You can read my thoughts about it at BlogHer but for a teaser, here’s what I actually left out (until I added an addendum), so you can just imagine what I included: The environment and energy: For progressives, probably a bad year, capped off with the TVA disaster that Kim Pearson wrote about here. And it’s getting worse. On the other hand, with energy, maybe not so bad a year, in that the conversation has intensified due to record high gas prices this summer and I would even venture...

BlogHer Contributing Editor PunditMom has the goods: The pundits continue to chew on the question of who will take Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat if, and when, she is confirmed as Secretary of State. Caroline Kennedy is getting the bulk of the media’s attention, but there is another Carolyn that is getting support from The Feminist Majority and NOW — New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. I was honored to have the chance to interview Eleanor Smeal, the president of the Feminist...

Interestingly, this Women’s eNews article is the first one I’ve seen that finally gives a reason I can buy into understanding how it is that New Hampshire’s state senate, unlike any other legislative body in the country, now has a majority of women (13 out of 24): Two major explanations for women’s newfound majority are the state’s high number of legislators and their low–practically nonexistent–pay. New Hampshire’s Legislature has 424 members: 400...

I’d been blogging for nearly a year and a half when the November 2006 elections turned Ohio blue (Democrats took four of the five state offices and former Congressman/now U.S. Senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown, dethroned incumbent Republican Mike DeWine). In the course of that time, I threw my first house party ever, for then-candidate and now award-winning Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, and I observed up close and personal how support from EMILY’s List – for both Brunner...

I love this post at Life in Israel: This image was cropped out of the Haaretz website… these news items ran one after the other…. So, is he Jewish or is he Bedouin Arab? Rafi goes on to comment about how everyone seems to want to claim Obama as their own. I’ve gotten that sense as well and also think about what demands those claims bring with them.

Mata H. of BlogHer has a sensitive and poignant entry about the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. I urge you to go read it there, but I’m grafting just a couple of things to share and adding a bit more. First, please listen to and watch this short clip: One of the truths I’ve always known about has been the failure of the United States to intervene in the events as they unfolded in Europe and resulted in the death of more than 11 million people, 6 million of whom were Jews. However,...

For real. As in, really for real. Because frankly, I will not make it to November 4th if I don’t get to hear some good stories about voting, democracy and learning about what makes our country strong, not senile. So find them and send them or write them. I’ll go first: As some readers may know, I was really unhappy that my town only allowed one yard sign per yard. I know, I know, yard signs don’t vote and all that. And in point of fact, I never allowed us to put up signs in the...

I wrote about this exact point here and here (though not in regard to the debate). E.J. Dionne, Jr. writes about it in today’s Washington Post column, “Hockey Mom on Thin Ice:” This week, McCain’s backers signaled their fears that [Alaska Governor and GOP VP nominee Sarah] Palin would fail by trying to discredit the debate in advance. Although it has been known at least since July that Gwen Ifill was writing a book on “Politics and Race in the Age of Obama,” the...

I watched the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin with a group of women in my hometown. Three of us are lawyers and one is a speech pathologist who detailed problems in unfunded mandates related to NCLB. The children of our host watched part of the debate, filling out the Palin and Biden Bingo cards (they got FULL!) and the husband of the host watched too. In addition to watching with these friends, I also participated in two Ohio-based live-blogs and followed Twitter tweets. What...

Okay. Disclosure: I went to law school. Big whoop. I’ve got kids who are in or have been through middle school – and that is where you first learn about Brown v. Board of Education and Miranda and even in the supplements they get from Newsweek or TIME, Bush v. Gore. And yet Alaska Governor and GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin could not even mention summarily issues that SCOTUS has written about that matter to conservatives such as the death penalty, the gun law from DC that got panned this...

Are the recession deniers – some of whom have claimed that saying that the country is in a recession is just a push by the liberal media to elect Barack Obama – going to have a cow? From the AP: [During a campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio] McCain unleashed a blistering attack on his opponent as he resumed campaigning, saying Obama favors policies that “will deepen the recession.” Maybe that’s just because John McCain was in Ohio, where we’ve known this for a loooong...

H/t to Plunderbund and a tweet from Jeff Coryell.

Background: I’m someone who has needed to be persuaded as to why Barack Obama deserves my vote because I didn’t support him during the primaries (none of the GOP candidates came even remotely close to holding positions I support – they were off the table from the start; I state this as a matter of full disclosure). Once it came time to determine why I should (and could) vote for him, I decided to re-run a series I did in 2006 called the 57 Reasons to Vote No on Issue 3, which was...

I get that it’s nice to see someone who we think is like us running for president or vice president. But the fact is that even conservative voices, including conservative female voices, are chiming in that Sarah Palin is not ready and is a dangerous choice. Please – do not take what these writers and thinkers say personally – they are clearly not happy about what they are writing but they are being responsible. And Kathleen Parker of the Dallas Morning News goes so far as to say...

Hat-tip to Plunderbund for posting. I’ve not yet watched it but about three minutes into watching, the video cut out and was replaced by a screen that said “not available…try later.” I refreshed the page and it came back, but at the beginning. So just a warning.

At the post, “Sarah is the Fresh Air,” on Blogher, I found this comment today: When can she be interviewed by reporters – I find it disturbing that the McCain campaign isn’t allowing Ms. Palin to be interviewed by reporters. What are they hiding? According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, possibly never: Oh, well, wait – maybe in two weeks, said Todd Harris yesterday, a Republican strategist who was John McCain’s communications manager. Why not for...

The Plain Dealer published this op-ed, written by me, on May 5, 2005. I cannot state any more clearly why I believe parents should share with other parents, “how they do it,” and particularly a parent, such as Sarah Palin, who is holding out that status as a qualification for being second in line to the United States President. ————————- There’s no shortage of documentation about how mothers feel crushed between simultaneous responsibilities....

Gloria Feldt and Carole Joffee wrote this piece on Huffington Post in honor of the Labor Day holiday tomorrow. Please read the full post for the commentary, but here are the questions they want this GOP presumptive nominee for president to answer: First, John McCain, do you think women belong in the paid labor force? So if you accept most women will spend some of their lives in the labor force, do you believe women should earn the same as men, for the same jobs? Can you explain to us why you voted-twice-against...

No – seriously – here’s the graphic that the publisher/editor had done for my most recent Mommy Matters column: So – what do you think? Okay – just checking to see who is awake on the Sunday before Labor Day…