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Up top, a very large gathering at the State Capitol in Lansing to read (and presumably perform) The Vagina Monologues, with writer Eve Ensler also in attendance. Why were they there? Because the male Republican House leader censured two female Democratic members for protesting an anti-abortion bill by talking about vaginas and how women should boycott men if this bill passes, and in attempting to introduce an amendment that would restrict vasectomies in the same way that the bill wanted to restrict abortions. The Michigan House leadership said they censured her because the legislator compared supporting anti-abortion legislation to raping women, and that was unacceptably over the line.
Staying on the same general sphere, an excellent breakdown of the mentality behind both the Nice Guy and the Pick-Up Artist - in feeling like they are entitled to women, they make it impossible to actually have a relationship with one.
Out in the world today, while the Federal Government has its own problems, the Canadian province of Ontario amended their human rights code to extend protection based on gender identity and gender expression.
The United States continues to assert that they do not need a declaration of war nor permission from a country to fly unmanned aerial vehicles into that country and to fire upon persons in that coutnry.
The elections in Greece...changed nothing. The Infamous Brad says "Not so fast" on the interpretation that says a coalition of austerity-enforcers will form to ensure that banks get made whole and the people suffer for the sake of the rich, though.
This is a bad, bad thing. Less than ten companies control 90 percent of the media in the world, regardless of the medium of broadcast. Which means some stories are going to be buried or defeated before they can get off teh ground because the Corporate Overlords demand the story be spiked.
Domestically, Sean Hannity, conservative media icon, suggests that the poor are not truly poor because they have appliances and necessities of modern life, and that if they truly are suffering from hardship, they can just eat rice and beans. It's not "Let them eat cake.", but it's close enough. Slacktiverse asks us to think about what privileges we have regarding food that we don't think about, the kind that give rise to Hannity-like statements.
Here's a contest nobody wanted to win. Generation X appears to have taken the worst beating in the current depression, according to net worth figures released by the United States Census Bureau. In addition to that, suicide rates among United States military troops is still far too high and may be going up.
A military-approved ceremony on a military base has conservative legislators outraged, because they believe that their state laws forbidding lesbian and gay weddings take precedence over the policy of the military regarding lesbian and gay weddings on their bases. This is an interesting question - whose jurisdiction applies on-base? Federal laws and policies, or the laws and policies of the state the base is situated in? (Ah, and with the Pentagon officially recognizing gay soldiers witha pride month, what other things might be caught up in such a battle?)
Here's our segment on how Nothing becomes Something, when twisted sufficiently and echoed. Recall the Fast and Furious operation, by which it appears that federal agents in the Justice Department allowed shady gun sales to go through in the hopes of being able to trace the guns back to Mexican drug cartels, which would then allow for arrests and seizures of the cartel's members and property. Recall, as well, that this program was isntituted under the last administration - it will become important in a bit. While the Congresscritters continued to demand evidence that Mr. Holder was not actually informed about this operation and not directly involved in it, when Mr. Holder mentioned a similar operation run by his predecessor, the Congresscritters demanded that he prove that the predecessor was involved in such things, inverting their standard of proof when it came to the last administration versus the current one.
The end result here is that the committee in the House of Representatives on this matter drafted a resolution to hold the Attorney General in contempt of Congress. Notice at this point, that the Fast and Furious Operation is referred to solely as an Obama administration operation. It's still being reported on as a contempt for not turning over requested documents, but statements on the floor and in the conservative media make it into so much more. Additionally, several groups and Congresscritters are calling for Mr. Holder to resign his post over the issue and over the alleged obstruction of the Congressional investigation. Likely sensing the presence of pitchforks and torches hiding behind the suits of theinvestigators, the President asserted executive privilege over the documents requested by the committee. At this point, it would be entirely rational to say "They're looking for whatever they can get to stick your head on a pike, so we may as well not give them anything at all." Republicans believe the assertion means the White House is involved in the scandal, too. However, that assertion doesn't mean this is the case, nor is this declaration somehow unprecedented.
That's the first track of this, in Congress. Outside of Congress, however, another track appeared in the fringes of the right wing and rose quickly to national prominence in conservative media, with much play given to it by the Murdoch-owned propaganda mouth, Fox News. The original suggested that the Fast and Furious operation was deliberate - send guns into Mexico, cause lots of death and violence there, then use the increased death and violence in Mexico as a reason to pass gun control laws in the United States. From there, it went on to Newt Gingrich, Fox News, the NRA, and some Republicans in the House and Senate. And thus, the two strains have found each other in the government, and mixed each other.
Now remember, these programs originated in the last administration. It would have to be one hell of a long con or a seriously awesome Democratic coup to have started a program in the last administration, been able to keep it un-noticed, then spring it into existence in the current administration. With a completely callous disregard for lives outside the country in search of an ideological goal. (Which, to me, sounds like the Tea-Dyed Republican Party of the current era more than the nominally wishy-washy Democrats.) Considering the levels of dysfunction today, it's pretty close to impossible for me to believe that someone could have done something this complex.
End result? the House committee voted to send the contempt up to the full House to vote on. Over either a nonexistent scandal, or a perceived unwillingness to turn over documents. Or, perhaps, because the NRA threatened to downgrade their rating of the Representatives who didn't vote to hold the AG in contempt.
In a more compressed form, meet an example of the False Equivalence. A principal nixed the idea of kindergarteners singing "God Bless the USA" at their graduation on the grounds that such a song could be offensive to students and parents of other cultures. The Post then goes on to say that a Justin Bieber song was considered okay, even though its lyrics had references to dating and the like. This is a False Equivalence - "patriotic"-to-jingoistic tunes being sung by children not old enough to really understand the message behind the words is not the same as a vapid pop tune that the kindergarteners probably can point to as a matter of shared culture, even though the kindergarteners don't really understand the message of that song, either. If, say, American children were going to sing the national anthem of France, or say, Saudi Arabia, would that be considered appropriate?
Massachusettes Senator Scott Brown, normally avoidant of his opponent, Elizabeth Warren, said he would agree to a debate if the widow of Ted Kennedy (who was the longtime holder of his seat) promised not to endorse anyone in the upcoming race, and if the network MSNBC did not moderate the debate. This is after Scott Brown used anchor Rachel Maddow to build his own finances by lying and saying that Maddow would be run against him in a Senate race.
Now, finally, something that your conservative-leaning friends might be right to have some concerns about: the President has ordered discretion to be used in determining whether or not to deport young people in the country illegally, a key component of the DREAM Act that Congress is still not passing nor has any intent of passing. Young people who have no felony criminal record and who have completed some degree of education will likely not be deported under the new guidelines.
And finally, Florida and the federal government intend on suing each other - Florida wants Homeland Security to give them access to a database, ostensibly so they can confirm there are non-citizens trying to vote and purge them from the rolls, and the government wants Florida to stop purging people off the rolls in violation of the acts that say they're purging too close to an election and the act that says Florida has to get permission from the federal government to enact new rules and purges like this to make sure they aren't disproportionately targeting minority voters. Let's add onto that the knowledge that when a Republican claims there is widespread voting fraud, they lack the statistical backup needed for such a claim, and the Republican trend of changing the rules regarding what is necessary to vote, and the feds' case looks to be the much stronger one of the two.
More politics: Take a look at the numbers - who has the jobs plan, with concrete figures, and whose plan consists mostly of smoke, vapors, and the Ryan plan? Now, compare this with data about income inequality in the United States, and figure out which politician will openly screw the poor to enrich the rich, and which one might throw you a few crumbs even if, on average, he'll screw the poor, too. (If you don't want a candidate that will screw the poor, then you'll have to vote outside the two major political parties.) The Chairman of the Federal Reserve said that austerity measures are really hurting the recovery, and that shrinking the public sector's workforce is hurting it more. This advice mostly falls on deaf ears, however, as no amount of statistical or historical data will be enough to change the ideological focus of the Republican Party. Even when you can point to the American people repeatedly saying they hate spending cuts and always have.
Staying on big concepts, despite containing bipartisan and wildly popular concepts and ideas, the Affordable Care Act continues to score negatively in opinion polls. Why? Well, if you look at it, you find out that the negative campaign against it has been highly successful and very well-funded. It's the first taste we saw of what post-Citizens United money could buy, in addition to the media basically starting from the Republican position.
Continuing in our all-politics edition, while a high-level Obama staffer has said both he and Mitt Romney deserve to be heard at their events without heckling, there's been no olive branch from the other side. In fact, the other side believes that heckling the opponent is a valid and usable tactic and has claimed it as a badge of honor when they use it. And they don't condem the presence of a bullet-riddled outhouse called the "Obama Presidential Library" appearing at a state GOP convention. Now, that's not to say that negativity in a campaign should be forbidden - in fact, it's usually a very effective tactic to go negative, but there are limits to negativity. Smart negative ads are good. Going to heckle someone and try to prevent them from speaking? That just makes you look like you don't have an actual message.
