Just finished watching the stream of Obama's New Mexico women's meeting on CNN.  Kinda hard to tell how many were in attendance but it couldnt have been more than 30 people, all female. We all know about the ridiculous stories in the MSM of women unsure, put-off, or just down right angry at Obama.  None of this came through in the town hall.

I know it is much now in US because of the presidential election. And it is much about it here in Sweden too. The result is important for the whole world. But: still: there is to much silence about the loss of human rights in Iran. I got an urgent message about this today and want to forward it to the rest of the progressive world.

A friend of mine, emailed me this story on how women got the right to vote. It's hard to believe that it really wasn't that long ago when women were denied their civil rights and could not vote.
The short story is based on the HBO documentary entitled "Iron Jawed Angels." A chilling tale about the suffragists who braved all odds to see that all Americans have the right to vote.
I put together a funny youtube video starring the Hallmark darling Maxine... Even found a video on the Hallmark site called Maxine for President to add a bit of an uplift to the sad story written by an unknown writer... Video and story below... How Women Got The Right To Vote Website
On Youtube

With rumors that Joe Biden may be the vice-president nominee, most of the talk has been about his expertise in national security and foreign policy.

But there's something he did that is much less known, but is very significant. How significant? Biden called it, "The single, most important legislative accomplishment in my 32-year-old career in the Senate."  

So what was did Biden do?  Joe Biden is the Senator most responsible for federal policy to combat violence against women.  He took on the issue, learned a good deal about it, and got a bill passed under difficult political circumstances. And he has not left this issue alone. He has continued to be a leader in the fight against violence against women.

The first of these bills was the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which was part of a much larger crime bill.  The bill introduced new provisions against interstate stalking, created grants for state and local programs, and increased funds for training prosecutors and police officers. It also created an office dedicated to these issues within the Department of Justice.

Move-On.Org needs our help.

MoveOn.org mobilizes its 3.5 million members to stop the Bush Administration's attempt to define contraception as abortion. RH Reality Check is cited as source.

Original at RH Reality Check.

These days, when I sense that the folks I'm talking to are likely Republicans, I usually begin talking politics by expressing doubts (as opposed to saying outright I'm for Obama) about Republican failures and the McCain candidacy.

HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt blogs again about the proposed HHS regulations that redefine contraception as abortion, without mentioning the word contraception. But he demonstrates he knows how to play the game of far-right ideological abortion politics.

Written by Scott Swenson and originally published on RH Reality Check.

Actually, not McCain per se -- but some one in his employ. This person is Taylor Griffin, a veteran of the Bush White House and Treasury Department, who serves McCain as a senior adviser. His idea is contained in a leaked memo, the "Economic Communications Plan", obtained by the Huffington Post. The core of this memo is that McCain should target the economy as an issue with a specific focus on families. This is actually a smart plan.

While some are still talking about it, it seems that Hillary Clinton's chances of becoming VP are pretty slim -- about 8%, to be exact. It's still possible she might be chosen, but let's go with the odds for a moment and assume that she is not. How might she improve her image, build herself a lasting legacy, and remind the droves of Democrats like us of why we so admired her in the first place?

I have a suggestion, which would be very simple in theory, but in practice would require a good deal of sacrifice on Sen. Clinton's part: Hillary should come out and publicly endorse the idea of a female Vice President, and ask that Obama take herself out of consideration.      

This infuriates me.

We can blame the media all we want but the democrats don't get off the hook. It's like this contest is Obama against the entire republican party.

The other day McCain Offered his wife to the Sturgis Buffalo Chip contest. the crowd roared and most media outlets simply reported it light heartedly alost with a giggle if they reported it at all.

What? That's it?

John Shadegg's record on issues impacting women is disgraceful.

Shadegg voted last week against HR 1338, the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that would create a training program to help women strengthen their negotiation skills and enforce equal pay laws for federal contractors.

It’s nearly incomprehensible; John Shadegg just voted against equal pay for women.

When our girls do well in school, get good jobs and work hard, they better receive the same compensation as men who do the same job. This vote is one example of Shadegg's extremism on issues impacting women in our society. It's disgraceful.

Written by Nancy Duff Campbell & Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-Presidents
National Women’s Law Center

At the National Women’s Law Center, we have fought stereotypes about women for more than 35 years. Stereotypes that say girls aren’t good at sports and science. That women are better suited to serve coffee than to serve in the military. That women are too emotional to be in positions of power... to name just a few.

As we all know, those stereotypes are ridiculous. But it’s impossible not to notice that there are quite a few points where women and men differ in the poll results we’re releasing today. [There is a key area where women and men have similar views –- Roe v. Wade. Watch a video of Marcia discussing the surprising poll findings around this issue at the end of this post.]

http://nwlc.blogs.com/...

The public recently witnessed the lack of basic care that people are subjected to at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn, New York.  A woman was left for dead in the middle of the hospital’s psychiatric ward waiting room as staff did nothing but walk away.  The evidence in the New York Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit against the city proved that this was not an isolated incident (it just happened to be one of the only ones caught on tape).  Unfortunately, New York City's government is not learning from this catastrophe and taking sufficient steps forward to examine their hospitals - Women's eNews is reporting that the city is refusing to participate in a state review of maternal deaths and racial disparities, despite the fact that New York City has the highest number of maternal deaths and one of the largest populations of African-American patients in the country.

House passes Paycheck Fairness Act
http://www.pay-equity.org/...

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: JULY 31, 2008

By a vote of 247 to 178, the House passed the Paycheck Fairness Act on July 31.

The credit for this victory for working women goes in large part to

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who has sponsored the bill since its

introduction in 1997 and has been untiring in her support of it.

A Left Anchor Original

I know some of this has been covered already, but if you keep reading, I think you'll find we've added in some nuggets to fight that bad case of Mondays.  So read on, and put a smile on your face, because McCain's got serious structural defects in his current support, while our guy is outperforming even our best expectations on a broad away of demographics.

The LA Times takes up the increasingly spreading meme that Obama is "presumptuous" and "arrogant."  Talking to world leaders, planning a transition to the White House, putting his campaign logo on the tail of his plane -- just who does this guy think he is?

Fox News host Sean Hannity told viewers last week how "presumptuous" Obama had become. Proof: The candidate told congressional Democrats that the world had been waiting for his hopeful message and that to some he had become a symbol of a "return to our best traditions."

It gets even better below the fold.  Keep reading.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin today:

Women voters aren't warming to 'cool' Obama

July 30, 2008

BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

The Obama campaign has a woman problem. How big? How small? It's not clear, but in a close election, small can be big.

Terrific lede! Except ... Obama's polling among women actually IS quite clear, according to a Research 2000 poll released three days ago:

QUESTION: If the election for President were held today, who would you vote for if the choices were between Barack Obama, the Democrat, John McCain, the Republican, Bob Barr, the Libertarian, or Ralph Nader, an Independent?

       OBAMA  MCCAIN  BARR  NADER  OTHER  UND
                                               
ALL     51%    39%    3%     2%     1%     4%

MEN     45%    45%    4%     2%     1%     3%
WOMEN   56%    34%    2%     2%     1%     5%

That's a 22-point lead among women overall, Ms. Marin.

But don't let a little thing like empirical evidence mess with the premise of the day's "Obama's got a [fill in the day's demographic] problem!" story. Especially when you have a whole lot of anectodotal crap to cram into a column somewhere, like how Michelle Obama pleaded for support in a roomful of well-off, well-dressed women who seemed disposed to vote for her husband, but hey ...there is still a woman problem, damn it, because the writer has to shoehorn in a little "human interest" crapola to justify her columninizing existence. Enter ... Sarah, angry McCain-supporter news junkie who thinks Obama is "like the organic chicken at lunch. Sleek, elegant, beautifully prepared. Too cool."

But the women Obama needs right now are the ones who do not dine downtown. They're the ones who can't afford organic anything, forced to choose between a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk because they can't buy both on the same day.

Women like Sarah.

What's particularly irritating about this column is that near the end, Marin actually does cite a poll ("The July 15 Quinnipiac University poll shows women overall backed Obama over McCain 55 percent to 36 percent.") ... yet we're delivered the stupid lede and premise anyway. So it's not even the case that she's unaware of how Obama is polling among women overall.

Yeah, Obama might have a woman problem, all right. It just might be Carol Marin.

Update by kos: For more context, check out the 2004 exit polls. Kerry won the female vote 51-48. So while Kerry won that vote by just three points, Obama leads that demographic by 22.

A real problem for Obama, yes.

Imagine a world in which SCHOOLS have all the resources they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.

I remember seeing this as a poster and bumper stickers when I was growing up.

My Mom often baked for these bake sales, as all moms seem to do. We'd raise a couple hundred, maybe, but never enough to rehab the playground or buy books for an entire grade, not in my rural Ohio school district. However, today, I'm encouraged that if anyone can make sure that schools can get the resources they need, we're looking at the leadership that can get this done.

UPDATE

This diary is NOT about NCLB, it is about a major change in leadership and the promise that change holds for the future.