“When it comes to the states rights argument, the most disappointing (or perhaps amusing) thing is that it destroys the “Republicans are the only patriots” image the Bush Administration worked so hard to manufacture after 9/11. While Bush’s America, with its warrentless wiretaps, state sanctioned torture, multicolored threat levels, and warmongering wasn’t my ideal America, I did really love that for a while we were all one country. His, and his party’s, attempts to own patriotism in those elections after 9/11 forced me to stand up stronger and demand recognition of my own party’s faith in our country. It didn’t make me be a stronger patriot it made me a louder one in efforts to show that peace and protests were just as patriotic as the fabricated threats.
Remember what it was like after 9/11? Those few weeks as we watched New Yorkers post photos of loved ones across their fallen city. The tears we all shared for the loss of an innocence we never really understood we had. We were all together in what followed, just like we were all together during World War 2. Whether we win Olympic metals or lose our treasured heroes, we have always been a stronger people because these things we share together.
What happened to that America? And why do Republicans want to take it away?”
Generation Opportunity Revealed | Future Majority (via kbondelli)
Def read the story about the astroturf conservative organization trying to pretend they are speaking for a generation of young people.
Like many elected officials Senator Tom Coburn is back in his state for the August Recess. While he’s home he’s been working on his own federal budget proposal that would continue to decapitate any attempt at federal spending. His series of interviews with his local paper advocates, among other things, a drastic cut from a large portion of his state’s backbone: Farmers.
You would think someone who held the title of “Youth Field Specialist” in the Iowa State University Scott County Extension office, who developed and oversaw programs such as 4-H, and who currently serves as a college professor, would want students to be engaged in their communities.
You’d be wrong.
On Tuesday, Republican Iowa State Sen. Shawn Hamerlinck told five student government leaders from Iowa universities to “go home” and to not worry about the work the senate is doing in the state house. Think that’s exaggerated?
Sadly, it’s not… read here
Oh the war that broke out on twitter today. Such a crazy throwdown I had to write about it. I’m sorry this is long. Please forgive me :(
It all started when I started watching the video feed of the Personal Democracy Forum - a national conference that aims to highlight how technology has been and can continue to be used to create and foster Democracy and open government. It’s a cause that both parties as well as extreme ideologies ascribe to. They are closely affiliated with TechPresident - a blog that talks about the world of politics and online media that I’ve posted on a few times
PDF is a big deal conference both to new media folks and to open government advocates. I would love to be there… but even if I could afford the hefty $1200 price tag I’m not sure I would pay for it while also footing the bill for a $300 a night hotel room in NYC. If I was working for someone who was ok with that… I’d do it, but in these tough economic times its hard to come by. So like many poor advocates I was
I was listening to Mona Eltahawy’s morning lecture - which you can see here:
Watch live streaming video from pdf2011 at livestream.com
Where she addresses the revolutions that happen in our own minds. She spent years reporting in the Middle East for various outlets from Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and China. She was the first Egyptian journalist to live and work for a western news agency in Israel. She has serious street cred….. Here’s where it gets interesting - She has taught as adjunct faculty at the New School in New York, the University of Oklahoma and the U.N.-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica.
So, she lived and worked in Oklahoma for a while….. and lectured in Oklahoma to students. During her lecture on the ways in which social media played a role in the Egyptian Uprising she quipped about teaching in Oklahoma and how Oklahoma was remarkably similar to the Middle East in that the combination of politics and religion was remarkably similar to what she experienced in the Middle East.
I quoted her - and tweeted it. This is when the it started. Neo-Con online media consultant (and I use the online media consultant phrase loosely here) @Okie_Campaigns remarked to me that this is why no one in Oklahoma would hire me because I trashed Oklahoma all the time.
This is an interesting comment -
The idea of #3 pretty much validates Eltahawy’s initial comment to begin with.
If we continue to operate in a society where ideas, thoughts, arguments, concepts, indeed anything that is different from us are outlawed we become the Middle East. We become a government and a society where freedom and democracy is compromised. What @Okie_Campaigns is advocating - probably without even realizing it - is a radical tyrannical government that squashes those who stand up to authority.
Eltahawy begins her lecture by quoting a friend of her aunt’s who was responding to the demonstrations taking place in Egypt who said
“What do you guys think you’re going to do. You think you’re going to do anything to Mubarack? You think the Americans are going to let you do anything? You know… it’s just a bunch of kids with messy hair like you, who think that anything will change.”
Indeed …. it has been nothing but a bunch of kids with messy hair that have demanded democracy across the Middle East for the last year. From Tehran a while ago to recently in Egypt to Lybia young messy haired kids have stood up against the status quo. All the while I would point out the US’s own messy haired kids are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan for democracy while here at home a bunch of messy haired kids like me or even the ones in the Ron Paul Revolution are fighting for our own revolution because what’s going on right now isn’t working.
@Okie_Campaigns went on to call me a liar again and again - saying that my quote from Eltahawy I suppose was a lie - that Oklahoma wasn’t like the Middle East. So… in the moment I shall refresh you all for how Oklahoma … indeed… is a lot like the Middle East.
1. It’s hot in Oklahoma - it’s hot in the Middle East
2. People in the Middle East often times wear things to cover their head - people in Oklahoma do the same.
3. There are a lot of extremists who lash out in anger in the Middle East. This is true for Oklahoma too.
4. There’s been some pretty sad home grown terrorism in the Middle East. Sadly that’s also true in Oklahoma.
5. In the Middle East if you have an opinion that is contrary to the majority - you’re punished. @Okie_Campaigns has already claimed that’s true in Oklahoma too - at the very least you’re not hired. Thank God Okie Campaigns isn’t an extremist that comes out from behind his laptop and I have a nice public safety force to protect me.
6. Both places have a lot of oil.
7. Finally, Eltahawy recalls:
“This was the politicalization of a whole bunch of issues that had never been politicized before. That day …. was the day that the Mubarack regime began to systematically sexually target female activists and journalists on the streets as a way of shaming them and pushing them back home again.”
You could say that publicly calling on someone and personally attacking them re: their work and job and opinions using their name - which wasn’t in any way a violent sexual attack - was also aimed to attempt to shame that person from standing up against the status quo. I want to reiterate once again that former is a very very extreme example while the latter is a fairly light example.
Interestingly, we see this a lot among the right wing. Anyone who has a contrasting opinion - the focus isn’t on the discussion, it isn’t on the topic, it isn’t on the argument itself - it becomes a hatchetjob on the individual. Personal attacks like calling me a “liar” saying “no one will hire you” claiming that my old employer would disagree with me, labeling the quote as “trashing” and attempting to brand me as the attacker and everyone else as a victim of my “attacks” are just plain tyrannical.
Like in Egypt if you attack the individuals - if you go after people and scare them you scare people away from the revolution - you quiet an activist. You make them stay home or fear speaking up or speaking out in the future. One side can easily attempt to silence the other with their attacks whether verbal, technological, physical, or otherwise the revolution is over. The opposition stops. The status quo wins.
This actually has nothing to do with me so much as it furthers the argument that the political establishment in Oklahoma is much like many political establishments in the Middle East. Both do not approve in desenting voices. And this goes for both parties: Republican and Democrat. Democrats cannot work in politics if you spend a lot of time speaking poorly of the President online. I don’t know if the same is true in the GOP but my guess is that there is a similar unwritten rule that you should never speak ill of your own party in public.
This is also what we saw in 2004 during the election when people who opposed the war were “unpatriotic” or “unAmerican.” If you wanted to bring the troops home - you didn’t support them. Remember those days?
When it comes to religion the same can be true. In Oklahoma someone who is Jewish couldn’t get out of a GOP primary in any house or senate district in the state. Someone who is an open atheist or agnostic wouldn’t be seen as a viable candidate on either side. As a follow up to this I might list the religion of every elected official in Oklahoma… just to confirm my point.
I had a meeting last week with someone who ran for office - I won’t say who it was. I have these meetings all the time. And the candidate said “I don’t go to church but I was raised with religion and I went to a few services and wrote a few checks to the church so I could tell people I go there.” When this is what you have to do to get elected…. it’s a sad sad sad sad day for democracy.
It’s also remarkably similar to the Middle East. In many parts of the Middle East … a Jewish person could never win an election or be considered a valid candidate. In some places in the Middle East a Christian would be crucified for preaching things like equality and goodness to citizens ….. oh…. wait…
Like in the Middle East - a woman candidate couldn’t win. In Oklahoma we just got a female governor! And I know for a FACT that Mary Fallin dealt with a lot of flack - and continues to deal with a lot of flack from people in Oklahoma - simply because she’s a woman. (I still get the google news alerts)
Mona Eltahawy says that many of those young messy haired kids are “responding to authority and challenging it in every way possible.” I don’t do it enough. Sometimes I’m tired, or I’m suffering from a profound case of slacktivism - but we should all take it as not merely our right but part of our responsibility to respond to authority. All authority - whether they’re on our side or not - whether they are our bosses, our friends, our twitter followers, our Governors, our Presidents, or anyone who ever EVER tries to intimidate us away from having an opinion.
Ultimately, I don’t’ believe for a second @Okie_Campaigns cares about any of this. I think he was causing trouble for the sake of causing trouble. I can respect that. Some people like to start “Twitter Wars” because they don’t have anything to do.
At the end of the day I can’t believe that such a conservative activist as @Okie_Campaigns would openly speak out against the idea of “opposing a government” since that’s what the Tea Party is most prominently about! Or does that only apply to opposing Democrats?
No. 14 Tax Dollars Funded An Art Exhibit Actually Paid For By Private Donors
BECK: “And Then You Have The Tax Dollars Funding This Wonderful Art Display. It’s Christmas At The Smithsonian.” Beck said of an exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, which is titled “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture”:
Perfect storm. Eroding values. Hard work, sacrifice, thrift, honor, truth, God. As a nation born out of faith in God, how’s that going today, huh? Twenty-five percent of those under 30 years of age describe their religion as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular. Now, as you get older, it goes down. Thirty to 40 years old, only 19 percent. Ages 40 to 50, 15 percent. If you’re over 60, less than 10 percent say that.
And then you have the tax dollars funding this wonderful art display. It’s Christmas at the Smithsonian. Here’s this wonderful — oh, look, it’s Jesus with ants on him. They describe it as the first major exhibition to focus on the sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture.
What? You got to be kidding me, right? What does this have to do with the birth of the baby Jesus, and why is he now covered in ants? Whose values are these? And you wonder why there’s the breakdown of the family.” [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 11/30/10]
REALITY: Smithsonian “Receives Public Funds” But “Does Not Use That Money For Exhibitions.” The Washington Post reported:
The exhibition, which opened Oct. 30, was funded by the largest number of individual donors for a Portrait Gallery show. The show, which cost $750,000, was also underwritten by foundations that support gay and lesbian issues.
[…]
As part of the Smithsonian, the gallery receives public funds. Overall, the Smithsonian gets about 70 percent of its annual budget from the federal government, but it does not use that money for exhibitions. [The Washington Post, 11/30/10]
Reblogging just this section because, though Beck always pisses me off, what he says about the art display basically makes up a thesis for my intense dislike of him: a combination of the frequency he talks about “your tax dollars” and oftentimes is not even attributing this horribly annoying phrase to the actual use of our tax dollars / his incessant bleating about “eroding values.”
Boehner’s spokesperson also contributed to this blatant misinformation regarding tax dollars, stating that it reflects the “arrogance” Washington regularly exhibits with decisions about using Americans’ “hard-earned money” (another phrase I particularly dislike, because this country is infamous among the industrialized world for the disproportion between a worker’s time and effort and his compensation, which, beneath the lower middle class, is so oftentimes pitiful, especially comparatively speaking).
1. First of all, no, the exhibit was not funded by tax dollars, so quit waving the tax money flag in our faces.
2. Seriously, how dare you correlate the freedom of artistic expression with “the breakdown of the family.” a) This makes absolutely no correlational sense. b) I’m assuming you are referencing the breakdown of the standard of the “traditional’ family, hailed by feminists, humanists, and gay rights activists alike. We love nontraditional families - all kinds of families. (Sidenote: we also tend to believe women can choose when and if to start those families). And c) For the millionth time, uber-Christians, not everyone needs to be Christian in order to possess values (though they’ll probably be different than your version).
3. When you and your cohorts keep blathering on about the threats of “big government,” how could you and Boehner possibly condone pressure from Congress to censor an art piece funded by private dollars? I truly find that deplorable.
3. So back to those elusive, eroding values. You know, I agree with you, Beck, I do see values eroding in this country: I see the right-leaning group of our society that does not value the health, safety or success of women (policies on: sex education, access to birth control, abortions and daycare, maternity leave, etc etc etc), or the health, safety, or success of the poor (policies on: national health care, education reform, the Bush-era taxes, etc etc etc). While you worry about the collapse of old school Christian values in terms of human sexuality and the traditional family - incredibly debilitating standards - you seem to ignore some of the more important Christian values, which also happen to be humanistic values. If there is a Jesus, I think he would be less concerned about an art piece unfavorably picturing his likeness, and much more concerned that many of the conservative Christians who worship him - a poor man who sacrificed everything he had for a human race he unconditionally loved - show so little love for anyone outside of the traditional Christian standards, both in their political policies and personal lives.
Beck, and those who back this viewpoint: please, sort out your priorities.
Large areas of boldface emphasis towards the end of this is mine here.
And I’m pretty sure I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again:
Liberals — all about small government when it comes to your person and your personal life and your beliefs. All about big government when it comes to ensuring quality of life for EVERYONE by encouraging regulation on things that affect us all: Li’l things like, f’rinstance, safety at your workplace, making sure banks don’t abuse you and rob you blind, ensuring that quote-unquote “non-traditional” families get the same treatment as quote-unquote “traditional” families, and stuff like that.
Conservatives — all about small government unless it has something to do with trying to tell you how you can manage your person and your personal life. Or, the exact opposite of the above.
(Source: stfuhatemongers)
Via GET OFF MY LAWN!If you read our report about Mary Fallin announcing her support for the Regional Food Bank with a holiday photo-op after voting against the poor and hungry in their time of need then you know all about the hypocrisy that we’ve come to expect.
What we here at FallinFAIL have decided is that…
As a candidate Fallin said that a poor person never gave anyone a job… since when does she care about the poor? Just sayin…
Via Fallin Fail!
