Current TV Fires Keith Olbermann

--- UPDATE: Keith says he's suing because everything is Al Gore's fault. ---

Keith is fired again! Apparently, this sexist man is the intolerably short-tempered egomaniac everyone says he is:

Current indicated that he had failed to honor the terms of his five-year, $50 million contract, giving the channel the right to terminate it...Mr. Olbermann will not be given an opportunity to sign off...It was the culmination, at least in part, of months of infighting between the famously temperamental Mr. Olbermann and his bosses at Current, including Mr. Hyatt, and David Bohrman, the channel’s president.

OPEN LETTER TO THE VIEWERS OF CURRENT:

Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.

David Dayen at firedoglake reminds us:

Olbermann now has the distinction of being fired from almost every major cable news channel on television – CNN, MSNBC and now Current. He never appeared on Fox News, but he did work for Fox Broadcasting, and was fired from there. As he would say on ESPN, you can’t stop him, you can’t even hope to contain him.

Related: TGW: Keith Olbermann, You are a Misogynist, Not a Progressive (Video)

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RIP Revered Feminist Author Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich, the great feminist icon and author has died. Author of 'Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence' and 'Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution,' her writing has been celebrated in virtually every women's studies course on the planet. She will be sorely missed:

Adrienne Rich, a poet of towering reputation and towering rage, whose work — distinguished by an unswerving progressive vision and a dazzling, empathic ferocity — brought the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse and kept it there for nearly a half-century, died on Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif. She was 82.

Widely read, widely anthologized, widely interviewed and widely taught, Ms. Rich was for decades among the most influential writers of the feminist movement and one of the best-known American public intellectuals. She wrote two dozen volumes of poetry and more than a half-dozen of prose; the poetry alone has sold nearly 800,000 copies, according to W. W. Norton & Company, her publisher since the mid-1960s.

For Ms. Rich, the personal, the political and the poetical were indissolubly linked; her body of work can be read as a series of urgent dispatches from the front.


"I am a feminist because I feel endangered, psychically and physically, by this society and because I believe that the women's movement is saying that we have come to an edge of history when men - insofar as they are embodiments of the patriarchal idea - have become dangerous to children and other living things, themselves included. "

-- Adrienne Rich

New York Times: Adrienne Rich, 1929-2012 - A Poet of Unswerving Vision at the Forefront of Feminism
The Guardian: Adrienne Rich obituary: Radical poet revered by feminists and literary critics alike
The Harvard Crimson: Feminist Poet Adrienne Rich ’51 Dies at 82
NPR: Adrienne Rich On The Powerful, Powerless Mother / Hear The 1989 Interview
LA Times: Poet Adrienne Rich, 82, has died

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Santorum Almost Says N* Word (Video)

March 27, 2012 in Janesville, Wisconsin:


Firedoglake has the context.

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Jeffrey Toobin at SCOTUS: 'Individual Mandate Is Doomed' (Video)

[I]t’s hard to imagine how things could be going much worse for the Obama Administration, but now they’re going to be dealing with the Medicaid portion, and they may decide to get rid of that as well,” Toobin concluded.

“The idea they [Supreme Court] are operating from precedent can’t pass the laugh test, especially after Bush v. Gore. The country is dividing along the same ideological and political lines this time, and so is the court.”

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Sex Fiend Strauss-Kahn Busted for 'Aggravated Pimping'

For once the charge against serial rapist Dominique Strauss-Kahn is not rape or sexual assault:

Former International Monetary Fund chief Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged in France on Monday with "aggravated pimping" for his alleged participation in a prostitution ring, prosecutors said. . Strauss-Kahn was released under a 100,000-euro bail, according to prosecutors.

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Women Tell Bill Maher to Apologize for the Misogyny

Women aren't yet walking out of Bill Maher's show, but two women respond to misogynist Bill Maher on the letter-to-the-editor page of the New York Times. It's no wonder Maher defended Limbaugh's misogyny, the lefty comic has never acknowledged his own deep misogyny:

Maher’s Attacks on Women:

Re “Please Stop Apologizing,” by Bill Maher (Op-Ed, March 22):

We’re both women who have worked in Democratic politics and the media for decades and find Bill Maher’s misogynist treatment of women candidates deeply disturbing. . . How can we expect women to run for office when they are essentially told to “lighten up about” and accept misogynist attacks? The Women’s Media Center has found that such attacks on women candidates have a measurable negative effect on how voters view them.

