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Mar

6

[video] This Week in Women Leaders: Kaptur and McCaskill

Filed Under Congress, democracy, Government, leadership, Marcy Kaptur, Politics, Women | 2 Comments

From earlier this week, we have Ohio’s Marcy Kaptur (D, CD-9) who told a fellow legislator to stop name-calling:

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And yesterday, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) states specifically, simply and for the record, how the senators who were decrying that earmarks not be in the ARRA (and they weren’t) but voted no anyway, all have ones for themselves in the current budget bill:

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Hattip Stubborn Liberal.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:15 pm March 6th, 2009 in Congress, democracy, Government, leadership, Marcy Kaptur, Politics, Women | 2 Comments 

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Mar

6

Daily Exclamations (March 3, 2009)

Filed Under Cleveland+, Law, Marcy Kaptur, Mary Taylor, Ohio, Politics, Women | 3 Comments

Daily affirmations are

a process of conscious thought or prayer that a person might repeat or affirm during the day. They are usually a sentence or two, which may be the same thought on a daily basis, or may be different.

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The idea of daily affirmations is that they tend to focus on a positive thought upon which you can dwell, which can uplift the mind, make you feel better about yourself, or help you feel supported by the divine.

Many people take daily affirmations quite seriously, and find that these moments of thoughtful concentration help keep them focused and balanced throughout the day. A certain portion of the world does mock the practice. The Saturday Night Live character Stuart Smalley, for instance, became famous for his daily affirmation “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” While this is a silly interpretation of the practice, it should be noted that things like praying daily, or boosting self esteem with a simple thought are not a bad thing, and may help people stay centered and focused on a positive approach to living.

Well, I’ve been trying to come up with a way to include on this blog all the news, information and thoughts that strike me as news, information and thoughts worthy of being put on the blog. But many times, these items are nothing more than pieces of information or thoughts that I blurt out while watching something while I’m sitting in the car listening to the news while I wait for one of my kids, or I’m thumbing through my newsletter emails on my Blackberry while I wait for one of my kids, or I’m reading the newspaper somewhere – while I wait for one of my kids.  You get the idea.

Prolific as I may be, I still don’t blog about 80% of what I’d like to – maybe not even 90% of what I’d like to.

So, I started thinking about how a lot of these items are just exclamations – they are things that get stuck in my head as defining the tone of the day, the news of the day, the dominating event through which the rest of the day might get funneled – for better or worse.

The way those thoughts punctuate my day gave me the idea to start Daily Exclamations – a daily blog post with links to those things I’d probably put in caps if I was that kind of blogger because in real life, I probably was shouting about it at the television or the windshield or the empty waiting room chairs, but in blog life, I just want to share what caught my attention, with a thought that maybe it will catch yours too, and if it doesn’t, maybe it should.

Because after all, when you read some news headlines or ticker captions, or hear some commentary, don’t you find yourself repeating it, over and over, as if to affirm that someone really said what you thought you just heard?

Here are the Daily Exclamations for Friday, March 6, 2009 (this list is going to be long and unwieldy but I will try to organize it by topic – I’m cleaning up not quite 200 unopened tabs – I know I know…):

Ohio

From NewsNet5, Redistricting to determine which [Cleveland city] council seats will go where – The deadline is April 1.  Realneo has pdfs of the handouts from the community meeting that was held 3/4/09 to discuss the plans (they were posted by Ward 15 council member, Brian Cummins). Henry Gomez of the Plain Dealer shares impressions of the meeting here. Adding in: An Ohio Daily Blog post on the subject – worth the clikc.

Read or watch Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s State of the City.  Here’s the PD’s cribbed version.

Wow! The Ohio Republican Party finally decides to cover the dissent left of center folks have with President and previously candidate Barack Obama. Playing the game that seems to be most popular these days, Which Media Personality Best Represents the Opposition For Your Purposes?, the ORP points to Rachel Maddow as evidence that “even liberals are railing on” the president. Ya know, I guess they’re missing that big ole Accountability Now group that is raising millions of dollars specifically to support political candidates who can push Obama in the direction they want (because, you know, they oppose his trajectory).

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-9) scolds a fellow legislator for name-calling in this video. I love it.

Ed Morrison has posted an atlas in progress in order to “reframe the conversations about the future of Northeast Ohio toward a tighter focus on education and innovation.” I haven’t had time to really examine it but it looks like a very interesting application.

I didn’t trust Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor’s protestations about Ohio Governor Ted Strickland’s “failure” to get her what she says she needs in terms of documents and data to do an audit of the administration for 2008 and my instinct was right.  This doesn’t make the gov’s administration blameless, but also undermines and makes look shrill Taylor’s extremely public and prolific fingerpointing.  Read a far more complete story that you’ll hear from Taylor here.

Journalism, blogging, social media

Fabulous video of NPR political commentator Daniel Schorr (brother of CWRU MSASS professor, Alvin Schorr – someone has got to write a book on what these two men have accomplished in their lives) learning how to use Twitter.

The Citizen Media Law Project provides an update on the status of federal shield legislation in the 111th Congress and examines whether bloggers will be left out.

A caricature of me as a superwoman won the Parenting Publications of America Silver award for interior illustration. Here’s the comment:

This attention-getting illustration gets to the point with a caricature of a mom who carries all the important ecoutrements of her job. The playful super-hero colors enhanced the first impression readers have.

Women

A video re-mix, to the tune of Right Said Fred’s Too Sexy, of former congressman Dick Armey letting us know how he feels about spousal units and Joan Walsh (hattip to her here where there’s an accompanying video of President Obama talking about the women in his life at the Lilly Ledbetter Act signing).

Legendary pollster Celinda Lake on how the “Gender Gap in Politics Is Invite for More to Run.”

Ask and she shall receive: The White House Project is amping up its Go Run! program again so that there will be more invitations to women to run. Go Apply! (there are nine three-day training sessions, like the one I helped organize in Ohio last year, scheduled already)

I think the writer shows a bias that I don’t know if I agree with in this article,  “Called into action with kids at home: Where do military moms’ loyalties lie?” The latest re-asking of that question arose because of the case of Lisa Pagan.

Wonderful post about International Women’s Day,which is this Sunday. The post features reflections from Gloria Feldt, Deborah Siegel, Elizabeth G. Hines, and Courtney E. Martin.

Law

When I was an ombuds, workplace violence was on the rise and becoming alarming to many ombuds. I can’t imagine how they’re feeling about federal appeals court’s rejection of a law that banned guns in workplace parking lots.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:23 am March 6th, 2009 in Cleveland+, Law, Marcy Kaptur, Mary Taylor, Ohio, Politics, Women | 3 Comments 

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