I was thoroughly impressed by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and his online video chat last Sunday.

The gubernatorial hopeful answered questions submitted from across the state live on his website.

Without a pause, he spoke directly to the camera, argued with specific plans, and offered honest assessments.

Barrett emphasized protecting quality of education, reducing emissions 20% by 2025, and of course, his campaign foundation: jobs, jobs, jobs.

He even mentioned his plan to combat the impending Asian Carp infestation, a legitimate concern of mine.

I enjoyed hearing Barrett speak so candidly. Not to mention the badass cast was entertaining. I’m the first person to defend Gov. Jim Doyle, but it’s a lot easier to get excited about our next guv.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — who has gone to great lengths to hype the supposed dangers of a big government takeover of American health care — admitted over the weekend that she used to get her treatment in Canada’s single-payer system.

“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”

The irony, one guesses, is that Palin now views Canada’s health care system as revolting: with its government-run administration and ‘death-panel’-like rationing. Clearly, however, she and her family once found it more alluring than, at the very least, the coverage available in rural Alaska. Up to the age of six, Palin lived in a remote town near the closest Canadian city, Whitehorse.

Officials at several hospitals in that area declined to give out information on patient visits.

Palin Crossed Border For Canadian Health Care

Here is some history on Women’s History Month provided by the Feminist Majority Foundation:

Women’s History Month presents an opportunity to us all to change a historical narrative that places women at the margins of society, and by doing so, change the world.

As the great feminist historian Gerda Lerner once wrote, “What we do about history matters. The often repeated saying that those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them has a lot of truth in it. But what are ‘the lessons of history’? The very attempt at definition furnishes ground for new conflicts. History is not a recipe book; past events are never replicated in the present in quite the same way. Historical events are infinitely variable and their interpretations are a constantly shifting process. There are no certainties to be found in the past.” History cannot provide us with all the answers, but it can shape our understanding of both our past and present.

Women’s History Month was created thanks to the activism and lobbying of the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) and feminists around the country. In 1980, the year NWHP was formed, women made up just 3% of the content in history textbooks, and many children (and adults) assumed the absence of women in history meant that women just didn’t do anything. Howard Zinn, the recently deceased historian and activist, wrote in A People’s History of the United States that, “It is possible, reading standard histories, to forget half the population of the country. The explorers were men, the landholders and merchants men, the political leaders men, the military figures men. The very invisibility of women, the overlooking of women, is a sign of their submerged status.”

Every year Women’s History Month has an official theme, and the theme this year is “Writing Women Back into History,” which could not be more appropriate. Women’s History Month is not about fun facts or random lists of female trailblazers (though I enjoy learning about things like that). It is about changing the way Americans view their society and reshaping our historical narrative. As a kid I remember learning about Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, and Molly Pitcher, held up almost as exceptions to the rule, the women who actually did something. If we want to truly recognize the contributions of women, we need to totally subvert the way we study history. We need to consider not just the history of the rulers and military heroes, but that of the mothers, wives, laborers, slaves, rebels, and ordinary people whose lives were average but real. There is so much to learn from social history. That is not to say we should stop seeking out the stories of extraordinary women (my life has been made so much richer by learning about women like Ella Baker, Emma Goldman, Dolores Huerta, Eleanor Roosevelt, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Fannie Lou Hamer), but that to truly be radical feminist historians, we need to discover the stories of the forgotten and pushed aside.

Women’s history is the people’s history–learn it, share it, and use as a tool to change the world.

1) Your age?
2) Do you plan on getting married?
3) Are you going to have any sort of cohabitation?
4) Do you think cohabitation helps to avoid divorces, or increase the chances of divorce? Explain why.
5) Do you think love is essential for marriage? Explain why.
6) Do you plan on having children? If so, why, and how many?

Feel free to copy-paste and explain!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/03/weight-watchers-mcdonalds-obesity

McDonald’s is hardly an ideal dining location for anyone struggling to stay slim. But the fast food chain scored a PR coup today when Weight Watchers agreed to endorse some of its products in New Zealand – a move met with outrage by nutritionists and obesity experts.

As part of the deal, which the company says is the first of its kind in the world, McDonald’s will use the Weight Watchers logo on its menu boards and Weight Watchers will promote McDonald’s to dieters.

