People who shouldn't be allowed to work with women

I don't normally look at PostSecret, but someone pointed this out to me:

There are really no words I have to describe how horrifying and repugnant this is. No matter how much you dislike someone there is NO reason to not only condone, but agree with the daily terror that is Domestic Violence. I've worked at a DV shelter and I have seen firsthand the effects of DV on women and families. There is nothing, NOTHING that excuses this. It is not only blaming the victim for the abuse whose responsibility is solely that of the abuser, but it is also continuing the oppression by blaming that person. This is the same mentality that keeps women from reporting the abuse and that keeps abusers from jail and from police taking the matter seriously.

The most common reasons for not reporting domestic violence to police are that victims view the incident as a personal or private matter, they fear retaliation from their abuser, and they do not believe that police will do anything about the incident.

Women who are in DV situations have more then enough problems without the people who are supposed to help them blaming them for abuse and disregarding the fundamental reason for that abuse: misogyny. Most women already believe that it's somehow *their fault.* The person who wrote this should quit since they feel this way.

I wish I could express myself better, I am beyond angry.

Onto more people who shouldn't be allowed around women.


Recently blogger Kyle Payne plead guilty to filming himself sexually assaulting a woman. According to his site, this is Kyle Payne:

Meet the Blogger

Kyle is a social justice educator, writer, and activist. Much of his work is concerned with putting a stop to violence against women. For years Kyle has served as an advocate for survivors of sexual violence and other forms of abuse, in addition to promoting what he calls “a more just and life-affirming culture of sexuality” through activism and education. As a researcher, Kyle has studied the feminist anti-pornography movement and is particularly interested in men’s roles in confronting pornography and the rape culture. In addition to his pro-feminist work, he is involved with anti-racist, free speech, peace, and anti-globalization movements.

Education

2008 - M.S. Degree in Adult Education
Capella University, Minneapolis, MN

2007 - B.A. Degree in Philosophy & Religion,
Social Consciousness, and Women’s Studies
Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, IA

College Activities

Rape Crisis Advocate (4 years)
Editorialist (4 years)
Webmaster (4 years, several organizations)
Resident Advisor (3 years)
Student Radio (3 years, several positions)
Academic Assistant (2 years)
VP of Service Learning (1 year)
Wellness Education Specialist (1 year)
Career Peer (1 year)
Student Senator (1 year)

College Honors and Awards

Male Leader of the Year Award, BVU (2007)
William H. Cumberland Research Award, BVU (2006)
Willard Stief Award for Community Living, BVU (2006)
Nominee, Senior of the Year, BVU (2007)
Nominee, Volunteer of the Year, BVU (2006, 2007)
Alpha Chi Honor Society (2006-present)
Dean’s Fellowship, BVU (2003-2007)
Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities (2006)
Campus Compact Civic Engagement Fellowship (2006)

Here's the thing: Much of his work is concerned with putting a stop to violence against women. For years Kyle has served as an advocate for survivors of sexual violence and other forms of abuse, in addition to promoting what he calls “a more just and life-affirming culture of sexuality” through activism and education. As a researcher, Kyle has studied the feminist anti-pornography movement and is particularly interested in men’s roles in confronting pornography and the rape culture.

He works putting a stop to violence against women and against rape culture yet he, himself had no problem with sexually assaulting and making pornography out of an intoxicated and unconscious female student. He was in a position of power over this woman, a Resident Advisor in the dorms and police found the film on his hard drive. After he posted bail he wrote this on his blog:

"For a variety of reasons, there is very little I can say about the recent news. So, unfortunately, I cannot give you the answers that you might seek. Worse yet, I can do little in the way of defending myself against a whole host of claims about my character that are both irrational and damaging.

IRRATIONAL! IRRATIONAL! Yes it's irrational to get angry about the fact that you, someone who labeled himself a "radical feminist" who worked against rape culture then turned around and not only sexually assaulted someone, but made pornography out of it. According to his blog he works doing rape crisis advocacy which scares the hell out of me-a rapist talking to victims of sexual assault! There's more about this at Buried Alive.

So You Think You Can Dance Top 12

Liveblogging this time to avoid last week's confusing note mix up. I mean, that's what commercials are for, right? And by the way I am not happy because I have ballet foot. My toes are killing me, but only on my left foot. It's not fun.

Round 1
Chelsie & Mark
Salsa:
What the judges kept saying was lacking with Mark I think was hip action. His Salsa left me wanting more hips. If he would have loosened up his torso as Mary said his hip movement may have been more obvious but as it was I wanted more Salsaness in his hips. There was really great footwork and connection. I love them and I loved it.

Comfort & Thayne
Hip Hop:
Blah. Can they go home already? I mean Comfort's solo last week was abysmal and Thayne's was nothing special. Seriously. They executed the steps well, it's true, but there was no connection, no chemistry, nothing. Blech blech blech. How are they still on the show? Seriously.

Jessica & Will
Contemporary:
Wow, Jessica was good for once. I mean she has been really bad thus far and I really think Will has been carrying her and was surprised that she didn't go home when she was in the bottom 3. But this time she did a really good job. There was definitely a lot of emotion and connection between them. It was a fabulous piece and they did an amazing job. The lines and the fluidity was gorgeous. But I really would have loved to see Kourtni and Matt perform this piece.

Courtney & Gev
Cha Cha:
EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! ANYA AND PASHA!!!!! OK. Gev's footwork was so sloppy, his hips were all over the place and not in the way that they were supposed to be. Like Mary said they should be moving in opposition, but they were just.... He wasn't working into the ground with his feet, just bad. His partnering wasn't bad, but that footwork, ick.

Twitchington
Krump:
Um, yeah. I hate Krumping. "Grrr, I'm mad. Grrrrr." All I can say is that Kherington's tough face was making me laugh. I thought it looked hysterical. And that at the end they were completely out of sync and it seemed as though Kherington forgot the steps, which like I said last week wouldn't happen if, besides learning the moves and routine, you listened to the music.

Katee & Joshua
Viennese Waltz:
The lifts were very light and executed flawlessly. But they didn't really dance into the floor or glide enough. There was too much bounce and they were definitely heavy on their feet. I do agree that Joshua had really good carriage, but overall other then the lifts I thought that he was really weak in this routine. I was surprised that the judges weren't more critical of the footwork as that is a huge part of the dance. Yeah lifts are great and showy, but the meat of the dance is in the connection and the footwork. One was there, one was not.

Round 2
Chelsie & Mark
Broadway:
I love them, seriously. Chelsie had really great lines and extension throughout the entire routine. Of course, as always, they had the characters down pat. They always get really into the routine and tell the story. Mia was right that Mark's movement was occasionally sloppy

Comfort & Thayne
Contemporary:
I agree wholeheartedly with the judges. Some of Comfort's lines were crappy-she needed to lengthen her legs and feet especially. There was an awkwardness to the way the steps were executed and once again a lack of commitment from Comfort that made it disjointed. They were also lacking chemistry again, but I don't think they're ever gonna get that. I seriously think they should go home. 2 weak performances stacked up with weeks of weak performances-at least the judges agreed that some of Kourtni & Matt's performances were good and *they* went home over these two. Blech.

Jessica & Will
Quickstep:
When they were dancing the Quickstep they had very heavy footwork which is very very bad for the Quickstep (I mean, can't you tell by the name?) Jessica had spaghetti arms at times especially when they were traveling which was about 90% of the time they were doing the QS (which is par for the course). At least there steps were in unison.

Courtney & Gev
Jazz:
Gev: where was that hip action during the Cha Cha? They had great chemistry and I thought that they brought a great deal of character to the piece. I thought that it was executed really well and you could really see how great Courtney's lines and extensions were in the lifts. It was great.

Twitchington
Smooth Tango:
They didn't dance to the intensity of the music at all. They totally could have brought the characterization to it and they didn't. Smooth Tango, key word *smooth.* Them: not so smooth, more bouncy, but I think that this could have been overcome (to the general public) with some performance since people (and the judges) seem to love them so much. Like I said with them not dancing to the intensity of the music they didn't bring the necessary passion to it that they so obviously knew it needed since they were talking about it in the preview. Bad tango.

Katee & Joshua
BOLLYWOOD!!!!
I watch Bollywood all the time so I hope this is good. OK I was waiting for backup dancers, but I wish they would have done it more back and forth style as in Bollywood movies instead of in sync as they did it. I really hope that more people pull this out of the hat because I love Bollywood. WOO WOO.

I think that Jessica & Will, and Thayne & Comfort will be in the bottom 3 and possibly Twitchington, but they seem to have a huge following so who knows, but I would think that the people going home would be the people continually in the bottom 3.

I don't know whether to cry (Don't read if you haven't watched the series finale of Doctor Who 4)

or be really happy.

Man that series finale was a roller coaster and I LOVED IT. I love that Rose and (a version of the) Doctor got to be together because they love each other so much and that everyone was OK at the end even though Donna will never remember any of the amazing things that she's done or that she saved the universe. I loved all the companions around the console working together and the Daleks speaking German.

