ceebeegee: (crescent moon)
I'm a little disappointed this history-making primary didn't result in a woman nominee but I'm still thrilled. The first black (biracial really, but I've been reading black everywhere) nominee, male or female, President or VP, for a major party! I'm so proud of our party. Things do change for the better, sometimes.

Now I'm crossing my fingers that Clinton gets the VP slot and they go on to kick some major McCain ass. America needs to end our long national nightmare and get back on track.
ceebeegee: (Bitch Please)
My friend [livejournal.com profile] dje2004 posted this a few days ago and since YouTube is blocked at work I'd forgotten about it. I just now got around to watching it.

OH. MY. SHIT.

Kevin James, a right-wing radio host, is on Hardball being interviewed by Chris Matthews. Mark Green is also on. James is one of the most annoying, needlessly loud interview subjects I've ever seen--he just comes off as desperate, like he's not even listening to the conversation. But it really gets going around 4 minutes into the clip when (James had been making references to Neville Chamberlain and Obama) Matthews asks him "what exactly did Neville Chamberlain do?" The guy bluffs and blusters and stalls for several minutes, bleating buzz words like "energized and legitimized," "appeasement" over and over--and Matthews does not let him off the hook. He asked him at least 6-7 times "what did Chamberlain do?" And the guy never answered. Finally Matthews called him out for it--"you don't know what you're talking about." Oh, it is AWESOME. And yet terribly embarrassing as well--I literally watched through my fingers. Several points I wanted to point to him like Captain Stillman to Ox in Stripes and say "You. Shut up."

This is the natural outcome when you value rhetoric and yelling and name-calling over actual productive dialogue.

What a loser.

ceebeegee: (Default)
His whole "I'm here to show you benighted people the truth" is way too heavy-handed for me--it's the flip side of obnoxious evangelists who preach on the corner. You're not a soothsayer, you weren't put here to "show" us anything, and you have nothing to teach me.

What prompted this is an article I came across today: Clinton Campaign Brought Sexism Out of Hiding.

Some charming excerpts:

Political discourse will at last be free of jokes like this one, told last week by magician Penn Jillette on MSNBC: "Obama did great in February, and that's because that was Black History Month. And now Hillary's doing much better 'cause it's White B---- Month, right?"

This jumped out at me (because Jillette bugs, as I said above) but then there's also this:

I will not miss seeing advertisements for T-shirts that bear the slogan "Bros before Hos." The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho) and they are widely sold on the Internet.

And this:

I won't miss episodes like the one in which the liberal radio personality Randi Rhodes called Clinton a "big f---in' whore" and said the same about former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro. Rhodes was appearing at an event sponsored by a San Francisco radio station, before an audience of appreciative Obama supporters -- one of whom had promoted the evening on the presumptive Democratic nominee's official campaign Web site.

What. The. Fuck.

Who do you think you're helping? Calling another woman a whore? Are you mad? Is that supposed to be some kind of intelligent discourse? Is that even supposed to be a witty insult? Jesus Christ. Reading that literally makes me sick. Why don't you just stone her instead? Go on, pick up your rocks and lob them at the whore. That's what she gets for shaking things up, right?

I have no problem with Obama. If he wins the nomination, he'll get my vote--I would die before voting for anti-choice McCain. No matter who gets the Dem nom, history is being made, and I'm thrilled. I think he'll make a great President and I know he's suffered his slings and arrows as well--this entry isn't about what he's had to face, it's about the difference between covert and overt. This blatant, fuck you, white bitch misogyny is literally sickening. It's especially disgusting when it's seen as somehow transgressive, when it's applauded as daring and "anti-PC." Why--why--WHY don't people see that this shit is just as unacceptable, just as disgusting, just as uncivilized as any overt racism? It's the same story all over again, it's just like all those school shootings where time after time girls were singled out and NO ONE TALKED ABOUT IT.

Sexism and misogyny are okay in a way that racism isn't. Systematically singling out girls to be lined up and shot is a pattern not even worthy of being noticed. Losers who troll Clinton rallies waving signs that say "iron my shirt" are barely mentioned in the media.

If you don't like Clinton's policies or her candidacy, that is fine with me. As I said, I'm no particular supporter of her over Obama. But if you call her a bitch or a whore, if you call her hysterical or think her hair or her dress is legitimate fodder for critique, if you slam her for her perceived inability to tread that elusive line between leadership and being a so-called nutcracker/ballbuster/pick your sexist pejorative, if you criticize her in any way that singles her out as a woman--if I hear any of this, I will call you out for the throwback misogynist you are. I have damn well had it.
ceebeegee: (Irish!)
I suppose y'all have heard about this.

It seems more scandalous than anything to really worry about, but I just now read a blurb somewhere (Yahoo! front page perhaps--yup, here it is) that "Governor Expected to Resign."

Really?? I guess I'm too jaded about this sort of thing (well, I *am* a Democrat--that's the stock moral failing of Democrat politicians--extramarital sex ;) I dunno, resigning seems a bit extreme but maybe his political power has been too severely compromised. (And of course there's that thing about prostitution being illegal...)

Guys, guys. When will you learn? Politicians can never get away with this sort of thing--you always get caught with your pants down. There are too many people gunning for you. Fools.
ceebeegee: (Tatiana the Sausage Kitty)
I almost want to get this.

ceebeegee: (Red Heather)
Also, apparently during a "Hardball" segment Elizabeth Edwards called in to ask Anne Coulter to stop cheapening the political dialogue with personal attacks. I think we all know where I stand on THIS issue (and MAN, was it delicious seeing Anne discomfited by the applause for Edwards, by people who literally surrounded her) but my first point is this:

The first person who refers to this as a catfight will be beaten up.

At first Coulter tried to diminish what she'd said about John Edwards ("I made one remark three months ago...") but then EE reminded her about an incident where Coulter apparently said something about an Edwards bumper sticker saying "ask me about my dead son." (So--it wasn't just one remark three months ago.) And--uh, wow. Did she really say that? That's pretty inhuman, even for her. That's...inhuman. I can't believe someone would mock someone for that. She can hide behind "just a joke!" all she likes but that...that's not even remotely funny. That's just pure bile, for no other purpose than to laugh at someone else's pain.

Coulter responded lamely "This is now three years ago." Way to miss the point there. And she can minimize her remarks to the Edwardses all she likes, but the point EE was making was that it cheapens the whole process. The call wasn't about 2 remarks, it was about an atmosphere of poison, everything she says, to all the candidates, to anyone who disagrees with her, to any person or group of people who are different from her. Edwards said:

E: You had a column several years ago which made fun of the moment of Charlie Dean’s death and suggested that my husband had a bumper sticker on the back of his car saying, “Ask me about my dead son.” This is not legitimate political dialogue.

C: This is now three years ago.

E: It debases political dialogue. It drives people away from the process. We can’t have a debate about the issues.

C: Yeah, why isn’t John Edwards making this call?

M: Well, do you want to respond? We’ll end the conversation.

E: I haven’t talked to John about this call. I’m making the call as a mother. I’m the mother of that boy who died. My children participate — these young people behind you are the age of my children. You’re asking them to participate in a dialogue that is based on hatefulness and ugliness instead of on the issues, and I don’t think that’s serving them or this country very well.

It was at this point a bunch of people in the crowd broke into applause.
ceebeegee: (Spring!)
Eliot Spitzer to propose bill legalizing gay marriage.

Now I'll have to contact my state senator and rep to tell them where I stand on the issue.

New Yorkers, here is a way for you to look up who your state senator is (enter your zip code and whatever the results are, click on the senator's name, and then on the District Map at the bottom of that senator's page and check it against where you live). Here's the same thing for your state assembly representative.

Whoa

Sep. 30th, 2006 05:51 pm
ceebeegee: (Southwest cactus)
About the whole Foley mess--I came across this lovely transcript of exchanges between Foley and one of the boys with whom he was communicating. UGH. That is just disgusting. Oh man, WHAT a mess. No wonder he resigned immediately.

Better hunker down for the shitstorm, guys.
ceebeegee: (Southwest cactus)
I was editing my last entry about Kent State (to add the link to the photo of Jeff Miller lying in the room) and while searching for the photo online, found this. This could be either really interesting or cringe-inducing. I love living history--I was always into dioramas and pageants and stuff like that. I love being reminded that "this person really existed, they moved, and grew, and interacted with people, and changed." Even some thing as simple as seeing a new picture of an historical figure jolts that realization--I existed. I was here. I saw a picture of Jeffrey Miller I'd never seen before and just considered it--he had a great smile. Needless to say, most of the pictures I've seen of him were from news footage of that day--a few of him marching, flipping off the Guard, one of him in a crowd. And then you see this kid with a big ol' head of hair and a sweet smile. Months or years before he stopped in time, and became an icon.

OTOH, if this theater piece is way too heavy on the weeping and wailing and the bad poetry (that is--if it starts with the premise that the tragedy has already happened, instead of making the audience experience it for the first time), it might be horrible.

Oh who am I kidding? I'd love to play Allison Krause or Sandy Scheuer. Not that they'd cast Shiksa Destroyer Goddess Me.
ceebeegee: (Southwest cactus)
It's weird, though, I always think of May 4 as the day of the Kent State massacre (May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, after a weekend of protest following Nixon's incursion into Cambodia). Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'...Four Dead in Ohio.... That song is so haunting--I first learned about this event in college when I read a book by James Michener about it (the book was very much a product of its time--each female student was invariably described as a "leggy blonde co-ed" or "a stunning, brunette student." I'm surprised he didn't call them birds. But for all that it was pretty informative). I had also discovered the score to Godspell, which, coincidentally was big when Kent State happened, and the song "On the Willows" kept going through my head as I stared at those pictures of Jeff Miller, lying on the pavement, shot in the face. (He's the one in the Pulitzer Prize-winning picture with the screaming girl, who was actually a 14-year-old runaway.)

Rest in peace, Alison Krause, Sandra Scheuer, William Schroeder and Jeffrey Glenn Miller. And not to be forgotten--Philip (?--I don't know that case as well) Green also killed at Jackson State College a few weeks later. Students shouldn't be afraid to demonstrate peacefully.
ceebeegee: (Default)
So, the Senate is trying to work out a bill on immigration, although it looks as though they won't pass the House bill which made illegal immigration a felony. CNN has been showing a lot of programs on illegal immigration lately. I have some fairly complex feelings on the matter, and I've talked about them on my message board. I'll start off by saying I wholeheartedly support LEGAL immigration. I think immigration is what makes this wonderful country relevant, that we have always encouraged people who seek a better life to come here, to the point that our Statue of Liberty explicitly welcomes them. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... I played Emma Lazarus in Lady of Copper and always loved those words. I even think we should pass legislation that makes it much easier to become a citizen; if we can liberalize the laws, more people can come.

However. Legal immigration is just that--legal--and I have a real problem with illegal immigration, with people who ignore our laws time and again, and who cynically exploit our constitution to have their children born here in order to make it harder for them to be deported. I get extremely impatient with those who claim "they're just doing work Americans won't do." I say bullshit. I've worked plenty of crappy jobs, for little money, because that was what was available. I work at a dinner theater during changeover, and got paid less than minimum wage, in cash. I scraped gum off the bottoms of the tables for that money. I've stood in the cold in front of Grand Central Station, handing out magazines. If a person needs to make rent, you'd be surprised at what they'll do. Don't tell me what jobs Americans won't do; that's insulting to hard-working Americans. (And not to mention--the illegals in this article apparently don't want to work even some jobs that are OVER minimum wage--in the one hand, by refusing the work, they may help drive up the wages. On the other, I don't EVER want to hear about how American won't work for XYZ money, when even some illegals won't!)

Oh, and I should make it clear I'm talking about economic immigration, not political refugees. I think political refugees should be treated differently--fleeing from a dictator who wants to exterminate you because of your color or creed is very different from fleeing poverty.

Entitlement, Racism, Etc. )
ceebeegee: (Red Heather)
From the Washington Post:

Bellingham, Wash.: I came across some blogs talking about Bill O'Reily saying San Fransico deserves a terrorist attack because they voted against allowing military recruiters in their schools. I have not seen anything about this in MSM. I may have missed it, or does the MSM for the most part ignore the rantings and ravings of fringe people like him and his counterparts at Air America?

Civil discourse only seem to work for them if that discourse is with someone who agrees with them in the first place.

Howard Kurtz: O'Reilly just said this yesterday on the radio, and most newsrooms aren't monitoring his radio show. Here's what he said:

"If Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off-limits to you, except San Francisco."


That is unbelievable!! What kind of freak says shit like that??
ceebeegee: (Me)
Interesting George Bush site.

(You can control him by clicking and dragging)
ceebeegee: (Red Heather)
From the Washington Post:

Brown displayed the command of facts that made him famous over the past month. He did not know how much FEMA had spent on communications, guessing, "a boatload of money." He had to ask members of his entourage how many MREs were in a trailer load. "I don't have a clue how many [people] were truly in the Superdome," he volunteered at one point. Asked whether he is still a federal employee, Brown said: "You know, I don't know." (He is.)

...


"I do not want to make this partisan," he said, proceeding to do just that, "so I can't help it that Alabama and Mississippi are governed by Republican governors and Louisiana is governed by a Democratic governor."

Pointing his finger, pounding the table, Brown veered from his prepared testimony to insist: "I get it" and "I know what it's all about," and "I know what I am doing" and "I do a pretty darn good job." This display produced gasps and chuckles in the gallery.

Brown did nothing to win over his questioners. Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) had to repeat a question because Brown was reading his BlackBerry. Shays had to repeat one because Brown was engrossed in his notes. When Shays pressed him about his performance, a petulant Brown complained: "So I guess you want me to be this superhero."

...

