Quote of the Year

“If you didn’t want me voting with my vagina, maybe you shouldn’t have spent the last year calling me a cunt.” – Nadai, in comments at RL.

You can’t really sum it up much more succinctly than that, can you?

(Also summing it up, though not quite as succinctly, is Dr Socks herself, documenting the atrocities.)

Happy freakin’ Election Day. Democracy, you’ve never made me feel quite so ill.

If you haven’t already done so…

… run – do not walk – over to Anglachel to see her post today. It’s a must-read. Here’s a taste, but the whole thing is excellent, and I had trouble picking out which bit to post here:

That female identification with Hillary and later Palin has been dismissed as either irrational (vagina voting) or actually a sign of secret racism exposes the ease with which misogyny is mobilized to try to belittle, badger, and dominate. Its very ubiquity makes it unremarkable and difficult to problematize. Our arguments and explanations on how we perceive our interests to be best served are trivialized as the whines of “bitter knitters” instead of serious challenges by engaged citizens. Insisting that we be heard garners a mix of aggressive bluster and wide-eyed faux-innocence.

Misogyny deniers try to focus on just a few figures, and explain away broad actions as being reasonable responses to these despicable, polarizing broads. No, no, it’s not that we are kicking women down; it’s that Hillary’s a cold bitch! We’d like someone else. But not Ferraro, that racist, shriveled up old hag. And Chelsea is really just letting herself get pimped out. Then we defend teenage sexuality, except for that wanton slut, Bristol Palin, and her bigger slut, the mother I’d like to fuck (MILF), Sarah.But then how to explain the fury expressed at women who do not support Obama?

Go read the whole thing.

Depressing, Spot-on Quote of the Day

And ask him how many bright, young, politically-engaged women he thinks have read about the Palin porno or the Palin sex doll, or read the other twenty-four entries in the Palin Sexism Watch, or the fourteen entries in the Michelle Obama Sexism Watch, or the zomg 111 entries in the Hillary Clinton Sexism Watch, or any of the other thousands of bits of misogynist swill about which we’ve not written at Shakesville, just this election season, and how many of them have thought, “Well, maybe politics isn’t the place for me after all,” because we require of our female politicians a skin so thick they’re not meant to care when it’s reproduced in vinyl for the singular purpose of being cum on by men who quite possibly can’t even locate the US on a map.

– Melissa McEwan, Shakesville

Mental Exercises

Do me a favour, will ya? Read the following:

For Clinton, only one road in Albany remained blocked. Hendon and Trotter, two leaders in the women’s caucus, had both been in the Senate for four years before Clinton’s arrival. They represented two of New York’s destitute neighborhoods, and they repeatedly accused the newcomer of failing to understand the issues of the inner city. She cared more about her career than her constituents, they said. Hendon once told a newspaper that Clinton was so ambitious she would like to run for “president of the world.”…

Hillary’s friends encouraged her to stand up to Hendon and Trotter, but she refused. Not her style, she said. And why sink to their level? When Hendon ridiculed Clinton, her standard comeback was a dismissive shrug and a wave of her hand. Ah, Rickie, you’ve always got something to say. “I never would have called her a fighter,” Hendon said. “She used the silk gloves, and I used the iron fists.”

The tension between the two Senators peaked on June 11, 2002, after Hendon made an impassioned speech on the Senate floor urging her colleagues to preserve funding for a child welfare facility in her district. It was, Hendon remembers, “basically the most emotional speech of my life, and I was pulling out all the stops.” Every Republican still voted against her. Every Democrat voted with her — except Clinton and three other members who made up a faction known in Albany as “liberal row.”

Incensed by those four votes, Hendon walked across the floor and confronted Clinton, who explained by saying “something about fiscal responsibility,” Hendon recalls. A few minutes later, after Hendon’s proposal had lost, Clinton stood up and asked to have her previous vote changed to a “Yes” for the record, saying she had misunderstood the legislation. Her request was declined, and Hendon stood to criticize Clinton for political maneuvering.

Infuriated that Hendon had embarrassed her publicly on the Senate floor, Clinton walked over to her rival’s seat, witnesses said.

“She leaned over, put her arm on my shoulder real nice and then threatened to kick my ass,” Hendon said.

The two women walked out of the chamber into a back room and shoved each other a few times before colleagues broke them apart, Hendon and other witnesses said. Clinton and Hendon never talked about the incident with each other again, but they reached an awkward understanding. Hendon stopped teasing Clinton; Clinton started voting with Hendon more regularly. Hendon now supports Hillary Clinton for president.

Now, consider the story. What’s your reaction? That as a Democrat, Hillary failed to vote to preserve funding for a child welfare facility? That she failed to thoroughly understand the legislation – due to either a petty personal grudge or failure to read it in the first place – and then flipped on the vote when confronted? That she was so angry at being embarrassed that she threatened to kick a political adversary’s ass, which lead to actual physical violence, an actual catfight? Ask yourself: would you have drawn this same conclusion?

I suppose the right can spin this incident as a bug instead of a feature, but to me, this is jaw-droppingly intelligent politicking.

Is it possible the US could have a president that isn’t a hot-headed fool, that is slow to anger, and even when angry expresses only the exact amount needed to advance their purposes? A president who patiently builds friendships and coalitions, even with natural political enemies? I suspect there are very few people who read this site who would disagree that – policy disagreements aside – this is exactly the type of character traits we’d like to see in a president.

Be honest. Would you?

Now go read the original. Isn’t gender bias fun?

And Still (Our) Champion…

Between McCain channeling her on HOLC and Obama channeling her on health care and energy, and the fact that she’s goddamned Hillary Rodham Clinton, I declare the junior Senator from New York the winner of last night’s presidential debate.

Those yahoos on the stage? Mere pretenders to the throne.

edit: Heh. masslib seems to agree with me. Mindmeld!

OFFS, Page Six.

Via Gawker:

But the word in Democratic circles is that Hillary – after being rejected by Obama as his running mate, the position given to Sen. Joe Biden – made it clear to Obama’s camp that she wanted to be appointed to the Supreme Court.

One insider said, “Hillary wants an assurance that if she shows loyalty and goes out there like a good soldier, she will be rewarded with a nomination for the Supreme Court should a seat become available.”

It is expected there will be at least one vacancy on the high court during the next presidential term, what with Justice John Paul Stevens turning 89 in April and Ruth Bader Ginsburg celebrating her 76th birthday in March.

The problem is, we’re told, Obama “balked” at promising Hillary the judgeship, perhaps because he still resents how the Clintons attacked him during the primaries.

Apparently, Page Six (and Obamaniacs in general) have never heard of “the soft sell“, which is unsurprising, as most believe in the hamfisted “shame, insult, and belittle” approach to winning friends and influencing people. But I have to disagree with Gawker’s conclusions:

As the Obama ticket battles it out with Sarah Palin, star of Thursday primetime TV, for former Clinton supporters, painting Hillary as shrill and demanding makes Obama look a bit more sympathetic. And celebrity gossip sheets may be nearly as good a way to reach Hillary Democrats as The View.

No, actually, continuing to inacccurately portray Hillary Clinton as shrill, demanding, evil, conniving, bitter and (heaven forbid!) ambitious is exactly the way one would drive people straight to the McCain/Palin ticket. How fucking hard is it for these people to understand? Christ on a cracker.

IBTP

Here’s a little roundup of my weekend reading; first, via PunkAssBlog:

Worst part of the whole debate:

Jim Lehrer’s first question: “Gentlemen, at this very moment tonight, where do you stand on the financial recovery plan?”

(Candidates each speak for several minutes, demonstrating remarkable ability to discuss their tax and spending platforms without once touching on the financial recovery plan.)

