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Nov

7

Jeffrey Goldberg on Emanuel and Israel

Filed Under Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Israel, Jewish, Politics, PostWH2008 | Comments Off

From The Atlantic [emphasis added]:

Peace-processors take heart: Rahm, precisely because he’s a lover of Israel, will not have much patience with Israeli excuse-making, so when the next Prime Minister tells President Obama that as much as he’d love to, he can’t dismantle the Neve Manyak settlement outpost, or whichever outpost needs dismantling, because of a) domestic politics; b) security concerns, or c) the Bible, Rahm will call out such nonsense, and it will be very hard for right-wing Israelis to come back and accuse him of being a self-hating Jew. This is not to say that he’s unaware of Palestinian dysfunction, or Iranian extremism, but that he has a good grasp of some of Israel’s foibles as well….

Goldberg sounds a bit naive there, if my experience is any indication: right-wing Israelis will still “come back and accuse him of being a self-hating Jew.” This happens here in NE Ohio, where Jews call other Jews anti-Semites if they don’t pay allegiance the way the right-wing American Jews think every Jew should.

But I’m guessing that Emanuel is much like me in that regard – we just keep on knowing what we know, and let the others expend their energy labeling things left and right.  The elections have shown how that works out in the end.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:00 pm November 7th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Israel, Jewish, Politics, PostWH2008 | Comments Off 

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Nov

7

Research: “Unmarried women play critical role in historic election”

Filed Under Barack Obama, Campaigning, Elections, Gender, marriage, Politics, Sexism, Voting, WH2008, Women | Comments Off

I’m on overload but you can see all the data here if you want to review it.

Bottom line: unmarried women helped big time in electing Barack Obama and Joe Biden to be the next president and vice president.  Check out Rush Limbaugh’s serious misogyny over that fact (his “Story #6).  Hooboy, talk about more “I know you are but what am I.”  It’s an epidemic.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:34 pm November 7th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Elections, Gender, marriage, Politics, Sexism, Voting, WH2008, Women | Comments Off 

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Nov

7

Octogenarian goes from surgery to polls, had never voted before

Filed Under Barack Obama, democracy, Elections, Illness, Ohio, Voting, WH2008 | 3 Comments

The following description was written by a local lawyer who took the day off to be a poll observer on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

I want to share with you all something that epitomizes what this election has done for our country.

I was a poll observer this Tuesday, stationed at Max Hayes High School on the near west side of Cleveland.  My main duty was to assure that everyone was able to exercise her or his right to vote.  However, the effort I expended was minor as compared to that of one of the voters, showing an inspiring display of pride and dedication.

Around 12:30 in the afternoon, a young woman walked into the polling place.  The Judges asked her what I had previously thought to be a silly question, “Are you here to vote?”  She replied “No.  I was told by the Board of Elections that you could do a car-side vote for someone that can’t come inside.”  The Judges vaguely remembered their training on this issue and eventually, with some persuasion, decided how they could undertake what in their minds was surely a questionable voter tactic.  Two Judges (from opposite parties to be sure) took a clipboard, the poll book, a ballot and a pen out to the car.  What they encountered was far from a voter fraud tactic. Read more

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:14 pm November 7th, 2008 in Barack Obama, democracy, Elections, Illness, Ohio, Voting, WH2008 | 3 Comments 

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Nov

7

Bill Ayers speaks

Filed Under Barack Obama, Campaigning, John McCain, Sarah Palin, WH2008 | 9 Comments

From In These Times:

McCain and Palin demanded to “know the full extent” of the Obama-Ayers “relationship” so that they can know if Obama, as Palin put it, “is telling the truth to the American people or not.”

This is just plain stupid.

Obama has continually been asked to defend something that ought to be at democracy’s heart: the importance of talking to as many people as possible in this complicated and wildly diverse society, of listening with the possibility of learning something new, and of speaking with the possibility of persuading or influencing others.

The McCain-Palin attacks not only involved guilt by association, they also assumed that one must apply a political litmus test to begin a conversation.

On Oct. 4, Palin described her supporters as those who “see America as the greatest force for good in this world” and as a “beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy.” But Obama, she said, “Is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America.” In other words, there are “real” Americans — and then there are the rest of us.

In a robust and sophisticated democracy, political leaders—and all of us—ought to seek ways to talk with many people who hold dissenting, or even radical, ideas. Lacking that simple and yet essential capacity to question authority, we might still be burning witches and enslaving our fellow human beings today.

I’m pleased to say that this is exactly what I was telling people a week or ten or 14 days ago when I started to get questions about what I thought of the “Khalidi tape” and the suggestions people were making about Obama and Khalidi. I repeated the exact same thing just last night and just this afternoon and before that, in D.C. on election day:

Anyone who doesn’t engage with friends or acquaintances who hold opinions different than from their own is someone who seeks to only reinforce their world view and a world view that, by definition, never expands, never changes and fails to reflect the reality that is this country of 300 million.  I cannot imagine living a life in which I didn’t and couldn’t and wasn’t supposed to befriend people who have different opinions – even radically different opinions – from me.

There are few things more depressing to me than that notion.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:51 pm November 7th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, John McCain, Sarah Palin, WH2008 | 9 Comments 

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Nov

7

Stagnation Nation: Women’s wins in political races fail to accelerate

Filed Under Congress, Elections, Gender, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse, Women | 6 Comments

I’d been blogging for nearly a year and a half when the November 2006 elections turned Ohio blue (Democrats took four of the five state offices and former Congressman/now U.S. Senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown, dethroned incumbent Republican Mike DeWine).  In the course of that time, I threw my first house party ever, for then-candidate and now award-winning Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, and I observed up close and personal how support from EMILY’s List – for both Brunner and then-candidate now Congresswoman Betty Sutton (who won the race to fill Brown’s seat in the Ohio 13th) could make a difference.

But I didn’t learn about efforts like the White House Project (WHP) – a non-partisan organization that seeks to get women “into the pipeline” of elected offices and positions of leadership – until just before the elections ended. Sometime before then, I’d signed up for SheSource.org, a service that seeks to place women where currently we see, overwhelmingly, men as so-called experts (think talking head shows on cable and broadcast and talk radio).  One of the e-mails I received just before election day listed Marie Wilson, founder of WHP, as someone who would be available for interviews the day after the mid-term elections, to talk about how female candidates had fared.

I’m a sucker for primary source blogging material and thought this would be a great and unique angle. What I didn’t expect was for my three-post interview of Wilson (here, here and here) to lead to me being on the steering committee for Ohio’s own Go Run! training program, which took place in June 2008 and a permanent fixation and fascination with the efforts, achievements and struggles of women who seek political office.

I hope this post not only satiates my curiosity about how female candidates for political office fared Tuesday, but also causes others  to think about a number of questions raised by examining the state of the race to fill elected offices.

Nationally: Congressional and Gubernatorial Races

If you’d like to see a good review of the results as they relate to women candidates, please check out this pdf from Rutgers’ Center for American Woman and Politics (CAWP).

From Women’s eNews on the House of Representatives: Read more

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:39 pm November 7th, 2008 in Congress, Elections, Gender, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse, Women | 6 Comments 

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Nov

7

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s achievement

Filed Under Announcements, Elections, Government, Jennifer Brunner, Ohio, Voting, WH2008 | 11 Comments

The judging will continue through the 2010 election season when the Ohio Republican Party continues to work at discrediting Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. I have no doubt they’ll find more than enough information to present as making the case for her defeat, but in the meantime, the lack of criticism seems to be in far greater abundance and Brunner is proceeding with a summit. I’m checking into the dates and credentialing to attend the event.

SECRETARY BRUNNER ANNOUNCES OHIO ELECTION SUMMIT
Larry Norden of the Brennan Center to Chair

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Following an Ohio election widely praised as smooth and efficient, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has announced the creation of a historic Ohio Election Summit.  The Summit will be hosted by the Secretary of State and chaired by Lawrence Norden, counsel with the prestigious Brennan Center for Justice; it will draw on the expertise and on-the-ground experience of Ohio’s bipartisan elections officials.

“After this pivotal election, we have an opportunity to build on the many things that went well in this election, while improving upon what we can do better. We want Ohio to have the best-administered elections in the nation.  The Ohio Election Summit will help us use this election as a springboard to solidify best election practices that guarantee the strongest protections of democracy for the highest voter confidence,” Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, the Summit will offer a bipartisan analysis of elections administration and will focus on: Read more

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:14 pm November 7th, 2008 in Announcements, Elections, Government, Jennifer Brunner, Ohio, Voting, WH2008 | 11 Comments 

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Nov

7

Payday lenders, casino operators and adult entertainment

Filed Under Business, Cleveland+, conservatives, Economy, Ethics, Gambling, Government, Law, Ohio, Politics, Social Issues, Voting | 8 Comments

I am really confused.

Some Ohioans are upset that payday lenders are shutting down, while others are upset about casinos not opening and, just last year, many of our state legislators went like lemmings for ignoring home rule in order to also shutdown the adult entertainment industry in 2007.

The payday lenders involves job loss, the casinos issue purportedly involves job creation, and the adult entertainment matter also involves job loss.

What’s the one commonality?

All three industries make money off of people who are most vulnerable to financial ruin.

So why the different treatment?  Why?  And where is Phil Burress’s effort to get the people about whom he was so worried new jobs?  Maybe he could do the same thing for the payday lenders who are going out of business and the people who have no jobs who are waiting to get one at an Ohio casino some day – because they’re going to have to wait a long time.

I’m not going anywhere.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:55 am November 7th, 2008 in Business, Cleveland+, conservatives, Economy, Ethics, Gambling, Government, Law, Ohio, Politics, Social Issues, Voting | 8 Comments 

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Nov

7

For political bloggers, CNN addicts, now what?

Filed Under Blogging, Elections, Humor, Media, Politics, PostWH2008 | 2 Comments

NPR has a nice report on that question.  Only 1152 days to the Iowa caucuses.

Cartoon from XKCD. Hattip to Ancient Mediterranean Musings and his post on political junkie recovery tactics.

And our own Cleveland Jewish News has a web exclusive written by Ellen Schur Brown called, “A journey of 12 steps, or getting over my CNN addiction.”

An excerpt:

My name is Ellen Brown, and I am addicted to CNN.

It started innocently enough – watching TV news – something everybody does. Right?

Because of my moral weakness, in the past few months, my addiction has spread to near-obsessive tuning in to debates, conventions and election news, pre-debate coverage, post-debate analysis, ad analysis, talk shows, talk radio, talking back to the TV.

I spend more time talking to political websites and bloggers than I do talking to my family. I know the CNN schedule better than the activities at my children’s middle school. I notice when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer changes his glasses. I know where Anderson Cooper is on any given day. I wonder why Larry King wears those ridiculous suspenders.

There. I admit I have a problem, and that’s the first step of my personal 12-step program to stop following election-related news.

According to my research into addiction and recovery, I must make a decision to change my life. I must give myself over to a higher power and take positive steps toward overcoming my election obsession. I must reset my homepage from CNN.com.

Tomorrow. Right after I check my e-mail.

Love it.  Ellen, thank you for writing that, so I don’t have to confess – I can just let you suffer withdrawal for me, nu?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:50 am November 7th, 2008 in Blogging, Elections, Humor, Media, Politics, PostWH2008 | 2 Comments 

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