The Re-Ignited EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

The Re-Ignited EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT
ERA is BACK ~~!!

Monday, March 22, 2010

THANK these Florida legislators for sponsoring ERA 2010

THE 2010 CHAMPIONS OF ERA IN TALLAHASSE -- DO THANK THEM NOW

(Your Equal Rights Alliance has already launched the 2011 ERA Campaign for supporters!! "We don't fool around...!")

HCR 8003 - Equal Rights for Men and Women

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION by Jenne (CO-SPONSORS) Brandenburg; Braynon; Brisé; Culp; Fitzgerald; Garcia; Gibson; Heller; Kriseman; Long; Nehr; Pafford; Planas; Rader; Robaina; Saunders; Schwartz; Skidmore; Soto; Steinberg; Williams, A.

Equal Rights for Men and Women: Ratifies proposed amendment to U.S. Constitution relating to equal rights for men & women.


SCR 1192 - Equal Rights for Men and Women [SPSC]

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION by Joyner (CO-SPONSORS) Aronberg; Detert; Rich; Justice; Jones; Gelber

Equal Rights for Men and Women [SPSC]: Ratifies the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to equal rights for men and women.


Do thank these stalwarts for ERA, many of them are under fire for cosponsoring ERA and stand chances to lose their hard-won committe posts! They risk "being taken 'to the woodshed'". I kid you not. Sandyo


PREVIOUS YEARS' SPONSORS AND COSPONSORS are listed at www.RatifyERAflorida.net. Click there to see if your own FL legislators are STANDING UP FOR YOU FOR ERA!

By early MAY 2010, please search out or ask us WHO, AMONG YOUR OWN FL LEGISLATORS HAS NOT NOT NOT CO-SPONSORED. THEN, make an appointment asap to see them. DISTRIBUTE our validated Talking Points from a previous blog here. THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO HELP ERA AS SOON AS SESSION ENDS IN MAY, and AGAIN IN THE FALL, STARTING SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, NOVEMBER.


We cannot continue to do this without wholehearted and full efforts from YOU and all who say you care about equal treatment for women and men in Florida/the Nation!

Thanks IMMENSELY, sandyo



Saturday, March 20, 2010

Green Is The Color of GREED !

SPEAKING OF THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AS "BIG BUSINESS" THAT IS BEHIND THE BLOCKADE OF FLORIDA'S ERA BILLS (Ref. the previous blog, March 20)...

or, WE KNEW GREED WAS BEHIND ERA BILLS' OPPOSITION, DIDN'T WE!

How insurers make millions on the side

PHOTO PROVIDED BY NASDAQ
Paresh Patel, chairman of Homeowners Choice Inc., rings the Nasdaq opening bell on Aug. 4, 2008.
Published: Monday, March 15, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 11:16 p.m.

Today, nearly half of Florida's home insurance is provided by companies whose primary profit comes not from insuring homes but from diverting premiums into a host of side ventures.


Investors and executives in 2008 moved $1.9 billion in policyholder money out of heavily regulated insurers, where profits are capped and dividends are restricted, to separate companies that are owned by the same people, housed at the same address and sometimes use the same employees.

As soon as the money is moved, it is beyond the reach of homeowners who might need it to rebuild after a disaster.

It is also free to be paid to investors and owners as profit without interference from regulators.

Meanwhile, insurance executives complained about losses and state-mandated discounts, and pressured state regulators for permission to charge homeowners more -- even to end rate regulation altogether.

The payments to themselves, by and large, were legal.

As Allstate and State Farm have fled the state and left homeowners scrambling for coverage, Florida lawmakers have intentionally relaxed rules designed to police insurance company profits. Regulators hoped the promise of profits would persuade investors to start more insurance companies.

The Herald-Tribune spent more than a year investigating the Florida insurance industry, including reviewing the financial filings of more than 70 Florida-only companies that now provide nearly three-quarters of the private property insurance in the state.

It found that:

• Overhead costs -- expenses not related to hurricanes or other disasters -- are 50 percent higher in Florida than the national average. The higher overhead cost Florida homeowners an added $900 million in 2009 alone.

• In cases where the Herald-Tribune could see both sides of the ledger, the overhead charges were inflated. Of the $72 million in management fees that Southern Oak paid its affiliate over five years, nearly half -- $35 million -- was profit, insurance regulators now say. Three other carriers paid themselves an average 44 percent profit.

• Some insurers devote so much of their premium to reinsurance and paying related companies they have little left for claims. Even in its first months of operation, state financial examiners said, American Keystone was structured to spend more than it collected.

• Insurers have contracted so much of their work to unregulated sister companies that some are essentially shell operations with few employees. Homeowners Choice, for instance, pays one affiliate to negotiate reinsurance contracts and another to manage policies, and buys catastrophe protection from a third.

• Lax state rules encourage executives to pay sister companies as much as possible. The Legislature barred regulators from requiring insurance affiliates to report their finances.

• Even while complaining of losses, Florida insurers from 2006 through 2008 paid $38 million in bonuses and $32 million in other perks to 180 of their officers.

The state industry's chief trade group, the Florida Insurance Council, defends internal deals as a way to provide quick returns to start-up insurance companies. Regulators bar insurance companies themselves from paying dividends to investors until they have been in business at least three years.

"Investors would simply not provide funding without generating some return each year as they are putting up money with a risk of total ruin," said Sam Miller, vice president of the council.

Others say self-dealing increases the chances of ruin.

"The companies are taking profits out as opposed to keeping it for future losses," said Frank Cacchione, CEO of TNC Management, a New Jersey company that sometimes audits insurers' books for private reinsurers. "When the insurance company fails, they haven't lost any money. In fact, they've made a lot of money."

HOW INSURERS GUARANTEE PROFITS

Most of the money redirected from insurers -- $710 million in 2008 alone -- goes to companies called managing general agents, or MGAs, which run insurers' day-to-day operations.

Part of these fees pay legitimate expenses, such as agent commissions. But a yet-unpublished analysis by the Insurance Consumer Advocate, an independent state position created by the Legislature, found that Floridians pay 50 percent more for overhead costs than the national average.

Florida residents paid an average of $434 per policy toward insurers' operating expenses, the analysis found. Across the nation, the average was $289.

And because MGA fees are set as a percentage of total premiums, when insurance companies get rate increases, the MGA fee also goes up. Regulators in December granted Olympus Insurance a 25 percent increase to cover reinsurance. The advocate's office objected, noting Olympus already has one of the highest expenses of Florida insurers. The MGA would automatically receive $2 million of the $11 million rate boost for no added work.

"Do these functions cost more in Florida than the rest of the country? I don't think so," said Advocate Sean Shaw. "But somehow this is happening."

The Florida Insurance Council defends MGA profits. After surveying some of its members, the trade association said MGA profit margins are only 3 percent to 5 percent of total premiums -- an amount vice president Sam Miller said "is not considered excessive and does not involve a great amount of premium."

However, calculating MGA profit as a percentage of MGA revenue -- the traditional way of figuring business profit margins -- shows MGA profit margins ranging from 25 percent to 50 percent.

SIDE VENTURES TURN LOSSES INTO PROFITS

Because Homeowners Choice, an insurer based in Clearwater, is publicly traded and must file financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it offers insight into how self-payments work.

Financial statements filed with insurance regulators show the insurer posted a $5.6 million loss for the first nine months of 2009.

"We did?" asked Jay Mahdu, the vice president of marketing and investor relations for the two-year-old company.

He was more familiar with Homeowners' holding company filings with the SEC, which at the time showed a $10 million profit.

(Year-end reports filed earlier this month reported 2009 losses of $650,000 for the regulated insurance company and 2009 profit of $11 million profit for the holding company.)

"There is so much business in Florida that, managed well, you can do very, very well," Mahdu said.

Homeowners Choice turned an insurance "loss" into a stockholder profit mainly in this fashion:

Homeowners Choice paid Homeowners Choice Managers $24 million (and $2 million more to others) in 2009 for management services that cost $15.4 million.

It paid $9 million to Bermuda-based Claddaugh for reinsurance, almost all of which was likely profit because, according to state regulatory filings, none of it was used to pay claims.

Homeowners concedes its profits come from itself, but says the money is pumped back into the insurer as capital contributions that allow it to offer insurance to more Floridians.

"We haven't taken any money out," Mahdu said. "It's all about growth for us."

Homeowners has issued no dividends to investors, but three company directors collected $1.4 million by charging for services through their own private ventures.

In 2008, Homeowners Choice paid $400,000 to lease its computer billing system from a software company owned by Paresh Patel, founder of Homeowners Choice. The contract requires that Patel's insurance company is the firm's only client. Patel was also paid a total of $525,000 in bonuses for the past two years.

Another owner/director, developer Gregory Politis, leases Homeowners part of the third floor of a Clearwater office building he owns, for $150,000 a year. And in 2008, Homeowners paid $643,000 for legal services from the firm of another director, Martin Traber.

Mahdu said the many Homeowners Choice subsidiaries are the artificial construct of corporate attorneys.

"There is no such thing as the division. A Homeowners employee is a Homeowners employee," he said. "At the end of the day, we live and die on the bottom line. It doesn't matter which entity posts a profit or loss."

PAYING AFFILIATES FOR BACKUP COVERAGE

One way insurers move money out of the regulated business is by forming their own reinsurance companies. Essentially, they sell insurance to themselves.

In 2007, one of the reinsurers with which United Property and Casualty did business was a Grand Cayman Island reinsurer called Caymaanz.

What made the transaction stand out was how much United paid for reinsurance from Caymaanz.

In return for $6.5 million in storm protection, the Florida property insurer paid Caymaanz $6.5 million -- $5.5 million for the coverage and $1 million for the purchase of Caymaanz stock.

If there had been a hurricane, United would have gotten back essentially what it paid in. Without a storm, Caymaanz and its owners walked away with an untaxed, unregulated profit. Don Cronin, chief executive of United, said he did not remember what United made on the deal.

One of the Caymaanz owners was also a United director. Florida incorporation records show Caymaanz is owned by a Tampa workers compensation insurer named Sunz. One of the Sunz Group directors, according to the records, was Ocala horse feed manufacturer Greg Branch -- at the time also the chairman of United Property and Casualty.

United did not report the transaction as an affiliated purchase because, said Cronin, "it didn't meet the technical definition."

No-risk reinsurance deals in which firms basically pay up front what they expect to collect were at the root of former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's financial fraud investigations of the insurance industry in 2007. In the aftermath, regulators adopted restrictions on such deals.

Cronin said the Caymaanz contract passed that test because it also included prepaid coverage for a second hurricane. Under the right conditions, Cronin said, United could have collected $13 million, twice what it paid for the coverage.

He would not say who arranged the transaction, but said Branch, chairman of United's board and chairman of Sunz's reinsurance committee, abstained from the board vote approving it.

DEAL HELPS BANK, BUT NOT POLICYHOLDERS

While it is common for Florida-only insurers to do business with themselves, Hillcrest Insurance did a deal with its founder that cost policyholders.

In early 2009, according to filings with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Hillcrest Insurance bought $600,000 in bank stock from the insurance company's founder, Vernon D. Smith.

Seven months later, the stock -- in a banking group that Smith owned -- was written off by the insurer as worthless.

