Sunday, July 1, 2007

Morra Aarons-Mele writes Women and Work. She is a contributing editor on politics and news at BlogHer and a self described liberal and progressive. Random linkage dropped me into the front page of her blog where I saw a post referring to a Mother Jones interview with her, and posts on feminism, hiring psychiatric workers to help address PTSD issues of returning vets, and birth control. I thought I’d spotted someone interesting. Further reading dulled my interest.

Aarons-Mele has archives going back a year and a half. I started at the beginning and read her posts in chronological order. She’s a Kerry Democrat so that means she’s a compromiser and she’s been co-opted. She’s worked (works?) for Edelman so that means she’s a compromiser and she’s been co-opted. Wait. Am I repeating myself? She has size 13 feet. She links Thich Nhat Hanh.

Regarding the Edelman/Wal-Mart stink:

Now, I started the department at Edelman that’s come under so much fire.  [See these posts -- fp --]  I helped launch the Wal-Mart account (tough for a committed Democrat with a labor arbitrator father). I hired Miranda Grill when it was just me, and she is an honorable person. The department has done great worked [sic]. It’s  taken risks. I don’t know what led to these fake blogs launching without bylines, but honestly, anyone who’s worked in DC knows there are a million coalitions and groups run by communications firms. Call any 1-800 coalition number for many non-profits and companies and you’ll get a PR firm. Why is a blog so different? Because it’s more visible to those beyond the target audience?

In a post called “Why Don’t Women Get The Soundbite?” Aarons-Mele says,

It always bothered me that Dr. Phil, the person who made psychotherapy part of our vernacular, is a man.

God, I love that line!

Aarons-Mele and her husband Nicco (a former Howard Dean webmaster) were interviewed in the recent tech-politics issue of Mother Jones. Mother Jones, a sort of mash-up of Parade Magazine and Fast Company, a slick mag pretending to “smart, fearless journalism,” misses the point completely in their “Politics 2.0″ presentation. Without drawing too fine a point on this, there is an upper class in this country bolstered by a corporate power structure. That upper class has come to believe that the invisible hand of self-interest driven market economics somehow scientifically will yield optimum social arrangements and provide a fair and equitable distribution of wealth and human services for all. These Ayn Randian bullshit fantasies of adolescent solipsists have torn down a public infrastructure that was the best and getting better in 1980. Mother Jones did nothing then to address this issue and they do nothing now. Rather they give voice to middle of the road corporate fantasists. Why does this bother me? Because they do it under the name of Mother Jones.

I’m glad I read Aarons-Mele’s blog front to back. Now you don’t have to.

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