The Feminist Press’ Gloria Jacobs and Feministing.com’s Courtney Martin Discuss Sarah Palin from Brian Lehrer Live on Vimeo.
Nicely done.
political campaigns
PBS is doing a poll which asks if Palin is qualified to be VP. Supporters have organized a yes campaign–and the “yes” is at the moment winning. If you have strong feelings about this, please take literally 1 minute to go to: http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html and vote!
And please feel free to send this on.
I’m thrilled to welcome ya’ll back from the weekend with this month’s post from GWP regular Courtney Martin. Please do check out the questions Courtney leaves us with at the end, and feel free to share links in comments. Courtney is doing some amazing work on youth and political engagement (hint hint: her next book) and any links you post will be of great interest to us all! -GWP
Generation Next
By Courtney Martin
In such a tight presidential race, it’s not surprising that pundits are suddenly stuck on looking for the demographic that could have the biggest influence on the outcome in November. One of the key groups that the media is finally analyzing in a sophisticated way is the youth vote. Yes, we are more complex than just “the youth go CRAZY for Obama.â€
The Nation’s Peter Dreier just published a piece with the following framing:
Democratic Party strategists believe that in key swing states, a dramatic increase in turnout among young voters–and African-Americans–can be the key to victory for both Obama and the party’s candidates for Congress. Campus activists, meanwhile, view the Obama campaign as a means to catalyze a new progressive youth movement among the Millennial (18- to 29-year-old) generation that they hope, unlike the political crusades of the 1960s youth rebellion, will be part of a broader, multigenerational coalition.
Dreier also worked in the following critical stats:
After steady declines in turnout since 1972, young voters reversed the trend in the 2004 presidential and 2006 mid-term elections. In Democratic primaries and caucuses, the number of young voters increased from 1.1 million to 4.9 million. (In contrast, Republican primaries attracted only 1.8 million youth voters.) A Harvard study found that compared to the 2004 primaries, the youth vote quadrupled in the Tennessee primary and almost tripled in Iowa, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.
Really critical food for thought. I thought I’d leave you all with some questions that the mass media has consistently failed to ask, and that even Dreier (who generally does a great overview, didn’t touch on in depth):
-How is the progressive movement doing in building a youth movement that can last for years to come, not just jumping on the Obama band wagon?
-Is the progressive youth movement being funded adequately? (I asked and answered this one in my recent column at the American Prospect.)
-What issues are most important to youth? (Answer: the same ones that are important to “the old folksâ€: the economy, the war, and healthcare.)
-How are young women responding to Palin? Michelle Obama?
-How are voter mobilization organizations targeting non-college enrolled youth? (Too often the media acts as if the majority of 18-28 year olds are enrolled in school, which is actually not the case.)
Please leave links to places that are answering these questions adequately in the comments section, if you run across them! Let’s hold our media accountable to explore these issues before it becomes too late to address every last little obstacle between Obama/Biden and the White House.
No matter what we think of Palin (um, barf), you gotta admit it’s an interesting year for women in leadership. And next Wednesday, Sept. 24, the National Council for Research on Women and DÄ“mos are presenting a special forum on women’s transformative leadership. Emphasis on transform. Distinguished women leaders will explore the difference women’s leadership can make to bring about real change across sectors. Deets:
12:00 – 2:00 pm
Location: DÄ“mos – 220 Fifth Avenue between 26th and 27th Streets, NYC
Speakers:
Linda Basch, President, National Council for Research on Women
Michelle Clayman, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, New Amsterdam Partners
Linda Tarr-Whelan, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women and Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos
Deborah Walsh, Director, Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University
Moderator:
Ana Duarte McCarthy, Chief Diversity Officer, Citigroup
For media accreditation, or RSVP, contact: Lisa Rast, email: lrast@ncrw.org
I’m late to posting today, but I think you’ll agree that this one is well worth the wait! Guest Girl w/ Penner Madeline Wheeler is a newly single mother of two and writer of the social action theater piece Revealing Frankie, a memoir of childhood abuse. She is currently the Coordinator for the Palmer, MA Domestic Violence Task Force. Madeline earned a BA from Harvard and credits the positive changes in her life to the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. Here’s Madeline! – GWP
U.S. War Against Women:
Palin in Prada or Platforms and Maverick was Hot!
By Madeline Wheeler
First of all, I don’t care what Sarah Palin wears (Valentino apparently) and for those of us who grew up in the 80’s, Maverick is Tom Cruise, volleyball, tower fly-bys, and pilot in angst. And though, as of late, he is 4th on the overpaid actors list, he was Top Gun!
