I can't decide which is my favorite part: The juxtaposition of "2. Channel Ronald Reagan: Ronald Reagan, known as the 'great communicator,' put communications front-and-center, [David Morey, a communications expert who advised Obama's 2008 campaign] said," with "3. Propagandize the truth: 'There is a great hunger for leaders who can rise above the political pettiness and tell the truth,' Morey said," as if Reagan's communication style was all about telling the truth, or if I prefer the flat hilarity of:
8. Pay attention to independents
It's necessary to fire up the base, but the independents are the ones with the power to swing the election.
"You are going to have your Republicans that support the Republican candidates. You are going to have the Democrats that support the Democratic candidates. The question really becomes what is the mood of the independents," [Ron Christie, a Republican strategist who worked in the Bush administration from 2001 to 2004] said.
A Gallup poll released last month showed independents are leaning toward Republican candidates by a 12-point margin.
"The current snapshot has a clear message: Democrats should be afraid, very afraid," John Avlon wrote in a column for CNN.com.
Yeah, the BUSH STRATEGIST has a great idea there. Obama should definitely alienate his base and chase those Independents.
Shakers know, and Shaker love, the Two Minute Nostalgia Sublime, brought to us Monday through Friday by Deeky. But does anyone ever host a musical TMNS in Deeky's honor? No! (At least, uh, not that I remember.)
But wonders* wishes do come true! So herewith, in honor of Deeky's career as a DVD-cover-model-cum-Ernest-Borgnine-impersonator, are Lonzo and Oscar. (Yes! the Lonzo and Oscar!)
"I'm My Own Grandpa"
*Wishes. Wishes do come true. It's on the box, floating alongside one of Deeky's heads and above the other.
In case you missed it (I did until it came up on the local news just now), Michael Bloomberg still has a problem with people of color.
Here's a 13 August quote from the NYC mayor's radio show, where he talks about the best way to strip the Haudenosaunee of tribal sovereignty (in this case, by collecting state taxes on cigarettes):
"I've said this to David Paterson, I said, 'You know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun,'...If there's ever a great video, it's you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying, you know, 'Read my lips - the law of the land is this, and we're going to enforce the law."
The Bloomberg administration has refused to apologize, on the grounds that they think that New York State has the right to collect taxes from tribal nations. Apparently the whole "we should kill you and take more of your land" metaphor was a given for these guys. No, not racist at all.
In which Liss re-imagines masterpieces of post-Dadaist cinema, making them better by adding me to their classic posters. Today, a film about the greatest thing Santa can give you: Love. The second-greatest thing: The Death Star.
our dear friend has gone positively apoplectic because the US State Department wants to create a position for an Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues:
The global reach of this new czar's activities opens the door for Obama's feminist constituency to dictate to other countries. The bill calls for a "comprehensive, five-year international strategy to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls internationally" and to set up "gender-integrated, comprehensive and holistic" plans in 20 countries.
This new feminist gestapo will support the "development and enforcement of civil and criminal legal and judicial sanctions, protections, trainings and capacity." And there's more: The bill authorizes U.S. money to be spent to develop "programs affecting social norms, community attitudes, and male and female participation in violence and response to victims."
Heavens to Murgatroid! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Poor Phyllis. So much self-hatred, so little empathy.
Calling all future Steinems, Maddows, Amanpours and Courics! Do you want to become a political commentator or journalist serving as a strong voice in the media?
That's what the Women's Media Center (WMC) wants to know. They are accepting applications for the final group of trainees for this year in their Progressive Women's Voices program. The training seems to be oriented as much toward women who want to be a voice within the media for their field of expertise as it is to women entering or in the profession of journalism.
Criteria for selection include:
•Identification as a progressive feminist who is a recognized communicator in your field
•Demonstrated media savvy, political knowledge, ability to converse on many issues
•Willingness and desire to promote yourself, engage in new media experiences, and reach media goals
Women representing diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise, professions, ethnicities, ages, geographical regions and levels of experience are encouraged to apply (including those who have previously applied).
Each class includes ten women from around the country who are trained over two separate weekends in New York City. Travel, accommodation, and training expenses are paid for completely by the WMC.
The above link is to the Project's home page, which more fully describes the program, and includes links to both an initial application page and a page where you can nominate someone else for inclusion. The application deadline for this class is September 3, 2010, with trainings to be held November 5-7 and December 3-5 in New York City.
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 (Liss) and a biracial queerbait (Deeky) telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
By a remarkable coincidence, folks at GetEQUAL just reminded me that ENDA has still not passed. On a related note, Congress recently rushed through a bunch of "emergency" funding to harass would be immigrants to the United States (you know, the "bad" ones that try to sneak in from Mexico).
