Next Up, Ferraro, Designated Baiter

Former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro emerges from relative obscurity as Hillary Clinton's latest surrogate race baiter. The irony of her statement, that if Barack Obama was a white male, or a woman of any color, he would not be in the position he is now in the race for the Democratic nomination, is not lost on her. She readily admits that when she was tapped for the Vice Presidential nomination in 1984 as Walter Mondale's running mate, she would not have been picked if she was not a woman.

But the differences between you Ms. Ferraro and Mr. Obama go far beyond race. Obama is an eloquent and intelligent figure who inspires the electorate like no figure in recent history has. Because he speaks to the people's overwhelming desire for change. He is swept up in a moment of history and you are a nearly forgotten footnote to history as the first woman to be picked by a major party to run for Vice President because as you readily admit, you happened to be a woman. You said it. I only repeated it.

Hillary seems to have no shortage of surrogates who will step up and sling mud for her. What's telling about these attacks is that these if these people had a candidate with more positives to tout, they wouldn't have to stoop to this level for her. It's really sad to see these formerly respected figures like her and Gloria Steinem, who I respect greatly, sticking their feet in their respective mouths and tarnishing their considerable reputations (at least in Steinem's case) with low brow campaign tactics at a historic time that should be uplifting to all who call themselves Democrats, if not all who call themselves Americans.

Update:

If I had a dollar for every time a racist statement is either proceeded or defended with, "I'm not a racist", I'd be a rich...African American. As if this somehow gives that person an exemption to go ahead and say something that is patently racist. There's obvious reasons she's a Faux News contributor. She's helping to fragment the party. Just admit you said the wrong thing, Ms. Ferraro, and apologize.

And in this quote from the Daily Breeze in Torrance California she defended her first offensive comments with more offensive comments. The second most used tact in defending racist comments, charging reverse racism.

Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up,' Ferraro said. 'Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?

This is the kind of thing the party does not need. The party leaders need to intervene now and raise the level of this campaign on both side before this kind of divisive rhetoric torches the party's chances in November.

CNN: Congolese Woman's Silent Scream is Heard

This story on CNN highlights the plight of women in the Congo on International Women's Day. Honorata Kizende's story is hard to hear, but it is one that must be heard. It's the story of hundreds of thousands of women in the Congo who have suffered gang rape and sexual slavery at the hands of soldiers fighting in a brutal civil war. According to the story, "An estimated 5.4 million people have died in Congo since 1998."

Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International, speaks eloquently about not only the pain Kizende suffered at the hands of those soldiers, but the greater pain of not being heard.

Kizende, 55, is a spokeswoman for Women for Women International, a 16-year-old group that helps rebuild the lives of women victimized by violent conflict in countries such as Kosovo, Iraq and Colombia.

The group was founded by Zainab Salbi, a 38-year-old Iraqi-American who knows something about brutality. She grew up under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, where people who spoke out were often murdered.

"My image of the Congolese women is that of a scream," Salbi said. "But there is no sound coming from the scream because the world is not hearing it."

That's because the victims are women, she said.

Too often humanitarian crises on the African continent are all but ignored by the US, the UN and the International Community. There's a story or two on the news, there are words and resolutions, but very little action. Very few troops or resources are committed to end the violence. They simply do not get the same kind of attention that this kind of crisis would if it occurred in Europe or the Middle East or some place considered "strategically" important. That this many people can die, that this many women can be raped and victimized without a hue and cry and demand for action from the world is truly tragic.