Primarily Horrendo

If you imagine them saying "WHAT WAR ON WOMEN?!" in squeaky voices, it's ADORABLE! (No it isn't.)

So, there's not a whole lot of news today. President Barack Obama is still the winner of the Democratic primary. We don't know which Mitt Romney will win the Republican primary, but I'm beginning to suspect it will be Mitt Romney. What do you all think?

Speaking of Mitt Romneys, Mitt Romney says that recent drop-out and persistent vile bigot Rick Santorum is on his veep list. Ha ha sure he is. He's definitely on the list. This sounds very convincing: "Everybody is on my list. I'm not taking anybody off the list. I actually don't have a list yet. So, I can't say that someone is on or off my list, but I can tell you that the people that I had the privilege of running against would surely be among those I'd consider. ... If any of the people I ran against happened to become the nominee, I would have endorsed them and supported them for president. So, of course they'd be on that list, and he among others."


Sounds like a terrific nonexistent list, and like Rick Santorum is definitely probably on it or something.

Hey, you know what I was thinking? If this whole presidenting thing doesn't work out for Mitt Romney (it won't), he should get a job as a communications expert.

That's definitely a job. And he'd be excellent at it.

In other news: Something something Ron Paul, the chipmunkiest of all the candidates by twelve acorns at least. Plus: Newt Gingrich is very, very broke and mad at Fox News for being up Romney's butt instead of his. You can read all about these and other scintillating stories of Republican failure in today's Who Cares News.

Finally! The Obama administration will not, as promised, issue "an executive order prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in federal contracting."

The White House won't issue the directive, but will instead study whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees require employment protections, ThinkProgress has learned.

...The delay represents a departure for the president who committed to supporting a "formal written policy of non-discrimination that includes sexual orientation and gender identity or expression…for all Federal contractors" as a candidate in 2008 and pledged to fight for the community in 2009 and 2011. "I'm here with a simple message: I'm here with you in that fight," Obama told the Human Rights Campaign in 2009, adding, "Nobody in America should be fired because they're gay, despite doing a great job and meeting their responsibilities. It's not fair. It's not right. We're going to put a stop to it."

Ha ha or not.


This doesn't even make sense if one were to try to argue political expediency: As Odd Man Out notes here, the initiative is popular with USians, with one poll showing support at 73%. Of course, marriage equality also now has support from a majority of USians, and there's no movement on that, either.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the president to "evolve" on the issue of workplace protections, too.

Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.

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Trayvon Martin Updates

[Content Note: Violence; racism.]

In case you missed the news yesterday afternoon, George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin, was finally arrested after 45 days. He is in custody and has been charged with second-degree murder, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. He is being held without bond.

A couple of things to note about the charges: The incident doesn't meet the requirements of the first-degree murder statute in Florida, which stipulates premeditation beyond just harassing Martin that afternoon. Maybe even more importantly, a first-degree murder charge in Florida requires the consent of a grand jury. I imagine that, even had the case met the technical requirements of a first-degree murder charge, the possibility of a grand jury throwing out the charges altogether was a risk the special prosecutor was not willing to take. So the second-degree murder charges seem to be the right call all around.

Also: Zimmerman will have the opportunity to argue self-defense before a judge before the case even goes before a jury. If the judge agrees that it was self-defense, then Zimmerman could never see trial on these charges at all. One hopes that will not be the case, but it is a possibility.

In other news: George Zimmerman's new attorney says his client is "troubled by everything that has happened," and tried to garner him some sympathy points with: "Truly, it must be frightening to not be able to go into a 7/11 or into a store and literally to be in fact a prisoner wherever he was." Wow. That would be some real bullshit even if Zimmerman had not killed Trayvon Martin while he was walking home from a 7/11.

Finally: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a strong case against "Stand Your Ground" laws in DC yesterday:

The so-called Stand Your Ground self-defense laws in Florida and some other states amount to "a license to murder" and an excuse for "vigilante justice," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg charged Wednesday.

"The laws are not the kind of laws a civilized society should have and the [National Rifle Association] should be ashamed of themselves," Bloomberg, a leading gun-control advocate, said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. "This has nothing to do with gun-owners' rights. This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment."

"Plain and simple, this is just trying to give people a license to murder," he added of the Stand Your Ground laws.

...Bloomberg blasted the Stand Your Ground laws as "Shoot First" laws.

"The fact is, all Americans already have a right to defend themselves with commensurate force," he said, "but these Shoot First laws have nothing to do with that or with the exercise of Second Amendment rights, instead they justify civilian gunplay and invite vigilante justice and retribution with disastrous results."

Good for him. That is not a popular view for a politician to hold these days, and such uncompromising rejection of any gun law, no matter how outrageous, is rare.

