White House Threatens San Francisco Chronicle for Reporting Protest at Obama Fundraiser (Video)

According to San Francisco Chronicle editor Ward Bushee:

"The White House threatened Thursday to exclude The San Francisco Chronicle from pooled coverage of its events in the Bay Area after the paper posted a video of a protest at a San Francisco fundraiser for President Obama last week."

After the story made Drudge, the White House denied everything, reports Politico.

Chronicle editor Ward Bushee responds to the White House denial:

"Sadly, we expected the White House to respond in this manner based on our experiences yesterday. It is not a truthful response. It follows a day of off-the-record exchanges with key people in the White House communications office who told us they would remove our reporter, then threatened retaliation to Chronicle and Hearst reporters if we reported on the ban, and then recanted to say our reporter might not be removed after all."

Here's the video of the protest at the Obama fundraiser, the video the White House doesn't want you to see:


"Historically, part of what makes for a healthy democracy, what is good politics, is when you've got citizens who are informed." - Barack Obama

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Donald Trump Delivers Stream of "F" Bombs In Stump Speech (Video)

The leading presidential contender from The Darker Side:



"Listen you mother f***ers we're going to tax you 25 percent," Trump says.

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Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship

In a telling sign of the times, Superman is renouncing his U.S. citizenship. Why? In the words of Superman:

"I'm tired of having my actions construed as instruments of U.S. policy. 'Truth, justice and the American way' -- it's not enough anymore."

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Julianne Moore As Sarah Palin: First Photo

The photo is the first released of Sarah Palin, as portrayed by Julianne Moore, in the HBO film Game Change.

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Obama Dismisses Donald Trump As 'Carnival Barker'

In political news fit for the tabloids, today the President of the United States attempted to quiet the lunatics by releasing his long-form birth certificate. The President dismissed wannabe GOP nominee Donald Trump as a 'carnival barker'

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Angry Voters Confront GOP Rep. Over Vote to End Medicare, Slash Medicaid, Extend Tax Breaks For Rich (Video)

Similar backlash among voters to the Republican budget has played out for other congressmen across the country, including Reps. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), Charlie Bass (R-NH), Chris Gibson (R-NY), Robert Dold (R-IL), and Sean Duffy (R-WI). . Provisions of the Republican budget, which ends Medicare, slashes Medicaid, and extends tax breaks for the wealthy, is opposed by strong majorities of Americans, including over 7 in 10 Republican voters as well.

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TN State House Votes to Kill Nashville's Gay Non Discrimination Law

The State's war on the rights of local government continues. Next the State's FU to Nashville or the hateful 'It's Okay to Discriminate Against Gays' bill moves to Tennessee's homophobic Senate:

After a testy debate in which Democrats accused Republicans of homophobia, the state House voted overwhelmingly Monday night to nullify Nashville’s new anti-gay bias ordinance and to ban any such laws in the future in any other Tennessee city.

Tell Governor Haslam to oppose and veto the SAD Act.

TEP: Let's thank those who voted for equality
TGW: Sicko State Lawmakers Hot to Overturn Nashville's Gay Non-Discrimination Law

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'Countdown With Keith Olbermann' Debuts on Current TV June 20

Olbermann's new show will be called 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' and will run on Al Gore's Current TV in the exact same timeslot (sorry, Lawrence O'Donnell) as his old MSNBC Countdown show. The show will also repeat in the same timeslots. The first show will air on June 20, 2011 at 8 p.m. ET.

If Olbermann's one million viewers follow him to Current TV, this will be the beginning of America's 2nd viable liberal network:

As Olbermann notes in a video on his FOK News Channel website, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That, and apparently NBCUniversal did not trademark the “Countdown” name.

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Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders: Sheryl Sandberg’s TED Talk (Video)

This is good.


"If you ask men why they did a good job, they say, 'I'm awesome.' If you ask women why they did a good job, what they'll say is someone helped them, they got lucky, they worked really hard."

via Good Angel

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Ashley Judd Speaks to Tavis Smiley About Soundtrack of Misogyny Comments (Video)

via Jezebel
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Law Firm Backs Out of Defense of DOMA

The poor old insecure-about-their-masculinity House of Representatives will have to find a new law firm:

In a real victory for supporters of same-sex marriage .. a major law firm has reversed course and will refuse to represent the House of Representatives in defending the Defense of Marriage Act. . The statement is silent on the reasons for the decision, but the firm faced protests at its Atlanta office and a national campaign against it. And now the House majority may have to find a new lawyer.

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Ex N.J. Gov. McGreevey Denied Priesthood Not for Being Gay, But For Being Jackass

Turns out that coming out as gay is not enough to save Jim McGreevey from himself:

According to a source at the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, his rejection was not for "being gay but for being a jackass." ... McGreevey's been telling friends he was told he needed a few more years of "seasoning" before he could get behind the pulpit. Apparently, "seasoning" is church code for "waiting until people forget that you told everyone you and your wife used to have threesomes with a campaign staffer."

