Shakesville

Korea Crisis Open Thread

New York Times—'Crisis Status' in South Korea After North Shells Island:

The South Korean military went to "crisis status" on Tuesday and threatened military strikes against the North after the North fired dozens of shells at a South Korean island, killing two South Korean soldiers and setting off an exchange of fire in one of the most serious clashes between the two sides in decades.

...The North blamed the South for starting the exchange; the South acknowledged firing test shots in the area but denied that any had fallen in the North's territory. It was in the same area that a South Korean naval vessel, the Cheonan, was sunk in March, killing 46 sailors. Seoul blamed a North Korean torpedo attack; the North has denied any role.

The United States, Britain and Japan on Tuesday condemned the latest attack. The United States called on North Korea to "halt its belligerent action."

I don't guess I need to point out here that one of the problems of being embroiled in ~~two~~ three wars of choice is that we can't really provide much assistance to allies if necessary.

Sydney Morning Herald—North Korean dictator-in-waiting linked to deadly artillery attack: "North Korea has burnished the leadership credentials of its 26-year-old dictator-in-waiting with a deadly artillery attack on South Korean territory, causing its neighbour to return fire and scramble F-16 fighters. ... A North Korea expert at Beijing's Central Party School, Zhang Liangui, told the Herald that Kim Jong-un was deliberately destabilising the environment in order to mobilise the military and consolidate his power."

CNN—South Korean leader calls for 'action' after strike:

South Korea's president called on his military forces to use "action" and not talk to punish North Korea for deadly artillery attacks on Tuesday, but international diplomats appealed for restraint.

"The provocation this time can be regarded as an invasion of South Korean territory. In particular, indiscriminate attacks on civilians are a grave matter," President Lee Myung-bak said at the headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff here, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"Enormous retaliation is going to be necessary to make North Korea incapable of provoking us again," Lee said.

Not good. Not good at all.

Your Morning TSA Security Round-Up

[Trigger warning for general harm.]

McClatchy—Against advice, TSA chief didn't warn public about pat-downs: "Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole said Monday that he disregarded internal advice and decided not tell the public in advance about aggressive new screening and pat-down procedures for airline passengers, fearing terrorists could try to exploit the information."

USA Today—Body scanner makers doubled lobbying cash over 5 years:

The companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to supply American airports with body-scanning machines more than doubled their spending on lobbying in the past five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance their causes in Washington, government records show.

L-3 Communications, which has sold $39.7 million worth of the machines to the federal government, spent $4.3 million trying to influence Congress and federal agencies during the first nine months of this year, up from $2.1 million in 2005, lobbying data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show. Its lobbyists include Linda Daschle, a former Federal Aviation Administration official.

Rapiscan Systems, meanwhile, has spent $271,500 on lobbying so far this year, compared with $80,000 five years earlier. It has faced criticism for hiring Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary, last year. Chertoff has been a prominent proponent of using scanners to foil terrorism. The government has spent $41.2 million with Rapiscan.

"The revolving door provides corporations like these with a short cut to lawmakers" and other decision-makers, said Sheila Krumholz, of the Center for Responsive Politics.

Washington Post—Nearly two-thirds of Americans support full-body scanners at airports: "Nearly two-thirds of Americans support the new full-body security-screening machines at the country's airports, as most say they put higher priority on combating terrorism than protecting personal privacy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll."

Meanwhile, Kevin Drum and Ezra Klein, two men for whom I've guest-blogged and respect greatly, argue that we might as well accept the "annoyance" of enhanced screening because security is only going to get more invasive if another terrorist attack happens, anyway.

Kevin Drum says, "The price we pay for this is plenty of annoyance," and Ezra Klein says, "This will depress my civil libertarian friends, but I think it's the hassle that people are really objecting to here."

Yikes.

Leaving aside my lack of enthusiasm for the calculation that we should give an inch's worth of encroachment into our civil liberties in order to stop the government taking a mile, both of them roundly ignore that the only people challenging these measures are not inconvenienced civil libertarians. There are practical and valid objections being made by people with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, and survivors of sexual violence.

That doesn't constitute some vanishingly small minority. There are millions of people with disabilities in this country alone, and millions of survivors of sexual violence: 1 in 33 men and 1 in 6 women (which are probably low estimates and many of them multiple times).

