The Essence Of Wingnuttery…Raised To Infinity: The Alliance Defense Fund’s “Marriage Vow” Pledge…Now With 80% More Racism!! (And, Ministress Lubben’s Connection Thereof)

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Anthony
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UPDATED:  Scroll to bottom.

I know that there are those of you who are under the misimpression that the Tea Party movement is something other than the mere latest installment of the “New Right” offensive of the 1970′s/1980′s, which combined a love of unfettered Casino Capitalism rigged for a few wealthy White men and freed of any constraints of concern humanity or resources, with the focus on imposing a pliant and overarching fundamentalist Christianity which essentially says that only God can make you rich, only making lots and lots of White babies for Jesus makes you whole, and that  everyone else not prordained to be White, male, rich, or sufficiently pious enough to restrict their sexual exploits to the “Godly intended” goals of marriage and reproduction, simply deserves their fate as slaves or serfs destined straight to Hell…but not before they can be exploited and used up for the profits of those more fortunate to be “blessed”.

After all, there are more than a few reps who call themselves Tea Party members who proclaim themselves to be more “libertarian” and who do attempt to buck the trend by standing up for “individual rights” and “liberties” against the strong arms of the “Nanny State”.

The problem is, though, that these few brave souls are in the minority, and those who are far more likely to use the state as a weapon to impose their Dominionist, fascist agenda tend to be the ones getting the attention and the money.

And, thanks to the election of the first Black President, they are mining the usual bigotries and saws and memes to plan their revenge for the “Obamanation” of 2008.

One such group is called The Family Leader, a branch in Iowa of the national Alliance Defense Fund which is particularly insistent on representing the views of “Christian conservatives” who strongly believe that only “God’s laws” (as interpreted mostly by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Cal Thomas, and Pat Robertson) will save America from abject ruin and Satanic corruption. To that end, and in preparation for the upcoming Iowa political caucus, they have drawn up a campaign pledge which they are requiring all faithfull political candidates to sign in order to get their financial support.

And friends and neighbors, it’s a doozy. A virtual Lolapallooza of fascist, racist, and sexist wingnuttery.

The creator of this “pledge” is a man named Bob Vaander Platts, who heads up the group called “The Family Leader” (here’s their website); he is so committed to his vision that he was at one time the state chairman for the aborted (no pun intended) campaign of Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in 2008; and he even ran for Iowa governor (and lost handily) in 2010. The Alliance Fund is merely the national org for politically motivated wingnut fundies like Vaander Platts, and Iowa is a very fertile ground for Dominionist activism, having brought the likes of current Congressman Steve “PsychoNazi” King.

The pledge has been getting lots of ink lately because none other than the Chief Wingnut Princess herself, Minnesota GOTP congressman and newly minted 2012 Presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann, was the first to sign her name onto the dotted line of commitment to the values of the “Marriage Vow”. At least Madame Batshit can say that she fits the fundamental requirements, having been married for 30+ years to the same man (who himself happens to be a fervent fundamentalist/Dominionist/antigay activist of his own right, right down to the “exgay therapy” he offers his clients)…which is more that can be said for folk like Newt Gingrich or Tim Pawlenty or Rudy Giuliani. (Or, for that matter, Rush, who is now in his forth marriage..but he’s given an exception due to his strident advocacy for pushing these high.standards on others, I guess.)

Now, I’m not going to do a full fisking of the Pledge since so many others have emphasized some of the more…ummmm, esoteric portions included within. Simply going to the document itself will open your eyes to the lunacy. (Warning, this is a PDF document requiring Adobe Reader.). On the other hand, some points are worth commenting on.

For instance, this tidbit regarding slavery and the stability of Black families, which is a favorite meme of Dominionists for masking their innate racism and paternalism for Black folk.

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA‟s first African-American President.

Yeah, really. I mean, do these clowns ever grok the fact that those supposedly stable “two-parent” families existing in 1860 weren’t quite so stable due to the slavemasters abusing the parents to death or breaking up the families at will by selling the fathers (and mothers) to other slaveholders??  Or, the fact that most of those “stable” two-parent families were the result of rape, often rape betwen the slaveholder and the slave?? And, what the hell goes with comparing all this with the situation of single-parent Black families in the year 2008 through 2011…where even the poorest single mother is far  more likely to have support from her family or the state for her and her children’s survival? And, why the obsession with Black families anyway, since they don’t even make up a majority of single-parent families in the first place??

Not unless you happen to believe that Black folk are merely uncontrollable sluts who live off “The Government’s” dime (read that to mean, White rich Christian’s tax money) and who need a stern kick back to “God’s law”(read that to mean “slavery”) to reinforce the virtues of “marriage” and “monogamy”…and to be exploitable once again for the Glory of God (and the lined pockets of fundie Christian White rich men like Bob Vaader Platts and Rush Limbaugh.

And their female shills and Presidential wannabes like Michelle Bachmann.

The “pledge” goes on to list the typical memes about how the “destruction of marriage” directly relates to the dire situation of Black families due to the abandonment of rigid standards of sexual morality, the fiscal  “permissiveness” of the Great Society, and the rise of the social welfare state in adopting a overly permissive “anything and everything goes” hedonistic philosophy in direct contradiction to “known scientific facts” that only unquestioned and state enforced commitment to permanent heterosexual marriage and restrictive sexual morals — meaning, NO sex outside of conception within marriage and noting at all outside of marriage — will save America from impending social and economic doom. Of course, their footnotes offer no proof of all these “known scientific facts”, other than oblique references to other wingnut/Chiistian Right “scholars” and other Dominionist crackpots whose political philosophy and polices just so happen to agree with theirs.

Naturally, the ultimate vow’s policy statements perfectly mesh with standard fundie Right principles: push for a Marriage Amendment to the US Constitution to override even states voting to allow gay marriage or even “gay unions” (while pushing “one man/one woman marriage” legislation in all 50 states); appoint and/or elect only “strict constitutionalist” judges at all levels to bend interpretations of the law to Dominionist/Federalist Society favor; absolute bans on abortion, contraception, pornography, adultery, all forms of sexual activity and expression not meeting fundie Christian standards of conception within marriage; tighter laws on allowing divorces calling for mandatory “cooling off periods” and other means of restricting options for those wanting to divorce; retaining and expanding the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of openly targeting and removing gays (and other sexual heretics) from the military; public enforcement of fundie sexual morality as a means of “protecting the fruits of conjugal intimacy” against the “sins” of porn, abortion, “human trafficking”, prostitution, “sexual slavery”, and especially “”sexual promiscuity”; opposition to the red herring and strawman-laced ghost threat of “Sharia Law” (as if fundie Muslims didn’t fundamentally agree with their agenda already); “downsizing” of the welfare state/social spending component of government (read that to mean privatizing welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other aspects of the welfare state) to restrict social aid to those meeting strict wingnut sexual moral standards; and a priori protections for “people of faith” to impose their morality onto unwanted others free of Constitutional constraints such as the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment or the right of free association of other sects, groups, or individuals.

Basically, to bottom line this manifesto: Only right-wing Christians would rule, and everyone else would either follow or suffer or die. Full. Stop.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a platform of a crank…but Michelle Bachmann is right now being pushed by many (and not just wingnuts) as the leading Republican candidate for President in 2012. And, the Christian Right, along with their Tea Party brethren, still hold a strong majority of the Republican Party’s vital infrastructure, if not the majority in most states. Add that to a bad economy and a Democratic Party torn asunder by the willingness of President Barack Obama and the Democratic establishment to sell its basic progressive principles (meaning Social Security and Medicare) away to the bidding of the Catfood Commission and the IMF, and even someone like Batshit Bachmann has a fighting chance to win.

The other,  and a bit less serious, aspect from this document is how Shelley Lubben plays into this. (Yes, Clones, here’s why I included her in the title.)

No, Ministress Lubben’s not quite running for President or any other political office (at least not yet), but she does have a small part in all this Marriage Vow drama.

One of the endnotes — #8, I presume — restated their claim that

That practices such as adultery, bisexuality, homosexuality, anal intercourse, group sex, promiscuity, serial marriage, polygamy, polyandry and extramarital sex, individually or collectively, lead to general improvements…

The endnote went on to make a long detailed listing of supposed ill affects of such sinful behaviors…where this partticular list of after effects were found:

b. Public health,
c. Public health costs (Medicaid, Medicare, etc.)
d. General health care price inflation (medical, hospital, insurance, etc).
e. Incidence of single parent households and related social costs,
f. Incidence of epidemics and pandemics,
g. Incidence of:
i. HIV/ AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus);
ii. Other retroviruses like XMRV, HTLV, etc. (affecting venereal fluids, semen, breast milk, blood);
iii. Septic bacterial infections (such as from E Coli);
iv. Hepatitis (forms of which are transmitted via fecal-oral, venereal contact);
v. Chancroid (Haemophilus ducreyi);
vi. Chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis);
vii. Granuloma inguinale or (Klebsiella granulomatis);
viii. Gonorrhea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae);
ix. Syphilis (Treponema pallidum);
x. Herpes simplex
xi. Genital warts
xii. HPV (Human Papilloma Virus)
xiii. Phthirius pubis (pubic lice)
xiv. Sarcoptes scabiei (scabies)
xv. Trichomoniasis (Trichomonas vaginalis)
xvi. Anal incontinence
xvii. Abortion
xviii. Abortion-related complications

Wait a dang minute…those last few notes look kind of familiar. Where else did I see those exact points made?? I had to think a bit…

…and then it hit me.

Remember Shelley Lubben’s contribution to the UCLA Condoms in Porn conference??  The one where they attempted to ambush Mr. Marcus as the sole representative of the industry?

Remember the audiovisual display that Ministress Lubben used as part of her testimony??

Yeaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!

Here’s a refresher for you:

 

Remember, this was last year…but if Bob Vaander Platts and Shelley Lubben are using the same base sources for their own campaigns…then what does that say for the Ministeress’s denials that she is only in it for the “love” of God and the safety of the performers??

All we need now is for Shelley to show up at one of Michelle Bachmann’s rallies or an Alliance Defense Fund dinner and cry her eyes out about the abuse she suffered from  porn. I’m sure her years  prior to that as a working escort will be mined for maximum effect as well, too.

UPDATE:  Ahhhh, looky here…it seems like due to all the heat that FAMiLY Leader is getting for that racist smack, and probably to save face with those few Black evangelicals they need to pull themselves out of the crank minority, they have not-so-mysteriously purged that “Black children were better off under slavery in 1860 than they are under Preident Obama’s rule today” graph from their copy of the “pledge” at their website. But don’t fear, Clones…I linked the original from the Think Progress website…and, just for insurance sake, I will mirror a copy to the SmackChron files for linkage here. You can run, Mr. Vaader Platts, but you just can’t hide.

Oh..and that other fundie Christian whackjob, former Pennsylvania US Senator Rick “Man/Dog” Santorum, has become the second GOTP presidential candidate to sign his name onto the “pledge”. No doubt about his conservative creds, either, I guess.

No word yet on whether Shelley Lubben would be willing to sign the “pledge” as amended..or even consider a Presidential bid. We’ll keep you posted, as always.

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Posted in Asshattery, Current Events, F*ck the Republicans!!!, Grand Old TeaKKKluxers, Porn in the US of A, Right-Wing Loony Tunes, The Conservative Bonehead Resistance, The Implosion of the GOP, The Shelley Lubben Files, The War on Sex/Sluts/Gays/Whatever | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why SlutWalk Is More Feminist Than Most Feminists Could Even Dream Of (Or, Reason #5,876 Why Gail Dines Is The Bill O’Reilly Of Radical Feminists)

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Anthony
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[Crossposted also from The Red Garter Club 3.0 blog]

Most of you know me as a fierce defender of and even sometimes worshipper of sexually assertive women.

It’s not because I aim to get into every one of their panties, either.

(Though, admittedly, the thought has crossed my mind a time or two. A day. OK, OK, an hour a day. Oh, all right…plenty of hours a day.  Hey, I’m an average man with feelings and working sex organs; can’t deny that.)

On the other hand, though, that desire for women who aren’t afraid to “play the slut”, if not even “BE the slut”, comes with an ethic and a responsibility to respect them as full human beings not reduced to the size of their chests, butts, or clits.

