WEB WANDERINGS
May 2, 2012
There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
~Audre Lorde
Stephen King: Tax Me, for F@%&’s Sake!
Apr 30, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
The iconic writer scolds the superrich (including himself—and Mitt Romney) for not giving back, and warns of a Kingsian apocalyptic scenario if inequality is not addressed in America.
Author Stephen King
IMHO: If you've never read "The Stand", then you don't know just what an "Kingsian apocalyptic scenario" actually is. It's bad, people. Except in King's novels, where usually good triumphs over evil. I'm not so sure that will happen this time.
IMHO: If you've never read "The Stand", then you don't know just what an "Kingsian apocalyptic scenario" actually is. It's bad, people. Except in King's novels, where usually good triumphs over evil. I'm not so sure that will happen this time.
Chris Christie may be fat, but he ain’t Santa Claus. In fact, he seems unable to decide if he is New Jersey’s governor or its caporegime, and it may be a comment on the coarsening of American discourse that his brash rudeness is often taken for charm. In February, while discussing New Jersey’s newly amended income-tax law, which allows the rich to pay less (proportionally) than the middle class, Christie was asked about Warren Buffett’s observation that he paid less federal income taxes than his personal secretary, and that wasn’t fair. “He should just write a check and shut up,” Christie responded, with his typical verve. “I’m tired of hearing about it. If he wants to give the government more money, he’s got the ability to write a check—go ahead and write it.”
Heard it all before. At a rally in Florida (to support collective bargaining and to express the socialist view that firing teachers with experience was sort of a bad idea), I pointed out that I was paying taxes of roughly 28 percent on my income. My question was, “How come I’m not paying 50?” The governor of New Jersey did not respond to this radical idea, possibly being too busy at the all-you-can-eat cheese buffet at Applebee’s in Jersey City, but plenty of other people of the Christie persuasion did.
Cut a check and shut up, they said.
If you want to pay more, pay more, they said.
Tired of hearing about it, they said.
Tough shit for you guys, because I’m not tired of talking about it. I’ve known rich people, and why not, since I’m one of them? The majority would rather douse their dicks with lighter fluid, strike a match, and dance around singing “Disco Inferno” than pay one more cent in taxes to Uncle Sugar. It’s true that some rich folks put at least some of their tax savings into charitable contributions. My wife and I give away roughly $4 million a year to libraries, local fire departments that need updated lifesaving equipment (Jaws of Life tools are always a popular request), schools, and a scattering of organizations that underwrite the arts. Warren Buffett does the same; so does Bill Gates; so does Steven Spielberg; so do the Koch brothers; so did the late Steve Jobs. All fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough.
What charitable 1 percenters can’t do is assume responsibility—America’s national responsibilities: the care of its sick and its poor, the education of its young, the repair of its failing infrastructure, the repayment of its staggering war debts. Charity from the rich can’t fix global warming or lower the price of gasoline by one single red penny. That kind of salvation does not come from Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Ballmer saying, “OK, I’ll write a $2 million bonus check to the IRS.” That annoying responsibility stuff comes from three words that are anathema to the Tea Partiers:
United American citizenry.
Heard it all before. At a rally in Florida (to support collective bargaining and to express the socialist view that firing teachers with experience was sort of a bad idea), I pointed out that I was paying taxes of roughly 28 percent on my income. My question was, “How come I’m not paying 50?” The governor of New Jersey did not respond to this radical idea, possibly being too busy at the all-you-can-eat cheese buffet at Applebee’s in Jersey City, but plenty of other people of the Christie persuasion did.
Cut a check and shut up, they said.
If you want to pay more, pay more, they said.
Tired of hearing about it, they said.
Tough shit for you guys, because I’m not tired of talking about it. I’ve known rich people, and why not, since I’m one of them? The majority would rather douse their dicks with lighter fluid, strike a match, and dance around singing “Disco Inferno” than pay one more cent in taxes to Uncle Sugar. It’s true that some rich folks put at least some of their tax savings into charitable contributions. My wife and I give away roughly $4 million a year to libraries, local fire departments that need updated lifesaving equipment (Jaws of Life tools are always a popular request), schools, and a scattering of organizations that underwrite the arts. Warren Buffett does the same; so does Bill Gates; so does Steven Spielberg; so do the Koch brothers; so did the late Steve Jobs. All fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough.
What charitable 1 percenters can’t do is assume responsibility—America’s national responsibilities: the care of its sick and its poor, the education of its young, the repair of its failing infrastructure, the repayment of its staggering war debts. Charity from the rich can’t fix global warming or lower the price of gasoline by one single red penny. That kind of salvation does not come from Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Ballmer saying, “OK, I’ll write a $2 million bonus check to the IRS.” That annoying responsibility stuff comes from three words that are anathema to the Tea Partiers:
United American citizenry.
IMHO: Stephen King and his wife are awesome people who have not forgotten their roots. Did you know King actually threw his manuscript of "Carrie" in the trash after umpteen rejections, and swore to go get a "real" job so he could provide for his family? Tabitha King retrieved it and pushed her husband to send it to just one more publishing house. He did, and the rest is history.
And did you notice the part above about he and his wife being at a union rally in Florida?
"At a rally in Florida (to support collective bargaining and to express the socialist view that firing teachers with experience was sort of a bad idea), I pointed out that I was paying taxes of roughly 28 percent on my income. My question was, “How come I’m not paying 50?” The governor of New Jersey did not respond to this radical idea, possibly being too busy at the all-you-can-eat cheese buffet at Applebee’s in Jersey City, but plenty of other people of the Christie persuasion did."
