Many, many thanks to Charles Clyde and Chuc Smith for hosting me on Vet Net yesterday (Thursday) for a taped show on the LaVena Johnson story. Charles is the regular host of the show, broadcast on KDHX; Chuc is president of the St. Louis chapter of Veterans for Peace. This was a follow up to their March 12 show on the death of Pfc. Johnson. The show taped yesterday will be aired at 5:30 a.m. Central on Monday, March 26. (Not the 25th, as I posted earlier.) The show can be heard at that time via the Internet (RealPlayer format for download); just click on the "Listen Online" link at the top of the show's home page. (Streaming capability may come soon to Vet Net; I'll alert folks when that happens.)
It was a good conversation. Chuc and Charles are quite familiar with LaVena's story; additionally, Chuc and his organization, VFP, have been in touch with the Johnson family and are working to bring the story to the attention of such vital officials as Claire McCaskill, newly-elected Missouri senator and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Charles and Chuc (and Chuc's wife Denise, whom I had the pleasure of meeting) were gracious in their thanks for the petition effort, which is only made worthwhile by each citizen who has lent their name to the effort. Thanks again to all of you.
So Newt Gingrich saw the much-discussed "Hillary 1984" ad—which was created by this dude "because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process"—and he doesn't like it one bit (I transcribed the relevant portion, below):
"It's very clear that our current political system is utterly, totally incapable of serious conversation. I don't know how many of you have seen the YouTube commercial about 1984, which was presumably done randomly by some really clever person with pretty good technology. And it's a very interesting, you know, attack on Hillary and modest promotion of Barack Obama, and it is utterly, totally destructive of the process of thought. There is not a single thing in that commercial that enables America to solve a problem. Oh, it's clever. Fills up space in television. People can talk about it. It's the 'Entertainment Tonight' version of governing a great country. And it's very dangerous, because we have no habits anymore of serious dialogue; we have no habits of serious citizenship. Everything is reduced to gossip, attack, whose consultant is cleverer, and it's really very destructive."
The unbelievable gall! The bloody imperiousness!
For the ideal comment on the unmitigated cheek of this guy, I'll turn it over to Drum:
Is he serious? Newt "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" Gingrich is now complaining about partisan attacks? Newt "Contract With America" Gingrich is complaining about consultant-driven politics? Newt "Let's Impeach Bill Clinton Over a Blowjob" Gingrich is complaining about the inability of our political system to solve real problems?
Newt Gingrich practically invented the modern attack-dog style of American politics. He is its patron saint and its most talented practitioner. But now that Democrats have won back control of Congress and seem likely to win back the presidency as well, he's seen the light. The Gingrichification of politics has to stop.
Pretty much sums it up. Can't really add anything to that.
...except a comment about Gingrich's despicable imperiousness, his haughty disdain for the democratic participation of the hoi polloi. When His Majesty derisively sniffs that the Hillary attack ad was "done randomly by some really clever person with pretty good technology," he has politely substituted "really clever person" for "asshole"—which is all that "really clever people" who have the impertinence to get involved in the democratic process are to the likes of an authoritarian fuck like Gingrich: a bunch of inconvenient assholes. You and I know them as citizens.
Gingrich looks as the political statement of this particular Citizen Asshole and finds it lacking "a single thing…that enables America to solve a problem," casually ignoring, evidently, that for whom one votes is regarded by most Citizen Assholes as enabling America to solve a multitude of problems. When I cast a vote for Al Gore in 2000, I was hoping he would solve a whole lot of problems for America (the most obvious one being not having George Bush as her president). As a lifelong partisan, Gingrich knows this all too well, so to suggest that a political endorsement itself is not also, in some sense, a political solution, is disingenuous at best.
And when Gingrich moans about the "dangerous" and "destructive" void of "serious dialogue," well, he's onto something (see: GALL, above), but then he nonchalantly references a void of "serious citizenship," too—just sort of slides it in there while everyone is busy nodding at the genuine lack of serious dialogue and legitimate landscape of "gossip" and "attack," where a presidential candidate is flippantly called a faggot, for example. (LYLAS!) Serious citizenship, you see, to a conservative like Newt Gingrich, is demurring to serious men like him, because they've got serious ideas. Serious citizenship entails seriously relinquishing your critical thinking skills and personal investment in the political process, because when serious men tell you something is seriously good for you, you're seriously supposed to believe it and not ask any serious questions.
