As a child I had a collection of dolls that were designed with a selection of international costumes. I believe the color choices of the costumes generally reflected the national colors of each country. The ones I remember mostly were the Spanish and Afghani dolls. Perhaps it was because of my creamcicle SoCal life then, that the strong red yellow and greens attracted me. Today, when I see President Karzai in his perpetual green cloak, it still makes me think of that Afghani doll and the strong associations we make of national colors.

Enter the eternally popular and political lightening rod, Barbie. Christian Science Monitor has reported that Sotheby’s will auction a 500 piece Barbie doll collection, to raise funds for “Save the Children”, with international outfits that include a burka(burqa). From my position, It’s hard to imagine how anyone thinks arguing over the one outfit out of the collection, that a whole lot of women in other countries wear isn’t somehow misguided and inherently bigoted.

In the United States we have a lot of freedom over what to wear in public, although I think some places like Brazil may have more under the right conditions. Other places have more proscribed views about what people, and especially what women, should wear.

A US made doll, Barbie, on the other hand, has been getting bashed almost since her beginning over her shape, accessories and clothing. Each generation picks a new field of battle. This argument, however, is wrong. No matter what we think in the United States think about the Burqa, it’s not up to us to throw it off. We aren’t their mom’s, people. Those burka wearing women, wearing an outfit older than Islam, that Burqa Barbie represents, decide that.

And if a Barbie in a Burqa isn’t an educational tool, I don’t know what is.

I’ll have more in a bit, but the vote to cloture just ended and the Senate has passed it’s first hurdle. After debating whether to debate the bill they now agree, that they will. (I know, it seems redundant, but this is how this goes. The Senate had to decide if they and the bill were ready.)

Today’s debate over whether to introduce the Senate Health bill to the Floor, illustrates the circuitous route a bill sometimes takes. HR 3590 is a case in point.

HR 3590, was entitled “To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the first-time homebuyers credit in the case of members of the Armed Forces and certain other Federal employees, and for other purposes”. It was agreed to and sent to the Senate for consideration on Oct 8^th of this year. The two page document can be seen HERE.

The Senate then ordered the document to lie on the table. The bill was amended using AMDT. NO. 2786. The document’s title was revised to  the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”, the original contents removed, and the Senate’s 479  page  health care platform was inserted.

Also see the previous related posts :

Senate Health Debate May Begin Soon

More Info on H.R. 3962

]]> http://roofingbird.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/hr-3590-relabeled-and-new-stuffings-the-senate-health-bill-arrives/feed/ 1 roofingbird http://roofingbird.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/un-resolution-1325-does-it-apply-here/ http://roofingbird.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/un-resolution-1325-does-it-apply-here/#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:54:20 +0000 roofingbird http://roofingbird.wordpress.com/?p=3484 ]]>

The ninth anniversary, on Oct 31^st, 2009, of UN Resolution 1325, dedicated to women peace and security, was marked this year by a series of events starting with open debate at the UN Security Council and leading up to adoption of the  ”Third Resolution On Women, Peace & Security, SCR 1888″.

As is usual, a report of the Secretary General, in preparation of the debate was delivered on dated Sept 16, 2009. #S/2009/465, Entitled “Report of the Secretary-General on women and peace and security”, HERE, is an 18 page document outlining events, conclusions and recommendations relating to how women last year, in various places around the globe, were affected by war, it’s aftermath, and the difficulties of finding a voice. I encourage you read it.

WomenWatch has a webpage HERE, devoted to information about this important global resolution directed toward the advancement of peace and security for women. It’s section entitled “Background to Resolution 1325, From the UN Charter to Security Council Resolution 1325” provides a wonderful synopsis of the path taken from the beginning of the UN, to the resolution’s adoption.

The geographic area of United States is not technically in a theater of war. Therefore, the events that happened last year in places like Somalia or Afghanistan do not apply to us. However, one cannot help but find resonance in some of the actions that are taken against women in our country. Deliberate destruction of medical supplies and measles vaccinations targeted for women and children strike a chord with unequal medical treatment provided here. Gang rape as an act of war, an old enemy of women, as well as men and children, is not too far off from the gang rape that occurs in our streets. Many countries around the world now have better representation of women in government than we.

The Security Council reports that there is an absence of “a clear monitoring mechanism” for implementation of 1325, therefore, it has continued to play a strong advocacy role. Part of this problem may relate to it’s own difficulty in promoting women to positions, such as higher council levels and monitoring, which in turn relates to how successful the member countries have been at providing them.