Stephen King and his wife, author Tabitha King, should have been invited to the Maine April 28, 2012 Rally but I doubt they were even though this idea was suggested to both the State and National Organizers way back when there was just one March happening, the one in April. I wonder if the National Organizers of the now September March on Washington, D.C. are more open to suggestions, advice, criticisms and differing opinions? If not, they're in a world of hurt.
Are you listening, Erin Nanasi and Jenni Siri and Karen Teegarden?
And did you notice the part above about he and his wife being at a union rally in Florida?
"At a rally in Florida (to support collective bargaining and to express the socialist view that firing teachers with experience was sort of a bad idea), I pointed out that I was paying taxes of roughly 28 percent on my income. My question was, “How come I’m not paying 50?” The governor of New Jersey did not respond to this radical idea, possibly being too busy at the all-you-can-eat cheese buffet at Applebee’s in Jersey City, but plenty of other people of the Christie persuasion did."
Stephen King and his wife, author Tabitha King, should have been invited to the Maine April 28, 2012 Rally but I doubt they were even though this idea was suggested to both the State and National Organizers way back when there was just one March happening, the one in April. I wonder if the National Organizers of the now September March on Washington, D.C. are more open to suggestions, advice, criticisms and differing opinions? If not, they're in a world of hurt.
Are you listening, Erin Nanasi and Jenni Siri and Karen Teegarden?
Stephen King
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies[7] and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books. As of 2011, King has written and published 49 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, five non-fiction books, and nine collections of short stories. Many of his stories are set in his home state of Maine.
Early life
King's father, Donald Edwin King, who was born circa 1913 in Peru, Indiana, was a merchant seaman.[11] King's mother, Nellie Ruth (née Pillsbury; March 13, 1913 – December 28, 1973) was born in Scarborough, Maine.[11] They were married July 23, 1939, in Cumberland County, Maine.[11]
Stephen King was born September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. When King was two years old, his father left the family under the pretense of "going to buy a pack of cigarettes," leaving his mother to raise King and his adopted older brother, David, by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family moved to De Pere, Wisconsin, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Stratford, Connecticut. When King was eleven years old, the family returned to Durham, Maine, where Ruth King cared for her parents until their deaths. She then became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged.[12] King was raised Methodist.[13]
As a child, King apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train, though he has no memory of the event. His family told him that after leaving home to play with the boy, King returned, speechless and seemingly in shock. Only later did the family learn of the friend's death. Some commentators have suggested that this event may have psychologically inspired some of King's darker works,[14] but King makes no mention of it in his memoir On Writing.[15]
IMHO: Stephen King is as far from being a Mitt Romney as I am from being a Martina Navratilova. Sigh. But I'm curious. Have you ever been to the following web site?
http://www.stkfoundation.org/
Check it out. I think you'll be surprised. Some of you, anyway.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies[7] and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books. As of 2011, King has written and published 49 novels, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, five non-fiction books, and nine collections of short stories. Many of his stories are set in his home state of Maine.
Early life
King's father, Donald Edwin King, who was born circa 1913 in Peru, Indiana, was a merchant seaman.[11] King's mother, Nellie Ruth (née Pillsbury; March 13, 1913 – December 28, 1973) was born in Scarborough, Maine.[11] They were married July 23, 1939, in Cumberland County, Maine.[11]
Stephen King was born September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. When King was two years old, his father left the family under the pretense of "going to buy a pack of cigarettes," leaving his mother to raise King and his adopted older brother, David, by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family moved to De Pere, Wisconsin, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Stratford, Connecticut. When King was eleven years old, the family returned to Durham, Maine, where Ruth King cared for her parents until their deaths. She then became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged.[12] King was raised Methodist.[13]
As a child, King apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train, though he has no memory of the event. His family told him that after leaving home to play with the boy, King returned, speechless and seemingly in shock. Only later did the family learn of the friend's death. Some commentators have suggested that this event may have psychologically inspired some of King's darker works,[14] but King makes no mention of it in his memoir On Writing.[15]
IMHO: Stephen King is as far from being a Mitt Romney as I am from being a Martina Navratilova. Sigh. But I'm curious. Have you ever been to the following web site?
http://www.stkfoundation.org/
Check it out. I think you'll be surprised. Some of you, anyway.
"I refuse to watch as more than one billion women experience violence on the planet. I'm joining V-Day on 02.14.13 in a global strike to demand an end to the violence."
ABOUT ONE BILLION RISING
ONE IN THREE WOMEN ON THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED OR BEATEN IN HER LIFETIME.
ONE BILLION WOMEN VIOLATED IS AN ATROCITY
ONE BILLION WOMEN DANCING IS A REVOLUTION
On V-Day’s 15th Anniversary, 2.14.13, we are inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to this violence.
ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth, activating women and men across every country.
V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, our numbers, our solidarity across borders.
Join V-Day and ONE BILLION RISING today and SAY NO to violence against women and girls.
What does ONE BILLION look like?
On February 14th, 2013, it will look like a REVOLUTION.
SIGN UP TODAY
ABOUT ONE BILLION RISING
ONE IN THREE WOMEN ON THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED OR BEATEN IN HER LIFETIME.
ONE BILLION WOMEN VIOLATED IS AN ATROCITY
ONE BILLION WOMEN DANCING IS A REVOLUTION
On V-Day’s 15th Anniversary, 2.14.13, we are inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to this violence.
ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth, activating women and men across every country.
V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, our numbers, our solidarity across borders.
Join V-Day and ONE BILLION RISING today and SAY NO to violence against women and girls.
What does ONE BILLION look like?
On February 14th, 2013, it will look like a REVOLUTION.
SIGN UP TODAY
posted April 25, 2012
V-Day Denver performed A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer last week at the Mercury Cafe to benefit Project Safeguard and the Rape Assistance and Awareness Program. Organizer Shelley Schreiner said that amidst these stories of personal tragedy, there are also elements of humor. “It could easily be all tears and sadness. The thing that surprised me the most was how funny the show is,” she says. “There was a lot to laugh about as well.”
V-Day Denver performed A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer last week at the Mercury Cafe to benefit Project Safeguard and the Rape Assistance and Awareness Program. Organizer Shelley Schreiner said that amidst these stories of personal tragedy, there are also elements of humor. “It could easily be all tears and sadness. The thing that surprised me the most was how funny the show is,” she says. “There was a lot to laugh about as well.”
“To males everywhere, especially in South Africa” – A powerful new piece by South African cartoonist Jerm
posted April 17, 2012
Check out these great posters for the V-Day London benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, And A Prayer
Check out these great posters for the V-Day London benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, And A Prayer
Share Your V-Day 2012 Story!
As a V-Day 2012 participant, you’ve helped V-Day become an unstoppable global force. Add to that momentum by sharing your story and cast, backstage, and event photos for activists around the world to see. Together, we will continue to make tangible progress towards ending violence against women and girls around the world!
SHARE>
IMHO: This looks like a very interesting web happening that appeals to me. I'm going to check it out further and see if it's something I would like to have thewomankindparty.com and thefourthwave2012.com focus on. And you can read more about V-Day HERE.
As a V-Day 2012 participant, you’ve helped V-Day become an unstoppable global force. Add to that momentum by sharing your story and cast, backstage, and event photos for activists around the world to see. Together, we will continue to make tangible progress towards ending violence against women and girls around the world!
SHARE>
IMHO: This looks like a very interesting web happening that appeals to me. I'm going to check it out further and see if it's something I would like to have thewomankindparty.com and thefourthwave2012.com focus on. And you can read more about V-Day HERE.
Jeffrey Kennedy shared a link: "This News Makes My Heart Sad, Not only for the patients, But for those who will no longer get a pay check."
Berkeley Patients Group Closes
TUESDAY, 01 MAY 2012 02:50
Due to federal pressure, one of California's oldest marijuana dispensaries will not open today. After 13 years, the Berkeley Patients Group has lost its lease because of the location's proximity to two nearby schools. Seventy people are out of work.
The store on San Pablo Ave. has 9,000 members. CEO Sean Luise says they're searching for a new location.
BPG co-founder Debby Goldsberry calls this "the most difficult period we've ever faced. The Department of Justice wants to unsettle us, but for most of us it just reinvigorates the fight." Goldsberry left the dispensary in 2010.
Just three years ago, Berkeley's City Council called BPG a "wonderful neighbor" and celebrated their 10th anniversary by declaring Berkeley Patients Group Day.
Cypress Hill stopped by the dispensary in 2010 on 4/20.
Also see:
Jimmy Kimmel Razzes Obama Over Crackdown
Montel Williams Wins Cultivation Contract
Dutch Weed Tourist Ban May Not Stand
More CelebStoner News
Berkeley Patients Group Closes
TUESDAY, 01 MAY 2012 02:50
Due to federal pressure, one of California's oldest marijuana dispensaries will not open today. After 13 years, the Berkeley Patients Group has lost its lease because of the location's proximity to two nearby schools. Seventy people are out of work.
The store on San Pablo Ave. has 9,000 members. CEO Sean Luise says they're searching for a new location.
BPG co-founder Debby Goldsberry calls this "the most difficult period we've ever faced. The Department of Justice wants to unsettle us, but for most of us it just reinvigorates the fight." Goldsberry left the dispensary in 2010.
Just three years ago, Berkeley's City Council called BPG a "wonderful neighbor" and celebrated their 10th anniversary by declaring Berkeley Patients Group Day.
Cypress Hill stopped by the dispensary in 2010 on 4/20.
Also see:
Jimmy Kimmel Razzes Obama Over Crackdown
Montel Williams Wins Cultivation Contract
Dutch Weed Tourist Ban May Not Stand
More CelebStoner News
The We Are Women Movement Takes On The GOP
April 30, 2012
By The Bucking Jenny
Some people are offended by the idea that there is some kind of “War on Women” going on here in the United States. Of course, Republicans suggest that in spite of the fact that there have beennearly a thousand anti-women bills introduced nationwide since March 2011, the “real” War on Women is, as John McCain puts it, nothing more than a ruse to, “distract citizens from real issues that really matter” or perhaps, “give talking heads something to sputter about when they appear on cable television.”
In February GOP legislators tried to deny women equal protection under the law regarding health insurance packages awarded to employees of religious institutions as part of a wage/benefit plan. The GOP re-framed the debate to make it sound like taxpayers were paying for the slutty desires of college coeds, and tried to paint the issue as a morally ambiguous religious issue instead of what it was, a clear violation of the rights of women.
When I saw that panel of mostly religious men lined up to testify about this issue, and read about the fact that Sandra Fluke was denied the chance to speak out for me and women like me, I was enraged. Like many women in America, I was called to action.
This weekend the was the culmination of many women choosing to act, choosing to stand up for each other, choosing to fight back in this, very real, War on Women. Nationwide, thousands of women gathered to participate in We Are Women events. Every state had activities. Some states gathered thousands of participants. Different states had different events. Here in Cheyenne, Wyoming we held a silent protest. In Oregon and several other states there were also performances by groups known as The Raging Grannies. Sacramento’s protest was home to a group, RTSV who raffled off $500 college scholarships in drawings dubbed, “Rush Limbaugh thinks I’m a slut,” one of which was won by UC Davis junior linguistics major Rachael Delehanty.
All day, on Sunday, I was hypnotized by the response of American women. I visited all 50 We Are Women state Facebook pages, I laughed at the creative and witty protest signs, the various Raging Granny performances and the snarky look of a Missouri woman dressed as a miffed Lady Liberty. In my head, I could not help but hear the echo of Mrs. Banks on Mary Poppins, as she sang “Our daughters daughters will adore us, as they sing in grateful chorus: Well done Sister Suffragette!”
It wasn’t until I came to the Colorado page that I stopped feeling nothing but immense pride and started to feel that fiery anger in the pit of my being that smolders when I see women being mistreated. In spite of the fact that the group had a fabulous turn out of more than 2,000 participants in their well planned, well received event, the local press simply isn’t picking up the story.
According to the press release, ignored by the local press such as the Denver Post and Fox 31 News Denver, there were at least 12 democratic legislators in attendance at the event, including: House Representatives- Crisanta Duran, Lois Court, Su Ryden, Jonathan Singer, Beth McCann, Rhonda Fields, Joe Miklosi, State Senators- Morgan Carroll, Gail Schwartz, Betty Boyd, Linda Newell, Pat Steadman, Brandon Shaffer, and Former Legislator, Dianna Primavera. Many candidates for the 2012 race were present as well, including: Dave Anderson, Joe Miklosi, Armando Valdez, Mike Foote, JM Fay, Tracy Kraft Tharp, Paul Rosenthal, Lorna Idol, Jonathan Singer, Pier Cohen, and Mary Parker. Every politician in attendance, with the exception of two Independents, were Democrats. No Republicans legislators or candidates bothered to show.
The woman who organized this grassroots event, Meg Fossinger, “was thrilled with the diversity of the speakers who were there. The roster included everyone from award-winning national poet Susi Q, to NAACP’s Rosemary Harris Lytle, to some amazing politicians like Representative Joe Miklosi and Senator Brandon Schaffer, who are challenging incumbents who do not support women’s rights. It was an incredibly inspiring day for women in Colorado.” In reading of the days events, and the efforts of the group, I was most impressed by one line, in the bottom of the press release, “Your time, your money, and your opinions, matter.”
That’s what this is really about isn’t it? The desperate cry of our nation’s women to simply matter. All we want is to have our time, our health, our opinions, our voices, our efforts, matter. So long as the women of our nation think that they don’t matter, this War on Women is real and worth fighting. Anyone who’d tell you otherwise is the enemy. The men and women of Colorado, who participated this last Saturday deserve recognition, and if the conservative media of Colorado won’t offer it, I sure as heck will. Thank you. Thank you, all who participated, for standing up for women like me.
The GOP can’t say the War on Women doesn’t exist, while drafting nearly a thousand anti-woman laws in a year’s time. American Women are too smart to be distracted by GOP smoke and mirrors, we have mobilized. We are not about to stand idle while our rights to our own bodies become second priority to The GOP’s God. We are not about to sit quietly while our rights are chipped away, a thousand bills at a time. The fact is that we women matter. The GOP might like to pretend that they can alienate us and our ovaries over a few old white guys’ rosaries, but the fact is that they can’t. We are the 51%. We all know the truth – Behind every great nation stands its women.
Please, check out my blog, and don’t forget to follow me on Facebook!
By The Bucking Jenny
Some people are offended by the idea that there is some kind of “War on Women” going on here in the United States. Of course, Republicans suggest that in spite of the fact that there have beennearly a thousand anti-women bills introduced nationwide since March 2011, the “real” War on Women is, as John McCain puts it, nothing more than a ruse to, “distract citizens from real issues that really matter” or perhaps, “give talking heads something to sputter about when they appear on cable television.”
In February GOP legislators tried to deny women equal protection under the law regarding health insurance packages awarded to employees of religious institutions as part of a wage/benefit plan. The GOP re-framed the debate to make it sound like taxpayers were paying for the slutty desires of college coeds, and tried to paint the issue as a morally ambiguous religious issue instead of what it was, a clear violation of the rights of women.
When I saw that panel of mostly religious men lined up to testify about this issue, and read about the fact that Sandra Fluke was denied the chance to speak out for me and women like me, I was enraged. Like many women in America, I was called to action.
This weekend the was the culmination of many women choosing to act, choosing to stand up for each other, choosing to fight back in this, very real, War on Women. Nationwide, thousands of women gathered to participate in We Are Women events. Every state had activities. Some states gathered thousands of participants. Different states had different events. Here in Cheyenne, Wyoming we held a silent protest. In Oregon and several other states there were also performances by groups known as The Raging Grannies. Sacramento’s protest was home to a group, RTSV who raffled off $500 college scholarships in drawings dubbed, “Rush Limbaugh thinks I’m a slut,” one of which was won by UC Davis junior linguistics major Rachael Delehanty.
All day, on Sunday, I was hypnotized by the response of American women. I visited all 50 We Are Women state Facebook pages, I laughed at the creative and witty protest signs, the various Raging Granny performances and the snarky look of a Missouri woman dressed as a miffed Lady Liberty. In my head, I could not help but hear the echo of Mrs. Banks on Mary Poppins, as she sang “Our daughters daughters will adore us, as they sing in grateful chorus: Well done Sister Suffragette!”
It wasn’t until I came to the Colorado page that I stopped feeling nothing but immense pride and started to feel that fiery anger in the pit of my being that smolders when I see women being mistreated. In spite of the fact that the group had a fabulous turn out of more than 2,000 participants in their well planned, well received event, the local press simply isn’t picking up the story.
According to the press release, ignored by the local press such as the Denver Post and Fox 31 News Denver, there were at least 12 democratic legislators in attendance at the event, including: House Representatives- Crisanta Duran, Lois Court, Su Ryden, Jonathan Singer, Beth McCann, Rhonda Fields, Joe Miklosi, State Senators- Morgan Carroll, Gail Schwartz, Betty Boyd, Linda Newell, Pat Steadman, Brandon Shaffer, and Former Legislator, Dianna Primavera. Many candidates for the 2012 race were present as well, including: Dave Anderson, Joe Miklosi, Armando Valdez, Mike Foote, JM Fay, Tracy Kraft Tharp, Paul Rosenthal, Lorna Idol, Jonathan Singer, Pier Cohen, and Mary Parker. Every politician in attendance, with the exception of two Independents, were Democrats. No Republicans legislators or candidates bothered to show.
The woman who organized this grassroots event, Meg Fossinger, “was thrilled with the diversity of the speakers who were there. The roster included everyone from award-winning national poet Susi Q, to NAACP’s Rosemary Harris Lytle, to some amazing politicians like Representative Joe Miklosi and Senator Brandon Schaffer, who are challenging incumbents who do not support women’s rights. It was an incredibly inspiring day for women in Colorado.” In reading of the days events, and the efforts of the group, I was most impressed by one line, in the bottom of the press release, “Your time, your money, and your opinions, matter.”
That’s what this is really about isn’t it? The desperate cry of our nation’s women to simply matter. All we want is to have our time, our health, our opinions, our voices, our efforts, matter. So long as the women of our nation think that they don’t matter, this War on Women is real and worth fighting. Anyone who’d tell you otherwise is the enemy. The men and women of Colorado, who participated this last Saturday deserve recognition, and if the conservative media of Colorado won’t offer it, I sure as heck will. Thank you. Thank you, all who participated, for standing up for women like me.
The GOP can’t say the War on Women doesn’t exist, while drafting nearly a thousand anti-woman laws in a year’s time. American Women are too smart to be distracted by GOP smoke and mirrors, we have mobilized. We are not about to stand idle while our rights to our own bodies become second priority to The GOP’s God. We are not about to sit quietly while our rights are chipped away, a thousand bills at a time. The fact is that we women matter. The GOP might like to pretend that they can alienate us and our ovaries over a few old white guys’ rosaries, but the fact is that they can’t. We are the 51%. We all know the truth – Behind every great nation stands its women.
Please, check out my blog, and don’t forget to follow me on Facebook!
CNN Concludes Rachel Maddow Was Right In Gender Pay Gap Debate With Alex Castellanos
(VIDEO), April 30, 2012, By Michael Hayne
CNN used to be the bland, vanilla network of news that overcompensated for its lack of screaming shrills with really cool but ultimately gratuitous 3-D technology. I mean, who really wants to see a hologram of John Boehnor crying. With the hiring of Breitbart spawn, Dana Loesch, whose only qualification is she appears to have an active Twitter account, CNN officially killed off any credibility it might have had left.
Enter Alex Castellanous
Honestly, I had absolutely no idea who this guy was until performing a google search. But what I found was a vomit-inducing mixture of all the smug and smarmy obsequiousness of Tucker Carlson, combined with the condescension and false bravado of Sean Hannity.
Anyway, it seems MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow joined a Meet the Press panel to discuss the significance of the women’s vote in the 2012 election, as well as addressing the Republican seemingly never-ending “War on Women.” But when Maddow justifiably attempted to illustrate the obvious disparities in pay between the genders, GOP strategist Alex Castellanos called her out as though she was Kim Kardashian and not Oxford educated Rachel Maddow, which Maddow instinctively found to be insanely condescending. Being a good right-wing pundit, Castellanos wouldn’t let her speak and interrupted her to claim that no parity exists. Oh, this should be richer than a multimillionaire claiming to be unemployed.
Castellanos argued that not only do men work more hours a week than women, but men tend to go for professions that pay slightly more than women.
Maddow fired back by saying Castellanos operates on a slightly different “factual understanding of the world.” To which Castellanos replied, “I love how passionate you are. I wish you were as right about what you’re saying as you are passionate about it. I really do,” according to Mediaite.
This is where Maddow said Castellanos was being “really condescending” to her, and that her zeal comes from making fact-based argument. Burned!
At any rate, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and reporter Lisa Sylvester evidently did a thorough fact-check of all the points made in the debate and concluded that Maddow was on the right side of the argument.
