Vote Against the NRA: Here's The Score Cards for NJ , VA, and Utah

The only way we will ever see comprehensive gun control in the United States is to vote out of office every politician with an A rating from the NRA who is currently in Congress, the White House, and our local state houses. We need to replace these people with those who actually represent OUR interests.

Here is a list of A rated politicians up for election.

Do your part.  Do not return these men and women with A ratings from the NRA to their political posts or to new posts.  We cannot afford their callous disregard for life.

In NJ: Vote for Phil Murphy. He earned an F rating from the NRA. Hurray!  Meanwhile, Kim Guadagno earned an A Rating from the NRA. She's a liability.

This the gubernatorial election in NJ.

I'll be voting for Phil Murphy and I hope you will too.

For friends in Virginia: Get the vote out for Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax and Mark Herring. None of us can afford NRA "A" rated "Ed" Gillespie, Jill Vogel or John Adams. 

For friends in Utah (District 3), Please get out and vote for Kathie Allen. NRA "A" rated candidate, John Curtis is a mistake. We cannot afford any more NRA fans in Congress.

Because She's a Woman...Huh?

Vote (M.A. Reilly, 2012)

I cringe each time I hear a woman qualify her vote.  For example, earlier this morning a woman being interviewed on NPR offered, almost apologetically, her admission that she's voting for Hillary Clinton, "not because she's a woman (rather long pause), but because she has so much experience." Since Secretary Clinton began her campaign, the response from many have been to silence gender as if gender in the United States might somehow not be relevant.

Does gender in America not matter?

I voted this afternoon in NJ for Secretary Clinton.  I did so, in part, because she is a strong woman and we are deeply in need of a strong, smart, capable, and experienced leader.  Hillary Clinton's life speaks clearly to the courageous action she has had to show in order for her to be poised to be our next president.  Her victory is a victory for all women, especially for our daughters. That ceiling she is cracking has been in place for as long as there has been the United States and there are a legion of men (and sadly) women who don't want to see it cracked.  I say break on through.

We need a woman to lead. It certainly helps that she is also the most qualified of the 18+ candidates who have made a bid for president and truly the most qualified candidate who has run for president in my life time. Advocate for women and children, First Lady of Arkansas and First Lady of the United States, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State. There is no person running for president with these or equal qualifications. No one. And all the recent comments that experience now doesn't matter is more bunk, more examples of how insidious sexism is. If Hillary Clinton were male, the tenor of the primaries would have been different and the derogatory, sexists and often empty rhetoric that has been generated for years would have been silent.  Just recall the Benghazi hearings (our tax dollars at work).

Gender matters.

Sexism isn't limited to being an interpersonal matter.  Rather, it is an institutional one.  It is what allows both women and men to report with ease that they will vote for a qualified man they don't "like", but will not do the same for a woman.  It is sexist rhetoric that fuels such dispositions like:  "I won't vote for Hillary because she's not 'likable.'" or "Clinton is too aggressive" or what I heard last night, "Clinton is flat. She doesn't inspire passion like Bill and Bernie."or " I'm not comfortable with her as president. I would feel safer with  ______ (fill in the name of a man)."

Really?

One only needs to see the plethora of reports that continue to show that a woman doing the same work as a man in the United States is paid less. Given the lack of movement on current pay gap it will take close to 100 years to close that gap.

100 years. Can your daughters wait that long?  Can our country? Can the world?

Sexism is coloring this election as it colors our lives. It is always present.  Misogynistic ideology has been given new voice. Katha Pollitt, expressed this well earlier this year in The Nation when she wrote:

Choose Bernie if you like—I won’t say a word against him. But don’t reject the first woman in history who could win the White House because she doesn’t fit your notion of how women should behave. Men put a thumb on the scale for men all the time: It’s called being “gender neutral” while defining leadership in male terms. (Can you imagine a 74-year-old democratic socialist named Bernice Sanders making a run like Bernie? The jokes write themselves.) And overt misogyny still exists. You’ll never persuade me that “Bernie bros”—the men who harass female Hillary supporters with patronizing, insulting, and sometimes-obscene tweets and posts—are just Internet will-o’-the-wisps. But if you want hard numbers, how about this: According to Gallup, 8 percent of people say they would never vote for a qualified woman for president. That’s nearly one in 12 voters. But if one in 12 female primary voters is choosing Hillary just because she’s a woman—and not also because she’s experienced, super-smart, shares their values, and looks more likely to win the general—I would be surprised.

Now is the time for a woman to lead and that woman is Hillary Clinton.  I look forward to seeing Secretary Clinton become the first President of the United States.  I only wish Rob could see this history being made. He would have proudly casted his vote for Hillary today. 

A Gentle Reminder for U.S. Friends....

Why I Am Voting For President Obama

"We Have Chosen Hope Over Fear"  (M.A. Reilly, January 2009)

I intend on Tuesday to cast my vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden as I understand them to be trustworthy leaders who care about the welfare and security of my family and community in ways their contenders, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, simply do not.  My values are far more aligned with the Obama-Biden ticket than the Romney-Ryan ticket.

