Joe Wilson Nails It: The Story of O

Legitimate Questions of Judgment, Experience.

Read it all. Then wonder why our media whore media is so brain-dead that they yap about flag pins and tears while ignoring issues.

" . . .Obama repeats the incorrect and politically irresponsible mantra that Sen. Hillary Clinton voted for the war and that therefore he is more qualified to be president. Unlike Obama, as the last acting U.S. ambassador to Iraq during the first Gulf War, I was deeply involved in that debate from the beginning.

President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell made it clear publicly and in their representations to Congress that the authorization was not to go to war but rather to give the president the leverage he needed to go to the United Nations to reinvigorate international will to contain and disarm Saddam Hussein, consistent with the resolutions passed at the time of the first Gulf War.

With passage of the resolution, the president did in fact achieve a U.N. consensus, and inspectors returned to Iraq. Hans Blix, the chief U.N. inspector, has said repeatedly that without American leadership there would have been no new inspection regime."

. . .The approach of tough diplomacy backed by the threat of military action was the correct one and it yielded exactly the desired results, a unanimously passed U.N. resolution and the capitulation of Saddam when he readmitted the inspectors.

The betrayal occurred not when the president was given the tools he needed to secure international support for inspections, but rather when Bush refused to allow the inspectors to complete their work and decided preemptively to invade, conquer and occupy Iraq.

That decision and power was his alone -- not the Congress' and certainly not Hillary Clinton's. Obama is wrong to turn Bush's war into Clinton's responsibility. And Obama is dangerously naive in failing to understand the need in international crises to blend tough diplomacy with the other foreign policy tools at our disposal to achieve a strong national security posture.

Last-Minute Hillary-Surge in Guam! Not Enough 4 Victory -- Obama Crushes Uppity Hillary Clinton by 7 Votes.

.Not that there's anything wrong with that.

A surprise surge, that is.

Having heard the media whore media pundits, one thought that The Man Who Would Be [Prom] King had Guam all sewn up!

"Even the Kentucky Derby wasn't this close.

In the strangest of circumstances that could only bring about the closest of races, Hillary Rodham Clinton finished with 49.9% of the vote of the Guam Democratic Caucus, just 7 votes shy of Barack Obama's total of 50.1%.

While Obama led for the vast majority of the night's tallying, Clinton needed a strong finish in the municipality of Dededo, Guam's most populous village. And she did - gaining 61% of the 822 votes counted by the Democratic Party of Guam.

Note: these are unofficial, uncertified results as tabulated by the Democratic Party of Guam. The DPG also noted a high number of spoiled ballots in Dededo."

Who'd a thunk it?

Hell Freezeth Over

And really, isn't it about time?

Via The Confluence, a great piece from garychapelhill, "It's 32.1 Degrees In Hell."



Meanwhile, we're drifting, we're drifting, here.

Update: The turkey soup has turned the corner, abruptly, is now curried turkey soup with coriander. (One just knew you'd want to know). Plus, Mr. NBFH and I are off to be very very French whilst viewing intrigue in a Spanish Court in 1519. So there. Feliz Dos De Mayo a todos!

No Blood for Hubris Official Mental Health Interlude No.624b

Hey. It's Uno de Mayo.

Happy Beltane.


(Thanks to the legendary white witch of New York, Marion Weinstein.)

Official No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude (No. 342)

So, when the Clinton/Obama drama palls, and one's personal samsaric trauma drama morphs into mere annoying mosquito-esque repetitiveness, what is there to lift one's spirits that does not involve staying up till all hours in virtual frolic with west-coast avs and their naughty boundaryless east-coast enablers?

(RL avatar yawns appreciatively.)

Well, there's this guy.

Seat-Sniffing Leader Breaks Down.

New Poll: Senator Hillary Clinton Would Beat "Same Old Same Old" John McCain by Nine Points

This just in.

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton has a better chance than Barack Obama of beating Republican John McCain, according to a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll that bolsters her argument that she is more electable in the fall than her rival for the Democratic nomination.

The survey released Monday gives Clinton a fresh talking point as she works to convince pivotal undecided superdelegates to side with her in the drawn-out Democratic primary fight.

Clinton, who won the Pennsylvania primary last week, has gained ground this month in a hypothetical head-to-head match up with the GOP nominee-in-waiting; she now leads McCain, 50 percent to 41 percent, while Obama remains virtually tied with McCain, 46 percent to 44 percent.

Hat tip to No Quarter.

Turkey Soup, Or, Why Sexism Should Matter to Dem Men More Than It Does At Present

I'm not windsurfing.

No, really, I'm not windsurfing.

No, I tell you, I'm just NOT windsurfing.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Windsurfing, I mean.

You know, it takes a lot of smarts and strength? It's kinda macho?

Unless and until it's spun completely otherwise? As one might completely otherwise spin an actual meritorious martial experience? Well, I'm just a broad so nevermind.


I'm just here making soup, as personal therapy. It might have been chicken soup, and frequently is, but today it's turkey. With vegetables and barley. As I chop, and saute, make things simmer, and str, while continuing not to windsurf, I have time to reflect.

I reflect on having been regaled in blogtopia recently with reminders of how poorly the Dems have done in general elections. I'm not sure why people are reminding me of this, since I need no actual reminders on this subject. (People remind me of a lot of things on the internets tubeses of which I am perfectly well aware, thanks so very much.)

How poorly the Dems have done . . . why would that be, one wonders?

This segues into my sexism theme since it is the Karl "Miss Piggy" Rove Bushist Fascist Propaganda Cadre that has done so well for so long by successfully branding male Democrats as -- well, pussies.

Pussies.

As in gurrrls. Wimps. Cry-babies. Losers. Effetes. Elites. Girlie-men. Smartypant sissies. Weaklings. Hysterics. Whackjobs. Nutbags.

Really, it goes back to the rat-f*ckers, the Canuck letters that turned Ed Muskie suddenly into a snivelling wimp.

Later, it was Mike Dukakis in-a-tank, looking like a Charles Schultz creation. Add soft-on-crime Willie Horton. Dukakis = wimp. Girly-man. Heavens!

Scandal over the insane price of Bill Clinton's haircuts, which proves he's a gurrl.

Hysterics over hysterical-Dean-scream Howard Dean.

Hysterics over the horrid girly price of John Edwards' haircuts, not to mention calling him "The Breck Girl."

Hysterics over patrician smartypants wussy effete ee-leete John "windsurfer" Kerry.

"Autumn Colors" smartypants wussy Al Gore.

You can't disparage someone in the US, at least overtly, for being of color. (You can do a miscegenation tap-dance, a la Harold Ford, certainly.)

But it's a-okay to disparage a man by labelling him as possessing the inherently inferior characteristics of the inherently inferior female class.

It's a-okay, because the belief of female inferiority is widely shared.

Not universally, but widely.

This is why all the sniggering fratboys (and their fratgirl enablers) of our media whore media continue to get away with it.

Why do we allow this to go on?

It is not unreasonable to try to portray one's opponent as weak, or stupid, or ill-informed.

It is wrong to attach a gender label to one's opponent for the sole purpose of disparaging their person.

It is sexist to do as Imus did recently, and call Obama "almost a bigger pussy than she is [referring to Hillary Clinton]."


Have we all had enough of this, one hopes? And if not -- why not?




The G Spot, here.

Thomas a Beckett's Ghost Asks: "Who Will Rid Me of This Meddlesome Female Candidate for U.S. President?"

Someone really really needs to get rid of Hillary Clinton.

Democrats really need someone who'll get rid of her, according to MSNBC's Howard Fineman, someone who'll "stop this thing."

Faux-Left Manichaean media darling Keith Olbermann agrees: "Right. Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out."

(Thoughtful pause.)


"Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out."

O-kay.


Let's compare:

"We need someone to stop Barack Obama's campaign in its tracks."

"Right. Somebody who can throw him in the back of a pick-up, and string him up."



Raise your hands, boys and girls, if that metaphor works for you?

No? It doesn't work for you?

Well, it shouldn't.

Nor should the first one.

Sexism and racism are completely unacceptable.

Sexism is tolerated in the United States today in a way that racism is no longer tolerated.

