Obama Wins!

Obama just won the election. My baby can be born now. :)

Obama Wins Election - NYTimes.com

Graphic design + Politics

Logoblink has an interesting collection of presidental logos from 1960 to the present. It's makes for a fun scroll. USA political election logos 2008 - 1960

I caucused

I caucused by Corinne S.

I'm not sure you can use caucus as a verb, but I will anyway. ;-) My caucus was in the gym of the local elementary school and there were 12 precints meeting there. It was very crowded and steamy hot--a lot busier than our 2004 caucus. There were about 100 people in my precinct and we had 5 delegates. We sent 4 for Obama and 1 for Clinton. I put forward a resolution to choose our delegates using the primary instead of a caucus for greater inclusiveness and to avoid the "rounding" that happens at the precinct level. The caucuses are interesting, invigorating, and build a sense of local community. I still think primaries are the way to go Gor delegate allocation though. Hell, if I had my druthers we'd abandon the delegate system altogether and have a populist vote nationally. I'd also love to see all of the state primaries on the same day across the country. It would be harder on the candidates in terms of visiting all the states, but it would even the field in terms of influence between the states.

I've been swayed

I haven't been crazy about Hillary for a while. I wasn't sure if I liked Obama or any of the other Dems that much either. Now of course it's just down to Clinton v. Obama and the WA Dem causus is coming up on the 9th (more info). So I'm reading and exchanging ideas with folks. I was already liking Obama more and more over the last few months, but didn't feel knowlegeable enough to make a call. The NYT editorial I posted earlier got me thinking. Then some email conversations on GeekPIC, plus this endorsement article from The Stranger sealed the deal. I'm going Obama on the 9th. Read The Stranger article: Our Endorsement for President for the February 9 Caucus

Obama v. Clinton--Get Out the Gloves

I read an interesting editorial today that compares Hillary's and Obama's economic philosophies. The author is Obama-inclined, but it's a thoughtful comparison and worth reading even if it's not completely evenhanded. Read the New York Times editorial: Democrats: More Than Health Care

Less corporate abuse. Yay!

Good news from the Washington legislature (via Foster Pepper PLLC).

"The Washington Legislature passed a third bill that restricts employers from obtaining credit reports for employment purposes unless the credit information is “required by law” or “substantially job related” and the employer has disclosed the reasons for using the information to the job applicant or employee. The legislation was signed by the governor on April 18, 2007 and will become effective on July 22, 2007.

[This law] requires employers to obtain consent before procuring a consumer report from a consumer reporting agency. While earlier versions of the bill contained exceptions for certain industries, such as banking, the version that passed the Legislature did not contain specific exceptions."

Still Just 77 Cents for Every Dollar

I got a message recently from the National Organization for Women (NOW) about pay equity. Apparently women are still only paid 77 cents for every dollar men are paid. The current administration would like to stop collecting data on women workers altogether, rather than standing up for the rights of women workers to be free from discrimination and paid what they are worth. April 24 is Equal Pay Day—the day women workers finally "get out of the red" and their earnings catch up with men's earnings for all of last year. One thing you can do in favor of pay equity is to ask your U.S. senators and representative to sponsor the Paycheck Fairness Act introduced last month by Democrats Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Rosa DeLauro. The Paycheck Fairness Act aims to reduce the pay gap in several ways:

1. Enhances the enforcement of requirements of the Equal Pay Act and require a stronger commitment from the Department of Labor in its responsibilities to women workers.
2. Provides for training programs for the people who deal with matters involving discrimination in the payment of wages.
3. Requires that the EEOC to gather more comprehensive and useful data from employers—without imposing additional reporting and paperwork requirements—that can be used in the enforcement of federal laws prohibiting pay discrimination.
4. Finally, the bill prohibits employers from punishing employees who share salary information with co-workers.

Send a message to your legislators about the Paycheck Fairness Act. If your legislator is already a co-sponsor then the email will be a thank you message, otherwise the message will encourage the legislator to sign on. Learn more about pay equity and what else you can do.

Tell Congress to make accurate sex ed a priority

More politics. This one is from NARAL Pro-Choice America. An independent report released late last week proves that President Bush's ideological "abstinence-only" programs do not work. The report, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that students in abstinence-only programs are not more likely to abstain from sex or delay when they become sexually active. If you have the time, I recommend checking out the"executive summary" on pages 13-24 of the full report (PDF). Here are a few illuminating excerpts:

• Since 1998, $50 million/year in federal funding has been allocated for abstinence education programs
• A matching block grant program requires states to match this federal funding at 75%, resulting in a total of $87.5 million annually for abstinence education programs
• Abstinence education includes definitions that teachers must uphold, including the directive to teach that "a mutually faithful, monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity," "sexual activity outside the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects," and "bearing children out of wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society"
• The results of a multi-year study of 2,057 youth found that youth in abstinence education programs were "no more likely than control group youth to have abstained from sex and, among those who reported having had sex, they had similar numbers of sexual partners and had initiated sex at the same mean age."
• "Overall, the programs improved identification of STDs but had no overall impact on knowledge of unprotected sex risks and the consequences of STDs. Both program and control group youth had a good understanding of the risks of pregnancy but a less clear understanding of STDs and their health consequences."

The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act would create the first-ever federal sex-education program. Not only is Bush's abstinence-only approach ineffective, the programs mislead teens and censor teachers from giving students the truth about contraception. Congress should support honest, age-appropriate, and medically accurate sex education that promotes abstinence and provides young people with the information they need to protect themselves. Urge your Congressional representatives to co-sponsor the REAL Act.

How to start each day with a positive outlook

1. Open a new file in your computer.
2. Name it "George W. Bush"
3. Send it to the trash.
4. Empty the trash.
5. Your PC will ask you, "Do you really want to get rid of "George W. Bush?"
6. Firmly Click "Yes."
7. Feel better.

Next week we'll do Karl Rove.

We're so damn smart

A new study by the Pew Research Study shows that viewers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank nearly dead last. Read about it.

...Liberally

I just learned about this interesting sounding thing called Drinking Liberally. It's a collective of gatherings for progressives to talk over drinks. There are "chapters" all around the US. Apparently it's part of the Cosmopolity family, which also includes Laughing Liberally (comedy), Screening Liberally (movies), and Reading Liberally (books). Someone on the liberal email alias at work had this to say about the weekly Seattle Drinking Liberally gatherings.

The crowd is friendly and well-informed, usually around 20-30 people, sometimes a few more. Goldy and Will from Horses Ass go, Stefan Sharkansky from Sound Politics shows up once in a blue moon (there are a couple conservative/libertarians that come), and Joel Connelly from the P-I is usually there. Sandeep Kaushik (formerly of the Stranger, now works for Ron Sims) comes, and some of Cantwell’s old campaign staff sometimes shows up. And then a bunch of local bloggers/Democrats/liberals that just like to hang around, chat, and have a brew. It’s pretty lively, but very informal unless Nick invited an elected to speak; then we’ll take a formal pause for 10 minutes or so while they talk.