Tuesday Reads: Dark Ages America

Posted: December 27, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: morning reads, Reproductive Rights, Republican presidential politics, Surreality, U.S. Politics, Women's Rights | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 31 Comments

The Georgia Guidestones — supposedly a roadmap for “Agenda 21”

Good Morning! Yesterday I read a (for me) mind-blowing article by Joshua Holland at Alternet about how right wing conspiracy theories are endangering the future of humanity. The main focus of the article is on Tea Party members and other right wing extremists who are obsessed with “Agenda 21,” a United Nations initiative begun at a conference on environmental sustainability in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and signed by hundreds of world leaders, including President George W. Bush. This was all completely new to me, so I looked around to see what I could find out about it. Here is the gist:

Agenda 21, the international plan of action to sustainable development, outlines key policies for achieving sustainable development that meets the needs of the poor and recognizes the limits of development to meet global needs. Agenda 21 has become the blueprint for sustainability and forms the basis for sustainable development strategies. It attempts to define a balance between production, consumption, population, development, and the Earth’s life-supporting capacity. It addresses poverty, excessive consumption, health and education, cities and agriculture; food and natural resource management and several more subjects.

Its 40 chapters are broken up into four sections:

1. Social and economic dimensions: developing countries; poverty; consumption patterns; population; health; human settlements; integrating environment and development.

2. Conservation and management of resources: atmosphere; land; forests; deserts; mountains; agriculture; biodiversity; biotechnology; oceans; fresh water; toxic chemicals; hazardous, radioactive and solid waste and sewage.

3. Strengthening the role of major groups: women; children and youth; indigenous peoples; non-governmental organizations; local authorities; workers; business and industry; farmers; scientists and technologists.

4. Means of implementation: finance; technology transfer; science; education; capacity-building; international institutions; legal measures; information.

The full report (300+ pages) is here (PDF).

Apparently, fears about U.N. Agenda 21 are the basis for Michele Bachmann’s campaign against energy efficient light bulbs and for Bachmann’s and other right wingers’ drive to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency. Here’s Bachmann, quoted in an article by Tim Murphy in Mother Jones:

“This is their agenda—I know it’s hard to believe, it’s hard to fathom, but this is ‘Mission Accomplished’ for them,” she said of congressional Democrats. “They want Americans to take transit and move to the inner cities. They want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, [and] take light rail to their government jobs. That’s their vision for America.”

And here is Murphy’s explanation for the light bulb obsession:

Although she didn’t say it right then, Bachmann likely had something specific in mind: Agenda 21, a two-decade-old United Nations agreement that has taken on a life of its own on the far-right. The agreement, forged in 1992, nominally committed signatories to a set of shared values designed to mitigate the environmental impact of human development. Member countries agreed to a range of sustainability goals, from preserving the ozone layer to ensuring that forests are managed so they’ll be around for future generations. (The United States is a signatory, but the treaty has not been ratified by the Senate.)

But to some conservatives, Agenda 21 became something far more nefarious—a gateway to a global government built on a radical doctrine of secular environmentalism.

As these conservatives saw it, the agreement paved the way for the entire planet to be controlled by a central bureaucracy: Humans would be cleared out of vast swaths of settled areas—like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, for example—and instructed to live in “hobbit homes” in designated “human habitation zones” (two terms embraced by tea party activists). Public transportation would be the only kind of transportation, and governments would force contraception on their citizens to control the population level. A human life would be considered no more significant than, say, that of a manatee. “Sustainability,” the idea at the heart of the agreement, became a gateway to dystopia.

Can you believe it? If you google “Agenda 21,” you’ll find scads of crazy stuff about it all over the internet. Bachmann recently answered questions about Agenda 21 in New Hampshire. She explained that Al Gore, who is apparently the Antichrist to the Agenda 21 freaks, was {gasp!} at the conference in Rio back in 1992.

Al Gore was there at the Rio Conference and the whole goal is really about global control.
It’s essentially a one world government view where there’s political body and the United States would have to subsume our sovereignty into a global body, but more than that, we would also have to give away our wealth.

So the wealth of the United States would be redistributed to other countries.
As a matter of a fact, that’s what the Durban Conference was about in South Africa this weekend, also about redistribution of American money.

These people truly live in a different reality than you and I. Unfortunately, they want to make their reality our reality too.

Ron Paul is also a hero to the Agenda 21 freaks. Here’s an announcement at the Connecticut Ron Paul for President website.

Agenda 21 is Coming to your Neighborhood!

SOUNDS LIKE SCIENCE FICTION…OR SOME CONSPIRACY THEORY…BUT IT ISN’T.

By now, most Americans have heard the terms “sustainable development” and “smart growth” but are largely unaware of UN Agenda 21. While many people support the United Nations for its peacemaking efforts, Agenda 21 is a whole life plan that involves the educational system, the energy market, the transportation system, the governmental system, the health care system, food production, and more. The plan is to restrict your choices, limit your funds, narrow your freedoms, and take away your voice.

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Sponsored by Campaign for Sound Money and The John Birch Society

Getting back to the article in Alternet that I began with, Joshua Holland writes:

The important thing to understand about Agenda 21 is that there is absolutely nothing binding or compelling member countries to implement any part of it. It’s not a treaty — it is entirely voluntary and certainly doesn’t have any connection to local governments. Yet for the right, with its long John Birch Society undercurrent of paranoia about international institutions, Agenda 21 represents some kind of dark UN conspiracy to impose socialism on the “free world.” ….

Last year, during the Denver mayoral race, Tea Party candidate Dan Maes argued that a local bike-sharing program, a popular initiative among city residents, was a “very well-disguised” part of a plan by then-Denver mayor (and now Colorado governor) John Hickenlooper for “converting Denver into a United Nations community.” Alex Jones constantly hawks the conspiracy [Here’s one example from Jones’ website Infowars]. Glenn Beck warned it would lead to “centralized control over all of human life on planet Earth.” And in September, Newt Gingrich, hoping to burnish his wingnutty creds, told a group of Orlando Tea Partiers that, if elected, his first order of business would be “to cease all federal funding of any kind of activity that relates to United Nations Agenda 21.” (Currently, no federal funding of any kind is used for implementing Agenda 21.)

But Holland argues that, although conspiracy theories like this may seem weird and silly to us, the people pushing them are succeeding in harassing and intimidating politicians and public officials; and thus these conspiratorial beliefs may make it impossible for us as a society to deal with environmental issues like global climate change.

Holland links to a June 2011 article in the Washington Post by Darryl Fears, a science correspondent, about efforts to deal with rising sea levels which uniquely threaten the Virginia Beach area. Then on December 17, Fears reported that local residents are fighting these efforts to deal with future flooding of the area.

The sea level is rising in Virginia Beach and the entire area known as Hampton Roads because of the warming climate, and the area also happens to be sinking for other geological reasons.

Within 50 years, a big part of Virginia Beach’s identity — its beach — could be lost if nothing is done, said [Clay] Bernick, the city’s environment and sustainability administrator. Large pieces of land could also be lost to the ocean in Norfolk within a few generations.

In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warns that, outside of greater New Orleans, Hampton Roads is at the greatest risk from sea-level rise for any area its size.

“It’s a significant threat,” Bernick said. “At this point, I wouldn’t put it in the category of fear, because it’s a long way off.” But he added: “You’ve got multiple factors with flashing lights saying, ‘Okay, guys, what are you going to do?’ ”

The residents’ opposition has focused on a central point: They don’t think climate change is accelerated by human activity, as most climate scientists conclude. When planners proposed to rezone land for use as a dike against rising water, these residents, or “new activists,” as [public planner Lewis L.] Lawrence calls them, saw a trick to take their property.

