Change We Can Believe In

QUESTION: “But on AIG, why did you wait — why did you wait days to come out and express that outrage? It seems like the action is coming out of New York and the attorney general’s office. It took you days to come public with Secretary Geithner and say, “Look, we’re outraged.” Why did it take so long?”

OBAMA: “It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.”

= the best bit of Obama’s press conference tonight.

Gainesville Says No

Unofficial results from Gainesville are that the good citizens of the historic Florida town voted no to turning back the clock and getting rid of LGBTQ discrimination protections.

58% No on Amendment 1 (and 42% Yes) according to Mara Keisling of NCTE & Allyson Robinson of HRC.

Good news! Not only that, but the “keep crossdressed men out of bathrooms” schtick didn’t work. Go Equality Gainesville!

The Love

Okay, so I’m going to say it: I love Barack Obama. There are days I come home & worry about the uncertainty of my own life for the next couple of years, & then I see him and his rapidly-graying hair, & it consoles me to know that what I’ve got to deal with is nothing in comparison.

He’s a truly remarkable man. His talk tonight in CA was so reassuring. It amazes me that he has room to be funny while he’s dealing with all this bullshit we’re neck-deep in.

1 of 100 Women

Pam’s House Blend reports that Mara Keisling is one of the many women who have been invited to participate in an announcement ceremony.

Mara Keisling, for those of you who don’t know, is a lesbian-identified trans woman who is also the executive director of NCTE.

(Toldja he was trans-inclusive.)

(Thanks to Pam & Diana in CT.)

This Is What?

How hot is this?

You can get a year’s subscription to Ms. Magazine AND this nifty poster for $35.

The other day while writing my Blog for Choice post, I realized it was the first time I wrote one with a pro-choice president in office.

& The Global Gag Rule has already been repealed.

There is nothing sexier than a guy who is a feminist & who backs it up with legislation.

(I promise I’ll stop posting about President Obama soon. Okay, maybe not. But I’ll try not to, promise.)

Blog for Choice

Today is Blog for Choice Day. It’s been 36 years since Roe V. Wade, & while a lot of feminists are breathing easier as a result of Tuesday’s inauguration of Barack Obama as our new president, you can’t really ever stop worrying about the way they get our laws all over our (female) bodies.

In a nutshell, I’m pro-choice because

  • because this planet is too crowded
  • because abortion will always be available, but it will only be available to wealthier women if it’s illegal, which is class discrimination
  • because women deserve to decide their own lives & when & how they want to have children
  • because they never, ever report on where the father is when a teenaged girl leaves her baby on someone’s doorstep (or in a local dumpster, etc).
  • because women don’t always choose when they’re having sex, even if they’re not raped
  • because younger women, especially, may not have the self-confidence to insist on safe sex

(But it really is a huge relief to have a pro-choice president. At last.)

More Wow

It’s really incredible: watching the Obamas walk hand-in-hand (which is beautiful in & of itself) to the White House just blows my mind. I’m not sure it’s actually sunk in yet that we actually pulled this off. Damn.

& What a mess he inherited, but still it’s incredible.

Here are some of the references made today, either directly or indirectly:

  • Lowery opened with the words of what’s called the “negro national anthem” – called “lift every voice and sing” – originally written to introduce Booker T Washington.
  • tanks into tractors = swords into plowshares. Interesting choice for a wartime president.
  • the reference in the poem not just to picking cotton but to picking lettuce, which was a reference to the UFW & Cesar Chavez.
  • Feinstein mentioned the ballot or the bullet, which is Malcolm X’s most famous speech.

Anyone catch any others?