Recognition of the pervasiveness of gender bias in the USA is not a reason to vote for Hillary Clinton; however, rampant sexism, particularly in the media, has adversely affected and continues to adversely affect her ability to communicate information on her actual plans and actual policy proposals.

Thus, the citizenry continues to be bombarded by sniggering fratboy vitriol that disparages Senator Clinton merely as a female, rather than engaging in an honorable war over her ideas, plans, and policies versus the ideas, plans, and policies of her opponents.

That's why the pervasive "just shut the fuck up, bitch" theme of her opponents is so very vile.

And that's why so many of us have our frickin' panties in a twist.

Just in case you'd been wondering.


.
Alegre, at No Quarter, here.

Poet Jane Cooper (1924-2007)

This morning I found out that my wonderful teacher and mentor, Jane Cooper, has died -- actually that she died last fall, a few months after Grace Paley. I knew about Grace from the Times, but somehow I missed Jane's obit, here.

Jane was kind enough to get me my first job -- an actual job in the actual field of poetry, a miracle in itself. We kept in touch until I moved to Asia -- pre-internet. I'm too sad to write more, but I wanted to note and honor her passing. Here's one of her poems:

Souvenirs

Anyway we are always waking
in bedrooms of the dead, smelling
musk of their winter jackets, tracking
prints of their heels across our blurred carpets.

So why hang onto a particular postcard?
If a child's lock of hair brings back
the look of that child, shall I
nevertheless not let it blow away?

Houses, houses, we lodge in such husks!
inhabit such promises, seeking the unborn
in a worn-out photograph, hoping to break free
even of our violent and faithful lives.

From: Calling Me From Sleep, by Jane Cooper

Hillary-Hating Uber Alles: Karl Rove's Wet Dream Comes True

What is wrong with these people?

Click on this, and scroll down to this headline:

HILLARYLAND IS A FAR MORE CONNIVING AND RAGE-FUELED PLACE THAN YOU HAD IMAGINED: THE EXCLUSIVE INSIDE STORY

Ok, boys and girls -- it's 2008, and guess what?

We at the New Republic ha ha are proudly using classic sexist stereotypes to trash a candidate from our own party!

"CONNIVING" is classic sexist spin-speak for "actually has the nerve to run for president"!

"RAGE-FUELED" is classic sexist spin-speak for "why won't the angry bitch shut up and roll over and die along with all those other uppity angry bitches who just won't shut up and roll over and die -- who do they think they are, anyhow?"!

Click on, and it's even better: anyone like Hillary who won't roll over and die at Obama's feet must be suffering from a whole bunch of Schneiderian psychotic symptoms! Ooh! Voices in her head! Ooh! She must be craaaaa-zy! Look at her hysterics in this Dean-screamy unbelievably unflattering photo! That angry f*cking bitch is f*cking craaazy!

VOICES IN HER HEAD --
INSIDE HILLARYLAND'S FATAL PSYCHODRAMA

by Michelle Cottle (Proving that females can be just as sexist as males. Ooh. But we knew that already, Michelle, dear.)

By the time Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle finally packed up her lovely corner office with its fresh blue carpet and mini-fridge full of Diet Coke, her exit must have come as a relief--even to many of her friends on Team Hillary. Since Iowa, colleagues had been conducting an uneasy deathwatch for her.

"Lovely corner office" -- "fresh blue carpet" -- "mini-fridge full of Diet Coke" -- hmm. Interesting word choices.

[Then follows a boring account of supposed internecine warfare and slagging of Mark Penn, who I believe got canned some time ago. People I know and respect seem to hate this guy, I don't know why, and seem to hate Hillary's candidacy even more because of him. Me, what do I know?]

And so the jockeying and layering and squabbling grinds on, even as Hillary's chances of capturing the nomination grow ever more remote. [Translation: shut up and die, bitch]. From the outside, the struggle for control of a campaign that likely won't be around much longer [Translation: jeez, bitch, why won't you just shut up and die??] may appear absurd.

Not as absurd as this article -- not to mention its inflammatory headlines.

Who are you people?

Why are you so stupid and so awful? Shouldn't you know better?

Sadly, no.



--------------------------
Here's an article for persons who didn't get why The New Republic's coverage was sexist and why being explicitly anti-sexist actually matters.

Ditto, from Feministe (& not a pro-Hillary blog, btw).

Here's "Keith Olbermann's Head Explodes."

Here's Corrente on Obama, Sexism, and the Infantile Id.

Here's Watermelon Shuffle, reprised.

--------------------------
Hat tip on the NR article to Tennessee Guerrilla Women, who saays:

Hillary Sexism Watch: Cancel Your Subscription to The New Republic
Why does the lefty New Republic look just like the righty Free Republic?

If you don't already have a subscription to The New Republic, why would you ever want one?

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a woman who has inspired mothers, daughters and sisters all over the nation with the hope that women and girls will one day be treated fairly.

Portraying the first woman to have a chance at the presidency as a raving lunatic is what we have come to expect from progressives and conservatives alike.

Anyone who has graduated from feminist studies 101 knows that the portrayal of uppity women as raving lunatics is as old as the patriarchy itself. And hasn't it worked out really well for the chauvinists?

I should be used to it by now. But if this is what it means to be Democrat, I am not one.

-----------------------------------------------------

Full story, here.

The G Spot, here.

Rummy, Cheney, Bushist Fascists: Torture Gets Them Hard, Says Beaver (no, I'm not making this up)

Why aren't all the members of the pro-torture crowd safely rotting in jail?

On Tuesday, December 2 2002, Donald Rumsfeld signed a piece of paper that changed the course of history. That same day, President Bush signed a bill to put the Pentagon in funds for the next year. The US faced unprecedented challenges, Bush told a large and enthusiastic audience, and terror was one of them. The US would respond to these challenges, and it would do so in the "finest traditions of valour". And then he signed a large increase in the defence budget.

Elsewhere in the Pentagon, an event took place for which there was no comment, no fanfare. With a signature and a few scrawled words, Rumsfeld reneged on the tradition of valour to which Bush had referred. Principles for the conduct of interrogation, dating back more than a century to President Lincoln's famous instruction of 1863 that "military necessity does not admit of cruelty", were discarded. He approved new and aggressive interrogation [torture] techniques that would produce devastating consequences.

I don't know why they're not safely rotting away in jail.

[Staff Judge Advocate Lt. Col. Diane] Beaver recalled that smothering was thought to be particularly effective, and that [Major General Michael E.] Dunlavey, who'd been in Vietnam, was in favour because he knew it worked.

The younger men would get particularly agitated, excited even: "You could almost see their dicks getting hard as they got new ideas." A wan smile crossed Beaver's face. "And I said to myself, you know what, I don't have a dick to get hard. I can stay detached."

Beaver confirmed what Dunlavey had told me, that a delegation of senior lawyers came down to Guantánamo well before the list of techniques was sent up to Washington. They talked to the intelligence people, they even watched some interrogations. The message from the visitors was that they should do "whatever needed to be done", meaning a green light from the very top - from the lawyers for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the CIA.

I hope they begin rotting away in jail very soon, and for a very very long time.



Full story at the Guardian, here.

The Bitter Poor Have No Bread? Why, Then, Let Them Eat Arugula! (Hey. It's Bitter, too!)

I said he was a timid centrist.

I said he was Not Ready for Prime Time.

And I'm right.


Now that people are listening a little harder to what Obama says, he's starting to get caught saying just what he means. And get caught not saying what he should say -- like never apologizing for Randi Rhodes at an Obama fund-raiser calling a Presidential candidate FROM HIS OWN PARTY a "big fucking whore."

"Bitter" Pennsylvanians? Oh? Those poor poor people. Those poor dumb poor people. Clinging to their faith.

No, Barry's not sounding out of touch. Nope. Not at all. He'll do just fine against McCain. Pinky swear, I promise!

Bitter bitter bitter. Bitter as arugula. Yep. Trash the working poor, why don'tcha?

It's so Bushist -- so "poor people are poor because they are lazy." It's all their fault. (Just like every time Obama puts his foot in his mouth, it's Hillary Clinton's fault. Hunh?)

Complaining about the high price of arugula?

That was a good idea.


FOOT IN MOUTH.

We're not electing a Prom King, people.


