Just stumbled across this on YouTube last night. Mr. Shakes and I thought it was quite cool…
85 Years of Life in 40 Seconds
Biden 
Slavery
Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe Joe Biden? (Oh yeah, I guess I have.) Not five months after his crass statement about Indian-Americans, he’s at it again, trying to ingratiate himself with a crowd of Republicans by being a racist ass:
“I want to thank you all for allowing me a trip here to speak to only Republicans. It’s like my hometown. I just won every district in my state except the one I live in,” he quipped.Hilarious. Go see Lambert for more.
The crowd howled.
The senator then pounced on a member’s announcement that the club would hold its annual Christmas party at the state Department of Archives and History where members could view the original copy of the state’s Articles of Secession.
Biden asked, “Where else could I go to a Rotary Club where (for a) Christmas party the highlight is looking at the Articles?”
Biden was on a roll.
Delaware, he noted, was a “slave state that fought beside the North. That’s only because we couldn’t figure out how to get to the South. There were a couple of states in the way.”
The crowd loved it.
I’m continually amazed what short political memories Americans have. Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign was cut short after he was discovered to have plagiarized the speech of British politician Neil Kinnock and, in so doing, presented facts about Kinnock’s life as his own life story—and they weren’t even true! Forget for a moment that Biden is a craven, disingenuous, opportunistic weasel with a propensity to tell sexist and racist “jokes” in public appearances; the guy’s also a thief and a liar.
Crawford Clarkson, a retired account executive, said Biden’s speech “was outstanding. He had something to say. Right now, I would say he’s the best the Democrats have to offer in 2008.”That says more about Republican voters than Democratic candidates, I think.
Good News
Remember the fallen Wiccan soldier who was being denied a memorial? Well, after his wife fought for over a year with the government, he’s finally got one.
Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, and Wiccan leaders said it was the first government-issued memorial plaque with a Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle.Call me crazy, but when people give their lives serving this country, I don’t give a shit what they or their families want put on their memorials—a cross, a crescent, a star, a pickle, a trombone, a picture of Abe Vigoda. I really don’t care, because that’s exactly the kind of freedom for which they ostensibly died in the first place.
More than 50 friends and family dedicated the plaque at Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, Nev., about 45 miles east of Reno.
…Patrick Stewart and four other soldiers died Sept. 25, 2005, when their Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. He was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
(Thanks to Shaker Angela for passing that along.)
What Rush Limbaugh Knows About Pussy
My cat—here's how you can get fooled. My cat comes to me when she wants to be fed. I have learned this. I accept it for what it is. Many people in my position would think my cat's coming to me because she loves me. Well, she likes me, and she is attached, but she comes to me when she wants to be fed. And after I feed her—guess what—she's off to wherever she wants to be in the house, until the next time she gets hungry. She's smart enough to know she can't feed herself. She's actually a very smart cat. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn't have to do anything for it, which is why I say this cat's taught me more about women, than anything my whole life. (Link.)Including his three ex-wives, none of whom evidently managed to successfully impart that being offered a bowl of tuna by a horny hillbilly heroin junky, reeking of cigar smoke and sporting a chemically-induced hard-on, isn’t technically foreplay. One suspects that Rush’s idea of The Perfect Woman includes a Pavlovian response to the sound of the can opener.
Come and get it, ladies. This tomcat’s on the prowl for a new tail and ready to pounce!
In all seriousness, I’m continually amazed by the disgusting slurs about sex, gender, and sexuality people like Rush Limbaugh can still get away with, without any fear of serious consequences. “Macaca” can end a senator’s career. “Wicked Witch” is business as usual.
(Crossposted at Ezra's place.)
Highly Recommended
Great post by my fellow Ezra weekender Neil: On Obscene Sexual Expressions. It contains what I am hereby deeming The Greatest Chart Ever:
[Cunt] refers to the vagina, and metaphorically it's used as an insulting term for women. I don't understand why I should regard vaginas with the negative attitude that the metaphorical use suggests. As the following table illustrates, every interaction that I have had with a vagina in my life has been a positive one.
