Right Wing-Nuts are Hi-jacking Health Care Debate

I've been meaning to post this since the end of last week...Rachel Maddow has been following the right wing-nuts attempt to silence debate around health care, and I found last Friday's show to be particularly invigorating. I highly recommend watching the whole thing, but for a couple of the best segments, check these out:

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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Tiffani Thiessen has a shit ton of stuff going on!

Not that I ever watched Saved By the Bell (ok, maybe, like, 2 times), but this is still funny. Especially if you've heard of the rumored Saved By the Bell reunion.

Tiffani Thiessen is Busy from Tiffani Thiessen

Erin McKeown has Cabin Fever

If you are a fan of Erin McKeown (and if you're not, why not?), then I recommend that you check out her streaming concert series called Cabin Fever. The first show is in the can, but you can still catch it on demand for the next week. The there are three more shows. The streaming isn't of the best quality, but the audio was good, and that's what matters!

Here's the trailer for the series:

Project Rant and/or Happy Pride

Project Rant has actors acting out internet rants. This isn't the only one, so if you want to check out some of the others, you should. I found this via AfterEllen.

Boycott Fox Broadcasting Company

The time has come. It's not just that the Fox Broadcasting Company has this one channel that caters to the right wing, it's that the owners and operators of the Fox Broadcasting Company have an operation (Fox "News") that has absolutely NO interest in or relationship with the truth and, in fact, engender precisely the opposite. They trade in tirades and lies. They rile up their "base" to generate cash flow for the wealthy of their party and to make themselves feel powerful--which may also incite people to murder. But, who cares about that. They're not responsible for anything, because they're just "entertainers"--when it's a convenient moniker. And it's not just the news channel. Fox was the only network that opted not to air Obama's 3rd press conference. They went with their scheduled program, "Lie to Me", instead.

I know that a lot of people want to boycott Fox for many reasons--"The Family Guy" is insulting, Fox didn't let Ron Paul participate in the debates, Fox insulted Canada's military (?!)--but the real grievance that they have done to the world is to dispense lies, propaganda and incitements to violence under the guise of news. Package it as NEWS and give their vitriol an air of credibility and respectability. Call their product "news" and providing a cover to people's prejudice and willful ignorance. "It must be true, I saw it on the NEWS!"

At the very least, Fox should take the word "News" out of everything affiliated with the Fox "News" channel. And at best (Well, sort of best. Short of pulling the plug on the whole thing...) their shows would be required to state retractions, make clarifications, and tell the truth! I can't even pick just one example, but think Sotomayor's recent slandering.

No More "American Idol", no more "House, no more "American Dad", or whatever your cup of tea is. Fox needs to grow up and start helping to foster a good democracy and a good society, not tear it down. Whenever you turn on the Fox channel, you are supporting Fox News.

Visit the Fox News watchdog here for more evidence of malfeasance.

CODEPINK Protesters Confront War Criminal Donald Rumsfeld

I've been watching this video over and over. It's very cathartic. Now if someone would just arrest him for real...



Jason somebody at HuffPo was said in his blog, "I...believe that just as crisis demands we not abandon our principles, our response to crisis demands we at least attempt to preserve a measure of dignity." WTF? People are dying every day--Americans, Iraqis, Afghans--largely because of these evil lying war mongers, and we're supposed to maintain our dignity, not raise our voices? F- that. Raise your voice! Scream to the heavens! These people are criminals, and they need to be tried for their crimes.

Lilith Fair 2010

I've been thinking lately about how Lilith Fair (among other feal-good events) were in hiding during the dark days of the Bush administration. And now word is that Lilith Fair is rising from the ashes. According to the head of Nettwork (Sarah McLachlan's label) via twitter, Lilith Fair will be coming back in 2010! Of course I'm excited, but where were they when our souls were being beaten black and blue by the evil doers and torture aficionados in our "elected" government? I don't really think that it was more than a coincidence. Sarah had a kid, at least the one, maybe more. But maybe there were other government related factors. Think about how hard it has been to get musicians into the country, eg Amy Winehouse, Alison Moyet (at least some of her musicians). And there was a passel of Cubans denied entry in 2002...So, maybe organizers figure that now musicians will actually be able to get into othe US to play Lilith Fair.

God, I am so glad to be done with that fascist fuckwit...

The Gaythering Storm

The HRC obtained audition footage from The National Organization for Marriage's hunt for actors pretending to be straight people who are afraid of gay marriage: Rachel Maddow discusses it here at about 2:08 into the clip:

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THEN watch this great funny or die parody. "Gay people will start raining from the sky!"

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

Lindsay Lohan EHarmony Spoof

File this under frivolous pop culture. Yeah, ok, it's Lindsay Lohan, but...it's funny. Or at least, mildly humorous.

