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Question of the Day
What is your earliest memory of positive interaction with an animal?
(By which I mean a non-human animal.)
My earliest memory full-stop is crawling behind my parents' couch after the white cat they had when I was born. In fact, my first word was "cat."
I also have very early memories of feeding and petting our neighbors' horse, Todie. I remember one time he bit my finger (accidentally, of course), and I tried so hard not to cry, because I was afraid if my mom knew he'd hurt me, I wouldn't be able to see him anymore.
Yes, that's my wee diaper-sagged ass feeding carrots to Todie. I was about thirteen months old in that photo, which was taken the summer of 1975. Mama Shakes and I used to walk down to the pasture, which was maybe 100 yards from our house, and it always seemed like the longest walk in the world, because I couldn't wait to see Todie, and his small companion pony Princess.
Quote of the Day
"We also have the responsibility to understand we are accountable for each of those choices. They are our choices. You go to school, you rack up a lot of school loans? That. Was. Your. Choice. If you can't afford to go to college, go to the free public library. I did it. It works."—Glenn Beck, Professor of Horseshit at Bootstraps University.
Listen, I am not an education snob. I know lots of very smart people who did not attend university, or didn't graduate, and I know lots of assholes who have more degrees than a thermometer. I don't think there's only one path in this life, and I don't mistake education for intelligence (or decency).
But let us not pretend that educating oneself at the free public library is the same thing as getting a college degree in terms of employment opportunities. It might not be (isn't) right or fair, but a degree from an accredited university on a résumé makes a significantly different impression to most potential employers than "Self-Awarded Degree of General Education from Free Public Library" does.
You're a jackass, Glenn Beck. A real fuckin' jackass.
Gee, Ya Think?
Jim Messina, the Obama campaign manager, has figured out that the Republicans might be up to no good.
Their strategy is to suffocate the economy for the sake of what they think will be a political victory. They think that the more folks see Washington taking no action to create jobs, the better their chances in the next election. So they’re doing everything in their power to make sure nothing gets done.To which an entire chorus of people numbering in the thousands reply, "No shit, Sherlock!"
So the next question is, now that the campaign knows this -- nice of them to keep up, by the way -- what are they going to do about it?
Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.
Hmm...
[Trigger warning for rape culture.]
So I'm reading this CNN story about a dude who hacked into the accounts of famous "people," also described as "individuals," "entertainers," and "celebrities." There's something all of these "people" seem to have in common, besides being famous, but I just can't quite put my finger on what it is...
Federal authorities accuse a 35-year-old Florida man of hacking into computer accounts and other devices belonging to more than 50 people, including entertainers Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera, Mila Kunis, Simone Harouche and Renee Olstead, officials announced Wednesday.It's interesting, ahem, that the story notes all the hackers are men, yet fails to note all their targets are women. It's almost like there's some sort of taboo against acknowledging that women are systemically targeted for specific kinds of abuse, almost like there's some kind of resistance to acknowledging institutional disregard for women's consent, almost like no one wants to admit that we live in a fucking rape culture.
Christopher Chaney of Jacksonville, Florida, was indicted on charges of accessing protected computers without authorization, damaging protected computers, wiretapping and aggravated identity theft, officials said.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Chaney was able to access nude photos of some of the celebrities and some of them were uploaded on the Internet," U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said.
...The FBI's Los Angeles office said he was arrested as part of "Operation Hackerazzi," which looked into computer intrusions targeting individuals associated with the entertainment industry.
The first real case of a celebrity hacking attack was in 2005, when hackers logged into Paris Hilton's phone and stole photos of her, according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at the F-Secure computer security company.
...In August, rapper Kreayshawn wrote on her blog that her Twitter account was hacked when naked photos of her showed up there.
In March, Vanessa Hudgens of "High School Musical" underwent a similar ordeal after photos were reportedly stolen from her Gmail account.
And in December, police in Germany alleged two young men had used computer-hacking skills to gain access to the e-mail accounts and photos of more than 50 celebrities, according to Britain's The Telegraph, including the likes of Lady Gaga and Ke$ha.
Texting! With Liss and Deeky!
Deeky: The worst picture of me ever taken…
Liss: LOLOLOLOLOL!!! You mean the BEST picture of you ever taken!
Deeky: I look like such a tool!
Liss: The raised eyebrow is just hilarious. I just want to spend the entire day adding dialogue bubbles to that picture and sending them to you.
Deeky: LOLOLOLOL!!!
[Approximately five minutes later…]
Liss:
Deeky: LOLOLOL!!! That's terrible. And awesome.
Liss:
Deeky: Ha! Less Than Zero! Nice eighties reference.
Liss:
Deeky: You're such a doofus.
Liss:
Deeky: Shut up! I HATE YOU! Butthole. LOLOLOL!!!
Liss:
Deeky: LOL! Though, I am pretty sure Blur weren't even around then. Not even as Seymour.
Liss: I thought the anachronism would be amusing. SORRY PEDANT-HEAD!!! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. P.S.
Deeky: BLUE OYSTER CULT! LOLOLOL!!! I really DO hate you now.
Liss:
Deeky: LOLOLOLOL!!! You're terrible!
Liss:
Deeky: YOU are from Planet Dildo!
Liss: No fucking doy I am! P.S.
Deeky: You're killing me!
Liss:
Deeky: LOLOL!
Liss:
Deeky: Obviously.
Liss:
Deeky: Cabbages? WTF? LOL!
Liss:
Deeky: LOL! You are! You can tell because your jokes are so childish!
Liss:
Deeky: LOL!
Liss:
The End.
Deeky: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! Hammertime! Awesome. Totally awesome.
Liss: *drops microphone; walks offstage*
[And thus was the selection for today's Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime inevitable…]
Number of the Day
75: The approximate number of years Ms. Dorothy Cooper of Tennessee has been voting. She has voted in every election since the 1930s (except in the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon race, as she had moved too close to Election Day to have time to update her registration), but has now been disenfranchised by voter suppression laws Republicans are pursuing because they can't win on a fair playing field.
As Rachel Maddow details in the below clip, a new law passed by the Republican-ruled Tennessee state legislature this year requires voters to show photo ID in order to cast a ballot. Ms. Cooper, who has never driven and thus never had a driver's license, went to the DMV to get a state ID, but because her married name did not match the name on her birth certificate, and because she doesn't have her marriage certificate, she was not issued the ID. Now, 96-year-old Dorothy Cooper, who has been voting in Tennessee since the 1930s, will not be allowed to vote in the next election.
[Transcript here, beginning at "This is Dorothy Cooper."]
[Via Brad.]
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by sushi.
Recommended Reading:
Adrienne: Representing the Native Presence in the "Occupy Wall Street" Narrative
s.e.: [TW for threats of violence/rape] On Blogging, Threats, and Silence
Echidne: Today's Fun Graph
Michelle: [TW for eating/disordered eating] Meals as Love
Pam: RIP Frank Kameny
Andy: Barney Frank Has Some Advice for Newt Gingrich
Tigtog: No, We Are Not Interested in Your Text-Link Advertising (Co-Signed)
And my condolences to Cara, who has written a beautiful ode to her departed cat and companion, Mink.
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Topeka Repeals Domestic Violence Law
By a vote of 7 - 3 last night.
TOPEKA — The Topeka City Council on Tuesday voted to repeal the city’s law against misdemeanor domestic battery, the latest in a budget battle that has freed about 30 abuse suspects from charges.From the NYT (emphasis mine):
One of the offenders was even arrested and released twice since the brouhaha broke out Sept. 8.
It started when Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor announced that a 10 percent budget cut would force him to end his office’s prosecution of misdemeanor cases, almost half of which last year were domestic battery cases.
With that, Taylor stopped prosecuting the cases and left them to the city. But city officials balked at the cost.
Tuesday’s 7-3 vote to eliminate the local domestic violence law was designed to force Taylor to prosecute the cases because they would remain a crime under state law.
The move, the councilors were told, would force District Attorney Chad Taylor to prosecute the cases because they would remain a crime under state law, a conclusion with which he grudgingly agreed. The Council also approved negotiations to resolve the impasse.This game of chicken between offices, between the city and county--it's costing more than time and money. It's costing victims: there have been 35 reported incidents of domestic battery and/or assault since September and eighteen people have been released without charges; none of these cases are being pursued. It is only by chance that these assholes aren't responsible for the outright death of anyone. Yet.
[...]
Though Kansas and its capital city have fared better than much of the country in this struggling economy, they are not immune to fiscal strains. The district attorney’s budget of $3.5 million was cut by 10 percent, which would force about a dozen layoffs. Meanwhile the office is dealing with what Mr. Taylor describes as a “recent uptick in violent crime,” which he attributed to increased gang activity.
“At the end of the day, I feel like my office and public safety are a priority,” Mr. Taylor said.
But the decision by Mr. Taylor to respond to the budget cut by immediately refusing to prosecute misdemeanors in Topeka — though the cuts do not go into effect until next year — caught people off guard, especially given that he had written that the city “does not have the staff or infrastructure to provide victims of domestic violence with the level of service they have come to expect.”
But Mr. Taylor said the county “forced my hand.”