Go read the whole thing. It's superb, and the comments thread is interesting, too.
The Virtual Bar Is Open
The Bad Ass
Rose Street
Edinburgh
The Bad Ass' totally awesome motto is: "Fine wine, ales and ketchup!" Now that's a bloody pub!
Frankly Speaking
Watch Barney Frank deftly handle the bloviating assmonster O’Reilly.
I love it when O’Reilly goes: “What do you think you are—the czar of the interview?” Yeah, Barney Frank! What’s the big idea with trying to say something on a show where you’ve been invited to be a guest?! What the hell? You’re like some kind of Russian monarch!
Yeesh.
Friday Cat Blogging (+ 1 Rat Terrier)
Matilda and Olivia just hanging out in their favorite chair in the office, right beside me. A little napping, a little grooming, a little begging for attention. They usually stay all curled up until one of them gets bored and starts deliberately irritating the other, then it’s a race around the house for an hour or so, until they collapse back into the chair for more cuddling.
And here’s my favorite picture of Paul the Spud’s adorable Rory, which Spudsy labeled “Heat vent, take me away!” when he first posted it. (Spudsy’s very occupied with World AIDS Day stuff today, so I’m being a good auntie.)
picture this, Matilda & Olivia
Beating out the kitties for Friday Pet blogging again are the dogs. Well, this time it is Sam:
Sam, 12 weeks old in June
Sam, on Thanksgiving, 8 months old
Oh, Hell Yes
It was enough that I loved the new Bond film, but I am seriously loving the new Bond, too:
Daniel Craig is urging movie bosses to revolutionize the James Bond franchise by including a gay scene involving the superspy in the follow-up to Casino Royale.Jaw, meet floor. Every waking hour I dream of a day when people treat with such bemused indifference the antiquated conventions and mores rooted in homophobia and sexism, and yet the last thing I expect is that someone in Craig’s position will actually do it. It’s just so damn…thrilling!
The heart-throb actor has also reportedly told studio chiefs he is prepared to film a full frontal nude scene to please both his male and female admirers.
He says, "Why not? I think in this day and age, fans would have accepted it."
"I mean, look at (British TV series) Doctor Who - that has had gay scenes in it and no one blinks an eye."
Old Bond: Slap that bitch up. New Bond: Mix it the fuck up. I like it.
As an aside, Craig has done full frontal before, which I discovered while Googling for images for my CR review, and I’ll just say there’s a reason he’s not shy about doing a nude scene.
I had also found this image of a tabloid spread, which has the most hilarious headline of all time:
I actually called Mr. Shakes out of bed to come see it, knowing he’d laugh his tits off—which he did.
(Story via Pam.)
Moustache.
To Recon, from whom I pilfer relentlessly,
I will leave my most favoritist monkey puppet when I go.
Delusions of Doomsday
I've got a new piece up at Comment is Free. You might want to read this bit of swill first, if you can bear it.
Today in Dumbassery
Today's file comes from the Young Conservatives of Texas, University of Texas chapter. They have come up with what they call: "a tongue-in-cheek way of showing the many ways that the ACLU and the far left are out of touch with the values of mainstream America.” And how are they doing this, you ask? Why, with an "ACLU 'Nativity'":
The Young Conservatives of Texas - University of Texas Chapter announced today that they will be displaying an “ACLU Nativity Scene” on the West Mall of the University of Texas campus on Monday and Tuesday, December 4th and 5th. The group’s intent is to raise awareness on the extremity of the ACLU, and bring to light its secular-progressive efforts to remove Christmas from the public sphere. The display, the first of its kind in the nation, will feature characters that are quite a bit different than the standard crèche.
“We’ve got Gary and Joseph instead of Mary and Joseph in order to symbolize ACLU support for homosexual marriage, and of course there isn’t a Jesus in the manger,” said Chairman Tony McDonald. “The three Wise Men are Lenin, Marx, and Stalin because the founders of the ACLU were strident supporters of Soviet style Communism. The whole scene is a tongue-in-cheek way of showing the many ways that the ACLU and the far left are out of touch with the values of mainstream America.”
