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Posts by Melissa McEwan
Does Selecting Clinton Mean Obama's Focused on Human Rights?
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on December 1, 2008 at 9:16 AM.
So Obama has officially named Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state this morning in Chicago.
I've said previously that, all things considered, all the pros and the cons, I'm happy about this selection, and I don't have much else to say about it this morning that I haven't said previously, though I'll promote from comments my note re: why Clinton may have gone for the position:
It's easy to forget (because she doesn't look it) that she's 61. She might want to retire in the not-too-distant future. It takes a long time to work your way to the top of the Senate, even if you're Hillary Clinton. It takes one nod to agree to be secretary of state -- a position which has a general life expectancy of 2-4 years.
And something I've not seen anyone else say anywhere: How many gazillions of times have we heard that Clinton only got to be senator because her husband was president? After the primary, I don't think anyone can reasonably argue (though I've no doubt some will try) that she doesn't have the foreign policy chops for State. And if she gets (and takes) the position, it's in spite of her husband (and his current business dealings), not because of him.
She may well feel like it's something she's done totally on her own steam.
As well she should.
That's not a small thing.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Black Friday Indeed: Man Trampled and Killed at Wal-Mart
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 29, 2008 at 9:58 AM.
[Blub alert, and not in a good way. I'm also going to politely request right up front that this not turn into an excuse to engage in classism because of the particular site of this event. Deadly apathy is not exclusively owned by the lower classes.]
Shaker Graham and Arkades both mentioned this in earlier threads, but it really deserves its own post:
A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.People pushed right past as the emergency crews tried to revive the worker; they also knocked down a pregnant woman who was taken to the hospital for treatment.
The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.
Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.
"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
California to Investigate Mormons' Political Involvement With Prop 8
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 26, 2008 at 8:02 AM.
California's Fair Political Practices Commission, which oversees state campaign finance laws, will launch an inquiry after a complaint was filed on November 13:
California officials will investigate accusations that the Mormon Church neglected to report a battery of nonmonetary contributions -- including phone banks, a Web site and commercials -- on behalf of a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage.
... The complaint, filed by Fred Karger, founder of the group Californians Against Hate, asserted that the church's reported contributions -- about $5,000, according to state election filings -- vastly underestimated its actual efforts in passing Proposition 8, which amended the state's Constitution to recognize only male-female marriage.
Broadly speaking, California state law requires disclosure of any money spent or services provided to influence the outcome of an election.
... Mr. Karger's complaint paints a sweeping picture of the involvement by the church leadership, and raises questions about who paid for out-of-state phone banks and grass-roots rallies in California before the Nov. 4 vote.
"Who paid for the buses, travel costs, meals and other expenses of all the Mormon participants?" the complaint reads. "No contributions were reported."
The complaint also touches on a five-state simulcast from church leaders to Mormon congregations, as well as a Web site, preservingmarriage.org, that featured a series of videos advocating passage of the ballot measure and is labeled "an official Web site" of the Mormon Church.
...Mr. Karger said he respected the right of Mormons to vote in line with their religious beliefs, but added "if they're going to play politics, then they need to play by the rules."Indeed.A spokesperson for the church had no comment on the specific accusations, but said they would cooperate with the investigation. One hopes more readily than they complied with the law, ahem.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Meet Obama's Director of Domestic Policy Council (She's a Progressive)
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 24, 2008 at 2:35 PM.
Meet Melody Barnes.
During a press conference earlier today, President-Elect Obama announced that she has been chosen as his Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, a role that entails coordinating the domestic policy-making and -makers for the White House. As Shaker Afroacademic aptly described the role in comments, Barnes will be "the Domestic policy czar leading the Cabinet secretaries of Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Energy, Treasury, Agriculture, Transportation, Interior and Veterans Affairs on a mega-board."
A former Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, Obama introduced her today as "one of the most respected policy experts in America"--and if you check out this interview, it's easy to see why.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
On Clinton: 'Madame Secretary' Has a Nice Ring Doesn't It?
