And War Lovers from the "left"--hate me if you will, too, but not because I am a "fanatic" (how can one be a fanatic about non-violence?), hate me because the light I shine back at you exposes your own lack of integrity around these issues--be honest and look deeply inside yourself and see that if it were McCain/Palin or Bush/Cheney bombing the crap out of Libya, you would be furious with me, not at me.
-- Cindy Sheehan, "An Open Letter to War Loving (Democratic/Republican) Frauds" (Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox).
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Truest statement of the week II
There is an absolute catastrophe in our political culture and that's what he's represented for me and a handful of people since the beginning.
-- historian Thaddeus Russell on War Hawk Barack Obama on today's Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox.
-- historian Thaddeus Russell on War Hawk Barack Obama on today's Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox.
Truest statement of the week III
The guy's actually waging three wars instead of two. He's-he's increased the military, he's increased the number of troops, he's increased the military budget. It's just, it's bush but worse. I mean, it's absolutely phenominal, this guy we hated as a Satan, the guy who's now actually enlarging his imperalis policies? We're giving him a pass or worse, we've merged our identities with him. We are now him, you know? We put his face on our cars and our houses and our children's bodies with t-shirts, you know? And the next time I see an Obama sticker and a peace sticker on the same car, I think I will have to get out and approach that person.
-- historian Thaddeus Russell on War Hawk Barack Obama on today's Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox.
-- historian Thaddeus Russell on War Hawk Barack Obama on today's Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox.
A note to our readers
Hey --
We thank all who participated this week which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
It was a long edition.
We don't have any new illustrations. We tried. We're having problems with Flickr, we're having problems with the snipping tool on our computers, we were even having trouble being logged into Blogger/Blogspot.
It was a long, nightmare edition. We thought of doing a bare bones, stripped down, no illustration version. But then not being able to use new illustrations became an excuse for putting two still-not working pieces on hold.
Let's talk about what we did come up with:
Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan's blog post from last week.
Ava and C.I. tossed this into the mix, from Cindy's radio show.
Ibid.
This was an editorial that really needed the image we had painted by Betty's kids and Kat. Maybe next time. We've never had this many problems. It also killed our two short features.
The illustration is by Isaiah and we used it last week in our editorial as well.
At one point, Dona was saying to me (Jim), "Let's just do 'truest' and throw up Ava and C.I.'s piece and admit defeat." We were so tempted to do so. As usual, Ava and C.I. were our designated hitters. (Ava just groaned, "Sports talk?") They came through with this piece on the way NPR sells the Libyan War, the way Tina Fey sells sexism and the way they and Barack Obama have all jumped the shark. It's a great piece.
Short features. This one was a natural. The art work wasn't. We had a horse's ass by Betty's kids and were eager to use it. We couldn't get it to upload. Finally, we gave up and were going to run it without any illustration when Ty remembered Barack's man-boobs and how we used to give out the Bronze Boob.
Someone -- no one remembers who now -- noticed that Nir Rosen was still Tweeting. So that gave us another short feature.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
It was a stripped down affair. Our apologies. If you're thinking, "Why didn't you just use another snipping tool?" We tried. We downloaded different ones on each computer and either we still couldn't do a screen snap or else we couldn't upload it to Flickr.
It was a nightmare.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
We thank all who participated this week which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
It was a long edition.
We don't have any new illustrations. We tried. We're having problems with Flickr, we're having problems with the snipping tool on our computers, we were even having trouble being logged into Blogger/Blogspot.
It was a long, nightmare edition. We thought of doing a bare bones, stripped down, no illustration version. But then not being able to use new illustrations became an excuse for putting two still-not working pieces on hold.
Let's talk about what we did come up with:
Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan's blog post from last week.
Ava and C.I. tossed this into the mix, from Cindy's radio show.
Ibid.
This was an editorial that really needed the image we had painted by Betty's kids and Kat. Maybe next time. We've never had this many problems. It also killed our two short features.
The illustration is by Isaiah and we used it last week in our editorial as well.
At one point, Dona was saying to me (Jim), "Let's just do 'truest' and throw up Ava and C.I.'s piece and admit defeat." We were so tempted to do so. As usual, Ava and C.I. were our designated hitters. (Ava just groaned, "Sports talk?") They came through with this piece on the way NPR sells the Libyan War, the way Tina Fey sells sexism and the way they and Barack Obama have all jumped the shark. It's a great piece.
Short features. This one was a natural. The art work wasn't. We had a horse's ass by Betty's kids and were eager to use it. We couldn't get it to upload. Finally, we gave up and were going to run it without any illustration when Ty remembered Barack's man-boobs and how we used to give out the Bronze Boob.
Someone -- no one remembers who now -- noticed that Nir Rosen was still Tweeting. So that gave us another short feature.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
It was a stripped down affair. Our apologies. If you're thinking, "Why didn't you just use another snipping tool?" We tried. We downloaded different ones on each computer and either we still couldn't do a screen snap or else we couldn't upload it to Flickr.
It was a nightmare.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Editorial: Empty Politics, Empty Media
"You're not a stranger to me," sings Stevie Nicks in "Beauty and the Beast" (Wild Heart), "and you, we'll you're something to see."
'Progressive' media, 'alternative' media, 'liberal' media, 'independent' media, Panhandle Media, you're no stranger to us and, yes, you certainly are something to see -- something horrid.
Last week's "Editorial: Success in spite of them," noted that people turned out for the protests despite no effort (with the exception of KPFK) of getting the word out on the protests.
You might think, "Well surely they covered the protests as news. They didn't publicize them, they didn't get the word out, but now that they've taken place, they certainly publicized Saturday's protests across the country, protests against the wars."
You would be wrong. The Progressive still hasn't found the protests. The Nation? No one plays stupid better than the Katrina vanden Heuvel-led Nation magazine. Well Znet, right? Nope. Uprising Radio? The only thing "subversive" about Sonali is how well she whores herself. We all are aware, at least by now, what a little Barack groupie Sonali is, right? She "follows" him online, after all. She's a little whore who sold out Afghan women and any possible movement on the left in the US. But don't worry kids, she's "following" Barack and that's what really matters, right?
Socialist Worker? That has to be the most useless rag in the world. Repeatedly asking people to 'rise up' and when they do, when they take to the streets in San Francisco, LA, DC, Phoenix, Boston, Chicago, Portland, Des Moines, NYC, Madison, etc on the eighth anniversary of the Iraq War, our so-called 'Socialists' can't make time to cover it. Even a week later.
The deluded who worship Amy Goodman will be glad to know their hero covered the protests on Saturday -- if covering over 40 protests across the country means reducing it to one protest (and not even the largest one at that) and reducing it to a single sentence.
Goodman declared Monday (Democracy Now!): "In Washington, D.C., more than 100 antiwar activists were arrested outside the White House on Saturday during a protest to mark the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq."
We hope she didn't tire herself out with such 'in-depth' 'coverage.'
