Deeky: Patti LuPone! You're such a fudgepacker.
Liss: I ain't packin' no fudge! I'm just sitting here quietly minding my own business, reading an article about Liza Minelli while listening to Patti LuPone.
Deeky: LOL! There is almost no way that could be gayer.
Senators Tom Coburn (R-Eprobate) and Jim DeMint (R-Evolting) have put a hold on a bill that would grant "approval of a decade-long effort to build a women's history museum in the nation's capital." The two senators are concerned about, among other things, bias.
Got that? Two conservative male senators are holding up approval of a women's history museum because they're not sure it will conform to their dudely ideas of what a women's museum should be.
Without a trace of irony.
1. When I wrote passionate criticisms of a Republican administration and Republican Congressional majority who failed to champion LGBTQI equality, assailed women's bodily autonomy, treated Roe as a suggestion, refused to disclose lobbyist visits to the White House, invoked the separation of powers to protect themselves, called for spending freezes on social programs, legitimized rightwing extremists, advocated for offshore drilling, pushed HSAs, escalated a war, thumbed their nose at due process, engaged in black ops, treated scientists with contempt, expanded the executive's extrajudicial powers, demeaned liberal activists, and invoked state's-secrets privilege for bullshit reasons, I was a principled progressive.
2. When I write passionate criticisms of a Democratic administration and Democratic Congressional majority who fail to champion LGBTQI equality, assail women's bodily autonomy, treat Roe as a suggestion, refuse to disclose lobbyist visits to the White House, invoke the separation of powers to protect themselves, call for spending freezes on social programs, legitimize rightwing extremists, advocate for offshore drilling, push HSAs, escalate a war, thumb their nose at due process, engage in black ops, treat scientists with contempt, expand the executive's extrajudicial powers, demean liberal activists, and invoke state's-secrets privilege for bullshit reasons, I am a stupid ingrate who doesn't understand how politics works.
[Trigger warning: Sexual Harassment]
If you've been hanging out in Feministville for any length of time, there's a good chance that you've noticed the propensity of many activists to treat women as objects. While this is a problem on the left, conservative activists seem to have a particular knack for treating women as means to an ends, or merely as objects for their own sake.
Last year, neo con man James O'Keefe released videos of what appeared to be ACORN employees helping prostitutes get loans to finance brothels. The subsequent scandal, which involved O'Keefe posing as a pimp and subsequently editing the bejeezus out of secret tapes, brought down ACORN. Apparently using the sex class is a much more direct way to bring down progressive organizations than, say, discussing predatory lending.
You may or may not remember James O'Keefe from his role in disseminating heavily edited videotapes of an actress portraying a 13 year-old rape victim seeking assistance from Planned Parenthood.
Earlier this year, O' Keefe was among the folks who broke into Senator Mary Landrieu's office to tap her phones, for reasons unknown.
He also launched a campaign against Representative Maxine Waters.
O' Keefe's friend, Andrew Breibert, went after the Obama administration's “racist” ways by editing a video (um, CNN?) of longtime Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod, who is also a woman. I'm not sure how much the racism charges against Obama stuck, but I do know that Sherrod no longer works for the USDA.
What a sad, sorry, and frightening pattern. What could possibly come next?
CNN investigative reporter Abbie Boudreau was working on a story about O'Keefe and company, who were none too pleased to be the target of some woman's criticism. Naturally, O'Keefe responded with a heavy dose of sexual harassment:When I [Abbie Boudreau] showed up [to interview O'Keefe], there was no office, as promised. Instead, he wanted to get me on a boat, which we later learned, was staged as a "pleasure palace." One of his colleagues, Izzy Santa, who was in Maryland that day, told me about the plan and stopped the punk before it happened.
Izzy told me he had "strawberries and champagne" waiting for me on the boat, and that he planned to "hit on me" the entire time. She said it would all be captured on hidden cameras that had been set up on the boat and in the back yard. She said the sole purpose of the "punk" was to embarrass me, and to make CNN look bad.
Yes, because when men harass women and hit on them the entire time, it's the women and their employers who look bad.
Even on a boat, we're swimming in rape culture:James was supposed to tape the following script before the meeting on the boat.
"My name is James, I work in video activism and journalism. I've been approached by CNN for an interview where I know what their angle is: they want to portray me and my friends as crazies, as non-journalists, as unprofessional and likely as homophobes, racists or bigots of some sort…"
"Instead, I've decided to have a little fun. Instead of giving her a serious interview, I'm going to punk CNN. Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I'm going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she'll get seduced on camera and you'll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath."
"Please sit back and enjoy the show."
It explains very simply what "the joke" is.
"The joke is that the tables have turned on CNN. Using hot blondes to seduce interviewees to get screwed on television, you are faux seducing her in order to screw her on television."
I just don't know what to say to that.
Homophobia? Well, now that you mention it Mr. O'Keefe, sure, why not?
Confusing the work of a woman with seduction? Honestly, when's the last time Wolf Blitzer was accused of seducing anyone? Of course, Blitzer's not a bleach-blonde. I'm not sure that look would suit him.
And the screwing. Always with the screwing.
Always with the screwing because rape culture is alive and well. Always because this is the nth time the same man has tried to get away with using similar tactics. And conservatives will hail him as a once and future hero in three, two, one...
H/t: Shaker JMonkey
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, proud sponsors of the upcoming Vegas showdown Deeks v. Beck. Mezzanine tickets are still available.
Recommended Reading:
Peter: Liberal Bloggers Are Bringing Down Obama, Part II
Echidne: The Care and Feeding of the Political Bases
Andrew: Joint Chiefs Chairman Stands by DADT Repeal, Pentagon Review
IWHC @ Akimbo: Women First: The Global Health Initiative's Women- and Girl-Centered Approach
crunktastic: The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Sex and Power in the Black Church [TW for discussions of sexual violence and clergy abuse.]
