Yesterday, I witnessed one of the most iconic images of the protests I’ve seen so far, as the massive ABC news ticker in Times Square scrolled the headline “Occupy Wall Street Movement Goes Worldwide” while throngs of protesters moved beneath it, the giant billboards and screens above bombarding them with a constant stream of the very corporate consumerism that they had gathered against. As I took it all in, I heard a fellow protester proclaiming, “here she is, the Whore of Babylon, her legs spread wide for all the world to see.” Continue reading
politics
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Herman “Soul Pizza” Cain is a third-rate pizza chain executive who apparently once guest-hosted for one of right wing talk radio’s most popular human-anal cysts. So by the glue vapor logic of the current Republican Party, of course he should also be president of the United States.
But to quote my favorite old white man (Lee Corso): Not so fast, my friends. Continue reading
She’s blonde. She’s pretty. She’s upbeat. She’s sweet. And she may be the most transgressive fictional character on screen right now, big or small. Her name is Leslie Knope. And I love her.
Confession: when Parks and Recreation first hit the airwaves in 2009, I didn’t quite get the show—or its central character played by Amy Poehler. I wanted to like it more than I did. It came with great auspices (Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, both of The Office), so I watched it, but something didn’t quite work for me.
I thought Leslie was a little too broad (starting with her joke of a name) and bordered on the silly. She was so happy. She didn’t seem all that smart. She couldn’t “read a room”. It felt like the creators were making fun of her, a comic technique that always leaves me cold. (If you don’t love your protagonist, why should I?) But as the show found its footing and improved (an oft reported ascension), and as the creators and Poehler refined and deepened the character, I started to see Leslie as something utterly fresh and new on television. Continue reading
Given that the mainstream American Left has been scared of its own shadow since the Reagan revolution turned “liberal” into a dirty word, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that many of these self-professed “progressives” have responded to the first genuine sustained mass youth movement my generation has seen by heaping scorn, doubt, and criticism upon it. I arrived in Zuccotti Park late Sunday afternoon hoping to catch a glimpse of the chaotic and disorganized mass of dirty hippies, drugged-out punks, and other standard bogeymen of the “get off my lawn” crowd. I was sorely disappointed. Continue reading
I think we all just won a date with Chris Christie. Well, that’s what the media would like anyway. Sure, yes, we get it. The Republican presidential candidate field is littered with wishy-washy, strange jokers, who can’t go more than two weeks without some sort of gaffe, image problem, or just plain inability to connect with more than just the Tea Party. So some Republicans are frustrated, but even more to the point, the media is just beside itself with trying to latch onto a candidate that actually offers a consistent message, and a measure of stately, unshakeable, staunch republicanism that can actually take Obama to the mat.
Enter the makings of a savior, Chris Christie. Continue reading
As some of you may have heard, the Congressional GOP leadership, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Senator Jon Kyl (a member of the so-called deficit supercommittee) sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday, ahead of the two day meeting of the Board Members of the Federal Reserve which began yesterday.
For those of you wishing to read the entire letter (and I suggest you do), here is the text. Continue reading
The recent right wing wins in the Canadian elections seem to have had a negative impact on tolerance for the good things in life. The Puritans that run the parliamentary website have deemed cleavage to be unbecoming of a politician. Though this shouldn’t come as a surprise given that the supreme court wears chin high shirts to ensure against any possible cleavage.
Even though she is a member of the Canadian Parliament, at 29 Rathika Sitsabaiesan can easily be classified as one of the “kids these days” and prone to doing things like lingering on lawns or wearing shirts that dip below chin level. Continue reading
Fox News CEO Roger Ailes seems to think so. Or is this purely a red herring since the news channel is largely known for shouting heads Bill O’Reilly, Pundit Sarah Palin, and mean-spirited minotaur, Sean Hannity. Yeah, none of these people seems primed to take a more centrist viewpoint. However, according to Ailes, he is quietly repositioning the cable-news channel.
What exactly does this mean? Continue reading
Hey, you know I’m as mad as the next gal about what’s going on with the current tax debate. Sure, yes, it floors me that some jerkoff multi-millionaire claims that in suffering a tax increase his net income would be diminished down to $400,000 after he feeds his family. That’s some crazy logic right there. No, seriously, that is something only an out of touch maniac would say. But is taking to Wall Street in some undefined protest, led by an anonymous internet movement, without focused demands or plan other to say “Thumbs down to Corporations!” really the answer frustrated, unemployed, mostly left-leaning Americans should take?
Seems like a long shot to me.
Former Senator, current Republican presidential contender, and well-known douchecanoe Rick Santorum is frothy at the mouth because Google is not changing the ordering of their search results like he wants them too. Sex columnist Dan Savage’s highly publicized and highly successful 2003 campaign to re-define “santorum” as a byproduct of anal sex and the subsequent Google-bombing of the term has resulted in a hilarious (well, from my perspective) and damaging first page of search results. Savage’s efforts, prompted by devoutly Catholic Santorum’s anti-gay comments have proven to be a pain in the presidential candidate’s ass. Continue reading