In her book The Exception To The Rulers (written with her brother), Finger Pointer Supreme Goodman noted that The New York Times wasn't putting a reporter at an anti-war protest and how "it's a matter of what they care about and where they decide to put their resources" (page 148).
2004 Goodman was, in fact, describing 2011 Goodman. Oh, how they bloated have fallen.
Today on Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox, historian Thaddeus Russell observed, "The anti-war movement completely evaporated, you know. I mean except for you and a very small handful of other people, it completely evaporated with his election. And during Bush it wasn't exactly vigorous but there was -- I was. You know, when I went to demonstrations during Bush, there were tens of thousands of people in the streets. I wish it had been even more aggressive but we had large numbers. Now it's what? It's ten people on a street corner."
And when people do go out, do stand up, they can count on ZNet, KPFA, Democracy Now, Flashpoints, Letters From Washington, The Progressive, The Nation, In These Times and KPFT to ignore them. As 2004 Goodman observed, "it's a matter of what they care about and where they decide to put their resources."
During the Bush years, criticizing MSM was a non-stop process. It was also a needed process. But somewhere along the way, Beggar Media went off the rails. It happened before Barack got elected.
To be sure, Beggar Media whored for Barack in 2008 (see "2008: The Year of Living Hormonally"). To be sure. But they went off the rails before that which is why Iraq disappeared so quickly from the radar of Beggar Media even before 2007 ended.
And what we have now is a Beggar Media that wants our money, that needs our money to function but when we give it money what we find is it still doesn't function. It takes the money we throw in for it to be independent and uses that money to whore for Barack Obama. It spends months and months attempting to find "racism" in some comment or political cartoon. It spends months and months whining about how Barack was compared to Hitler (forgetting that Democrats.com and numerous others repeatedly compared Bully Boy Bush to Hitler while he was occupying the White House). Beggar Media is Frances Fox Piven embarrassing herself at a Socialist gathering by defending ObamaCare when only the insurance companies should be thrilled with ObamaCare which is not single-payer, which is not universal health care, which does not address the spiraling costs of health care in this country.
Instead of putting forward a left agenda, they spend all their time obsessing over what Fox News said (Media Matters at last has a purpose!) or what someone else did or on and on and on.
One of the arguments the Cult of St. Barack made against Hillary Clinton receiving the Democratic Party's presidential nomination was that if Hillary got the nomination, as soon as she was in the White House (no, there was never any doubt that Hillary would win the presidency if nominated) the left would be caught up in the same cycle from the 90s of defending the Clintons.
As some of us pointed out in real time, Hillary is more than capable of defending herself -- as she demonstrated over and over throughout the 90s. Barack by contrast? Barack can't defend his little self. Hillary's also capable of defending others. During the race for the nomination, she proved it again. Move On had run a "General Betray-us" ad. Republicans in the Senate wanted to condemn it. Hillary voted against the motion to condemn Move On and Barack . . .
Well let's go David M. Herszenhorn's September 21, 2007 report for The New York Times:
But curiously absent from the vote was Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, also a Democratic candidate for president, who had canceled a campaign appearance in South Carolina so he could be in Washington for votes. Mr. Obama issued a statement calling the resolution, put forward by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, "a stunt." Mr. Obama said, "By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against these empty politics." Mr. Obama had voted minutes earlier in favor of an extremely similar resolution proposed by Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California. Ms. Boxer's proposal, which failed, called for the Senate to "strongly condemn all attacks on the honor, integrity and patriotism" of anyone in the United States armed forces. It did not name MoveOn.org, but criticized the ad that appeared in The Times. Mr. Dodd and Mrs. Clinton also voted in favor of Ms. Boxer's proposal.
Well, yes, that sort of craven behavior demands a lot of covering and whoring so clearly Beggar Media is too busy protecting their boyfriend, their boy toy, to do their jobs. In other words, they're are exactly like the MSM they used to criticize under Bush.
It's not all negative, however. 2012 is coming up. And we hope many people will follow Barack's advice at election time, "By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against these empty politics."
'Progressive' media, 'alternative' media, 'liberal' media, 'independent' media, Panhandle Media, you're no stranger to us and, yes, you certainly are something to see -- something horrid.
Last week's "Editorial: Success in spite of them," noted that people turned out for the protests despite no effort (with the exception of KPFK) of getting the word out on the protests.
You might think, "Well surely they covered the protests as news. They didn't publicize them, they didn't get the word out, but now that they've taken place, they certainly publicized Saturday's protests across the country, protests against the wars."
You would be wrong. The Progressive still hasn't found the protests. The Nation? No one plays stupid better than the Katrina vanden Heuvel-led Nation magazine. Well Znet, right? Nope. Uprising Radio? The only thing "subversive" about Sonali is how well she whores herself. We all are aware, at least by now, what a little Barack groupie Sonali is, right? She "follows" him online, after all. She's a little whore who sold out Afghan women and any possible movement on the left in the US. But don't worry kids, she's "following" Barack and that's what really matters, right?
Socialist Worker? That has to be the most useless rag in the world. Repeatedly asking people to 'rise up' and when they do, when they take to the streets in San Francisco, LA, DC, Phoenix, Boston, Chicago, Portland, Des Moines, NYC, Madison, etc on the eighth anniversary of the Iraq War, our so-called 'Socialists' can't make time to cover it. Even a week later.
The deluded who worship Amy Goodman will be glad to know their hero covered the protests on Saturday -- if covering over 40 protests across the country means reducing it to one protest (and not even the largest one at that) and reducing it to a single sentence.
Goodman declared Monday (Democracy Now!): "In Washington, D.C., more than 100 antiwar activists were arrested outside the White House on Saturday during a protest to mark the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq."
We hope she didn't tire herself out with such 'in-depth' 'coverage.'
In her book The Exception To The Rulers (written with her brother), Finger Pointer Supreme Goodman noted that The New York Times wasn't putting a reporter at an anti-war protest and how "it's a matter of what they care about and where they decide to put their resources" (page 148).
2004 Goodman was, in fact, describing 2011 Goodman. Oh, how they bloated have fallen.
Today on Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox, historian Thaddeus Russell observed, "The anti-war movement completely evaporated, you know. I mean except for you and a very small handful of other people, it completely evaporated with his election. And during Bush it wasn't exactly vigorous but there was -- I was. You know, when I went to demonstrations during Bush, there were tens of thousands of people in the streets. I wish it had been even more aggressive but we had large numbers. Now it's what? It's ten people on a street corner."
And when people do go out, do stand up, they can count on ZNet, KPFA, Democracy Now, Flashpoints, Letters From Washington, The Progressive, The Nation, In These Times and KPFT to ignore them. As 2004 Goodman observed, "it's a matter of what they care about and where they decide to put their resources."
During the Bush years, criticizing MSM was a non-stop process. It was also a needed process. But somewhere along the way, Beggar Media went off the rails. It happened before Barack got elected.
To be sure, Beggar Media whored for Barack in 2008 (see "2008: The Year of Living Hormonally"). To be sure. But they went off the rails before that which is why Iraq disappeared so quickly from the radar of Beggar Media even before 2007 ended.