The purchase is noted in the quarterly NAIC financial filings. Hillcrest's March 31 report to regulators identified Smith as the "vendor" who sold it the stock, while other filings describe the shares as coming from a company director.

Smith did not return phone calls to his home. Neither did his daughter and son-in-law, who serve as Hillcrest's chairman and CEO.

They formed Hillcrest in 2005, with 90 percent of its ownership coming from a family trust that state incorporation records show Vernon D. Smith controlled.

Smith was regarded as a pillar of Florida's community banking scene. Over decades he had organized three different "Riverside" banking groups with branches stretching from St. Augustine to Cape Coral. He was a major donor for Indian River Community College, owner of a small newspaper chain and adviser to the Florida Highway Patrol.

But at the time of the stock purchase, Smith's Riverside banking empire was in trouble. One group was beset by financial rating downgrades and bad loans, another was closing offices, and the third was seized by the FDIC.

It was in that environment that Hillcrest reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners that it paid $600,000 for 4,000 shares of stock in Riverside Banking Co.

By September, the insurance company wrote off that purchase, declaring the stock worthless. The company's filings show the write-down contributed to a $680,000 loss that September. To pay its bills, Hillcrest pulled money from its policyholder surplus, reducing the amount of money set aside to pay future claims.

The Herald-Tribune also attempted to reach Smith and his family through their insurance company, without success. There is no Hillcrest office to contact. The company pays the Tower Hill insurance group to run its business.

"We're what you call a 'virtual operation,'" said Hillcrest chief finance officer William Thompson, who earns his $172,000 salary working from Tallahassee.

Subsequently, on Dec. 21, Hillcrest sold the shares to a charity. The reported buyer, Big Brothers Big Sisters of St. Lucie, paid $1,000.

EXECUTIVES ACCUSED OF STRIPPING MILLIONS

Florida homeowners are still paying the $810 million bill for the failure of the Poe Insurance Group, the costliest property insurance failure in state history.

State investigators now believe the bailout was made worse by executives grabbing tens of millions of dollars before regulators could close the deteriorating company.

They did it by funneling money into unregulated sister companies, steering the money to investors and owners instead of to homeowners, according to allegations laid out in a civil court case filed by Florida Insurance Receiver's office in Leon County Circuit Court.

Over four years, through what the court complaint alleges was a "fraudulent scheme," Poe founder and former Tampa Mayor William Poe Sr. received more than $30 million. Another $1 million went to his nonprofit foundation.

In addition, instead of paying hurricane claims, Poe's managing agency paid off $25 million in debt for which Poe was personally liable and kept $35 million in premium fees it did not earn, the complaint states.

That money could have helped thousands of Poe customers left with worthless insurance after the 2004-05 hurricane season and forced to seek payment through a state solvency fund. Instead it enriched company insiders or softened their financial losses, the state argues.

Attorneys for the Poe family would not comment, citing pending litigation. But statements made in court show that while they contest the allegation of fraud, they do not dispute the amounts taken -- just whose money it was. They contend the family put most of what was not eaten up by taxes back into the insurer.

"There is no insurance company monies that ever went to the Poes," attorney Harley Reidel said in a court hearing last year.

The Poe family has responded by filing for bankruptcy protection and seeking federal court orders barring the state from pursuing its claims in circuit court.

The insurers left behind $1.5 billion in policyholder claims and less than half the money needed to pay those bills. Florida consumers are on the hook for the rest, as fees on their own home premiums from the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association.

LOOPHOLE LETS PROFITS SLIP THROUGH

Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation polices almost every aspect of the insurance industry.

But when it comes to following the money paid to affiliates, the OIR is largely benched.

Lawmakers intentionally made it so.

Like most states in the mid- 1990s, Florida adopted model laws aimed at regulating how insurers use managing companies called MGAs.

But in Florida, the Legislature added words excluding the most common kind of managing agent in the state, those controlled by the insurance company's owners.

So there are laws that require managing agents to charge a fair rate and allow regulators to audit their books, and laws that impose penalties for violators.

But those laws do not apply if the insurance company owners form their own MGA and charge themselves for the services.

"Enabling insurers to have wholly owned MGAs operate without oversight, that's what I see is the problem," said Shaw, the insurance consumer advocate.

Florida's insurance industry trade group says regulators and insurers have worked out a compromise -- inserting language into management contracts that stipulate regulators have a right to look at certain financial reports.

Officials at the Office of Insurance Regulation refused to say how often they conducted such reviews, contending it was a "legal research question" the agency did not have resources to answer.

At least twice, the agency has ordered insurers to reduce their MGA fees. In the case of First Home, affiliates were also ordered to return $1.3 million in management fees.

On Tuesday, Southern Oak was ordered to show why it should not be required to return $10 million in "excessive profit," a portion of the $35 million in profit regulators said the MGA made off the insurer since its inception in 2004.

Southern Oak CEO Tony Loughman said those profits were "consistently" invested back into the insurance company. Annual financial filings show Southern Oak paid $72 million to its managing agent since 2004, returning only $12.6 million.

A second order, signed Friday, allowed Southern Oak to keep its MGA commissions as they are, but to return a portion of them if the insurer loses money.

The fees OIR sought to restrict were approved by the agency in 2004 -- when the company was launched by a former candidate for governor, Stephen Pajcic, a prominent Democrat who also owns a Jacksonville law firm -- and again in 2005 and 2007.

In interviews, the state's insurance solvency chief said that in the past, her office did not look at the flow of secondary profits through affiliates, because it allowed company owners to pay off their own loans used to start the insurer.

Allowing these profits "facilitated more capital to our marketplace" said Robin Westcott, solvency director for the agency's property insurance division.

