You know how the Star Wars Episodes I-III, aka Darth Vader's Creek 90210, totally sucked? (Of course you do.) And you know how sometimes you imagine that instead of some suckass prequels, it would have been kind of cool if Vader hadn't died and there was an Episode VII-IX trilogy in which he redeemed himself and went Rebel and kicked ass old-school style? (Okay, maybe that's just me.)
The point is, David Brock, who spent the 1990's being "the Road Warrior of the Right" and then founded Media Matters, sorta fills that void for me.
The Facts are strong with this one.
Brock Vader
Top Chef Open Thread
Sorry I forgot to schedule the open thread last night! Boo me. Here's an open thread for a discussion after-the-fact...
Chef Tom Colicchio will drink. your. milkshake!!!
He will also cook you up a special hot stew with his meat and two veg.
Daily Kitteh
...it will wake Livsy up from her nap.
"Did someone say chicken?"
God Is A Bullet
Kentucky is the only state in the country to never suffer a terrorist attack, know why? Because they have God on their side. And that's the law.
That law requires Kentucky's Homeland Security department to thank, first and foremost, God for protecting the state from harm. Specifically, the law mandates that as the department's prime directive. (I guess protecting citizens is a secondary concern.) The law also requires the Department of Homeland Security to hang up plaques saying how much they owe their safety to God. Because it's not enough to thank God, but you've gotta be showy about it or it doesn't count. Right? That's in the Bible, folks!
The law is not without its detractors. But KY Homeland Sec chief Thomas Preston remained neutral, stating "I will not try to supplant almighty God. All I do is try to obey the dictates of the Kentucky General Assembly."
As state Rep. Tom Riner (D-Louisville), the man responsible for the legislation, puts it: "This is recognition that government alone cannot guarantee the perfect safety of the people of Kentucky. Government itself, apart from God, cannot close the security gap. The job is too big for government."
No word yet on what God could have done to prevent the deaths of 165 people at the Beverly Hills Supper Club or the destruction of Brandenburg by a tornado or the crash of Comair Flight 191 or anything listed here.
(Via Birmingham Blues.)
Wednesday Blogaround
hey your gay blogaround!
Recommended Reading:
Kevin: Dear Foolish Blackness Deniers
Echidne: How Violence Works
Matttbastard: Wanker of the Day: Skating on Thin Ice Edition
Mannion: They just won't grow up, ever!
Melissa: Meryl Streep is the Queen of Hollywood
Also: bfp has a new blog (update your blogrolls!) and Rana has beautiful holiday cards for sale.
Leave your links in comments...
Quote of the Day
"I'd go full speed ahead because of the hateful and beastly way in which my left-wing critics in the press and Congress tried to make a political affair out of it and tried to ruin me. My response now is this: The hell with you. They didn't ruin me. I have my faith, my family, and a good life. A lot of people love me -- or like me. So they failed. I would do the same thing over again because I don't think I hurt Valerie Plame whatsoever." - Robert Novak reflecting on his role in outing CIA operative Valerie Plame as part of the Bush administration's effort to destroy their political enemies.
For someone who describes himself as The Prince of Darkness, he certainly is thin-skinned.
No Life
Just yesterday, I noted in comments that I am increasingly liking CNN's Campbell Brown: "I know a lot of people aren't keen on Campbell Brown because she didn't have her great feminist awakening until after Clinton had already departed from the race, but I think she's got a lot to offer, too. Sometimes she drives me batshit nuts, but sometimes she's flat-out great."
This is a flat-out great moment.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was caught on an open mic saying of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, with regard to her nomination to head Homeland Security: "Janet's perfect for that job. Because for that job, you have to have no life. Janet has no family. Perfect. She can devote, literally, 19-20 hours a day to it." And Campbell Brown, herself a woman with a demanding career who is currently pregnant with her second child, was not pleased.
[Full transcript below.]
While an observation like "We all know the assumption tends to be that with a man, there is almost always a wife in the wings managing those family concerns" is pretty tame stuff around Shakesville, Duh of the Day territory, it's actually fairly amazing to hear remarks like that on the cable news, the natural habitat of misogybags like Chris Matthews who consider it appropriate to, for example, call a female president a "she-devil" and decorate her image with devil horns.
