From Madonna, to multitudes of white Christian families in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, white adoption of black babies and children is systemically fucked up. Not every single white adoptive parent in a transracial adoption (TRA) approaches the process of adoption with ignorant and/or messianic ideas (although many of them do), but adoption in the public sector is woefully under-resourced and adoption in the private sector is, of course, corrupted by profit—and both the dearth and the infusion of money provide opportunities for exploitation.
In fact, all white adoptive parents benefit from a systemically racist system that facilitates the separation of black parents (especially mothers) from their children, makes it easy to ignore the importance of black community for a black child in white supremacist culture, and prioritizes the desires of white adoptive parents over the needs of black children, even despite the protests against TRA mounted by adult adoptees of color.
As with everything else, fame, power, and wealth have typically inglorious roles to play in this process, too.
Which brings us to Sandra Bullock, who has adopted a black baby, the adoption process for whom she began with her ex-husband Jesse James, four years ago, which culminated in Louis Bardo Bullock being brought home reportedly three months ago.
Naturally we are meant to assume that this baby was adopted in good faith by both parents and adoption agency workers, and I don't know whether they adopted him through government agencies or through private agencies, but, if it was private, Bullock and James have a lot of money, and even with the best intentions in the world, people looking to spend a lot of money are going to get lied to, especially if the truth might jeopardize their spending it. Given that this baby was born in New Orleans, it's also entirely possible that some element of the Shock Doctrine (normally reserved for developing countries), in which TRA plays an important role in maintaining colonial power, was involved.
This is all entirely fucked up and racially charged enough before we get into the fact thatJesse James likes to get dressed up in Nazi clothesand date women who do the same. His father has said that James has long been "fascinated" with Nazis.
Now that Sandra Bullock and Jesse James are getting divorced, Sandra Bullock will be the only legally adopting parent, but Bullock has said of James that she "doesn't know how our paths will intersect in the future. Which doesn't sound like: "Holy shit, I better keep my Nazi ex away from my son."
And which also means that even a white adoptive parent being "fascinated" with Nazis and white supremacist culture is not enough to stop them adopting a black baby.
A final note: Some of the conversation I've been seeing around this story tends to hold Bullock solely responsible for the adoption and as the only one involved in the process. This may be partly because People's interview was with her, but James had a part in this as much as she did. In fact, in a staggering display of privilege and entitlement, James says: "I know in my heart that I can be the best father possible to my four children, and the mate Sandy deserves." He has three biokids. He obviously plans to try to parent the newly adopted child, and Bullock isn't exactly ruling it out.
(Also: "The mate Sandy deserves." Barf. She's divorcing you, you twit! And more barf… He also said: "The decision to let my wife end our marriage, and continue the adoption of Louis on her own, has been the hardest." Let. Ugh.)
aramount has extended its business with Mattel, optioning the venerable toy Magic 8 Ball to use as the basis for a live action adventure film. The deal is being put in place by Paramount Motion Picture Group president Adam Goodman, and will be produced by Brad Weston through his overall deal on the Par lot. Jon Gunn and John Mann will write the script. They wrote the DreamWorks Animation pic Alcatraz Vs. The Evil Librarians. Paramount is already in business with Mattel on Max Steel, and has scored hits the Hasbro toys GI Joe and Transformers. Mattel's Tim Kilpin and Barry Waldo are exec producers. The toy has 20 pre-set answers to whatever questions one can ask about their past and present and their fortunes.
Someone get me Adam Goodman on the phone. I've got an exciting spec script about a piece of belly button lint that he'll want to option PRONTO!
If you just can't seem to figure out what to do with yourself lately, I highly recommend watching the Hummingbird Nest Cam at Ustream.
If you have a free Ustream account, you can also chat with the avid hummingbird watchers there.
When my Beloved found this cam and I started watching, I entered the following into the chat: "I will now officially get NOTHING done -- into perpetuity."
A regular chatted back: "Heh. Welcome to the Dirty House Club."
For facts about the cam and the birds, visit HERE for such amazing tidbits as "the nest is about the size of a golf ball, with eggs being about the size of a tic-tac candy". Phoebe is currently sitting on two tic-tacs, which should hatch sometime in May.