Now, after watching McCain ads depicting wolves crossing the tundra, worrying that Arianna Huffington might faint from outrage (her righteous indignation hits home)–not to mention that Matt Damon is seriously frightened–and hearing the word “vetted†jettisoned around the water cooler like a word-of-the-day bake off…I needed an espresso shot of reality. Yesterday, I paid for gas with a credit card and I just finished counting my change–the mortgage is due next week.
With truth blurred by a fury of lexis and linguistic limbo, and the media playing under the bar, the issues facing Americans are not dissipating. The heavy hitters remain: the economy, reforming healthcare and ending war in Iraq. But I’m wondering who will address the silent war against women happening on our own soil? Apparently, not Palin.
According to a 2006 Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault report, Alaska’s rape rate is 2.5 times the national average. Child sexual assault is almost six times the national average and Alaska ranks first in the nation with the highest homicide rate per capita for female victims killed by a male perpetrator. As an Interpersonal Violence (IPV) prevention advocate, I wouldn’t want to be wearing those shoes!
I’m for ending the war in Iraq safely and responsibly. I’m also for ending the war against women in the United States! Currently, we have more battered women’s shelters and violence prevention programs than ever, yet violence against women has reached epidemic proportions. Nationally, intimate partners murder over three women every day–3.56 to be precise.
Each morning we face the reality of war in Iraq with loss. But it is time for the cobbler to check his own shoes. If you can’t see the war against women, do the math. According to a 2006 CDC report, nearly 2 million IPV injuries occur each year among U.S women ages 18 and older, and close to 1300 deaths…bringing our five-year, six-month war against women death toll to approximately 7,155. This carnage does not include women murdered by strangers or otherwise.
If you need a dollar and cents account to seal the deal, the CDC reports that IPV costs exceed $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services.
According to the npr.org “Toll of War†website, since the invasion of Iraq, U.S. casualties have mounted to 4,148. The NPR website posts a timeline of U.S. troop fatalities against key events, along with eloquent remembrances of the fallen.
Objectors will say that the plight of American women cannot be compared to attacks on foreign soil. I’m not saying the death of troops, allies or civilians in war is acceptable, but it is expected. When considering the war, we must cling to the hope that courageous lives weren’t lost in vain, and that Iraqis have a future once only dreamt of. What, however, can we say to the increasing murder of innocent U.S. women in their own homes and environs? Wherein lies any hope or argument?
Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari and the U.S. have set the preliminary date for American troop withdrawal as June 2009. Although President Bush long resisted “timetable†vocabulary, the Whitehouse is preparing to return our 140,000 troops.
American women, however, will not be leaving their homeland any time soon.
Jewish Women International’s (JWI) Executive Director, Lori Weinstein, currently champions a petition to urge candidates to make domestic violence a priority issue (www.jwi.org). JWI and the Interfaith Domestic Violence Coalition pleaded with the Democratic Party to “provide strong leadership on the issue of domestic violence, calling for expanded language in the 2008 platform.†The 2004 Democratic Platform included just one sentence–“We will help break the cycle of domestic violence by punishing offenders and standing with victims.†The 2004 Republican Platform didn’t fare any better, not mentioning it at all.
Do the 2008 Platforms meet the challenge?
After pouring over the 64-page Democratic Platform, I was pleased to see improvement over its predecessor; after all, Senator Biden championed the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which he considers his â€proudest legislative accomplishment in 35 years in the Senate.â€(www.biden.senate.gov) The 2008 Democratic Platform states, â€Ending violence against women must be a top priority. We will create a special advisor to the president regarding violence against women. We will increase funding to domestic violence and sexual assault prevention programs. We will strengthen sexual assault and domestic violence laws, support the VAWA, and provide job security to survivors‖A far wolf’s cry from the 2004 meager mention.
The Republican Platform refers to†battered women†in defense of the Crime Victims Fund established under President Reagan. However, it states “Bureaucracy is no longer a credible approach to helping those in need. This is especially in light of alternatives such as faith-based organizations which tend to have a greater degree of success with problems such as substance abuse and domestic violence.†Finally, it states, “Crime in Indian country, especially against women, is a special problem demanding immediate attention.†I’ve culled the 67-page document twice and this is all I can find in reference to domestic violence (www.gop.com).
Considering the Republican platform and the state of domestic violence in Alaska, I think it’s obvious, when it comes to the U.S silent war on women; Palin’s boots were made for walking.