Lindsay Lohan's eHarmony Profile from Lindsay Lohan

"Well, Who Wouldn't Want to Teabag John McCain?"

The rich corporate fat-cats are trying to co-opt teabagging, which has long been a symbol for the power of the proletariat. Teabag them before they teabag us!

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Maddow on FDA under Bush

One (more) reason why I love government, and you should too, unless you like eating rat sausage and salmonella spinach.

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Stewart vs.Cramer

Jim Kramer get pummeled by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show and takes it like a little bitch--for which I am very grateful. Parts 2 and 3 are especially satisfying.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 1
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things w/ Demetri Martin Political Humor

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 2
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things w/ Demetri Martin Political Humor

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 3
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things w/ Demetri Martin Political Humor

Two, count 'em TWO, upcoming movies with Zooey Deschanel

April brings Gigantic with Paul Dano (from Little Miss Sunshine)--Yahoo trailer here.

And in July, 500 Days of Summer with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Third Rock From the Sun, Mysterious Skin). And if you don't know who Zooey is...well, there's no hope for you.

Rachel Maddow talks with the authors of the Left Behind Series

I don't even know what to say about this. These guys seemed nice enough though. Not like some of those assholes on Fox news or whatever. They had a nice chat about world socialism as a predicate to the coming Rapture and whether or not Obama is the anti-christ (they think not)... Crazy shit.

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Janine Garofalo on Olbermann

So, I'm posting this not so much for content (I don't so much care why more women don't like Rush, but one interesting note is that they are looking at why less women like him but not what I think is the more pertinent question: why do so many men like him?) but I freaking loooove Janine Garofalo! So, here she is on Olbermann a couple of nights ago:

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"Instead of Trusting Us to Make Decisions With Our Own Money..."

Last night after watching the State of the Union, I commented on how Obama is a breath of fresh air (trite, but I really think it's the best way to put it.) And today I tainted my air, by listening to the republican rebuttal. (Have you noticed how the Nellies are falling all over themselves to get people of color to speak for them these days?) I'll sum up the following video for you:

Members of the Republican party also have parents who were from a far off land

The Republicans also want to be bi-partisan

The Stimulus Bill is too full of stimulus

Nellies want people to have the option to pay for their own Health Care

Nellies are against corruption

And finally: The best government is no government!

I really loved this gem: America is great in evidenced by the fact that "We defeated the Soviet menace". Really? Are they trying to evoke some kind of superhero image? Let me ponder this for a moment...



Ooooh, my heroes! I do like the Republicans better now. They just need to find a Wonder Woman who can reminds us of how heroic we were when we conquered the Nazis with our invisible airplane and truth lasso. That would be hot.

But I thought the real topper was the meme about government should leave "us" along to do with our money what we please. I wonder if this us is the us that flushed the banking system down the toilet. Or maybe it was just the less important uses that put all of our life savings into the stock market to get flushed down the toilet. Or is it the uses who don't have any life savings and are struggling to pay their monthly mortgage. I could go on and on, but I think the uses that he's talking about are wealthy business owners who have money in over-seas accounts and have private health insurance whose kids go to private schools and who don't want to see their taxes increase in order to increase access to decent schools and public transportation for others. But...that's just me.

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California legislation process sucks

As a California resident for most of my life, I have come to view yearly budget impasses with a sort of non-chalance. I honestly haven't thought much about why this happens and, amazingly, have given little thought to how this could be different and why our state is so F'd up. That's why I found this segment on The Rachel Maddow show to be so enlightening. It was like the proverbial light bulb went on. Check it out, especially if you live in CA.

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So, what do you think of Strip clubs?

I was reading Erin McKeown's post about a pissy email she received from some dude who took exception to her telling a story about visiting a strip club as a prelude to a song. The email is short so I'll include it here for reference:

While suffering through your sub-textually convoluted tale about nights at the Satin Doll, I was reminded of early African American movie actors who would make fools of their own race on camera.No matter how many jazz chord progressions and clever vocal inflections you employ, the conclusion is that you have tasked yourself to resound the message to a full house that it's acceptable to objectify other females for entertainment purposes.

Holding out a dollar bill to extort bizarre behavior from a fellow human being is beyond repugnant. Maybe you have a special - "Gee, I'm bored tonight" - clause in your moral code, that allows you to randomly minimalize others.

I came to the conclusion some time ago that not all misogynists are necessarily men.

So, to address the issue that "Holding out a dollar bill to extort bizarre behavior from a fellow human being is beyond repugnant" I'll just say that it's worse to go to a strip club without any singles! It reminds me of the time I went to a Fairy Butch show in SF (kind of a burlesque show, with some comedy, some match making, some strippers...) and a whole row of us lezzies where just horrified that a sweaty stripper was going to come over and rub all over us. Now, our behavior was repugnant. Fairy Butch must have seen our grimaces because in the next segment, dressed in counter-drag (dressed as a Lady) she laid all over all four of us....