And what we have now is a Beggar Media that wants our money, that needs our money to function but when we give it money what we find is it still doesn't function. It takes the money we throw in for it to be independent and uses that money to whore for Barack Obama. It spends months and months attempting to find "racism" in some comment or political cartoon. It spends months and months whining about how Barack was compared to Hitler (forgetting that Democrats.com and numerous others repeatedly compared Bully Boy Bush to Hitler while he was occupying the White House). Beggar Media is Frances Fox Piven embarrassing herself at a Socialist gathering by defending ObamaCare when only the insurance companies should be thrilled with ObamaCare which is not single-payer, which is not universal health care, which does not address the spiraling costs of health care in this country.
Instead of putting forward a left agenda, they spend all their time obsessing over what Fox News said (Media Matters at last has a purpose!) or what someone else did or on and on and on.
One of the arguments the Cult of St. Barack made against Hillary Clinton receiving the Democratic Party's presidential nomination was that if Hillary got the nomination, as soon as she was in the White House (no, there was never any doubt that Hillary would win the presidency if nominated) the left would be caught up in the same cycle from the 90s of defending the Clintons.
As some of us pointed out in real time, Hillary is more than capable of defending herself -- as she demonstrated over and over throughout the 90s. Barack by contrast? Barack can't defend his little self. Hillary's also capable of defending others. During the race for the nomination, she proved it again. Move On had run a "General Betray-us" ad. Republicans in the Senate wanted to condemn it. Hillary voted against the motion to condemn Move On and Barack . . .
Well let's go David M. Herszenhorn's September 21, 2007 report for The New York Times:
But curiously absent from the vote was Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, also a Democratic candidate for president, who had canceled a campaign appearance in South Carolina so he could be in Washington for votes. Mr. Obama issued a statement calling the resolution, put forward by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, "a stunt." Mr. Obama said, "By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against these empty politics." Mr. Obama had voted minutes earlier in favor of an extremely similar resolution proposed by Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California. Ms. Boxer's proposal, which failed, called for the Senate to "strongly condemn all attacks on the honor, integrity and patriotism" of anyone in the United States armed forces. It did not name MoveOn.org, but criticized the ad that appeared in The Times. Mr. Dodd and Mrs. Clinton also voted in favor of Ms. Boxer's proposal.
Well, yes, that sort of craven behavior demands a lot of covering and whoring so clearly Beggar Media is too busy protecting their boyfriend, their boy toy, to do their jobs. In other words, they're are exactly like the MSM they used to criticize under Bush.
It's not all negative, however. 2012 is coming up. And we hope many people will follow Barack's advice at election time, "By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against these empty politics."
TV: Jump The Shark
It was Saturday the 19th, we were in L.A. at a friend's house, almost ready to fly back to DC. Amidst the talk of the day's Hollywood & Vine demonstration (and it's amazing turnout) against the wars, and in the midst of a blistering conversation about two faux hayseeds when a TV writer walked up and declared, "Oh, absolutely, it's jumped the shark."
Jumping the shark, for those who don't know, is a term for when something goes off the deep end, for when it is no longer believable and the good times have ended. On the '70s sitcom Happy Days, in a desperate bid to ride the shark craze generated by the film Jaws, they had Fonzie, on jet skies, jump a shark, literally. It's thought that episode inspired the phrase.
We had been talking about Barack, NPR and the selling of the war on Libya. The man who arrived late to the conversation was referring to 30 Rock. However, it really did apply to both.
Let's start with 30 Rock. We're no fans of 'reality' TV. Obviously. In all these years, we've only covered Paris & Nicole, Brody and Brandon Jenner, American Idol, Big Brother, Celebrity Apprentice and (with Dona, Jess, Ty and Jim) The Apprentice. We're on year seven of doing this and we've only covered six reality shows and we had to be begged to do each one. In addition, we've made clear in one piece after another how cheap and fake we think 'reality' TV is and how destructive. It was the one thing we still had in common with Tina Fey.
Until her little show jumped the shark.
Episode 11 of the first season ("The Head & The Hair") featured Kenneth seeing his show brought to life -- Deal or No Deal mixed with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire but with the lucky case filled with gold (Gold Case). Anything still left to say on the matter was addressed in season two's eleventh episode ("MLF Island") which found the TGIF staff obsessed with the reality show MLF Island while Liz (Tinay Fey) mirrored the behavior taking place on the show as she attempted to hide the fact that she was the one who trashed Jack (Alec Baldwin) to The New York Post. The occasional dialogue lines since were often funny, but the point (we thought) had been made.
Dialogue?
Take this season's episode eleven ("Mrs. Donagy") in which Jack declares Angie (Sherri Shepherd) a 'reality' TV star and the credits roll with a parody promo for Angie's show Queen of Jordan. Sadly, that was not of the end of it. The next episode ("Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning") was Angie's TV crew invading the TGS set with Liz and Tracy (Tracy Morgan) refusing to apologize to one another for the 'reality' TV cameras leading the producers of Queen of Jordan to serve up fake footage soaked in a cheesy song.
If anyone missed the point while Liz and Tracy watched their fake embrace broadcast on TV, they then got to hear Liz and Tracy explain it to one another face to face as they rushed into a real hug and then the viewers got Liz explaining to Jack how manipulative 'reality' TV is.
Okay. Point established. And then some. No need to ever again cover the topic.
Instead, it just gets worse each week culminating in the March 17th jump-the-shark episode "Queen of Jordan." That episode was a Queen of Jordan episode. Jack fought rumors that he was ungraceful, gay and gassy. Liz plotted and schemed. A bad guest star showed up in a very tasteless and tacky storyline about a grown woman sleeping with an eight-year-old boy. It just never ended. It was not funny, Sherri Shepherd can't act and the racist portrayal of Angie should have been stopped a long, long time ago.
As the allegedly smart comedian Tina Fey got 'laughs' out of Angie (again) pulling out Liz's hair and calling Liz a bitch, the show became a wealth of embarrassments and as bad as the episode the week prior ("TGS Hates Women") in which the joke was supposed to be that Liz might have been out of touch with feminist sensibilities as evidenced by a skit in which Jenna played Amelia Earhart who screamed that she was getting her period followed by Hillary Clinton holding a press conference and exclaiming that she was getting her period (followed by Liz at the writers' table screaming that, yes, she was getting her period).
These were the examples of Liz not 'getting' what she was doing. But the offensive jokes that came prior to the period 'jokes,' when all present at the writers' table were supposed to see Liz as a strong example of a feminist were even worse. How Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- who has always dressed appropriately for her position -- looks in a swim suit isn't funny. There's not even a reason to bring it up. But more 'laughs' were to be mined moments later when Liz claimed she was "talking 'bout a femolution" -- a play on Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' Bout A Revolution" -- and then quickly asking of Tracy Chapman, "She's a woman, right?"