OIR is now paying more attention because, she said, "it can be manipulated to take money out of the

companies."

COMING SOON: Florida regulators cut corners and look the

other way even as they acknowledge the danger.



ERA News: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

ERA Bill Update; New Scrutiny of US Progress on Issues including Women's Status

Florida's monolithic House Leadership once again refuses to hold fair hearings on the Equal Rights Amendment ratification bill, thus stalling it in the Senate, too. This, for the EIGHTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
After working 7a to 7p for so long in preparation for each of Alliance's annual grueling assaults on the Florida capitol's inhabitants, legislators as mostly Republicans, I have this to say.

THIS IS NOTHING SHORT OF A CLASS WAR! Forget the smokescreen claims of Daffy Schlafly's subscribers that it will make all of us become lesbians and run for abortions, or go to war, or attack men, or become prostitutes...

It is but a monolithic campaign to "save" Big Business from having to pay women equal wages. Leaders are Big Insurance, which pays into politicians' coffers like no other Big Business. No amount of logic, calls for compassion for those who have their babies, provide home services, and pay taxes, etcetera, will work. We must regroup and recoup for a different kind of war for the freedoms and liberties and equalities that SHOULD BE OUR BIRTHRIGHT.

We'll be calling on all nurses, teachers, librarians and EVERYONE, male and female alike, to become armed with our Talking Points, and TO COME WITH US TO TALLAHASSEE NEXT YEAR TO HELP US LOBBY. No longer can we do it without a massive turnout.

PLEASE ANSWER THE CALL WHEN WE ASK YOU EARLY NEXT YEAR. Women and men alike cannot continue to "Wait" for a propitious time and committee for ERA to be heard. We must DEMAND it. There is power in numbers and in your voices. UNLEASH THEM FOR THE ERA!

Sandyo, ERA Inc

NOW, THE GOOD NEWS: HILLARY TO THE RESCUE ONCE AGAIN!


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that, for the first
time, the United States will participate in what's called the
"universal periodic review" process, run by the U.N. Human
Rights Council, The Washington Post reported March 18. The United
States will submit itself to the process this fall, in which the
nation's record, including that on women's rights issues, might be
judged.

"Human rights are universal, but their experience is local. This
is why we are committed to holding everyone to the same standard,
including ourselves," Clinton said in the article.

The 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council was established in March 2006
to replace the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. George W. Bush's
administration refused to join the council, citing its nondemocratic
makeup and its frequent criticisms of Israel, the article reported,
but the Obama administration reversed that decision last spring.



Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that, for the first
time, the United States will participate in what's called the
"universal periodic review" process, run by the U.N. Human
Rights Council, The Washington Post reported March 18. The United
States will submit itself to the process this fall, in which the
nation's record, including that on women's rights issues, might be
judged.

"Human rights are universal, but their experience is local. This
is why we are committed to holding everyone to the same standard,
including ourselves," Clinton said in the article.

The 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council was established in March 2006
to replace the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. George W. Bush's
administration refused to join the council, citing its nondemocratic
makeup and its frequent criticisms of Israel, the article reported,
but the Obama administration reversed that decision last spring.

Says Sandy: YAAaaaaaaaayyy for us from Hillary !

Thursday, March 18, 2010

ERA Bill HCR 8003 is to get a hearing finally??

MIAMI-DADE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN lobbies Florida's House Speaker to HOLD A HEARING ON THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT RATIFICATION BILL on Monday, March 22, 2010


Subject: Deadline tomorrow for ERA on House Committee Agenda
Please note this letter sent to Rep. Carl Domino (850) 488-0322 --

March 18, 2010

Representative Carl Domino
Chair, Civil Justice & Courts Committee
Florida House of Representatives
By Facsimile/Email

Representative Domino:

We are acutely aware that you have not yet put HCR 8003 (Ratification of the ERA) on the agenda of the Civil Justice & Courts Policy Committee. This is extremely troubling.

We also understand that a concern is that time to ratify the ERA may have expired, regardless of the ratification of the Madison Amendment in 1992 after being considered for more than 200 years. While some might argue that the Madison amendment is not relevant to the ERA, no one who serves in public office can honestly argue that women should be denied equal rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The matter of expiration must be decided by Congress and perhaps the courts – and so there is simply no acceptable reason not to hear the bill and forward the matter of equality for women. In 1998, Florida voters voted by 65-35 for Revision 9 to the Florida Constitution for equal rights for women; thus ratification of the ERA would now be consistent with the will of the people of Florida.

ERA ratification bills have been reintroduced each year since 2003, and every year the result in the House has been the same: no action whatsoever. Doing nothing only serves to perpetuate ongoing discrimination. Is that the goal of those who say Florida shouldn’t proceed with these bills?

It is time for Florida Legislature to do the right thing and finally stand for equality for women, a right denied for far too long. Otherwise, we must surmise that you, your colleagues simply do not support the rights of women – some of whom are your sisters, wives, daughters, and granddaughters. As we see it, silence and inaction on HCR 8003 are exactly the same as voting no, and those who do nothing must be held accountable in this election year.

Hopefully you and House leadership can turn this very unfortunate situation around before time runs out again.

Sincerely,
Carmen Elias-Levinson
Chair, Miami-Dade Commission for Women

cc: Speaker of the House, Rep. Larry Cretul
Speaker Pro-Tempore, Rep. Ron Reagan
Members of the Civil Justice & Courts Policy Committee
Representative Evan Jenne

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sandy O IS AWAY, LOBBYING FOR YOU, FOR YOUR ERA, IN THE CAPITOL

Wish me luck, ERA Supporters.

I am headed to the hills of Tallahassee, FL, to beard our legislators in their dens there once again, a 6 hour drive and a Motel 6 stay for an extended period.

