asking Al Gore to run in 2008!
Women Fight Back!
Posted September 12th, 2008 by gailwinds
I am sure McCain thought he would have a light and easy promo on the Vue today, you know just sitting back on the couch between a few lovely ladies, BUT THEY SURE FOOLED HIM!
Catch a short clip:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5789451&page=1
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Is Palin Qualified? Vote Here.........
http://www.pbs.org/cgi-registry/poll/poll.pl
Cash on the barrelhead
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122213281072465941.html?mod=googlenews_w...
WASHINGTON -- Women have donated twice as much money to Barack Obama than John McCain in the 2008 election, reversing past trends that favored Republicans, according to an analysis by the Women's Campaign Forum Foundation.
[by the dollar]
In the 2000 election, women donated twice as much to then-presidential candidate George W. Bush as to his Democratic rival, Al Gore. In the 2004 election, women donated about the same amount to Mr. Bush and to Democratic Sen. John Kerry.
Women are also on pace to contribute far more money to the presidential campaigns than ever before, the analysis showed. But they still make far fewer political donations than men -- and are showing few signs of catching up.
According to the analysis, which was based on campaign-finance data through the July 31 disclosure period, women had given a total of $109.5 million to the presidential campaigns of Sens. Obama and McCain. That nearly matches the $115.2 million that women contributed to Messrs. Bush and Kerry in the 2004 race -- and nearly triple the total women donated to Messrs. Bush and Gore in 2000.
The study was commissioned by the Women's Campaign Forum Foundation, an organization dedicated to getting women more involved in public life, and was based on data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The Women's Campaign Forum Foundation also conducted an online survey of 600 women about their online giving.
The study looked at donations to the two major-party presidential nominees in the last three election cycles. While it did include donations the nominees collected for their primary fights, it didn't include donations to other primary candidates, such as Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
Separate data from the Center for Responsive Politics show that Sen. Clinton raised about $60 million from women.
Despite the increase in donations, women still lag far behind male contributors. The study found that through July 31, women accounted for 36% of the total money donated to Sens. Obama and McCain. In 2004, women made up 35% of donations, up from 34% in 2000.
The data show that women donated $75.3 million to Sen. Obama and $34.2 million to Sen. McCain through July 31, according to the report. In 2004, women sent $58.1 million to Mr. Bush and $57.1 million to Mr. Kerry. In 2000, Mr. Bush received $26 million from women, compared with $11.4 million for Mr. Gore.
Women are heavy users of social-networking and campaign Web sites that put them in a position to make online donations -- an increasingly important source of cash for candidates, the study found.
For example, the online survey found that 92% of the women who responded visited campaign Web sites, 79% signed up for email news from campaigns and 60% signed online petitions.
Of the women who made two or more donations in the last year, 28% gave $50 or more. The frequent female donors also tended to be more active using online resources to recruit supporters to their candidates. Four of five of these frequent donors forwarded emails or news about politics to friends, while 37% asked friends to make donations. Those who made less frequent donations tended to be less active, with only 17%, for example, asking friends to give money to their favorite candidates.
Roberta Riley
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/378921_rileywomen14.html
McCain presidency would mean more of same for women
By ROBERTA RILEY
GUEST COLUMNIST
Oh how John McCain courts women. With Sarah Palin at his side and our unpopular president sidelined, he promises huge, glass ceiling-shattering change.
What is the substance behind his symbolism? On every issue of concern to women -- from education to equal pay, health care and physical security to retirement and financial security -- John McCain and George W. Bush are identical and abysmal. It is their best-kept secret.
How can this be?
Lipstick doesn't just differentiate the hockey moms from the pit bulls, as Palin joked in her convention speech. Lipstick conceals the harsh, anti-woman actions of McCain and Bush. Bush searched high and low for women, preferably attractive ones, from groups opposed to such things as equal pay, health care for all, contraception and shelters for battered women. Then he handed them the reins of government. McCain approved his Cabinet appointees, who have now quietly dismembered federal programs near and dear to women. Their favorite tools are executive orders, rule changes and unfunded mandates, which do not require congressional approval and rarely grab headlines. They excel at doublespeak. When congressional action is needed, McCain votes with Bush 95 percent of the time, and now he's recruited Bush's lipstick crew to his team.
On the 35th anniversary of Title IX, the federal law requiring equal opportunity for females in education, Bush's Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, held a warm, fuzzy news conference to celebrate the law's successes. Then she silently weakened the rules for Title IX compliance, threatening sports opportunities and scholarships for women. McCain tacitly approved. Not only is the slice for females getting smaller, the whole pie is shrinking because Spellings, who regulates the federally guaranteed student loan program, ignored the inspector general's advice and refused to recoup the hundreds of millions in excess profits that predatory college loan lenders siphoned from funds meant for students.
On top of the overall financial insecurity squeezing middle-class families, women still earn only 77 cents to every dollar made by men. Despite strong evidence that some women are segregated into low-paying occupations, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a Bush economic adviser from the Independent Women's Forum, voiced the administration's opposition to the Paycheck Fairness Act, arguing the wage gap stems from women's different "choice of occupation." While there might be some truth to that, it's not the whole truth. Lilly Ledbetter worked for decades at an Alabama Goodyear plant doing the same job as her male co-workers. After she learned the men received better pay, she sued and a jury awarded her fair compensation. Rather than pay a modest sum to a wronged employee, Goodyear pursued the case all the way to the Supreme Court. There Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, Bush II appointees approved by McCain, reversed the verdict. Their decision paves the way for companies to commit rampant pay discrimination. With the devil buried in the details of a lengthy court decision, McCain and Bush cloak their complicity in the economic harm that Ledbetter v. Goodyear will cause women for years to come. When pressed on the subject, McCain did admit he supports the ruling and opposes reparative legislation. He also promises to fill future court vacancies with "clones of Alito and Roberts."
Without minimal Social Security benefits, more than half of elderly women would live in poverty. Yet Bush and McCain tried, with the help of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, to put a friendly female face on their plan to privatize Social Security. Their proposal would have shifted funds to Wall Street, cut basic benefits and worsened harsh effects our system has on lower paid workers (mostly female), widows, divorced women and the average woman, who spends 15 years out of the paid work force to care for others.
What did "compassionate conservatism" do for women's physical safety? Approximately 1,200 women are killed and 1.3 million physically assaulted each year by an intimate partner. In 1994 Congress enacted the Violence Against Women Act to fill gaps in state prevention efforts. To oversee the act, Bush appointed Nancy Pfotenhauer to the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women. In her earlier role as president of the Independent Women's Forum, Pfotenhauer waged a bitter fight against the entire act, claiming it would encourage "vulnerable women to mistrust all men."
With Ms. Trust Your Batterer pulling the strings, it is not surprising that right after a photo op authorizing its renewal, Bush cut the act's funding. McCain voted against restoring those funds and opposed programs to aid children affected by domestic violence. With one hand, Bush and McCain deplore the murder of pregnant women and "unborn children." With the other hand they scrap promising federal efforts to prevent such murders.
Military women suffer alarming levels of sexual violence. Yet our commander in chief compounds their plight by selectively enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy against gays in the military. In 2007 women composed 15 percent of the Army but accounted for 45 percent of the discharges stemming from this policy. The whole thing is a trap: A woman who spurns a man's advances risks accusations that she is, God forbid, a lesbian. Yet if she winds up pregnant, she'll have hell to pay. McCain voted for "don't ask, don't tell" and says it works well.
Though most women believe everyone should have affordable health care, the number of uninsured climbed from 36 million in 2000 to 47 million today. McCain voted against coverage for 10 million uninsured kids, and when a bipartisan majority in Congress passed the measure, Bush vetoed it because he considered it a step toward "federalizing" medicine. McCain applauded Bush's veto, earning "The Worst Senator for Children" rating from the Children's Defense Fund.
American teens suffer high pregnancy and chlamydia rates, yet McCain and Bush oppose medically accurate sex education. Instead, McCain panders to the far right, vowing to continue the Bush tradition of doling out hundreds of millions of tax dollars to fundamentalists who preach "abstinence only" and don't want young people to know about condoms.
Medical science recognizes contraception is central to women's health. Without it, the average woman would bear a dozen or more pregnancies. It's strange that Bush and McCain oppose all efforts to make contraception affordable, whether in health plans, programs for the uninsured, drug pricing, drug approval, international assistance, etc. But they don't want sensible folks to know about it. In July a reporter asked McCain a contraception question. His pregnant pause, memorialized on YouTube, sparked more dementia jokes. But voters deserve a straight answer.
Our next president's views really do matter because contraception, which most of us take for granted, is at risk.
That lipstick crew has been working behind the scenes. Some would turn the clock back half a century to when contraception was a crime. Take, for example, Dr. Susan Orr, author of "Real Women Stay Married." She equates contraception with "a culture of death." Bush appointed her to lead Title X, the program that subsidizes contraception and cancer screening for the uninsured. Orr brought the program to its knees. McCain earlier voted to abolish Title X altogether. Today 17 million uninsured women need these services.
Even women with health insurance may lose their contraception because a Bush appeals court judge issued a precedent-setting ruling last year against female workers who sought contraceptive coverage. Their health plan covers all other preventive care, drugs and even Viagra and Rogaine for men. The decision erases hard-fought gains women won just a few years ago. McCain voted against contraceptive coverage legislation.
Before leaving office, Bush will issue rules to boost a trend among pharmacists who refuse to dispense contraception because of religious objections. Some Montana women must drive 80 miles to find a pharmacy willing to sell the pill. By blurring the line between contraception and abortion, Bush's proposed rules will thwart state laws meant to assure proper care for sexual assault survivors.
Don't believe for a second that McCain and Palin will "change" anything. Palin's group, Feminists for Life, not only opposes all abortion, even for rape victims, it fosters this bizarre, unfounded notion of birth control pills as murder weapons. The group's Web site refers to contraception as an "abortofacient," a favorite code word of the far right. It means they're gunning for your birth control.
The gradual re-criminalization of abortion has, of course, begun. The new Supreme Court, in yet another 5-4 ruling, recently upheld an abortion restriction that McCain approved and Bush signed. As though high-risk pregnancy is a walk in the park, the ruling eviscerates the women's health protections of Roe. McCain promises to appoint judges who will overturn Roe entirely. As the far right blurs contraception with abortion, who knows where it will end?
McCain may have a woman on the ticket, but he does not have the interests of women at heart.
Roberta Riley of Seattle is a former Planned Parenthood attorney.
Women's rights groups endorse Obama for president
AP 9-16-08
By ANN SANNER – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Women's rights groups endorsed Barack Obama for president Tuesday, asserting the historic selection of a female Republican vice presidential candidate does not make up for John McCain's lack of support on issues important to women.
"We don't think it's much to break a glass ceiling for one woman and leave millions of women behind," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
Smeal was among leaders from six organizations that announced their endorsement of the Democratic presidential nominee at a news conference.
Obama also won the support of the National Organization for Women, which said it has not endorsed a candidate for president since Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro shared the Democratic ticket in 1984. Ferraro was the first female major-party vice presidential candidate.
NOW backed New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primaries. "We join with her in saying 'no,'" said NOW President Kim Gandy, referring to a line Clinton used at the Democratic convention last month. "No way, no how, no McCain."
Gandy and Smeal dismissed polls that suggested McCain has received a boost in support from white women after he picked Palin.
"The die is not cast yet," Smeal said.
An Associated Press-GfK Poll of likely voters last week showed Obama's lead among women at 49 percent to 44 percent. The same AP-GfK poll showed that white women are backing McCain over Obama, 53 percent to 40 percent.
Gandy predicted women will quickly swing their support to Obama once they know where Palin stands on the issues. The Alaska governor opposes abortion except in the case of a threat to the mother's life.
However, data from the recent AP-GfK poll suggests that it might be difficult for Obama to win over some white women.
The survey, conducted Sept. 5-10, found 65 percent of working-class white women say Palin shares their values, 71 percent said so of McCain, compared to 52 percent for Obama and 46 percent for Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden.
The McCain campaign said it was unhappy with NOW's decision to endorse Obama in the race for the White House.
"It's extremely disappointing that an organization that purports to be an advocate for all women not only opposes, but feels compelled to go out of its way to criticize and make negative comments, about the only ticket in the presidential race with a woman on the ticket," Palin's spokeswoman Maria Comella said in an e-mail.
Smeal said the organizations have and will continue to protest any sexism in the presidential campaign, but she added, "We think it's time to get off issues such as lipstick and on to the issues, really, that are challenging this nation."
Gandy criticized Republicans for changing their tone on sexism.
"I love it that Republicans have discovered sexism in the media," she said. "Because they didn't see any of it when it was being directed at Hillary Clinton. But once Sarah Palin got a dose of it, which we also pointed out, they were all over it." She did not explain how her group defended Palin from sexism.
Obama was also endorsed by leaders from Business and Professional Women/USA, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Congress of Black Women and the Women's Information Network.
Alaska Women Reject Palin
The Biggest Ever Political Rally in Alaska
I attended the Welcome Home rally for Sarah Palin this morning. Hooo. It was an experience. About a thousand (maybe) hard-core Palin supporters showed up to hear her speak at the new Dena’ina Convention Center in downtown Anchorage.
After shaking it off with a good double shot of espresso, and a brisk walk back to my car, it was time to head to the Alaska Women Reject Palin rally. It was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Home made signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to expect.
The rally was organized by a small group of women, talking over coffee. It made me wonder what other things have started with small groups of women talking over coffee. It’s probably an impressive list. These women hatched the plan, printed up flyers, posted them around town, and sent notices to local media outlets. One of those media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time uber-conservative Anchorage talk show host. Turns out that Eddie Burke not only announced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the rally “a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots”, and read the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they thought. The women, of course, received many nasty, harassing and threatening messages.
So, as I jettisoned myself from the jaws of the ‘Drill Baby Drill’ crowd and toward the mystery rally at the library, I felt a bit apprehensive. I’d been disappointed before by the turnout at other rallies. Basically, in Anchorage, if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, it’s a success. So, I thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people there that aren’t sent by Eddie Burke, we’ll be doing good. A real statement will have been made. I confess, I still had a mental image of 15 demonstrators surrounded by hundreds of menacing “socialist baby-killing maggot” haters.
It’s a good thing I wasn’t tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or I would have ended up in somebody’s trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carrying signs.
Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here.
Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn’t be heard. Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.
So, if you’ve been doing the math… Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin’s rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy the photo gallery. Feel free to spread the pictures around (links are appreciated) to anyone who needs to know that Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska, who know her best, have things to say.
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/alaska-women-reject-palin-rally...
Camouflage Pants
From this morning's newspaper
By GENE JOHNSON AND BETH FOUHY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE -- The abuse-of-power investigation against Sarah Palin, Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, took a potentially ominous turn for her party Friday when state lawmakers voted to subpoena her husband.
Republican efforts to delay the investigation until after the election Nov. 4 were thwarted when GOP state Sen. Charlie Huggins, who represents Palin's hometown of Wasilla, sided with Democrats. "Let's just get the facts on the table," said Huggins, who appeared in camouflage pants to vote during a break from moose hunting.
Thomas Van Flein, the Palins' private attorney now representing her as governor, did not immediately return calls for comment.
The Senate committee acted at the request of investigator Stephen Branchflower, who is gathering evidence on whether Gov. Palin abused her power by firing Walt Monegan, the state's director of public safety. Critics charge she fired Monegan after he refused to dismiss Mike Wooten, a state trooper who had a messy divorce from the governor's sister. Palin says Monegan was let go because of a budget dispute.
Branchflower also said he wants to interview the governor but omitted her from the 13-person list of subpoena targets he presented to the lawmakers overseeing his investigation.
He said Todd Palin is "such a central figure. ... I think one should be issued for him."
Palin, cast at last week's Republican National Convention as a supportive husband, oil rig worker and championship snow machine racer, has emerged in the days since as also a powerful figure in his wife's administration. Despite holding no government position, he attends official meetings and is copied on e-mails concerning state business.
While Todd Palin's role in the dismissal of Monegan is unknown, the request for a subpoena suggests he spurned earlier calls to testify voluntarily. Monegan voluntarily submitted to an interview earlier in the week.
The subpoenas, which were approved for 12 state employees in addition to Todd Palin, instantly gave a new, national significance to what until recently was a controversy confined to Alaska.
The move came as ABC News aired the second part of Palin's interview with Charles Gibson. Gibson confronted Palin with two claims that have been a staple of her reputation since joining the GOP ticket: that she was opposed to federal earmarks, even though her request for such special spending projects for 2009 was the highest per capita figure in the nation; and that she opposed the $398 million Bridge to Nowhere linking Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport.
Palin actually turned against the bridge project only after it became a national symbol of wasteful spending and Congress had pulled money for it.
Palin told Gibson that since she took office, the state had "drastically" reduced its efforts to secure earmarks and would continue to do so while she was governor.
"What I've been telling Alaskans for these years that I've been in office, is, no more," Palin said.
When Gibson noted she had requested money to study the mating habits of crabs and harbor seal genetic research -- the kind of small-bore projects that draw McCain's ire -- Palin said the specific requests had come through universities and other public entities and weren't worked out by lobbyists behind closed doors.
On the Bridge to Nowhere, Palin said she had supported a link from the mainland to the airport but not necessarily the costly bridge project.
Palin's comments came after McCain sat for a feisty grilling on ABC's "The View," where he claimed erroneously that his running mate hadn't sought money for such pet projects.
On "The View," McCain said that Palin had "ignited a spark" among voters but acknowledged they parted ways on certain issues. The Arizona senator has said human behavior is largely responsible for climate change and opposes drilling for oil in a federally protected refuge, for example.
The GOP hopeful also stood by two debunked campaign commercials -- one which said Obama favored comprehensive sex education for kindergarten students and another that suggested Obama had called Palin a pig. Both are factually inaccurate.
SEATTLEPI.COM
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/379016_palin13.html
What is Mr. Palin's involvement?
He cannot be asked to testify against her. I'm sure there's much more to be revealed about that family. Sarah described "not even blinking" when McCain asked her to be his VP. Now I ask you, unless you were absolutely vying for that position, don't you think you'd at least blink? Maybe even spend some tme in thoughtful reflection (listening for God's direction) before simply saying yes to such a formidable task? She ain't right............... I'm not sure if she's a narcissist or totally out of touch. Probably both.