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The Bad Old Days of the Women's Liberation Movement

Over at Forbes' She Negotiates, Victoria Pynchon is thinking about the 1970s and the impact of the women's liberation movement on her life:

Why I Returned to the Women’s Movement – Part I

Excuse Me While I Go Spend a Few Decades Becoming a Man - I made a consciously clean break with the women’s movement and feminist politics in my first week of law school when when I decided not to join the Women’s Caucus – now King Hall’s Feminist Forum. I did not want to be a “woman lawyer.” I just wanted to be a lawyer. And the farther away from women’s issues I was, the easier I assumed it would be for me to become something I know only in retrospect was impossible – a genderless professional.

Photo: 1972 Sexist 'Keep Her Where She Belongs' shoe ad UPDATE: Weyenberg Massagic Footwear, 1972, the sexist ad was reprinted in the 'No Comment' section of Ms., December 1974 after appearing in Playboy magazine. The vintage sexist ad appeared in Sociological Images last year. According to Feminist Phoenix: the rise and fall of a feminist counterculture , after N.O.W. protested the sexist ad in 1972, Weyenberg responded by claiming the shoe company was taking a stand for masculinity and against the women's liberation movement! N.O.W. subsequently shamed Weyenberg with its 'Keep Her in Her Place' award.

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Shut Down the Fraternities

An excerpt from Ms. Flanagan's riveting testimony (Wall Street Journal Op-ed - trigger warning!) on the need to shut down the fraternities that serve as campus rape headquarters:

The Greek system is dedicated to quelling young men's anxiety about submitting themselves to four years of sissy-pants book learning by providing them with a variety of he-man activities: drinking, drugging, ESPN watching and the sexual mistreatment of women. . . It is against this boorish cartel that 16 Yale students and recent alumni asserted themselves in a Title IX complaint brought against the institution last month—a complaint that could cost the university $500 million in federal funds.

The claim concerns both the ways that sexual assaults are handled by the university and also the effect that various fraternity "pranks" have had on its female students. The last straw for the complainants seems to have been a Delta Kappa Epsilon initiation last fall in which a mob of pledges chanted "No Means Yes! Yes Means Anal!" and other enlightening slogans.

Can the mere presence of slur-chanting fraternity men really create an environment that robs young women of equal opportunity to education? Yes, it can. . .

If you want to improve women's lives on campus, if you want to give them a fair shot at living and learning as freely as men, the first thing you could do is close down the fraternities. The Yale complaint may finally do what no amount of female outrage and violation has accomplished. It just might shut them down for good.

Frat boy wannabes' rape chant: “No means yes, yes means anal,” and “F---ing sluts,” outside the college’s Old Campus—where most first-year women are housed:


The Title IX Complaint Against Yale
Frat Culture's Woman Problem
Yale Being Investigated As 'Hostile Sexual Environment'
It's Not Just Yale

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Pregnant Girls' School Shut Down by Republicans; Girls Protest

From Rachel Maddow:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More at The Michigan Citizen

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Gay Suicide Student’s Roommate Indicted

Bully and former Rutgers University freshman Dharun Ravi was indicted Wednesday for a hate crime after his use of a webcam to spy on his gay roommate's sexual encounter led to the heart-breaking suicide of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi:

A shy 18-year-old, an accomplished violinist, learns a month into the school year that his college roommate has been spying, via a computer webcam, on his sexual relations with another young man. This student is not openly gay, nor does he know how many of his peers have viewed the recording. So it’s easy to imagine that Tyler Clementi was assuming the worst when, two days later, on September 21, the Rutgers freshman jumped 202 feet to his death from the George Washington Bridge. . . On Wednesday, the case made headlines yet again when a Middlesex, New Jersey grand jury issued a 15-count indictment against Ravi, adding bias intimidation to the previous charges of privacy invasion—essentially, alleging that Ravi’s act rises to the level of hate crime because Clementi was gay.

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Wonkette Attacks Down Syndrome Child Trig Palin; Advertisers Bolt

Wonkette is not a fit substitute for toilet paper. After calling 3-year-old Trig Palin a "retard" and publishing a photo of Sarah Palin's little boy in a collage with an animated stripper (!), advertisers like Papa John's and Huggies have left the building in total disgust.

Meanwhile right-wing bloggers point to Wonkette as proof that liberals are EVIL baby-haters. Yeah, but this liberal baby-lover had no respect for Wonkette even before the depraved publication stooped to calling a baby a "retard."

For gawd's sake, even blatant misogynist Bill Maher has agreed to eliminate that hurtful word from his shock-jock vocabulary.

Update: Advertisers matter. Wonkette has deleted the offensive post, including the graphic of 3 year old Trig Palin being entertained by an animated stripper (!): Rude Post Deleted By Editor; Author Apologizes.

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Gov. Perry Issues Proclamation for Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas

Welcome to America folks. What's next? Governmental Proclamations directing us to pray for dancing virgins?

From the Office of the Governor of the Apparent Theocratic State of Texas:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal and robust way of life.

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto signed my name and have officially caused the Seal of State to be affixed at my Office in the City of Austin, Texas, this the 21st day of April, 2011.

