A MUST SEE VIDEO - MAD AS HELL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcdnlNZg2iM

NY PROTEST OF MEDIA BIAS AGAINST SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON - FRIDAY, APRIL 11TH, 8AM, ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, NEW YORK CITY

Supporters of Hillary Clinton:

Join the Protest Against Media Bias, Hate Speech & Voter Suppression

We demand an END to Media Bias! We demand an END to Hate Speech!
We demand an END to Prejudice against Hillary!
We demand that Florida & Michigan votes COUNT as they were cast!
We demand an END to Rigging of the Democratic Primary!

FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 2008, 8am
Rockefeller Plaza, New York City
(W. 48th St & Rockefeller Plaza )
___________________________________________
We are standing up and demanding an end to these abuses of power!
Our protest signs & banners should: Support Hillary Clinton, Protest Media/MSNBC Bias, Protest Hate Speech & Prejudice against Hillary, Demand Michigan & Florida Votes Count, Protest Rigging of the Democratic Primary Election!
This is a peaceful protest. We do not represent Hillary Clinton but as supporters of her politics we embody her values and accordingly, must conduct ourselves respectfully at all times.
Anti-Obama or Anti-McCain signs are NOT welcome.
This protest is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, the official Hillary Clinton for President
campaign and is being independently organized, funded and operated.
___________________________________________
Website Info: www.hillaryclintonforum.net
Inquiries To: admin@hillaryclintonforum.net

Celebrating Women: A Note from Dr. Maya Angelou

March 31, 2008: On her 80th Birthday, Maya Angelou releases this statement:

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
This is not the first time you have seen Hillary Clinton seemingly at her wits end, but she has always risen, always risen, much to the dismay of her adversaries and the delight of her friends.
Hillary Clinton will not give up on you and all she asks of you is that you do not give up on her.
There is a world of difference between being a woman and being an old female. If you’re born a girl, grow up, and live long enough, you can become an old female. But, to become a woman is a serious matter. A woman takes responsibility for the time she takes up and the space she occupies.
Hillary Clinton is a woman. She has been there and done that and has still risen. She is in this race for the long haul. She intends to make a difference in our country.
She is the prayer of every woman and man who long for fair play, healthy families, good schools, and a balanced economy.
She declares she wants to see more smiles in the families, more courtesies between men and women, more honesty in the marketplace. Hillary Clinton intends to help our country to what it can become.
She means to rise.
She means to help our country rise. Don’t give up on her, ever.
In fact, if you help her to rise, you will rise with her and help her make this country a wonderful, wonderful place where every man and every woman can live freely without sanctimonious piety, without crippling fear.
Rise Hillary.
Rise.

When women attack

So today, another passive aggressive attack comes from another woman in the Obama camp (see also previous post, "Unacceptable"). Although a resignation and apology followed - only after the comment was printed - it is another view into how the Obama camp is communicating behind closed doors about Hillary. What is really interesting is the manner in which the offensive words were spewed, with such aggression, desperation and disdain, a reflection of Samantha Powers', a 37 year old, own insecurities, self-hatred and jealousy of watching another woman succeed.
Here is the complete quote:
"Earlier, clearly rattled by the Ohio defeat, Ms Power told The Scotsman Mrs Clinton was stopping at nothing to try to seize the lead from her candidate."We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win. "She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark. Ms Power said of the Clinton campaign: "Here, it looks like desperation. I hope it looks like desperation there, too."You just look at her and think, 'Ergh'." http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/latestnews/39Hillary-Clinton39s-a-monster39-Obama.3854371.jp

The apology only came after it was published. I wonder how many times she has said this before? I wonder how many times it has been said in Obama's presence? I wonder who else is saying it? I wonder why did she have to resign - and was not fired?

Amateur Hour...
Power was Obama's senior foreign policy advisor. It is one thing to attack someone on substance, but name-calling? Really? Are we back in high school? It sure looks like desperation over there...

International Women's Day, March 8th

International Women's Day, March 8th
"The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women's and society's thoughts about women's equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that 'all the battles have been won for women' while many feminists from the 1970's know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women's visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality. The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men."
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

We have a long way to go folks...What we do in this U.S. presidential election, will certainly have a significant effect on the rest of the world. What are you going to do?

What a fighter

Hillary Clinton, a true fighter - for us all. When everyone was writing her off, she didn't give up. When people said she should quit, she kept going. While people said she's divisive, she brought people together. When people said she isn't inspiring, she inspired us all to fight for what's right, to fight for the working class, to fight for those of us struggling everyday and those of us who have been ignored for so long. Don't we all want someone like that to be our leader?

The latte drinking folks may think they're smarter or better than us, but we are the people that built this country and helped the latte folks afford their expensive lifestyles. It's time that the latte drinking posse listened to the people here on planet earth. Us dunkin' donuts coffee drinkers are too busy to listen to the long, boring rhetoric. We are too busy to hear ideas without plans, talk without solutions, lofty goals without real strategies. We want in and out service. We want change alright, but we want someone with the capacity to deliver.

And as a single mom, who pays for her own health insurance, I want someone that has a proven record of fighting for me and my daughter, because they know what it feels like to engage in the daily fight and the challenges we face. Yes, new may seem brighter, but I am loyal to those that have always been there for me, still standing there for me, and will go toe to toe for me.

