Why Women Dominate the Right-Wing Tea Party
AlterNet: “Some of these women are drawing national attention because they have embraced a religious ‘conservative feminism.’ Among them are evangelical Christians and, according to a recent cover story in Newsweek magazine, they view Sarah Palin — who ran for the vice presidency in 2009, has five children and a supportive husband, describes herself as a feminist, gave up the governor’s office in Alaska to become a celebrity and millionaire— as the leader, if not prophet of the Tea Party.”
COLORLINES: “…even if none of the SB 1070 copycat bills make it out of the legislatures, the simple fact that politicians, including a Democrat in who sponsored the bill in Rhode Island, are using immigrants’ lives as political footballs tells us a lot about the state of American politics; mainly that the fringe has moved to the center and is rabidly latching on.”
Federal Government Sues Over Arizona Immigration Law
New York Times: “The Arizona law would also divert critical law enforcement resources and would cause the ‘detention and harassment of authorized visitors, immigrants and citizens’ who do not have to carry identification papers, the department said. Some immigration provisions provide exceptions to illegal immigrants on humanitarian grounds, whether the individuals were fleeing natural disasters or political persecution, the Justice Department added.”
Newsweek: “Certainly, history would support it. In the 1880s and 1890s, American women poured into factories, hospitals, and retail stores, typically to work as factory hands or clerks, expanding women’s sense of their own power. It was, then, no coincidence that women earned the right to vote not long after, says Harvard’s Koehn, a historian. The same connection can be drawn from women workers during WWII, who, by 1945, made up almost 30 percent of the workforce. In India, as more women have started working in call centers and back-office businesses, they’ve begun living—for the first time in history, in large numbers—on their own. This time around, perhaps the revolution will simply be the way we think about workplace culture.”
U.S. Only Industrialized Nation With No Paid Leave For New Parents
NPR: “Women’s rights groups argue that lack of paid leave can often throw new parents into poverty, or lead many women to quit their jobs. But business groups have long fought any kind of paid leave. They contend the burden on business could lead to lost jobs.”
Illegal Workers Swept From Jobs in ‘Silent Raids’
New York Times: “President Obama, in a speech last week, explained a two-step immigration policy. He promised tough enforcement against illegal immigration, in workplaces and at the border, saying it would prepare the way for a legislative overhaul to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. White House officials say the enforcement is under way, but they acknowledge the overhaul is unlikely to happen this year. In another shift, the immigration agency has moved away from bringing criminal charges against immigrant workers who lack legal status but have otherwise clean records.”
Re/Visionist 
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