Pat Bertroche, one of seven Republicans running in Iowa's 3rd District Congressional primary, has a tremendous immigration proposal:
"I think we should catch 'em, we should document 'em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going," said Pat Bertroche, an Urbandale physician. "I actually support microchipping them. I can microchip my dog so I can find it. Why can't I microchip an illegal?
"That's not a popular thing to say, but it's a lot cheaper than building a fence they can tunnel under," Bertroche said.
The amount of hatred that the average Republican has for non-privileged people is absolutely staggering.
They don't really like it when someone like me accuses them of hatred—and, frankly, I don't really like it, either. Because talking about human beings like they're stray mongrels isn't hatred. It's something even worse.
Hatred implies some measure of care, of passion and heat and a beating human heart. What is expressed in sentiments like Bertroche's is utterly devoid of any of these things.
It is a void where a feeling should be. It is the emotional equivalent of a piss-hole in the snow—a soulless apathy, an indifference to human dignity so complete that to call it cruelty is to do it a kindness.
"There is no ability or opportunity in [the new Arizona immigration law] for the racial profiling. Shame on the lame stream media again for turning this into something that it is not. It's shameful, too, that the Obama administration has allowed...this to become more of a racial issue by perpetuating this myth that racial profiling is a part of this law."—Sarah "Death Panels" Palin, ranked #1 on Forbes' list of Purveyors of Unmitigated Temerity.
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman and a biracial queerbait telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
If you thought there was any chance that the new immigration law in Arizona was about anything other than race, watch how Rachel Maddow thoroughly rebukes that notion.
That people like Russell Pearce and members of the Federation for American Immigration Reform have the platforms that they do and can shape legislation is chilling. I was going to add "especially to me, as a WoC" but I am trying to get better about statements like that which imply that racism is primarily the concern of people of color and that white people should not care/worry about it/address it.
Transcript below the fold:
MADDOW: The big deal news headline out of the world of politics today was the Republican Party‘s filibuster of Wall Street reform. But there was supposed to be another big deal thing in politics today. Today was supposed to be the day that Democratic Senator John Kerry and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham announced bipartisan climate change legislation.
That announcement, as you probably noticed, did not happen today. Why didn‘t it happen? Because Lindsey Graham got very mad. He scuttled his own climate legislation because he says he‘s angry that the Obama administration might bring up the issue of immigration reform first.
Quote, “This comes out of left field. We haven‘t done anything to prepare
the body or the country for immigration.” Senator Graham‘s anger has been seconded now by the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who said yesterday, this isn‘t, quote, “the
right time to do immigration reform.”
Republicans are bending over backwards right now, doing everything they possibly can, scuttling their own legislation if they need to in order to make sure that immigration reform does not come up. Remember when George W. Bush wanted to do immigration reform in 2007? Again, it was
his own party, the Republicans, who bent over backwards and delivered their own president a huge political defeat on this issue because they were so desperate to not do immigration reform at the federal level.And the fact that it continues to not happen at the federal level is
all the justification that some states need right now to deal with immigration on their own, which is how we got this—
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAN BREWER ®, ARIZONA: The bill I‘m about to sign into law, Senate Bill 1070, represents another tool for our state to use as we work to solve a crisis that we did not create and the federal government has refused to fix.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: And so, the state of Arizona now has a new law requiring police officers to demand the paperwork of anyone who looks like they might be an illegal immigrant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: What does an illegal immigrant look like? Does it look like me?
BREWER: I do not know. I do not know what an illegal immigrant looks like. I can tell you that I think that there are people in Arizona that assume they know what an illegal immigrant looks like.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: In the meantime, papers, please. Before this bill was actually signed into law, we told you about the guy who introduced it in the first place. It‘s this guy, Republican State
Senator Russell Pearce. Mr. Pearce is famous in Arizona for having sent an email to his supporters that included a white nationalist screed, accusing the media of pushing the view, quote, “a world in which every voice proclaims the equality of the races, the inerrant nature of the Jewish, quote, ‘Holocaust‘ tale, the wickedness of attempting to halt the flood of nonwhite aliens pouring across the borders.” Mr. Pearce sent that around to all of his supporters, which he later apologized for.