This just came in my Inbox. Please forward widely, if you see fit. – GWP
Friends-
Several of us in Portland, Oregon were sitting around over a glass of wine and whining about McCain/Palin and the direction our country is taking. In the tradition of Oregon’s NIKE, we decided to stop whining and just DO something…..to ask our friends and their friends, to help us raise $500,000 for Obama/Biden by October 15. That’s right. $500,000! Friends…..we have a country to save for ourselves, for our kids.
If we can get 500 women from each of the 50 states of the union (and ex-pats living abroad) to send $20 into the campaign, we can raise that much. We can show that John McCain/Sarah Palin do not represent our concerns. We’ve got one month to do it. And we can and will do it. But not without you!. WILL YOU HELP?
Here’s how to help NOW (don’t put it off!)
1.Go to: http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/awfo and donate what you can. Do it NOW! This site is dedicated to the Another Woman For Obama campaign.
Copy this email (rather than forward it) and send it to all YOUR friends, with a personal note from YOU. Ask your husband/partner to support you by including his/her friends as well. Never underestimate the power of women who are “mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore”! BE THE CHANGE. …..and thanks for your outrage and action!
You can track our progress toward our goal by using the same website.
Joanie Campf and Jane Comerford
Portland, Oregon
See also: Eve Ensler, “Drill, Drill, Drill”
Couldn’t not post these. Enjoy!
So surprise, surprise: In spite of the Palin-o-mania that seems to have taken this screwy nation of ours by storm, it appears not all women of Alaska all agree. Check out WaPo’s coverage of the Palin Protest held in Anchorage, and the footage posted on YouTube, above. Some memorable slogans from the march:
Bush in a Skirt
Jesus Was a Community Organizer
Palin: Thanks But No Thanks
Smearing Alaska’s Good Name One Scandal @ a Time
Candidate To Nowhere
Rape Kits Should Be Free
Barbies for War
Sarah Palin: So Far Right She’s Wrong
Coat Hangers for McCain
Sarah Palin, Undoing 150 Years of American Feminism
Hockey Mama For Obama
McPalin Out of My Uterus
Some of the protesters–in particular, two organizers of a group named Alaska Women Reject Palin–have received threatening and abusive phone calls, instigated by KBYR talk radio host Eddie Burke, who shared the names and phones numbers of the two contacts on-air. More about all that here.
And meanwhile, Women Against Sarah Palin put up a blog asking women to send in their thoughts about Sarah Palin and have received a whopping 120,000 responses.
Keep an eye out for a post here at GWP soon on what all this “Women Against” business is REALLY about.
Marco is at it again. Check out his reading of the latest McCain-Palin appeal over at Open Salon, “McCain/Palin Cries Wolf.” An excerpt:
The McCain/Palin spin machine has reached has reached dizzying momentum in these last few days. Palin shape-shifts now at an alarming rate, going from pit bull to pig [they started it], to now, apparently, Little Red Riding Hood. As can be seen in the graphic above, embedded in an email sent out today from the Republican campaign soliciting donations, the Palin narrative has been flipped conveniently on its head. The hunter has become the hunted, and she is cast now as victim, while the purported attackers, Obama and the Democrats, are cast as wolves on the approach.
Make no mistake: this is still the same movie. The snow places the viewer in pristine Alaska, Palin’s home turf, and the wolves, like the moose, are familiar stock characters. They were last seen being taken out by airborne hunters at Governor Palin’s behest, easy targets against the same white snow. Now they make their way towards the imperiled heroine, and through the magic of cinematic perspective, towards you, the target audience….
A particularly sassy takedown by Salon’s Cintra Wilson: “Pissed about Palin.”
A thoughtful (yes, thoughtful) analysis by Camille Paglia of Palin as a muscular, pioneer-inspired “feminist” force: “Fresh Blood for the Vampire.”
Kaye S. Hymowitz at City Journal on “Red State Feminism.”
Dahlia Litwick in Newsweek on how “Palin Signals Fewer Choices for Women.”
The LA Times on “Hiding Sarah Palin Behind ‘Deference.'”
HuffPo on how “Sex Sells in the GOP.”
A NYTimes article on how the second mixed-sex major-party presidential ticket in American history has nonetheless raised 21st-century questions about etiquette, body language and who hugs first: “To Have (as a Running Mate), and Hold (Politely).”
And an amusing comparison of Palin (who is now, yes, an action figure) to a minor character in Star Wars named Boba Fett by my very clever husband dude Marco.
