Posts by Laura Barcella

Laura Barcella is AlterNet's associate editor.

Alaska leading the way in femicide!
Posted by Laura Barcella on September 20, 2006 at 4:10 PM.

According to a new report by the Violence Policy Center, Alaska ranks as #1 for the rate at which women are murdered by men.

The appalling report, called "When Men Murder Women," details national and state-by-state data about female homicide.

Trailing behind Alaska (with a rate of 2.83 women killed per 100,000) are New Mexico and Wyoming (tied for second place), Lousiana with third place and Navada at number four.

Whoo hoo! Celebration time! Just kidding. It's yet another sad reminder -- just in time for October (Domestic Violence Month) that life ain't getting any simpler or safer for many women around the country.

All women, all the time?
Posted by Laura Barcella on September 13, 2006 at 4:11 PM.

GreenStone, a media company founded by Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda and other feminists extraordinaire, has just unveiled its all-women, all-talk radio network. (The first, as far as I know). The venture officially launched yesterday at Manhattan's Museum of Television & Radio.

According to Forbes' James Brady: "board members include best-selling author Gail Evans, formerly a member of CNN's executive committee; Frank Osborn, CEO of Quantum Communications; Emmy-winning anchorwoman Carol Jenkins; poet, novelist and Ms. Editor in Chief Robin Morgan; Fonda; Steinem; and Wallis Annenberg, a vice president of the Annenberg Foundation and a trustee of the University of Southern California."

As Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss writes in the Washington Post:

Steinem said the network, which is run by women, aims to provide an alternative to current radio talk, which she describes as "very argumentative, quite hostile, and very much male-dominated."

Couldn't agree more; though I am slightly put off by the way GreenStone's New York programming director Heather Cohen allegedly described the network to Forbes' James Brady:

"This is not a left-wing or feminist network." Her thesis: "AM talk radio tends to be highly political, and women don't like that."

Hmmph. OK, if you say so... Anyway, a few GreenStone broadcasts started airing in July on stations such as WIIN in Jackson, Mississippi and WXCT in Hartford, Connecticut -- and though the network only currently does nine hours of daily programming, it will soon increase to 12. The lineup features lots of comedy, including stand-up performers Maureen Langan, Cory Kahaney, and Nelsie Spencer in the morning, billed as "The Radio Ritas." Other hosts include working mom Lisa Bernbach, Mo Gaffney and Shana Wride.

More 9/11 lies
Posted by Laura Barcella on September 6, 2006 at 11:30 AM.

As you might already know, on the rapidly approaching five-year anniversary of September 11, 2001, ABC (which is, of course, owned by Disney) is slated to air a 6-hour docu-drama called "Path to 9/11."

According to Act for Change:

The film was written by an unabashed conservative who twists the facts to blame President Clinton...

ABC's new six-hour film was apparently screened in advance only to conservative bloggers and journalists -- and received extensive praise from none other than Rush Limbaugh. ABC is advertising the film as being "based on the 9/11 Commission report" -- yet also admits that it's a "docu-drama," in which writers and producers are free to invent and distort facts.

Former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke has already unequivacolly refuted one of the key scenes of the movie. In a note to Think Progress, Clark detailed the film's discrepancies:

• Contrary to the movie, no US military or CIA personnel were on the ground in Afghanistan and saw bin Laden.
• Contrary to the movie, the head of the Northern Alliance, Masood, was no where near the alleged bin Laden camp and did not see UBL.
• Contrary to the movie, the CIA Director actually said that he could not recommend a strike on the camp because the information was single sourced and we would have no way to know if bin Laden was in the target area by the time a cruise missile hit it.

You can write to ABC here, and demand they pull the film from their lineup next week. And be sure to check out this great website, Open Letter to ABC: Don't Airbush 9/11, for comprehensive info and updates about the film. From who's been writing to ABC in protest (Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Reps. John Dingell, Jane Harman, Louise Slaughter) to journalists (the Boston Globe's Suzanne Ryan, Detroit News' Mekeisha Madden Toby) who've been "duped" by the movie, there's lots here.

The truth about what happened that horrible day in September has been obscured enough as it is; if there's one thing the American public doesn't need, it's more media-spun BS about our national security and presidential accountability.

'Death of a President'
Posted by Laura Barcella on August 31, 2006 at 10:51 AM.

Wow... According to the UK Guardian, a fictional retrospective film chronicling the 2007 assassination of President Bush will air on UK television this fall.

The 90-minute, documentary-style film -- appropriately titled "Death of a President" -- will be broadcast on digital channel More4 in October:

The drama takes the form of a fictional documentary looking back at the assassination of Mr Bush in October 2007, after he has delivered a speech to business leaders in Chicago.

When Mr Bush arrives in the city he is confronted by a massive demonstration against the Iraq war and is gunned down by a sniper as he leaves the venue. The hunt for Mr Bush's killer focuses on a Syrian-born man, Jamal Abu Zikri.

Death of a President will use a combination of archive footage, CGI special effects and scripted scenes.

The film was produced by BBC2 producers Gabriel Range, Simon Finch and Ed Guiney.

Egads! That's some incendiary stuff, there. It's about time. I just wish it was running in the US... I am simply dying (pun intended) to see this film. Any British readers want to tape it for me?

Design like you mean it
Posted by Laura Barcella on August 30, 2006 at 3:00 PM.

A lovely new architecture book called Design Like You Give a Damn recently made its way onto my crowded desk. Edited by the founders of Architecture for Humanity (a grassroots nonprofit shelter group), the book features photos, interviews and articles about some of the design world's most visionary responses to homelessness, poverty and unsafe housing across the world.

Included are poignant portraits of communities like Bayview, Virginia's "Rural Village." Under the guidance of architect Maurice D. Cox and resident community leader Alice Coles, the town was transformed over the course of six years (with financial help from about 17 different funders, including a grant from local arena-rockers the Dave Matthews Band). What was once a decaying 52-family outpost with only one contaminated well as its water source has become a vibrant rural community with affordable, high-quality homes to rent and own.

Design Like You Give a Damn covers many other, equally innovative (though less publicized) initiatives by architects around the globe -- from northern Ireland to Chile, Vietnam, India, Alabama, Los Angeles and NYC. It's definitely worth picking up.

On the 13th season of 'Survivor...'
Posted by Laura Barcella on August 24, 2006 at 2:20 PM.

According to BBC News, the cast of the upcoming 13th (!) season of the reality game show "Survivor" will be divided along ethnic lines:

The contestants will be segregated into four "tribes" of blacks, whites, Asians and Latinos when the hit CBS programme returns on 14 September.

Wow. That's a cheap, calculated premise for some dramatic television goodness! On a sneaky, juvenile level, I like the idea of watching the smug white team get their asses kicked. But on another level, it just feels tacky and inflammatory -- not to mention divisive and potentially very messy -- to split the teams according to ethnicity.

I fear that sort of arrangement has the potential to create serious racial friction among viewers at home, as well as among show contestants. (I can't even imagine the dizzying array of would-be 'racialist' comments uttered from the mainstream American peanut gallery when one of the black, Asian or Latino contestants screws up, gets kicked off, or -- gasp, sigh! -- WINS.)

Organisers said they were addressing complaints that previous series had not been sufficiently ethnically diverse. "So we said, 'Let's turn this criticism into creativity,'" host Jeff Probst told CBS's Early Show. "It fits in perfectly with what Survivor does. It is a social experiment."

Yeah, a social experiment gone nuts. But maybe I'm assuming the worst, and this season won't be an invitation for an onslaught of prejudiced media coverage and racist office water-cooler talk...?

Um, maybe. Or not. As James Pritchett (director of the African Studies Center at Boston University) is quoted in the Boston Herald: "It’s all water cooler talk...What next, a show pitting Jews and Muslims and Christians against each other?"

More from the Herald:

"There is no other purpose in breaking up groups this way other than for the contestant to live up to our expectations and stereotypes," said Leigh Hallisey, an adjunct professor of pop culture and television at Boston University.

"When they divide by gender, audiences want the women to use their sex appeal and get emotional. What will they expect of ["Survivor"], the hot-blooded Latino? The athletic African American? The Asian who can outsmart the competition?"

Hallisey said she hoped contestants would "perform against type" but isn’t optimistic. "Worst case scenario? It will create more racial division and make way for copy cat shows," she said.

Discussing race is a good thing, of course, when it's done in a sensitive, informed and respectful way. But pitting ethnic groups against one another (for the shining beacon of one million bucks) just seems sleazy and sensationalistic. Which isn't all that weird, I suppose; we are talking primetime, here, people. Anyway, should be interesting to see how this plot unfolds, onscreen and off.

UPDATE: The racist water-cooler nonsense has already begun. On his show today, the ever-frightening wingnut Rush Limbaugh made this sharp commentary on the "Survivor" brouhaha: "[Y]ou're saying I'm being racist because I'm saying blacks can't swim … I mentioned the swimming comment only because it's not going to be fair if there is a lot of water competition in this. It just isn't. It is not a racial or racist comment at all."

Crikeys. Here we go...

Military recruiters raping female enlistees
Posted by Laura Barcella on August 22, 2006 at 12:49 PM.

This CBS News story about the high number of women being raped and assaulted by military recruiters is scary.

According to the piece, which is based on a 6-month AP investigation,

"more than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams."

"[The] AP investigation found that more than 80 military recruiters were disciplined last year for sexual misconduct with potential enlistees. The cases occurred across all branches of the military and in all regions of the country.

The study also determined that the misconduct usually happens at recruiting stations, recruiters' apartments or inside government vehicles.

"The victims are typically between 16 and 18 years old, and they usually are thinking about enlisting. They usually meet the recruiters at their high schools, but sometimes at malls or recruiting offices."

In response to a high number of reported assaults in Indiana (where one sole National Guard recruiter was charged with 31 counts of "rape, sexual battery, official misconduct and corrupt business influence") military officials have initiated a new policy that prevents Nat'l Guard recruiters from being alone -- anywhere -- with a female enlistee. If they are caught with a female recruit, they'll face prompt "disciplinary action."

Does this sort of preventative punishment work? According to one of the Indiana liuetenants, yes: "'We've had a lot fewer problems,' said Lt. Col. Ivan Denton."

But I agree with Feministing's Jessica -- there must be a better way to stop this kind of abuse than simply trying to force recruiters away from young girls, with the lame threat of "disciplinary action" (what exactly does that entail, anyway?). As Jessica notes, "I'm guessing if they really want to, they'll figure out a way to get these girls alone."

The most vile promotion ever
Posted by Laura Barcella on August 17, 2006 at 1:57 PM.

You've gotta be kidding me... The EWG (Environmental Working Group) summarizes the ultimate match made in hell better than I could:

This month McDonald's is giving away toy Hummers -- 42 million of them, in eight models and colors -- with every Happy Meal or Mighty Kids Meal. That's right: The fast-food chain that helped make our kids the fattest on Earth is now selling future car buyers on the fun of driving a supersized, smog-spewing, gas-guzzling SUV originally built for the military.

What the hell is wrong with these people?! Thankfully, outraged consumers (some of whom haven't set foot in a McDonalds since Fast Food Nation) are protesting this vulgar celebration of pollution, gas guzzling and greasy excess here. It's fun; you can make your own MickeyD's sign (see the one I made at right) expressing your chagrin. Then send a note to the president of McD's asking him to end this grotesque promotional marriage from hell.

How do we shatter the glass ceiling?
Posted by Laura Barcella on August 16, 2006 at 1:22 PM.

In a recent WaPo article, writer Shankar Vedantam confirms that it helps all female workers when women get hired in high-ranking management positions.

Covering the conclusions of a new Montreal sociology study, Vedentam notes that American women "earn substantially more money and narrow the long-standing gender gap in income if other women in their workplaces reach the ranks of senior management."

Interesting stuff, non? The study, based on 1.3 million American workers in nearly 30,000 jobs and 79 metropolitan areas, confirms that when women break through the proverbial glass ceiling, it sweetens the pot for other female employees.

The piece also reveals that even within the same industry or a single company, women workers are, generally, not equally represented in high- and low-profile divisions. As Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, a sociologist at CUNY, summarizes in the article, "one reason men are more likely to reach upper management, is that the express elevators to the top -- high-profile jobs -- tend to be filled with men, whereas the elevators that stop at more floors along the way tend to be filled with women."

I'm not so sure about the elevator reference, but the study is certainly food for thought; an indication that, even if we disagree with their politics (Hi, Hillary and Condi!) it's a boon for American women when female politicans are elected to high-ranking positions.

Diane Wilson: bring the troops home, fast
Posted by Laura Barcella on July 28, 2006 at 2:48 PM.

Author, activist and Texas shrimper Diane Wilson has reached the 24th day of her hunger fast to protest the war in Iraq. And she's doing it only 150 yards away from the White House, in alliance with Code Pink's Troops Home Fast.

According to the Associated Press:

Wilson, an environmental activist and co-founder of Code Pink, is one of more than 4,000 people in the United States and 22 other countries participating in the Troops Home Fast that began July 4.... Code Pink has pledged to keep the fast going until International Peace Day on Sept. 21.

But while others are participating in one-day hunger strikes or consuming juices, Wilson claims to be sticking to a water-only diet. She has shed 20 pounds from her 170-pound frame, and loose, leathery skin has replaced muscle.

"I'm all or nothing. I'm not a lukewarm person," Wilson said, explaining her refusal to modify her hunger strike. "I'm either right there with something, or I'm not there."

Meanwhile, as the Amazon withers away...
Posted by Laura Barcella on July 26, 2006 at 10:31 AM.

Cross-posted from Comment is Free.

On the heels of the harrowing heatwave gripping Britain, America and much of Europe, alarming new studies indicate that the Amazon rainforest -- in its second year of dangerous drought -- is disappearing at a much faster rate than previously suspected.

According to the Independent, the forest is "perilously close to 50 percent [gone], which computer models predict as the 'tipping point' that marks the death of the Amazon."

More:

"Studies by the [Massachusetts-based] blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down."

And what happens if the Amazon (which contains 90 billion tons of carbon dioxide) dries up completely? Um, worldwide chaos, for a start. As they die, the forest's trees release their stored, lifetime quantities of carbon -- which could gradually increase global warming up to 50 percent.

"Scientists say that this would spread drought into the northern hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively accelerate global warming with incalculable consequences...a process that might end in the world becoming uninhabitable."

Part of the problem in the famous forest is its abundance of illegal soy farming, which razes huge areas of Amazon trees. In an investigative report, Greenpeace determined that it was three soy-loving U.S. agricultural giants (ADM, Bunge and Cargill) at the heart of this destruction.

The good news? As Felicity Lawrence and John Vidal noted in the July 24 edition of the Guardian -- some major food manufacturers are finally pledging "not to use soya illegally grown in the Amazon region, in response to evidence that large areas of virgin forest are being felled for the crop." Even McDonald's has agreed not to continue buying Amazonian soy: a shockingly positive move from a generally-nauseating corporation.

What can we do to aid the Amazon, if it's not too late? (Perhaps I should have heeded the reproaches of an environmentally-friendly aquaintance and boycotted my beloved tofu, tempeh and soy protein a long time ago!) But for now, read this; sign this and this, and spread the word to your friends.

Fake feminists...
Posted by Laura Barcella on July 19, 2006 at 3:08 PM.

Hoping to catch up on one of my favorite feminist blogs, I accidentally typed "Feministing.org" instead of Feministing.com.

Oh, what a mistake! I stumbled upon a fake version of my beloved women-penned blog. The well-disguised satirical .org was, evidently, written by some creepy wingnut who summarized the "Feministing mission" thusly:

Young, middle-class, college-educated white women are rarely given the opportunity to speak on our own behalf on issues that affect our lives and futures because we're so horribly and obviously oppressed.

Feministing.org provides a platform for us to comment, analyze, whine about our unending victimization, and (best of all) COMPLAIN CEASELESSLY!

Perplexed -- thinking maybe the real Feministing had been hacked or something -- I read on. I saw a ridiculous false ad of a woman claiming "It's my right to smoke crack while pregnant!" and a kind-of funny cartoon about women who turn their "imaginary problems into real problems."

Then I read this effed-up post by, uh, "Amynda," titled "I Have Been Potentially Raped Hundreds of Trillions of Times" (rape jokes: fun for everyone!):

Rape is a cultural norm. Even though it's considered socially deviant behavior and is outlawed in every state and is regarded as one of the most heinous crimes, it's still a social norm. ...

Just the other night I was drunkenly staggering down a darkened alley in a crime-ridden, crack-dealing part of town while wearing a "FCUK ME!" t-shirt because it is my right to avoid common sense while expecting my absolute safety to be guaranteed at all times.

Suddenly, I heard a noise. I whirled-around and... there was no one. Nothing happened. But... something could have happened! I had been POTENTIALLY raped! And what, society is going to blame me, a slut, for being a potential rape victim?

I don't know what's ickier: the fact that some jerk had enough idle time to create, write, design, and publicize a nearly identical -- down to font size and style -- knock-off of a popular women's blog, or the fact that it's so hatefully chock full of unfunny lies and stereotypes. Making fun of sexism (which, yes, still exists) and rape (which, yes, still happens -- and is still not victims' fault, no matter what ludicrous imaginary 'FCUK ME' scenario you concoct) doesn't solve anything for anyone, and it does even less to help anyone take your point of view seriously.

Maybe the real women behind the real Feministing.com should take it as a compliment. Their site must be getting big -- and woman-bashing dumb-asses must be getting scared -- if somebody cared enough to launch this thing. (And yes, the Feministing ladies know about it; they posted about it in August.)

'Troops Home Fast'-ers: hungry for peace
Posted by Laura Barcella on July 10, 2006 at 4:40 PM.

Today marked the second week of high-profile peace activists' (Diane Wilson, Colonel Ann Wright, Medea Bejamin, and Dick Gregory, to name a few) "peace fast" on the White House lawn.

The historic hunger strike, which began on July 4th, was organized by women's peace group Code Pink. The fasters have met with senators, spoken to the press, and fed ice cream to the homeless to help illustrate their demand that Bush fund the poor, not the war.

In a show of solidarity, more than 3,700 supporters -- from celebrities and vets to moms and other "regular folks" -- are participating in a "rolling fast." This means they'll fast for as long as they can before "passing the fast" on to someone else. Famous fasters include Willie Nelson, Michael Franti, Danny Glover, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Gulf War vet Michael McPherson, writer Alice Walker, and labor leader Dolores Huerta.  

The group of fasters at the White House will stay put until Aug. 15, when they'll move to Camp Casey in Crawford, TX for two weeks. They will then return to Washington DC, 'til the fast ends on September 21 -- International Peace Day.

Check out TroopsHomeFast for more info on joining the fast.

The War Tapes
Posted by Laura Barcella on June 29, 2006 at 1:05 PM.

I highly recommend you check out "The War Tapes," a pretty amazing new documentary opening Friday in Berkeley, Boston, Concord (NH), SF and DC. (It's already playing in New York, but of course.)

I was blown away when I saw a preview screening the other night. The movie bills itself as "the first war movie filmed by soliders themselves." It does a great job of letting its four (very different) camera-wielding National Guardsmen relate their sometimes violent, sometimes valiant experiences, on Iraq's front lines, from their own personal perspectives. The movie also brings home the many ways that war affects families and loved ones left behind in America. As these guys' worried wives, moms, and kids remind us, it's not just soldiers who are permanently changed and affected by what happens "over there."

Watch a clip, and check out the movie when it opens near you. It's eye-opening, and definitely worth the $10...

A New Constitution for Bush
Posted by Laura Barcella on June 28, 2006 at 11:41 AM.

This is pretty hilarious. Via Massachusetts-based satire website CrystalAir:

...Donations will be accepted at www.crystalair.com during the next several months to purchase a beautifully framed copy of the Constitution that the President can proudly hang in the Oval Office.

Additionally, donors will have the opportunity to write a personal message to President Bush, which will be delivered to him along with the new copy of the Constitution. Site co-founders Christopher Adams and Richard Gray have been satirizing the President for various blunders and gaffes during his term in office and have taken note of how often Constitutional law is overlooked by President Bush and his administration.

"It's patently obvious to us that at some point, President Bush must have lost his copy of the Constitution," says Gray. "Without a good copy of the Constitution, it's easy to violate the First, Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments. It is our civic duty to our fellow Americans to take up this cause and help President Bush."

Adams notes that the campaign will serve two purposes: "To give the President a handy reference guide when making important decisions and to provide an outlet for the American people to vent by their comments and the gesture itself."