Tag: politics

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liveblog

Vice Presidential debate liveblog

Okay, going to not quite liveblog this, since we’re probably going to start just a bit late and DVR is magical. But I’ll still update as we watch, about every 10 minutes or so.

So, I am looking forward to this debate. A lot. More than any presidential debate, for certain. (The president has to have decorum. Joe Biden is there to say the shit we’re all thinking, right?) The VP debate from four years ago was the drunkest I’d been in quite a while (thank you Sarah Palin). I doubt this one will be quite that fun, though I think if I drink every time Paul Ryan lies and Joe Biden smiles in an eerie, toothy way, I’ll be smashed in no time at all.

I honestly love Vice President Biden. That man has never met a script he wouldn’t immediately run away from as fast as possible. And he will always have a special place in my heart for baldly schooling Sarah Palin on Dick Cheney being the worst vice president ever. All the while grinning to show what shockingly white, wolfish teeth he has. I felt like he went out of his way to be nice to Sarah Palin so he wouldn’t look mean; I think this will be a test of that hypothesis since Paul Ryan is made of plastic and has no feelings for Joe Biden to spare.

So yes. This ought to be fun. Waiting to see how many things Paul Ryan says that the campaign will then immediately deny because lying baldly and then walking it back quietly later is an excellent strategy.

Five minutes until starting time!

AND HERE WE GO

1914: Oh look at that moderator. You know she’s biased. She’s a woman. Her ovaries have a liberal bias.

1915: We’ll get through nine sections? Either she’s optimistic, or they’ve learned and armed her with a cattleprod.

1916: OH AND THERE IS JOE BIDEN’S SMILE. I have missed you, Joe Biden’s smile.
Isaac: Oh Joe Biden. You terrifying imp of a man.

1917: Joe, you just kind of skated right over Libya. Sigh.

1918: Wow, first mention of Osama bin Laden, four minutes flat.

1920: And Paul Ryan brings up embassy security? Is that a place you really want to go… the Republicans cut funding for that. Guess we’ll see if Joe jumps on him.

1921: Paul Ryan says that Obama’s foreign policy is unraveling. Joe does a toothy grin and laughs. I HAVE MISSED YOU JOE. Oh my god. I AM DRINKING SO MUCH.

1922: “With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarky.”
THE ROOM ERUPTS IN CHEERS.
Wow, and Joe starts right off with the Republicans cutting embassy security funding.
/chugs

1923: Sorry Jim Lehrer, this moderator is much better. I think she must have punched them both in the balls pre-debate to let them know she meant business.

1925: Paul Ryan brings up embassy security again. Joe Biden looks disbelieving.

1926: Moderator: “I’d actually like to move to Iran.”
…that’s some unfortunate phrasing.

1928: Joe Biden: “That’s incredible.” Then proceeds to eat Paul Ryan’s lunch. However, I will note I think Joe’s full of shit on Iran too. But thank goodness he’s slamming the bluster. I’m so sick of the macho posturing about Iran.

1933: Joe, “a bunch of stuff” is not a valid debating technique. Even if it’s Irish. (Maybe I can try to use that in my thesis and claim I learned it from the VP…)

1935: Joe Biden: “Facts matter.” Wow. I love you so much.

1937: Joe Biden: War should already be the last resort.

1937: “I may be mistaken, he [Romney] changes his mind all the time.” Bwahahaha. Nicely done.

1938: ooooh jobs and the economy. Paul Ryan is supposed to be a Jedi here. Let’s see.

1939: Wow, 47% and 30% hits by Biden. He really does exist to say what we’re all thinking. Wow, and he brought up Grover Norquist. I think my mom is going to start writing him love letters.

1940: Wow. Joe Biden stopped smiling for a minute. Please keep smiling. It’s even scarier.

1941: Paul Ryan: The economy is getting worse!
Joe Biden: You are so full of shit.
Us: We love you, Joe.

1942: DID RYAN JUST CALL ROMNEY A CAR GUY? Well, I guess he’s personally supporting the industry by buying so many…

1943: Paul Ryan: [Biden] knows sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way.
Joe Biden: Yes, but I always say what I mean.
/CHUGS

1944: Biden: I don’t doubt Romney’s commitment to individuals, but I don’t believe his commitment to the automotive industry.

1945: Biden: Stop talking about how you care about people and show me the policy.
Wow. Goddamn. And talking about the obstructionism and the debt hypocrisy. WOW.

1949: Paul Ryan: Medicare is going bankrupt. Social Security is going bankrupt.
My mom: Bullshit! Bullshit!
Me: It’s okay, mom. Joe’s got your back.

1950: Oh god. He brought up the 716 billion number too. Really?