We were asking if anyone could be more predictable and one-sided while pretending to be 'heartland of the people' when the TV writer walked up and assumed we were discussing Tina Fey. We had actually been talking about NPR and, specifically at that moment, Wesley Clark or, as we like to think of Wes, the first indication that Michael Moore was a raving lunatic. (Moore endorsed the War Hawk Clark in the 2004 Democratic Party primary.)
The left winces and sometimes defends Clark from right-wing charges of hypocrisy but the truth is that the right-wing is correct that Clark has been all over the map about the Iraq War. Find a position on that illegal war and, at some point in time, Clark has publicly taken it. Wishy-washy and spineless are terms that best describe Clark. So it was no surprise that as Barack Obama made his quickie announcement of war before high tailing it out of the country in his best Little Barry Fu-Fu fashion, All Things Considered would find Clark a suitable guest. (Link goes to the March 18th broadcast, all segments of it are audio and transcript and we're referring to that broadcast when discussing ATC segments.)
Clark had written a column for The Washington Post stating that the US should not intervene in Libya. But since he's long been auditioning to become the new Mark Shields, everyone knows he'll walk away (quickly) from any staked ground. So NPR paired him up with War Hawk Anne-Marie Slaughter whose chief "academic" achievement may have been in booking more Republican and pro-war speakers than (a) were needed and (b) than opposing voices. In an idiotic response, which should have resulted in her being fired from Princeton, Slaughter offered up a list of speakers she'd tried for (Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, etc.) but had been unable to get. Her names? They supported the Iraq War. The group lodging the complaint was an anti-war group talking about the obligations that universities have in a time of war and how Slaughter's speakers were all pro-war. She trots out a few Democrats who had supported (and in 2005 were still supporting) the Iraq War and then flaunts her ignorance further by adding, "Engagement, rather than polarization, and dialogue, rather than preaching to the converted, are badly needed in this country. I hope that Princeton can help lead the way." If she wanted a dialogue, and not preaching, she was required to invite speakers who were not all gung-hu supporters of the Iraq War (and who, in fact, disagreed with her own position as an Iraq War cheerleader). To War Hawk Slaughter, one-sided, pro-war speakers are how you "lead the way."
Listening to her bluster and bully her way through the NPR segment, we were reminded again of how her actions at Princeton resulted in vocal and legitimate complaints about just how one-sided and destructive Slaughter is.
She defined 'success' in the Libyan War as, "Gadhafi leaving power and a government that is then formed that is representative of the Libyan people broadly. But the point of the no-fly zone is to get him out of the country." If you think Robert Siegel had a follow-up, you don't know All Things Considered.
The obvious question to then ask Slaughter is under what legal basis would the US be attempting to get Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi out of Libya? But
propaganda doesn't allow for the needed questions to ever be asked. Nor does propaganda allow for a real debate which is why Clark's entire response can be boiled down to "Well, I agree with Anne-Marie, but [. . .]" Yes, he agreed with Slaughter. Of course, he did. Brave stands do not pop up in the personal history of Wesley Clark.
While Robert Siegel made no attempt to force Slaughter to justify her position, he did want Clark to justify his position -- or rather, he wanted Clark to justify his previous position, to disown publicly in some sort of mock show trial which, more and more, NPR sounds like.
Robert Siegel: Just a few days ago, you were saying if this were up to the U.S., it wouldn't be sufficiently in our national interest to do all of this. But what I hear you say now is: Number one, if it's multinational, it's a toggle switch. If it's in our interest, it's in our interest to be all in and go in with great force.
Wesley Clark: Well, what I was saying is that the first rule is [. . .]
Whatever, you little blow hard. The segment mainly served to inform listeners of how crabby Slaughter is and how Clark never stood a chance at the presidency with that nasal voice which sounds so much like Anthony Perkins playing Norman Bates.
Siegel wasn't done with the faux debates. He also spoke with David Brooks and E.J. Dionne about the Libyan War. Brooks' position? "And as someone who's thought this was going to be necessary, I'm really glad he's done it." And Dionne? E.J. dribbled and drooled, "Well, I think Obama's Libya policy is inspired by James A. Baker III, the first secretary of State - for the first President Bush. Tom Donilon, the president's National Security Adviser, has always admired the way Baker put together a very broad international coalition, both in the Arab world and western Europe, to throw Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. And I think what Obama's done in this case is not acted until he had put together this coalition."
In addition, the two-hour program also aired a 'report' by David Greene and one by Tom Gjelten, four segments, and not once could they offer one objection to the Libyan War. Not once. And this is National Public Radio?
This is the crap we on the left are supposed to be rushing to save? Not one damn word on the 'flagship' NPR show that provided an alternate view. What's to save?
PRI is not NPR. There is a real competition between the two and it's especially intense on the NPR side. NPR friends have fits when we include PRI programs and we get calls about "why did you have to include them?" Maybe this will explain why: Contrast the March 18th All Things Considered with the March 18th The World (PRI program and all segments are both audio and transcript).
The President of the United States had just announced another illegal war and then hurried out of the country. NPR's duty was apparently to provide cover for the war and the president. PRI felt their responsibility was to news. Host Lisa Mullins declared as she finished getting Anne-Marie Slaughter's view, "There are opposing views on the practicality of international intervention in Libya. Barry Posen directs the Security Studies Program at MIT." An opposing view, something NPR couldn't be bothered with.
NPR's flagship show (as ombudsperson Alicia Shepard loves to repeatedly stress) had two hours and did four segments on Libya but couldn't find one voice objecting to a unilateral decision by Barack to go to war -- to go into yet another war. PRI's The World has just one hour and did a report on the action and then aired a segment featuring opposing views unlike All Things Considered which billed the we-both-agree Slaughter and Clark segment as "a debate".
All Things Considered showed about as much awareness and range as the "TGS Hates Women" episode of 30 Rock. Translation, none at all. Naturally, a man wrote the 30 Rock episode and, appropriately, his name is Ron Weiner because it takes a real dick to serve up something as idiotic as Secretary of State Hillary getting a period in the midst of a press conference.
Hillary is 63-years-old and we'll explain the biology little Ron was never taught: At 63, Hillary's no longer having a period. It's really telling that a man wants to write jokes about women but isn't required to know the basics about women. And it's really telling that 'feminist' Tina Fey would waive that through.
What gets waived through is forever telling on NPR and leading those paying attention to surmise that there's no point in 'saving' NPR. (As Molly Ivins noted in the 80s, NPR loves to insist it would be more left -- it's real nature! -- if only it didn't have to take those darn government funds. It's played lefties with that line privately for years. Let's see it put up or shut up already. And, yes, NPR would survive without government funding.) NPR friends can be real babies so we can already guess what the whines will be like: 'PRI didn't have voices of peace. PRI didn't question the legality of the war. PRI didn't . . .' No, The World didn't. We're not comparing it to the dream program we'd like to hear. We're contrasting it with NPR's flagship All Things Considered.
Our dream show would be one that included at least one guest -- who was allowed to speak without interruption (in other words, no attempt to shut the guest up as Diane Rehm did to Daniel Ellsberg not all that long ago) -- who could point out the basics. Such as?
