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Elizabeth Birch

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My Children's Other Mom, Hilary Rosen

Posted: 04/12/2012 4:10 pm

There is something just wrong with people twisting concerns for women and jobs into mom-on-mom conflict.

Here is the thing: Hilary Rosen is an amazing, loving and dedicated mother to our twins. I have absolutely no doubt Ann Romney and Hilary spend most of their waking hours worrying about the same things: how to best support their children in this complicated world. They both know the most important and central issue for children is that they are loved -- and safe.

When Hilary voices concerns over women and jobs what she is really saying is that most women -- and moms especially -- worry day in and day out about how to make it all come together at the end of each day. How to make ends meet, while juggling school bags, soccer balls and healthy lunches -- not to mention the magic tricks with time to to squeeze out those precious hours to be with our children each day.

Stay-at-home moms -- and dads -- are an amazing gift to any child. And Hilary stayed at home for a couple of years when our kids were young for that reason. But almost no one can afford it. And that is what all parents have to figure out in these economic times.

Let's take off the gloves, women of America -- because this is a manufactured battle over things on which we mostly agree. And frankly, I don't want our kids to be the subject of any battle.

 

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There is something just wrong with people twisting concerns for women and jobs into mom-on-mom conflict. Here is the thing: Hilary Rosen is an amazing, loving and dedicated mother to our twins. I ha...
There is something just wrong with people twisting concerns for women and jobs into mom-on-mom conflict. Here is the thing: Hilary Rosen is an amazing, loving and dedicated mother to our twins. I ha...
 
 
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07:09 AM on 04/17/2012
If we are talking about privilege, the Obamas are also privileged.....Their children were/are being raised by the mother of Michelle! They have the privilege of having the grandmother live in the White House with them and pic up whatever slack is necessary when the parents are unavailable.....this has been happening for the children's entire lives. Does Michelle Obama have a realistic perspective of what is like to be a struggling Mom of 2 daughters, trying to make ends meet in the real world? Probably not!
Many of us were lucky enough to have had husbands/fathers for our children who were/are good providers and we were allowed the privilege to be stay at home moms and raise our own children!
Should we be punished for that! I think we shoud be congratulated for making good choices!
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mombabytiger
Looking into the heart of an artichoke.
02:07 PM on 04/14/2012
My goodness. Could this be more boring and irrelevant? And yes - I came here just to say that.
11:06 AM on 04/14/2012
Hilary Rosen, who is a public relations specialist and thereby holds a job description requiring her to constantly generate and/or feign fake outrage, got the kind of fake outrage she didn't want. Her attempt to generate fake outrage by straw woman inflating Ann Romney's importance to Mitt Romney as an economic adviser and then faux analyzing Ann Romney's credentials as said adviser ignited fake outrage on the right. The right then pretending that Ann Romney represents in any real way most stay at home moms exploded in their own fake outrage, and Ann Romney and others were able to lay fake claim to something she doesn't really represent, women who make real, economic and personal sacrifices in their lives to stay home with their kids. Hilary Rosen, whose job it is specifically to manufacture fake outrage, is then fake outraged at the fake outrage. And since we all apparently get to assign to each other exactly the level of outrage that we will allow each other to have in any given situation, any level above or below that decided level of acceptability doesn't count. This leads me to two conclusions. First, either Hilary Rosen is one of the greatest trolls of all time and should be hired immediately for all of your publicity generating needs or she is one of the worst public relations professionals ever. And, second, I need to find someone I disagree with on something of minor importance so I can practice my own fake outrage.
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Alux
Pull the Wool Over Your Own Eyes!
01:56 AM on 04/14/2012
You are exactly right, Elizabeth. You and Hilary have demanding jobs that require long days, every day. Everyone knows that child care is a great substitute from motherly attention.

I commend how you and Hilary have shunted your children off to be raised by people you hire. I mean, neither one of you earns enough to be able to support the whole family so you do what is required to best provide for your family.
08:34 PM on 04/13/2012
Team Members formulated ways in which they could circumvent the National Environmental Policy Act, asking “How many (wild horses) could be euthanized during a gather (roundup) without having NEPA?” BLM discussed ways to circumvent the federal carcass disposal law (43 CFR 4730.2). Conversations included how many wild horses could be rendered at the Reno Rendering plant or “disposed of in pits”. The Team concluded that “there will not be large numbers of horses euthanized during gathers or in the field. This is due to state environmental laws.”
08:32 PM on 04/13/2012
Documents Reveal BLM Secret Plan to Destroy Wild Horses

Documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) via the Freedom of Information Act by a Phoenix-based non-profit, The Conquistador Program, reveal shocking and detailed plans to destroy healthy wild horses in government holding facilities as well as those still remaining in the wild on public lands.