Here’s what some of the “activists” had to say:

“Environmentalists have always had an agenda to put nature above man,” said Donna Holt, leader of the Virginia Campaign for Liberty, a tea party affiliate with 7,000 members. “If they can find an end to their means, they don’t care how it happens. If they can do it under the guise of global warming and climate change, they will do it.” ….

When planners redesignated property as a future flood zone, activists said officials were acting on a hoax. They argued in meetings and on Web sites that local planners are unwitting agents of Agenda 21, a United Nations environmental action plan adopted in 1992 that the activists see as a shadowy global conspiracy to grab land and redistribute wealth in the United States.

“My professional credentials have been challenged,” said Lawrence, who holds degrees in municipal planning and provides professional and technical planning advice to municipalities throughout the peninsula. He said he has heard whispers behind his back after meetings: “I’ve been brainwashed. I’ve been called a dupe for the U.N.”

These kinds of irrational public protests are happening in other places too. Here’s an article posted at Alex Jones website Prison Planet.

MISSOULA, MT – In a move that would have made Joseph Stalin jealous, the City Council of Missoula, Montana on Monday approved the use of local tax dollars to an organization out of state known as ICLEI (International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives).

The ICLEI board can be found directly under the treasonous United Nations Agenda 21. The council room was almost in uproar as over 50 voices that opposed the funding of dues to the UnConstitutional initiative fell on deaf progressive “public servants’” ears.

“I am concerned that (the) Missoula City Council may be moving in a direction that could ultimately affect my property rights, which are guaranteed to me by both the Montana Constitution and the Constitution of the United States,” Trish Auras said during the council’s Monday night meeting. “Before you agree to paying dues to ICLEI, I would like somebody on the council to assure me that my property rights will not be affected in any way. Can you do that? Anybody?”

Read it and weep. Our future is being determined by ignorant people who take the bible literally and disdain science. They are leading us back into a new dark age. All you have to do is listen to the Republican presidential candidates to realize this is no exaggeration.

There’s another aspect to this conspiracy theory that Joshua Holland doesn’t mention. If you’ve read much of Alex Jones’ propaganda or listened to Glenn Beck, you know that another right win obsession is population control. Jones claims that once the “New World Order,” or global government is established, the elites will kill off 90% of the world population in order to make the planet sustainable for the rich and powerful who will remain. This also ties in with the mysterious Georgia Guidestones, pictured at the beginning of this post. Here’s an excerpt from an article (also linked above) from Jones’ website Infowars: “Al Gore, Agenda 21 And Population Control.”

When you start doing deep research into Agenda 21, you will find that describing it as a “comprehensive plan” is an understatement. Virtually all forms of human activity impact the environment. The rabid “environmentalists” behind the green agenda intend to take all human activity and put it into a box called “sustainable development”.

One of the key elements of “sustainable development” is population control. The United Nations (along with radical “environmental” leaders such as Al Gore) actually believes that there are far too many people on earth….Al Gore made the following statement regarding population control….

“One of the things we could do about it is to change the technologies, to put out less of this pollution, to stabilize the population, and one of the principle ways of doing that is to empower and educate girls and women. You have to have ubiquitous availability of fertility management so women can choose how many children have, the spacing of the children.

You have to lift child survival rates so that parents feel comfortable having small families and most important — you have to educate girls and empower women. And that’s the most powerful leveraging factor, and when that happens, then the population begins to stabilize and societies begin to make better choices and more balanced choices.”

Do you notice how whenever global leaders talk about “empowering” women these days it always ends up with them having less children?

The article concludes with a reference to the Georgia Guidestones, pictured at the top of this post, and at left.

Most Americans don’t grasp it yet, but the truth is that the global elite are absolutely obsessed with population control. In fact, there is a growing consensus among the global elite that they need to get rid of 80 to 90 percent of us.

The number one commandment of the infamous Georgia Guidestones is this: “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.”

One of the biggest issues for the right is the dis-empowerment of women. They want to make sure that women cannot choose whether or not to have a child or how many children to have. They’d probably like to force women out of the workplace and back into the home. That also ties in with the obsession with fighting population control. Why is it that this anti-woman agenda is so often ignored by the media–even by alternative media writers like Joshua Holland?

This post is getting way too long, and it probably makes no sense. But that’s my offering for today–a sample of what right wing conspiratorial madness and fear of science is doing to us. Holland is right. It has the potential to wreck wreck what’s left of our country.

Saturday: All I want for X-mas is a baby owl…

Posted: December 24, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Hillary Clinton, morning reads, Women's Rights | 43 Comments

Click to go to source post.

Morning, news junkies!

Anyone who really knows me off the blogs knows I am obsessed with owls. I sported an owl beanie + handmade rhinestone owl t-shirt for Halloween this year. I own multiple pieces of owl jewelry. I have owl-themed kitchenware (including a crockpot), and lately I have taken to sending snail mail on owl stationary plastered with owl stickers all over them. Owls are the Hillary of the animal world for me.

I am even considering an owl tattoo, and my very Desi parents would probably have simultaneous heart attacks if they found out. In common Hinglish parlance, I have gone pagal.

My family and I also lost our sweet little pomeranian of almost 13 years this past March. This is my first Christmas in forever without her physical presence, but I still feel her with me…if nowhere else but in my heart.

I am not quite ready for another pet, though I do visit the adoptable kittehs at the Petco right next to my house whenever I have a chance and have grown rather fond of a certain French mastiff puppy in the family. And, just this week I held an adorable fluffy white lapdog (also in the family) in my arms for the first time since I became dog-less. I cried my eyes out the next morning watching home videos of my angel-goddess.

That being said, if it were possible to keep a baby owl that was suitable for domestication in the United States, I would be seriously tempted to own such a beautiful creature. As I understand it, though, owls would not make the best of pets and their dietary habits are not exactly something I’m so sure I could easily adjust to (I’m mostly a pescetarian, occasionally a flexitarian). However, I have been looking into this and found out that my sister and I may be able to adopt an owl from the Houston Audubon Society. This might be the ideal solution for awhile until/if we are ready to have pets again. I am thinking of surprising her either tomorrow or on New Year’s.

Alright, now that I’ve bored you to pieces with my owl monologues (like you give a hoot…I know, I know, bad pun, sorry!)

Anyhow, onto some Saturday reads…

I’ve still got some holiday odds and ends to attend to, so I’m just going to do a straightforward link-dump, with teasers and snippets for your convenience:

  • Two links to cheer about, both from Jezebel:

–Welcome home, Wati: Girl Missing Since 2004 Tsunami Turns Up Alive In Indonesia

—The Best Holiday/Military Photo You Will See Today (or this year, imho!); per NPR…For First Time, Women Share ‘First Kiss’ At A Navy Homecoming

  • Even more to cheer about…

—Governor ‘All asshat, no cattle’ Perry knocked off Virginia ballot [Wapo]

—Voters leaving Oligarchy flavors, D and R, in droves [USA Today]

  • Via Yahoo’s Destination 2012/The Ticket:

—Stephen Colbert offered $400k for South Carolina GOP primary naming rights (and almost succeeded!)

  • Hillary headlines:

–Star-Ledger Editorial Board: Hillary Clinton’s forceful remarks on Cairo women inspire pride…

Do women in power make a difference? After the awful situation in Egypt, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s swift denunciation, the answer is a resounding yes. […] Would a male secretary of state—say, a James Baker or Colin Powell—been as forceful or quick? Hard to say. But there’s no denying that coming from Clinton, the words pack an extra wallop.