The link-up is the fast-food chain’s latest attempt to improve its reputation by securing endorsements. In January, to the horror of gastronomes, Italy’s agriculture minister, Luca Zaia, helped launch the McItaly range of burgers. For a representative of one of the world’s greatest culinary nations to do such a thing was “a sign of the moral bankruptcy of Silvio Berlusconi’s government“, wrote Matthew Fort in the Guardian.

Several items on the fast food giant’s menu – the Filet-O-Fish, Chicken McNuggets and Sweet Chilli Seared Chicken Wrap – have been approved for the Weight Watchers diet in McDonald’s 150 New Zealand restaurants. Each meal is worth 6.5 points on the programme, which assigns points to food items and allows dieters to consume 18 to 40 points each day to achieve their goal weight.

McDonald’s New Zealand managing director, Mark Hawthorne, said: “We were able to include some of our most popular items because of the many changes we have made over the years.

“For instance, the switch to a healthier canola blend cooking oil means items such as the Filet-O-Fish and Chicken McNuggets contain 60% less saturated fat than six years ago.

Chris Stirk, Weight Watchers’ director of business in Australia and New Zealand, said the partnership between the companies reflected “part of our philosophy that you can enjoy life … while still achieving your weight loss goals”.

But nutritionists and obesity experts said the menu items were a marketing ploy to lure customers into the restaurant. “It’s all about sales,” said Jane Martin, senior adviser of Australia’s Obesity Policy Coalition. “It implies this food is healthy … when often it is high in fat and salt. Chicken McNuggets are Chicken McNuggets whether it’s got Weight Watchers on it or not.”

Sian Porter, a dietician at the British Dietetic Association, said: “This sort of initiative should be applauded, but the danger is that someone will go in, choose one of the healthier options and then think: ‘Ooh good. Now I’ll have an ice cream’, which is not the right message.”

Weight Watchers and McDonald’s in Britain said they had no plans for a similar partnership in the UK.

The fast-food chain, widely criticised for selling a high-calorie, high-fat menu that includes super-size meals, was “making every best effort to generate a change in behaviour, to create an awareness in consumers about making healthy choices”, Hawthorne said.

For the past year in the UK, the chain has run a programme linking children’s football teams with their local McDonald’s restaurant and offering them free kit and equipment.

Debate between the two student candidates for the County Board District 5 race? Awesome.

Debate planned and led by ASM? Maybe not so much…..

While Legislative Affairs committee members said at their March 1 meeting they are sure a planned County Board debate will go as planned, a date for the debate remains tentative.

The debate is planned to take place March 16 and will be between Analiese Eicher and Michael Johnson. Both are running for positions on the County Board of Supervisors, for which an election is set for April 6.

Vice Chair Kyle Woolwich said Legislative Affairs has not yet been able to contact the campaign managers of the candidates who would come to debate, which is why the date for the debate remains tentative.

While I am all for ASM getting involved in local elections (since they really haven’t done so in the past), I just have to ask: What the heck is going on over there?

How can they release to the press that they are planning to have a debate for the District 5 race, and further that they have indeed set a specific date for it, without actually confirming it with the candidates? That is no minor detail to be sure. It just seems to me to be another sloppy plan hatched by our inefficient student government.

Side Note: At 6:05 pm today, ASM still has NOT contacted anyone in Analiese’s campaign.

As far as I know (and I could be wrong) this is the first time since I have been a student here that ASM paid this much attention to a County Board election. I applaud ASM’s effort to become involved in something (for once) that actually affects our student body, but I do believe  they need to become better organized before doing so.

So I say to ASM: If you would like some tips on how to organize a political event (or any event for that matter), shoot me an e-mail. I would be happy to advise you.

Here is one ad that I found particularly frustrating:

And here is a spoof that was made in response to it:

I just wanted to draw attention to the gender stereotypes and sexism that pervade our media. Most of the time we don’t even realize that what we are watching is acting to reinforce societal gender roles and discrimination.

So next time you are watching a commercial or television program, consider the message.  How does it depict the relationship between women and men? And why do people find many of these types of ads humorous?