That would be that "culture of obedience" Rocky Anderson was talking about, in which Serious Citizens passively watch cable news and listen to talk radio, letting the seriousness of serious men wash over them, filling their heads with serious opinions. Serious Citizens thusly get their own news network and lots and lots (and lots and lots and lots and lots) of talk radio shows of their own, too, and make them outrageously successful—because they are so properly suited to the format, predisposed as they are to yield to the haranguing authoritarianism of their fascist overlords serious men. Like Newt Gingrich.
For that reason, Gingrich and serious men of his ilk are keen to dismiss as silly—and, worse: dangerous and destructive—the millions of Americans who are plugged into politics in a way they have never been before, who are participating in a way they have never quite participated before, using technologies where a single Citizen Asshole can indeed "affect the process." What they do—create, debate, discuss, dissent—is the authentic serious citizenship. Contra Gingrich, it is, in fact, not "utterly, totally destructive of the process of thought," but utterly, totally destructive of the thought process that dictates the only way to be a Serious Citizen is to genuflect to men who insist that their doing what's best for themselves will trickle down in little streams of awesomeness to us someday (someday…), the thought process that knows a Serious Citizen by his or her fixation on tradition, the thought process that demands of its Serious Citizens silent compliance.
Citizen Assholes have always talked back to the talking heads on their televisions and on their radios and even in their newspapers, but now their voices are being heard as—gasp!—practical equivalents. Bloggers, harrumph the mainstream media, so many of whom have traded away responsibility for personal prestige and, worse, a pathetic veneer of acceptance by the kewl kidz. Activists, the paid consultants, rich from winning or losing, collectively spit, like a dirty word, as they roll their eyes long-sufferingly. Really clever people, sneer the serious men like Gingrich, who know it isn't they who benefit from really clever people actually participating in a participatory democracy. Who the fuck is Phil de Vellis? Who the fuck does Duncan Black think he is? Or Pam Spaulding? Who the fuck am I?!
We did this one about six months ago, but it was really fun and a popular QotD, so I'm recycling it...
With no requirement to give it, of course, should you prefer to remain anonymous, do you like your first name? Do you use a name other than the one you were given? If you were forced to pick a new name for yourself, what would you choose?
I like Melissa. It suits me well enough, and I like its meaning—it’s Greek for honey bee. I’ve never gone by anything else, except shortened versions of Melissa, usually either Lissa or Liss, and never Missy.
If I had to choose a new name, I’d probably be really boring and pick something that was close to Melissa, like Miranda, because I like the rhythm of my name and the alliteration: Melissa McEwan. It feels like a good name for me.
Did Tony Snow go to high school? Has he ever taken a civics course? Has he never seen Schoolhouse Rock?! Because, ya know, it's almost impossible to, like, not know that this is complete and utter bullshit: "[Congress] does not have constitutional oversight responsibility over the White House."
WTP?!
Steve Benen: "Look, I know these guys are into all kinds of strange ideas about a unitary executive, but this is ridiculous. If the legislative branch doesn’t have oversight responsibilities over the White House, does Snow think the White House has to answer to anyone? … [T]his isn’t the executive privilege argument, this is the executive privilege argument on crack."
Indeed.
Even though I know Tony Snow probably isn't genuinely ignorant of the basic principles of American government, and is probably just spewing this nonsensical, incoherent, and Constitutionally-inaccurate horseshit because that's what he's paid to do, I'm going to go ahead and offer some help—to him, to his Oval Office masters, to whomever doesn't (or refuses to) understand that we don't live in a dictatorship (yet)—in the form of this handy-dandy chart I copied from one I found online on an elementary school resources website:
I think we can now officially state that Gonzo has jumped the shark. He's circling the drain. He has expired, and gone to meet his maker. He's a stiff. This is an Ex-Attorney General.
How do I know this? Because he's shown his final card, and it ain't the ace of spades. Yes, Gonzo refuses to resign, because he's protecting the children.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced this morning: “I’m not going to resign. I’m going to stay focused on protecting our kids.” Speaking before a Project Safe Childhood event, Gonzales told reporters he plans “to go up to the Congress and provide further clarification” about the U.S. Attorney purge, and claimed that his department has been “tremendous in the area of public corruption.”
Please. "Won't someone please think of the children?" has got to be one of the most overused, hackneyed, trite statements anyone can make. This is a blatantly obvious attempt to paint himself as a "good guy," and every American should be insulted that he believes them to be this stupid. The job of the Attorney General is hardly focused on children alone. As stated at the Carpetbagger Report:
I strolled over to Wikipedia and found exactly what I was looking for: “The phrase ‘for the children,’ or similar phrases such as ‘think of the children,’ is an appeal to emotion and can be used to support an irrelevant conclusion (both logical fallacies) when used in an argument.”
There’s a reason this is such a cliche: it’s vapid and meaningless. Gonzales is going to stay on the job because he’s “focused on protecting our kids”? This may come as a surprise, but I’d hazard a guess that his replacement can focus on protecting our kids, too.
Honestly, could there be a weaker defense? Gonzales is at the center of a major scandal, he has few real allies, the public doesn’t trust him, and lawmakers from both parties want him to resign. According to some reports, the White House is already mulling over possible successors. But never mind all of that, Gonzales says, he’s “protecting our kids.” Please.
I suppose if Gonzales weren't on the job, every single kid in this country would be dead right now. It's the last gasp, folks. The next thing you'll hear will be "I'm leaving to spend more time with my family."
Then he'll explode in a huge mushroom cloud of cliches.
Well, if you do, I've got a suggestion on how to spend it. Actually, Bear Bergman has a suggestion:
Last month, someone told me I was her hero. I had gone to her small college and performed, and afterwards her classmates had begun to speak positively about queer and trans folks. For the first time, she felt she could come out - and did.
Organizations and institutions that are queer- and trans-inclusive have the resources to invite me to participate in their conversations. The places where the administration is intolerant, where the culture is conservative, or where our issues are not given priority end up starving for it.
I am dedicated to meeting that need. I am committed to taking education, awareness, openness, and the great joy of my outlaw tribe wherever anyone will have me. I go where I'm asked, whenever I'm able, and perform or teach or lecture for free. I love it.
Here's the problem - I can't always go. Even when I can work for free, I can't travel for free (and I can rarely afford to pay for it myself). So sometimes I have to say no, and I really don't want to.
Here's the solution - be a hero with me. If you can spare just $5 per month, over the course of a year you can help me work with hundreds of students. This is completely tax-deductible…
Okay, so this is something that's close to my heart. One of the things I enjoyed most being part of the gay-straight alliance at university was organizing speakers to come to campus. Bear is one of those people who dedicate their lives to such endeavors, which can often be disappointing-looking affairs with half a dozen attendees, and yet mean a whole heck of a lot to those half a dozen people. I learned a lot and met incredibly interesting people this way…memories of Justin Chin, who scandalized Loyola with his slide show of butthole art, and Greg Louganis, who charmed everyone, naturally. (Somewhere, I have a picture of me with him; he's handsome and compact!) Anyway, if you do have $5 a month to spare, this would be a good place to send it.
"There’s a real resistance to change and an almost pathological devotion to leaders simply because they're leaders. There's a dangerous culture of obedience throughout much of this country." — Salt Lake City, Utah Mayor Rocky Anderson, who says the impeachment of Bush would be "the first step toward national reconciliation—and toward penance for the outrages committed in our nation's name."
Man, I dig that guy. I love his commentaries on obedience and dissent. Last August, he appeared on Countdown to discuss having protested Bush when he visited SLC.
"I can understand why some of my constituents, if they agree with the president, would disagree with me participating in this demonstration, but just think about it—if I had been the nice, polite host and greeted the president at the airport and gone to the American Legion convention and stood up politely and applauded him, given him a standing ovation along with everybody else, nobody would have thought anything odd of that, so it seems really, in a lot of people's views, it's only supposed to run one way."
The rest of the video is just as good as that quote. If you're looking for a full transcript, the show aired Aug. 30, 2006.
I'd like you all to take a moment and read this latest spewing by Michael Savage: Embarrassment to Humanity, which was so vile, it prompted Shakes to alert me to the story and say "I really do hate that absurd, horrible little man quite possibly more than is possible for me to accurately describe, but, were I to try, I would say that I loathe him with the red hot fiery passion of 10,000 suns."
SAVAGE: "San Francisco police are trying to determine whether the slaying of a transgender victim found naked near the Interstate 280 freeway is somehow linked to reports of a nude woman seen walking on the same freeway two hours later, authorities said. ... [San Francisco police inspector Karen] Lynch said it appeared the victim had been in the process of becoming a woman." Yeah, process of becoming a woman -- psychopath, should have been in a back ward in a straitjacket for years, howling on major medication.