–Columbia Daily Spectator: Clinton inspires Barnard students at State Department…

At the inaugural colloquium hosted this Thursday, hosted in the State Department building, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a dozen other women leaders spoke to students from Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley Colleges.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Barnard President Debora Spar sat across the aisle from one another.

Farah Pandith, special Representative to Muslim Communities for the State Department, attributed this goal to the “Hillary effect,” a phrase that has come to describe Clinton’s contagious enthusiasm. Pandith applauded Clinton for her 2008 presidential campaign, citing “15 million cracks in the glass ceiling.”

In keeping this reputation, Clinton spoke fervently about the multifaceted initiative. She deplored the United States’ reluctance to support female politicians, while applauding India’s quota of female lawmakers. Clinton’s opening remarks referenced her own experiences, too. “It was 18 million cracks,” she declared.

–humanrightsfirst.org: U.S. National Action Plan Puts Women at Forefront of Foreign Policy (the article pats President Obama on the back for his “own commitment to women’s leadership,” but come on… we all know this is Hillary’s signature issue and without her influence and clout as a crusader for women and girls, this “action” plan would not be happening.)

–via the Canadian Maclean’s: On the job with ‘Hillary’s angels’ (neat photos at the link)…

No U.S. Secretary of state has travelled like Hillary Clinton does. As Barack Obama’s top diplomat, she clocked more than 354,000 km in 2010—enough to circle the globe nearly nine times. And as the woman who famously said she made “18 million cracks” in the “glass ceiling” during her 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton also travels with a highly trained security contingent that includes more than a dozen women.

They were chosen from thousands of applicants to personally guard the secretary as she trots the globe touting American interests. Writing in Elle magazine, Laura Blumenfeld dubbed them “Hillary’s Angels.” Given that they’re trained to fire guns upside down, run for miles on end and take people down in hand-to-hand combat, the handle seems entirely appropriate.

—Great blog post from USA Today’s Christie Garton on Hillary’s Women in Public Service initiative; includes an interview with Kim Bottomly, president of Hillary’s alma mater, which is one of seven sister schools participating in the project.

—Elizabeth Warren And Hillary Clinton Trade Lessons (excerpt from an interview with Elizabeth Warren in The Progressive, highlighted via “Steve’s Politics blog”):

Q: You have an amazing anecdote in The Two-Income Trap about Hillary Clinton and the bankruptcy bill, which she called “that awful bill” and opposed when her husband was President but voted for in 2001, though it didn’t pass then.

Warren: I give Hillary Clinton a lot of credit. When she was First Lady, I sat down with her in a hotel in Boston. I had all these graphs and charts, and she was crunching through a hamburger, listening, and asking a lot of questions, and she really got it. At first, she was resistant. After all, the White House was quietly supporting the banks’ bankruptcy bill. But boy, by about the third or fourth slide she was starting to say, “Oh,” and she could jump ahead. She got it.

Someone later told me there were skid marks on the floor in the White House from people reversing position on that bankruptcy bill when Hillary Clinton got back from Boston.

Steve poses a good question for Elizabeth Warren to answer at the end:

The lesson Elizabeth Warren gave to Hillary Clinton was the explanation of how bad the bankruptcy bill was.

The lesson Hillary Clinton gave to Elizabeth Warren is that even if you understand the horrors of the bill and you convinced President Clinton to veto it, you may still eventually give in to the lobbying pressures once you become a Senator.

I would love to hear Elizabeth Warren’s plan to resist this pressure when she becomes the Senator from Massachusetts.  Unfortunately President George H. W. Bush made the “Read my lips” assurance null and void.   I have no idea what plan Elizabeth Warren could have to make sure she does not succumb.

–via Politico…Hillaryland: Draft movement a GOP plot?

Hillary Clinton’s people — current and former — are mystified, suspicious and bit peeved with the recent raft of mysterious “Draft Hillary” robocalls and emails and a mangy http://www.runhillary2012.net web site – which looks like it was produced in the Hindu Kush.

The current theory, according to posts on a listserv frequented by former Clinton 2008 staffers and senate staff forwarded to POLITICO, is that it’s a GOP plot.

  • Sisterland Must-reads!

–Nancy Folbre: Feminism’s Uneasy Success (via Economix; complete with nifty graph)… as Folbre concludes:

The gender revolution didn’t cause this problem, but it is surely being hindered by it.

–David Rosen: Sexual Violence in America (via Counterpunch)

Sexual violence is the shame of the nation.

–Minjon Tholen: Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Should Be Prominent on the Progressive Agenda (via New Deal 2.0)… Tholen’s closing argument:

So rather than imposing abstinence-only education and preventing Plan B from being sold over the counter, let’s follow the Ad Council’s lead in acknowledging reality, trusting people to make responsible decisions, providing comprehensive information and resources, and recognizing the social and economic benefits of respecting women’s sexual and reproductive rights. The progressive movement needs to once and for all understand and embrace how these issues are intertwined with all of our other causes and put these rights at the core of its agenda.

–Bryce Covert: The Paternalism of the Holiday Car Ad (via New Deal 2.0)… from Covert’s piece:

As Annie Lowrey tweets in parody of these ads, “Husband buys wife a car! Wife expresses horror that he made a major financial decision unilaterally, on impulse!”

  • Meant to post this last weekend… calling all fellow Jane Austen fangirls:

—Happy Birthday Jane Austen and the 7 Hottest Austen Men (via Houston Press’ Art Attack).

–Amanda Vickery: 200 years on, why Jane Austen’s lovers find new reasons for their passion (via the Guardian/Observer):

Many different Jane Austens have been celebrated since 1811 – sweet Aunt Jane in her rose-wreathed cottage, sardonic critic, master stylist, mother of the novel, feminist rebel and queen of romantic comedy. I think the key to her adaptability is her restraint. Austen leaves room for the reader’s intelligence and fantasies, which has the uncanny effect of allowing each new generation to see themselves reflected back from her pages. And in another 200 years, I am sure readers still will.

  • Today (December 24th) in Women’s History:

–Via lizlibrary:

Event: 12-24-1948, first solar heated house occupied. The experiments were sponsored by Amelia Peabody, house designed by Eleanor Raymond, It was cheap and effective and promptly ignored by industry.

–For more info, see Fast Company’s March 2009 report “Some of the Greatest Inventors Are Women“… here is the blurb specifically about Dr. Telkes:

Maria Telkes invented the first solar home heating system:Maria Telkes was fascinated with the sun. She went to high school in Budapest, Hungary, and gained a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Budapest. She traveled to the United States in 1925 and eventually joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solar Energy Research Project.

While she was there, a Boston sculptor, Amelia Peabody, approached Maria and offered to pay for construction of a solar heated house on land she owned in Dover, Massachusetts. The house was to be designed by architect Eleanor Raymond. Maria was to design the solar-heating system.

That was in 1948. “I envisage the day when solar heat collecting shelters, like power stations, will be built apart from the house,” she told W. Clifford Harvey of The Christian Science Monitor. “One such solar-heating building could develop enough heat from the sun for pumping into an entire community of homes.”

Just think of all the carbon footprints Dr. Telkes could have shrunken by now if the world were ready to lift up its female talent instead of ignoring it. Especially during the holiday season!

Speaking of which, I stumbled upon this Blake & Sons Heating and Air blog post that I thought I’d close with…

A Holiday Debate: Clean Air vs. Full Wallets

It’s hard to spoil the Christmas or Hanukkah spirit at the popular holiday bazaars that sprout every year in places like Union Square or the Columbus Circle corner of Central Park, selling all manner of tchotchkes, knick-knacks and bric-a-brac for impulsive gift hunters.