Watch the debate [VIDEO]
Michael is a comedian/VO artist/Columnist extraordinaire, who co-wrote an award-nominated comedy, produces a chapter of Laughing Liberally, wrote for NY Times Laugh Lines, guest-blogged for Joe Biden, and writes a column for MSNBC.com affiliated Cagle Media. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook, Youtube, and like NJ Laughing Liberally Lab. Seriously, follow him or he’ll send you a photo of Rush Limbaugh bending over in a thong.
(VIDEO), April 30, 2012, By Michael Hayne
CNN used to be the bland, vanilla network of news that overcompensated for its lack of screaming shrills with really cool but ultimately gratuitous 3-D technology. I mean, who really wants to see a hologram of John Boehnor crying. With the hiring of Breitbart spawn, Dana Loesch, whose only qualification is she appears to have an active Twitter account, CNN officially killed off any credibility it might have had left.
Enter Alex Castellanous
Honestly, I had absolutely no idea who this guy was until performing a google search. But what I found was a vomit-inducing mixture of all the smug and smarmy obsequiousness of Tucker Carlson, combined with the condescension and false bravado of Sean Hannity.
Anyway, it seems MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow joined a Meet the Press panel to discuss the significance of the women’s vote in the 2012 election, as well as addressing the Republican seemingly never-ending “War on Women.” But when Maddow justifiably attempted to illustrate the obvious disparities in pay between the genders, GOP strategist Alex Castellanos called her out as though she was Kim Kardashian and not Oxford educated Rachel Maddow, which Maddow instinctively found to be insanely condescending. Being a good right-wing pundit, Castellanos wouldn’t let her speak and interrupted her to claim that no parity exists. Oh, this should be richer than a multimillionaire claiming to be unemployed.
Castellanos argued that not only do men work more hours a week than women, but men tend to go for professions that pay slightly more than women.
Maddow fired back by saying Castellanos operates on a slightly different “factual understanding of the world.” To which Castellanos replied, “I love how passionate you are. I wish you were as right about what you’re saying as you are passionate about it. I really do,” according to Mediaite.
This is where Maddow said Castellanos was being “really condescending” to her, and that her zeal comes from making fact-based argument. Burned!
At any rate, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and reporter Lisa Sylvester evidently did a thorough fact-check of all the points made in the debate and concluded that Maddow was on the right side of the argument.
Watch the debate [VIDEO]
Michael is a comedian/VO artist/Columnist extraordinaire, who co-wrote an award-nominated comedy, produces a chapter of Laughing Liberally, wrote for NY Times Laugh Lines, guest-blogged for Joe Biden, and writes a column for MSNBC.com affiliated Cagle Media. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook, Youtube, and like NJ Laughing Liberally Lab. Seriously, follow him or he’ll send you a photo of Rush Limbaugh bending over in a thong.
Rock The Slut Vote mobilizes for liberals
Published: 11:24 PM, 04/30/2012
By Caroline May
A group of politically motivated feminists are calling on all you “sluts” out there to vote!
A new group, RTSV United (RTSV = Rock The Slut Vote), has approached what some have called the Republican war on women by embracing the “slut” label — and attaching their perceptions of GOP stereotypes about women to the word “slut.”
“Our mission is to fight the GOP effort to bully, subjugate and silence women,” RTSV United explains on its website. “We will wrest the power from the word slut and help women get informed, get involved, get registered and vote”
The previously not politically active study guide publisher, Susan McMillan Emry, started the group in early March following The Susan G. Komen for the Cure/Planned Parenthood controversy, an increase in pro-life legislation and radio giant Rush Limbaugh’s controversial comments about contraception activist Sandra Fluke.
Emry explained to The Daily Caller that she was inspired by an article in the Huffington Post by Morra Aarons Mele called “Getting Out The Slut Vote in 2012.”
“With humor, we have created a checklist of the types of women the GOP and their spokesmen consistently paint as ‘sluts,’ and it’s very broad-ranging,” Emry told TheDC. “It’s clear they use words like ‘slut’ to try to shame women into staying quiet about issues involving reproductive rights and sex. Regrettably, from the legislation and the public remarks the GOP and their spokesmen make, they give the clear message that any woman who doesn’t share their point of view is tainted as a slut. Our mission is to take all the power from the label ‘slut’ and defuse it with equal measures of humor and outrage.”
According to the group’s list, the GOP has a very wide definition of “slut”: Anybody who is not a saint is a slut, including Republicans who are against what RTSV United says is the GOP’s war on women.
RTSV United’s point: Those sluts do vote.
Since its inception in early March, RTSV United has amassed a following of “a few thousand members.” Their website launched on March 22.
The group makes no bones about their Democratic bend, declaring above a map their intent to “turn the whole USA blue in 2012,” however they have not endorsed any candidates yet.
“Our mission is to inform and to galvanize women and the men who support them to vote for the candidates they believe support women’s rights,” Emry explained. “In today’s environment, that is clearly usually Democrats and other liberal candidates.”
RTSV United wants women and sympathetic men to register to vote and show up on election day. They have a section on their website to that end.
“Put on your boots and your dogtags — Go Forth, Raise Hell, and Rock The Slut Vote in 2012!” reads their slogan, repeated on their webpage and Facebook page.
In addition to encouraging sluts to get out the vote and offering registration help, the group also has form letters for supporters to send to congressmen to voice outrage or support.
The outrage form letter reads:
(Senator/Representative) ________,
As one of the many women and men you represent, I want to personally tell you how outraged I am by your attack on women’s rights — and your attempts to bully, subjugate and silence women.