[...]
SAVAGE: And then they go into "she said transgender victims" going on and on "extremely violent" going on and on "are frequently left partially clothed or completely nude, it's making a statement and humiliating the victim," blah-blah-blah. I am so beyond fed up with freaks. I live in freak city. You know, I don't mind freaks. I used to go to Ringling Brothers when I was a little kid, and the freak show was my favorite part of the circus. I didn't go there to mock them. I liked to see the one-breasted man. I liked to see the mustached woman.
But when I wake up as an adult and I find out that they're actually all Democrats today, passing themselves off as normal, I'm sorry, someone's gotta say this is a freak show, time out. And what's this sympathy, constant sympathy for sexually confused people? Why should we have constant sympathy for people who are freaks in every society? I didn't say hurt the freaks. I didn't say do anything to the freaks.
But you know what? You're never gonna make me respect the freak. I don't want to respect the freak. The freak ought to be glad that they're allowed to walk around without begging for something. You know, I'm sick and tired of the whole country begging, bending over backwards for the junkie, the freak, the pervert, the illegal immigrant. All of them are better than everybody else. Sick. Everything is upside down.
So, according to Savage, trans people:
1. Are freakish, sick psychopaths in need of heavy medication and straightjackets.
2. Deserve no assistance or sympathy, even when they're being killed.
3. Belong in a circus freak show.
And I'm sure the millions of listeners of his nationally syndicated ignorant hate fest show were nodding right along with him.
As many of you Shakers know, I'm going through graduate school. Recently, I was offered and I'm accepting a field placement at a local LGBTQ community health center. One of my main interests in study is minorities within minorities. Specifically, I want to be working with trans clients. Trans people are still very much misunderstood and often receive less sympathetic (or simply less) services; I hope to help combat this. When Savage and others spread and grow hate and ignorance like this in millions across the country, it needs to be fought by any means possible.
Of course, I'm no expert, so if any trans (or cisgendered) Shakers have suggestions for books or articles of which they think I should be aware (or that you really love), please feel free to leave suggestions in comments. I always appreciate recommendations!
UPDATE: The news is that Elizabeth Edwards' cancer has returned; it is considered treatable, though uncurable; it will now be managed like any chronic disease (e.g. diabetes); the campaign continues. More details in comments.
UPDATE 2: And Sully makes me cry: "[I]f anyone did not know of Elizabeth Edwards' extraordinary character before, they do now. What I saw in this press conference was the reality of family values - not the rhetoric, not the divisiveness, not the politics, just the reality of an actual family dealing with real issues. We all face such issues. ... With HIV, I learned to repeat to myself a triad that was essential to surviving any serious medical condition: Own it, face it, beat it. That's what the Edwardses did today, and they will help a lot of people through their example. ... Elizabeth Edwards is a truly remarkable human being. And her marriage is an inspiration."
Thanks to Waveflux for passing the link along in comments.
UPDATE 3: Petulant is a total champion, and has already gotten Part One of the presser ready for those who missed it. Part Two coming soon.
Tom DeLay is a complete dolt and an irrepressible liar. Seriously, does he ever take a break from being a walking, talking sack of mendacious shit? Good god, Tom—give truth a chance.
Here, we see him denying what he wrote in his own book…and when Chris Matthews finds the quote and hands him the book as evidence, DeLay tells him "I don't have my glasses on." What the poop?!
The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.
Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.
She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop recommendations that tobacco executives be removed from their corporate positions as a possible penalty. He and two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change their testimony. And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim a closing argument they had rewritten for her, she said.
"The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said," Eubanks said. "And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public."
Politics in; zealous representation of the interests of the American public out.
Does that sound familiar? It should. It's the raison d'être of modern conservatism, fanatically pursued and largely realized by the Bush administration. The American public is now only worth as much as they provide cheap labor to corporations, votes to keep conservatives in power, and cannon fodder for the military-industrial complex. That might have sounded like some sort of conspiracy theory or communist hyperbole not so long ago, but consider what the Bush administration and the (formerly) GOP-led Congress actually did for the American public in Bush's first six years. They didn't raise the minimum wage, or create new jobs, or protect existing jobs, or strengthen workers' rights, or make voting easier, or require elections with verifiable paper trails, or improve schools, or clean up the environment, or decrease poverty, or increase access to affordable healthcare, or ensure equality of every American under the law, or reduce the deficit, or make the country safer. No—they gave us tax cuts, piddling amounts for most Americans, while they bled the federal coffers dry and then some. They gave us an unwinnable war, more hunger, more poverty, more homelessness, more people with no insurance, more offshored jobs, more rewards for corporations taking jobs offshore, more global terrorism, more national insecurity, and fewer civil rights.