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 22, 2008 at 2:16 PM.
Clinton confidantes say that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will accept the position as the next US Secretary of State.I know, believe me I do, all the legitimate arguments for Clinton to stay in the Senate, and I know, believe me I do, all the legitimate arguments against Clinton as SoS.I even agree with many of them.But I still can't help feeling giddy at the thought of the woman who stood in front of the United Nation's 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing and said, "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all," being my Secretary of State.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Poll: Public's Loathing of the GOP Hits All Time High
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 21, 2008 at 5:32 AM.
In the latest Gallup poll, Americans' antipathy for the GOP has increased yet again, with only 34% saying they view the GOP favorably and 61% saying they view the GOP unfavorably, "the highest Gallup has recorded for that party since the measure was established in 1992."
Couldn't happen to a nicer party.
Here's the real fun, though:
The Republican Party heads into the New Year with its brand tattered by the election after decisive losses in the 2008 presidential and congressional races. Such a defeat inevitably leads to introspection in party circles about its message going forward.
Gallup addressed this issue in the recent poll with a question asking, "Over the next few years, would you like to see the Republican Party and its candidates move in a more conservative direction, a less conservative direction, or stay about the same?"
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Obama Taps AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano to Head Homeland Security
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 20, 2008 at 12:22 PM.
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has been tapped by President-Elect Obama to head the Department of Homeland Security, pending vetting.
I guess it's too much for which to hope that her first order of business will be to defang and rename the creepily fascistic DHS.
Because I don't really like this department or its (over)reach (I'm way more conservative than most conservatives on this one; leave it to them to love the federal bureau with the most Nazified name), I have what I'll call "not a good reaction" when I read stuff like:
She was the first governor to call for National Guard troops to secure the U.S.-Mexico border
as if that's a good thing.
The entire department is also a dysfunctional mess; as Steve notes: "Since its creation in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration's management of the newest cabinet agency has been a terrible mess. (A few years ago, House Democrats released a report noting that DHS set 33 clear goals for itself—and failed to meet all of them.)"
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Update on H8: Supreme Court to Hear Challenges
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 20, 2008 at 7:02 AM.
State Supreme Court to hear challenges to Prop. 8:
The state Supreme Court plunged back into the same-sex marriage wars today, agreeing to decide the legality of a ballot measure that repealed the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed in California.
At the urging of both sponsors and opponents of Proposition 8, the justices voted 6-1 to grant review of lawsuits challenging the Nov. 4 initiative, with Justice Joyce Kennard dissenting.
Same-sex marriage will remain on hold while the court considers Prop 8's constitutionality; the court will also determine whether the 18,000 marriages between same-sex couples will be rendered null by Prop 8.
How Prop 8 is contested will largely depend on those decisions. For example, if it's declared constitutional, but the 18,000 marriage are grandfathered in, that's going to create a very different set of legal circumstances than if Prop 8 is declared constitutional and the marriages are nullified.
Stay tuned ...
Daschle as HHS Secretary: A Look at the Pros and Cons
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 19, 2008 at 1:42 PM.
Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle has been tapped by Obama to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and, according to Roll Call, has accepted the position. Think Progress reports that he will also
take on the position of "health care czar" in the Obama White House. CNN's Ed Henry is also reporting he negotiated the "health care czar" position in order to be "the point person on all White House health-related issues."
I'm okay with this selection -- and that's exactly as noncommittal a reaction as it sounds.
On the plus side, Daschle has (literally) written the book on the healthcare crisis. He knows the ins and outs of Congress and how to get shit done; as Drum says, he "is plainly dedicated to healthcare reform, he understands the legislative realities as well as anyone." Steve notes: "The Daschle announcement reinforces the notion that an Obama administration is going to take the push for healthcare reform very seriously" and "the Daschle news makes me even more encouraged about the prospect of a healthcare package actually passing.
Emanuel is insisting that an incremental approach won't do; Baucus and Kennedy are laying the groundwork on the Hill; and Daschle has been preparing for this fight for quite awhile."