Russell Pearce is also famous for having been caught on tape hugging a neo-Nazi. No, like a real neo-Nazi. Not some sort of metaphorical Godwin‘s law-invoking neo-Nazi guy, but an actual neo-Nazi guy. See, with the swastikas?
Russell Pearce is the guy who introduced this radical immigration bill in Arizona that just became law. But if you want to meet the guy who’s taking credit for writing the new law, that would be the gentleman named Kris Kobach. Kris Kobach is a birther. He‘s running for a secretary of state in Kansas right now. His campaign Web site today brags, quote, “Kobach wins
one in Arizona.”
The guy that helped Arizona‘s new immigration bill is also an attorney for the Immigration Reform Law Institute. That‘s the legal arm of an immigration group that‘s called FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. FAIR was founded in 1979 by a man named John Tanton. Mr. Tanton is still listed as a member of FAIR‘s board of directors. Just for some insight into where John Tanton and FAIR were coming from seven years after he started FAIR, Mr. Tanton wrote this, quote, “To govern is to populate. Will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that is simply more fertile? As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night or will there be an explosion?” That‘s FAIR, who helped write Arizona‘s anti-immigrant law.
After John Tanton got FAIR off the ground, for nine of the first years of the group‘s existence, the group reportedly received more than $1 million in funding from something called the Pioneer Fund. The Pioneer Fund describes itself as a group formed, quote, “in the Darwinian-Galtonian
evolutionary tradition and eugenics movement.” For the last 70 years, the Pioneer Fund has funded controversial research about race and intelligence, essentially aimed at proving the
racial superiority of white people. The group‘s original mandate was to promote the genes of those, quote, “deemed to be descended predominantly from white persons who settled in the original 13 states prior to the adoption of the Constitution.”
John Tanton‘s organization, FAIR, which, again, claims credit for writing Arizona‘s new immigrant law, John Tanton‘s FAIR was long bankrolled by the Pioneer Fund—which actually makes sense after you read some more of Mr. Tanton‘s writings. Quote, “I‘ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-
American majority and a clear one at that.” In 1997, John Tanton told the “Detroit Free Press” that America will soon be overrun by illegal immigrants, quote, “defecating and creating garbage and looking for jobs.” Defecating is the problem, I guess.
Again, this genius is the guy whose group is behind Arizona‘s new radical immigration law. They take credit for writing it. FAIR is bragging about having, quote, “assisted Senator Russell Pearce in drafting the language” of his Senate bill.
In drafting that language, FAIR may have slipped a little something special in there for themselves. FAIR makes a living off of suing local and state governments over immigration laws. Tucked inside Article VIII of Arizona‘s new law is a provision that if groups like them win their cases, quote, a judge—sorry—a judge may order that the entity, quote, “who
brought the action recover court costs and attorney fees”—which could create a nice financial boon for the formerly eugenics movement-funded, advanced the white majority, promote the genetics of white America anti-immigrant group whose attorneys helped write the new law.
Congratulations, Arizona. This thing is going to make you really, really, really famous for a really, really, really long time.
This too is a real thing in the world. It's one of those gumball-type vending machines. (I am sure maybe they have a real name.) I love those things. I am always buying stupid crap out of them. It's clutters my house until I get annoyed and toss it in the donate box in the garage.
Anyway, one at a supermarket near my home sells "Fuzzy Face Moustaches." Of course, what it probably should say is "Fag Moustaches" because that is quite clearly a drawing of the Village People.
You've got the Construction Worker, the Leatherman, the Cowboy. This vending machine is one Cop away from an "In the Navy" sing-along.
The Arizona House of Representatives recently approved a provision requiring President Barack Obama to prove that he is a natural-born citizen before the state agrees to place him on the ballot in 2012. He must have his birth certificate approved by the state's attorney general in order to run in the next election.
If you can't view the image, it's what looks to be a mugshot of a guy who's got "LADIES LOVE IT" tattooed above his lip like a mustache, and two lipstick kisses tattooed on his cheek and neck. He is clearly not only a stylish egalitarian, but a genius.
The Oklahoma Legislature voted Tuesday to override the governor's vetoes of two abortion measures, one of which requires women to undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before getting an abortion.
Though other states have passed similar measures requiring women to have ultrasounds, Oklahoma's law goes further, mandating that a doctor or technician set up the monitor so the woman can see it and describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims.
