but at the same time wouldn't it be a shame not to fund good, pro choice, female candidates for office?

"Do I like this candidate so much that I would be willing to give an equal portion to a Pro-Life Candidate?" You would be willingly subjecting yourself to a Pro-Life Tax.

If the answer is yes, then by all means.

For me, that would have to be a hell of a candidate!

if we aren't going to support pro-choice female candidates, do we fund any candidates at all?

If we raised money with this site, I'm sure we would take a vote on where to put it. My vote would go toward giving it to a third party, but I'm just one vote.

And I'm probably going to be kinda loud about reminding women that they don't have to vote Democrat...is that going to be a problem? Is this only a Dem chick sight or can Greens come too?

It's not a problem with me being reminded that I don't have to vote for a particular party. For a long time I voted straight Democratic ticket and I was proud of that fact, too. Under the present set of circumstances I cannot see myself ever doing that again. My voting is going to be selective in the future. I'm extremely disillusioned with elements of the Democratic party now, especially on the local and state level (Texas). I am going to do (what I feel is) an important blog post and prove exactly why I (and others) am that way using Texas Senate bill #419 as an specific example. I need to do a lot of research on it though and it might be two weeks or so before I finish it. But it will keep.

As far as funding anything goes, If I could have my wish right now? I would wish to go directly to the people, bypassing political parties and do something such as funding the education of a muslim girl in Kenya. Sort of a counterbalance to all those billions the U.S. spends on foreign wars. I bet one of our dollars, well placed, would be worth a million of Rumsfeld's. I can tell a wonderful story about how 26 dollars, placed in the right hands a few years back, changed the world.

it takes a blog to educate a young woman

As far as funding anything goes, If I could have my wish right now? I would wish to go directly to the people, bypassing political parties and do something such as funding the education of a muslim girl in Kenya. Sort of a counterbalance to all those billions the U.S. spends on foreign wars. I bet one of our dollars, well placed, would be worth a million of Rumsfeld's. I can tell a wonderful story about how 26 dollars, placed in the right hands a few years back, changed the world.

I'm an independent. I cannot stomach registering for any party right now. The greens lost my sympathy with Nader.

I'd also hate to see this site to become a political fundraising site. I like it as a place to discuss and connect. I guess I'm just not much of a joiner.

I'm cool with that, but how about raising funds to buy some print advertising. At one time we talked about trying to reach women outside of all the regulars in the blogsphere. What do you guys think of that?

I don't think you have to necessarily wait for money to start doing that. Maybe we could just brainstorm ideas.

For example, a lot of Democratic women's groups/caucuses do not have websites or have websites without blogs. It wouldn't be hard to search for them (I have some for Florida already) and email/write/call them and have them inform their members.

Is that the kind of thing we're talking about?

Someone had the idea of hitting the knitting blogs. I lurk on some, but don't really participate...maybe I need to do that.

Ok so first we need to write an email to introduce the site. Obviously it should include the mission statement. What other selling points do we want to make?

Everyone should post whatever ideas they have even if they are unsure. Deciding what is good or not can be done in editing/rewriting process.

* Free registration
* Liberal and progressive women
* Ability to connect with other like minded women share ideas, thoughts and coordinate actions
* Discuss current events
* Find information regarding issues
* Links to other sites of interest

Or maybe you should make a new entry to work on this so we don't digress any more from Emily's List. Your decision.

I did mean to contribute to turning "Our Word" into a vehicle for fund raising or a third party. My point is that the Dems take the progressives very much for granted and are taking more and more and giving less and less.

I am reminded that the Women's Movement sprung out of the anti-War Movement when the men (who were going to have to fight, for pity sakes) simply ignored the women - taking their making sandwiches for the men, for granted.

One woman recalls one conference turned out to be the last straw and she became a Women's Movement activist. My point was that no political party should be so brash as to sweep our rights under the table because they think we're desperate and have no alternatives.

I was saying, if I want a Republican, dammit, I'll vote Republican.

of course its not going to be a problem! this isn't a dem site. this site doesn't claim allegience to any particular party. not imho anway.

personally, i just hate to see a good progressive female candidate not supported because of her party affiliation. but that's just me. i'm just one vote on this site too. to me this site is about all of our words, all of our opinions...no one person sets the agenda.

the great thing about this site, i think, is that we disagree respectfully and remain friends ;-)

:)