Exterminieren! Exterminieren!

And go Dalek Caan for wanting to destroy the Daleks forever, even if I doubt this means they will be destroyed forever. Damn that ending made me cry. I love Donna's grandfather, it feels like it's worse for him, because she'll never remember and he will. Damn. I don't see them ever doing a better finale. Ever.

It's Independence Day, did you do your part?

Today we are asking all Hillary supporters to help her gain her independence by helping to pay down her debt by donating $20.08.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

So Matt's a better dancer yet he's not getting better then himself so he has to leave? How does this make sense in any way shape or form. "Uh...you're brilliant, but you're not getting more brilliant so you'll have to go." His solo was so much better then Thayne's.

WTF?

Nigel made the right vote for Kourtni to stay, but then again he was the only one who noticed that Comfort's solo was weak and that at this point in the competition Comfort shouldn't be getting props simply because she' a hip hop dancer and should be held to the same standard as everyone else.

So You Think You Can Dance Week 4

Sorry it's late, I'm so glad they brought that awesome popper back, I love him.

The camera work seemed to improve this week, thank god.

Jessica and Will:
Jive:
The footwork, especially Jessica's was heavy and clumsy though I agree that their retractions were good. Unfortunately my notes just say connection, hip movement, weight, bounce so I don't know what i was really thinking last night. Ooops.

Lyrical Jazz:
Will had some very lovely lines and I agree that Jessica definitely needs more confidence because there were some moments where she just fell completely flat and had no spark.

Thayne and Comfort:
Broadway:
They did A LOT BETTER with new partners, but there definitely should have been more pop and energy in the piece; it is Broadway and that's what Broadway is. They need to get into the spirit of the piece especially at this point in the competition. Even if they are doing better with their new partner that doesn't excuse the fact that they still need to step up to the level that is asked of them.

Smooth Waltz:
Did I say the cameras were better? I take that back. I wanna see the footwork goddamn it. In the lift Comfort had really lovely lines and their carriage was really great. Could have done better with the frame, however.

Kourtni and Matt: OK, this is gonna be sad for me as I love them (Kourtni is my favourite woman.) *sigh*
Hip Hop:
Obviously anyone who was watching could see there were parts that they were out of sync. It appeared that Kourtni kept looking at Matt to make sure they were in the same place and yes for choreographed pieces you learn a routine, but you should be listening to the music which they obviously were not doing which is a giant failure in my book. Learning where your moves should be connecting with the music is just as important as the moves and if you get that down you don't have to worry about being in sync. Also, something that would have been taken care of by this would have been the fact that there were moves that they obviously were supposed to hit on the beats and they didn't.

AT some points however I think Matt nailed the staccato and liquid movements, but he was not consistent at all.

Mambo:
Dude, Matt, what the hell! Kourtni was giving you enough sexy and smoldering and you just ruined it. That is not the spirit of mambo, that was so off character. Blah. Matt was too up and his weight wasn't over his feet (which happens when you're too far upright) and his was a little too bouncy. The steps were executed well, I felt Kourtni's footwork looked a little heavy at times.

Chelsie and Mark:
Jazz:
This has been the best Jazz routine this season though I haven't liked any this season. Of course they nailed it and they made it seem completely easy. They are awesome. (Mark's my favourite guy.)

Foxtrot:
This is my favourite dance this season. I love both the ones we've seen. Just lovely choreography. There was a great break hit by Mark about halfway through-he really nailed it. There was great footwork, frame, and carriage, and my only complaint is that Chelsie took control a little bit, but this is her thing and I doubt anyone else really noticed that.

Kherington and Twitch:
Paso Doble:
Okay. The commitment and passion was there. And it was highly entertaining. But was the dancing itself done right? Hell, no. Paso Doble is very stylistic and flamenco-ish. Twitch showed glimmers of the style here and there, but Kherington missed it. She was all up and forward like a properly-trained contemporary dancer should be, which is totally the wrong posture. Her shoulders were way too forward, she didn’t have the right frame - the claps and slaps at the end looked terrible as a result of this. And the kind of passion she was displaying was wrong - it was more aggressive, competitive and mean, as opposed to confident, prideful, and just damn’ ol rawly womanly. I found this rather distracting and jarring. On the other hand, I did enjoy watching it because it was so damn entertaining.

Contemporary:
I thought that they had great lines and executed it well, but I didn't really feel the story about Twitch's loss and Kherington's darting in and out was just confusing.

Katee and Joshua:
Contemporary:
When they were doing the same moves in the beginning of the piece Joshua was too reserved and didn't match Katee's intensity which captured the intensity and spirit of the piece. But I must say other then that they had great command of the stage, look at the execution of those beginning walks, and great form.

West Coast Swing:
Not impressed. But then I'm comparing them to all the WCS dancers I know, and I know some champion WCS dancers. Was it entertaining and energetic, yes. But think back to Benji, Lacey, or Heidi (this was Benji's choreography) and compare them. They seem to be favourites of a lot of people (including the judges) and I think because of this they were allowed to get away with a less then stellar performance.

Courtney and Gev:
Hip Hop:
Was that Courtney? OHMYGOD! What happened to Gev? I didn't watch him at all which equates to a really weak performance and this is his style. I agree with the judges that there were some parts that looked bubblegum-esque, but really Courtney really impressed me.

Broadway
Blech, just blech. I hated the choreography and I agree with Nigel that it was not as good as it should be (even though the choreography sucked) and it definitely wasn't good as *they* could do. I also agree that Courtney's kicks were not high or dynamic enough and just kind of fell flat. The only parts of the routine that could have been redeeming for me were poorly executed. Also as Tabitha (or Napoleon?) pointed out was that they kept the same intensity the whole time where the music obviously demanded that they bring it down and back up again to really explode at the end. Again this is a problem with not listening to the music and just executing the moves which is a fatal mistake for dancers IMNSHO.

I thought that Thayne, Courtney, and Comfort's solos were kind of weak. Oh well, I'll find out in 5 minutes.

Protest hate and homophobia Monday June 30th

STOP THE HATE! -Anti-Skinhead Rally

Monday, June 30, 2008
9:00am - 8:00pm
Vancouver City Jail
Main & Cordova
Contact Info Phone: 7788360442
Email: peterlotion@hotmail.com

On Saturday June 28th during Vancouver’s annual Eastside Pride celebration
in Grandview Park a few participants noticed a group of large skinheads
destroying pride signs and stomping on them. Queers and allies confronted
them and were brutally assaulted; they were punched, kicked and thrown
into a vehicle. The skinheads were arrested and are expected to be
released on Monday June 30th. Activists and allies are protesting they’re
presence in our communities.

Come show your pride and resist fascism! The day will include music,
food, drag shows and will end with a Showering of the skinheads with
resistance and community.

OH. MY. GOD.

Is it Saturday yet?

NOW's media Hall of Shame

What sexism? Visit the Hall of Shame here.

Some of my favourites that I missed this campaign season:

Andrew Sullivan from The Atlantic:

“The second bout of public tears just before a crucial primary vote - after no evidence that Senator Hillary Clinton has a history of tearing up in front of the cameras - provokes the unavoidable question: should feminists actively vote against Clinton to defend the cause of female equality?”

WHAT. THE. FUCK. How does one imply the other? What does that have to do with female equality? I'm actually speechless on this one.

Charlotte Allen in the Washington Post

“Women ‘are only children of a larger growth,’ wrote the 18th-century Earl of Chesterfield. Could he have been right? … By all measures, Hillary Clinton has run one of the worst – and, yes, stupidest – presidential races in recent history, marred by every stereotypical flaw of the female sex… . What is it about us women? Why do we always fall for the hysterical, the superficial and the gooily sentimental? … I don’t understand why more women don’t relax, enjoy the innate abilities most of us possess (as well as the ones fewer of us possess) and revel in the things most important to life at which nearly all of us excel: tenderness toward children and men and the weak and the ability to make a house a home… . Then we could shriek and swoon and gossip and read chick lit to our hearts’ content and not mind the fact that way down deep, we are … kind of dim.”

Internalized sexism anyone? Yes let's reinforce the entirely false stereotypes of femininity and womanhood. These are complete lies about what women are capable of that were created by this patriarchal society and do nothing but continue to reinforce women's oppression. Yes some women may choose to do these things, but to say that it is innate behaviour is on par with saying that blacks are naturally inferior to whites. It just. ain't. true. and is a lie propagated by the white male patriarchy to justify oppression of all non-white and non-male people. (Not to mention the laundry list of other oppressions of people who deviate from what the powers that be define as "normal," i.e. people with disAbilities, homosexuals, etc.) Yes please set us back to Victorian notions of women as weak, stupid creatures that can do nothing more then tend to the home. (Though of course this only applied to women of some means, and ones who were white at that.)

By the way, according to her I am not a woman, which by her definition is just fine by me. And my partner makes a much better househusband then I make a housewife. He's the one who cleans the house (I don't scrub the kitchen floor on my hands and knees/clean good enough), he irons his shirts (what? people still do that?), he cooks all the time (by choice fyi), and doesn't like my style of throw everything into the washing machine without separating (I do it when he's not around though). So is he less of a man?

As for that last sentence, do I really have to name all of the accomplishments of women or the fact that there are an amazing amount of smart women out there, the fact that we are graduating college at higher rates then men. Women have always been overlooked for their intelligence. For instance from the letters between them it has been revealed that Mileva Marić, Einstein's first wife, contributed equally to the theory of Special Relativity so much so that he gave all his Nobel Prize money to her. This line of thinking almost kept Elizabeth Blackwell, who was let into medical school b/c they thought her application was a practical joke, from becoming the first modern female doctor who then set up a practice in the slums of New York City (because she was denied by all other practices in the city because of her sex), trained nurses to help during the Civil War and went on to inspire and teach women to become doctors themselves.

It is this kind of reasoning that was used to justify denying us the vote. It was this kind of reasoning to deny women from entering universities and male professions. It is this reasoning that keeps us from earning the same amount as men do, that keeps women from being offered tenure track positions at the same rate men are, etc, etc. But somehow we weren't so dim and weak (swoony) during WWII when they needed us in the factories, or again when you are working class or working poor you are apparently not a woman since you are working and a lot of times in crappy labor intensive jobs (a few of my old factory jobs come to mind *shudder*)

Yeah, well, FUCK YOU.

Who needs clean water anyway?

At least 16 lakes across Canada are to be reclassified as toxic dump sites.

But Catherine Coumans, spokeswoman for the environmental group Mining Watch, said the federal government is making it too easy. She said federal officials are increasingly using the obscure Schedule Two regulations to quietly reclassify lakes and other waters as tailings dumps.

“Something that used to be a lake — or a river, in fact, they can use rivers — by being put on this section two of this regulation is no longer a river or a lake," she said. "It's a tailings impoundment area. It's a waste disposal site. It's an industrial waste dump."

Coumans said the procedure amounts to a subsidy to the industry and enables mines to get around the Fisheries Act.

.....

A local environmentalist who attended the Long Harbour meeting, Chad Griffiths, said of Sandy Pond: “It's easy enough to consider just one lake as just one lake, as a needed sacrifice, right? But it's not one lake … It's a trend. It's an open season on Canadian water.”

....

Last fall, a Federal Court judge ruled that federal bureaucrats acted illegally in trying to fast-track the Red Chris copper and gold mine without a full and public environmental review.

The decision put the project on hold, but late last week, the Federal Appeals Court reversed the decision, paving the way for federal officials to declare lakes to be dumps without public consultation.

.....

“We want it stopped,” said Dennis, who lives in the native village of Iskut, 18 kilometres northwest of the mine site. “We want to stop the mine … The animals will be drinking that water and they'll all be polluted too.

"Once they do the mine, they’re going to leave, and we're the people who are going to live with that. Not me, but my grandchildren, the small little kids like this. That's who's going to live with the pollution.”

(emphasis mine)

Of course the Fisheries Minister doesn't care, in fact he thinks it's more responsible.

From the Opposition:

"The reality is these Conservatives are giving those mining companies a huge subsidy by allowing them to use freshwater aquatic systems that are fish-bearing lakes as chief waste disposal sites," Nova Scotia MP Peter Stoffer said in the house on Tuesday.

"What they should be doing is having independent linings and holes filled with water, and put the tailings in those things, free and clear of any natural water system."

I wrote an angry letter, so there's something you can do too.

Also, there's another Work Less Party PARTY on the 28th. They're always a blast and why not financially support the best political party in BC while having a bit of fun? It is an election year and Sam Sullivan's not running again! Though I need to find out more about the new guy. Whoever he is I don't like the party so I doubt I'll like him either.

Don't Mess with Hill

So You Think You Can Dance Week 2

Hello! I'm back to talking about SYTYCD. It's nice as I have Jazz and Tap on Tuesdays and Hip Hop and Lyrical on Thursday and SYTYCD in the middle.

Thayne & Chelsea: Jazz
Gotta say I agree with the judges that this routine wasn't as strong as it should have been and it was seriously lacking in character and chemistry. I did really love the staccato part in the middle of the routine. I thought that that part was the highlight of the piece. I wasn't really blown away with the routine's choreography, but if they had the characters down better it may have been different. And what the hell was up with Nigel and the costumes? I got what the costume people were going for and I thought it went fine. I got problems with him and his "masculine" this and "manly" that.

Mark & Chelsie: Argentine Tango
I LOVED that Mark did so well with this as I suspected people thought that he was just the "oddball dancer." Which made him a personal favourite of mine, but now everyone else gets to see that goofballs can be amazing dancers. I thought the partnering was great and his carriage, lines, and attitude were perfect. The footwork was great from them both. Chelsie, as a ballroom dancer, did well but that's not exactly surprising. In this case it *is* important to be very macho/masculine and he did it very well. *shrug* It's a tango thing.

Jessica & Will: Hip Hop
I definitely thought that Nigel was way too nice about this routine. Jessica was not crisp, sharp, or hard enough in her movements. Will did well, but I thought that she was severely lacking and I definitely thought that this was one of the weaker routines of the show.

Kourtni & Matt: Foxtrot
I loved it because they were doing a style of Foxtrot that I love. It was like Mia (?) said: a beautiful routine reminiscent of the Golden Age of Dance in Cinema which I adore. I fully enjoyed it and while their Foxtrot footsteps were a little loose and not fully realised I thought that overall they did wonderfully. I thoroughly *loved* this routine.

Courtney & Gev: Contemporary
I really liked the choreography, but I felt that the performance was lacking. Here's where I kvetch about the camera work. Seriously just show the whole damn dance. Stop zooming in and out on one person or in on their faces. I want to see their whole bodies and their feet, etc. Damn you. I thought Courtney was great and fluid, but it was also lacking connection and emotion for me. I think the choreography really carried them, which great choreography will do, but it's unfair to the other dancers.

Katee & Joshua: Broadway
First of all, can the judges EVER say anything bad about Broadway routines? I didn't like last week's, but this week's routine was good, but I don't think it was executed as well as the judges said it was. I thought that there were moves that weren't fully realised, there were parts and lines that could have been sharper and moves that should have been hit harder. There were moves they just glossed over giving a hint as to the move, but not realising or actualising it. So sad. Yes it's high energy and fun, but it should continue to be judged the same way every other dance is judged. I don't think this should have gotten as high of praise as it got. It was a fun routine, definitely one of the best Broadway routines, the only one I've seen that's better is Sara & Jesús's from last year: (give it a few seconds, it does work at around :08, but that's before the dancing starts)

But still, I thought that they could have done a much MUCH better job with it.

Susie & Marquis: Salsa
So sad. I am mad at Alex DaSilva. I definitely think they will be in the bottom 3. Susie did very well with execution, i.e. footwork, carriage, etc, but was lacking the oomph needed for salsa. I think that she lacked the heart and the spark behind the moves because of the comment Alex made that obviously really upset her and shook her up when he said he was disappointed that she was just a "street dancer" and not a "dancer." Her execution was flawless, but I really think that she was so worried and nervous about her execution that she concentrated on that and that's why there was no heart and no sass in her performance. It's no excuse, to be in the dance world you need to deal with that, but it's still shitty. Marquis was stiff in his movements. He barely moved his hips at all (they should be moving in a figure 8) and his legs were stiff. He could do the steps pretty well, but he needed to relax into the steps and at the heart of Latin dancing is the hips and the sway. He looked like a dancing broom.

Twitchington: Viennese Waltz
I loved this routine. I'm not a fan of waltzes really and I loved that this took the waltz in a whole new direction. It was really beautiful and like I pointed out before I was not really a fan of the Broadway routine last week as it didn't really showcase their dancing talents so I was really impressed by Twitch this week. He looked perfectly at home. He had great lines and there was a lot of great partnering going on during this routine. Their connection was superb I have to admit that I was just taken away by what Jean-Mark Genearaux did with the waltz. I love it.

Comfort & Chris: Crumping
I HATE crumping. OK. So I agree with the judges, from what I understand of crumping it should hit a whole lot harder then that. But it didn't. Yes Comfort should have stepped up, but also I think that it was great partnering on her part (if she did it consciously) because if she did it as well as I, and the judges, think she could have it would have been even more apparent that Chris was horrible at it. Blah, crumping.

Mathematical knitting

I am attempting to knit Boy's Surface for my math geek/unicorn for his birthday next Friday.

Here's what it should look like (as shown in mathematica)


I found a pattern here. It's kind of confusing, but I have a week and a half, so fingers crossed.

