Wow! America is cool We are being admired by Swedes! We don't have to pretend we're Canadians. We elected Barack Obama!

By Garrison Keillor

Nov. 12, 2008. Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves a few more weeks of quiet exultation. It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done. He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes from working out in the gym every morning. He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all. He relished campaigning. He accepted adulation gracefully. He brandished his sword against his opponents without mocking or belittling them. He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American, and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool. Chicago is cool. Chicago !!!

We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor -- he said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher." The French junior minister for human rights said, "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes." When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.

The world expects us to elect pompous yahoos and instead we have us a 47-year-old prince from the prairie who cheerfully ran the race, and when his opponents threw sand at him, he just smiled back. He'll be the first president in history to look really good making a jump shot. He loves his classy wife and his sweet little daughters. He looks good in the kitchen. He can cook Indian or Chinese but for his girls he will do mac and cheese. At the same time, he knows pop music, American lit and constitutional law. I just can't imagine anybody cooler. Look at a photo of the latest pooh-bah conference -- the hausfrau Merkel, the big glum Scotsman, that goofball Berlusconi, Putin with his B-movie bad-boy scowl, and Sarkozy, who looks like a district manager for Avis -- you put Barack in that bunch and he will shine.

It feels good to be cool and all of us can share in that, even sour old right-wingers and embittered blottoheads. Next time you fly to Heathrow and hand your passport to the man with the badge, he's going to see "United States of America" and look up and grin. Even if you worship in the church of Fox, everyone you meet overseas is going to ask you about Obama and you may as well say you voted for him because, my friends, he is your line of credit over there. No need anymore to try to look Canadian.

And the coolest thing about him is the fact that back in the early '90s, given a book contract after the hoo-ha about his becoming the First Black Editor of the Harvard Law Review (FBEHLR), instead of writing the basic exploitation book he could've written, he put his head down and worked hard for a few years and wrote a good book, an honest one, which, since his rise in politics, has earned the Obamas enough to buy a very nice house and put money in the bank. A successful American entrepreneur.

The last American president to write a book all by his lonesome self, I believe, was Theodore Roosevelt, who, on graduation from Harvard, wrote "The Naval War of 1812," and in my humble opinion, Obama's is the better book for the general reader, but you be the judge.

Our hero who galloped to victory has inherited a gigantic mess. The country is sunk in debt. The Treasury announced it must borrow $550 billion to get the government through the fourth quarter, more than the entire deficit for 2008, so he will have to raise taxes and not only on bankers and lumber barons. His promise never to raise the retirement age is not a good idea. Whatever he promised the Iowa farmers about subsidizing ethanol is best forgotten at this point. We may not be getting our National Health Service cards anytime soon. And so on and so on.

So enjoy the afterglow of the election a while longer. We all walk taller this fall. People in Copenhagen and Stockholm are sending congratulatory e-mails -- imagine! We are being admired by Danes and Swedes! And Chicago becomes the First City . Step aside, San Francisco . Shut up, New York . The Midwest is cool now. The mind reels. Have a good day.

(distributed by Tribune Media Services)

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I Didn't Vote For Obama" by kentuckyscott Monday, October 20, 2008

I'm a middle-class white guy living in Jacksonville, Florida . I've got a wife and two kids. Because the kids had no school today, I took a vacation day from work, and took the kids downtown to vote early. Fifty-nine minutes later, two smiling children and I proudly sported "I Voted" stickers.
But I didn't vote for Obama.

