MOMocrats™

Help save homemade toys, handmade kids clothes, and above all, tons of small businesses from the wrath of the CPSIA

Mamas, I desperately need your help.

As we all know, lead and toxic chemicals do not belong in our children's toys. Congress, fortunately, acted quickly to fix that problem. Unfortunately, they did so by passing the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act which threatens to destroy small businesses with prohibitively expensive testing and labeling requirements. In other words, the small artists, toymakers, and WAHM crafters--you know, the people who already make products that we love and trust--are going to go under while the big honkin' toy companies can continue making their plastic crap in China. You can read all about it here. If you are okay with legalese. 

Say goodbye to the beautiful carved wooden toys you find at craft fairs or on etsy, the homemade baby slippers knit by a mom trying to support her family while she stays home with her kids, the cute handmade bows that your neighbor is selling to raise some spending money.

Global Food Crisis: Haiti

In the spring of 2008, food riots erupted in Haiti as skyrocketing grain prices made it almost impossible for average citizens of Haiti to afford the imported rice and wheat the impoverished island nation depends upon.

Over the summer, Haiti was pummeled by two consecutive hurricanes, Hanna and Ike, which destroyed homes, warehouses and workplaces, and flooded crops.

And now, with the global economic crisis stifling trade, challenging many governments' ability to provide for their own citizens, and negatively impacting charitable donation, children in Haiti are dying of malnutition. 

One American woman who is working to save Haiti's malnourished children is Dr. Patricia Wolff, a professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine, and the executive director of Meds & Food for Kids, a non-profit organization that provides supplemental nutrition for children in Haiti through a life-saving nutritionally enhanced peanut butter product known in Haiti as Medika Mamba.

Dr. Wolff, who is in Haiti right now feeding starving children, was kind enough to take time out of her very busy schedule to discuss with me the situation in Haiti, and some of the challenges currently facing her organization.

The Global Food Crisis Is Not Over

In April of 2008, after food riots rocked Port Au Prince and Cairo, I wrote about how inflation of grain prices worldwide due to rising fuel costs, diversion of foodstuffs for biofuels, distribution problems, market speculation, and local crop loss caused by drought and other natural disasters was leaving millions of people in places like Haiti, Egypt and Mexico without the means to pay for even the most basic staple foods, like bread and rice.

Since then, with the U.S. mortgage crisis and stock market crash precipitating a global financial meltdown, financial market prices for grain have dropped significantly in response to lower fuel prices and a generally declining global economy.

You might think falling grain prices would mean that the worst of the global food crisis is over.

You would be wrong.

In fact, as credit markets have frozen and many global trade routes have broken down, the economic crisis has left many people in nations around the world even less able to buy food. Over the next few weeks, I'll be highlighting some of the areas hardest hit by the food crisis, and discussing what ordinary people in the United States can do to help.

Photo credit: Jeff Vanuga, USDA.

Jaelithe also writes at The State of Discontent.

Drive (Electric), She Said: Big 3 Auto Bailout, Cont'd

Later on today we'll be chatting in Meebo about various proposals to help the Big 3 American automakers. According to some estimates, GM could be out of oxygen by the end of this quarter.

I won't be able to do an in-depth post on the pros and cons of various approaches, but I thought I could at least put an annotated list of interesting articles out there in case you want to do a little quick reading up before we chat. Or even follow up on interesting reading after we're done.

Prop 8, Its Aftermath, and Minority Communities

For Obama/No on Prop 8 supporters in California, delirious joy at Obama's election as 44th president of the United States was marred by huge disappointment that Proposition 8 passed. Adding to the despair? Nationally, every single anti-gay measure passed: Prop 102 in Arizona, Prop 2 in Florida, and a ban on gay parents adopting (Prop 1 in Arkansas).

Prop 8, or Prop (H)8, as I like to call it, changed the California State Constitution to define marriage as specifically a union between "a man and a woman." It thereby wrote discrimination against married gay couples into our constitution where there had been no such thing before. I was, and am, opposed to Prop (H)8's enactment.

Almost as bad as the deprivation of simple civil human rights and the loss of legal recognition of the rights of married gay people were the horrible recriminations and finger-pointing among No on Prop 8 advocates. The racism of rightfully angry, mostly-white LGBT folks who'd seen their lives used as a political football yet again clashed hideously with the combined heterosexism/homophobia of various communities of color, and that scapegoating demanded refutation in posts like this one.

Activist groups target people and businesses who supported Prop. 8

Check out the Dishonor Roll of people and businesses who supported Prop. 8. The list names names of major contributors and their donations. 

Lesbiatopia is also encouraging people to shine the line of Prop 8 supporting businesses (Yelpers are doing this as well.) This includes businesses like Denny's, Corner Bakery, and El Pollo Loco.

