Commenting is FUBARed at the moment. I'm trying to restore it, but Disqus isn't cooperating at the moment. I'll let you know as soon as it's fixed. My apologies.
UPDATE 1: And now my Tree of Life template got fucked trying to get rid of the commenting glitch, so we're back to pie. Comments still broken. Disqus support still not responding.
UPDATE 2: Well, I'm pretty well stuck until Disqus decides to respond to requests for help, so, in the meantime, I'm just going to keep posting, but please be advised that any comments left at the moment might be lost later. I will let you know when normal commenting is restored.
UPDATE 3: I think comments are in working order again. Apologies for the inconvenience, and my thanks to Ryan at Disqus who explained how to resolve it.
Blog Note
The Not-War in Yemen
[Content Note: This post discusses drone strikes and war.]
In addition to our mostly-over war in Iraq, our still-definitely war in Afghanistan, and not-wars in Pakistan, Iran, Libya, and various other parts of Africa, we are also at not-war in Yemen.
And the not-news from the not-war in Yemen is that one of our recent drone airstrikes killed at least 12 people. Those people, we are told, were "al Qaeda militants, including four local leaders." Sure. Okay. And we've got no reason to disbelieve this not-official story of a not-confirmed US drone strike in the not-war in Yemen which is being not-waged without Congressional oversight or anything resembling meaningful accountability, because US intelligence has always definitely been flawless and the US government never lies to cover its ass and FUCK YOU WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO KILL WHOEVER WE WANT WITHOUT THE INCONVENIENCE OF EVIDENCE OR THE BURDEN OF CONSEQUENCE.
A local tribal leader says no civilians were hurt "and, unlike previous attacks, it did not result in civilian casualties." That is very good news, if true.
It is still very bad news that there is a war being prosecuted by the US about which there has been, and will continue to be, no public conversation.
Even the Republican candidates aren't making hay out of the fact that our Democratic president is prosecuting multiple not-wars without individual war resolutions, oversight, or accountability. Which is terrifying. Because they want that power, that illusion of transparency while waging clandestine war using taxpayers' money without seeking their permission, too.
And, of course, there's the fact that nobody seems to care, anyway.
Welcome to America 2.0.
Primarily Terrible
I think she's a Ron Paul supporter.
OMG y'all—are you SO EXCITED about the Florida Primary today?! I AM SO EXCITED! I can barely contain my barf!
Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are still running, but let's not even pretend that either of them has a chance of winning this primary, the Republican nomination, or Bumblefuck, Indiana's 61st Annual Chili Cook-Off. Neither Ron Paul's isolationist antiwar rhetoric nor Rick Santorum's extremist pro-rapist rhetoric have any appeal to the Republican Establishment nor to Republican primary voters, so their radical positions aren't pushing the leading candidates further left or right in their positions.
There are candidates who won't win who can still serve a purpose: Howard Dean's humanist antiwar rhetoric definitely pushed the other 2004 Democratic candidates further left on the war, because he proved there was a well of support for an antiwar position among Democratic primary voters. But neither Ron Paul nor Rick Santorum are serving this purpose. They're just making noise.
And the more noise they make, as background din to the garbage yammering of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, the more dissatisfied Republican voters get. Which is just fine by me.
Know what fits perfectly into a cavernous void of conservative enthusiasm? The second term of President Barack Obama.
Anyway! Mitt Romney is totes going to win today. Double-digit lead, etc. And even if by some unexpected twist of fart, he doesn't win today, he's still going to win the nomination. I am so sure of that I would bet fully ONE BILLION DOLLARS of Mitt Romney's personal fortune on it!
True Fact: Mitt Romney is not currently worth one billion dollars. But he will be, once his upcoming book reaches every bestseller list after the Conservative Book Club buys EVERY COPY.
In other OMG This Guy Is Your Frontrunner LOL News, Mitt Romney wishes he could claim he's Hispanic, because it would help him with Latin@ voters in Florida. Newt Gingrich says Mitt Romney hates old Jews, which is strangely not a card he played in South Carolina. Huh! He also says that Romney's campaign is "pathetic," but voters can't hear him over the seven million dollars in ads Romney has purchased in Florida.
And Mitt Romney may be pathetic (he is!), but he is also seen as "more presidential" and "more sincere" than Newt Gingrich. Which is a very low bar! But Mitt Romney has been vaulting over cracks in the sidewalk his whole life! His life of extreme privilege has been preparing him for this moment, this challenge of looking more presidential and more sincere than a disgraced congressman and world-class liar, since he was a mere twinkle in his father's balls! The trajectory of Mitt Romney's life SINCE THE MOMENT OF HIS CONCEPTION has been to arrive at this precise moment in history, where sheerly by virtue of being LESS OF A FUCKHEAD THAN NEWT GINGRICH, he can become a champion, a superstar, a future member of the Losing to Barack Obama Club!
John McCain is not only the president—he is also a member!
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
[Photo via.]