Our message to Mr. Maher and his ilk is: Please start apologizing.

'Bill Maher’s misogynist treatment of women is deeply disturbing.'

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NY Times' Rosenthal: The Tennessee Monkey Bill

Still laughing at us, after all these years:

The Tennessee Monkey Bill

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Wisconsin Bill Claims Single Moms Cause Child Abuse by Not Being Married

More hatred and bigotry directed at single moms (but not single dads, cause they are such heroes, don't you know?) by old white GOP men. I swear, despising single moms must be a requirement for getting into the Republican Party. The good news is that the bigoted yahoo sponsor of this bill -- Republican Senator Glenn Grothman -- is up for recall:

In Wisconsin, a state senator has introduced a bill aimed at penalizing single mothers by calling their unmarried status a contributing factor in child abuse and neglect...

Saying that people "make fun of old-fashioned families," Grothman -- who has never been married and has no children -- criticized social workers for not agreeing that children should only be raised by two married biological parents, and told a state Senate committee that he hopes the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention board, of which he's a member, could "publicize something that's politically incorrect but has to be said in our society."

Bigoted Wisconsin Senate bill 507

PETITION: Senator Douchebag: STOP THE HATE AGAINST SINGLE MOTHERS

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Secret Service Makes Way for Ducklings (Video)

Watch Rachel Maddow tell the story better.

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Trayvon Martin's Parents to Meet With Justice Dept. Before Sanford Rally

The petition calling for the arrest of Trayvon Martin's murderer has amassed more than one million signatures. Sign it here. Amazingly, the shooter has still not been arrested:

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — The parents of a black teen fatally shot by a neighborhood watch captain will meet with U.S. Justice Department officials hours before a rally expected to draw thousands of protesters.

Million Hoodie March in NY Photos

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John Edwards Named in Prostitution Sting

This should surprise no one:

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) allegedly paid to have sex with a call girl working for a high-end Manhattan prostitution ring, according to a report from DNAinfo.

The alleged encounter took place while Edwards was raising money in New York for his failed presidential bid in 2007, and was arranged by a campaign aide...Edwards, who was Sen. John Kerry's (D-Mass.) vice presidential running mate on the 2004 Democratic ticket, is the first name to leak from the alleged madam’s “black book.”

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Tennessee Passes Anti-Evolution Bill. In Other Words, GOP Is In Charge.

Once again, Tennessee is in the national laughingstock news. Pity the children:

The Senate voted 24-8 for HB368, which sponsor Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, says will provide guidelines for teachers answering students’ questions about evolution, global warming and other scientific subjects. Critics call it a “monkey bill” that promotes creationism in classrooms.

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Wife-Beating Tennessee Lawmaker Should Resign, Obviously (Video)

Rep. David Hawk (R) plans to continue his job as lawmaker, here in Nashville, when he isn't busy breaking the law or beating his wife. Hawk was arrested for domestic violence Sunday, and his wife has the bruises to prove it.


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Tennessee Abortion Bill Would Make Doctors' Names Public & 'Out' Women Who Have Abortions

And the GOP War on Women never quits. What a freaking tyrannical state government Tennessee GOP lawmakers are striving for! If this nightmare bill (House Bill 3808) becomes law, some of the armed and dangerous gun nuts in this state, or in any other state, may well decide to kill some abortion doctors. The despicable lawmaker - Matthew Hill -responsible for this bill also hopes to publish enough information about Tennessee women who have abortions to make the identities of some women known:

Doctors who perform abortions in Tennessee could see their names listed online, and women who undergo the procedures could be unintentionally identified under a bill pending in the state legislature.

The Life Defense Act contains two parts. The first would require doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital near where they perform abortions, while the second would require the Department of Health to release more information on abortions, including the name of the doctor who performed the procedure and demographics about the women who receive them...

