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Saturday Reads: State-by-State, in Solidarity

Posted: February 19, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: morning reads |45 Comments

Aaron Foster, Reclaimed License Plate Map. Click to view at uncommongoods.com

Good morning, news junkies! This will just be a quick rundown of a few domestic headlines I’m following. There’s a lot of other news breaking inside and outside of the US these days. So as always, please use the comments to share whatever stories you’re tracking this Saturday.

TEXAS: I miss Ann Richards and Molly Ivins every day of politics, and every day I wake up to the ongoing nightmare of Rick Perry. But, the way our state demographics are trending, I can’t help but dream of a day when I can say I live in a blue state. Or, at least a really, really purple one! Here’s the big bold headline that the Houston Chronicle led with in its print edition yesterday:

5,946,800*

*Population of the 10-county Houston metropolitan area, according to the new census figures

The byline that ran underneath (and the title of the article as it appears online): “Trends show state increasingly urban and Latino.”

The Chronicle reports that, “Texas’ largest cities grew larger and more diverse, as did many suburban counties, part of what Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg calls ‘this accelerating demographic revolution.’“ According to Steve Murdock–another sociologist from Rice, as well as a former director of the Census Bureau–“the idea of predominantly white suburbs” no longer holds true.

Do you hear that noise? It sounds like Glenn Beckistan weeping in its sleep.

WISCONSIN: This is the state where I was born, with a deep progressive tradition that I’ve always felt personally drawn toward — a tradition that is now rising up to challenge the social darwinism of the tea party. Here are the two reads I recommend on the developments out of WI:

This next one is a headline out of Eau Claire, WI, attached to an AP report…

  • Leader-Telegram: “Jesse Jackson, Feingold rally protesters in Madison” Apparently the protesters broke into chants of “Feingold for Governor.” Oh how I love the sound of that.
  • Amanda Terkel has more on Feingold’s efforts over at Huffpo. From the link: “‘I just feel enormous pride in the people of Wisconsin who are coming together — whether union or anti-union — for the rights of workers,’ Feingold said in an interview with The Huffington Post. ‘This state is one of the originators of many of the workers’ rights and protections on child labor, unemployment compensation, and almost all kinds of workers’ rights. The fact that our governor is trying to destroy those rights is something worth fighting against. And I, of course, as a citizen of Wisconsin, somebody who knows the state very well, was proud to just show up and keep my support.’ While President Obama has criticized Walker’s proposal, which would strip away the collective bargaining rights of public employees, he has yet to make an appearance. Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl, the state’s one remaining Democratic U.S. senator, has put out a short statement on the protests but has not taken a visible role. […] Feingold said he believed any politician who purports to be pro-labor should be out in Madison. ‘I can’t imagine somebody who has supported labor and has the support of working people in the state wouldn’t want to at least appear at some point,’ said Feingold. ‘It’s a very meaningful and very difficult effort against one of the most mean-spirited things I’ve seen in a long time. I know people are busy, but to me it was gratifying to see everyone working this hard against something that’s really terribly wrong. It’s very inspiring.'”

Wisconsin’s progressives aren’t your johnny-come-lately career progressives like Arianna or Kos either. Wisconsin’s progressives are the real deal, with a history that goes way back.

In solidarity with them, I’m turning to one of my all time favorite quotes about politics and policy:

“In legislation no bread is often better than half a loaf.”

“Half a loaf, as a rule, dulls the appetite and destroys the keenness of interest in attaining the full loaf. A halfway measure never fairly tests the principle and may utterly discredit it. It is certain to weaken, disappoint, and dissipate public interest. Concession and compromise are almost always necessary in legislation, but they call for the most thorough and complete mastery of the principles involved, in order to fix the limit beyond which not one hair’s breadth can be yielded.” –-the late Robert M. “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator

You guys from Wisconsin fighting the good fight–don’t yield one hair’s breadth beyond that limit. Ordinary Americans are behind you every step of the way. Your fight is our fight.

From Wisconsin to Texas, and from Texas to Wisconsin…

OHIO: And, from Wisconsin to Ohio. Is the Speaker crying yet?

I’ll let the headlines do the talking…

WASHINGTON, DC: As usual, our DC gang is up to shenanigans… a possible government shutdown, more of the K-Street/C-Street armageddon on women’s civil rights as a means to avoid doing anything substantive for ordinary people struggling in this economy, but at least activists in the area are pushing back and showing up at Boehner’s doorstep….

