Whenever I think of the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, I think about his bitter frothing-at-the-mouth angry columns criticizing that 'bitch candidate' who had the audacity to fight the boyz for the Democratic nomination in 2008. The election season is over, but Dana Milbank is still frothing. In a pathetically sexist and limp attempt at humor, the bitter boy columnist suggests that "Mad Bitch" beer is the appropriate drink for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Chris Cillizza is Milbank's accomplice.
The so-called "journalists" and the paper need to apologize asap. Tell them: ombudsman@washpost.com main phone: 703-469-2500 / main fax: 703-469-2995 [via]
The People Speak, an adaption of Howard Zinn's phenomenal history book -- A People's History of the United States -- will soon air on the History Channel. All about history from the bottom up, all about what this country desperately needs - unruly people fed up with what passes for democracy in this country. And it includes women. Just imagine.
"A documentary based on Howard Zinn's groundbreaking books A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People's History of the United States, featuring music by Bruce Springsteen and performances by Viggo Mortensen, Sandra Oh, Sean Penn, Rosario Dawson, Don Cheadle, John Legend, and many other great performers, will air on TV and be released on a special DVD. The documentary, The People Speak, shows the rich history of dissent in our history, and explores why it is so relevant and urgent today."
“They are the villains in this. They have been part of the problem in a major way. And the public has to know that. They can disguise their arguments any way they want, but the fact is that they don’t want the competition.
Hillary Clinton says running for office isn't on her "radar," but she still has an eight-person political team and sports two overflowing campaign war chests. . .
[A]nalysts said as long as Clinton has a campaign committee with millions of dollars in it - dormant or not - she has weight in the political world. "It raises questions about that nascent presidential campaign for 2016 - and she didn't close the door on that, if you read her remarks carefully," said the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato.
Jane Hamsher on why the new health care compromise called "co-ops" is just another name for a fake public option:
I know many were delighted with President Obama's defense of a "public option" yesterday. But coming on the heels of Robert Gibbs' statement that the President doesn't prefer a public option over co-ops, I listened carefully and my impression is that this is just Phase III of the co-op squeeze play: try to say co-ops are just as good as a public option and convince people that having a true public option just isn't a big deal. Because that's what Kent Conrad designed them for -- as he told me, he came up with them when it was determined that there "weren't enough votes" for a public option (and the public most certainly wanted one).
It's why Jerry Nadler called co-ops the "fake" public option: make the 76% of Americans who want a public option feel like they got one without actually having to give them one. There's a reason insurance stocks are soaring.
Want universal health care? Go to Canada, or France, or Germany, or Sweden, or Norway, or Britain, or Spain, or Japan, or Turkey, or Switzerland, or Japan, or Ireland, or Iceland, or South Korea, or Poland, or Cuba, or Australia, etc. Rally for Single Payer in Nashville at Blue Dog Jim Cooper's Office - July 30
"The three highly trained guys who reacted badly are getting together for a beer. The one person whose actions have been exemplary will be at work tomorrow in Cambridge. I don't know — maybe it's a guy thing. She doesn't like beer anyway."
Bob Corker will not be voting for any wise women. The junior senator from Tennessee will stick to the American tradition of voting for men.
“After much deliberation and careful review, I have determined that Judge Sotomayor’s record and many of her past statements reflect a view of the Supreme Court that is different from my own. . I’m disappointed to say, I will not be able to support Judge Sotomayor’s nomination.”
Yeah, she is different. And having four or five women on the High Court would be even more different. It's already hard enough to find women who will shut up and do as they're told.
Corker is the guy who made headlines for refusing to wait a few extra minutes for Sonia Sotomayor to get to his office. She was on crutches. But Bob Corker has never been accused of being wise. Losing Tennessee's sizable Hispanic vote renders Corker into a miserable failure when it comes to making decisions worthy of wise Latina women.
