When Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., announced her candidacy for president of the United States, nobody was surprised. I expected her to contend for the DNC nod, which I believed would go to John Edwards. But I expected her to run strong among, for example, women, many of whom would vote for her in primaries and caucuses — and, if she got that far, the General Election.

I expected it. Most politically aware Americans probably did, and for the very simple reason that women are allowed to vote. This is not news.

But in 1919, Hillary Clinton would have been waiting for the 19th amendment, which passed the Senate on this date that year. (Her birth state was the first to ratify it.) She wouldn't have been allowed to vote for a bloody thing.

cross-posted to Jack & Jill Politics

I can neither scream any louder nor spew profanities more vile than those I've already uttered aloud and to myself. My ability to step up the rhetoric further has been exhausted. My indignation spent. Samantha Powers was right. Hillary Clinton is a monster.

One way to deal with a monster is to rally the townsfolk, Frankenstein style, and torch it alive in its home. Another way is for us all to simply wake up and realize that what keeps the monster alive is our collective agreement that indeed there is a monster worth fearing in the first place.

Today is the 100th birthday of Maryland's first women voters: May 2, 1908.

In a little, newly-incorporated town in Kent County called Still Pond, the charter called for all taxpayers over 21 "including females" who had lived in town for at least 6 months to vote for the town commission.

Still Pond had been around as a commercial crossroad since the 1700-somethings.

I WILL VOTE in 2008!

I would rather die than not vote in the 2008 election.

I don't know if I can vote for Hillary Clinton. I won't know until I'm in the booth.

This is the third diary in the Women's History Month Series. March is Women's History Month. March 8th is International Women's Day.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself in terms of cataloging the First Wave. The first two installments of this series discussed the Seneca Falls Convention, largely considered the birthplace of the First Wave of feminist action in the United States. With the 19th Amendment we jump ahead to the conclusion of the First Wave, and many significant events and people populate the time in between. We will come back to them.

But tomorrow, women in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont go to the polls, as they have since just 1920--just 88 years ago--and the story of how they got there is a harrowing tale of fighters like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, as well as a different kind of 50-state strategy, mass arrests, maggot infested force-feedings, rose wars, and so much more.

Join me below the fold for details along the road to Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, and every state in the Union!

My first diary. Have Hillary Clinton supporters stripped her of her name, her past and her flaws simply because she is a woman?

Seems like Cokie Roberts and Billie Jean King have... see my first post after the jump.

In the beginning....I didn't think the fact that a candidate was female would make much difference here at kos.  But multiple, daily anti-Clinton diaries and comments have convinced me otherwise.  Hillary Clinton is the sole recipient of repetitive comments like: "I hate Hillary Clinton." "I will never vote for Clinton no matter what."   How many comments have you seen that read: I will never vote for Barak Obama?  I hate Chris Dodd?  Bill Richardson is a bitch.  

Why such venom is directed only at Senator Clinton is a phenomenon it's time to discuss.  But first, take a jump back in time with me.

Women in American political life are recent guests at the big table.  Here’s a short tour of where we have been.

1872. Susan B. Anthony arrested for casting a vote in the Presidential election.  She was convicted, and fined $100, which she refused to pay.

1879. Belva Ann Lockwood becomes the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.  In 1884 she accepted the nomination of the National Equal Rights Party and ran for president.

1916. Jeannette Rankin, of Montana, is the first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

1925. Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to serve as governor of a state, in Wyoming.

1932. Hattie Wyatt Caraway, of Arkansas, becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

1933. Frances Perkins is appointed secretary of labor making her the first woman member of a presidential cabinet.

BBC reports that

Members of the Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars plan to deliver a petition to King Abdullah by Sunday, Saudi Arabia's National Day...  

The current driving ban applies to all women in Saudi Arabia, whatever their nationality...

"We would like to remind officials that this is, as many have said, a social and not religious or political issue," Fawzia al-Oyouni, a founding member of the Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars, told the Associated Press. "Since it's a social issue, we have the right to lobby for it."

