TFIF, Shakers.
This election's going
to kill me for sure.
Belly up to the bar
and name your poison.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
TFIF, Shakers.
This election's going
to kill me for sure.
Belly up to the bar
and name your poison.
Yard Art
I had some ibises in my backyard this afternoon (click to enlarge): 
Pink flamingos are so retro, anyway.
Grumble
You know, there are a lot of reasons I'm feeling pissed about John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin.
I'm pissed at the Dems because it feels like they let Clinton get beat to fuck against that glass ceiling until she was black and blue only for the fucking Republicans to make use of her sacrifice, while the Democrats gave us a total dipshit who made fun of his wife being educated in his acceptance speech.
And I'm pissed at the GOP who, chief among them John McCain, have made patently clear while going after Obama that the experience threshold for a national ticket is beyond what he has, and that said threshold is non-negotiable, but nonetheless chose someone who failed to pass that threshold, ergo heavily suggesting that Palin is merely a token.
And I'm pissed at everyone who's using the nomination of a woman to a national ticket to unleash yet another torrent of misogyny, whether to demean or to "honor" her.
But mostly I'm pissed that John McCain and Karl Rove and the GOP shat all over a historic moment in our nation's history and couldn't give Obama one. goddamn. day. to be rightfully celebrated as a candidate of national historical significance. Everyone should be talking about that speech today. Everyone should be contemplating what it means to have that barrier broken, should be thinking about fucking bookends.
It's something we should be talking about at water coolers and diner counters. It's something we should be thinking about. And I'm pissed that we're not.
It's one thing to steal the thunder of a regular old political candidate; that's all part of this stupid, cynical game. But it wasn't just Obama's thunder McCain endeavored to steal. It wasn't just the Democrats' thunder. It was the thunder of every American—because Obama's nomination was part of the history of this nation and belongs to all its citizens.
Fuck John McCain and his contempt for history and contempt for country and contempt for all of us. The rotten thief.
We should never forget that this announcement, made when it was and how it was, was in no small part because John McCain and Karl Rove and the GOP are hostile to genuine progress and have not the slightest modicum of respect for the history Barack Obama has made.
Sarah Palin Sexism Watch, #3
Insert your found examples of sexism against GOP veep nominee Sarah Palin here.
This has already started happening a bit in the first two threads, but I wanted to give everyone a single place to collect examples of sexism surrounding the announcement of Palin as McCain's running mate. It's an open thread, but let's try to stick to just leaving examples for ease of navigation; there are plenty of other threads for related discussion.
[Sarah Palin Sexism Watch: Parts One, Two. We defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because we endorse her or her politics, but because that's how feminism works.]
Remember
Click ↑
Thank you for the heads-up to Shaker Anita, who writes: "Today is the anniversary of Katrina and we're packing up to evacuate. We must leave in the morning. We have a little more warning this time but the stress is greater because this is a still a very fragile city full of nightmares that have not stopped and wounds that have not healed."
Be safe, Anita. We are thinking about you.
(((hug)))
Friday Cat Blogging
"Strings are fun."
Matilda and Olivia declined to be interviewed.
Totally Not Cynical
Sarah Palin, earlier today:
I can't begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of … Senator Hillary Clinton, who showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign.Sarah Palin, last March:
[At the NEWSWEEK Women & Leadership Event in Los Angeles], Palin talked about what women expect from women leaders; how she took charge in Alaska during a political scandal that threatened to unseat the state's entire Republican power structure, and her feelings about Sen. Hillary Clinton. (She said she felt kind of bad she couldn't support a woman, but she didn't like Clinton's "whining.")Charming.
[H/T to Shaker Ryan.]
Sarah Palin Sexism Watch, #2
VPILF.com. Is all I'm sayin'.
[Sarah Palin Sexism Watch: Part One. We defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because we endorse her or her politics, but because that's how feminism works.]
For the Record
McCain's selection of Palin is opportunistic, disingenuous, cynical, and an egregious insult to women in that it suggests women are: A) interchangeable; B) monolithic; and C) too unsophisticated to cast a vote based on issues.
Also for the record: Water is wet.
Sarah Palin Sexism Watch, #1
Well, that took—what?—an hour? Petulant just emailed me to say he heard someone on the Stephanie Miller Show calling Palin a "bimbo." (Presumably because she's a former beauty queen.) And I'm already reading indictments of "her" that include information like "her husband works for an oil company."
Fuck.
