changed...

Now, Kathleen Sebelius, a woman, a Democrat, a MOM, is the Governor of Kansas. What's the Matter with Kansas? you ask? It has an interesting history that I don't proclaim to understand, but in its roots were Populism and a long standing small government, pro-farmer mantra. But over recent years, since the 80's, the legislature and state leadership was taken over gradually by more right wing individuals. Thomas Frank's book explains it much better than I ever could, but it's an interesting phenomenon. As a result of this swing to the right, many moderate Republicans were forced to decide between voting for Republicans far to the right or for Democrats. Enter Kathleen Sebelius.

While Democratic Contenders Squabble, McCain Aims for the Environmental Vote

With Al Gore decidedly not jumping into the race, even as an independent, and with John Edwards out, there's really no candidate talking about the environment - at least not as much as they should be. Vocal voters prioritize it low, so candidates prioritize it low. TV media tend to avoid bringing it up because it's not as easy or as sexy to cover as other issues. I heard a figure the other day - 47% of Democrats think that global warming is a serious problem, and for Republicans I think it was closer to 20%. Hello? Did we not all just see An Inconvenient Truth? Do you remember Live Earth? Do you ever think about where your water comes from?

Barack Obama has a few points on his site about "climate change" and his proposed plans, many of them good, but he puts Ethanol on top of the list in terms of alternate fuels. Please... pandering to Iowans will not save the planet. We've already seen what happens to the global food market, economy, animal and human health when we put too much effort into corn. We're screwing up the ecosystem even more.

Where's the Beef, Sweetie?

I went to school at the University of Michigan, a stone's throw from Detroit. My husband's family is from the Detroit area where the economy is really hurting. Many auto workers want to support a Democrat, but most people I know in that area are Republicans because that's who's been listening to them - or at least who comes across as such. Barack Obama had a real chance to throw some policy "beef" into the discussion when he toured auto plants, but he failed to address the issue, trying to put off those who asked.

To make matters worse, he called a reporter "sweetie," a novice move that could make him look not only condescending, but sexist. If he did that to me, I might consider a write-in vote in November, something I do not take lightly. This had better be the last time he makes a mistake like that. Take a look: