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Nov

19

Lavender Flu – National Day Without a Gay: Can’t work, I’m too gay today, 12/10/08

Filed Under activism, Civil Rights, Social Issues | 3 Comments

This idea is like a sick-out where people call in sick to demonstrate a protest about something.  From National Day Without a Gay site:

Gay people and our allies are compassionate, sensitive, caring, mobilized, and programmed for success. A day without gays would be tragic because it would be a day without love.
On December 10, 2008 the gay community will take a historic stance against hatred by donating love to a variety of different causes.

On December 10, you are encouraged not to call in sick to work. You are encouraged to call in “gay”–and donate your time to service!

December 10, 2008 is International Human Rights Day. CLICK HERE to join us, and search or add to the list of human rights organizations that need our help RIGHT NOW.

And, from Firedoglake, a link to volunteer opportunities on that day:

In Southern California, gay-out participants are readying themselves to help fire victims along with helping out other service groups, and Day Without A Gay has a a state-by-state listing of volunteer opportunities.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:50 pm November 19th, 2008 in activism, Civil Rights, Social Issues | 3 Comments 

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Nov

19

Motrin mom update: ad agencies set to blame moms for feared creativity constraint

Filed Under Business, Culture, Health Care, Parenting, Women, Youth | 17 Comments

If you’re not familiar with the Motrin Moms ad debacle, start here.

Yeah, seriously, cry me a river (behind free subscription; post is called, “Social Media And The Motrin Controversy: Or, Will Social Media Kill Advertising Creativity?”):

[My question is] about how suffering this outcry will affect advertising for Motrin, and by extension, advertising creativity itself. For that, the cure is much harder. Can we expect. Johnson & Johnson to be skittish the next time a well-meaning creative director presents something somewhat edgy to the client? Yes. Can we expect said idea, even if it makes it out of the conference room, to be focus-grouped to death before it is unleashed to the vocal masses? Yes. And are other advertisers watching the Motrin drama unfold and quaking just a little about whether the campaign they just approved has the ability to incite a riot? Sure.

So what’s a client to do? Developing a thicker skin is always a good first step, but so far in the history of advertising that’s only been achieved by the bravest of marketers. Then, there’s the art of learning not to listen to every person that complains about your advertising, realizing that if the ad is moving the sales needle, certain voices don’t matter. (In this case, the firestorm surrounding this Motrin ad doesn’t seem to make that an option.). Then, there’s the decision to run increasingly conservative advertising, until fully addressable, trackable TV advertising gives marketers enough insight into their ROI to realize those kinds of ads are ineffective. Until that time, the conclusion I draw is that much advertising will go plain vanilla, and that’s too bad for all of us.

Given the current downturn in the economy, I’m not looking for people to lose jobs, per se, but please.  Why is advertising that goes “plain vanilla…too bad for all of us”?

In fact, in lean times, all appeals should be plain and simple.  And making more with less, doing more with less, challenges rather than stymies creativity.

No can do here. The ad agency screwed up and if they are skittish because of it, then good.  They should have been more skittish before.  Since when is the mantle of creativity supposed to be shouldered by insulting people – least of all women, mothers and parents?  Not to mention the entire part of many of our lives: taking care of kids.

Someone, someones, so doesn’t get it.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:21 pm November 19th, 2008 in Business, Culture, Health Care, Parenting, Women, Youth | 17 Comments 

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Nov

19

Torture and blackouts and Kassams, oh my

Filed Under Foreign Affairs, Israel | 3 Comments

This trio of stories highlights why it is so hard to be a hardliner for any one side on the issue we calle The Middle East, which of course really refers to Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Hamas and Fatah, among other players.

Let’s pile on Israel:

Israel has imposed a virtual news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s complete closure of Gaza’s borders for the last two weeks.

Steve Gutkin, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem and head of Israel’s Foreign Press Association, said that he personally “knows of no foreign journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week.”

Gutkin said that “while Israel has barred foreign press from entering Gaza in the past, the length of the current ban makes it unprecedented.” He added that he has received no “plausible or acceptable” explanation for the ban from the Israeli government.

I am definitely piling on the Israeli government if this situation is as it’s being reported to be-which includes numerous citations of severe humanitarian challenges.

Let’s pile on the Palestinians – Hamas and Fatah:

Unity talks between the two main Palestinian political factions Hamas and Fatah failed before they even began this week following Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s refusal to release 400 Hamas prisoners held in PA jails in the West Bank.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, demanded their release as a precondition for attending the talks which were due to take place in Cairo under Egyptian mediation.

Last week Hamas released 80 Fatah political prisoners from Gaza’s jails and demanded the PA reciprocate.

According to human rights organisations, the bitter political rivals continue to imprison, torture, persecute and abuse their political opponents as the power struggle for supremacy across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank intensifies. These are the two main Palestinian territories.

The PA, which controls the West Bank, has recently stepped up its sweeping arrest campaigns throughout the territory.

Human rights campaigners say the majority of Hamas detainees in the West Bank have no relationship to the military branch of the organisation or its fundraising activities. The majority of arrests by both parties are politically motivated and have nothing to do with either security or crime, they added.

Okay – so this doesn’t make anyone real eager to engage with either of them, now does it?  Anyone else out there interested in condemning this awfulness?

Let’s pile on Hamas some more on behalf of Israelis who live in Sderot and are under another barrage of Kassams:

Residents of the hard-hit Mem-Shalosh neighborhood, on the town’s south side, had been sleeping better the last six months thanks to the cease-fire with Hamas.

Until about two weeks ago, that is, when the Israeli army blew up a tunnel that Hamas was building. The army believes the tunnel was to carry out another kidnapping operation of the kind that captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is still missing.

Since the army operation, the region has been hit by a daily barrage of rockets—about a dozen Monday, more than 30 the day before. Sixty have fallen on Sderot alone so far this month, according to the town’s security officer, returning the situation essentially to what it had been for much of the past eight years.

Do these stories make you wonder, “How can people live like that?”?

If you were there or had been there, you’d understand a lot better.

The residents of Sderot aren’t happy, but they’re also not surprised.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:57 pm November 19th, 2008 in Foreign Affairs, Israel | 3 Comments 

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Nov

19

Outgoing GOP Senator: “Engagement is not appeasement. Diplomacy is not retreat.”

Filed Under Congress, Politics, Republicans | 3 Comments

It’s still infuriating that something like that even needs to be said. What does that mean, just by itself?

From The Huffington Post:

The main thrust of [Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel's] critiques was aimed not at any individual specifically, but at a closed-off mindset that he believed had taken hold of Republican politics and, consequently, the GOP’s approach to foreign policy. “Engagement is not appeasement,” he said. “Diplomacy is not retreat. Somehow too many in this town and in this country have disconnected all of that.”

Later in the question-and-answer session, he offered an example to illustrate this quip, gently mocking those officials and voters who, for one reason or another, had problems with things from France or people who were Muslim.

“There is always going to be a certain know-nothing element to democracy,” said Hagel. “That is their choice. But in a world that is so vitally interconnected, it does help if you try to understand the other side… Ask them: ‘What is it that scares you about the French so much?’”

Could not say it any better.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:44 pm November 19th, 2008 in Congress, Politics, Republicans | 3 Comments 

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Nov

19

[update] Why it was always a miscalculation to focus on appealing to GOP base

Filed Under Government, Politics, Republicans | 3 Comments

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for linking to this May 2008 post at Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball re: how the Republican base is shrinking. I don’t even immerse myself in all things GOP, but have written about the sense that there just isn’t enough of a base to be appealing to, if winning is the goal.  But guest columnist Alan Abramowitz really makes the argument with graphs and numbers and analysis.

An excerpt:

The decline in the proportion of married white Christians in the American electorate has been going on for a long time. Moreover, the large generational difference in the prevalence of married white Christians in the contemporary electorate suggests that this trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. What cannot be predicted as confidently is how party leaders will respond to this trend. Right now, Democrats appear likely to benefit from a continued decline in the proportion of married white Christians in the electorate because this group has strongly supported Republican candidates in recent elections while voters who are not married white Christians have strongly supported Democratic candidates.

Since the potential for additional Republican gains among married white Christians appears to be limited, Republican leaders will need to find ways to reduce the Democratic advantage among voters who are not married white Christians in order to maintain the party’s competitive position. However, given the generally liberal views of this group, this will not be easy. In 2006, according to data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, 57 percent of these voters supported a woman’s right to choose an abortion under any circumstances, 66 percent opposed a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage, and 71 percent favored a single-payer health care system. Any attempt by Republican leaders to significantly increase their party’s support among voters who are not married white Christians would therefore require changes in some of the party’s longstanding policy commitments — changes that would clearly upset a large segment of the current Republican base.

Cue the Twilight Zone music because that all sounds awfully familiar if you’ve been following the Republican governors, Kevin DeWine and many other GOP pundits.

Update: Kathleen Parker with a column today echoing the same:

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I’m bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth — as long as we’re setting ourselves free — is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.

Go read the entire piece.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:13 pm November 19th, 2008 in Government, Politics, Republicans | 3 Comments 

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Nov

19

Still time! Mortgage, homeowner workshop today, 2-8pm

Filed Under Business, Cleveland+, Housing, Ohio, Politics, Resources | Comments Off

Thank you Carole for the reminder.  See more here if you want to go today.

From Carole’s original post:

Other groups/alliances are holding a Foreclosure Prevention Workshop next Wednesday, November 19th. It will be held at Cleveland State University in the Wolstein Center at 2000 Euclid Avenue from 2:00pm to 8:00pm. So if you are working the hours are terrific and will allow you time, hopefully, to attend and get more information.  The more you know about what your options are, the better off you will be.  The phrase knowledge is empowering never made more sense than when it’s applied to the foreclosure issue.

…

The groups participating are varied and have done a terrific job already, assisting millions of people – keeping them from going into foreclosure. The Hope Now Prevention Workshop on the 19th will feature The Hope Now Alliance, the PMI Group, among others. Here is an excerpt from their announcemnt on the program:

At these events, homeowners at risk of foreclosure can sit face-to-face with representatives from their lending bank to discuss what special refinancing or mortgage workout programs might be available to them.  Most delinquent borrowers are surprised to learn that banks will wave as many as six month’s worth of late payments and write down mortgage values substantially to preserve homeowners’ loans. Foreclosure is the most costly option for banks and can lead to bank failures, more than a dozen of which are already impacting the U.S. Economy.

There is also a free mortgage evaluation & checklist you can fill out ahead of time if you wish (or at least check it out on line).

There will be people at the Workshop who can help you with your mortgage issues, budget issues, credit issues.  It’s not often when you get a wealth of expertise in one spot so I hope a lot of people who are avoiding the issue take the steps needed, by starting with this workshop.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:29 pm November 19th, 2008 in Business, Cleveland+, Housing, Ohio, Politics, Resources | Comments Off 

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