This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, whose FY2011 budget will add +$250 biebillions for Giving a Shit About Marginalized People.
Recommended Reading:
Tami: My Black History: Thomas and Jane Got Married
Andrea: I Used to Be a Pro-Life Republican [TW for slut-shaming]
Fannie: On Threats [TW for threats, harassment, apologism, sexual violence]
kirbybits: Here is a project: Troll! Data! Analysis! [TW for sexual violence and threats]
Andy: Senator Jim Webb to Retire After One Term
An oldie but a goodie, passed on by Shaker RedSonja, mocking the ubiquitous headless fatty: Study: Obesity Linked to Headlessness. [TW for fat hatred and dehumanization]
Leave your links in comments...
Wednesday Blogaround
GOP Cuts
Just after writing my previous post, I found this comprehensive list of the GOP's proposed budget cuts care of Barbara Morrill. I've highlighted some of my personal favorites:
· Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies -$30MDiscuss.
· Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy -$899M
· Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability -$49M
· Nuclear Energy -$169M
· Fossil Energy Research -$31M
· Clean Coal Technology -$18M
· Strategic Petroleum Reserve -$15M
· Energy Information Administration -$34M
· Office of Science under the Energy and water spending bill -$1.1B
· Power Marketing Administrations -$52M
· Department of Treasury -$675M
· Internal Revenue Service -$593M
· Treasury Forfeiture Fund -$338M
· GSA Federal Buildings Fund -$1.7B
· ONDCP -$69M
· International Trade Administration -$93M
· Economic Development Assistance -$16M
· Minority Business Development Agency -$2M
· National Institute of Standards and Technology -$186M
· NOAA -$336M
· National Drug Intelligence Center -$11M
· Law Enforcement Wireless Communications -$52M
· US Marshals Service -$10M
· FBI -$74M
· State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance -$256M
· Juvenile Justice -$2.3M
· COPS -$600M
· NASA -$379M
· NSF -$139M
· Legal Services Corporation -$75M
· EPA -$1.6B
· Food Safety and Inspection Services -$53M (FY10)
· Farm Service Agency -$90M
· Agriculture University Research -$246M
· Natural Resource Conservation Service -$60M
· Rural Development Programs -$227M
· WIC -$758M
· International Food Aid grants -$544M
· FDA -$220M
· Land and Water Conservation Fund -$348M
· National Archives and Record Service -$20M
· DOE Loan Guarantee Authority -$1.4B
· EPA ENERGY STAR -$7.4M
· EPA GHG Reporting Registry -$9M
· USGS -$27M
· EPA Cap and Trade Technical Assistance -$5M
· EPA State and Local Air Quality Management -$25M
· Fish and Wildlife Service -$72M
· Smithsonian -$7.3M
· National Park Service -$51M
· Clean Water State Revolving Fund -$700M
· Drinking Water State Revolving Fund -$250M
· EPA Brownfields -$48M
· Forest Service -$38M
· National Endowment for the Arts -$6M
· National Endowment for the Humanities -$6M
· Job Training Programs -$2B
· Community Health Centers -$1.3B
· Maternal and Child Health Block Grants -$210M
· Family Planning -$327M
· Poison Control Centers -$27M
· CDC -$755M
· NIH -$1B
· Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services -$96M
· LIHEAP Contingency fund -$400M
· Community Services Block Grant -$405M
· High Speed Rail -$1B
· FAA Next Gen -$234M
· Amtrak -$224M
· HUD Community Development Fund -$530M
Action Item
[Trigger warning for sexual assault and domestic violence.]
Because the House Republicans aren't satisfied at merely attacking the right to choose and revictimizing survivors of sexual violence, they are also fixing to defund violence prevention, too.
Shaker Steph304 has alerted me to this action item for USians at the Family Violence Prevention Fund:
The House of Representatives is expected to make drastic cuts to domestic programs for Fiscal Year 2011. These proposed cuts would mean:Yes, you read that right. The GOP is actually seeking to defund programs that prevent sexual assault and domestic violence, by which children, women, and marginalized men are disproportionately victimized.
