I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
[COMMENTARY] Am I the only one who found The New Yorker’s cover image of Michelle Obama as a latter-day Angela Davis an inspired merging of two icons of badass womanhood?
I know, I know. The cover was a satire on the right’s attempt to turn the Obamas into some sort of two-dimensional embodiment of the American nightmare. The fact that the American nightmare could be embodied by an armed black woman with a `fro and combat boots seems to be accepted as a fact unworthy of critical comment in both the pro- and anti-New Yorker cover camp.
Of course, in real life Michelle Obama isn’t armed, as far as we know (unless you count her biceps. Ba-dum-bum). And she definitely doesn’t have an Afro or wear combat boots. Her hair swings freely, especially when she leans in to listen intently to an admirer, most of whom are likely to be much shorter than the statuesque future (please, God?) first lady. And her knockout outfits seem to inspire the women who attend her events to take their own sartorial act up several notches — either that, or her audience just really likes to dress well.
Of course, her fashion sense and her hair are just a small part of Michelle Obama’s swoon factor. What makes her so girl-crush inducing, and so threatening to the right even in heels and and a perm, is that Michelle Obama is a woman to be reckoned with.
Continued -She is razor-sharp brilliant. She exudes an easy charisma, has a comic’s sense of timing and has got to be the most striking-looking woman in just about any room she’s in. Oh, and she’s black. And probably our next first lady. That’s a combination to make any right-winger grab the nearest paper bag and start huffing and puffing into it.
When I saw her last week, first at her public event in Pontiac and then at a private event with women leaders (which I qualified as, due to my service on my county women’s commission), she had her audience eating out of her hand.
If you think that’s easy to do when you’re speaking to a room full of supporters of your political party, then check out some video from McCain’s visit to Michigan the next day. I was at that event, too, and the audience was so sedate as McCain delivered his practiced applause lines that you could have heard a loud belch from across the room.
Michelle Obama, by contrast, spoke thoughtfully and authentically and, when it was over, was attentive as the audience thronged her for a greeting. She zeroed in on each woman who spoke with her, listening carefully and holding each woman’s hand.
So maybe comparing her to a radical black feminist isn’t so far afield. Davis, a Black Panther, was considered radical largely because she projected such a fearless image of herself. Obama seems determined to stay true to herself, too. Given that she’s married to the man who could be our first black president, that’s got to count as a radical act.
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