Those millions of people are not just potentially "inconvenienced." Being triggered does not mean feeling hassled or being annoyed or having your feelings hurt or getting upset. It means experiencing a physical and/or emotional response to a survived trauma, having a significantly mood-altering bout of anxiety. Someone who is triggered may experience anything from a brief moment of dizziness, to a shortness of breath and a racing pulse, to a full-blown panic attack. In the midst of traveling, which is an already-stressful experience for many PWDs and survivors.

Ignoring the legitimate concerns about enhanced screenings of people who may be triggered by them is certainly more convenient for a STFU argument, since no one wants to be the guy who tells survivors and PWD that they're necessary casualties of a security policy that protects the privileged. But it's dishonest. And I expect more from Kevin and Ezra.

Happy Birthday, Deeky!

Deeky's birthday cake featuring Max Rebo.

Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!
You're a forty year old aaaaaaaasshoooooooole!
And a huge sad bums, too!

Happy birthday, asshole!

P.S. I love you.

Happy Birthday, Elle!

Elle's birthday cake featuring feminist fist.

Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuu!
You look like a two-fisted smasher of the kyriarchal agendaaaaaaaaa!
And you smell like one toooooooo!

(Mmmmm...lavender!)

Happy Birthday, Elle. I love you, grrl.

Open Thread

Hosted by The Polkaholics.

Question of the Day

What's the best book you've read lately?

Rebecca Traister's Big Girls Don't Cry.

(Just because my answer is nonfiction doesn't mean yours has to be. Fiction welcome, too. Novels, graphic novels, comic books, children's books, biographies, whatever.)

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Night Ranger: "Sister Christian"

Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"

[Trigger warning for assault. Background.]

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.]

This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.

[Trigger warning for stalking and disablist language.]

Actual Headline: Should You Give Your Boyfriend Your Facebook Password?

Actual Lede: "Facebook has plenty of great uses, from showing everyone how hot you looked in your bikini this summer to stalking exes."

Actual Conclusion: "We think couples should maintain SOME measure of privacy, but is sharing your login something you'd only freak out about if you actually had something to hide?"

Yikes.

Right On

Wrestler Mick Foley Hits the Hill for Rape Kit Legislation:

Wrestler Mick Foley -- whose meeting with Tori Amos and subsequent work for the Rape, Abuse & Incest Action Network that she co-founded was chronicled on Slate in September -- joined RAINN, assault survivor-turned-advocate Julie Weil and "Private Practice" actress KaDee Strickland on Capitol Hill this week to push for passage of the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry (SAFER) Act.

The legislation, originally co-sponsored by the unlikely duo of Reps. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), would, among other things, allocate $10 million a year for a national registry to chronicle the backlog in DNA testing on rape kits and allow local law enforcement to audit their backlogs.

In an exclusive interview with TPM, Foley explained his interest in the cause: "I came to feel that there were not many males out there talking about a problem that really does affect everybody. Statistically speaking, everybody knows somebody who's been affected by rape and sexual assault whether they know it or not."

That, Shakers, is How to Leverage One's Privilege. Foley recognizes (quite rightly) that the unusualness of a man, a famous tough-guy, who himself has not survived assault, getting involved in anti-rape activism will bring more—and different—attention to this legislation than it would otherwise have.

That's a dude with a big teaspoon, right there. And he knows how to use it.

Thank you, Mr. Foley. And thank you Ms. Weil, Ms. Strickland, and Reps. Poe and Maloney.

[H/T to Shaker IvyCeltress. Previously: The Best Thing You'll Read All Day.]

Two Facts

1. Pink is awesome.

2. This clip of her performing her underdog anthem "Raise Your Glass" (lyrics here) at the American Music Awards, with a group of gender- and ethnically-diverse dancers, is sheer joy-radiating blissitude.

[H/T to Shaker BrianWS.]

You Know...

...the thing I think I love most about the national debate about the TSA's new "enhanced screening" procedures are all the jokes. So many jokes! I was just thinking how highly privileged, straight, cis, able-bodied, never-assaulted white dudes were running out rape jokes, so it's really awesome they've got something new to HIGH FIVE! about.

Monday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, publishers of Space Cowboy's falconing memoir, America's Got Talon.

Recommended Reading:

Tami has a great post, "In Support of Feminist Bloggers," which I highly recommend for her commentary as well as the list of "kick-ass" feminist and anti-racism blogs she likes (on which I am hugely flattered to find Shakesville included). If you're looking for new reading material, check out that list. So much good stuff.

