The New Agenda Blog

The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.

In an earlier post, Halane Hughes explained perfectly well why Kay Bailey Hutchison is the perfect pro-woman candidate who will work for benefit of all women. Kay Bailey Hutchinson understands the importance of bi-partisanship. Women’s rights should never be a partisan issue. Now, I want to explain why Kay Bailey Hutchison is the perfect pro-Texan candidate who will work for the benefit of all Texans and why Rick Perry is anti-Texan.

Few citizens in Texas like Rick Perry’s policies. In 2003, he received $175 billion from the company CINTRA to build the Trans-Texas corridor that would take away over 584,000 acres of the people’s land through eminent domain to create a massive system of tollroads costing 10-20 cents per mile as opposed to the normal four cents per mile.

According to David M. Bresnahan of the Texas Toll Party, once the state legally takes away people’s land using “eminent domain” statutes, land and natural resources will be “turned over to private corporations to make profits.”
Bresnahan reported that over 30 counties have formally opposed the construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

According to Jerome Corsi, as many as one million people will be displaced from their current residences by the corridor construction, and “dozens of small towns in Texas will be virtually obliterated in the path of the advancing TTC behemoth.”

Shortly after the controversy over Perry’s corrosive corridor began, I became of legal age to vote. I cast my voice to decide the 2004 election, but I had to wait for the next Gubernatorial election. In 2006, I joined 60% of Texans in voting against Perry. I voted for Democrat Chris Bell. Unfortunately, that 60% was split between three other candidates, one who treated politics as a joke and another who was full of bombastic gimmicky language. (more…)

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We’re at the finish line:
This week the NYS Senate will decide the fate of Senator Hiram Monserrate, the senator convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge for slashing his girlfriend’s face (more info here).

The bi-partisan NYS Select Committee gave the Senate 2 options: “censure” or “expel.”Democratic Conference Leader, Senator John Sampson (D) is considering bringing a resolution to censure, not expel Monserrate.

It seems that Sen Sampson is okay with putting partisanship ahead of women’s safety and moral authority!  The New Agenda says “no how, no way!

No wonder our country is in such a mess! Where are the women?

For all those of you who comment that Coakley isn’t good enough because….or Hutchinson isn’t good enough because….or Palin isn’t good enough because…..well, what woman is good enough???

And look at the awful mess our country is in being run by a meeting after meeting of ALL or mostly all men!

There was a seemingly positive article in The New York Times on Friday called Palin, Visible and Vocal, Is Positioned for Variety of Roles. As I read the first part of the article, I thought, hmm, maybe the NYT can come around to finally giving some balanced coverage to one of the most visible female politicians of our time.

There article starts off innocently enough, making the point that most of us have realized:  That Sarah Palin has a huge national following – and numerous prospects for her future in public life:

Her growing cast of advisers and support system could be working in the service of any number of goals: a presidential run, a de facto role as the leader of the Tea Party movement, a lucrative career as a roving media entity — or all of the above. Ms. Palin represents a new breed of unelected public figures operating in an environment in which politics, news media and celebrity are fused as never before. Whether she ever runs for anything else, Ms. Palin has already achieved a status that has become an end in itself: access to an electronic bully pulpit, a staff to guide her, an enormous income and none of the bother or accountability of having to govern or campaign for office.

NYT Photo Selection

But shortly thereafter, the reporter on this story, Mark Leibovich, breaks down into old predictable patterns – what we have learned to expect from reporters at the NYT since their biased coverage of another powerful woman, Hillary Clinton, when she ran for office.

First off – look at the picture selected of Palin (seen here).  Honestly, is that photo appropriate for the nature of the story?  Or is it meant to make her look silly and not serious?

Here’s the ever so predictable attempted of a female politician – she is difficult to get along with (my emphasis added):

As she jumps more into the national political swamp, Ms. Palin is proving as divisive in Republican circles as she was within the fractious McCain campaign.

Oh I see Mark.  Because she is strong and a woman she is “divisive” in Republican circles.  While Romney, Huckabee and the rest of the gang are playing hopscotch. (more…)

Ladies! Keep your ears open for an exciting announcement on Monday. A woman will be announcing her candidacy for Congress. Her victory will be historic as she will become the first woman to serve Mississippi in Congress. That’s right. Mississippi has NEVER sent a woman to the House of Representatives OR the Senate. She would be the first! This opportunity for history comes in the form of a Tea Partier, Republican, African American woman, Angela McGlowan.

