Go Go Go Rachel!

This was full of win. Ok, I'm in my thirties and not entirely sure what that means, but I'm pretty sure that this interview is awesome.

There's not much to say, but Rachel eloquently slammed Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, who are pretending to be a grassroots organisation campaigning against health reform. What they really are is corporate "astroturf", funded by huge corporations. He was well spoken, genial and he did very well, but Rachel went up one side of him and down the other without so much as breaking a sweat. Hot. Sorry. But it is.

Just watch. This time she asked the tough questions, and it was amazing. This so makes up for the limp Rick Berman interview.

And we're all delighted to see her back and well.

Part 1

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Part 2

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Go Ireland!

Ok, long story, short.

Government in a mess. Greens threatened to pull out, causing an election when Fianna Fail is more likely to be hanged than reelected.

So the Greens negotiate and they jointly produce a Proposed Renewed Programme for Government which the Green Party has to approve. From the whispers, it sounds like it will pass easily.

There's a lot about the economy (which I frankly do not understand) and some good stuff about cycling, more teachers, and...

If they all stick to this, I could be one very happy lesbian.

Because a bisexual character would be dirty

Last night, I was watching Criminal minds when Neal Baer, Executive Producer of Law & Order SVU, tweeted that the star of that show, Mariska Hargitay, was sitting with him. He asked for questions for her.

He got a lot of questions about her baby and her hair (she really liked those questions). She also got a lot of inevitable questions about when her character, Olivia, is going to hook up with Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler or Stephanie March's ADA Alexandra Cabot.

I suspect it wasn't Mariska, but Neal who came up with "Mariska asks: Who do you want me to make with more? Chris or Stephanie." Just historically, Mariska has never shown much eagerness to play with her lesbian fans or A/O shippers, unlike Stephanie March, who loves to tease us. And we love her teasing us.

SVU "shippers" (those who want a relationship to develop, or believe there is already a relationship, between the characters on the show) are roughly divided between those who 'ship Elliot & Olivia (E/O) and Alex & Olivia (A/O). There are other ships, but these are the two largest.

When @TheRealJackie tweeted "Both!" Neal or Mariska tweeted back

@TheRealJackie Hey now, it"s not that kind of show
Link

WTF? It's not what kind of show exactly? Not a show about a strong, bisexual cop? Or it's not that kind of show, as in... it's not porn?

Insert large loud sigh here.

Since when does bisexuality = porn?

For a show that routinely juxtaposes really hot actors and actresses in revealing clothing, with rape scenes, that statement can be taken really the wrong way.

Maybe they read it as "at the same time". And I'm hoping they did. Biphobia is uncool.

Thank you, again, Keith

Keith Olbermann on Healthcare reform

Just trust me, you need to watch this.

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Fashion Police!

Awesome.

Things to consider before attacking a man in a dress

... he might be able to take care of himself. In heels, better than you can.

Read the story here.

And watch the CCTV footage here.

Oklahoma Bill H.B. 1595

Here's a link to a .rtf version of the Bill itself.

This is the questionnaire:

Individual Abortion Form

(TO BE COMPLETED FOR EACH ABORTION PERFORMED)

1. Date of abortion _________________

2. County in which abortion performed ________________

3. Age of mother _________________

4. Marital status of mother ________________

(married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)

5. Race of mother ________________

6. Years of education of mother ________________

(specify highest year completed)

7. State or foreign country of residence of mother ________________

8. Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother ________________

Live Births _________________

Miscarriages _________________

Induced Abortions __________________

9. Approximate gestational age in weeks, as measured from the last menstrual period of the mother, of the unborn child subject to abortion _______________________________

10. Method of abortion used:

Suction Aspiration ___________

Dilation and Curettage ___________

RU 486 ___________

Methotrexate ___________

Dilation and Evacuation ___________

Saline ___________

Urea ___________

Prostaglandins ___________

Partial Birth Abortion __________

Hysterotomy ___________

Other (specify) ___________

Too early for this level of wrong

In the American state of Oklahoma, a law requiring the details of abortions to be published on a public website is set to take effect on November 1, 2009.

While HB1595 does not require the publishing of names, the questionnaire that is to be filled out certainly contains plenty of identifying details that should have Oklahoman woman fleeing the state to have their pregnancies terminated. Certainly women in rural areas will have no hope of anonymity.

And not surprisingly, the text of HB1595 contains a reference to the "Unborn child", in one of the questions women will be required to answer as part of undergoing the procedure.

I'm not sure why this is just making the rounds now, but I could have missed it back in May when it was signed into law as a "reporting [and] compliance bill" according to an anti-choice site.

And in case anyone thinks this is a thinly veiled attempt to undermine a woman's right to choose, think again. It's not veiled at all.

Representative Dan Sullivan and Senator Todd Lamb are the authors of the legislation that Lauinger says is a key to helping further reduce the number of abortions in the state.
(From LifeNews.com)

Courthouse News Service reports that two women are challenging the law.

The Oklahoma law, H.B. 1595, also changed definitions of abortion terms, used terms already thrown out by a court and barred certain procedures for the first time, according to the filing.
(From CourthouseNews.Com)

I just realised

That my very first post mentioning the amazing Rachel Maddow is all crappy and negative.

To counter that, this post will be my adoring, fawning ode to the cocktail shaking, Rhodes Scholar, AIDS activist butch with her awesome footwear choices.


First, I'll have to get all negative again and say I'm not a huge fan of the debutching of Maddow. Her MSNBC appearance reminds butch lesbians at every turn that they are not attractive enough in their own right, and that biology is indeed, destiny, regardless of brains, personality and a Rhodes Scholarship.

But before the makeup people have put sea-green eyeshadow on her eyelids and pale sixties-style lip gloss on her lips, she's brainy butchy sexy.

But most importantly, she's got smart things to say. And she says them well.

And while her critics may be sometimes right, that she takes the easy shots and sometimes fails to dig below the surface... and sometimes takes stuff out of context when it's pretty damn obvious what was meant, her investigations into fake grassroots organisations ("astroturf") and her interviews with liberals and conservatives alike are the stuff of great television. It's amazing to finally have a real queer, feminist liberal on television -- warts and all. Because at the end of the day, we liberals are ourselves -- our greatest credit and failing at the same time.

That said, I'm not sure the level of discourse I'm seeking is possible on a 5-night a week show. Rachel certainly has raised the bar.

And I can stop explaining now, because this youtube video will convince you as much as anything I can think of to say:



*swoon*

I love you Rachel, but...

... but Rick Berman wiped the floor with you last night.

He showed himself to be dressed in super PR teflon. Nothing stuck.

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You had three pages of notes in front of you during the interview. Did you really have nothing other to ask him other than who was paying him?

He said, "It costs nothing to put up a website." Somehow I don't see him with Photoshop and Dreamweaver open, putting together these websites in his spare time. He pays someone to do these. It does cost money. Even if he forks it out himself, someone paid him first.

Also, his facts are absolutely wrong. You could have attacked him on that, but you let him off, preferring to keep asking him to reveal his funding, which he is not going to do. You could have nailed him to the wall with some good research instead of letting him just sit there and grin and make very good points, while happily ignoring your questions.

This is so frustrating because you are so smart. If you weren't, it would seem inevitable, but you have more brains in your pinky finger than this guy could dream of.

I know you're pressed for time and I know it can be hard to come up with questions on the spot but for now I have some suggestions for the next time you have Rick Berman on the show.

Ask him about the medical implications of HFCS. No independent study I can locate has cleared HFCS of being a main culprit in insulin resistance and the epidemic of obesity. Only studies funded by the industry itself have made that assertion.

Ask him does he feel any guilt. Ask him how he feels, being an overweight person himself, about miseducating the general public. Ask him is he worried about diabetes.

And why wasn't he pressed on his ridiculous assertion that the average minimum wage worker has a household income of $50k? One of your viewers worked it out and tweeted that it would take two minimum wage workers working 66 hours a week, 52 weeks a year to make a combined income of $50k.

Since minimum wage workers are disproportionately women (60% of minimum wage workers are women, while we comprise only 46% of the workforce), he could be arguing that a low minimum wage is ok, because women usually have male spouses, who make more than they do. Of course single women and lesbians do not benefit from this serendipidous reality.

On most days, you would find me an adoring, fawning fan. But today, there was too much left unsaid