AddieStan

cross-posted from The Huffington Post The ascent of Sarah Palin to the national political stage has yielded no shortage of material for legitimate criticism -- even legitimate derision. There's her famous lack of intellectual curiosity, her tortured syntax, and her alliance with a group of Alaskan secessionists , to name just a few. But whenever Sarah Palin makes news, as she did big-time with her decision last weekend to resign her office as governor of Alaska, more than legitimate criticism hits the airwaves and the Web. Seeping through the Web's meshes and wafting through the airwaves is the acrid stench of sexism. I'm hardly the first to notice this trend. At Jezebel, Megan Carpentier has been on the case since the presidential campaign, when Palin burst on the scene as John McCain's wild-card pick for his vice-presidential running-mate. So, too, has Melissa McEwan at Shakesville . But this latest burst of fresh hell leads me to take another approach: I...

Cross-posted from The Huffington Post There's nothing surprising in Sarah Palin's decision not to run for re-election as governor of Alaska. After all, if you've got a shot to become leader of the free world, it helps to have nothing but time to give the people of Iowa and New Hampshire in the year leading up to their caucus and primary, and that's hard to do if you have to run a state from which you can see Russia. But Palin's decision to step down this month from the governor's mansion? Now that's a whole 'nother kettle of wild salmon. Today we heard and saw Palin as we never have before. No, I'm not talking about the incoherence of her resignation statement ; her incoherence in the infamous Couric interviews became the stuff of legend . Yet with all hectoring she took for her not-ready-for-prime-time performances during the campaign, her confidence never seemed to flag. But today brought us a different picture: Her voice quavering, Palin seem...

Cross-posted from The Huffington Post From the opening frames of Chérie , the viewer is drawn into an opulent, decadent world, at once foreign and familiar to those who have mixed with the denizens of high society in our own time. But the depiction of that world in director Stephen Frears' tour de force is no simple condemnation nor exaltation: the charms and moral ambiguities of France's Belle Epoch co-exist in this rendering of a gilded age at its apogee, most completely in the glowing figure of Michelle Pfeiffer as Léa de Lonval, an exquisite courtesan about to age out of her profession. At its core, Chérie is a movie about time and the constancy of change -- a theme that could be esoteric and depressing, were it not for the stunning visual and aural landscape the filmmakers grant us, the stylized repartee that screenwriter Christopher Hampton draws from Colette's celebrated novel, and Pfeiffer's grounded, sexy and elegant rendering of the woman at the center of ...

When MediaBistro announced its upcoming panel discussion titled "Finding a Business Model for News and Online Media", it listed only white men as panelists, thus joining a list of other apparently well-meaning organizations whose leaders tend to see only men as media innovators. In MediaBistro's case, this is particularly ironic, since the pioneering Web-based all-things-media outlet and consulting company was founded by Laurel Touby, a woman. The Women, Action & the Media (WAM!) community took issue with MediaBistro's treatment, issuing this letter , to which your humble blogstress signed her proper name: Dear MediaBistro and Demand Studios, We applaud your efforts to create an “an open discussion about the business models, innovation, and power of community that are changing journalism.” But your selection of presenters on this subject has forced us to wonder to whom, exactly, this discussion is open. We won’t stand for another panel exclusively composed of wh...

Photo by Fergus McNeill ; used through creative commons license Hope the longest day of the year was a beautiful one for you, mes amis . From the Times of London: Druids began their incantations, Wiccan priestesses drew their cowls tight against the damp morning air and four half-naked Papuan dancers waved their hands in the air and went: “Woo, woo, woo”. Only the guest of honour failed to put in an appearance at Stonehenge. A record 36,500 people had gathered at the prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain to watch the sun rise. So many turned out to celebrate the solstice that roads had to be shut and the vast field converted into a car park for 6,500 vehicles was full by 3am.

Here in our nation's steamy, sticky capital, as the annual Gay Pride celebration takes shape, temperatures are rising over the issue of marriage equality for queer folk. (Check out the Washington Blade for the skinny on the antics of the religious right's Rev. Harry Jackson, who was sent in by central casting to convince African-Americans that gays are their enemies.) This essay by noted DC poet and cultural critic Reuben Jackson (who is not LGBT) aired today on WAMU radio. In his commentary, Jackson writes of his recent experience of anti-LGBT sentiment in a District restaurant, and the link between racial prejudice and anti-gay discrimination. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO "WORDS LIKE PUNCHES" BY REUBEN JACKSON

The U.S. Justice Department has commenced a probe of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the physician who has been targeted for years by members of the far right for his willingness, at great personal risk, to perform late-term abortions to women in need. And Wendy Wright, president of the Concerned Women for America, has a problem with that. According to the right-wing Web site, OneNewsNow , Wright said: "This may be more of a nefarious effort than it appears on its face," she exclaims, "that in fact, the Department of Justice may be trying to smear pro-lifers, as if we all belong in the same camp, as if we all advocate violence, when it's [actually] just the opposite." The proof of the Obama adminstration's nefarious machinations, according to the right, is the fact that it has not dispatched U.S. Marshals to military recruiting stations in light of the recent murder of a recruiter by a man who says he is a convert to Islam. But U.S. Marshals have been di...

No sooner did your blogstress's Huffington Post piece about Ann Coulter's encouragement of violence against doctors who perform abortions then some wag who refused to even name your ecrivaine , called yours truly both dishonest and not reasonable for charging la Coulter with incitement.

cross-posted from The Huffington Post The killing of George Tiller , a doctor who performed late-term abortions, will likely be attributed to some lone and deranged individual, acting on his or her own. (As I write, the suspect remains at large.) Indeed, Operation Rescue, the hold-no-prisoners anti-abortion group, issued an immediate statement from Operation Rescue President Troy Newman , decrying Tiller's shooting as "a cowardly act." In fact, the hands are many in the death of George Tiller, some more directly than others. Take Ann Coulter , for example. I watched her describe , to a church full of right-wing activists, abortion-clinic doctors and health care personnel who were murdered as either having been shot, "...or, depending on your point of view, had a procedure performed on them with a rifle." And she's still out there today, spewing the same bile with violent force. Several weeks ago, President Barack Obama 's commencement address at ...

The California Supreme Court has essentially ratified Proposition 8, the ballot measure that nullified an earlier court decision legalizing marriage rights for LGBT folks. Yet Californians already married will be permitted to remain so, regardless of the gender mix of their marriages. One suspects that the court could not agree on constitutional grounds for overturning the expressed "will of the people". Yet the legitimizing of marriages already performed calls constitutional questions of its own. The closeness of the Prop 8 vote suggests another electoral battle to come. From the Los Angeles Times Prop. 8 upheld by California Supreme Court : By Maura Dolan 10:08 AM PDT, May 26, 2009 Reporting from San Francisco -- The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage but also ruled that gay couples who wed before the election will continue to be married under state law. The decision virtually ensures another fight at the ballot box over mar...

Cross-posted from The Huffington Post President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is stunning on many levels: She's the third woman to serve on the high court, the first of Latino descent and the first to grow up in public housing. On her own merits, Sotomayor is a deserving nominee. Yet in his choice of Sotomayor, Obama has also made a brilliant tactical move -- one that not only shores up his standing with the Latino community and the women's rights community, but also serves to further divide the beleaguered Republican Party. In discussions of this nomination, much will be said about the debt Obama owes to the Latino community for his 2008 electoral victory. As Politico 's Ben Smith recently wrote : [McCain] got 31 percent of the Latino vote to the 44 percent that George W. Bush took in 2004, according to exit polls. And it was enough to put much of the West and Southwest out of reach for the Republican Party, to give Florida to the Democ...

Did you know, mes amis , that Pakistan is now officially in the throes of a civil war? Out of the Swat Valley, where Pakistan's government had tried to compromise with the ascendant Taliban, now flow some 1.3 million refugees who flee a full-scale war between the two forces. Why should you care? First off, many Pakistanis believe that the government's offensive in Swat was taken at the behest of the U.S. Given the toll on the civilian population, that can't be a helpful perception. Then, of course, there's the matter of Pakistan, a nuclear power, flirting with chaos. Next up -- Afghanistan. In truth, these are not separate problems. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the same problem for the U.S., and in many ways, problems of out government's making. Even if you only care about domestic politics, you had best turn your attention to this volatile region, for this mess really could ruin everything for Obama (and the rest of us). Your blogstress has a new essay at The...

When no less a sage than George McGovern warns the president against further involvement in Afghanistan, it behooves one to listen. Above, in an interview with the former 1972 Democratic presidential candidate -- who won that distinction for his opposition to the war in Viet Nam -- the American News Project 's Harry Hanbury and Mike Fritz find McGovern warning President Obama of a possible fate like Lyndon Johnson's -- one in which a quagmire of a war puts an end to many grand social programs. Still, your blogstress remains unconvinced that the the analogy is apt. For one, America was in no danger because of the Vietnamese civil war, in which we intervened. On the other hand, the al Qaeda attack on American soil was partly the result of the U.S. having walked away from Afghanistan in its hour of need just after its warlords so kindly won the Cold War for us. (No, Ronald Reagan did not win the Cold War; guys in turbans on horseback with U.S. Stinger missiles on their sho...