From Dick Cheney's secret energy commission to the subversion of habeas corpus, it was politics in; zealous representation of the interests of the American public out. The prosecutor purge represents more of the same. More politics, to the benefit of BushCo.'s political allies, the American people be damned.
Can't much blame the new man at the UN for reacting as he did. It doubtless takes a while to get used to the unique ambiance of Baghdad:
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was unharmed as he ducked behind the podium after a rocket landed near the prime minister's office Thursday while the two men were holding a news conference. [...]
Small chips of debris floated down from the ceiling above the U.N. chief after the explosion rattled the building. Ban looked frightened, casting his eyes right and left as he rose after ducking below the podium where he was standing and answering questions.
Al-Maliki said "Nothing's wrong," as one of his security men started to grab the prime minister, and both men resumed their news conference within minutes. They ended the question and answer session shortly thereafter.
"Nothing's wrong." Speaks volumes, doesn't it?
Anyway: With no end in sight for the war, Ban will have plenty of time in which to toughen up.
So said Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) as she showed her gavel to the ill-behaved Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who was, as per usual, being a rude, obnoxious ass to former Vice President Al Gore during his Congressional testimony on global warming yesterday. "Elections have consequences, so I make the rules." gavel gavel gavel
In honor of Boxer's exemplary service, I present her with the Shakespeare's Sister Golden Gavel of Awesome Kickassery:
Congratulations, Senator!
* * *
Btw, did you catch the priceless look on Gore's face as he watched this exchange? This is the look of a man who is pleased to see his party back in action, stylin' and profilin' with the gavel once again.
Love it!
(Thanks to Blogenfreude for the heads-up and a big thanks to Petulant for capturing the video for us!)
John Edwards announced late yesterday he would hold a presser today after he and Elizabeth visited her doctor "to assess her health following her recovery from breast cancer. Mrs. Edwards, in a brief interview from her home in Chapel Hill, said she and Mr. Edwards would discuss her health at the news conference, but she declined to elaborate. 'I’m still here,' she said."
As the logical (and requested) follow-up to yesterday's QotD: What do/did you love most about your dad?
I know that not everyone gets on with their dads, so if you'd prefer to talk about a favorite uncle, or a grandpa, or an older brother or friend, or any other sort of dad-substitute, that absolutely counts.
There are a lot of things I love about Papa Shakes, but the first thing that comes to mind is that he is civic-minded and gives generously of his time. Besides having been a public school teacher and coach his whole career and having served as president of his church congregation like nine gazillion times, he does all sorts of things in the community—he runs bingo games at a local retirement home; he does walk-a-thons; he organized a local Healing Field of American flags to honor fallen soldiers.
One of his most important endeavors the past few years has been giving talks at schools, offices, civics groups, etc. about shaken baby syndrome. It's his part of a prevention of child abuse program that was undertaken by a community organization with which he's involved, and he's given seminars a bunch of times now. Once, when he was out for a walk, a guy who was roofing a house yelled to him to stop, then came down and ran over to talk to him. He'd seen my dad's picture in the paper with a story about shaken baby syndrome. "I used to bounce my baby up and down all the time without realizing I could hurt her," he said. "I would never want to hurt my baby, and I just wanted to thank you so much for doing what you do, or else I never would have known."
Welcome to Shakesville, a progressive feminist blog about politics, culture, social justice, cute things, and all that is in between. Please note that the commenting policy and the Feminism 101 section, conveniently linked at the top of the page, are required reading before commenting.
Many, many thanks to Charles Clyde and Chuc Smith for hosting me on Vet Net yesterday (Thursday) for a taped show on the LaVena Johnson story. Charles is the regular host of the show, broadcast on KDHX; Chuc is president of the St. Louis chapter of Veterans for Peace. This was a follow up to their March 12 show on the death of Pfc. Johnson. The show taped yesterday will be aired at 5:30 a.m. Central on Monday, March 26. (Not the 25th, as I posted earlier.) The show can be heard at that time via the Internet (RealPlayer format for download); just click on the "Listen Online" link at the top of the show's home page. (Streaming capability may come soon to Vet Net; I'll alert folks when that happens.) 
