If I Were an Iowan - Close Enough I'm From Illinois

If Barack Obama winning Iowa isn't a sign of change, I don't know what is. The Illinois senator spoke to the idealist in the American patheos and inspired 39% the Democratic caucus, out distancing John Edwards by some 8% and leaving front runner Hillary Clinton trailing at third. All conventional wisdom said that Obama was a novel contender, but would never crack the racial barriers that paralyze the nation. A liberal black man winning the majority of the vote in a red state that's 97% white speaks volumes. He proved to the establishment, both black, white and otherwise, that well, they aren't as established as they think. He proved to the pessimistic, demoralized and the naysayers that hope is a word that must be backed by action. Many Americans still believe in what our Constitution aims to protect, they want to believe their leaders are defending their freedoms, and want to restore our nation as the beacon of hope our history classes tell us we're supposed to be. Iowans were willing to look past race, ethnic heritage, divisive politics and focus on the issues. Kudos to Iowa for challenging other states to follow suit.

2007 Hit List: 10 Worst Civil Liberties Violations

Forget the New Year’s “in and out” lists. In the ACLU’s list, the Constitution is always in, says the ACLU.

For the New Year, The American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office looked back on 2007 with its top-10 list released today, “2007: The Year We Didn’t Get Our Freedom Back.” It documents the top 10 worst threats to our civil liberties in 2007 as well as the top 10 reasons not to lose complete faith in our government.

Topping the “worst” list was allowing illegal NSA spying to continue and allowing Guantanamo Bay to remain open. Topping the “best” list were the recent strides to reduce the disparities in sentencing for crack offenses and cocaine offenses. This year, the U.S. Sentencing Commission changed its guidelines to make sentencing for crack offenses fairer and applied them retroactively, and the Supreme Court decided just weeks ago in Kimbrough v. U.S. that judges could depart from the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s guidelines to give shorter sentences.
The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:

“For the past six years, our rights have been on the chopping block. If 2007 was the year we didn’t get our freedom back, 2008 will be the year we demand it. Our holiday wish list is simple: We want our Constitution back. It doesn’t even need a ribbon. This New Year, we resolve to hold our leaders accountable. We hope they will resolve to follow the law.”

2007: The Year We Didn’t Get Our Freedom Back
Top 10 ways our government failed us:
1. Not putting an end to warrantless NSA spying. Congress instead has continued to let the NSA spy without warrants and is considering letting the telephone companies off the hook for spying on Americans illegally. The Senate debated FISA last month before the holiday recess, and in a gift to the American people, legislation that would have forgiven telecom companies for spying on their customers and given the NSA more freedom to spy on Americans was not voted on. Congress is expected to take up the legislation when members return later in January.

2. Not repealing the Military Commissions Act or restoring habeas corpus. Despite a valiant effort and near success, an amendment to restore habeas corpus received 56 votes when it needed 60 votes. The support in the Senate indicates that legislation to fix the Military Commissions Act could pass. The Supreme Court will also issue a decision in 2008 regarding habeas corpus.

3. Not closing the Guantanamo Bay Prison. January 11 marks the sixth anniversary of the arrival of prisoners to Guantanamo Bay, where prisoners have been held without habeas corpus rights for six years. The ACLU is organizing people across America to wear orange that day in recognition of the shame the prison has caused for all of us.
The number of inmates shrank this year to 355, having started at over 700; officials expect the prison to close one way or another in 2008. But Guantanamo’s closing will not necessarily mean the end of holding prisoners without due process, especially if the Military Commissions Act is still in place.

4. Not giving due process to immigrants and denying life-saving health care in immigration detention facilities. Although the comprehensive immigration reform bill ultimately failed, even that legislation would not have given immigrants badly needed basic due process rights. Congress failed to pass legislation this year securing those basic human rights for immigrants.

5. Allowing the CIA to destroy interrogation tapes. The executive branch claims it can investigate its own wrongdoings, but the ACLU demands an independent investigation that the law calls for and that the scandal warrants. The attorney general’s announcement that the Department of Justice will investigate the tapes’ destruction is a good start, but it does not go far enough. We want real independence, coming from outside the executive branch.

6. Not repealing the Real ID Act. Several states rejected Real ID this year, but the federal government still believes its invasive, costly, doomed program can be a success.

7. Not fixing the terrorist watch list, which is filled with errors. Hearings have been held, reports have been written and the public has spoken: The list – approaching one million – is too large to ever be effective as a security tool.

8. Letting Judge Michael Mukasey off the hook after he would not admit that waterboarding is illegal under six different laws. It’s simple: Waterboarding is torture, and torture is not acceptable. Mukasey’s denial did not mark a restoration of dignity to the Justice Department.