It's clear from the video clip below that the entire Gatesgate affair has been a stressful ordeal for Lucia Whalen. She is the woman who made the 911 call that led to the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., the "stupidly" remark by President Obama, endless hours of cable news chatter and tomorrow's "beer summit."
After the 911 tape revealed that Ms. Whalen did not identify Gates and his driver as "black men," the cable news channels concluded that she must not be a racist after all. It's fortunate for Ms. Whalen that she could not see well enough to identify the race of the men, else they would still be calling her "racist." Is it just me, or has the country gone stark raving mad?
A clearly distressed Lucia Whalen addressed reporters at a press conference in an effort to clear her name after the city released the 911 tape. It revealed that Whalen did not identify either of the men she thought she saw trying to break into Gates' home as black, even though an initial police report said she did.
"When I was called racist and I was a target of scorn and ridicule because of the things I never said, the criticisms hurt me as a person, but it also hurt the community of Cambridge," Whalen said. Whalen said repeatedly in the July 16 call that she didn't have a good vantage point and could not see what the two men trying to get into the home looked like. When pressed by a dispatcher on whether the men were white, black or Hispanic, Whalen said one of them might have been Hispanic.
On Racism: This morning Mika and her all male panel had a lengthy discussion about lunatic Glen Beck’s absurd charge that Obama is a racist. The all male panel concluded that calling someone "racist" is a conversation stopper and people, both black and white, should stop it already. Mika didn’t talk much but she thoroughly agreed with everything the men said.
The last person speaking was an African American male. Sorry, I’ve forgotten his name. Maybe it’s sexist of me, but sometimes all the male faces look the same. But I digress.
At the end of his remarks, Mika dismissed the African-American male pundit with a word that white men and their followers have, for centuries, used to humiliate and demean black men.
Mika said to the black man: “Atta boy!”
On Sexism: Once again, Mika and her all male panel discussed the many things wrong with Sarah Palin. She’s too stupid to be taken seriously, she’s ignorant, she’s a flake, she’s a waste of time, the testy all male panel went on and on and on . . .
Mika didn't say much, but that's not her job. Mika's job is to make it appear that the Morning Joe Show is not the Morning Male Show.
The haughty Lawrence O’Donnell Jr. dismissed the charge that Palin has faced sexism with the counter charge that McCain was sexist when he chose Sarah Palin since he was obviously going after the “sexist female” vote. Because sexism is not a panel of men discussing the stupidity of women. Because sexism is not an insufferably dominating male media. Because, in a country that holds an international rank of #72 in the number of women elected to office, sexism is women voting for their gender!
The video clip below is from a couple of days ago, some of the faces on Mika’s testosterone-laden all male panel have changed, but the words are mostly the same.
“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”
Maxine Waters, health care hero, zeros in on the problem - the health care bill is becoming a piece of work largely not worth fighting for because the White House refuses to reign in the Blue Dogs. See Jane Hamsher for more. .
KERY ELEVELD: There are reports out of the Senate Finance Committee today that they may be dropping the public option in their negotiations. Do you think that's going to sell in the House?
MAXINE WATERS: No. As a matter of fact, that's a kill for sure for the progressives. For the majority, I think, of our members a public option is a compromise -- we wanted single payer as you know, and we backed off because they said that was going to be impossible to do. Again they brought up the more conservative elements, etc. etc., and so we will not support any bill that does not have a public option in it.
Lobby Day and Rally - July, 30th -Celebrate Medicare’s 44th Birthday by showing Congress and President Obama that unions, doctors, nurses, seniors, faith groups, and Americans of every stripe support single-payer healthcare. The best way to save this system is to expand it and make it a truly single-payer system by removing the for-profit interests.
Single payer advocates in attendance will include Congressman John Conyers, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Senator Bernie Sanders and President Obama’s former personal physician, Dr. David Scheiner.