DeeLeigh: Fat Kids Targeted [TW for fat hatred]
Jo: Did you know people with artificial legs shouldn't go hiking? [TW for disablism.]
Esra'a: Geek Feminism and Mideast Youth
Leave your links in comments...
When no one's looking, Vincent reverts back to his normal deity form and takes a well deserved nap.
In the Lost final episode thread, I commented that with all the Egyptian mythology, it seemed to me that Vincent was actually Anubis getting ready to escort Jack to the next "plane", as it were.
Between Alfie's coloring being an almost spot-on match with Vincent and his ears relaxing in perfect Anubis fashion, I think we just found our Lost pup. :)
The MacArthur Foundation "Genius" awards list for this year has been announced. Among those chosen is UCSD's Carol Padden, the first Deaf person so honored. Carol Padden is a leading figure in the study of sign languages, and has co-authored, with husband Tom Humphries, a number of texts which have been widely used in the teaching of American Sign Language and Deaf Studies.
Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, was also named. Recipients recieve $100, 000 a year over five years, and Ms. Gordon-Reed said her award will, in part, fund research for another book she is planning on the family of Sally Hemings, the slave woman owned by Thomas Jefferson, by whom she had several children.
Fans of The Wire and Treme will be pleased to know that writer/producer David Simon has also been awarded one of this year's MacArthur's. I have seen neither, as I don't have HBO, but I know a lot of Shakers have expressed love for Simon's widely-admired work. Twelve men and eleven women, among them thirteen scientists and ten artists, were named fellows.
Theatre actor/director David Cromer is one, as is Jessie Little Doe Baird, a preservationist of the Wopanaak language of the Wampanoag Indians of Massachusetts; Aussie Drew Berry, who works in biomedical animation; and Emmanuel Saez, a professor of economics, one of whose studies was on the economic impact of outstanding kindergarten teachers (No, srsly; turns out those greedy public employees might actually be contributing to the economy, as well as the education of our children).
Oh, and Amir Abo-Shaeer, a public high school physics teacher in Goleta, CA, who directs an engineering program which includes a robotics competition. Says Abo-Shaeer,
I want to change the whole culture of what an engineer looks like and what an engineer does.Abo-Shaeer said that he is particularly proud that half of his students are female.
The President's much-discussed interview with Rolling Stone ends thus:
[Signaled by his aides, the president brings the interview to a close and leaves the Oval Office. A moment later, however, he returns to the office and says that he has one more thing to add. He speaks with intensity and passion, repeatedly stabbing the air with his finger.]As I said in comments yesterday, I regard the vote-for-any-Democrat-to-keep-a-Republican-out-of-office position as a legitimate and perfectly understandable position. I've frequently voted on that basis myself, especially when the only other alternative was not voting, because there were no candidates further left of the Dems on my voting ticket.
One closing remark that I want to make: It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election. There may be complaints about us not having gotten certain things done, not fast enough, making certain legislative compromises. But right now, we've got a choice between a Republican Party that has moved to the right of George Bush and is looking to lock in the same policies that got us into these disasters in the first place, versus an administration that, with some admitted warts, has been the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward.
The idea that we've got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible.
Everybody out there has to be thinking about what's at stake in this election and if they want to move forward over the next two years or six years or 10 years on key issues like climate change, key issues like how we restore a sense of equity and optimism to middle-class families who have seen their incomes decline by five percent over the last decade. If we want the kind of country that respects civil rights and civil liberties, we'd better fight in this election. And right now, we are getting outspent eight to one by these 527s that the Roberts court says can spend with impunity without disclosing where their money's coming from. In every single one of these congressional districts, you are seeing these independent organizations outspend political parties and the candidates by, as I said, factors of four to one, five to one, eight to one, 10 to one.
We have to get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up. Bringing about change is hard — that's what I said during the campaign. It has been hard, and we've got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place.
If you're serious, now's exactly the time that people have to step up.
Whenever you're on a long trip, it's nice to stop every once in a while and stretch your legs. Maybe get a Slim Jim and a Fanta. It helps break things up a bit.
And after ten chapters, including one long-ass speech about the evils of taxation, I thought we'd pull over for a piss. Proverbially speaking, of course.
So instead of me reviewing chapter eleven, Danny Bailey's big speech, instead of you having to slog through reading the big speech, I thought I'd let you hear it. [Transcript in comments.]
Below is my recreation of Danny Bailey's speech at the rally, with authentic sound effects. It's just like being there, without Hollis looming over your shoulder all night.
Let me set the scene for you:
Tonight's headliner, the illustrious Danny Bailey, now took to the stage in a swell of heavy-metal music and an ovation that rattled every shelf of glassware behind the bar.
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Greg Sargent lays out for the White House "the various arguments that people on the left are actually making."
I would personally argue that there are, in fact, only two groups—Sargent's second and third categories. His first category falls into the same trap Biden et. al. have, which is assuming that rank and file Democratic voters are insufficiently enthusiastic for vague reasons, instead of the same reasons that "high-profile commentators" and "progressive operatives" are.
Otherwise, good stuff.
In opposition to the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act, the Chamber wrote the following to Congress:
"Replacing a job that is based in another country with a domestic job does not stimulate economic growth or enhance the competitiveness of American worldwide companies."I'm glad that the rocket scientists at the Chamber have figured out that putting more unemployed Americans to work who would receive a paycheck and subsequently buy goods (i.e. consumers) would not stimulate economic growth.
