Month: July 2012

Morally Straight

by digby

I think this is a big deal:

Last week, The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced that they will continue to exclude gay members from their private organization, upholding their right to bigotry that they won in a Supreme Court case in 2000. Now, for the first time, a protest is brewing from within the organization. Eagles Scouts are resigning and returning their medals.

Click over to see the letters at Boing Boing. They’re great.

Eagle Scouts really do tend to be impressive young men. I remember someone telling me years ago that one should never fail to give an Eagle Scout an interview for a job — they are almost always stand-up, responsible workers. I don’t know that it says anything about their talent or their value as a person, but it does show that they are focused and accomplished.

For that and other reasons, those who achieve the title value being Eagle Scouts quite highly. To resign and turn in their medals means something.

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American media stunned by love of universal healthcare in Britain

by David Atkins

Yes, there was a celebration of the British NHS at the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Yes, it was adorable and memorable. And yes, the American media was clueless and confused. The Guardian:

Perhaps not surprisingly in a country where healthcare reform is so controversial, it was the high-profile presence of the NHS that stunned many American writers.

After all, the idea of state-control of healthcare is demonised as “socialised medicine” with scare stories of “death panels” touted by top – usually Republican – political leaders.

Certainly the US equivalent, which would be dancing health insurance corporate executives, was hard to imagine.

“For the life of me, though, am still baffled by NHS tribute at opening ceremonies. Like a tribute to United Health Care or something in US,” tweeted clearly confused Los Angeles Times sports writer Diane Pucin.

Perhaps many writers simply struggled with so much going on.

But none so much as Time’s Catherine Mayer, whom the Guardian quotes with amusement:

Boyle couldn’t overcome two fundamental problems. Britain is good at the sort of solemn pageantry surrounding royal occasions. It’s less good at solemnity without a traditional framework.

It’s hard to disagree with Boyle’s messaging – for example about the dangers of unfettered capitalism and about how generations of immigrants have enriched and renewed Britain and about the value of the NHS – but it was clunky and worthy.

That’s because the other banana skin is the idea that last 100 years of British history, with its loss and confusion as well as its triumphs and achievements, lends itself to the lobotomized format of an Olympics opening ceremony … So we got something that almost worked, and captivated in parts. And that is as true a reflection of Britain as it’s possible to imagine.

No, it worked quite well. It just takes a little more appreciation for empathy and complexity than most American media are able to handle.

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Saturday Night at the Movies

Start the revolution without me

By Dennis Hartley

From family trees the dukes do swing: Farewell, My Queen

Benoit Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen is the type of period film that critics love, because it gives them carte blanche to use descriptive phrases like “handsomely mounted” and “sumptuously detailed” with abandon. OK, so it is a handsomely mounted, sumptuously detailed period film that finds its verisimilitude by occasionally soiling the hem of its petticoats with (to paraphrase Monty Python) “lovely” (and authentic!) 18th century filth. That’s exactly what happens when an otherwise poised young lady named Sidonie (Lea Seydoux) goes unceremoniously ass over teakettle while scurrying to attend to the whims of her employer, one Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger). The year is 1789, and that would be the same Marie Antoinette who was Queen of France at the time. As any history major would tell you, 1789 wasn’t the best year to have that particular gig. Indeed, it is July of 1789, and there’s a sizable coterie of disgruntled (and filthy!) 99 per centers who are but days away from donning tri-corner hats and brandishing pitchforks to storm the Bastille.

But the Queen currently has more pressing concerns. For example, where oh where is her “finery book”? She’s just had an epiphany for a new dress design, while Sidonie (her personal reader) reads an article aloud to her from a fashion magazine as Marie wistfully ogles the pictures (you have to understand, they didn’t have cable back then). You are probably getting the picture that, despite the fomenting revolution on the streets of Paris, life within the Société Particulière de la Reine is continuing unabated. At least at first glance. Through Sidonie’s eyes (she is one of the Queen’s primary “ladies in waiting”) we are given an upstairs/downstairs peek at all the doings at Versailles during the waning days of the French monarchy. In the drawing rooms, it’s all curtsies and hushed deference, but as the action moves farther out of royal earshot and closer to the servant’s quarters, gossip and rumors rule (as well as some furtive, down and dirty bodice-ripping).

