BlogSheroes - the feminist bloggers network

Obit For A Chickenhawk: Paul Harvey, RIP

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 13:52:00 -0500

Though why ANYONE should mourn the passing of Paul Harvey is quite beyond me, unless they're related to him, or he owed 'em money?

Yeah, here's "the rest of the story" of the man who led the way for all the unhinged, jack-booted, chickenhawk, conservotard pundi-thugs of the right.

Paul Harvey was the prototype of fuckwit Fascist Radio

He opened the way for (first) Joe Pine, then later the deluge of total fuckwitted shitwhistles: Slimeball, Falaffel Bill, Vannity, Blech, Malkin, Ingraham--all of 'em are his 'step-children.'

Saturday Open Thread

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 08:17:00 -0500

"I don't like doing interviews. There is

always the problem of being misquoted or,

what's even worse, of being quoted exactly."

Stanley Kubrick - Died - March 7,1999

Rebuilding Our Schools: The Legacy of "No New Taxes"

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:08:00 -0500

We are cross posting this for a Tacoma activist that is working hard for our schools

Crossposted at Washington Woman

I am deep in the throes of campaigning for a local school bond election. Every year or two our school district has to undertake this ritual, the legacy of a state constitutional amendment that limited property taxes to 1% of assessed value, unless voters approve a bond levy by a 60% majority. "So what?" You say. "Shouldn't the voters have a say?" Well, yes, in theory, but in practice it means that necessary school construction projects are put off until our schools are literally crumbling around the kids. It also means that in times like these, when construction prices are low and construction jobs are desperately needed, voters balk at the idea of any additional property taxes.

But all of that is just talk. It is easy enough to say "fine, but not now" to school construction until you see the reality of what some of our kids are asked to live with every day.

This is a hallway ceiling at Hunt Middle School in Tacoma, Washington. Large parts of the school feature water damage just as severe. Maintenance staff dutifully replace ceiling panels and repaint when they can, but the water just seeps right through.

Colbert's "Apocalypto"

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:58:00 -0500

Sorry about the obvious borrow from an "orange" essay, but Stephen Colbert comically makes a point that I have striven mightily for some two years to make - that even in our darkest hours, even even under the most terrible leadership imaginable, with truly evil men crafting heinous policy, with greed and stupidity threatening to destroy the giant Ponzi Scheme that passes for a reflection our economy...we Americans still live in the most amazing, and, yes, "exceptional" nation on earth.

Why?

Because someone as gut-splitting funny as Colbert could only be of this place, this Western Babylon...this place of which John Lennon said, when asked why had immigrated...

"If I'd lived in Roman times, I'd have lived in Rome.

Where else?

Today America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself."

Comedy like this doesn't come out of the provinces, folks.

Blue Cinema

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:27:00 -0500

Cross-posted from Blue News Tribune and Blue Hampshire.

Here is one way we know we're not conservative Republicans.

If we were, we would clearly claim an affinity with The Watchmen.

Their leader is blue. He's in great shape. And he and his crackerjack team are protecting humanity from itself.

Instead, our in-house media organs, NPR and The Washington Post, don't even like the movie.

You think I'm joking -- and I am, at GOP expense. Last year someone tried to claim The Dark Knight was Bush, and they even tried to say March of the Penguins argued for intelligent design (the alleged intelligent designer, apparently, is not benevolent).

What's the ultimate Republican movie? I don't know, maybe Reservoir Dogs. An elaborate plan to commit a crime goes horribly wrong, everybody gets hurt or worse, and nobody reins in the crazy torture guy until it's too late.

Who’s Being Radical?

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:39:00 -0500

Some articles that highlight Our Present Insanity — Michael Lind in Salon and Paul Krugman in the New York Times both complain that President Obama is being way too cautious and timid and “centrist.” Lind is especially harsh, saying that Obama is falling into the neoliberal pattern of buying into the Right’s “market friendly” fetish. [...]

Freaky Friday Open Thread

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:31:00 -0500

"Trifles go to make perfection,

And perfection is no trifle."

Michelangelo Buonarroti - Born - March 6, 1475

QOTD: Superhero Edition

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:13:00 -0500

I went to see the midnight showing of "Watchmen" tonight, even though I didn't really know anything about it. I've never read the book, nor have I even done any preliminary reading to make sure I'm not lost. So why would I go to see the movie, given the lateness of the hour and such? Because I'm a junkie for superheroes and superhero movies.

Ever since I was a little kid and "Spiderman and His Amazing Friends" was on TV (this was the one with Iceman and Firestar), ever since the very old episodes of X-Men, for years and years, I've been nuts for superheroes. Why? The psychological analysis is probably something about my latent powerlessness and feelings of inadequacy, but really, I'm just a big fan of super powers. It's my favorite part of the whole comic book / superhero thing. My question may now seem obvious, but follow the jump anyway.

The Daily Rant ©

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:51:00 -0500

Yeah, I know. It's been a few days. But with Bush out of the White House and not producing a new outrage every couple of days, there seems to be less immediacy to the Ranting©.

Then, OTOH, there are the "Still Bushed" scandals to "Scrub. Rinse. Repeat.", to quote Keith and Rachel. Such as the recent revelations about the 2001 Bush Justice Dept. memos. If someone has a link to the texts I would be much obliged to be able to see just how bad they were.