Really, we're not.



.

It's the Sexism, Stupid!

Watch it at YouTube, here.

Watch it if you dare, testosterone-deprived acne-pocked media whore media sexist sniggering fratboys. [MSNBC, Matthews, Carlson, FlabbyMatt Taibbi, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Kristol, Olbermann, Shuster, Cafferty, Beck, Cavuto, Russert, Barnicle, Scarborough, Snyder, etc. etc.]

And all you sniggering fratboy sympathizers. [MoDo, HuffPo]

And the rest of some of the rest of you who are Faux-liberal Manichaean sexist sniggering fratboys who don't even know that you are sexist sniggering fratboys. [Kos, Aravosis, PDA, Move-on, Buzzflash, Olbermann, FlabbyMatt Taibbi, Shuster, Rich]

Watch it if you dare. All the way to the end.

But don't forget:

"While women have been elected to the highest offices in countries such as England, Germany, and India, [oh, and not to mention Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Israel, and Ireland -- who have I forgotten?] the idea that a woman could be president of the United States provokes scoffs and ridicule.

The press portrays female candidates as unviable, unnatural, and incompetent, and often ignores or belittles women instead of reporting their ideas and intent. [What? They DO??]

Since voters learn most details about presidential candidates through media outlets, Falk asserts that this prevailing bias calls into question the modern democratic assumption that men and women have comparable access to positions of power." -- Women for President, Media Bias in Eight Campaigns

Sexism pervading America? What? Well, I must tell you that I'm shocked. Shocked.

[Why do I now call Matt Taibbi "FlabbyMatt"? Check out his most recent anti-Hillary screed, in which he leads off by disparaging the physical appearance of a leading candidate for President of the United States, hurling an insult that is at once both sexist AND ageist. Way to go, FlabbyMatt.]

Bill O'Reilly rips off my post title, here.

Obama's "F*cking Whore Fundraiser" Scandal: See No Evil? Hear No Evil? Really? Speak No Evil? Well, nevermind.

Obama's odd silence on the Fucking Whore Fundraiser Scandal is shocking, yet unsurprising. Somehow. And you'd think that this would be a major story for the media whore media, would you not? And yet that silence, too, is deafening.

Hmm. Whatup?

Presidential Candidate Barack Obama needs to denounce Randi "Clinton is a big fucking whore" Rhodes' comment. Right frickin' now. (Then Mr. Hope/Change/Hope can explain why he waited so long to do so, and why that behavior is not both sexist and majorly righwing.))

His continuing silence about this vulgar sexist attack gives consent and complicity, especially since it occurred at an Obama fundraising event.

Obama must denounce Rhodes' statements about both current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, apologize for the sexist slurs being made at his fundraiser, and return all money that event made. [Update: didn't happen. Aint's gonna happen.]

And Randi Rhodes needs to have her head examined. (She's not the only one). I hadn't realized that the Democratic party was so severely infested with vulgar, sexist vitriolic boors masquerading as liberals -- so now there's a Pottymouth Cheney/Freeper wing of the Dem party, eh?

Makes me sick. Kos makes me sick, Progressive (sic) Dems of America makes me sick, BuzzFlash, Americablog, blah blah blah. Why do they think it's ok to behave this way? Shrieky hysterical mob mentality behavior from people who really really should know better -- but don't.

Shame on them. Feh.



More here, via No Quarter.

And good comments here at Anglachel:

[Update: I have to say that with every week, and with every passing day that brings more Hillary-hating hysteria and swiftboat slime, I am sliding further and further away from my vow of supporting the Democratic candidate whoever that might be. I have taken hard hits for supporting Hillary, both in RL and SL (oddly enough), and I'm telling you, I don't frickin' like it. Drummed out in RL of Americablog and HuffPo and Buzzflash and DU and Kos, I fled to the Hillaryblogs. Where I found myself with the similarly drummed-out with similar philosophies -- it sure feels like home. (And even SL is less so, though most I hang with have been very polite. I learned recently that one Obama supporter there was been spreading rumors behind my virtual back that I had said I was not going to vote for Obama, which I had never ever said. I'm adding that experience to my list of things that are starting to make me frickin' wonder.)

I don't like Obama's policies, and I don't like the way the more vocal of his supporters behave. My opinion of him has gone from generally favorable a few months back to generally unfavorable, as I have learned more about him. I think he is a timid centrist candidate who is not ready for prime time. I don't like how his team treats his opponent. At all. I don't like all this constant wierd-ass dismissive sexist crap, and I don't like what Leahy and Kerry and Kennedy and Carter are saying and doing; I don't like being vilified, I don't like the media whore media's sexist crap, especially not Frank Rich and Huffington and MoDo and Olbermann, and I particularly don't like the Faux-left's sexist crap, like that of Randi Rhodes, above. You act like that, you're not on my side. And I am not on yours. Forewarned is forearmed. So far I'm sticking to my pledge, but I'll tell you, as of about an hour ago, I've started wavering. And I am a big-time long-time ultra-progressive Democrat. A real one, not a timid centrist. Lose me if you dare.]

NYT Op-Ed to Tibetans: Shut Up and Die, Already

.



.














Enough of the Great Battle of Hill v. Barry.

Let's perk up with stories about the brutal genocidal Han Chinese oppression in Tibet!

(Say whut? Nothing-to-see-there-move-along.)

I don't know why the Red Chinese even bother to send out their brown-nosed army of propagandists, but they do. Maybe just in case George Bush reads a newspaper? Anyhow, today's propagandist rants in the New York Times today, here. But don't waste your energy linking.

Basically, it says that since the big bad Red Chinese are so very big and so very bad, the Tibetans should just give up and die, and the rest of their world-wide supporters should just shut up and die, too, because we little mosquitoes are just so um you know so annoying.

O-kay! If you say so, Patrick!



(Why did the New York Times even bother? Because they can't publish Judy Miller's tripe anymore, so they've gotta have someone to fill the tripe quota?)

DailyKos Is a Nappy-Headed Ho?

Amazing how fast a so-called liberal Dem site turns into fascist Freeperville, is it not?

Kos commenter Alegre calls out the evil evil-doers:

If you're sick of the way Hillary - a good and decent Democrat - has been vilified and attacked... if you've EVER recommended one of my dairies on this or any other site then please join me in this effort. Let's take a stand here and now and tell the world we will no longer remain silent in the face of the sexism, anger, irrational hate, lies and attacks against Hillary. Nor will we add to the bottom line of a site that continues to lead the charge in fueling it.

Yes, then Alegre asks for Kossacks to join the strike in via comments. And Markos disables the comments.

America, America, God shed his grace on thee.

Link here.
-----
UPDATE:
Tom Watson on the flight from DKos:

But much of it comes from boorish, Stalinist behavior online - the kind of "you're either with us or against us" attitude we saw so much of when the Bush crowd was flying high. It's disturbing, particularly because so many of the targets are women. This is not the Democratic Party many of us have worked for; this is not the progressive blogosphere we've supported. Without blaming the worthy candidacy of Senator Obama in any way, this is not a progressive movement - it's a harsh, echo-filled politburo bathed in faux post-racial hosannas and the gauzy camera lens of "hope."

More of Tom Watson's commentary on the strike, here.

UPDATE II:
This campaign is bringing all our proud American sexist fratboys proudly out of the closet.
Don't miss Hitchens telling us why broads just ain't funny, here.

UPDATE III:
Blogtopia responds with The Confluence.

Can we expect a "Strange Fruit" Watermelon Tap-Dance Shuffle from Oliphant Anytime Soon?

I'm guessing -- with apologies to Project Runway's Heidi Klum, that -- racism is still OUT, while sexism is still IN!


(Oh, and don't forget about this charmer from Andrew "Low On Testosterone" Sullivan, who writes a whole long swiftboating of Hillary, based on the premise that she IS her husband, and they are ONE! Barf-inspiration, here.


On TNR, at The G Spot, here.

The 3 AM Phone Call: President Obama Calls Hillary

Thank you , SNL.

Clip here.

Robert Reich to HRC: Shut Up, Bitch

Robert Reich has been one of my heroes.

I couldn't believe that he would write this, but he did.

Sigh.