Last for tonight, after that heavy dose of politics, twenty-one photos that help to remind us that there are really good people in the world who will help, who will do random acts of kindness, and who help restore lost faith in humanity.
Staying on the same general sphere, an excellent breakdown of the mentality behind both the Nice Guy and the Pick-Up Artist - in feeling like they are entitled to women, they make it impossible to actually have a relationship with one.
Out in the world today, while the Federal Government has its own problems, the Canadian province of Ontario amended their human rights code to extend protection based on gender identity and gender expression.
The United States continues to assert that they do not need a declaration of war nor permission from a country to fly unmanned aerial vehicles into that country and to fire upon persons in that coutnry.
The elections in Greece...changed nothing. The Infamous Brad says "Not so fast" on the interpretation that says a coalition of austerity-enforcers will form to ensure that banks get made whole and the people suffer for the sake of the rich, though.
This is a bad, bad thing. Less than ten companies control 90 percent of the media in the world, regardless of the medium of broadcast. Which means some stories are going to be buried or defeated before they can get off teh ground because the Corporate Overlords demand the story be spiked.
Domestically, Sean Hannity, conservative media icon, suggests that the poor are not truly poor because they have appliances and necessities of modern life, and that if they truly are suffering from hardship, they can just eat rice and beans. It's not "Let them eat cake.", but it's close enough. Slacktiverse asks us to think about what privileges we have regarding food that we don't think about, the kind that give rise to Hannity-like statements.
Here's a contest nobody wanted to win. Generation X appears to have taken the worst beating in the current depression, according to net worth figures released by the United States Census Bureau. In addition to that, suicide rates among United States military troops is still far too high and may be going up.
A military-approved ceremony on a military base has conservative legislators outraged, because they believe that their state laws forbidding lesbian and gay weddings take precedence over the policy of the military regarding lesbian and gay weddings on their bases. This is an interesting question - whose jurisdiction applies on-base? Federal laws and policies, or the laws and policies of the state the base is situated in? (Ah, and with the Pentagon officially recognizing gay soldiers witha pride month, what other things might be caught up in such a battle?)
Here's our segment on how Nothing becomes Something, when twisted sufficiently and echoed. Recall the Fast and Furious operation, by which it appears that federal agents in the Justice Department allowed shady gun sales to go through in the hopes of being able to trace the guns back to Mexican drug cartels, which would then allow for arrests and seizures of the cartel's members and property. Recall, as well, that this program was isntituted under the last administration - it will become important in a bit. While the Congresscritters continued to demand evidence that Mr. Holder was not actually informed about this operation and not directly involved in it, when Mr. Holder mentioned a similar operation run by his predecessor, the Congresscritters demanded that he prove that the predecessor was involved in such things, inverting their standard of proof when it came to the last administration versus the current one.
The end result here is that the committee in the House of Representatives on this matter drafted a resolution to hold the Attorney General in contempt of Congress. Notice at this point, that the Fast and Furious Operation is referred to solely as an Obama administration operation. It's still being reported on as a contempt for not turning over requested documents, but statements on the floor and in the conservative media make it into so much more. Additionally, several groups and Congresscritters are calling for Mr. Holder to resign his post over the issue and over the alleged obstruction of the Congressional investigation. Likely sensing the presence of pitchforks and torches hiding behind the suits of theinvestigators, the President asserted executive privilege over the documents requested by the committee. At this point, it would be entirely rational to say "They're looking for whatever they can get to stick your head on a pike, so we may as well not give them anything at all." Republicans believe the assertion means the White House is involved in the scandal, too. However, that assertion doesn't mean this is the case, nor is this declaration somehow unprecedented.
That's the first track of this, in Congress. Outside of Congress, however, another track appeared in the fringes of the right wing and rose quickly to national prominence in conservative media, with much play given to it by the Murdoch-owned propaganda mouth, Fox News. The original suggested that the Fast and Furious operation was deliberate - send guns into Mexico, cause lots of death and violence there, then use the increased death and violence in Mexico as a reason to pass gun control laws in the United States. From there, it went on to Newt Gingrich, Fox News, the NRA, and some Republicans in the House and Senate. And thus, the two strains have found each other in the government, and mixed each other.