Friday, she was the first speaker at the first National Tea Party convention. There’s that word again: first. I like it! I hope to hear it again in November. In her speech, she all but declared her candidacy and took a head-on shot at her rival too. The video is long, about 10 minutes, but worth it if you want to get a feel for who she is. Here are some highlights:

I truly believe that we can take back the Congress, put some folks back in there that are from our walks of life that can actually make a difference. Not people shucking and jiving, not people lying, not people telling us one thing at home and then going back and voting with Nancy Pelosi. We’ve got a congressman that represents my district, the first district of MS, and he’s about to lose is job. I’m just letting you know right now. (applause) He’s about to lose his job.
…
And if y’all don’t know him, his name is Congressman Travis Childers. (more…)

This coming week, the New York State Senate will decide what action to take against Senator Hiram Monserrate.  Monserrate was convicted in October of a misdemeanor assault charge for slashing his girlfriend’s face. For those of you unfamiliar with the Monserrate case, you can read here.

A bi-partisan panel of State Senators (the Select Committee) came up finalized their report on January 13, 2010.   You can read the full report here. Here’s part of the recommendation (p.53, emphasis added):

Accordingly, the Select Committee recommends that Senator Monserrate be sanctioned by the full Senate, and that the Senate vote to impose one of two punishments: expulsion, or in the alternative, censure with revocation of privileges.

The New Agenda has been informed that Democratic Conference Leader, Sen John Sampson (D) is considering bringing a resolution to the Senate floor this coming Tuesday to censure Monserrate.  Seems that since the Democrats hold the majority by a small margin (32 to 30), Sen Sampson seems okay with putting partisanship ahead of women’s safety and moral authority!

The New Agenda has also been informed by Sen Cathy Young (R), that she will do the right thing if Sen Sampson does not.  She will bring a resolution to the Senate floor demanding the Sen Monserrate be expelled!

Now We Need Your Help!
In order to bring a resolution to the floor, a simple majority is needed – or 32 votes. (more…)

Ealier this week, Amy Siskind and Marcia Pappas, President of NOW-NYS wrote an op-ed at The Huffington Post, Harold Ford: Get Your Sexism Out of NY.  In the op-ed, Siskind and Pappas discuss their earlier experience with David Goldin, current spokesperson for Harold Ford – former public relations person for Sen Hiram Monserrate.

The op-ed was mentioned in a Daily Kos piece yesterday, NY-Sen: Ford’s flack problems — fibs and the LIEberman connection. Here’s the piece in full on David Goldin:

Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency has, allegedly, only hired flacks so far in his Bloomberg-sponsored and funded campaign to unseat the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

Davidson Goldin is the basic campaign flack, hurling insults at Gillibrand at every opportunity, and Tammy Sun will be filling in for him for two weeks while he’s honeymooning, and may work for the campaign once it staffs up.

Goldin has been a nasty attack-dog flack from Day 1, and a fibber several times. He also flacked for state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who will soon be booted from the Senate for a vicious assault on a woman friend.

Sun was press secretary for Joe LIEberman in his 2006 general election campaign, when LIEberman well earned having the first three letters of his name capitalized.

Details, below.

• devtob’s diary

Goldin has been dissing Gillibrand for almost four weeks to the eager-for-a-bloody-primary NYC media. (more…)

A pro-Perry blogger read my Kay Bailey Hutchison piece and is under the impression that acknowledging Kay’s pro-woman record will actually hurt her chances of winning. To use his words, my post:

…reads like an attack hit sheet put out by Rick’s peeps.

He then excerpts my piece including all of Kay’s pro-woman accomplishments. If you believe the blogger, you would assume Rick Perry is pro-rape, thinks women should get paid less than men, has an inferiority complex when it comes to women trailblazers and has some kind of issue with Ladies Home Journal. Ouch! That doesn’t sound like the kind of “peep” I would want governing Texas or any state for that matter. Surely this blogger must be wrong.

In his closing line, he paints a scary picture of Texas, saying my post:

is almost as bad as having David Duke endorse you in Harlem…

Is the pro-Perry blogger saying Republicans in Texas are woman haters? Now there I know he’s wrong! Kay was elected to the Senate in 1993 and Texas voters, Republicans included, have been re-electing her ever since. They obviously don’t have a woman problem in Texas.

Brava Texas! Go Kay!