Other recs of what we should be reading? Please post links in comments.
PBS is doing a poll which asks if Palin is qualified to be VP. Supporters have organized a yes campaign–and the “yes” is at the moment winning. If you have strong feelings about this, please take literally 1 minute to go to: http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html and vote!
And please feel free to send this on.
I’m thrilled to welcome ya’ll back from the weekend with this month’s post from GWP regular Courtney Martin. Please do check out the questions Courtney leaves us with at the end, and feel free to share links in comments. Courtney is doing some amazing work on youth and political engagement (hint hint: her next book) and any links you post will be of great interest to us all! -GWP
Generation Next
By Courtney Martin
In such a tight presidential race, it’s not surprising that pundits are suddenly stuck on looking for the demographic that could have the biggest influence on the outcome in November. One of the key groups that the media is finally analyzing in a sophisticated way is the youth vote. Yes, we are more complex than just “the youth go CRAZY for Obama.â€
The Nation’s Peter Dreier just published a piece with the following framing:
Democratic Party strategists believe that in key swing states, a dramatic increase in turnout among young voters–and African-Americans–can be the key to victory for both Obama and the party’s candidates for Congress. Campus activists, meanwhile, view the Obama campaign as a means to catalyze a new progressive youth movement among the Millennial (18- to 29-year-old) generation that they hope, unlike the political crusades of the 1960s youth rebellion, will be part of a broader, multigenerational coalition.
Dreier also worked in the following critical stats:
After steady declines in turnout since 1972, young voters reversed the trend in the 2004 presidential and 2006 mid-term elections. In Democratic primaries and caucuses, the number of young voters increased from 1.1 million to 4.9 million. (In contrast, Republican primaries attracted only 1.8 million youth voters.) A Harvard study found that compared to the 2004 primaries, the youth vote quadrupled in the Tennessee primary and almost tripled in Iowa, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas.
Really critical food for thought. I thought I’d leave you all with some questions that the mass media has consistently failed to ask, and that even Dreier (who generally does a great overview, didn’t touch on in depth):
-How is the progressive movement doing in building a youth movement that can last for years to come, not just jumping on the Obama band wagon?
-Is the progressive youth movement being funded adequately? (I asked and answered this one in my recent column at the American Prospect.)
-What issues are most important to youth? (Answer: the same ones that are important to “the old folksâ€: the economy, the war, and healthcare.)
-How are young women responding to Palin? Michelle Obama?
-How are voter mobilization organizations targeting non-college enrolled youth? (Too often the media acts as if the majority of 18-28 year olds are enrolled in school, which is actually not the case.)
Please leave links to places that are answering these questions adequately in the comments section, if you run across them! Let’s hold our media accountable to explore these issues before it becomes too late to address every last little obstacle between Obama/Biden and the White House.
No matter what we think of Palin (um, barf), you gotta admit it’s an interesting year for women in leadership. And next Wednesday, Sept. 24, the National Council for Research on Women and DÄ“mos are presenting a special forum on women’s transformative leadership. Emphasis on transform. Distinguished women leaders will explore the difference women’s leadership can make to bring about real change across sectors. Deets:
12:00 – 2:00 pm
Location: DÄ“mos – 220 Fifth Avenue between 26th and 27th Streets, NYC
Speakers:
Linda Basch, President, National Council for Research on Women
Michelle Clayman, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, New Amsterdam Partners
Linda Tarr-Whelan, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women and Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos
Deborah Walsh, Director, Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University
Moderator:
Ana Duarte McCarthy, Chief Diversity Officer, Citigroup
For media accreditation, or RSVP, contact: Lisa Rast, email: lrast@ncrw.org
I’m late to posting today, but I think you’ll agree that this one is well worth the wait! Guest Girl w/ Penner Madeline Wheeler is a newly single mother of two and writer of the social action theater piece Revealing Frankie, a memoir of childhood abuse. She is currently the Coordinator for the Palmer, MA Domestic Violence Task Force. Madeline earned a BA from Harvard and credits the positive changes in her life to the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. Here’s Madeline! – GWP
U.S. War Against Women:
Palin in Prada or Platforms and Maverick was Hot!
By Madeline Wheeler
First of all, I don’t care what Sarah Palin wears (Valentino apparently) and for those of us who grew up in the 80’s, Maverick is Tom Cruise, volleyball, tower fly-bys, and pilot in angst. And though, as of late, he is 4th on the overpaid actors list, he was Top Gun!