1951: I will give Paul Ryan this; he was very coherent for this argument.

1951: Hahaha Joe Biden references the Sarah Palin debate with the death panels thing.

1953: “Their ideas are old.” Wow.

1953: Ryan says “they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.” OH MY GOD THE LOOK ON JOE BIDEN’S FACE.

1955: Wow, I want Joe to just keep interrupting Paul Ryan every time he lies. This is hilarious.

1959: …did Paul Ryan just imply that Joe Biden doesn’t have a record to run on? DA FUQ? I think that man has been in the senate longer than Paul Ryan has been alive.

2001: Joe Biden: I did give you a simple answer. They want people to pay more for Medicare.
Man, this guy is like a one man pull line machine.

2005: I love that even the moderator is asking Paul Ryan for specifics for the 20% across the board tax cuts and… he’s still not coming up with anything.
Moderator: …so no specifics yet.

2007: Joe Biden’s sure got some specifics about loopholes.

2008: Joe Biden: “Oh, now you’re Jack Kennedy?” /chugs

2008: Now Paul Ryan is pretending that the poor Republicans are just being pushed around by the President. Wow

2009: Biden: If Romney did such a good job in Massachusetts why is he not even contesting that state.
OH SHIT SON.

2010: I think the moderator is tired of the bullshit. Moving on to defense. Hoo boy.

2013: Man, this lady should be in charge of the other debates. She’s asking good questions and cutting them off when they try to go too long. Badass.

2018: I’m trying to figure out what Paul Ryan is actually saying about the timeline. It makes no sense. Like he agrees but doesn’t because “reasons.”

2021: There is some excitement here as my beer overflows. I think it’s too excited about Joe Biden talking about the surge. So much surging. (Foamiest beer ever.)

2021: Okay and is it me, or does Paul Ryan sound really patronizing every time he says “Oh, I know this thing is confusing.” It’s not confusing. You’re just an asshole.

2026: Paul Ryan doesn’t apparently understand how the UN security council works. And yeah, let’s not go to the UN. Let’s piss them off and be all alone in everything. Dumbass.

2030: Wow, she brought up abortion issue and religion.

2031: Reason and science against abortion? Do tell, Paul Ryan. Wow that’s great you were happy to see the heartbeat, but you wanted that baby.
And the biologist in the room quietly loses his shit.

2032: Wow suddenly we’re allowing exceptions now? How generous.

2033: Freedom of religion bullshit about how women getting birth control through their insurance is somehow against the first amendment FUCK YOU IN THE NECK.

2034: Joe Biden says he refuses to impose his religion upon others. THANK YOU FOR SAYING YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CONTROL MY BODY.

2035: He brought up the forcible rape thing. Good for you Joe.

2035: Well, as a woman I feel like Joe won on abortion. Totally unbiased here. Gee, I wonder why I don’t feel like Paul Ryan generously allowing exceptions makes everything okay. Especially when I think he’s a damn liar.

2040: Another dig at the 47% thing by Joe. Nicely done.

2042: I love how the question about the advertisement negativity is answered with a bunch of negativity. Sigh.

2044: Yes Joe, god do we know that you don’t say things you don’t mean. We count on it. That’s why you’re hilarious AND awesome. Middle out, not top down. Nicely done.

Closing statements!

Joe Biden goes back to the 47% and 30% in his closing statement. It was a nice closing statement. And he used his serious voice. And mentioned Scranton.

Paul Ryan wants you to know his eyes are very blue. And that he can say thank you to rhyme with fuck you to Joe Biden. Apparently he and Mitt Romney will not duck tough issues. I guess that’s why they never answer hard questions?

…so, anyone who doesn’t think Joe Biden won needs his head examined. That is all.

Oh yeah and: I LOVE YOU JOE I HAD FOUR BEERS AND A GLASS OF PLUM WINE FOR YOU.

Categories
politics things that are hard to write Uncategorized

Suicide is cheaper

A lot of you may not know this, but I used to be an EMT-B. I volunteered on a 911 ambulance service, and spent most of my time running out of fire stations in Commerce City.

Commerce City (aka Combat Shitty) is an industrial area of Denver where there are a lot of poor and working poor. There’s a lot of violence and chances for industrial accidents. It’s one of the places you go if you want to see trauma calls and gunshot wounds.

That’s not all you see there, though.

Sometimes you get a call out to one of the little trailer parks, because people do live here even though no one really wants to, and it’s for chest pains, possible heart attack. It’s an older man in a uniform (you decide what kind) pale and sweaty and shaking, his face like dough. He’s got a crocheted afghan in a startling color combination covering his lap, and his wife (you guess she’s the one who made it, she’s got that look) wrings her hands nearby. She’s the one that called you. He’s as mad as he can manage when he can barely breathe.