The scene will also display a terrorist shepherd and an angel in the form of Nancy Pelosi.
“The ACLU and other left-wing extremist groups are working diligently to destroy American’s rights to the free expression of religion,” said Executive Director Joseph Wyly. “We’ve already seen in Chicago an attempt to censor the nativity by a city government this week. It’s just more evidence that there is a War on Christmas being waged by the far-left in this country.”
And this group calls itself non-partisan.
(h/t Carla)
Help Me, Shakers
I need to choose my best blog post from this year to submit to the 1st Anniversary Edition of Carnival of the Liberals. Aside from the fact I don’t remember everything I’ve written and my fat lazy arse hasn’t updated the Greatest Hits since May, I’d much rather submit something that was my best post according to the Shakers, rather than according to me. So if there’s a post that meant something to you or was otherwise memorable for some reason, I’d be ever so grateful if you’d please let me know in comments.
Naturally, don’t hesitate to let the other contributors know what your favorites of theirs are, too, in case they’d like to submit something. And don’t forget to submit your own best post by 8pm EST December 5!
Caption This Photo
"First Amendment? Gone!"
If you didn't catch Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Newt's special assholery, head on over to Crooks and Liars for the video.
World AIDS Day
5 people die of AIDS every minute.
Every. Minute.
According to UNAIDS, there are now 39.5 million people living with HIV, including 2.3 million children, and during 2006 some 4.3 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.
There is still no cure for AIDS. The best method is prevention. Just because there are antiretrovirals now does not mean that HIV/AIDS are “no big deal”. It is a very big deal.
Know The Facts!
There are four ways to get HIV:
1. Unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected partner (the most common);
2. Sharing needles or other contaminated injection or skin-piercing equipment;
3. Blood and blood products through, for example, infected transfusions and organ or tissue transplants;
4. Transmission from infected mother to child in the womb or at birth and breastfeeding.
Condoms are the only form of contraception that will protect you from HIV.
The theme for World AIDS Day 2006 is Accountability. Watch their 8 minute video Stop AIDS - What Will You Do? More information is available here. How much do you know about HIV/AIDS? Take the quiz. See the Memorial Quilt. Check out the Red Campaign and Red Blog. Check your local papers for World AIDS Day events where you live.
Res says:
Here’s my World AIDS Day message: Regardless of whatever advances of medical science may or may not occur, the AIDS epidemic could be halted in its tracks by the right “cocktail” of political will and cultural change. The plain truth is that the mighty and powerful of this world care not one bit if fags and brown people die by the millions, as they would prefer not to share their planet with us anyway. As long as patriarchy endures, HIV will never be stopped or cured, although many big bucks will undoubtedly be made with clever new “treatments” that only have to be taken once a day! Forever!
Conversely, the moment the human race decides that life is more important that religion or culture, that health matters more than gender roles, and that survival is more important than Teh SeXxXXy, the spread of AIDS will end.
[...]
Also: fight the patriarchy that classes some people as sexual service providers for other people. Fight the patriarchy that makes sex everything — or the worst thing ever. Fight the patriarchy that makes young gay boys believe that they’re doomed anyway, so they might as well get their infection over with. Fight the patriarchy that makes married men believe that they’re automatically entitled to fuck their wives..and whoever else they feel like sticking it into. Fight the patriarchy that makes women, gay men, and non-whites invisible and disposable people. Fight it every day, everywhere, in every way you can.
Fight people like these assholes.
Friday Blogrollin'
Movers and Shakers: Intous has become Redd Turtles and Blue Ducks and moved here. The Pime has moved here. Dependable Renegade has moved here. And a reminder that The Blend has moved, too.