Says Pet: "The slaughter of your gender begins anew!" Sob.
For the record, there is plenty about which to criticize Palin that has absolutely fuck-all to do with her sex. She's anti-choice, against marriage equality, pro-death penalty, pro-guns, and loves Big Business. (In other words, she's a Republican.) There's no goddamned reason to criticize her for anything but her policies.
And I'll go ahead and put it right in the fucking inaugural post in this series: I will defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because I like or support her, but because that's how feminism works.
Cheesus. I'm exhausted already.
A Reminder
Not that my opinion is vastly important, but for the record, I was really happy last night. Obama managed to impress me; considering the many issues I have with him, that was significant. There was a lot I didn't like (Clean coal and nuclear power? Really? Before solar and wind? And for the luvva pete, can someone please just say "LGBTQ folks have every right to be married?" Can we not forget the BTQ folks while we're at it? And can we leave Jesus out of this?), and there was a lot I did like, and one or two things that shocked me. (It was gobsmackingly fantastic to finally hear a Presidential candidate say that poverty is one of the main causes of war.) I don't know if I'm ready to cast my vote for him yet (if he had any sort of voting record that made me believe what he promises, I'd be warming up to him much more), but I'll definitely be closely watching the debates. All in all, it was an excellent speech.
Needless to say, the Right is probably crapping in their Dockers right now, and the hysteria is about to become intense. I remember thinking, as I watched the arial shot last night, "There is no way in hell McCain will ever be able to fill a stadium half that size." As many are pointing out this morning, even Pat Buchanan was gushing over Obama's performance. This is going to be a tough speech to top, and an even tougher candidate to beat. The McCain team has definitely got their work cut out for them. Let's all expect the height of ugliness.
That said, I would like to bring up this little reminder: to folks on "The Left," regardless of where their support lies:
All of this argument regarding Obama, and Biden, and "spoilers," and Clinton, and Nader, and PUMAs, and spite, and being thrown under the bus, and browbeating, and voting Green, and voting your conscience, and party unity, and all the rest amounts to absolutely nothing if we don't have free elections.
It doesn't matter if we have another Florida.
It doesn't matter if we have another Ohio.
It doesn't matter if Diebold is still counting the votes.
It doesn't matter when American Senators don't have the courage to recognize the Congressional Black Caucus.
And, it doesn't matter when Vote-Verified Paper Legislation only gets cosponsored by one, that's one Senator. And that sentator's name wasn't Obama, Biden, or Clinton, for that matter.
The Republicans have nothing. They have an unpopular party, a history of scandal and failure, a President and Vice President they don't dare show at their convention, an unpopular candidate that probably won't be able to keep his temper during a debate, and a stupid logo.
However, the past two elections, many of us have said "They can't possibly win."
We need to be vigilant. We need to be loud. And we need every vote to be counted.
No more vote fraud.
The Big Speech
My piece about media coverage of and reaction to Obama's acceptance speech last night is now up at The Guardian's Comment is free America:
Joe Biden takes the stage. I think there may be more people in the stadium than in the entire state of Delaware. He's loving it. He ends his speech, Rat Pack-like, with "Love ya!" which I have to say I much prefer to "God Bless You." "Love ya!" has some real bada-bing.Read the whole thing here.
Filler, filler. Now the gang at MSNBC are pouring over the speech excerpts, and, while they're doing a better job than the loathsome Morris, it's still painful. If Nora O'Donnell refers to the "optics of this event" one more time, I'll go on a killing spree. It's nonetheless an improvement on what's going down at Fox, where they're rehashing "the Jeremiah Wright scandal" and Brit Hume begrudgingly admits that Mile-High Stadium is "pretty full." It's full metal crazy over there.
Finally, at long last, the senior senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin, comes out to introduce Obama, and we are moments away from the Big Speech. Jitter. Durbin's followed by a bio piece about Obama and his family, which is very nice.
And then Obama comes out.
Cameras flash like frenzied lightning bugs and the crowd roars. The staging is amazing. It is truly worthy of the historic moment to which we're all bearing witness – this is an African-American man who has is accepting the nomination for the presidency by the Democratic party. Wow. I am without cynicism or snark. I am awed.
I listen to the speech.
How Good Was Obama's Speech Last Night?
which is usually only reserved for the GOP.
My favorite pix from last night are below the fold.
* * *
Question of the Day
What is the one thing you'd most like to hear a presidential candidate say that you've never heard?
