Please see below for information about a new site, we would love for you (and anyone you know), to be a part of! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!
-Cafe McMullen

Dear Moms,

Did you know 9 out of 43 American presidents have had died or resigned, leaving their vice president to take command? That’s more than 1 in 5.

Did you know that Senator McCain, if elected, would be the oldest president to take office?

Who We Are

We are moms who, for a variety of reasons, are very concerned that Governor Sarah Palin could be one heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin was added to the ticket to get our vote and we want to let America know that just because we are women and mothers we will not blindly support her candidacy. In this historic election, we have to think first of our country, our kids and our grandkids. The idea of a woman in the White House is exciting, but Sarah Palin is not the woman for the job.

What We Are Doing

We are putting together a video to post on our website, http://www.votermoms.com (up soon!), and on Youtube, that features American moms (military moms, soccer moms, nervous-in-front-of-a-camera moms, ballet grandmoms, etc.) explaining their own reasons why they do not want Governor Palin one heartbeat away.

We are currently interviewing moms in the LA-area AND asking moms across the country to send in video statements (guidelines and directions below).

We are hoping to cover as many states, issues, and perspectives as possible. The more moms the mightier!

What You Can Do

Be heard! If you are a mom who does not want Governor Palin a heartbeat away, make a video or contact us to be recorded. America needs your voice and the election is in only eight weeks!

Finally, and most importantly, you can vote. Only 23% of eligible women vote; this is not enough. The power to shape America’s future is in our hands. Let’s exercise it.
Thank you for your time and consideration – we know how precious every minute is for a mom.

Sincerely,

Delphine Hirsh
Mom
http://www.votermoms.com
email: votermoms@gmail.com

P.S. Votermoms.com aims to be a friendly, non-partisan environment. Please keep this in mind when submitting your statement. Thanks again.

Guidelines for Video Statements

When making your video, please identify yourself by your first name, where you are from, and a self-identifying mom description (ex. “Hi. I’m Delphine and I’m from New York, New York. I’m a little-league, working mom.”) The way you identify yourself is entirely up to you.

Somewhere in your message you should say “I don’t want Governor Palin one heartbeat away” or something about “one heartbeat away” since that is our theme.

The statements should each be 20-45 seconds long.

Examples from two moms :

1) Hi. I’m Gwen and I’m an On-The-Go mom from New Hampshire. I was really surprised to hear that Governor Palin does not think that we are responsible for global warming. If she can’t accept responsibility then she won’t do anything to control it. As a mom, I’m trying to teach my girls about taking responsibility. That’s a big part of my job as a mom and it should be a big part of being a leader. Global warming is an issue that will so clearly impact my children and future grandchildren’s survival on this planet and someone who doesn’t want to deal with it should definitely not be a heartbeat way from the presidency.

2) My name is Lisa. I’m from Elizabeth, NJ. I’m a small business owner mom. I think Governor Palin shouldn’t be one heartbeat away from the presidency because she believes that it should be illegal to have an abortion even in the case of rape. I have two daughters and if, god forbid, something like that happened to them, I don’t think they should be forced by the government to carry their rapist’s child. That’s not what I believe in so I can’t vote for a ticket with Governor Palin on it.

Directions for Submitting a Video Statement

1. Record your statement – between 20-45 seconds – on a video camera or internal or external computer camera.

NOTE: Please wait 2 or 3 seconds after you have begun recording before beginning to speak. After you have finished speaking, do not look away from the camera and please allow 2 or 3 seconds more to elapse before you stop recording. This will help in cutting statements together. Quicktime files are preferable, if possible. Also, please try to include your last name in the filename so we can easily distinguish submissions.

2. Go to http://public.me.com/catburkley

3. When prompted enter username “public” and password “password.”

4. You should now be connected to the catburkley public iDisk page.

5. Click once on the “upload” symbol in the upper right corner.

6. When prompted, select your statement file, then press upload.

7. This should begin the uploading process.

8. The upload may take as long as 30 to 40 minutes. Do not be worried. It’s okay. When the upload is finished, close out of the window. You have been heard!

TROUBLESHOOTING NOTE:

Sometimes, the “loading” symbol will hang and not disappear when the upload is actually finished. If this occurs, do not stop the upload. Instead, call us or email us (see below) and we can confirm for you that we have received your submission.
Or, if you cannot reach us, open another window in your browser and follow steps 2-4. You should then be able to see if your file has uploaded onto the catburkley public idisk page. If it has, feel free to close this window and your original window. It worked.
If it’s more convenient, a skype or ichat exchange can probably be arranged, though we’re still unsure of size restraints for those systems.

Questions or Problems?

Please contact:

Chris Farber
(310) 344-0606
ccbf@ca.rr.com

Café McMullen
(917) 319-4643
cafemcmullen@gmail.com

On another topic, three people mentioned that Vanessa was wrong and that Gloria Steinem would not have supported someone like Palin. I’m really surprised that so many people misread what Vanessa was saying. She’s saying that even Steinem, who you would THINK would be in support of a woman for VP, is against Palin:
If there is one woman who would be in support of having a woman in the Vice Presidency, I would think it would be leading feminist Gloria Steinem. Gloria Steinem wrote an article called “Palin: Wrong Woman, Wrong Message” and says:

I really feel you made a bad call with this post. It comes across as “I try not to bring politics into my blog … unless of course I want to bring politics into my blog”.

I come here for great advice on how to deal with my 14 year old daughter … and the fact that this post has generated almost double the number of comments of any other post tells me you have hit a nerve, but not one that needs hitting here.

There are too many other places that I can go to to debate politics with strangers I’ve never met and unfortunately, not enough places to which I can go to learn about how to talk to the stranger I’m already living with.