Friday afternoon political blogging

Before I disappear into the delightful world of my friend Jhayne in Vancouver. Trust me, it's unlike the rest of Vancouver. You lose track of time, days, everything. I'm so glad school is over. Summer of knitting, trying to squeak by on SSI-D (I have enough yarn to last a lifetime so I'm good with that and a few odd jobs-mowing a lawn for 2 weeks possibly more depending on their vacation, weeding which is in jeopardy b/c they are having money problems too and selling plasma, wheeeeeeeeeee! I'm gonna try and use my ticket to work from SSA, but employers aren't really keen on someone who has a lot of health related issues that may or may not be able to come into work regularly. Awesome. Any ideas?)

Anyhow, back to some thoughts that were brought up by pocochina's post highlighted below.




Highlights from pocochina at Hillary1000's Post Primary Thoughts

I’m pissed at the classism of this campaign. It’s not even that the Democratic Party is taking the working class for granted any more - no, according to Donna Brazile, we don’t want the working class any more. Sending out Harry & Louise flyers, ignoring the rural poor, giving up on true universal health care. A party that turns its back on the sick and the poor is a party that does not deserve power. We’ve been saying that about Republicans for years. We have met that enemy, and it is now ourselves.

...

I’m pissed at the blatant misogyny of coverage of the campaign. I’m pissed at people who should know better - who acknowledge other people’s sexism, who can cast an accusing finger at the entire horrible media, but can then turn around, utterly free of irony, and utter, “but he just inspires me,” or some other sufficiently vague, comforting reason to not check one’s own sexism. You know, it feels a bit ridiculous now, with my highly partisan perspective on the campaign, but I did a lot of soul searching to make sure that I wasn’t just voting based on whiteness or femaleness, and I did it relatively frequently - though less so as the campaign went on and only one candidate acted as if she actually wanted my votes. The bottom line was that I trusted her views on government (we have it, so let’s use it, and do so in a way that helps as many people as possible, and then next time let’s do better) more than his (hope!(TM) change!(C)); that her health care plan was better; that while his reproductive rights record was more than satisfactory, hers showed nuance and leadership. And those, in the bottom line, are the reasons I went for Senator Clinton. I am deeply fortunate to have access to the pro-Obama voices of POC who forced me to take that look into myself.

....

I’m pissed at Barack Obama for his misogyny. I can understand - though I do not condone - why he did not apologize for his own fuckups on that score. But he had not one, not two, but three clear opportunities to distance himself from the hate speech of others, and he did not. He could have taken a moment - just a fraction of a breath - in his many condemnations of Rev. Wright - whom he could no more disown than the black community, until of course he did just that - to say “by the way, the personal attacks on my opponent are not worthy of my church, my party, or my country.” He did not. He could have said the same when distancing himself from Father Phlegler. He did not. He was careful to condemn so-called divisive rhetoric which did nothing but tell the truth about the drug war, allegedly un-American comments which would (and, of course, still will, for there is no escaping the Republican Attack Machine) make him look bad, and he could not be bothered to condemn hate speech against a colleague. He could have said the same when he issued his departure from his church and he did not.

Were an observer from Mars to judge the man by his public statements in these moments of crisis, that Martian observer would be quite rational to conclude that his need to see Senator Clinton abused means more to him than his faith. I expect that from Republicans. I expected better from Democrats. I no longer can.

....

I’m pissed at feminists who decided their feminism didn’t extend to That Bitch. I want to be clear, I’m not talking about feminists who, in good faith, decided that they wanted to support Obama, Edwards, Dodd, or whoever else. I am the first to state openly that reasonable people could have come to different decisions on that. I’m talking about feminists who, usually incisive and merciless in their rejection of expected gender roles, uncritically accept the Nasty Harpy narrative about Senator Clinton. I expect feminists to be able to step back and say, “well, knowing what I know about how I, and everyone around me, and in particular the chattering heads paid to tell me what to think about this campaign, have been conditioned in my expectations of female behavior, I am going to be critical of how I process this election.” For a lot of feminists (Edwards and Obama supporters as much as Clinton supporters) that happened; for a lot of them, it didn’t. I saw one feminist blogger say of Clinton’s suspension speech only, “Best speech of her political career.” The best speech of a thirty five year career of one of the most brilliant women in modern public life just so happens to be her concession? We’d be unbelievably suspicious of such an assessment about any other woman’s career - but it was Hillary, so it’s okay. It’s nauseating from a babbling jowl show - it is heartbreaking from a feminist. And the wheel turns, and a woman’s career is at its apex when she submits to a man.

They have drawn race as black and white. This is patently ridiculous. I’m not linking to anyone who makes the claim that - essentially - white women are the only ones who liked HRC, we should just stop whining and suck it up, POC are thrilled about Obama and we are just entitled bitches. It is true that Black Americans overwhelmingly - though far from universally - preferred Obama. But this erases the huge numbers of brown women - Asian-American, Hispanic-American, in huge numbers, at least where the pollsters bothered - and men as well, who knew that they are not invisible to her. Those claims are out there, though. I’m thrilled for African-Americans who see themselves in Senator Obama. But I do not ever condone the erasure of anyone because they are inconvenient to a political agenda. I have been proud to call these women ally and sometimes, presumptively, friend. I’ve talked before about my frustration with this erasure, but with Clinton supporters - neither all white nor all male - so offended by this campaign they have decided the Democratic Party is no longer their home, the erasure has reached fever pitch. I do not begrudge Obama supporters their excitement. I do not understand the need to begrudge us our grief.

I think that non-feminist Obama supporters, and particularly male non-feminist Obama supporters, have this idea that we are just irrationally angry, our feelings are hurt and we should get over it or we’re just silly, don’t we know how bad McCain is, maybe they’ll just tell us one more time. The choice not to support Obama is a long-run rational choice. Right now, there is a party that hates women all the time, and a party that used to humor us, but hates us when it is convenient. It is our job to never, ever let it be convenient again, or there will be no one in government advocating for our rights.

We are not your sweeties, who just need candy and flowers to come around.

We are not your bitches, that is not a leash in your hand. Our bodily integrity is not a choke chain you may use to threaten us. If you think it is, you are no better than the Republicans. And yes, the “But! But! But!” Roe stick is just that - a threat. Politically involved women know exactly where we stand on Roe, and we know the Democrats haven’t been all that bothered to even look like they’re trying to protect it, these last seven years. We know what an anti-choice Supreme Court looks like, because we read Gonzales v. Carhart and our hearts broke in fear for ourselves and our sisters and nieces and daughters.

When you tell us that we’d better get in line and vote for Obama, OR ELSE ROE, you are holding our own bodies hostage against us, as if they were yours to take. You are actively, proudly, literally threatening us with our lives. Is that the change we should believe in?

....

The party’s eagerness to push her out, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY (particularly in the case of Representative Cohen) was in reaction to this very feeling. They have come to rely on women not expecting any better. They have grown dependent on the Bush Administration’s vile abuse of women, so that their burden of accountability to us is lighter. They were terrified of rank-and-file Dems realizing that there is better out there. And there is, and she still lost, and with her she brought down the pretenses of the party. The bullying we’re all getting now is an unapologetic part of that - baby, you need me, nobody else will love you.

I've seen all of these and can not agree more with her here. The part I bolded about feminists, well, I've been in too many fights about what is and isn't sexist in this campaign that by all accounts would seem sexist happening to anyone else or being done by anyone else. The sweetie comment, not sexist apparently. Told to me by Obama supporters on a feminist board. To be fair, there were Obama supporters who were also saying that it was indeed very sexist and fucked up, but they were ignored by the Obama supporters who were too busy attacking me for calling sexism sexism since it was seen as an attack on their candidate. Well, yes. He was being sexist and I said something. If you have a problem with that you should get him to work on seeing women as people, not "sweeties." Same goes for the "Periodically, when she's feeling down, she launches into attacks." comment. Being a radical feminist I'm used to being told that I'm taking things "too far" or being told I'm "overreacting" or some such bullshit. But this campaign season I am now being told that about everyday sexist abuses that even my own FATHER has spoken out against in our conversations, and he is, for the most part, the opposite of progressive thought. When FOX news (which my dad watches), O'Reilly, and my dad are calling sexism sexism and feminists are calling it overreacting something is supremely wrong in the world.

Of course maybe they'll change their tune now that the misogyny will be aimed at Michelle Obama. As Red Queen asked Did you think it wouldn't happen to you and your candidate?. I may no longer get the NYTimes for free everyday since school is out, but I, along with RQ and the Hillary1000 bloggers will continue to blog against sexism, EVEN sexism against Michelle Obama, because guess what? We're outraged at SEXISM, not just because we support the other candidate. (Waits for people's heads to explode.)

The thing that brought the most joy and most misery and anxiety into my life this season has been the simultaneous rise in consciousness about sexism and the rise in denial about it from people who already called themselves feminists. The second part had me in highly anxious states for long periods of time because I just couldn't understand how people could brush away something so obvious. Forget the stuff coming from Obama, but praising Olbermann, the man who wanted a super-d and Hillary to go into a room together and only HE comes out. The man that gets all foamy mouthed and wild eyed whenever he goes on his WWTSBQ (Why Won't the Stupid Bitch Quit) rants. Praising the network news stations my FATHER became so disgusted with that he stopped watching because of the sexist things that they said about Hillary. I know that even my friends cannot really understand how insane this is to me as I don't really talk about my strict Catholic Republican parents, but MY FATHER WAS TURNED OFF BY THE MSM's SEXISM. MY OWN FATHER!!!! But not a lot of 'feminists.' As pocochina said, it's ok because it was directed towards that woman. But any comment directed at a woman simply because she is woman is directed at ALL WOMEN and the thrashing that Hillary got as a woman was a thrashing of all of us.