* Violence Against Women Health Initiative under HHS Office of Women's Health (which funds ongoing work to improve health care providers' response to domestic and sexual violence) would be eliminated;
* Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA), which funds domestic violence shelters and the National Hotline, would be cut by $7 million, and the new initiative for children would be eliminated;
* Engaging Men and Youth in Prevention Program, which funds the Family Violence Prevention Fund's prevention work to tap into the critical role men can play in helping youth develop respectful attitudes and behaviors toward women and girls, would be cut.
FVPF asks: "Please contact your Member of Congress and ask them to continue funding programs that protect women and children from violence and abuse." There are tips on what to say when you call or email here.
Find contact information for your representative here.
Dueling Quotes of the Day
"We're not going to stand by and watch while reproductive rights are threatened and women's health is jeopardized again in this country. We are not going back in history."—Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington, on the House Republicans' legislative attacks on choice.
"This legislation is really about whether the role of America's government is to continue to fund a practice that takes the lives of over one million little Americans every year."—Republican Representative Trent Franks of Arizona, who also chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee overseeing the legislation.
This? Right here? Is why our president needs to stop talking nonsense about "finding common ground" on abortion.
[Both quotes taken from this NPR report.]
Take Your Legislation Off Me
Speaking of the Republican assault on woman and marginalized men, the New York Times has a good piece, bluntly titled "Under Banner of Fiscal Restraint, Republicans Plan New Abortion Bills," highlighting the mendacity of the GOP's argument that their rash of anti-choice legislation is part of their "[focus] on creating a better environment for economic growth and job creation."
Relatedly, I saw this video of Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg (New Jersey) speaking out against the legislation:
[Transcript below.]
While I am so profoundly grateful for his voiced opposition, and sincerely thrilled by his emphasis on choice, the chivalrous paternalism makes my teeth grind.
Our women. Tell your daughters. Tell your wife. Don't go near my daughters!
It's a stark reminder that the public abortion debate (such as it is) happens almost exclusively between cis men.
Even though abortion legislation directly affects only people with uteri—primarily cis women and trans men—our Congress is only 17% female and appears to have no trans men in the other 83%, and thus is the discourse dominated by people who don't even include trans men in the discussion and who, in large measure, feel they have ownership over women's bodies.
On the one side are the men who use that assumption of ownership to try to control women, and on the other side are the men who use that assumption of ownership to try to protect them.
And in the midst of these men shouting back and forth about which is the right way to exert their ownership of women's bodies, there are vanishingly few women's voices being heard speaking on their own behalf, drowned out by the din of men who totally know what's best for women.
Starting with their silence, natch.
"We got this, ladies!"
Uh, you so don't.
I don't intend to pick on Senator Lautenberg, whose alliance I want and need, as if the Republicans aren't infinitely worse. They are. The thing is, I imagine that Senator Lautenberg might actually take my point; I imagine that he actually does genuinely care about women and thus might listen to what I have to say on this matter. Which is not something I imagine about his Republican colleagues.
Maybe next time, if they're willing, his daughters can join the Senator at the podium.
[My thanks also to Democratic Senators Patty Murray of Washington, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Al Franken of Minnesota, who appeared at the press conference with Senator Lautenberg.]
Narrator, offscreen: When expressing opposition to the GOP-proposed "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg said politicians should not interfere with his family's health and well-being.
Lautenberg, at podium: I'm experienced. I'm the proud father of three daughters, two more that my wife brought to our marriage, six granddaughters. My wife brought two more to the marriage. So we got a full house of healthy and well-being young women. I'm not even talking about the boys—they're terrific, but they don't get mentioned here now. [laughter] And I don't want politicians making decisions for them when it comes to their health and well-being.