This year, I will raise my voice and my vote against your war on women. I will work to ensure you and your fellow Republicans reap unprecedented losses in November.
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
Supporter of RockTheSlutVote.com (optional!)
While some elected officials might find themselves in the group’s crosshairs, Limbaugh remains a favored target with the group, which hawks, among other generic items, t-shirts, tank tops, buttons and bumper stickers with the slogan, “Rush Limbaugh Thinks I’m A Slut: Show the GOP they will never silence you or your vote!”
Indeed, over the weekend at a Unite Women rally in Sacramento, Calif. the group held a “Rush Limbaugh Thinks I’m A Slut” drawing to award two college students $500 to help “defray the costs associated with obtaining ‘slut’ status in Rush Limbaugh’s world!”
“Obviously we are embracing the word SLUT with irony and humor. To turn the tables,” Emry added. “For all the humor, this is literally a deadly serious issue for women. Women’s rights. We’ve lived through the end of an era we don’t want to revive again.”
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Seniors for a Democratic Society
About:
"They would not find me changed from him they knew. / Only more sure of all I thought was true." —Robert Frost
Mission:
"You must not look back at the regrets in the past. These are yesterday's ghosts and they will only haunt you. And you'll only stub your toe on what's to come. You must face tomorrow and try to live a life without creating regret."
Description:
Here in Texas, the legislature just introduced a law retaining tax breaks for those put-upon souls buying yachts. We couldn't have them going to Florida to purchase their gaudy baubles. Meanwhile, the state is slashing the number of teachers — those blood-sucking leeches draining our economy — regardless of the fact that we rank near the bottom in education. All because of tax cuts earlier in the Rick Perry administration that were supposed to be covered by a business tax. How did that work out for us? Not so well. Our fine bidness economy Governor Good Hair likes to crow about is billions in the hole as a result.
Nationally, the Obama administration has come out in favor of doing away with federal subsidies for the oil industry, which just posted record profits — again yet again, ad infinitum — while people's budgets strain under soaring gasoline prices. The republican response? It would be a mistake to be "raising taxes." Hunh? That same, tired bromide to gloss over the ugly truth. At one time that cynical sophistry would slide right down the throats of a gullible electorate, but the veneer of sensible conservatism is wearing thin as a war on the middle class bears fruit.
It's just the latest discordant note in the dysfunctional funk that has sunk us into a miasma of confusion and despair. A major disconnect between ringing phrases of our fearless leaders and the reality on the ground. An all-too-true unreality TV.
It would be naive to think that the majority of democrats are no less beholden to the moneyed elite in this country. In truth, we have the best government money can buy. And it is bought and paid for, plain and simple. But at least some of the firebrands of the party pay lip service to fighting the battle — albeit, however, a rear-guard action — against the crush of American royalty, the oligarchs. There is little hope, when push comes to shove, that anything the people may want, as shown in poll after poll — be it single-payer health care, an end to the senseless wars in the Middle East propping up corrupt charlatans, or a revocation of tax cuts for the wealthy — will gain any traction anytime soon among these corporate toadies.
And the lame-stream press — how dare they be called the "liberal media"! — only parrot the script prepared by the puppet masters, as corporate "largesse" and control has turned the media into toothless old watchdogs. They make good company for the regulatory agencies once charged with protecting the public from the excesses of corporate greed. They're good dogs now, too.
What kind of affected christianity can countenance the mean-spirited, vitriolic attacks against the most powerless and helpless in our society? We are in a battle for the very soul of our country, with the most disgusting human beings, the glory hounds of politics, pimping for the plutocrats. This hard-right conservative vision born in the days of the Moral Majority was in fact a perverse gameplan that has pretty much gained ascendancy in the political sphere and dominated what passes (rather poorly) for rational thought these days. It's a well-orchestrated attack proclaiming "rampant spending" the cause of our economic distress — a sanctimonious psychobabble designed to lend an ersatz legitimacy to the savaging of budgets for domestic programs.
Little is heard in the "liberal press" challenging these assertions, even as fine-tuned oratory gives way to bald-face lie. Aside from the isolated progressive or populist outlets, media mouthpieces bear mute witness to this predatory politics — if not giving wholehearted support.
Yet every day, on Facebook and YouTube and in discussion groups, newsletters, and the alternative press, outraged people seethe at the injustice, post on the hypocrisies and blatant callowness of political discourse. Post after post — "intended to be factual statement" — gives lie to the manufactured morality of the stump, citing real statistics and refuting outrageous distortions. Pity is, succeeding posts relegate previous notes to the history bin of back pages. Sadly, truth is lost in the process, lacking the organization and exposure of the coordinated spew that confronts us daily bolstering the status quo.
One hopes that, as in the Middle East, collective outrage finds an outlet beyond the thin prospects of impending elections, a rallying point in the social network of the internet. The web has shown to be a source for campaign funds; perhaps it too can provide a framework for the consolidation of protest into a unified force now.
* * *
The preceding screed has been brought to you in the interest of sanity: ours.
In the grand scheme of things, the corporate creep in radio — be it commercial, "public," or religious programming — is just part and parcel, unfortunately, of a much bigger picture. When we first began looking into the cold-blooded maneuvers of bean counters in our local "public" radio station, as chronicled on the saveKUTaustin website, it quickly became apparent that what was happening locally was being repeated nationwide.