But Jeffrey H. Brodsky, a graduate student in history at Columbia University, points out that all those stalls, lights and heaters are powered by diesel-fuel generators, which environmental groups say emit fumes that can aggravate lung and heart ailments and cause problems in children’s developing bodies.

“I’m not saying they should be closed down, but it’s almost Third World to put up with them,” said Mr. Brodsky, who lives three blocks from Columbus Circle. “We’re in the middle of New York City and we should be able to use electricity. We have ample power. It’s surprising that the city administration allows something so antithetical to public health.”

The markets have contracts with the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, whose officials have pointed out in the past that they produce sizable revenue for a city in need just now, and that they are temporary; they last a month or so.

People vs. profit…the age-old political dilemma continues. I don’t think the original DFH (Dirty Frick-on-a-stick Hippie) Jesus would be very pleased with the priorities that rule our country today.

I’d love to see Amy Poehler on Parks and Recreations tackle this one.

Well, I think that about covers it for me. I hope you have a lovely Saturday & Sunday, however you spend it. Once again, I am very privileged to be co-blogging the morning reads on X-mas weekend alongside the magnificent Minkoff Minx…I can’t wait to see the linky goodness she serves up at the buffet table tomorrow morning! On behalf of the Sky Dancing frontpage team, here’s wishing you and yours ‘a merry & a happy’ as we look back at 2011 and look forward to 2012. I know it’s a busy time for a lot of us (and for the rest of us, it’s a time to sleep in and ignore the season of excess!), but if you can drop in and let us know what you are up to for the holidays and what’s on your reading list this weekend, we are always happy to hear from you! And, with that, I’m turning the discussion over to you in the comments, Sky Dancers.

Women Front and Center in MENA Protests

Posted: December 22, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Bahrain, Egypt, Foreign Affairs, Tunisia, Violence against women, Women's Rights | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

Many cultures in the MENA region are well-known for their horrible treatment of women. We see practices like honor killings, genital mutilation, and taking child brides. One of the offshoots of the Arab Spring has been the central role of women looking for broader participation in their countries.

Just as we in the United States are experiencing a political/fundamentalist Christian backlash that has turned into a war on the rights of women, the protests movements associated with the Jasmine Revolutions and their related political change have brought out a wave of political/fundamentalist Muslim backlash. There are several signs of hope in a region experiencing lots of social unrest. First, we’ve become aware of a large number of feminist leaders. Second, we’ve seen that many women are putting their lives on the line to ensure that the social change includes improving the lives and status of women. While oppression of women is frequently attached to fundamentalist religious followers, the roles of traditional tribal cultures and their dominance in places that are underdeveloped and rural–like Alabama or Uganda–cannot be underestimated.  Here’s some stories that have made headlines recently that show the global struggle for women’s rights–like the US struggle for women’s rights–is still an uphill battle.

The most recent and outrageous example of oppression of women protestors has been in Egypt over the ‘Blue bra girl’ which has led to a wave of rallies led by women.  The resultant outrage has created a tipping point in Egypt which many say has not seen activism on this level for women’s right since 1919. 

In response, thousands of women — and men — marched Tuesday in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Observers say it was the largest demonstration of women in Egypt in decades. Not since 1919, when women mobilized under the leadership of feminist Hoda Sha’rawi in anti-colonial demonstrations against the British have so many Egyptian women taken to the streets. (After representing Egyptian women at the International Women Suffrage Alliance in Rome in 1923, Sha’rawi returned to Cairo and very publicly removed her veil.)

Women have played an important role in Egypt’s modern revolution but have struggled to translate their activism into a political role in the new, emerging system. They have been excluded from important decision-making bodies, and the military leadership declined to continue a Mubarak-era quota for women that ensured them at least 64 seats in parliament. Based on early election results, it appears that few women will win a place in the new government.

Nevertheless, one intrepid woman, Bothaina Kamel, is breaking ground with her candidacy for president. The campaign of Kamel, a well-known television presenter, at first was shocking, and certainly quixotic, with polls indicating her support is less than 1%. But her persistence has gained her credibility. While she has little chance of winning, she is helping to normalize the idea of women in politics — an idea that is deeply contested in Egyptian society. Leaders of Salafi parties, which gained a surprising 20% of the vote in the first rounds of elections, have spoken out against women running for office.

The recent women’s protest may breathe life into a movement that desperately needs new energy. In the early weeks of the revolution, women activists tried to bring attention to women’s issues but never succeeded in getting the masses behind them.

Tunisian women are also concerned about women’s rights since the country’s recent elections.  The picture up top is from that country.  Newly elected leaders have had to promise to recommit their country to modernization and democratic principals that include increased roles of women.

“We are all the women of Tunisia,” stated Professor Khalid Kshir of Tunis University in conversation with the author of this article. Professor Kshir is a member of the Democratic Modernist Pole, a coalition of leftist parties. He fears that the Ennahda party will push the country back instead of moving it forward.

Just a year ago, literally weeks before the start of the uprising in the country, Tunisians had joked that theirs was a country of free women and happy men. No other Arab nation had ever granted so many rights to women, fixed de jure and de facto, than Tunisia. That was something of which Tunisians were proud, and even boasted about. Today, many people in Tunisia fear that the country’s achievements on the road to becoming a modern society will be brought to nought.

”We need to focus all our efforts in the sphere of politics and culture on women’s rights, because women form half of our society and any infringement on their rights will be harmful to all of us,” Professor Kshir went on to say.

Strange as it may seem, the issue of women’s rights was also on the agenda of a conference on promoting tourism which took place in Tunisia early in November, shortly before the final election results were announced. The conference was organized by the Ennahda party, which decided not to wait for the National Constituent Assembly to convene and the government to be formed before holding a series of meetings with representatives of Tunisia’s major industries in order to lay out the priorities for getting the national economy out of its post-revolution stupor. The discussion on the prospects for yourism was among the first meetings to be held, along with a conference on the financial market, co-sponsored by Tunisia’s Brokers’ Association.

…

The party leader’s comforting assurance came in response to concerns expressed by travel agencies, tour operators, hoteliers and bankers at the meeting, who voiced questions such as, “What will be Tunisia’s international image following your electoral victory? What will happen to women’s rights? How will European tourists feel in Tunisia, and do they have a reason to fear Islamists?”

What started as a discussion on the prospects of tourism eventually escalated into a broader deliberation on Tunisia’s prospective path of development. There are strong reasons for such an interconnection: tourism accounts for six per cent of Tunisia’s GDP and makes up 60 per cent of the national trade deficit. The industry employs 12 per cent of the country’s working population, while one in eight Tunisian families live off tourism, one way or another. During the revolutionary turmoil which rocked the country between January and September 2011, tourism revenues in Tunisia plunged by 38.5 per cent compared to a similar period in 2010, while the overall number of tourists coming to Tunisia sank by 34.4 per cent.

That is why at present Ennahda is ready for dialogue and compromise. “We guarantee freedom in food, drink and clothes,” Hamadi Jebali said.

He emphasized that his party would respect democratic principles and that Tunisian society would retain its progressive nature. According to Jebali, the revolution took place in the name of improving the lives of Tunisian citizens and moving the country forward rather than hindering its development.

Many of those present at the conference believed the words of the Ennahda leader – or said that they did. “I believe Jebali. I am an optimist but only on condition that the rights of women won’t be violated and if we don’t follow the path of Saudi Arabia where a woman can do business but is forbidden to drive a car,” Sihem Zaiem, a member of the Federation of Tourist Agencies, said after the conference.

