"...In the year since the last election the president has made concession after concession to drug and insurance companies, to private health care providers and their lobbyists. The White House, establishment Democrats and their echo chambers in the corporate media and even on the internet have worked hard to suppress voices advocating the simple, practical and elegant solution of single payer Medicare For All, which is still favored in polls by a substantial majority of Americans..." -- Bruce A. Dixon at Black Agenda Report, 11/4/09

The rest is here. I've been generally grateful for BAR's stalwart coverage of this farce, at a time when there's little connected with "healthcare" that requires any link-up with the word "grateful."

The only people who could possibly be surprised that poor women got yet another slap in the face from the "public servants" who brought us welfare "reform" in the 1990s are people who aren't smart enough to tie their own shoes unassisted.

But remember: if you don't like this plan, you're an icky evil Right-winger who watches FOX! Just like anyone who didn't like the war on the last go-round was an icky terrorist-hugging smelly hippie! Wheeee!!

From the Stop Me... link about Gitmo:

...So Mr Obama has sorta-kinda fulfilled one campaign promise: the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp is to be closed. Within... a year. How we would laugh at some foreigner seeking our approval with this kind of initiative. Ahmadinejad: Okay, I'll stop hanging gay guys.... Next year. But this year -- hoo-ha! Line 'em up and keep 'em coming!

Why it should take a year is a question of some interest. I am not the greatest administrator in the world, but I do believe I could do it in a week, or a weekend, given the resources available to a president of the US...
-- Michael J. Smith 1/22/09

From a thread at The Distant Ocean:

Zionists would do well to consider that the loudest American exponents of zionophilia can and do switch over to judeophobic demonization without missing a beat. They'll do it en masse the minute their leaders no longer consider Israel useful. Those leaders care for nothing but power in their own bailiwicks. History is very clear on that and on the utility of one elite to another; in particular those elite who make support for them a galling, expensive proposition.
-- "Harold M., 1/17/09, from the comments.

I apologize for reverting to type like this, but the library didn't cough up anything good and sequential for me to read this week. You know how it is... :o

"...The Warren invitation is vintage Obama. Like Bush, Obama believes that he is the decider and that opinions differing from his own are to be ignored. Unlike Bush, he is savvy enough to pretend otherwise, and his smooth talking feel goodism fools many into maintaining a vow of silence about anything he does. The Warren invitation is yet another instance of the patronizing Obama telling the left that they shouldn't worry their pretty little heads about anything that he decides is inconsequential..."

-- Margaret Kimberley Black Agenda Report, 12/31/08

Yeah, I can't wait for the next bleating from wherever about how it's not Right-wing for Obama to pal around with this jaggoff. OTOH, it IS Right-wing of me to be less than thrilled about the impending coronation and what's likely to come afterward. Ho hum.

Meanwhile, play those Etheridge discs real loud, or whatever helps... I guess. :/

"...Must be a cry in defense for all humanity.

If it is used to justify brutality against others, it makes us no better than our past oppressors."

-- Original source of quote unknown, but I borrowed it from a Gaza demo photo linked to here by sadie_sabot.

Thanks, Ma'am.

Dear F*ck-Happy Spambots/Purveyors of Fine Internet Viruses,

If you want to dupe me into opening that drivel you keep putting in my mailbox, you might want to use a more imaginative sender name than "me." Just a thought.

Really, I love the hell out of unbridled free enterprise and regressive visions of human sexuality. Not to mention endless garbled/misspelled/grammatically unsound euphemisms for sex. Not to mention secular humanist evangelicals doggedly trying to shove crap in my face that I don't want every twenty-four hours or so;Proving conclusively that what both religious and post-religious proselytizers have in common is that A) They have no respect for personal boundaries, B) They love money more than anything and C) They hate women more than anything else.

Still, you're not really putting your back into it, considering the overall competitiveness of your field, along with the ever-worsening economy.