BLM employees as well as a USDA veterinarian held weekly “Implementation Team” meetings beginning in July of 2008 in which they discussed and developed strategies aimed at ridding BLM of thousands of mustangs. In October they completed a 68 page document entitled “Alternative Management Options”. Tactics included in this document are reminiscent of those used to wipe out Native American tribes in the 1800s.

The BLM team created scenarios for killing mustangs using barbiturates, gun shots, or captive bolts. Bodies would be disposed of through rendering, burial or incineration. They discussed killing 1200-2000 wild horses per year. The document states that “the general public would be prohibited from viewing euthanasia.” Additionally, the Team felt that “increased support from public relations and management staff would also be needed to insulate those doing the actual work from the public, media and Congressional scrutiny/criticism.”

“Minutes from these meetings as well as the Draft Plan reveal what amounts to ‘the final solution’ for the American mustang,” states Ginger Kathrens, filmmaker and Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation. “Despite a huge outcry from the American public last year regarding BLM plans to kill wild horses in holding,
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Lisa SpomerKrasnoff
08:00 PM on 04/13/2012
I don't like class warfare, no matter who starts it.

I remember hearing how privileged Jackie Kennedy was--and I still liked her.

This is all to turn our national attention away from the problems that exist in our country, like JOBS and ending the war in Afghanistan.
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mrman
I am an OBAMA SUPPORTER!.
02:50 PM on 04/13/2012
ALL this is because Mitt Romney is so far removed from the Average American Woman...he needs a surrogate. Ann Romney has a very narrow, privileged perspective. Anyone who tries to claim otherwise is just lying.
02:50 PM on 04/13/2012
Bummer about your kids being denied a father.
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krvball24
Progressive in every way possible
10:17 PM on 04/14/2012
Bummer that a couple of straight parents decided to dump their kids into the system. Before Elizabeth and Hilary showed up these kids didn't have ANY parents. These kids aren't denied...they're blessed with 2 people that love, protect, and support them. Those are the only kind of parents any kid needs. Genitalia has nothing to do with it.
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nzchicago
03:18 AM on 04/15/2012
Jeez, krvball24 kind of got you there! I would like to see your answer to that...
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mrman
I am an OBAMA SUPPORTER!.
02:32 PM on 04/13/2012
Elizabeth...most of us (thinking people) understand totally what Hillary meant and the point she was making. The GOP attackers also understand. This is a manufactured issue to fill the 24/7 media cycle. It will pass. I wish you and Hillary all the best for your family. Ann Romney has yet to learn that the pendulum swings both ways.
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Kevin Barbieux
...and then you die.
01:58 PM on 04/13/2012
Regardless of what a person does in life, they will have difficulties. But it is much easier to bear the burden of these difficulties when you have buckets of money at your disposal.
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Brooke Doris
01:30 PM on 04/13/2012
Rosen did not intend to offend Ann Romney or to suggest that stay at home moms do not work or to criticize her choice. That is not what she was talking about. Rosen was talking about Ann Romney being unable to relate to the economic struggles of working women.

Rosen was referring to when Mitt Romney responded twice to questions regarding women and the economy, saying he wish his wife was there to answer such questions. I believe Rosen's point, if not her wording, was a fair one.