And even if Bloomberg were wrong (he's not), and "Stand Your Ground" laws did not entrench fear and tacitly encourage vigilantism (they do), they are inherently corrupt by virtue of their vague definitions about the "reasonable belief" that one's personal safety or very life is in imminent danger.

In a kyriarchal culture, where "existing while black near a white person" is routinely considered a threat to do harm, and where "a man raped me" is routinely considered not a threat to do harm, there can be no such thing as a reasonable Stand Your Ground law. The laws favor the already-privileged, and make the world a lot more dangerous for the not-privileged.

That alone is reason for their repeal, in a democratic country ostensibly interested in equality.

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Open Thread

Hosted by sleepy hugging cats.

[Image care of Shutterstock.]

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Question of the Day

Suggested by Shaker bekitty: What's the first thing you reach for each day (figuratively or literally)?

My glasses. I can't see a darn thing without them.

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Photo of the Day

Contestants at the Piping Live Glasgow International Piping Festival and the World Pipe Band Championships open the "Olympics of piping" with a colorful display at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

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Trayvon Martin Special Prosecutor Presser

The press conference will begin shortly. The latest report, still unconfirmed by the special prosecutor's office, is that Zimmerman is in custody and will be charged with second-degree murder.

Via TP's Ian, Florida defines second-degree murder as "[t]he unlawful killing of a human being, when perpetrated by any act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual." It carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

As I said in the most recent update to my earlier post, I desperately hope these reports are accurate, because if lesser charges are announced at the presser, things could get ugly.

UPDATE 1: The live feed of the press conference will be viewable in the embedded video below.

UPDATE 2: Confirmed: Zimmerman's in custody and has been charged with second-degree murder.

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Nurse Jackie Open Thread

[Spoilers are working the program herein.]

So, here's the thing: Nurse Jackie is FILLED with great female roles filled by great female actors. Edie Falco is amazing as Jackie. Merritt Wever is just ridiculously great as Zoey. Eve Best crushes it at Dr. O'Hara. The girls who play Grace and Fiona rock.

But I swear to Maude that Gloria Akalitus, played by Anna Deavere Smith (pictured above), is one of the greatest characters in the history of television.

Every week, Deeky and I have to discuss the new episode as soon as we've both watched it, and every week we're all: "AKALITUS! OMG AKALITUS!" I can't even deal with how great the character is, and I can't even deal EVEN HARDER with how great Anna Deavere Smith is.

Speaking of which, if you haven't seen her one-woman show, "Let Me Down Easy," you must. It is extraordinary. It's the best piece of acting I've ever seen.

Anyway! Back to Nurse Jackie. I like where this season is going so far. Edie Falco's thousand-yard stare is destroying me, even as I loathe her (Jackie, that is, not Edie Falco) for all the obvious reasons. I love and understand Dr. O'Hara's inability to sever ties, even though it's the right and necessary thing to do.

And finally this: Anna Deavere Smith + Bobby Cannavale = GENIUS.

[Note: Showtime has inexplicably made the first three episodes of the season available OnDemand. I have only watched the first episode, and only the first episode is on-topic for this thread. Please: No spoilers from subsequent episodes, even with a spoiler warning, because I've got to read the comments to mod the thread.]

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The Killing Open Thread

[Spoilers stare inscrutably into the mid-distance through a grey haze herein.]

I have one word for you: Holder.

Holder breaks my heart. The scene where that dirtbag tells him he got he job because he's a mess...omg.

As for the rest of the show, I don't even. I feel desperately sorry for the HR personnel who have to deal with Det. Linden's file.

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Mitt Romney Is Terrible: An Ongoing Series

[Content Note: Misogyny; animal cruelty.]

Much like Mitt Romney's tale of putting his dog on top of the family car for a road trip, intended to be a charming anecdote about his problem-solving skills, was a serious miscalculation, Ann Romney's tales of life with Mitt, intended to make him more likeable, are also wildly off the mark:

[The Romney campaign] released a fuzzy-wuzzy video, titled "Family" and starring, of course, Ann Romney, reminiscing over grainy film and vintage snapshots.

"I hate to say it but often I had more than five sons," Ann recalls. "I had six sons, and he would be as mischievous and as naughty as the other boys. He'd come home and" — here Romney makes the sound of a building blowing up — "everything would just explode again."

Somehow I doubt that Ann Romney, circa 1982, having finally managed to get her five boys under control, was all that happy about their father coming home only to "get them all riled up again." Somehow I doubt that beleaguered moms, circa 2012, listen to her story and think, "Oh, Mitt is so much more fun than I thought." Rather, I suspect, they wonder whether he should have been doing more to lend a hand.

Indeed, the video offers an unintentional glimpse of Ann's own frustrations. "It was hard to maneuver," Ann notes. "I could do okay when I had the two. Three, not so bad. Four, it got to be a little much." On the campaign trail with her husband, Ann often talks about the old days when she would be at home dealing with her rambunctious brood and Mitt would call from the road. "His consoling words were always the same: Ann, your job is more important than mine."

This story is supposed to buttress Mitt's bona fides as a supportive husband, and Ann is, no doubt, a more tolerant spouse than I am. But every time I hear that patronizing line, I imagine responding, "Great. If my job is more important, then you come home and do it and I'll check into the nice room at the Four Seasons."

Boys will be boys and men will be boys, amirite, ladies? Ha ha barf.

That doesn't so much "humanize" Mitt Romney for me, or inspire feelings of affection toward him, as much as it does make me think that he sounds like a terrible husband, a condescending panderbag, and a retrofuck gender essentialist with a chronic aversion to responsibility.

And I honestly cannot think of a single mother I know, of any political persuasion, who would find that story endearing.

Then there's this:

Romney, when asked last week about the gender gap, twice said he wished his wife could take the question.

"My wife has the occasion, as you know, to campaign on her own and also with me," Romney told newspaper editors, "and she reports to me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy."

THANK JESUS JONES THAT ANN ROMNEY IS ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL SO MITT DOESN'T HAVE TO SPEAK TO WOMEN HIMSELF!

It's bad enough that most male politicians (in both parties) treat women like we're an inscrutable monolith, but Romney takes it to extraordinary new lengths, speaking about women as if he might seriously believe we are from Venus.


Ugh, this guy. Ugh.

[H/T to Amadi.]

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BushQuotes!

Chapter 2, page 17: "Everyone played together. Everyone's parents watched out for everyone else's kids. Midland was a place where other people's mothers felt it was not only their right, but also their duty, to lecture you when you did something wrong, just as your own mother did. I'll never forget the time Mike Proctor's mom came running out of her house to yell at me for running out into the street without looking. She got my attention, and I never did it again."

Midland, Texas: Home of Big Mother.

Speaking of going hogwild in the streets, did y'all see that Mondo Fucko was asked yesterday what he misses most about the presidency? He replied: "It's inconvenient to have to stop at some stoplights coming over here—I guess I miss that."

Naturally he would miss most a privilege that even being born on third base could not afford him.

[From George Bush's A Charge to Keep, gifted to me by Deeky, because he hates me. In the US, all people who plan to run for president write a shitty book. (Some are less shitty than others, by which I mean the Democrats' books.) A Charge to Keep was George W. Bush's shitty I-wanna-be-president book, published in 1999. I am blogging one random quote per page every day until I have either made my way through the book or lost it behind a couch.]

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Zimmerman Reportedly to Be Charged

[Content Note: Violence; racism.]

There has been a report from "a senior law enforcement source" that George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin, would be charged sometime today. The special prosecutor's office is not confirming that report, and says that charges have not yet been filed.

There's no report on with what Zimmerman might be charged, if charges are indeed filed today.

I'll update as information becomes available.

Update 1: The office of the special prosecutor confirms there will be a news conference on the Trayvon Martin case today at 6:00pm ET.

Update 2: The AP is reporting that a source inside the investigation tells them Zimmerman will be charged with second-degree murder and is currently in custody. This has not been confirmed by the special prosecutor.

I really hope this report is true, because now if the charges are anything less, there's going to be some real outrage, and justifiably so.

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Daily Dose of Cute

KITTEHS!!!


Matilda, thinking about Tony. (Cameo by Dudley's paw.)


Olivia, thinking about Tony.


Sophie, thinking about Tony.

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Important Announcement

Sometimes I stay up late watching Downton Abbey, go to sleep, wake up, spend a long day doing tech support, go home, and do silly ridiculously important things on the Internet (including Twitter).

If you are so compelled, submit a tech ticket. Or don't. I really don't fucking care.

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Quote of the Day

"I'm not sure how anyone expects 'the housing market' to 'recover' when buying a house now involves handing a bunch of money over to a bank which will then proceed to steal your house from you. This behavior will continue until lots of people go to jail. And that, apparently, is off the table."—Atrios.

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Wednesday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by rotary phones.

Recommended Reading:

Eesha: The Thing About John Derbyshire [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of racism and sexism.]

Tami: Move Over, Antoine Dodson! The Ironically Racist Internet Presents Sweet Brown [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of racism, classism, and Othering.]

FMF: Miss Universe Pageant to Allow Transgender Women

S.E.: Autism Speaks–But You Don't Have to Listen [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of ablism, eliminationism, silencing, and appropriation.]

Sayantani: Butterflies, Slumdogs, and Tiger Moms: Asian American Women and the Rescue Narrative [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of racism, exoticism, and misogyny.]

Andy: NOM Site Suddenly Down After Suspected Hacking

TEDxWomen: The Conversation Continues: Tony Porter [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of violence against women and gender essentialism.]