It’s nearly impossible to observe the disconnect of these privileged aristocrats carrying on in their gilded bubble while the impoverished and disenfranchised rabble sharpen up the guillotines without drawing parallels with our current state of affairs (history, if nothing else, is cyclical). The director seems sharp enough to “know that we know” this already, so he doesn’t hit us over the head with it. His screenplay (co-written by Gilles Taurand) manages to contemporize the emotional life of the characters, whilst managing to avoid the kind of anachronisms that plagued Sofia Coppola’s 2006 misfire, Marie Antoinette.

The film is carried primarily through the earthy and believable performances from Seydoux and Kruger (who, interestingly, last worked together in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds). Kruger conveys Marie’s spoiled frivolousness, but avoids broad caricature; there’s a resigned melancholy that lurks just beneath the veneer, adding an interesting layer to her performance. Kruger’s subtlety is particularly highlighted in a memorable scene where she confides to Seydoux about her “special” friendship with Gabrielle de Polignac (a duchess in the Queen’s court historically rumored to have been her lover). The dialog is strictly innuendo, but Kruger’s delivery and facial expressions say it all (it’s quite reminiscent of Laurence Oliver’s infamous “snails and oysters” scene with Tony Curtis in Spartacus). This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this story, and it won’t be the last, but somehow…I never tire of watching the oligarchy crumble (pass the popcorn!).

Saturday Night at the Movies review archives

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Rule #24

by digby

“Feminism was established to allow easier access to the mainstream for unattractive women” — Rule #24, Rush Limbaugh

“Right wing talk radio was established as a slick con for sad, confused white men who don’t understand that they are no longer running things” — Rule #23, me.

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Thomas Paine knew he didn’t build that, either

by David Atkins

Thomas Paine:

Land, as before said, is the free gift of the Creator in common to the human race. Personal property is the effect of society; and it is as impossible for an individual to acquire personal property without the aid of society, as it is for him to mike land originally.

Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man’s own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came.

This is putting the matter on a general principle, and perhaps it is best to do so; for if we examine the case minutely it will be found that the accumulation of personal property is, in many instances, the effect of paying too little for the labor that produced it; the consequence of which is that the working hand perishes in old age, and the employer abounds in affluence.

Mitt Romney and his Objectivist Republican friends are a disgrace to America and the ideals upon which it was founded.

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Loving their deep fried bigotry

by digby

I honestly don’t have a problem with this. They choose to support a business owned by someone who shares their beliefs. I think those beliefs are odious and disgraceful and I have no respect for people who are hostile to civil rights, but it is within their rights to be jerks.

But it’s within my rights not to patronize such businesses as well. I have never been to a Chik-fil-a and I guess I never will go there. I have boycotted these restaurants for years: Carl’s Junior, Domino’s Pizza, White Castle and Waffle House. (And for any of you middle aged ladies out there, Curves Fitness is owned by a real extremist who gives 10% of the profits to anti-choice wingnuts.)

Likewise, there are a bunch of businesses the anti-choice zealots say should be boycotted because of their support for Planned Parenthood. Get a load of this partial list:

New boycott targets include AOL, Darden Restaurants (Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille, LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Season 52), Franchise Services (PIP, Signal Graphics, Sir Speedy), Hilton Worldwide (Conrad Hotels,Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inns/Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton Hotels, Homewood Suites), Ignite Restaurants (Brickhouse Tavern+Tap, Joe’s Crab Shack), ING (financial services), Kohl’s (department stores), Mrs. Fields (cookies),Staples (office/school supplies), Toys “R” Us, and Trader Joe’s(markets/supermarkets).

Returning to The Boycott List are The Gap (apparel/accessories) and Freddie Mac (U.S. Government-sponsored secondary mortgages).