If you need to be reminded of the MSM's sexism this season, take a peek at the Women's Media Center video:




Or one of the many videos at Come a Long Way

I'm a horrible student.

I haven't really studied for my DiffEQ final tomorrow and now So You Think You Can Dance is on so of course there's no studying for the next 2 hours. Heh. At least my final's not until 1 (like I'll want to get up much before then-sleep deprivation the last 2 weeks, ugh.)

But apparently I turned in the longest essay on Infrared Thermometry for my Thermal Physics class. Everyone else turned in a half and page or a paragraph. I turned in 2 pages. I do believe I should get an A. I went into a lot of detail, not just talking about the Stefan-Boltzmann equation like everyone else. If it was that easy why would it be our final? (I was in the library with the engineering books all day yesterday working on it.)

More dance

I'm in a dance induced euphoria. So you'll be getting nothing but dance from me today. I have comments and will be watching Hillary tomorrow where I am sure she WILL NOT concede, but rather endorse and suspend her campaign (yes, she can do that

I posted the Janet Jackson song that my hip hop routine is to (well there are a few of us). Here's another one (not a hip hop routine). It's not a video, just a picture with a song playing:

Thank yous

We are trying to get a “Thank you card campaign” started. We want to flood Senator Clinton’s DC office with thank you cards. On the front of the envelope we are writing “WE ARE ONE OF 18 MILLION” and we are asking her to take it to Denver. We want to reach as many supporters as possible so it can be effective. THE ADDRESS:

THE HONORABLE HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

UNITED STATES SENATE

476 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

WASHINGTON DC 20510-3202

DANCE!

A new season of So You Think You Can Dance has started, so I will be blogging critiques about that soon, but in the meantime, I have performances tonight, tomorrow night, one Saturday afternoon and again in the evening. Here's one of the routine's songs (it's fun it has chairs, I like dancing with chairs):



ENJOY!

I called this one

Rezko convicted of corruption.

More fodder for the Republicans.

Not done yet? Still want to win in November?

Know that presumptive =/= actual?

Well in her speech she told us that she wants to hear from YOU, her supporters:

… .. Now the question is, where do we go from here, and given how far we’ve come and where we need to go as a party, it’s a question I don’t take lightly. This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight. But this has always been your campaign, so to the 18 million people who voted for me and to our many other supporters out there of all ages, I want to hear from you. I hope you’ll go to my website at HillaryClinton.com and share your thoughts with me and help in any way that you can.

In the coming days, I’ll be consulting with supporters and party leaders to determine how to move forward with the best interests of our party and our country guiding my way.

You should do ALL of the following:

Sign the petition urging Hillary to take it to Denver.

Send an email to comments@hillaryclinton.com with “ATTENTION: HAROLD ICKES” in the subject, and again as the first line of the email itself, followed by something as simple as “Take it to Denver!”.

Send another email to TMcAuliffe@hillaryclinton.com

Finally, go to HillaryCilnton.com and Stand with Hillary. Tell her to stay in it and keep fighting. (Though I added that I think she should suspend her campaign for a little while. The things that the national press has refused to run on Obama are sure to come out with the Republicans.) Make a contribution, anything, if you can. Show her you're still there for her and you need her to still be there for you.

You know what's fun...

A homework problem that expects you to recall stuff from a course that you could have taken, oh, a YEAR ago. I'm not asking to be retaught it, but seriously if you would have told me the equation, or anything like where to find it so I could refresh my knowledge, that would be great.

I hate this class, which is a shame since I loved DiffEQs before. I mean it's not like I have homework problems that are 2-3 page BURLY derivations like in Modern Physics. Gah. I'll be done with this class (and the quarter) next Thursday. Thank Her Holy Hoovedness.

Rest in Peace, Utah

Utah Phillips, folksinger, activist, Wobbly, and freight rider, passed away on May 23rd. You can read his obituary and life story here.

Part 1:

and then part 2, with one of my favourite songs:

DON'T PANIC!

Happy Towel Day everyone!

More Numbers

Hillary's support has steadily grown in March-May while Obama's has dropped in all categories except African Americans (so all you commenter's who say it's only old white women (apparently I and many other Hillary supporters don't exist) can shove it). There are numbers and charts and everything. I may be a mathematician but I prefer pure mathematics. Ask me how to invent square roots, not do stuff like this.

She certainly has gotten more votes since March 4th. Don't you think that the presumptive nominee should have been winning all those, since he was inevitable? Obviously, no one told the voters.


Oh and to Keith Olbermann: Stop using "Good night and good luck" as your sign off. You are a misogynist gasbag that is not even a fraction of the journalist that Edward R. Murrow was. He's rolling over in his grave every time you say that. If anyone in the mainstream media came even close to doing what he did (HA!) they would be fired in a heartbeat. There is not a modicum of honesty or integrity in your reporting. You uphold the status quo, he sought make sure that the truth was exposed, even if that meant bucking the status quo and putting himself in jeopardy. YOU, sir, are NOT him, and are besmirching his legacy.

Women's Media Center Petition against sexism in the media

Sign it!

No surprise here

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

To my Florida friends (an MI, though the video is about FL)

But I think those of you in MI will feel similarly, minus the recent GE stuff.



"I've been cheated, been mistreated, when will I be loved?" (Got that song in my head now)

NBC Protest in Burbank

Pictures can be seen here.


Take your sexist, one sided coverage and shove it NBC.


(I like the punk kid with the "Iron your own shirt" sign.)

The backlash continues

Lynette Long has a new Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun entitled Painful Lessons

•Women voters are not factored into the decision making of the Democratic National Committee. The DNC is concerned that black voters will protest and stay home if Senator Clinton gets the nomination, even though she is the stronger and more electable candidate. But the DNC doesn't worry that white women, three times larger than the combined black vote, will stay away from the polls if Mrs. Clinton does not get the nomination. They expect the white women of the party to fall in step and vote for Mr. Obama in the general election.

•The rules for women candidates are not the same as the rules for male candidates. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy adamantly supports Mr. Obama, even though Mrs. Clinton won his home state, Massachusetts, by 14 points. Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly called for Mrs. Clinton to pull out of the race, yet when he was running for president in 1980 he took his bid for the Democratic nomination to the convention floor, trying to change the rules to unseat Jimmy Carter, who already had enough delegates to clinch the nomination. And let's not forget that this year Mike Huckabee stayed in the contest for the Republican nomination when he had no chance of winning. He was committed to stay in the race until Sen. John McCain reached the number of delegates needed to win. At the end of the contest he had a total of 267 delegates, more than 900 behind Mr. McCain. No media barrage pushed Mr. Huckabee to withdraw. Barack Obama has not reached the needed number of delegates to win the nomination, yet Mrs. Clinton - who is fewer than 200 delegates behind Obama - is being pressured by commentators and the DNC to withdraw.

People, including some of my friends who are Obama supporters are having a hard time understanding why there are so many of us who won't vote for Obama. (Me, I've never voted party line, in fact I have not been a registered Dem since I registered in NY in 2000 and registered as a Green and I still don't vote exclusively Green in that case anyway though in WA we do not register by party. I signed a paper at the caucus saying that I would not caucus for any other party and I did not, I had a friend who refused to caucus because he thought it meant he would have to vote party line and found that unacceptable.) This is a backlash against the Democratic Party as much as it is a vote of nonconfidence in their selected candidate (if he does indeed get the nomination). I, and I think others like me, feel that the DNC and party leadership made clear who they wanted and since then have tried to push our candidate out of the race unfairly. No other candidate in history has been pushed to step down, to whit:

• In 1988, Jesse Jackson took his hopeless campaign against winner Michael Dukakis all the way to the convention, often to great media praise.

• In 1980, Ted Kennedy carried his run against Jimmy Carter all the way to the convention, even though it was clear he had been routed.

• In 1976, Ronald Reagan contested the “inevitability” of Gerald Ford all the way to the convention. Few, then or since, have ever thought to criticize Reagan’s failure to step aside and let Ford assume the mantle.

• Also in 1976, three candidates — Mo Udall, Jerry Brown, and Frank Church — ran against Jimmy Carter all the way through the final primaries, even though Carter seemed more than likely to be the eventual nominee.

• Even in 1960, Lyndon Johnson and Adlai Stevenson fought the “certain” nomination of John F. Kennedy all the way to the convention floor.

