I liked Baby Mama, too!

The movie makes a great gift. Winky wink.

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When your running mate has deemed you

the pro-woman candidate in hopes to win over his former opponent's supporters, do not then make a joke about your wife:

Ladies and gentlemen, my wife Jill, who you'll meet soon, is drop dead gorgeous. My wife Jill, who you'll meet soon, she also has her doctorate degree, which is a problem. But all kidding aside . . .

It is heartwarming to discover what Joe Biden values in his woman. Attractiveness, yes. Higher education, no. Keep that patriarchy alive and kicking, Joe.

I think this will play out slightly better than the time Senator Biden called a certain Senator from Illinois "clean" and "articulate".

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In Women's News Today

Daria Takes Aim At Jane Magazine, by Slut Machine at Jezebel, via Feministing. Hooray for Daria! The comments led me here. Yippee!

WNBA rookies work on their game faces, by the linster at AfterEllen. Feministing also wrote about this story last month, but the linster points out the inherent homophobia along with the sexism involved.

The AfterEllen article led me to these poignant articles on how the American mainstream media dealt with Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign:

Woman in Charge, Women Who Charge, by Judith Warner at The New York Times.

and

Hating Hillary, by Andrew Stephen at New Statesman.

I have a whole heap to say about the people who let out the hate in their hearts during the Democratic Primary Season. People who won't be satisfied until Senator Clinton grovels at Senator Obama's feet, then leaves the country--nay, the planet(!) and begins her life anew on Mars. People who actually repeated this image on the news, not to condemn its existence, but to lament the loss of Senator Clinton as a late-night talk show punching bag. For now, I leave you with this statement from Feministe's Jill:

I know many women (and men) today are mourning the fact that the female candidate didn’t get her historic moment. I am mourning that too. And again, Melissa says it better than I could. Women are hurting, and our confidence in our “allies” and in our fellow progressives has been thoroughly challenged.

See The Daily Kos for evidence of those so-called "progressives", who often consider 51% of the population a special interest group.

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A reason to vote for Ralph Nader

But for reals, y'all. Don't vote for Ralph Nader. No one needs John McCain in the White House. Eight years of this crazy is bad enough.

To all the guys (and the ladies) in blue shirts reading this, welcome! Feel free to leave a comment. I'm sorry I couldn't be there today. I'm sick. :( My nose is stuffed uppa to here. Fight on!

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I approve this message.

This one, too!

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"I don't want an angry woman in the White House."

Well, I do.

That's what I said, Tina Fey! We do get things done!

Also, Mike Huckabee needs a hug. Not from me, though.

btw, beside Carrie Underwood's performances, the rest of the episode was pretty bad. Fred Armisen as Barack Obama? Lorne, no.

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Let me tell you.

If I had been up on that stage, I would have gone off on this muckraker masquerading as a "journalist":



If you can't access the video, here is what Ms. Such and Such from Politico, whose name and title I won't bother to write inside this post, said to Hillary Clinton at the Democratic debate in California last night:

"Senator Clinton, your husband has set off several firestorms in the last few weeks in early primary states with the way that he has criticized Senator Obama.

Greg Craig, who was one of your husband's top lawyers, and is now a senior adviser to Senator Obama, recently asked if your campaign can't control the former president now, what will it be like when you're in the White House?"

If you peruse the transcript of the debate, you'll notice that there was no follow up question to Senator Obama asking him how he keeps his wife in line. In fact, there haven't been any such nasty questions posed about any of the other candidates' spouses in either party.

Hmph. This is not cool.

And, to make me even more upset about the state of crazy women talking about other women today, I read this post last night on Catherine's blog and this post tonight on Feministing. You know I had to leave comments on both. You have to scroll down really far for the latter one.

That's all.

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I heard about this while listening to Frangela

on KTLK AM 1150: Al Gore endorses gay marriage.




If we can all reminisce about my musings during August of last year, I think we'll all understand why I really can't vote for anyone in the California primary now. At least John Edwards cared about poor people, and I'm poor. The remaining Democratic candidates are essentially the same person with different baggage. Ooh, and one is called "assertive" while the other is called "mean." I'll let you figure that one out on your own.

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Fried chicken tacos

Obama and the Latino Vote in the NY Times, by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, at Multiplicative Identity, via Feministe.

. . . There are many things to admire about the New York Times. A complex and nuanced understanding of the vast diversity of Latino America is not among those things.

In a story on page A1 of the Times yesterday, reporters Adam Nagourney and Jennifer Steinhauer stated that Latinos are not going to support Senator Barack Obama in his bid for the White House because, “in Obama’s pursuit of Latinos, race plays a role.” In other words, they said that Latinos would not vote for a black man, and backed it up with nothing other than a couple of anecdotal quotes from random Latinos in Los Angeles.

The sloppy, inaccurate story goes on for 32 agonizing paragraphs, using the terms “black” and “Latino” as though they were mutually exclusive – which they are not. Historians estimate that 95 percent of the African slave trade to the Americas took place in Latin America.

To this day, the vast majority of people in the African diaspora live south of the U.S. border, in Latin American countries from Brazil to Colombia to Cuba and, yes, even Mexico. The song "La Bamba," in fact, was brought to the Veracruz region of Mexico by Africans enslaved to the Spanish. The song likely has roots in the Bembe (Bantu) culture from what is now the Congo. This is only a stone's throw, geographically, from the Kenya of Obama's father's birth.

How quickly we forget in this country. How brutally we refuse to learn . . .

That's been bugging me too. What also has been chapping my hide is the incessant drumbeat of the mainstream media insisting that black people and women are also mutually exclusive voting blocs. After listening to the cable "news" outlets and reading the major national publications--all of which are owned by corporate oligarchies--one would come to the following conclusions about the 2008 Presidential election as well:

• Older women are voting for Hillary Clinton because they felt sorry for her after she cried.
• Older black people are voting for Hillary Clinton because they want Bill Clinton back in the White House, while younger black people are voting for Barack Obama because he's younger and he gives them hope.
• Hispanic and Latino voters are all Spanish-speaking immigrants who live near the border of Mexico or in Spanish Harlem or in East LA, and they are all voting for Hillary Clinton because they don't like black Barack Obama.
• White people all over the country tell pollsters they will vote for Barack Obama, but "will secretly vote for John McCain" or some other white candidate. Why? Because either they want to impress the person doing the poll and appear "open-minded" by voting for the black guy, or they don't know that in their hearts, they are really racists.
• Barack Obama will never win the South because the South is where all racists live. No racists live anywhere else in the United States, no nonwhite people live in the South, and every white person in the South is a racist.
• Americans are not concerned with any current events or issues like the illegal occupation of Iraq, health care, the current recession, education, the mortgage crisis or the rising cost of living. Americans are only voting for Hillary Clinton because she is a woman, or for Barack Obama because he is black. Americans are only concerned with making the 2008 Presidential election a historical event because they could choose the first President who is not a white male.
• There are only two people who can become President: Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. There are people running on the Republican side, but no one really cares about them because they are too old, too stupid, too racist, too Mormony, too lazy, too into 9/11, or too . . . wait, who are you again? Oh.
  
• John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich do not exist. In the Democratic primaries, people are voting for Barack Obama because they don't like women, or they are voting for Hillary Clinton because they don't like black people. There are no white men in the Democratic party running for President, so they must vote for Senator Clinton or Senator Obama.

Happy voting! Also, watch the Congressional Black Caucus Democratic debate on Monday night!

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Here's what I've wanted to say to the writers

since they first went on strike. But not to the gentleman featured above, because he's old, and he looks like he needs a hug:

Fringe Theory - Why We Don't Need the Man, by Angela Robinson, at AfterEllen.com.

We have the power now. We have the tools of creation and the means to distribute our work. We don't have to beg for scraps and try to cross over. We can make our own stuff and let them come over here if they want. In fact, let's break down this here and there crap and just make great, fun, moving, hilarious, intense, bold work. It'll work if we support each other and talk to each other, say on sites like this, right now. The gatekeepers are dying, slowly but surely, and now is the time for the artist to talk directly to the audience, without the middleman. And everybody can be an artist, not just the people on the panel, but each and every one of the people in the audience.

I keep wondering why the WGA members don't use all this free time to create their own network. I get StrikeTV, but seems like, "You almost got it people. Now keep going."

I think much of the problem is the sentiment that Brian Palmer expresses in his post on RaceWire, Writers Strike, But Hollywood Holds on to Shopworn Stereotypes. Latoya Peterson also discusses this in her Racialicious post, Notes on Fostering Activism - Bringing Our Voices to the Page, Stage, and Screen.

Most of the successful members of the WGA, and almost of the people running the WGA are white and male. They seem shocked and appalled that the AMPTP, another group almost entirely made up of white males, won't give them their four cents. This situation reminds me of something Ruby Dee talked about with Alicia Keys in their Iconoclasts special on Sundance Channel. She was recalling the Hollywood blacklisting of . . . a long time ago, and how the white actors were all distraught and causing themselves personal harm because they couldn't get work. But the black actors could never get work in Hollywood anyway because they were black. So the white actors (yes, all of them) moved out to New York and did theater with the black people, according to Ruby Dee. You'll have to watch the episode to feel the gravitas that Ruby Dee brings to that history lesson, because when I write about it, the story reads like I'm drunk.

Anyhoo, the point is that there need to be more nonwhite, nonmale people running the media. However, I'm not sure that Tyra is the answer:

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My Wednesday via Feministing

This puts my troubles into perspective: Sexual violence against women in the Congo, by Samhita at Feministing.

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This story makes me sad for Oprah: My isn't that a MANLY sweater you have on there! by Samhita at Feministing.

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This gives me hope for the Hillary Clinton campaign: Hillary and cleavage and hair, oh my! by Jessica at Feministing.

I also like the take that Ann from Feministing has on the apparel issue: Hill's hills: The stuff that got edited out, an update on Ann on Hill's hills and pervy 13 year-olds.

Don't be lazy. Click the links!

Joe Biden: Stop Talking Now.

I knew there was some reason I didn't like Joe Biden. I've already forgotten what he did last year to tick me off. Thank goodness Senator Biden's latest interview with The New York Observer gave me something to complain about. Here's the stroke of brilliance that's got everybody who's anybody talking:

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said [about Senator Barrack Obama]. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Apparently Senator Biden has determined that Mr. Obama's no funky negro. I wish that fool would come up to my face and call me "articulate."

He also said some stuff about Hillary Clinton and my main man (until I find out he has done something stupid) John Edwards. But not many people care about those quotes. I do care about them, but they're not as funny as the unintentional ethnic insults. Those are the best kind. And there's more.

Last year, the Senator from Delaware let it be known that some of Joe Biden's favorite donut vendors are Indian. The words below were captured for posterity on this C-SPAN video.

“In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.”

I don't think you are joking, Mr. Biden. Now, I don't frequent the Dunkin' Donuts or 7/11 myself. However, I don't think those franchises will refuse to sell you a glazed pastry or a Big Gulp based on your intonation.