Your chance to promote your blog, other blogs, and various things of interest. What's going on?
Quickies: By the Numbers
Bush’s approval rating has fallen to 47%, down from his 2005 high on Feb. 4 of 54%. The only question I have is what have the dingdongs who voted for him come to learn in the past four months that wasn’t already apparent to anyone with a working brain?
The Army’s recruiting woes continue, with its April goal falling short by 42%, leaving its year-to-date recruitment 16% behind the goal. The Army Reserve has also fallen short of its recruitment goal for April by 37%. This marks the first time the Army has missed a monthly recruitment goal since May of 2000. The Marines are 2% behind their year-to-date goal.
Reporters Without Borders reports that 53 journalists were killed in 2004, making it the highest number of deaths since 50 journalists were killed in 1955. In the first four months of 2005, 22 journalists have been killed, nine of them in Iraq, which tops the list of the five deadliest places for journalists, followed by the Philippines, Colombia, Bangladesh, and Russia.
Language Police
You know how sometimes you read a story and you honestly can’t believe that you’re not reading it in The Onion? This is one of those stories.
A bill approved by the Missouri Senate (which still has to pass the House, where it will hopefully be voted down, if there are any reasonable people left in Missouri) adds to Missouri’s existing policy that no public money can be used to fund abortions an additional rule prohibiting state aid to hospitals, clinics, and counselors who even utter the word “abortion.” (Emphasis mine.)
The bill sends state government snooping into places where women have a reasonable expectation of privacy. It sets an impossible-to-monitor standard for what doctors and other health care providers can and cannot say, which intrudes on their obligation to provide essential information about safe, legal medical options for their patients. And it creates cumbersome audit requirements that will add to health care costs and require a larger state bureaucracy.In reality, however, and in spite of Senator Loudon’s insistence, it’s designed to enhance the state’s ability to withhold information about a procedure, which is both safe and legal, that would enable them to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. And since it applies only to state-funded hospitals, clinics, and counselors, it specifically targets poor women. Additionally, the bill demands more stringent requirements for doctors who perform abortions:
Hospitals, clinics, rape crisis lines and domestic violence counselors would be audited every three years to make sure they don't mention abortion or answer patients' questions about how to obtain it. Those affiliated with abortion providers would face annual audits.
The bill is sponsored by state Sen. John Loudon, R-Ballwin, who insists that it's designed to "enhance safety."
Most outpatient surgery centers have arrangements with local hospitals to take patients who suffer surgical complications. But Mr. Loudon's bill goes well beyond that, to require that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. In Missouri, there now are only three places where abortions are performed: Columbia, St. Louis and Springfield. This bill will reduce the number of doctors who can perform abortions, which is exactly what it's designed to do. But it won't necessarily reduce the already low rate of complications.The number of instances we’ve seen in state governments trying to do end-runs around the protections afforded women by Roe v. Wade have been steadily increasing—and getting ever bolder—since the moment Bush strode into office, trumpeting his moral values and his love of Jesus. His alliance with the Dominionists and the alleged mandate they gave him in return have encouraged exactly this kind of anti-choice, anti-woman legislation, and while Bush and his wife blather on about how much they do to free women from tyranny around the world, here at home his devotees do everything in their power to turn women’s bodies into slaves of the state.
Delaying access and gagging health care providers means women will be further along in their pregnancies when they finally get an abortion. That alone increases the risks. And the bill prohibits any abortion provider from distributing sex education material to public school students. Without access to comprehensive sexual education, young people are more likely to have unprotected intercourse, which results in unintended pregnancies.
Ironically, many of the legislators who supported this glorified gag rule also voted to cut subsidies to parents who adopt through the foster care system, and health care to disabled and elderly state residents.
One Hand-Holding Man Date and Look What Happens
If you were President of the United States, and the largest terrorist attack on American soil had happened on your watch, perpetrated by 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi Arabian, subscribers to a radical Islamic sect called Wahabbi which has its roots in Saudi Arabia, and members of a terrorist network called al-Qaida led by a Saudi Arabian by the name of Osama bin Laden, and you had repeatedly claimed to support both freedom and women’s rights, yet Saudi Arabia was one of the worst offenders on both counts, what would you do?
Well, if you were President Bush, you would choose to relax travel restrictions between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
US Ambassador James C. Oberwetter says changes in the US visa process would ease travel between the States and Saudi Arabia.Superb. How safe you feelin’ now, all you Bush-voting pricks who were so sure that he was the only one who could protect America? I hope you’ve realized by now that the only thing Bush is interested in protecting is the investments of all his rich fucking pals.
