This title is not intended to mock the concept of Ash Wednesday, which is sacred to some folks. Rather it’s to commemorate my first Ash Wednesday, on which I made a complete ass of myself.
Being raised in rednecky Southern Baptist country left me ill-prepared for life in a city with a large number of Catholics, but that’s what I encountered when I lived in Boston for a few years. When I arrived, I don’t think I had ever heard of Ash Wednesday and was certainly unaware of its traditions.
On my first Ash Wednesday in Boston, I was riding the subway (or “T” as they call it) to work in the morning when I noticed the woman across from me had a big smudge on her forehead. Being the helpful sort, I caught her eye, pointed to my own unsmudged head and mimed wiping away the dirt. She gave me a puzzled look, so I repeated the pantomime. She went back to reading her paper -- dismissing me as a lunatic, no doubt.
When I arrived at my stop and exited the train, I started noticing that many other people had smudged foreheads. I joined a veritable smudged-headed horde streaming through downtown Boston and was completely mystified by it until I met a smudged friend on the sidewalk in front of our workplace and asked her what in the hell was going on.
She laughed incredulously and said, “It’s Ash Wednesday, you dumb cracker!”
Years later, I married into a Catholic family and became somewhat familiar with their rituals, including Ash Wednesday, giving things up for Lent and the varying degrees of sincerity the sacrifice can signify. I’m not Catholic, but if I were, I’m afraid I might be tempted to temper my repentance by giving up something really lame like “imported wine” while continuing to swill down California products. I don’t do willing sacrifice well.
[Cross-posted at Rumproast. H/T to J-TWO-O]
Ass Wednesday
Asshole of the Year Award
I know it's only February, but we have an early favorite:
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. -- U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning predicted over the weekend that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months.Note to self: Send at least $25 to whomever is running against this prick.
During a wide-ranging 30-minute speech on Saturday at the Hardin County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, Bunning said he supports conservative judges "and that's going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg … has cancer."
"Bad cancer. The kind that you don't get better from," he told a crowd of about 100 at the old State Theater.
"Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer," he said.
[snip]
Bunning also reiterated that he would run for re-election in 2010. But he said he doesn't have the ability to raise money like U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who spent more than $20 million in last year's election.
Bunning, who only has about $150,000 in his campaign account, has been criticized because of his inability to raise money.
"I'm not only asking for your support, but if you have a $25 check somewhere, or whatever, you can send it, I'll cash it," he told the group.
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
Strategic communications
Unintentional hilarity from the Burris bunker:
Spokesman for embattled Sen. Burris resigns
(CNN) -- A spokesman for Illinois Sen. Roland Burris resigned Thursday in the wake of new disclosures about requests that Burris raise money for disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich while seeking a U.S. Senate appointment."I initially began helping the senator on a temporary basis because he is a long-term friend who I served several years when he was [Illinois] attorney general," Jason Erkes said in a written statement to CNN.
"It is now time for me to get back to focusing on ... my newly formed strategic communications business."
Whatever you think of the Burris fiasco, I believe we can all agree that the communications were handled somewhat less than strategically...
Oh stewardess, I speak drunk!
So the Japanese finance minister who allegedly showed up to a press conference hammered outta his skull has resigned:
Japan's finance minister abruptly resigned Tuesday over allegations he made a drunken appearance at a G-7 news conference, shaking Prime Minister Taro Aso's already deeply unpopular government.The dude does appear to be snot-slinging drunk. What does he know about the state of the world economy that we're about to find out?
The resignation was a huge embarrassment for Aso — who has been in office only since late September — and a blow to Japan's efforts to deal with an economy that shrank at its fastest rate in 35 years in the fourth quarter and shows no signs of reversing course anytime soon.
Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who has denied being drunk, offered his resignation late Tuesday after earlier in the day saying he would stay on until after parliament approves the budget for the fiscal year, probably in late April.