Now, after watching McCain ads depicting wolves crossing the tundra, worrying that Arianna Huffington might faint from outrage (her righteous indignation hits home)–not to mention that Matt Damon is seriously frightened–and hearing the word “vetted†jettisoned around the water cooler like a word-of-the-day bake off…I needed an espresso shot of reality. Yesterday, I paid for gas with a credit card and I just finished counting my change–the mortgage is due next week.
With truth blurred by a fury of lexis and linguistic limbo, and the media playing under the bar, the issues facing Americans are not dissipating. The heavy hitters remain: the economy, reforming healthcare and ending war in Iraq. But I’m wondering who will address the silent war against women happening on our own soil? Apparently, not Palin.
According to a 2006 Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault report, Alaska’s rape rate is 2.5 times the national average. Child sexual assault is almost six times the national average and Alaska ranks first in the nation with the highest homicide rate per capita for female victims killed by a male perpetrator. As an Interpersonal Violence (IPV) prevention advocate, I wouldn’t want to be wearing those shoes!
I’m for ending the war in Iraq safely and responsibly. I’m also for ending the war against women in the United States! Currently, we have more battered women’s shelters and violence prevention programs than ever, yet violence against women has reached epidemic proportions. Nationally, intimate partners murder over three women every day–3.56 to be precise.
Each morning we face the reality of war in Iraq with loss. But it is time for the cobbler to check his own shoes. If you can’t see the war against women, do the math. According to a 2006 CDC report, nearly 2 million IPV injuries occur each year among U.S women ages 18 and older, and close to 1300 deaths…bringing our five-year, six-month war against women death toll to approximately 7,155. This carnage does not include women murdered by strangers or otherwise.
If you need a dollar and cents account to seal the deal, the CDC reports that IPV costs exceed $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services.
According to the npr.org “Toll of War†website, since the invasion of Iraq, U.S. casualties have mounted to 4,148. The NPR website posts a timeline of U.S. troop fatalities against key events, along with eloquent remembrances of the fallen.
Objectors will say that the plight of American women cannot be compared to attacks on foreign soil. I’m not saying the death of troops, allies or civilians in war is acceptable, but it is expected. When considering the war, we must cling to the hope that courageous lives weren’t lost in vain, and that Iraqis have a future once only dreamt of. What, however, can we say to the increasing murder of innocent U.S. women in their own homes and environs? Wherein lies any hope or argument?
Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari and the U.S. have set the preliminary date for American troop withdrawal as June 2009. Although President Bush long resisted “timetable†vocabulary, the Whitehouse is preparing to return our 140,000 troops.
American women, however, will not be leaving their homeland any time soon.
Jewish Women International’s (JWI) Executive Director, Lori Weinstein, currently champions a petition to urge candidates to make domestic violence a priority issue (www.jwi.org). JWI and the Interfaith Domestic Violence Coalition pleaded with the Democratic Party to “provide strong leadership on the issue of domestic violence, calling for expanded language in the 2008 platform.†The 2004 Democratic Platform included just one sentence–“We will help break the cycle of domestic violence by punishing offenders and standing with victims.†The 2004 Republican Platform didn’t fare any better, not mentioning it at all.
Do the 2008 Platforms meet the challenge?
After pouring over the 64-page Democratic Platform, I was pleased to see improvement over its predecessor; after all, Senator Biden championed the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which he considers his â€proudest legislative accomplishment in 35 years in the Senate.â€(www.biden.senate.gov) The 2008 Democratic Platform states, â€Ending violence against women must be a top priority. We will create a special advisor to the president regarding violence against women. We will increase funding to domestic violence and sexual assault prevention programs. We will strengthen sexual assault and domestic violence laws, support the VAWA, and provide job security to survivors‖A far wolf’s cry from the 2004 meager mention.
The Republican Platform refers to†battered women†in defense of the Crime Victims Fund established under President Reagan. However, it states “Bureaucracy is no longer a credible approach to helping those in need. This is especially in light of alternatives such as faith-based organizations which tend to have a greater degree of success with problems such as substance abuse and domestic violence.†Finally, it states, “Crime in Indian country, especially against women, is a special problem demanding immediate attention.†I’ve culled the 67-page document twice and this is all I can find in reference to domestic violence (www.gop.com).
Considering the Republican platform and the state of domestic violence in Alaska, I think it’s obvious, when it comes to the U.S silent war on women; Palin’s boots were made for walking.