9. Foot-dragging by the White House in getting to the bottom of a disgraced Gonzales Justice Department. Alberto Gonzales ran a politically motivated Justice Department that did more to stunt justice than promote it.

10. Stripping the hate crimes amendment from the Department of Defense appropriations bill. The House, in a stand-alone bill, and the Senate, in an amendment to the DOD bill, voted for the first time to allow certain crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans to be designated as hate crimes without compromising free speech. But the amendment was stripped from the DOD bill in a conference committee.

Top 10 reasons not to lose complete faith in our government:
1. Real changes were made to start fixing the unfair sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine that disproportionately affect minorities. The U.S. Sentencing Commission changed its recommendations to be more just in sentencing for crack offenses, and it applied those changes retroactively.

Perhaps the biggest victory was the case Kimbrough v. U.S., in which the Supreme Court said judges were free to issue shorter prison sentences for crack cocaine offenses, bringing them closer to the sentences for powder cocaine. The ACLU wrote an amicus brief supporting departure from the guidelines.

2. Senators stood up to the Bush Administration’s push for permanent warrantless wiretapping authority and immunity for the telecoms. It was a historic moment. A group of senators stood up to warrantless wiretapping and immunity for telecommunications companies, shutting down the Senate Intelligence Committee’s power grab of a FISA reauthorization bill – for now.

3. A federal judge struck down the national security letter provision of the Patriot Act that allowed the FBI to collect personal data secretly without a judge’s authorization.

4/5. Senators voted against a $300 million Real ID funding bill. Although $50 million was eventually appropriated to Real ID in December, an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill this summer that would have given millions more to the program failed.

6. The House passed a bill to offer more protections for reporters and their sources. The bill wasn’t perfect, but it was a victory for the First Amendment. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted the Senate’s version of a reporters’ shield bill out of committee.

7. Legislation was enacted to reauthorize and reinvigorate FOIA. The House and Senate passed a bill to enforce the Freedom of Information Act and ensure that government agencies are accountable to it – and President Bush just signed it.

8. Religious discrimination wasn’t written into the Head Start program. Members of Congress voted not to remove civil rights protections prohibiting the hiring of teachers, staff and volunteers based on religion in Head Start programs.

9. A majority of senators fought valiantly to save habeas corpus. A bill passed the House and won a majority of votes in the Senate – 56 - 43 – but it needed 60 votes. However, the vote shows Members of Congress are making a strong attempt to restore basic rights.

10. The American people wanted a change in Congress, and they went out to the polls and voted. We have faith in the American people to fight to restore their rights. We hope the next president and members of Congress elected will take civil liberties as seriously as we do.

America The Beautiful

America the Beautiful, a powerful documentary that explores America's obsession with beauty recently won the Special Jury Prize for Best Representation of the UN Declaration for the Rights of a Child at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.

This acclaim comes just weeks after winning The Special Jury Prize for Best Director at the 43rd Annual Chicago International Film Festival.

Directed by Darryl Roberts, this outstanding documentary is sweeping the film festival circuit.

I caught the film at the Chicago International Film Festival and it is one of the most profound docs I've ever seen. Roberts, in a Michael Moore-like expose, navigates the pristine beauty world, making his way to backstage runways and plastic surgeons offices, and reveals the cruel and calculated underworld that guides America's favorite obsessions. He shadows a cast of beauty industry fixtures including a precocious teen model and plastic surgeons top rated TV shows. But he also interviews the parents of a young girl who died of bulimia, researchers with jaw dropping stories about the chemicals in cosmetics, and a bevy of super sexist guys.

Roberts said it took him some three years to complete this project and its well worth the wait. For more info and upcoming shows check www.americathebeautifuldoc.com

My Sister for President

The current political frustrations and violent attacks surrounding Pakistan's former President Benazir Bhutto had me thinking about women leaders of the world.

And while I knew very little about Ms. Bhutto until recent weeks, it amazes me that Pakistan, viewed in the Western world as a largely conservative nation, at one point had a female leader and is in negotiations to have her resume her leadership.

With Hilary Clinton currently waging a major campaign to be the nation's first president, I was curious about other women currently heading the world's nations.

For as progressive as the U.S may be on women's rights, Pakistan elected a female president first.

So I did a little research.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Chile, Finland, India, Ireland, Liberia, The Philippines and Switzerland are the only seven countries that currently have women presidents.

Meanwhile, Germany, New Zealand, Mozambique and The Netherlands Antilles are the only four nations with female prime ministers.

As for the world's reigning three queens, they can be found in Denmark, the United Kingdom and The Netherlands.

I wonder what dynamics exist in these nations that gave rise to a female leadership?

Perhaps we should look into it.

Affirmative Action is the Antichrist

I know a 21 year old African American college student who hasn't so much as looked up Affirmative Action in Wikipedia, and yet he professes that AA is the downfall of black progress.

