I NEED A HERO!

Michelle Bachelet, socialist pediatrician, former political prisoner under Pinochet, Chile’s first woman president!
Despite, or perhaps because of, the Alito nomination and a veritable three lifetimes of GW Bush, 2006 is predicted to be the Year of the Woman redux in America, with record numbers of women running for open seats in Congress and in local governments. (The last Year of the Woman was 1992, when record numbers of women were *elected* to all tiers of local and national government, a development sparked in part by 12 dismal yrs of Reagan-Bush rule–not to mention another Supreme Court hearing, that of Clarence Thomas, and of course the testimony of a lady you betta know as the solid lady MS. Professor Anita Hill.)
ANYWAY I am pulling for the Year of the Woman as a global d, what with Liberia’s coolest-ever Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (aka Africa’s first elected female head of state), first woman chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, and Tarja Halonen of Finland (maybe). They’re all solid social liberals (social liberalism being one thing what we rep wit round here), but here’s a quote from venerable Chilean communist leader Gladys Marin, who passed away March 6, 2005, explaining why even mere representation is important:
“Women involved in politics are very exposed to the conservative, male environment we live in… women are banned from the world of politics. If a woman excels in it, people say she is masculine or she is the lover of an entire leadership.”
And SPEAKING OF HEROES! Happy MLK Day. Here’s a timely article about the FBI wiretapping of the good doctor. And this Olu Dara/Richie Havens celebration at BB King’s seems terrific, if you are rich and live in NY. If you are not rich and live in BK, BAM is having a free day of celebration for the 20th yr in a row, starting at 10:30 am, starring Gwen Ifill from the Jim Lehrer Newshour AND Dr. Carolyn Goodman and Fannie Lee Cheney, mothers of Andrew Goodman and James Cheney, young Civil Rights workers who were murdered by the KKK while working on 1964 Mississippi Summer Project.
Personal aside: My crackpot theorizin’ made a debut on the definitive Lost blog! Thank you Monsieur Babylon, especially for CROWNING ME “THE GRIFF” (SANS GRIFF’s [SINCe-rENOUNCED] ANTI-SEMITIC RANTS, PLEASE)