In Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas' 4000-plus-word essay "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant" in this week's New York Times Magazine, he used the term "illegal immigrant" exactly once. He placed scare quotes around the term to refer to the racism that undocumented immigrants to the United States face.
Presumably, that racism includes CNN.com's coverage, which used the term "illegal immigrant" four times in its 570-word-long analysis of Vargas' essay. CNN filed its piece under the title "Pulitzer Prize winner: I'm an illegal immigrant".
Just FYI.
That's Your Liberal Media
Sad, But True
Greg Sargent: Dems lost the argument over the deficit, because they never engaged it.
Whooooooooooops!
Daily Dose of Cute
Sophs
Sophie looooooooooooooves hanging out on the stairs. Especially when I'm trying to walk up or down them, because she also loves trying to break my neck. Every morning, Sophie waits at the top of the stairs, right outside the bedroom door, and, when I come out, she first tries to race into the bedroom, because it's the only room in the house where she is not allowed, and, if she fails to gain entry into the Magical Kingdom of Cat Hair-Free Clothes, she races down the stairs and flops on the bottom step, right in its middle, so I have to step around her in the most awkward and risky fashion.
"Mrow!" she says up at me, every morning, looking up at me from the comma into which she has curled herself.
"You are so annoying," I reply, every morning, before snorgling her mercilessly until she squeak-purrs with delight.
Quote of the Day
"We have discussed it with the tours and we believe it is helpful to reduce the amount of grunting."—Ian Ritchie, chief executive of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club, who's fed up with all the lady grunters in tennis these days.
Just the ladies. Obviously.
[H/T to Shaker Whitney.]
Email Policy
Because there has been a lot of confusion lately about what my publicly posted email is actually for, and what are reasonable expectations to have if you contact me via that email, I have written for readers of Shakesville an Email Policy, which is linked for your convenience in the righthand sidebar.
Its parameters are not up for debate.
Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with it. Thanks.
Lifestyle and Wellness Corner
From the Star Tribune (Newspaper of the Twin Cities):
Planned Parenthood is closing six clinics in outstate Minnesota on Aug. 1 because of federal budget cuts made this spring in a highly politicized abortion battle.
Closing are clinics in Thief River Falls, Brainerd, Red Wing, Owatonna, Albert Lea and Fairmont. They did not perform abortions, but provided services ranging from contraception to cervical cancer screenings to testing for sexually-transmitted diseases.While Planned Parenthood was careful to select clinics that were smaller (and that thus served fewer women), these clinics are also in relatively small cities. (Owatonna is the largest of the six, with a population just over 25,000.)
This is a huge blow to women in rural (you say "outstate", I say "rural") Minnesota, which is ostensibly the base of the assholes who pushed through these funding cuts.
I say ostensibly, because everyone knows that poor rural women don't actually have representation in Congress. This is a problem (see above).
ERA Reintroduced Today
This afternoon Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) re-introduced the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA currently has 160 co-sponsors in the House, including Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI), Chair of the Congressional Women's Caucus.The ERA was first introduced in Congress in 1923. It's basically the Chicago Cubs of constitutional amendments.
Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal spoke at a press conference today announcing the bill's re-introduction, stating, "Women and men deserve and need full equal rights. Without constitutional equality, too many women, and thereby too many families, are cheated. Americans overwhelmingly support constitutional equality. It is time—in fact, it's long overdue—for us to move forward."
...In response to the US Supreme Court's ruling in favor of Wal-Mart in the sex discrimination case, Representative Carolyn Maloney underscored the importance of passing the ERA: "The Wal-Mart case reviewed by the Supreme Court this week is a classic example of how far attitudes must still come. The facts of the case support the view that over a million women were systematically denied equal pay by the nation's largest employer."
The passage of the ERA is even more important today following Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's comment this year that the U.S. Constitution does not protect women from sex discrimination. In an interview with the California Lawyer, Scalia stated that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees equal justice under the law for all persons, does not prohibit sex discrimination under the laws of the United States or its states.
Sure would be cool to hear our allegedly feminist president give a speech about how important the passage of the ERA would be for USian women.
Not that coasting on Ledbetter isn't an awesome demonstration of feminist principles and all, but maybe it's time to kick it up a notch, ahem.
Number of the Day
8%: The percentage of likely US voters who think Congress is doing a good or excellent job, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
1. That number is not reflective of a functional representative democracy.
2. I'm amazed it's even that high.
Access Denied
If you live in Cook County, IL, are a parent, and have Medicaid+CHIP coverage for your children--you may be SOL when it comes to specialty medical care. However, you may already know this if you've tried to get an appointment with a psychiatrist or neurologist. Now everyone else knows it too, thanks to a new study published in the (June 16) New England Journal of Medicine. MSNBC reports:
Although past research has shown a disparity in care between people covered by public and private health insurance, this is the first to take a comprehensive look at specialty care in children, said coauthor Dr. Karin Rhodes of the University of Pennsylvania.There really aren't words to adequately describe how appalling and unacceptable this is. Rhodes went on to say:
"We had an idea that this was a problem, but we didn't know the magnitude of it," she told Reuters Health.
[...]
Federal law says that Medicaid recipients must have the same access to care as the general population.
During the first five months of 2010, female callers posed as mothers whose child needed specialty care for serious conditions such as severe depression, diabetes and seizures. They tried to get appointments at 273 specialty clinics in Cook County, Illinois. At one point they said they had private insurance; at another, they offered an identical scenario but said the child had Medicaid and CHIP coverage.
While care was denied in only 11% of the clinics when private insurance coverage was offered, the denial rate was 66% when the clinic was told the child was covered by public insurance.
And in the case where Medicaid-CHIP insurance was accepted, those children were told that they would have to wait, on average, 22 days longer than those covered by private insurance.
The typical wait for an appointment was 20 days in the private coverage group and 42 days for Medicaid-CHIP.
The trend was seen across all seven specialties tested -- orthopedics, psychiatry, asthma, neurology, endocrinology, otolaryngology and dermatology.
Rhodes and coauthor Joanna Bisgaier, also of the University of Pennsylvania, selected conditions "that were very common and where there's evidence that specialty intervention can make a difference in long-term outcomes," Rhodes said.
One woman who called seeking treatment for a child's newly-diagnosed type 1 diabetes was told that the wait would be one year.
Even for the children with private insurance who could get an appointment, on average, after 20 days, "just having to wait three weeks with a kid with a new onset seizure, or diabetes, or poorly-controlled asthma, or a fracture is disturbing in itself," Rhodes said.
"You add an extra 22 days on to that, and what you've got is disparities, discrimination that is purely based on insurance."
Every state should be studying their access, particularly if they're considering cuts to Medicaid because they're cash-strapped and they think they're going to take it out of their healthcare budget. If we keep whittling away at these programs, we will increase the disparities."Logic! Logic, however, doesn't seem to go very far these days. Indiana is playing chicken with Medicaid money and NJ is has a garbage brain governor who proposed cutting Medicaid eligibility to families of 3 who make less than $6K/year. They aren't the only ones as several other states are looking to slash Medicaid and drop people from the program. As this article notes:
To hold down costs, states are cutting Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals, limiting benefits for Medicaid recipients, reducing the scope of covered services, requiring beneficiaries to pay larger co-payments, and expanding the use of managed care.Of course neither has tried. That simply wouldn't do, would it President Obama? Would it, Paul Ryan? Compassion doesn't seem to go very far, either.
[...]
Neither the White House nor Congress has tried to extend the extra federal financing for Medicaid, even though the number of beneficiaries is higher now than when Congress approved the aid as part of an economic recovery package in February 2009.
I Write Letters
Dear Governor Mitch Daniels:
You may take away our healthcare services, you may privatize our public amenities, you may undermine our infrastructure, you may sabotage our school system, you may crumble our sidewalks, but you cannot rob us of the indescribable sweetness of the first ears of ripe Indiana corn each summer.
A cornfield near our house, on yet another stormy day.
I mean, I'm sure you're plotting away to ruin that, too, but IN THE MEANTIME we are going to love our corn on the cob, we are going to eat it raw and boil it and cook it in its own husk on the grill and get its glorious golden tassels stuck between our teeth, and we are going to savor the taste of being a Hoosier and remember that there are still things to love about this state, even as you endeavor to destroy every last one of them.
No Love,
Liss
Shocking Development: Palin Quits Something (Again)
Sarah Palin's "One Nation" tour has now changed to the "Half a Nation" tour, as the nation's leading opponent to "gotcha journalism" decided to re-wield her mad quittin' skillz, dry-dock her constitutional tour bus, and return to Alaska to take in the marvelous view of Russia in the summertime.
The "One Nation" tour launched with intense media interest, as reporters initially followed Palin and her family on the road, diligently trying to decipher the former half-term Alaska governor and ex-GOP vice presidential nominee's 2012 intentions. But after being ignored and mislead and denied interviews or access, reporters' attention fizzled.Fancy that.
Take Note: If she gets ignored, she actually goes away, at least for a little while.
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, proud makers of Lissie's Lint Traps.
Recommended Reading:
Jen: [TW for racism; body policing] Gawker Reports Mark Zuckerberg's Engaged, Which Leads to a Discussion of What's Wrong with Asian Women, Naturally
Gemma: [TW for transphobia; references to sexual predation] Flushing the Potty Panic
Rachel: [TW for heterocentrism] I'm Still Bisexual Even Though I'm Dating a Guy
Andy: Six GLAAD Board Members Resign
Pam: [TW for homophobia] Huntsman Walking It Back: 'Redefining Marriage Is Something That Would Be Impossible'
Mustang Bobby: Pale Blue Dot
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
More Reading: Al Gore
Some dude by the name of Al Gore has written an epic essay for Rolling Stone. I'm a bit worried that a lot of his message will be preaching to the choir (or spitting into the wind), but (ableism aside) he does a great job of ripping the media for its role in holding back efforts to address the reality of climate change:
Continuing on our current course would be suicidal for global civilization. But the key question is: How do we drive home that fact in a democratic society when questions of truth have been converted into questions of power? When the distinction between what is true and what is false is being attacked relentlessly, and when the referee in the contest between truth and falsehood has become an entertainer selling tickets to a phony wrestling match?However, Gore also does this cool thing where he assails President Obama for his complete and utter lack of leadership. Maybe that will get some progressives thinking.
President Obama has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change. After successfully passing his green stimulus package, he did nothing to defend it when Congress decimated its funding. After the House passed cap and trade, he did little to make passage in the Senate a priority. Senate advocates — including one Republican — felt abandoned when the president made concessions to oil and coal companies without asking for anything in return. He has also called for a massive expansion of oil drilling in the United States, apparently in an effort to defuse criticism from those who argue speciously that "drill, baby, drill" is the answer to our growing dependence on foreign oil.
Without presidential leadership that focuses intensely on making the public aware of the reality we face, nothing will change. The real power of any president, as Richard Neustadt wrote, is "the power to persuade." Yet President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis. He has simply not made the case for action. He has not defended the science against the ongoing, withering and dishonest attacks. Nor has he provided a presidential venue for the scientific community — including our own National Academy — to bring the reality of the science before the public.In conclusion, Al Gore's essay is a land of contrasts. I think everybody should read it. Thank you.
LOL FOREVER
If When this whole presidential campaign thing doesn't work out, Newt could probably have a solid career as a stand-up comedian:
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Wednesday attributed the mass resignations among his campaign staff to the fact that he is "very different" from mainstream politicians.That's a tight three-minute set, right there. Get that brick wall tuckpointed, Budd Friedman, because THE KING OF COMEDY IS READY FOR OPEN MIC NIGHT!
"Philosophically, I am very different from normal politicians, and normal consultants found that very hard to deal with," Gingrich said in a speech to the Atlanta Press Club.
"We have big ideas. I just think that's part of how you campaign. You talk to the American people about big things."
Gingrich, a former history professor in Georgia, said 13 of Ronald Reagan's aides quit during his 1980 presidential primary campaign. Reagan went on to win the nomination and the presidency.
"If I had to choose Reaganomics or 13 staffers quitting, I think for the average working American, Reaganomics was a much better deal," Gingrich said, referring to Reagan's policy of cutting taxes and reducing government regulations.
Must-Read: "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant"
Just go read the whole thing.
And I would underline the point that Atrios makes here: This story is a must-read not because it is extraordinary, but, in fact, because it is so common.
What is extraordinary about it is how rarely a story like this gets told, in a country where millions of people could tell them.
Radiohead's "Creep" Will Get Lodged There Next
[Trigger warning for violent imagery.]
Echo & The Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" is sooooooo stuck in my head today. Usually the way to get a song unstuck from my head is to sing it. And I feel like a real creepazoid sitting in my office all by myself singing those disturbing lyrics.
Which, by the way, I used to sing at the top of my lungs into a hairbrush when I was 10 years old, paying absolutely no attention to what I was singing, of course, lol.
I don't think I ever thought about them any time between then and when I had to karaoke that shit for Rock Band 3 recently.
Gingrich Campaign Implosion Continues
So, not only, in addition to his $1 million in campaign debt, does Newt Gingrich have a six-figure tab at Tiffany's, he also has another line of credit at Tiffany's between $500,000 and $1 million.
Sure. Who doesn't?
You know, I don't care how Newt Gingrich spends the money he's earned from insider trading and speaking fees from the American Family Values Children Christian Liberty Freedom Patriot Association Foundation Organization or however he's amassed his vast fortune.
But I do suspect that someone who has multiple lines of credit at Tiffany's worth more than many US voters will earn in their lifetimes is probably not the right person for the job of president at a time when there's a 15.8% unemployment rate.