The paramedic hooks up the EKG.You don’t know how to read the bouncing lines, but even you know it’s not good. Okay, let’s go. We need to get you to the hospital.

“No.”

You’re probably having a heart attack. This could kill you. You need to come with us.

“No. It’s too expensive. I can’t.”

He’s got kids, and grandkids, and too much debt already. That’s what he tells you. And you try to tell him that life is worth a hell of a lot more than money. Grandkids, right? You want to play with your grandkids.

“I don’t want them to pay my bills.”1

Your paramedic calls the hospital and has one of the ER docs talk to the man, try to scare him or cajole him into coming along. The sick man’s wife wrings her hands some more, rubs his shoulders, but she doesn’t argue with him, doesn’t help us. She’s in the shadow of that same specter.

And that’s all you can do, in the end. You can argue, cajole, even threaten a little, and it doesn’t matter. The man knows who he is, where he is, when it is (that’s called AAOx3) and he has the right to refuse your help, by law

So you pack up your things and walk, really slowly, to the door. You drive away so slowly that cars honk at you. Because you’re hoping, you’re goddamn hoping that poor man will collapse while you’re still only a couple miles from his trailer, and his wife will call you, and you can come screaming back and save his life whether he wants you to or not, like you’re some kind of goddamn hero.

This happens every goddamn day. Heart attacks and car accidents and sickness, and they won’t go because they’re so fucking scared of debt collectors harassing them, harassing their families. This is one of the reasons I stopped being an EMT. I couldn’t handle seeing people kill themselves like this any more, because I want to believe we live in a world where life is still more important than money. I couldn’t handle feeling complicit and responsible for someone’s life when they had to make a shitty, impossible decision like that.

So yeah, maybe people without insurance don’t get thrown out of the doors of an ER to bleed out in the snow. I guess that’s the image Mitt Romney is going for because it sounds incredibly ridiculous.

“We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,’  ” he said as he offered more hints as to what he would put in place of “Obamacare,” which he has pledged to repeal.
“No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.”

We do have people who die in their apartments (or trailers, or houses, or by the side of the road) because they lack insurance. But it’s not necessarily because no one will take them. It’s because they won’t fucking go in the first place, because suicide is cheaper. Because if you’re going to die, it’s better to not leave your already grieving family drowning in debt and destroying what pride they have left in searching for charity that may never materialize.

Every goddamn day.

1 – Debt collectors can’t legally go after anyone but spouses (and in some states not even that) in a case like this, unless it was the kids/grandkids that signed the hospital admissions. This does not stop unscrupulous debt collection agencies from trying however, and many people do not understand their legal rights. (Also, families can be put in the position of supporting the person who is trying to pay the debt, which is a whole other ball of wax.)

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liveblog

First Presidential Debate Liveblog

Okay, so let’s see what snark I can come up with between drinks. I have come well prepared with beer, cider (thanks Isaac) and THE KRAKEN.

Pre-debate show is on. Still can’t believe they closed down I-25. Way to make everyone in Denver hate both candidates.

1848: Debate is soon, but until then I am happy to watch my TV girlfriend Rachel Maddow.

1855: I still think they should have called the Al Sharpton show “Revved Up.”

1855: And I also love the little countdown clock for debate time. Oh MSNBC, you are made of such geeks.

1856: So my current plan is to drink every time Romney says my friends, job creators, Obamacare, or claims he’s going to create a brazillion jobs without specifying how. And I’ll drink when Obama says let me be clear, Romneycare, mentions he killed Osama bin Laden, or points out that the Republicans originally murdered the economy. That alone ought to get me pretty trashed.

1859: Proposal: next debate to be hosted by Ru Paul. Romney and Obama will lip sync for their lives.

1900: Not sure how I feel about this debate format. We’ll see how it goes…

1901: Chris, look, I fail to see how anyone wouldn’t want to kick Richard Nixon in the balls.

1901: YAY JIM LEHRER. I grew up watching you.  Eerily, I don’t feel like he really looks much older. Anyway about this format, I don’t know how the open discussion is going to go. I bet they just talk over each other a lot.

1903: Specific? HAHAHA it is like Jim Lehrer’s wish list on what he wants. Would you like a pony too, Jim?

1904: Obama grabbed Romney’s arm first in the handshake. I think that means he gets to keep one of his ears as a trophy.

1904: Obama won the coin toss? Obviously a terrorist coin.

1904: Well, he mentioned Michelle. I am not going to take a drink though, since it is their anniversary and he has to. BUT YOU ARE ON NOTICE, OBAMA.

1905: “New economic patriotism.” – The middle class? What about the working poor? But yeah, he whipped out that line again about using the savings from ending the wars. Wouldn’t that be nice.