Even when they fully choose to show themselves off or put themselves out for their own sexual pleasure, it is fundamental that anyone worthy of having a human conscience remember that just because they put out does not make them your very personal sex doll or vibrator; and that outside of the fantasies they provide, they are and should be respected and given all the privileges of privacy that all women deserve.

Needles to say, that also includes the right NOT to be sexually assaulted, or to be catcalled against their will or consent, or to be judged by their style of dress.

Actually, that goes for all women in general, whether they choose to dress in a burqa, a business suit, or a tank top and miniskirt. Whatever they decide to put on (or take off) is inmaterial to whether or not they are available to you. If she wants you, she will say so; otherwise, just assume the default position of NO and move on. (And no, “maybe next time” does not mean “Yes” either…it means just what is says.)

It is depressing to actually have to type this in the second week of the fifth month of the year 2011, because the idea that a woman’s choice of clothing determing her supposed sexual availability and giving a green light to any rapist or other sexual assailant to ignore her stated rejections should have been put to permanent rest a long time ago.

What turns this into an even greater travesty is when the voices for “modesty” and forced chastity and browbeating women for their choices happen to call themselves “feminists”.  Nay…”RADICAL feminists”.

And this is why I once again have to drop another Gail Dines Stupid Radfem Right update on you. Not that I like using up valuable pixel space ripping on the Wheelock College professor/antiporn “leftist” activist/faux feminist, but when she goes like Bill O’Reilly and says something more astonishingly, breathtakingly, viciously boneheaded than her usual mimes about porn being the Great Male Patriarchial Capitalist Menace, I feel the need to write something before my blood pressure bursts.

This time, the “good” Professor has decided to sink her teeth into the unwilling neck of an emerging movement known as SlutWalk, which was designed to defend the right of women to wear whatever the fuck they wanted and resist rape and sexual assault in their own way.

SlutWalk originally started out in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by a feisty group of feminists who got seriously pissed off when a Toronto policeman named Michael Sanguinetti decided to shoot his mouth off about rape prevention. Problem was, he blamed the victims of rape for their own accounts, directly implying that they wouldn’t be raped if they had just been a bit more selective with their style of clothing.  The direct quote from Sanguinetti (courtesy of The Guardian UK):

“You know, I think we’re beating around the bush here,” Michael Sanguinetti began, blandly enough, as he addressed the 10 students who turned up for the pep talk. Then he said: “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised.”

Ahhh, yeah. Because the many women who didn’t dress “like sluts” and still managed to get sexually assaulted don’t quite matter, right?? And, of course, the men who do in fact attack women only attack women who dress like “sluts”, thusly, they should be given the benefit of the doubt that they are motivated solely by rampant lust rather than anger and violence and rage vented through sex…ahhh, really???

It was in anger of a different kind that some feminists in Toronto decided to directly take on Sanguinetti’s bullshit straight on and defend the notion of female sexual self-determination against such slut shaming and rape ideology. Thusly, Slutwalk Toronto was born online (and on Facebook), and a protest march organized..which has basically exploded and metasized into a worldwide movement against the mythology and etology of slut shaming.

Their manifesto released at the time of the original protests in Toronto speaks for itself; so I will simply reprint it in its entirity.

BECAUSE WE’VE HAD ENOUGH!

On January 24th, 2011, a representative of the Toronto Police gave shocking insight into the Force’s view of sexual assault by stating: “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”.

As the city’s major protective service, the Toronto Police have perpetuated the myth and stereotype of ‘the slut’, and in doing so have failed us. With sexual assault already a significantly under-reported crime, survivors have now been given even less of a reason to go to the Police, for fear that they could be blamed. Being assaulted isn’t about what you wear; it’s not even about sex; but using a pejorative term to rationalize inexcusable behaviour creates an environment in which it’s okay to blame the victim.

Historically, the term ‘slut’ has carried a predominantly negative connotation. Aimed at those who are sexually promiscuous, be it for work or pleasure, it has primarily been women who have suffered under the burden of this label. And whether dished out as a serious indictment of one’s character or merely as a flippant insult, the intent behind the word is always to wound, so we’re taking it back. “Slut” is being re-appropriated.

We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result. Being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work. No one should equate enjoying sex with attracting sexual assault.

We are a movement demanding that our voices be heard. We are here to call foul on our Police Force and demand change. We want Toronto Police Services to take serious steps to regain our trust. We want to feel that we will be respected and protected should we ever need them, but more importantly be certain that those charged with our safety have a true understanding of what it is to be a survivor of sexual assault — slut or otherwise.

We are tired of speeches filled with lip service and the apologies that accompany them. What we want is meaningful dialogue and we are doing something about it: WE ARE COMING TOGETHER. Not only as women, but as people from all gender expressions and orientations, all walks of life, levels of employment and education, all races, ages, abilities, and backgrounds, from all points of this city and elsewhere.

We are asking you to join us for SlutWalk, to make a unified statement about sexual assault and victims’ rights and to demand respect for all. Whether a fellow slut or simply an ally, you don’t have to wear your sexual proclivities on your sleeve, we just ask that you come. Come walk or roll or strut or holler or stomp with us.

Join us in our mission to spread the word that those those who experience sexual assault are not the ones at fault, without exception.

“No one should equate enjoying sex with attracting sexual assault.” Isn’t simplicity wonderful??

Remember, Clones, these are NOT porn performers or exhibitionists insisting on their right to walk the public streets naked at rush hour, nor are they sex workers calling for their right to walk the streets in front of the local high school. These are basically your mothers, your daughters, your girlfriends, your friends….in short, average women insisting that they, not some asshole policeman, can determine for themselves when to attract wanted sexual attention and when not to….as well as restating the essential truth that no woman should ever be blamed for being the victim of sexual assault, and that no man should be allowed to use the excuse of a woman’s state of dress as a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card or to ever justify sexual assault or battery.

Sounds like progressive feminism to me. Who would ever oppose that kind of movement against sexual assault, other than holy roller fundamentalists who insist on forcing chadors, burqas, and veils on women as a means of “protecting” them from the evil “male” desires??

Who, you ask?

Cueth the Professor from Wheelock College and antiporn activist named Gail Dines.

Of course, she was too chickenshit to post her observations from her home base in the US, so she (and another professor/rape “expert”, Wendy Murphy), decided to use the friendly pages of the Guardian UK to vent her spleen as to why SlutWalk is BAAAAAAAD for women and feminists, if not fundamentally antifeminist.

At least, anti- the kind of sexually restrictive, reactionary, closed-minded, fear-mongering “feminism” that Dines love to waddle in.

Most of her rant focuses on the stigma that the broader culture still attaches to the word “slut”…which she so lovingly not only approves of, but even uses as a wedge against those women stupid enough to accept their right to sexual self-determination not redeemed by her own radical feminist values. Some snippage follows:

It wasn’t long ago that being called a “slut” meant social death. No “nice” boy would take you home to meet his parents and no “good” girl would ever be your friend. At the same time, refusing to submit to sex meant you were a “prude” or “frigid”. In short, there was no right way to be. Things have improved a bit in that young women are more insistent on their right to sexual autonomy, but sexually active women remain vulnerable to harsh social judgments even as the mass media celebrate and encourage such behaviour. And research shows that the label “slut” still has long-term negative consequences, especially for younger girls.

Now, I’m not denying that such attitudes about women being “prudes” and “frigid” don’t exist among select few people….but notice how Dines turns it against women who do resist the stigma and who do declare themselves to be sexually assertive…as if they are the cause of the “negative consequenses” of rape. Of course, you will remember that the meme of “We’re just ‘prudes’ because we resist evil male sexuality!!” is a classic projection of Dines used to ward off charges that she indeed wants to censor sexualiy of women. To which the proper answer should be: “Well, if the shoe fits….”

The fact that more than 2,000 turned out to march around Boston Common suggests that women are, indeed, hungry for sexual autonomy. But something else was at work here: many of the banners protested the ubiquity of sexual violence in the lives of women. Signs made by protesters showed that women are angry with being blamed for male violence and fed up with the failure of the culture to hold men accountable. Clearly the theme of the SlutWalk has struck a nerve, with similar events being planned around the world, including one in London in June.

The organisers claim that celebrating the word “slut”, and promoting sluttishness in general, will help women achieve full autonomy over their sexuality. But the focus on “reclaiming” the word slut fails to address the real issue. The term slut is so deeply rooted in the patriarchal “madonna/whore” view of women’s sexuality that it is beyond redemption. The word is so saturated with the ideology that female sexual energy deserves punishment that trying to change its meaning is a waste of precious feminist resources.

So now, Dines and Murphy are attempting to steal the thunder of SlutWalk by claiming that their motives are not what they have explicitly stated themselves…and also attempting to undermind them by telling them that their mission is a failure because….the word “slut” is simply beyond redemption as a bludgeon of “patriarchy”.

You may note the thinly veiled implication that as a result, any woman who attempts to claim usage of the term as a symbol of sexual self-assertiveness and autonomy is, by Dines’ edict, a mere pawn of, if not a direct agent of, said “patriarchy”, and a useful idiot of “male sexuality” in opposition to “female sexual agency”. In other words, Dines simply paraphrases the long lived dictum of her predecessor and mentor, Catherine MacKinnon: “If ‘slutdom’ is a part of your sexuality, then you have no right to your sexuality.”

Oh, did I say “thinly veiled”??? The next few paragraphs state it far more explicitly:

Advocates would be better off exposing the myriad ways in which the law and the culture enable myths about all types of women – sexually active or “chaste” alike. These myths facilitate sexual violence by undermining women’s credibility when they report sex crimes. Whether we blame victims by calling them “sluts” (who thus asked to be raped), or by calling them “frigid” (who thus secretly want to be overpowered), the problem is that we’re blaming them for their own victimisation no matter what they do. Encouraging women to be even more “sluttish” will not change this ugly reality.

As teachers who travel around the country speaking about sexual violence, pornography and feminism, we hear stories from women students who feel intense pressure to be sexually available “on demand”. These students have grown up in a culture in which hypersexualized images of young women are commonplace and where hardcore porn is the major form of sex education for young men. They have been told over and over that in order to be valued in such a culture, they must look and act like sluts, while not being labeled slut because the label has dire consequences including being blamed for rape, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and self-mutilation.

Because, you see, according to Gail Dines and Wendy Murphy, calling yourself a “slut” simply enables men to think of ALL women as “sluts” in the negative “I want to rape them with impunity” way. In fact, the mere calling of oneself a “slut” engaging men to mere erections and sexual arousal is more than enough in this evil “porn culture” to encourage violence and degradation of women.

Naturally, Dines and Murphy are far too sophisicated as “radical feminists” to come out and say that maybe Officer Sanguinetti was right all along and that women who dress “sluttily” are to blame for their own violence  And, quite naturally, they are quick to place the fundamental blame on the rapists themselves and give the women a break as the ultimate victims of male assault.

The problem is, though, that their core ideology of laying the fundamental blame on “male rape culture”, fueled by porn, capitalism, and mere male erections, doesn’t really allow for women fighting for themselves to reclaim their own individual right to be safely sexually assertive, or to even dress the way they want. Indeed, in a back-door kind of way, they actually give plenty of tribute to the fundamentally repressive, conservative meme of “she asked for it” by basically accepting carte blanche without any proof of evidence the fact that men are at root evil rapists led by their erections to brutalize women.

It’s as if the fundamental fact that the overwhelming majority of men do in fact respect women enough to not assault them even if they are dressed in a way that sexually arouses them doesn’t even register with Dines or Murphy. Or, that most women are more than capable of negotiating with men the acceptable boundaries of consent and what is and isn’t acceptable behavior or contact based on time and place…and, more importantly, that women and men are able to have those boundaries enforced through mutual trust, consent, mutal pleasure, and, if needed, the power of the state.

Besides all that, Dines and Murphy conveniently gloss over the far more powerful institutions of society that do NOT reward women for “slutdom”, but in fact punishes them profusely through loss of respect, loss of self-esteem, and even loss of social and economic privileges, if not actual physical punishment. Porn performers may get paid a decent amount of money, but they don’t compare to Hollywood movie actresses or politicians or even CEO’s…and I’ll bet ‘ya not many of those are self-identified “sluts”. For every Cameron Diaz there are at least five Demi Moores; and Sarah Palin still makes more money than Lisa Ann could ever dream of. (Unfortunately, since Lisa Ann’s a lot more moral and accomplished than the Half-Governor ever will be. Even fully clothed.)