RICK PERRY
Governor of Texas

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Tennessee Republicans Attack Teachers, Collective Bargaining Rights, Again

Tennessee Republicans are still after our teachers:

Republican state senators, hoping to appease opponents, unveiled their new proposal Wednesday to outlaw collective bargaining by public school teachers.

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Sicko State Lawmakers Hot to Overturn Nashville's Gay Non-Discrimination Law

Tennessee's homophobic state lawmakers plan to vote on Bill 600 Monday night. Bill 600 is the GOP's pro discrimination against gays and lesbians bill (Bill 600 - "Equal Access to Intrastate Commerce Act” - text here, pdf ).

The Tennessee Equality Project has dubbed Bill 600, the Special Access to Discriminate Act (SAD).

There are so many homophobes in Tennessee's Republican-dominated legislature that no one doubts that the hateful bill will pass.

SAD is also a direct assault on Nashville and the right of all local governments to enact policies reflecting the values of our communities. Nashville will not take this lying down. Tennessee's Big Government Republicans need to stay out of the business of local government!

TGW: State Seeks to Overturn Nashville's Gay Non-Discrimination Ordinance (Video)
TGW: Legislating Homophobia: David Fowler Conspires With State to Overturn Nashville's Anti-Gay Bias Law (Video)
TN : Passing House Bill 600 means death to progressive business in TN : Oppose HB600

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The Day Abortion Becomes An Unquestioned Right

Or in the words of Gloria Steinem:

If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.

and

If Men Could Menstruate.. men would brag about how long and how much.

Cartoon via BAC @ YIKES!

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Flash Mob Protest at Target (Video)

Flash Mob (SEIU) at an L.A. Target.

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Repubs Vote to End Medicare (Video)

David Dayen at Firedoglake points out just how bad this ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is:

Why would you play this funny? Why give the message that old people are worthy of derision, essentially because they’re old? This looks like a really bad Super Bowl spot when the issue discussed is deadly serious. Republicans are claiming that the ad represents “scare tactics” but no, I could show you scare tactics. A closeup of a senior’s hand as she struggles in the last throes of life and then pulling out to reveal she’s laying on the middle of the sidewalk as white men in suits ignore her, that’s scare tactics. This looks like a GoDaddy ad. Furthermore, it gets progressively worse. . .


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New DNC Chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz Leads on Tighter Gun Control Laws

She hasn't even moved into her new position as DNC Chief yet and already Debbie Wasserman Schultz is making the Democratic Party sound like a party that has something called core Democratic values:

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the current law, which allows private firearm sales without background checks, is "outrageous." The Florida Democrat is sponsoring a soon-to-be-released proposal extending the screening requirements to all gun purchases, commercial or private.

"It is outrageous that gun buyers evade the background-check system every day, even in broad daylight," Wasserman Schultz said Monday at a gun-reform rally in Miami sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

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Most Sexist Late Night Doods Employ 1 Token Woman Writer; Bill Maher Has Zero

Surprise. Famed misogynist Bill Maher scores at rock bottom in the category of token women writers. Maher's show Real Time has exactly zero female writers. All Maher has to do is hire 1 token woman writer and he will be right up there with most of the sexist late night doods:

Bill Maher - 0
Jay Leno - 1
Stephen Colbert - 1
Conan O'Brien - 1
David Letterman - 1
Craig Ferguson - 1
Jimmy Kimmel - 1

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Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton Photo of the Day

Via Jezebel: Secretary of Class: Seoul, South Korea, April 16: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton comes out from a plane upon her arrival at Seoul military airport.

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GE (Tax Evader) Objects to Hoax Website

It turns out that the mega corporation and willful tax-evader GE is super sensitive to criticism. GE doesn't like to be mocked and so wants the hoax website, genewscenters.com, to be taken down:

It seems GE isn’t laughing about the hoax implemented by the Yes Men and US Uncut. Yesterday, the activist groups posted a fake press release allegedly from GE stating the company intended to donate its entire $3.2 billion tax refund to the US Treasury. The website, genewscenters.com, is a fake website hosted by BlueHost (the real GE-owned website is genewscenter.com). GE immediately demanded the hoax website be taken down, which US Uncut views as an attack on their freedom of speech.

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Jane Curtin: John Belushi Was a Misogynist

Quote of the Day

"[SNL] was primarily a misogynistic environment. . [John Belushi ] said, 'Women are just fundamentally not funny.' He felt as though it was his duty to sabotage pieces that were written by women."

-- Jane Curtin, on the Oprah Show

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Feminist Film of the Day: !Women Art Revolution (Video)

When you're a woman, it's hard to tell that you're being censored when you're not in a museum to begin with.


When Female Artists Were Storming the Gates -- In “!Women Art Revolution,” Lynn Hershman Leeson’s new documentary about the female artists of the 1970s and ’80s who fought to break through into the male-dominated American art world, a film crew asks people outside the Whitney Museum in New York in 2008 and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2009 if they can name three female artists. No one can.

It tells the stories of major figureheads in the feminist art movement like Judy Chicago, Nancy Spero and the Guerrilla Girls collective through a blend of archival footage, artist commentaries gathered by the filmmaker over 35 years and narration by Ms. Hershman Leeson.

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