1907: Romney just mentioned Anne.

1907: He just claims he won’t be cutting taxes for the wealthy. ORLY.

1908: Trickle down government? Really Romney?

1908: Wow. Lookit Obama using actual numbers and stuff.

1910: It’s an interesting approach on how Obama keeps saying they agree… and then pointing out that they don’t really at all. Obama’s still in fine form, I think.

1911: Jim says he wants things to be specific again. You poor man.

1911: “I don’t have a five trillion dollar tax cut. I don’t have a tax cut!” ARE YOU SHITTING ME HE JUST SAID THAT?

1912: Mitt Romney likes coal. Clean coal apparently. He whispers to it soothingly at night. He pets it. (Well, and that’s a clear thing. Open ALL THE GOVERNMENT LAND for drilling. And Alaska. And a pipeline. Ugh.)

1914: No tax cut that adds to the deficit Mitt? And just for middle income Americans? Would he care to define what he considers middle income? WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW.

1916: Oh my god. The look of pain on Jim Lehrer’s face when Romney ran over him. Jim, I could have told you this format was a bad idea.

1917: “I have five boys. I’m used to people telling me something that’s not true and just repeating it” OH NO YOU DID NOT MITT ROMNEY. YOU DID NOT. God please tell me Obama is warming up his laser eyes.

1918: “For six months he’s been running on this tax plan. And now his big, bold idea is: never mind.” OOOH LASER EYE BEAMS. BURN. “It’s math. It’s arithmetic ” I see we have reached the portion of the evening where Obama will channel Bill Clinton.

1920: “Under his definition Donald Trump is a small business. Now I know Donald Trump doesn’t like to thinking about himself as a small anything…” Well Obama has made me laugh several times already.

1921: I feel like Mitt Romney just agreed that most of the small businesses aren’t actually small businesses.

1923: You know, I love that Obama keeps bringing up math. And then Bill Clinton, so I must drink. But I’m really glad he’s bringing up the historical perspective.

1924: They are never going to let poor Jim change the subject, are they.

1925: Apparently Mitt Romney’s plan is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Why does it not sound that way? And it doesn’t matter what you’re saying your plan is, IT STILL DIDN’T WORK.

1927: Yes, send things to the state level, because the states are totally flush with money to run programs at a smaller economy of scale.

1929: Hahaha Obama should have grabbed Simpson-Bowles but Romney would have a different plan? Really? And how was Obama supposed to have grabbed the damn plan when congress didn’t pass it?

1932: Wow, you really want to go there with the Bush tax cuts thing?

1933: Obama: Romney has ruled out revenue.
Romney: Absolutely.
…and then you can see him realize oh shit, he just said that.

1934: Oh good, Obama’s bringing up industry deductions. Particularly the oil industry. Oh, and the corporate jet tax rates.

1937: Romney’s smile is getting smaller, it seems.

1938: Isaac: I think Romney’s camera is out of focus.
Me: It’s because he doesn’t have a soul.
David: Vampires never show up properly on camera.

1939: Romney claims he’s never heard of tax breaks for moving a factory out of the US. Obama’s eyebrows go ‘boink.’

1940: Romney, I don’t think any of the states have ever begged to get to take care of their poor solely on their own. Maybe the states in your own head.

1941: Wow. Obama didn’t even seem to feel like it was necessary to ask for the last word.

1943: I notice Romney is very careful about saying that he’s not doing anything to current retirees. OH GOD AND THERE IS THAT 716 BILLION BULLSHIT NUMBER BLARGH DRINK DRINK DRINK

1946: Vouchers. Drink!

1946: Oooh, nice. “If you’re 54 or 55 you might want to listen up…” And then brings up Paul Ryan’s plan. Romney appears to be visibly in pain.

1947: Obama brings up the AARP.
Isaac: Let me bring out my giant red old people stick.
HAHAHA and then Obama says he’s now become fond of the term “Obamacare” and Mitt Romney gives him the church friends fuck you smile.

1948: Jim: Do you support the voucher system, governor?
Romney: I support not changing anything for the current retirees BLAH BLAH BLAH 716 BILLION.
Wow. That’s a minor meltdown on stage. He’s getting kind of testy and talking faster.

1950: Obama brings up higher administrative costs plus profit for the private industry. Where’s the money come from. And then brings up the AARP again. It’s almost like he knows Paul Ryan got booed there.

1951: Romney says if medicare is great, it’s the product people can purchase.
Mom: Health care is not a can of beans, asshole.
Well stated, mom.

1952: Romney says that regulation is essential to a free market. I think somewhere, Paul Ryan just shit in his pants. What?