We are deeply committed—as parents, as family, as Americans—to doing everything possible to guard the safety, the health, and the well-being of our sisters, our daughters, our women, and all of our friends.
I call on my colleagues in the House: Do as you wish with your family. Tell your daughters, tell your wife, you do that. That's the wonderful part about America. It's choice. It's choice. And there should be no force used here, but don't interfere with my family's well-being.
I won't attempt to voice my views on your family and let my family alone! Don't go near my daughters! If they want to make a choice, that's up to them—and it's with the advice of a doctor and loving parents and a loving family. And so we've got to strike down this outrageous assault on women's rights.
Narrator, offscreen: Lautenberg also says that efforts by House Republicans to limit access to abortion services remind him of a third-world country.
Lautenberg: If they had their way, the reproductive rights of American women would be tossed away and it sounds to me like a Third World country that's requiring women to wear head shawls to cover their faces even if they don't want to do it. This is America. It's not one of the third world countries that we see these tragic decisions foisted upon the women.
Narrator, offscreen: Nicholas Ballasy, CNS News dot com, Washington.
And What Do We Call People Attacked by Republicans?
[Trigger warning for discussion of harassment and sex crimes.]
Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Republican state legislator in Georgia, has introduced a bill that would "eliminate the word 'victim' from statutes dealing with stalking, rape, obscene telephone contact with a child and family violence and replace it with 'accuser'."
It wasn't clear why Franklin's legislation includes only those specific laws.Hmm, let me see if I can have a guess at that.
Could it be because those are the only crimes around which we have narratives about multitudinous false accusations, despite the fact that false reports of sexual violence are lower than false reports of auto theft, and despite the fact that there is a higher threshold for convincing law enforcement to take action on reports of sexual violence and harassment than any other crime, and despite the vanishingly low percentage of reports that go to trial and the miniscule conviction rates?
Could it be because implying that people who report sex crimes and/or harassment are liars is an integral tool and prevalent narrative of the rape culture, which exists to protect rapists—a pretty significant constituency of any politician, since around 12% of men (pdf) have, by their own admission, committed sexual assault or rape, which is certainly much higher than the percentage of the population who commits auto theft, or bank robbery, or fraud?
Could it be that women and marginalized men (trans men, gay men, incarcerated men) are more likely to be victimized by sexual violence, harassment, and/or domestic abuse—and the Republican Party has made attacking women and marginalized men a central part of their national platform for a generation?
Franklin had no comment.
It's not that I have a problem with the concept of using neutral language in court cases—but limiting the use of neutral language to only these crimes is inappropriate, and, more importantly, "accuser" is not neutral language.
At least not in the context of legally mandated language limited specifically to crimes laden with narratives of false accusations.
Carol Tracy, director of the Women's Law Center, is quoted in the article noting that in her state of residence, Pennsylvania, the word used is "complainant." For evident reasons, that is a much more appropriate word, but only if it's also required in all cases, irrespective of the nature of the crime.
Which are of course, the same reasons that Mr. Franklin did not propose its use.
[H/T to Shakers BlueRidge and Danielle.]
Question of the Day
What is your favorite album released in the 1970s?
(Yes, re-releases and best-of collections totally count.)
Photos of the Day
Hundreds of Egyptian anti-government demonstrators crowd a bridge as they walk toward Cairo's Tahrir Square on February 8, 2011 to join evening protests demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. [Getty Images]
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators crowd Tahrir Square on February 8, 2011 on the 15th consecutive day of protests. [Getty Images]
Quote of the Day
"Get real."—Republican Senator Dick Lugar, who's facing a primary challenge by the Tea Party, who believe he's not conservative enough.
Lugar is one of Indiana's two senators, and trust me when I say that he is certainly conservative enough, and should be even by Tea Party standards.
The thing about Lugar is that, despite being conservative, he is also rather reasonable and not a total jackass. Ergo, the Tea Partiers don't like him.