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
Why is The New Agenda smearing NOW's Kim Gandy?
The New Agenda, a so-called “non-partisan group for women’s rights,” appears to be behind an Astroturf smear campaign aimed at National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy. Gandy is in the running to head up the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor.
What’s The New Agenda’s problem with Gandy? Well, I did some investigating, and although I got many answers, I still don't know. The excuses The New Agenda offers are either outright falsehoods or weak dissembling. This long-ass post summarizes what I was able to find out.
PUMA-Lite: All the bile and only half the crazy!
For those who aren’t familiar with it, The New Agenda was started by Amy Siskind and other disgruntled Hillary supporters last year. Although she was definitely in the “Hillary or Fuck America in the Ass – Hard!!” coalition, Siskind bristles at the suggestion that she is a PUMA or that The New Agenda is animated by PUMA issues.
That’s smart, actually, since Siskind has achieved some level of media credibility as a generic “feminist,” appearing occasionally on CNN and other media outlets. Association with a group as floridly crazy as PUMA would undermine the credibility she hopes to build.
But as you can see from the original press release announcing The New Agenda’s founding (curiously gone from the site now), they weren’t always so coy about the “P” word:
Many of the women who attended The New Agenda's first meeting got to know each other as a result working with pro-Hillary groups. Attendees included founding members of such groups as Together4US, Party Unity My Ass (PUMA), IOwnMyVote, Just Say No Deal and Vote Democracy ’08.They'll admit that they have PUMA members (always hastening to add that there are also Republicans, Greens, etc., on board), but if you bring up PUMA at The New Agenda, you'll see how touchy they are about it, and it appears they have taken pains to scrub the PUMA cooties off their website, including their inaugural press release. Hmmm.
"This group is comprised of women who are "gravely concerned about the mistreatment of Hillary Clinton during the primary season, and the passion and emotion that resulted from Hillary’s mistreatment brought us together.," says Siskind.
Anyway, so that’s The New Agenda’s background. I read some PUMA blogs occasionally as a kind of sick hobby, and I noticed over the weekend that all these screeds against Kim Gandy popped up.
I don’t know doodly-squat about Gandy, so I figured she must’ve done something to run afoul of the PUMAs. But then it became clear that Siskind -- the alleged non-PUMA -- was behind the anti-Gandy campaign. According to this site, Siskind sent the following email on the down-low to select “feminist bloggers” in order to sandbag Gandy:
From: Amy SiskindAnd gosh, look at the rogue’s gallery of PUMAs who responded right on cue. The case against Gandy in that email is pretty weak and unsubstantiated, and of course, the PUMAs as usual failed to add anything of substance. So I wondered, what’s so terrible about Gandy that Siskind considers her worthy of a highly personal coordinated attack?
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL - Kim Gandy seeks powerful position in DC in Obama Admin
Fellow Feminist Bloggers:
We learned yesterday that Kim Gandy has made public her intention to ask for one of the most powerful positions in federal gov't for women - Director of the Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor.
TNA has watched Gandy shift positions again and again to stand up for Obama and sell out women - for example, on Larry Summers:
Nov 5, 2008:
>NOW President Questions Larry Summers as Treasury Secretary
> Nov 24, 2008:
> http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/24/america/24rubin.php?page=2 Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said her group's research actually produced material that recommended him. "One good thing about Larry Summers," she said, "is that he has written and spoken fairly extensively on the issue of women's wage inequality and the impact that has on the country."
Our view is that she has sold out the women of this country for some back room deal - well now we know what the back room deal is!!!
We are asking all feminist bloggers to post a story on their blogs on Sunday, February 8th at NOON EST in protest of Kim Gandy. Feel free to use whatever rationale you see fit - I know that we each have our own gripes.
But letting this woman be in a position of power, as reward for selling out her constituents (women) would be a crime.