Hillary's closer to Obama then any of them were and no one was screaming at them to step down "for the good of the party." Why? I have my theory. She's not in the penis club, and I think that many other people feel the exact same way about this as I do. If we hold our nose, again, and vote for someone we don't really like just because he's better then the other guy, again, it's worse this time. This time we have been knocked about by the media, the party, everyone. We have seen just what they think of women. They have told us what they think about the working class and the Reagan or lunch bucket democrats. But the backlash is coming strongest from the women. The democrats tell us they are the party that will stand up for us, for our rights. The Dems have not fought for abortion, for womens' rights, for anything that would actually help women, in a long, long time. Abortion's pretty much already illegal. The Dems in Congress rolled over on Alito and Roberts and now my right to choose is being held over my head. If the Dems I elected (though my Senators stood up and said no) can't grow a fucking spine and stand up for my rights why the hell should I keep voting for them? And why should I reward them by voting for someone I don't even trust?

And now they lie there, complicit as we are insulted daily, hourly. Insults flung at Hillary that are flung at her because she is a woman are flung at all of us. And we've had enough. We're saying no more. To roll over yet again and reward a party that has done nothing but pay lip service to women's issues for years (finally people get this) means that we are telling the Democratic Party that they never have to take us into account again, and that, my friends, is unacceptable.

EDIT: A Commenter at The Confluence said it best:

Jeralyn said tonite that “It’s about putting a Democrat in the WH” or words to that effect. Not true: it is about putting someone who shares your values in the WH. Some may argue that requires a Democrat, but I would rather suffer 4 more years of Republican presidency than give up my ideals of what the Democratic party stands for (like, f’rinstance, ANYTHING) forever for some short term gain.

NOTE: If you are an Obamaphile who cannot be arsed to READ THE POST (especially the part about people taking things to the convention) then you will most assuredly not get published. If I can mark it off on my Bingo Card just keep it to yourself. Now excuse me I need to go wash my dentures, polish my walker, and hump my cousin.

Also

to everyone going "Obama drew 75K in PDX!" It couldn't perhaps be in part because The Decembrists were playing for free at the rally? Hell, I'd go to his rallies to see them.

I just had to share this

I’m hardly a feminist but I’ve been aghast at the attacks Senator Clinton has been subject to. I’m not sure I can vote for obama come November.

If enough women stand up and don’t vote for Obama, maybe the Democratic Party will recognize that their largest voting bloc isn’t going to just stand by and be ignored any more. This is not just about soccer moms. Every woman was diminished by the treatment of Clinton during this election, and there was no outrage, not even a hint of recognition by those in power. It was made quite clear that racism was unacceptable, even if it was so vague that it had to be explained to people, while overt sexism was an acceptable method of attack. Every time someone dismissed “old school feminists”, I cringed, not because I am part of that group (I’m in my early 40’s), but because I know that I owe my job and my home to those women. They broke down the barriers. I just walked through. But there are barriers yet. I run into them every day. And we need to address this. I’m adding this to the reasons I’m not voting for Obama.

from donna darko

Everyone needs to sign this!

Don't rename Wrigley Field!

<1 minute and this (and many other Cub fans) undying love.

Want my vote?

One thing you can do to make the Dems listen

I wrote my Rep today, short, to the point letter.

Dear X
I do not need to remind you that this is an election year. I voted for you last time, but I will only vote for you again if you do one of two things:

1) Publicly denounce the sexism that has been rampant during this primary season. It is an atrocity and an affront to the largest voting block of the Democratic party. You, along with the rest of the party have stood idly by and in your silence have made it perfectly clear how you feel about women. If you do not feel this way you need to say it and you need to say it now.
or
2) Take back your endorsement of Obama and endorse Hillary Clinton before June 3rd.

You may choose either of the above, but you must do something or else you will not have my vote come Novemeber.

Sincerely,
me

The local, state, and national parties may not be listening, but if the pols who need to get elected get enough of these you bet your ass they'll be listening.

NOTE: This is not to say that all Obama supporters are sexist (though if you are not speaking out, especially about his demeaning behaviour towards women (see sweetie comment, PA kiss comments, etc) you are in my book) I just threw that in, though I'm about 99.8% sure he won't.

Someone's going to Portland tomorrow

WOO WOO. Unlike when I went to Indiana I will not be stuck in an office and I will (hopefully) be pounding the pavement. (Well I'm hoping that I won't be in the office, I'm assuming there's a crap-load of people in the office.)

I will be visiting and staying with my friend Sam as well, but I'd love to go out drinking with the Hillary crew since it's so much fun. WHAT TO DO????

Hopefully I can combine the two, I think once I hit the office my crazy political side will take over and hopefully some after hours carousing will take place (and maybe Sam can be persuaded to come out?)

Oh well, I love getting out of town and other then the pornographization of PDX I love it. (Perhaps there will be some mischief?)

Anyway, Mischief is demanding my attention. Have a good weekend everyone!

Electoral matchups EDIT

Taken from state by state polling (2 different data sources):

Clinton 237 (290)
McCain 198 (241)
(map #1 here. map #2)

Obama 228 (237)
McCain 237 (290)
(map #1 here. map #2)

Obama starts off much weaker against McCain. But then there's the analysis of the swing states. But why should I do it when someone else has done it so well? Jeralyn at Talk Left has a a post in which he talks about the swing states, but also, and probably more importantly to some, uses articles from William Arnone, long-time Democratic party activist and also has posted his state by state analysis (this is a long and very detailed and in depth reports). (NOTE: You can also find his entire key state series linked from the post.)

Both I and Jeralyn strongly recommend you read Arnone's stuff. It's much better then something my overworked brain could pump out at one in the morning.

National Conference for Media Reform

OK, they could do so much better at marketing this. Seriously.

They have people from the Black Agenda Report (see blogroll), Byron Hurt (you can watch his documentary about misogyny and homophobia in the hip-hop community and I HIGHLY recommend it. Here's all 56 minutes of Beyond Beats and Rhymes), someone from Prometheus Radio Project (I was really happy to see this as I'm friends with some of the founders and I love that they're doing so well and it's close to my heart since I'm supposedly banned from the airwaves due to being in the booth during a pirate radio raid (though I have been on WBAI several times, but I doubt that the FCC pays *that* close attention)), and on and on. But I am staring at a flyer for it (I'll put it back) and they use Arianna Huffington. Really? What has she said lately that is so different then mainstream media? I guess it's a big name thing.

Looks pretty interesting due to the other presenters and panelists. Anyway, it's put on by Free Press, so check it out here.

If you are going to say anything that fits in these categories, don't bother

h/t: Hillary1000

*snort*

From my friend, who's "not an Obama fan" on my last post:

Except for a minuscule amount she doesn't get AA votes, that's the point.

You really refuse to accept that Hillary might have a race problem, don't you?

Obama regularly gets around 45% of the female vote, he campaigns towards women, he campaigns towards Latinos. Hillary has written of the black/AA vote.

Of course you seem to be on the whole, women and working class white people are more important than Blacks/AA so I guess it doesn't matter.

What is going on with the "party?"

Sometimes my friends say things in a much more succinct, and oftentimes, much more understandable way then I can. So I've all ready seen the FOX news interview. I knew that neither candidate was liberal. Moderate is about all we can hope for from these parties, but after Edwards and his populism and single-payer universal healthcare dropped out (I may have finally admitted that we will never have Edwards as an actual Presidential candidate. But he made the press follow him to very poor rural areas of Appalachia. UHC is something that the Clinton's tried, but failed miserably because the dems in congress wouldn't back them because they didn't like the Clintons then and even though Bill was the only 2 term democratic president since FDR (LBJ if you count that he got re-elected after 2 years serving after JFK was assasinated). Guess what, they still don't like them. One can only guess why. Bill changed the base, he actually changed the bloc of voters that went for a Democrat. (more on this in a little bit)

Want to hear my theory? I'm sure you do. Democrats nowadays don't think of themselves as that. Look at our recent nominees, excluding Bill. Kerry, Gore, Dukakis. What do they all have in common? They are seen as elites. No matter what Jon Stewart says, people don't want someone like that in the WH. Even if they do have progressive reform for working class and poor people (which I firmly do not believe that Obama has) they're going to take it as you telling them what's best for them. The reason that Bill was not painted as such is because he grew up working class, he went to public school, even though he eventually made it into the power elite.

And of course last night there was Donna Brazile on CNN

BRAZILE: Well, Lou, I have worked on a lot of Democratic campaigns, and I respect Paul.*** But, Paul, you’re looking at the old coalition. A new Democratic coalition is younger. It is more urban, as well as suburban, and we don’t have to just rely on white blue-collar voters and Hispanics. We need to look at the Democratic Party, expand the party, expand the base and not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

(Sidenote here: Except you can't depend on blue collar and latino voters. If they don't feel that you are working, and I mean actively working, for their financial well-being (health-care, unions, etc), then they will be values voters. You are one of the people IN CHARGE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HOW THE HELL DO YOU FORGET ABOUT "REAGAN DEMOCRATS" AND THAT OBAMA'S SUPPORT BASE IS THE SAME AS (10 state) DUKAKIS!!!! Stop blowing off the people the dems need to win in the fall, ffs. )

(I mean, even bigoted morons know that.