In fact, they don't like him for the very same reasons that I prefer him to most of his reprehensible colleagues. As long as I've got to be stuck with a Republican senator, Lugar's pretty much the cream of the crap crop.
One of the Tea Party's big complaints about him, for example, is that he supports treaties to reduce the number of nukes. CHRIST HE'S PRACTICALLY A HIPPIE!
The Best Thing You'll Read All Day
Rediscovering WWII's female 'computers':
Jean Jennings Bartik was one of the women computers. In 1945, she was a recent graduate of Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, the school's one math major. She lived on her parents' farm, refusing the teaching jobs her father suggested, avoiding talk of marrying a farmer and having babies. Bartik was waiting on a job with the military.You can find out more about Top Secret Rosies, the documentary made about Bartik and her compatriots, here.
When a telegram arrived asking her to come right away, she took a late-night train and began new career in Philadelphia.
She learned the hand calculations, and saw the clunky old analyzer used to speed up the process. Its accuracy depended on the work of her colleagues, and a mechanic who serviced its belts and gears.
The war ended in 1945, but within a couple months of arriving in Philadelphia, Bartik was hired to work on a related project -- an electronic computer that could do calculations faster than any man or woman. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, created by Penn scientists John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert Jr., weighed more than 30 tons and contained about 18,000 vacuum tubes. It recognized numbers, added, subtracted, multiplied, divided and a few other basic functions.
Men had built the machine, but Bartik and her colleagues debugged every vacuum tube and learned how to make it work, she said. Early on, they demonstrated to the military brass how the computer worked, with the programmers setting the process into motion and showing how it produced an answer. They handed out its punch cards as souvenirs. They'd taught the massive machine do math that would've taken hours by hand.
But none of the women programmers was invited to the celebratory dinner that followed. Later, the heard they were thought of as models, placed there to show off the machine.
Other than a shared certificate of commendation from the military, the programmers and their hand-calculating counterparts got no recognition.
"We thought that was terrible," said Bartik, now 86.
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
[Trigger warning for tacit fat hatred and body policing.]
Pepsi to release new 'skinny can':
Can a soda can be sassy? Pepsi thinks so.Just LOL.
Diet Pepsi will soon be available in a "taller, sassier new Skinny Can" that the company says is a "celebration of beautiful, confident women."
The new can -- which stands just more than six inches in height -- will make its debut at New York's Fall 2011 fashion week later this month, but it won't hit stores until March.
"Our slim, attractive new can is the perfect complement to today's most stylish looks," said Jill Beraud, chief marketing officer at Pepsi (PEP, Fortune 500). "We're excited to throw its coming-out party, during the biggest celebration of innovative design in the world."
...For consumers who prefer their soda cans to be the traditional short and fat product -- no need to worry. A Pepsi spokeswoman confirmed the old model will remain on shelves.
I love the way this works: Now that there's a taller and thinner can, the traditional can becomes the "short and fat" model. FAT MATH!
[H/T to Shaker Jackie.]
Daily Dose of Cute
Matilda and I have another conversation about her rumor-mongering and conspiracy theories. I've warned her about reading the Drudge Report and listening to Fox News, but does she listen to me? No. Then she goes around talking nonsense all day.
[Transcript below.]
Liss: What is it, Matilda? What is it?
Matilda: Mew.
Liss: Really? Are you sure?
Matilda: Mah!
Liss: Okay. [edit] What, Matilda?
Matilda: Mrraw!
Liss: Seriously?
Matilda: Mrow!
Liss: I'm not sure if that's right. Are you, are you positive? Do you have a, a source for that material?
Matilda: Mrowah. Mah.
Liss: Well, I dunno. I think you're gonna need to back that up. That's a pretty outrageous claim.
Matilda: Mah!
Liss: If you say so.
Matilda: Mrow!
Liss: I dunno.
Matilda: Rrow! Oww!
Liss: I mean, I've heard that before, but I'm not sure that it's accurate. It might just be a rumor, is what I'm saying. You need to Snopes that shit!
Matilda: Mah!
Number of the Day
Technically, it's a Ratio of the Day, and it's...
4.7 to 1: The ratio of unemployed workers to job openings in December, per a Bureau of Labor Statistics report on the from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
Despite month-to-month fluctuations, the job seeker's ratio has been generally improving since its peak of 6.3-to-1 in July 2009. However, at 4.7-to-1, the ratio is more than three times as high as its average ratio of 1.5-to-1 in 2007. The current 4.7-to-1 ratio means that for more than 3 out of 4 unemployed workers, there simply are no jobs.Emphasis original. B-b-b-but BOOTSTRAPS! The unemployed are just LAZY! And other COMPLETELY STUPID THINGS that Republicans say!
The millions of unemployed workers in this country continue to face a staggering scarcity of job openings. In light of this ongoing crisis in the labor market, the government should be doing much more on all three job creation fronts – fiscal policy, monetary policy, and exchange-rate policy.None of which include trickle-down economics.
SnOMG, Part 4
More scenes from the Snowpocalypse. At this point, I'm pretty much just posting these so Shakers who live in warm climes can either/and: A) Marvel at the weather; B) Point and laugh.
Ugh! More snow. Look at this—our garbage bags are sitting on a pile of snow. Ugh. And now we're getting more. [edit] Look at the size of these flakes! It's like the sky is having a snowball fight with the earth. [edit] Sisyphean snow, this. It's just never-ending. Lookit, just since this morning, our step is completely buried again. [edit] Ugh! It's even worse now. And we're back to, like, white-out conditions. [laughs] And basically, in the last hour, we've had probably about three inches of snow. Uh, this is the worst, really. [edit] I know, Dudley. It's the worst, isn't it?!
Discussion Thread: I Thought the Darnedest Things
Earlier today, during the course of one of our many fine conversations about total nonsense, I related the following story to Deeky:
Liss: That reminds me of when I was four or five, and, at Sunday School, the preacher told us that when you go to heaven, your whole body becomes clean forever, which was obviously supposed to be a metaphor, but, hello, children that age don't understand metaphors, so I asked him if that means you don't poop in heaven.
Deeky: LOLOLOL! What was his reply?
Liss: I don't even remember, lol.
I also recall that, around the same age (and owing to the same literal-mindedness), I told my mom that God's arms and legs are attached to his head. When she asked me who had told me that, I told her my Sunday School teacher (or the minister) had. Gently, she expressed doubt that anyone told me God's arms and legs were attached to his head, but I was insistent. "Yes huh! [Whoever] told me God doesn't have a body, so that must mean his arms and legs are attached to his head!" Oy.
I could probably think of a million things like that, things I misunderstood when I was a kid, and I figured lots of you could think of a million things you misunderstood when you were kids, too.
So! Here's a thread! Fun!
Weather Newz
As of last weekend, Syracuse official has had over 2 Biebers (131 in / 2.02 bbrz) of snowfall this season.
In case you don't know what that looks like, here's a helpful graphic:
[Two Justin Biebers of snow. (Sears Tower, Wegmans and polar bear for scale)]
In contrast, Indianapolis has received just under a half-Bieber (29.5 in / 0.45 bbrz):
FYI.
RIP DLC
Ben Smith is reporting: "The Democratic Leadership Council, the iconic centrist organization of the Clinton years, is out of money and could close its doors as soon as next week, a person familiar with the plans said Monday."
Sad trombone for the Triangulators.
As Digby points out, this (unfortunately) does not mean the end of Democratic centrism: "The truth of the matter is that the DLCs function has been taken over by Third Way. Nobody needs to fear that the centrists aren't going to be well represented in the Democratic Party. They run the place."
As well they should. Because, if the last 30 years have taught us anything, it's that Republicans are full of good ideas, so Democrats should DEFINITELY listen to them more.