The US is already involved in the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War and a drone war on Pakistan. Is it really smart -- in the midst of an economic crisis -- to start another war? The US has not been attacked by Libya, why is the US declaring war on Libya? The US is more than the president -- who is a servant of the people -- and the Constitution requires Congress to make the declaration of war. So why is it that Barack acted unilaterally? Why is it that he refused to make the case to the people or to the Congress?
We'd just need one person making those points because they're basic, logical points. That's probably why that voice is blocked out by NPR. And it's very telling that you can hear them on Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox but not on the tax payer funded NPR which exists, which was created, to provide a forum for voices that are not heard in the commercial media.
Cindy actually provided two voices weighing in: US House Rep. Dennis Kucinich and historian Thaddeus Russell. Kucinich noted that this "new nightmare for the American people" would cost US tax payers at least one billion dollars.
US House Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Humanitarian war is an oxymoron.
Cindy Sheehan: Right.
US House Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Because the minute that you begin an attack the next thing you hear is collateral damage which is an euphemism for killing innocent people. We noted in the attack on -- George Bush noted when he directed the US troops to attack Iraq -- with Congressional approval, I might add -- that Saddam Hussein was killing his own people. Then we proceeded using our extrarodinary military might to engage in an attack that has resulted, according to Joseph Stiglitz and his -- Linda Bilmes in their book called The Three Trillion Dollar War, in the deaths of perhaps as many as a million people. Where they extrapolated The Lancet report to present day. So we-we have to understand that interventions never end up the way that you think they will and that innocent people will get killed. And the decision to intervene is a dangerous decision. It's not just that we should applaud ourselves for our humanitarian instincts. We all care. The question is: "Will you do more harm than good?" That's the question that wasn't answered because there was a decision made to go to war without having a debate in Congress about it.
Much more was discussed. But you didn't hear it on NPR. And we wonder about the things the left applauds more and more. Not just a War Hawk President -- though that's bad enough, but so much more. For example, NPR which can't provide news and viewpoints but which we are supposed to save. Or take 30 Rock. Bob Somerby and others have gone to town on Donald Trump for his daytime TV appearance last week. How many people actually watch The View? 30 Rock has a much larger audience. Trump didn't say that Barack was born outside the United States. 30 Rock did. Jack and Avery did on this season's "Double-Edged Sword." That episode found the two smart, educated characters in Canada and in a panic that their daughter might be born there and might not be able to be president. Too bad, they joked, that they weren't in Kenya. Missed Bob and the rest calling Tina Fey out on that.
Missed a lot of things from the left. But what we don't miss is retribution. Whether it's all of the shlock-fest that is Revenge of the Bushido Blade or the key scene in Marked Woman when Bette Davis vows, "I'll get you if I have to come back from the grave to do it," actions like bombing Libya have longterm results. In fact, the various, warring factions of the Middle East -- as cobbled together by foreign powers in the 20th century via wars -- remain a testament to that. Going to war with Libya was not a smart move. Like 30 Rock, Barack jumped the shark. But it's the people of America and the Middle East who will be left paying the costs.
Jumping the shark, for those who don't know, is a term for when something goes off the deep end, for when it is no longer believable and the good times have ended. On the '70s sitcom Happy Days, in a desperate bid to ride the shark craze generated by the film Jaws, they had Fonzie, on jet skies, jump a shark, literally. It's thought that episode inspired the phrase.
We had been talking about Barack, NPR and the selling of the war on Libya. The man who arrived late to the conversation was referring to 30 Rock. However, it really did apply to both.
Let's start with 30 Rock. We're no fans of 'reality' TV. Obviously. In all these years, we've only covered Paris & Nicole, Brody and Brandon Jenner, American Idol, Big Brother, Celebrity Apprentice and (with Dona, Jess, Ty and Jim) The Apprentice. We're on year seven of doing this and we've only covered six reality shows and we had to be begged to do each one. In addition, we've made clear in one piece after another how cheap and fake we think 'reality' TV is and how destructive. It was the one thing we still had in common with Tina Fey.
Until her little show jumped the shark.
Episode 11 of the first season ("The Head & The Hair") featured Kenneth seeing his show brought to life -- Deal or No Deal mixed with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire but with the lucky case filled with gold (Gold Case). Anything still left to say on the matter was addressed in season two's eleventh episode ("MLF Island") which found the TGIF staff obsessed with the reality show MLF Island while Liz (Tinay Fey) mirrored the behavior taking place on the show as she attempted to hide the fact that she was the one who trashed Jack (Alec Baldwin) to The New York Post. The occasional dialogue lines since were often funny, but the point (we thought) had been made.
Dialogue?
Take this season's episode eleven ("Mrs. Donagy") in which Jack declares Angie (Sherri Shepherd) a 'reality' TV star and the credits roll with a parody promo for Angie's show Queen of Jordan. Sadly, that was not of the end of it. The next episode ("Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning") was Angie's TV crew invading the TGS set with Liz and Tracy (Tracy Morgan) refusing to apologize to one another for the 'reality' TV cameras leading the producers of Queen of Jordan to serve up fake footage soaked in a cheesy song.
If anyone missed the point while Liz and Tracy watched their fake embrace broadcast on TV, they then got to hear Liz and Tracy explain it to one another face to face as they rushed into a real hug and then the viewers got Liz explaining to Jack how manipulative 'reality' TV is.
Okay. Point established. And then some. No need to ever again cover the topic.
Instead, it just gets worse each week culminating in the March 17th jump-the-shark episode "Queen of Jordan." That episode was a Queen of Jordan episode. Jack fought rumors that he was ungraceful, gay and gassy. Liz plotted and schemed. A bad guest star showed up in a very tasteless and tacky storyline about a grown woman sleeping with an eight-year-old boy. It just never ended. It was not funny, Sherri Shepherd can't act and the racist portrayal of Angie should have been stopped a long, long time ago.
As the allegedly smart comedian Tina Fey got 'laughs' out of Angie (again) pulling out Liz's hair and calling Liz a bitch, the show became a wealth of embarrassments and as bad as the episode the week prior ("TGS Hates Women") in which the joke was supposed to be that Liz might have been out of touch with feminist sensibilities as evidenced by a skit in which Jenna played Amelia Earhart who screamed that she was getting her period followed by Hillary Clinton holding a press conference and exclaiming that she was getting her period (followed by Liz at the writers' table screaming that, yes, she was getting her period).
These were the examples of Liz not 'getting' what she was doing. But the offensive jokes that came prior to the period 'jokes,' when all present at the writers' table were supposed to see Liz as a strong example of a feminist were even worse. How Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- who has always dressed appropriately for her position -- looks in a swim suit isn't funny. There's not even a reason to bring it up. But more 'laughs' were to be mined moments later when Liz claimed she was "talking 'bout a femolution" -- a play on Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' Bout A Revolution" -- and then quickly asking of Tracy Chapman, "She's a woman, right?"
