Posts Tagged elections

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On Wendy Long (and other women candidates who couldn’t care less about women)

Feministing Editor Emeritus Ann Friedman has said it before, and it’s become a kind of mantra here:

A woman candidate is not the same thing as a woman’s candidate.

New York GOP candidate for U.S. Senate Wendy Long pretty much embodies this statement — and she’s strongly vying for Senator Kristen Gillibrand’s seat. Luckily there’s a really strong distinction between the two: One actually gives a shit about women.

In fact, Long seems to be running for the Senate seat on an anti-women, anti-choice platform. In a recent interview (skip to 1:45) responding to Gillibrand’s focus on equal pay, she point blank denied that the gender pay gap existed (ahem), adding that it’s a “phony regulatory issue, like ...

Feministing Editor Emeritus Ann Friedman has said it before, and it’s become a kind of mantra here:

A woman candidate is not the same thing as a woman’s candidate.

New York GOP candidate for U.S. Senate Wendy Long ...

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What the Wisconsin election results mean for the future of progressive activism

There’s no way around it: the results of yesterday’s election in Wisconsin suck. In case you haven’t heard, Republican Governor Scott Walker defeated Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee with 53 percent of the vote in a recall election that put it all on the line. The recall vote was only able to take place through tons of hard work and grassroots organizing by Democrats after Walker’s despicable union busting legislation inspired thousands of protestors to take to the streets last year. You may remember some of the iconic images of workers and union supporters and others swarming the Wisconsin Capitol.

But what about actual labor organizers? How are they feeling about all of this?

I spoke to Michelle ...

There’s no way around it: the results of yesterday’s election in Wisconsin suck. In case you haven’t heard, Republican Governor Scott Walker defeated Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee with 53 percent of the ...

Rich white dudes will spend a billion dollars in upcoming elections, still ‘meh’ about equal pay for women

News reports from Politico and others show that a cast of conspicuously color-coordinated (read: white) conservative characters including the likes of Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers are pledging a billion dollar shadow campaign to defeat the President. That’s billion with a b!!!

The $1 billion in outside money is in addition to the traditional party apparatus – the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee – which together intend to raise at least $800 million. Which means that Steve Benen was right when he said that Obama would be facing “a far-right wall of at least $1.8 billion between now and Election Day. To say this is without precedent in a major democracy is a dramatic understatement.”

In the ...

News reports from Politico and others show that a cast of conspicuously color-coordinated (read: white) conservative characters including the likes of Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers are pledging a billion dollar shadow campaign to defeat ...

Florida Gov. Rick Scott begins voter disenfranchisement tactics, targeting Latinos

Many of us know what an exceptionally heinous human being Florida Governor Rick Scott is, and he’s won that title pretty easily over the past few years: vetoing funds for rape centers during Sexual Assault Awareness month, cutting funding to programs for people with disabilities (while conjunctively calling for billions in corporate and property tax cuts), supporting immigration legislation that would exempt white people — these are just a few of the gems he’s brought to the state of Florida.

So what is his new pet project? To disenfranchise potentially thousands of voters in efforts to win Mitt Romney the presidency. Think Progress reports: 

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) has ordered the state to purge all “non-citizens” from ...

Many of us know what an exceptionally heinous human being Florida Governor Rick Scott is, and he’s won that title pretty easily over the past few years: vetoing funds for rape centers during Sexual Assault ...

Breaking: Rick Santorum suspends presidential campaign

Ding dong, the dick is done:

Facing mounting pressure and the prospect of an embarrassing loss in his home state of Pennsylvania next week, Rick Santorum suspended his campaign for the presidency today.

“We made a decision over the weekend that this presidential race is over for me,” he said at a press conference in Pennsylvania moments ago. “We will suspend our campaign effective today.”

While folks may look back almost fondly on Santorum’s race as “that wacky conservative” who was to the nth extreme (and boy, did he give us content), let’s not forget how alarming it is that he came in second to Romney — his extreme social conservative ...

Ding dong, the dick is done:

Facing mounting pressure and the prospect of an embarrassing loss in his home state of Pennsylvania next week, Rick Santorum suspended his campaign for the presidency today.

“We made ...

Caterpillar

GOP Chairman Reince Priebus compares women to caterpillars


Not a woman.

Oh, this is just too good: RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had the loveliest thing to say yesterday about the discussions around the GOP’s “war on women” that’s been dominating the political landscape as of late:

“If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we’d have problems with caterpillars,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing this weekend. “It’s a fiction.”

I’ll admit I’m kind of loving how these GOP tactics to try to dismiss this conversation as silly and meaningless are just further trivializing ...


Not a woman.

Oh, this is just too good: RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had the loveliest thing to say yesterday about the discussions around the GOP’s “war on women” that’s been dominating the political ...

Coca-Cola pulls support for group connected to voter suppression

The right wing funded group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and it’s generic sounding name has been connected to two recent and wholly unrelated stories.  You may have heard of ALEC recently for lobbying with the NRA for the horrific “Stand Your Ground” law in Florida which allowed George Zimmerman to walk out of a Sanford police station after killing Trayvon Martin.  Because of the “Stand Your Ground” law, Zimmerman was able to claim “self-defense” (even though all evidence points to him stalking and then shooting Trayvon) and use lethal force.

The latest is that ALEC is also connected to voter suppression efforts across the country. For that reason, Color ...

The right wing funded group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and it’s generic sounding name has been connected to two recent and wholly unrelated stories.  You may have heard of ALEC recently for

Aung San Suu Kyi’s Party wins election

Yesterday, Myanmar’s government confirmed that dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party , the National League for Democracy, won a sweeping victory in the nation’s weekend by-elections. National state radio and television reported that Ms. Suu Kyi’s party won 43 of the 45 open parliamentary seats.

Calling the results a “a triumph of the people” Suu Kyi’s party won a victory that marks an important turn for her  political career and for her nation as it emerges from a half-century of military rule.

Change in Myanmar began in November 2010, when then-new President Thein Sein instituted a set of national reforms. One important element of these reforms included engaging in a dialogue with Nobel Prize winning opposition ...

Yesterday, Myanmar’s government confirmed that dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party , the National League for Democracy, won a sweeping victory in the nation’s weekend by-elections. National state radio and television reported ...

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