Wasn't this the reason we were forced to read 1984 in high school? I'll admit that the immediate relevance at first glance became much less if it was assigned to you after 1984. (Me, I read it in the late 60s.) But shit, Orwell was only off by 20 years, if the implications of those memos are the ones I've heard.

Some of our more alarmist blogotopia (Y! Sctp!) colleagues were right, it seems. The only things which may have stopped Darth and his colleagues from declaring martial law before the elections, on the basis that we were still "at war", and then making the "war" permanent, were the economic handwriting on the wall, the fact that anyone they really saw as an acceptable candidate was at least four years from viability, charismatic Democratic candidates who knew how to use the Web...and the realization among some that there would be a second American Revolution. I hope.

We read 1984 as a cautionary tale. They read it as a blueprint.

Our salvation: the 'net is too big, too essential, too decentralized. I do believe that if it had been really possible to shut it and the cell phone networks down and take over, they would have done so.

Let's keep it that way. "You can't stop the signal, Mal."

QoTD -- Oh, man, it's fucking Thursday again...

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:39:00 -0500

I don't do New Year's resolutions. Why set myself up for one big failure just once a year when instead every day is a fresh chance to set unrealistic goals for myself, and have dozens of little failures every year?

The flip side on, well, the flip side...
It also means that I can't think maybe I should eat less, exercise more, be more patient, work harder, get a job, swear less, whatever, and that I will get right on that next January 1.

So I don't make New Year's resolutions so I haven't broken any.

America is NOT "Cool Again". It Never Was, and It Oughta Acknowledge That Fact.

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:57:00 -0500

Forgiven wrote a well-intentioned post on My Left Wing called America is Cool Again. In it he posited the idea that the "coolness" of the Obamas and company rivaled that of the Kennedys and that being the case, we were once again somehow in the catbird seat as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

Not since the early sixties has America so epitomized the notion of cool in the world as we do today. What began as a fist bump on the primary trail has reached a national shout-out before both chambers of Congress. The Obamas in the White House has once again provided the world with the desire to be a part of America and part of the cool that they perceive America to be. Whether it's the pop star reception of Hillary Clinton in Asia or the talk around European capitals the buzz is unmistakable. The thing about the Kennedy administration that many have forgotten was that they had style and exuded cool to not only Americans but to the world. They made other people in the world want to be American and if they couldn't be American to immolate American style and coolness.

Sorry, Forgiven...that's "emulate", not immolate, but Freud would have been proud. The truth of the matter is that most of the world...not the world that was covered in the hype-news of the day (Or the hype-news of this day, either.), just the 90% of the people of the world who didn't have shit in the '60s much as they do not now...did want to "immolate" American style, coolness and in point of fact America itself.

Some of them, failing to have the power to do so, instead immolated themselves in protest.

How cool was THAT!!!???

Pretty fucking hot, indeed.

Meanwhile JFK fucked everything with an available hole, Jackie pretended not to notice, the CIA/Mafia interface eventually shot the fool for crossing them up after making promises that he could not keep and Jackie went on to marry the Toad King Aristotle Onassis.

Nice.

I won!!!

The bigbigbigbigbigbigbigbigBIG lottery!!!

I WON!!!

YIPPEE!!!

Nice.

Dynasty as gameshow.

Very nice.

Cool?

I got yer "cool", right here!!!

The force that through the green (money) fuse really drives the rotten flower of "cool".

Bet on it.

Read on for more.

Flybabies March, 2009

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:12:00 -0500

Here is our new thread!

Hope you are feeling better soon Julie!

Not much to report here -

Hope to do some vacuuming tonite in between ortho appointment and Girl Scouts and exercise and making dinner! We'll see!

Andrea

Gratefully Recovering Republicans

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:44:00 -0500

Now, that is something I'd like to see.

In the newest plot twist in the strange saga of RNC Chair Michael Steele's self-destructive love affair with the media, he has now suggested a Twelve Step recovery plan for the Republican Party. As one who has been ranting for eight years about how that dry(?) drunk Bush ran this country like a giant dysfunctional family, I applaud Steele's, most likely accidental, admission of how seriously ill his party is. I doubt, however, that he is prepared for what it would really mean for Republicans to work the steps. Humility, surrender, accountability... Well, these are the steps. I wish them well.

Thursday Open Thread

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:16:00 -0500

"Christ, seven years of college, down the drain."

John Belushi

Died March 5, 1982

Link of the Day

I Admit It: I ALWAYS Wanted Bush To Fail. How 'Bout You?

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:11:00 -0500

There's a lot of smoke and furor over the open admission of some in the GOPuke noise machine that they want Obama to fail.

SO?

I wanted Bush to fail, from the first moment of his regime. I worked for his failure. I gave money for his failure. I donated time and energy for his failure. I wanted him to fail utterly, totally, and completely at the job he was installed by the CorpoRat masters to do: destroying the commons of the US, privatizing the Government, and eliminating the ability of the people to resist.

I wanted the Dims to MAKE him fail.

Who among you wanted him to "succeed" in clusterfucking the country for the profit of his CorpoRat masters?

Not me!

I wanted him to FAIL, horribly, totally, wholly, eternally, embarrassingly, again and again...

What about you?

Did you want him to "succeed" in his attack on Iraq? I didn't.