This is my 8th foray to our capitol to persuade your legislators to HEAR the ERA bills, SCR 1192 and HCR 8003! Although THIS time I have someone coming along for support and help, it's tougher than usual. Besides, she goes home after one day. The hills seem steeper and I couldn't get Handicapped Parking for my car as my docs say "You're too healthy". So, why am I gasping by the time I climb the 3 flights of granite steps to the capitol's front door?

The other hard part is that the committee of first reference is packed with The Other Side. Stony-faced prosecuting attorneys make up the bulk of the committee! Toughest audience I'll EVER have, probably.

Best part is dragging myself home. This time I must do that 2 days after I get there, as the St Petersburg FL Chamber of Commerce has nominated me for their Woman of Distinction Award. GREAT CHANCE to get the word out about ERA since the papers won't follow our work. The ads which keep them alive are paid for by Big Business who SURELY don't want to pay women EQUAL WAGES! See how it works!?

But, I plan to turn around and resume the 7a to 7p work there.
We WILL forge ON! We WILL win. We MUST, for our children, theirs, theirs and theirs. No WAY should THEY have to endure secondclass citizenship, lack of self-determination and be without full personhood. NO NO NO

If I get to my laptop, you'll hear from me from the capitol, probably urging you to phone Speaker Cretul to urge him to HEAR 8003! OR, to call any / all of the House or SEnate committees IF it gets agendaed. That's what we NEEEEEED FROM YOU ASAP.

Otherwise, you'll hear from me when I do get home. It would be nice to hear from you, cheering me on. It's sure lonely.

Do wish us luck,
SandyO

BIRTH CONTROL FOR OUR SERVICEWOMEN! FINALLY..

OKAY FROM THE PENTAGON ON BIRTH CONTROL PILLS FOR OUR BRAVE SERVICEWOMEN who not only brave enemy attacks, but attacks from their fellow servicemen colleagues, too!

(They are still prohibited from unwanted pregnancy terminations, though, EVEN IF THEY PAY FOR IT THEMSELVES!) Now, THAT'S WHAT'S REALLY IMMORAL!! TYRANNY AND CRUELTY BEYOND BELIEF from our own government.) News message follows. Sandyo

Hi, good news from the pentagon?!! A long overdue reform. The Morning After Pill is now available to military women.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/05/military.morning.after.pill/index.html

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Thursday 11 March 2010

by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Doris "Granny D" Haddock

Doris "Granny D" Haddock left us on Wednesday after a century of life lived to the utmost. Hailing from an era that told women to sit down and shut up, she cut a wide swath through politics and culture, and became a symbol of strength, integrity and perseverance that will not soon be forgotten.

Granny D had the map of the world on her face, and for good reason. She was born 100 years ago, carved out of the granite of her home state of New Hampshire. She lived through the Great Depression, World War I and II, Korea, Vietnam, both Gulf Wars and 18 American presidents. She got kicked out of Emerson college when she married her husband, because students were forbidden from marrying at the time. She sold shoes for 20 years, and then retired and got into politics.

I mean, she really got into politics.

It started in 1960, when she and her husband successfully campaigned to ban hydrogen bomb testing in Alaska, an action that saved an Inuit fishing village, which would have otherwise been removed. After her retirement, she served on the Planning Board in her home town of Dublin, New Hampshire, an d was active in numerous community affairs. She rose to national prominence in 1999 when, at the tender age of 88, she embarked upon a cross-country walking tour to promote campaign finance reform. She left California on New Year's Day, walked ten miles a day, gave speeches in a dozen states, and arrived fourteen months and two birthdays later in Washington, DC, flanked by thousands of people and several members of Congress. In 2000, she was given an honorary degree from Emerson, the same college that had booted her out for getting married.

In 2004, at age 94, she ran unsuccessfully against Judd Gregg, the Republican senator from New Hampshire, berating him mercilessly for his close personal and political relationship with George W. Bush. She celebrated her 99th birthday by advocating for campaign finance reform at the New Hampshire State House. During the Bush years, she gave speeches at countless rallies agai nst the war in Iraq; during those years, it was almost impossible to go to any anti-Bush rally in Washington and not find her name on the speaker's list. Her eloquence was only matched by her fiery intensity. Granny D was, quite literally, a little old woman, but she could blow the roof off the joint like few others.

An example of this was given on October 6, 2005, in what became known as the Orchard House Speech:


The desperate attitude of the far right toward not only the unborn baby but even brain-dead people on life support reveals something about their true religion: they have little. There is nothing in their actions that reveals a belief that life is eternal, that there is no death except as a doorway to something better. Their brand of Christianity simply does not relate to the teachings of Christ. The worst of the hate-mongers who misuse the Bible to make million-dollar church incomes and push a political agenda of male domination and hate are easy to spot, for they cherry-pick Bible passages to suit their purposes.

They disregard any turning of cheeks, they disregard the fact that Jesus never mentioned the homosexuality that they so fear. They seem not to fear that, as very rich men, they themselves might have a hard time driving their Hummers through the eye of the needle into heaven. They claim that every word of the Bible must be followed, but if they really believed that they would have stoned themselves to death years ago, as they are as sexually frisky and full of covetous looks as anybody else. They forgive themselves freely, of course, even when they promot e the murder of foreign leaders.
They refuse a young girl an abortion for the same reason they would refuse her birth control: because in either case she would be exercising power and control over her own future--and such power and control is reserved for the authorities--male authorities--below whom she is to cower and serve and reproduce. It is all about that, and we have to start saying so, so that the far right will no longer have the women marching in its toxic ranks--at least the smarter women.
What is it to our souls when we have to just keep slugging through dark places? Why, after all that has happened in America, from stolen elections to the destruction of our necessary institutions of mutual help, are you, personally, still at it? Why, after seeing our country become the international symbol of irresponsible conduct, of torture, of political imprisonment, of destruction to the global ecosystem, are your spirits not smeared across the plaza under the treads of these tanks? Are your hearts perhaps stronger and your souls deeper than you imagined? Yes, this is what you came here to do. There is no greater gift than to be given a life of meaning. There is no greater heroism than to bravely represent love in a dark time of fear and danger.
We are resolved to help each other. We are resolved to represent love in the world and to follow our national dream.