With last night's news of the pending departure of Justice David Souter from the bench, all bets seem to be placed on a female replacement. The one woman on the Court today, the venerable Ruth Bader Ginsburg , is elderly and suffering from colon cancer. NPR's Nina Totenberg this morning ran through a list of possible contenders: Possible nominees who have been mentioned as being on a theoretical short list include Elena Kagan , the current solicitor general who represents the government before the Supreme Court; Sonia Sotomayor , a Hispanic judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; and Diane Wood , a federal judge in Chicago who taught at the University of Chicago at the same time future President Barack Obama was teaching constitutional law there. UPDATE: Garance Franke-Ruta has more on this; women's group pushing hard.

Subsequent segments of press conference found here . So grateful to finally reach the 100th day, so that the media may come up with a new meaningless thematic obsession. (Time to stop counting days and get to the business of living a sober life.) Because she was out reading her poetry at an open mic, your blogstress did not watch the president's press conference in real time, a circumstance she would have once deemed unthinkable. Your écrivaine is uncertain of just what this means, except that perhaps now that the country appears to be in capable hands, she no longer finds her vigilance to be quite so necessary. Nonetheless, your Webwench could not entirely look away, and so midnight found her watching the video on her computer, marveling at the fact that it was possible to lie on a couch, netbook perched on knees, and watch tiny moving pictures (with excellent sound) that way. (Your cybertrix is sometimes easily amused.) President Obama 's customary elegance was in eviden...

Having been ensconced in a poetry salon all afternoon, you blogstress has had no time to wax political on the peculiar turn of events that sees Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- he who pilloried Anita Hill -- becoming a Democrat. (Hooray for one more vote in the soon-to-be-filibuster-proof Senate!) Until your ecrivaine is poised to pontificate on this glorious event, you may find amusement in her 2000 interview the same Arlen Specter, who, at that time, declared himself, rather sardonically, to be a "very good Republican." CLICK HERE TO READ "VERY GOOD REPUBLICANS"

From our friend Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council comes this loving invitation: Dear Adele, On Tuesday, April 28, Washington, D.C.-area pastors and pro-family leaders are gathering in the nation's capital to rally for man-woman marriage. The rally will take place from 10:00 a.m. to Noon on Freedom Plaza, which is located on Pennsylvania Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, NW. Come take part and express your support for traditional marriage! Homosexual marriage advocates in Washington, D.C. are pushing the District of Columbia City Council to replace man-woman marriage with a law that will allow two men or two women to "marry." Just a few weeks ago the Council voted to recognize such "marriages" when they occur overseas or in the handful of other U.S. jurisdictions that allow them - most of them compelled to do so by activist judges who have ignored the will of the people. Let's remind our elected officials just what that will is: to protect marri...

Why, President Obama's economic program, according to himself (per his recently concluded speech at Georgetown University ). They are: * new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation * new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive * new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries * new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses * new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations What else has five pillars ? Islam. They are: * Faith or belief in the Oneness of God and the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad; * Establishment of the daily prayers; * Concern for and almsgiving to the needy; * Self-purification through fasting; and * The pilgrimage to Makkah for those who are able. Get ready, mes amis , for the right-wing conspiracy theorists to revive the "Obama as crypto-Muslim" t...

Well, not quite -- the "gay nation" part, that is. But you gotta admit, for advocates of same-sex marriage, last week was stellar, especially in the melancholy aftermath of Proposition 8. Iowa's Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to ban same-sex marriage in that heartland state. That had Newt Gingrich railing yesterday, on "This Week With George Stephanopoulos", about the dangers of having the judiciary settle social issues: "[I]t's very dangerous for the country to have the judiciary become the chief agent of social change," said the former House speaker. I mean, look where that got us: having to go to school with black people and nixing the sexual harassment of women in the workplace. Bummer, man. And Newt's philosophical opposition to Iowa's new marriage scheme left him defenseless against the Green Mountain state's newfound barrier-free approach to same-sex marriage. That's right, in Vermont last week, the legislat...

cross-posted from The Huffington Post One would think that with four women co-hosts, Bill O'Reilly would have been put to the test in today's appearance on " The View " (ABC), given his producer's stalking of blogger Amanda Terkel and the uproar that has followed. But not one question was asked about the Terkel stalking, or subsequent efforts by Terkel's supporters to hold O'Reilly's advertising sponsors to account for their support of this outrageous bully. Which leads one to wonder: Are the producers of The View so unaware of what is happening in media that they somehow missed the uproar (which was featured prominently on The Huffington Post, and to which O'Reilly rival Keith Olbermann devoted two segments)? Or was there a pre-interview agreement between O'Reilly and "The View" that he would not be called to account for these actions ? Quick review: two weekends ago Amanda Terkel went away for a weekend to an off-the-beaten-t...