Happy Birthday, SKM!!!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
You look like a purveyor of the radical feminazi agendaaaaaaa!
And you smell like one, too!
(Mmm, rosemary!)
Every year on her birthday, SKM gets a cake featuring a Very Manly Man Offering Very Manly Birthday Wishes for her: Tom Selleck, Chuck Norris, Mr. T. This year I figured it was time to go right to the source of modern virility: Ron Swanson himself.
He may not be able to bring himself to wish you a Happy Birthday, but I can! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SKM!!!
I adore you, lady. I hope you have a great day and a marvelous year.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker theatomicgal: What or who gives you courage?
I don't know that I've ever demonstrated courage, but in times I've demonstrated anything resembling it, what has given it to me is necessity.
I guess that's a pretty boring and uninspiring answer, but it's honest.
Chipping Away at Breast Healthcare
by Shaker Jane, a proud abortioneer who is grateful every day for her Planned Parenthood colleagues and their work to protect reproductive rights.
[Content Note: This post discusses reproductive rights (de)funding.]
Late last year, leaders from Susan G. Komen for the Cure met to discuss their decision to end the breast health care funding received by one of the foundation's largest grantees. There were no findings of patient dissatisfaction, clinical errors, or financial mismanagement, but the decision was final: Patients seen in 2012 will be the last to receive Komen-funded care.
Wondering why Komen will no longer support these lifesaving cancer screenings and breast health education sessions? Because they're provided by the highly trained doctors, nurses, and medical assistants at Planned Parenthood health centers.
Until now, Komen stood by the grants it gave to Planned Parenthood—over the past five years, between $500,000 and $700,000 that helped affiliates like mine to provide nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams and referrals for more than 6,000 mammograms. Komen grants funded care for people in rural, low-income, and underserved communities, where Planned Parenthood is often the only source of health care.
Opponents of safe, legal abortion care, who consistently put their narrow political agenda ahead of our health needs, have repeatedly threatened organizations that partner with Planned Parenthood. On January 1, Komen bowed to this anti-choice pressure and added the following criteria to its funding guidelines:
• Applicant is not currently debarred from the receipt of federal or state funding.
• No key personnel of applicant or any of its affiliates has been convicted of fraud or a crime involving any other financial or administrative impropriety within the last year.
• Applicant or any of its affiliates is not currently under a local, state or federal formal investigation for financial or administrative impropriety or fraud. ("Affiliate" means any entities that control, are controlled by, or are under the same control as applicant or independent entities operating under the same name or brand as applicant.)
Each of the new requirements clearly targets Planned Parenthood, referencing continued defunding efforts and the ongoing Congressional investigation launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-[insert cleverly contemptuous "r" adjective here]).
Ironically, even by these politically motivated measures, we're still eligible, but Komen appears unwilling to discuss the issue, despite numerous requests from Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards, and donors and supporters of both organizations.
As the nation's largest reproductive health provider, our primary concern is always our patients, who desperately need the services Komen grants support. We're working with other funders to fill the gaps in care that Komen's decision creates, and our donors and advocates have pledged to support us as we try to replace these critical funds to ensure that our patients continue to get the care they need without interruption or delay.
So get out your teaspoons! Call your local Komen office (find yours here) and let them know what you think of their new funding guidelines. Donate to your community's Planned Parenthood (find yours here) and ask that your gift be put toward unfunded breast health care. And breast-havers, do your annual self-exam!
[Commenting Note from Liss: There are legitimate criticisms to be made about some of Komen's awareness- and fund-raising strategies. This is not the thread for that discussion.]
Photo of the Day
I was interviewed today for a piece about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and so I've spent much of my afternoon thinking about Clinton's capacity to inspire passionate support and visceral hatred, and what she's meant to and for women. I was reminded of this wire photo from last month, which is almost certainly worth my thousand words and then some.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, is flanked by Lithuania's Foreign Affairs Minister Audronius Azubalis, right, and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, left, as they attend an international conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, in Vilnius, Lithuania. [AP Photo]The way President Grybauskaite is looking at her! She's Lithuania's first female president and naturally has been dubbed the "Iron Lady." I can only imagine standing beside one another, they both feel the world-vanishing intimacy of secret familiarity that only orphaned members of the same diasporic tribe can truly understand. TWO GELFLINGS!
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Reference to sexual violence.]
"Obama can sit there and let all the [Bush tax cuts] lapse, and then the Republicans will have enough votes in the Senate in 2014 to impeach. The last year, he's gone into this huddle where he does everything by executive order. He's made no effort to work with Congress."—Grover Norquist.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By way of reminder, Grover Norquist is the fuckbrain who once famously said: "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."
Now he's complaining that BARACK OBAMA isn't bipartisan enough. LOL. Okay, player.
[H/T to Mustang Bobby.]
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by beautiful portraits of Robert Pattinson.
