According to the Boston Phoenix's David S. Bernstein, the "Binders Full of Women" story isn't even true, as presented by Romney. More details:
What actually happened was that in 2002 — prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration — a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.
They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.
I have written about this before, in various contexts; tonight I’ve checked with several people directly involved in the MassGAP effort who confirm that this history as I’ve just presented it is correct — and that Romney’s claim tonight, that he asked for such a study, is false.
I will write more about this later, but for tonight let me just make a few quick additional points. First of all, according to MassGAP and MWPC, Romney did appoint 14 women out of his first 33 senior-level appointments, which is a reasonably impressive 42 percent. However, as I have reported before, those were almost all to head departments and agencies that he didn’t care about — and in some cases, that he quite specifically wanted to not really do anything. None of the senior positions Romney cared about — budget, business development, etc. — went to women.
Secondly, a UMass-Boston study found that the percentage of senior-level appointed positions held by women actually declined throughout the Romney administration, from 30.0% prior to his taking office, to 29.7% in July 2004, to 27.6% near the end of his term in November 2006. (It then began rapidly rising when Deval Patrick took office.)
Third, note that in Romney’s story as he tells it, this man who had led and consulted for businesses for 25 years didn’t know any qualified women, or know where to find any qualified women. So what does that say?
Still doesn’t make this Tumblr any less hilarious.
Romney stated something that wasn’t accurate? That doesn’t sound like him at all.
(via micahsingleton)
LGBTQ* Bisexual/Pansexual Anthems You Should KnowIn or Out
Ani DiFrancoQueer Anthems 101
“In or Out” — Ani DiFranco
(bisexual/pansexual pride)
guess there’s something wrong with me
guess I don’t fit in
no one wants to touch it
no one knows where to begin
I’ve got more than one membership
to more than one club
and I owe my life
to the people that I lovesomedays the line I walk
turns out to be straight
other days the line tends to
deviate
I’ve got no criteria for sex or race
I just want to hear your voice
I just want to see your facetheir eyes are all asking
are you in, or are you out
and I think, oh man,
what is this about?
tonight you can’t put me
up on any shelf