Of course, Dines and Murphy do have an alternative to promoting “slut” theology….unfortunately it’s the same old tired “authentic female sexuality” divorced from real fact or experience or orgasm, rooted in the usual radfem notion of “radical female sexuality” (or, what the old heads would call “radicallesbianism”) freed from the bounds of male dictums and demands…and of male erections, too.

Women need to find ways to create their own authentic sexuality, outside of male-defined terms like slut. The recent TubeCrush phenomenon, where young women take pictures of men they find attractive on the London tube and post them to a website, illustrates how easily women copy dominant societal norms of sexual objectification rather than exploring something new and creative. And it’s telling that while these pictures are themselves innocent and largely free of sexual innuendo, one can only imagine the sexually aggressive language that would accompany a site dedicated to secret photos of women.

While the organisers of the SlutWalk might think that proudly calling themselves “sluts” is a way to empower women, they are in fact making life harder for girls who are trying to navigate their way through the tricky terrain of adolescence.

Women need to take to the streets – but not for the right to be called “slut”. Women should be fighting for liberation from culturally imposed myths about their sexuality that encourage gendered violence. Our daughters – and our sons – have the right to live in a world that celebrates equally women’s sexual freedom and bodily integrity.

How nice that two women who  have no problem sharing the dais with such prominent progressive “feminists” as Patrick Trueman, Shelley Lubben, and Judith Reisman, can lecture other feminists on what they should represent as “authentic female sexuality”. And how even nicer that they can promote their version of “It’s not your fault, but close your damn legs and cover yourselves up anyway, because you are enabling the men to leer and that’s raping us anyway” as a means of “sexual freedom” and “women’s autonomy”.

I’ll take Susie Bright and Nina Hartley’s brand of feminism over this crap any day of the week.

And I’ll STILL respect a woman’s right to say “HELL NO” and mean it, and still say “YES” and mean that, too.  Whatever she chooses to wear.

I love and worship sluts — the real ones and the wannabes just playing for fun — just too damn much to degrade and disrespect them as much as “feminists” like Gail Dines do.

But, she wouldn’t be the Bill O’Reilly of radicalfeminists otherwise.

And Slutwalk wouldn’t be the best of legitimate progressive feminism if they didn’t incur her wrath. All the better for them, I say.

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Posted in Asshattery, Makes Me Wanna Holla, slut shaming, The War on Sex/Sluts/Gays/Whatever | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Forget Kool-Aid…Absolutely NOTHING Cracks The Mind Like Spiked Tea: Dane County GOTP Goes Off On Judge Staying Anti-Union Law

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Anthony
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Remember that classic Partnership for a Drug-Free America ad featuring the egg, a frying pan, and the warning of what illegal drugs do to your brain?? Well…just imagine a modern ripoff of it:

“This is your brain.”  <point to average egg>

“This is a Tea Party Conservative Republican’s brain.” <point to smaller egg>

“This is the latter brain on drugs.” <crack open Egg #2. mix with blend of crack, meth, and Long Island Tea spiked with bad vodka, then pour into hot frying pan> “Any questions??”

Of course, not all conservatives are as whack as that…but lately it sure seems as if right-wingers of the Teabagger variety have been acting like they’ve smoked just a bit too much meth.  Either that, or the power backed by corporate Koch billions is starting to fry their brain cells a bit much.

Take for instance, what’s happening in Wisconsin right now.

In case you’ve been under a rock of late, the reigning Tea Party/Republican regime in that state — led by governor Scott Walker and the GOTP majority in both houses of the Wisconsin legislature — is making a earnest attempt to undermine and undercut the strong progressive traditions of good government, labor protections, and representative democracy…all to build the type of “open for business” climate that would impess even Grover Norquist. To that end, they muscled through bills essentially ending the process of collective bargining for that state’s unions (exempting only the police, firefighters, and paramedic professionals), and obliterating all sorts of social services in order to “balance the budget” and feed more money and power to those who already have way too much of both. And they didn’t let a million-peron mass protest, a walkout by the state’s Democratic senators, or the rising tide of public opposition to their actions get in the way of their focus, either.

Problem is, in their attempt to ram this bill down the throats of the mighty Badger State, they kinda cut a few legal corners…like, detaching the fiscal sections of the bill from the antiunion stuff in order to avoid the lack of a quorum from the Dems boycotting the Senate, and not allowing for the proper waiting period before a bill can be heard before committees prior to voting on passage.

It was on those grounds that state judge Maryann Sumi issued a stay against enforcement of the anti-collective bargining law until such issues could be hashed out over the appeal process.

Governor Walker’s response to that?? The equivalent of “Pffft…Le’ tat, c’est moi”.  He announced that he would ignore the ruling and continue to enforce the law.

Whereas, Judge Sumi responded with “Ahhh, Gov??  I don’t think so. You are NOT above judicial review, sir.” She restated and made permanent the order blocking enforcement.

To most sane people, Judge Sumi is simply upholding the independence of the judicial branch to review and if needed void laws that violate the constitution of Wisconsin. That’s what she was elected and gets paid a decent salary to do, you know.

The modern crop of Tea Partiers and right-wing Republicans (yeah, I know, redundancy..right??), on the other hand, aren’t close to typical.  Or sane.

Anyone who follows the rantings of “Madame Batshit”…..errrrrrr, Michele Bachmann, or “PsychoNazi”…ahhhh, I mean, Iowa Congressman Steven King..or one of any Tea Party representatives, will attest to their unique form of…ahhhhh…errrrrrrr…ummmm…political speech prowess. Apparently, the lunacy tree also infects the local roots, too.

Which brings me to the Dane County, Wisconsin, local branch of the Republican Party, which had an interesting reaction to Judge Sumi’s rulings. (Judge Sumi is a native of Dane County…and that will be relevant later on in this post.)

First, there was this brief press statement, issued yesterday by the Dane Co. GOTP via their website (taken from their .pdf document):

Statement from Republican Party of Dane County on
Judge Sumi’s Order Blocking Implementation of Act 10

For those people that don’t know, the state of Wisconsin has an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. The executive branch has the job of carrying out the laws and setting the agenda for his administration. The legislative branch has the job of passing laws. And the judicial branch has the job of interpreting and applying the laws and ensuring their constitutionality.

By Judge Sumi’s action today, it is apparent that she has forgotten those roles and she
thinks that her job is to be a member of all three branches. The Republican Party of Dane County believes it is time for the judicial branch to stop being judicial activists. If they want to legislate the laws, they need to run for political office not judicial office.

The first paragraph is a dead-on fact. The second…not so much.

Apparently the people who created this press release must have skipped civics class, because only that way they would ignore the classic right of the judicial branch to review laws passed by the legislature and signed by the governor for constitutionality. Or..they didn’t, and simply believe that laws benefiting their benefactors should be exempt from any form of judicial review and should be merely accepted by majority fiat. Especially, laws Conservatives and Big Business likes that strip power from their traditional enemies.

But at least the Dane Co. GOTP didn’t go personal like some of the more strident wingnutters and TeaKKKluxers have done on occasion and attempted to whack the personal politics of those who deny them their Atlas Shrugged paradise.

Oh, wait….this just in: they released a second tract?? An apology to Judge Sumi?? Let’s read along (also in .pdf form; h/t to Rachel Maddow and The Wheeler Report):

RPDC Apologizes To Judge Sumi

The Republican Party of Dane County sent out a press release on March 29th criticizing Judge Maryann Sumi for holding up the publication of Governor Scott Walker’s collective bargaining reform bill. Upon further reflection we’d like to apologize for not understanding her point of view.

Sure, Governor Walker’s bill is unquestionably constitutional, increases worker’s rights and helps local government balance budgets without having to fire public workers. The Wisconsin state legislature consulted with their non-partisan parliamentarian to make sure that the passage of the bill followed the rules of the Senate and Assembly. But this isn’t about the law, is it?

The Republican Party of Dane County recognizes that Judge Sumi is a leftist living in Dane County. Her friends are leftists living in Dane County. Her son is a left wing activist in Dane County. She goes to cocktail parties held by leftists in Dane County. She shops at organic gourmet food shops run by leftists living in Dane County. If she were to enforce the law of Wisconsin and do what was in the best interest of the people of Wisconsin, she’d be exiled from her lifestyle. She’d lose her friends!

The leadership of the Republican Party of Dane County have all made the choice to stand against the Dane County elite. We accept that Left feels righteous vandalizing our homes and keying our cars. It’s only fair. We disagree based upon logic and principle. That is intolerable! We prioritize the Constitution and the well being of the people of Wisconsin over foie gras at cocktail parties. That’s the choice we made. We respect Judge Sumi’s decision to live her life with the rich diversity that liberals cherish.

Now…I’m not going to even get into the Newsspeak of how a law that was rammed down the throats of the legislature under questionable circumstances can be said to be “totally constitutional”; or how a law that shatters nearly 100 years of established collective bargining rights and loots state workers directly could be said to “increase workers’ rights” (I guess they must mean the rights for workers to work below minimum wage with no benefits whatsoever??), or how a law allowing localities to basically ignore standing law and fire at will any worker who complains about being soused to fund the pleasure domes of the wealthy amounts to “helping local governments balance their budgets”.

No, no, no..it’s the personal smack directed at Judge Sumi that fascinates me.

Naturally, to a Tea Partier, anyone who is not fully in rhythm with the footstomp of The Elephant must be by definition a “liberal”, or a “leftist,” or a “leftist elitist” (very nice phrasology there, guys), who sips on Perrier and dines on Brie and cocktails at the local left-wing lodge while “regular” proud ‘Merikan Conservatives are left holding the bag for their profligate spending on the moochers and leeches who just hate those creative and inventive capitalists who generate all the economic growth, and who deserve every damn penny that they earn (and grift through tax subsidies and cutting wages and benefits and the prison/military/industrial complex), without them damn Liberals/Commies/Lefties/Slut Baby Killers/Lesbians/Kenyans/Religious Atheists/Sharia Moslem Terrorists/Gangstas holding their hand out for handouts.

Of course, it’s old hack for wingnutters and TeaKKKluxers to rip those who oppose them as Commies and Lefties and otherwise anti-American. It goes with the territory these days. But, DAMN….”organic gormet food shops” are “leftist” now?? Gee, does that make meat markets selling Bratwurst conservative??  And please….people who worship Rush Limbaugh ($30 million a year salary) the Koch Brothers and get their money from the likes of Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich have no business hating on the “lifestyles” of “liberals”…last time I checked, Judge Sumi had one husband and probably lives right down the straight and narrow.

But hey….she’s a Democrat (at least, she’s not a TeaKKKluxer), so I guess that that  makes it perfectly OK for the folks at the Dane County GOTP to throw the kitchen sink, the oven, and all the other available kitchen appliances at her with all the usual wingnut stereotypes. Why not go all the way, though, guys, and just say how you really feel and just call her a Muslim-loving lesbian slut who probably bedded her way to the bench…with several aborted babies left in her wake??  Or…maybe, she’s another one of Barack Obama’s madrassa footsoldiers who faked their real birth certificate in order to get elected?? Paging Orly Taitz, to Dane County…STAT!!!

Everyone who reads this knows my feelings about the Democrats (too timid, too conservative, too dependent on the Third Way/DLC corporatist memes to effectively defend working-class/poor/progressive interests). Compared to these cracked bastards that run the GOTP, though, they are freakin’ Mensas…and that’s not intended to be sarcastic, either.

Still, I needed a laugh this morning…and leave it to TeaKKKluxer lunacy to make my Wednesday a bit more bearable.

Oh, one last thing, wingnutters: no one serves foie gras at cocktails anymore.

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MacDworkinism 2.0: #MooreAndMe, Keith Olbermann, And The Assange “Rape Debate”

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Anthony
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Everyone knows from this blog that I then to be a strong supporter of the fundamental goals and objectives of feminism…which I define to be the belief that men and women are free and equal human beings, entitled to the same rights, responsibilities, and human destiny to fulfill their dreams.

Everyone also knows my feelings on sexual assault and sexual battery: like any other form of violence, it should be shunned at any and all opportunity, and those who perpetrate such crimes should be held accountable for their actions.

At the same time, however, I also believe just as strongly in the fundamental principle of innocence until PROVEN guilty through verifiable evidence. Far too many people have been railroaded out of justice from being framed for crimes they didn’t commit. And, more importantly, in our zeal to enhance justice for those who are true victims of violent crime, it is vital to not jump to conclusions or rely merely on hearsay or plain ideological instinct just for the sake of ideology’s sake.

Unfortunately, when the issue cuts as deep as sexual assault against women, and the record is filled with the stories of rape victims being denied their right to justice to the system, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of “Screw the evidence, he’s guilty…let’s hang him and let God (or the Goddess) sort out the evidence later!!!” And, in the bitter crossfire and blind worship of “Every Woman As Victim, Every Man As Rapist Or Accomplice”, the full spectrom of reality gets lost in the mob mentality.

Such a critical mass is now ensuing in the case of Wikileaks  spokesperson Julian Assange, and the result is an out-of-control webwar that threatens to reignite gender identity politics and refire old fissures of liberal politics.

For those who don’t know, Assange is now released on bail in Great Britain, facing possible extradition to Sweden to face rape charges questioning stemming from an incident where he allegedly induced a sexual tryst with at least one woman, which went arwy when Assauge allegedly removed his condom and forced himself upon the woman. The woman first went to Assange asking for a STI test, when he refused, she reported him twice to the police to press charges, but both times were refused. About a mionth later, in the midst of some very controversal releases of classified material by Wikileaks exposing some very indictable behavior by various governments and business entities, the Swedish government all of a sudden decided to reverse themselves and indict Assange for the sexual assault charges, using their, shall we say, unique reading of Swedish rape law. (The law is based on the same concept of favoring women over men as the “Swedish Model” set of laws against prostitution/pornography/sex work, which basically assumes that men are the aggressors and women their victims.) In the end, no charges were filed against him, and the case was dismissed.  Assange was arrested in GB on traditional espionage charges, the US also wants to extradite him to face their own charges of espionage.

To put it succintly, the story of the accusers has split progressives down the middle. Assange’s most fervent defenders basically dismiss this as a CIA-government plot, or a “honey trap” to use sex as a weapon to snag Assange for giving up government dirty laundry. They point to the changing stories of the accusers, the fact that one of them ultimately recanted her story and decided not to press charges, and that the main accuser actually boasted of not only “entrapping” Assange, but of using it to blackmail him into marriage.

On the other extreme, however, are fervent feminists — both of the traditional liberal and the radical kind — who see in all this a vicious attack on the accusers, and by extension, on all women who are victims of rape or have been and are unable to report their experiences to the authorities. To these women, many of whom have been victims themselves, the accusers are living symbols of all rape victims who attempt to obtain justice against powerful men who committ violent crime against them.

And, for a select extreme of radical feminism, the defense of Julian Assange by mostly liberal/progressive men is, for them, the testimonial to the ultimate power of innate “sexism on the Left” and proof positive of the supposed dominance of “rape culture” and “male privilege” in defending “patriarchy” against the brave women who are the footsoldiers against the innate evil of male sexuality.

The latter group were particularly enraged when cherished progressive director/screenwright Michael Moore decided to give a sizable amount of cash to help bail out Assange, then went on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show Countdown to justify his actions, calling the charges against Assange “bogus”. In vicious reaction, some of these women decided to launch a Twitter-based campaign hashtagged “#MooreAndMe” to basically bash Moore as a misogynist, a “rape apologist” and a privileged liberal male who was totally out of step with and tone deaf about what women dealt with when it comes to rape and sexual assault. And, in some of the tweets, they all but came out and declared Assange guilty and by rule, Olbermann and Moore his accomplices. (A Twitter search of “MooreAndMe” will provide a sample of the rage.)

Moore for his part has been a bit silent..but Olbermann did attempt on Friday to offer some defense of his actions in allowing Moore on…but got so bombarded by the haters that he ultimately decided to totally suspend his Twitter account (@KeithOlbermann) to get away from the swarm. Of course, all that did was inflame the anti-Assange crusaders that much more, all but calling Olbermann out as a rape accomplice and a chicken who won’t face “the truth” about rape and his “complicity” in “rape culture”.

Well, today, KO returned to Twitter and offered up a long tweet (via Twitlonger, because it broke the usual 140-character limit of Twitter), justifying his actions and defending himself.

I endorse, sympathize with, and empathize with, the rape consciousness goals of #mooreandme, and have already apologized accordingly. But I cannot defend and will not accept their tactics which mirror so many of the attitudes and threats they fight. I do not know of what Julian Assange is guilty, if anything, and neither does anybody else. But given the extraordinary efforts by Sweden to extradite him, to say he is benefiting from some form of rape apologism is not fact-based. It is also unfair to condemn as anti-feminist those who merely address the juxtaposition of this prosecution to the fact that Assange threatens the secret and nefarious activities of dozens of governments. And I will not engage those who suggest that those who do not prioritize one issue to the exclusion of all others should succumb to forced financial contributions, or should ‘kill themselves’ (examples of each will be retweeted shortly, along with my previous apology). The #mooreandme attacks do not help those who fight against rape, they hurt them. And indeed they feature something larger than anti-feminist. This is, to use a clunky phrase, anti-personism.

You would think that would settle the issue, right??  Wrong.

Right after Olbermann delivered that tweet, Tracy Clark-Flory posted an essay at Salon.com basically rejecting all of KO’s points, claiming that he “still doesn’t get it”. I went ahead and reposted the full essay because it encapsulates the position of the #MooreAndMe folks perfectly..

Back from his self-imposed Twitter timeout, Keith Olbermann is lashing out at his feminist critics. As Sady Doyle explained last week in Salon, the online protest was started in response to Michael Moore’s mischaracterization of the allegations against Julian Assange. Olbermann became a target after retweeting a link from Bianca Jagger that incorrectly claimed “the term ‘rape’ in Sweden includes consensual sex without a condom,” and that named Assange’s accuser (which is generally a journalistic no-no). Overwhelmed by the Twitter campaign, which was waged with the hashtag “mooreandme,” Olbermann quit the microblogging site in a huff. This afternoon, after a few days of calm reflection, he tweeted a link to his thoughts on the matter:

I endorse, sympathize with, and empathize with, the rape consciousness goals of #mooreandme, and have already apologized accordingly. But I cannot defend and will not accept their tactics which mirror so many of the attitudes and threats they fight. I do not know of what Julian Assange is guilty, if anything, and neither does anybody else. But given the extraordinary efforts by Sweden to extradite him, to say he is benefiting from some form of rape apologism is not fact-based. It is also unfair to condemn as anti-feminist those who merely address the juxtaposition of this prosecution to the fact that Assange threatens the secret and nefarious activities of dozens of governments.

But, of course, his antagonists are not condemning him for “merely address[ing] the juxtaposition” (a point Kate Harding made clear in her Salon piece about “the rush to smear Assange’s accuser”). They allege that he spread misinformation about the accusations against Assange. As Doyle wrote, “People trust journalists: If a journalist says something, like ‘the term “rape” in Sweden includes consensual sex without a condom’ (Olbermann’s own, demonstrably false, as-yet-unredacted words), most people will believe that what he has said is true, and act as if it is true, without doing further research.” The protest has consisted of frequent calls for Olbermann to issue a simple correction, to set the record straight for his many followers.

Instead of doing that, though, Olbermann continues: “And I will not engage those who suggest that those who do not prioritize one issue to the exclusion of all others should succumb to forced financial contributions, or should ‘kill themselves.’” He followed up by retweeting one of the messages in question, which read in part, “Seriously, kill yourself.” Then he retweeted a call for him to donate $20,000 to the anti-rape organization RAINN as atonement. His antagonists have been quick to point out that he cherry-picked the “kill yourself” tweet, which is an exception in the thread, and that the call for “financial contributions” is simply in the interest of rape victims. One user wrote, “we WILL NOT be satisfied UNTIL you retract the false information you publicized re: Assange allegations.” Olbermann responded, “you’ll have to accept a block instead.”

It seems Olbermann’s Twitter vacation didn’t help him to raise the level of discourse or realize that, as Doyle put it, his “style of old-media authority doesn’t hold up” online.

It should be noted that Kate Harding and Sady Doyle (along with Amanda Marcotte) are the primary drivers of the “#MooreAndMe” movement.

However…it seems that Clark-Flory and the #MooreAndMe folk may have missed some facts on the way to their vendetta. A commentator to the Salon article, Xrandadu Hutman, posted this comment dissecting Clark-Flory’s account:

Tracy Clark-Flory: “Back from his self-imposed Twitter timeout, Keith Olbermann is lashing out at his feminist critics.”

Very emotion-laden, dramatic descriptor here: “lashing out.” It is not an accurate portrayal of Olbermann’s communication, Tracy, and you know it. What’s your agenda? Pot-stirring? To what end?

Tracy Clark-Flory: “As Sady Doyle explained last week in Salon…”

Sady Doyle also “explained” that Assange is currently facing criminal charges. Which wasn’t true. Sady Doyle then had to “explain” that she got her facts wrong. But she didn’t. Instead, there was a very quiet, very cowardly little correction stuffed way down at the end of the article. To this date, not a single Salon writer has acknowledged the severity of this error. Alex Pareene backed down and wimped out, pretending it never happened. Tracy, you notably skipped over it, as if you didn’t know anything. Not cool at all. How about admitting what a ridiculously bad error it is? If you say somebody has been charged with a crime when they haven’t, that’s an automatic “F” in a Journalism 101 class. So it’s a little inane to say that Sady Doyle has “explained” anything.

Tracy Clark-Flory: “…the online protest was started in response to Michael Moore’s mischaracterization of the allegations against Julian Assange.”

Which mischaracterization? That the “condom tore”? Because the torn condom is one of the key allegations against Assange. So what did Moore say that was inaccurate there? Or are you referring to something else? Or simply the fact that Moore didn’t go through each accusation and list them all (even though the Guardian article with details hadn’t been published yet)?

Tracy Clark-Flory: “Olbermann became a target after incorrectly stating that “the term ‘rape’ in Sweden includes consensual sex without a condom,” and tweeting a link to an article that named Assange’s accuser (which is generally a journalistic no-no).”

I’m not sure it’s a journalistic “no-no” if the charges have been dropped. Can you outline how that works? Also, is Tweeting a link to something the same as actually reporting the name, or is it removed several stages from it? Tweeting is not currently considered on par with broadcasting officially, though Olbermann probably should have been more judicious. I would say that Olbermann’s statement about condoms/rape is questionable, and suggests frustration and sarcasm. But coupled with his other statements it does not add up to a grand violation worthy of a mass online protest. Again, I’d like to mention that it’s a little rich to speak of “journalistic no-no’s” when you haven’t acknowledged the depth of the errors published by Salon concerning this issue.

Tracy Clark-Flory: “Overwhelmed by the Twitter campaign, which was waged with the hashtag “mooreandme,” Olbermann quit the microblogging site in a huff.”

Why the repetition of this emotion-laden and not supported descriptor? This is the exact same term that Alex Pareene used for his article. It’s like you’re copying his language. Do Salon writers now have a hive-mind? What constitutes “in a huff” versus “stepping away to get some distance from something”? Or whatever? Did Olbermann actually say something “huffy”? Pareene wrote that Olbermann “stormed off” — how do you storm off of Twitter, anyway? “Storming off” and “in a huff” imply a physicality to behavior that is simply not of a piece with anything Olbermann actually did.

Tracy Clark-Flory: “This afternoon, after a few days of calm reflection, he tweeted a link to his thoughts on the matter:”

Tracy, are you now a mind reader? You know both that Olbermann was “in a huff” and that he was later “calm”? How do you know this? Did Olbermann say so? Did you speak to somebody who knows him personally? Describing somebody’s mental state is not something a journalist can credibly do without observation or witness accounts. It’s not a big-big deal, but it makes your own motivation suspect: Why are you so eager to ascribe unknowable thoughts and feelings to somebody in order to tell your story? It suggests you have an agenda outside of reporting. This is not cool, not professional, and does not serve the readership of Salon.

