Tennessee Guerilla Women

Sexism on Daily Kos

2009-07-11T11:43:00.005-05:00

Liberal doods are sexist??

Sexism on Daily Kos: "What the FUCKING HELL do you expect me to tell my 9-year-old daughter when she's 16 and suddenly has body image issues? "Sorry, just ignore them!"? ??? Don't you people have mothers, sisters, daughters, or female friends?"

Feminist Politics Gender Misogyny Sexist Liberal Doods Sarah Palin Ann Coulter News

Erin Brockovich's New Fight: America's Worst Environmental Disaster -Tennessee (Video)

2009-07-11T11:09:00.003-05:00

Tennessee Politics TVA Worst News Environmental Disaster

Kissing at Texas Chico's Tacos Deemed Illegal 'Homosexual Conduct '

2009-07-11T10:12:00.010-05:00

From the bigoted Chico's employees who responded to a simple kiss with taunts of "faggot" to an actual police officer who claimed that "homosexual conduct" is illegal in Texas -- this reads like a script straight out of the scary 1950s:

EL PASO -- Two gay men kissed at a Chico's Tacos restaurant, prompting guards to eject them and a police officer to endorse their ouster. . In all, five men were ordered to leave the restaurant. They say they were forced out by homophobic guards.

"It was a simple kiss on the lips," said Carlos Diaz de Leon, a gay man who was part of the group. . De Leon quoted one of the guards as saying he didn't allow "that faggot stuff" in the restaurant.

De Leon said the officer told the group it was illegal for two men or two women to kiss in public. The five men, he said, were told they could be cited for homosexual conduct -- a law the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas. That same year, the El Paso City Council approved an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation by businesses open to the public. .

De Leon said he and his friends left the restaurant after an officer threatened to issue a citation for "homosexual conduct."

Contact and/or review Chico's here.
Facing South: Texas cities grapple with anti-gay bias among police
Gay Activists Protest Nixed Gay Kiss

Texas LGBT Politics Gender News Gay Homophobia Discrimination

AIDS Activists Shut Down US Capitol Rotunda Over Obama Reversal on AIDS Policy

2009-07-10T02:00:00.000-05:00

Once again, President Obama has reneged on a campaign promise. The Fierce Advocate was for a repeal of the federal ban on needle exchange before he was against it. John Aravosis reports that Obama has "banned federal funding for needle exchanges in his budget this year."

AIDS activists retaliated by chaining themselves to each other and shouting "clean needles save lives" and effectively shutting down the Capitol Rotunda (see video below). Twenty-six AIDS activists were arrested (11 men and 15 women).

The activists decried the Obama administration’s failure to make good on a range of AIDS campaign promises including his pledge: to lift the federal ban on funding syringe exchange, to fully fund lifesaving global AIDS programs, and to fully fund AIDS housing programs in this year’s budget. The activists demanded Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Congressional leadership fix President Obama’s flawed budget proposal.

Photo via Joe. My. God.

Obama Promises LGBT Politics Gender News Gay AIDS Needle Exchange

Roland Burris Will Not Run for Senate in 2010, Thank the Goddess

2009-07-10T01:53:00.004-05:00

U.S. Sen. Roland Burris will NOT seek a full term. No one will give him any money. Burris got his senate seat with the aid of his massive ego and the shady former governor Rod Blagojevich.

Roland Burris named all his children after himself and built an actual monument to himself. Other than that, the man appears to have no qualifications for the office of senator.

If Burris were a woman, she would not have been senator for one day. The media would have ripped a Ms. "Tracey Flick" Burris to pieces for the crime of possessing no qualifications other than ambition and ego.

Feminist Politics Gender Misogyny News Roland Burris Sexist Media Chicago

Sarah Palin, The Renegade

2009-07-09T12:49:00.003-05:00

Sarah Palin makes the cover of TIME magazine again and, unlike the other times, this one looks almost positive.

Palin Resignation: A Family Choice?: Thus, it’s important to note that Palin never said she was leaving office to spend more time with her children….But there’s another relevant model as well: lots of women who make a detour aren’t looking to have more time for Gymboree; they’re doing it because they want to start their own business, make their own rules, be their own boss—and this seems more Sarah’s tune.

The Outsider: Where Is Sarah Palin Going Next?: Palin's unconventional step speaks to an ingrained frontier skepticism of authority—even one's own.

Alaska Politics Gender News Sarah Palin Patriarchy

Kucinich Rips Opponent of Canadian Single Payer Health Care (Video)

2009-07-09T03:40:00.004-05:00

Dennis Kucinich takes on the right-wing Manhattan Institute for their incessant preaching about the evils of the Canadian single payer health care system (an op-ed I wrote about single payer). Dr. David Gratzer, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow was rendered almost speechless.

Health Care Politics News Single Payer Canada

Hillary Swank as Amelia Earhart (Trailer)

2009-07-08T05:33:00.000-05:00

This is almost too good to be true. Hillary Swank -- who stole my heart when she played Alice Paul in Iron Jawed Angels -- is now starring in a movie about Amelia Earhart!

Feminist Politics Gender Films Women's History News Amelia Earhart Movie

Spain Increases Paid Paternity Leave

2009-07-08T03:51:00.003-05:00

When it comes to pro family policies like paid maternity and paternity leave, the U.S. continues to fall further behind while European nations keep on advancing onward.

Euro-Weekly:

ON June 18 the Spanish parliament will rubber-stamp a new law extending paternity leave from the present 13 uninterrupted days to four weeks. This still falls short of leave for new fathers in European Union countries like Sweden, where a man whose partner has given birth is entitled to share the 16 months’ leave available to both parents. Meanwhile, to equality campaigners’ disgust, UK plans to extend fathers’ paid leave from two weeks to six months were temporarily shelved last week after the government decided that the present economic downturn was not a good moment to introduce the new legislation.

And on a related note:

The report, "Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries," finds that the U.S. is the only country among 22 countries ranked highly in terms of economic and human development that does not guarantee that workers receive paid sick days or paid sick leave. Under current U.S. labor law, employers are not required to provide short-term paid sick days or longer-term paid sick leave.

Feminist Politics Gender Social Democracy Paid Family Leave News

Michael Jackson Memorial Service Highlights (Video)

2009-07-07T15:50:00.003-05:00

Quotes from Michael Jackson's Memorial Service:

Al Sharpton pretty well said it all when he addressed Michael Jackson's children, Prince Michael, Paris and Blanket, who were sitting in the audience with Michael's parents:

"There wasn't anything strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with."

-- Rev. Al Sharpton

"Both of us needed to be adults very early, but when we were together, we were two little kids having fun ... He was caring, funny, honest, pure, non-jaded, and he was a lover of life."

-- Brooke Shields

"I just wanted to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you can imagine. I just wanted to say I love him so much."

-- Paris Katherine Jackson

"We are missing Michael Jackson. But we do know we had him, and we are the world."

-- Maya Angelou

"Being judged, ridiculed, how much pain can one take ... Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone."

--Marlon Jackson

Brooke Shields Talks About her Friendship with Michael

Resolved, That the House of Representatives

(1) recognizes Michael Jackson as a global humanitarian and a noted leader in the fight against worldwide hunger and medical crises; and

(2) celebrates Michael Jackson as an accomplished contributor to the worlds of arts and entertainment, scientific advances in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, and global food security.

The full resolution which details some of Michael's long long list of charitable works.

Donate to Michael Jackson Fans Against Peter King (R-NY)

Michael Jackson Humanitarian 1958-2009 News Memorial Service Brooke Shields Defeat Peter King

Michael Jackson Fans Against Peter King (R-NY)

2009-07-07T06:53:00.000-05:00

Ignoring the fact that Michael Jackson was found innocent of all charges, Peter King (R-NY) called the recently deceased King of Pop "a pervert', "low-life", and "a pedophile."

In response to Peter King's (R-NY) horrifically disrespectful remarks, fans of Michael Jackson are now raising money to defeat the callous lowlife Republican.

Over the weekend, King said that the media had gone far over the top in glorifying Jackson, who he deemed a "low-life" pervert who "may have been a good singer" and "did some dancing."

Now, an ActBlue fundraising site has been set up by "A fan of Michael Jackson" titled "Michael Jackson Fans AGAINST Peter King."

"Peter King ought to let Jackson rest in peace, and focus on the needs of his constituents. As we mourn the loss of an American legend, political grandstanding is not what we need right now!" the page reads. "Fans of Michael Jackson and his legacy stand united against Peter King's hateful words. Please donate here to show Peter King that true MJ fans won't stand for the smearing of a pop sensation!"

Michael Jackson 1958-2009 News Politics Defeat Peter King New York

Despite Obama's Wishes, Lefty Groups Will Not Fall in Line on Health Care

2009-07-06T14:36:00.005-05:00

The Washington Post recently reported that Obama wants lefty groups to stop criticizing conservative Democrats for their failure to get behind the public health care option. We should just settle for whatever our elected representatives choose to give us.

Greg Sargent reports that said groups are most definitely not listening to Obama. And one group -- Progressive Change Campaign Committee -- is responding to Obama's desire for lefty critics to shut-up by actually purchasing more ads attacking moderate Democrats.

Get your name on this ad:

Health Care Politics Obama News Public Option Conservative Democrats

Paul Begala: Another Sexist Democrat

2009-07-06T12:40:00.002-05:00

Sexist Quote of the Day

… As Hunter [S. Thompson] said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Sarah Palin makes Mark Foley, the congressman who sent filthy emails to pages look almost normal. She makes David Vitter, the senator who was hanging out with hookers, look almost boring. She makes Larry Craig, caught hitting on a cop in a men’s room, look almost stable. She makes John Ensign, the senator who was having an affair with a staffer, look almost humdrum (and compared to the rest of the GOP whack-jobs, he is). And she makes Mark Sanford, the governor with the Latin lover, look positively predictable. …

--Paul Begala, CNN political commentator
(providing Insight From the Sexist Left)
& former counselor to President Clinton

In the entire history of this nation, Sarah Palin is only the second woman to make it on to the presidential ticket of a major political party. For that crime, Paul Begala compares the woman to men who have been caught in sex crimes. Like countless men before him, the high profile Democrat calls the ambitious woman a prostitute, a whore. That'll teach her to take a man's job! Paul Begala, liberal commentator for CNN, speaks for the Left. I've been on the Left all my life, yet this vile sexist Democrat doesn't speak for me.

via Ann Bartow at Feminist Law Professors

Feminist Politics Gender CNN Misogyny News Sarah Palin Patriarchy Media Sexist Democrats

The Distraction of Hating Sarah Palin (Video)

2009-07-06T00:45:00.001-05:00

Alaska Politics Gender News Sarah Palin Patriarchy

The Krugman Blues (Video)

2009-07-05T20:05:00.002-05:00

Cute and funny too, especially so for those of us who are Paul Krugman fans.

via Conscience of a Liberal

Lefty Politics Humor News Paul Krugman Liberal

Palin Sexism Watch: CNN's Rick Sanchez Has Biology on His Mind (Video)

2009-07-05T16:10:00.002-05:00

Like Andrew Sullivan, Rick Sanchez has Sarah Palin's body on his mind. The CNN anchor suggests that Sarah Palin resigned her governorship because she is pregnant. Because women can't chew gum and walk at the same time.

Since the beginning of patriarchy, the idea that women can't hold important jobs because of biology has served as the number one justification for keeping women at home or stuck in menial poverty-wage jobs. Never mind that this absurd suggestion defies everything we know about Sarah Palin.

Only a few short decades ago, women were openly fired for the crime of being pregnant in public. If Sarah Palin was actually pregnant, the sicko jokes about pregnant women that would ensue would naturally be Sarah's fault because she would be exploiting her unborn babe by walking around in public while pregnant. (And sicko Andrew Sullivan still can't fathom why Sarah Palin kept her last pregnancy a secret.) Or in the absurd words of patrarichy-defender Josh Marshall, Sarah Palin would be using her unborn babe "to garner more publicity and keep herself in the spotlight."

Feminist Politics Gender CNN Misogyny News Sarah Palin Patriarchy Media Ghetto Journalism

FBI Agent: Palin Not Under Investigation

2009-07-05T13:07:00.002-05:00

"There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we're investigating her or getting ready to indict her," Special Agent Eric Gonzalez said in a phone interview Saturday. "It's just not true." He added that there was "no wiggle room" in his comments for any kind of inquiry.

Alaska Politics Gender News Sarah Palin Patriarchy Media Ghetto Journalism

Palin Attorney Threatens to Sue Bloggers and Mainstream Media for Defamation

2009-07-05T13:00:00.002-05:00

Governor Palin suggested in her resignation speech that she is quitting in order to better defend herself and her family. It looks like the woman is serious.

The day after her resignation, Palin's legal counsel issued a very strong warning to media outlets on the subject of the 24/7 defamation of Sarah Palin.

Attorneys named the Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post. If a lawsuit is what it takes, I'm all for it. Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to media outlets that are in too big of a hurry to publish to bother with little things like fact-checking. That's why it's called the Misinformation Age. The interesting thing about this kind of lawsuit is that the evidence of lies and gossip passing for journalism is everywhere.

From Palin's attorney:

[S]everal unscrupulous people have asserted false and defamatory allegations that the “real” reasons for Governor Palin’s resignation stem from an alleged criminal investigation pertaining to the construction of the Wasilla Sports Complex. . Just as power abhors a vacuum, modern journalism apparently abhors any type of due diligence and fact checking before scurrilous allegations are repeated as fact. . .

To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as “fact” that Governor Palin resigned because she is “under federal investigation” for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation. This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law. The Alaska Constitution protects the right of free speech, while simultaneously holding those “responsible for the abuse of that right.” Alaska Constitution Art. I, Sec. 5. http://ltgov.state.ak.us/constitution.php?section=1. These falsehoods abuse the right to free speech; continuing to publish these falsehoods of criminal activity is reckless, done without any regard for the truth, and is actionable.

MSNBC: Reporting Rumors

Feminist Politics Gender News Sarah Palin Patriarchy Media Ghetto Journalism

Happy 4th & About Nashville's Fireworks Celebration

2009-07-04T17:00:00.000-05:00

Nashville's 4th of July celebration is, as usual, downtown at Riverfront Park. The fireworks start at 9:03pm (bridges close at 7:30pm!).

Not that I have anything against things that look and sound like bombs bursting in the air, but I'll be staying home and hiding under the desk with the family pets.

Wynonna will be there, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Nashville Symphony.

Road and bridges that will be closed info is here (pdf).

Nashville Fourth of July Tennessee News

The Sicko Attacks on Sarah Palin's Baby

2009-07-04T00:25:00.005-05:00

If the price of breaking into male dominated politics is that women must endure sicko attacks on their children, even babies, I’m guessing we won’t be making much progress until women stop having children.

People who make these attacks excuse them with the absurd claim that it's okay to trash children when politicos bring their kids out on the national stage. According to this sick theory, appearing with your children during a political campaign makes your children fair game. Maybe that only applies if you are a woman.

In her resignation speech, Sarah Palin referred to the attacks on her special needs baby. Anderson Cooper says he hasn't heard of any such attacks. So maybe Sarah is making it up?

The latest attacks include gross photo-shops of baby Trig, begun by a "progressive" Alaskan blogger (Linda Biegel) and carried forward by blogs like Wonkette. More recently is a story at Huffington Post that calls Trig "retarded" (scroll down for screenshots of the sicko attacks, this is not HuffPost!.)

I thought we stopped abusing children with names like "retarded" back in the 1970s.

Feminist Politics Gender News Sarah Palin Patriarchy Equal Representation for Women

Palin's Resignation: Political Masterstroke Or Extreme Mental Instability of a Castrating Bitch?

2009-07-03T20:59:00.006-05:00

If you pegged Josh Marshall as a believer in the latter, you've been paying attention. The good news is that unlike the Huffington Post, Marshall doesn't call Palin's baby retarded (scroll down for screenshots of attacks on Trigg).

Josh Marshall:

As David noted below, many commentators have taken little more than an hour to proceed from slack-jawed bewilderment to belief that Sarah Palin's unexplained resignation may be a political masterstroke. .

Palin insiders told Andrew [sic] Mitchell that Palin was "out of politics for good." But she told the Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association that she's resigning to campaign for more candidates in the continental US, work on her book, all with an eye to gearing up for her run for president in 2012. Call me cynical but it seems hard to reconcile those two explanations. . .

Either Palin is resigning ahead of some titanic scandal (which should emerge in short order if it exists) or her resignation was triggered by an even more extreme mental instability than we'd previously suspected.

This from the man who once suggested that Hillary was a castrating bitch out to "geld" her chief campaign strategist.

Geld, v. -- To castrate; to emasculate
To cut off the testicles, to castrate a male

Photo: June 30, 2009, AP

Runner's World

Feminist Politics Gender News Sarah Palin Alaska

Breaking: Governor Sarah Palin Will Resign!

2009-07-03T14:03:00.008-05:00

Update: CNN has changed the story. Now they are reporting that Governor Sarah Palin is about to resign!

Update #2: Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she will resign her office in a few weeks. This appears to rule out the possibility of her running for president. I mean quitting your job as governor is not exactly the usual route to the White House. Yeah, I know, there is nothing usual about Sarah Palin. I wonder if something else is behind this decision. Scandal coming? Or problems in the family that she would prefer to keep private? No doubt she's sick and tired of the relentless misogyny and vulture media attacks on her family -- the tried and true method of keeping women out of politics.

CNN is reporting, as I write, that Sarah Palin will announce today that she will Not run for a second term as Alaska's governor.

It sounds like the Governor is planning to give the GOP dull boyz some competition for the 2012 nomination. That's assuming there are any GOP boyz left standing free from the stigma of a sex scandal by 2012.

I don't know how Sarah Palin can take the tsunami of misogyny that is surely coming, but if anyone can, she can.

Feminist Politics Gender News Sarah Palin Patriarchy

Nellie McKay: Feminists Don't Have a Sense of Humor (Video)

2009-07-03T01:40:00.003-05:00

Yet more creative resistance. . .

Feminist Politics Gender News Jon Stewart Patriarchy

Kristen Schaal on the Burka Ban (Video)

2009-07-03T01:00:00.002-05:00

Feminist Politics Gender News Jon Stewart Patriarchy

Debbie Rowe to Fight for Custody of Paris & Michael Jackson Jr.

2009-07-02T13:50:00.005-05:00

The media gets its wish. The Michael Jackson story is set to go on for years.

TMZ: Debbie Rowe will fight for custody of Paris and Michael Jr., the children born during her marriage to Michael Jackson -- this, according to NBC 4 in Los Angeles.

According to the NBC 4 website, Rowe said during a 90-minute phone conversation, "I want my children."

Rowe says she will seek a restraining order to keep Joe Jackson away from the children.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009 News