Yes, it's fine for Obamists to trash Hillary, but uppity gurrl Hillary should just give up and shut up. For the good of the party, see?

Obama Campaign & Karl "Miss Piggy" Rove Are ONE: Hillary is a "Monster". Oh my.

With friend like these, who needs Miss Piggy.

Full story here.

Acne-Faced Fratboys on Fox: Sexism is Just So Mainstream in America's Media Whore Media

Hat tip to MediaMatters:


From the March 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

LUNTZ: You guys -- how many of you saw Saturday Night Live? Did it humanize Hillary Clinton to you, or did it ridicule her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it ridiculed her at all. I think that, you know, she is who she is, and that's, you know, how she stands for, so --

LUNTZ: Do you think she's electable?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she's very electable. You know, a lot of the hot stuff about Hillary is, you know, people -- since she's a woman running for the highest position in the world, she has to, you know, position herself in a place where she can be electable, and I think that she is. She has come out hard against a lot of issues, and as we just saw in this clip, you know, it's easy to see that she really is sincere in everything that she says.

LUNTZ: Andrew?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, but sound bites and tears or not, there's one person qualified to be the commander in chief, and that's John McCain. You know, the other candidates have this myth of experience, and McCain is the one with real experience.

LUNTZ: And by the way, Hillary Clinton would not be the first female president. Jimmy Carter was the first female president.

ALISYN CAMEROTA (co-host): Hey. All right, we have so much more with all the students from Ohio University. We'll be right back.

Because being a female is in itself an insult.

Thanks, Fox.

Thanks to all of America's splendid media whores.

Joe Wilson Draws the Curtain Back: Obama the Wizard of Oz? Uh -- NOT

A brilliant piece.

A scary piece.

It makes Obama look not merely inexperienced, but stupid.

Dangerously stupid.

Link here.



Update:

I don't have time to comment, but if you're looking for some nice fresh new juicy sexism, it's here for free at WaPo.

MSNBC by SNL: The Boyz Against the Gurrl

This latest clip is hilarious -- but will it put really Misogynist Sophomore News Broadcast Cablefrat boys to shame?

Nah.

Jack Nicholson: Let's Explode Karl Rove's Hillary-Hating Propaganda Filter! Right Now!

Jack Nicholson tells it like it is, here.

Obama Lauds Rummy

Oops.

SNL on MediaObamania

Great clip from SNL, here.

Tina Fey: Not Just Good, But -- Bitchin!

2. bitchin


Not just great, but bad-ass fine.

As in: Dude, look at that bitchin '32 roadster with the black pinstriping. Also written bitchen or bitchin' - and ALWAYS pronounced BIT-chin.

Tina Fey says it all, here.

Texas Debate: Sharp Wonkette Is Progressive, Presidential

The Aussies got it right.

Via the Sydney Morning Herald:
Plucky Clinton gives Texas her best shot

February 23, 2008

WITH Texas shaping as her Alamo - a victory or death struggle - Hillary Clinton grabbed the last word in the latest CNN debate held in the Lone Star state.

For the first time in weeks the audience on Thursday night glimpsed the real Hillary Clinton: a determined, feisty, woman, who has the toughness to be president.

The question that prompted it: "What's the biggest crisis you've faced?"

"Oh," said Senator Clinton, looking heavenward, as the audience suddenly straightened in their seats. "Well, I think everybody here knows I've lived through some crises and some challenging moments in my life."

She was interrupted by applause. "People often ask me, 'How do you do it? You know, how do you keep going?' And I just have to shake my head in wonderment, because with all of the challenges that I've had, they are nothing compared to what I see happening in the lives of Americans every single day."

She talked of injured veterans she had visited in a rehabilitation centre in Texas. And how her faith had called her to serve the American people. [And won a standing ovation from the very pro-Obama crowd.]

But she had trumped her opponent, Barack Obama, who had just answered the same question, but did not light up the audience.

Sharp Wonkette vs. Timid Centrist: Joe Wilson Backs Hillary

Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson:

With the emergence of Sen. John McCain as the presumptive Republican nominee, the choice for the Democrats in the 2008 presidential election now shifts to who is best positioned to beat him, in what promises to be a more hard-fought campaign -- and perhaps a nastier one -- than Democrats anticipated.

Sen. Barack Obama's promise of transformation and an end of partisan politics has its seductive appeal. The Bush-Cheney era, after all, has been punctuated by smear campaigns, character assassinations and ideological fervor.

Nobody dislikes such poisonous partisanship, especially in foreign policy, more than I do. I am one of very few Foreign Service officers who have served as ambassador in the administrations of both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, yet I have spent the past four years fighting a concerted character assassination campaign orchestrated by the George W. Bush White House.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is one of the few who fully understood the stakes in that battle. Time and again, she reached out to my wife -- outed CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson -- and me to remind us that as painful as the attacks were, we simply could not allow ourselves to be driven from the public square by bullying. To do so would validate the radical right's thesis that the way to win debates is to demonize opponents, taking full advantage of the natural desire to avoid confrontation, even if it means yielding on substantive issues. Hillary knew this from experience, having spent the better part of the past 20 years fighting the Republican attack machine. She is a fighter.

But will Mr. Obama fight? His brief time on the national scene gives little comfort. Consider a February 2006 exchange of letters with Mr. McCain on the subject of ethics reform. The wrathful Mr. McCain accused Mr. Obama of being "disingenuous," to which Mr. Obama meekly replied, "The fact that you have now questioned my sincerity and my desire to put aside politics for the public interest is regrettable but does not in any way diminish my deep respect for you." Then one of McCain's aides said of Obama, "Obama wouldn't know the difference between an RPG and a bong."

Mr. McCain was insultingly dismissive but successful in intimidating his inexperienced colleague. Thus, in his one face-to-face encounter with Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama failed to stand his ground.

What gives us confidence Mr. Obama will be stronger the next time he faces Mr. McCain, a seasoned political fighter with extensive national security credentials? Even more important, what special disadvantages does Mr. Obama carry into this contest on questions of national security?

How will Mr. Obama answer Mr. McCain about his careless remark about unilaterally bombing Pakistan -- perhaps blowing up an already difficult relationship with a nuclear state threatened by Islamic extremists? How will Mr. Obama respond to charges made by the Kenyan government that his campaigning activities in Kenya in support of his distant cousin running for president there made him "a stooge" and constituted interference in the politics of an important and besieged ally in the war on terror?

How will he answer charges that his desire for unstructured personal summits without preconditions with a host of America's adversaries, from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Kim Jong Il, would be little more than premature capitulation?

Senator Obama claims superior judgment on the war in Iraq based on one speech given as a state legislator representing the most liberal district in Illinois at an anti-war rally in Chicago, and in so doing impugns the integrity of those who were part of the debate on the national scene. In mischaracterizing the debate on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force as a declaration of war, he implicitly blames Democrats for George Bush's war of choice. Obama's negative attack line does not conform to the facts. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I should know. I was among the most prominent anti-war voices at the time -- and never heard about or from then Illinois State Senator Obama.

George Bush made it clear publicly when lobbying for the bill that he wanted it not to go to war but to give him the leverage he needed to go to the United Nations and secure intrusive inspections of Saddam's suspected Weapons of Mass Destruction sites. Who could argue with that goal? Colin Powell made the same case individually to Senators in the run up to the vote, including to Senator Clinton. It is not credible that Senator Obama would not have succumbed to Secretary Powell's arguments had he been in Washington at the time. Why not? Obama himself suggested so in 2004. "I'm not privy to Senate intelligence reports,' Obama said. 'What would I have done? I don't know." He also told the Chicago Tribune in 2004: "There's not much of a difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage." According to press reports, Powell is now an informal adviser to Mr. Obama.

In his tendentious attack, Obama never mentions that Hans Blix, the chief United Nations weapons inspectors, declared that without the congressional Authorization for the Use of Military Force the inspectors would never have been allowed into Iraq. Hillary's approach -- and that of the majority of Democrats in the Senate -- was to let the inspectors complete their work while building an international coalition. Hillary's was the road untaken. The betrayal of the American people, and of the Congress, came when President Bush refused to allow the inspections to succeed, and that betrayal is his and his party's, not the Democrats.