So look at the situation wisely and know that a happy ending is not to be found under the paper moon of child's brief play. Accept and celebrate the fact that we are deeply engaged in a long, hard drama of global meaning. We welcome the fight. We welcome it, and, by George, we are up to it.
True to form, she was in the fight to the very end. Less than two months ago, responding to the recent Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance reform, Granny D fired off a missive hot enough to singe the hairs of Justice Roberts' eyebThe Supreme Court, representing a radical fringe that does not share the despair of the grand majority of Americans, has made things considerably worse by undoing the modest reforms I walked for and went to jail for, and that tens of thousands of other Americans fought very hard to see enacted. So now, thanks to this Court, corporations can fund their candidates without limits and they can run mudslinging campaigns against everyone else, right u p to and including election day.

A few states have adopted programs where candidates who agree not to accept special-interest donations receive, instead, advertising funds from their state. The programs work, and I would guess that they save their states more money than they cost by reducing corruption. Moving these reforms in the states has been very slow and difficult, but we must keep at it. But we also need a new approach - something of a roundhouse punch. I would like to propose a flanking move that will help such reforms move faster: We need to dramatically expand the definition of what constitutes an illegal conflict of interest in politics.
This kind of reform should also be pushed in the 14 states where citizens have full power to place proposed statutes on the ballot and enact them into law. About 70 perce nt of voters would go for a ballot measure to "toughen our conflict of interest law," I estimate. In the scramble that would follow, either free campaign advertising would be required as a condition of every community's contract with cable providers (long overdue), or else there would be a mad dash for public campaign financing programs on the model of Maine, Arizona and Connecticut. Maybe both things would happen, which would be good.
I urge the large reform organizations to consider this strategy. They have never listened to me in the past, but they also have not gotten the job done and need to come alive now or get out of the way. And to the Supreme Court, you force us to defend our democracy - a democracy of people and not corporations - by going in breathtaking new directions. And so we shall.

Granny D inspired with her words, her actions, her strength and her very being. The last time I spoke to her was on January 20, 2005, in a park in Washington, DC. It was the day of the second Bush inauguration, and a number of us were huddled in the cold a few blocks away from the parade route, preparing for a number of counterinauguration demonstrations that would take place during the ceremony. I was exhausted and dispirited; the notion of four more years of Bush was more than I thought I could bear, and visions of just giving up and letting the bastards have their way were very much in my mind.
But, then, out of a car stepped Granny D, wearing a big winter coat, one of her signature beautiful hats and wrapped in a blanket to protect her from the January chill. She smiled at me when I approached her, and I said something on the order of, "Can you believe this? What are we going to do?" She shook her head, breathed a huge sigh, and said, "The best we can. That's all we can do." She smiled again and walked slowly, gingerly, but steadily toward the podium where, once again, she blew the roof off the joint.

If you believe in Heaven, then you have to believe that, as we speak, Doris "Granny D" Haddock is giving God an earful over all the things that are wrong and need fixing. Go, Granny, go. We loved you so.

Epilog for "Granny"--Whatta Woman !

Doris "Granny D" Haddock, American Patriot

Sandy/I had the opportunity to meet “Granny” with her bizarrely colorful van in a parking lot at Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, three years ago. She was old. She wasn’t eccentric—she was clear-headed and as determined to bring about campaign reform as I am about equality. I reveled in meeting with her. Then, I got in my car. She got in her bus, and we both drove off. Now, she’s dead.
We will miss her. Just like we miss the fire and sheer guts and drive of Cindy Sheehan. They made a Difference. WE--you and I--must pick up the cudgel. I will, will YOU?

Buzz for Women at the UN, and a Dialogue on Sexism Between Friends at Opposite ends of the Country

A Two-fer BlogToday!

Covering Women's Issues – WOMENSENEWS

Changing Women's Lives

Thursday, March 11, 2010

TODAY'S UPDATE

Buzz is building behind the scenes at the current U.N. Commission on the Status of Women to push ahead the launch of the women's U.N. super agency, thought to have been stalled since it was approved last September, Sharon Ufberg reports today.

'Super Agency' Stirs Buzz at U.N. Women's Session

By Sharon Ufberg

WeNews correspondent

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Buzz is building behind the scenes at the current U.N. Commission on the Status of Women to push ahead the launch of the women's U.N. super agency, thought to have been stalled since it was approved last September.

UNITED NATIONS, New York (WOMENSENEWS)--The headquarters building here is undergoing renovations. The quarters are more cramped and the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, March 1-12, has been more challenging than ever for delegates like me to navigate. There are the U.N. committee meetings, caucus schedules and a plethora of side meetings sponsored by nongovernmental groups in the near and not-so-nearby neighborhood.

The maze-like atmosphere imparts a strong sense of missing out on things, especially when over 200 national and international nongovernmental organizations--and about 8,000 individuals--are actively participating, with dozens upon dozens of people giving formal presentations, statistical reports and recommendations from their countries or regions.

The formal agenda is for countries to report back on their records of achievement on 12 pro-women reform areas outlined 15 years ago at the 4th World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China.