Shelly Buhler, chairwoman of the Shawnee County Commission, said she did not expect Mr. Taylor to actually go through with his threat to stop prosecuting domestic violence.
So the Republicans Had a Debate Last Night
And it was garbage no doy. Although, by GOP standards, it was pretty successful, as there was no murderous shouting from the compassionately conservative audience and the ghost of Ronald Reagan happened to stop by. Fun!
"You shall not pass...any more tax cuts!"
In case you don't feel like reading the complete transcript, or have better things to do with your time, like hit yourself in the head with a tackhammer, here is my totally accurate paraphrase of the debate: Blah blah blah 9-9-9 blah blah blah Reagan blah blah blah America blah blah blah regulations blah blah blah energy blah blah blah taxes blah blah blah competitive blah blah blah regulations blah blah blah innovation, entrepreneurship, and freedom in the marketplace blah blah blah regulations blah blah blah death panels blah blah blah Obamacare blah blah blah taxes blah blah blah regulations blah blah blah private sector blah blah blah pizza box blah blah blah taxes blah regulations blah RONALD REAGAN blah taxes blah regulation blah Reagan blah Bush blah marketplace blah Jesus. The End.
NHS "Reform" Open Thread
So, after 65 years of socialized healthcare via the National Health Service, England's House of Lords has evidently decided "enough is enough!" and is busily passing the ironically named "Health and Social Care Bill," which will effectively privatize the NHS in England and turn over healthcare to for-profit corporations.
(Scotland's socialized healthcare would remain intact. At least for now.)
The bill, however, has not yet been approved, so there's still time to fight. British Shakers are welcome and encouraged to leave ideas for teaspooning in comments.
The Guardian's live coverage is here.
Occupy Wall Street: News Round-Up
One of the many heartbreaking entries at We Are the 99%, at which several prominent themes have emerged: Young people being crushed by student loans and unable to find reliable full-time employment paying a livable wage; access (or lack thereof) to affordable healthcare; people who are living paycheck to paycheck; older people who are just making it but have no savings. The overall feeling is one of profound insecurity.
Five years ago, I noted that while the GOP talked incessantly about national security, they busily ignored (or actively undermined) domestic security, "not securing the homeland, but the kind of security that comes from knowing your job is safe, you've got good health insurance, your kids are getting the kind of education that will make them competitive and open doors of opportunity in their future, the air you breathe and water you drink isn't poisoning you, you've got enough well-equipped cops and firefighters to protect you, and your elected representatives take things like [sexual violence] seriously."
In the interceding five years, unemployment is higher, underemployment is higher, foreclosures and bankruptcy have increased, food insecurity is more prevalent, the infrastructure has decayed, the social safety net has further eroded, etc. etc. etc. It has gotten worse, not better.
We've spent a decade obsessed with national security, while we've abandoned all pretense of pursuing policy and making investments that secure and stabilize the lives of average USians. In the 99%, even most of us who are "making it" are living on the edge. Our lives aren't secure; they're precarious. When you've got no savings, you're just one crisis—one job loss, one health issue, one broke-down vehicle, one fucked-up roof—away from total disaster.
Living that way is immensely stressful. We're an entire population under duress, and, instead of the pursuit of happiness, we're preoccupied with the pressure of insecurity. The rising tide has not lifted all fucking boats.
This is unsustainable as a national culture.
* * *
Here's some of the other stuff I've been reading this morning...
Ishaan Tharoor at Time—Occupy Wall Street: A New Era of Dissent in America?
[N]early a month on, it's clear that Occupy Wall Street has struck a nerve, appealing to a wide cross-section of Americans who are hobbled by debt, fearful for the future and increasingly exasperated with ever-widening inequities in American society. According to organizers, the occupation at Zuccotti Park has spawned similar protests in over 100 U.S. cities. Moreover, it has galvanized momentum toward the Oct. 15 international day of action, a global day of protest against plutocracies the world over that was called months ago in Spain to mark five months of the indignado protests there, but seems to have now turned into a day of solidarity with the burgeoning movement across the Atlantic.MTV—Occupy Wall Street: How Movement Stays Organized: "Establishing an infrastructure in the park — now dubbed Liberty Park — was one of the demonstrators' top priorities, ensuring everyone would have access to basic and essential resources. Many, if not all, of those decisions are reached at the General Assembly. The General Assembly is held every night at roughly 7 p.m., and everyone is invited to contribute."