Delegates applauded her when she demanded that the Ennahda secretary-general explain Tunisia’s true face to the world as soon as possible, and demonstrate Islamists’ attitude to women’s rights. Jebali promised that nothing would change in the arena of women’s rights. His speech was very convincing.

A mother in Bahrain has gone to jail for playing revolutionary music and participating in protests.

Fadhila Al Mubarak, a 38-year-old mother of a 9-year-old boy, is still in jail after she was sentenced in an unfair military trial for charges related directly to exercising her right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. She was detained and prosecuted in a military court for playing revolutionary music in her car, trying to save her son and nieces, participating in peaceful protests in Pearl Roundabout and writing a poem to her son about the revolution, freedom and fighting for his future. The information available on the conditions of her detention is very worrying and her family has raised concerns over her health.

Fadhila, who was living with her husband and her son in the area of Aali, was arrested on 27 March 2011, just a few days after the National Safety Law was imposed on 15 March 2011. She was arrested at a checkpoint because there was an audio recording of revolutionary songs playing in her car. She was asked to pull over her car and step out. They insulted her, called her names and cursed her. While security officers at the checkpoint were talking to her, a man in civilian clothing tried to get into her car. In fear over the safety of the children, her son (9), nieces (14 – 15), she pulled him away thinking he was a thug who would kidnap or hurt them. Later, she found out he was a police officer.

Her family asked about her at police stations close to the checkpoint where she was arrested only to find out after four days that she was held in Riffa police station. She was later transferred to Isa Town women’s prison. During the period of her detention, her family had no contact with her and was not allowed to visit or talk to her over phone. Family members tried to appoint her a lawyer, a request that was rejected by the military court.

Women in the region can take heart from the post revolutionary experience of Indonesia’s women who have managed to get many advances since their repression by former president Soeharto following a 1965 tragedy. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim majority democracy.  As with all countries,  religious fundamentalists obsessed with old testament prohibitions continue to seek  repression of women. However, Indonesian laws continue to reflect the country’s will to improve conditions for women. The current president seems to be backsliding on reforms gained during the tenure of Indonesia’s previous PM.

Of course, like the feminists have suggested, the Reform Era in 1998 has given women opportunities to revive the real spirit of Kartini. However, as Mariana suggested, the Reform Era was nothing but “a short-term honeymoon” moment for women’s movement.

When the late former president Abdurrahman Wahid changed the name of the ministry of women affairs into the ministry of women’s empowerment, for example, feminists felt very confident about their cause. In addition to that, the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) was given full support to continue its investigation into the May 1998 tragedy, where many Chinese women were sexually abused.

“During Megawati’s era, we were more enthusiastic because the first woman was finally installed as a president amid opposition from some religious leaders,” Mariana said. “Megawati then also succeeded in passing the law on domestic violence.”

Celebrating women’s achievement even more, she added, was the policy of granting women a 30 percent quota of seats in the Parliament.

However, this celebration of women’s movement had to end in 2005, when Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono won his first presidential term.

“The year marked the introduction of the pornography bill, which was mentioned by President SBY during his first [presidential] speech,” said Mariana. “He even took the opportunity to comment about women’s belly buttons!”

And from that moment on, she went on, the women’s movement in Indonesia started to lose its ground. While battling against the criminalization of women, feminists have been labeled as “Western devilish agents”, gaining a bad reputation in society.

It seems that vigilance of women over their rights in all democracies is important.  That is why it is important that women officials with high public profiles–like US SOS Hillary Clinton–continue to keep their focus on the rights of women and also GLBT rights aound the world.  The world’s religious fundamentalists continue to press for backsliding.  Religious fanatics push for edicts that can run the gambit from defining an egg as a person to hold women’s bodies hostage to narrow religious views of ‘life’ as in seen in Arkansas recently. There are also the many Sub-Saharan African nations–like Nigeria and Uganda–where laws  ignore or encourage violence against GLBT because of both Muslim and Christian extremists in the regions. The latter example has been funded for and encouraged by US fundamentalist Christians which is even a more outrageous intervention than just resurrecting or perpetuating native tribal traditions like the child bride tradition which is also a problem in places like highly Christian Guatemala as well as Western African countries.

SOS Clinton strongly condemned the treatment of women protestors by Egyptian security forces this week. It is heartening to see her speak out for women’s full participation in democratic movements and governance.

In unusually strong language, the US secretary of state accused Egypt’s new leaders of mistreatment of women both on the street and in politics since the street revolt nearly a year ago that overthrew leader Hosni Mubarak.

“This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people,” Mrs Clinton said in a speech at Georgetown University.

In images widely seen over YouTube, helmeted troops were shown beating a veiled woman after having ripped her clothes off to reveal her bra and stomach.

Other pictures circulating on social media networks that have enraged protesters include one of a military policeman looming over a sobbing elderly woman with his truncheon.

“Recent events in Egypt have been particularly shocking. Women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago,” Mrs Clinton said.

Here is the PBS NEWSHOUR coverage of the Egyptian Women’s protests and an interview with participant May Nabil.  It has some interesting narrative of the march in that many woman spontaneously joined the march and weren’t just drawn to it via internet.  Additionally, there were many supportive Egyptian men in attendance.

Light Bulbs Saved But American Light Diminished

Posted: December 18, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: abortion rights, Bailout Blues, Banksters, corruption, Economy, fetus fetishists, fundamentalist Christians, globalization, poverty, U.S. Economy, unemployment, Women's Rights | Tags: , , , | 9 Comments

We can no longer call Congress a do-nothing farce.  In case you haven’t heard our esteemed legislators have ‘saved’ the incandescent light bulb from its 2012 banishment.  Which means incandescent hoarders can display their beloved bulbs in public, display them with pride and patriotism—let freedom shine–without the fear of neighborly condemnation or the riot police knocking down the door.

Let there be light!

If only.

Other things we might have considered saving in 2011:

The Middle Class; Death by Strangulation

This week we were gifted with the sobering statistic that 50% of the American public is now considered ‘low income.’  Of course, the naysayers are quick to point out that this is a gross exaggeration, that terms like ‘low-income’ and ‘poverty’ are relative terms.  Go to Africa, they say.  Perhaps, Haiti would do.  Or North Korea.  Then you’ll know the ‘real’ meaning of misery.

Sorry but this strained logic belies the fact that unlike the above examples the United States of America is a developed world power. We beat our chests and claim ‘exceptionalism’ on the world stage yet are willing to use third world comparisons to shrug off bad news?  Lame comparisons are simply an exercise in don’t believe your lying eyes and for God’s sake never distrust the status quo.  What are you?  Some sort of Commie!

A small factoid from the St. Louis Federal Reserve, Economic Research group: the average length of unemployment in the United States is now over 40 weeks. And another from the New America Foundation:

The share of middle-income jobs in the United States has fallen from 52% in 1980 to 42% in 2010.

Middle income jobs have been replaced by low-income jobs, which now make up 41% of the work force.

The American Economy; Bleeding Out While Doctors Look On

While average citizens lost wealth and continue to struggle with unemployment and underemployment, face prospects of social programs stripped down to nothing, we’ve been gifted once again with startling news. The Federal Reserve over a three-year period bailed out large banks and corporations, domestic and foreign, to the tune of 29 trillion dollars.

Twenty-nine trillion!  To put this in some perspective one trillion dollars could be imagined thusly:

If you were to count to one thousand, one number every second, it would take seventeen minutes. Counting to one million at the same rate would take twelve days (counting nonstop, btw, day and night).  Counting to one billion would take thirty-two years.

Now, drum roll please:  Counting to one trillion?  Would take 32,000 years.

Then multiply by 29.

