Pandagon

Shockingly, Republicans can't scratch back

At the risk of sounding like a hack, I'm going to go ahead and point out the fact that only 9 Republican Senators crossed over and voted for a centrist, experienced SCOTUS nominee---and the rest didn't because, in their own coded words, no way would they vote for a woman of color---is some bullshit. Not because the Republicans are so partisan, exactly. Yes, because they're so incredibly racist and sexist, but not because they're so partisan, and there's no way to know if they wouldn't have voted right down similar lines against a white man, and if racism/sexism was just their excuse and and a cheap way to pander to their voting base.

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Community Shield

Can't wait for the Community Shield match!!! Sunday at 9AM (Austin time). I'll be at watching @ Fado, most likely.

Three reasons the euthanasia lie has taken hold

Salon has an article about the 5 main right wing "myths"---known in my world as "blatant lies"---that are dominating the health care debate and making it hard to have a rational discussion. Some should be obvious even to low-information voters, such as the "the government's out to get your Medicare" nonsense. Some lies are believed for more understandable reasons. I don't expect your average voter to know that the government has a ban on federally funded abortions that will stand under any health care bill, because most people don't have a real need to know one way or another. (Of course, they could always care, but that is a pipe dream.) But I want to talk about the lie that seems like it's obviously false, which is that the government will mandate euthanasia for the elderly under this new plan.

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The truth comes out

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These crimes don't happen in a vacuum

I can't even make a dark joke about the fact that last night's mass murderer turns out to have been motivated by the worst case of Nice Guy® syndrome on record as of yet. What I will say is I doubt many in the mainstream media, except maybe Bob Herbert, will be willing to tie this crime to the daily violence that women experience that is similarly motivated. George Sodini was angry at the entire world of "desirable" women for not up and volunteering to have sex with him, and every day anonymous men around the country and world beat, rape, and even kill women because said women were also considered insufficiently compliant, often to unstated demands that women were supposed to just anticipate and fill without complaint. Today, women will be raped or beaten or maybe even killed for choosing to do differently than a man desired of them---everything from screwing up the household chores to being deemed a tease to thinking they had a right to go to this party/walk down this alley to leaving a man who wants them to stay. But most people won't see Sodini's crime as different by degree, but by kind, because unlike most men who commit this kind of hate crime against women, Sodini didn't know his victims.

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Shut your mouth! I'm talkin' bout Dick...

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If Bill Clinton raised a leper from the dead, Dick Morris would run around going "ew! ew!" and pointedly washing his hands.

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Free As A Bird...A Sick, Wheezing, Uninsured Bird

imageThomas Sowell writes, in the clarion voice for personal liberty we've all come to know and use to justify wearing body armor over our kidneys, that universal health insurance is the enemy of freedom. This is mainly because we live in a healthcare system rife with freedom and opportunity and sunshine, and liberals want to give all of that up so that we can get mandatory abortions for 11-year-olds and mandatory death for anyone over 67.

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Two important things you can do

Go to one of the town halls listed here and, when you're there, remember the advice listed here. If you know the local organizers of your specific town hall, make especially sure they have a copy of that second link. Item #10 is particularly important.

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Then again, depends on how you define sensitive

Josh Eidelson and Alyssa Rosenberg are having a discussion about the humor about race, ethnicity, and gender on "30 Rock", and it's well worth reading. All I'll say is that I think both of them have a point. Alyssa's right that "30 Rock" is sometimes very incisive, and Josh is right that the episode where Tracy and Liz have to follow the same rules as everyone else was a stupid episode that didn't really have a point. Politically, "30 Rock" is all over the map, sometimes being incredibly subversive and sometimes graying into reactionary politics, and often in the same episode. The show is grounded not in satire but in characterization, so I don't really expect cutting edge political satire from it. But Josh's follow-up definitely outlines some of the things about the show that bother me, and I'll add that it's annoying that Jack is always right.

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Elaine Donnelly whines about Congressman Patrick Murphy and DADT

The credibility of the homo-obsessed, perpetually frustrated Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness is shot. Not only is she wholly unqualified to speak about the military as any kind of authority (she does not have any military experience), she delivered jack*ssery testimony that drew laughter on Capitol Hill last year as she defended the discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Let's hope she shows up for the Senate hearings.

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