Please forward this to all the feminist bloggers you know that are like-minded - with one caveat: WHEN YOU FORWARD IT - IT DID NOT COME FROM ME OR TNA - AND TAKE OUT THE FIRST FEW PARAGRAPHS HERE AND JUST PUT IN INTO YOUR OWN WORDS!!!
Remember, post your story on Sunday, Feb 8th at Noon.
The only specific item in Siskind’s email -- the Summers thing -- seems kind of trumped up. 20 seconds of online research reveals that indeed Gandy hardly gave Summers a ringing endorsement -- she cited one positive trait in a sea of criticism here, which Siskind artfully cut and pasted into her Astroturf email.
Lord knows Siskind and company gave people like Sarah Palin a pass for far more horrifying offenses, so what the hell was up with Gandy, I wondered? Had she done the unthinkable and -- gasp! -- endorsed Obama over Clinton in the primaries as some of the PUMA knuckleheads reported this weekend? Nope, actually, she endorsed Clinton -- there's a YouTube video and everything.
Okay then, maybe she’s just not qualified for the post? Well, no. Even bovine-pattern clothing enthusiast Heidi Li Feldman, JD, PhD (henceforth to be known as “Cow Patty”) admitted in her hit piece that Gandy is a knowledgeable and tireless champion of women’s issues:
“Kim Gandy has clearly spent the better part of her life working on issues important to women; she's probably quite knowledgeable about working conditions for women and in a position to hire high quality staff.”So why do The New Agenda people and Cow Patty despise Gandy so much? Cow Patty claims it’s because Gandy sold women down the river like so much chattel (more on Cow Patty in a moment). But none of Siskind’s ostensible reasons hold water upon further examination.
I figured I’d go straight to the horse’s mouth and ask Siskind at her site. I wasn’t the only one. And when asked, Siskind dissembled and made easily disprovable statements about Gandy being silent about the sexism directed toward Clinton (she wasn’t) and failing to defend Palin against the misogyny directed at her (also demonstrably false).
When confronted with copious evidence that her statements about Gandy were flat-out false on Monday, Siskind promised a more complete accounting of the case against Gandy Tuesday. She said she knew Gandy actually opposed Clinton during the primary (despite video evidence to the contrary) and would include an account of that in her clarification. This is what she delivered -- a completely fact-free and pathetic “parable.”
And to stave off dissent, she’s censoring or deleting comments from polite though persistent questioners like this woman and me, and she scrubbed her own comment promising a more substantive critique. In other words, Siskind has got nothing, and she doesn’t want anyone pointing it out.
Cow Patty’s POUTpourri
As for Cow Patty, when we last left her, she was attempting to shake down the morons at The Confluence by leveraging her tenuous connection to the ailing Justice Ginsburg:
Heidi Li, on February 5th, 2009 at 9:44 pm Said:So how does this paragon of integrity and good taste assess the Gandy situation? Here’s an excerpt from the essay she obediently produced in response to Siskind’s request:
I know Ruth Bader Ginsburg slightly, and her husband, Marty Ginsburg, who is my colleague on the Georgetown faculty rather better. They are wonderful people, and of course my heart and thoughts are with them. A humble suggestion: If you care to send 51 Percent any amount (including .51 cents, with a message of support for Justice Ginsburg, not only will that be noted on the website, but I will make sure that all results and messages reach Justice Ginsburg).