When I was first applying for jobs out of college, it was repeatedly recommended to me that I not wear any rings on my left index finger, lest a potential employer think I was engaged or married and ergo "close to having a family." That was only 12 years ago. When I was working at an advertising firm, I was asked flat-out by the owner if I planned to have children anytime soon, because he wasn't going to bother promoting me if I was. That was only 6 years ago. There's a sense that we're well beyond this stuff, that we left the biases back in Rosie the Riveter's dust. We haven't.
Good on Campbell Brown for using her big platform for a little teaspooning.
Btw, on a side note, I will never cease to find it interesting that a woman whose life is (by all appearances) solely her own is accused of having no life at all, while the woman whose life is most lived in the service to others is said to have the richest life. Funny how that works.
It would be great if someday we could live in a world where a woman's value wasn't predicated exclusively on what she invests in others and denies herself.
(Consider that in the context of Rebellyon...)How many times have politicians been warned about the dangers of an open microphone? And yet, on Tuesday, the lectern mic at the National Governors Conference picked up this little nugget from Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.
He's having a conversation near the lectern about President-elect Barack Obama's choice for to lead the Homeland Security Department, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. Here is what Rendell said about Napolitano:
Rendell: Janet's perfect for that job. Because for that job, you have to have no life. Janet has no family. Perfect. She can devote, literally, 19-20 hours a day to it.
Wow. Now, I'm sure Gov. Napolitano has many qualifications for the job beyond having no family, and therefore the ability to devote 20 hours a day to the job.
But it is fascinating to me that that is the quality being highlighted here as so perfect. C'mon. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is married with two grown children. His predecessor, Tom Ridge, had a family. Anybody remember a debate about whether they would have trouble balancing the demands of work and family?
Now, I am a fan of Gov. Rendell. He has been on this show many times. I like him for his candor. In our attempts to cut through the bull, he delivers far less bull than most politicians. But it is his frankness here that raises so many questions.
1. If a man had been Obama's choice for the job, would having a family or not having a family ever even have been an issue? Would it have ever prompted a comment? Probably not. We all know the assumption tends to be that with a man, there is almost always a wife in the wings managing those family concerns.
2. As a woman, hearing this, it is hard not to wonder if we are counted out for certain jobs, certain opportunities, because we do have a family or because we are in our child-bearing years. Are we? It is a fair question.
3. If you are a childless, single woman with suspicions that you get stuck working holidays, weekends and the more burdensome shifts more often than your colleagues with families, are those suspicions well-founded? Probably so. Is there an assumption that if you're family-free then you have no life? By some, yes.
Again Gov. Rendell, I don't mean to rake you over the coals. I know what you meant to say. But your comments do perpetuate stereotypes that put us in boxes, both mothers and single women.
In government and beyond, men have been given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to striking the right work-life balance. Women are owed the same consideration.
Let Begones Be Begones [/izzard]
Digby, on the newly released Nixon tapes from November and December of 1972:
It's a good thing we decided for the good of the country not to play the blame game and to let bygones be bygones because it resulted in the Republicans completely changing their ways.lol your doomed to repeat history!!!11!
Dick Cheney, for instance, learned from Nixon's mistakes and completely repudiated Richard Nixon's imperial presidency and profane disrespect and operated with bipartisan good faith and total transparency as a result of the generosity with which Richard Nixon (and later Ronald Reagan) were dealt. It's a heartwarming story of the power of positive reinforcement, forgiveness and redemption.
It's that shit, right there, that makes me still feel sick when I recall Obama's rationale for his opposition to impeachment: "I believe if we began impeachment proceedings we will be engulfed in more of the politics that has made Washington dysfunction. We would once again, rather than attending to the people's business, be engaged in a tit-for-tat, back-and-forth, non-stop circus."
Yeah, maybe. It's just that the people's business really needs to include holding their leaders accountable, too—if they don't want to have to deal with criminal miscreants trying to fuck up their country once every generation.
The Rebellyon Continues…
[Background here and here.]
