Democratic Women

Merry Christmas

Percy H Florez — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:18:19 EST

I love you all Democrats

Percy & Maria Florez

CAIR Seeks Sanctions Against Anti-Hijab Judge in Georgia

funkfresh01 — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:02:00 EST

State attorney general asked to protect religious, legal rights

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/17/08) A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on Georgia Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker to bring sanctions against a judge in that state who has repeatedly barred Muslim women wearing religiously-mandated headscarves, or hijabs, from entering his courtroom.

Yesterday, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported that a Muslim woman was jailed and then released following a dispute over whether she could enter the judge’s courtroom in Douglasville, Ga., while wearing her hijab. In the past year, other Muslim women have either been jailed under similar circumstances or barred from that judge’s court.

Tune In ! - VP-Elect Joe Biden on ABC-TV's "This Week" Sunday Dec. 21

Erin Medlicott — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:18:01 EST

This Sunday, December 21: Vice President-Elect Joe Biden is a guest on ABC-TV's "This Sunday With George Stephanopoulous."

This will be VP-Elect Biden's first interview with "This Week" since the November election. He will discuss issues, priorities, White House Cabinet appointments and budgets under the Obama-Biden Administration, his reactions to an auto bailout and a new economic stimulus package, and his upcoming inauguration celebration on January 20, 2009.

"This Week" airs Sunday on local ABC channels throughout the United States. In the New York City area, it airs at 10:00 am ET. Here are some other cities with "This Week" local air times:

Los Angeles, 8:00 am
San Francisco, 8:00 am
Boston, 9:00 am
Chicago, 9:30 am
Houston, 10:00 am
Washington DC, 10:00 am
Detroit, 10:30 am
Philadelphia, 10:30 am
Atlanta, 11:00 am

Georgia Muslim Woman Jailed Over Head Scarf

funkfresh01 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:36:30 EST

Judge jails Muslim woman for refusing to remove her headscarf in court
By DIONNE WALKER
The Associated Press
ATLANTA

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=6479903

A Muslim woman arrested for refusing to take off her head scarf at a courthouse security checkpoint said Wednesday that she felt her human and civil rights were violated. A judge ordered Lisa Valentine, 40, to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court, said police in Douglasville, a city of about 20,000 people on Atlanta's west suburban outskirts.

Valentine violated a court policy that prohibits people from wearing any headgear in court, police said after they arrested her Tuesday.

NARAL Pro-Choice America: Vote for your Favorite Shirt Design

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:53:55 EST

NARAL Pro-Choice America:
Vote for your Favorite Shirt Design
http://www.myfreewillpower.com/create/

Thanks to all of you who submitted T-shirt designs! We got TONS of great submissions!

It was tough to narrow down our finalists – but here they are.

Tell us which t-shirt design you like best (and yes, you can vote for your own). Voting will end on Tuesday, December 16 and we'll announce the winner on Friday, December 19. And don’t forget to tell your friends to vote, too!

AP: Democrats pick up a House seat in central Ohio [Mary Jo Kilroy]

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:55:34 EST

Democrats pick up a House seat in central Ohio
By STEPHEN MAJORS, Associated Press Writer
[Sun Dec 7, 2008 8:57 pm EST]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081208/ap_on_el_ho/ohio_house_race

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy came from behind Sunday to snatch a central Ohio seat from House Republicans after elections officials tallied provisional ballots.

Kilroy's victory by a little more than 2,000 votes over Republican Steve Stivers put the 15th Congressional District seat into Democratic hands for the first time in 42 years after the retirement of Republican Deborah Pryce.

Franklin County officials released unofficial results Sunday that showed Kilroy with a margin of victory of 2,311 votes out of roughly 300,000 cast, enough to avoid an automatic recount.

Kilroy got 139,582 votes to Stivers' 137,271, or 46 percent to 45 percent. Two minor candidates split the remaining 9 percent. ...

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complete copyrighted story at link above

AP: Caroline Kennedy interested in NY Senate seat

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:01:16 EST

Caroline Kennedy interested in NY Senate seat
By DEVLIN BARRETT and BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writers
1 min ago [Dec 5th, 2008 at 8:55 pm EST]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081206/ap_on_el_se/kennedy_senate_seat

WASHINGTON -- Caroline Kennedy is interested in the Senate seat that would open once Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state, according to a close relative who says the powerful Kennedy clan is fully behind her rising to the office previously held by her uncle. ...

Once Clinton is confirmed to President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet, New York Gov. David Paterson will appoint someone to fill the seat for two years. ...