Contrary to the myth of his campaign, 2008 is not the year for transcendental transformation. The task for the next administration will be to repair the damage done by eight years of radical rule. And the choice for Americans is clear: four more years of corrupt Republican rule, senseless wars, evisceration of the Constitution, emptying of the national treasury -- or rebuilding our government and our national reputation, piece by piece. Obama's overtures to Republicans, or "Obamacans" as the Senator calls them, is a substitute for true national unity based on a substantive program. His marginal appeals have marginally helped him in caucuses in Republican states that Democrats won't win in the general election. But his vapid rhetoric will not withstand the winds of November. His efforts will be correctly seen by the Republican leadership as a sign of weakness to be exploited. While disaffected Democrats may long for comity in our politics after years of being harangued and belittled by the right wing echo chamber, the Rovians currently promoting Obama are looking to destroy him should he become the nominee. Obama's claim to float uniquely above the fray and avoid polarization will be short-lived. He is no less mortal than any other Democrat -- Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry -- all untouched at the beginning of their campaigns and all mauled by the end. We should never forget recent history.

In order to effect practical change against a determined adversary, we do not need a would-be philosopher-king but a seasoned gladiator who understands the fight Democrats will face in the fall campaign and in governing.

Theodore Roosevelt once commented, "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly."

If he were around today, TR might be speaking of the woman in the arena. Hillary Clinton has been in that arena for a generation. She is one of the few to have defeated the attack machine that is today's Republican Party and to have emerged stronger. She is deeply knowledgeable about governing; she made herself into a power in the Senate; she is respected by our military; and she never flinches. She has never been intimidated, not by any Republican -- not even John McCain.

Barack Obama claims to represent the future, but it should be increasingly evident that he is not the man for this moment, especially with Mr. McCain's arrival. We've seen a preview of that contest already. It was a TKO.

Effeminate Tubby Druggie Rush Limbaugh Ravaged By Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome: O my!

Tubby Druggie Rush is really hurtin', people. He's cryin' out like a wussy mama's boy, he's cryin' out fer help. He's got TDS.

Poor boy's got TDS. Yikes.

Rush just can't get it up anymore, Swiftboat-smearwise. He ain't UP to it, even via chemical assist.

Should we snag this Sniggering TDS Fratboy some actual Viagra? Some compassion Oxycontin?

Well, sure, it's too little too late, but I think Rush Limbaugh needs to be on a permanent indwelling Testosterone Drip. Big-time.


Limbaugh returned to "testicle lockbox"; claimed Clinton "reminds men of the worst characteristics of women."

Rush Limbaugh revived his claims about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's so-called "testicle lockbox," stating:

"Clinton's testicle lockbox is big enough for the entire Democrat (sic) hierarchy, not just some people in the media. . .. Her lockbox, her testicle lockbox can handle everybody in the Democrat (sic) hierarchy."

Limbaugh later claimed that Clinton "reminds men of the worst characteristics of women they've encountered over their life: totally controlling, not soft and cuddly. Not sympathetic. Not patient. Not understanding. Demanding, domineering, Nurse Ratched, kind of thing."

Wow. Freudian, or what? I thought castration anxiety went out, like, AGES ago. Decades.

For healthy males, it's a non-issue. But not for sniggering fratboys like Chris Matthews, Tucker ("Bow-tie & Pink Shirt) Carlson, Lester Holt, Shuster, O'Reilly.)

And really not for Tubby Druggie Rush.

He's got it BAAD.

Yep. Someone definitely HAS Rush's balls in a lockbox.

I think it's probably Mommy -- Rush's Mommy. He should be asking her, please, Mommy, please, let my testicles go.

Mommy didn't love Rush enough. We all wonder -- why not? Was Rush an unwanted child? Hm? His Mommy didn't love him? Was she controlling, domineering, or did she just think her little boy was just a nasty little pig? We don't know. But we do know that he has no testosterone.


RUSH LIMBAUGH: POSTER BOY FOR CASTRATION ANXIETY.

And that's just not pretty.



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Erica Jong: Patriarchy:1000, Hillary:0

Timid Centrist In Progressive Clothing vs. Progressive Wonkette Being Sexistly Slimed. Hmm. How's that going to work out when the fat lady finally sings, eh?

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MSNBC is a Nappy-Headed Ho (And Time Magazine is a Nappy-headed Ho As Well. Not that anyone really gives a shit except the very shrill)

So MSNBC has it's very own "nappy-headed ho'" moment, and blames the whole thing on Hillary Clinton. What a concept.

No Blood for Hubris strongly supports the continuing use of the public airwaves to spread the important traditional twin American values message of sexism and stupidity, really, we do.

Whole story here, via Tennessee Guerilla Women.

Longer story of from Media Matters, here. Media Matters has been right on this story from the start, while MSNBC is trying to spin people's objections to their on-air nappy-headed ho language as being mere partisan hype.

Partisan hype? Not THAT!

Scarborough insisted, "This ain't about Hillary Clinton's campaign." [mere partisan hype -- don't pay attention to it. nothing to see here, move on]

Scarborough got that part right. This isn't about Hillary Clinton's campaign. This is about a consistent pattern of misogynistic comments by Chris Matthews. Comments about and directed toward a variety of women. A consistent pattern of Matthews objectifying women. And a consistent pattern of MSNBC looking the other way.

It's about an MSNBC host saying things like this: "I've been trying to call Alessandra Stanley with The New York Times for some time just to have lunch with her, and she thinks it's because I'm trying to influence her -- that's not the case at all, it's because, I was surprised, I saw a picture of her and I thought she was kinda hot!" . . . Joe Scarborough.

It's about things like a male MSNBC host describing a woman running for president as "shrill" (and "very shrill") and asking, "[W]hat about her housekeeping skills?" . . . Joe Scarborough. . . .

This is about Chris Matthews' pattern of inappropriate treatment of women, and about MSNBC's continued acceptance of it. It's about things like a male journalist doing a mocking "impersonation" of the women who host The View - an impersonation that featured a high-pitched, whiny voice...[from]. David Shuster. . . [Shuster is now being spun as the sad victim of a horrid horde of over-sensitive broads]

Tim Russert suggested that there is irony in a "self-avowed feminist" having shown "some emotion," as though feminists are the dour, humorless beings Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson think they are. At least Russert stopped short of using the term "feminazis."

A few days later, Tucker Carlson mocked the idea that Hillary Clinton could have been a "victim of gender discrimination," noting that she had gone to Yale Law School. Clinton's comments about "gender equality," to which Carlson was purportedly responding, were in fact general, and not about her specifically.

And his invocation of Clinton's graduation from Yale Law as evidence of a lack of gender inequity in her life was just bizarre: As Clinton noted in her autobiography, "When I entered Yale Law School in the fall of 1969, I was one of twenty-seven women out of 235 students to matriculate. This seems like a paltry number now, but it was a breakthrough at the time and meant that women would no longer be token students at Yale." . . .

MSNBC host Tucker Carlson, who has described Hillary Clinton as "whining" and suggested the reason there are so few women in Congress is that "most women are so sensible, they don't want to get involved in something as stupid as politics" and said of Clinton, "[W]hen she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs," and described her as "castrating, overbearing, and scary."

(MSNBC can't say they didn't know what they were getting when they hired Carlson; before joining the cable channel, he said women "want to be spanked vigorously every once in a while" and told Elle magazine that Clinton is his "guilty fantasy," explaining: "Every time I see her I think I could, you know, help. ... She seems tense.") . . .

Then on January 30, Joe Scarborough told co-host Mika Brzezinski, "Mika, don't make me backhand you." . . .

During MSNBC's February 5 primary coverage, correspondent Lester Holt seemed surprised that "[t]he first woman candidate with a serious shot at winning the presidency beat out her male rival" in exit polls on the question of "[w]ho would make the best commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces?" Holt even reminded viewers, "Keep in mind, this at a time the nation is fighting on two fronts." This wasn't the first time an NBC personality seemed to question whether a woman could be an effective commander in chief of the armed forces:

* On June 24, 2007, Chris Matthews asked if Clinton's "being surrounded by women" makes "a case for commander in chief -- or does it make a case against it?" Matthews went on to say, "But isn't that a challenge, because when it comes down to that final decision to vote for president, a woman president, a woman commander-in-chief, will be an historic decision for people. Not just men, but women as well."