We were asking if anyone could be more predictable and one-sided while pretending to be 'heartland of the people' when the TV writer walked up and assumed we were discussing Tina Fey. We had actually been talking about NPR and, specifically at that moment, Wesley Clark or, as we like to think of Wes, the first indication that Michael Moore was a raving lunatic. (Moore endorsed the War Hawk Clark in the 2004 Democratic Party primary.)
The left winces and sometimes defends Clark from right-wing charges of hypocrisy but the truth is that the right-wing is correct that Clark has been all over the map about the Iraq War. Find a position on that illegal war and, at some point in time, Clark has publicly taken it. Wishy-washy and spineless are terms that best describe Clark. So it was no surprise that as Barack Obama made his quickie announcement of war before high tailing it out of the country in his best Little Barry Fu-Fu fashion, All Things Considered would find Clark a suitable guest. (Link goes to the March 18th broadcast, all segments of it are audio and transcript and we're referring to that broadcast when discussing ATC segments.)
Clark had written a column for The Washington Post stating that the US should not intervene in Libya. But since he's long been auditioning to become the new Mark Shields, everyone knows he'll walk away (quickly) from any staked ground. So NPR paired him up with War Hawk Anne-Marie Slaughter whose chief "academic" achievement may have been in booking more Republican and pro-war speakers than (a) were needed and (b) than opposing voices. In an idiotic response, which should have resulted in her being fired from Princeton, Slaughter offered up a list of speakers she'd tried for (Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, etc.) but had been unable to get. Her names? They supported the Iraq War. The group lodging the complaint was an anti-war group talking about the obligations that universities have in a time of war and how Slaughter's speakers were all pro-war. She trots out a few Democrats who had supported (and in 2005 were still supporting) the Iraq War and then flaunts her ignorance further by adding, "Engagement, rather than polarization, and dialogue, rather than preaching to the converted, are badly needed in this country. I hope that Princeton can help lead the way." If she wanted a dialogue, and not preaching, she was required to invite speakers who were not all gung-hu supporters of the Iraq War (and who, in fact, disagreed with her own position as an Iraq War cheerleader). To War Hawk Slaughter, one-sided, pro-war speakers are how you "lead the way."
Listening to her bluster and bully her way through the NPR segment, we were reminded again of how her actions at Princeton resulted in vocal and legitimate complaints about just how one-sided and destructive Slaughter is.
She defined 'success' in the Libyan War as, "Gadhafi leaving power and a government that is then formed that is representative of the Libyan people broadly. But the point of the no-fly zone is to get him out of the country." If you think Robert Siegel had a follow-up, you don't know All Things Considered.
The obvious question to then ask Slaughter is under what legal basis would the US be attempting to get Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi out of Libya? But
propaganda doesn't allow for the needed questions to ever be asked. Nor does propaganda allow for a real debate which is why Clark's entire response can be boiled down to "Well, I agree with Anne-Marie, but [. . .]" Yes, he agreed with Slaughter. Of course, he did. Brave stands do not pop up in the personal history of Wesley Clark.
While Robert Siegel made no attempt to force Slaughter to justify her position, he did want Clark to justify his position -- or rather, he wanted Clark to justify his previous position, to disown publicly in some sort of mock show trial which, more and more, NPR sounds like.
Robert Siegel: Just a few days ago, you were saying if this were up to the U.S., it wouldn't be sufficiently in our national interest to do all of this. But what I hear you say now is: Number one, if it's multinational, it's a toggle switch. If it's in our interest, it's in our interest to be all in and go in with great force.
Wesley Clark: Well, what I was saying is that the first rule is [. . .]
Whatever, you little blow hard. The segment mainly served to inform listeners of how crabby Slaughter is and how Clark never stood a chance at the presidency with that nasal voice which sounds so much like Anthony Perkins playing Norman Bates.
Siegel wasn't done with the faux debates. He also spoke with David Brooks and E.J. Dionne about the Libyan War. Brooks' position? "And as someone who's thought this was going to be necessary, I'm really glad he's done it." And Dionne? E.J. dribbled and drooled, "Well, I think Obama's Libya policy is inspired by James A. Baker III, the first secretary of State - for the first President Bush. Tom Donilon, the president's National Security Adviser, has always admired the way Baker put together a very broad international coalition, both in the Arab world and western Europe, to throw Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. And I think what Obama's done in this case is not acted until he had put together this coalition."
In addition, the two-hour program also aired a 'report' by David Greene and one by Tom Gjelten, four segments, and not once could they offer one objection to the Libyan War. Not once. And this is National Public Radio?
This is the crap we on the left are supposed to be rushing to save? Not one damn word on the 'flagship' NPR show that provided an alternate view. What's to save?
PRI is not NPR. There is a real competition between the two and it's especially intense on the NPR side. NPR friends have fits when we include PRI programs and we get calls about "why did you have to include them?" Maybe this will explain why: Contrast the March 18th All Things Considered with the March 18th The World (PRI program and all segments are both audio and transcript).
The President of the United States had just announced another illegal war and then hurried out of the country. NPR's duty was apparently to provide cover for the war and the president. PRI felt their responsibility was to news. Host Lisa Mullins declared as she finished getting Anne-Marie Slaughter's view, "There are opposing views on the practicality of international intervention in Libya. Barry Posen directs the Security Studies Program at MIT." An opposing view, something NPR couldn't be bothered with.
Barry Posen: My personal view is that this is a mistake. And the reason I think it is a mistake is because I think the United States has already been too activist in the Arab world. In general I don't think it's particularly advantageous for us to be seen as using military action against Arabs, even Arabs that some perceive as the bad Arabs or bad actors. So that's point 1: It's not clear to me that it’s really in our interest. There's no obvious material interest here. The downside that the United States once again, you know, slippery slope, mission creep, etcetera, etcetera. You're going to find yourself in an internal political fight where neither side turns out to be particularly wonderful, and where you end up making somebody mad that you'd rather not have mad. And then the third reason I oppose it -- I think that one of the problems in the Arab world is they feel like they are buffeted about by forces they do not control. And it seems to me that it's good for these Arab political movements that have suddenly emerged across the Arab world, have ownership of their revolution. That they should have ownership of the strategy, the tactics, the successes. But that also means ownership of the costs. So when the victory comes it will be their victory and not our victory.
Mullins: Is there any argument that you would make for intervention, then, anywhere right now, that's undergoing unrest in the Middle East?
Posen: No, I think quite the reverse. I think the United States should be lowering its profile across the Middle East.
NPR's flagship show (as ombudsperson Alicia Shepard loves to repeatedly stress) had two hours and did four segments on Libya but couldn't find one voice objecting to a unilateral decision by Barack to go to war -- to go into yet another war. PRI's The World has just one hour and did a report on the action and then aired a segment featuring opposing views unlike All Things Considered which billed the we-both-agree Slaughter and Clark segment as "a debate".
All Things Considered showed about as much awareness and range as the "TGS Hates Women" episode of 30 Rock. Translation, none at all. Naturally, a man wrote the 30 Rock episode and, appropriately, his name is Ron Weiner because it takes a real dick to serve up something as idiotic as Secretary of State Hillary getting a period in the midst of a press conference.