1953: Oh god, now we’re getting in to repeal and replace on poor, toothless Dodd-Frank?

1953: Wow, that is a major smile from Obama. I think Romney may be in trouble.

1955: Yep. He’s in trouble. “The question is, does anyone out there think there was too much oversight of Wall Street? Because if you do, Governor Romney is your candidate.” Ouch.

1957: HAHAHA HEALTHCARE. I’d better get another drink.

1958: ROMNEY FFS NO ONE BUYS THE 716 BILLION THING.

1958: I deny that Romney knows what a kitchen table is. He has servants for that.

2000: Anyone else feel surprised Obama actually said insurance companies aren’t allowed to “jerk you around?” Is it just me?

2001: Jim: Two minutes are up sir.
Obama: I had five seconds left before you interrupted me. *grin*
Me: /giggle

2001: Obama: We saw it worked well – in Massachusetts
OOOOOOH BURN

2002: Romney just accepted ownership of Romneycare. I think that sound was Rush Limbaugh exploding. And really Romney, you wanted to bring up the lack of Republican votes, when the Republicans have said on record they won’t vote for anything Obama brings up? Really?

2004: Romney: blah blah blah bipartisan
Obama: It was a Republican idea. And Democrats in Massachusetts should have given Republicans in congress advice on how to cooperate.
This. This is not turning out to be a good segment for Mitt Romney.

2007: Young people staying on their parents insurance is NOT COVERED in the private market, not up to the age of 26. Geeze.

2009: Mitt Romney invoked the free market fairy. And personal responsibility. Asshole.

2009: Obama’s really hammering the lack of details. Good for him. “Is Romney keeping all of these plans secret because they’re too good?” Nicely delivered sarcasm.

2012: The Reagan fairy has also been invoked. DRINK!

2013: Oh the role of government. Oh Gosh.

2014: Good work on bringing up things like the National Academy of Sciences and the transcontinental railroad. Bringing up that idea that the government can create opportunities and do things that individuals or even states can’t. He’s delivering this argument very compellingly, I think.

2016: “Governor Romney doesn’t think we need more teachers. I do.”

2016: Romney loves great schools. And kittens. And moms. He rejects that he doesn’t like great teachers? Why did he say we didn’t need more then?

2017: I think this ‘trickle-down government’ thing is the new buzz phrase, but no. Just no. It makes no sense.

2019: And here comes school choice. Everyone groans at Romney. We know he means vouchers, he just doesn’t have the sack to say it.

2022: And Obama mentions Romney saying people can borrow money from their parents OOOH HE WENT THERE.

2023: Wait… apparently he would have hired teachers with the money Obama used for green jobs except… uh… he said we don’t need any more teachers.

2024: We need to grade our schools so parents can take their kids to the schools that are more successful because that totally makes sense. Because then all the kids get shoved at those schools and GOSH. WHAT EVEN.

2026: Jim Lehrer asked about governmental gridlock ILU JIM

2026: Oooooh nice. Obama: Romney is going to have a busy first day since he’s going to repeal Obamacare… which is not going to be popular with Democrats when you’re sitting down with them.

2028: Obama didn’t point out that the Republicans are obstructionist fucksticks, but I am charmed that he pointed out Romney hasn’t been ballsy enough to say no to the right wing of his own party.

2031: Mitt Romney: Concerned. He is very concerned. Look at those eyebrows.

2032: Mitt Romney and his magic jobs that he will create with a languid wave of his hand.

2033: Oooh, next is the VP debate. That ought to be fun. Though not as awesome as Biden versus Palin.

So I feel like Obama came out ahead, just because Romney had a couple major meltdowns and lost his cool a couple of times.

Rachel Maddow calls Romney more hyper or amped. I think frenetic is the word you want.

I do agree, I would have seen a little more attack from Obama.

Wow… I do not agree with the after show panel at all.

Though Chris Hayes pointing out that Romney dumped the right wing is true. I wonder if he’s going to get eaten for that.

And I am too drunk to drive home. See you for the next debate!

Categories
politics Uncategorized

Entitled

So if you haven’t watched the Jon Stewart bit about Chaos on Bullshit Mountain, you should. It’s okay. I’ll wait.

I haven’t seen Jon Stewart this pissed off in a long, long time. Probably not since Sarah Palin was saying that liberals (you know, like those awful people in New York City) aren’t real Americans.

I was pretty appalled by the recorded remarks. It’s not as if there was a snowball’s chance in hell I was ever going to vote for Mitt Romney, not unless I grew a baseball-sized inoperable brain tumor between now and the time I receive my mail-in ballot. What bothered me most of all was this:

All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. 

I’ve actually been among the 47 percent, by the way, who hasn’t paid income tax. Entirely because I’m able to write the interest from my mortgage off on my taxes. Since I got married, I guess I’m out of the hideous underbelly of moochers.