Also, Paris Hilton deshabille' ? Please. That's so two years ago. Besides, Supergirl[tm] wears less than that on the JLU disc I just got from MegaMovieRentalsCorp. At least JLU has buildings exploding and warmed-over butt-rock guitar solos and stuff. Bet you don't, you pea-brained misers. [raspberry]

My feelings are hurt. It's like you're not even trying, anymore. :(

Sincerely,

ms_xeno

Via SleptOn:

What Obama Might Say To White Fathers

..."Perhaps the disinterest of white parents in education is the reason that white twelfth graders are only half as likely as black twelfth graders to have perfect attendance. Remember how I told black parents that ‘parents have to parent, that children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.' It is time for white mothers and fathers to act black, to switch off American Idol and help their children with homework, to make sure that unless their children are sick with the mumps they are sitting in their homeroom at 8 AM ready to learn. According to the Departments of Education and Justice, instead of studying attentively in school, your white children are more likely than black ones to bring a weapon there. It's up to white fathers to tell their sons, those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we give glory to achievement, self respect, and hard work.

"Now I know that racism is your usual opiate, I know that you take comfort in attributing dysfunction to black and brown hip hoppers, baby mamas, and thugs, but as the above statistics show it is young white men and women who are more likely to engage in a plethora of destructive and often criminal behaviors. Clearly you, white parents, need to stop being shiftless and take care of your responsibilities. You are failing your children..."

--Shannon Joyce Prince, 7/18/08

[snerk]

Oh, God. It hurts.

...I would like to enhance Kennedy's famous words on this 4th of July when the country sets off on another celebration of gross militarism and the deaths of millions of people while we never pay tribute to our First Nation peoples who were exterminated so white Europeans could despoil a beautiful land. My new proposal for the 21st C. is:

Ask not what humanity can do for you, but what you can do for humanity...

...WE need to open our eyes and not blindly follow politicians because of the letter that goes after their names on the ballot. In almost every case this election season since the presumptive nominees have been declared, it has been very difficult to distinguish the D from the R. WE should be demanding more from politicians and not allow the lowest common denominator to grovel and pander his way into the oval office, again. Haven't we had enough?

What WE can do for humanity right now is break our individual ties to War, Inc. WE have to educate our children that politicians like Obama just want them to do the dirty work of War, Inc and have no feelings or compassion for their cannon fodder or the families of the cannon fodder who will be mourning instead of celebrating this weekend...

-- Congressional Candidate Cindy Sheehan, from a column called "Ask Not What," posted at After Downing Street, 7/3/08.

Meanwhile, Laura Love puts the color back in Bluegrass.
( A capsule history and some sweet sounds, too. )

Play safe with those explosives.

I try to get down to the KBOO Book & Record Sale every year. This morning I showed up at the usual time, fortified with homemade iced coffee;Only to be loftily informed by some smug brat in ringlets that they had a new rule: If you were a paying member of the station, you could get in at opening time for first crack at the donated goods. Otherwise, you could wait outside for an hour, like as a second-class citizen.

I stood there for a moment or two, pondering how I was a member of the station for several years before my income took a steep dive from which it has never recovered. Also how I'd told so many people out of state what a community asset the station was. I thought about all the goods I'd donated to their sales over the years and all the goods I'd purchased as well. I thought about the art I'd donated to them for use in their newsletter late last year;The art they'd never returned to me as they'd promised to.

I told Mr. Ringlet that I'd go spend my cash, such as it was, at the online Megalo-Marts, since it was clear that his station didn't want it.

( It's *Still* Money That Matters )

Blame mechmuertos. The other day, he had a thread with a link about actual human women dressing up as DC Comics' Wonder Woman. Naturally this led to me needling him about how it would be more entertaining to see a bunch of guys dressed up as Wonder Woman. Soon afterward, a friendly search engine assisted me in locating artist Timberoo's computer rendering of "Wonder Man", which originally... uh, sprang from here (see pg. 6).