A second measure passed into law on Tuesday prevents women who have had a disabled baby from suing a doctor for withholding information about birth defects while the child was in the womb. Opponents argue that the law will protect doctors who purposely mislead a woman to keep her from choosing an abortion. But the bill's sponsors maintain that it merely prevents lawsuits by people who wish, in hindsight, that the doctor had counseled them to abort a disabled child.
Gov. Brad Henry, a Democrat, vetoed both bills last week. The ultrasound law, he said, was flawed because it did not exempt rape and incest victims and would allow an unconstitutional intrusion into a woman’s privacy. Of the other measure, Mr. Henry said, "It is unconscionable to grant a physician legal protection to mislead or misinform pregnant women in an effort to impose his or her personal beliefs on a patient."
The Republican majorities in both houses, however, saw things differently. On Monday, the House voted overwhelmingly to override the vetoes, and the Senate followed suit on Tuesday morning, making the two measures law.
I eagerly await a statement from the President praising this exemplary display of "consensus and common ground." That is, if he can be arsed to tear himself away from being a superhero feminist long enough to make a fucking statement about it at all.
Oh, I know, I'm such a cunt. Don't I know he's PROTECTING ROE???!!!1!eleventy!! Why don't I just vote Republican and see what happens THEN, huh?!
Snort.
This is what happens when the Democrats cede ground to the anti-choice contingent, when the Democratic leadership turns choice into a negotiable platform plank for its Congressional candidates, when the Democratic president engages in mealy-mouthedrhetoric and admonishes pro-choice advocates to "respect" the views of their adversaries, even though their views don't recognize women's basic right to bodily autonomy and our equality of personhood.
On January 22, 2009, President Obama stated: "I remain committed to protecting a woman's right to choose." And yet he has failed utterly to lend his considerable weight to protecting women's rights in Oklahoma. (And Arizona.)
Not only is their right to choose being undermined by requirements designed to deter abortion-seekers, requirements that also treat women like ninny-brained infants who need forcible help making decisions about their own bodies, but a doctor's right to lie to his female patients is being coded into law.
And we're not supposed to care about his inaction and silence because he's going to nominate a justice to the Supreme Court who will ostensibly protect an ever more impotent statute meant to ensure women's access to abortion, even as access is being subverted across the country.
The next time someone says some dumbass shit to me like : "Or, don't vote, and get a Republican Congress instead. That'll teach 'em..." I'm going to ask them to tell me with a straight goddamn face what the difference would be. Because abortion isn't a fucking on-off switch. Legal abortion isn't just about Roe, but is about the number of women who have reasonable and affordable and unencumbered access to it.
And the Democrats are letting that number dwindle in this nation as sure as the Republicans would.
Suggested by Shaker RachelB: If you had some say in the curriculum for students in high school / secondary school, what one book would everyone read as a teenager? (Presume, for the moment, that because everybody reads it, finding it in whatever language you want will not be a problem.)
When Karl Fuckin' Rove and Jeb Fuckin' Bush have problems with your new immigration law, it's 10 past time to realize THAT IS ONE FUCKED-UP PIECE OF LEGISLATION.
On Saturday, "at the Center for Arizona Policy Family dinner before 1600 guests," [Republican Governor Jan Brewer, who is running for her first full term in office this year] signedSB 1305, the first-in-the nation bill that would prohibit insurers in the state-run health care exchange "from providing coverage for abortions unless the coverage is offered as a separate optional rider for which an additional insurance premium is charged."
The new Arizona law is a radical mini Stupak. It prevents insurers from offering abortion services, except under the most extreme circumstances, even if only private money were used to pay for those services. Most if not all women in the exchange would only be able to purchase coverage through an impractical, separate abortion "rider" or leave the exchange entirely and find coverage in the shrinking individual health insurance market. Since it's unlikely that many insurers will offer abortion riders or that women will purchase them in anticipation of needing an abortion — in fact, "in the five states where abortion riders are currently required, no insurance company offers them" — the Arizona law will severely disadvantage poorer women who would likely have to pay out of pocket for abortion services.
Many other states are considering similar bans, but only Arizona has the distinction of leading the nation in adopting the most conservative social policies.
But it's all okay, because Obama's Protecting Roe!
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