Mar 22 2010
The transcript
R is officially for racist until an adult appears on the right. Don’t hold your breathe.
With that in mind, I give you GOP Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA21). When asked about teabaggers calling African American Representatives N!&&er, spitting on them, and calling gay Represenatives “F@&&0t”, he not only JUSTIFIED it, he seemed to endorse this level of hatred and intolerence.
Watch it for yourself.
A transcript, my interpretation and thoughts and more below the fold.
Mar 09 2010
Crossposted at Daily Kos
THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS
This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.
When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:
1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?
2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?
3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.
:: ::
Chris Britt, Comics.com, see reader comments in the State Journal-Register
Feb 10 2010
I’ll be mercifully brief. I just listened to a program on KPFA which is an interview with Michelle Alexander speaking of her new book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Basically, her contention that the 5 fold increase in incarceration in this country is thew way the elites have managed to use prisons as a means of social control as industries have moved away from population centers and left in its wake unsustainable ghettos. Which were invaded, starting under Reagan, by federally subsidized efforts to incarcerate a high proportion of African-American men through the spectacularly disproportionate application of drug laws against the poor and, largely, ignoring the white middle-class. SWAT Teams were sent in and funded to roust people out of their beds, seize and confiscate their property and deprive them of their civil rights.
Jan 26 2010
Crossposted at Daily Kos
THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS
This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.
When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:
1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?
2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?
3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.
:: ::
John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Buy this cartoon
Jan 21 2010
Crossposted from Daily Kos. I didn’t have the time yesterday to post it here.
THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS
This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.
When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:
1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?
2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?
3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.
:: ::
The Teabaggers’ Intellectual
Clay Bennett, Comics.com
Jan 17 2010
Frederic Podoux/Getty Images
We are on the brink…so we are told and so we will see as the photographs roll in from Haiti, images of death, destruction, survival, conflict, and despair.
We are ready, as they will paint a whole people as thugs and thieves and we will consume these images with a shake of the head. These descriptions will come from all sources, whether believed to be “left” or “right,” “objective” or Fox.
But we remember Katrina. We remember the power of the photograph and the greater power of seeing behind the image. Experiencing the visual content in light of the context.
Jan 11 2010
Crossposted at Daily Kos
In the year 2010, the Republican party has finally, officially, re-discovered racism.
In between demanding to see President Obama’s birth certificate so that he can prove for once and for all that he is NOT a secret Kenyan Muslim and Republican demands to be able to racially profile all Muslim-Americans who might be mistaken for a terrorist based on appearance, name or faith, the Republican party has re-discovered racism in America, and all because of this comment by Democratic Senator Harry Reid.
Despite many, many acts on their own part that could be considered racist, Republicans finally became aware of the existance of racism in America again when a Democrat supposedly did it too.
In 2009 I catalouged racist moments made by Republicans in an article titled Just call him a N!&&ER and get it over with, Republicans. We ALL KNOW that’s what you mean. By Republican standards NONE of these instances were racist. Why? Because It Doesn’t Count If You Are A Republican.
Obviously.
But, just for the sake of accuracy, lets review the year of 2009 in Republican racism and selective outrage.
Jan 07 2010
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Remember when FOX employee Glenn Beck said that “President Obama is a racist who hates white people and white culture.”?
Well, the Republican party officially agrees with that now.
Listen as Republican party leader Micheal Steele states how much he Loves, LOVES Glenn Beck.
More below the fold, and two questions for every Republican candidate in 2010 as well . . . .
Dec 29 2009
Hi Everyone;
This is a bit belated but Merry Christmas to all those who follow the applicable faith. I just flew home from Greensboro, NC where I was visiting with one set of parents. Had a lovely time accept that we all came down with flu Yippy!!!. (Much better now thanks) I’d also like to say happy Solstice (thank Gaia the days are getting longer). Happy Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Dakas day, Amtabha Buddha Day etc etc.