But you know what? I actually believe people are entitled to housing, food, and health care. I believe those things should be and are human rights. When I was an EMT I knew there was something goddamn wrong with the world, that people would rather die of a heart attack than risk saddling their family with the burden of hospital bills they couldn’t afford. No one deserves that. No one deserves to starve. No one deserves to have to sleep under a bridge in a car, or outside on a park bench in the snow.

What makes me sickest is that years ago, I believed some of that shit. I believed that people were poor because they were lazy, and that everything I had was due to my own hard work and nothing more. Someone can’t afford housing? Fuck ’em, I thought, it’s their own fault. I got better, at least. I saw what happens to people who are struggling to make ends meet and can’t afford a doctor and just get sicker and sicker. I’ve seen the deck getting stacked against low income children in schools, some of whom only get to eat because of free school lunch.

But this is a thing. Even if you turn your head away from the noble working poor who are struggling and drowning, no one deserves to suffer or starve. We’re all human beings. Maybe it feels good to talk tough and pretend that the suffering of others is okay because you’ve declared you have the moral high ground. But I dare you to look those people in the eye and tell them they aren’t entitled to life.

Or maybe I’m wrong. It’s very possible Mitt Romney could do just that. Maybe he’s one of those people who would have set his dogs on beggars in the old days. But if someone can truly look at other human beings and deny their basic humanity, I sure as hell don’t want that person running the country.

Categories
politics Uncategorized

No, I’m not RTing your anger about Libya.

I’ve been seeing a lot of chatter on Facebook and Twitter, about how we should cut off all the foreign aid to Libya and other countries that are currently experiencing anti-US riots and protests. I guess it’s easy to get all het up about us giving money to people who supposedly hate us. No, I’m not going to like or repost or RT, because it’s too black and white. It’s too simple to respond to unfocused anger in kind.

This stuff is not simple. I don’t yet know enough about it to have a coherent opinion beyond “wow, some shit is going down.”

Maybe a lot of the protests are about the anti-Islam video on Youtube. There are cogent arguments that what happened in Libya is a different animal entirely. The FBI is in on the Libya investigation now. That sounds a lot heavier than what have been described as soccer hooligans rioting.

Some kind of creepy right-wing Christian group may be behind the video that started it all. Not as if that in any way justifies people rioting about a video, but there is an extra layer of yuck if people are calling for a knee-jerk foreign policy response thanks to what amounts to grandiose trolling.

There are protests and riots and violence. But it’s not the whole of those countries in the streets, throwing Molotovs and clashing with the police. This is not just us versus them. There are a lot more “us” than this black and white view allows. We Americans don’t like it when the rest of the world characterizes us on the shameful actions of a few. It’s not a perfect parallel, but I remember a lot of us wanted to make sure the rest of the world didn’t think we were with Terry Jones, the burn-a-Koran-day asshole.

I don’t think that the only people in these countries benefiting from US foreign aid are the ones that helped murder Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, or the ones in the streets and shouting their hate. Maybe it feels good to have a simple reaction to something that isn’t simple at all. It’s us versus them. Everyone likes that. It’s easy. But reacting in anger to something so complex isn’t going to hurt the people who hurt us.

But more than that, looking at everything floating around, fact and not fact and wishful thinking, the only thing I know for certain is that I don’t know enough to have a cogent opinion to begin with. And neither do you.

Maybe this guy does. He probably has the best chance out of any of us.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Categories
politics Uncategorized

About F*****g Time

Democrats approve marriage equality platform.

Freedom to Marry. We support the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law. We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples. We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference.
We oppose discriminatory federal and state constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny equal protection of the laws to committed same-sex couples who seek the same respect and responsibilities as other married couples. We support the full repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act.

My favorite bit? “…the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.” Way to indicate the distaste with which that law should rightfully be regarded.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: my marriage doesn’t need to be defended. Fuck off.

This actually even gave me a little thrill of pride that at this point, I’m a registered Democrat. This is unusual, considering my party registration has little to do with any love I feel for Democrats, but is rather dictated by my desire for the crazies to stop sending me snail mail political spam. I’ve gotten a lot fewer disgusting anti-LGBT and anti-choice political fliers since I switched away from Unaffiliated. It’s been worth avoiding that constant feeling that I should be disinfecting my little mailbox on even-numbered years.

There’s a lot that the Democrats do that causes me to facepalm or rageface. Sometimes simultaneously. (Which is much harder than it sounds, trust me.) But this? About fucking time someone did it, and it obviously wasn’t going to be the Republicans. As far as I can tell, that party firmly wants to live in the 50s in regards to social issues, but is still squabbling over which century.