Meanwhile, with the money spigots wide open spewing a gusher of magic money, small business loans [the sort that Main Street depends on to fuel growth and employment, loans of 1 million or less] dropped to a 12-year low. Why is this a problem?  Because despite the GOP’s drone that the top 1% of the population are the ‘job creators,’ businesses with fewer than 500 employees created 65 percent of the jobs between 1993 and 2009, according to the Small Business Administration.

Another withering fact: between 2001 to 2009, 42,000+ factories and manufacturing-related businesses closed for good.  And, of course, the jobs associated with those companies went bye-bye, moved off-shore to exploit lower wages and the nefarious environmental regulations that vulture capitalists love to hate.

In addition, our trade deficits with China [84 billion in 2001 to 278 billion in 2010] and other countries [oil imports represent over 60% of our current deficit] have bled and continue to bleed jobs and wealth from the US.  Trade deficits represent a countries’ imbalance in terms of importing to exporting and the rate at which a nation’s wealth is transferred into foreign markets.  As a country, we’re being bled to death, according to the AAM.

The impact of the trade deficit with China extends beyond U.S. jobs lost or displaced, according to the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). Competition with China and countries like it has resulted in lower wages and less bargaining power for U.S. workers in manufacturing and for all workers with less than a four-year college degree.

And yet the trade deficits go on unabated.  A recent example was the passage of the trade deals with Panama, Columbia and S. Korea, heralded as a great deal for the United States.  But according to Dylan Ratigan, MSNBC:

The key question we have to face as a country is how we want to govern ourselves. From World War II until NAFTA, our trading policies were based on geopolitical needs and what would increase prosperity for America. Since NAFTA, however, the mantra of free trade has been warped to generate rights for international capital and nothing else. The agreements Congress and the President are pushing continue this unfortunate trend. What unfettered capital wants is to avoid taxes, regulations, or any state power whatsoever.

In regards to oil imports, the drumbeat for several years has been: Drill, Baby, Drill. It’s all about jobs and keeping America strong, our oil-financed legislators are likely to say.  The problem is regulation, they’ll add, and big government working against the blessings of the free market.   Really?  Not so, says Dylan Ratigan.

We do not have a free market for energy, because the actual cost of fossil fuel in our economy is not reflected at the pump; the military’s not in there, the environment’s not in there, and there’s a wide variety of differing fuel subsidies and tax treatments for all sorts of different fuel sources depending on their relation with our government. So, how can a marketplace decide the fuel source, when one fuel, particularly being gasoline and fossil fuels, have such a substantial comparative subsidy?”

The answer is: the marketplace cannot decide the cost of fossil fuel or entertain the cost-effectiveness of alternative sources because the game is rigged as it has been for a century+ where fossil fuels rule the day, pay off politicians and are willing to drive us into economic and environmental ruin for the sake of profit and power.

Vulture Capitalism writ large.

The American Homeowner; Death by Drowning

In the second quarter of 2011, 10.9 million Americans or 22.5% of homeowners were ‘underwater’ with their mortgages, namely they owed more on their mortgages than their houses were actually worth, a result of the real estate collapse of 2007-2008.  Although the Home Affordable Refinance Program [HARP] has fallen short to relieve homeowners from onerous, often ballooning mortgage payments and subsequent home foreclosure, the Obama Administration has attempted to remove the key barriers in the refinancing procedures. This is expected to expand mortgage refi at today’s lower interest rate to larger numbers of struggling homeowners, particularly those with little to no equity in their homes.

Will it work?

The jury is still out, but at best this expanded program will only be available to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-backed loans.

In addition to providing relief, many citizens expected a thorough and public investigation into exactly what went wrong in the mortgage industry. We expected our own Pecora moment.

But that didn’t happen.

In fact the Administration has attempted to rush through settlements with major banks, requiring no admission of wrong doing and attaching immunity from civil or criminal liability to sweeten the deal. Countering this, several state Attorney Generals [five to date] have refused to accept the 50-state agreement and have proceeded with independent investigations of their own.  And just this past week, House Representative Tammy Baldwin [D-WI] introduced a resolution to block any agreement on the national foreclosure question, without proper and thorough investigation. Immunity from civil and/or criminal liability would be stripped and fraudulent practices prosecuted fully under the Rule of Law.

But still, for the 22.5% of American homeowners, the water level is already chin-high and rising fast.

Civil Liberties; Gutting of the Bill of Rights

Perhaps no other images brought home the dwindling nature of American civil liberties than the recent round up of Occupy Wall Street protesters.  We’ve watched young women pepper-sprayed, protesters manhandled and in one instance a young Iraqi veteran nearly killed by police who appeared ready for WWIII rather than crowd dispersal.  On several occasions over-zealous police action was caught on film not by the press but by protesters and onlookers.

In addition, we now know that drones developed for war applications have been deployed in country and that drone use is being marketed to police departments throughout the country.  Security is big business.

Obviously, the First Amendment’s guarantee to peaceable assembly is not.  And privacy?  Forget about it!

Add this to the Administration’s successful kill order on extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen operating in Yemen, a kill order without benefit of due process. Otherwise known as execution without trial.  We can argue about the threat of the man but there is no argument about the danger of precedent and the shredding of the Rule of Law.  And so, should we be surprised by the most recent outrage, the passage of an indefinite detention authority tucked inside the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act?  The bill codifies the right of the President to order the arrest and indefinite detention of US citizens suspected of terrorism.  No trial, no appeal.  You can now be ‘disappeared,’ lawfully.

One fight that did end well [at least temporarily] was the controversial and previously reported Stop Online Piracy Act [SOPA].  The discussions between legislators were abruptly adjourned after stiff condemnation by online biggies Google, Wikipedia and even computer scientist Vint Cerf , one of the founders of the Internet, who claimed that the bill’s passage would begin “a worldwide arms race of unprecedented censorship of the Web.”

Rights of Women; Assaults Continue

In the contradictory world of Far Right extremists, where individual liberty is celebrated and government intrusion condemned, the individual rights of women and their reproductive decisions are the lone exception.  Family planning, contraception, abortion, even ordinary ob/gyn screenings are suspect and thereby targets of defunding and all manner of attack.  Bills have littered the landscape calling for the elimination of all abortive measures, even when a woman’s life and/or future fertility is in jeopardy.  The heartbeat of the unborn is made sacred, while the lives of the fully realized female is continually denigrated, dismissed and derided.  Personhood resolutions have been raised in referendums [and thankfully voted down], where the fertilized egg would be designated as a person with full legal rights under the law.

Fertilized eggs and corporations.  Perfect together.

The insanity of these rigid, ridiculous demands from zealots are all too real and dangerous when applied to the actual world.  Miscarriage, for instance, a completely normal biological occurrence, would take on the aura of a criminal act, requiring an investigation.  By the egg or zygote police, I imagine. Or a woman who suffers an ectopic pregnancy could be left to bleed until doctors were convinced of the unborn ‘person’s’ lack of viability.  The woman’s health is secondary in this scenario.

The personhood resolutions would also deny women certain contraceptive measures.  For instance, the day after pill would be in violation.  And, in fact, Health and Human Services’ recently overruled the FDA’s recommendation on Plan B for young women under the age of 18 and refused to lift the emergency contraception’s restriction.

The assault on women’s rights have been unrelenting, not only in terms of reproductive decisions but in basic health services.  Planned Parenthood and their related clinics and facilities provide services to many poor to middle income women, offering important medical screenings, tests for cancer, diabetes, high-blood pressure, etc.  Only 3% of what Planned Parenthood does is related to abortion services.  And yet, the 90-year organization has become the Boogie Man for right-wing fundamentalists, who would deny many women the only health provider they have.

