Michelle Introduces Who the Obamas Really Are: Just Like All
Michelle Obama gives an inspiring and intimate introduction to her family’s all-American success story. And: Ted Kennedy passes the torch.
Archive for Women
U.S. Rep Stephanie Tubb Jones Dead at 58
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after a brain hemorrhage, a hospital spokeswoman said.
DemocracyNow! reports:
And Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones has died after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She was fifty-eight years old. In 1998 she became the first African American woman to represent Ohio in Congress. She was a leader in the fight against predatory lending practices and advocated for broadening healthcare coverage for low- and middle-income people. In January 2005, she led the fight in the House against certification of President Bush’s re-election, citing voting irregularities in Ohio.
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones: “I’m duty-bound to follow the law and apply to the law to the facts as I find them, and it is on behalf of those millions of Americans who believe in and value our democratic process and the right to vote, that I put forth this objection today. If they are willing to stand at polls for countless hours in the rain, as many did in Ohio, then I should surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress. This objection does not have at its root the hope or even the hint of overturning the victory of the President, but it is a necessary, timely and appropriate opportunity to review and remedy the most precious process in our democracy. I raise this objection neither to put the nation in the turmoil of a proposed overturned election, nor to provide cannon fodder or partisan demagoguery for my fellow members of Congress. I raise this objection because I am convinced that we, as a body, must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities. I raise this objection to debate the process and protect the integrity of the true will of the people.”
Officer-Involved Shootings Prompt Calls For Federal Probe
Click for L.A. Times Story
The shootings occurred within the past two months. On Monday, Rep. Maxine Waters, supported by a group of protesters from the community, announced she is seeking a federal investigation.
“I don’t trust any police department to investigate itself,” Waters said Monday.
First All-Women-of-Color Presidential Ticket in US History
The Green Party made history last week when it nominated the first all-women-of-color presidential ticket in US history. Former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who was the first African American woman elected to Congress in Georgia, won the Green Party’s nomination last Monday. She named longtime community organizer, journalist and former director of the Hip Hop Caucus, Rosa Clemente, as her running mate earlier this month. They both join us for a wide-ranging discussion on the 2008 race, the media, the impact of the hip hop generation and more. [includes rush transcript]
In Defense of Sherri Shepherd, yes Sherri Shepherd
Letter to Huffington Post.
Your running line of commentary on Sherri Shepherd (Sherri Shepherd Moment Of The Day) suggesting she is ignorant and unintelligent is racist and you should stop. You have no appreciation for Black humor or a Black world view so you are not in a position to judge her intelligence. I assure you that Black women do not achieve their positions by accident or some fortunate twist of fate. It takes a certain amount of intelligence for any Black woman to navigate her way to success in white corporate America (which our media is a product of), and to endure racist and sexists stereotyping that you have stooped to. So I assure you she is not stupid. She’s a comedian, she’s a real person (and funny as hell, when you getting your sitcom girl?). This running joke about Sherri is insulting and should stop.
Wild Roots
Any Sista who has worked long enough in corporate America knows what I’m talkin bout too. Wish politicians, or anyone in the corporate media for that matter, had the guts to be themselves on TV everyday the way Sherri does. Maybe we’d start to see some real changes. (Not calling no names).
They haven’t responded to their email yet, but in my experience, calling the Huffingtonpost, so-called “progressive media” out on their bullshit gets no more response than mainstream corporate media.
Feel free to copy and paste and edit into your own email. info@huffingtonpost.com (There’s no email on their site to contact the editors. Get it together HuffPo.)
Color of Change: Fox’s “baby mama” drama: just the tip of the iceberg
Right now, Fox News is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They’re trying to send Americans the message that our country’s first viable Black candidate for President is not “one of us.”
We’ve seen this before from Fox. They won’t stop until it becomes too painful to continue–until the public calls them out and advertisers start getting worried.
Now is the time to draw a line in the sand by putting Fox on notice that their behavior won’t be tolerated. In less than a minute, you can help us do that. Then invite your friends and family to do the same. Just click here:
Myrlie Evers-Williams: on Medgar Evers 45 Years Later
Forty-five years ago, civil rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
Karen Bass sworn in as California Assembly speaker
SACRAMENTO — Los Angeles Democrat Karen Bass vowed urgent action to address California’s budget crisis Tuesday when she was sworn in as Assembly speaker, the first African American woman to lead a legislative body in U.S. history.