Tigtog: The Pope and Condoms—Don't Get Too Excited

Andy: Southern Poverty Law Center Updates List of Anti-Gay Hate Groups, Adding AFA, FRC, Others...

Adrienne: Navajo Potatoes: Not What I Was Expecting

Lesley: Bears Still Shit in the Woods... [TW for discussions of weight and eating]

Cuppycake: Facebook Games and Privilege

Aunt B: My Dog Turns Back to Smile at Me

Leave your links in comments...

Sending Big Love and Well Wishes...

...to Pam Merritt, aka Shark-fu, our beloved Angry Black Bitch, who is having a hysterectomy today.

and:

...to Pam Spaulding, who also had a hysterectomy and has, per her partner Kate, come through surgery okay and is in recovery.

To two of my favorite blogrrls: Get well soon!

I would insert a very clever joke about the Hysterics of the Radical Gay Feminazi Agenda here, but I'll save those for after the stitches are out.

Thanks, Republicans

Some States Weigh Unthinkable Option: Ending Medicaid.

Huge budget shortfalls are prompting a handful of states to begin discussing a once-unthinkable scenario: dropping out of the Medicaid insurance program for the poor.

Elected and appointed officials in nearly a half-dozen states, including Washington, Texas and South Carolina, have publicly [proposed] the idea. Wyoming and Nevada this year produced detailed studies of what would happen should they withdraw from the program. Wyoming found that Medicaid accounts for 63% of the state's nursing-home revenue.

The idea of abandoning Medicaid as a solution is so extreme that even proponents don't expect any state will follow through, but officials are floating the discussions because dire budgetary pressures have forced them to at least look at even the most drastic options.

And here's a taste of the Mad Privatization Skillz the country will come to know if voters have the terrible idea to turn my garbage nightmare of a governor into their president:

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said he put a different proposal before the Republican governors assembled in San Diego: that they all band together to create a multistate insurance pool for the uninsured. But the states would do it, he said, only on the condition that the federal government agreed to eliminate some of the mandates embedded in the health overhaul.

Just ugh.

In Case Anyone's Forgotten...

...Dawn French totally rules.

[Thanks ever so much to Shaker Gary for passing that along.]

Daily Dose o' Cute

Video Description: Dudz at the dogpark this weekend with greyhound friends Suzie and Triton, beagle Becky (I think that was her name; I may be misremembering), and basenji Hatchi. Also playing with a pack of shelties, and playing tag with Iain. Set to Michael Nyman's "Here to There."

That little beagle is the most adorable thing! And so brave! Dudley and Triton were chasing her around that little bridge for ages, and every time they'd stop, she'd run after Dudley to get him to chase her again. The original track on that video is just her owner, Triton and Suzie's owner, and Iain and me laughing uproariously while watching them.

Some still pix from the dog park below the fold (on most browsers)...

Dudley playing with his friend Emma the American bulldog.

Dudley playing with his friend Emma the American bulldog.

Dudley and Emma.

Dudley running.

Dudley running.

Dudley in motion.

Dudley running out of shot.

Dudley running out of shot.

It's really hard to get good pix of him in action! This is why.

Dudley and his friend Sam the black lab.

Dudley and his friend Sam the black lab.

Dudley and Sam.

Dudley lying in the setting sun at the dog park.

Dudley lying in the setting sun at the dog park.

All tuckered out.

Quote of the Day

"I am very happy doing what I'm doing and I am not in any way interested in or pursuing anything in elective office."—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as 2012 rumors begin, including that she will mount a challenge to President Obama or replace Vice President Biden on the ticket.

Of course, that's just what a ruthlessly ambitious, diabolical harpy who will stop at nothing to be president like her WOULD say, isn't it?! [/2008]

Lost News

Jorge Garcia is returning to primetime, starring in a new show from J.J. Abrams, titled Alcatraz.

The project, described to be "about secrets and the most infamous prison of all time," centers on a group of missing Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear in the present day. It chronicles the efforts of a team of FBI agents to track them down and unravel the mystery behind their disappearance thirty years prior. Garcia will play the hippy geek Dr. Diego Soto, the world's foremost expert on Alcatraz.

Time travel, mysterious islands, Jorge Garcia: I am sooo there.

Today in TSA Traveler Abuse

[Trigger warning for general harm.]

