After a month of incoming fire, Barack Obama used his acceptance speech to hit back at Republican John McCain, saying he was out of touch with the suffering of ordinary Americans today.

It was a one-two punch from the Clintons. Pundits praised their speeches on behalf of Barack Obama with every sports metaphor that exists: a knockout blow; a 10-strike, out-of-the-ballpark coup.

Hillary Clinton approached the podium tonight at the Democratic National Convention with a tall order to fill: to deliver a speech of historical significance that would fulfill the immediate needs of pragmatic politics. Tall or not, the order was filled.

Michelle Obama talked about parents who struggle to make sure their children can get a share of the American dream. She talked about every-day principles of life, taught by parents and grandparents and passed on to the next generation.

It’s a strange truth that national and international news somehow looks different, up close. So I found it to be upon waking up in Ohio last week, where I happened to be working, the morning following the untimely death of Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, 58, from a massive brain aneurysm.

Leaders of key women’s rights groups breathed a sigh of relief at Barack Obama’s selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

Mainstream media paid scant attention to Martha Lauzen's "Thumbs Down: Representation of Women Film Critics in the Top 100 U.S. Daily Newspapers" when the report was published on July 28 by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ), although the posting was supported by simultaneous distribution to 500 entertainment media and movie industry A-listers.

Women vote for health care, and with good reason. Today, women across the country are being forced to make impossible choices in the name of health care; sacrificing life and limb so that they can...

That Hillary Clinton’s name is being placed in nomination at the 2008 Democratic National Convention next week in Denver is the subject of much controversy. “Hillary Haters” are pointing to the ongoing Clinton drama. “Hillary Lovers” are rejoicing that she will be recognized for her historic presidential bid.

Meena Bilgi always knows where to start. A half hour after her request the village leader of Boripitha, an underdeveloped community of 1,300 in the Indian state of Gujarat, had summoned 15 to 18 men and boys.

At the recent G8 Summit, the leaders of the world’s economic superpowers met and agreed that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be reduced to mitigate climate change. Their “target” was ambiguous, ...

As yet another sex scandal broke involving a powerful male politician, I found it mind-boggling that this too familiar scenario was unfolding once again. In an age of constant media surveillance, didn’t anyone learn anything from the feckless Gary Hart, oh, so long ago?

Barack Obama got a lot of advice from more than 30 leaders of national women’s groups when he met with them in late July. Some columnists have written caustically about the need for Obama to pacify angry feminists who had backed Hillary Clinton.

Once touted by conservatives as the number one wedge issue, immigration has slipped off the table in these 2008 presidential elections. In part, this is because conservative candidates across the country lost when they tried to make immigrant-bashing a winning issue. (Witness the 2006 losing campaigns of Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and John Hostettler of Indiana, as examples.)

“This is a bit more civilized than usual,” one attendee could be heard saying upon entering the auditorium for the Federal Communications Commission event in New York City on Tuesday. Unlike the emotional collection of media activists, protestors, concerned citizens and artists (some of whom directed hisses and sneers at FCC Chair Kevin Martin) who attended any one of the public hearings held by the commission over the past year, this one featured mostly suits and ties, all of whom coolly assembled without fanfare at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

It’s mind-numbing. Four hundred thousand dead and 2.45 million displaced in Darfur; 5.4 million dead in fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998; epidemic levels of violence against women and children. With the constant repetition of such statistics of devastation, what can move us to action?

Jehmu Greene, a legendary grass roots organizer, plans next to “look laser-like at organizing young women.

Jehmu Greene, a legendary grass roots organizer, plans next to “look laser-like at organizing young women.

Four years ago Lisa Stone, Jory des Jardins and Elisa Camahort Page wanted to settle the annoying question they were constantly hearing: where are the women bloggers? So they put out a call, on their blogs of course, asking women if they would come to a conference, and, as Elisa says, the "response was immediate, passionate and positive.” Today Blogher has exploded from the 300 early attendees to 1,000 women (and a couple of guys) who just spent two days in San Francisco networking, learning and creating community around the act of blogging.

After a grueling 18-month primary campaign, the race for the president of the United States has begun. True to form the candidates have come out sparring.

For women in the military, this election season has the potential either to focus a spotlight on long-neglected needs or to continue rendering us invisible. Due to our military training, we often struggle to exercise our right to speak out, but now we need systemic and systematic change both to do justice to service members and to create healthier communities for everyone.

As the Bush administration unveiled a publicly financed plan to "save" mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, local residents at a town hall forum in Miami were calling for criminal prosecutions of the loan-shark mortgage brokers and investment firms that profited from poor people's housing despair.

Living up to predictions by Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold of "the caving of very large numbers of Democrats [on] an awful piece of legislation," the Senate remains poised to pass the Protect America Act (PAA) in a form that will allow telephone companies and internet providers immunity from prosecution for forking over consumer information to government spymasters. The bill confers immunity that would be retroactive to the first days of a warrantless spying program originated by the Bush administration following the 9/11 attacks. In an interview with The Media Consortium's Brian Beutler, Feingold attributed Democrats' weakness to "this constantly pulsating fear of being accused of being soft on terrorism."

“It doesn’t rain here the way it used to.” That was a Senegalese woman’s observation, included in a new report on climate change released by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO).