Wednesday, May 21, 2008

‘…he looks just like Curious George’ (9:40 am)

And the award for the most egregiously racist Obama campaign contribution goes to… Mike Norman, owner of Mulligan’s Bar and Grill in Marietta, Ga., who’s been selling t-shirts depicting Barack Obama as a banana-peeling monkey.

Thankfully, Norman picked a monkey - beloved children’s book icon Curious George - that will likely inspire a lawsuit from its owner, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. We can only hope.

Norman should also win an award for this year’s most transparently false denial:

About a dozen protestors rallied against the shirts Tuesday afternoon, condemning them as racist and asking Norman to stop selling them.

Norman acknowledged the imagery’s Jim Crow roots but said he sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey.

“We’re not living in the (19)40’s,” he said. “Look at him … the hairline, the ears — he looks just like Curious George.”

(Hat tip to Frank Schneider.)

posted by Jeremy Gantz | 1 comment

Monday, May 19, 2008

Late Day Links (1:43 pm)

1) Clinton campaign surrogates allegedly offer $1 million in bribe money for the two superdelegate votes of the Young Democrats for America. Maybe this is just behind-closed-doors business as usual, but this sounds pretty sordid to me.

2) Via Spencer Ackerman, this fascinating L.A. Times story explains how the global food crisis is making Islamic fundamentalist groups that provide social services and food aid increasingly popular, particularly since many Middle Eastern nations have been following the neoliberal economic model that privileges guns over butter. That hasn’t worked out well in the past.

3) Robert Farley on the comforting fantasies of intervening militarily in Burma.

4) Brian Beutler has a nice piece in the Nation on John McCain’s record of voting against VA improvements.

5) Finally, Chris Hayes shoots a giant fish in a tiny barrel. A related question: If columnist Kathleen Parker were a fish, what type of fish would she be? I think it’s pretty obvious she’d be some type of deformed deep sea fish (safely removed from the nurturing light of reason), but would she be a humpback anglerfish? A cookiecutter shark? A viperfish? I’m open to other nominations.

posted by Brian Cook | start the discussion

Friday, May 16, 2008

“I waterboarded myself” (8:46 am)

A few highlights from the House-passed bill to fund military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring:

—Require intelligence officials [to] adhere to the Army field manual for interrogations; this requirement essentially would ban waterboarding. In this technique, a prisoner is strapped down and his mouth is covered with plastic or cloth. Water then is poured over his face. The prisoner quickly begins to inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.

—Block new Bush administration regulations that would cut federal spending on Medicaid health care for the poor and disabled by $13 billion over the next five years.

Both the ban on waterboarding and the effort to block Medicaid funding cuts come at an opportune moment for this young man:

Now, we can all breathe a little easier - provided the bill survives the Senate. And a veto. Right.

posted by Matthew Schwartzman-Stubbs | start the discussion

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Late Day Links (2:59 pm)

1) Obama and the Cynic. Charlie Pierce hits one out of the park…again.

2) Blue Dog Democrats fight Sen. Jim Webb’s bill that would expand GI benefits. Hayes is right: The only word for this is “asinine.”

3) Speaking of “asinine,” the Farm Bill passed in the Senate today. Bush has threatened to veto it, which might (astonishingly) actually be a good thing, except a) it looks like there are enough votes to override it and b) if Bush had his druthers, the damn thing still wouldn’t lessen our sick dependence on corporate ag. (But hey, at least the one that passed has some goodies for conservationists and local food systems.) [PDF!]

posted by Brian Cook | start the discussion

F-ck the Amer-can F-mily Ass-ciation (2:32 pm)

The American Family Association is now referring to LGBT people as “g-ys” and same-sex relationships as “h-mos-xuality,” as if these words were expletives, reports Political Research Associates, a nonprofit that tracks the Right. (Or should that be “the R-ght”?)

Meanwhile, the California Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on marriage equality today. That’s the good news.

The bad? A coalition of socially conservative groups is trying to amend the California constitution to ban same-sex marriage. The measure could appear on the November ballot.

The secretary of state is expected to rule by the end of June whether the conservative groups have gathered enough signatures to bring the measure to a statewide referendum vote, reports The Advocate.

posted by Sanhita Sinharoy | 2 comments

Memo to McCain: It’s your war (1:45 pm)

McCain’s gone on the predictable offensive of painting Obama as a naive, pacifist, yellow-bellied, “Iran appeaser.” Josh Marshall’s got it right that Obama must stay on the offensive and repeatedly perform verbal jiu-jitsu as these attacks keep coming - turn this fear-mongering crap on its head with simple statements like this: “Hey, Mac, your war strengthened Iran.”

One other thing: Iraq is now McCain’s war. He supports it 100%, Bush is almost done, it’s his. McCain’s War. Repeat, ad nauseum.

posted by Jarrett | start the discussion

Welcome to Elmo’s World! Today Elmo is thinking about…War! (12:24 pm)

Newsweek reports in their May 12, 2008 issue that Sesame Street is offering free special edition DVDs titled “Talk, Listen, Connect: Deployments, Homecomings, Changes.” The DVD stars the omnipresent red muppet, Elmo, and his friend, the guitar-slinging, Spanish-speaking Rosita, “to teach children of military families how to cope when a parent is deployed—or returns home wounded.” This is part of “Sesame Street’s Military Initiative,” and new episodes in this series “go deeper, tackling the baggage of a spiraling war by teaching children how to adjust to redeployments and the scars that soldiers bring home.” Topics discussed include parents leaving for long periods of time (to war) and when parents return home “different” (read: without the limbs they left with). The DVDs are free for anyone who requests one.

Sesame Street is to be applauded for making an effort to assist the families of soldiers fighting in Iraq, especially while our government falls down on the job. McCain’s made gestures towards strengthening veterans’ health care, but considering the Maverick’s opposition to the Webb GI Bill this week - a bill that would provide full tuition to state schools for returning soldiers - it seems even a furry red monster is more serious about effectively helping soldiers and their families than the GOP presidential pick. Go team.

Download and watch the episodes or, if you’re a member of the military, order your DVD kit here.

posted by Jarrett | start the discussion

Gay rights victory in California (11:52 am)

Beautiful. In a dramatic 4-3 decision, the California Supreme Court has overturned a state ban on gay marriage, a measure they rightly deem “unconstitutional.” Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has also signalled that he will uphold the ruling and, admirably, “will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling,” according to the Sacramento Bee. Gay rights activists are celebrating, (also from the Bee):

Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center For Lesbian Rights, a plaintiff in the suit, read part of the opinion, then looked up and told the crowd: “Every piece of statutory language that…excluded gays and lesbians is stricken,” she said. “We are free to marry anyone.”

We can expect the predictable reactionary argument that the court has engaged in “judicial activism” (the definition of which seems to be “when judges rule in ways the Christian Right doesn’t favor,” in this case on the side of equal rights). Also, we’ll be sure to hear from opponents that this ruling threatens the marriages of straight people everywhere, an argument that is never backed with evidence. Given that the divorce rate in America hovers at around 45% it seems to me that straight marriages are threatened regardless of whether gay marriages are authorized by the state. By what I can’t say. I’m sure it’s complicated. But, giving gay couples the right to publicly and officially declare their unions - their love for one another - would be a step towards upholding the sanctity of marriage - not the reverse.