"Barack Obama has shown he cannot get the votes Democrats need to win – blue-collar, working class people," Limbaugh also said. "He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote, but Democrats do not win with that."-Rush Limbaugh

)

This fucking Unity Pony thing is pissing me off. Unity only if you're a latte liberal, oh sorry, the "creative class," a college student, or African-American. He's a uniter. Does everyone feel united? Because what I've heard from the Democratic leadership and Obama's campaign this cycle is 1) the largest minority in the country doesn't count (neither does any other minority except AA's: gays, asians, etc, all under the bus for you!), 2) women will always come crawling back since we have no where to go (fuck you!), 3) same with the working class, but who needs them since they tend to vote Republican anyway (Axelrod, and btw that's why you need them dumbass.)

But I have one question, and I'm sad to say it actually hadn't occurred to me until a friend of mine brought it up, what has Obama been doing for the black community? She hadn't heard anything. Hell, he didn't even bother to show up to black dominated areas of IN. What a fucking prince. I mean, Hillary obviously has the hick blue collar vote sewn up so why does she keep showing up? The week leading up to the primaries she was speaking in places that the only way she could have lost is if everyone suddenly died and dead people started voting. Why abandon your most loyal constituency?

Unity pony my ass. Here's why: the dems do know what unity looks like. We saw it in '92. We saw states vote dem that had not done so ever/in a very long time. (I mean Lincoln was a republican so you can only go back so far with these things.) Bill did it. That's right, the Big Dawg gave us states no other democrat has even come close to carrying. We could have done it again, but now one of our core constituencies hates him and therefore Hillary. Why? Because he got called racist for this:

"Second, it is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, numerating the years, and never got asked one time, not once, 'Well, how could you say, that when you said in 2004 you didn't know how you would have voted on the resolution? You said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war and you took that speech you're now running on off your website in 2004 and there's no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since?' Give me a break.
"This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen...So you can talk about Mark Penn all you want. What did you think about the Obama thing calling Hillary the Senator from Punjab? Did you like that?"

Which was twisted into "Bill Clinton calls Obama's campaign a Fairy Tale!" Because what better way to shake away a group that so solidly supports your opponent (and who is still very wary of you, they weren't all love and kisses at first) then in this case to call him a racist. Because even his seemingly reality challenged handlers seemed to have understood that the AA community were among the strongest Clinton supporters. Now he's a racist. Huh.

And the Democratic leadership is completely, 100% A-OK with smearing our base expanding, tried to get progressive social change done but couldn't because the dems don't like them because they're not one of the elitist latte drinkers and the leadership doesn't like that. And they don't want to see the Clinton's or anyone else so unlike them in office if they can help it. They'd rather lose in November, which is what the numbers are telling us will happen with Obama as the nominee. They seem to think that us non-black and/or non-young and/or non-rich people don't matter.

I gotta ask, why is this race so black and white? Seriously? What about the indigenous, asian, latino peoples? Do we not care about that. Are there only two races that matter in this country? And what is up with my latino friends being called racist for not voting for BO? Especially when they're giving you reasons why they didn't. Again, fuck you.


Anyway:
It's obvious why dems are falling all over themselves for Obama, even though right now nationally he has a 10% of beating McCain. (And the Rezko trial wraps up next week.) His purported 1 million name donation databank. Not to mention his immense backing from Wall Street. (Note: That site is the Black Agenda Report. I'm really glad my friend pointed it out to me and I highly recommend sticking around and reading other articles there.)

Seven of the Obama campaign's top 14 donors consisted of officers and employees of the same Wall Street firms charged time and again with looting the public and newly implicated in originating and/or bundling fraudulently made mortgages. These latest frauds have left thousands of children in some of our largest minority communities coming home from school to see eviction notices and foreclosure signs nailed to their front doors. Those scars will last a lifetime.

I think this about money and not change. WHy would I ever take off my cynic cap and believe that someone, let alone a whole party, was in politics to help people. Yeah, I know that they'll definitely be helping themselves out while they do it, all politicians do, but turning on someone because they have an actual progressive social agenda? Afraid Hillary will succeed and will actually do better with social reform then Bill? Because that's all I can think. It can't all be white guilt and greed. It's not like he'd drop out of the party. He'll still fundraise for you. Though with all the people you keep dismissing I doubt there will be any democratic party left come January.

I haven't voted for a Democrat for President since I voted for the Big Dawg (and yes I think he's a sexist ass), but since I've been accused of being some sort of "fan" I thought I'd clear it up. (And let Taylor Marsh actually do it since I read this and just went YES YES YES!)

The reason Clinton is my candidate is not because I'm simply some fan. Hillary is my candidate because she's got a brilliant mind, is a fighter, and I believe the only candidate who can bring Americans back who have been voting against their economic interests for decades. I believe only she can expand the party to Latinos, as well as bring women out in droves, including Republican women, independents and women who have never voted before. If I didn't believe Clinton was a winner I would never have backed her in the first place.

I leave it to the venerable Dr. Violet Socks

“If the Obama contingent succeeds in taking over the Democratic party, then we will have, in effect, two Republican parties.

“Who, then, will speak for the women of America? Who will stand up for our rights? Who will hold fast against sexism and misogyny?

“Who will fight for the middle class? Who will fight for working people? Who will fight for universal health care? Who will protect Social Security?

“Who will hold fast against polluters and thieves?

“Certainly not the new Obama-style Democratic party. The Obamabots are just like Republicans: swimming in sexism and utter disdain for anyone but themselves.

“If progressives want to have a voice at all in national politics, our only hope is to keep the Obamabots from taking over the Democratic party.”

Something smells fishy

First off, there's a great post (with video!) about Obama supporters campaigning INSIDE polling places, which everyone should know, especially them, is I-L-L-E-G-A-L. And a blog about the entire weirdness that is Indiana voting.

Watching CNN regarding the IN primary. Anyone who was watching should know that Lake County (the one next to IL) didn't have any precincts reporting until after 10PM PST. Average of several polls had her up by at least 5 points, yet it's all of the sudden a nail biter. Hmmmmm, I'm not exactly convinced that this is above board.


Good analysis from BDBlue:
He’s making it look worse.

The Mayor of Hammond says they knew what the machine votes in other cities were at 7:30. It’s midnight and we don’t have any information and it looks bad. This looks improper. I’m not saying it is, but it looks. We don’t need this kind of negative exposure in Lake County. He’s telling the Mayor of Gary to release the numbers.

Here’s a question, why does the Mayor of Gary have the ability to hold the votes.

Now the Mayor of Hammond is trying to get the Mayor of Gary to tell why he hasn’t released the machine votes. Mayor of Gary says it’s absentee counting. Mayor of Hammond is grilling him. Has no answer why it is taking so long to count the vote.

Now they’re reporting 98% of the vote in Lake County, Clinton still leads by 22,000 votes with 99% of the state reporting.

So maybe it’s not fraud, the Mayor is just an idiot. Or else it is fraud, they realized they were going to get caught and stopped it.

You know you've got a problem when the mayor of another large Indiana city is questioning just what the hell is going on with your ballots and you have no explanation whatsoever. Seriously. Why did they have to take them to the airport? That sounds super shady to me. The hold up was the absentee ballots? What about the electronic results? Is it really a "Chicago county?" Because that's not what you want to import from Chicago.

I seriously hope I'm wrong, but hey Mayor Rudy Clay what the fuck happened in Lake County? I'm not the only one who wants to know.

More at By the Left, and Talk Left has stuff here and here

I will add updates (like video/transcripts/etc) as the become available. First there was FL and MI, the the TX caucuses, now IN? Who are we? The republicans?

Need to tell the truth

Before I get into it I just have to say that all over the blogosphere people are crying "censorship" and saying that sex workers are being silenced. Bull. Sam was the only one not in attendance at the conference. The women that were put on the panel at the last minute, one of which is a sex worker, were *at* the panel, not Sam. The whole "silencing" thing is bull. Sam's was the only voice that was silenced.

The following is written by Ms. Sam Berg, anti-pornstitution activist and speaker.

On March 19th I was invited to a panel debate on pornography at William and Mary College. My contact for the organizing group was Constance Sisk, who told me funding assistance could likely be found to fly me 3,000 miles across the country so I agreed to be penciled in until enough money could be raised. A call for donations among anti-pornography feminist colleagues covered airfare, and I had just enough vacation days earned at work to take off.

On March 24th I confirmed that I would gladly join the two other two confirmed panelists, on the anti-pornography side, John D. Foubert, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the College of William and Mary, and on the pro-pornography side Amanda Brooks, a former escort and sex work advocate.

Constance told me April 2nd that they moved the panel date to the 21st and the rest of April slid by without communication until April 16th when an anti-porn friend informed me that Jill Brenneman and RenEv blogged they would be on the panel. I had received no word from Constance of this and was dumbfounded that wholesale changes were being made to the panel just five days before the event without informing me. I had agreed to do the panel with John and Amanda, and I hadn’t gotten any emails saying she couldn’t attend or that they were looking for a replacement.

