Sunday Morning with Bunnatine Greenhouse and Claudette Colvin

With Cindy Sheehan's protest in the air, it's important to take stock of just how male-dominated the public discussion in this country has become. Fact is, George Bush nominated a man to replace our nation's first female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor and the press barely batted an eye, even though the effect of that nomination would leave our High Court with a lone woman. His recess appointment of testosterone-fueled über-male John Bolton to the UN only completes the picture.

It's 2005, is this where anyone thought we would be forty years ago? Are women frozen at a 10-15% ratio in Washington? Is there a reason that, with a few exceptions that prove the rule, women have dissappeared from our public discourse? (link thanks to reader and blogger Olivia.)

Given this state of affairs, is it any coincidence that figures like Cindy Sheehan and Bunnatine Greenhouse, lightning rods...whistle blowers both, represent a powerful force of common-sense women's voices saying no? GOP take heed. American politics is a MESS right now. It's going to take principled, no-nonsense women like Bunnatine Greenhouse and Cindy Sheehan to help fix it. Seems to me we've got a new theme for 2006.

With that in mind, here's a group of worthy stories for you:

Last night Mentaldebris turned me on to this story of whistleblower Bunnatine Greenhouse...what an amazing woman and what a disturbing story

"I have never gone along to get along. And I'm willing to suffer the consequences," [Ms. Greenhouse] said.

Her contracting staff was sharply reduced, she said, and her superiors have gone behind her back, most notably in issuing an emergency waiver — on a day she was out of the office — that allowed KBR to ignore requests from Department of Defense auditors who issued a draft report in 2003 concluding KBR overcharged the government $61 million for fuel in Iraq.

"They knew I would never have signed it," she said.

{Update: Read Shanikka's break down of the story here.}

Political Sapphire (Shanikka's blog.) has this disturbing story of institutional racism out of Alabama.

Jeanne, at Body and Soul, tells the story of Cindy Sheehan through the lens of civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin. It's a must read.

Of course, if you haven't read Frank Rich's editorial today...you're missing one for the ages.

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