OR, maybe it reminds me of the time I went to a fund-raising party for the Lusty Lady in SF. I felt bad for not getting a lap dance or participating in some mud-wrestling--because lady's gotta pay the rent--but I don't like to get sticky or dirty. But I bought a shirt!

Anyway, yes, I'm sure that some sex workers (I'm not going to differentiate right now), have had some kind of trauma in their life (and shit, who hasn't!) and the sex industry is a continuation of this in some way...but there are lawyers out there coercing their secretaries into having sex with them, does that mean that we're going to outlaw lawyers! OK, some might think that this is stretching and that some kind of unequal power dynamic is more apt to occur, or is even inherent in the sex industry and that it why it is singled out as being "mysoginistic", "repugnant", "degrading". I disagree.

I think that there are a couple of more important issues that are too big and burly that people would rather not talk about.
1) The pervasive misogyny in our culture--NO MATTER what industry it is. Women deal with that shit everywhere. One doesn't escape it by staying out of the sex industry.
2) OK, this is awkward because I don't usually go in for the goddess talk, but for #2 I'm going to say that the worse sin than giving a working lady a couple of singles, is not appreciating her, not appreciating her work, not valuing a woman's sexuality.
3) There are few industries that a woman can make as much money as a man. Deal with that! (Thank you, Mr Prez for the Lilly Ledbetter Act) I've worked a ton of jobs that, while nobody was twisting my arm to be there, I certainly would not have been if I had another great idea for how to pay my rent. There are myrid reasons for why people work jobs that they would rather not do. And there are some really lousy jobs out there, some pay better than others.

A slight tangent: I saw the movie, The Wrestler, recently. Marissa Tomei played an aging stripper, Cassidy, who is having trouble rustling up interest and Mickey Rourke plays an aging wrestler, Randy, who enters the ring to cheering, albeit small, crowds. I thought a lot about the juxtoposition of these characters. They both are exploiting their bodies, bodies which are not what they once were. And here Randy is, going out (literally) to cheers, and Cassidy dances to indifference--groups chatting amongst each other, individuals looking for a younger piece of ass. It was really interesting. Sad. Life. Check it out. AND TIP your stripper well!

Call your Representative today

Here is the complete report.

This table was taken from Moody's Economy.com and it shows how a every dollar the government spends on...tax cuts, say, translates to $1.03 into the economy (wow, what an investment!) while $1 into infrastructure spending = $1.59 into the economy. The things will do the least for the economy are the things that the Republicans are pushing for and the things that will do the most are the things that the Nellies (Nellie the Elephant? Get it?) are ridiculing the Dems for--money for food stamps, transportation, family planning...

The watered down stimulus package has passed the House and is on the way to the Senate. Call or write your Senators if you want to see more infrastructure spending. It's easy! Trust me; I do it all the time!

Find your Senator

Open letter to any Democratic politician who will listen

The Democrats have a tremendous amount of political capital and a mandate from the country to effect change, so PLEASE do not roll over and concede to the Republicans on the pending stimulus package. We need more infrastructure spending and less tax cuts if we are going to have any hope of turning this economy around. (Just ask the economic experts.)

If Democrats don't want to be ejected again--2010 could look a lot like 1994--then they need to start enacting some real Democratic-platform policies, not watered down Republican policy. Remember, the Republicans got spanked, so, Democrats should grow a pair and start acting like they WON. A wise man once said, "Elections have consequences."

More Thoughts on the Inauguration

Wasn't Michelle cold wearing that dress and walking all over the capitol in the freezing cold? I hope she was at least wearing comfortable shoes.

President Carter looks good. He looks as young as Pres Clinton (who has been looking a little haggard of late). But then again Ted Kennedy was looking pretty good earlier in the day too...

What was up with that poet? Did they not audition for that job? And is Aretha the only black lady that can sing? Patti LaBelle is probably cursing her name. ("That bitch gets all the good presidential gigs!")

Hope (or, Inaugural Cheesiness)

I've been feeling buoyed all day, and then for some reason I felt compelled to switch from MSNBC to Fox (Chris Mathews is kind of a dufus), and of course Fox would rather show W's self-congratulatory speech in Midlands Texas than the parade of bands, military regiments and sundry groups making their way past the White House.

sigh.

But back to to the Day....! Yippeee. I haven't really been feeling as excited during the build up to the inauguration--not as excited as I felt like I should I guess--but as the main events unfolded--Aretha sang, the strains of John Williams' "Air and Simple Gifts" and President Obama's speech--I welled up a number of times and have felt all day like a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

One more cheesy link of the day. I kinda liked this video called "I Pledge", a professed open letter to Obama pledging celebrity support for Obama's call to service.

I promise to return another day with more cynicism.