This is real.

via rocketboom

“Lets be clear here. Women are not a special interest group. They are mothers. And daughters. And sisters. And wives.” via feminist-slut: aquintessentialgirl:Watch the whole video here.

(Source: daxterdd)

"To build a mass movement quickly, it helps to have an over-simplified, emotive narrative with a single demand. It also helps to tells people that by doing easy tasks – sharing a link on Facebook, buying a bracelet — they can save lives. Central to the formula is that the agency of local actors gets downplayed to hype up the importance of action by outsiders. But all those ingredients inevitably lead to eventual failure when the simple solutions can’t fix the complex reality. The movement walks away, disillusioned. And in the meantime untold resources have been expended on solutions that have been out of step with what local activists need."

Rebecca Hamilton, author of Fighting for Darfur, via Felix Salmon’s analysis of Kony and Daisey.

Here’s a picture of me voting for Julia Gillard in 2010 (well, for Martin Ferguson, the MP who looked after Northcote where I lived).

And here’s a picture of my loungeroom, venue for the election party I held to celebrate the first woman Prime Minister Australia’s ever had.

It was a big deal to me. But Julia Gillard was modest about that achievement.

I’m not so much proud that it was me as I am proud that it finally happened. Proud that decades of waiting came to an end. Proud that having a second, third and fourth female Prime Minister will not have to be anything unusual. Taking the remarkable and rendering it unremarkable.

Just look at her record of achievements on the ALP’s crappy website. She thinks they should stand for themselves, and they do.

But if you need your Prime Minister to be likeable, she’s that too.

She’s funny. I remember when Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald from Big Brother interviewed her before an AFL game and said something like, “Who do you think is hottest out of *Player A* and *Player B*?” And Julia said, “Well my partner Tim’s watching so I better say… I fancy both of them equally.” She’s kind and knits brown cardigans. 

She is NOT perfect. She’s not flashy, she’s not a cult figure, she’s not Jed Bartlett making speeches in cathedrals in Latin. She takes the remarkable and renders it unremarkable. She does the job solidly, with strength and character, good judgment and kindness, with fairness and Australianness.

During the spill she’s behaved with professionalism and magnanimity. Working hard is what she does best and she’s ready to get back to work.

When Monday comes and goes there will still be a nation that needs to be governed. There will still be a party which needs to live out its historic mission for working people. Those things can only be done with purpose, with method, with character, with strength and that’s what I will seek to continue to deliver as Prime Minister beyond Monday.  

Even if she isn’t Australia’s PM in a few hours she’s been a first female prime minister to be proud of. I hope she IS still PM though. There’s a lot more shit on her To Do list.

GO JULIA!

What’s your PM done lately? Ours spent Christmas hols knitting a cardi for Senator Penny Wong and her partner Sophie Allouache’s new baby. You’re okay Julia I’m in your corner girl! Edited to add: The rest of her Christmas hols was spent making sure Australia was basically the only country in the western world not in recession. No big deal.

Justin Bale via Dave Pollard.

Law and order at #OWS. Near the New York Stock Exchange. (Via @katz, motherjones)