If they had told me Amanda couldn’t make it I would have suggested that pornographers and strip club owners are very easy to find through legal channels so they could have been asked to appear on the panel. I would have also suggested that the number of porn-using men on campus should have been able to produce just one pornsturbator willing to defend his porn consumption. Because I was under the impression that Constance & Co. were being honest with me about their intentions, I chalked up the lack of a pornographer or porn-using man on the panel to inept organizing and the extreme amount of publicity given recently to sex work advocacy at William and Mary.

How much sex work advocacy has been given a voice there can be answered with the name Constance. I spoke with John Foubert for the first time Thursday and he told me that Constance is a big pro-sex work advocate on campus and she brought the sex worker show to campus the past three years. A woman named Audrey invited John to the panel because Constance didn’t think he would agree if she asked him. Constance was a guest on Jill's radio show a few weeks ago, and Jill did a pro-sex work chat with William and Mary college folks a few weeks ago, but in her emails Constance claimed ignorance of the lengthy pro-porn and radical blogosphere debates on this contentious subject.

Constance. Constance said she was excited to have me coming and offered to let me spend Monday night at her place, where she planned on cooking dinner for a group of people post-panel. How do you think it would feel if a pro-choice feminist were invited to a predominantly pro-life campus by a predominantly pro-life group and the pro-life organizer did everything Constance did without revealing her pro-life politics to her pro-choice panelist and house guest?

Little story: Heading home from presenting at a prostitution conference I was in the airport shuttle with a middle-aged black social worker with her name tag still pinned to her blouse. I’m a young, white, tattoo-bearing woman and at the time I think my hair was blue. We exchanged delicate pleasantries and danced around how we talked about the conference until she sat up earnestly and cut to the chase, “So, are you for or against?” When I replied, “Against,” she slouched down and sighed and we grooved on the same anti-prostitution track until we got to the airport.

I agreed to do the panel with John and Amanda three weeks ago. Though it was unethical to make major lineup changes at the last minute like that without telling me and things started feeling really fishy due to the lack of notification about the event anywhere besides pro-john blogs (it’s not listed on W&M’s events calendar or advertised around campus), I agreed to debate Jill. I could not agree to debate Ren, and I don’t suppose I have to tell most of you reading this why but I’ll touch upon it a tad anyway.

Here are Ren’s thoughts on sharing a panel discussion table with me:

“So serious I am taking it very seriously. And looking forward to it in my uniquely grim and serious way. Planning and preparing with a very serious, serious sneer on my face.

And also laughing like a super villain the whole time. Why?

Once upon a time, I had a wish, a dream, a surely wank worthy fantasy of some anti-porn sex work types having to face down, in a forum, and debate those from the other side. And I wanted to be there.”

“And, yes, oh yes, I am seriously looking forward to it. I have so lusted for such an opportunity. Very seriously. And yes, if possible, I will have the whole thing on video. Get your cerebral wanking tissues ready.”

Serious serious sneers, super villain mocking laughter, wank worthy fantasies, whole thing on video, get your tissues ready.

Those are the words of a malicious person licking their chops in anticipation of a messy, humiliation-inducing scene they will relish. Those are the words of a person trying to waste my time with personal attacks when my time is best used educating audiences about the facts of human trafficking, prostitution, and pornography. The trash talk began within hours of being surreptitiously offered the spot on the panel, and that sort of smug pugnaciousness and disrespectful engagement was instrumental in prompting John to cancel his appearance on the panel and he suggested to me that I do the same. I believe we were right to cancel. I refuse to pose for the pornographically spiteful scene being painted.

What to do when a woman who says she’s happy in prostitution says, "Take me, for example” when you know if you actually do take her as her own example by quoting her own words and deeds she will complain, "How dare you make an example of me?" Say you’ll speak with her about prostitution as a global system and of all women’s oppression as the core problem but you don't want to talk about her personally and she'll reply, "You refuse to hear my truth." If you talk about her personally like she insists then you're the baddie radfem who makes it personal. It’s a lose-lose ruse.

I’d love to debate a porn-user, and there are tens of millions of them. I’d love to debate a pornographer and there’s no lack of those either. I’d love to debate a john. They don’t want to debate anti-pornography and anti-prostitution feminists. They want women in the prostitute supply pool to subjectively defend them against the objective mounds of testimony and undeniable data that anti-pornstitution feminists can produce proving pornography and prostitution violate women and girls human rights immensely. Most of you have seen how deftly I wield the wealth of information I’ve collected in my noodle to make the case against men’s right to economically coerce sex from others. Some of you have seen me do it before with Ren.

Saturday morning I woke up to an email from a professor asking if I can come speak to a few women’s studies classes of hers in May. It turns out I can make the date. Life skedaddles on and so do I.

Sam

Tell Rogers Cable to stop selling misogynistic racist pornography!

Here's the petition. It'll take <1 minute of your time.

Someone needs a geography lesson

So both Hillary and Barack have Oregon statements. And someone's not paying attention.

Barack tells Oregon that he will "Require 25 Percent of Electricity to Come from Renewable Sources by 2025." Which is all good, except it was passed in 2007

Hillary states:

the Bush Administration has tried to stop states like Oregon from taking action to address this pressing problem. Against this headwind, Oregon has made progress, joining with its neighbors to develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gases, and setting a 25% renewable electricity target. Where President Bush has attacked and stymied Oregon's efforts, Senator Clinton will partner with Oregon and protect Oregon's right to lead the way in reducing greenhouse gases. And where President Bush refused to take action at the federal level, Senator Clinton will implement a bold plan to attack the growing climate crisis.

But here's where it gets REALLY fun.
On veterans:

As president, Obama will ensure we honor the sacred trust to care for Pennsylvania's 1.1 million Veterans.

Hillary:

Oregon's National Guard has contributed significantly to our nation's actions in Iraq and Afghanistan with 7,000 individual mobilizations. More than 3,500 Oregon Guard members are scheduled to go to Iraq in 2009. In addition, Oregon has 359,000 veterans within its borders, which is higher than the national average. Yet unlike many states with this level of military involvement, Oregon has no active duty bases, which routinely provide health care for military families. This means Oregon's veterans, Guard members, reservists and their families have limited access to the health care they deserve, making reliable health care through TRICARE even more critical in Oregon than in most states.

Here's my personal favourite. Seriously, it's AWESOME.

Clean up our Water: Barack Obama.....will continue his leadership in
protecting national treasures like the Great Lakes from threats such as industrial pollution, water diversion, and invasive species. Obama will establish policies to help high-growth regions with the challenges of managing their water supplies.

Awww, Oregon, you feel loved? Coincidentally, I always thought that that was the ocean, not a Great Lake (seeing as how those are, y'know, by Chicago and all.

7 former DNC chairs (and a deceased one's family)release a letter about why Hillary is the better choice.

I'm going to scream

Anti-white racism?

Who has the power? Really? Don't give me some specific scenario. In society who has the power?

It's called discrimination and if one more person calls it "racism" or "reverse racism" or "anti-white racism" I'm going to start breaking things.

You, as a white person, are given privilege in our society because you were born with the colour skin you were born with. Look at congress. How many people of colour are there? Hmmmmm? CEO's of companies? Think of positions of power and think of how many of these positions are filled by a person of colour. Who controls the power. Guess what? It's people who look like you, and because of that you directly benefit from it. You ARE part of the power structure.


By the way, replace "person of colour" with "woman" and "racism" with "sexism" and the argument is the same one I would make, because that argument's bullshit too. Prejudice a woman has against a man is not sexism.

Don't believe me? Ask yourself these questions:

-Does my prejudice against you suddenly create a culture in which you will be likely to experience violence from an intimate partner?
-Does it devalue your work so that you are making less money then women for equal work?
-Are you suddenly the victim of racial profiling since it is known that white people commit all sorts of crimes?
-Are you now going to see people of your own race depicted in the media less often?

Um, no, no, no, and, well looky here, NO.

Go go Indiana!

A new poll, which apparently is eerily accurate in predicting the outcomes of election results* shows Hillary 48, Obama 38, 14% undecided. Before you go, yeah well those undecideds, blah blah blah, I would like to remind you are a great thing since the undecideds in PA broke for Hillary.

I will be in Evansville, IN all weekend helping out with the pre-election day weekend madness, but will sadly miss the celebration party as I have that pesky thing called school (and a midterm on Tuesday). Hopefully this will be one of many times I will get to be able to campaign as I am (for the first time in 2 (3?) years NOT taking classes this summer) and I must say I miss the rush.

GO HILLARY GO!

*TeleResearch's polling ahead of the last two Indiana gubernatorial elections proved to be an accurate predictor of those races' outcomes. In 2000, the firm's results matched the eventually winning margin of Frank O'Bannon, and its 2004 results came within 1 percentage point of Mitch Daniels' winning margin.