In any event, sixteen countries have thus far made an effort toward advocacy of women’s goals by developing national action plans. They are Austria, Belgium, Chile, Côte d’Ivorie, Denmark. Finland, Iceland, Liberia, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Plans of Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Nepal were reported to be under development.

So despite the fact that that we are permanent members of the Council, we have not so far produced a national action plan. Not us. Nowhere in the report are we mentioned. Yep, that’s global leadership! Now it’s true that we just had an election and we have some new blood[1] [2] staffing the upper levels of the Security Council. I take the UN’s point, however, if we want to lead, that we must do a better job of achieving gender parity. We must be willing to develop our own national action plan.  In doing so we will see the similarities.

[2] Remarks by Ambassador Rosemary A. DiCarlo, U.S. Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs, during a Security Council Debate on Women, Peace, and Security, in the Security Council Chamber

Update: Senator Boxer has just sent an email stating the STUPAK AMENDMENT NOT INCLUDED IN THE SENATE BILL! She is asking to petition signers to help prevent the amendment from being included once the debate starts. Here is her petition page:

http://action.barbaraboxer.com/page/s/fightforwomen?source=ffwh_bulletins

Politico.com reports Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) will vote to begin debate, leaving them only one shy.

Sac Bee has just reported the possible demise of the Sacramento Monarchs, WNBA pioneers. Apparently this is another example of when the tough get going, the women get gone. Maloof Sports has decided to concentrate it’s energies on the Kings, the men’s basketball team.

I understand there are economics involved and attendance and all that. However, I think this reiterates how choices tend to be made when profit is the first motive, especially in hard times. The Monarchs deserve a new owner, if one can be found, that sees women’s basketball as the first priority.

An interesting Dipnote arrived today. HRC spoke yesterday to the US and International troops in Afghanistan. In the clearly elucidated message, she included the community and family based beliefs that are a foundation of her political tenets. Recognition of the effort, that community and family play when a member goes to war, is too often ignored.

The other interesting comments centered around apparent statements that newly re-elected President Karzai has made; that he hopes that within three years Afghan security forces will lead in certain areas, and within five years, throughout the country. This is not, of course, an announced US timeline. However, it might suggest a framework within which the US and International forces are considering their operations.

Imagine that.

Now here I thought we might skate this year. What do you know, another piece of garbage arrived in my email this morning. This one looks to be bouncing from an email service in Germany with a possible origination or highjack from the naseej.com portal in Saudi Arabia. (See HERE for info on them.) If one comes there must be more pollution flakes on the way. FBI, where are you?

Status:  U

Return-Path: <gnduka24@gmail.com>

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Reply-To: <georgenduka1212@naseej.com>

From: “George Nduka”<gnduka24@gmail.com>

Subject: READ AND GET BACK TO ME Immediately

Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:33:19 -0800

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Hello

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The one thousand and ninety page[1] HR.3962 contains the enrollment or engrossment of the following additional house bill, H.R. 903. Among other things, including a reference to the military’s CHIPS program, this bill is the vehicle for which three other bills were included.

Two page H. R. 903 directed engrossment of H. R. 3961, known as the “Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009”. This would likely be the place to start in looking for the proposed reductions. If you go to the above link on H.R. 903 the following engrossed items will show as blue links in the summary.

Five page H. R. 3961 in turn, engrossed seventeen page H. R. 2920, known as the “Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2009”. Reinstituting the “Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985”, or BBEDCA, it also mandates budget neutrality on new tax and mandatory legislation. Among other things, it imposes new guidelines on the alternative minimum tax (AMT). It also has a laundry list of exclusions.

H. R. 2920 engrossed one page H.R. 665, which agrees to consider adoption of a PayGo bill like H. R. 2920. An attendant House report “House Report 111-217”, for consideration of H.R. 2920 is available. A bill, S. 1600, with the same name as H.R 2920, was introduced in the Senate around the same time. It was referred to the budget committee in August.

The one page Hyde Amendment[2], H.AMDT.509 (A001), introduced by Representative Stupak was passed and codified into H. R. 3962 and can be seen HERE with vote counts. It says:

[AMENDMENT DESCRIPTION:
Amendment codifies the Hyde Amendment in H.R. 3962. The amendment prohibits federal funds for abortion services in the public option. It also prohibits individuals who receive affordability credits from purchasing a plan that provides elective abortions. However, it allows individuals, both who receive affordability credits and who do not, to separately purchase with their own funds plans that cover elective abortions. It also clarifies that private plans may still offer elective abortions.