Palm Beach Post—$11,000 fine, arrest possible for some who refuse airport scans and pat downs:

If you don't want to pass through an airport scanner that allows security agents to see an image of your naked body or to undergo the alternative, a thorough manual search, you may have to find another way to travel this holiday season.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.

That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest.

CBS News—Obama: I Understand Rage Over Enhanced Screening: "President Barack Obama has asked security officials whether there's a less intrusive way to screen U.S. airline passengers than the pat-downs and body scans causing a holiday-season uproar. For now, they've told him there isn't one."

CBS News—Clinton: I'd Avoid Airport Pat-Down if Possible: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would not want to submit to an airport security pat-down, one of the new 'enhanced' measures instituted by the Transportation Safety Administration ahead of the holiday season to screen airline passengers. ... 'I understand how difficult it is, and how offensive it must be for the people who are going through it.'" Clinton said there was a need for the procedures because terrorists are "creative," but suggested there ought to be a way to limit the number of people who are submitted to 'enhanced' screening. (Again, I will note how foolish it is to acknowledge the obvious loophole—emphasis on hole—to even the most intimate pat-downs. Unless people who refuse the scanner are going to be subjected to full body cavity searches, which I am not advocating, this shit is pointless.)

And reports of traveler abuse continue...

Raw Story—ABC producer says TSA agent felt inside her underwear: "One employee of ABC News who opted for the pat-down instead of the full body scan claimed that a TSA agent actually felt inside of her underwear. 'The woman who checked me reached her hands inside my underwear and felt her way around,' said ABC News producer Carolyn Durand. 'It was basically worse than going to the gynecologist. It was embarassing. It was demeaning. It was inappropriate.'"

LA Times—Young boy gets pat down from TSA. [Video at the link.]

MSNBC—TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine:

A retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

"I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn't even speak," said Thomas D. "Tom" Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach. "I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes."

..."One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants."

...Humiliated, upset and wet, Sawyer said he had to walk through the airport soaked in urine, board his plane and wait until after takeoff before he could clean up.

"I am totally appalled by the fact that agents that are performing these pat-downs have so little concern for people with medical conditions," said Sawyer.

..."I am a good American and I want safety for all passengers as much as the next person," Sawyer said. "But if this country is going to sacrifice treating people like human beings in the name of safety, then we have already lost the war."

San Diego Examiner—TSA airport screeners gone wild in San Diego (again):

In what can only be described as TSA handlers gone wild, the San Diego Harbor Police arrested an area resident for refusal to complete the screening/security process yesterday. This is the same airport that created the TSA security catch phrase "don't touch my junk." John Tyner of San Diego started the airport screening firestorm last week as Americans head into the busiest travel week of the year in the United States.

This time the defendant, Sam Wolanyk says he was asked to pass through the 3-D x-ray machine. When Wolanyk refused, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel told him he would have to be patted down before he could pass through and board his airplane.

Wolanyk said he knew what was coming and took off his pants and shirt, leaving him in Calvin Klein bike undergarments.

"It was obvious that my underwear left nothing to the imagination," he explained. "But that wasn't enough for the TSA supervisor who was called to the scene and asked me to put my clothes on so I could be properly patted down."

It was clear to Wolanyk that TSA only wanted him to submit to a pat-down and if they were interested in ensuring the safety of all passengers they would have rifled through his clothes, carryon baggage and acknowledged that he was not carrying any illegal paraphernalia on his person.

Once Harbor Police arrested Wolanyk, he was handcuffed and paraded through two separate airport terminals in his underwear to the Harbor Police office located inside a different terminal at the airport than Wolanyk had originally gone through during his TSA security process.

The incident was confirmed by Harbor Police Sergeant Rakos who said Wolanyk was arrested on two misdemeanors, "failing to complete the security process; violation code 7.01 and illegally recording the San Diego Airport Authority (they confiscated his iPhone); violation number 7.14 (a)."

Another confirmation came from Ronald Powell, director of communications, who said Wolanyk wasn't charged with any federal crimes, just the two misdemeanors. "The bottom line is that all our police officers did was enforce the law."

Powell also stated that there was another arrest of a woman who was allegedly illegally filming the x-ray, and TSA screening process with a video camera. The young woman's camera was confiscated and she was given a citation and released from Harbor Police custody.

So now you can't even record yourself in order to ensure that you are not sexually assaulted and/or that you have demonstrable proof if you are.