Jim Lehrer’s next question: “All right, let’s go back to my question. How do you all stand on the recovery plan? And talk to each other about it. We’ve got five minutes. We can negotiate a deal right here.”

(Candidates further demonstrate ability to say nothing to the point and also refuse, even when point-blank instructed by Lehrer, to speak to each other.)

Jim Lehrer’s next try: “All right, let’s go to the next lead question, which is essentially following up on this same subject. And you get two minutes to begin with, Senator McCain. And using your word “fundamental,” are there fundamental differences between your approach and Senator Obama’s approach to what you would do as president to lead this country out of the financial crisis?”

(Candidates argue about the differences between their tax and spending platforms. Neither apparently has any idea that we are even having a financial crisis.)

Over at the NYTimes, Krugman asks, “Where are the grown-ups?“

So the grown-up thing is to do something to rescue the financial system. The big question is, are there any grown-ups around — and will they be able to take charge?

Via Gawker, Stewart and Colbert pontificate on the state of national discourse:

Can any [politician] break through this mess?
STEWART: I worry that those people are there, but we won’t recognize them — or we’ll destroy them so thoroughly that their voice won’t be heard. I just imagine Lincoln out there, and people throwing the gay stuff at him. ”And what about depression running in his family?”

Emphasis mine. I don’t know about Lincoln, but I certainly think we have an FDR for the 21st century kicking around, and she’s hiding in plain sight – though no one’s listening to her. Well, some are:

Unlike the current leadership of the Democratic Party, who are simply bouncing off the Bush proposal like pinballs, accepting the basic terms of the deal and trying to beef up some goodies to help with the November election, Hillary is presenting a vision of what a Democratic economic plan should do. It is not pandering for votes though it is very aware of the needs of constituents found from rural backwaters to Manhattan skyscapers. She may have details wrong, but it is not for lack of trying. It is a commitment to use power to make institutions serve public good before private greed.

This is and is not a different person than I saw this time last year when the primary contests revved up. Hillary has always been someone willing to dare to do great things, but the primaries -brutal, rigged, stacked against her as a person in a way I have never seen in 30 years of politics – appear to have scoured her clean of any hesitancy or defensiveness that formerly attended her attempts at great works. Maybe it was seeing the people who needed her to be their advocate. Maybe it was understanding the depth of respect and trust so many of us have in her after the decades of public abuse. Maybe it was knowing that there is nothing for her to lose by simply doing what is right.

Whatever the reason, there is a clear and unwavering voice who makes clear the difference between those who want to play politics and those who want to use it for the public good. It is a political philosophy comfortable with making life better and more secure for ordinary people.

(Rumour has it that, now, that doomed bill is headed to the Senate. If true, here’s hoping HRC can get her hands on a louder mic. Fingers crossed.)

Oh, THAT Guy, Original Version

New laptop is here, but since the most recent computerless phase coincided with the return of some of my favourite shows (Greek, I heart you!), I’ve been spending far more time catching up on the last few weeks in mindless entertainment, rather than paying attention to the increasingly depressing economic and political landscape and wistfully thinking about what could have been.

I have also been busy in updating my current machine, and protecting myself from being disconnected from all my news-updateyness in the case of another crash. I used to use a Firefox-based RSS feed program to keep me in the loop with my news and blogs, but what happens when the machine you’ve loaded the browser on goes belly up? You get totes screwed, that’s what happens. And so, I’ve finally jumped on the GoogleReader bandwagon, and have been busily loading RSS feeds from all over the ‘net. And I’m accepting suggestions for interesting new sites, iff’n you have ‘em.

In a small bit of cosmic synchronicity, though, I finally checked back in to Things What Things (written by Linda/Miss Alli, formerly of TWOP, currently of NPR’s Monkey See) for the first time in a couple of months. only to see that she’d recently linked to the original That Guy post, the one that I’d read years and years and years ago and of which I was thinking of when I wrote my last post, but couldn’t find in my Google searches, and thus couldn’t link at the bottom of the post. (The post in question is now judiciously linked in my Delicious account, never to be lost again, natch.)