I voted for my ancestors, who believed in the promise of this country and came with with nothing as immigrants. I voted for my parents, who taught in the public schools for decades. I voted for Steve, an acquaintance of mine from Kentucky . (Killed by an IED two years ago in Iraq ). I voted for Shawn, another who's been to Iraq twice, and Afghanistan once, and who'll be going back to Afghanistan again soon -- and whose family earned eleven bucks a month too much to qualify for food stamps when the war started. I voted for April, the only African-American girl in my high school -- it was years before it occurred to me how
different her experience of our school must have been. I voted for my college friends who are Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and yes -- Muslim. I voted for my grandfathers, who worked hard in factories and died too young. I voted for the plumber who worked on my house, because I
want him to get a REAL tax break. I voted for four little angels from Birmingham . I voted for a bunch of dead white men who, although personally flawed, were willing to pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, and used a time of great crisis to expand freedom rather than suspend it. I voted for all those people and more, and I voted for all of you, too.

But mostly, I voted selfishly: I voted for two little kids, one who has ballet in an hour, and one who has baseball practice at the same time. I voted for a world where they can be confident that their government will represent the best that is in this country, and that will in turn demand the best of them.
I voted for a government that will be respected in the world. I voted for an economy that will reward work above guile. I voted for everything I believe in. Sure, I filled in the circle next to the name Obama, but it wasn't him I was voting for -- it was every single one of us, and those I love most of all.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:30 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been surprised in the past few days that when I bring up the subject of ACORN with my friends, they have already bought into the right wing conspiracy theory.

And even more sadly, but probably not surprisingly, there is no balance being given anywhere to the small number of fraudulent ACORN voter registration applications versus the tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of voters who are being illegally removed from state's voter registration rolls. Amazing, for every one voter added to the rolls, the states are illegally removing 2. Now why isn't Fox News highlighting that story?

At least Katie Couric highlighted the problem on her CBS news show recently:

Here's a response from ACORN

Stop the lies. Spread the truth. Anyone know what Jimmy Carter is up to on Election Day. He might want to put together a team to monitor this country's voting!

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:14 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A week or so ago, I blogged about a funding bonus for Planned Parenthood. And now, here's another. Quite the fundraising year for Planned Parenthood. Thank you Sarah Palin and John McCain.

While other liberal musicians have taken to publicly whining about the McCain campaign using their songs at rallies, the songwriter behind Martina McBride’s “Independence Day” — which conservative radio host Sean Hannity uses as his radio program’s theme song — has decided to take royalties from the song to donate fund abortion provider Planned Parenthood in the Arizona senator’s name.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Vote No on Proposition 8. And send money too. I did and I don't even live in California, but I am an American citizen who cares about civil liberties! This is an important issue for all citizens, straight or gay, if you care about protecting the rights of individuals in marriage and many other things too!

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The answer is most definitely YES.
Check out ProLifeObama

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Please review this analysis by the National Organization for Women PAC. And then spread the news to all of the women you know.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Andrew Sullivan's blog, a comment from one of his female readers:

Really any woman who considers herself a conservative or identifies with the Republican party should be embarrassed by Sarah Palin. Seriously, this is the female face of the party. The debate was a joke, setting the bar so low that as long as she didn't drool all over herself it's considered a victory. That is what Republican women should be proud of? Her winking and talking "folksy", you betcha goshdarnit, that's the way the party wants to represent itself to the country and the world?

The fact that so many other qualified women in the party, like Olympia Snowe (whom I admire greatly), Kay Baily Hutchinson, Christie Todd Whitman (my former governor) are able to communicate and connect with the American people, were passed over for this disaster of a candidate, is greatly disheartening to me as a young woman. Say what you want about Hillary Clinton, but she didn't ask to be treated differently. She was able to take on the big boys and even throw some elbows, too. I just can't believe this is the example that the Republicans want to set for the future and for young women especially.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Message from the Queen

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Alaska, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

-----------------------
1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,'favour,'
'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut'
without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-'ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').
------------------------
2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S .English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'
-------------------
3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
-----------------
4.You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.
----------------------
5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
----------------------
6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
--------------------
7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
-------------------
8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
-------------------
9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
---------------------
10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.
---------------------
11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).
---------------------
12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America . Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
--------------------
13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.
-----------------
14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
---------------
15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

--
Eileen Rosenthal
Graphic Design
39 Cliffwood St.
Lenox, MA 01240
413.637.1879

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:23 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An e-mail urging people to donate to Planned Parenthood Federation of America "in honor of Sarah Palin" has generated more than 31,000 donations totaling $802,678 as of Saturday,

You can join this movement by logging on to Planned Parenthood and making a donation in Sarah Palin's name. Planned Parenthood will send her a card acknowledging the gift!