So thank you, Hillary, for being that fighter we need. I've never walked away from fighting for what's right and I know you won't either.

A Glaring Double Standard

A glaring double standard
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080226.wltimson26/BNStory/lifeMain/home

For every 'presidential' and 'charismatic' bestowed on Barack Obama, there are 10 adjectives commentators have used to put down the way Hillary Clinton dresses, talks and emotes. Call this what it is – blatant sexism

JUDITH TIMSON

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
February 26, 2008 at 2:05 AM EST

Guess what they call powerful and strong women who support Barack Obama? Obamazons. And what about powerful women who support Hillary Clinton? In Hillaryland, they're probably too damn tired, mystified and disappointed to care all that much about cutesy names.
A week before the Texas and Ohio primaries, the political obituaries are already being prepared – perhaps still prematurely – on Ms. Clinton's presidential bid.

I wonder if they will include the ugly truth that sexism has played a disturbing role in this riveting primary campaign.

There are certainly legitimate reasons not to like Ms. Clinton, but that doesn't explain the very different treatment she has received in the media. While grown media men and women have swooned over Mr. Obama, confessing that he is so charismatic he gives them goosebumps, Ms. Clinton has been mocked, trivialized and denigrated in a way that should give every woman pause.

Her laugh is a “cackle.” Her daughter Chelsea is being “pimped out.” She is only there because of her husband. She is “inauthentic” and manipulative, especially that time she cried in New Hampshire (and she didn't actually cry, by the way, even though anti-Clinton forces quickly had T-shirts made that said “Cry Baby” on them.)

When Ms. Clinton wasn't very occasionally showing her soft side, she was characterized as grating and aggressive. When she demonstrated how much she knew about so many issues, she was trying too hard to be “the smartest girl in the room.”
Young women rushed to loftily disassociate their perky post-feminist selves from a middle-aged female presidential candidate who is probably the most assured and knowledgeable woman any of them has ever seen running for high public office.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews even called Ms. Clinton an “uppity woman.” Imagine any commentator calling Mr. Obama an “uppity black” and keeping his job.
Author and commentator Barbara Ehrenreich also took a gratuitously nasty swipe in the Huffington Post at Ms. Clinton's platform style: “The frozen smile has to go, too, along with the [metronomic] nodding, which sometimes goes on long enough to suggest a placement within the autism spectrum.” Oh, come on.

And Slate.com's female commentators merrily dissected Ms. Clinton's female factor, ostensibly unaware of the self-hatred it revealed: “One of Hillary Clinton's great weaknesses as a candidate is that – fair or not – she seems so completely familiar to us. Not just because she's been around for years, but because the characteristics for which she's inevitably criticized are themselves these centuries-old archetypes: the castrating shrew, the righteous scold, the manipulative weeper …”

After the debate last week, Mr. Obama was described as “looking very presidential” or “like a Roman senator” while Ms. Clinton was mocked for wearing a pantsuit with yellow stripes on the jacket that made her look like “a modern major-general” or “a guest star on Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

To me, she looked as she always did, both polished and strong.
And besides, how is the first serious female contender for the most powerful office on Earth supposed to look or laugh or show emotion or compete?

In a blistering commentary that many women forwarded to each other, feminist author Robin Morgan decried some of the most egregious sexism, including former Nixonite Roger Stone's new Hillary-hating group, “Citizens United Not Timid” (examine the capital letters); John McCain answering “How do we beat the bitch?” with “Excellent question!”; and “the most intimately violent T-shirts in election history, including one with the murderous slogan ‘If only Hillary had married O.J. instead!'”

Ms. Morgan wrote: “This is not just Hillary-hating. This is sociopathic woman-hating.”
Of course, many commentators, male and female, have written admiringly about Ms. Clinton, endorsing her outright as The New York Times did, or suggesting that, however flawed, she is clearly the best-qualified candidate to be U.S. president.

And Mr. Obama is a supple and inspiring politician who has run an astonishing campaign. It is Hillary's bad luck (she who hasn't had much luck with men) to have been opposed by this juggernaut after she launched her once-thought-to-be unassailable bid for the Democratic nomination.

On one particularly bad day, The New York Times's Maureen Dowd weighed in with one comedian's joke about Mr. Obama winning every recent primary: “Hillary says it's not fair, because they're being held in February, and February is Black History Month. And unfortunately for Hillary, there's no White Bitch Month.”

Well, here's a thought: Perhaps every day is white bitch month for powerful women, and every ambitious and successful woman who is honest with herself and others knows this: As she gets up each morning and slaps on her knee-highs and her pantsuit and goes into the office to prove – yet again – that she is the smartest and most capable person there, she too can quickly engender the same kind of hate that Ms. Clinton has put up with on the campaign trail. Just by being herself.

It's all about the narrowness of roles for women, or, as Ms. Clinton herself said in a New Yorker interview, “I think that the world is only beginning to recognize that women should be permitted the same range of leadership styles that we permit men.”

Whatever happens next week or beyond, and even if Ms. Clinton manages to get the nomination, this sexism should be named and discussed for what it is.
Which doesn't mean I think every Hillary joke making the rounds is sexist. I laughed out loud at this one: Chelsea Clinton goes up to a returning American soldier and says, “What do you fear the most?” And he says: “Osama, Obama, yo' mama.”

Well, at least she was only the third most scary item on his list.