And as republican zealots in state after state — Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Texas — launched concerted attacks on worker rights, reproductive rights, health care, and more, it became increasingly apparent that the issue of consolidation in radio was itself just a small part of an even bigger picture. And it's become increasingly difficult to stay out of it . . . We hope to both disseminate information as well as provide a repository for democratic thought. In sharing, we can spread the word to others of a like mind, and in numbers comes strength.
Basic Info:
Founded2011
Contact Info:
Website http://seniorsforademocraticsociety.word...
"They would not find me changed from him they knew. / Only more sure of all I thought was true." —Robert Frost
Mission:
"You must not look back at the regrets in the past. These are yesterday's ghosts and they will only haunt you. And you'll only stub your toe on what's to come. You must face tomorrow and try to live a life without creating regret."
Description:
Here in Texas, the legislature just introduced a law retaining tax breaks for those put-upon souls buying yachts. We couldn't have them going to Florida to purchase their gaudy baubles. Meanwhile, the state is slashing the number of teachers — those blood-sucking leeches draining our economy — regardless of the fact that we rank near the bottom in education. All because of tax cuts earlier in the Rick Perry administration that were supposed to be covered by a business tax. How did that work out for us? Not so well. Our fine bidness economy Governor Good Hair likes to crow about is billions in the hole as a result.
Nationally, the Obama administration has come out in favor of doing away with federal subsidies for the oil industry, which just posted record profits — again yet again, ad infinitum — while people's budgets strain under soaring gasoline prices. The republican response? It would be a mistake to be "raising taxes." Hunh? That same, tired bromide to gloss over the ugly truth. At one time that cynical sophistry would slide right down the throats of a gullible electorate, but the veneer of sensible conservatism is wearing thin as a war on the middle class bears fruit.
It's just the latest discordant note in the dysfunctional funk that has sunk us into a miasma of confusion and despair. A major disconnect between ringing phrases of our fearless leaders and the reality on the ground. An all-too-true unreality TV.
It would be naive to think that the majority of democrats are no less beholden to the moneyed elite in this country. In truth, we have the best government money can buy. And it is bought and paid for, plain and simple. But at least some of the firebrands of the party pay lip service to fighting the battle — albeit, however, a rear-guard action — against the crush of American royalty, the oligarchs. There is little hope, when push comes to shove, that anything the people may want, as shown in poll after poll — be it single-payer health care, an end to the senseless wars in the Middle East propping up corrupt charlatans, or a revocation of tax cuts for the wealthy — will gain any traction anytime soon among these corporate toadies.
And the lame-stream press — how dare they be called the "liberal media"! — only parrot the script prepared by the puppet masters, as corporate "largesse" and control has turned the media into toothless old watchdogs. They make good company for the regulatory agencies once charged with protecting the public from the excesses of corporate greed. They're good dogs now, too.
What kind of affected christianity can countenance the mean-spirited, vitriolic attacks against the most powerless and helpless in our society? We are in a battle for the very soul of our country, with the most disgusting human beings, the glory hounds of politics, pimping for the plutocrats. This hard-right conservative vision born in the days of the Moral Majority was in fact a perverse gameplan that has pretty much gained ascendancy in the political sphere and dominated what passes (rather poorly) for rational thought these days. It's a well-orchestrated attack proclaiming "rampant spending" the cause of our economic distress — a sanctimonious psychobabble designed to lend an ersatz legitimacy to the savaging of budgets for domestic programs.
Little is heard in the "liberal press" challenging these assertions, even as fine-tuned oratory gives way to bald-face lie. Aside from the isolated progressive or populist outlets, media mouthpieces bear mute witness to this predatory politics — if not giving wholehearted support.
Yet every day, on Facebook and YouTube and in discussion groups, newsletters, and the alternative press, outraged people seethe at the injustice, post on the hypocrisies and blatant callowness of political discourse. Post after post — "intended to be factual statement" — gives lie to the manufactured morality of the stump, citing real statistics and refuting outrageous distortions. Pity is, succeeding posts relegate previous notes to the history bin of back pages. Sadly, truth is lost in the process, lacking the organization and exposure of the coordinated spew that confronts us daily bolstering the status quo.
One hopes that, as in the Middle East, collective outrage finds an outlet beyond the thin prospects of impending elections, a rallying point in the social network of the internet. The web has shown to be a source for campaign funds; perhaps it too can provide a framework for the consolidation of protest into a unified force now.
* * *
The preceding screed has been brought to you in the interest of sanity: ours.
In the grand scheme of things, the corporate creep in radio — be it commercial, "public," or religious programming — is just part and parcel, unfortunately, of a much bigger picture. When we first began looking into the cold-blooded maneuvers of bean counters in our local "public" radio station, as chronicled on the saveKUTaustin website, it quickly became apparent that what was happening locally was being repeated nationwide.
And as republican zealots in state after state — Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Texas — launched concerted attacks on worker rights, reproductive rights, health care, and more, it became increasingly apparent that the issue of consolidation in radio was itself just a small part of an even bigger picture. And it's become increasingly difficult to stay out of it . . . We hope to both disseminate information as well as provide a repository for democratic thought. In sharing, we can spread the word to others of a like mind, and in numbers comes strength.
Basic Info:
Founded2011
Contact Info:
Website http://seniorsforademocraticsociety.word...
APRIL 28, 2012 MARCH AT FOLEY SQUARE, NYC
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MAXINE SAYS:
BLUE SAYS:
Have a great day, everyone, and enjoy today's Web Wanderings. I sure did! Be gentle with yourselves and I'll see you again tomorrow.