(This is not meant to be specific to this campaign or specific to Barack Obama. Basically, it's just an excuse to imagine your wildest dream candidate saying something that would make you wet your pants with happiness.)
Obama Wants The Gay Vote, Sort Of
Obama wants the LGBT vote, insists campaign manager Steve Hildebrand. Just not enough to ask for it. Not directly anyway.
Speaking at the Dem Convention's LGBT caucus yesterday Hildebrand said had this to say:
I believe that our campaign has not done the effective job it needs to do to persuade and convince LGBT voters that Barack Obama is someone who will lead for them, who will fight for them, fight for us. That’s a failure on behalf of our campaign in my opinion, and I've played a role in it. What we need is for all of you to be our voices in our communities and to work tirelessly to give every single day, as much time as you can give, to know Barack’s record and to know John McCain's failed record and to go out and talk to people who care about the future of LGBT people in this country.Here's the thing. I know Obama's record. And, as I've pointed out recently, that record includes McClurkin and Meeks. But really, aside from that, what is the campaign saying? That McCain is worse than Obama? Yeah, we know. We all know that. We've never said otherwise. But you know what? That old saw is not exactly change I can believe in. It's the same old bullshit I've been hearing for most of my life. And I need something more than that.
But should I expect it? Not according to The Advocate: "For any gay voter waiting to hear someone from the Obama campaign ask for their support, there it was." Really? That's it? Not even a word from the candidate himself? That's nice.
Michelle Obama did speak at the LGBT delegate luncheon on Tuesday, and spoke for nearly 30 minutes. Too bad Michelle isn't running for president. Too bad the man who wants the LGBT vote couldn't deliver that request himself.
As the article also notes, "[t]hree major convention speeches – those of Sen. Hillary Clinton, President Bill Clinton, and Sen. Ted Kennedy – have included references to LGBT Americans." It remains to be seen if Obama will add his name to that list.
Ratfuckery
Shaker Ugly in Pink just forwarded me this ABC News article with the note: "You might like this, if you define 'like' as 'get justifiably angry about.' It's an ABC article on how some hysterical feminist bitch Hillary supporters are now OMG donating to McCain. Of course the actual story is that the supposed Hillary supporters are people like Danit Aharon, who donated 40k to Republicans over the past year, and donated 2k to Hillary after Super Tuesday, to keep her campaign going after Obama had taken a lead. So, ratfuckery by Republicans, and a failure to do even the most basic research by the media. Enjoy!"
I've got absolutely nothing to add—except, perhaps, that because of the Democrats' open primaries, we've really got no idea at all how much Republican ratfuckery really played in this primary. And thanks to a lazy media and too many people willing to buy memes about Clintons and PUMAs, we'll probably never know. Sigh.
Feminism Deathwatch
I must read 100 articles a year, at least, that outright declare feminism dead, or casually ask: "Is feminism dead?"
No. It really, really isn't.
The latest is this completely aggravating piece in the WaPo about a new book called The Re-Education of the Female, written by Dante Moore, "a first-time author from Washington [whose] slim treatise purports to explain how women should go about sex, relationships and marriage—according to men" and contains awesome advice like "The fatter you get, the more you decrease your potential single-man pool. Let me give you an example. When you go to the grocery store to shop, do you pick out the nastiest-looking, most rotten, smelliest fruit or meat you can find? Oh, you don't? Why not? …It's the same with men when they see baby elephant-sized, out-of-shape women." (Tracy Clark-Flory's got more on Moore's hot book at Broadsheet.)
The author, Laura Yao, takes note of a woman buying the book for her teenage daughter. "Maybe feminism is dead," suggests Yao.
Yeah, maybe. Or maybe not all women are feminists.
I'm just totally exhausted with the construction that if every single woman isn't a feminist, and if examples of women doing anti-feminist things can be pointed to, then it's evidence that feminism is failing, pointless, critically flawed, dying, or dead. I'm exhausted with it because the narrative itself is inherently sexist, treating women as a monolith (which, ya know, we're not), but also because it's predicated on the premise that every woman has had equal access to feminist ideas—and women who aren't feminists are simply rejecting those ideas.
That the same media which actively endeavors to misrepresent, subvert, and marginalize feminism at every turn would behave as if feminism has been given a fair shot and been made easily accessible to every woman just makes my goddamned eyeballs itch.
[H/Ts to Shaker Corinne for the WaPo article and to Shaker gotoL for the Broadsheet item.]