Tracy Clark-Flory: “His antagonists are not condemning him for “merely address[ing] the juxtaposition” (a point Kate Harding made clear in her Salon piece about “the rush to smear Assange’s accuser”).”

I don’t think Kate Harding made it clear at all, especially not in regard to Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann. Harding actually confused several issues, including the concept of whether a torn or removed condom, of and by itself, indicates a clear “removal of consent” that is tantamount to rape. Pareene also confused this, and neither reported that even Swedish law regards it as molestation and not rape. Nor does Harding’s article in any way disprove Olbermann’s contention that this is his motivation, and it’s pretty obvious that it is. Olbermann’s concern is over the WikiLeaks discoveries being muted by the distraction of the Assange allegations. That is a valid concern, and actually one of the most important concerns possible here. The Swedish sex situation will take care of itself if there is a case to be made. The WikiLeaks revelations are actually going to have an impact or lack thereof on the basis of how the media spends its time reporting them. If lost in a morass of debate over torn condoms and skeevy behavior, then the discussion of corporate abuse and government manipulation has been severely muted if not completely silenced. That’s something everybody should be concerned about, and to say so is not to be a rape apologist.

[continued in new comment]

Tracy Clark-Flory: “They allege that he spread misinformation about the accusations against Assange.”

But what did he actually spread? A single Tweet that sarcastically said “evidently consensual sex without a condom is rape in Sweden.” That’s all they’ve got? That he Tweeted something lame, and that was only partially false? (The sex was by most standards consensual, and most of the charges stem from the condom/lack-of-condom.) What is it that people want from Olbermann? A big apology for a single lame Tweet? Why? What will that prove? It’s more like they want to make Olbermann bow to them for their own validation than that they want anything for the sake of actual rape awareness.

Tracy-Clark Flory: “As Doyle wrote, “People trust journalists: If a journalist says something, like ‘the term ‘rape’ in Sweden includes consensual sex without a condom’ (Olbermann’s own, demonstrably false, as-yet-unredacted words), most people will believe that what he has said is true, and act as if it is true, without doing further research.”"

Tracy: Did you write this article just so you could repeat other Salon writer’s lines word-for-word? You copied “in a huff” from Pareene. Then you referenced Kate Harding without paraphrasing her case. Now this. Not that you can’t sum up others’ opinions, but you don’t even add anything here. Worse, don’t you see the irony in Sady Doyle’s statement? She talks about the trust of journalists — then she gets her facts wrong. Sady Doyle and Alex Pareene both got the essential facts wrong: They claimed Assange was currently criminally charged with rape, when he is not charged with anything at all. That’s a serious error. If Olbermann owes people an apology and redaction for a Tweet (which arguably is mostly factually correct, and is also obviously sarcastic), then don’t Doyle and Pareene also owe Salon readers an apology? And doesn’t Kate Harding owe us an apology for mischaracterizing the definition of rape in her article?

Tracy Clark-Flory: “The protest has consisted of frequent calls for Olbermann to issue a simple correction, to set the record straight for his many followers.”

And why are they fixated on Olbermann issuing a correction to his Tweet? Why is THAT the Holy Grail for them? No, really. What’s the importance of Olbermann bowing to their demands? What do they get out of it? Rape awareness for all? No, it actually will do nothing to raise rape awareness. If anything it might clarify some subtle elements of Swedish sexual-assault law.

Tracy Clark-Flory: “His antagonists have been quick to point out that he cherry-picked the “kill yourself” tweet…”

So Tracy, if you write an article and you make reference to one of the most insulting and disturbing comments in the comments section, can we all say that you’ve “cherry picked” it?

Tracy Clark-Flory: “…which is an exception in the thread…”

Tracy, did you read the entire thread? Did you see no evidence of other insulting comments? You haven’t really made this clear. You just say “it’s an exception” and you expect us all to take your word for it? On what basis? Did you pore over every comment? Were you participating in it? Aren’t some comments written and then deleted — and if so, are you sure you didn’t miss them?

Tracy Clark-Flory: “…and that the call for “financial contributions” is simply in the interest of rape victims.”

What do you mean, “simply in the interest of rape victims”? People are saying Olbermann should pay out $20,000 as atonement. Sure, it’s in the interest of rape victims to pay a rape-crisis center $20,000. But as atonement? Atonement for what — Tweeting something lame? If you can say that Olbermann “cherry picked” the comment telling him to kill himself, aren’t the protesters also “cherry picking” Olbermann’s Tweet, when you fully well know that Olbermann also wrote Tweets expressing concern for rape victims in the most sober and sincere terms?

Tracy Clark-Flory: “It seems Olbermann’s Twitter vacation didn’t help him to raise the level of discourse or realize that, as Doyle put it, his “style of old-media authority doesn’t hold up” online.”

Doyle certainly didn’t raise the level of discourse. Are you actually implying that Doyle raised the level of discourse? Did you not see her paragraph sarcastically jumping on Olbermann’s word choice of “frenzy” to suggest that Olbermann had characterized everybody with a valid rape concern as, in Doyle’s upper-case description, “FRENZIED!” and frothing at the mouth? When Olbermann made no such characterization?

Tracy Clark-Flory, your article is overloaded with unacknowledged ironies, as well as unskeptical, non-reflective side-taking. I am really disappointed in you. You’re about 100 times better than this.

And another commenter cites a recent article in the British news journal Guardian which revealed all of the prosecution’s information about the case and verified the fact that no charges were filed against Assange as a result.

I hope that everyone who cares about this side of the Assange/Wikileaks story makes the effort to avail themselves of the sparse facts available:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden

The article describes the Sweedish prosecutors’ description of the situation, which closely matches the description given by “people in Assange’s camp” since the allegations were re-pursued by the prosecutors. (I have to say that I’m surprised that they were getting it right, given the personal and political intensity of the situation. Then again, they are risking assassination for the ideal of accurately, publicly documenting situations.)

I would encourage everyone to read the Guardian piece and determine for themselves whether or not they would apply the term “rape” to the situations described in the prosecution’s documents.

Ms. Clark-Flory and Mr. Olbermann can continue to hash out these finer points. (Neither gaining any esteem in my eyes.)

Finally, the Guardian article makes clear one very important point: no charges have been filed against Mr. Assange arising from these situations. The lack of charges makes the Interpol “red notice” for his arrest apparently quite extraordinary. It also brings shame to the countless US “journalists” who have used the term “charges” to describe the legal situation facing Mr. Assange in Sweden.

So, let us review this: two women make a charge of “rape” against Julian Assauge, even though one of them later interviews a British tabloid and openly claims that everything was consensual, and she even maintained a friendly relationship with him afterward, based solely on a broken/unused condom and concerns about HIV. The charges are investigated and dismissed…TWICE. However, under pressure from the US, who wants his head on a stake for charges totally unrelated this situation, the British government decides to hold him for “questioning” after he willingly, with permission from the Swedish government, turns himself in after the British authorities put out a “red alert” for his arrest. And that has nothing to do at all with his activities with Wikileaks??  Really??

Of course, the #MooreAndMe folks have now decided to raise the bar that much higher and treat this as the symbol of “male liberal privilege” and the triumph of “rape culture” where ALL women are represented by the two “accusers” who are literally being trashed and lynched for their supposed selfless act of turning Assauge in on “rape” charges. Indeed, the rhetoric now being infused is becoming much closer to the stuff lobbed by classical radical feminists such as Catherine MacKinnon about the evil of how the “male Left” uses their “privilege” to protect rapists and punish their victims. In short. we have the GenderBorg 2.0, only with rape replacing pornography as the backdrop for classical radfem Left-baiting and identity purity politics.

A few lonely voices, such as CultureKitchen’s Liza Sabatier (@Blogdiva) and Canadian feminist/socialist Sabina Becker (@BinaBecker), as well as active sex workers like Furry Girl of Feminisnt (whom, if you will remember, I quoted in full last time) have raised concern about the strong-arm tactics of the #MaM hive and their corrosive effects on tackling all forms of discrimination and allowing a “divide and conquer” mentality that privileges a few over the concerns and needs of the many. Most of those voices are female, because it seems that anyone who happens to be male and progressive who raises even a hint of concern is immediately put on full blast as an “rape apologist”, and a protecter of “male liberal privilege”.

How this helps actual rape victims or advances the debate about rape is defying to me. Unless, people like Clark-Flory, Marcotte, Boyle and the rest of the #MooreAndMe crowd is more interested in scoring brownie points and using radfem hubris to divide and conquer progressives into submission. Or..it just may be the usual means of bashing men for having penises and not being PC enough.

We’ve been through this path before…and it doesn’t lead to anything pretty.

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High Tech Lynch Mobs…Not Just A Right-Wing Obsession: Julian Assange, Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann, And The Great “Who’s Your Rapist/Rape Apologist??” Meme

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Anthony
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Right about now, the Democratic Party is about to finish up the biggest betrayal of its liberal heritage by passing the Bush/Obama tax “compromise”, with most of the comproising occuring on the Democratic side. But…that’s not the main story.

Right about now, the war in Afghanistan is entering the same “unwinnable” stage that the Vietnam War entered during the early 1970′s, in spite of all the drone attacks and paying off of the local forces and all the death and destruction rained on the very Talban that we nurtured during the 1980′s to defeat the Soviets back then. But…no one is caring about that tonight, either.

Right about now, people are doing their final plans to get ready for a hectic Christman holidy weekend. But, still….that is taking a back seat.

And, right about now, the Wikileaks website is continuing to be the target for government censorship and direct intervention for its ability to expose the dark and scuzzy side of diplomacy and torture and war. But…even that has become secondary these days.

Because…all serious news and issues just can’t beat a good old fashioned sex scandal.

Especially, one that can be used to undermine and distract attention from public mayhem and corruption and war crimes.

And in the ongoing case of Julian Assange, mastermind behind Wikileaks, it’s a doozy that can bring out even the worst.

For those who don’t know or have been under a rock this past month, numerous governments have been gunning for Assange’s ass ever since he used his Wikileaks service to reveal several cables and emails depicting numerous shady deals, crimes, and possible war crimes committed by said governments and major corporations. The US govenment is currently attempting to obtain a warrent for his arrest on “espionage” charges for revealing certain cables exposing some quite damaging and damning acts done in the name of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and countries like Germany and Great Britain are planning on doing the same.  Assange was, until this afternoon, held on bond in London on espionage charges, but after appeals by British authorities to keep him there failed, he was able to post bail and was temporarily released pending trial.

However, it’s not the espionage or the whistleblowing that is the subject of his latest troubles, but intimate spying of a much more intimate kind.

Assange is also charged in Sweden with one count of “rape”…but it’s a hell of a lot more complicated than that.

A couple of women whom had dated Assange around this time last year came out and accused him of raping them, claming that he had first thriced them into having what started out as consensual sex, but quickly went array when either Assauge’s condom broke or he took it off deliberately. The first complainant claimed that after removing the condom, he had deliberately held her down in order to, shall we say, finish the deed; the second woman simply claimed that he had had unprotected sex without using a condom. Both women had originally approached Assange to have him take a test for STI’s for fear of being infected; but when he refused, they then took advantage of a quite quirky Swedish law which allows women to initiate rape charges against men merely for “lack of consent”. (This is the same Sweden, of course, that developed the “Swedish Model” prototype of anti-prostitution/anti-sex work laws that blame and punish men exclusively for sex crimes and “objectification” of women, and outlows all forms of sex work under the notion that men use such activites to “degrade” and “abuse” women.) Swedish authorities have been trying as well to extradite Assange to face charges there, too.

Unfortunately, the charges here aren’t as clear cut, and there is some legitimate inconsistenties about the accusor’s stories that have cast serious doubt about their stories…well, that and the timing coming with the overall crackdown by govermnents potentially covering their backside assets from too much sunshine exposure. Blogger/sex worker Furry Girl, via her Feminisnt blog, capsualized those doubts:

Here’s the story from what I can tell: “victim one” bragged about bagging Assange, threw a party for him the day after he “raped” her, and only decided she’d been “raped” after finding out she wasn’t his only lover.  Earlier this year, her blog also promoted an article about how to exact malicious revenge on the unfaithful.  (That series of events apparently could sound suspect only to a woman-hating rape-apologist?)  Once two jilted Assange groupies discovered each other, the women who’d previously stayed friendly with Assange even after their “assaults” (while thinking they were his only girl) got upset and decided to go to the police.  And, even then, they didn’t go to press rape charges at first, they went to see if they could force Assange to undergo STI testing.  After there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him with anything, and then after repeat tries got the charges thrown out of court, one woman escalated her claim and said that, yes, actually, she did recall that he held her down with his bodyweight when they had sex.  The rape hysterics have been holding that part up as the new lynchpin in the case.  Obviously, only a rapist would be on top of a woman during sex!

Now, you would think that such questioning of such serious rape charges would be the end of the story….but you would be wrong.

In the hallowed halls of what passes for feminist activism here in the US (as is most of the West), the principle of defending those who make accusations of rape is one of the most revered and trusted hallmarks. In most cases, it’s fully justified, considering that most legitimate victims of rape have had their cases dismissed without so much of a wave or even an investigation. However, in the minds of a few feminist activists, this principle has been overinflatted to the view that not only should a victim of rape be believed and respected when she makes her case, but that ANY woman making an accusation of rape must be assumed to be credible, if not absolutely correct, and that the man targetted must be assumed to be guilty as charged without even the notion of verification of evidence, or the right of a trial by jury.  Anything less than total acquecense to this principle, so they say, simply leads to being “apologists” for rape and degrading and abusing rape victims all over again.

In short, blind rage at the treatment of legitimate victims of rape have caused well meaning people to assume the notion that any attempt to question a rape accuser is tantimont to “trashing” her and “justifying” her rape, and any attempt to defend the targeted person is simply the work of “rape apologists” who simply are brute enablers of fiends who rape women. “Damn the notion of innocent until proven guilty in a court of law; we KNOW he’s guilty, and Goddess dammit, anyone who disagrees with us is simply protecting him..if not a rapist himself!!!”

And so, a mostly rag-tag group of feminist bloggers, mostly liberal- to radical-feminists, have joined forces to mount a campaign online to “defend” the honor of the accusers of Julian Assange, all but calling him out as a bruteal rapist who is using his celebrity as the founder of Wikileaks as a free “get out of jail free and rape women with impunity” card. Mostly organized across the political spectrom from Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon to Monica Shores to Shelby Knox to Boing Boing editrix Xena Jardin, to various radical feminists, they have posted their rage at Assange at many venues.

But that’s not all…they have now spread their venom to include those who they see as being enablers of Assange and attackers of those heroic accusers of his.

Thier current target happens to be liberal icon/producer/director Michael Moore of Roger And Me and Sicko fame, who has been openly expressing his support for Assange’s efforts as liberating and doing the job that mainstream journalism apparently isn’t doing. That has inflamed the “buat Assange” crowd so much that they have mounted a special Twitter campaign using the hashtag “#MooreAndMe”; where they unleash their venom on Moore for enabling this evil rapist to get away with his crimes.

Actuall, though, Moore now has to share the hot seat now…because none other than Keith Olbermann has aroused the anger of the New Feminist “Lynch Assange” movement.

Olbermann’s crime was to invite Moore to his MSNBC Countdown with Keith Olbermann TV show last Monday and give him five minutes to justify his donation to Assange’s bail fund…and dismiss the rape accusations as “hooey” based on the inconsistencies. Of course, that inflamed them that much more, so much that they bombed KO’s Twitter account with flaming Scud tweets accusing him of being another apologist for rape.

That in itself brought some of Olbermann’s old haters and rivals to attempt to get in on the picking, probably thinking that they would be successful where the last scandal over his political contributions wasn’t. The media website Mediaite, a long time critic of KO, sent a reporter to harrass him with leading questions about why he wasn’t willing to accept wholeheartedly the story of the accusers; KO responded by basically blowing it off as misinterpretation. It got so bad that Olbermann ultimately decided to suspend his Twitter account to get away from the flaming…which, unfortunately, seems to have activated the noise from his opponents even that much more. (He did mention the suspension briefly on his show tonight..but offered no other comment.)

It should be noted that most defenders of Wikileaks and Julian Assange have attempted to steer away from the controversy over “He said, She said.” following Glenn Greenwald’s lead that the importance of what Wikileaks is exposing outweighs any pettiness of the charges, and that the best idea is to wait until the trials begin before passing any judgments about Assauge’s personal actions. And, of course, the charges themselves are serious enough to warrant a full hearing.  Nobody is saying that if these charges are indeed true, that Assange shouldn’t be held accountable for his actions; though some do say that even if guilty, that shouldn’t undermine the efforts of Wikileaks; and they even hint that there might even be an alterior motive behind the accusations, pointing to an alleged CIA connection with one of the two accusers.

I’m not going to even assume Assange’s guilt or innocence in this matter…I’ll just wait for the courts to sellle that matter.

What bothers me most about this whole matter, though, is the willingness of the stridency of the protectors of the accusers to damn anyone who even hints of mild critcism as simply “rape apologism”, as if these women should be placed on some high pedestal and treated as if there is no need for a trial. It’s as if they believe that there can be no color or even shades of gray on this issue: you are either for the “victim” or you are for the “rapist”…and if you don’t choose quick enough, then you must be on the side of the “rapist”.

This is one step removed from Tea Party activism…and would be condemned rightfully so as extremism if it was a Tea Bagger right-winger doing this. Problaem is, though, it’s feminists — liberal feminists, radical feminists — doing this in the name of protecting rape victims and attacking rapists, and justifying bliind fath and lynch mob mentality.It’s kind of counterproductive to condemn the other side for acting extremish when you are capable of doing the same exact thing. Extremism in defense of virtue isn’t just a problem with right-wingers, I guess.

I leave it to Furry Girl to make the relevant points, since she does it better than anyone so far.  And remember, she is no wallflower when it comes to excating justice to those who are proven guilty…ask Pat Bohanan.

When lefties fanatically spearhead every rape/abuse allegation leveled by anyone, they are creating an environment that enables and even encourages false accusations from angry parties.  While it’s a travesty that police and courts tend to not believe people claiming that they have been sexually assaulted, the solution is not to unquestioningly champion anyone who makes the claim. Never believing and always believing allegations are both wrong.  Rape and assault are awful, fucked up things, but that doesn’t mean claims shouldn’t be subjected to any fact-checking or skepticism.  Murder is awful, too, and even with our badly flawed judicial system, we still generally try and sort out the facts and give the accused their day in court and a chance to defend themselves.

Hysterics will no doubt claim that I’m defending rape or don’t take it seriously.  On the contrary: I consider rape and sexual assault accusations to be so serious that they deserve extra consideration and yes, even questioning when it’s warranted.  I think we’re obligated to turn a critical eye on potentially fraudulent allegations.  As someone who recently sung the praises of vigilante justice, I’m clearly all in favor of exacting harsh physical and social revenge upon rapists, predators, and abusers – but if you’re going to do that to someone, you had better be sure.

What is the workable alternative to having some degree of caution about rape accusations?  Is the argument that rape is so terrible that it’s morally justifiable to destroy innocent lives in the pursuit of ferreting out any potential rapists?  (The word for that is collateral damage.)

Julian Assange deserves a right to defend himself, have legal representation, question the lack of evidence of wrongdoing, and address lies being spread in the mainstream and liberal press.  (Example: he didn’t “flee Sweden to avoid prosecution” as the feminists are claiming – he stuck around some 40 days after the accusations surfaced, trying to see if police wanted to take a statement from him.  Assange also willingly turned himself in – hardly the hallmark of a “flight risk trying to avoid going to court”.)  I don’t know what transpired between himself and his “victims”, but I do know that thus far, I’m not convinced he did anything more discourteous than failing to tell his Swedish ladyfriends he wasn’t looking to settle down and marry them.  Maybe my guess will be proved wrong, who knows.  I’ll keep an open mind, and I challenge others to do the same, especially when it comes to such incendiary topics.  Google the matter for yourself, pick an array of articles to read (start with this post, perhaps), and form your own opinion based on a metric other than “anyone accused of rape is guilty, because rape is wrong.”

Being around activist types for over 11 years – and witnessing how some bad apples go nuclear on former lovers – I’ve sadly been taught to be suspicious of accusations of sexual impropriety when they involve political people.  Don’t blame me for requesting fairness to all parties – vilify the dangerous scoundrels who cry wolf just to get back at an ex, mocking real survivors and make it harder for them to be believed.  Just as much as rapists and abusers, fakers are the true villains of this topic.

To repeat: if Julian Assange is guilty of the crimes he committed, then he deserves all the wrath coming to him. But, until he is proven guilty, it would be a good idea for everyone to turn down the volume a bit.  And, let’s seperate the man from the organization that is doing plenty of good and is being hit with the full wrath of many states who have plenty to hide. Censure if you will, but when your blind hate causes innocent people to be burned or self censored, it allows the real enemy (state fascism) to win. All of that is not worth a broken condom.

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Another Day, Another HIV Porn Scare Overhyped…And Shelley Lubben Goes Whack Again, But Gets Exposed For The Fraud She Is

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Anthony
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I am so sorry that I couldn’t get to this when all the drama originally took place…but I was preoccupied with other things.

But, now that it seems that yet another supposed HIV pandemic in porn has been proven to be total nonsense and greatly overhyped, I guess that it’s now time to serve some crow to some people.

For those who may not have noted, last July the California porn world was in total chaos because it was leaked that one of their performers had tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That set off all the usual hysteria, with porn sets shut down while all the primary and secondary sex partners of the poor afflicted performer (dubbed as “Patient Zets”) were tested as per normal procedure by the Adult Industry Medical Foundation, which is basically the official testing organization for the California-based porn industry.

Unfortunately, because this latest scare took place only one year after a similar panic when a female performer was tested positive; the flameout in rhetoric was even more extrreme, with most signs pointing to the breach of the system as the final proof they needed to condemn AIM and promote alternatives…up to and including mandatory condoom usage by all porn performers. Even worse, though, was that “Patient Zeta” also was reported to be a bisexual male who performed gay porn on the side…which added the additional spark of homophobia into the mix as well.

Not surprisingly, plenty of the usual suspects took to the airwaves to decry this ultimate failure of the system. The officios at the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) mined the latest “outbreak” news to reinstated their position that porn sets needed to be fully regulated and performers forced to use condoms as a means of protection and “role modeling” the general public. The biggest and loudest voice, though, came from a group called the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, whose founder and chief spokesman, Michael Weinstein, had long been a fierce foe of AIM and its alleged “monopoly” on STI testing and protection. Weinstein used his microphome and his organization to publically attempt to humiliate AIM and force the LA and Cali authorities to seize power and force mandatory condom usage (and his own testing regime) on the industry carte blanche, citing the potential for a major pandemic among porn performers.

And it would have probably worked, too….except for one small problem.  The pandemic never happened.

Like it didn’t happen last year, either.

One month after the Great 2010 HIV Porn Scare began, it ended….with a whimper.

In a not-unexpected announcement today, Vivid Entertainment, one of the world’s leading adult producers, said that it is set to resume movie production on Monday, November 8, after being shut down for almost a month because of health safety concerns.

The move was apparently triggered by the announcement yesterday from the Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation that the final actress who could possibly have contracted HIV from the performer now known as “Patient Zeta” has been cleared after the second round of PCR-DNA testing, and has been allowed to resume her acting career.

“The Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation has completed testing of two generations of partners of Patient Zeta, from both personal and professional life,” AIM General Manager Jennifer Miller said today. “All persons tested negative for HIV on two occasions, using multiple testing methods. It has been established that Patient Zeta acquired the virus through private, personal activity and there was no transmission of the HIV virus from Patient Zeta to anyone else.”

“This event affirms the efficacy of AIM Healthcare Foundation’s testing protocols, as voluntarily implemented by the adult entertainment industry,” she continued. “It is regrettable but inevitable that people continue to acquire the HIV virus in their personal life. The protocols and other industry practices have resulted in only one incident of HIV transmission on set in more than a decade. That is a remarkable record. AIM Healthcare Foundation is proud of its contribution to the health and well-being of the adult industry and wider community.”

Of course, the fact that their dreams of exploiting the “outbreak” for political purposes had been dashed by actual facts weren’t going to stop the “push condoms” and “smash AIM” folks from fighting the not-so-good fight. In the midst of the crisis, when it was still possible that things could get hairy, Weinstein’s group AHF and the Cal-OSHA people were quite busy attempting to impose their will. They unsuccessfully attempted to browbeat the Los Angeles Metro City Council to suspend all licenses for shooting porn in the Greater LA area. They attempted — just as unsuccessfully — to use the courts to force AIM to reveal the identities of “Patient Zeta” and all of her partners through their confidential medical records…while simultaneaously claiming that having AIM release the results of their testing to porn production companies violeted the HIPPA law regarding public release of private medical records.

But mostly, they attempted to use the media to browbeat the industry into submissiveness. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for us), their delivery system was more than a bit flawed.

Which brings us one more time to that ongoing saga of: Shelley Lubben, Off The Chain.

Yes, our favorite ex-porn, ex-slut ministress is on her soapbox again. Apparently, the folks at AHF have decided that Shelley Lubben should become the official voice for those poor, benighted, abused, diseased, prostituted, and infected women unfortunate enough not to be able to speak for themselves against the Big, Bad Male Porn Grinding Machine. At least, those women for whom her Pink Cross Foundation ministry exploits greatly to pay for all of her makeup and travel….errrrrrrrrrrrr, to minister the glory of God and save them from a hard and brutal life.

Now, one would normally wonder how an agency like AHF who originates atourn advocacy for HIV+ folk — many of whom happen to be gay men — would be doing sharing the dais with the likes of Ministress Lubben, whose ministry does seem to have more than a glancing taste of the homophobia. When big money in presumed federal contracts to prooffer testing services supplemented by the potential payoff in condom sales from folks like Durex and Trojan, combines with Shelley’s continuous desire for the public spotlight and a nice book deal….well, let’s just say that greed makes for strange bedfellows.

The problem is, though, that giving someone as whack as Shelley Lubben the microphone is a dangerous thing. Ask the people at UCLA.

Just this week, they decided to hold what they considered a roundtable discussion on the issue of STI’s in porn and the effectiveness of condoms and whether they should be mandated. Representing the “condoms must be mandatory” side: Paula Tavrow of the UCLA School of Public Health, Whitney Engeran-Cordova of AHF, Peter Kerndt of the LA County Health STD program, and Shelley Lubben as “one of the world’s leading advocates for women in the adult industry”. (More on that lie anon.) Repping the other side: Mr. Marcus, long time Black male porn legend and…..Diane Duke of the Free Speech Coalition. (The latter was a late add to make the panel seem less “fair and balanced”.)

Yes, this panel was about as balanced as a FOX News Sunday panel discussion….and Shelley was on her Michelle Bachmann-caliber finest tear that day. Michael Whitacre was at the conference, and just so happened to videotape some of Lubben’s special whackiness. First, the written synopsis, courtesy of AVN:

Lubben, whose website hawks her new book allegedly based on her brief experiences in the industry, and who asked her supporters for their “fervent prayers” about her appearance on the panel, spoke next, and much of what she said was laced with her usual inaccuracies and outright fabrications.

“I worked in the industry in the years 1993 to 1994,” she told the audience. “I was forced to have unprotected sex.” (See, she chose to work in the industry, but she was forced to have unprotected sex, though she must have known that virtually no companies shot condom porn in the early ’90s.)

Lubben launched into a long list of medical problems she claims stemmed from her brief porn career (as opposed to her years working as a prostitute) and also claimed she was “brutally raped on the set when I contacted herpes in a six-man gangbang.” (This would have been Filmco’s Roxy – A Gang Bang Fantasy, but of course, Lubben never filed rape charges against anyone connected with that movie.)

“Women on the set have no advocate on a mostly male set, and are threatened by porn producers and agents,” she continued. “In order to get women to agree to these things, they’re given alcohol and drugs and even sent to local doctors to get prescription medicine like Xanax and Vicodin… All this is documented proof.”

To accompany her talk, Lubben also made available several handouts, one of which references notorious gossip and liar Luke Ford, who collected industry-bashing quotes from several actresses prior to his leaving the porn-gossip business several years ago. Yet another handout, titled “Backgrounder,” contains lies such as that “90% [of porn employees] are child sexual abuse survivors,” “66% to 99% of pornography performers are reported with Herpes, a non-curable disease,” and “25 HIV cases by performers reported by Adult Industry Medical Healthcare since 2004.”

And in case you need the visual to match…. (thank you, Michael Whiteacre):

Former porn performer turned fundamentalist Christian anti-porn activist Shelley Lubben addressing the UCLA “Condoms in Porn” discussion (via YouTube, h/t MichaelWhiteacre)

There are facts…and then there are Lubben Facts. The Free Speech Coalition website post on the UCLA meeting clearly explains the difference.

In fact, the audience could have learned a lot about sexually transmitted infections from the panelists today. Instead, the focus was on statistics for adult industry performers that LACPH has “gathered” from Adult Industry Medical Healthcare (AIM), since the AIM clinic is required to share data with the county. But how many people in the audience recalled that last year, after a performer was diagnosed with HIV, that LACPH claimed, since 2004, there have been as many as 22 cases of HIV in the performing population? The LA Times later retracted the statistic, presumably because it’s not verifiable. But by then, it was too late to stop the spread of misinformation.

No one on the panel spoke more about STIs than Pink Cross’ Lubben, who issued a laundry list of diseases that she claims she contracted “while working in porn,” including herpes, HPV, as well as “extensive reproductive damage,” 12 years of hemorrhaging and severe anemia, due to unprotected sex that she was forced to have on adult production sets. She used the word “rape” liberally to describe her on-set experiences. She also claimed to have contracted HPV during a gangbang shoot with four male performers. Lubben also claims that 66% of adult performers have herpes and that 111 adult industry members have died from AIDS – without citing the statistical sources for this information.

When an audience member forced the question to Lubben, that she had been a prostitute for six years prior to being in her first adult movie (and during her time as a performer, and after she retired from performing), Lubben replied that she had always had “protected sex” as a prostitute, but was “forced” to not use a condom on-set.

Well, here are some FACTS about various STIs from the Centers for Disease Control website:

• Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is so common, at least 50% of sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.

• For those that choose to be sexually active, condoms may lower the risk of HPV… But HPV can infect areas not covered with a condom – so condoms may not fully protect against HPV.

• Results of a nationally representative study show that genital herpes infection is common in the United States. Nationwide, 16.2%, or about one out of six, people 14 to 49 years of age have genital HSV-2 infection.

And that’s the thing – the only way to fight ignorance is with facts.

Yeah, right…and Nina Hartley “contracted chalmydia four times during her career”. Of 26 years. (That’s more YEARS than you have SCENES, Shelley. Almost TWICE AS MANY, in fact. Scoreboard sucks, doesn’t it??) At, least, that’s what Ministress Shelley says. I mean, clearly a woman who has performed all of 24….no, check that, 12 videos in one nine month blitz, and who was an active prostitute who has openly claimed in other venues to have unprotected sex and bave contracted everything BUT HIV from her prostitution endevors, is clearly more capable for speaking for all women in porn than a 24 year vet who happens to have a Bachelors degree in nursing, and whom has written several books and made many videos on safer sex and avoiding STI’s. Yeah, Shelley…Nina’s your bitch, all right.

Oh, but let’s save that potential Hartley vs. Lubben ass kicking (figurative, that is) for a future fantasy. Right now,  porn women with even half of Nina’s legacy can still run world laps around Shelley, and still have enough wind to boot her illogical, fanatical ass into orbit. While I’ve previously mentioned Monica Foster and Kayden Kross and Vicky Vette who have thouroughly debunked the stupidity and outright lies and slander of the Ministeress, it is still Julie Meadows (aka Lydia Lee) whom has done the most in public service in exposing the rancid lies of Shelley Lubben to the bright light of sunshine. Today in her blog, Julie fires yet one more Truth volley into the Lubben House of Bullshit, using Shelley’s own words to impale. It started as a comment to the FSC site, then exploded into a blog entry at Meadows’ own  blog. I’ll simply repost it in its magnificent entirity.

“Shelley Lubben’s website from “Way Back Time Machine” 2008:

http://www.shelleylubben.com/former-porn-star-shelley-lubben

“God also restored my femininity and healed my sexuality, which is a MAJOR miracle for me. After doing prostitution and porn I lost ability to function sexually. The fact that I can enjoy a healthy sexual relationship now is an absolute miracle!! God also healed me of the non-curable disease herpes. I was part of a special military study for pregnant women with herpes in 1996 and when I was tested they said I couldn’t be in the study because there was no herpes virus in my blood. The test came back negative! I also am cancer free as the doctors were able to remove all the cervical cancer. He’s Jehovah-Rophe the God that heals us!”

YouTube – “EX-PORN STAR SHELLEY LUBBEN, THE TRUTH BEHIND THE FANTASY OF PORN – PORNHARMS.COM BRIEFING”, Uploaded June 17, 2010

“As a survivor of the porn industry, I contracted human papillomavirus, and herpes, a non-curable disease, which later led to my battle with cervical cancer, where I had to have half of my cervix removed. I also battled with severe anemia due to the hemorrhaging I experienced for twelve years. In fact, I’m still battling with damages to my reproductive organs.”

YouTube – “JESUS SWOOPS DOWN ON HOWARD STERN: EX PORN STAR SHELLEY LUBBEN VISITS 2/2”, Uploaded November 9, 2010

“Shelley Lubben: God told me he healed me and I haven’t had an outbreak in over fifteen years, my kids are herpes-free, so, you know what, I just turned to God and he healed me in all these areas of my life. I mean, he’s practical.”

Shelley Lubben: Of course. Like, you could, you could swing a deal anywhere. Any, literally, and uh… and then one, and then this man, he, he um, he bled on my face and it really frightened me, so… um…
Robin Quivers: Bled on your face? How does that, wha?
Howard Stern: He bled on your face? What was, what was that about?
SL: Well, I don’t know. All I know was it scared the hell outta me.
HS: Where was the blood coming from?
SL: His penis.

Howard Stern: Uh, an Asian guy banged you for money, got you pregnant. How did that happen, his rubber break or something?
Shelley Lubben: In all honesty, um, it did. Condoms will leak and break.
HS: Right.
SL: And I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve had plenty of sex to know that condoms aren’t enough protection but they’re better than no protection.

YouTube – “SHELLEY LUBBEN SPEAK TRUTH ABOUT PORN INDUSTRY”
Uploaded June 4, 2008

“And, as you know in the industry we do not, there’s not, we don’t use condoms. And so, every single day we live in fear that we’re going to catch a sexually transmitted disease or worse, HIV. Everyday we lived, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, who slept with who?’ And um, I got burned. I caught genital herpes and I thought I was going to die. It’s absolutely the worst thing, it’s the most shameful… I had dealt with so much shame already. This was terrible. And I quietly left the porn industry.”

“I slept with Hollywood directors, actors, singers, I helped contribute to America’s epidemic of herpes. 66% of porn actors and actresses are carriers. 28% have chlamydia and gonorrhea and 7% have HIV. It’s a huge problem. And what we do is when we’re porn stars we’re also prostitutes. We fly around the country and sleep with people for lots of money because they’re our fans. And so then we have unprotected sex with them, of course. ”

YouTube – “EX PORN STAR TELLS THE HARDCORE TRUTH ABOUT PORN”
Uploaded January 2, 2008

“And this is how pathetic is was, I used to sell my breast milk for five and ten bucks inside guy’s coffees just to get money for me and my daughter. That’s my pathetic lifestyle in the sex industry and it’s not just me. I don’t care how glamorous these, I see the porn stars, we all had to work our way to the top. We all started out on the street or in escort agency or prostitution. We’ve all been bled upon. We’ve all been smacked around. We’ve all had guys rip condoms on us on purpose. We’ve been through hell. Vietnam Vets, could probably be comparable to what we’ve been through. That’s why we’re tough. We had to tough it out. I’ve had men try to kill me, stalk me, I was driving a motorcycle and some guy took his truck and hit me. Cuz see we’d b.s. ‘em a lot. They don’t like that. I’d have different engagement wedding rings n so I was in my pockets trying to remember which guy gave me which one.”