As we say in the military, I think “staying in your lane” would have been better for all of us in the long run.

Sincerely,
Mike

First: Palin approves “abstinence-only” programs – You follow this up by saying it should be taught along with safe sex. What does your opinion have to do with her statements on abstinence-only. She does not want safe sex taught…she wants abstinence-only…there is no other side or half truth there.

Then Palin believes the Iraq War is a “task from god” – You respond by pointing out what Obama’s pastor belives. Uhm…how is that relevant to Palin’s beliefs. They don’t cancel each other out. Palin said the war was a task from God AND God’s plan. So where is the halftruth?

Then Palin is Pro-Life even if her own daughter were raped – You respond by syaing it is propoganda. What??? She doesn’t JUST think it is the wrong choice….if she could she would legislate her choice on everyone….so again…where is the half truth?

Next Palin has said that Alaska’s economic future depends on aggressively extracting its vast natural resources, from oil to natural gas and minerals – You respond basically by agreeing with her. But I see a half truth in YOUR response. We are currently reliant on oil from the middle east but drilling here was banned because of a horrific oil spill on our coastlines…remember that? Second…oil…regardless of origin is a global commodity. How do you know it won’t be given to the highest bidder and we won’t see a only a few drops? You don’t know…so don’t sell us this line that we will benefit from local oil drilling when it is a tenuous MAYBE at best.

I’ll take them (I didn’t have time for them all) one by one and I took your sources out to save room.

*Palin opposes stem cell research
Non issue, stem cells are found in amniotic fluid, we don’t need an aborted fetus

*Palin supports the ‘Safe Haven’ Bill Into Law which allows parents to surrender newborns without prosecution

You’d prefer they be dropped in a dumpster? According to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, 32 to 34 infants were found abandoned each year from 1997-1999. Of these, approximately 20 infants are abandoned in the first 24 hours of their life.
According to a CNN review of FBI statistics, nearly five infants under the age of one are killed in the U.S. each week.
The federal government and most states do not keep statistics specific to abandoned newborns. There is presently no way to determine what portion of infant deaths are due to abandonment.

*Palin approves “abstinence-only” programs

So? Abstinence still is the only way to be 100% sure you don’t get pregnant or a disease. Why not promote it? It is my recommendation to my daughters; do I leave it there? No follow with safe sex. But why not teach both? Let the individual decide.

*Palin believes the Iraq War is a “task from god”
I’ve watched this piece and, shudder, I dislike strongly for anyone to tell me their task is from ‘god’. However, is this really any worse than what Obama’s pastor preached? Obama’s mentors are a man who doesn’t have very, shall we say, high views of Americans and Louis Farrakhan. If you don’t know who he is, look him up. Scary.

*Palin is Pro-Life even if her own daughter were raped.

I do not share Palin’s opinion on this subject butat least she’s not a hypocrite. Your statement is misleading and an example of propaganda. Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.

Sarah Palin doesn’t believe abortion is the right choice and I suppose many children born from rape victims might be thankful their mothers’ agreed with her.

*Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools

And in October of 2006, the Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin said the following about creationism at a debate:
“Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information….Healthy debate is so important and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject — creationism and evolution. It’s been a healthy foundation for me. But don’t be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.”

*Palin disbelieves global warming.

Get your facts straight. She disbelieves global warming is a product of man. Recently, there have been several articles on treasures found in melting ice caps. Evidence of civilizations. Think: The ice caps were once melted or smaller than they are today if men walked on them: They’ve melted before when man had nothing could have nothing to do with it. Take care of our earth, it’s the only one we have but there is evidence that men are not completely to blame for warming but that is part of a much large global cycle.

*Palin has said that Alaska’s economic future depends on aggressively extracting its vast natural resources, from oil to natural gas and minerals.

This is a subject I’ve just started to analyze. Do you realize that we, America, you, America’s people are dependent upon the middle east for our oil? Of course you do, but do you realize what this means?This affects not only foreign policy but adds to the national debt. If we drilled for our own oil, we could reduce our dependence enough that when they say jump, we don’t have to say, how high? Let’s work on an alternative to fossil fuels and use our own supply and once again become a sovereign country. The environment? I want my children to grow up in a safe environment, in a strong America.
Your ‘worries’ offend me on so many levels, I don’t know where to start. For the most part, they are completely sexist. You say you would say the same of a man running for VP. Do you know how many children Biden has? I have five children, I run a business, does that mean I’m making someone go without or am I’m teaching my children to be independent and follow their dreams? I’m looking at a calendar and it still says 2008, not 1958.
Regarding the pregnant teen: I was a pregnant teen. Let me tell you something, it wasn’t my mother’s fault; it’s called sex and my mother wasn’t involved.
As teenagers, do you always do what your parents want you to? At some point, and it’s about… 15-16; you start to feel you can make your own decisions. By 17, you consider yourself an adult and in truth, you’re only one year away from the legality. It’s a natural part of the process to challenge your parents’ convictions and decide what your own convictions are. I don’t see how this qualifies or disqualifies anyone from a high public office. Her pregnant daughter is now an adult; I don’t think being a grandmother is another reason to disqualify someone either.
When Sarah Palin sais she wouldn’t answer the question (are you going to accept the nomination for VP) with ‘what does a VP do’, she was joking, she followed it with, ‘because I’m used to working’, or something like that.Look it up.
And finally, did you actually say a father couldn’t be as good a primary caretaker as a woman? I know a lot that would disagree with you.

As an American, you can believe what you like and even say what you like and Thank God for it
Please, think, don’t react to emotionally driven half-truths.