The bill would require the publication of data — including the age, race, education and number of children — of women who receive abortions. The Department of Health reports such information, but it aggregates the data by region, making it impossible for others to figure out who underwent an abortion procedure...the bill .. requires the Department of Health to release patient data broken down by county. Critics say that could reveal the identities of some women who receive abortions, particularly in small, rural communities.

LA Times: Tennessee abortion bill would require publishing names of doctors
Jezebel: Law That Gives Away Identities of Women Having Abortions Couldn’t Possibly Backfire
Think Progress: Tennessee Bill May Expose Identities Of Women Seeking Abortions
Firedoglake: Proposed Tennessee Law Would ID Abortion Providers, Give Patient Information
Alan Colmes: Tennessee Bill Would Identify Doctors Who Perform Abortions And Could Identify Women Who Have Them

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Sign the Petition: 'Prosecute the killer of our son, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin' (Video)

This is such a heart-breaking and outrageous story. Florida now has the reptile-brain honor of being the Vigilante Capital of the Nation.

Sign the petition.

One of his teachers called him "extremely creative" and said that he majored in cheerfulness. But the high school junior's dreams are no more. Martin, 17, is dead. -- The Trayvon Martin Tragedy


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Scott Brown: Rick Santorum's Protection Plan (Video)

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GOP Race May Be Decided by A Floor Fight

And the prospect of a GOP floor fight is positively delightful. C'mon Santorum:

CHICAGO — For the first time in a generation, Republicans are preparing for the possibility that their presidential nomination could be decided at their national convention rather than on the campaign trail, a prospect that would upend one of the rituals of modern politics...

In that case, the nomination would be decided by the more than 2,200 delegates — from obscure local officials and activists to national figures — who will attend the party’s convention in Tampa, Fla., in late August.

They would embark on an unscripted, contentious and televised drama that has not played out in 36 years, a period in which both major party conventions have become slickly produced and highly choreographed pep rallies kicking off the general election campaign.

Polling shows Romney, Santorum poised to split upcoming contests

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Tennessee Lawmakers Want to Slaughter Horses: Action Needed!

If Tennessee lawmakers have their way, the state will become the only state in the U.S., to be in the horse meat business. Please contact the meat-hungry fools and tell them Tennessee is better than that:

Legislation is pending in Tennessee to allow horse slaughter plants to operate within the state—and to deny regular citizens their right to challenge such facilities in court! Unless citizens object now, horse slaughter plants may soon be a reality.

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Feminist Quote of the Day

“People say there are not enough qualified women [to run for office], that’s one of the biggest bullshit things I’ve ever heard.”

—Madeleine Albright
Women in the World Summit: Most Memorable Quotes

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GOP War On Women (Video)

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Maureen Dowd: Women Need President Hillary In 2016

Maureen has come a long way since 2008:

"Women have watched a chilling cascade of efforts in Congress and a succession of states to turn women into chattel, to shame them about sex and curb their reproductive rights. They’ve seen the craven response of G.O.P. candidates after Limbaugh branded a law student wanting insurance coverage for birth control pills, commonplace for almost five decades, as a “prostitute” and “slut.” ...

“Women who assumed that electing Obama would lift all minority boats are beginning to think: Maybe he’s not enough. If the desire of these conservative male leaders to yoke women is this close to the surface, if they are perversely driven to debase women even though it could lead to their own political demise, then women may require more than Obama. If women are so vulnerable, they may need one of their own.”

And:

'Game Change' authors: Hillary Clinton in '16: “Game Change” co-authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann both predicted Wednesday that there was a high probability that Hillary Clinton would run for president in 2016.

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Wannabe Taliban Dictator Romney: 'We're Gonna Get Rid of Planned Parenthood'

Most Republicans want to stop public funds from going to Planned Parenthood. Not Mitt Romney. Romney plans to shut down or "get rid of" the private organization.