Sorry, the barefoot and pregnant dictum has no place in the 21st Century.

Our Children; Gross Neglect of Our Most Important Resource

A higher percentage of children today are living in poverty than was the case in 1975.  The rate of poverty has increased every year for the last four years, from 16.9 percent to nearly 22 percent as of 2010.  In the UK and France that number is under 10%.  The 2011 Child Well Being Index indicates that it is American children, the country’s future, who will bear the greatest damage by widening income disparities and proposed cuts to education, food stamps and health insurance programs.

Some sobering factoids:

Child homelessness has risen 33% in the last 3 years to 1.6 million

There are over eight million children in the United States today that are not covered by health insurance.

Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

Nearly 20 million children participate in school lunch programs.

This is not what Democracy looks like.

The Poor, the Immigrant and/or Muslims; The Inadequacies of Scapegoating

Scapegoating has a long history, even Biblical references, where a goat is used as a vessel of purification.  The sins of the community are spiritually transferred to the animal after which Mr. Goat is banished to the wilderness.

Out of sight, out of mind.

In times of social unrest and/or economic distress, the act of scapegoating is often employed as a distraction, a way of diverting the public’s attention from the real problems and their causes . . . to something or someone else.  Scapegoating has been popular of late.

It’s the fault of the poor, the hangers on, the moochers.  Michelle Bachmann quoted Paul the Apostle:

“He who does not work, neither shall he eat.”

That would imply the poor are merely shirkers, those expecting a free lunch.  Tell that to the one in four children surviving on food stamps.  If Newt Gingrich and his ilk are to be taken seriously, the problem can be solved by revoking Child Labor Laws or having school children take on the school’s janitorial services.

Better yet, cut all safety nets.

Immigrants, too, have been cast as the country’s main economic problem.  Too many Latinos taking away American jobs.  We’ve all heard it. Only the number of illegal immigrants entering the country has been shrinking dramatically since the Great Slump, the biggest population decline in the last 20 years.

Unemployment, however, is still with us.

With the immigrant bashing, deportation and subsequent population shrinkage, Georgia and several other states had a difficult time harvesting their crop this year without their standard work force in place.

Be careful what you wish for.

Since 9/11, Muslims have been targeted as the root of all our problems, basically an evil agent working to undermine the country . Anti-Muslim sentiment has risen with irrational fears over Sharia Law dominating, perhaps even replacing the American Constitution.  Last week, hardware giant Lowe’s pulled ads from a reality show, ‘All American Muslim,’ in response to a conservative Christian group, that contended:

Clearly this program is attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to influence them to believe that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show . . .

It’s disturbing to read something that ugly.  And it created a huge PR stink for Lowe’s, rightfully so.

Also important to note is that Muslim Americans represent approximately 6 million citizens, a quarter of whom are African American converts.  In a country of 311 million?  That’s a tiny, tiny percentage.

And on 9/11?  People of all faiths died, including Muslims.

Pointing fingers in all the wrong directions will not cure the country’s financial crisis, anymore than wishing for quick, easy solutions.  Saving what’s best about our country–our religious tolerance—is far more important.

There were many things worth saving in 2011.  But hey, at least we rescued the American incandescent light bulb.

I feel so much better.  How about you?

Saturday in Sisterland

Posted: December 17, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Hillary Clinton, morning reads, Women's Rights | 52 Comments
Secretary Clinton Delivers the Keynote Address at Inaugural Women in Public Service Colloquium

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers the keynote address at the Inaugural Women In Public Service Colloquium, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on December 15, 2011. (State Department photo/ Public Domain

Morning, news junkies!

Don’t you just love the photo of Hillary to the right? Hillary looks so glamorous and elegant in black, with her hair flipped out, and please note the sign on her podium. It’s the name of an initiative she has just launched. An iconic shot, if you ask me.

Bloomberg has the scoop:

Clinton Seeks Women Leaders to ‘Tackle Our Biggest Problems’

By Nicole Gaouette – Dec 15, 2011 11:01 PM CT

Hillary Clinton would like to see more women in government around the world.

She said she knows “how daunting it is” for women to consider a public-service career, yet “we need women at every level of government from executive mansions and foreign ministries to municipal halls and planning commissions, from negotiation international disarmament treaties to debating town ordinances.”

To that end, Clinton yesterday initiated the Women in Public Service Project, a program intended to increase the number of women in leadership. This summer, for instance, 40 women from the Middle East and North Africa will go to her alma mater, Wellesley College, to gain skills in public speaking, coalition building, networking and mentorship.

The initiative reflects an idea that Clinton has returned to throughout her tenure as the top U.S. diplomat — that people, their communities and countries do better when women are active participants in public life.

The issue isn’t just about fairness, the top U.S. diplomat said. “It’s about expanding the pool of talented people to help tackle our biggest problems.”

That’s our Hillary, and this is her life’s work–tirelessly framing the principle of fairness in terms of solving problems and dilligently doing the legwork to bring both objectives together in the form of concrete actions. She’s our modern-day Franklin and Eleanor, all in the same person.

Hillary’s partner in campaining for women and girls–Melanne Verveer–says the Women in Public Service project is “going to grow exponentially.”

Even as the hunger for the ordinary man’s right to self-goverance continues to grow around the world, the political participation of women still remains a taboo, as the Arab Spring has brought into focus.

‘Dirty Word’

Private sector help for the program will be crucial, Clinton said. Computer maker Dell Inc. (DELL), based in Round Rock, Texas, will provide hardware, training and other support for the program. Ogilvy Worldwide is helping with public relations and information support, she said.

While women in North Africa and the Middle East have played a pivotal role in the Arab Spring, “for many of them, politics was still kind of a dirty word” and there may be some reluctance to stay engaged in the process of reform.

Clinton said she made the point that if these women don’t make their own transition from taking part in “this extraordinary historic revolution to actually doing the hard, and yes, sometimes boring difficult work of politics, you may not realize the gains and the hopes that you had demonstrated for.”

Hillary’s words are very salient there. Women are their own best advocates. If half this world’s population doesn’t stand up for themselves in every nook and cranny of this planet, then all the protest fever in the world will be limited in what it can achieve.

Women have to be equal and respected participants of protests for protests to matter.

Secretary Clinton Meets With IMF Managing Director Lagarde

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on December 15, 2011. (State Department photo/public domain)

Here’s one last excerpt from the Bloomberg piece, but I urge you to click over to the article and give the rest of it a read:

‘Grit Your Teeth’

Clinton and Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund and one of the speakers, spoke about the hurdles to women that remain.

“It’s not as though there’s been this huge, cosmic change” in attitudes, Clinton said. “It still is hard.”

Clinton mentioned a radio interview she heard while getting dressed for work this week. A woman interviewed about Republican presidential nominee Michele Bachmann said she wasn’t comfortable supporting a woman for president.

“Imagine my reaction,” said Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate in the 2008 election. “So it’s not only in other countries that attitudes need to be addressed. It is even in a country like my own.”

Lagarde gave the women in the crowded auditorium two pieces of advice. The first was to build a list of talented, skilled women so that the next time a male employer said they were unable to find a qualified woman for a job, they could whip out their list. She recalled the struggle she had as French finance minister with state-owned firms reluctant to hire women, despite laws requiring it.

“Start building your list,” she said to applause. “Do it, do it, do it and use it.”

Lagarde’s second tip focused on the hostility toward women that remains in too many workplaces, however subtle: “Take the bashing, grit your teeth and smile, because there will be others after you,” she said.