This just came in my Inbox. Please forward widely, if you see fit. – GWP
Friends-
Several of us in Portland, Oregon were sitting around over a glass of wine and whining about McCain/Palin and the direction our country is taking. In the tradition of Oregon’s NIKE, we decided to stop whining and just DO something…..to ask our friends and their friends, to help us raise $500,000 for Obama/Biden by October 15. That’s right. $500,000! Friends…..we have a country to save for ourselves, for our kids.
If we can get 500 women from each of the 50 states of the union (and ex-pats living abroad) to send $20 into the campaign, we can raise that much. We can show that John McCain/Sarah Palin do not represent our concerns. We’ve got one month to do it. And we can and will do it. But not without you!. WILL YOU HELP?
Here’s how to help NOW (don’t put it off!)
1.Go to: http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/awfo and donate what you can. Do it NOW! This site is dedicated to the Another Woman For Obama campaign.
Copy this email (rather than forward it) and send it to all YOUR friends, with a personal note from YOU. Ask your husband/partner to support you by including his/her friends as well. Never underestimate the power of women who are “mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore”! BE THE CHANGE. …..and thanks for your outrage and action!
You can track our progress toward our goal by using the same website.
Joanie Campf and Jane Comerford
Portland, Oregon
See also: Eve Ensler, “Drill, Drill, Drill”
Couldn’t not post these. Enjoy!
So surprise, surprise: In spite of the Palin-o-mania that seems to have taken this screwy nation of ours by storm, it appears not all women of Alaska all agree. Check out WaPo’s coverage of the Palin Protest held in Anchorage, and the footage posted on YouTube, above. Some memorable slogans from the march:
Bush in a Skirt
Jesus Was a Community Organizer
Palin: Thanks But No Thanks
Smearing Alaska’s Good Name One Scandal @ a Time
Candidate To Nowhere
Rape Kits Should Be Free
Barbies for War
Sarah Palin: So Far Right She’s Wrong
Coat Hangers for McCain
Sarah Palin, Undoing 150 Years of American Feminism
Hockey Mama For Obama
McPalin Out of My Uterus
Some of the protesters–in particular, two organizers of a group named Alaska Women Reject Palin–have received threatening and abusive phone calls, instigated by KBYR talk radio host Eddie Burke, who shared the names and phones numbers of the two contacts on-air. More about all that here.
And meanwhile, Women Against Sarah Palin put up a blog asking women to send in their thoughts about Sarah Palin and have received a whopping 120,000 responses.
Keep an eye out for a post here at GWP soon on what all this “Women Against” business is REALLY about.
Marco is at it again. Check out his reading of the latest McCain-Palin appeal over at Open Salon, “McCain/Palin Cries Wolf.” An excerpt:
The McCain/Palin spin machine has reached has reached dizzying momentum in these last few days. Palin shape-shifts now at an alarming rate, going from pit bull to pig [they started it], to now, apparently, Little Red Riding Hood. As can be seen in the graphic above, embedded in an email sent out today from the Republican campaign soliciting donations, the Palin narrative has been flipped conveniently on its head. The hunter has become the hunted, and she is cast now as victim, while the purported attackers, Obama and the Democrats, are cast as wolves on the approach.
Make no mistake: this is still the same movie. The snow places the viewer in pristine Alaska, Palin’s home turf, and the wolves, like the moose, are familiar stock characters. They were last seen being taken out by airborne hunters at Governor Palin’s behest, easy targets against the same white snow. Now they make their way towards the imperiled heroine, and through the magic of cinematic perspective, towards you, the target audience….
A particularly sassy takedown by Salon’s Cintra Wilson: “Pissed about Palin.”
A thoughtful (yes, thoughtful) analysis by Camille Paglia of Palin as a muscular, pioneer-inspired “feminist” force: “Fresh Blood for the Vampire.”
Kaye S. Hymowitz at City Journal on “Red State Feminism.”
Dahlia Litwick in Newsweek on how “Palin Signals Fewer Choices for Women.”
The LA Times on “Hiding Sarah Palin Behind ‘Deference.'”
HuffPo on how “Sex Sells in the GOP.”
A NYTimes article on how the second mixed-sex major-party presidential ticket in American history has nonetheless raised 21st-century questions about etiquette, body language and who hugs first: “To Have (as a Running Mate), and Hold (Politely).”
And an amusing comparison of Palin (who is now, yes, an action figure) to a minor character in Star Wars named Boba Fett by my very clever husband dude Marco.
Other recs of what we should be reading? Please post links in comments.