Now remember, these programs originated in the last administration. It would have to be one hell of a long con or a seriously awesome Democratic coup to have started a program in the last administration, been able to keep it un-noticed, then spring it into existence in the current administration. With a completely callous disregard for lives outside the country in search of an ideological goal. (Which, to me, sounds like the Tea-Dyed Republican Party of the current era more than the nominally wishy-washy Democrats.) Considering the levels of dysfunction today, it's pretty close to impossible for me to believe that someone could have done something this complex.
End result? the House committee voted to send the contempt up to the full House to vote on. Over either a nonexistent scandal, or a perceived unwillingness to turn over documents. Or, perhaps, because the NRA threatened to downgrade their rating of the Representatives who didn't vote to hold the AG in contempt.
In a more compressed form, meet an example of the False Equivalence. A principal nixed the idea of kindergarteners singing "God Bless the USA" at their graduation on the grounds that such a song could be offensive to students and parents of other cultures. The Post then goes on to say that a Justin Bieber song was considered okay, even though its lyrics had references to dating and the like. This is a False Equivalence - "patriotic"-to-jingoistic tunes being sung by children not old enough to really understand the message behind the words is not the same as a vapid pop tune that the kindergarteners probably can point to as a matter of shared culture, even though the kindergarteners don't really understand the message of that song, either. If, say, American children were going to sing the national anthem of France, or say, Saudi Arabia, would that be considered appropriate?
Massachusettes Senator Scott Brown, normally avoidant of his opponent, Elizabeth Warren, said he would agree to a debate if the widow of Ted Kennedy (who was the longtime holder of his seat) promised not to endorse anyone in the upcoming race, and if the network MSNBC did not moderate the debate. This is after Scott Brown used anchor Rachel Maddow to build his own finances by lying and saying that Maddow would be run against him in a Senate race.
Now, finally, something that your conservative-leaning friends might be right to have some concerns about: the President has ordered discretion to be used in determining whether or not to deport young people in the country illegally, a key component of the DREAM Act that Congress is still not passing nor has any intent of passing. Young people who have no felony criminal record and who have completed some degree of education will likely not be deported under the new guidelines.
And finally, Florida and the federal government intend on suing each other - Florida wants Homeland Security to give them access to a database, ostensibly so they can confirm there are non-citizens trying to vote and purge them from the rolls, and the government wants Florida to stop purging people off the rolls in violation of the acts that say they're purging too close to an election and the act that says Florida has to get permission from the federal government to enact new rules and purges like this to make sure they aren't disproportionately targeting minority voters. Let's add onto that the knowledge that when a Republican claims there is widespread voting fraud, they lack the statistical backup needed for such a claim, and the Republican trend of changing the rules regarding what is necessary to vote, and the feds' case looks to be the much stronger one of the two.
More politics: Take a look at the numbers - who has the jobs plan, with concrete figures, and whose plan consists mostly of smoke, vapors, and the Ryan plan? Now, compare this with data about income inequality in the United States, and figure out which politician will openly screw the poor to enrich the rich, and which one might throw you a few crumbs even if, on average, he'll screw the poor, too. (If you don't want a candidate that will screw the poor, then you'll have to vote outside the two major political parties.) The Chairman of the Federal Reserve said that austerity measures are really hurting the recovery, and that shrinking the public sector's workforce is hurting it more. This advice mostly falls on deaf ears, however, as no amount of statistical or historical data will be enough to change the ideological focus of the Republican Party. Even when you can point to the American people repeatedly saying they hate spending cuts and always have.
Staying on big concepts, despite containing bipartisan and wildly popular concepts and ideas, the Affordable Care Act continues to score negatively in opinion polls. Why? Well, if you look at it, you find out that the negative campaign against it has been highly successful and very well-funded. It's the first taste we saw of what post-Citizens United money could buy, in addition to the media basically starting from the Republican position.
Continuing in our all-politics edition, while a high-level Obama staffer has said both he and Mitt Romney deserve to be heard at their events without heckling, there's been no olive branch from the other side. In fact, the other side believes that heckling the opponent is a valid and usable tactic and has claimed it as a badge of honor when they use it. And they don't condem the presence of a bullet-riddled outhouse called the "Obama Presidential Library" appearing at a state GOP convention. Now, that's not to say that negativity in a campaign should be forbidden - in fact, it's usually a very effective tactic to go negative, but there are limits to negativity. Smart negative ads are good. Going to heckle someone and try to prevent them from speaking? That just makes you look like you don't have an actual message.
Last for tonight, after that heavy dose of politics, twenty-one photos that help to remind us that there are really good people in the world who will help, who will do random acts of kindness, and who help restore lost faith in humanity.