  • From Thursday in DC, via Wapo DC Wire: “DC Vote activists protest outside Boehner’s house…Members of the group DC Vote have gone to the Ohio Republican’s office before to complain about GOP bills. But with the House now considering a spending bill that would cut roughly $80 million in federal payments to the District and prohibit the city from using its own money for abortions or needle-exchange programs, the activist group decided to raise the stakes. ‘Speaker Boehner is coming to our home telling us how to spend our money,’ said DC Vote head Ilir Zherka. ‘We decided to come to his house to tell him to leave D.C. alone.'”
  • From Friday, via Raw Story: “House votes to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood… Authored by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), the amendment would eliminate all $327 million in funding for Title X, a family planning program that began 40 years ago under President Richard Nixon. And while Planned Parenthood receives millions of dollars from the program, Title X funds cannot be used for abortion services. Instead, the money is to be used for noncontroversial family planning services such as contraceptives, reproductive health counseling and cancer screenings, mostly for low-income families. Pence said he supports the use of Title X funds for those purposes, but insisted the government must not fund any organization that provides or promotes abortions. The Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely to approve the controversial measure.“

The Onion News Network had a report earlier this month that was downright prescient — “Congress Forgets How to Pass a Law” (youtube to the right):

FLORIDA: Of course, there’s that deeply flawed Romney-Obama Care that “Democrats” did manage to pass and that wingnuts want to see undone by hook or crook for all the wrong reasons. We live in perplexing times to say the least. A quick link on the HCR lawsuit front…

POTUS: Commenter paperdoll left a pithy observation about Obama at my blog the other week that I wanted to share with you as well, and this seems like as good a place as any to highlight it:

Obama is currently hell bent to prove his truly heartless GOP creds to the upper crust so they will install him in 2012. But that’s the one thing he doesn’t have to put on an act about….his heartlessness . …no ” um” ..” er” …” well let me be perfectly clear” …groping for buzz words there…just sub zero temps

Whether you think Obama is heartless or not, Obama has never had trouble telling any of us that his political heart belongs to the zombie daddy of the GOP, Ronald Reagan.

Glen Ford at the Black Agenda Report had this to say on Wednesday: “Obamaland: Where Right meets Center-Right […] From community block grants to Section 8 housing vouchers to child care to Pell Grants to home heating oil for the poor, Obama has preemptively savaged all that decent people hold dear in the social safety net, and is in enthusiastic, principled agreement with the Republicans that the big cuts are still to come, in Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Obama has arrived in his element, and he has nothing to be ashamed about. Way back on the campaign trail, he told everyone willing to listen how much he admired President Reagan. So, why be surprised when you get a Reagan-type budget? No, the shame is not Obama’s. The people who should be scandalized by the president’s budget are the enablers on the Left who abrogated their political responsibility to the people – and to Truth – by inventing an Obama that did not exist, back in 2007 and 2008.”

Politico ran this silly headline on Friday night: “Obama’s Wisconsin remarks ease labor’s doubts.” But, remember, Obama hasn’t shown in Madison, and Feingold says anyone who is a friend of working people should be there. I’d further that and say anyone who is a friend of working people would already be there in spirit, if not in the flesh. Whether Obama has truly “eased” labor’s doubts or not, whether he drags his heels on over to Madison eventually or not, those kinds of questions have all become increasingly moot. Obama continues to prove himself a laissez-faire leader that may or may not “show up” at the 11th hour, depending on whether his permanent campaign permits his doing so. He’ll never be at the frontlines fighting with or for us — on any issue. He’s not a champion of the middle or working class. Whether it’s in the Mideast or the American Midwest, the wheels of authentic hope and change are moving in spite of Obama, not because of him.

Obama is not the “liberal” version of Reagan. He is the version of Reagan that could only exist once the left in this country was rendered (selectively) mute. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the showdown happening in Wisconsin is paving the way for the American left to regain its voice and political relevance.

Sept. 2010: Hillary at the UN attending the "Every Woman, Every Child" event.

This Saturday in Women’s and Children’s Health headlines

Propaganda alert! This is what page four of Friday’s main section in the Houston Chronicle looked like:

Is it just me or does the above read something like, ‘It doesn’t take a village or a nanny state, it only takes mommy, who should stay at home and breastfeed her babies. In her free time, mommy should also shop for items to beautify her house at Macy’s with the allowance her honey gives her or with her Monopoly money, since she can’t work unless she wants her kids to end up sick in the hospital.’ (That’s dripping with sarcasm, btw. For the snark-impaired.)