But backstage here at the meeting--called "Beijing + 15"--I've found one general, impossible-to-miss buzz among delegates.

What seems to be on everyone's mind is the highly anticipated U.N. super agency for women, which is supposed to pull all women's agencies together behind the concerted goal of advancing the lives of women around the globe.

Often simply referred to as "the entity," this super agency has been fueling speculation since last September, when the U.N. General Assembly agreed to its general framework. Estimates of budget size range from half a billion to 1 billion dollars. An undersecretary general may be announced in June, according to delegate talk.

But there's no launch date yet and delegates are restless. Many are calling for a global gathering even larger than this one to overcome inertia and set the new entity in motion.

Drumming Support for Women's Conference

They're drumming up support for a 5th World Conference for Women, a nongovernmental organization-driven conference that would provide the first sequel to that historic meeting in Beijing, where women's rights were pulled into the definition of human rights.

Is another huge gathering like that really required to launch a correspondingly huge agency? The rationale among delegates here is that it is, because planning such a meeting will set the new apparatus in motion. It will require the various U.N. women's agencies and affiliated nongovernmental groups to come together under the new super agency framework. In other words, planning a launch meeting for the super agency will also give birth to it.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, an activist, physician and Jungian analyst from Northern California, has come to New York with a mission to secure a commitment for a 5th World Conference on Women, also called 5WCW.

Bolen, a veteran sixth-time delegate from Pathways to Peace, headquartered in Larkspur, Calif., has been meeting with delegates from nongovernmental organizations and governmental representatives from around the globe. She's rallying to get petition signatures calling on the United Nations to set a specific date for the 5WCW, distributing 5WCW buttons, speaking on panels and in women's circles and raising awareness of the urgency and importance of setting a date for the next World Conference for Women.

"I have been watching the momentum build for a 5th World Conference for the last few years," said Bolen. "This year we seem to have reached the critical mass of support to see a 'tipping point' for our success. Gender equality and peace building continue to be our core issues."

Official Business to Review Progress

Meanwhile, the official business here is for U.N.-appointed representatives to review global progress in the 12 critical areas of concern that were outlined in Beijing and are reviewed each year.

The 12 report-card categories involve women's special concerns with: 1) poverty 2) education and training 3) health 4) violence 5) armed conflict 6) economy 7) power and decision-making 8) institutional processes 9) human rights 10) media 11) natural environment 12) the girl child.

Simultaneous sessions of country reports and topics that cover all 12 critical areas of concern are being held in small venues all over Manhattan. These meetings are standing room only and often leave interested participants unable to get in. Delegates are also heading to the sideline sessions, sponsored individually and in collaboration with many of the over 200 nongovernmental groups that are recognized by the Economic and Social Council of the U.N.

Delegates like me--I'm representing Project Kesher, the largest nongovernmental women's advocacy organization in the former Soviet Union--seek out organizations with similar missions and issues to share best practices and brainstorm with one another. This year I am especially interested in the sessions that focused on using new media and technology to empower women and girls.

These sessions offer a critical space for delegate activists to find and inspire each other.

This year, for instance, I came across Bijaya Rai Shrestha from Nepal, founder of Pourakhi, a five-year-old advocacy group that helps female migrant workers in her country with legal advice about essential documentation, rights and education about the heightened risks of violence and discrimination that come with foreign employment.

Shrestha attended a parallel session sponsored by the Women Founders Collective, created by Sallie Gratch--a 2005 Women's eNews 21 Leader for the 21st Century--from Chicago. The group is founded on the idea that small, interactive, peer-to-peer sessions quickly establish trustworthy alliances and have a positive effect on one another. The women sat and talked in circles and like many, came away saying the chance for that kind of intimate encounter is one of the major reasons for attending these vast, sprawling, institutional sessions.

Experiencing this passionate and powerful global women's activist network is not to be missed.

Dr. Sharon Ufberg is an integrative practitioner and health care journalist. She can be reached at sufberg@gmail.com and followed on twitter at: http://twitter.com/DrUfberg

For more information:

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1888:

http://www.5wcw.org

Beijing + 15:

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing15/participation.html

Those who haven't yet, if you care to, donate now by going to: http://www.womensenews.org/donation

Subject, Article: Younger women face "gender fatigue," subtle bias - Reuters

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO FRIENDS, one living in New York, the other in Florida

Jennie's right on both counts.
Only thing is, people like this author apparently live in the Northeast USA where gender inequity is sometimes recognized. Not so in the Southeast, where most unratified states are. Here, the word “feminist” is eschewed, much like another legit word, “sweat”; it’s impolite.

Here (Florida), we are treated like whiners w
ithout legitimate complaints about pay at 72% of men's, more parttime, underpaid, under-benefitted work and any safety-net laws or ERA seen as "entitlements". Like slaves clanging their chains for food. An exaggeration? Probably, because most women in southeastern America don't seem to know they're second-class until it's pointed out with examples.

Many, even then, can't get interested in picking up the phone to call legislators in an unratified state or giving even the most rudimentary support to ERA.

It's just the way it is here, and I betcha most of the nation.

What do we have to do to draw their attention from their grandchildren--don't they want a better life for them?--their fashion shows and bridge clubs?

Or is it cest la vie?
sandyo

From Jennie Charron, NYS charronj@verizon.net

I've lived in many places around the states over the past 20 years. Started in Syracuse NY, moved to Los Angeles, Erie PA, Montgomery County MD, RI, Wichita KS and back to NY (now in their capital Albany). Politics and cultural differences in each area were very eye-opening. My entire family now lives in NC (siblings all in Durham), and although this recent move was to "anywhere we wanted," my family is unhappy that I didn't chose to live there in NC. What I don't say to them is that I didn't move to NC because I refuse to live in an area that thinks women belong in a box and that segregation is ok. It's not an official practice, mind you, but the whites only associate with the whites, the Hispanics with the Hispanics, and the blacks with the blacks.