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Wanda Sykes Rallies Against H8: 'I'm Proud to Be Gay'
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 17, 2008 at 1:14 PM.
"I am very proud. I am proud to be a woman, I'm proud to be a black woman, and I'm proud to be gay. And I love you all. Now let's go get our damn equal rights!"—Wanda Sykes, coming out at the Las Vegas Prop 8 protest and announcing she and her wife were married in California in October. (Via.)
I didn't think I could love her even more after she called herself a feminist on The Tonight Show; I was wrong.
It Is No Secret: Obama Plans to Reverse Many of Bush's Policies
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 10, 2008 at 8:19 AM.
This is music to my ears. Please, Maude, let it be so:
Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.There's way more, including a reported plan to make some quick hits on Bush's environmental fiats. This similar New York Times article suggests that "a major expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program" (SCHIP) might be quickly forthcoming, too (which I am very pleased to see, given that he missed the last reauthorization vote, to my profound disappointment).
...Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush's controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson's.
...The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he rescinded the Reagan-era regulation, known as the Mexico City policy, but Bush reimposed it.
"We have been communicating with his transition staff" almost daily, Richards said. "We expect to see a real change."
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Why Is Everyone Blaming Palin, and Not McCain, for the MCCAIN Campaign's Loss?
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 7, 2008 at 11:40 AM.
...that in response to the Great Blame-the-Dumb-Slutathon of 2008, there are a good few people who are calling out McCain campaign staffers as hypocrites (see Campbell Brown here, for example), but McCain himself is largely being exempted from criticism.
If what the staffers are now saying about Palin is true (and I'm not convinced it is, but it is certainly being reported that way), it means that the man who ran a campaign under the slogan "Country First" while traveling on the "Straight Talk Express" told the nation with reckless disregard for the potentially disastrous consequences that a patently and dangerously unqualified candidate was prepared to be president in his stead, if necessary.
And if what the staffers are now saying about Palin is not true, it means that the man who told us over and over and over that he is a man of honor and integrity is letting his former running mate be smeared in a pathetic bid to save his own tattered reputation.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Bill O'Reilly Shows that Conservatives' Feminist Awakening Was Short-Lived
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 6, 2008 at 10:25 AM.
I've been predicting for two months that if/when McCain lost the election, the Republicans who were so keen to use their funhouse version of feminism both to defend Palin against genuinely sexist attacks and to mendaciously attempt to insulate her from legitimate attacks by calling them sexist, would immediately excise the words sexism, misogyny, and feminism once again from their vocabularies and throw Palin under the bus using vicious sexist attacks.
File this under Unhappy to be Right:
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
David Letterman Makes McCain Squirm
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on October 17, 2008 at 6:52 AM.
So last night, John McCain finally showed up on David Letterman's show, after blowing him off two weeks ago. Here's the whole interview (and if someone can find a transcript, please drop a link in comments):
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Obama Honors Women in Combat
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on October 14, 2008 at 5:54 AM.
In July of this year, a grim threshold was passed: 100 female service members had died in Iraq. Sixty-one of those deaths were hostile; i.e. "occurring during combat or enemy attacks," despite the fact that women are still not officially allowed to serve in combat positions. It's one of the "women's issues" that doesn't get much attention, but for the thousands of women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for the families of those women, it's no small thing -- not just being officially prohibited from serving "on the front lines," but the reality that many of them already are serving "on the front lines" in two wars where the front lines can be wherever the next suicide bomber decides they'll be.
So this is pretty significant:
Mr. Obama would consider officially opening combat positions to women. Mr. McCain would not.It's not a promise to allow women to serve equally, but the recognition that women are already in serving in combat is a big step in the right direction.
"Women are already serving in combat [in Iraq and Afghanistan] and the current policy should be updated to reflect realities on the ground," said Wendy Morigi, Mr. Obama's national security spokeswoman. "Barack Obama would consult with military commanders to review the constraints that remain."
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