* On May 30, 2005, Matthews asked retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey if "the troops out there" would "take the orders" from "Hillary Clinton, commander in chief." When McCaffrey responded, "Why wouldn't they listen to a [female] commander in chief? Sure," Matthews responded: "You're chuckling a little bit, aren't you?" When McCaffrey responded, "No," Matthews said: "No problem? No problem? No problem?" McCaffrey answered, "Absolutely not. None."

Most recently, David Shuster said on the February 7 edition of Tucker that "there's just something a little bit unseemly" about Chelsea Clinton contacting super delegates on behalf of her mother, adding, "[D]oesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?"

This morning, Shuster offered a Matthews-esque quasi-apology for analogizing Chelsea Clinton to a prostitute.

But, like Matthews, Shuster didn't seem to "get it."

Maybe because they still live in Animal House? Not the charming funny movie part, the stupid actual real part?

Puerile misogyny seems funny for a year or two while you're a whiny pimply sophomoric hormonally-challenged sniggering frat boy.

But even puerile boys generally grow up into actual men.


Just not at MSNBC.


Update: and not at Time Magazine either: here's a little gem from their sniggering fratboys:




.Hillary Clinton
Clinton and sexism
sexism

Why The Faux-Left Manichaean Naderites and Charles Krauthammer Are Strange Bedfellows

Neither want Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic Presidential Nomination.

Cui bono?

Charles doesn't want her to be the Democratic Party candidate because he doesn't want a liberal Democrat to be President. Because that might rein in all the Bushist fascist fun all the Bushist fascists have been having.

The Faux-Left Manichaean Naderite Posse doesn't want her to be the Democratic Party candidate because they don't really give a crap about actual governance, but prefer to remain poseurs, telling those who are out in the trenches that those trenches aren't capacious enough, the trenches are way too muddy, the trenches should be lined with silver and amethysts, la la la la la la.

Moi, I don't care to be on any side that Charles Krauthammer is pimping for.

Y'all may feel quite differently. Please do.

I thought a Clinton/Obama ticket might be just the thing, but that was yesterday. Today I came across this, via No Quarter. It reminds me why the uber-hyped Obama's just too conservative.

Barack Obama says that the GOP has been the "party of ideas" for the last ten to fifteen years. Which GOP "idea" tops your five-alarm list during the last 15 years?

* Privatizing Social Security
* Cooking intelligence and outting an undercover CIA officer
* Uncontrolled deficit spending with tax breaks for the wealthiest and oil companies
* Abolishing the Department of Education
* Covering for pedophiles in the Congress
* Slashing Medicare
* No health care for all Americans
* Gutting the military
* Not protecting us from Chinese toys and food laced with poison.

I'm really not interested in a candidate who wants to sing Kumbaya with Karl Rove.

How about Clinton/Clark?
Anyhow, pardon me while I go cast my vote.



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[Senator Hillary Clinton won this state, ~60/40, a great surprise, as we're very Faux-Left Manichaean Naderite here and Kennedy, Kerry, the Governor, and the media worked hard against her. The working-class poor voted for her.]

Hillary Clinton
Clinton and sexism

Hillary -- A Sharp Wonkette

So I watched MTV's presidential candidate thingie last night, and listened carefully to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Thus I determined that Hillary = a sharp Wonkette.

Barack Obama was Prince Charming (not that there's anything wrong with that) -- well-spoken, but he was not the equal of Wonkette. Style not substance. And not progressive.

Hillary Clinton was a sharp Wonkette, not only well-spoken, but with all facts at her fingertips, and her plans set out in impressive uber-wonk detail.

I'm looking for someone who knows what he or she is talking about, someone who has actually done his or her homework, having been treated to 7 years of torture via a left-behind class-clown braindead frat-boy. A sharp Wonkette will bring back competence.

Hillary "Sharp Wonkette" Clinton has been pre-Swiftboated. Endlessly. No surprises to be feared. In terms of electability, this is a supreme strength.

There is nothing vile and nasty that can be said about her that hasn't already been said about her, and is still being said about her, from both the vile right and the blood-on-their-hands Faux-Left Manichean Naderite Posse.

Thirdly, she is being supported by many people I respect: Wesley Clark, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Barney Frank, Sidney Blumenthal, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, and a person I do not: Ann Coulter. (No, of course Ann Coulter is lying. But who cares.)

Senator Clinton's election as President will make Karl "Miss Piggy" Rove and Rush "Chemical Assist" Limbaugh wish they were dead, I strongly feel. This is a side issue, but it would be nice. Some say who cares about Rove, and Reagan, and the great rightwing conspiracy, but I say those people have not been paying attention to the past 30 years.

While I appreciate the fact that sharp Wonkette Senator Clinton is female, that is not my reason for voting for her. I would certainly not vote for Condi Rice nor Mrs. Dole, never ever ever, perish the thought. The ongoing shameless sexist sliming of Senator Clinton, however, was enough to start steering me more strongly in her direction. I stopped hoping that Gore would appear like a deus ex-machina. I loved Dean, Wesley Clark.

I was strongly steered away from Obama by the recent high-school glamour popularity contest hype communicated to me by our beloved and insightful Media Whore Media. And I don't like his conservativism at all.

Obama took another hit via several Manichean Faux-left Naderite Posse cliques such as Progressive Democrats of America and MoveOn.Org, who gleefully overlooked the actual differences between these two fine candidates in favor of jumping directly on the age-ist Youth and Newness Bandwagon: Young! New! Young! New! Young! For no apparent reason other than a desire to bandwagon jump, and to punish the uppity Clinton for not toeing their party line.

PDA in particular pointed out that, yes, yes, yes, annoyingly enough, Clinton's actual policies ARE more progressive than Obama's, but -- they just don't give a shit about that. Like that HER health care plan is universal, and HIS plan, tepid and flabby, only covers kids, for God's sake. Hunh?

Get this:

No matter who we've supported so far for president, many PDAers have seen firsthand the enthusiastic, youthful, multiracial movement that has embraced Barack Obama.

The Senator hasn't been totally progressive on the issues, but our engagement with the inspiring Obama movement--which includes tens of thousands of open-minded newcomers to activism--leaves us hopeful.

Hope? Wow. My SUV runs great on hope!

"The Senator hasn't been totally progressive on the issues" they say, but who really gives a shit about that?

Let's all drool about new! shiny! youth! change! hype! new! youth! glam! shiny! new! new! spin as if Obama were a Chevy or was running for Prom King.

Whiny mostly white librul boys (and some gurrls) perseverate on a vote the white gurrl cast five years ago when her opponent wasn't even in the Senate to cast any vote at all. (And since he's been there, he sure hasn't stuck his neck out. like he promised he would. That's a track record in itself.)

Manichaeans are like that. Black/white, Kinda Bushist, really. That's why their being pissed at Clinton for talking to Wal-Mart or Big Pharma sounds like a Faux-Left snot-nosed version of Bubble Boy refusing to talk to Iran or Syria. Yo, is that smart? NOT.

Yeah, go on Faux-Progressive toyboys and toygirls, keep on bitching about that stale vote of yesteryear -- a single vote that could not have prevented Bush's war -- a vote that looms SO large when we've started a war based on lies, killed 600K+ people, killed habeas corpus, shredded the constitution and the rule of law; abandoned government competence, destroyed the social safety net, destroyed the very basis of our democracy.

America is bankrupt, morally and fiscally. It's polluted and decaying, as Preznit Toad-Exploder jabs his spurs in our bloodied sides even deeper, and rides us all straight down into flaming hell.



(Where they'll find Faux-Left Manichaean Kingpin Ralph Nader roasting, toasting as he enjoys his accrued karma for helping Bubble Boy get selected in the first place . . . .)


More:

The divine Robin Morgan on Hillary Clinton, just a fantastic piece here.

Goodbye to All That (#2):

Goodbye to some women letting history pass by while wringing their hands, because Hillary isn’t as “likeable” as they’ve been warned they must be, or because she didn’t leave him, couldn’t “control” him, kept her family together and raised a smart, sane daughter. (Think of the blame if Chelsea had ever acted in the alcoholic, neurotic manner of the Bush twins!)