I think she used that power to have N.O.W. sell women down the river when N.O.W. broke with its usual practice and made a general election presidential endorsement, picking Barack Obama, somebody who used and tolerated sexism and misogyny to gain the Democratic Party's nomination. I use the expression "sold women down the river" with all its metaphorical baggage: the image of humans being treated like chattel sold down to the Delta to be auctioned off. I think N.O.W. had very little evidence of Barack Obama's commitment to women's empowerment, little evidence of even his commitment to women's reproductive rights (the usual excuse used by mainstream women's groups to go out of their way to support his candidacy). And still, under the leadership of Gandy, N.O.W. went out of its way to auction off women's votes, encouraging them to turn out and make sure this man, who never once denounced the nutcrackers and the media comments and the misogynistic rappers singing him into office, became President of the United States of America.Oh sweet weeping Jesus, is she fucking serious? Did Hillary denounce the racist goons who depicted Obama on a fake welfare dollar eating fried chicken and watermelon? Did she apologize for the musical abomination that was Hillary in the House -- a far worse auditory offense than ten thousand misogynistic rappers? Did she call out the Fox News asshole who termed Barack and Michelle’s fist bump a “terrorist fist jab?” No she didn’t, and no sane person expected her to be responsible for every loon who took up her cause. And it’s a good thing too, or God knows the PUMAs would’ve driven poor Hillary to die of shame.
The bottom line
I don’t know Kim Gandy from Adam’s house cat. Maybe Gandy isn’t the right person for the job. But nothing The New Agenda or Heidi Li Feldman said makes that case. They seem intent on smearing a true advocate for women’s issues on the basis of -- what? Some bullshit sense that she didn’t support Hillary enthusiastically enough? Or perhaps due to some petty jealousy because Gandy is an actual high profile advocate for women’s rights while these goofballs are still somewhat fringy wannabes? I don’t know, and they aren’t giving straight answers.
It’s one thing for the brain-dead nitwits at PUMA PAC or The Confluence to issue hysterical screeds smearing people they know nothing about. They’re just internet crazies, and nobody gives a shit what they say except for the entertainment value it contains.
But Feldman and Siskind purport to speak for women in general, Feldman from her perch on the Georgetown Law School faculty and her crappy 51% organization and Siskind via The New Agenda and from her status as a go-to “feminist” for our stupid media. Therefore, the standard of proof is higher. I say they either produce evidence of the offenses they've accused Gandy of or retract the scurrilous attacks which they’ve thus far failed to substantiate.
UPDATE 7/20/09: I'm getting a lot of traffic on this old post. If anyone can tell me where it's coming from in comments, I would be most grateful. Thanks!
Obama administration meltdown!
I don't think I've seen so much consternation and hand-wringing in the mainstream media and on lefty blogs since the Ohio primary. There seems to be a whiff of Chicken Littlism in the air. The wingnut Greek chorus, which spent the last eight years issuing apologia for George W. Bush's spectacularly failed presidency, has already declared the 16-day-old Obama administration a disaster. I give their powers of prognostication the exact amount of credit they deserve.
Here's what I think: In a way, I wish Obama would stomp those right-wing fucktards who are attempting to obstruct any progress on the stimulus bill. I wish he would point out that they had no problem shoveling billions of dollars to Halliburton and Blackwater in support of Bush Jr.'s misadventures. I wish he would use his political capital to steamroll the bastards, exposing them for the greedy, corrupt, hypocritical shitheads they are. It would damn sure make me feel better.
But is it the best long-term strategy? Nope. Angry rants -- no matter how righteous -- rarely are. While many of his supporters fret that he isn't forcefully addressing his right-wing critics, Obama is allowing those self-same critics to paint themselves as fierce, unyielding opponents of the stimulus package on principles scrounged from the likes of Joe the Retarded Plumber. I think Obama is giving them the rope, and they are tying the noose, flinging it over a rafter, standing up on a rickety chair and placing their heads inside it. Obama won't even have to kick the chair over; they'll do it themselves.
The notion that Obama is an idealistic, naïve dude who is being played by a ruthless right-wing is what strikes me as hopelessly naïve. Let's remember who buried the goddamn Clinton machine, shall we? "Obambi," that's who.
[Cross-posted at Rumproast]
No, you stupid fucks
Your stupid media breathlessly asks, "Did POTUS diss Jessica Simpson?"
Jesus H. Christ on a StairMaster -- NO. He read the headline Lauer was holding up to his face:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
I can't believe the PUMAtards aren't all over this.
[H/T Instaputz]
