The Peruser

by Margarita Mercure Hibbs  ' When Jimmy Kimmel said, "This just wasn't Rick's year. 1954 is Rick Santorum's year." He is not kidding. The GOP wants to take women back to the 1950's and strip us of all our civic, healthcare/reproductive and labor rights! Every woman's and Democratic organization better start hosting Voting Guide Open Houses with good hard copy articles, resourced charts and good training and candidate DVDs to go along with good food and drink to get them to understand the importance of voting. Too many of all voting age women are not even registered to vote! Time to break out the template of presentations that Mary Kay Cosmetics uses. If they can sell makeup in an informal, cozy fashion in small groups of women 6-12, around a kitchen table or living room, then surely we can get them to see the importance of voting.  It is good to see Organizing for America doing something like this. Otherwise, women are going to find...

By Margarita Mercure Hibbs Everyone agrees that budget cuts are necessary.  Everyone is asked to participate in a shared sacrifice.  Statements like Speaker Boehner’s “So be it!” hit hard and appear to be delivered with indifference to the actual pain of the people that will be impacted by Congress’ $61 Billion decision.  The problem is that these cuts represent less than 2 percent of the deficit. They will not even come close to balancing the budget.  America's debt is $1.65 Trillion Dollars!  This is not serious deficit reduction. This is political posturing. The Military and Defense Industry budget is never under scrutiny.   There is constant pork barrel for manufacturing plants devoted to military things that were long ago obsolete.  B-2 Bombers and Sea to Land amphibious transports are still being manufactured without regard for necessity or cost, as just two examples.  The industry is not asked to retool and reinvent th...