Goodbye to some women pouting because she didn’t bake cookies or she did, sniping because she learned the rules and then bent or broke them. Grow the hell up. She is not running for Ms.-perfect-pure-queen-icon of the feminist movement. She’s running to be president of the United States. . . .

Goodbye to a misrepresented generational divide . . .

Goodbye to some young women eager to win male approval by showing they’re not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can’t identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if they say something good about her.

Goodbye to women of any age again feeling unworthy, sulking “what if she’s not electable?” or “maybe it’s post-feminism and whoooosh we’re already free.”

Let a statement by the magnificent Harriet Tubman stand as reply. When asked how she managed to save hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, “I could have saved thousands—if only I’d been able to convince them they were slaves.”

I’d rather say a joyful Hello to all the glorious young women who do identify with Hillary, and all the brave, smart men — of all ethnicities and any age — who get that it’s in their self-interest, too. She’s better qualified. (D’uh.) She’s a high-profile candidate with an enormous grasp of foreign- and domestic-policy nuance, dedication to detail, ability to absorb staggering insult and personal pain while retaining dignity, resolve, even humor, and keep on keeping on.

(Also, yes, dammit, let’s hear it for her connections and funding and party-building background, too. Obama was awfully glad about those when she raised dough and campaigned for him to get to the Senate in the first place.)

I’d rather look forward to what a good president he might make in eight years, when his vision and spirit are seasoned by practical know-how—and he’ll be all of 54. Meanwhile, goodbye to turning him into a shining knight when actually he’s an astute, smooth pol with speechwriters who’ve worked with the Kennedys’ own speechwriter-courtier Ted Sorenson. If it’s only about ringing rhetoric, let speechwriters run. But isn’t it about getting the policies we want enacted?

And goodbye to the ageism . . .

How dare anyone unilaterally decide when to turn the page on history, papering over real inequities and suffering constituencies in the promise of a feel-good campaign? How dare anyone claim to unify while dividing, or think that to rouse U.S. youth from torpor it’s useful to triage the single largest demographic in this country’s history: the boomer generation—the majority of which is female?

Old women are the one group that doesn’t grow more conservative with age—and we are the generation of radicals who said “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Goodbye to going gently into any goodnight any man prescribes for us. We are the women who changed the reality of the United States. And though we never went away, brace yourselves: we’re back!

I read her piece and felt ashamed of myself, for my own sexist, tepid support of Senator Clinton's candidacy. And for my silent acceptance of things I know better than to accept as status quo. For my own cowardice and hesitance. (is that a word?)

Pandagon gets the whole thing right from the start, here. Please enjoy the commenter toward the end of the thread who, though apparently a liberal, actually rashes Hillary for the sin of not hiding her intelligence. Honest to God. I kid you not.

Stanley Fish at the New York Times on the anti-Hillaryists, here.

Faux Progressive Dems Endorse Less Progressive Candidate, Fail to Note the Error of their Ways

So, get this: so-called "Progressive Democrats of America" endorse Barack Obama exactly one day after sending out an email admitting that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's policies are MORE progressive than Senator Obama's.

But they don't give a shit about that.

Defeating uppity Hillary is so much more important than actually being progressive.

Can you believe it?

No matter who we've supported so far for president, many PDAers have seen firsthand
the enthusiastic, youthful, multiracial movement that has embraced Barack Obama. The
Senator hasn't been totally progressive on the issues, but our engagement with the inspiring Obama movement--which includes tens of thousands of open-minded newcomers to activism--leaves us hopeful.

Well, "shiny new youth hope youth change shiny new youth hope change shiny new new!" CERTAINLY trumps actual progressive stances on the actual issues, does it not?

Facts, plans -- they're just so so RETRO!!







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Hillary-Hating Uber Alles: Karl Rove's Wet-Dream Come True At Last!!!

Look at the picture.

War-torn Iraq. The endless misery of sentient beings.

It's not funny.

But something seems to be. Funny.

As in -- trivial. Kos says so, anyhow. Kos says -- and he's said it before -- that really really there's no such thing as sexism, so don't you get your panties in a twist, you pussy librul gurrls.

He's right.

Yes, yes, yes, apparently I have my panties in a twist.

It must be that time of the -- well, you know how broads can be!

Sure it was annoying when there was ZERO coverage of the Democratic primary in Florida (which a female won), so little that I actually thought there hadn't BEEN a Democratic primary there. Only heard about it later. And not from the media whore media, of course.

I am WAAAY to the left of Hillary Clinton (I'm in the Tony Benn wing of the Democratic party), I oddly enough think that the ENEMY is actually Bushist fascism, and not Hillary Clinton. Hmm. As far as I can tell, she's anti-torture, get out of Iraq, bring back the surplus, pro-rule of law, pro-separation of church and state, pro-environment, pro-government competence, pro-habeas corpus, pro-constitution, pro-separation of powers, and pro-universal health care (an idea which she proposed what, 16 years ago? To almost universal disparagement. Sort of like Carter espousing energy independence, and getting trashed for it. Or Gore predicting the importance of the internet. And getting trashed for it.)

All these issues are close to my heart.

She doesn't write books that wax nostalgic about Ronald Reagan, like some candidates we know.

But she's, you know, according to the gospel according to Karl Rove -- she's got a problem. A female problem. (Remember when she got trashed for saying she didn't want to stay and home and bake cookies? Oh god, not that.)

leaving aside her vaunted problem of being a female, the Senator supports many, if not all, of the things that I support. Her constituents value her. The media whore media and the Reichwing spin machine do not.

She is the longtime recipient of something that I particularly despise: sexism.

Where at least one must put on a good face about not being racist, sexism remains perfectly acceptable.

Not a good thing.

I got an email today from Progressive Democrats of America touting Obama as their candidate. It was pretty frickin' sad.

Sounded like it came right from the mouth of Rush "Don't Elect a Wrinkly Hag President" Limbaugh:

No matter who we've supported so far for president, many PDAers have seen firsthand the enthusiastic, youthful, multiracial movement that has embraced Barack Obama. The Senator hasn't been totally progressive on the issues, but our engagement with the inspiring Obama movement -- which includes tens of thousands of open-minded newcomers vto activism -- leaves us hopeful.

So, a candidate's stance on issues -- don't count!

Yuh, they note that the Senator hasn't been totally progressive on the issues, but ---

Hel-lo?

What were they thinking?

If we can't make distinctions based on the actual differences between the actual candidates on the actual issues, then -- on what rational basis are we choosing?

Answer: we're in non-rational, prejudicial mode.

Moi, I prefer the one who supports universal health care over the one who wants it just to cover children.

And I'm good with the candidate that Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame and Wesley Clark and Madeleine Albright support.

So, sure, I'd prefer Gore, I'd prefer Dean, I'd prefer Wesley Clark. I would have been good with Edwards, Dodd, Richardson, Kucinich, pretty much any Dem. And I will certainly vote for Obama if he's the candidate.

Failing that, I'm good with Hillary Clinton.

Those who perceive her as the enemy are working on Karl Rove's team.

Bushist fascism needs to be ground into dust, America's moral and fiscally bankruptcy utterly reversed.

That's the whole point.

End of story.



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Hillary-Haters Have a Ball: Reichwingers Play the C*nt Card; Young Obamist Makes Clinton, Not Bush, Prime Target. (Hunh?)

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So this morning I went out to do the shopping (I'm a gurrrl, remember?).

The cash register was manned by a young white male. He mentioned the name of X, a white male liberal in my town who I know to be on its Democratic Party Committee. This older white male liberal I met when I was supporting Robert Reich for Governor in the Democratic Party primary against a white female, Shannon something. Can't recall her name.

The white male teen said he was working on Obama's campaign, and he said, pointedly, and disparagingly, "I'm working hard so that that OTHER candidate won't win."

The man he was talking to, asked, "Who? Romney?"

But of course young white liberal male Obama supporter meant Senator Hillary Clinton.

Now, boys and girls, this is how pervasive sexism is -- young white male liberal puts knocking uppity b*tch Hillary Clinton out of the race as a higher priority than knocking the Bushist fascists out of the White House. She's the enemy. Not Bush.