Clio Bluestocking Tales
Media Bloodhound
at-Largely
Nancy Nall
A Voce
Paula Mooney
Rough Drafts
The Frontlines
Today in Duh
A hearty thank-you to Britain's Telegraph for reporting so bluntly on American research revealing the failure of American abstinence programs:
Sexual abstinence as an effective tool in reducing teenage pregnancy is a complete "myth", the Government's advisory body on the issue claimed yesterday.Much obliged for the factual and uncompromised-by-faux-"two sides"-objectivity reporting, Britain!
The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy said that research from the United States showed that contraception was the way to bring down rates. Researchers from Columbia University and the Guttmacher Institute examined the relative roles of abstinence and contraceptive use in the "remarkable decline" in US teenage pregnancy rates, which dropped 27 per cent from 1991 to 2000. They said that 86 per cent of the decline in teenage pregnancy was due to improved use of contraception.
Only 14 per cent of the drop amongst 15- to 19-year-olds was linked to reduced sexual activity, according to the study, published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
And if that didn't blow your mind, check out what Gill Frances, the chair of the governmental advisory group, concluded from this information: "Providing young people with good information, advice and contraceptive services, is the way to reduce teenage pregnancy. It is a myth that abstinence is a better approach and this US study confirms it."
Yoinks. It must be awesome to live in a real country run by grown-ups.
(PEEK-ed.)
Mitt in the Shit
In a recent appearance on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Republican presidential hopeful and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney professed such vociferous support for border security and the proposed fence along the border with Mexico that Bill O'Reilly dubbed it "the Mitt Romney Memorial wall." Part of an entire platform of issues on which Romney is shoring up his conservative credentials, his increasingly hardline position on illegal immigration is now being compromised, as a landscaping company he used for a decade has employed illegal Guatemalan immigrants.
The Globe recently interviewed four current and former employees of Community Lawn Service with a Heart, the tiny Chelsea-based company that provides upkeep of Romney's property. All but one said they were in the United States illegally.Romney, of course, had no legal nor ethical obligation to ask about the workers' legal status as a generic client of the firm. As the governor of the state, perhaps it would have been a wise idea. As a presidential candidate who is trying to establish himself as firmly right-wing on immigration, it was deeply foolish not to have made a basic inquiry. So why didn't he? Well, perhaps it's because, like many Americans, Romney generally considered illegal immigrants an entrenched and not particularly objectionable part of our workforce—until they became a useful wedge issue.
The employees told the Globe that company owner Ricardo Saenz never asked them to provide documents showing their immigration status and knew they were illegal immigrants.
...Saenz said Romney never asked him if his workers are legal immigrants.
"He doesn't have to ask," Saenz said. "I'm a company."
Saenz asserted that all the workers he used were in the United States legally. Told by reporters that his employees said they were in this country illegally, Saenz responded: "What you've heard is not my problem."
Saenz said he had never requested any proof from his employees to show they are here legally.
"I don't need to tell them to show me documents," he said. "I know who they are, and they are legal."
Federal law calls for employers to examine the documents, such as green cards or Social Security cards, that establish an employee's identity and eligibility to work in the United States.
The workers who had landscaped Romney's property seemed unaware of the governor's support for stricter controls on illegal immigration. Several described casual encounters with Romney over the years and said he had never expressed any curiosity about their status.Workers who also "tended to the lawn at the house owned by Romney's son, Taggart, less than a mile away on the same winding street."
Rosales recalled Romney sometimes waving as they tended to the grounds, which include a tennis court and swimming pool. Romney occasionally called out, "buenos dias," drawing good-natured laughter from the workers.
This would be a great opportunity for Romney to reverse his hardline position and instead talk about what an integral part of the American economy illegal workers actually are, and why it's thusly necessary to treat the issue with the nuanced seriousness it deserves. But I fully expect Romney to distance himself from Saenz, condemning his employment of illegal workers while claiming he's shocked—shocked—to learn of this situation. That is, once he manages to formulate a coherent response.
Asked by a reporter yesterday about his use of Community Lawn Service with a Heart, Romney, who was hosting the Republican Governors Association conference in Miami, said, "Aw, geez," and walked away.Geez indeed.
(PEEK-ed.)