During the last four years, our President and his team have worked hard for us often against difficult, if not juvenile, Congressional Republicans.  During that time, comprehensive health care reform has been enacted; the President has pushed for stronger safeguards to corral Wall Street greed, has taken steps to save the auto industry and with it millions of jobs, has exited us from the wrongful Iraq War and is taking the necessary steps to end our military involvement in Afghanistan.  I am encouraged by the economic gains, modest as they have been, that were made during President Obama's first term and believe that Obama-Biden team need to continue to lead in order to secure increased economic gains. With a more cooperative GOP House who did not overtly work to undermine our country and the President, far more could have been accomplished. As mentioned in the New York Times editorial from 10.27.12:

Mr. Obama has impressive achievements despite the implacable wall of refusal erected by Congressional Republicans so intent on stopping him that they risked pushing the nation into depression, held its credit rating hostage, and hobbled economic recovery.

Further the infrastructure in our country needs considerable attention and President Obama is far more likely to invest in rebuilding transportation, education, technological infrastructures through stimulus plans than Mitt Romney who opposes spending taxpayer money to stimulate the economy.  As per The Washington Post (10.4.12):

Obama also wants to spend $210 billion over six years to rebuild the nation’s roads, bridges and railroads. He says that money represents half of the money the government will save as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down.

It is hard to know what Romney plans to cut in order to reduce taxes by 20%, reduce the corporate tax rate to 25% (from 35%), and end capital gains taxes.  It's hard to know what he intends because he simply has not told us. As someone nearing retirement in the next decade, Romney's overhaul of the entitlements (again no actual details) is a significant concern. Further, Romney's remarks about the 47% suggests he is a man without the necessary ethics to lead and champion all.

With regard to social policies,  President Obama's support of the Dream Act which would give undocumented youth a pathway to citizenship by attending college or serving int he armed services is important, although this does not replace the need for comprehensive reform of our current immigration laws.  This needs to be a commitment that the president attends to fully during his second term.



Nonetheless, as an immigrant and the mother of an immigrant, I have been appalled by Mitt Romney's calls for "self-deportation" of millions of undocumented people. His callous treatment of people is chilling and ill-informed and his assertion that Arizona's immigration laws are a model for our country is frankly incorrect. Regardless of the ways that Romney now tries to resituate his stance on immigration, no amount of 'new' rhetoric can lessen the impact of having Kris Koback (chief author of Arizona's tough and unfair immigration laws) as his immigration advisor.  

With regard to environmental concerns,  I support any candidate who does not pander to people who think the earth is 6,000 years old and believe that global warming is a farce.  It is simply too late to entertain such dangerous misunderstandings. As Timothy Egan put it this week:

Climate change is to the Republican base what leprosy once was to healthy humans — untouchable and unmentionable. Their party is financed by people whose fortunes are dependent upon denying that humans have caused the earth’s weather patterns to change for the worse. At the same time, Republicans have spent the last year trying to win an argument about the role of government as a helping hand. By now, most people know that Mitt Romney, in his base-pandering mode during the primaries, made the federal disaster agency FEMA sound like a costly nuisance, better off orphaned to the states or the private sector.

I live in NJ and have just experienced Hurricane Sandy. Federal support matters,especially at times of catastrophic disaster.  Mitt Romney has been on record saying he would cut FEMA.

Women have been clearly attacked by the GOP. President Obama supports a woman's right to choose and is supportive of continued funding to Planned Parenthood.  Paul Ryan directly stated during the VP Debate that a Republican win would mean the end to Roe v. Wade. Ryan said:

We don’t think that unelected judges should make this decision; that people through their elected representatives in reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process should make this determination.”

Further, as Nicholas Kristof reported (11.4.12)

On these issues, Mitt Romney is no moderate. On the contrary, he is considerably more extreme than President George W. Bush was. He insists, for example, on cutting off money for cancer screenings conducted by Planned Parenthood.

In thinking about the GOP characterization of women consider these:

1. GOP Terry England compared women to farm animals.
2. GOP characterization of teachers as being akin to serial child abuser, Jerry Sandusky.
3. The continued and frightening references and definitions of rape by GOP representatives, including Paul Ryan.

From Daily Kos.

The racially charged rhetoric that the GOP and their cronies have engaged in from the day Mr. Obama took office is deeply offensive.  I have admired our President and First Lady, Michelle Obama, who have continuously demonstrated dignity in response to the small-minded bigotry that has been aimed their way.  One only has to think of Donald Trump, Fox News, or John Sununu. We have all been diminished by the Republicans' rhetoric during these last four years.  Folks, the Party of Lincoln has clearly left the House and in their place are men and women who are extreme, bigoted, narrow-minded, Draconian, and frankly ill prepared to lead this country.  They do not deserve our trust, nor our votes.

On Tuesday, my vote will be cast for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
I hope you'll vote as well.

Please Vote: Talk Back to Voter Suppression

Use Your Voice! (2012, M.A. Reilly)

Are you registered to vote in the upcoming general election for 2012? 

Voter suppression?

Go ahead and commit to vote.

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Talk back to voter suppressors. Make your voice count.