Bass held no elected office before winning an Assembly seat in 2004 to represent a district that includes West Los Angeles, Culver City and Baldwin Hills. A physician assistant raised by a homemaker and mail carrier in the Venice-Fairfax area, Bass sought in the early 1990s to find solutions to drug addiction, gun violence and other social ills she witnessed treating emergency room patients.
The Community Coalition, a nonprofit group she founded, helped limit the number of liquor stores that reopened in South Los Angeles after the 1992 riots. The group also helped bring more laundromats and grocery stores to the area. It also worked to close low-rent motels and replace cigarette and alcohol billboards near schools.
In the Legislature, Bass is best known as a fierce advocate for the state’s roughly 80,000 foster children.
10 Questions for Toni Morrison
She’s won the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes and recently received the PEN/Borders Literary Service Award. A new collection of her nonfiction, What Moves at the Margin, is out now. Toni Morrison takes questions. Source Time.com
Do you think that young black females are dealing with the same self-acceptance issues today as your character was in The Bluest Eye? —Francesca Siad, Calgary, Alta.
No, not at all. When I wrote the book, the young women who read it liked it [but] were unhappy because I had sort of exposed an area of shame. Nowadays I find young African-American women much more complete. They seem to have a confidence that they take for granted.
Cesar Chavez Day: United Farm Workers Co-Founder Dolores Huerta Reflects on the Life and Legacy of the Legendary Labor Activist
Cesar Estrada Chavez, legendary labor activist, civil rights leader and founder of the first successful farm workers union, would have been eighty-one years old today. Events are planned across the country to honor his life and legacy. Thousands marched in his memory over the weekend, and nine states recognize March 31st as an official holiday. We speak with Dolores Huerta. [includes rush transcript]
From Democracy Now!
NY Bill to Declare Abortion a Fundamental Right for Women is Top Legislative Priority for Gov. Spitzer
So this morning I hear this on Democracy Now!
Pro-choice activists are gathering around the country today to mark the National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers. In Albany, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is addressing the Family Planning Advocates of New York State. Shortly after taking office last year, Spitzer introduced a bill that would declare abortion a fundamental right for women. The bill would also ensure abortion remains legal in New York should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. [includes rush transcript]
And by the afternoon, this is the new headline…
NY governor linked to prostitution ring
NEW YORK - Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the crusading politician who built his career on rooting out corruption, apologized Monday after allegations surfaced that he paid thousands of dollars for a high-end call girl. He did not elaborate on the scandal, which drew calls for his resignation.
What’s really going on?!
Harriet Washington’s “Medical Apartheid” and Edwidge Danticat’s “Brother, I’m Dying” win National Book Critics Circle Awards
“Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present” is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation, abuse and neglect of African Americans. The book reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and the roots of the African American health deficit. It begins with the earliest encounters of blacks and the medical establishment during slavery, looks at how eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify medical experiments conducted by the government and the military–and offers new details about the infamous Tuskegee Experiments that began in the 1930’s.“Medical Apartheid” also examines less well-known abuses and looks at unethical practices and mistreatment of blacks that are still taking place in the medical establishment today.
listen to an interview with Harriet Washington with Democracy Now!
Also acknowledged was Edwidge Danticat who won in the autobiography category for “Brother, I’m Dying”.
Edwidge Danticat is an award-winning Haitian-born writer who now lives in Miami. In November 2004, Danticat’s 81-year-old uncle, Reverend Joseph Dantica, died in the custody of immigration officials. He had arrived from Haiti seeking political asyslum following threats on his life. Denied his medicines and accused of faking an illness, he died just days after his detention. Edwidge Danticat tells this devastating story in her latest book, “Brother, I’m Dying.”
listen to her interview here
UN Launches Campaign to End Violence against Women
At least one out of every three women in the world is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime and one in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape. Trafficking, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, dowry murder, honour killings and female infanticide are other aspects of the problem….
Progressive Donna Edwards Defeats Incumbent Rep. Albert Wynn in Key Maryland Primary
Antiwar Democrat Donna Edwards joins us to talk about her defeat of eight-term Congress member Albert Wynn in Tuesday’s primary vote. The Maryland race had been described as “a bellwether contest in the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party.” If Edwards wins in November, she’ll be the first African American woman elected to Congress from Maryland. [includes rush transcript]
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