Exciting News!!

29Mar07

It definitely feels like SPRINGTIME in NYC and around the Nation – each year at this time, everyone begins to thaw out and feel the re-birth of the flowers, trees, and ideas! Even a doll like me is feeling the energy from what’s happening on the streets … and there is some good news to announce!

First, Trickydame and I are proud to announce that we have a political campaign manager, Mz America (aka Amanda Meade). Trickydame met Mz AM at an ALL GIRL ACTION party a few weeks ago. As she was chatting and handing out the Tom 4 Prez! fliers, she was very excited to hear these words come out of a woman’s mouth – “I should be Tom’s political campaign manager!” Eyes wide -Trickydame said, “Yes you should” and guess what she is! After a few meetings to discuss ideas and strategies.. it’s happening.

WHO IS Mz America… well, she grew up in tennessee joined the navy like many Southerners do and served as a fire fighter. A veteran of the gulf war, moved to new york in 1992 and has done many, many jobs over the years among the proudest are writer, activist and volunteer. Mz Am just returned from a 2 year stay in London where she received her MA in Political Communication and met many fabulous and inspiring pepole all across Europe and from all over the world. Happily she is back in NYC and looking forward to sharing the Magic Passion Love of Tom and his bid 4 prez ’08

Look for blogs by her in the very near future – her first blog is Sunday, April 1!
No FOOLING!

Now I know this is exciting news and what could be more exciting that my own Political Campaign Manager … Women’s Leaders Put ERA Back on Agenda!

Yes, that’s right , you read it correctly! Trickydame receives emails from Women’s eNews. (www.womensenews.org) and she highly recommends you signing up for it and donating money to such good reporting about women from around the world! Today in her INBOX she saw this Women’s Leaders Put ERA Back on Agenda!

WOW! This has been something that has been around for a really long time and is one of my TOP ISSUES in my Tom 4 Prez! campaign.

Can you believe that the Equal Rights Amendment was first unveiled in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1923 at the 75th anniversary of the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention. Congress passed the amendment in 1972, but it died a decade later because it failed to win ratification by three-fourths of the states within a pre-set time limit. So here we are in the 21st Century with no ERA … I’m very happy to hear that women political leaders are once again talking about this – I will make sure we have many conversations about this on my campaign trail.

Here is an excerpt from the article written by Allison Stevens – Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)–Lawmakers and advocates vowed this week to revive a moribund effort to pass legislation that would amend the U.S. Constitution to guarantee equal rights for women.

New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney reintroduced the Women’s Equality Amendment Tuesday, telling supporters at a news conference on Capitol Hill that the legislation stands a better chance at winning ratification in this Congress than it has at any time in recent years because of the changed political climate.

Two House Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the amendment, backed up Maloney.

Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers of Michigan and New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, both pledged to hold hearings on the amendment this year. They have not yet set a date for the hearings, which would be the first since the 1980s.

“We are tired of running around stopping inequality when it rears its ugly head,” Maloney said, adding she has “great hope” the amendment will pass Congress this year.

The new push for the amendment–also known as the Equal Rights Amendment–capped off a two-day conference here sponsored by the National Council for Women’s Organizations that drew hundreds of advocates from across the country to lobby Congress on issues ranging from women’s health to workplace rights to violence against women.

The National Council for Women’s Organizations is a clearinghouse of women’s groups in Washington that represents more than 10 million women.

Conference participants–including Feminist Majority Foundation President Ellie Smeal and National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy–laid out a national agenda that included a host of proposals including bills that would reduce unintended pregnancy, grant workers paid sick leave and fully fund federal programs that combat violence against women.

Also near the top of the list is an international treaty to ban discrimination against women. The United States is the only developed country in the world that has not signed the 1979 treaty, known as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW.

…
Concerned Women for America, an advocacy group in Washington that opposes the ERA, issued a release saying the amendment would actually undermine gains by the women’s rights movement because it does not allow for different treatment of men and women. That, according to the group, would make agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration’s Office on Women’s Health and the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women unconstitutional.

“The ERA is a simplistic, naive effort that would not allow any distinction between men and women and is limited to actions by the government, not individuals, businesses or private entities,” Concerned Women for America President Wendy Wright said in a statement. “The ERA would be used to do far more harm than good.”

Supporters say the bill is needed, among other reasons, to defend existing gains, such as Title IX, the 1972 law mandating gender equality in institutions that accept federal funds, which has been challenged by the Bush administration.

“As it stands now, what judges and lawmakers giveth, they can taketh away,” Maloney said.

Allison Stevens is Washington bureau chief at Women’s eNews.
Women’s eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at editors@womensenews.org .
For more information: Equal Rights Amendment: – http://www.equalrightsamendment.org

AND THAT’S NOT ALL … Hillary Clinton was asked this week is she a feminist and she basically said “HELL YES I’m a feminist!”

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