Gabriel: My So-Called Ex-Gay Life [Content Note: The piece at this link contains descriptions of "ex-gay therapy" and discussion of homophobia.]

Leave your links and recommendations in comments...

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Anderson Cooper Has a Gigglefit (Again)

Remember when Anderson Cooper had the most hilarious gigglefit ever while trying to report a story about Gerard Depardieu peeing on a plane...? That was so great, right? Well, it happened again, this time while he was trying to report a story about Dyngus Day. (That's what zie said.) I love how naughty puns turn him to a pile of helplessly giggling mush!

The best part about this one is how he is fighting it EXTRA HARD, because he knows what happened after the last one, lol.

[Transcript available here.]

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

The Plimsouls: "A Million Miles Away"

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Primarily Terrible

And then there were three.

The BIG NEWS, of course, is that Rick Santorum has dropped out of the Republican primary yesterday, to spend more quality time with his bigotry. We're all very sad, I'm sure.


This GAME CHANGER (not a game changer) leaves the field WIDE OPEN for any Mitt Romney to win! Which Mitt Romney will win the coveted position atop the Losing to Barack Obama ticket?! ONLY TIME WILL REVEAL ALL MITT ROMNEYS!

Hey, speaking of Mitt Romney, that dude got a TERRIFIC endorsement yesterday from NOM, which sounds like the tasty love-chewing on an adorable kitten's ear, but is in fact the National Organization for Marriage, which sounds like a marriage equality advocacy group, but is in fact an Orwellian-named hate group that advocates perpetuating the second-class citizenship of LGB USians. Those fuckers love Mitt Romney so much! Which is no surprise, since Mitt Romney also enthusiastically endorses systemic homophobia.

Oh! Speaking of how Mitt Romney is a social justice nightmare, he once again engaged his can't-fail campaign strategy of "No YOU are!" in order to accuse President Obama of waging a war on women: "The real war on women has been the job losses as the result of the Obama economy."

Ha ha listen, Mitt Romney, I am not exactly what one might call a friend to the president on this issue, since I've noticed, for example, that bailouts and stimuli have been directed almost exclusively at male-dominated industries. But that is about failing to include women-centered solutions IN THE RECOVERY from the economic clusterfucktastrophe caused by REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH and the REPUBLICAN CONGRESS.

But while I would like to spend all day talking about what a LIAR you are, I must move on now because OH NO YOU DIDN'T: "If we're going to get women back to work and help women with the real issues women care about—good jobs, good wages, a bright future for themselves, their families, and their kids—we're going to have to elect a president who understands how the economy works, and I do."

OH HELL NO. Mitt Romney, you do not get to talk about "the real issues women care about," when you can't even include REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS on your garbage list the sole purpose of which is to mask how you are hostile to a MAJOR ISSUE THAT WOMEN CARE ABOUT. Gross!


Romney's campaign is also not sure if equal pay for equal work is important to women. Or to Mitt Romney. Yikes.

In other news, Newt Gingrich's $500 check to the state of Utah for their primary filing fee bounced. Whooooooooooops! Time to wrap it up, Gingrich. Good night.

Something something Ron Paul. Who cares.

Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.

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Trayvon Martin Updates

[Content Note: Violence; racism.]

Two pieces of important news today:

1. Special prosecutor Angela Corey said late yesterday she'll "make an announcement about the case within 72 hours."

2. George Zimmerman's attorneys, Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig, have withdrawn counsel.

Sonner said at an afternoon press conference that he and Uhrig had lost contact with Zimmerman over the past few days and that he had consistently failed to return phone calls and e-mails. At the same time, the lawyers also confirmed that Zimmerman had launched a website (therealgeorgezimmerman.com) on his own behalf to raise funds for his own defense and support. This, Uhrig said, was done without advice or communication with his legal counsel.

They also said they heard that Zimmerman spoke with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity directly rather than communicating through his attorneys, and the final straw was an attempt to speak with [Special prosecutor Angela Corey]'s office without them. "We were astonished, and we had some conversation with the prosecutor as well," Uhrig said. He explained that Corey's office clarified that it would not speak with someone who could potentially be charged with a crime without speaking to his attorneys.

Said Sonner at the presser: "He's gone on his own."

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Texting with Hillz

Texts from Hillary, the Tumblr that was spawned by the most awesome photo ever taken, recently got a submission from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself (or at least her office), depicting her texting with the Tumblr's founders, Adam Smith and Stacy Lambe, who are media consultants in DC. The two were then invited to Secretary Clinton's offices, where she autographed a copy of the submission for them:

She then posed with Smith and Lambe, wearing her kickass shades from the picture that started it all:


How cool is she? The coolest.

[H/T to everyone in the multiverse, and thanks to each and every one of you.]

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