AMENDMENT PURPOSE:
An amendment printed in Part C of House Report 111-330 to codify the Hyde Amendment in H.R. 3962. The amendment prohibits federal funds for abortion services in the public option. It also prohibits individuals who receive affordability credits from purchasing a plan that provides elective abortions. However, it allows individuals, both who receive affordability credits and who do not, to separately purchase with their own funds plans that cover elective abortions. It also clarifies that private plans may still offer elective abortions.]

Therefore, on the House side of things the total paper stack appears to be an estimated two thousand sixteen pages. Each of the sections was downloadable. As pdfs they are searchable by keyword[3]. For example, H.R. 3962 records the key word “women” 101 times. However, many of these are multiple entries on one page. In any event, if you want to start somewhere, working from the inside out in a keyword search can give you a flavor of the documents. Also keep in mind that the combining the Senate and House versions is likely to change some of the line items. These may the most useful to watch.

Update 091119 5:06 PST

For more on the the number of bills and the amendment combined with H.R. 3962 go HERE.

There seems to be some confusion in bloggerland about the health care bill. Perhaps ABC gives the best general information about the status of the bill, HERE.

To synopsize:

A House bill entitled “Affordable Health Care for America Act”, H.R 3692, was passed by the House and sent to the Senate . The download pdf is 1948 appears to have been 1990 pages( I originally got it from Speaker Pelosi’s website). The Stupak amendment was passed as part of H.R. 3692. Representative Stupak’s comments are HERE.

I have been having problems, downloading some, but not all of the documents at the Senate Site. However, if you go HERE, you will see the currently active list including H.R. 3692, and the attendant Senate bills of: “Affordable Health Choices Act”, S. 1679, from the Health, Education, and Labor Committee, in 283 pages, and “America’s Healthy Future Act, 2009”, S. 1796, from the Senate Finance Committee in 346 pages.

If you go to the section entitled “Popular Documents”  in the above Senate link, you will see a selection of many health related materials. Majority Leader Reid’s amendment would not download for me at this time. I am wondering if some documents are being withheld until the Senate has a cloture vote on whether to debate the bill(s).

I want to empathize that, I think like many of us, I am struggling through the effort to understand. There may be other bills involved that have been, or will be attached to the health care bill.  ABC has reported that the bills from the two entities combined are more than 4000 pages. As I find them I will include them as updates. Or perhaps the missing pages are the supporting documents in the Senate Popular Documents section.

Senator Boxer has released a statement today, 11/19/09, HERE. In part, she says:

[…Senator Reid also has crafted language that will keep women from being discriminated against when it comes to their reproductive health care.   The Senate bill maintains the compromise that has been in place for decades that prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion, but allows a woman to use her own private funds.



There are many issues that I am still working on, including ensuring that California is not hurt by cuts to the Disproportionate Share Hospital Program, which helps our hospitals that serve the neediest among us.
 


I am also working to ensure that the bill includes better preventative health care coverage for women…. ]

Senator Feinstein has not yet released a new comment on her site, but had done one on Oct 23, HERE, expressing her thoughts and reservations about it.

For your Info,

Representative Speier’s Statement has two statements, one against the Stupak Amendment, HERE, and one here on the passage of the House bill, HERE.

Representative Kucinich’s statement on the House Bill is HERE.

Ralph Nader’s comment is HERE.

Gateway Pundit is noting in Bill O’Reilly’s media report HERE, that the media has run 37 negative and 2 positive reports on Sarah Palin in recent weeks, as well AP fact checkers for her book and a dubious CNN forum held without Palin supporters.

It’s just amazing what a woman in a health wear outfit, trying to promote American health and fitness can do: especially in a globally devoted week on world hunger. Aside from the abundant right and left sexism, the behind-the-scenes political goofballs throwing this football let you know other mischief is afoot.

I still think a lot of this opportunistic maneuvering is to try and make someone from the GOP, like I don’t know, NEWT GINGRICH?! look normal and the right good old boy for the job of the next POTUS.

Take a look at what Sarah hath wrought:

Sarah Palin Gives Oprah Her Highest Ratings In Two Years

Wednesday: PALINPALOOZA!!

Reaction Formation

Ugh

Any advice from the Terminator?

And what about THIS?

Or this other ONE ?