"This is a right that has been delayed for too long."

This is the first attempt at lobbying for a policy change since 1990, when 47 women challenged the authorities by taking their respective family cars out for a drive.

What will these woman ask for next?  The vote?

My grandmother, a suffragette, would probably say, "Don't just ask, demand. Don't just demand, act."

There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers. – Susan B. Anthony

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

On this day, August 26th, 1920, with the signing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, women of this nation were given the right to vote. Yup, ladies and gents (and you young whippersnappers who take your vote for granted), it’s been less than 100 years that women have been allowed to vote. Before that, only men had the privilege. Think about that. Women were not worthy, we were too emotional to understand the politics of our nation and be relied upon to make the proper decisions for our country. We were kept down, told that we really were better since men chose to keep us on a pedestal, to be put up as paragons of virtue, of loveliness, with no need to play in the trenches with the menfolk. But as we all know, women had other ideas...

If you've been in the fight to restore the rule of law to our nation for any length of time, the questions have probably occurred to you already: "To what extent should Presidents be immune from criticism of their actions (or inactions) during wartime – and how far should he let his goons go in protecting his image?"  "In what ways have past Presidents overstepped their bounds and inflicted torture upon their own citizens?" and, of course, the Great Riddle of American Jurisprudence, "Does a charge of obstructing traffic really warrant strapping someone to a chair and forcing a three-foot tube down her throat?"

Join me, if you will, in the Cave of the Moonbat, where tonight we'll take a look at another W (actually, a double-W) who was willing to subvert the Constitution in order to further his own aims.  Our journey begins about 95 years ago – back when men were deliberating whether or not women should be entrusted with the right to vote...

Minnisotan Jesse Hunter is facing a 12-month jail sentence because he voted. His civic participation is treated as a felony because he's 17-years-old.

So much for all that nonsense about youth apathy.

This is someone who may be shipped off to Iraq next year, or Iran, or North Korea, but he's jailed for wanting an equal say in chosing America's policy-makers. He pays his taxes, but gets no representation. He's governed, but not asked for his consent.

I for one applaud Jesse Hunter's efforts to take part in American democracy, and wish more Americans had that committment.

More info here.

Chris Matthews openly disdains the female majority in this country. From Media Matters (watch the video):

On the September 5 broadcast of NBC's Today, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews, discussing the November elections with host Matt Lauer, asserted that "the stakes" in the midterms would include "whether we want [House Democratic Leader] Nancy Pelosi [CA] to be the first woman speaker of the House or not." Matthews predicted that, in the event that Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in the November elections, "that iconic fact of that woman sitting behind the president during a State of the Union address is an enormous change in our culture," referring to Pelosi.

Memo to: Chris Matthews
Mr. Matthews, you say you are convinced (in "my own view") that having a woman sitting behind the President during a State of the Union address would be "an enormous change in our culture." I am wondering, how would you feel about having a woman as your physician? Having a woman as your boss? Having a woman as a colleague, or even... as a friend?

crossposted from unbossed

Sisters and brothers, today is an important day - August 26 - the anniversary of woman's suffrage.

And if you want to honor the women and men who struggled for this right, use the name they called themselves - Suffragists.

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

Is one obliged to support the Presidential candidacy of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton simply because one strongly supports women's rights and the increased participation of women in American politics?  If so, would one also be obliged to support a Condoleeza Rice or Ann Coulter presidency because they, too, are women?  I don't believe so.

International Women's Day is promoted by the United Nations as a celebration of empowerment of women. The holiday has roots in Women's Day, started in the USA in 1909 and in other countries a few years later. It was to encourage equality and the extension of voting rights to women.

When I look at my calendar (Quo Vadis) I love to note all the different holidays around the world. For example 6 February is Waitangi Day in New Zealand and I imagine myself popping into the  ANZAC club for a celebratory beer.

Boys' Day, and more recently, Girls' Day are celebrated by hanging a kite in the shape of a fish outside the front door in Hawaii. What did I miss today?

Should I call my Mom?