Go online
Choose to make the donation in honor of SARAH PALIN.
Send the acknowledgement card to:
McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington , VA 22202

THANKS SARAH!

Making a donation to the Obama campaign works too, but Sarah won’t get a card!!

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Goldie Taylor

I have been a mother all of my adult life. A single working mother. I put off dating, took menial jobs far beneath my qualifications and baked my share of ginger bread cookies for PTA Night, all so that three
incredible children could have better. I chose their lives over mine. I don't have to tell you that it wasn't easy. Unfortunately, my story, our story, is not unique.

We slept in cars, bought groceries with food stamps and prayed for a better day. When that wasn't enough, I put myself through school at Emory University and took a part-time job as a staff writer at the Atlanta Journal Constitution. That was over a decade ago.

Along the way, things got better. I've been an executive at two Fortune 500 companies and a practice director at two multinational public relations firms. Today, I own an advertising agency and I've authored two novels. A third and fourth are on the way, God willing. All of this was possible because somebody laid a brick or two on the road for me.

A few weeks ago, I woke in tears. It was my 40th birthday and certainly not a time for sadness. Rather, I cried in joy because for the first time I realized and could embrace the value of the struggle. The bright
little girl, who once cried in my arms because we didn't know where we were going to live, was headed off to Brown University . The small boy who had been the "man of the house" far too soon was now truly a man. And the tiny, angelic baby who had come to this world precious and innocent just 15 months after him was now a 16 year old girl headed out to her first job interview.

For all of this, maybe I should be proud of a woman like Sarah Palin. Maybe, just maybe, I should be rejoicing in John McCain's selected running mate.

But I'm not.

I'm not a "bed wetting liberal" nor am I a "right-wing zealot." What I am is a working mother. And I cry foul.

I won't, for a moment, denigrate her experience or lob spit balls at her family. I will, though, take issue with what she knows. Or more succinctly, what she does not know. Living in Alaska , I'm not sure how much she knows about the people living in inner city Baltimore . I don't know how much she cares about the 125 murders this summer in Chicago . I have no idea what she believes about HIV/ AIDS and the havoc it wrecks on Black women or the cancer rates in East St. Louis. She hasn't said nary a word about Hurricane Katrina or the infant mortality rates in Appalachia .

I do know that she's a life-time member of the NRA, a proponent of individuals who wielded the very weapons that killed my father and brother. I do know that she "lives really close to Russia ," but I'm not so certain she is ready for Putin. I know she wanted to ban books for public libraries and sex education in schools, but that her 17 year old is pregnant and preparing for a shotgun wedding. I know that she loves her husband enough to allow him (and probably did herself) use her office to settle a personal score -- one that the McCain campaign would now like to cover in under a blanket of Juneau snow.

I know that the Alaska Independent Party, and its secessionist platform, was enticing enough for her to attend its conference (and for her husband to become a card carrying member). Does she love her country? I'm sure. Enough to support those who want to leave it.

But I have no earthly idea what she knows (or could possibly know) about national domestic policy or foreign diplomacy. For all of her working class values, she never once mentioned the Middle Class in her diatribe that mocked her opponent's experience. Having been the mayor of Wasilla (pop. 6,000 at the time) and governor of Alaska (a state a smaller than the county I live in) for a little over a year, she felt she was qualified to do that. And obviously, so did John McCain.

If she's qualified, then so am I.

But in this country I love, she has been afforded the ability to run.The very constitution she says doesn't apply to the men at Guantanamo says she can. But this is about more than that.