Corporations continuing as boycott targets from the previously released Boycott List include AlphaGraphics, Wells Fargo (including Wachovia), Nike, Time Warner, Bank of America, Walt Disney, Johnson & Johnson, Lost Arrow (Patagonia, etc.),Chevron, and Nationwide Insurance, among others.

Garvey was critical of pro-life organizations that continue to use PayPal even though it has been a boycott target for several years now. “PayPal is owned by boycott target eBay,” Garvey said. “Most pro-life groups are aware that it is a boycott target because it has funded Planned Parenthood, but they have consciously chosen to continue doing business with the company. Doing so is indefensible.”

The new Boycott List includes a “Dishonorable Mention” section, which identifies charitable groups that are associated with Planned Parenthood and/or its agenda. Groups named in this section include Lions Clubs, the American Cancer Society, Easter Seals, Boys & Girls Clubs, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Camp Fire, Girls Inc., Girl Scouts, Kiwanis Clubs, March of Dimes, Muscular Dystrophy Association,Rotary Clubs, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Salvation Army, YWCA,America Gives Back (formerly [American] Idol Gives Back), and YMCA, among others.

“This has not been some sort of ‘Jesse Jackson boycott’ where we make news for a few days and then go away,” said LDI Chairman Thomas C. Strobhar. “Corporate officials are learning that those who value life are among the most dedicated people on earth. We will not go away until corporate involvement with Planned Parenthood comes to an end.”

I can easily live without Chik-fil-a, Carl’s Jr, Dominos, White Castle and Waffle House. I wonder how many cultural conservatives are actually living without all those organizations above? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, apparently. (You can’t find out all the names on the list without buying it from this group, naturally.) And lest you think this rightwing boycott list is an obscure list that nobody’s heard of, check out the endorsers.

Some of the corporations listed above are not automatically worth supporting simply because rightwingers don’t like their charitable giving. Obviously, there are other criteria that we all must use when evaluating a company. But let’s just say that when it comes to women’s rights and gay rights, it appears that the business community is far more attuned to the beliefs of the liberal side of the dial.

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“Politics at its best!”

by digby

Jay Rosen on the post-truth campaign:

Via Andrew Sullivan, who says:

Jay recently wondered how the press would cover a “post-truth campaign” for the presidency. He thinks it would fall under the category of “too big to tell”:

Meaning: feels too partisan for the officially unaligned. Exposes the press to criticism in too clear a fashion. Messes with the “both sides do it”/we’re impartial narrative that political journalists have mastered: and deeply believe in. Romney will be fact checked, his campaign will push back from time to time, the fact checkers will argue among themselves, and the post-truth premise will sneak into common practice without penalty or recognition, even though there is nothing covert about it.

And it’s not just campaigns. Here’s a post from 2009, chosen at random, featuring the man-boy MSNBC hosts have taken to calling “the sage of Capitol Hill” in which he just makes up a scenario out of whole cloth:

Shuster: What sort of efforts are Harry Reid and his cohorts making toward Russ Feingold?

Lil’ Luke: (smirking) You remember last week or ten days ago that Mary Landrieu was able to get 300 million dollars for Hurricane Katrina down in Lousisiana? Expect Russ Feingold to possibly get something, a nice little present, an early Christmas present from Harry Reid here, possibly that could go to other members.

Obviously David, you know it’s politics. These Senators want what’s best for their home states, if they can hold up a major bill like this and get something in return, they just might do it.

But I think the people who are interesting to look at here are one, is Mr Feingold here, as you mentioned because he is the apotheosis of the progressive wing, but also folks like Blanche Lincoln, like Mary Landrieu, who are very fiscally conservative. If this is very expensive, they might not be on board. We also have to look at Mr Lieberman who has given a little bit of a hint that he might like this idea, but he is very much opposed to the trigger and some folks are looking at Olympia Snowe to possibly give the Democrats that buffer, that one vote buffer they could lose somebody. But she’s not signed on to this 100% at all either David so there’s still a lot of jockeying to be done.