I really felt like I was trapped in the 1950s or something reading that page. It all seems to go against the concept of “Every Woman, Every Child.”

In Beijing, 1995, a wise woman spoke these words:

What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well. That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on this planet does have a stake in the discussion that takes place here.

This Day in Women’s History (February 19th)

In 1963, Betty Friedan published The Feminist Mystique. Two good reads:

Bollywood flick I’m watching tonight: No One Killed Jessica (trailer to the left), based on the murder of Jessica Lall. The movie’s two big stars are two fabulous women–Rani Mukerji, as reporter, and Vidya Balan in the role of Jessica’s sister. I’ll leave you with a review of the movie on Counterpunch from Charles R. Larson: “Bollywood Noir?”

THE END!

What’s going on where you are and what’s on your blogging list today?

[originally posted at Let Them Listen; crossposted at Taylor Marsh and Liberal Rapture]

45 Comments on “Saturday Reads: State-by-State, in Solidarity”

  1. Sophie's avatar Sophie says:
    February 19, 2011 at 8:22 am

    The people who should be scandalized by the president’s budget are the enablers on the Left who abrogated their political responsibility to the people – and to Truth – by inventing an Obama that did not exist, back in 2007 and 2008.”

    Indeed! Think they’ll listen to us next time? Hell no.

  2. minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
    February 19, 2011 at 9:20 am

    Great post Wonk, check this out:

    RealClearPolitics – FDR’s Ghost Is Smiling on Wisconsin’s Governor

    • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
      February 19, 2011 at 9:34 am

      Yet all this past week, he praised public employees and he said the work government does is so necessary, taxpayers should get as much of it for their money as possible. Meanwhile, thousands of schoolteachers on the Capitol lawn manifested their intent to obstruct Government and their belief that the tots back at Roosevelt Elementary could darn well spend a day or three watching Nickelodeon at home.

      And, to beat all, the president who now professes to be the new Reagan weighed in to say Walker was being unduly mean to unions. President Obama gave no audible word on whether unions were being unduly mean in shutting down schools.

      Walker, good Republican, is no FDR but he is offering Wisconsin a new deal, lower-case. Wisconsin’s been a seedbed of bad ideas since it hatched Progressivism, and for years it’s stuck with unionized government even as the price swelled. Walker’s radical shift is to try securing necessary government at a better price. The unions, whose model depends on making government labor as costly as taxpayers will bear, object.

      May they be haunted by the ghost of the 32nd president, and his little dog, too.

      Here is a quote from the article above…Oh, what horrors Wisconsin’s progressive past is bearing down on them now.

      Like so many pointed out in Dak’s post yesterday the hatred toward civil employees is ridiculous.

    • Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Wonk the Vote says:
      February 19, 2011 at 9:42 am

      …and Mother Jones (the labor activist, not the magazine) was against woman’s suffrage!

      All of our political icons worked within the constructs of the time and place they were at in history.

      Thanks for the link, MM. I’ll boomerang this one back to you:
      Salon interview with Joseph McCartin      :

      Why FDR would support the Wisconsin protests
      A labor historian explains: Roosevelt opposed government unions, but by the ’50s he would have changed his mind

      • Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Wonk the Vote says:
        February 19, 2011 at 9:44 am

        Excerpt:

        I was surprised to learn today that FDR opposed public sector unions.

        The quotation you refer to is in a letter he wrote to a postal worker leader in the 1930s. It has been a bit blown out of proportion. Roosevelt absolutely did not favor collective bargaining for federal workers and especially did not favor the right to strike. But like many people, had he lived into the postwar era, he might well have changed his mind. Because a consensus developed pretty quickly after World War II that collective bargaining in the public sector was actually a positive thing. That consensus really took shape between the late ’40s and ’50s.

        Why?

        The arrival of collective bargaining in the private sector through the Wagner Act of 1935 and the solidification of unions in major industries led to a stabilization of labor relations by the 1950s. The dire industrial warfare that some people had warned would come about through the Wagner Act obviously didn’t happen. Instead collective bargaining settled down into a rather routine process, in which major employers like U.S. Steel or General Motors actually found the process was a net positive for them. They elicited feedback from their workers, and they elicited a cooperative arrangement between the union and the company on the shop floor. For workers, that arrangement was governed by a contract that took some of the arbitrariness out of the relationship that had been there between workers and their bosses.