The ambassador’s comments come in the wake of the Saudi-US Summit and before a high-profile, 63-member Saudi business mission leaves for the US next week.
“Last week’s visit by Crown Prince Abdullah to the United States has given a major boost to the bilateral relations,” said Oberwetter. “I am very satisfied with the outcome of the royal visit,” he said, referring to the joint communique issued after the talks held by Crown Prince Abdullah and the US President George W. Bush.
[…]
Oberwetter said once the new system was in place, it will ensure long-term stays for Saudi businessmen or tourists in the US with multiple-entry visas. “It will also reduce the time lag for processing visa applications and interviews,” he said, without detailing the proposed system.
Entertainment News
Finally! After the rigmarole Air America went through in Chicago, which has left Chicago without any notable progressive radio programming ever since, we’re finally getting some good news.
Chicago’s Newsweb Radio Group today said it will launch a new local radio station for “progressive talk” at 850 on the AM band.Good man. Thanks, Mr. Eychaner!
WCPT, Chicago’s Progressive Talk, will begin broadcasting Thursday at 8 a.m. with programming that will include talk shows, news on the hour and traffic and weather reports. Among the personalities with shows to air on the station are Jerry Springer, Al Franken, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Ed Schultz. WCPT will also air a show called Morning Sedition.
[...]
Newsweb Radio Group, a division of Newsweb Corp., owns five AM and four FM stations in the Chicago area. Owned by entrepreneur Fred Eychaner, Newsweb also prints foreign-language and alternative newspapers, and in 2002 sold WPWR-TV/Channel 50 to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for $425 million. Mr. Eychaner is a significant donor to Democratic causes, giving at least $1.1 million to groups working to defeat President Bush last fall.
And less locally, The Daily Show’s Stephen Colbert is getting his own show:
If Comedy Central's Jon Stewart is the comic version of Peter Jennings or Brian Williams, Stephen Colbert promises to be the same for Bill O'Reilly and others like him. The Daily Show regular will star each night in The Colbert Report, likely starting in September. Comedy Central is revamping its schedule, recognizing that late-night programming is essentially prime time for its youthful audience.I’m going to miss Jon Stewart struggling to keep from totally cracking up at Stephen Colbert’s antics, but I’m definitely looking forward to The Colbert Report. If it’s half as funny as either The Daily Show or Colbert’s other venture with Amy Sedaris, Strangers With Candy, which made me laugh until my sides ached, then it will be brilliant.
"It's as if my character on The Daily Show got promoted," Colbert told The Associated Press.
He'll be a "very well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot, not unlike some people who have these shows in the real world," he said.
Besides lampooning O'Reilly, the king of the cable TV opinion shows, he's sending up people such as Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough and Anderson Cooper, he said.
Here’s another little funny but unrelated tidbit from the story on Colbert:
Comedy Central … will often have as many viewers at 4 a.m. as it does at 6 p.m., network researchers said.Ha! Something tells me they’ve got the munchies.
What Would Lester Burnham Say?
More nuttiness in Texas as their House approves a bill to ban “overtly sexually suggestive” cheerleading. (It awaits approval by the state Senate and signature by GOP Gov. Rick Perry.)
The bill would give the state education commissioner authority to request that school districts review high school performances.Ooh, yeah. I can imagine that reviewing high school cheerleading performances to scrutinize them for sexual suggestiveness will become a favorite pastime of fat Texas principals in their too-tight polyester slacks.
"Girls can get out and do all of these overly sexually performances and we applaud them, and that's not right," said Democratic Rep. Al Edwards, who filed the legislation.Is it really the applauding about which Edwards is worried? Or it celebrating their performances later with a masturbatory session in his dank basement that drives him to criminalize the cheerleading bump and grind?
Ribald performances are not defined in the bill. "Any adult that's been involved with sex in their lives, they know it when they see it," he said.That’s right! And I demand to know when they’re going to stop football players from slapping each other on the bums. I find that very gay and therefore offensive.
One critic questioned the legislation's priorities.At least someone’s still got some sense in Texas.
"Have we done anything about stem cell research to help people who are dying and are sick advance their health? No," said Democratic Rep. Senfronia Thompson. "Have we done anything about the mentally ill, school finance or ethics?"
Edwards argued bawdy performances are a distraction for students resulting in pregnancies, dropouts and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.I never knew a cheerleader who got pregnant, dropped out, or had an STD; usually those were the girls who stayed in school (if for no other reason than to be admired) and who were sophisticated enough to be on birth control or demand the use of condoms. Honestly, in my experience, it seems the biggest concern to have about cheerleading is that it can rot the brain.
Former cheerleader George Bush
Damn, it kinda looks like he’s getting a little sexually suggestive with that megaphone, you know what I mean?