At one time, I was a totally obsessive fan of superhero comics, though I could see well enough that they were the ultimate embodiment of the male gaze[tm]. The dissymmetry between depictions of male and female characters was patently obvious even without a cool name. My amusement at/annoyance over same became a constant white noise that endures in my reptilian she-brain to this day. It's not as if the rest of the world, much less the superhero comics themselves, have gotten any better in this regard. If anything, it's all gotten even worse, she said-- herself sounding like Grandpma Simpson. Or like the only superheroine still worth paying attention to.

Thus I'm highly amused at/annoyed with the inevitable manly male commentators in the CBR thread who are all upset because (gasp !) in Timberoo's art you can see that the men have naughty bits!!! Poor, silly fanboys. My heart bleeds for you. Don't you get how EMPOWERING it is being dressed up in a thong and thigh-high boots ? Tsk tsk. Such prudes you are.

P.S.-- Of course I still remember that Marvel Comics really does/did have a character called Wonder Man. Yeesh. I'm not THAT old.

P.P.S.-- The poor, poor fanboys scarred for life by Timberoo's imaginary renderings of fictional characters really, really don't want to click on THIS creative visualization of "Wonder Woman." I found it here, because I live to serve.

An oldie (in blog-time) but a goodie:

...For a number of reasons I perceive hope as detrimental to our sanity and survival. First, I have no interest in “taking back America” because the America to which most left-liberals refer when mouthing this empty slogan is not an America that I want back. I want no part of “lesser evils” and political parties that collude in the demise of the nation, the planet, and its inhabitants. As long as any of us “hopes” for the return of that America, we delude and infantilize ourselves, waiting like toddlers for the appearance of Santa Claus. Tragically, the plump, jolly St. Nicholas the left longs to have back is not a pal, but a predator who delivers economic, environmental, social, and spiritual devastation in packages with more appealing gift-wrap...

-- Carolyn Baker, 3/20/06, Killing Hope, Enlivening Options.

Sorry. I awoke full of plans today for posting something somehow relating to current events*, somewhere. But frankly this week already reeks like rotten eggs and I'm not up for it. So here's some Irma Thomas singing "Back-Water Blues" (accompanied by Allen Toussaint in 2006) instead.



She knows what she's singing about. (Link to a news clip from 2005.)

Also here's a link to Thomas' home page. Lots of goodies for sale. You know you wanna' go. ;)

*All right. Never mind.
( Irma makes a liar of me, and strangely I'm perfectly okay with that. )

However, it may momentarily brighten up your lunch hour[sic]. It sure as hell has done wonders for mine.

"I hope to God that poor fretful Bob Herbert [of Times fame] is finally right about one thing -- namely, that the pastor is not going away."

...In the neighborhoods and communities where Wright and his colleagues and predecessors have worked for decades -- we might even say, for a couple of centuries -- they've been anything but invisible. In fact, they've been indispensable. But in the social representation sold by the "corporate media" -- as Wright quite correctly calls them -- the Wrights are merely a curiosity when they're noticed at all.

That has all changed. Obama may or may not be toast after this brouhaha, and I for one couldn't care less, one way or the other. But the lasting legacy, let's hope, is that Jeremiah Wright and what he has to say are once again on the agenda.

Dr King and Malcolm put some of these topics on the table, back in the day. Then they got killed, and Malcolm was shoved into the footnotes of official history, while King suffered the equally dire fate of plaster sainthood... -- Michael J. Smith at Stop Me Before I Vote Again, 4/30/08

( Your choice of chips or a cookie, behind the cut )

IOW, The Crank would really love it if you'd all just stop prattling to her about Obama and forwarding her the front-runner's confection du jour. She's queasy enough as it is.

Save your teeth by chewing on this for a spell instead.

...Every year, the National Urban League publishes a study, "The State of Black America," in which the ills and disparities that persist in this country are catalogued. Every year, the story is basically the same. The United States has a way to go that only public policy can address. However, when Harvard University/The Kaiser Family Foundation did a study on White attitudes about race several years ago, it found that Whites have little appreciation for the reality of Black life in America, from police harassment and intimidation, to imprisonment, to family income, unemployment, housing, and health care. But without an appreciation of the reality faced by many of our fellow Americans, the necessary public policy initiatives to change those realities will find difficulty gaining acceptance in the public discourse...