I personally would not want to patronize any business that supported this unfair measure. What are your thoughts?

--Stefania Pomponi Butler

Have You Done Everything You Can?

This is a truly inspiring video.  Even though it was made for Virginia, it could be any state in this country.

GET OUT THE VOTE!

This is it, folks.  This is what the MOMocrats have worked for.  This is what we've all waited and worked so hard for. 

I'll be doing voter protection work tomorrow and GOTV work today, so I'll see you all on the flipside.

Are you there Colorado? It's me, Stefania.

I spent yesterday afternoon along with about 100 other volunteers phone banking at my local Barack Obama headquarters, calling Colorado voters and encouraging them to get out and vote early.

The weather in Palo Alto was terrible yesterday. It poured for most of the day, flooding streets, and not letting up until later in the evening. Still, that did not deter the overflowing volunteers from standing outside the headquarters and making phone calls in the pouring rain (Click to embiggen):

Volunteers spilled out of the office and lined the front of the strip mall where the office is located. We even took over two neighboring businesses, a Mexican restaurant that opened its doors and gave up precious table space to volunteers, and a doughnut shop that was a warm and toasty respite from the wet. (Thank you business owners!) These volunteers, on their mobile phones in the pouring down rain showed tremendous dedication. After seeing those inspiring folks, it was clear why our tiny office is number one in phone banking for the entire nation. Go Silicon Valley for Obama!

Guest Post from Kristin Teigen of Poligots: North Carolina Road Trip

The MOMocrats are proud to welcome Oregon-based political blogger and honorary MOMocrat Kristin Teigen who just got back from volunteering for Obama in North Carolina. She files this report.

I spent the last week and a half traveling around rural North Carolina, gaining, in part, a very different perspective on this election. In my neighborhood of Southeast Portland, I’ve seen a grand total of one McCain/Palin sign (they are everywhere in North Carolina), I have a plethora of media outlets from which to choose, and I’ve never have to stand in line to vote.

First, the racism. Three days after we got there, a bunch of local idiots went into the woods, shot a black bear in the head, wrapped it in Obama signs and dumped it on the grounds of a nearby campus. A local realtor used his message board to broadcast not a great deal on a house, but a racial epithet about Obama. He took it down only after members of the local Unitarian church protested and picketed him. Where we were, there were a lot of lawn jockeys and even more Confederate flags – on cars, used as curtains in houses, and one, the largest I’ve ever seen, illuminated with spotlights outside a business.

I saw African American teenagers, who grow up with these realities as part of the fabric of their childhood, look at my Obama t-shirts and smile, sometimes slyly, not wanting to show it. They need to know, despite these images, that this country elected a man who looks like them, who can let them know how much power they can have.

Portland, OR: Emergency Volunteer Action Event for Jeff Merkley's Senate Race

All ya gotta do is show up at Merkley's campaign HQ tomorrow evening at six-ish.  Okay, fine.  6 p.m. sharp.  (Oy.  You'd think Sarah Palin had invaded my typing.  Actually, *I'm* beginning to suspect it.  November 5 cannot arrive too soon, people.  I've heard enough G-drops to last me a good, long while.)

(At least I didn't wink atcha after.  See?  These things matter.  Also?  I'm making myself cringe.)

Details:

Democracy for America is holding Emergency Volunteer Action events for endorsed candidate Jeff Merkley

The race is tied and DFA members can make a real impact on the race! Join me:

Wednesday, October 22nd at 6:00 p.m.
DFA Emergency Volunteer Action for Jeff Merkley
Portland Office
3016 SE Division
Portland, Oregon 97202

Can't make it Wednesday? Sign-up to volunteer:
http://democracyforamerica.com/electmerkley

Please contact me if you have any questions:
Adam Quinn, 406-431-9770 or [email protected]

With your help Jeff will win! Thank you for all you do.

So I'll see you there, right?  You're coming?  Because if Jeff takes the gold, er, beats Gordon Smith, we're that much closer to a 60-seat majority.  Filibuster-proof.   (Those latter words make my fingers tingle, they're so awesome pushed all close together like that.)  (Also, sorry about the Olympics reference.  I kind of missed the boat on that one.  When everyone else was watching people do crazy stuff like swim really fast and throw big-ass rocks over their shoulders and lob spears at some random marker this summer, I was -- reading political blogs.  Prepping for the DNC.  Looks like I'm not quite as patriotic as I thought.  Maybe I'm not a real American?)

(Oh!, and my favorite part of Jeff Merkley snatching the victory, er, winning the seat: Gordon Smith can no longer claim he's a Senator.  Just landed gentry the owner of a vegetable-packing plant that employees illegal immigrants.  Which makes my fingers tingle, too.

Maybe I need to have the finger-tingle-thing looked at.)

Won't be able to volunteer?  You're still welcome to donate to the campaign.