        So collective bargaining basically was seen by both sides in the 1950s — labor and management — as a pretty good thing. You add to that the sensitivity that many Americans felt to the idea that some workers would be denied rights, and the fact that the union movement by the 1950s seemed less threatening, in general, in part because those elements of the labor movement that had been linked to the Communist Party in the 1940s had been pretty much marginalized or eliminated by then — all those things came together to change opinions. Had Roosevelt lived into that period I’m pretty sure he would have changed along with people of both parties, Republican and Democrat, who generally gravitated in the direction that collective bargaining was a net good.

        The right takes a much more cynical view. Their argument is that this all goes back to New York Mayor Robert Wagner figuring out in 1958 that he could lock down political support from government unions if he granted them collective bargaining rights — and ever since then public sector unions and Democratic politicians have worked hand in hand.

        That’s not really an accurate representation. The main point that should be understood is that many cities had been informally negotiating with unions before they formally recognized them, beginning actually with Philadelphia even before New York. There had been a consultation relationship that existed to some extent in some cities. To argue that it was a cynical ploy, I think is wrong, because that eliminates the whole debate that was developing over the course of the ’50s among people who had no stake in this politically. Experts on public employment and employment management — the sort of cutting-edge thinking in the ’50s by public sector managers was that bargaining would actually help them gain efficiencies and help them improve worker morale, cut down on turnover and generally foster a better workplace, a more effective workplace. Wagner was hardly just trying to make a cynical political power grab; there was a generally emerging body of thought that said this is good government.

        And I think that body of thought was generally right. Because what happened for the most part over the next 20 years was that collective bargaining worked pretty well in the public sector. The fear-mongering that broke almost immediately when Mayor Wagner signed that act in 1958 never played out.

  3. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    February 19, 2011 at 9:58 am

    Fabulous round up, Wonk! Thanks for pulling all this together. Bollywood noir sounds like something I could go for.

  4. cwaltz's avatar cwaltz says:
    February 19, 2011 at 10:45 am

    This pic from twitter is awesome.

    http://twitpic.com/419nfm

    Eygpt is watching Wisconsin, just as we watched them.

    One world indeed, one small world, that I’m proud to share with our Egyptian friends.

  5. Sheridee's avatar Sheridee says:
    February 19, 2011 at 10:52 am

    I liked your round-up of news; however, when it comes to “the Mommy Wars” I have to put in my 2 cents. I’ve no idea the motive behind the “Michelle breast-feeding message”. I had my first child when I was 40; previously, I had a career and was a working girl. I decided to stay at home with my daughter and worked hard at that job. When she got into elementary school, I returned to work part-time and often worked at home. My real job, though, was “stay at home mom” and I filled each day with taking care of my baby; volunteering at pre-school; volunteering on PTA, organizing events, and Board positions; Girl Scouts, sports events,etc. I took care of my home; shopped for nutritious food and made good meals. These are just a few of the things I did on a daily basis. It was a far cry from the stigma of baking cookies, cleaning and watching soap operas.

    Why must we working moms/stay at home moms continually dig at and insult each other. It is we, ourselves, that continue the non-feminist dailogue of stereotypes on both sides. We should be supporting ALL women – whether one chooses to stay home and raise a human being by not working outside of the home or whether one chooses to have a career and raise that human being in addition. Why stigmatize each other? When we stop that, we will be steps closer to full womens rights. We must support each other.

    (I’m not an Obama fan; I’m a PUMA; and Hillary knows what I am talking about! 🙂

    • Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Wonk the Vote says:
      February 19, 2011 at 11:02 am

      I’ve no prob with stay at home or working moms or women who aren’t mothers, Sheridee! My philosophy is “a woman’s sphere is wherever she makes good!” I just thought the juxtapostion of the story about the “small government” doing jackshit to help any of us juxtaposed against the stories about breastfeeding and working moms leading to sick kids was unsettling. They say “stay home” but they don’t want it to “take a village,” they don’t want to share in the helping mothers to stay home, they don’t want to help working mothers, they don’t want to help women period. For women who want to stay home, that often means there won’t be enough of an income for her struggling family these days. For women who want to work, they’re told they’re endangering their child. I just had a weird feeling about the combination of all those stories on one page. It was in no way meant to stigmatize any woman’s choice to do whatever she wants with her God given potential.