...On the ground, uncertainty over what's to come mirrors the palpable excitement of those committed to camp out in the park indefinitely. "It's clear many aren't going to leave [Zuccotti Park] after a piece of legislation [gets passed]," says [Todd Gitlin, activist and professor of journalism]. "They're after a more transcendent sense of change." When asked what it would take to empty Zuccotti Park now, [David Graeber, activist and professor of anthropology] echoes the steely sense of purpose of many of the protesters: "It's not going to empty by itself. Maybe when [the police] come with guns. And maybe not even then."
There have, of course, been some problems with that.
WSBT—Occupy Wall Street moves to Elkhart, Indiana: "The Occupy Wall Street movement recently started in New York as a grass roots protest of corporate greed. Some protestors in major cities are sleeping on sidewalks and in parks while getting their message out. Such protests have spread around the country, even in Michiana. ... A group of local protestors with the Occupy Wall Street Movement has been staying on Elkhart's Civic Plaza since Saturday. There are people standing on sidewalks with signs while others are talking with people who are walking by."
Washington Post—Occupy Wall Street movement sparks clashes, arrests in D.C. and Boston: "Scores of protesters from the Occupy Boston movement were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning, including a group of veterans, in one of the largest mass arrests in recent Boston history. ... [In DC, six] people were arrested in the Senate's Hart office building on Tuesday, after protesters affiliated with the 'Occupy D.C.' movement began chanting loudly and unfurling banners calling for the end of overseas wars and for increased taxes on the rich."
Mercury News—Occupy Wall Street protests gain momentum in Bay Area: "[I]n San Jose, [protesters] remained polite, shaking hands with police officers even as they were given citations. And in Oakland, a city official has joined their cause to show solidarity. No matter the prevailing mood, hundreds of members of the growing Occupy Wall Street protest movement around the country and in the Bay Area are staying on message: Corporate greed and social inequality must be reckoned with in a country facing 9.1 percent unemployment and little hope of imminent change."
Reuters—Thousands in Chicago protest financial industry: "Thousands of people including teachers, religious leaders and union workers marched in downtown Chicago on Monday to voice mounting anger over joblessness and income inequality in protests that snarled rush-hour traffic."
Complex Brown—BLACK OUT! At Occupy Philadelphia [via Vanessa]: "We eventually got our spot. As the sister was talking about her experience, there were some members in support, and there were even members who came up to us afterwards to show support. But many of the people were asking us to hurry up, calm down and finish. One white guy used signals to get us to hurry up. We spoke out about RACISM IN THE 99 percent. We spoke out about how nobody was talking about the racist foundation of corporate greed. How do we talk about classism without taking about racism?"
Question of the Day
What positive word do you frequently hear used to describe men, but rarely used to describe women?
The first one that popped into my mind was genius.
An Observation
There is, obviously, a lot of overlap between people who identify as "pro-life" and the conservative critics of Occupy Wall Street.
The protesters on Wall Street, and at other venues around the country (and world), and their allies, are advocating for structural changes that allow them to work secure jobs with livable wages, that give them access to safe and nourishing sustenance, to healthcare, to a roof over their heads.
They are advocating for the right to live a meaningful and productive and stable life.
It seems to me that anyone who calls themselves "pro-life" should be firmly on the side of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, if the definition of "life" is to have any meaning at all.
(Naturally, this will not the last time that there is occasion to observe the contemptible irony of the "pro-life" moniker. Movement conservatives are nothing if not bottomless wells of rank hypocrisy.)
More "Testifying" Fetuses on Parade
Earlier Liss posted about how HR 358 will be discussed Friday. To add to this asinine circus of reactionary horseshit, the Christian Defense Coalition will be taking over the Congressional Auditorium to broadcast sonograms Thursday. No, really:
On Thursday, Capitol Hill will be host to pregnant women who will undergo public sonograms, in part a plug for an anti-abortion-rights bill (PDF) recently introduced by presidential contender Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), which would mandate sonograms for women seeking abortions. The ultrasound event, called “Voices From the Womb,” sponsored by the Christian Defense Coalition, is scheduled to take place in the Congressional Auditorium and will feature live ultrasounds on women in their second and third trimesters of pregnancy.Sure.
“[F]or the first time in history the ‘voice’ of these children will be loudly heard in our nation’s capital!” reads the campaign website.
By the way, Rep. Bachmann, how are all those jobs coming along? Yeah. That's what I thought.
Photo of the Day
A construction worker holds up a sign in solidarity with protesters with the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement as they walk to Park Avenue after briefly demonstrating in front of the residence of NewsCorp CEO Rupert Murdoch on October 11, 2011 in New York City. [Getty Images]Something about this guy working on his scaffolding on the Upper East Side, holding up that sign as protesters walk beneath, is just giving me a huge case of wellblub in the chest.
