Happy New Years from your friends at The New Agenda.
Here’s a humorless look back at 2009 courtesy of JibJab:

Thank you to all our members, and our partner organizations, NOW NY and ERLC.   Our voices are being heard.
The NY Senate committee has decided to sanction Monserrate; although, they have not yet revealed whether he will be kicked out at long last – the punishment will be “stiff.”
The New York Times reports:
Senator Hiram Monserrate behaved recklessly and callously after his companion was hurt during an argument at his Queens home, failing to call 911, dragging her violently through a hallway and taking her to a hospital miles away, according to …

The following op-ed by Amy Siskind is featured at The Huffington Post. Feel free to comment there.
Is Sarah Palin a “feminist”? Would she stand up for women’s issues? Going Rogue provides us with useful clues. And, how can Sarah use her life experiences, as revealed in Going Rogue, to win over women voters?
First a confession. Yes, I am the president and co-founder of a new national women’s organization, but I am not a “feminist”. My epiphany came earlier this year. A neighbor had volunteered to …

2009 has been a turning point for women.
We decided to say “no more” to sexism and spoke out. See Amy Siskind’s Daily Beast piece The Year in Sexism about our successes.
But in 2009 we also face many challenges.
And we need a new way forward. If a woman’s magazine can see fit to have this cover, and then witness a year of setback after setback under this administration, then the status quo is just not working. As we wrote, this is how Feminism Became the F-Word.
And we also …

According to Fox News, Alabama Democratic Congressman Parker Griffith has announced that he is switching parties, in part over the health care debate.  Congressman Griffith is a retired radiation oncologist, pioneer in the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and freshman Congressman for the fifth district in Alabama.  Elected in 2008, Congressman Griffith serves on three House Committees – Transportation & Infrastructure, Science & Technology and Small Business.
Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, announced Tuesday that he’s switching parties to become a Republican.
“I have become increasingly concerned that the …

For me, this video reaches new heights in the creepy use of women’s sexuality.

 
Huh? Could this be any creepier? Does this remind anyone else of the recent creepy Reebok ad?  I know I keep using creepy as a descriptor, but until the hair on the back of my neck goes down, that’s the best I can do.  CREEPY! 
This video is degrading to both women and men. The implication is that women are too stupid, lazy, or uninformed to argue issues and explain their position - better they just show their cleavage and threaten to withhold sex. …

This article also appears at the Huffington Post.
When Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-Neb.) abortion language was added to the Senate health care bill, a Republican member of my organization sent me this email: “Don’t blame us. It’s your party and president that started this mess.”
Is it me, or is Obama’s health care bill increasingly like the movie Groundhog Day? Another day, another women’s health smackdown.
Ladies, we are a bargaining chip – and apparently, not a very big one. Women’s health is under assault. Mammograms, pap smears, the Stupak Amendment and the …

Esther Hobart Morris (1814-1902)
Life began to change for American women on December 10, 1869, otherwise commemorated as “Wyoming Day.” On that day the governor of Wyoming territory, John Campbell, signed the first law in America that granted women the right to vote. The bill itself was born of a simple dinner party at a “shack” belonging to the newest resident of South Pass, Wyoming, Mrs. Esther Hobart Morris (1814-1902), a native of New York and recent transplant from Illinois, and her husband.
After Morris’s first husband died she was denied a …

Golf is a great outdoor sport that uses both focus and physics to use a club to hit a small ball hundreds of yards and land it in a small hole.  This sport has always been rather elite and only inclusive to wealthy men.  Up until just a few years ago the wealthy men seen in the Professional Golf Association were almost exclusively white.  Even though Tiger Woods is going through personal issues at this time it does not erase the fact that he opened this sport to races other …