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Former PA Senator Rick Santorum, while burnishing his anti-abortion credentials, recently uttered the following:
“The question is, and this is what Barack Obama didn’t want to answer — is that human life a person under the constitution? And Barack Obama says no. Well if that human life is not a person then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people.”
SHOCKER: Financial Crisis Was Avoidable
No Evidence that Unions Caused Post-Christmas NYC Slowdown
The only thing revealed so far is that Councilman Daniel J. Halloran is really fucking weird.
Sexual Assault & the Super Bowl
The number of NFL teams still in the running toward becoming America’s Next Top Big Tackley Dudes has been narrowed down to two, and both teams contain players with serious sexual assault allegations. What’s a fan to do?
Food speculation: ‘People die from hunger while banks make a killing on food’
It’s not just bad harvests and climate change – it’s also speculators that are behind record prices. And it’s the planet’s poorest who pay.
Oscar the Grouch and I have really similar personal ideologies:
Moments after he was sworn in on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the new Governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley, had this message for all Alabamians:
”Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”
Good governance in action, Christian nationalist style!
Freddie DeBoer, in an egregiously long post, sez some things I’ve been thinking about for a long time- but had no one to say them to.
There are two axes of neoliberalism. The first, substantive neoliberalism, means fidelity to the economic policy platform of globalization in the elimination of tariff walls and other impediments to the “free market,” incredible antipathy towards organized labor (and, effectively if not intentionally, towards workers in general), resistance to the regulatory apparatus that has protected workers for decades, and the general belief that the way to ameliorate the moral outrages of capitalism is to pursue more capitalism.
The second axis of neoliberalism, constitutional neoliberalism, is the reflexive antileftism within the ideology. This is the tendency of the neoliberal to assume the superior seriousness of the man to his right and the utter moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the man to his left. This is the sneering, superior neoliberalism, the neoliberalism obsessed with status and authority, the neoliberalism that is utterly in thrall to the idea of Intellectually Seriousness and the notion that possessing it means falling all over yourself to dismiss the actual, historical, socialist left.
This snippet here succinctly clarifies my frustration with my anti-left “liberal” friends and colleagues. I have long made the mistake of believing that people professing a “liberal” political stance had something to do with leftism, progressiveness, or concern for working people. Time and again, I would be enraged as self-styled liberals mouthed the same platitudes as corporate apologists and agreed on all but the most flagrant political positions with those on the right.
And the Intellectual Seriousness bit! Truer words have ne’er been spoken. How many times have concerned associates indulgently chided me for lacking the maturity to be a consummate neoliberal? Claiming a leftist, socialist or anarchist viewpoint is less valid than any strain of conservatism, even the most virulent.
Criticsim of Mr. DeBoer’s article:
In his OP, DeBoer names about 18 (neo)liberal and/or leftist bloggers (I think I counted them all, but maybe I missed someone.) 17 of the 18 are men, and 18 of 18 are white (or light-skinned). Mr. DeBoer, aren’t you forgetting something?
Photo from the New Statesman
The Tunisian people have risen up to oust a corrupt, violent autocrat, forcing him to abdicate power and flee the country! Amazing!
From the AP:
The shakeup was certain to have repercussions in the Arab world and beyond — as a sign that even a leader as entrenched and powerful as Ben Ali could be brought down by massive public outrage.
IndieArmyWife writes:
Shows like TLC’s upcoming “Homecoming” fetishize the military family experience without providing any real insight or help. Military families don’t need TV shows like this, they need real help from the American public.
Her insights are quite excellent. Check out her piece.
In tribute to the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here is Mavis Staples singing “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” over original footage from the US Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s.
“Do It Like a Dude” by Jessie J:
Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn on Dec.28, 2010
The conservative media had scape goat immediately: the working person! UNIONS!
From all corners rumors started to swirl that Sanitation Department workers and supervisors had devised the bungled clean-up as a grass-roots “strike” of sorts to retaliate against a recent series of budget cuts, layoffs, and demotions.
The venerable New York Post reported that:
“They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,” said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.
That quote was then republished at the even more venerable Townhall, but with a slight change:
“[Unionized city workers] sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,” said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.
You see what they did there? Townhall also took it upon themselves to name that piece Charge NYC Union Leaders With Negligent Homicide. Oh yes they did.
The conservative FrontPage Magazine reported on the situation, then on the second page of their story referred to the “union’s alleged strategy” which they deduced was “centered around the idea that dragging out snow removal would allow them to pad overtime checks.” No source for this juicy information was listed.
It appears that certain media outlets are simply rewording their reporting as Townhall so blatantly did: instead of discussing “sanitation workers” they fill in the blank with “union members”, because many of the workers are union members. But because there is no evidence of the union planning an action, this makes about as much sense as blaming it on some other identity many sanitation workers share, such as gender or car ownership or marital status. Nowhere is any primary source referenced to prove that the snow-removal slowdown was a union-organized action. As a matter of fact, all of the news sources I found published quotes from union leaders who say that there was no union action at work. And isn’t it the typical strategy of unions to announce their actions, their reasons, and the anticipated results? Union leaders don’t typically deny a mass action, because their power comes from their ability to organize a mass action.
The NY Post did manage to squeeze some interesting information into its reporting:
In the last two years, the agency’s workforce has been slashed by 400 trash haulers and supervisors — down from 6,300 — because of the city’s budget crisis. And, effective tomorrow, 100 department supervisors are to be demoted and their salaries slashed as an added cost-saving move.
Sources said budget cuts were also at the heart of poor planning for the blizzard last weekend. The city broke from its usual routine and did not call in a full complement on Saturday for snow preparations in order to save on added overtime that would have had to be paid for them to work on Christmas Day.
Another NY Post article adds:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority decided against putting an urgent-level emergency plan into effect in anticipation of the storm — opting instead for its lowest-level strategy, which was woefully inadequate, a source told The Post.
The source said the MTA implemented its “Plan 1″ over the weekend rather than “Plan 4″ — the highest emergency alert.
Huh. Laying off workers, pissing off workers with non-performance based demotions, “saving money” by cutting back on disaster planning…. we can be certain that none of these decisions by the leadership have anything to do with the poor snow clean-up or demotivated workers, because some of these workers were UNION MEMBERS!
So the question remains, why did conservative media sources choose to blame unions for the hurricane blizzard response, when there is no evidence that unions were involved? It’s almost as though they have some sort of agenda!
In this video, two young women scale the US-Mexico border wall in under 18 seconds on their first try with no equipment. The expense of this excellent “border solution” is estimated at $4 million per mile. Oh, the silly things racism will drive you to…
Ah, the despicable Tom Horne. (See my previous post on this issue.)
From Colorlines:
In his final act as Arizona state school superintendent, Tom Horne called a news conference Monday morning to announce that the Tucson Unified School District is operating in violation of HB 2291, the bill he helped pass that banned ethnic studies programs across the state.
The Tucson Unified district is teaching students to be racist in violation of a new state law that took effect Dec. 31, Horne said.
“They teach kids that they are oppressed, that the United States is dominated by a white, racist, imperialist power structure that wants to opporess them,” [Tom] Horne said.
My textbooks also taught me that whites dominate America. The only difference between my class and the ones Horne describes is that Tucson teaches children that white supremacy is bad.
The law bans classes in kindergarten through 12th grade that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people and are designed primarily for students of one ethic group.
My history classes as a youth were designed primarily for an ethnic group: whites. Whites discovered America, whites settled America, whites designed the American government, whites were the notable leaders, whites fought the key battles, whites defended freedom and liberty, white culture is the culture worthy of study, white struggles received special attention, white art, white philosophy, white authors, white white white. And I have a feeling it is no different in Arizona- AZ not being well known for its bigotry-free government institutions and all. In my school (located in a highly segregated community), we all celebrated white European-American culture and bonded over our shared ethnic status: i.e. membership in the dominant race. Could it possibly be the same in white-majority school districts in Arizona?
So I’m sure that as a fair-minded individual, with no personal ax to grind or anything, Tom Horne in his new role as AZ AG (aaaah!) will aggressively attack public school curriculum that treats whites as the most important race and focuses primarily on white history and achievement.
Augustine F. Romero, director of student equity in the Tucson schools, said, “All of our forefathers have contributed to this country, not just one set of forefathers. We respect and admire and appreciate the traditional forefathers, but there are others.”
Ohio man John Harmon was experiencing low blood sugar levels while driving home from work one day in 2009. He grew woozy and started to swerve. Sheriff’s deputies observed the unsafe driving and pulled him over.
John Harmon is PISSED.
Deputies broke the window of Harmon’s SUV, shocked him seven times with a Taser, cut him out of his seatbelt and wrestled him to the ground, severely dislocating his elbow, and causing trauma to his shoulder and thumb.
…”I thought for sure I was going to die,” Harmon said. “I remember praying to God, ‘Help me through this.’”
After learning that he was experiencing a medical emergency, they charged him with “resisting arrest and failing to comply with a police officer’s order.” Harmon’s resulting surgeries and medical expenses total nearly $100,000.
Fortunately, Ohio State Trooper Chris Sanger arrived on the scene, caught some of it on video, and pulled the deputies off Harmon.
Harmon is suing four of the deputies involved in the assault: Ryan Wolf, Matthew Wissel, John Haynes and Shawn Cox, and their supervisor, Barbara Stuckey, who okayed the post-beating charges.
Interesting to note, though I am sure completely irrelevant to the incident, John Harmon is black while the attackers are white.
Remember when Michelle Malkin called keffiyehs “jihad scarves”? No? Well, refresh your memory.
WHAT, THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SPEAK ENGLISH!?!? THE TERRORISTS/ILLEGALS HAVE WON!
But seriously, this rather confusing map of Canadian & American dialects is pretty sweet.
Criticism: Why are the dialects of African-Americans excluded? (See box about R-dropping.) That makes about zero sense.
“The blight eradication program, if not done correctly, can become a poor-person eradication program,” said Lance Hill, the executive director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research, a race relations center based at Tulane University.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu intends to eliminate “10,000 broken-down properties” in three years. Guess who doesn’t have enough money to repair Katrina-damaged homes. Guess whose homes are slated to be eliminated.
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