Kennedy is the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and a niece of brothers Edward and Robert. Robert Kennedy held the New York seat from 1965 until his assassination in 1968. Edward Kennedy has been a senator from Massachusetts since 1963. ...

Whoever Paterson appoints would serve for two years and then have to run in a special election in 2010, along with Paterson and New York's senior senator, Charles Schumer. The candidate would then have to run again in 2012. ...

Caroline Kennedy is easily the most famous contender for Clinton's Senate seat, but there are plenty of others. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is widely known in the state. Paterson could also pick Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown or Tom Suozzi, a Long Island elected official.

There are also a number of House members in the running, including Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Kirsten Gillibrand, Steve Israel, Brian Higgins, Nydia Velazquez and Jerrold Nadler.

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complete copyrighted story at link above

VP-Elect Biden Chooses Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens To Swear Him In

Erin Medlicott — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:45:33 EST

According to The Legal Times, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the oldest and longest-serving justice on the Supreme Court, will swear in VP-Elect Joseph Biden as Vice President next month on Innauguration Day.

Vigorous and sharp at 88, he has served on the court for 32 years. In criminal-law and death-penalty cases, Stevens has voted against the government and in favor of the individual more frequently than any other sitting justice.

He files more dissents and separate opinions than any of his colleagues. He is the court's most outspoken defender of the need for judicial oversight of executive power. And in recent years, he has written majority opinions in two of the most important cases ruling against the Bush Administration's treatment of suspected enemy combatants in the war on terror -- an issue the court is revisiting this term when it hears appeals by Guantánamo detainees, challenging their lack of access to federal courts.

Justice Stevens was named to the Court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. It is rare for a Vice President to be sworn in by a justice appointed by a president of the opposite party, so Vp-Elect Biden's choice to have Stevens swear him in can be seen as a bipartisan gesture -- though Justice Stevens is usually regarded as one of the most liberal justices on the Court.

According to family members and former law clerks, Justice Stevens still writes the first draft of his opinions. He uses the Internet, studied French before a recent vacation in Europe, and has become hooked on Sudoku number puzzles.

In addition, Stevens he has survived prostate cancer and had a bypass heart operation in the 1970s. Since then he has followed a low-fat diet, eating only a grapefruit for lunch.

FOX RECEIVES OVERWHELMING RESPONSE TO ‘SIMPSONS’ EPISODE ON ISLAMOPHOBIA

funkfresh01 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:46:17 EST

(LOS ANGELES, CA, 12/4/08) Following an action alert sent out yesterday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Fox television network reported receiving an overwhelming positive response from community members about a recent episode of “The Simpsons” that challenged anti-Muslim stereotypes.

The episode, which aired Sunday evening and is titled "Mypods and Boomsticks," highlights anti-Muslim sentiment by featuring a young Muslim character named Bashir and his family who face prejudice after moving to Springfield. In the program, Homer Simpson wrongly suspects that Bashir's family is involved in a terror plot. Bart Simpson befriends Bashir and defends him from bullies.

The Auto Companies Must Be Destroyed

Frank Lynch — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:11:27 EST

The system of Corporate Governance in America is broken. We must destroy the auto companies as the only way to fix the problem. read more at http://blog.franklynch.org/2008/12/03/we-must-nationalize-the-auto-companies-because-sneaky-auto-executives-cheating-on-bailout/

Bonus Time in Detroit: How Many Hundred of Millions Will the CEOs Pay Themselves After Destroying Their Companies ?

Frank Lynch — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:41:51 EST

Notice the rush of the Big Three Auto companies' executives to collect the bailout from Congress in time for them to pay themselves hundreds of millions in bonus for Christmas!!

Barack Obama must require that none of the auto companies' executives receive any bonus this year.

Further, Barack must require that they all work for $1.00, One Dollar annual salary in 2009.

Anything else is a total rape not just of the taxpayers, but a rape of all America.