When The President Talks To God
"When The President Talks To God"
by Bright Eyes
When the president talks to God
Are the conversations brief or long?
Does he ask to rape our women’s' rights
And send poor farm kids off to die?
Does God suggest an oil hike
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
Are the consonants all hard or soft?
Is he resolute all down the line?
Is every issue black or white?
Does what God say ever change his mind
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
Does he fake that drawl or merely nod?
Agree which convicts should be killed?
Where prisons should be built and filled?
Which voter fraud must be concealed
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
I wonder which one plays the better cop
We should find some jobs. the ghetto's broke
No, they're lazy, George, I say we don't
Just give 'em more liquor stores and dirty coke
That's what God recommends
When the president talks to God
Do they drink near beer and go play golf
While they pick which countries to invade
Which Muslim souls still can be saved?
I guess god just calls a spade a spade
When the president talks to God
When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he's not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God?
I doubt it
I doubt it
Come on, Summer
All right, all you green thumbed Shakers. It’s about time that Mr. Shakes and I get out in the garden and decide what we want to do with it. Both of us have been urban apartment dwellers our entire adult lives, and so we’re open to suggestions from people who know what they’re doing.
Our house is on a double lot, with the second lot consisting of a beautiful but chaotic garden behind the house that was created by the former owner, who also owned a nursery. It’s very Secret Gardenish, complete with arbors and ponds and all kinds of cool stuff, and it’s one of the main reasons we bought the house. These are pictures I took last summer before we moved in (which wasn’t until August, by which time it was too late to start a project). What are your favorites in your gardens?
Side entrance to garden
Walkway at very back of property
Oasis in middle of garden
My favorite pond in the garden
(those are tiny lilypads, not pond scum)
Arbor in center of garden
Question of the Day
Larry Cochell, head baseball coach at Oklahoma since 1991 and winner of a College World Series with the Sooners, used a racial slur in two off-camera interviews with ESPN journalists last Tuesday. Here's what Mr. Cochell, who is white, said, in reference to black outfielder Joe Dunigan Jr.: "There's no n----- in him." And: "There are honkies and white people, and there are n------ and black people. Dunigan is a good, black kid."What do you think? Was what Cochell said reflecting an intolerance toward people, or an ignorance about the power of language? Both? Was his resignation warranted?
Mr. Dunigan -- whom Mr. Cochell was trying to compliment -- and his father forgave the coach, as did many others with the program who said they had never seen any signs of racism from the man. But on Sunday Mr. Cochell resigned in the face of widespread criticism of his remarks and apparent pressure from the university.
Funny Stuff
Two back-to-back posts at Upon Further Review… that totally cracked my shit up. John Howard is one seriously sarcastic dude, which means I’d totally dig him even if he hadn’t been the first person ever to leave a comment at Shakespeare’s Sister who wasn’t Mr. Furious.
Cheney says al Qaeda is still 'very active'And check out this post, too, which is the best commentary I’ve seen on how our completely retarded government doesn’t know how to classify info in .pdf documents.
I wonder how the administration manages this, really. That's one fucking delicate balance they've got to maintain. On the one hand, we have to believe that we've wiped out 70% of Al-Qaeda and that we're winning the War on Terror and that the fact that we haven't been attacked since 09/11/2001 is a testament to the great job they are doing with Homeland Security, but on the other hand they want us to know that Al-Qaeda is still "very active" and that we should constantly be in fear of the next attack. I don't know how they manage to reconcile these two conflicting positions, or how the freaking media doesn't call them out on it, or how half of the country buys this bullshit without subjecting it to at least a little fucking common sense first.
The homophobes are right, after all
I hate to say it, but this is what happens when kids are raised by same sex parents. They grow up to be...Major League Baseball players. Oh, the horror. The next thing you know this guy is going to be taking steroids, and it all could have been avoided if people had just believed in the sanctity of marriage.
Q: What do you call someone too radical for even the Freepers?
A: Pat Robertson.
Ooh, boy. Pam, in another one of her brave forays into Freeperland, has culled some Freeper quotes in response to Robertson’s recent assertion that federal judges are a greater threat to America than terrorists. Wow—she really found some beauties this time. A couple of favorites:
"Man oh man..this is SURE to raise the credibility of the Republican Party and conservatives in general. Get a grip, Pat."
"His statement is incendiary and self-defeating. Nothing positive comes from rhetoric like this. It does nothing more than feed the agenda of the Left."
"Pat Robertson is hereby promoted from "Idiot First Class" to "Supreme Moron." He and his faculty teach this crapola at that aslyum for dull normals they call a law school."
