Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 05 March 2012 11:30:42 PM. © Crooks and Liars

enlarge Credit: The New Yorker - Bob Staake

The whole man-on-dog-on-station wagon gets The New Yorker cover treatment. Open thread below....

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http://crooksandliars.com/bluegal-aka-fran/open-thread-254

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Open Thread for Night Owls: Feminists flex
social-networking muscles in Limbaugh smackdown

post from Daily Kos on 05 March 2012 11:30:03 PM. © Daily Kos

Open Thread for Night Owls In an analysis at Forbes.com, Tom Watson examines what's behind the barrage of activist pushback and advertiser suspensions that have greeted Rush Limbaugh after his days of vile attacks on Sandra Fluke and a c.y.a. nopology.

The world of networked hurt that descended on the spiteful media enterprise that is Rush Limbaugh revealed a tenacious, super-wired coalition of active feminists prepared at a moment?s notice to blow the lid off sexist attacks or regressive health policy. [...]
Rush Limbaugh (DonkeyHotey)
At latest count, [13] advertisers have pulled the plug on Limbaugh. Each was effectively targeted on Facebook and Twitter by an angry and vocal storm of thousands of people calling for direct action. The campaign was almost instantaneous, coordinated by no individual or organization, and entirely free of cost. Prominent feminist organizers told Forbes that it was social media?s terrible swift sword, led once again by Twitter and Facebook-savvy women, that dealt Limbaugh the worst humiliation of his controversial career, and in many ways, revealed the most potent ?non-organized? organization to take the field on the social commons in the age of Occupy Wall Street and Anonymous. [...]
?What?s most interesting to me is that in the last two years or so specifically, women have been leading the charge online to campaign for themselves against this kind of abuse, largely thanks to advances in social networking,? said media technologist Deanna Zandt, author of Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking. ?In the past, we?d have to wait for some organization to take up the cause?create a petition, launch an email campaign?and outside of traditional feminist movement types, those campaigns rarely reached widespread acceptance.?

Watson says this should not be seen as just some left-right battle. Liberal icons have also been targeted, he says, pointing to the "brilliantly-organized" campaign against leftist film-maker Michael Moore and liberal TV anchor Keith Olbermann.

In that instance, blogger Sady Doyle sparked fury and a twitter campaign 15 months ago with a post taking Moore to task for providing bail for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange when he was accused of rape. She spurred her supporters to battle both Moore and Olbermann for being dismissive of the accusation. Addressing Moore, she wrote:

...you?re the face of the Left. You have the platform, you have the power, you have the cash and the fame and the name and face recognition: You claim to speak for us. And when you speak, you don?t stand against rape. [...]
We are the progressive community. We are the left wing. We are women and men, we are from every sector of this community, and we believe that every rape accusation must be taken seriously, regardless of the accused rapist?s connections, power, influence, status, fame, or politics.

Her supporters used the #mooreandme Twitter hashtag to push for apologies from the two men. They got them.

Watson quotes feminist writer Kate Harding:

?I think the public aspect is really important. #mooreandme, the Limbaugh boycott, the Komen/Planned Parenthood uproar all worked because there was somewhere to express ourselves visibly. Who knows how many feminists were sending letters and making phone calls over similar instances in the past? But without any way for an outside observer to measure it, the target of a boycott or letter-writing campaign was never forced to acknowledge that criticism publicly. When your brand?s Facebook wall is overtaken by feminist outrage, you can?t just write it off as a few man-hating cranks and continue on as usual.?

Send an e-mail to the Armed Forces Network, telling them there is no place on military airwaves for talk like Limbaugh's.

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2003:

One of the Bush administration's mantras is "if we lead, people will follow". Hence, they refuse to work in consultation with allies (whether in the foreign or domestic arenas), fully expecting everyone to line up behind them once decisions are made.
This strategy is in full effect at the UN Security Council, where the administration is expressing confidence the US has the votes to pass a war-authorizing resolution.
"We are proceeding, we're pushing ahead," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "There is not metaphysical certainty about anything but our plan, everything we are doing, all our intentions and what we anticipate will indeed happen is this will be put to a vote in which the president remains confident in the outcome."
But as "boldly" as the administration may be pushing war, it seems the Security Council will have none of it, as Russia and France have both indicated they will veto the resolution.

Tweet of the Day:

Maybe Rush thinks ovarian cysts are good things. After all, a pilonidal cyst kept him out of Nam. http://t.co/...
? @tbogg via web

High Impact Posts are here. Top Comments are here.

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-Owls-Feminists-flex-social-networking-muscles-in-Limbaugh-smackdown

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Late Night FDL: Doing Our Job is HARD MOM

post from Firedoglake on 05 March 2012 11:00:31 PM. © Firedoglake

The Wisconsin State Journal doesn't WANNA GO TO SCHOOL and you're being SO MEAN MAKING US and one of these days OUR REAL MOM WHO'S A PRINCESS WILL COME AND TAKE US AWAY FROM HERE and THEN YOU'LL BE SORRY.[...]

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"Dear Prudence" offers advice to Limbaugh on his
apology

post from US Politics | AMERICAblog News on 05 March 2012 11:00:17 PM. © US Politics | AMERICAblog News

It's obvious Limbaugh was poorly raised because that was about the worst excuse for an apology ever. He's clearly not big enough to admit he was wrong and provide a simple apology. Emily Yoffe (Dear Prudence) takes Limbaugh to task. Slate:

?For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. [Don?t lead with self-congratulation. If you?re aiming for self-pity, that?s also not the way to start an apology. After all, you?re not making the case that your remarks were the result of sleep deprivation or a medical crisis caused by overwork. Underlining that you get paid millions of dollars to sit in front of a microphone 15 hours a week does not create sympathy.] In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. [This wasn?t an errant remark, but a three-day attack. You pretty much ran through a thesaurus? worth of synonyms to characterize Ms. Fluke, and you make your living choosing words. An apology should not drip with insincerity.] I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke. [This is false on its face, so not a good strategy.]

Keep reading, because it's an excellent response.

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vice-to-limbaugh.html

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C&L's Late Night Music Club With Diana Ross

post from Crooks and Liars on 05 March 2012 11:00:00 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Title: SurrenderArtist: Diana Ross

Let's do some Motor City soul tonight. What's your favorite song from Motown?

Surrender

Artist: Diana Ross Price: $165.00 (As of 03/05/12 05:19 pm details)

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http://crooksandliars.com/jared-shade-reynolds/cls-late-night-music-club-dia

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Coming Up: The Rights Revenge for Hurting Rush

post from Firedoglake on 05 March 2012 10:15:57 PM. © Firedoglake

People everywhere have written about Rush, his comments and the actions taken to convince advertisers to leave. I could analyze which actions will and won't work with Rush but I won't. I'd bore myself writing that, what I want to do is talk about what is[...]

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Taking a Ride in the Austerity Train

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 05 March 2012 10:12:54 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow GazetteJames Crotty: Obama's budget is a "less savage" attack on social programs, but still assumes we are "living above our means"Thanks to the David Dayen at FDL News Desk for the links to articles that there is still[...]

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http://www.docudharma.com/diary/29268/taking-a-ride-in-the-austerity-train

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Monday Stuff

post from The Liberal Doomsayer on 05 March 2012 10:07:00 PM. © The Liberal Doomsayer

I have a feeling that Willard Mitt Romney is on his way to buying the Repug nomination for president with millions in negative ads, but before Little Ricky bids us adieu, I think we need to know about this breaking story from The Onion (and by the way, concerning another ?values? kerfuffle, I thought this was a good post from Cenk Uygur)...

Heartbroken Santorum Condemns Gay Marriage For Two-Timing Jerks Like Nick

...and RIP Ronnie Montrose, here doing his ?guitar god? thing with Sammy Hagar from back in the day.

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http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2012/03/monday-stuff.html

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Why Can't Gov. Scott Walker Stop the Job Losses
in Wisconsin

Here's Gov. Walker back in December, whistling in the dark...

Wisconsin is the only state that's been bleeding jobs for a straight six months, and the Walker administration is truly puzzled. Gov. Walker followed every single recommendation in the Wingnut Book of Corporate Wishes, resulting in a huge pile of manure, and yet he still can't find the free market pony. If only there was something he could do to change things - you know, things like go back in time and not lay off all those teachers and public workers whose spending helped stimulate the economy:

"The rest of the nation is moving upwards. We're one of the few states moving downward. There's something wrong," said economist Steven Deller of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The United States as a whole has added private-sector jobs 23 months in a row, including almost a half million jobs in the past two months.
But Wisconsin has been moving in the opposite direction, a trend that not only threatens Gov. Scott Walker's campaign promise but could cloud any message of economic renewal as the state heads into an all-but-certain recall election this summer.
An analysis of jobs data shows that Wisconsin lags the nation in a number of ways that reflect grimly on its economy:
Wisconsin has lost more private-sector jobs (an estimated 27,700) than any state in the country since the middle of last year (July through December), according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only one other state, Missouri, is close, losing about 19,000 jobs in that stretch.
Although the state added more than 41,000 private-sector jobs in the first half of 2011, losses in the second half of the year have wiped out most of those gains, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
...
Walker declined an interview request, but he and his administration have painted a much brighter economic picture than these numbers suggest.
"Governor Walker's policies have helped turn Wisconsin around," said his communications director, Chris Schrimpf.

You betcha!

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http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/why-cant-gov-scott-walker-stop-job-lo

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Transit of Venus

Friend Mary told me about a rare astronomical event called the Transit of Venus. This will happen June 5, 2012 when the planet Venus can be seen transiting the face of the sun. Viewed with protective lenses, of course.

This chart from NASA gives the transit time for Providence. The next one is not until 2117.

Two hundred and fifty years ago the transit made its mark on Providence…

On a clear June morning in 1769, a crowd gathered near a tall wooden platform, curiously watching gentlemen like Joseph Brown, his brother Moses, Stephen Hopkins and others using a telescope to observe the Transit of Venus. Two Providence streets now bear the name of their experiment: Transit Street and Planet Street.

Could be an excuse for a party. Why not?