USA is in recession | PERIOD

Percy H Florez — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:42:29 EST

To many times this year I said the economy is in CONTRACTION.
On March 27 I published one post with the following name: It looks like the Titanic's History! The Economy
Everywhere outside the inner circles of Washington are talking about the economy is in recession, economists around the country are talking with data in hand and statistical methods and models, sustaining the economy is in recession.
But only the lurid government of George W Bush and his political puppets of both parties won’t to acknowledge this irrefutable reality.
One main principle in economy is the fact first and foremost recognize the crisis in the exactly magnitude where is it, with this data you can structure a plan capable to reverse this economics behaviors, otherwise any false analyze could worsened the crisis.
At this point here is is the majuscule irresponsibility of the government and the political statement of both parties, when they do not want to recognize the economy is in recession. As Germany did few weeks ago.
Now the National Bureau of Economic Research is recognizing the economy is in recession.
Yes the economy is in recession heading very fast to the worst depression ever, as a consequences of this stupid behaviors of not admit the reality and try to hidden the true of the crisis.
Nothing could be very worst than the lack of admit the realities in economic terms.
These entire politicians in charge are sinking this country in to the most catastrophic economic downturn; they are playing and buying time instead made structural correction to the economy.
They irresponsible bailout and send billion of inorganic and unproductive money to the markets.
All are accomplices of this charade of print inorganic money and send it to the market in the most regretfully method of bailing out institutions who are per se out of business.
Here is now the new reality, banks are failing, big manufactures are failing, small businesses are failing, the construction industry is failing long time ago,
Means, two of the biggest employers of this country are failing (Construction & Smalls business).
Yes, if you think the automakers or the business associates with the markets are the biggest employers you are dead wrong and this is exactly this politician of the status want to sell in order to continue putting inorganic money at the expense of the taxpayer.
These actions now are compromising at least the next two generation of Americans and they are going to pay huge for this government irresponsibility.
No one can assume this crisis is going to be resolved by any means in the next ten or fifteen years if “only if” the next administration took the necessary structural steps of corrections.
In terms of UNDO this economic crisis: “the fail of one year represent 10 years of setting back”
With this equation, President Elect Barack Obama has to deal. He has no choice! And there are not excuses about the world are in crisis or so on.
Yes, the world is in crisis, and this crisis is the failure of this ECONOMIC MODEL.
The new realignment if underway, now depend of each government how to handle the situation to prevail or to fail.

Percy H Florez

CAIR Condemns Mumbai Attacks

funkfresh01 — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:44:07 EST

Muslim civil rights group demands that hostages be ‘released immediately and unconditionally’

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/27/08) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today condemned attacks on a number of sites in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai that left at least 100 people dead and many more injured.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages taken during the attacks. Witnesses say the attackers sought out American and British citizens.

Del. Gov. Ruth Ann Minner Announces VP-Elect Biden's Senate Replacement

Erin Medlicott — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:13:53 EST

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner has named a longtime aide to Sen. Joe Biden to fill the U.S. Senate seat Biden will be vacating for the vice presidency.

At a news conference in Wilmington this afternoon, Gov. Minner said she would appoint Ted Kaufman to fill the vacancy.

Edward E. "Ted" Kaufman is a member of the advisory board of the Obama-Biden Transition project and Co-Chair of Vice-President Biden's transition team.

He was Senior Adviser to Senator Biden on the Obama Biden Presidential campaign. He has held a senior position in all of Biden's federal campaigns.

He was on Biden's Senate staff from 1973 through 1994, nineteen years as Chief of Staff.

It was not immediately clear if Biden would resign his Senate seat before or after he begins his seventh term in January. However, he must resign before being sworn in Jan. 20 as vice president.

Speculation on Biden's successor had centered in recent weeks on his son, Attorney General Beau Biden. Last week, however, the younger Biden announced that he planned to fulfill his National Guard duties and wouldn't accept an appointment to his father's U.S. Senate seat.

We wish you good luck and much success, Ted!

VP-Elect Joe Biden Names Three New White House Staff

Erin Medlicott — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:19:52 EST

Vice President-Elect Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) has just named three new White House staff positions:

Ms. Cynthia Hogan will be counsel to the newly-elected Vice President. She previously served as Chief Counsel to Senator Biden during his time in the United States Senate, and served as Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1995 she assisted with the drafting of anti-terrorism legislation.

When she worked for Committee Chairman Sen. Biden, they successfully passed the landmark 1994 Violence Crime and Control Act and the Violence Against Women Act. She also advised him during the Supreme Court nominations process for both Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Mr. Moises V. Vela, Jr. will join the White House staff as Director of Administration to Vice President Biden. From 1996-2000, he served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Advisor on Hispanic Affairs for Vice President Al Gore. Most recently, Vela was the founder and a partner at The Comunidades Group, a multi-family acquisition and operations company headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Mr. Biden's wife, Dr. Jill Biden, has named Catherine M. Russell as her new Chief of Staff. Most recently, Ms. Russell served as Chief of Staff to Mrs. Biden during the presidential campaign.

She also worked as a Senior Advisor to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on international women's issues. During the Clinton Administration, she served as Associate Deputy Attorney General.

Senator Biden remarked, "Cathy Russell has a unique blend of policy and management experience, combined with an ardent commitment to ending injustices around the world. Cynthia Hogan is a brilliant lawyer who was instrumental in guiding the Senate Judiciary Committee though some of its most important challenges in both crime control and judicial selection, and has shown incredible legal acumen and integrity over her career. I'm grateful to have Moe Vela, a man with experience in White House management and broad outreach skills on my team."