...I am glad that candidate Obama mentioned the existing racial disparities in education, income, wealth, jobs, government services, imprisonment, and opportunity. Now it is time to address the public policies necessary to resolve these disparities. Now it is time to have the discussion on how we are going to come together and put policies in effect that will provide real hope and real opportunity to all in this country... -- Cynthia McKinney, 3/18/08

Frankly the only good thing The Crank could see coming from all this Obama worship would be a mass rejection of all things Democratic. Should Iron Lady II manage to finagle a win for herself at the convention, despite her obvious inability to communicate with desperate people as readily as Senator Pastry Chef does, it could happen.

The Crank places a very special emphasis on the word "could." For all their accusations that the GOP is the "fear party," it's likely that McCain will be a very effective vehicle for Democrats to flog each other with their very own special version of the tactic. Hell, it's inevitable. If there's one thing Democrats love to do, it's shouting from the rooftops every ten minutes to anyone who'll listen about how very FEARful they are of McCain or whomever. Only to scratch their heads five minutes later and wonder why this openness about their fears does not make their leaders behave towards them in a more respectful manner.

Oh, never mind. Can I have a piece with more frosting ? Oh, and a scoop of gelato, Please ? Somebody has to put the dentists' kids through college, right ?

I wonder how far Obama is willing to go with this collective punishment idea. Obviously, denying Palestinians access to food and medicine isn't intended to directly prevent the missile attacks (unless Obama lives in a magical world in which missiles are constructed of pita bread and fueled by aspirin). So the only "strategy" here is to inflict enough pain on the Palestinians to cause them to rethink their support of Hamas.

But if it's really about bringing the pain to people who aren't attacking Israel, in the hope they'll turn on the guys who are attacking Israel, then why stop with cutting off food? Why not give them food, but put poison in it? Too extreme? Okay, how about putting something in the food that gives them really, really bad stomachaches? I mean, they have to be shown there's a cost for their "support" of terrorists, right?

And can anyone think of a historical example where a "strategy" of this sort actually worked? Where it didn't cause people to rally around exactly the leadership we don't want them to support? Did the blitz cause Londoners to turn against Churchill, did 9/11 cause Americans to turn against Bush?

But sometimes I forget, they're not like us. -- "Steve B," as quoted by John Caruso 1/25/08.

The Distant Ocean is always a good read. The thread that inspired this quote is right before it.

I had somebody comment in my direction earlier today that, well, of course Obama has to take a hard line with the Palestinians so he can remain (cough) "viable." Ah, yes. The eternal argument that a guy who lies to you to get the job will magically stop lying once he has it safely secured for four years. Pull my other one, True Believers.

( If you can't abide my shit attitude yet again, you'll just have to peek behind the cut for this week's music segment. )

Now I'm going to have some more coffee and some more headache powder. I've fucking earned it.

A (clumsy) transcription*, and one I've posted before on other people's pages/boards. But to me it never gets stale.

June Jordan (1936-2002):
Freedom Now Suite, Pt. 1
-----------------------------

The King was marching through the Mississippi mud
The King was moving towards a land of milk and honey

Honey people murder mercy USA
The milk-land turned to monsters
Teach to kill to violate
Pull down destroy the weakly freedom growing fruit from being born

( America )

*Via June Jordan's excellent collaboration with pianist Adrienne Torf.

Lots of other info on Jordan available here.

Loyalty oaths are a crock of shit. Almost as bad as the kind you have to consciously sign are the ones you find you'd unconsciously signed. You think you've found a friendly lodging where at least a few people will share your quirks and then just like that, you realize that you can't live there any more.

I've bailed on debunkingwhite. I've learned a lot from the space and made what I think are some valuable connections. Maybe you folks who I've connected with will now be done with me, too. Well, that's your right. But frankly I can't abide all the pro-Obama hype over there and the subliminal fine print that seems to say that nobody can be a committed anti-racist unless they want to genuflect before the glory of Obama. I don't genuflect before Democrats. I think the party is a loathsome pile of shit that more or less gave Bush a blank check to do whatever the fuck he wanted. Which includes continuing to wage both a global and domestic race war that's plenty vicious even if it doesn't quite measure up in clarity to the baroque fantasies of villain-du-jour, Ron Paul. I don't sign loyalty oaths to any Democrat, in the name of any cause, anywhere. For that reason and many, many others.

You are good people doing important work. In some ways I wish I was more like you, but not in this way. It infuriates and grieves me to see you falling for a charlatan from a party teeming with charlatans. I just don't, in my heart of hearts, believe that he gives a damn about the things you give a damn about. I think he's a user running with other users. More anger and more grief is something I don't need to seek out deliberately, as it finds me on its own most of the time. I've been through this before. I've been the "bad feminist," the "bad Unionist," the "bad Jew," etc. because I left the DP and refuse to come back. Life goes on.

...If people ask me why I have to roam
I say that 90% of all accidents occur in the home...
-- Peter Case

( Stolen Moments from the Anti-Divine Madman )
[Cross-posted, w/minor alterations, to Mo Betta Meta]

I hope your morning coffee's not Starbucks. Ewwww...

"...Technically, a claim of fair use asserts not that a particular
copyright infringement should be allowed, but that the use is not an
infringement at all. The U.S. Constitution states that the purpose of
copyright is to promote the progress of science and 'useful arts.' It's great
in theory, but in practice copyright law is often used as a weapon against
those who view so-called intellectual property as anything less than sacred..."

The above and what follows (up until you get to the six dancing asterisks) are artist/writer/graphic designer Sean Tejarachi's take on the Constitution's points regarding fair use. ( I borrowed them from a 1997 edition of his zine, *Craphound.* )

And here's the do-over. Much repainting and re-coloring. Also Free Transform of the text. The filter is a medium percentage of "Artistic: Dry Brush," which gives a nice stony quality to the coffee beans. I was originally aiming for that vintage poster look*-- and missed it by a country mile. The doctored version is a little better, though:



Once I made the man a redhead (with the help of a few brushes), it was necessary to change his skin tone. "Command-U" took care of that pretty well, but it's strange by the standards of either current or old-time advertising. In which even White couples usually feature a darker male figure than female. Just as the male is/was usually taller and older.

It only occurred to me recently that the figures look like they're prone rather than standing. (In the original illustration, they were embracing in front of an Xmas tree.) So this may be the dirtiest card I've posted, to date. Well, not involving cold cuts or anything else overtly phallic. [skulks off in shame]

*Though not this poster in particular. I'd never seen it before today. Honest.

The variation, with some adjustments to type locale, color, skin, and hair. Also the "Pixelate: Fragment" filter.



In case I've never mentioned it before (or in case you've never looked), there's a recurring motif in women's mags of the opulently stocked, hyper-stuffed refrigerator. It's sort of a plug-in cornucopia-- juxtaposed with whatever the diet-du-jour is. This has been true for, well, forever. So far as I can tell.

The re-working:



"Artistic: Paint Daubs," at a medium setting, on the pink "ice cream." Fill, Blur, and Smudge were used to smooth out some of the figure and the borders. The type is kind of haphazard but I didn't alter it much, because I'm stubborn that way. Though there's some color adjustment, and line redrawing using Polygonal Lasso. The vintage early 1970s doll hair was made a little more symmetrical through the magic of Cut/Copy/Paste. Yeah, the 1970s. I got away with it because the source didn't appear to have changed its aesthetics all that much since at least the first year of Eisenhower's term, aside from switching from B&W to color photography.

This card belongs to the one and only cool bean, aka radicalbean. Champion feminist, Walter the Tabby's favorite guest human and one groovy cat all around.