Sars: A close relative of Surely You Don’t Listen To The Corporate Schlock Masquerading As Pop Music These Days You’re Such A Sheep Of Convention Guy.

Alli: Who has no friends.

Sars: But is a close spiritual brother to Tolerate My Obscure and Painful Jazz Collection Guy.

Alli: Oh, and he hangs out at Whole Foods with the Four Horsemen of the Capitalist Apocalypse: I Can Taste The Tears Of The Downtrodden In Every Cup Of Starbucks Coffee Guy, Can’t Read Anything Purchased At A Non-Unionized Bookstore Guy, Guy With A Strange Preoccupation With Trash-Talking Pottery Barn, and Guy Who Thinks The Biggest Problem Facing Today’s Progressive Is Browser Compatibility.

Sars: He’s fighting the real enemy.

Alli: By cleaving to Netscape 4.7.

Sars: Yeah, That Guy. I Am An Endless Series Of Lectures On Organic Produce And The Pharmaceutical Cartel Guy. Also may manifest as What’s Funny About Hemp Clothing? Guy.

Alli: Exactly. And he has no idea that he is actually just as boring as his arch-nemesis, Just Let Me Take This Emergency Conference Call On My Cell Phone Headset While I’m Buying A Sesame Seed Bagel Guy.

Sars: Who is often confused with, but does not share entirely the same genetic coding as, I Incorporate Lines From Wall Street Into My Everyday Speech With No Irony Whatsoever Guy.

Alli: Who is, in turn, often mistaken for Can’t Order A Drink Without Consulting Esquire To See Whether Martinis Are Still Cool This Week Guy.

Sars: ARGH! I cannot abide that guy. And he’s always friends with No, He Likes You, He Just Doesn’t, Um, Talk Much Guy, who usually turns out to be Bitter, Jaded, Bad Poet Who Thinks “Kissing” Means “Drenching A Woman’s Jaw In Saliva” Guy.

Alli: And it’s not like he offers you a towel.

Sars: Of course not. And now, let’s all wave to Has No Sense Of Humor About Getting Salsa On His Pants Guy.

Alli: How can you have no sense of humor about that? It’s salsa! It’s your pants!

Sars: And yet he’s unamused.

Alli: That seems impossible.

Still hilarious.

Of course, as “Stumbles to Starbucks in Oversized Sunglasses and Yoga Pants Whilst Texting on her Pink Blackberry to Order a Grande Pumpkin Spice Latte Every Saturday Morning” Girl, “Prefers Cats to Relationships” Girl, and “Writes Angry Anti-Patriarchy Missives On Her Little-Read Blog” Girl, I’m really in no place to judge, am I? Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom, people. Who are you?

(Other recommended TWT? reading: What Girls Do, and for fellow caffeine-addicts, Random Notes. That cold-pressing coffee technique got me through iced-coffee season at a reasonable budget, through now I need to find a similar fix for the winter, as I don’t have a quick-milk-steaming solution. Yet. )

Mental Contortions (IOKIYNH)

Throughout the primaries, Hillary Clinton was demonized for the following:

• Being a “Washington insider” (“OLD SKOOL WASHINGTON OMG!!1!”)
• A hawk who voted for AUMF (“SHE VOTED FOR IRAQ OMG!!1!”)
• For being “divisive” and not “post-partisan” enough (“SHE’S SO ABRASIVE AND COMBATIVE AND REPUBLICANS HATE HER OMG!!!1!”)
• Being ‘racist’ (“‘FAIRY TALE!’ RFK ASSASSINATED IN JUNE! OMG!!1!”)
• For giving Republicans ‘ammunition’ against Obama (“SHE CALLED HIM INEXPERIENCED WHATTABITCH OMG”!!1!)