We wish them the best of luck and much success in their new jobs!

Dems: Napolitano emerges for Homeland Security job [other cabinet]

Mike W, Tulsa+ — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:21:12 EST

Dems: Napolitano emerges for Homeland Security job
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
25 mins ago [Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:38 pm EST]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_cabinet

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama is likely to choose Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be secretary of homeland security, top Obama advisers and several Democrats said Thursday as the shape of Obama's Cabinet begins to emerge.

The Obama advisers cautioned that no final decision has been made on putting Napolitano in charge of the Homeland Security department, the massive agency created by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But the advisers said she was by far the top contender.

Thus far, Obama has informally selected Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as health and human services secretary. The plans could be sidetracked by unexpected glitches in the final vetting process, officials note.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton seems more likely than ever to be Obama's secretary of state. Clinton is deciding whether to take that post as America's top diplomat, her associates said.

Among other Cabinet posts: senior Democrats say there is a strong possibility that Defense Secretary Robert Gates would stay temporarily and later give way to former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig. Even so, Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island also are said to be under consideration.

Democrats also say that several people remain in the running for Treasury secretary, including Timothy Geithner, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Lawrence Summers, former treasury secretary and one-time Harvard University president; and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Several news organizations reported Thursday that Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, who was Obama's national campaign finance chairman, was his leading choice to become secretary of commerce. However, Pritzker issued a statement Thursday saying she is not a contender for the post.

Officials say Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the former chair of White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, is in the running for the Commerce job.

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complete copyrighted story at link above

AYMAN ZAWAHRI DOES NOT SPEAK FOR MUSLIMS

funkfresh01 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:33:21 EST

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/19/08) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today condemned threatening rhetoric and racial slurs contained in a new video by Ayman al-Zawahri and said Al-Qaida's second-in-command does not speak for Muslims in this country or worldwide.

SEE: Al-Qaida No. 2 Insults Obama with Racial Epithet (AP)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hPtm1yvXGJVcqVpQdQfpQLY8L-cwD94I51J02

Pres.-Elect Obama Names Eric Holder As U.S. Attorney General

Erin Medlicott — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:56:49 EST

President-elect Barack Obama today named Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. as the next U.S. Attorney General. He has accepted the position, pending a Senate approval.

Mr. Holder will be the first African-American U.S. Attorney General in American history.

He was former Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 1997 to 2001. He also served as Acting Attorney General under President George Bush for a few weeks until the Senate confirmed John Ashcroft as the AG nominee.

Last year Mr. Holder joined Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign as a senior legal advisor. And most recently, he became part of a three-member Vice Presidential selection committee with Caroline Kennedy and Jim Johnson.

He is 57, and married with three children.

RED ALERT | something stinking is behind the MARCH (LA MARCHA) on DAY ONE

Percy H Florez — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:48:28 EST

Since the last weekend just am participating in the fiercest battle against those groups who are trying to organize a big Rally on day ONE against Barack Obama in the issue about immigration.

The list serve of many Hispanic groups in the Barack Obama web site is flooding profusely in message about this MARCH!
The organizer has nothing to say about it.

Suspicious:

I just am wondering why suddenly too many born American citizen are behind this March and are pushing our community to do so.
The answer for many Hispanic people in this group is prudence and organization before doing something like that. 85 percent or more of the participants in this discussion are Hispanic people talking and pressing for measure and organization, the others (few) are in favor of the MARCH and these unknowns born American citizens are vehemently pushing for the MARCH against BARACK OBAMA.

My questions are:

Why this MARCH on day ONE?
Why this fellow Americans are very interesting in this action against Obama?

Why they are pushing our community to do something like that on day ONE?

Who they are?

Why this March against a government who don’t address the immigration issue at this time and the Hispanic community don’t know exactly wish one is the real position of the new administration?

Why the RUSH of this organizer for this so called “LA MARCHA”

Who’s behind scene?

It’s something planned by the groups anti immigrants like the MINUTEMAN group?

Or it’s something planned by THE REPUBLICANS?
After all the only beneficiary of the negative consequences of this extemporary pressure against the new administration in our community could be the Republican Party and the anti immigrants groups, like the MINUTEMAN!

Percy H Florez

Election Spurs 'Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes

funkfresh01 — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:27:46 EST

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=6261962

From taunts to a beating, Obama election spurs "hundreds" of racist threats, crimes nationwide
By JESSE WASHINGTON
The Associated Press

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.