Speaking of hostility toward working women, particularly single working mothers, Bryce Covert over at New Deal 2.0 discusses the consequences of state cutbacks in childcare services — Cutting Back on Childcare Assistance Puts Single Mothers in the Hole:

Single mothers aren’t faring very well in the recovery. Their unemployment rate was 12.4 percent in November, up from 11.7 percent in June 2009. An unemployed single mother will clearly need help with at least one thing to go out and get another job: childcare. And those who have jobs are still trying to make ends meet, potentially working longer hours and in need of someone to care for their children. But just as the need for childcare assistance is surely rising, states are cutting back. A new report from the National Women’s Law Center shows that those in need of assistance were worse off this year compared to last year in 37 states when it came to income eligibility limits to qualify, waiting lists, copayments, reimbursement rates, and eligibility for assistance to parents looking for a job.

Denying women support for childcare will directly impact their ability to save and their need to take on debt. As a report from NYU Wagner, “At Rope’s End,” says, “The hefty costs associated with single parenthood, which include childcare, housing, food, health insurance, among others, decrease the likelihood that, even with a stable income, these mothers will be able to accrue wealth.” And paying for childcare is no small cost. The average price of full-time care can range from $3,600 to $18,200 annually, according to the NWLC report, and At Rope’s End estimates that this cost accounts for over three-quarters of single mothers’ monthly expenditures.

Here’s a related graph, via Economix, from earlier this month:

In the month of November, the number of men in the labor force (working or actively looking) rose by about 23,000. By contrast, the number of women in the labor force fell by 339,000. (The numbers do not add to a 315,000 net loss because of rounding.)Even more peculiar is what these lost female workers did before they dropped out.

Typically when we think of workers dropping out of the labor market these days, we think of workers who have been unemployed for a while and have simply given up looking for a job. But last month, almost all of the net loss of women from the labor force was accounted for by women who had jobs right before they dropped out.

DESCRIPTION

Here is a pie chart for the 3,893,000 women who left the labor force in November — the gross number, so not subtracting those who newly entered the job market — sorted by how those women were categorized the month before:

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Now the numbers are volatile, so take this with a grain of salt. We also do not know why so many women left their jobs to drop out of the labor force. Probably some of them were going on maternity leave, and some quit their jobs for other reasons.

I would guess that most of them, though, were laid-off workers who had not yet started looking for a new job. After all, state and local governments are shedding workers in large numbers, and most state and local workers are women.

Couple that last statement with the fact that states are cutting back on childcare, and you can see that women are hurting in this economy–one for which President Obama recently offered these oh-so-inspiring, Condi-esque words…“we didn’t know how bad it was.”

Sheesh, well if the brilliant and immaculately conceived Barack Obama could not tell how bad it was, then who could have? Certainly not Dr. Dakinikat, nor that ‘stupid bitch’ who wouldn’t quit in 2008, and definitely not any of those silly wimminz who voted for her.

I guess only the ubiquituous ‘Nobody’ could have forseen…

(By the way it was the original ‘Nobody’s’ 181st birthday last Saturday!)

Shifting gears a bit… once again, Ukraian feminists have gone wild, making some waves… FEMEN, Ukrainian Women’s Rights Group, Protests Russian Elections (warning: Huffpo link contains NSFW photos):

Security guards detain activists from Femen in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow

Security guards detain activists from women's rights group Femen for staging a performance to support Russian opposition groups and to protest against violations at the parliamentary elections in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow December 9, 2011. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov

Russians aren’t the only people protesting the allegedly rigged parliamentarian elections held earlier this month.

Turns out FEMEN, a Ukrainian feminist group, is also up in arms about the win of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in the Dec. 4 elections.

To show their disapproval, FEMEN protesters stripped down in front of The Cathedral Of Christ The Savior in Moscow on Friday, holding signs that said, “God Get Rid Of The Czar,’ AGI reports.

The women were detained by security guards and taken into police custody, Reuters reports. The women were released shortly after being detained.

In an effort to explain their stance, the the FEMEN protesters wrote about the Moscow demonstrations today on their website. They noted that during the protests, one of their activists dislocated her arm as a result of a scuffle with the guards.

This reminds me of *last December* around pretty much the same time, when the same group of Ukranian feminists ‘urinated in protest’ of the country’s all-male cabinet (scroll to the middle of the linked post for details).

These gals know how to do holiday sacrilege in the month of December!

That Reuters pic of the security guards detaining the protesters is disturbing, though.

Which brings me to this next bizarro world link… via Jezebel:

Heathen Pink Bibles Pulled From Shelves Due To Nefarious Planned Parenthood Connection

Scary pink bibles talking about girly parts!

Nearly every product imaginable, from Band-Aids to KitchenAid mixers, is now available in pink, and Americans are constantly encouraged to buy these items to support the fight against breast cancer. So why is a Christian bookstore furiously pulling pink Bibles from its shelves? Because they raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which in turn funds Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer programs. CNN reports that in recent weeks conservative Christian groups were put in the strange position of rallying against a Bible after people complained that $1 from the sale of each “Here’s Hope Breast Cancer Bible” goes to the Komen foundation.

A dollar from the sale of each bible went to breast cancer awareness and screening, oh noes! It’s a war on the baby jesus!

Moving along from the religiously challenged to the politically bankrupt…

Wonk’s $0.02 on 2012

So far next year’s election cycle doesn’t look like much to write about politically. I’ve dubbed it ESOTUS 2012–i.e. Empty Suit of the United States 2012. (Please refer to my primer on the tortured logic of trying to choose between Romney and Obama.)

So I’m going to skip right to about the only bit of human interest that I’ve come across yet:

Why would any self-respecting woman endorse an empty suit? (To get her foot in the door of his Administration, methinks.)

Is Nikki Haley going to get the VP nod? Double X’s Jessica Grose says she buys Haley’s insistence that she’s not looking for a spot on Mittens’ ticket, but I don’t know what to think. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised to see Haley somewhere in a Romney Administration, should the “perfectly lubricated weather wane” (thank you, Jon Huntsman) win.

Ok, next up…I was bored to tears by Huffpo’s stuffy “9 Books to Get Your Sister” list, so I’ve made up my own wishlist called “7 books you can buy me, sister-friend:”

And now for… Today in Women’s History

Deborah Sampson - For the Good of the Country, artwork by Pamela Patrick White

Deborah Sampson was born, December 17, 1760… I loved this blurb on Sampson, from artist Pamela Patrick White, via Old Glory Prints:

A tall girl, Deborah enlisted in the 4th Mass. Regiment of the Continental Army, as Robert Shertliffe. Wounded twice during the war – by bullet and saber slash, she was honorably discharged by Henry Knox at West Point. Good enough for her country, but not good enough for the Baptists, who excommunicated her.

Phyllis Schlafly is even now uncertain if she could cook and thus be worthy of Citizenship.

Learn more at:

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets.html

http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/sampson.html

http://www.americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/SAMPSON.HTM.

Before I go, a few pick-me-ups…

This first one is a h/t to quixote who sent me the link to the BBC story: Oil spill penguins released into sea off New Zealand.

I’m just going to put the youtube up here for your convenience:

And, this second one is a h/t to Minkoff Minx… via EarthSky: Who knew baby rhinos sounded like this?

Again, I’m just going to embed the video here so you don’t have to click over:

And, one more… this one is a link to a tumblr of baby animal photos and you’ll have to click over to see all the warm fuzziness (via the Design Inspiration):

70 Cutie Baby Animals Bring You a Good Mood

It’s really hard for me to choose just one, but this was the first one I happened to see:

Ok, well that’s it for me. I hope you keep warm and happy and drop in with what’s on your reading list this weekend!

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