Towards electing women for the achievement of Equal Representation -- in a country where women hold a measly 23.7% of all seats in the U.S. Congress, well below the 30 percent benchmark set by the U.N. and chronically about 90th in the world for electing women (if you count the ties)...We are going to call it like it is and let the chips fall where they may!
(Courtesy of equalrepresentation.org)
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Time out for the the movies and the Oscars, especially for the awesome movie "Hugo" -- check out my most recent blog on FilmAnnex.com: Hugo wins many Oscars (I hope!)
Tweet -- then click HERE to access "SMOKE & MIRRORS: The Truth About the Political Status of U.S. Women" on smashwords.com..
posted by PAULAX5050 @ 1:37 PM
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(Courtesy of equalrepresentation.org)
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President Barack Obama is the the de facto head of the Democratic Party -- he calls the shots, and picked Debbie Wasserman Schultz to chair the Democratic National Committee.
It is allegedly against Democratic Party rules for the party to support/endorse one Democrat over another in a primary. And any time the party has been asked to support women for "open seats" (potentially against men who might run for those seats) in order to accelerate the election of women to Congress, we are told that it is against the rules to do anything like that...But when do the people who run the party stop being the party? In backrooms under the cover of official committees?
We have recently been reminded that "Obama plays active role in Dem Primaries" (The Hill, 2-19-12). The article notes other Obama endorsements in past cycles, but does not go back far enough to mention anything about Illinois lawmakers recruiting Tammy Duckworth in 2006 to run against seasoned candidate and Democrat Christine Cegelis for Henry Hyde's "open seat" seat in IL06 -- a maneuver aimed at the anti-war faction of the party and which resulted in the election of a Republican man. That's another story in itself, but not one to be forgotten. (Especially since now Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel sent a message out just today touting Ms. Duckworth's current campaign: "In 2006, as a member of Congress, I led the effort to recruit and elect Democrats across the country. Back then, Senator Dick Durbin introduced me to a true hero whose values and priorities still impress me today." Guilty as charged!)
Jackson, whose reelection bid is hampered by ethics controversies "[including the issue of trying to buy Obama's Senate seat and an extramarital affair with a DC waitress]," The Hill article reports, "personally asked Obama for his support at a Martin Luther King Memorial ceremony, according to nbcchicago.com. Soon thereafter, Jackson got what he wanted. Jackson is facing former Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.) in the March 20 primary."
And all that to repay an infamous political debt and to render arcame Democratic Party rules all the more hypocritical and discriminatory. When is this behavior going to stop?
The Democratic Party must stop playing these games by: suspending the selectively-used support rules at the upcoming convention, prioritizing the election of more women in the 2012 Democratic Party Platform (a real priority for political parties in most countries!), and coming up with a concrete plan to put it's money where it's mouth is towards the election of MORE women to Congress with a goal of 30% by 2020!
Whether there were any women testifying at the committee hearings on birth control coverage is not the real issue. And women just trying to get more women to run in our male-dominated, party-paralyzed system is not enough to reach the aforementioned goal. That's what history and the numbers tell us.
Women have the power (money, votes, hello!) to force real change and turn the prevailing paradigm on its head; but do they have the guts?
Tweet -- then click HERE to access "SMOKE & MIRRORS: The Truth About the Political Status of U.S. Women" on smashwords.com..
posted by PAULAX5050 @ 11:50 AM
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(Courtesy of equalrepresentation.org)
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Read my latest blogpost on FilmAnnex.com: "Still no justice for Marilyn, but Camelot is surely dead"
Tweet -- then click HERE to access "SMOKE & MIRRORS: The Truth About the Political Status of U.S. Women" on smashwords.com..
posted by PAULAX5050 @ 9:06 AM
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(Courtesy of equalrepresentation.org)
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New blogpost on my FilmAnnex.com blog includes a video with Angelina Jolie in her public service role!
Tweet -- then click HERE to access "SMOKE & MIRRORS: The Truth About the Political Status of U.S. Women" on smashwords.com..
posted by PAULAX5050 @ 3:32 PM
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Paula Xanthopoulou served for 9 years on the Miami-Dade County Commission for Women, 2 terms as president of the National Women's Political Caucus of Florida (01-05), and on NWPC’s National Board - also working on several high-profile campaigns, and was a guest speaker for the Bolivian Women's Political Caucus in La Paz. In '07, her essay “Equal Representation: Common Denominator, Common Cause” was published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in Women Moving Forward (St. Thomas Univ.). Her eye-opening eBook "SMOKE & MIRRORS: The Truth About the Political Status of U.S.Women" was recently published on smashwords.com. Paula publishes/maintains equalrepresentation.org as a hub for strategies like “Every OPEN SEAT a Woman’s Seat” and related issues/information.