      • cwaltz's avatar cwaltz says:
        February 19, 2011 at 11:33 am

        That’s not true. I’m a stay at home mom that believes it takes a village. I can’t nor would I want to be with my kids 24/7. So yes, I do need other adults to “help” make sure my kids are happy, healthy and safe.

        I’m really tired of people painting all stay at home moms like we are one entity. We aren’t. Just like women who work outside their homes we have different thoughts, opinions and ideas.

        As for the study, kids who are exposed to other kids are going to have a broader exposure to germs. It’s a fact. Kids are germ magnets. As kids grow older though, that germ exposure may help protect them. So from where I’m sitting I think it’s a broad stretch to insist that the study is suggesting working moms are endangering their children. It’s just saying what science has been saying for awhile. Kids around other kids get sick.

      • Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Wonk the Vote says:
        February 19, 2011 at 11:45 am

        Cwaltz, by “they say” I didn’t mean stay at home moms say that… I was talking about the propaganda from the MSM.And, yes, if you go and read the study, you can read the finer points, but again, I was really speaking more to the headlines and the media spin and the way it all read to me looking at that page spread. I’ve stood up for stay at home moms, even created a separate thread as a safe haven at my place to praise stay at home moms when it became an issue elsewhere.

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      February 19, 2011 at 11:25 am

      I’m not sure where this is coming from. We don’t allow “mommy wars” here.

  6. Sara's avatar Sara says:
    February 19, 2011 at 11:13 am

    From ‘Naked Capitalism’ comments (edited by me) under 2/19/11 links:
    Scott Walker is an errand boy for the Kochs. Their money-funneling outfits supplied him funds and great help. He’s spoken at their events for years. Etc., etc., it’s all on the web on credible sources. The Kochs have extensive industrial interests in the State of Wisconsin who have substential environmental footprints. But the Kochs?: _they_ don’t live there. So here’s the take: Walker is doing the bidding of out of state interests, creating a phoney crisis of his own design, to call for huge financial concessions from tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens who have lived and worked their all their lives, while attempting to bar them from any kind of bargaining or political action in their own state ever again. Sooo contemptible.

    And furthermore, the Kochs’…. Andrew Breitbart has been beckoned to go to Madison to ‘get the goods on those unionists.’ Memo to union and radical organizers: find him, but don’t answer his questions, just ask him a few of your own, at maximum volume and numbers, regarding who funds him and what the hell does he think he has to say about something in your state. —And film it all yourself. Them when he posts his cut up propaganda smear, put up your entire video to show his slimy cutting up. And….when a largely Koch funded enterprise…claim they’ll show up to tell off union members in person. I really hope they do so we can do a respective head count, because their pitiful numbers compared to the side for social justice need to be on display….

    • cwaltz's avatar cwaltz says:
      February 19, 2011 at 11:38 am

      There is a Facebook page that lists some of Koch industries products.

      Among other things angelsoft and Georgia Pacific Home improvement products as well as a bunch of textiles.

      worth a read for those interested in starving the beast.

      • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
        February 19, 2011 at 12:01 pm

        I’m really interested in starving that beast for sure. To think a couple of trust fund babies could spend an entire fortune to push a greed agenda is maddening.

    • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
      February 19, 2011 at 11:38 am

      unfortunately, the Koch crowd also believes that the only amendment that counts is the second … given they mostly show up armed to tea party rallies, I hope we don’t have a recipe for disaster on our hands. They’ve already been ginned up with WSJ headings proclaiming it’s a “Welfare State” riot and Rush Limbaugh said yesterday you’re either with the protesters or you’re with the country.

      I’m worried what will happen when the nuts get there.

      • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
        February 19, 2011 at 11:56 am

        You mention tea parties Dak. From the link up top about the 3 Stooges, I mean Scrooges:

        The three governors sit at the center of a nationwide debate that pits a tea party movement threatening to mow down any tax-and-spenders in its path against labor unions and advocates for children, the elderly, and the poor. In a sign of the anti-establishment movement’s influence, Scott unveiled his bare-bones budget earlier this month at a tea party rally, breaking with the tradition of formal announcements in the state capitol.

        In another sign of the blurring of lines between campaigning and governing, Kasich has been Tweeting encouragement to his compatriots in Florida and Wisconsin. “Kudos to @FLGovScott for siding w/taxpayers & saying no to wasteful passenger rail,’’ he wrote Wednesday. “Props to @GovWalker for new reforms to public employee unions that give taxpayers more rights,’’ he added Thursday. Walker called Kasich earlier this week to “commiserate,” his staff confirmed.