Hillary is 63-years-old and we'll explain the biology little Ron was never taught: At 63, Hillary's no longer having a period. It's really telling that a man wants to write jokes about women but isn't required to know the basics about women. And it's really telling that 'feminist' Tina Fey would waive that through.
What gets waived through is forever telling on NPR and leading those paying attention to surmise that there's no point in 'saving' NPR. (As Molly Ivins noted in the 80s, NPR loves to insist it would be more left -- it's real nature! -- if only it didn't have to take those darn government funds. It's played lefties with that line privately for years. Let's see it put up or shut up already. And, yes, NPR would survive without government funding.) NPR friends can be real babies so we can already guess what the whines will be like: 'PRI didn't have voices of peace. PRI didn't question the legality of the war. PRI didn't . . .' No, The World didn't. We're not comparing it to the dream program we'd like to hear. We're contrasting it with NPR's flagship All Things Considered.
Our dream show would be one that included at least one guest -- who was allowed to speak without interruption (in other words, no attempt to shut the guest up as Diane Rehm did to Daniel Ellsberg not all that long ago) -- who could point out the basics. Such as?
The US is already involved in the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War and a drone war on Pakistan. Is it really smart -- in the midst of an economic crisis -- to start another war? The US has not been attacked by Libya, why is the US declaring war on Libya? The US is more than the president -- who is a servant of the people -- and the Constitution requires Congress to make the declaration of war. So why is it that Barack acted unilaterally? Why is it that he refused to make the case to the people or to the Congress?
We'd just need one person making those points because they're basic, logical points. That's probably why that voice is blocked out by NPR. And it's very telling that you can hear them on Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox but not on the tax payer funded NPR which exists, which was created, to provide a forum for voices that are not heard in the commercial media.
Cindy actually provided two voices weighing in: US House Rep. Dennis Kucinich and historian Thaddeus Russell. Kucinich noted that this "new nightmare for the American people" would cost US tax payers at least one billion dollars.
US House Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Humanitarian war is an oxymoron.
Cindy Sheehan: Right.
US House Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Because the minute that you begin an attack the next thing you hear is collateral damage which is an euphemism for killing innocent people. We noted in the attack on -- George Bush noted when he directed the US troops to attack Iraq -- with Congressional approval, I might add -- that Saddam Hussein was killing his own people. Then we proceeded using our extrarodinary military might to engage in an attack that has resulted, according to Joseph Stiglitz and his -- Linda Bilmes in their book called The Three Trillion Dollar War, in the deaths of perhaps as many as a million people. Where they extrapolated The Lancet report to present day. So we-we have to understand that interventions never end up the way that you think they will and that innocent people will get killed. And the decision to intervene is a dangerous decision. It's not just that we should applaud ourselves for our humanitarian instincts. We all care. The question is: "Will you do more harm than good?" That's the question that wasn't answered because there was a decision made to go to war without having a debate in Congress about it.
Much more was discussed. But you didn't hear it on NPR. And we wonder about the things the left applauds more and more. Not just a War Hawk President -- though that's bad enough, but so much more. For example, NPR which can't provide news and viewpoints but which we are supposed to save. Or take 30 Rock. Bob Somerby and others have gone to town on Donald Trump for his daytime TV appearance last week. How many people actually watch The View? 30 Rock has a much larger audience. Trump didn't say that Barack was born outside the United States. 30 Rock did. Jack and Avery did on this season's "Double-Edged Sword." That episode found the two smart, educated characters in Canada and in a panic that their daughter might be born there and might not be able to be president. Too bad, they joked, that they weren't in Kenya. Missed Bob and the rest calling Tina Fey out on that.
Missed a lot of things from the left. But what we don't miss is retribution. Whether it's all of the shlock-fest that is Revenge of the Bushido Blade or the key scene in Marked Woman when Bette Davis vows, "I'll get you if I have to come back from the grave to do it," actions like bombing Libya have longterm results. In fact, the various, warring factions of the Middle East -- as cobbled together by foreign powers in the 20th century via wars -- remain a testament to that. Going to war with Libya was not a smart move. Like 30 Rock, Barack jumped the shark. But it's the people of America and the Middle East who will be left paying the costs.
The Bronze Boob goes to . . .
It was close. War Hawk Katrina vanden Heuvel, under public criticism for doing nothing regarding the 8th anniversary of the Iraq War, rushed out a 'hey, wake up and stop the Afghanistan War' piece that was as shallow as she is stupid. But she was topped by faux feminist Nicole Colson.
Colson's been publicly and repeatedly criticized for not being a feminist (she insists she is) and that probably motivated her to write "Blaming an 11-year-old victim." In that article, she notes:
HOW DO you make an unspeakable act of sexual violence against an 11-year-old girl even worse?
[. . .]
THERE IS something horrifying about the idea that, in 2011, women (and girls) are routinely blamed for their own sexual assault, rape and sexual harassment.
[. . .]
Many victims are reluctant to report their assaults--because they fear exactly this kind of public condemnation and questioning about whether they somehow "provoked" an attack by wearing, saying or doing the wrong thing.
[. . .]
If we ever want to stop rape, the routine blaming of the victim for being assaulted has to be stopped first.
Remind you of anything?
If you read Ava and C.I.'s "The Damned Don't Apologize" you might be asking, does she mention Nir Rosen?
Nope. But US Socialist Worker has been happy -- in the last 12 months -- to cite him and interview him four times.
If you want to end it, if you want to end rape and sexual assault and the attacks on the victims, then you have to call out the attackers. That would include Nir Rosen who argued that CBS News' Lara Logan deserved to be sexually assaulted.
Somehow, 'feminist' Nicole Colson wants to weigh in but can't find the guts or strength to call out Nir Rosen. Pathetic.
And as Elaine recently noted, Colson's emphasis is still on men. Could she find no women to cite on an article about rape and sexual assault? Hugo Schwyzer, Arthur S. Brisbane, RAIN? On Brisbane, he's quoted as a critic of The New York Times' reporting. There were female critics she could have quoted. She's pretty much forced into quoting the man who wrote the bad article Brisbane's commenting on. But she wasn't forced into quoting Brisbane. Nor was she forced to quote RAIN -- a group we walked away from after Ava, C.I., Kat and Wally attended too many hearings on sexual assault in the military where RAIN sent their male president to talk and he rudely talked over the women on the same panel and offered little of value. Nicole Colson's not aware of that because . . . Well, because she's faux feminist Nicole Colson.
And that's enough to let her nose ahead of Piss Panties Katrina vanden Heuvel (as well as previous winner Juan Cole who wallowed in stupidty and War Hawkery this week) and win "The Bronze Boob." Work on that acceptance speech, Nicole.
Colson's been publicly and repeatedly criticized for not being a feminist (she insists she is) and that probably motivated her to write "Blaming an 11-year-old victim." In that article, she notes:
HOW DO you make an unspeakable act of sexual violence against an 11-year-old girl even worse?
[. . .]