To recap: Codifying the rights of those people? Too hot to handle in an election year (if ever).
Cracking down on the actions of those other* people? Whooo! Unanimous vote! Re-elect us all now!
-- * Obviously there are plenty of immigrants who are LGBTQ and/or have marginalized ways of gender expression (not that many policy makers know about intersectionality or anything).
[Video description: Scenes of Dudley being all kinds of cute, set to "Can't Help Falling in Love (Live)" from Elvis Presley's Aloha from Hawaii concert.]
As Spudsy mentioned in comments the other day, there are people who say that greyhounds don't have expressive faces. I don't know what greyhounds they've been hanging out with, but they sure haven't been spending time with Lord Dudlington!
Before we adopted Dudley, one of the other things we read about greyhounds is that they are not especially affectionate dogs. Dudz, however, loves cuddles and hugs and belleh rubs; his favorite is when I scratch his rump and drumstricks, lol. He backs his butt up while I'm sitting on the couch and wags his tail and looks over his shoulder at me excitedly. Which isn't the same as a puppeh who will jump into your lap seeking affection (I've had them, too), but it's just as good. Retired racers tend to be a little bit gentler, is all. And he is a champion face-kisser, whether he's nibbling on my chin or greeting Sophs with a sloppy lick.
The truth is, I really couldn't have helped falling in love with Dudley, even if I'd wanted to.
Am the victim of devastating keyboard meltdown. Am left to replay various iterations of Farm Frenzy, tapping out cryptic dispatches from this keyboardless wasteland with my mouse and on-screen keyboard only when driven to it by the inhumanity of the outrageously and unthinkingly overprivileged.
Thus, I can but say to "chairman and cofounder of the Blackstone Group, one of the world’s largest private-equity firms" , Stephen Schwarzman, "Oh, bite me, you gigantic douchetrawler."
Better idea. Why don't you and the "Wall Street executive who knows Schwarzman" quoted at the end of the article bite each other. And not in a fun way, but in a spirit of penitential reflection, until you mutually arrive at a newly-humbled understanding of the ghastly proportions of your douche-vehicularity, and vow to make amends.
Go on about your business, folks. They'll be gnawing for a while.
[Wording edited slightly because I really didn't like my joking claim of being the "sole survivor" of a mock-disaster on seeing it juxtaposed with the posts on the genuine and horrifying disaster in Pakistan.]
[Trigger warning for discussion of sexual harassment and assault.]
Iain sent me this piece by Tracy Clark-Flory about the introduction of women-only train carriages in Indonesia, which women can use voluntarily. Melanie Abrahams has a piece about it here, too.
Like both Tracy and Melanie, I have very mixed feelings about the introduction of segregated trains and/or segregated train cars, which is an increasingly common practice in Asia, particularly.
I absolutely support the idea of safe spaces for women, and I would, quite frankly, have been thrilled to have the option to ride in a women-only car many days when I was a regular El commuter in Chicago.
But here's the thing: Segregating women isn't really a comprehensive solution. It is, in my estimation, only a small part—the smallest, even—of what needs to be a culture-wide strategy to change attitudes about sexual harassment and assault. Giving women segregated spaces, without any public initiatives to ultimately render them obsolete, just treats the assault of women as an inevitability—which ironically reinforces the very attitudes (e.g. men are sexually compulsive and can't help but treat women's bodies as public property) that underlie sexual assault in the first place.
The main objective should be setting higher expectations of men: Their behavior toward women needs to be addressed via a public and exhaustive deconstruction of their privilege and the associated entitlement that feeds the assertion of ownership over women's bodies, combined with education about respecting women's bodily autonomy and their right to consent.
Segregated train cars don't actually solve the causes and enabling narratives of sexual harassment and assault, and, as a stand-alone "solution," may actually more deeply entrench those causes/narratives. So...I like them. But not in a void.
"The rains are continuing and [with] each hour that passes the flooding is multiplying misery across the entire country. This is a mega disaster and it needs a mega response."—Neva Khan, Oxfam country director in Pakistan. "To date, only five countries—Britain, the US, Australia, Italy and Kuwait—have committed or pledged more than $5m in new funding."
Donations are urgently needed. You can find out how to help here.
Detail of a photo submitted to CNN by World Vision, a Humanitarian aid organization, which has "already delivered food and water to more than 21,000 people living in school buildings and on what's left of the main roads in Charsadda and Nowshera."
Donations are urgently needed. You can find out how to help here.
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