New blogs. Kos contributor Steve Gilliard and the new DNC weblog Kicking Ass.

Good piece on Krugman today. He's been in France so he'd better avoid Tom Friedman. I'm late in commenting on this but I now have an idea of what kind of lovechild Ann Coulter and Christopher Hitchens would produce.

I shouldn't have written that. Now I'll have nightmares.

I’m Just A Girl

If you haven’t heard about the latest push to make abstinence sexy to teenaged girls Mark Morford is on the case (via Tbogg).

It's called "Revolve: The Complete New Testament" and it's apparently racing up the Amazon.com sales charts -- whatever that means -- as it sucks up all the accoutrements of a teen fashion rag and rams them through the cute Christian grinder of humorlessness and sexual rigidity and homophobia, and regurgitates them as kicky dumbed-down slightly numb virginal tidbits of advice and admonition and, yes, Biblical storytelling.

In a way, you have to admire the dedication. Despite the best efforts of the Vatican, Martin Luther, Jerry Falwell et al, sexual liberation has managed to take hold and gain ground, a few setbacks notwithstanding. Call it what you will-- tenacity, self-delusion, whatever. When you’re getting your ass kicked it takes a lot to come back swinging every time. But that’s not really what I want to talk about.

Yes, this latest stunt is both hilarious and disgusting. Take this particular line:

"The fire of God's love burns out the sin the same way the hot steam routs the dirt out of your pores. This kind of relationship with God will do more to improve your looks than any amount of facials," reads the part on "Spiritual Facials."

Hie ye blackheads! To Hell ye go! But setting aside for a moment the question of whether anybody will actually take this crap to heart, is “Revolve” the really the problem?

Let’s face it. When it comes to teenage sexuality, particularly female teenage sexuality, we’re pretty schizophrenic. It’s easy to see why. In the melee of STD awareness, pregnancy prevention, rape hotlines, and lesbian-gay-transgender empowerment groups it’s understandable that something might be missed. But it missing it we’ve left out something I believe is key in understanding how girls grow up into women. When it comes to sex, we are very conscientious about telling girls that it’s okay to say no, to wait, to ask for protection, and (for the more progressive) to say yes only when it feels right. What we don’t tell them is not only is okay if the want to say yes, it’s also okay if they want to have sex period.

This was at least my experience with sex education in junior high, and high school. There was a lot of information, there were a lot options, even the grudging admission that yes sex indeed feels good. But if you were a girl the implicit message was that you are the one who will be desired, not the one who desires. Boys get erections and have wet dreams about the babysitter. Girls get breasts, a menstrual cycle and the ability to get pregnant. But don’t they get to dream about the babysitter too? (Hey I never specified gender)

The last three years have seen an explosion of women taking control of their own sexuality with The Vagina Monologues, Sex And the City, among other things. This is thrilling but exasperating. It’s easy to say that professional women in their 20s and 30s should feel free to masturbate and experiment. But we still can’t quite bring ourselves to make that same message a little more teen friendly. The prevailing opinion seems to be, "It's bad enough that teenage boys are sex crazed and irresponsible. What if we start egging the girls on too?"

But what about messages we are giving to girls? Take the latest issue of Rollingstone Magazine featuring ex-virgin Brittany Spears. Spears' career epitomizes the schizophrenic nature of teen sexuality. When she first came out what bugged me most (aside from her screaming lack of talent) was her image as the sexy jailbait virgin. The sexy jailbait thing was annoying enough, but the virgin element created a creepy kiddy porn context to it. Here was this girl who created this image of knowing nothing of her own desires but was able and willing to play upon male desires. When she finally did drop the virgin act it was almost a relief. At least her new sexy song lyrics have a veneer of truth to them. But now she's fallen into the Christina Aguilera trap of declaring her sexual liberation by emulating a stripper. The message has changed from, "I know nothing of my own sexuality but I can play up an image," to "I define my own sexuality by being the object of desire."

It's not that I don't believe that there aren't women that don't get off on being desired in that way. But it confines female sexuality to what men want, without asking what women want. This is why you have so many women who have sex when they don't want to, who've never had an orgasm, who are afraid to masturbate, and who don't know why they are so neurotic about sex.

STDs and teen pregnancy make the idea of sexual liberation in teenage girls more than a little alarming. And I'm not just saying we should liberate them now so they won't need it later. If anything, helping girls first understand that they have desires too could go a long way in helping them navigate their teen years without getting pregnant or contracting an STD. If she can identify what she wants in terms of a sexual relationship she might be less likely to have sex out of pressure or feel ashamed.

Of course I don't expect the visionaries behind "Revolve" to take my argument into consideration. There's no point in arguing with people who believe that Jesus will hate you if you wear low-rider jeans. It's easy to laugh at that kind of cluelessness. It's harder to admit that in a lot of ways, the rest of us are pretty clueless as well.

General asshats
Circle I Limbo

Militant Vegans
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind

DMV Employees
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow

Libertarians
Circle IV Rolling Weights

Saddam Hussein
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled

River Styx

Rednecks
Circle VI Buried for Eternity

River Phlegyas

Scientologists
Circle VII Burning Sands

Republicans
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement

George Bush
Circle IX Frozen in Ice

Design your own hell

I weighed in on Clark back in May. For the most part my opinion still stands. You can download that Oxford American article here.

Al Franken in Chicago

Wednesday, October 1, 2003
Chicago, Illinois
Borders
150 North State Street
12:30 pm
discussion and booksigning

Wednesday, October 1, 2003
Skokie, Illinois
Barnes & Noble - Old Orchard
55 Old Orchard Center
7:30 pm
discussion and booksigning

Okay. No.

John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, is set to strip for peace tonight on a stage in Paris in her one-woman art show in which members of the audience were invited to cut off pieces of her clothing.

There is much I don't understand about performance art as there is also much I don't understand about Yoko. I am quite sure Yoko--like much performance art--is very often treated unfairly. I have seen good performance art. I know that Yoko has done good things. But when bad performance art collides with Yoko's darker self-aggrandizing side...eeewwww.

Please Yoko. Hasn't the anti-war movement been demoralized enough?

New Blog

My friend has decided to "join the crowded fray" and start her own blog about life as a Yank-in-exile in New Orleans.Should definitely be interesting. Anyway head on over and check out Broken Windows: Tales From New Orleans. New Orleans from what I understand has the combined problems of the rural south and a third world country. She can explain it better than I.

$87 billlion: Item #1

The Bush administration is calling for an additional $2.1 billion to repair the Iraqi oil industry, a sharp increase from previous estimates that underscores how the sabotage of pipelines and the electricity grid has throttled the flow of oil for export and into domestic refineries.

(snip)

A spokesman for the Corps of Engineers said that it had not been contacted by the administration to develop the new estimate, but it remains unclear whether Mr. Bremer's administration spoke to the Corps of Engineers staff in Iraq. The congressmen have asked the budget office for a detailed explanation of how the estimate was derived and a list of the projects involved.

Have coffee before you read the whole thing.

It's been two years and I've got nothing.

I have no answers, no insight, no direction. Just a blog, a little anger, a little too much time. Not exactly nothing I guess, but still not nearly enough. I don't see the point of rehashing the day-- where I was, how I felt --because when you get right down to it, you were either there or you weren't. And I wasn't. I was outside pressing my nose up against the TV glass, horrified and helpless, but still not inside. And if you weren't there it really doesn't matter much to anyone else where you were.

I'm not trying to belittle the catastophe. Nay, I'm admitting that in the end it's too big for me and my blog. So here's a list of required reading,

because what we don't know can hurt us,

because what they could know might,

and

because it's not just our day.

Paul Krugman is on Fresh Air right now.

The Other Shoe

Is it really necessary to write another post about Bush's inability to tell the truth? Well if Bush didn't lie I wouldn't have to write yet another shrill screed bitching about what a liar he is. But he does lie, and so I have no choice. So what am I all bent out of shape about now?

There are plenty of reasons to grumble about the $87 billion dollars Congress is being asked to cough up for Georgie's latest failure but I'm going to leave that alone for a little while to talk about something else. On Sunday night Bush said:

Our military commanders in Iraq advise me that the current number of American troops, nearly 130,000, is appropriate to their mission.

This is to counter criticism that the force currently on the ground is not large enough.

Well he's not expanding the force but:

The Army is telling National Guard and Reserve troops in Iraq they will be there a full 12 months, apparently surprising some who had believed the clock started ticking on one-year tours once they reached mobilization stations in the United States.

Counting time they spent getting ready before they went and to demobilize after their tours, many reservists now in Iraq probably will find themselves on active duty and away from their civilian jobs for well over a year, officials said Tuesday.

Okay, so apparently the current number of ground troops is only appropriate if we don't let the reservists go home at their appointed times. Now to me this reads as our military being stretched a little thin over in Iraq which really makes me worry. And Bush did not mention that because to say that the reservists tours of duty were to be extended would fly directly in the face of his statement that the current number of troops is "appropriate."

A lie of omission is still a lie.

I abstained from Bush TV this weekend and looks like I didn't miss much. Here's all you need to know about Showtime's big wet kiss to the Bush administration.

One thing I can't stand is a white person who has never met a black person that he/she didn't like.
I didn't say that, a friend did. But I'm borrowing it.

Eric Alterman has a pretty good piece on Colin Powell in The Nation. Liberals and Conservatives alike tend to give Powell a free pass when tallying up the various fuck-ups of this administration. And it is true that he has experience, ability, and tact. But how much credit can we give him for being a (comparatively) shining star in a room full of dim bulbs? No, if Powell had any gumption he would resign. It would be too little, too late, but it would be a start.

Excellent

(via The Horse)

Between the outrage of Al Franken's book tour and the upcoming publication of this book I fully expect Bill O'Reilly's head to explode by Halloween.

Kerry Makes it Official

Well the day pretty much belonged to Senator John Kerry.

   SPEAKING WITH THE mammoth aircraft carrier USS Yorktown as a backdrop — a setting designed to highlight his war-hero background — Kerry, D-Mass., sharply criticized Bush’s foreign policy as radical swagger, saying his rush to war with Iraq had left the United States isolated and less safe.

I do understand the mentality behind this staging but I kind of cringed at it's obviousness. You get it everybody? This guy actually is a veteran. Yeah I know, subtlety doesn't win elections.

Josh has a pretty good recap of Kerry's Meet The Press appearance. The only thing that bothered me was the way he hedged on the "Is Bush Unintelligent?" question.

 MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to the man you’d like to unseat if you become the Democratic nominee, and that’s George Bush. You’d spoke to Vogue magazine in March, and said this. “Kerry is unguarded in his comments about the man whose job he is currently after. He says his colleagues are appalled at the president’s ‘lack of knowledge’... And...he says, ‘They have managed him the same way they managed
       Ronald Reagan. They send him out to the press for one event a day, they put him in a brown jacket and jeans and get him to move some hay or drive a truck, and all of a sudden he’s the Marlboro Man. I know this guy. He was two years behind me at Yale, and I knew him, and he’s still the same guy.’”
       What does that mean?
       SEN. KERRY: I believe that President Bush is a very likable fellow, and I respect—I think he’s a good man who wants to do good things.
       MR. RUSSERT: Does he lack knowledge, as you say?
       SEN. KERRY: I disagree with the president’s approach to almost everything he’s doing—almost everything. And you look at America and the choices we face today, Tim. On the budget, he’s favoring the wealthy in America at the expense of the middle class. He has ignored the plight of job loss in America. He has gone backwards on the environment, backwards on cities and urban—look, we’ve given a tax cut to people while states are being forced to raise taxes and cut services. He’s gone backwards in the international community. He is not making us safer in the world. He has ignored the problems of North Korea to the point that they’re a crisis. We should be freezing right where we are with North Korea today. We should be dealing with Russia and the problem of loose nuclear materials more effectively. We should be leading the world on global warming.
       MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, you said that you knew him, that he’s the same guy he was at Yale. What does that mean?
       SEN. KERRY: I think, Tim, the important thing is, what is he doing as president. As president I don’t believe he’s offering the kind of leadership our country needs. That’s what this struggle is about. This is about the presidency of the United States and the direction of our country. And I believe President Bush is not making our country safer and stronger abroad, and I think he is ignoring the choices here at home
       that make a difference to the quality of our life. And, generationally, as a member of the same generation, someone who came from the same institution, I have a very different vision of where America ought to go. I want us to lead.
       MR. RUSSERT: But are you appalled by his lack of knowledge?
       SEN. KERRY: I am appalled by the lack of his agenda, by the lack of direction, by the lack of leadership, by the lack of willingness to show a vision that takes America to a better place, by his willingness to divide America, to use the politics of wedge, of driving between people, like the Michigan case, or calling things quotas that aren’t quotas, or beginning to—or appointing judges who are ideological, who want to take away
       the right of privacy, take away the right to choose, someone who wants to pack the court system of America, someone who doesn’t do the hard work of bringing Congress to the table, and helping to lead us to find the common ground. You know, John McCain and I found the common ground. This president doesn’t try.

He should have stood by his orginal statement. He didn't have to be callous or call him names but simply say. "Tim, he lacks the requisite knowledge of a world leader and in these times that is simply unacceptable."

Eric A. expresses some remorse at having written Kerry off for his supposed lack of charisma. By the way, by what definition does Bush have charisma? Can we be clear on what we mean? Just saying, "Well, people do kinda like him," does not add up to charisma. Every loser has at least one friend. But I digress, here's what Eric now has to say about Kerry.

On the first issue there can be no argument. He’s a great deal more qualified than Bush is. (And has “won” just as many presidential elections.) In his long career in the Senate he has distinguished himself by being a thoughtful and intelligent critic of the Reagan/Bush foreign policy and did as much as any elected representative to expose their secretiveness and illegality. He clearly knows what he’s talking about when he proposes a new national health care system, an energy policy, and the like. And though it’s been obscured by his gravely mistaken vote to give Bush the power to go to war, he is probably more progressive than Gov. Dean on the panoply of issues a president must address.

       

       I wish Kerry had voted against this ruinous war and I wish he would admit his mistake. I can’t make up my mind if his refusal to play to the anti-Bush anger that is (appropriately) driving the nomination process will be a strength or a weakness in a general election. I am endorsing no one, of course. I obviously like what Dean is saying. I’m intrigued by a Clark candidacy. And I could live with Dick Gephardt. (I could even live with Lieberman, though I am pretty certain I won’t have to.) But I think Kerry has earned the right to a careful look, and I don’t mean all that crap about his hair.

       

Kerry disappointed a lot of people with his vote on Iraq, and his campaign worries me because it has all the snap and vigor of Gore's 2000 campaign. But Kerry has a presence when he talks that reassures me in a way that Dean is lacking. What Dean has is a great campaign. I too am intrigued by the prospect of a Clark candidacy, but I still feel he could do more as a running mate. A Kerry-Clark ticket or a Dean-Clark ticket would make me pretty happy. I'm still leaning toward Kerry-Clark.

Sen. John Kerry is on Meet the Press right now.

Joe Conason has the same question I do.

So, when does the compassion part kick in exactly?

A sure sign that you might have an issue with compassion is that you need to create a seperate agenda to include it with the rest your initiatives. You well never hear the words Compassionate Democrat or Compassionate Liberal. We don't need the qualifiers because the compassion is a given, which is why the way this administration congratulates itself on its "compassion" is ludicrous.

Not to mention hypocritical.

The State Department has discontinued financing for a small but well-regarded AIDS program for African and Asian refugees because it contends that one of the groups involved in the project supports forced abortions and involuntary sterilization in China, officials said this week.

The decision to end the financing has raised a furor among AIDS and refugee groups. Relief workers fear that officials are bowing to pressure from anti-abortion factions within the Bush administration and allowing politics to interfere with desperately needed AIDS programs, assertions that the State Department denies.

The group, Marie Stopes International, offers abortion counseling and services.

State Department officials acknowledge that they have no evidence to suggest that Marie Stopes is involved in forced abortions or involuntary sterilization, and the group itself says it has been trying to end forced abortions in China and to expand voluntary family planning.

Oh but wait till you get to the end.

The State Department gave $1 million to cover the first year of the project and offered to finance the six other relief organizations involved in the program for a second year if they agreed to end their partnership with Marie Stopes.

The groups, known collectively as the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium, declined the government's offer, saying they would not divide the organization because of "baseless allegations." The groups include the International Rescue Committee, CARE, the American Refugee Committee, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, John Snow International and Columbia University's department of population and family health.

"We were disappointed that for reasons of solidarity with Marie Stopes that they should refuse our money," said the State Department official. "We had hoped they would show more humanitarian statesmanship than that."

If you are shocked and dismayed at this you are probably a perfectly nice person and will almost definitely go to heaven. You are also stupid. It's been over two and a half years. Face it. There is no compassion here, just narrow-minded politics barely disguised as compassion. If you can't see that yet you deserve to be stuck with this guy for another four years.

Karl Rove guilty of serious security breach ala Kim Philby

Mark Kleiman tells us Joseph Wilson blows the whistle on Rove at a forum held in Washington state to discuss the mishandling of intelligence information that lead the US to war. Wilson's wife was outed by "White House sources" as a CIA operative in attempt to intimidate Wilson after he wrote an op-ed piece for the NYT dismissing the Iraq/Niger/yellowcake assertions made by Bush in his SOTU. Kleiman also gives good backstory on the whole thing.

At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words.

Of course, the mainstream media is away from its desk on this one, probably covering brush clearage in Crawford, TX