I personally was raised to treat everyone with respect, that God paints everybody differently, that love is colorblind, and to just work it out and get along. Build a bridge, go over it. After being told that I could never be more than a secretary, I personally had to bust my butt to put myself thru college to create for myself better opportunities. The people that knew me in those states know I personally used my advocacy to make the world a better place for everybody, and I did see oppression everywhere. In LA nobody would hire me for a management job because there were Asian women with PhDs "perfectly happy" (I didn't see it) to be secretaries. In Erie, General Electric worked their employees to the bones and the men were told to have their wives handle the family duties if they ever wanted a raise or promotion (that's a Jack Welch philosophy). For one job there that I really wanted, I was told at the end of the 3rd interview that there would be a 4th interview, a dinner with my husband, just to make sure he was ok with my going back to work.


I didn't marry a man who believed that way, I certainly wasn't going to work for one who did - and he was only 35. In RI we lived in a "Stepford Wife" community (wish we knew that beforehand) where all of the men prided themselves in publicly criticizing their wives. Those women were beautiful and intelligent, some came from serious money, most were respected in their careers, and almost all had an amazing ability to also keep their households orderly, but these guys were never satisfied, and my husband refused to bash me too when he was with them. Being surrounded by that kind of verbal abuse really was the only reason I was ok with our moving to KS.


While in KS, I was told (repeatedly) that God makes women to make babies, so therefore I was totally in the wrong to want to work. KS cured me of the Republican party - when a political party cares ONLY about religion and no longer about fiscal responsibility, there's something wrong.


And now here in NY I see the NY Democrats are totally out of control. I'm not the only New Yorker embarrassed by my federal and state elected officials and their ethics lapses. I'm sure that problem is universal nationwide. But the only way to get things done legislatively, apparently, is to play the Party game. It is no longer about working with everybody and supporting the constituents. Do as I say, not as I do. How many high-profile men continually lie about their affairs, while their beautiful and obedient wife stands by quietly (stand up and throw the jerk out). How man men are unemployed right now during the recession and have to rely on his wife and her pay inequity to get by (stand up for pay equity and an ERA since these are family issues). How many single mothers out there struggle to get by while her father watches with what he considers tough love (stand up to the jerk who put her in that position).

My family in NC thinks I'm crazy for being a feminist. Although my one sister with more professional credentials than you can fit in alphabet soup is acknowledging she has hit the glass ceiling and is actively asking my husband for direction in how to overcome. Even the men in her business circles tell her she could have anything she wants with these credentials, but she has no self confidence. Living in the South now they are taught by their new peers that women have their places. Getting any of them to stand up and take their seat at the table is the problem. Grow a spine, get some girl power! My sisters are no longer the fabulous athlete or the intellectual, but are now defined only by their duties. They've lost their "me-ness", something that women in my generation are fighting to keep, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. My nieces and nephews are all grown, but the girls were raised to never take initiative, that it's ok to stop their education and mope once their new husbands are deployed, to move home with mom and leach off her instead of being self-sufficient, that the mom sacrifices bankruptcy instead of asking those girls to use their military husband's housing allowances to help. One of the girls now lives between Las Vegas and Utah (she knew her husband was a Mormon when they met, but eloping doesn't involve or expose you to somebody else's way of life). She is now learning the hard way that not being able to check off that 4-yr-degree box means only being qualified in her rural area to work at Wal-Mart or a local restaurant and that too will soon be put on hold forever to "have more babies and raise her kids."

I'm babbling my frustrations (sorry), but the point I'm trying to make is that oppression of women isn't just a southern thing - it happens even in New England and across the nation. NOW made a famous quote many years ago that the purpose of a Federal ERA was to give equality to the women in Mississippi, who, without it, might still not even have the right to vote.

Some of you are having successes in your states empowering the younger women with the facts behind the ERA. They now have a fire under their fannies too, and we need to empower them to take leadership in our efforts for ratification. We need to get them to take a more proactive role and a more visible role in our state's efforts. We also need to find some more "famous faces of today" for today's efforts for ratification so that the "current generation" can recognize someone they respect with their words that we need, the ERA today.


This was done for the 2000 get out the vote efforts. It was used again in 04 and 08. 21st century technology is now playing a bigger role in advocacy for many different issues - we can use it to our advantage with the ERA. Armed with knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned, this next generation of women (and men) should stand up and demand equality. We need to get more of them working "the system", personally educating the legislative aides who are also uneducated about the reasons for the ERA. These young people know how to keep in touch instantly using technology and will use those tools with their legislative aide friends. And then when that sweet-looking, grandmotherly Phyllis Schlafly walks into one of their sessions, they will laugh her out of the room with her "so-yesterday" arguments against the ERA.


We need to find new ways to take this mainstream. A lot of us are very tired from doing all the work. We are all growing gray because of it. Now is a chance to empower these fresh faces to finally make the ERA a reality. They need to know that Congress is already working on guaranteeing the ERA in Afghanistan and Iraq, so they need to practice what they preach at home. Congress knows the value of an ERA for these other nations, and we can provide them with counterpoints for the antis here in the US. We all know that as soon as one of your states becomes the first of the last 3, the others will take notice - the whole nation will take notice - and hopefully the others will follow suit, and we'll have the ERA.

So what can I do from my comfy seat here to help in your state efforts? NY is already ratified, and I'm not too sure we don't already have equality guaranteed in our state constitution (but I'm working on that too), so I'd like to be of value to you from up here in the peanut gallery.

Your devoted ERA sister,

Jennie