So who does Obama pick as his running mate? Joe Biden. Joe Biden, who’s been in the Senate since Nixon, and is about as ‘old skool Washington’ as you can get. Joe Biden, who also voted for AUMF. Joe Biden, a partisan pitbull, like Clinton, who won’t be shy about attacking McCain. Joe Biden, who let kicked off his own presidential bid by calling Obama “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Joe Biden, who said that Barack Obama was not ready yet to be president and that the Presidency is “not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”

So, basically, Joe Biden is the living embodiment of everything they falsely tarred Hillary Clinton with – all those supposed negatives that Cheeto Eaters said made her unfit for VP shortlist, let alone the Office of the President – but, it’s not only OK, it’s celebrated.  Joe Biden, who hits all of Hillary’s supposed negatives, and none of her positives – like she’s not a racist, or a sexist, and, y’know she got 18 million votes in the primary and her selection could actually unite the party – and he’s the Hopey Changey VP! …Yeah. The new IOKIYAR is IOKIYNH (It’s OK If You’re Not Hillary), I suppose.

I didn’t think anything could bewilder me as much as the “Hillary isn’t even a Democrat!!!“/”You can’t vote for McCain! Hillary and Obama are practically the same candidate!” meme backflip of June, but…. Congratulations, Obamacans. You have truly reduced this election season to a theatre of the absurd.

edit, 2:03pm: As I strolled down to my local bakery for a tasty pastry, I realized I ought to clarify something. I’m thrilled Hillary will not be Obama’s VP. Thrilled. She’s better off in the Senate, at the very least, and from there she can be appointed to any number of positions to which she is eminently qualified (Senate Majority Leader, Supreme Court, etc.) I’m just saying, if you’re going to pick a VP candidate, it might be best to not a) pick the person who looks on paper to be a poor-man’s version of the person you’ve been vilifying for 6 months, and b) seems to contradict the message of your entire primary campaign.

Shut Down This Socialist’s Communist Agenda!

New computer still hasn’t arrived. Combined with a sudden burst of work craziness and my quadrennial Olympic Fever, not been posting much – though I am thrilled (though wary) with the news of Hillary’s name being put in nomination. Hurray!

I’m also fighting off a cold, so I’m feeling too fuzzy-headed to post anything of substance, but I’m amused to find that, in my semi-absence, I’ve attracted myself a libertarian troll who has a hard-on for my Chill Down the Spine post (my most linked-to entry to date, but I think he found it through the ‘corpocracy’ tag.)

There’s a couple of comments waiting in moderation, but I thought I’d share the more hilarious of the two:

Liberty is Freedom
http://adoxography | anitshallbedone@****.com | 207.200.116.131

There are only Two guarantees in America. Life and Liberty. One has to be willing to die to keep theseTwo Freedoms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the citizens of America bow, on bended knee. To Powers of “CORPORACACY”. Its minions rally together with faith of their master’s power and authority. Dividing monetary gains of fortune and control. Drawing funds directly from individual citizens. By use of “Deception” “Deceit” and out rite lies. This is the representation of “Corporacacy” of the new world order. Power and control over the weakest element combined with acceptance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The guarantees of Life and Liberty have been breached! What are you going to do about that? Manipulation instigated thru selective enforcement excusing all violators living in the honored grace of authorities. Stripping citizens of their basic right to LIBERTY. States failing to honor federal lease agreements and the federal government is letting states get away with it. What is up with that? Is our government asleep?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What has happened to independent self supporting America. This whole country, (it appears has jumped on the welfare wagon). We do not need this crap… Round em up ship em out. Shut down this socialist’s communist agenda. We do not need this crap… Congress and every politician have caused this debt. Every city should pay its own way. Every family should earn and pay their own way. A human’s labor is the most valuable asset they possess. Congress has stolen that. Give it back!

2008/08/10 at 1:54 PM

Hear that? Jump off the Welfare Wagon and bow down to the ‘Corporacacy’, bitchez! Oh, the lollerskates.