        So the FL gov bypassed the official governor announcements and gave the Tea Party the scoop.

      • Woman Voter's avatar Woman Voter says:
        February 19, 2011 at 1:28 pm

        12 Things You Need to Know About the Uprising in Wisconsin

        Public workers and supporters picketing the mansion of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, February 13, 2011

        What’s happening in Wisconsin is not complicated. At the beginning of this year, the state was on course to end 2011 with a budget surplus of $120 million. As Ezra Klein explained, newly elected GOP Governor Scott Walker then ” signed two business tax breaks and a conservative health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues (among other things). The new legislation was not offset, and it turned a surplus into a deficit.”

        Read more:
        http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/479560/12_things_you_need_to_know_about_the_uprising_in_wisconsin/

        Yes, the GOP and Walker caused the crisis and then blame the Rank and File workers and Democrats for not allowing the GOP to strip them of their rights.

  7. Beata's avatar Beata says:
    February 19, 2011 at 11:15 am

    AP is reporting the number of people at the rally in Madison today may total 70,000. Members of the Tea Party are expected to show up. FauxNoise just referred to the gathering as “Dueling Rallies” which sounds like incitement to me. I am a praying person and I pray this rally will remain a peaceful one.

  8. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    February 19, 2011 at 11:29 am

    Anti-goverment protesters storm Bahrain’s Central Square:

    Thousands of anti-government demonstrators have marched into Manama’s Pearl Roundabout, just two days after authorities used deadly force to seize and cordon off the area.

  9. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    February 19, 2011 at 11:34 am

    At least 84 killed in Lybia protests.

    http://slatest.slate.com/id/2285875/

  10. minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
    February 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    Moroccans riot ahead of protests – Africa – Al Jazeera English

    Protesters have attacked a police station and premises linked to French firms in the Moroccan city of Tangier in a dispute over the local utility firm’s management, organisers and residents have said.

    Saturday’s violence came a day before a planned nationwide protest to push for political reform but there was no immediate evidence of a direct link.

    “No tear gas, nothing was fired. They used long truncheons to disperse the crowds”

    Local witness

    Riot police intervened to break up the protest in Tangier, which evolved from a sit-in in front of the city hall to a march that gathered hundreds of protesters, the Moroccan branch of the local activist organisation, Attac, said on its website.

  11. Woman Voter's avatar Woman Voter says:
    February 19, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    AJELive
    Women of the revolution – Features – Al Jazeera English english.aljazeera.net/indepth/featur…
    http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/02/2011217134411934738.html

  12. foxyladi14's avatar foxyladi14 says:
    February 19, 2011 at 2:27 pm

    good round up.lots going on.:lol:

  13. foxyladi14's avatar foxyladi14 says:
    February 19, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    good old W.P. :mrgreen:

  14. Outis's avatar Outis says:
    February 19, 2011 at 3:02 pm

    Forgive me if this has been discussed already, but my friend sent me this link to Rep. Jackie Speier standing up and saying very clearly what needs to be said over and over about the Pence Amendment.

    I don’t know how to embed video. But I LOVE it when she said, “I thought abortion was legal in this country.” And clearly pointed out how shameful this attack on women’s health is.

    • Outis's avatar Outis says:
      February 19, 2011 at 3:02 pm

      Oh, it embedded.

      • Woman Voter's avatar Woman Voter says:
        February 19, 2011 at 4:08 pm

        Yes, Jackie is presidential material, she has been a long time legislator, working mother, worked in high tech, in non-profit sector and has been shot multiple times, when working as an aide to the late Congressman Ryan.

        She is an author, an attorney, and can she debate. Those that say she is too Liberal are simply not familiar with the Rank and File of the Democratic party and would willingly give up women’s reproductive rights.

        Go Jackie Go! I am so tired of the Republicans yelling abortion at every darn meeting and trying to demonize women in the process.

      • Outis's avatar Outis says:
        February 19, 2011 at 5:10 pm

        This kind of hit back is what we need from every D, including Nancy Pelosi (who should have done when in power).

  15. Sara's avatar Sara says:
    February 19, 2011 at 4:14 pm

    Good commentary.

    http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/02/dont-let-wisconsin-divide-us.html

  16. Beata's avatar Beata says:
    February 19, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    Live stream of the protests in Madison:

    http://www.livestream.com/theuptake

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