Commercials, television programs and other advertisements affect our perceptions of societal roles. So next time you laugh at a beer commercial with women wrestling in bikinis or a car commercial with men complaining about women, consider how you are participating in and helping to reinforce gender discrimination.

Show this to all those Obama naysayers that continue to claim that Obama’s plan has fared no better than Bush’s. I don’t think this trend could be any clearer.

I suppose one could argue that the unemployment rate would’ve bottomed out at some point, but is it all a coincidence that the rebound began after President Obama quickly pushed his economic plan through Congress? And yes, I do understand that slowing down the job loss is not the be all and end all. However, instead of continuing to wallow in the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, the country is at least moving in the right direction faster than anyone could have expected, even if the pain of this severe economic downturn will continue to linger for months or years.

This graph was also released on the heels of a New York Times/CBS News poll that found that only 7% of Americans attribute the state of the economy to the Obama Administration, while 31% blamed the Bush people (significantly more than the 23% who blamed Wall Street and the financial institutions!). The poll also reveals the trust that the American people still have in Obama, with 60% of respondents expressing that Obama understands the problems and needs of people like themselves (compared with 42% for Congressional Dems and the lowest total, 35%, reserved for Congressional Republicans).

Since Day 1 of this administration, the Republican Party strategy has been: “Screw Obama at any cost!” Yet as Americans continue to support the President over Republicans by those kind of margins, I wonder if they will ever realize the need to actually put some effort into governing…

Upon filling out my voter registration form, the nice lady asked for my proof of residence. My heart dropped as I realized: I did not bring my proof of residence. I told this to the lady and she said, “Oh no. Are you sure?” The other people working the polling place echoed her sigh and asked me to check my backpack for any possible bank statements or pieces of mail. I felt silly. How could I have forgotten that you need a proof of residency when you register at the polls? So I told them that it was no problem because I lived right around the corner. I told them that I would go home, grab some mail, and come back. They looked at me in disbelief. So I promised the nice old ladies and old man that I would be right back.

Well I kept my promise and when I returned with some official mail, they had me sign my name on the “change of residency” list. I was the second person to fill out my name. The person who signed above me, I noticed, was fellow College Democrat Josh Fogarty. Then the lady handed me my voting slip. The number on it? 0007.

I was the 7th person to vote at Porchlight today at 4:00pm. And because I was only the second person to register my change of voting address, I can assume that I was only the second student (or close to that) to vote today (as most students have changed residencies since the last election).

And so I returned home, echoing the sigh of the nice old ladies at my polling place.

The Vagina Monologues, created by Eve Ensler, is a performance of monologues that discuss all things related to the vagina including pubic hair, sex, pleasure, love, menstruation, orgasm, lesbians, masturbation, societal expectations and perceptions, rape, mutilation and birth.

Produced and promoted largely by the Campus Women’s Center, proceeds of The Vagina Monologues went to benefit the prevention of violence against women, specifically in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is hard to describe how I felt while I watched a dramatic discussion of vaginas, women, and men and how they all interact with each other and society. Surrounded by beautiful and confident women (and some men), I have to say that I felt completely at home. I felt empowered, aware, proud to have a vagina, and simply happy.

The monologues convey a vagina as something sacred, beautiful, important, and powerful. This message is critical for women’s rights and human rights around the world. Many societies, including our own, see the vagina as ugly, unclean, promiscuous, inferior and unwanted. Commercial products are constantly advertised to women, telling them how to clean their vagina to keep it fresh and smelling like perfume. Cultures in Africa practice female genital mutilation, leaving women’s reproductive systems, bodies and lives destroyed. Soldiers around the world systematically rape women as a tactic of war, and their governments use women as supplies for the hungry soldiers. Many women live their entire lives without ever seeing their own vaginas.

The Vagina Monologues raise awareness to all of these issues, perceptions, and discriminations (among many more) that surround the female reproductive system. They call on every woman to grab her hand mirror, spread her legs, and discover her vagina, touch her clitoris and experience the pleasure of knowing and loving her body.

I find the monologues powerful, fun, and incredibly important. Both women and men must be aware of how the world treats vaginas. And more importantly, how we treat our own vaginas and other vaginas we encounter.

So do it. Grab a mirror. Grab a partner. Discover the sacred flower. Become a vagina supporter. Love the vagina, and treat it well.