Texas Women Do Know How To Dish It Out

Priceless.

Who will Romney choose as VP?

CW appears to be that one chooses a VP to appeal to a demographic that one is weakest with. For Romney, this would seem to be the entire Republican base, who hates his guts with the passion of a thousand suns. And, too, women. So, who should he pick? Palin (It worked so well last time!)? Bachmann (too nuts? Is that possible?)? Frothy (too disgusting? Is that possible?)? Or some fellow corporate-sponsored cyborg like Paul Ryan (too happy in his current job?)? This is fun speculation - anyone out there have an opinion?

Andrew Breitbart

Dead. If you're looking for a tribute, go somewhere else.

Virginia backs down

Good. And good for the activists who sounded the alarms and worked to bring about this result: Thank you!

Dan Savage's gift that keeps on giving

One of Digby's readers had a catch, and I saw a headline on a newsfeed earlier today that said: Santorum Surges. Yeah, ew. But hey, the endless stream (oh, ew) of ridicule and infamy that this internet joke has spawned is so very richly deserved.

While I'm at it, I might as well just divert all (!) my traffic today over to Digby's place. She has two more posts up that I'd like to draw your attention to:

First, this one from David Atkins, part of which includes this:

This is a man who is absolutely terrified that someone, somewhere, might be having more fun and staying truer to themselves than he is. And he's bound and determined to stop it. He desperately needs a good psychiatrist to talk through whatever repressed, latent urges he's feeling and bring them out in a more healthy way.

On a broader note, it's mind-boggling that the same people who are obsessed over what two or more people might be doing consensually and harmless in their bedrooms or at a music concert, hurting no one and enjoying themselves, are utterly unconcerned with the horrific damage done by billionaire greedheads who pollute and impoverish entire nations simply to buy a few more yachts and private jets. It's repulsive moral perversion of the highest order, and sane observers shouldn't be afraid to call it that for fear of offending their delicate sensibilities.

Something is really, really wrong with these people. Not just the politicians, but their supporters, too.

And this, from Digby herself.

So, yeah, Thank You Dan Savage!

If everyone, including non-believers, doesn't have "religious freedom", then none of us do.

A San Antonio judge had some choice words for rightwingers that he had to contend with during a court case addressing prayer in a local public school. My local Freethinkers group was proudly supportive of the family that sued Medina Valley ISD, and I couldn't help but admire them all. It's far too easy to throw up one's hands in despair, given the overwhelming social pressure in these small Texas towns to conform - I think one would need to be prepared to move. At my son's high school graduation last June, the level of aggressive smugness with which the Boerne ISD school superintendent delivered his official "prayer", both before AND after the ceremony, and the wild applause the crowd rewarded him with each time, were just staggering. In these circumstances, it's easy to feel hopeless.

Regarding the recent flap about birth control, and the Obama administration "compromise" - I think it remains to be seen whether or not this turns out to be a good move. I don't think any ground should be given to the American Taliban, but Amanda Marcotte seems to think they got pwned on this particular episode. We'll see - I have my doubts.

Whitney Houston, RIP

Somewhere on this blog, quite awhile back, I mentioned something about not caring all that much about Whitney Houston's work. I was an admirer of her mother, Sissy Houston (of the Sweet Inspirations), and of course of her other relative (cousin, aunt? I can't remember), the wonderful Dionne Warwick. And I prefer Dolly Parton's version of her own song, I Will Always Love You, because - to me - Whitney's version, while technically impressive, seems to lack the emotional depth that Dolly brought to that song.

OTOH, there was no denying Whitney's raw talent and powerhouse of a voice, and the news of her death yesterday made me very sad for a life cut short way too soon. I'm not a close follower of Celebrity Tabloid gossip, but I gathered that Whitney has made a number of bad choices in her life and that, apparently (certainly not the fact that she was, you know, BLACK - no certainly not!), has triggered a fresh torrent of rightwing bile the likes of which we haven't seen since, well, since Barack Obama was elected. I wish I could say that I was shocked. These are the things we need to point out when some idiot starts blathering about our "postracial" society. My ass.

Anyway, for a better tribute to this beautiful and sad young woman, go here.

UPDATE: Just for grins, I checked to see what Texas-libberscallmeracist-Fred had to say about this and you will be absolutely notstunned to discover that he is right on board with the rest of the lunatics in his tribe, with a long post about what a crack ho Whitney Houston was and how only the Liberal Media would waste print on such trash while ignoring the Real Story which is that a soldier died in Afghanistan. Seriously.

RELATED, OF COURSE: I mean, really. Is it my aging imagination, or did this crap used to be much more "under the radar"? Certainly most sentient human beings understood that racism didn't disappear after the civil rights movement of the 60's, but became less socially acceptable, less talked about in polite circles. It just seems so much more brazenly out in the open these days.

Color me skeptical

I don't know if Planned Parenthood will actually get their funding back, but I would say that this episode has been a huge PR (not to mention fundraising)bonanza for them. Thank you Komen!

Update: Ohgod, the comments to this post are hysterical. Sample:

actor212 says:
February 3, 2012 at 12:34 pm
So, is it safe to say that Komen has aborted this policy?