Damn! As Big Brass Blogger Scott noted, “Hey, when the freepers know you are out of your friggin' mind, it is time to check into Camp Rubberroom.”
It should be noted, however, that a lot of the Freepi agree with his sentiment; they just wish he’d made the point a bit more delicately. Yeesh.
What is "W" for again?
The rights of women and all human beings can be assured only within the framework of freedom and democracy. If people aren't free, it is likely that women will be suppressed. Human rights are defined by a constitution; they're defended by an impartial rule of law; they're secured in a pluralistic society. The advance of women's rights and the advance of liberty are ultimately inseparable.
—President Bush, March 12 in a speech recognizing International Women’s Day
The bodies of three Afghan women, including one who was working for a Bangladeshi non-governmental aid group, have been found by authorities. The women had been raped, strangled with a rope, and dumped, with responsibility for the murder of the aid worker being claimed by a group calling itself Afghan Youths Convention.
Aid workers in Afghanistan have been the target of Taliban insurgents, especially in the insurgency-plagued south and east of the country, but the three women were found in the northern province of Baghlan, where Taliban rebels are not active.
"This is retribution for those women who are working in [non-governmental organizations] and those who are involved in whoredom," said a Western security official, citing the warning, a copy of which he had obtained.
The note was found attached to the chest of one of the dead women, he said.
President Bush is firmly committed to the empowerment in education and health of women around the world. The President knows that women are vital to democracy and important for the development of all countries. And he has three very strong women at home who won't let him forget it.
—First Lady Laura Bush, introducing her husband on March 12
Mrs. Bush, it’s time to remind him that abandoning Afghanistan before anything resembling a real democracy took hold was as good as leaving its women for dead. And if he’s not going to do anything to stop the madness that leaves women who try to help other women mutilated and murdered, then the very least he can do is stop claiming a success on behalf of Afghani women.
W is not for women. Warmonger, maybe.
Good News for Women’s Rights
Regular Shaker and contributor to Julien’s List Holly gave me the heads-up re: this story in today’s NY Times, which I wrote about on Sunday:
A judge has ruled that a 13-year-old girl at the center of an abortion fight with the state may terminate her pregnancy.Excellent news. The girl, known as LG, proved herself smart, tough, independent, and quite sure of what would be best for her. It’s really too bad she had to take the state to court to make them aware of these things, especially considering she’s been in their care for almost a third of her life.
Juvenile Judge Ronald Alvarez on Monday ruled that the teen, who has been in state custody for four years, would not be physically or emotionally harmed by the procedure. Last week, Alvarez blocked the girl's abortion until a psychological evaluation was completed.
''He ruled that she is competent, that she has made a decision and that she has a right to act on that decision,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the girl.
[UPDATE: An appeal has been filed. Lauren's got the lowdown at Feministe. Fuck.]
[UPDATE2: Jeb Bush may be calling off the appeal.]
...for Four Years.
This political advertisement manages to be hysterical and chilling at the same time. Damn. Someone from the Democratic Party needs to get these people on the payroll, pronto.
Boo-scary ads and nasty attack ads don't work. Time and time again polls show that people are sick of them. I know I, for one, lose a little respect for my canditate each time I see a blatant attack ad complete with scary music attacking the opponent. It's cheap politics, whether you "approve of that message" or not. Something along these lines would be much more effective.
I'm rambling. Go view the advert. It's great.
(via applecidercheesefudge. Cross-posted from my blog.)
“Rove says GOP ready to keep power for years”
If American politics were a movie, I guess this would be the part where the nerdy guy (played by Karl Rove) would be driving down a costal highway in a convertible wearing a pair of Ray-Bans, while “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” takes over the soundtrack.
U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the area's Republican congressman, said that Rove and Bush go back 30 years and that Rove is perhaps Bush's closest confidant.Once again, I must reiterate my hope that when Bush’s two terms are up and he moseys back to Crawford (or the executive board of some oil company or wherever the hell he goes), Rove goes, too. If he gets his hooks into some other GOP douchebag and they manage to pull out another “win,” we could be looking at Rove being our behind-the-curtain president indefinitely.
"Karl Rove will always be sitting there on the president's right," Boehner said.