Here in Nashville, Tennesseans will rally outside Rep. Jim Cooper's office downtown. The Nashville Rally for Health Care Reform is sponsored by the Nashville Chapter of Healthcare Now!; Tennessee Physicians for a National Healthcare Program; Nashville Peace & Justice Center; Nashville Chapter of Veterans for Peace and friends.
Rally & Lobby Rep. Cooper for REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM!
When: Thursday, July 30, 2009 12 noon to 1:00 PM
Where: Rep. Jim Cooper's Office 605 Church St. Nashville 37219
Contact: Jane Steinfels Hussain, (615) 650-8868, 429-4739, janehussa...@aol.com
Directions: Rep. Cooper's Office is located in the main public library building downtown at 605 Church Street. The office has an exterior entrance off Church Street.
This is a family friendly event -- the presence of children is encouraged. Cake and other homemade goodies will be served to the staff at Congressman Cooper's office by mothers and others who want to see real health care reform for families and all! Children and other marginalized citizens deserve a bigger piece of the pie! Positive signage and messaging is encouraged.
"The reason we have a fascination with Sarah Palin - men and women: This is the first woman in power that has sexual appeal and people don't know what to do with it. . .
This is a new definition of female power we have never seen before. Men and women are learning how to process it. They're fascinated. Once they get past that, she'll be nothing but a media figure. She'll never be a political figure."
Sorry Donny, Sarah Palin is NOT the first woman in power with sex appeal. Nor is there anything new about your pathetically limp "analysis." We've seen this before. Back in the day when the planet was even more infested with blathering sexist swine like you, women were universally banned from speaking in the church. It was argued that if women were free to address the male congregations, the men would be totally helpless and weak, so helpless that they would be unable to avoid the sin of penile erections. Here it is 2009, and boyz like Donny Deutsch still can't help themselves.
The pundits are in a tizzy today because Sarah Palin blasted the media for attacking children and for spreading gossip rather than facts. To thunderous applause, the former Governor of Alaska, explicitly instructed the media to "leave [the new Governor's] kids alone" and to "quit making things up."
From the Morning Joe crew to the famously sexist Chris Matthews, the media boyz are scratching their heads, claiming to have no clue about what in hell Sarah Palin was talking about. Reports laden with sensationalistic drama-queen rhetoric from reporters such as CBS' Scott Conroy and Steve Chaggaris give the impression that the general consensus is that Sarah Palin was mean to the media! The reporters suggest that it is unwise for Palin to attack the media, presumably because the media will retaliate:
Palin's conviction that she has been wronged by the press may be heartfelt, but it is difficult to see how the long-term benefits of constantly berating journalists outweigh the negative impacts.
And Chris Matthews accusesSarah Palin of playing the victim card!
"She goes after the media in a way I've never heard before. . What was she referring to there?"
Congressman Jim Cooper is up to his old tricks. The DINO writes in Sunday's Tennessean that he's voting against the House health care reform bill because "sadly" it's not good enough for Tennesseans. By which the Blue Dog means that the bill's not good enough for Cooper's insurance industry cronies. In other words, the bill has a public option!
It wasn't enough that Cooper helped sabotage Hillary Clinton's health care plan in the 1990s, he's determined to give us a repeat performance.
Most people in liberal Nashville can't figure out how we got stuck with this ultra conservative DINO. We pray that the rumors are true about a forthcoming well-funded primary opponent who will kick Cooper's heavily insured pampered ass.
Given all that Jim Cooper has done to kill health-care reform, why is it that my tax dollars are paying for his health care when I can’t even afford my own?
Moyers and guests discuss the many problems with Obama's health care reform plan, (if there is a plan). "This week on the JOURNAL, Bill Moyers spoke with two leading healthcare journalists, Trudy Lieberman and Marcia Angell, M.D., seeking their perspectives on the current health reform debate in Washington. Lieberman and Angell each addressed whether the “public option” proposed by President Obama would actually serve to insure all Americans and who in the private health industry stands to benefit from the reforms under discussion."