Categories
feminism

LOL your personhood amendment

I’d heard that we were going to get the Son of the Revenge of the Personhood Amendment from the Black Lagoon in Colorado this year. I rolled my eyes so damn hard that I think I might have pulled a muscle.

Oh, guess not. 

The attempt to get the Personhood Amendment (tl;dr version: fetuses have rights, women don’t) on the ballot was shot down due to a lack of valid signatures. The campaign only turned in 106K signatures, and had 24K knocked off as invalid, which put it below the threshold for making it onto the ballot. Of course the campaign is now going to take legal action on this, but I have high hopes for that being a complete bullshit move.

They tried to have a Personhood Amendment in Mississippi last year. In Mississippi! It failed by something like a ten percent margin.

Maybe when Mississippi is telling you that your ridiculous anti-choice bullshit is too draconian, it’s time to pack it in.

Because I don’t know. Maybe even women who hate abortion like having access to birth control. (You know, birth control. The number one thing that helps prevent the potential need or desire for an abortion.) Or being able to have access to in-vitro fertilization. Or don’t want their vagina treated like a crime scene if they have the poor taste to miscarry a baby that they wanted. Maybe women are getting tired of being characterized as wombs with legs who lose all agency when they get pregnant. (That’s for sure one of the main reasons I have an absolute horror of being pregnant. Kat, I don’t know how you do it, you’re amazing.)

Personhood Colorado, please take the hint and fuck off.

Categories
feminism

No. No you did not misspeak.

In case you missed the news flash, Todd Akin, congressman and candidate for Senate in Missouri, is a despicable shitbag who lacks even basic understanding of human biology:

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors, (pregnancy from rape) is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in a clip posted to YouTube by the Democratic super PAC American Bridge. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
(from WaPo)

Of course, having called down the fury of every human being on the planet with even a shred of decency on his head, he immediately backpedaled:

“In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year…”
(same article)

No, Todd Akin. You did not misspeak. Unless by “misspoke” you mean “Whoops I told everyone what I actually think and now you’re all mad so I guess I’d better lie my ass off.” Misspeaking means you said pineapple instead of papaya when you were talking about what you had in your fruit salad. It means you had a brain fart and forgot the word ostracod in the middle of a presentation. You don’t get to pretend it was just a little verbal flub (teehee!) when you flaunted not only your jaw-dropping ignorance but your complete lack of empathy as well.

Don’t you dare, for shame, speak of empathy. If you had a single speck of empathy in your being, you wouldn’t be attacking the suffering and trauma of countless women and men by implying there is even such an animal as a rape that doesn’t count.

And no, this does not come out of the blue. Justine Larbalestier has a nice summary on her blog about just how pathetically ancient this “legitimate rape” line is. Guess it’s nice to know he’s getting his knowledge of reproductive mechanisms from the eighteenth century, along with presumably his understanding of biology in general as well. He’s not alone in this backward clinging to long-debunked ideas. However, for bonus laugh-and-cry-simultaneously fuckery, I will note that Akin is on the House Science Committee. Awesome!

Even better, Akin has since clarified his position even more on Mike Huckabee’s radio show:

Huckabee asked Akin whether he was talking about “forcible rape” when he used the term “legitimate rape.”
“I was talking about forcible rape, and it was absolutely the wrong word,” Akin said.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this. Remember last year? Remember when the Republicans tried to pass a bill prevented Medicaid funding of abortions except in cases of “forcible rape,” only backing off when it called down a veritable firestorm on their heads? Todd Akin was in on that too. A hell of a lot of Republicans in the House were, including Paul Ryan. Akin didn’t misspeak now, and it was no mistake when he supported that “forcible rape” language either; he hasn’t changed his mind, he’s just taken another reminder that he shouldn’t say those things out loud where people of conscience can hear.

I have seen a lot of conservatives attacking Akin and distancing themselves from him. Good for them, and I surely do appreciate it. But this “legitimate rape” thing is just the same as the despicable “forcible rape” language of last year – Akin himself has confirmed that. This is an attempt to redefine the very idea of rape to the detriment of victims and the benefit of predators. And now one of the supporters of that gem could be the next Vice President.

The eighteenth century called. They want their science and their values back.

Categories
freedom of speech

The word will break cement.


