The New Agenda, a so-called “non-partisan group for women’s rights,” It was created by Amy Siskind (aka RR Amy on PUMA blogs).
For those that remember PUMA it was a bunch of stupid bigots who wanted to tear the Party apart because they did not get their way in the Primaries. They sidled up to a front still led led by a Republican who even today (I looked) has never donated a penny to a Democratic cause. Not one dime.
PUMA-Lite: All the same people but only only half the public bigotry.
Amy Siskind is one of those disgruntled "Ex" Democrats. Siskind now objects to any suggestion that she is a PUMA or that The New Agenda is animated by PUMA issues, however that has not stopped it writing for NoQuarter, one of the most racist of hate sites out there. From their recent postings, especially their comments about Michelle Obama, it would NOT be going too far to say that they now make StormFront look Liberal.
As a Womens' Group (they do not like the term feminist) they should be completely disassociating with a site that calls women "dogs" or suggesting that certain women are drag queens.
CNN has now regularly invited Siskind on as a feminist "disappointed" with Obama. Of course Siskind is. It was always going to say that. Siskind hates Obama. Inviting it on to discuss the President is either breathtakingly stupid or CNN does not know of Siskind and PUMA. They are inviting a Palin supporter to say how disappointed it is with Obama.
The New Agenda is PUMA and just as Fox gave oxygen to a bunch of bigots that the Party is much better off without, CNN is giving new oxygen to their oh so slightly reformed front.
The founding members of The New Agenda are PUMA bigot sites; Together4US, Party Unity My Ass (PUMA), IOwnMyVote, Just Say No Deal and Vote Democracy ’08.
They had this in their press release, “This group is comprised of women who are “gravely concerned about the mistreatment of Hillary Clinton during the primary season, and the passion and emotion that resulted from Hillary’s mistreatment brought us together.,” says Siskind.
What they are wanting to do is undermine Womens organisations like NOW. Simply because NOW endorsed Obama over McCain Palin. Siskind sent the following email on the down-low to select “feminist bloggers” in order to sandbag Kim Gandy, President of NOW:
From: Amy Siskind
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL - Kim Gandy seeks powerful position in DC in Obama Admin
Fellow Feminist Bloggers:
We learned yesterday that Kim Gandy has made public her intention to ask for one of the most powerful positions in federal gov’t for women - Director of the Women’s Bureau in the Department of Labor.
TNA has watched Gandy shift positions again and again to stand up for Obama and sell out women - for example, on Larry Summers:
Nov 5, 2008:
>NOW President Questions Larry Summers as Treasury Secretary
> Nov 24, 2008:
>
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/24/america/24rubin.php?page=2 Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said her group’s research actually produced material that recommended him. “One good thing about Larry Summers,” she said, “is that he has written and spoken fairly extensively on the issue of women’s wage inequality and the impact that has on the country.”
Our view is that she has sold out the women of this country for some back room deal - well now we know what the back room deal is!!!
We are asking all feminist bloggers to post a story on their blogs on Sunday, February 8th at NOON EST in protest of Kim Gandy. Feel free to use whatever rationale you see fit - I know that we each have our own gripes.
But letting this woman be in a position of power, as reward for selling out her constituents (women) would be a crime.
Please forward this to all the feminist bloggers you know that are like-minded - with one caveat: WHEN YOU FORWARD IT - IT DID NOT COME FROM ME OR TNA - AND TAKE OUT THE FIRST FEW PARAGRAPHS HERE AND JUST PUT IN INTO YOUR OWN WORDS!!!
Remember, post your story on Sunday, Feb 8th at Noon.
This is even reminiscent of the stupid "PUMA prowls" which thankfully have no effect whatsoever.
Are any of the accusations true? No not one. even the Summers accusation was a down right lie. Gandy hardly gave Summers a ringing endorsement — she objected to him.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/now-president-questions-s_n_141538.htmlHeidi Li Feldman, JD, PhD, a reasonably intelligent PUMA Bigot admitted “Kim Gandy has clearly spent the better part of her life working on issues important to women; she’s probably quite knowledgeable about working conditions for women and in a position to hire high quality staff.”
Despite that, Feldman responded to the calls for a bigoted rant against NOW and Gandy. Feldman, rants "I think she used that power to have N.O.W. sell women down the river when N.O.W. broke with its usual practice and made a general election presidential endorsement, picking Barack Obama, somebody who used and tolerated sexism and misogyny to gain the Democratic Party’s nomination. I use the expression “sold women down the river” with all its metaphorical baggage: the image of humans being treated like chattel sold down to the Delta to be auctioned off. I think N.O.W. had very little evidence of Barack Obama’s commitment to women’s empowerment, little evidence of even his commitment to women’s reproductive rights (the usual excuse used by mainstream women’s groups to go out of their way to support his candidacy). And still, under the leadership of Gandy, N.O.W. went out of its way to auction off women’s votes, encouraging them to turn out and make sure this man, who never once denounced the nutcrackers and the media comments and the misogynistic rappers singing him into office, became President of the United States of America."
So the "poor Hillary" was too weak to respond to the apparent sexism in the campaign? Bull.
PUMA bigots are irrelevant. I still like to laugh at them. Just as many like to visit the Freepers and laugh at them. We should not do it, but it is like watching a car accident. They will never get anywhere with their campaigns of stupid, calling for pitchfork demonstrations and taking this Country back. 18 million? More like 18. At best. They are as I have said nothing but stupid bigots bigoting, given far more than their 15 minutes of fame by the compliant Fox News, who were ever willing to run whatever story they had against .
Siskind is however the rent a quote “feminist” for the dumbed down media and as a result unless people in the media start recognising what it is, they will carry on going to it, allowing it to spread bigotry.
If you hear it on a phone in, or anything similar, you need to challenge it. PUMA Lite is a PUMA front. Its aim is not to help women but to undermine the administration of Barrack Obama. Siksind and its ilk are prepared to challenge legitimate Womens' groups to do so.
You only need to look further in to the links between Siksind and SusanKKKHu. Or even look up the comments made by one of TNAs front pagers MadamAb.
As for its views on race - if you are a feminist concerned about about how the joint issues of race and sexism affect people - go elsewhere
http://thenewagenda.net/2009/03/24/united-we-succeed-fragmented-we-fail/
In reading our blog, we seem to hitting against a new issue - the issue of racism. I would make the same request of our viewers. There are many wonderful national organization devoted to speaking out against racism. For those of you that find your life impacted by the color of your skin, you will probably prefer to join organizations which are devoted to that important issue.
(h/t to the RumpRoast and
http://stupidpumas.wordpress.com for the source of much of this)