Money quote: Could it be that this time Harry and Louise are happy with the deal because this time they are in on the deal?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Failed presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said on Sunday she hoped there would a female U.S. president in her lifetime but ruled out the chance she would run again. Now secretary of state in the Cabinet of her onetime rival President Barack Obama, Clinton said it was a "daunting" challenge for a woman to run for president.
"It will take the right woman who can make the case and win the votes and get elected. I am certainly hoping it will happen in my lifetime," she told NBC's "Meet the Press" program. When pressed whether she would run again, she said, "I have absolutely no belief, in my mind, that that will happen."
Clinton declined comment on the presidential prospects for outgoing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who was Republican contender Senator John McCain's running mate in last year's race.
Howard Kurtz and guest panelists discuss the drooling boyz media exploitation of the Erin Andrews video. Kudos to Howard Kurtz. When the topic is misogyny, Kurtz has the odd habit of actually inviting women to the discussion table. In 2009, this is still rare. Anyone who doubts that we are still effectively living in the cave is not paying attention to the incredibly adolescent-male-centered nature of the media.
This ad targeting Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) is from Healthcare NOW!and it's running on my tv a lot! Tell Sen. Alexander to support the people not the insurance companies.
Heigl plays a type of woman we have been seeing a lot lately. The good at work but bad at life woman. She is the producer of a morning show who turns into a walking idiot when she allows Gerard Butler's Mike to school her in the ways of dating. He basically says no guy would want a woman with your personality so dump who you are and pretend to be someone else cause that's how you will get the guy. The film is riddled with cliches about competent women and how they are all control freaks, have cats, wear ponytails, wear comfortable clothes, don't masturbate etc. Basically the film's premise tells women to throw out 40 years of women's progress cause it's such a turn off. BTW the film also sells out and demeans men.
And if all that isn't bad enough, the film was written by women.
Obama didn't say anything about abortion during his health care reform press conference last week. But when Katie Couric asked him if he would support federally subsidized insurance plans that cover abortion, Obama said he would fight to the death for women's rights!
"As you know, I'm pro-choice. But I think we also have the tradition of, in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government-funded healthcare."
In other words, I'm all for your rights, but I won't lift a finger for you. Who knew the first African-American president would make the case for honoring tradition? Conservative Democrats must be happy. The DINOS have "vowed not to vote for any bill that doesn't include explicit language banning the use of federal funds for abortion."
Build the feminist case for single-payer health care, including coverage for the full range of women's reproductive services, so that every woman and girl, no matter her race or immigration status, has access to the health care that is her human right.
Sounds good, but it's going to take a lot more than sending out e-mails. Let me repeat, we have a Democratic president, a Democratic House and a Democratic senate, but women aren't going to win this one.
I believe candidate Obama addressed this last year when he said: where are they going to go?
Dell will cough up $9.1 million to settle a sex discrimination class action lawsuit filed by two former employees in Austin, Texas. Under the terms of the settlement, Dell refuses to plead guilty to sex discrimination, but if you are a woman who is working for, or has worked for, Dell you may be eligible for some money.
The lawsuit was filed in 2008 by Jill Hubley, who was a senior strategist at a Dell division in Round Rock, Texas, where the company is based. She was later joined by Laura Guenther, a former Dell senior manager at the same location.
Their suit claimed that Dell “systematically denied equal employment opportunities to its female employees” in compensation and promotions, according the complaint. The company discriminated against women in training, in assignments of positions outside the U.S. and in programs designed to accelerate advancement, the complaint said.
In a highly charged press conference, officials from Massachusetts police unions and other police associations expressed their unqualified support for Sgt. Crowley and stated that it is President Obama and Governor Deval Patrick who should apologize.
"[President Obama's] remarks were obviously misdirected but made it worse yet by suggesting somehow this case should remind us of a history of racial abuse by law enforcement," Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said at a news conference.