Yesterday, he might have been better off to keep some things private -- as when Jefferson complained about the lack of ice in New Orleans and Brown replied: "I think it's wrong for the federal government to be in the ice business, providing ice so I can keep my beer and Diet Coke cool."

Taylor, incredulous, asked, "How about the need to keep bodies from rotting in the sun?"

Jefferson added: "One of the major reasons that old people just suffered and died is because there was no ice."

Brown, losing control, demanded four times that Taylor not "lecture" him.

But the lecturing continued -- in a way even Pelosi would have approved. "I have come to the conclusion that this administration values loyalty more than anything else," Shays said, "more than competence or, frankly, more than the truth. And you have reinforced that view. . . . I'm left with the feeling [that] the administration feels they have to protect you."

"Well," Brown answered, "you should come over here and sit in this chair and see how protected you feel."


What a disgusting, useless...creature. God, reading that bile is infuritating. Not lecture him? That's the POINT of this--you fucked up and now you're trying to wiggle out of deserved blame. JESUS. Infuriating. It honestly makes you lose faith in the government. How could this man have been appointed to this position?

Aaaaauuugh!!!
ceebeegee: (Me)
I've been meaning to write something about this recently, and Alex reminded me...

I am very pro-Israel. As I joke, I am "to the right of Sharon." Israel is the jewel of the Middle East--they have the highest literacy rate, they're the only democracy (until Iraq gets its shit together), they're a stablizing force in that cauldron of chaos. Plus, personally, I think Jewish culture is cool as shit.

With that in mind, I have two reactions to the Gaza pullout--emotional (ideological) and pragmatic. Ideologically I think the Jewish settlers should be able to stay there as long as we can enforce their right to stay, because that land was captured in a series of wars that the Arabs started and then lost and then whined about losing the land. Too bad, so sad--the lesson is, don't start wars based on the premise of wiping out Israel (which has always been the premise for any Arab-Israeli war--until the Egyptian peace accord, all Arab countries were unilaterally against Israel's right even to exist). Because Israel will find a way to kick your ass.

Now, pragmatically, I think the Gaza pullout is a good idea. As long as Arafat was alive, Israel and the Palestinians were in a death spiral--tit for tat, terrorist bombings were met with retaliation, egged on by Hamas (openly) and Arafat (less openly). Arafat paid only lip service to the peace process for a variety of reasons--I wonder why his whole psychology was based on Palestinian "liberation" since he wasn't really Palestinian himself but Egyptian. Now that Arafat is dead, I think the new Palestinian President, Abbas, may be able to do what Arafat would not--convince the Palestinians that peace is in their best interest. The Gaza pullout is part of this peace process--it's a gesture of good faith, because Gaza was part of the occupied territories that the Palestinians lost--but it also makes sense, because if Israel wants to remain a democracy, it needs to have a majority Israeli population, and Palestinians far outnumber Israelis in the occupied territories.

After the pullout, the next step is up to the Palestinians--if they can maintain control and keep Hamas (which openly declares its intent to destroy Israel--they are not shy about that) from destroying everything, the next step will probably be the West Bank, after which I guess the Palestinians have their own state, in effect. The two-state solution, which I think is best, although the West Bank is a LOT of land--I hope they don't pull out of all of that land. But it all depends on the willingness of the Palestinians to make this work--my brother and I have talked about the peculiar psychology of the Palestinian culture, and how they always cast themselves in the role of victims. Can they cast that aside and prove themselves worthy of statehood? I think they can. I think they'll see peace is in their best interest.
ceebeegee: (Default)
If there's one thing I hate about people who do not vote, it's the excuse that all the candidates suck. It smacks of every adolescent's excuse for apathy: once childhood has passed, and the imperfection of the world is revealed, cynical inaction is so much cooler and safer than actually trying to make a difference --- especially one that might involve compromise.

Real adults realize that it is their duty to read the newspaper, find out which candidate sucks least and vote for that one, making the effort to nudge the world almost imperceptibly in the direction you want it to go in, rather than waiting for some great change.


Love this.
ceebeegee: (Default)
Don't forget to vote in the primaries today!
ceebeegee: (Default)
God, Al Sharpton is such an asshole. At the Democratic debate last night he tore into Howard Dean for not appointing a black or Latino to his Cabinet during his tenure as governor. Um, Al? Have you done any research into this at all? Do you know anything about Vermont? It's lily-white. Like 98% white. Are you honestly suggesting he should've gone way out of his way to appoint a minority member just to make you happy? What, should he have bussed one in? He appointed a representative cabinet.
ceebeegee: (Default)
Richard Gephardt is doing his part to win over the valuable female vote.

(sorry, Dennis!)

Profile

ceebeegee: (Default)
ceebeegee

May 2020

S M T W T F S
     12
3456 789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 7th, 2025 04:21 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios