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Posts by Melissa McEwan
Krugman Has a Problem with Sanjay Gupta
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on January 7, 2009 at 10:17 AM.
I don't have a problem with Gupta's qualifications. But I do remember his mugging of Michael Moore over Sicko. You don't have to like Moore or his film; but Gupta specifically claimed that Moore "fudged his facts", when the truth was that on every one of the allegedly fudged facts, Moore was actually right and CNN was wrong.Avedon:
What bothered me about the incident was that it was what Digby would call Village behavior: Moore is an outsider, he's uncouth, so he gets smeared as unreliable even though he actually got it right. It's sort of a minor-league version of the way people who pointed out in real time that Bush was misleading us into war are to this day considered less "serious" than people who waited until it was fashionable to reach that conclusion. And appointing Gupta now, although it's a small thing, is just another example of the lack of accountability that always seems to be the rule when you get things wrong in a socially acceptable way.
Anyone who can utter that many conservative lies and talking points about single-payer/"socialized" medicine is, to put it generously, the wrong choice - and looks an awful lot like a signal from Obama that he doesn't give a damn about one of the most vital issues facing us. It's not bad enough that he said before that he doesn't support single-payer, but he clearly hasn't learned anything of value in his long period of running for president. Another "Up yours!" to the people who voted for him thinking he had to be better than this.
...I don't consider Gupta an honest voice in the healthcare discussion, and I don't think anyone should. As a medical journalist, he's not really that good - he's on TV because he says things The Villagers like, which means conservative bull.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Reported Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Way Up
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on December 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM.
A new government report showing huge increases in the incidences of domestic violence, rape and sexual assault over a two-year period in the United States deserves immediate attention from lawmakers and the incoming administration, Human Rights Watch said today. The statistics show a 42 percent increase in reported domestic violence and a 25 percent increase in the reported incidences of rape and sexual assault.
The National Crime Victimization Survey, based on projections from a national sample survey, says that at least 248,300 individuals were raped or sexually assaulted in 2007, up from 190,600 in 2005, the last year the survey was conducted. The study surveyed 73,600 individuals in 41,500 households. Among all violent crimes, domestic violence, rape and sexual assault showed the largest increases.
And these numbers reflect only reported domestic violence and sexual assaults, which continue to be the most underreported crimes.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
O'Reilly and Rove are Crazy, Say the Economic Crisis Is Just a Media Conspiracy
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on December 10, 2008 at 5:39 AM.
The economy isn't really in the shitter. It's just a liberal media conspiracy.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Impossible Beauty Standards: Jessica Alba's Airbrushed Campari Ads
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on December 9, 2008 at 10:00 AM.
If there's one thing I've always said about Jessica Alba, it's that she's fat and ugly. So it's a good thing that Campari made sure to have her photos retouched for their ad campaign instead of using her au natural.
I mean, without the retouching, her clavicle doesn't have a hope in hell of killing a man with a single shrug. Not to mention her knee looking all round and shit. What has she got on that thing -- muscle? tendons? Whatever it is, thank Maude it's gone.
And I've no idea what she was thinking having wrinkles in her clothes like that.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Iowa Court to Consider Same-Sex Marriage
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on December 8, 2008 at 4:51 PM.
Well, this could be interesting:
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday in a pivotal same-sex marriage case that could echo throughout the nation and be far more difficult to challenge at the ballot box than a high-profile ruling in California, legal experts say.The lawsuit, filed by six same-sex Iowa couples, pits believers in equality against retrofuck pantysniffs who talk complete shite. There, fixed that for you.
The lawsuit, filed by six same-sex Iowa couples, pits gay rights supporters against those who argue that gay marriage threatens traditional family values.
Among the principals in the case are Kate Varnum and Trish Varnum of Cedar Rapids. Trish changed her last name two years ago, and the couple had a commitment ceremony in 2004. But they still would like to marry.I fervently hope he is right.
"We hope that day comes sooner than later," Kate Varnum says. "I think Iowa has been ahead of the curve on civil rights. I'm proud to live here. I think Iowans are very fair minded."
The lawsuit also includes David Twombley and Larry Hoch, a couple from Urbandale, Iowa, who say they would like to marry after nearly eight years together.
Hoch casts the court battle as another step toward civil rights nationwide. "I firmly believe that it will happen," he says.
George W. Bush Is Worthless
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on December 7, 2008 at 6:48 AM.
The fucking-off into oblivion of our current lame duck of a president cannot happen quickly enough. At this point, he's essentially just some asshole who dropped a rancid fart in our vicinity and is hanging around to revel in how much it disgusts the rest of us.
With the economy deteriorating rapidly, the nation's employers shed 533,000 jobs in November, the 11th consecutive monthly decline, the government reported Friday morning, and the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent.
The decline, the largest one-month loss since December 1974, was fresh evidence that the economic contraction accelerated in November, promising to make the current recession, already 12 months old, the longest since the Great Depression.
..."We have recorded the largest decline in consumer confidence in our history," said Richard T. Curtin, director of the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers, which started its polling in the 1950s.
...[E]conomists are estimating that the gross domestic product is contracting at an annual rate of 4 percent or more in the fourth quarter, after a decline of 0.3 percent in the third quarter.
Check out the list of the most-emailed stories in the New York Times' Business Section:
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Corporate Media Just Won't Let the 'Clinton Drama' Zombie Die
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on December 4, 2008 at 10:17 AM.
Eric Boehlert makes a good observation here:
Does Hillary + "drama" = sexist coverage?Like the Campbell Brown commentary about which I posted yesterday, Boehlert's rhetorical is, of course, evident to anyone with the merest capacity for critical thought—so why, despite its being patently obvious, is he the only media critic saying it? (Or one of a precious few, anyway.) No need to answer that. There are 112 pieces linked at the bottom of this post that already do.
Or let me put it this way: Does anybody really think think that if Obama had reached out to a former, high-profile male primary opponent for a senior cabinet position that the press would be all atwitter with incessant and clichéd talk of "drama," which, let's face it, isn't a very far leap to, Hillary's a drama queen.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Odetta, 'Voice of the Civil Rights Movement,' Dies at 77
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on December 3, 2008 at 7:34 AM.
Odetta sang at coffeehouses and at Carnegie Hall, made highly influential recordings of blues and ballads, and became one of the most widely known folk-music artists of the 1950s and '60s. She was a formative influence on dozens of artists, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Janis Joplin.
Her voice was an accompaniment to the black-and-white images of the freedom marchers who walked the roads of Alabama and Mississippi and the boulevards of Washington in the quest to end racial discrimination.
Rosa Parks, the woman who started the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Ala., was once asked which songs meant the most to her. She replied, "All of the songs Odetta sings."
...[Odetta] found her own voice by listening to blues, jazz and folk music from the African-American and Anglo-American traditions. She earned a music degree from Los Angeles City College. Her training in classical music and musical theater was "a nice exercise, but it had nothing to do with my life," she said.
"The folk songs were — the anger," she emphasized.
In a 2005 National Public Radio interview, she said: "School taught me how to count and taught me how to put a sentence together. But as far as the human spirit goes, I learned through folk music."
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Does Selecting Clinton Mean Obama's Focused on Human Rights?
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on December 1, 2008 at 9:16 AM.
So Obama has officially named Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state this morning in Chicago.
I've said previously that, all things considered, all the pros and the cons, I'm happy about this selection, and I don't have much else to say about it this morning that I haven't said previously, though I'll promote from comments my note re: why Clinton may have gone for the position:
It's easy to forget (because she doesn't look it) that she's 61. She might want to retire in the not-too-distant future. It takes a long time to work your way to the top of the Senate, even if you're Hillary Clinton. It takes one nod to agree to be secretary of state -- a position which has a general life expectancy of 2-4 years.
And something I've not seen anyone else say anywhere: How many gazillions of times have we heard that Clinton only got to be senator because her husband was president? After the primary, I don't think anyone can reasonably argue (though I've no doubt some will try) that she doesn't have the foreign policy chops for State. And if she gets (and takes) the position, it's in spite of her husband (and his current business dealings), not because of him.
She may well feel like it's something she's done totally on her own steam.
As well she should.
That's not a small thing.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Black Friday Indeed: Man Trampled and Killed at Wal-Mart
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 29, 2008 at 9:58 AM.
[Blub alert, and not in a good way. I'm also going to politely request right up front that this not turn into an excuse to engage in classism because of the particular site of this event. Deadly apathy is not exclusively owned by the lower classes.]
Shaker Graham and Arkades both mentioned this in earlier threads, but it really deserves its own post:
A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.People pushed right past as the emergency crews tried to revive the worker; they also knocked down a pregnant woman who was taken to the hospital for treatment.
The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance worker, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.
Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.
"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
California to Investigate Mormons' Political Involvement With Prop 8
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 26, 2008 at 8:02 AM.
California's Fair Political Practices Commission, which oversees state campaign finance laws, will launch an inquiry after a complaint was filed on November 13:
California officials will investigate accusations that the Mormon Church neglected to report a battery of nonmonetary contributions -- including phone banks, a Web site and commercials -- on behalf of a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage.
... The complaint, filed by Fred Karger, founder of the group Californians Against Hate, asserted that the church's reported contributions -- about $5,000, according to state election filings -- vastly underestimated its actual efforts in passing Proposition 8, which amended the state's Constitution to recognize only male-female marriage.
Broadly speaking, California state law requires disclosure of any money spent or services provided to influence the outcome of an election.
... Mr. Karger's complaint paints a sweeping picture of the involvement by the church leadership, and raises questions about who paid for out-of-state phone banks and grass-roots rallies in California before the Nov. 4 vote.
"Who paid for the buses, travel costs, meals and other expenses of all the Mormon participants?" the complaint reads. "No contributions were reported."
The complaint also touches on a five-state simulcast from church leaders to Mormon congregations, as well as a Web site, preservingmarriage.org, that featured a series of videos advocating passage of the ballot measure and is labeled "an official Web site" of the Mormon Church.
...Mr. Karger said he respected the right of Mormons to vote in line with their religious beliefs, but added "if they're going to play politics, then they need to play by the rules."Indeed.A spokesperson for the church had no comment on the specific accusations, but said they would cooperate with the investigation. One hopes more readily than they complied with the law, ahem.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Meet Obama's Director of Domestic Policy Council (She's a Progressive)
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 24, 2008 at 2:35 PM.
Meet Melody Barnes.
During a press conference earlier today, President-Elect Obama announced that she has been chosen as his Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, a role that entails coordinating the domestic policy-making and -makers for the White House. As Shaker Afroacademic aptly described the role in comments, Barnes will be "the Domestic policy czar leading the Cabinet secretaries of Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Energy, Treasury, Agriculture, Transportation, Interior and Veterans Affairs on a mega-board."
A former Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, Obama introduced her today as "one of the most respected policy experts in America"--and if you check out this interview, it's easy to see why.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
On Clinton: 'Madame Secretary' Has a Nice Ring Doesn't It?
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 22, 2008 at 2:16 PM.
Clinton confidantes say that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will accept the position as the next US Secretary of State.I know, believe me I do, all the legitimate arguments for Clinton to stay in the Senate, and I know, believe me I do, all the legitimate arguments against Clinton as SoS.I even agree with many of them.But I still can't help feeling giddy at the thought of the woman who stood in front of the United Nation's 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing and said, "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all," being my Secretary of State.
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Poll: Public's Loathing of the GOP Hits All Time High
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 21, 2008 at 5:32 AM.
In the latest Gallup poll, Americans' antipathy for the GOP has increased yet again, with only 34% saying they view the GOP favorably and 61% saying they view the GOP unfavorably, "the highest Gallup has recorded for that party since the measure was established in 1992."
Couldn't happen to a nicer party.
Here's the real fun, though:
The Republican Party heads into the New Year with its brand tattered by the election after decisive losses in the 2008 presidential and congressional races. Such a defeat inevitably leads to introspection in party circles about its message going forward.
Gallup addressed this issue in the recent poll with a question asking, "Over the next few years, would you like to see the Republican Party and its candidates move in a more conservative direction, a less conservative direction, or stay about the same?"
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
Obama Taps AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano to Head Homeland Security
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on November 20, 2008 at 12:22 PM.
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has been tapped by President-Elect Obama to head the Department of Homeland Security, pending vetting.
I guess it's too much for which to hope that her first order of business will be to defang and rename the creepily fascistic DHS.
Because I don't really like this department or its (over)reach (I'm way more conservative than most conservatives on this one; leave it to them to love the federal bureau with the most Nazified name), I have what I'll call "not a good reaction" when I read stuff like:
She was the first governor to call for National Guard troops to secure the U.S.-Mexico border
as if that's a good thing.
The entire department is also a dysfunctional mess; as Steve notes: "Since its creation in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration's management of the newest cabinet agency has been a terrible mess. (A few years ago, House Democrats released a report noting that DHS set 33 clear goals for itself—and failed to meet all of them.)"
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