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Mar
15
State governments don’t like sunshine laws? You don’t say!
Filed Under Congress, Government, Law, Media, Politics, Statehouse | 4 Comments
You know, you’d think with how many of us have been writing about sunshine laws for how long now that the MSM could come up with a better headline than that – maybe a headline that focuses on the impact of state governments’ failure to show us what they’ve been keeping out of the sun.
We’ve got plenty of examples of Ohio state legislators refusing to handover e-mails and battline with each other over what must be turned over. Here’s the MSM’s latest contribution:
While e-mail and text messaging has become a hugely popular way to communicate throughout society, governments at all levels are often unwilling to let the public see the e-mails of their elected officials.
Officially, e-mails in all but a handful of states are treated like paper documents and subject to Freedom of Information requests. But most of these states have rules allowing them to choose which e-mails to turn over, and most decide on their own when e-mail records are deleted.
“There seems to be an attitude throughout government – at all levels – that somehow electronic communications are of its own kind and not subject to the laws in the way that print communications are,” said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org.
“So we keep hearing reports of governors and mayors who decree that their e-mail records can be destroyed, in six weeks or six months, with no appraisal for permanent value and no review by an independent body,” she said.
Sounds like the idea of unitary executives is the primary trickle-down theory spreading courtesy of the Bush Administration (to wit, his refusal to sign bills that exclude retro-active immunity for telecoms that wiretapped without proper warrants or permissions).
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:16 pm March 15th, 2008 in Congress, Government, Law, Media, Politics, Statehouse | 4 Comments
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Mar
15
Women, Action and The Media: covering it as press, what do you want to know?
Filed Under Announcements, Blogging, Media, Women, Writing | 6 Comments
I found out last week that I’ve been granted Press Credentials for Women, Action and The Media, aka WAM!2008. Helen Thomas is the keynote and I am praying that folks with press creds get to have some time with her!
There are several unique aspects of this conference, but here’s one that requires input:
Saturday’s Lunch Caucuses are an opportunity to gather, network and plan with people who share your interests. Lunch caucuses are called by Conference participants — if you’d like to convene a caucus, contact us with your idea at wam2008 at centerfornewwords dot org.
Lunch Caucuses are already planned for:
Radical Women of Color Bloggers
Feminist Organizing on Campus
Starting a Feminist Writing Group
If you were to suggest that I call a caucus, what would it be? Something around age? Maybe around how to be a woman in action and the media when you don’t have as much time as you want to do action or media? What are our greatest challenges and strengths that the group gathered at this event could help utilize?
The entire schedule looks great, but I’m very interested in the pre-conference networking/meet & greet chances too.
What should I do? Who should I see? And don’t you bet I should try to use CoverItLive and my new FLip?
FYI: it’s at MIT’s Stata Center which looks like what building designed by which architect? Even I could figure that out just from the picture:
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:45 pm March 15th, 2008 in Announcements, Blogging, Media, Women, Writing | 6 Comments
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Mar
15
The take-away from Obama confronting his connection to Pastor Wright
Filed Under Barack Obama, Campaigning, Elections, Religion, WH2008 | 11 Comments
The Moderate Voice has several posts up on the topic but this is the one where I left the following comment:
What we’re seeing is Obama’s skills as a uniter in action, though not in the getting a law passed setting.
What do uniters do? They hold issues to be important, not the specific position. That enables them to speak about the issue from a variety of perspectives, and offer up finessed views that help those who do have differing perspectives hear what the speaker needs to say in a way that the listener can hear it.
That requires spin in its most classical sense: trying to re-phrase the same thing in a a way that someone else can understand it.
But the problem with this approach – this uniter tactic – in this candidate realm is that it looks much like the way people are describing it here – and that’s not in a positive light.
This is the double-edged sword for how negotiater’s negotiate. And I would posit that this is an excellent way to get a glimpse of what exactly Obama would “do” in difficult situations.
(Whether you like it, agree with it or have some other reaction about it isn’t what I’m addressing at this point.)
Personally, I thought Barack Obama was done with this topic a long time ago. I get it already. He’s taking a position that many of us take on many issues. Big deal. I’m not sure why people feel the need to keep pressing. I’ve written about this over and over on other issues: people’s need to have people apologize or denounce or endorse (or slam for that matter) in order to show that they feel a certain way that other people want them to show they feel is a waste, because who can trust an apology, denouncement, endorsement or slam that comes from such pressure?
However, to the extent that we can analyze the skill or lack thereof in how an individual handles the pressure, that is valuable. And the more analyses there are on how Clinton and Obama react to pressure, the more accurately we can predict how they might act as CIC.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:04 am March 15th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Elections, Religion, WH2008 | 11 Comments
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Mar
15
Vanity Fair excludes Tracy Ullman from funniest women feature
Filed Under Media, Women, Writing | 10 Comments
I noticed the omission of Tracy Ullman right away. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think the women who were featured aren’t funny – I actually only know of a few of the ones profiled in the story.
But how could a list of current funny women not include Ullman? Don’t tell me that it’s because she hasn’t done anything lately or that she’s not American (Ullman is a naturalized U.S. citizen). She belongs on this list. I don’t actually find Amy Sedaris or Sarah Silverman all that hysterical, though I know a lot of other people do.
For comparison, here’s Christopher Hitchens on why women aren’t funny.
This is Tracey Ullman. But she’s been around a long time.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:19 am March 15th, 2008 in Media, Women, Writing | 10 Comments
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Mar
15
Nominate your favorite female blogger
Filed Under Blogging, Campaigning, Civil Rights, Culture, Media, Social Issues, Women, Writing | 1 Comment
Womens Voices. Women Vote is an organization that “…started with one goal in mind: Improving unmarried women’s participation in the electorate and policy process.”
However, the information and resources that WVWV provides can help all women, and all voters. They put my 57 reasons for anything to shame with their 20 million reasons to vote. (I’ve promised that I will blog 57 reasons to support whichever Democratic wins the nomination to run for president in the general election. But 20 million? Not even I can do that without trickery (like, say…the 20 million kids who…or the 20 million workers who…oh, okay – I might use that tactic on a few reasons, but not as the basic framework for the reasons.)
The group’s research on unmarried women is truly unique.
Since earlier this month, WVWV has been running a Favorite Female Blogger campaign. I forwarded the information to several other bloggers who have kindly posted about it (here, here, here and here) and now I am too. I realize it’s just a popularity contest, bla bla bla, but it’s still interesting to see which blogs might wind up in there.
Women’s Voices Making History: Vote for your Favorite Female Blogger
During Women’s History Month, help make women’s voices heard.
WVWV is honoring those women that have utilized the internet to amplify their voices.
Nominate your favorite blogger by March 21, then check back to vote for your favorite among our top 10 women bloggers.
Remember to visit WVWV.org later in the month to vote for your favorite in the first round.
Go here to nominate as many as you like. Can’t think of any? Check out this list of more than 300 female political bloggers, or the index at BlogHer. I’m not going to give my own list because I’m afraid I’ll leave out someone – but there are many, many great female bloggers in Ohio alone, and your nomination can be of someone who blogs about anything. She just has to be well, a female, a blogger and your favorite.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:41 am March 15th, 2008 in Blogging, Campaigning, Civil Rights, Culture, Media, Social Issues, Women, Writing | 1 Comment
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Mar
15
Some good links and information for Pi Day (3.14, get it?) are at Science Friday’s show yesterday. You can listen to the show from the left-hand sidebar audio slider.
Ira Flatow ended the show with this appropriate song:
By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:59 am March 15th, 2008 in Education, Media, Science | Comments Off
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