Amanda Palmer (who, thanks to her very gracious invitation, I am now totally seeing tonight in Chicago!) has updated her blog with more info and some clarifications about the whole Roadrunner kerfuffle, as well as pix of more beautiful bellies, and I just love this bit:
my a&r guy (my main contact at the label) sat me down in his office and said he wanted to discuss the "leeds united" video. he told me that there were certain shots that they wanted to either cut completely or digitally alter to "be more flattering".First of all, this is just fucking brilliant: "I'm a guy, Amanda. I understand what people like." What he means, of course, is that he understands what men like him like—and note his eminent willingness to substitute the universal people for men like him. Isn't that precious?
my favorite quote from that meeting: "i'm a guy, amanda. i understand what people like."
to which i reply: where have you been for the last five years? do you have any idea who i am, what band i've been in, what kind of music i write, who my fans are….who didn't send you the memo that i'm not britney spears? i'm not TRYING to look hungry. i'm trying to look HOT. there's a difference.
Secondly, not only is Amanda Palmer not Britney Spears; Britney Spears isn't even "Britney SpearsTM" anymore—and doesn't want to be. The whole head-shaving episode was fodder for endless jokes not because it was funny, but because we are an absurdly cruel society. It was as clear an anguished cry as I've ever seen: A woman who shaves off her hair in a fit of pique doesn't want to be herself anymore. And who the fuck could blame her? No human being can live up to the unyieldingly rigorous expectations of physical perfection to which Britney Spears has been subjected.
Remember last year when Britney "reemerged" to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards and looked like this?
She was widely denounced as having gotten fat. "Was media unfair to call Britney Spears fat?" asked the AP.
The consensus is clear: Britney Spears performed like she was sloshing blindfolded through mud at MTV's Video Music Awards. No one disputes that the troubled pop princess royally mangled her much-heralded comeback.Unfuckingbelievable. Or it would be, anyway. If it weren't so goddamned believable.
But what about the nastiest comments of all — those about her body? "Lard and Clear," read Monday's headline in the New York Post. "The bulging belly she was flaunting was SO not hot," wrote E! Online. And so on.
Was it fair? Did Spears, lest we forget a mother of two, deserve to be held up against the standard of her once fantastically toned abs, sculpted by sessions of 1,000 tummy crunches? Or was she asking for it by choosing that unforgiving black-sequined bikini?
…For many observers, the issue was not so much the body, but the body in THAT outfit.
It may be as clear a rationale for feminism as I've ever seen to realize that, while Amanda Palmer may have fuck-all in common with the carefully molded-since-childhood, constructed, packaged, and marketed "Britney SpearsTM," she has a hell of a lot in common with Britney Spears the woman, the person, the struggling soul whose belly had the temerity to defy expectations. As do we all.
Liss' Belly
Esme's Belly
Car's Belly
Carleigh's Belly
IndieGoddess' Belly
Lar's Belly
Smadin's Belly
Angryyoungwoman's Belly
GoldenGirl's Belly
Quixotess' Belly
Llencelyn's Belly
Bethany's Belly
The Slippery Slope
I think it was Rick Santorum who warned us that if you let teh gayz get married, then all kinds of crazy shit would start happening. Turns out he was right. Check out this bit of celebrity news from California: The Cruises are planning to marry the Beckhams. You're probably scratching your head wondering what that means. Allow me to explain. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are going to "merge" their family with David and Victoria Beckham's family "in a special ceremony." The couples have been wooing one another with hansom cab rides, standing ovations and custom-built basketball courts, so the next logical step is to get hitched. Good luck on your new union, kids! Though, I'd think there's got to be an easier way to get into David Beckham's pants.
RIP Odetta
Odetta, influential folk singer and "voice of the civil rights movement," has died at age 77.
Odetta sang at coffeehouses and at Carnegie Hall, made highly influential recordings of blues and ballads, and became one of the most widely known folk-music artists of the 1950s and '60s. She was a formative influence on dozens of artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Janis Joplin.Odetta marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and performed for President John F. Kennedy in 1963. She was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Medal of the Arts and Humanities by President Bill Clinton in 1999. She had hoped to perform at the inaugural for President Barack Obama in January.
Her voice was an accompaniment to the black-and-white images of the freedom marchers who walked the roads of Alabama and Mississippi and the boulevards of Washington in the quest to end racial discrimination.
Rosa Parks, the woman who started the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Ala., was once asked which songs meant the most to her. She replied, "All of the songs Odetta sings."