Boycott Komen

Okay, so we've just learned that the Komen Foundation is now as relevant to women's health as the term "pro-life" is to, well, actual life. Articles abound, but two really good ones are here and here, and TBogg tells you what you can do about it here.

Context Is Everything

When you look at this headline, don't you want to ask, "In relation to what?" Or, at the very least, define "crazy" in Republican terms...

Dispatch from Republican Heaven

Known in other (normal) circles as "Hell":

We here in Texas have taken extra steps to making food stamps really hard to get, which can lead to situations like this.

TBogg gives us his inimitable take:

On the plus side, Rachelle Grimmer didn’t abort her kids, no one appears to be gay, and the 2nd Amendment, once again, provided a simple solution to a complex issue. Win-win-win.

By the way, the little girl died early this morning.

Fiscal vs. Social Conservative

I have had people tell me, in all seriousness, that they are "fiscally conservative but socially liberal", as if this is the Serious, Responsible position to take, but all it means is that they vote Republican and don't want to be seen as one of those loony, anti-abortion wingnuts. It's utter bullshit. Look around you - this is where Republican fiscal policies over the last 40 years has gotten us. Here's an even better explanation.

"Republicans: The Other White Meat"

In response to this blog post at the SA Current, my friend Gene wrote (emphasis in original):

Robert:
First, thanks for writing this article. This information is really very shocking. I do keep up with these debates but I had not been aware of most of this.
I'm not impressed with the ill thought out solutions that the fundamentalist Christians and Republicans keep offering. But the one thing I do know is that the planet is only capable of maintaining something like 4 or maybe 5 billion people, and I think we are up to 9 billion and growing.
We have already eaten everything in the oceans, the water is being polluted. It will not take much to undermine our food supply with mad cow or crop failures---which are already happening. Monsanto is ruining the rest with their modified seeds. We have driven all other life off the planet so we can have more shopping space and sewage treatment.
So to keep advocating that all pregnant women give birth is really, really stupid. Especially when they don't want to.
I say lets declare Republicans the next white meat.

Miscellaneous

Obama will win re-election because even we angry, shrieking lefties with our Ample Supply Of Illusions will vote for him because we may be uneducated naifs, but we are not stupid, Hertzberg's patronizing assessment notwithstanding.

Speaking of stupid, it never seems to dawn on people (TexasFred, I'm looking at YOU - ew) who are unconcerned about the issue of wrongful convictions, that when the wrong person is convicted of a crime, that means that the actual perpetrator remains unaccountable.

Please watch this clip from Rachel Maddow:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

While we're waiting

...for the Teabaggers to shut down the federal government because Democrats won't let them wipe out healthcare for women, let's not forget the myriad of other ways they are wreaking havoc in other parts of the country!

Sadism and the sadistic sadists who...

Three Must-Reads:

From Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice, we are led to this great article at Esquire. Please, please read the whole thing.

It reminded me of this post from Digby, which included this:

In his widely read article in this month's Vanity Fair, Joseph Stiglitz puts it perfectly:


Alexis de Tocqueville once described what he saw as a chief part of the peculiar genius of American society—something he called “self-interest properly understood.” The last two words were the key. Everyone possesses self-interest in a narrow sense: I want what’s good for me right now! Self-interest “properly understood” is different. It means appreciating that paying attention to everyone else’s self-interest—in other words, the common welfare—is in fact a precondition for one’s own ultimate well-being. Tocqueville was not suggesting that there was anything noble or idealistic about this outlook—in fact, he was suggesting the opposite. It was a mark of American pragmatism. Those canny Americans understood a basic fact: looking out for the other guy isn’t just good for the soul—it’s good for business.

The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.


Sadly, it ends up being too late for most of the rest of us as well.

The whole world is drinking a very toxic political cocktail right now, a combination of crude, soulless Randism and fundamentalist religiosity. (Maybe it's the same thing actually, if you define fanatical market superstition as the primitive faith based system it really is.) Its components are stronger or weaker depending on the culture and economic circumstances but it's all one big churning cauldron of human folly, at least partially brought on by massive change and global economic transition. Sadly, it doesn't appear that the species is up to the task of managing it rationally so we're just going to have to ride this out and hope the High Priests and Warriors don't destroy the whole thing in the meantime.

But no discussion of Political Sadism can be complete without talk of the Republican War on Women, and the go-to gal for that discussion is Amanda Marcotte.

This is what is called "moving the goalposts"

The only possible response to this insanity would be for the Democrats to propose complete government-funded universal single-payer healthcare paid for entirely by taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Any "compromise" with these assholes is cutting our own throats.

UPDATE: Same with abortion: We really need to have a national movement that pushes the concept of government-paid abortions (paid for with taxes on insurance companies!) for any woman who wants one for any reason. Full stop.

Wusses in Minnesota

In Texas we just shoot 'em.

I wonder....

Maybe I should just re-name this blog "Republicans Suck" 'cause, you know, there never was any "wondering" about it.

Fox "News" viewers: