Pizza Diavola

Links roundup tonight, then a post tomorrow (assuming work doesn’t explode again–cross your fingers for me!). I’ve been kicking around thoughts on “Clinton is too ambitious” / “She’s just doing this to get elected” / “She wants it too much,” and how those statements show that the speaker (1) is sexist or (2) hasn’t thought the issue through and is either relying on sexist stereotypes or simply has invested zero thinking in analyzing the candidate and the statement. It’s also nothing short of bizarre to me that being ambitious and wanting the presidency are bad or even remarkable, given that both qualities are inherent in the nature of running for president in a competition against other people. It’s like going to the ocean and complaining that the beach is sandy and the water’s salty. I also wonder why people think that Clinton is too ambitious and put her in the “wants to be someone” camp of “Anyone running for president either wants to do something or be someone,” rather than Mitt Romney. He’d be my first and probably only choice for “Just doing this to get elected as a vanity project.”

But that’s for tomorrow, whoops, because I’m trying to go to bed early tonight. Another thing I’m thinking about these days is why I’m an activist (or working on becoming one): specifically, what was it in my upbringing that’s produced an angry, argumentative liberal who believes in Social Change and Individual Action? I suspect that it was books. Specifically, the Little House on the Prairie series.

Another plug for The Hillary 1000, a Clinton media aggregating and fundraising blog run by Redstar, Pocochina, and Donna Darko. They have a bunch of analysis of and links to interesting articles on Clinton in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere (ok, I lie–mostly the blogosphere, and some articles in online magazines. Do those qualify as mainstream media?) and I find it encouraging to encounter like-minded people in the blogosphere who are actively involved as volunteers: blogging, contributing, calling, going out to the March 4 primary states!

Election 2008

Quixote at Shakesville: Clinton vs. Obama. “I have a confession to make. I’m moving away from the Democratic dogma that says we have two fine candidates, and either one will be a great President. I no longer think so. There’s a disconnect between Obama’s words and deeds that got too big for me. So I took another look at Clinton.” A post lookinng at ways in which Obama panders to the right.

Y’all already know where I stand in terms of candidates, but I’m an open-minded person and my vote in the general election is still up for grabs. However, between Quixote’s post and a few other recent ones discussing examples of how Obama distances himself from liberal positions and uses conservative rhetoric to broaden his appeal (or something) make it unlikely that I’ll vote for him, unless he gets his head out of his ass and stands up for the liberal voters who presumably make up his grand movement. If this pandering to conservatives (which nomination does he think he’s running for?) is a taste of what he means by bipartisanship and unity, I’ll pass, thanks.

Feminism & Politics

Jill at Feministe: Women in “Free” Iraq. Concern for women’s rights is good. Using “women’s rights” as a justification for invading other nations, particularly when you don’t give a damn about “women’s rights” in your own country except when it comes to curtailing them, is not good. In fact, it’ll probably result in a complete failure. Color me surprised.

Jeff at Shakesville: Gender: It’s Not Just for Girls Anymore. Long story short: people are people and gender roles hurt girls, boys, and everyone else. Why is this so fucking hard to understand?!

Cara at The Curvature: In a rape culture, the man is never to blame.

A man is accused of sexual assault and attempted sexual assault, the victim goes through with the case, the perpetrator testified that he did indeed attempt sexual assault . . . and he walks free. How, exactly, does that happen? Well, because people will stop at nothing to believe in a world where the patriarchy is actually all fine and fucking dandy and where committing sexual violence against a woman is just “poor judgment.” Who is to blame? Take your pick among the judge, jury, law and culture.

The comments are quite interesting as well, in that you see rape apologism in action, as commentators accuse Cara of “sensationalizing” the case, exaggerating and overhyping our “rape culture,” and saying that technically, under legal minutiae, the rapist didn’t actually rape the victim, even though the rapist admitted to raping her.

Holly at Feministe: Sanesha Stewart is dead and I have only tears and frustration for her. A post on the brutal murder of Sanesha Stewart and the disgustingly transphobic media response to it.

Food & Politics

Bonnie P. at The Ethicurean: Nuggets of truth discusses the Charlotte Observer’s special series The Cruelest Cuts, on the lives of the 28,000 poultry workers in North Carolina.

Cheap food comes at a price, and in this area more than any other, it’s easy for consumers to be aware and to make a difference: by refusing to pay the lowest possible price for food, you can directly cut an unethical company’s bottom line and show that you care about workers’ rights and safety. Hell, you don’t even have to write a letter of complaint to the company or write a letter to your local newspaper. All you have to do is read the newspaper, remember “Company X has extremely poor worker safety,” and decide not to buy Company X’s products at the grocery, if you can afford to do so. I think moral apathy and self-centeredness is a greater problem than outright, bone deep prejudice when it comes to reforming society.

Politics

The NYT Board Blog: The New Stimulus Package: A Big Disappointment. Old news by now, but honestly, I think the stimulus package is a good example of how laughably inept Congress is. Have none of them taken economics? Do none of them have advisors? I can’t believe that the stimulus package is anything but pandering to the short-term desires of short-sighted voters, who are willing to take a tax rebate of a few hundred dollars when the government is running a huge deficit and lacks the money to properly fund education, infrastructure development, rebuilding New Orleans, veterans’ benefits, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid . . . American politics is a joke, I swear. The Democrats use their 2006 mandate to accomplish astonishingly little, and then they cut the most vulnerable groups out of the stimulus bill by dropping food stamps, and applaud themselves for bipartisan work. Gag me with a spoon.

The NYT Board Blog: About those Bush tax cuts for the rich . . .

In unveiling his final budget this month, President Bush again called for making his tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 permanent, rather than letting them expire as scheduled at the end of 2010. That would be irresponsible.

In the spirit of the late, great Molly Ivins, you can’t help but laugh at this shit. It’s either that, or cry. What reality does Bush live in? Apparently it’s not one where economists and anyone not in the top 1% of American society live.

Environmentalism

VentureBeatWIRE: Second Rotation picks up $4.4 for electronics recycling. “Second Rotation is attempting to create a marketplace for used electronics that will slow the pace of new additions to the landfill.” Definitely worth taking a look at the company if you have old phones, mp3 players, printers, or other electronics sitting around your home. Sadly, I don’t think they’ll take my dead laptop battery, which I still haven’t dropping off for recycling.

Miscellaneous

Arthur Frommer: “We are about to advertise the delights of visiting the U.S.A. while at the same time adopting constant measures to keep foreigners out”

I heard a lot of talk about the probability that the new session of Congress will set up a public-private organization spending $200 million dollars a year to promote and market incoming travel to the United States. According to various estimates, the United States has lost as much as 20% of the foreign tourists that were visiting our country each year prior to September 11.

I love how populist and down to earth Frommer is, and how he doesn’t shy away from tackling nonsensical politicking as it relates to travel.