Rove's blueprint for winning elections still emphasizes traditional values, education, low taxes and a word he stressed Monday - compassion.Euphemism: Traditional Values
Translation: Homophobia, Xenophobia, Racism, Sexism, and Conservative Christianity
Euphemism: Education
Translation: Voucher programs serving as a backdoor means to circumvent Brown v. Board of Ed
Euphemism: Low Taxes
Translation: Continued redistribution of taxation from corporations to individuals composing the American middle class
Euphemism: Compassion
Translation: Continuing to exploit those we can fool into believing we give a shit about them until we have taken away every social safety net, thereby making it impossible for them to be anything but obedient worker drones, while we roll around naked in piles of their money they dutifully handed over to a Social Security privatization scheme
"We defend time-tested values," Rove said, adding that the Republican Party is determined to reform and update 20th century programs such as Social Security that will be confronted by demographic upheavals in the decades ahead.See?
"We're shaping history," he said.
Their pomposity is so grandiose as to be mind-blowing. Shaping history. Pfft. How about you pay a little more attention to the present and the immediate needs of the American people? Of course, I suppose if a legacy of bringing the world’s sole remaining superpower to its knees is what you’re gunning for, then keep on keeping on, my Machiavellian friends.
Snark.... overload...
I heard a vague news item on the radio this morning regarding Sean Hannity's fear of going to work due to an alledged "stalker." My searches have come up cold. Does anyone know anything about this?
Chicken hawk... frothing at the mouth to send more people to war... afraid to go to work over one person... even with restraining order.... urgh... *head explodes*
GOPBS
Wow, this story is just amazing. PBS is basically being destroyed by Republicans:
Last November, members of the Association of Public Television Stations met in Baltimore along with officials from the corporation and PBS. [Board Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson] told them they should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate.I can’t even begin to imagine how such a comment could be construed as a joke, but whatever. It’s the least of Tomlinson’s sins when it comes to pushing his agenda at PBS.
Mr. Tomlinson said that his comment was in jest and that he couldn't imagine how remarks at "a fun occasion" were taken the wrong way. Others, though, were not amused.
"I was in that room," said Ms. Mitchell. "I was surprised by the comment. I thought it was inappropriate."
The story itself is more of the same, where it treats the conventional wisdom of liberal bias at PBS as truth, and if you accept that assessment, then you might not find Tomlinson’s actions terribly objectionable—he’s just trying to find a balance, that’s all. But the content of PBS isn’t liberal, in that it pushes a liberal agenda. Masterpiece Theater and reruns of Are You Being Served? and dry news series on immigration and organic farming might well appeal more to liberals for one reason or another, but to suggest that PBS is hostile to the conservative movement is disingenuous. Reporting that Tom DeLay is facing censure for ethics violations isn’t indicative of a liberal bias; it’s simply reporting important news which isn’t favorable toward the GOP (how radical), and if the GOP doesn’t want that kind of reporting done, the solution isn’t to replace a ‘Bill Moyers’ with a ‘Bill O’Reilly,’ but to stop filling their ranks with corrupt, duplicitous turds.
Letters
Dear Panera,
Please stop making your Texas Black Bean and Chicken Chorizo soup so delicious. I keep eating it even though I know it will give me a sore stomach.
Sincerely,
Shakespeare's Sister
* * *
Dear Mother Nature,
What the fuck is with the temp? It's May. Can we at least see 50 degrees? I'm tired of the cold. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Shakespeare's Sister
RIP Kenneth B. Clark
Kenneth B. Clark, a pioneer in research of the effects of racial discrimination on black children, has died.
Kenneth B. Clark, an educator and psychologist who spent his life working for improvement in the education of black children and influenced the Supreme Court's decision to strike down school segregation, has died at age 90, his son said Monday.Though Clark was a psychologist, much of the research he did had a sociological element that was of interest to me. If you’ve never read any of his work, I highly recommend it.
Hilton Clark said his father died early Sunday morning at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson after a long battle with cancer.
[…]
In the 1950s, Clark conducted a study he had devised years earlier which showed that school segregation marred the development of black students. The Supreme Court cited those findings in its unanimous 1954 decision [on Brown v. Board of Education].
In his research, Clark showed black schoolchildren black and white dolls and asked what they thought. Most preferred the white doll and said the black doll looked "bad." When asked which doll looked more like themselves, some said the white doll. Others refused to answer the question or cried.
Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that separating black children from white "solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."
Thirty years after that landmark ruling, Clark described himself as "bewildered" at the persistence of de facto segregation and inferior education for many blacks.
[…]
He never abandoned his belief in the importance of education in overcoming racism. "I think that white and blacks should be taught to respect their fellow human beings as an integral part of being educated," he said.
"A racist system inevitably destroys and damages human beings; it brutalizes and dehumanizes them, blacks and whites alike," he wrote.
Microsoft Ditches MSNBC
After dumping Slate last December, now Microsoft is also bailing on its foray into television. I guess NBC will have to crappily deliver bad programming all by itself now.
Don’t worry, NBC. You’ll be as bad as Fox someday!