"Planned Parenthood, we’re going to get rid of that." -- Mitt Romney

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140 Companies Drop Rush Limbaugh

Think Progress has a list of the sane companies:

ThinkProgress has obtained an internal memo from Premiere Radio Networks listing 96 national companies that have “specifically asked” their advertisments not be played during the Rush Limbaugh Show. Premiere is the distributor of Limbaugh’s program. The advertisers have also requested to be excluded from other right-wing hosts including Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. According to the memo, the listed companies’ advertisements should be excluded from these programs because they have been “deemed to be offensive.” ...

Previously, ThinkProgress has reported that 50 companies requested their advertising be pulled from the Rush Limbaugh show following his sexist attacks on Sandra Fluke. The publication of the memo adds an additional 91 companies to the list of companies that have dropped Limbaugh.

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Hillary Clinton: 'Let Women Choose!' (Video)

At the Women in the World summit: Taking on extremists both abroad and at home who would marginalize women, the secretary of state called for an 'audacious' fight.

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Former McCain Strategist: Game Change Very Accurate

Via Mediate

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Men Would Need Therapist OK to Get Viagra in Sen. Nina Turner's Bill

At last, a bill proposing equality for men:

“The men in our lives, including members of the General Assembly, generously devote time to fundamental female reproductive issues—the least we can do is return the favor,” Senator Turner said. “It is crucial that we take the appropriate steps to shelter vulnerable men from the potential side effects of these drugs.”

There is a rash of similar bills across the country. It's about protecting the men:

“When a man makes a crucial decision about his health and his body, he should be fully aware of the alternative options and the lifetime repercussions of that decision,” Senator Turner said today. Men will be more easily guided through the process of obtaining treatment for impotence so they can better understand and more effectively address their condition.

Senate Bill 307 protects men by requiring the following prior to receiving a prescription to treatment for erectile dysfunction:

a signed affadavit from at least one sex partner confirming the man has indeed experienced the symptoms of impotence in the past 90 days
a psychological screening to ensure the condition is, in fact, medical in nature
ongoing cardiac stress tests and outpatient counseling about potential side effects
information from the prescribing physician about risks, complications as well as non-medical options including counseling and celibacy
copy of medical rationale for treatment filed in patient’s medical record

Ohio Bill Would Require Men Submit Affidavit From Sex Partner Confirming Impotence Before Receiving Viagra

Regulating Men’s Reproductive Health Choices
Ohio Bill Would Require Signed Affidavits From Partners Before Men Could Get Viagra

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Rush Limbaugh Broadcasts Dead Air During Commercial Breaks (Video)

via Media Matters

Limbaugh down to 1 paid advertiser in NYC; 90 percent of ads today were free PSAs

Liberal Politics News

Happy International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day: 10 ways to celebrate

International Slutty Women's Day: A Story in GIFs

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Time Magazine: Are Women People?

Jessica Winter, at TIME, asks and answers that old recurring question:

Subject for Debate: Are Women People? -- I’ve always assumed that women are fully autonomous human citizens—who vote, even!—but now I’m not so certain...

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Liberal Misogynist (Maher) Defends Right-Wing Misogynist (Limbaugh)

In case anyone doubted how clueless Maher is about his own deep misogyny:

Last night on Twitter, Bill Maher defended Rush Limbaugh and attacked liberals for not accepting Limbaugh’s apology after he spent three days relentlessly attacking law student Sandra Fluke. . Notably, Limbaugh only apologized for “two words,” after attacking Fluke dozens of times...

Maher comes to the debate with his own baggage. Last March, he used an offensive sexist epithet to describe Sarah Palin. He’s also called Rep. Michele Bachmann and Palin “bimbos.”

Recently, Maher defended his sexist comments, stating “I sometimes called Sarah Palin a bad name. I don’t have sponsors, I’m on HBO.”

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Netflix Becomes 30th Advertiser To Quit Rush Limbaugh

Something tells me Rush is beginning to know what genuine regret feels like:

According to a ThinkProgress count, Netflix is now the 30th company to issue a public statement expressing its intention to pull ads from the Rush Limbaugh radio show as a result of his derogatory, sexist, and insulting attacks on Sandra Fluke.

UPDATE: 32 advertisers have now dropped Rush, (including JC Penny), Capital One being the latest.

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