"Whatever may be the history, we deeply resent the implications and reject any suggestion that in this case or any other case that they've allowed a person's race to direct their activities."
The officials stressed that both President Obama and Governor Patrick admitted that they did not have all the facts. Also noted was the President's bias in favor of his friend Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. Police officials said that there was nothing "stupid" about what happened. Officials explicitly rejected Obama's suggestion that the arrest of Professor Gates was a racist incident.
Sgt. James Crowley is considering filing a defamation of character or libel lawsuit in response to the charges of racism and "rogue cop" leveled at him by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates.
ABC News reports that the "White House said . . that President Obama 'regrets' the furor his remarks on the arrest of his friend Henry Louis Gates Jr. have caused. . . "
Police are considering releasing the police tapes which include "the 911 call reporting a break-in at Gates’ home and radio transmissions by the cop who busted him July 16 for disorderly conduct."
Glad to see I'm not the only one who is sick and tired of having to hunt far and wide for a movie that's not always and forever all about the men. This comes from Froma Harrop:
Today only 28 percent of the movie actors with speaking parts are female. In 1946, the number was 25 percent. The few actresses chosen are mostly under 40, and even the supposedly older parts are filled with women far younger than their characters.
In “Alexander” (2004), Angela Jolie was one year older than the actor playing her son. As the mature Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate” (1967), Anne Bancroft was only six years older than Dustin Hoffman, the recent college boy she was trying to seduce. Gloria Swanson had just turned 50 when she portrayed the haggard Norma Desmond. . .
If the middle-age men running Hollywood need to surround themselves with young chicks, that’s their business. But ordinary and older women buy lots of tickets. They want to see their stories told.
The cop who arrested Professor Henry Louis Gates has been teaching a class to cops on racial profiling for five years, according to ABC News.
Reportedly, Professor Gates called the police officer a "racist." The professor "exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior" and repeatedly shouted at the police officer.
I think it's completely outrageous for anyone to be arrested at their own home for the 'disorderly conduct' of challenging a police officer's right to be in that home. And it's a fact that blacks are disproportionately harassed and abused and arrested by cops.
Still, you don't have to be black to be arrested for sassing a cop. It happens to white people and it happens to uppity women all the time. I sassed a cop when I was a teen-ager. He arrested me. My teen-age daughter sassed a cop. He was a complete jerk who was insufferably patronizing and rude. I swallowed my pride and did some major sucking up to get him to take the handcuffs off my young daughter and let her go home with me.
I'm happy that Professor Henry Louis Gates is so privileged that he is able to freely express his anger and outrage to a cop's face. Myself, I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. Experience has taught me that if a cop is being rude to you, too bad. You better smile sweetly and appease him real quick because if you return the rudeness, you will be arrested.
The men on the cable news channels are talking a blue streak about racism, but really it sounds like the entire affair can be chalked up to the collision of two enormous male egos.
Obama said the cop behaved "stupidly." Yeah, well, so did the Professor.
If you missed the story, ESPN reporter Erin Anderson was filmed naked by a creepy Peeping Tom through a peephole in 2 hotel rooms. ESPN has promised legal action against any media outlet that publishes the material. "In light of the New York Post's decision to run graphic photos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, we have decided to stop utilizing Post reporters on any of our outlets," ESPN's senior VP of communications, Chris LaPlaca said.
"Erin was grievously wronged here, and while we understand the Post's decision to cover this as a news story, their running photos obtained in such a fashion went well beyond the boundaries of common decency in the interest of sensationalism. This is not a decision we undertook lightly, but we feel it is an appropriate one."
Gwen over at Sociological Images posted this little 1950s chart about judging the bodies of women for beauty contests. She also provides the comparable livestock charts and makes the connection to her childhood experience with judging livestock in the 4-H club.
I wonder if we'll ever get an apology for what has been done to girls and women. At this point, progress would be a simple acknowledgment that it has been and is being done, along with some semblance of an effort to STOP IT! Obviously we are a very long way from being there.
1950s Beauty Pageant Judging Guidelines:
ALL FIGURED OUT–This chart is used by judges as [a] guide in picking Miss Universe. First six show figure flaws, seventh is perfectly proportioned. (1) Shoulders too square. (2) Shoulders too sloping. (3) Hips too wide. (4) Shoulder bones too pronounced. (5) Shoulders and back hunched. (6) Legs irregular, with spaces at calves, knees, thighs. (7) The form divine, needs only a beautiful face.
During the health care reform press conference last night, President Obama said the police acted "stupidly" when arresting his friend, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates in his own home!
I was surprised to hear Obama speak so frankly, I wish he would do it more often. He could start by speaking frankly about the benefits of a single payer health care system. At any rate, I expect that now everyone is going to be much more interested in talking about Gatesgate than health care reform.
"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry," Mr Obama said. "Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three - what I think we know separate and apart from this incident - is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and...
Depraved sickos like these give humans a bad name. They should not be allowed near any animals, human or otherwise. When they're not abusing elephants, they're probably drowning cats and beating women. Massive doses of shame and stigma seem to be the only cure for this kind of depraved behavior. Ringling Brothers should pay for the therapy of their depraved employees. And Ringling Brothers should forever lose the "right" to treat animals like amusing slaves.
The undercover PETA employee scored a job with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and traveled with the circus as it toured seven states, a spokesman said. . . "He witnessed these elephants being beaten for no apparent reason," said Daphna Nachminovitch, PETA's vice president for cruelty investigations, who described the abuse as "consistent" and "routine."
As a result of the latest video, PETA filed a formal complaint yesterday with the Agriculture Department under the Animal Welfare Act. It also plans to file complaints today in seven states where the show performed, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island, a spokesman said.
Hillary Rodham Clinton will appear on David Gregory's Meet the Press this Sunday -- for the full hour.
According to MTP's website: "She'll go one-on-one with David Gregory about her role in the Obama administration and the many hot spots around the globe: Nuclear threats in Iran and North Korea; Fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan; the continuing war in Iraq; her trip this week to India and Thailand; and upcoming talks with China."
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is scary on so many levels. If you doubt it, check out the video clip below. Always she is obsessed with the money, unless there is a war to wage.
Now Congresswoman Blackburn seems to be saying, with incredible insensitivity, that we can save money if we don't go all out to rescue people during disasters like Katrina. The value of human lives versus the value of the money, it's truly no contest for true blue conservatives like Marsha Blackburn.
Let's agree that we're going to have PAYGO enforcement. That we're not going to cry 'emergency' every time we have a Katrina, every time we have a Tsunami, every time we have a need for extra spending, that we don't go call for a special appropriation that allows us to circumvent the PAYGO rules.
Bill Clinton is coming to Nashville to keynote the Dems' annual Jackson Day fundraiser. Tennessee Democrats are in desperate need of a little life blood, and Bill Clinton is all of that!
Reportedly "it was former Gov. Ned Ray McWherter who persuaded Clinton." The fundraiser will be held downtown at the Renaissance Hotel on August 29. Oh happy day!
Five months late, Chris Brown apologizes for his savagely violent assault on Rihanna. Better late than never, I guess, but this looks like nothing more than a desperate attempt to save the career of a violent misogynist.
Brown was reportedly seen making-out with another singer, Amber Rose at something called the "All White" party in Los Angeles, something Rose denies. Rihanna's moved on, first sitting away from Brown at Game Four of the 2009 NBA Finals, then recently seen with Pharell Williams, the star of N.E.R.D, according to The Star Online. . . Amber Rose better watch out because she won't like Chris Brown when he's angry; Rihanna certainly didn't and after today will not like him for a long time.