As Gloria Steinem said in a recent Los Angeles Times editorial, "Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie."

The good news is thanks to Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Angela Davis, Condoleeza Rice, Anita Hill, Madeline Albright, Maxine Waters, Kathleen Sebelius, Hilary Rodham Clinton and a slew of others, there are 18 million proverbial cracks in the ceiling. Our collective political and economic power is due to the strides (and leaps) they, and others, took on my behalf. I am grateful. I am deeply humbled to stand on the bricks they'd laid before me.

But, whatever our struggle was (and is), the last thing I want is to be patronized. Just as I cannot support just any African American who decides to offer themselves up for public service, I will not toss my vote to someone just because we share the same chromosome mix. To do so would dishonor the vow I made to my children, to myself. I did not vote for Al Sharpton, wasn't old enough (nor would I have) voted for Jesse Jackson and I certainly will not support Sarah Palin. Identity politics, especially in this case, are a sham of the worst order.

When I cast my vote, it will be for people who will lay more bricks for people like me. It will be for people who will put diplomacy before war, challenge us all to provide health care for the sick, help another child go to college, and check the special interests in Washington.
This fall, I'm not looking for a woman. I'm looking for a brick layer. I could care less if that person hasn't spent "enough" time in Washington or can "properly field dress a moose". I could care less if that person likes hockey, soccer, football or table tennis. I could care less if they graduated from Harvard or the University of Iowa . I'm a Christian, but I could care less if they are down with Deuteronomy, Leviticus or Numbers. I want them to uphold the Constitution.

So no, I will not sit idly by as they attempt to suspend habeas corpus at Guantanamo Bay, engage wiretaps on American citizens without a warrant, and hide behind executive privilege when they are caught firing attorney generals based on how well they tow the Republican line. I won't let them cost us $12 billion a month fighting a war that should have never been authorized and never been waged. Not while working people lose their homes to predatory lenders and watch as we bail out the financial institutions that created the housing crisis.

I will not, in the name of history, vote for a woman like Sarah Palin who does not share my values.

But here's what I will do.

I will continue raising money for Barack Obama. I will get on the phone again and call people in distant states I've never met. I will e-mail, call, and knock on doors until the final vote is cast. I do this, not
because he shares my skin, but because I admire his principles and he shares my values. I do this because Barack Obama is more than a community organizer, he is a bricklayer. And he sees -- just as he sees
the light in Michelle's eyes -- my struggle, my worth as a woman.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Kathleen Parker

If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.

To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.

Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.

As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska for crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters... Let her have a real news conference with real questions.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The New Republic

Ladies' Man
by Fred Strebeigh
The backslapping, bloviating hero of women's rights.
Post Date Wednesday, September 24, 2008

In January 2000, when the Supreme Court assembled to hear oral arguments attacking a pivotal section of the Violence Against Women Act, Joseph Biden was front and center. VAWA legally protects women from domestic abuse and gender-based violence, and Biden has proclaimed it the "most important legislative accomplishment" of his Senate career. But, long before the law had reached a congressional vote, Chief Justice William Rehnquist had attacked the "Civil Rights for Women" section, with which Biden sought to define gender-motivated crimes as bias or hate crimes.

As Rehnquist prepared to open the morning's first argument, Biden did not sit somberly. Rather, the senator swiveled in his seat (conspicuous to most of us in the court's press section), smiling cheerily and talking with nearby allies, including numerous female attorneys who had helped him shape the bill. Although Biden had no official role, he sought to signal that--in what he described that day as a "titanic struggle"--neither he nor the women around him would go quietly in defeat.

These days, many women voters are more likely to perceive Biden as a spoiler than as a supporter. Since his selection last month as Barack Obama's running mate, Biden has been pitted against women, first taking the job that many Hillary Clinton supporters felt was her due, then facing off against another historic woman, Sarah Palin, who could become the first female vice president of the United States. With his 30-plus years in the Senate, Biden can sound like the member of a male-only club, an impression reinforced by old-boy gaffes--from joking that his wife's doctorate "is a problem" to referring to Palin as "good-looking."

But the irony of this assessment is that Biden has some of the best feminist bona fides around. The mostly untold story of Biden's fight to support the "Civil Rights For Women" section of VAWA provides a window into his work for women, its origins, and how the defense of women's rights fits into his political worldview. Women voters may yet find something to cheer: In fighting for the legislation, Biden showed he was willing to trust the guidance of women activists and women judges, and then to contend against fierce and mostly male resistance in Washington, particularly from the Supreme Court.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We're not that stupid. Sure it would be nice if the women of America believed that everyone with breasts and a vagina believed in equality. But it ain't so. Women have differing views -- just like men.

Some like beer; some like chardonnay. And some prefer AA. Some like automatic weapons; some don't. Some think every pregnancy is sanctified; some don't. Some think presidents should be qualified for office; some don't care.

But to take the struggle for equal rights that has gone on for two centuries and embody it in the person of Sarah Palin is not just misleading but abusive. Charging rape victims for rape kits is a travesty of equal rights. Insisting that government impose your own views of abortion on others is anti-equality. Cutting funding for black teenage mothers is anti-feminist and racist. Lying to the electorate about your record is insolent. Do you think we're too stupid or indolent to check?

We have checked. You are lying and so is she. But you must think that a big lie repeated over and over becomes the truth. And it seems that many Americans are with you on that.

You are so good at the bold-faced lie that you even seem to believe it yourself. When Barbara Walters and Joy Behar accused you of lying on "The View," you claimed you weren't.

I guess your handlers have decided that after eight years of Cheney-Bush saying one thing and doing another, truth no longer has any meaning. Say it often enough and we'll believe anything -- like the good commercial-watchers we are. So, prep Sarah to sound like Hillary -- and we'll be fooled.

It remains to be seen how many will.

But one thing is clear. You have reached a new low in your regard for the public. You have blown your credibility. Usually politicians wait to be elected to do that.

It's fascinating to watch you and your party try to co-opt the idea of change, the idea of equal rights after eight years of being in total control and trashing the country for women, for workers, for taxpayers and for anyone who earns dollars.

Do you really think we're that stupid? Apparently you do.

Tax cuts for the rich have produced trickle-down unemployment. You want to try that again? We don't. The private sector has not policed itself. Failing banks and mortgage companies prove that. The deficit has swelled. Insurance rates for health care have swelled. Women are joining the ranks of the poor faster than ever.

Play it again, John?

As Sarah Palin said, lying about her lust for earmarks, "Thanks but no thanks."

Sincerely,
Erica Jong

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Overview of the number of people searching "Sexy Sarah Palin" and other Sarah Palin related search terms. I think it's outlandish. And for whatever reason, the media has decided to treat her differently, because, I believe, because she's a woman.

New York, NY (PRWEB) September 10, 2008 -- As of September 10, 2008 Sarah Palin is beating out the search term keywords porn and sex. In addition, "sarah palin nude," "sarah palin pictures" and "sarah palin bikini" are in the top 1000 searches.

Recently Cindy McCain remarked on ABC's Good Morning America that she "absolutely" believes sexism is behind critical coverage of her husband's vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. "I think it's insulting," McCain told Sawyer. "I think it's outlandish. And for whatever reason, the media has decided to treat her differently, because, I believe, because she's a woman."

Questions regarding sexism being a factor in this campaign have become a real concern to women voters, and need to be addressed openly and honestly. In an effort to advance this conversation PoliticalSalon.com pulled data from a trusted source used to track daily search engine user behavior.

1.sarah palin
2.sarah palin nude
3.sarah palin pictures
4.sarah palin photos
5.sarah palin pics
6.sarah palin bikini
7.sarah palin speech
8.sarah palin naked
9.sarah palin vogue
10.sarah palin miss alaska

- upon further investigation we found:

"sarah palin swimsuit"
"sexy sarah palin"
"sarah palin milf"
"sarah palin topless"
"sarah palin porn"
"sarah palin sex tape"

The top search terms for Joe Biden are as follows:

1.joe biden
2.joe biden biography
3.senator joe biden
4.joe biden on gay issues
5.joe biden's voting record
6.joe biden plagiarism
7.who is joe biden
8.joe biden speech
9.joe biden wife
10.joe biden net worth

Also:
"joe biden hair plugs"

We're guessing it's no surprise nobody wants to see Joe Biden naked, or even in a swimsuit.

Source: PRWeb

My take: Yes, sexism is alive and well. Governor Palin seems to appeal to people's base instincts. Why no search on her voting record or views on important issues? She's running for one of the highest offices in the United States along with a guy who is the oldest candidate for President and people want to know what she looks like in a bikini. Ergo...if she looks good, we can vote for her? Is there a worldwide beauty contest coming up? Will she stand the Iraninans down in her birthday suit?

Wake up people. This is REALITY. The future of this country and the world are at stake in this election.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have seen Les Miserables three times, all in London, so maybe this stirs me more than most!
Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:27 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for "The Vagina Monologues", wrote the following about Sarah Palin

Drill, Drill, Drill I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As we turn our attention back to the Presidential campaign, to the choice we will make in November, let September 11, 2008 remind us of what we require from our leaders and from our government: competence. Our choice isn't about language or personality or how well we relate to a politician. This day reminds us that our choice in November is about the competence of the government we will elect.

Rachel Maddow, September 11, 2008

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I hope everyone will read this first-class piece written by Andrew Sullivan

read it here

Update: sorry, wrong link (although it makes a point, too) Here's the correct one.
GillIian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What are you doing to ensure the outcome you want from this election? I'm registering as many voters as I can between now and the deadline. And then I am going out of state to wherever I can be helpful to ensure that I will be able to say on November 5th, I did all that I could do to win this thing for Barack (and the future of this country).

Not everyone is as lucky as I in terms of the amount of time they can devote to the cause, but everyone can do something.

Put a bumper sticker on your car. My friend Wendy had someone beep at her and give her the thumbs up. She rolled down the window, told them to pull over, and got them to sign up as a volunteer for the Obama campaign.

At restaurants, we always ask if everyone is registered. Yesterday, we had a stack of completed voter registration cards which began a very productive discussion with a waitress. She told us that she was a democrat and she wanted to vote for Obama, but she heard he wanted to decommission the military. I have no clue where she got that from, a random email or mixing up his effort to decommission old nuclear weapons in rogue states, but within 5 seconds we had her back on track and feeling good about her vote for Obama. She came back later to give us her information and tell us she wanted to volunteer for the campaign.

Wear a button, start a conversation. Last night we walked into a local restaurant and one of the waiters ran up to say hi to me. He remembered me from last week when I watched the Sara Palin acceptance speech in the restaurant. Ok, I was a little loud! We sat at the bar and started to talk to a guy sitting next to us. From my vantage point, he looked like a McCain supporter, but I was completely wrong. He was visiting from Missouri, a big Barack fan, and we had a wonderful conversation, even pulling in an undecided bartender.

So, it only takes a second to put an Obama button on in the morning. And you have a whole day to hold wonderful conversations with some really interesting people.

Do your part.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I came home yesterday, from registering voters - my complete focus these days. Pierre told me that he had been catching up on his email and that my daughter, Tara Parrillo, had submitted a blog. "That nice," I said. "No" he said. "You need to read it." So read it I did and it was very special:

Tonight I sat and watched Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention with tears streaming down my face. They were tears of hope for what is possible. I never thought that I would be blessed enough to be even tan