It’s politics at its best, as we like to say at MSNBC.

That was an entirely bullshit, cynical analysis of the legislative jockeying in the health care bill, presented as some sort of entertaining Villager spectacle. These people are a problem.

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Ours is the only terrorist attack worth mourning

by digby

I watched the Olympic opening ceremonies BBC feed at a local pub with a friend of mine yesterday. (Any excuse for an early Friday beer fest.) Anyway, I had no idea until today that NBC cut out a big portion of the program for American audiences.

The major transitional element of today’s London Olympics opening ceremony was a downtempo performance of adoptive sporting anthem “Abide With Me” by Scottish singer Emeli Sandé. The song and accompanying dance were a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 terror attacks in London that claimed 52 victims days after the 2012 Summer Olympic hosts were named. (It’s also been suggested the performance was a memorial to the war dead.)

Regardless, it was a rather significant and emotional moment in the opening ceremony, coming just before the parade of nations—and it wasn’t aired in the United States. Instead, viewers were treated to a lengthy and meaningless Ryan Seacrest interview of Michael Phelps. NBC regularly excises small portions of the opening ceremony to make room for commercials, but we’ve never heard of them censoring out an entire performance—especially to air an inane interview…

Here’s the prepared BBC remarks as aired:

Ladies and gentlemen, please pause silent for our memorial wall for friends and family who can’t be here tonight. The excitement of that moment in Singapore seven years ago when England won the games was tempered the next day with sorrow from the events of July 7th that year. A wall of remembrance for those no longer here to share in this event.

It was clearly a tribute to the victims of the July 7th terrorist attack. WTF? Who replaces memorials to the dead with inane interviews?

Apparently, American broadcasters believe there’s no purpose in showing any tribute to victims of terrorist attacks that aren’t 9/11. (We sure as hell have no problem showing those. Over and over.) I think this is pretty disrespectful. The rest of the world has been forced to endure our wallowing in our victimhood for over a decade. To cut away from that particular portion of the program is in poor taste. Romney-esque poor taste.

Plus, the song was quite moving. It’s not like it was difficult to watch.

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Your Good Samaritans ‘o the day

by digby

Sometimes you just need to be reminded that human beings really can be decent:

Shirley Schenk and her husband Tom, heard the bears crying through the night a couple of weeks ago outside their Ruidoso, N.M. home, and as soon as there was enough light they came to the rescue, armed with a ladder and a pickup truck.
They keep a ladder by the garage door for exactly this situation and have used it two other times.

Oh, and speaking of Ted Nugent, those of you who are watching the Bear Cam up in Katmai National Forest, enjoy. If the global warming deniers, clear cutters, miners and drill, baby, drillers have their way this won’t be around much longer.

“There are lots of valid IDs, I just can’t remember what they are”

by digby

It’s a testament to how concerned the Pennsylvania state government is about legitimate voters being denied their right to vote that the Governor isn’t even pretending that they are going to educate the populace about the new voter ID requirements:

Pennsylvanians unsure about the requirements of their state’s new voter ID bill have some notable company: their governor.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) on Wednesday couldn’t remember when asked by a reporter what forms of identification would be accepted under the voter ID law he signed earlier this year.

Corbett was asked about a new report showing that 43 percent of Philadelphia voters lack a valid form of identification issued by the state.

“We’ve been working with the nursing homes to get people new ID. It can be military ID. There’s two or three other forms right now off the top of my head I don’t have it here in front of me,” Corbett said.

It’s no biggie. I’m sure if anybody who really, really, really wants to vote they can figure out some way to do it. But I can’t remember the specifics. And if it’s really complicated, and they they’ll figure there little point in bothering to stand in all those lines and wait on hold and search vain for the information to vote, it would be a real shame.But hey, those are the breaks. We have a non-existent problem to solve.

I did notice one thing. The only group they’re “working with” to get ID is the one group of voters most likely to vote Republican — or be persuaded to by the people who are “helping” them. What a surprise.

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