We reached our hands out to the people who, for some reason, consider us their enemies, and they spat into our open hands. “You are not sincere,” they said to us. Too bad. Do not judge us according to your behavior. We spoke sincerely, as we always do—we said what we thought. We were unbelievably childlike, naïve in our truth, but nonetheless we are not sorry for our words, and this includes our words on that day. And having been maligned, we do not want to malign others in response. We are in desperate circumstances, but we do not despair. We are persecuted, but we have not been abandoned. It is easy to degrade and destroy people who are open, but “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

Listen to our words and not to what [pro-Putin television journalist] Arkady Mamontov says about us. Do not distort and falsify what we say. Allow us to enter into a dialogue, into contact with this country, which is also ours and not only the land of Putin and the Patriarch. Just like Solzhenitsyn, I believe that in the end the word will break cement. Solzhenitsyn wrote: “Thus, the word is more essential than cement. Thus, the word is not a small nothing. In this manner, noble people begin to grow, and their word will break cement.” [Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle]

Katya, Masha and I may be in prison, but I do not consider us defeated. Just as the dissidents were not defeated; although they disappeared into mental institutions and prisons, they pronounced their verdict upon the regime

—Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, from her closing statement

I really don’t want to recap the gross injustice done to three of the members of the riot grrrl group Pussy Riot by the courts of Russia. There’s a really thorough and good recap of it at Mother Jones magazine. The short version is that Pussy Riot did an anti-Putin performance at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow; three of the five members present were arrested for hooliganism. They were subsequently jailed for five months, run through a show trial in which they spent most of the time in a glass-sided cage, and then sentenced to two years in prison.

To an American this seems unthinkable, even in our pathetic age of “free speech zones.” Protest has been widespread and international. These women are incredibly brave, principled, and strong in the face of persecution. They’re also intensely thoughtful and articulate. You should read the translations of their closing statements. Read all of them. The words are important.

Then, a panel of experts diagnosed all three defendants with personality disorders based on their “activist” stances, “desire for self-realization,” “overstated self-esteem,” and tendency to voice their opinions. 

 (From Mother Jones, emphasis mine.)

I can’t help but wonder if this extra, nasty little twist can be credited to the fact that it was women daring to speak their mind. It has a familiar, despicable ring to it. And as Nadezhda points out, it’s common practice for dissidents to have their credibility attacked, to be declared insane, all in an effort to take power from their voices.

What I really want to draw attention to is another thing that Nadezhda said; it has haunted me: Just like Solzhenitsyn, I believe that in the end the word will break cement.

This is the distillation of so much protest. We want to be heard. Because in being heard, we know we will triumph. Perhaps not today, or tomorrow, but words are geological in their nature, and over time they will wear down the tallest mountain. It seems plain that governments like Putin’s understand this. So much governmental energy across the world is devoted to silencing people, because words are powerful. Words are the best and sometimes only weapon that any of us have.

I hope that enough pressure is put on Putin that this travesty is brought to an swift close. But even if not, the words are already out there, and they won’t be forgotten. You can’t stop the signal. 

I now have mixed feelings about this trial. On the one hand, we expect a guilty verdict. Compared to the judicial machine, we are nobodies, and we have lost. On the other hand, we have won. The whole world now sees that the criminal case against us has been fabricated. The system cannot conceal the repressive nature of this trial. 

—Yekaterina Samutsevich of Pussy Riot, from her closing statement

I am amazed that truth really does triumph over deception. Despite the fact that we are physically here, we are freer than everyone sitting across from us on the side of the prosecution. We can say anything we want and we say everything we want. The prosecution can only say what they are permitted to by political censorship.   

—Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, from her closing statement

Fear has a way of robbing us of words. That’s how bullies of all sorts operate, intimidating people into silence and eventual non-existence. But this shows the imperative that we must not be afraid, that we must stand and speak. It may be cold comfort, but I too believe that words win in the end. Love and the desire for freedom win in the end.

Words seem soft and simple, but so do the roots of trees.

Categories
politics Uncategorized

Situational assessment: GROSS.

Twitter is exploding about the situation with Julian Assange. I am averting my eyes and feeling creeped out. There is nothing in this situation that is not gross.

  1. Assange is wanted in Sweden over suspicion of sexual assault on two Swedish women. Gross.
  2. This is being downplayed by nearly everyone who is a fan of Assange and Wikileaks: also gross.
  3. Yet the giant swarm of British police at the Ecuadorian embassy sure seems to indicate, frankly, that this is not about the sexual assault charges in Sweden. Because when was the last time you saw any police force turn out like this to deal with a sexual assault case? Gross, gross, gross.
  4. Ecuador is giving Assange asylum not because of the situation in Sweden but because of what appear to be very justifiable fears that he will then be subsequently extradited to the US, since America wants his ass in the worst possible way. Thus making the sexual assault case a pawn in this despicable game. Disgusting.
  5. And of course, shout-out to America for being gross in its entire response to Wikileaks, particularly if those are our grubby little governmental fingers prodding the British along on this. Nuclear yuck. 

This entire goddamn thing makes me want to wash my hands and never stop.