THERE IS something horrifying about the idea that, in 2011, women (and girls) are routinely blamed for their own sexual assault, rape and sexual harassment.
[. . .]
Many victims are reluctant to report their assaults--because they fear exactly this kind of public condemnation and questioning about whether they somehow "provoked" an attack by wearing, saying or doing the wrong thing.
[. . .]
If we ever want to stop rape, the routine blaming of the victim for being assaulted has to be stopped first.
Remind you of anything?
If you read Ava and C.I.'s "The Damned Don't Apologize" you might be asking, does she mention Nir Rosen?
Nope. But US Socialist Worker has been happy -- in the last 12 months -- to cite him and interview him four times.
If you want to end it, if you want to end rape and sexual assault and the attacks on the victims, then you have to call out the attackers. That would include Nir Rosen who argued that CBS News' Lara Logan deserved to be sexually assaulted.
Somehow, 'feminist' Nicole Colson wants to weigh in but can't find the guts or strength to call out Nir Rosen. Pathetic.
And as Elaine recently noted, Colson's emphasis is still on men. Could she find no women to cite on an article about rape and sexual assault? Hugo Schwyzer, Arthur S. Brisbane, RAIN? On Brisbane, he's quoted as a critic of The New York Times' reporting. There were female critics she could have quoted. She's pretty much forced into quoting the man who wrote the bad article Brisbane's commenting on. But she wasn't forced into quoting Brisbane. Nor was she forced to quote RAIN -- a group we walked away from after Ava, C.I., Kat and Wally attended too many hearings on sexual assault in the military where RAIN sent their male president to talk and he rudely talked over the women on the same panel and offered little of value. Nicole Colson's not aware of that because . . . Well, because she's faux feminist Nicole Colson.
And that's enough to let her nose ahead of Piss Panties Katrina vanden Heuvel (as well as previous winner Juan Cole who wallowed in stupidty and War Hawkery this week) and win "The Bronze Boob." Work on that acceptance speech, Nicole.
LIAR and ATTENTION WHORE of the Week
Last month in "The Damned Don't Apologize," it was noted:
Rosen's most basic lie, that he was never called on, was his claim Feb. 15th -- on Twitter -- at 11:45 PM that, "i am done tweeting. too ashamed of how i have hurt others and the false impression i gave of who i am." Ahhh. But he wasn't too ashamed to "make one last statement" and then another and another and, oh look, "An interview with me about all this" and more and more and "my thoughts on this: www.salon.com/[. . .]" February 15th he claimed he was done with Twitter yet, while making his non-stop media rounds explaining how he'd been wronged, he was still Tweeting.
He lied then, he lies now.
"i am done tweeting, too ashamed of how i have hurt others" was nothing but another attempt to deceive by one of the great liars of this century.
Something as basic as "i am done tweeting" is too much for Nir Rosen because he craves attention. And he's still Tweeting. Proving us right that he was nothing but a big liar and completely insincere in his so-called 'apology' tour.
Highlights
This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.
"The protests, the corruption, the war" -- most requested highlight of the week, C.I. on the Iraqi protests.
"Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "She Hulk Wants," "Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Ego Tripper," "Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Grim Peace Resister" and "The World Today Just Nuts "The Hot Topics Dumpster" -- Isaiah's four comics from last week.
"Tuna and Broccoli Bake in the Kitchen" -- Trina offers a recipe that's quick an easy.
"No Ordinary Family," "The Event" and "Senate Dems and Fringe" -- Stan, Marcia and Mike tackled TV.
"Basement Angel" and "Elizabeth Taylor" -- Marcia and Kat remember women who have passed away.
"The economy" -- Trina breaks down the economy.
"The Stupid attacks Noam Chomsky," "A Pro-Nuke, Noam Chomsky hating 'lefty," and "The stupid s**t Riverdaughter" -- Ann, Marcia and Stan take on a 'lefty.'
"From Paris With Love" -- Friday night at the movies and Stan weighs in on John Travolta.
"Sa'ad Al-Awsi" -- Ann notes the journalist reported to be in jeopardy in Iraq.
"libya," "Libya," "Fries and Libya," "Libya," "The Peace Resister and more," "impeach him,"
"He will lie about anything," "Some want him to give the prize back," "John Kerry needs to retire," "The issues," "Little Barry Fu-Fu"and "Isaiah, Libya" -- the community weighs in on Libya.
"World's Dumbest Alleged Human Being: Bob Somerby" -- Ruth doesn't like it when people put a finger on the scales while pretending to be balanced.
"Look who's back, shady's back" and "THIS JUST IN! SNIPPY STARLET!" -- forced to return to the US, someone gets snippy.
"Is that a fork in her ass?" -- Marcia thinks Vivian Schiller's kidding herself.
"Bully Boy Funds Terrorists" -- Isaiah dips into the archives.
"Comic and the unfunny" -- Elaine.
"The Son of a Bush" -- Mike.
"His only chance at re-election?" and "THIS JUST IN! AT LAST GOOD NEWS FOR BARRY O!" -- So there is a strategy!
"The protests, the corruption, the war" -- most requested highlight of the week, C.I. on the Iraqi protests.
"Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "She Hulk Wants," "Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Ego Tripper," "Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Grim Peace Resister" and "The World Today Just Nuts "The Hot Topics Dumpster" -- Isaiah's four comics from last week.
"Tuna and Broccoli Bake in the Kitchen" -- Trina offers a recipe that's quick an easy.
"No Ordinary Family," "The Event" and "Senate Dems and Fringe" -- Stan, Marcia and Mike tackled TV.
"Basement Angel" and "Elizabeth Taylor" -- Marcia and Kat remember women who have passed away.
"The economy" -- Trina breaks down the economy.
"The Stupid attacks Noam Chomsky," "A Pro-Nuke, Noam Chomsky hating 'lefty," and "The stupid s**t Riverdaughter" -- Ann, Marcia and Stan take on a 'lefty.'
"From Paris With Love" -- Friday night at the movies and Stan weighs in on John Travolta.
"Sa'ad Al-Awsi" -- Ann notes the journalist reported to be in jeopardy in Iraq.
"libya," "Libya," "Fries and Libya," "Libya," "The Peace Resister and more," "impeach him,"
"He will lie about anything," "Some want him to give the prize back," "John Kerry needs to retire," "The issues," "Little Barry Fu-Fu"and "Isaiah, Libya" -- the community weighs in on Libya.
"World's Dumbest Alleged Human Being: Bob Somerby" -- Ruth doesn't like it when people put a finger on the scales while pretending to be balanced.
"Look who's back, shady's back" and "THIS JUST IN! SNIPPY STARLET!" -- forced to return to the US, someone gets snippy.
"Is that a fork in her ass?" -- Marcia thinks Vivian Schiller's kidding herself.
"Bully Boy Funds Terrorists" -- Isaiah dips into the archives.
"Comic and the unfunny" -- Elaine.
"The Son of a Bush" -- Mike.
"His only chance at re-election?" and "THIS JUST IN! AT LAST GOOD NEWS FOR BARRY O!" -- So there is a strategy!