We've had heated conversations in which I and a few of my colleagues called ourselves schooling this guy, and dousing him in African American history 101 to 500.

Yet he's firm in his beliefs: Affirmative Action is the Antichrist.

When I patiently explained to him basic American power structures and how historically they could not be cracked by people of color or women, he remarked. "Why can't you just marry into some super rich guys family, then you'll be part of the power structure, right?"

After that jolt of misguided logic, I told him not to talk to me about affirmative action ever again until he's read some books.

Now, I could dismiss the conversation as the rantings of the ignorant, except for one tiny problem.

He wants to go to law school.

And thanks to affirmative action's reigning problem child, Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, who's now working the media circus with book in tow, I can no longer discount the twisted conservative logic of a misguided black college kid with law school dreams.

He might become a Supreme Court Justice and dedicate his life to chipping away my rights.

And he might read Mr. Thomas' book.

So I've decided to tell him about a University of Michigan study that states that college students who come in through affirmative action get consistently higher grades than legacy kids (those who came in on their parents merit). In fact, they were typically very good students who lead healthy academic lives.

It's the empirical data the world's been waiting on, to prove that Affirmative Action is not some hand out. It creates opportunity for good students.

Hopefully, this study will mean something to him.

And if it doesn't, God help us all.

Yard Sale: Designer Vaginas

Hey ladies, do you want a designer vagina?

Thanks to those socially conscious mavericks known as the plastic surgery business, not only can ladies of the world get DD breasts, pursed lips, eyelids to the forehead and soar derrieres, we can also add the all new designer vagina to our shopping list.

We can enlarge our clitoris, enlarge or minimize our labia, shorten the vagina, and if you want the virgin experience, an all new hymen is just the thing for you!

Let me say, if there is some medical case for the surgery, by all means get it. If your religion forbids sex before marriage, and you could be killed for entering the vows of matrimony as a virgin plus, then the new hymen is a life saver.

Otherwise, I seriously ask women thinking about this topic to ask the following.

What the heck is a perfect vagina?

One British study I read reported that women who agreed to the study unanimously had an image of a prepubescent look that resembled American porn mags, with most bringing in magazine cut outs of porn stars and the like who had clearly been digitally altered. The study further blasted the cosmetic industry for a lack of research and patient follow up as well as an justifiable reason for the risky procedure in the first place.

Risks include lack of arousal and a variety of complications.

In my reading on the topic, most of the ladies interviewed who agreed to the surgery aren't resolving severe health issues. Many were insecure types who thought the designer vagina would make them more appealing to men. Others thought it was the miracle cure for a drab sex life. One woman remarked it would keep her husband from cheating, saying something like, and I paraphrase, 'my husband said sex with me now is like sex with someone else, but it's still me.'

Wow.

In my totally unscientific poll, I asked a few guys what they thought about the designer vagina, since men were listed as the reason most women wanted it in the first place. They weren't pleased.

"That's the last straw," yelled one southside Chicago guy, totally offended by the idiocracy of it all. "Tell women this," he said, steam rising from his nostrils. "Any man who tells their woman to get a designer vagina or leads her to think she needs one doesn't like her . . .at all. And she needs to leave him immediately."

Thanks.

I have to thank Hermene Hartman's N'digo column for bringing this topic to the forefront.

Attack of the America Bra

There's something wrong when bras become matters of national security.

When trained security can't tell the difference between a bomb, bra hooks and under wire, you know we're in trouble.

While most citizens willingly take off their shoes, belt buckles, jackets, and submit to unfavorable pat downs by the flocks of security at our nation's airports and federal buildings, at some point, we must admit enough is enough.

Lori Plato said enough was enough after U.S. Marshalls Service employees demanded that she remove her bra after the undergarment ignited alarms at a federal building.

The building had no screen or changing room. When she asked if she could change in a rest room, she was told no, and urged to remove it in a nearby restaurant. Her husband shielded her with his coat and she removed the offending garment.

This news was announced the same day, a woman I know called me in tears, stating that airport security demanded she remove her long lined bra. The security officer said the traveler's bra was in the way of the traditional pat down and demanded that she disrobe behind an open screen in full view of employees and passengers. When the traveler called for management, she was told that the guard was "incorrect", and that she simply needed to unhook the bottom of the bra, for a less invasive procedure. But by this time, the traveler was so humiliated by the guard's cavalier attitude and sheer possibility, that this reassurance didn't matter.

There's something wrong when guards feel comfortable enough to demand that a woman drop her underwear in order to enter a secure facility. To know that some security get a kick out of disrobing random women at will is a real problem. The inconsiderate nature of the demand speaks to a false sense of empowerment some security professionals apparently enjoy.

So ladies, if a guard orders you to take off your bra, sue their pants off.