Recommended Reading:
Joe: Hull House Dies After 122 Years
Eesha: Housing Department Introduces New LGBT Protections
Susie: Priorities
Philippa: 3 Days [Content Note: The post at this link includes discussion of disablism and includes a reference to self-harm. As it is a UK-centric post, it uses disability language that may sound discordant to non-UK readers.]
Garland: A Keen Observation about Leslie and Ron [for the Parks-n-Rec Headz]
Renee: Sometimes Mommies and Daddies Need Time Alone
Mary: The 44th Down Under Feminists Carnival
Sean: Mind = Blown
Dave: "He don't look like Torty."
Kelsey: Beautiful Day at the Dog Park
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Fat News!
[Content Note: This post contains discussion of news items that include fat hatred and/or body policing.]
There's so much Fat News today, I can hardly stand it! (No, really. I can't stand it. Barf. Barf cake all over everything.)
First! Shaker Elky forwarded this item about a New York-based gym chain, New York Sports Club, taking out an ad in the New York Times, ostensibly addressed to Paula Deen, reading: "Paula, you made a fortune off of fat. Call us if you want to be around to enjoy it."
You know, one of the main criticisms of Paula Deen has been that she did not disclose her diabetes diagnosis immediately upon receiving it, and I will just reiterate, once again, that it might be worth considering whether Deen didn't disclose having diabetes because fat people who disclose "fat diseases" are viciously mocked.
And it doesn't matter if you're a "fat pusher," as Deen is erroneously accused of being, if you're a diet- and surgery-proponent, if you're a Health at Every Size advocate, and/or if you're a person who fervently believes that being fat is nobody's business but one's own: No matter what position you take on fatness, if you are yourself fat, your position will be exploited in some way to make hay about the fact that you're gonna die because of your fatty-fattitude.
Paula Deen had to know as well as anyone, and better than most, this would be coming whenever she did disclose her diabetes.
So the next time you hear someone snort derisively about how she only made public her illness after making a business deal that ethically required its disclosure, point them in the direction of that ugly-ass ad and say, "If I had to navigate that sort of shit, I'd wait until I was getting paid to do it, too."
Second!
Primarily Bored
"Hurry! The bus to hell is here!"
Y'all, I am so tired of this primary. There is only so much enthusiasm that one Melissa McEwan can generate over a contest between two super privileged white dudes to determine which super privileged white dude will become the next Republican nominee in a race to see if their corporate shill can defeat the Democrats' corporate shill and accelerate the pace at which this nation will be brought to grim ruination at the avaristic hands of soulless corporations.
Social Security: Sponsored by Sprint!
You know what the worst thing about a joke like "Social Security: Sponsored by Sprint!" is...? That Sprint would never sponsor Social Security. It would just dismantle it and instead sponsor Sprint's Happy Funtime Work Camps for the Aged and Infirm!
Play in the news, Nero...
Frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are neck-and-neck in Florida, ahead of its primary tomorrow. Or they're not, depending on who you ask. If you ask me, Romney is totally ahead and he's going to win, and then this thing should be over, but it probably won't be, because some rich weirdo is going to keep funding Gingrich's SuperPAC, and Gingrich will keep running as long as he's got money he can't spend at Tiffany's.
Reporteth the Wall Street Journal : "Gingrich Predicts 'Straight-Out Contest' for Months."
See?
And when he inevitably keeps hanging in there, lobbing round after round of criticism at Mitt Romney, hoping to defeat him, and Mitt Romney starts stomping on sour grapes to make whine about how Newt Gingrich is hurting his chances in the general election by forcing him to run a long and contentious primary contest, let us remember that is not only evidence of Mitt Romney's bratty entitlement, but of his resounding contempt for democracy.
Speaking of hostility to authentic democracy, something something Ron Paul.
Rick Santorum is one of two Catholics in this now 50% Catholic content, the other being Newt Gingrich. (Ron Paul is a Baptist, and, as you may have heard, Mitt Romney is a Mormon. President Obama, is, of course, a Muslin.) So it was a cool boost for the Catholic candidates this weekend when Catholic bishops and priests read out letters of protest at mass this weekend, vilifying the Obama administration's policy of paid birth control coverage. Neato! I continue to be thrilled that religious institutions are afforded tax exempt status!
POP QUIZ: Is it possible for a man obsessed with biparisanship to be an effective president in an age of hyper-partisanship?
If you said no, give yourself 1,000 points, redeemable at Shakesville's Bitter Irony Shop.
Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.
[Photo via.]
News from Shakes Manor
This weekend, while Kenny Blogginz was over and we were looking for a suitably terrible film for all of us to enjoy, Iain was scrolling through Netflix and put on a mystery film while I was out of the room, which I was to identify upon my return.
Within 10 seconds, I'd guessed it was a Nicolas Cage film.
Iain and KBlogz were impressed. "How'd you get it so fast?!" Iain exclaimed.
I shrugged. "Basic math: Jewel-encrusted book + fingerless gloves."
"She's a black magic woman!"
Open Thread
Hosted by the Absolute Beginners Soundtrack.
This week's open threads have been brought to you by more albums I bought in high school.