The ultra-rich Romneys have no idea what the rest of us go through, and Mitt has made it clear that he has no interest in finding out. She's not qualified to speak about women's economic concerns. LOTS of us struggle with illness, get degrees, and raise kids, but almost NONE of us have an army of domestic servants to do all the heavy lifting or have nary a concern about paying for our health care, keeping a roof over our heads or food on the table or saving for our retirement.
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Bruce H Majors
Libertarian for Congress
01:19 PM on 04/13/2012
A good lesson for the twins: don't start fights you are going to lose, especially when you don't have right on your side to begin with.

http://bighomocon.blogspot.com/2012/04/hillary-rosen-sets-lesbian-rights-back.html
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maggie3
01:30 AM on 04/14/2012
Your attachment looks like a possible game changer as it applies to the real Hilary whose problems do not appear to be Ann Romneys lack of anything,but Hilarys lack of anything.It appears that Romneys life is real and fulfilling and Hilarys is,well ,less than that . She does not seem to know what she wants to be when she grows up but she knows mean for sure!
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krvball24
Progressive in every way possible
10:00 PM on 04/14/2012
First off, that's a link to a blog...hardly the definitive Truth of all society. Also, just because it was written by a 'fellow' homosexual doesn't take away from the fact that the writer missed the point, much as you have seemed to. Rosen didn't attack Ann Romney or homemakers or 'apple pie' as the blogger put it. Her point was that ARomney may not necessarily be the best source for information about how women feel in the workplace...because she's never worked at a workplace. The implication of anything more in her statement is devised by people who either can't comprehend what they read or choose to intentionally get it wrong. What Rosen said was fact. That means she's telling the truth which puts her in the right, not the wrong. That's what the twins can learn...how to read and how to be capable of forming simple and honest statements.
11:33 AM on 04/13/2012
I have reviewed the original Rosen attack on stay at home moms, where she was stating that Mrs Romney should have no opinion due to her stay at home status. Spike Lee says no one but a black can have an opinion about race, President Obama says "people who were not duly elected" should not have an opinion about the constitutionality of any law passed by a majority. These three opinions have an underlining thread of logic. That the only opinion of any value is the opinion of the speaker, regardless of how unsubstantiated, unfair, or untrue.
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krvball24
Progressive in every way possible
10:14 PM on 04/14/2012
But wait...that logic means that a person who has worked in finance for their entire career is both entitled to and qualified to walk into a restaurant and run it from day 1. That doesn't make any sense. I don't care what Spike Lee thinks, but at the same time, if you're black, you know racism from a standpoint that a white person will never be able to understand. Experience is the best teacher. You can't tell me you know what it's like to be treated the way someone from the opposite end of the spectrum as you has been treated, good or bad.
12:58 AM on 04/15/2012
I am sorry, but I have read your example about the finance person three times, and I don't understand how it relates to what I wrote. I will tell you though, that a person's skin color does not give them the right to corner the market on understanding when it comes to racism, or any other ism for that matter. Thanks for the feedback.
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krvball24
Progressive in every way possible
10:14 PM on 04/14/2012
Cont'd:

And Rosen wasn't attacking stay-at-home moms at all, though the campaign tells you she did so it doesn't seem like it hates or wages war on women like the rest of the Repub party. If she attacked stay-at-home moms--few of them that there are due to the fact that the majority of families require both parents working to survive--it probably would have been more like 'Hey, ARomney, why don't you stop eating bonbons and watching Dr Phil for a minute so you can actually DO something for a change.' THAT is an attack on stay-at-home moms...or maybe telling them they should defer all decisions to their spouse because they don't pull their own weight...Nothing remotely like that was said in her post. I don't want ARomney telling people what I think is important. She doesn't speak for me because she doesn't know what my life is like. Just because we're both women doesn't make us the same.
01:07 AM on 04/15/2012
I am sorry, but Rosen was attacking stay at home moms. I saw the interview three separate times on CNN, and there isn't any other way to see it. Rosen has apologized for what she said, so I believe even she agrees that she was out of line. Your example of an attack on Mrs.Romney is actually less harsh, because I would assume your example is one that comes from a place of anger, instead of the place of distain which I believe fueled the position Hilary Rosen believes. I don't believe there is anything wrong with your alignment with Hilary Rosen, and I am sure her children have great, caring parents. I just cannot believe that the only way Hilary Rosen can have an opinion which is valid is to nullify someone else's.
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Jody Dobis
10:46 AM on 04/13/2012
Before you know it, Ann Romney is going to tell us that her best friends are Jewish, African American and Hispanic. As President Clinton once remarked, I feel your pain.
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Bruce H Majors
Libertarian for Congress
01:21 PM on 04/13/2012
But leftovers have been saying Mitt is a Mexican not eligible to be President, so apparently she sleeps with a Latino