I guess I was outta touch a bit but I did here about the thwarted bomber, thank the FSM he was unsuccessful. If it werent so sad I’d laugh, I got back and walked over the the shop where I work and lo and behold got blindsided. The boss asks what I know about the subject and immediately starts her rant on how she ‘heard’ on a radio program the arguemnt that we should stop the PC shit and just start profiling those Muslims (LOL I’m thinking of converting, just for shits and giggles (thats why I wont)). Imagine being so ignorant that not only do you support profiling but that you think only ‘Arabic’ looking folks are Muslims or that only Muslims or arabs are terrorists. Ah So good to be home.
Happy, Peaceful, and Healthy New year to everyone
Dec 02 2009
With the slow demise of old media has also come the demise of niche media like websites which cater specifically to women’s studies and women’s interests. Prompted by the demise of Double X, an offshoot of Slate, itself an off-shoot of the financial troubled Washington Post, one can tell how both female-centric media and academic fields are usually the first to go in times of economic crisis, budget cutbacks, or higher education famine. While part of me laments that such sites end up being placed first on the chopping board when revenues plummet, another part of me wonders if we are finally ready to rid ourselves of the need for specific media designed for identity group solidarity. In another time where persecution was harsh and undeniably swift to those outside of the mainstream who dared tread into uncharted territory, I think we may be ready to draw up tentative plans for full unity.
Last week I visited Philadelphia and the historic Arch Street Meeting House, a Quaker house of worship that prides itself as being the largest gathering in the world and the oldest still in use in the United States. The main part of the building was separated into a larger worship space and a smaller one directly adjacent to it. A faith committed resolutely to equality among all its members deliberately made accommodations to female attenders by giving them the option of using a women-only space during worship services. There, ladies who would have otherwise felt constrained to speak from within their hearts and their convictions because of the close proximity of their husbands or out of fear of broaching social protocol could have a safe space of their own. Within it they were allowed to verbalize that which they had every right to be express but too often kept inside themselves. It need be noted, of course, that this arrangement no longer exists and that now the voices of women have been welcomed into larger fellowship. I rejoice that progress has been made and hope it continues.
Nov 30 2009
Hello folks!
Congratulations to buhdy for making the site work. Really. No thanks to me. I pulled out right about the time I was predicting that “occupant” could not possibly win, no matter what. Well, there you have it. Never underestimate the importance of the novelty factor which (it would be churlish to dwell on) appears to have pretty much worn-off.
But that’s not why I’m here. I’m back to congratulate the winners and to wish one and all well. I sincerely do hope that rationality and critical thinking will prevail as we learn more and more about the cobbled-together pseudo-science underpinning Al Gore’s awkward adventure, otherwise known (cruelly) as the ‘dog ate my data’. The environment is in trouble and devoting so much time and energy away from real problems, like the amount of plastic we produce and ingest, has cost enough already.
You folks elected McCain-lite and for that I’m sure you’re all suitably proud. I would have much preferred the real thing and a frank statement confirming the US would stay in Afghanistan and Iraq for as long as it takes to bring stability to both countries.
You’ve opted for the worst of both worlds, instead: a pack of Bush-like promises to ‘Finish the job’, whatever the fuck that might mean on any given day, with enough cannon-fodder to piss off all the locals but not provide any real security, all under the command of a general who sees little wrong with outsourcing rendition, assassination and ‘snatch and grab’ teams to Blackwater.
Good thing, McCain lost. Because there’s not much chance he would have done much more than build a few nuclear power plants and allow the climate-science cranks to perpetuate their lies a few years longer. Take a bow.
Nov 14 2009
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Since a group of tea bagging protestors comprised of mostly white people have the cojones to burn Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressmen Tom Perriello in effigy, I thought it would be a good idea if someone in the media would go so far as to ask these people why they don’t just go all the way in their supposed “defense of freedom and liberty” and burn President Barack Obama in effigy as well. I mean, if they are really brave and all, why shouldn’t they?
Oh, wait a minute . . . .
More below the fold.