And that's how it really is.

A quick trip to a liberal site like Daily Kos, or Democratic Underground reveals a pervasive acceptance of misogyny. It's splashed across the pages of the New York Times, local radio, and on national and local TV.

Chris Matthews's creepy sexism -- not to mention that of Drug Limbaugh -- is acceptable everywhere. They sure don't get fired for it. They don't even get in trouble.

Media Matters has covered this well:

Using overtly sexist language, he has referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as a "she devil" and compared her to a "strip-teaser." He has called her "witchy" and likened her voice to "fingernails on a blackboard." He has referred to men who support her as "castratos in the eunuch chorus." He has suggested Clinton is not "a convincing mom" and said "modern women" like Clinton are unacceptable to "Midwest guys." He has called her "Madame Defarge" and "Nurse Ratched."

(Contact MSNBC: Mr. Phil Griffin, Senior Vice President, News
NBC Television Network 30 Rockefeller Plz New York, NY 10112 phil.griffin@nbc.com )

When will sexism become as unacceptable as racism?

Uh, ever?



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George W. Bush and the Bushist Fascists == America's Batterers

What is Domestic Violence in the Context of Politics?

Let's refer to some classic DV literature:

Domestic violence is a pattern of many behaviors directed at achieving and maintaining power and control over [others]. Power and control tactics certainly include acts of physical violence of varying degrees of severity. However, in many abusive relationships, abusers use a variety of other tactics directed at controlling their partners.

(Remember: you do not have to be physically hit to be abused.)

Emotional Abuse:
Abusers often speak to victims in humiliating and degrading ways geared at promoting a sense of worthlessness. . . (Karl Rove, are you listening? ) These messages are conveyed both blatantly and subtly, leading victims to question their own value and abilities.

Isolation:
It is common for victims of political domestic violence to become isolated from family, friends, and others who could provide them with emotional or practical support.


Minimizing, Denying, and Blaming:
Acts that serve to both distort reality and normalize abuse include minimizing or denying the seriousness of abusive acts and blaming the victim for "causing" the abuse (It's all the Dem's fault). Batterers often tell victims that "they were only kidding" about emotionally harmful or degrading statements. (Bush putting his hands on the female Chancellor of Germany).

Abuser Perceived Entitlement:
Batterers believe it is their entitlement to maintain power in a relationship and control their intimate partners. (Bush/Cheney treat the opposition party this way -- and use sexist language to portray their opponents as weak, nannystate, helpless). They believe that big decisions should be theirs to make. (No compromise on with the opposition -- only their way will do). Their perspectives about the relational roles of males and females tend to be traditional and male-dominant. They commonly believe it is their job to discipline their partners, physically, emotionally, and by denying victims necessities for themselves and the children.


Coercion and Threats:
Common coercive behaviors include: threatening to do something to hurt the victim; threatening to leave the victim; threatening to commit suicide; threatening to hurt her family members or friends; and threatening to report her to a welfare agency or the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Victims quickly learn that batterers have no qualms about carrying out their threats and batterers use the victims’ awareness of this fact and their fear to maintain control without having to commit acts of physical violence. (Compare the post-9/11 fearfulness of doing anything that might go against the Bushists' worldview for fear of being labeled soft, pro-terrorist, giving aid and comfort to the enemy. We are only now waking up from this post-traumatic nightmare that put us under their power and control).

Intimidation:
Victims learn to interpret and fear batterers’ looks, expressions, gestures or actions. (See: America's submissive press corps.) These behaviors may be so subtle that others may not notice. Batterers also commonly destroy victims’ property, especially those things that hold sentimental value. Batterers may torture or kill pets. Batterers frequently own weapons and tend to brandish them to intimidate their victims. Unfortunately, batterers also use these weapons far too frequently.

Do you see the pattern here, boys and girls?

Do you understand how Bush's pissing away of the surplus, and creating in its stead a massive, bleeding deficit is akin to an abuser taking away a victim's economic power?

Do you understand how Bush's wielding the weapon of fear over the American people has terrorized us? And disempowered us? Made us numb, frozen, barely able to call 911 and ask for help in escaping?

Did you notice how Bush blamed the victims of the sub-prime mortgage scandal for having been bilked?

Were the Republicans not intent upon making us feel powerless and making us be powerless?

Now, Americans feel a loss of autonomy, in their own lives and in the nation. Their politics are driven by the powerlessness they feel to control their financial well-being, their safety, their environment, their health and the country’s borders. They question whether each generation will continue to ascend the economic ladder. That the political system seems so impotent only deepens their frustration and their insistence on results.

As she considers this campaign, Susan C. Powell, a 47-year-old training consultant who lives in a Kansas City suburb, said that what she feels is not so much hopelessness as doom.

“I know plenty of people who are doing worse than they were,” Ms. Powell said, “and nobody’s helping them out. People’s incomes are not keeping pace with inflation. People can’t afford their homes. People in their 30s and 40s, middle-income, and they don’t have jobs they can count on or access to health care. How can we say that we’re the greatest country on earth and essentially have the walking wounded?”

NY Times on Dirty Bush's Battering of America, America's Dark Mood.




(Earlier work based on information from the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence)

Maureen Dowd is a Nappy-Headed Ho

Got a minute?

Sure you do! Everybody's got time for sexism!

Everybody's got a minute for a jealous bitch!

Noted hysteric female unwed childless columnist MoDo Maureen "Dowdy" Dowd of the "who,-me-sexist?" New York Times has really got her panties in a twist!

I mean, looky here: is this uppity old broad riding the cotton pony, or whut?

CAN HILLARY CRY HER WAY BACK TO THE WHITE HOUSE?

She's being SUCH a bitch! She's so totally playing the bitch card at Hillary!

Big-time bitch-slapping MoDo, you will recall, is an unmarried woman.

She engages in spin. Why, some might call her a -- spinster.

Plus -- shrieky MoDo is unmarried to Bill Clinton. Who probably, also, never made a pass at her. Having made passes at, we are told, every female who ever lived and then some.

Now that must hurt.

It could really make one hold a bigtime Clinton grudge.

Plus -- unmarried Maureen, who's probably always been a little ambitious for a girl, maybe a little shrill, a little pushy, a little masculine, a little oh, steely-eyed, therefore maybe, questionably, you know, dykey, a little loud, a little angry, way bitchy, moody, puffy, unstable, emotional, and certainly getting a little long in the tooth, a little wrinkly -- Maureen Down probably has noticed that it is Hillary Clinton, not she, who is the one who's running for President of the United States.

That must sting, deep down inside.

So, you know, Maureen, keep it real, and do let your petty jealousy and untrammeled sexism fly forth freely.

Cry about it.


(Or have you noticed -- ouch -- that no one is interested in your tears?)


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Miss Piggy Republicans Vote in Obama, Edwards

After I bid good-night to two major Hillary-haters, loudmouth sexist pundit Chris "Tweetybird" Matthews, and horrible Andrea "I'm Married to Greenspan" Mitchell all during the Iowa Democratic Caucus coverage, I woke up to the news of the Huckobama win.

I also learned that both Obama and Edwards owed their finish to votes from -- REPUBLICANS. Clinton got 10% of votes from Republicans. Over forty percent (44%) of Obama "voters" were Republicans; over thirty percent (32%) of Edwards "voters" were Republicans.

Oh?

I thought it was a Democratic Caucus?

Nah. It's just an opportunity for a little rat-f*cking.

According to CNN, 44% of those voting for Obama were Republicans. Thirty-two percent of those voting for Edwards were Republicans. 41% of those voting for Obama earn $100K a year or more (was that all those Republicans?).

Someone really feels threatened by the prospect of Hillary Clinton winning the Democratic Party's nomination for President.

And that someone would be -- Karl "Miss Piggy" Rove.

Whose idea it was, I suggest, to get Republicans to vote in the Democratic Primary process in Iowa? Cui bono?

Miss Piggy.

So, before you start stuff in cotton in your ears to keep out the Hillary-hating bombast by the vile Media Whore Media, please keep in mind that the Democratic Party primary election process in Iowa was won by the "Miss Piggy Republican" wing of the Democratic party.

Which ain't no Democratic party wing at all.




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