...[Odetta] found her own voice by listening to blues, jazz and folk music from the African-American and Anglo-American traditions. She earned a music degree from Los Angeles City College. Her training in classical music and musical theater was "a nice exercise, but it had nothing to do with my life," she said.
"The folk songs were — the anger," she emphasized.
In a 2005 National Public Radio interview, she said: "School taught me how to count and taught me how to put a sentence together. But as far as the human spirit goes, I learned through folk music."
"If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognize time."—Maya Angelou.
Question of the Day
I'm not sure how we acquired it or where it came from, but we had it nonetheless. I'm not sure our parents new about it or even cared. After all, it was mostly harmless, without something with which to fire it. What could a pair of wee boys all of six and ten years old do with a live round of ammunition without a gun?
We could stick it in a slingshot and fire it at the garage door.
At first, it didn't seem like a bad idea. It was kind of neat, as I recall. The first couple times anyway.
Until the round hit the garage door primer-end first.
Where the round went neither of us have any idea. Thinking back on it now, we're damn lucky one of us, or anyone else, wasn't hit, wasn't killed. It scared the hell out of us, that's for sure. To this day I remember exactly what the little burn mark on the garage door looked like, where the round had discharged and shot to Lord knows where.
It was just one of many stupid and dangerous things my brother and I did as kids.
So, my question: What monumentally stupid thing did you do as a child that you're now surprised to have come through unscathed?
In the Parade
by Shaker protest8sf
On January 20, 2009, President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn into office as the 44th President of the United States. Farewell to Bush, farewell to eight years of evil, hello to Obama, and hello to the hope for a better government! After the inauguration ceremony, there will then be one hell of a parade marching from the Capitol to the White House, celebrating every step of the way!
The presidential inaugural parade dates back to Washington's inauguration in 1789, when he processed from Mount Vernon to New York City. His honor guard consisted of local militias, members of the Continental Army, government officials, and members of Congress. Since then, the parade has become a much larger affair, including marching bands, marching units, cavalry, floats, horses, and at Eisenhower's parade, even elephants.1
Unfortunately, the parade, like many American institutions, has a history of exclusion. Many groups whose members don't exactly look like the Founders have had to fight for their right to participate in the parade, and InTheParade.com is lobbying to get an openly LGBTQI contingent in the parade for the first time this year
The Lesbian and Gay Band Association, a musical organization of concert and marching bands from the U.S. and around the world, applied to march in both of Clinton's inaugural parades. The LGBA was accepted—but was then placed on the sidewalk, performing while the parade marched by. According to InTheParade.com, there has never been an openly LGBTQI contingent marching in the inaugural parade.
This year, let's make it different. Let's move LGBTQI people off the sidewalk and into the parade. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies is currently evaluating applications and they will make their final decisions within the next week. InTheParade.com has set up a site where you can lobby the committee members and your elected officials, asking them to support the inclusion of an openly LGBTQI marching band in the inaugural parade.
The committee receives hundreds of applications, and time is short. Make your voice heard now and show that there is support for including LGBTQI people in the parade, and show President-elect Obama that there is widespread, vocal support for the visible inclusion and rights of LGBTQI people.
From InTheParade: Marching is an important symbolic act, and the symbolic value of a gay contingent in President-Elect Obama's 2009 Inaugural Parade will say a lot about our new president's sincerity and authentic desire to include everyone in his definition of unity.
...
Lesbian/Gay contingents have applied to march in the 2009 inaugural parade and there is no reason they can't be selected. Selection is not about how good a group looks or sounds – selection is a political matter. We can influence the selection process by making our voices heard. There are LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex) contingents ready to march, but if they are going to represent our community in the parade, they need our help and they need it NOW.
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1Information about the inaugural parade from the JCCIC site about the Inaugural Parade.
Richardson to Commerce
President-Elect Obama will reportedly name New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as his incoming Commerce Secretary at a Chicago press conference tomorrow.
Richardson will become the first Hispanic named to Obama's cabinet. It will be Richardson's third go round in a presidential cabinet. The 61-year old was both United Nations ambassador and Energy Secretary during the Clinton administration.Because Commerce Secretaries are effectively globetrotting salespeople, "helping to drum up business for U.S. companies," Richardson is a good choice, given his experience and expertise as diplomat and negotiator.