She states how much more dangerous the adult industry is after stating that, as a prostitute, she was bled upon, stalked, that clients tried to murder her. She repeatedly sites every porn star as being mentally ill though she does not have the education and credentials to diagnosis anyone’s medical situation. She touts only the professional ability to teach and counsel in Christian-[r]elated studies. In fact, her “degree” does not transfer to any accredited college and it is listed on the Consumer Fraud Reporting website as an unaccredited school, prefacing their list with this statement:

“All schools below are considered by the state of Oregon’s and other U.S. and international standards to be UNACCREDITED. Many are scams, a few may be decent schools, but ALL are without accreditation, something most sensible people would say is a starting point to obtain a quality education and a degree that will be broadly accepted and respected.”

So the catchphrase “Get The Facts” that is splattered all over Shelley’s personal website and Pink Cross Foundation’s website only applies to other people and not her? Really??? Someone please explain to me how that makes any sense whatsoever. Does she need the definition of the word “fact” read to her?

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/Education_Degree_Scams_Unaccreddited.php

Lovely how the reporting at Luke Is Back fails to mention how last-minute the meeting was and that the adult industry was all but squeezed out of the discussion. Thank you for actually providing some insight into this event.”

And it’s only getting worse now for Ministeress Shelley….a blogger named Cameron Rowe has just opened a blog where he is currently engaging in an expose of Madame Lubben’s more…shall we say, outspoken statements. His allegations include these nice tidbits: (1) that Shelley was really a madam when she turned 18 and she was pregnant through her clients rather than through porn; (2) that her degree in Christian ministry is really from a well known “diploma mill” that was so damaged that it waas banned from the state of Conneticut; and (3) that her ordination as a Christian minister is actually just as bogus, having come from an orginization (Order of St. Martin) consisting only of an Irvine, California address and nothing else.

Question for Mike Weinstein and the other folk at AHF: Do you really, really want to sully your campaign with someone like THIS???

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Memo To “Bowtie Boy” Tucker Carlson: You Are NOT Keith Olbermann, Either!!

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Anthony
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Myopia: defined as “an unwillingness to acknowledge the truth”

It’s a consistent neurosis that frequently ails certain wingnut commentators when they get whacked by the inevitable “Scoreboard”.

But right-wing myopia is at its greatest when it attempts to make humor out of a lost cause.

Case in point: the shenanigans of Tucker Carlson, uber-right commentator, founder of the Daily Caller website, and former worshipper of bow ties, with his feeble attempt to make fun at Keith Olbermann’s recent expense.

You know, of course, about The Suspension that KO endured due to his making personal contributions to a couple of Democratic progressive candidates. A suspension that lasted all of two shows.

What you may not know was Carlson’s attempt to mine the controversy to punk Olbermann…through a faked-up domain.

This all starts in June, when Carlson announced through his Daily Caller website that he had gone cybersquatter and bought the domain KeithOlbermann[dot]com, whereas he would use to form his own site and email (keithATkeitholbermann[dot]com) with which he would spoof and generally smear KO.

Mostly, it was ignored…which is why Bowtie Boy decided to step up the pressure last weekend in wake of all the drama.

On Monday, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky released through the local Philly media site The Phawker an email exchange purporting to be between “Keith Olbermann” and himself, in which “Olbermann” vented some major smack upon MSNBC chief Phil Griffin, who made the decision to first suspend and then reinstate the real KO. Some of the quotes were, to say the least, highly personal and insulting. A sample:

“As I’ve said publicly before, Phil Griffin is not my boss (thank god), nor is he intellectually qualified to be,” the fake Olbermann wrote. “Phil pretends otherwise in public. I’m not his shrink, but I assume it makes him feel better. The remarkable thing is that fools like you believe his fantasies. That pleases Phil, but only exposes your ignorance. The proof? I’ll be anchoring on election night 2012, long after Phil Griffin has moved on to a job for which he’s actually qualified, perhaps on QVC.”

Actually, the real KO was quoted a while back by the website Medialite as saying that Griffin “thiinks that he’s my boss”…but that’s a bit different.

Another quote attributed to the fake “Olbermann”: “[I] could have Phil Griffin fired tomorrow if I felt like it, trust me.”

Everything seemed to work so well for Carlson….up until some enterprising folk noted the email addy that “Olbermann” was using was NOT the official email addy KO uses for his Countdown show (countdown.msnbc.com) or his addy for his MLB Baseball Nerd blog (mlb.olbermann.com). Then, someone (namely, Jack Mirkinson of the Huffington Post) remembered and exposed that Tucker Carlson had bought out the email addy/domain being used in the scam.

And for the record, the real KO also responded dryly with a tweet from his very real Twitter account (@KeithOlbermann) that the addy was fake and not his.

If you see a supposed email exchange between me and somebody named Bykofsky @PhillyDailyNews – complete fake. Email address shown not mine

Ahhh…OOPS…busted!!!!!

Ultimately Bykofsky and Phawker issued public disclaimers and retractions that evening, and Carlson did admit that he was the author of the hoax, though he chose to emphasize the “humor” of it all.

Carlson, reached by phone Tuesday night, confirmed he impersonated Olbermann in the email responses to Bykofsky. “Could you resist?” Carlson said.  “It was just too funny. The flesh is weak.”

Yeah, right, Tucker. Identity theft is always funny…except to the one whose identity you ar estealing.

Maybe Carlson is more  motivated by jealousy that his MSNBC show never got nearly as successful as Olbermann’s (yes, he actually did have a show there that ran until 2008, when it was pulled due to low ratings)…or maybe he’s just that much of a right-wing douchebag. Personally, I’d select Doors #1 AND #2.

Either way it goes, it proves a basic point of mine: Wingnuts should not go into comedy. When they act normal, it is comedy enough.

And, as the old saying goes, Tucker…they’re not laughing WITH you, son; they’re laughing AT you.

Of course, he’s at FOX News now…so I guess that that’s consolation for him. And, he’s wearing regular ties now.

Nice try, though, Tucker…you’ve been a great player.  NOT.

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Like I Said, I’m NOT Keith Olbermann (Thank The Goddess)

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Anthony
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You know….I was a little concerned that somehow when Keith Olbermann makes his return to Countdown tonight, he would be induced to neuter his passion.

After watching the following segment, my fears are overblown.

And…pay special notice to how KO lines up the roll call of the usual right-wing screechers to say about how “conservatives” are shut out of the media discourse.

Trust me…it’s not only right…it’s funny.

OK, so it’s from December of last year..but it’s still classic.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann (MSNBC): 12-14-09 segment refuting Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck’s accusation of “defamation” against the executive producer of the NBC primetime drama series Law & Order on the prevailence of “liberal media bias” (via Crooks and Liars, original feed via MSNBC)

Good night, and good luck, indeed.

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I Am Keith Olbermann (Yeah, Right…I Wish) — Updated…He’s BAAAAAAACCCKKKK!!!!

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Anthony
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UPDATE 11-8-10:

Well, well, well…amazing what two days, 300,000+ angry viewers, and the largest rally round in progressive journalism can accomplish.

The “indefinite suspenssion” of Keith Olbermann turns out to be very much definite:  exactly three days and two shows. From The Huffington Post:

Keith Olbermann will return to the air on Tuesday after being suspended without pay for two shows (this past Friday and the upcoming episode on Monday).

The host of MSNBC’s “Countdown” was given an indefinite suspension last week after his boss, network president Phil Griffin, discovered that Olbermann had made political contributions without seeking prior approval, as per NBC News policy.

A network spokesman released the following via email:

STATEMENT REGARDING KEITH OLBERMANN – SUNDAY, NOV. 7From Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC:

After several days of deliberation and discussion, I have determined that suspending Keith through and including Monday night’s program is an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy. We look forward to having him back on the air Tuesday night.

Earlier on Sunday, Olbermann broke his silence via Twitter, telling his followers “Greetings From Exile!” and thanking people for their support.

Now…those “several days of deliberation and discussion” might have been augmented by the overwhelming surge of letters, email, and angry voicemail that descendind upon the 30 Rockefeller Plaza HO of NBC when the decision to suspend Olbermann was originally announced on Friday. A protest letter put out by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee on Friday afternoon was able to obtain more than 300,000 signatures to their letter by Sunday afternoon. (Disclosure alert: I was one of those signmees) They are currently running a “Victory!!” letter writing campaign torwards KO, located here.There was also strong support from across the political spectrum, with everyone from Eliot Spitzer of CNN to Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard to even Will Cain of the freakin’ National Review calling the suspension nothing short of outrageous and extreme.

For her part, Rachel Maddow got in her licks with a brief commentary at the close of her Friday show, while diplomatically stating MSNBC’s policies and using the example to lob some nukes at FOX News for their transparancy of being the official network of the GOTP. While some commentators did accuse her of throwing KO under the bus a bit and overtly defending the suspension, it was more likely that she was both protecting herself and testing the fine line between supporting KO and not defying the policy.

Through all this, Olbermann generally kept on the down low..emerging only to tweet his thanks to his supporters.  After the suspension was lifted, though, KO decided to tell his side of the story with an open letter to Countdown viewers that was released to the New York Times late this afternoon.

“A Statement to the Viewers of Countdown”

Tuesday night at 8 PM EST is going to be very interesting, no???

———————————————————————————————————————————

ORIGINAL POST:

Interesting rules the mainstream media companies have.  One set for the wealthy conservatives, and one for everyone else.

FOX News can openly boast about being the  media wing of the GOTP, practically turing their progremming into  naked ads for right-wing candidates. It’s commentators (Bill’O, InSanity, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck) can build mountains of crap and openly back fascists without fear of any reprisal.

But allow just one liberal columnist/host to walk his talk and give his own money to a progressive candidate…and watch the walls crumble down on him.

Just as, apparently, MSNBC has done with Keith Olbermann…now FORMER host of Countdown.

The story via Raw Story:

News network MSNBC has suspended host Keith Olbermann indefinitely after a news report stated he donated to the campaigns of three Democratic candidates.

Mediaite quotes MSNBC President Phil Griffin as saying, “I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.”

Politico reported Friday:

Olbermann, who acknowledged the contributions in a statement to POLITICO, made the maximum legal donations of $2,400 apiece to Conway and to Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. He donated to the Arizona pair on Oct. 28 — the same day that Grijalva appeared as a guest on Olbermann’s “Countdown” show.

Grijalva, a prominent liberal who was just declared a winner in his race Thursday night, was in a tight contest against tea-party-backed candidate Ruth McClung when he appeared on “Countdown” — one of several appearances he made on the show.


 

NBC has a rule against employees contributing to political campaigns, and a wide range of news organizations prohibit political contributions — considering it a breach of journalistic independence to contribute to the candidates they cover.

Now, you can make the case that Countdown is more of an news entertainment show than anything else, that no one questions, say, Chris Matthews for his past as an aide to Ted Kennedy or  Lawrence O’Donnell for his role as a Bill Clinton speech writer…and you might be right.

Especially since, according to Crooks and Liars, MSNBC has allowed other “commentators” to give out political donations (Pat Buchanan, Joe Scarborough).

But..Scarborough and Buchanan are right-wingers giving to right wingers.

KO gave his money to Democrats. No, wait…progressive Democrats.

OK…so NBC has to enforce their rules. So be it.

But, perhaps they would not have it look like they are placating the Hard Right and nuking a principled liberal critic, and sending a message to the rest of the Liberal team (Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz) that anything not approved by the Tea Party/GOP/DLC political continuum will not be tolerated. (Of course, since Chris Matthews and Lawrence O’Donnell are trusted establishment Dems who are enscounced in the acceptable “centrist” wisdom, they are probably exempted.)

In any case, this totally sucks. And one more voice of freedom and real sanity is now silenced, sacrificed to the wolves of the “mainstream media:.

Which was probably never that “liberal” to begin with.

Maybe it’s time for progressives to build up their own media in response. Let MSNBC join CNN and Politico in being the DLC Network in counterweight to All Fascist, All FOXNews.

And in the meantime….God and Goddess speed, KO….you did your best.

Good night (for  now)…and good luck.

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MidTerms 2010: The Deluge, The Delusions, And How To Invent The American Left

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Anthony
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Well…it was as bad as expected.

67 House seats and control of the House lost for the Dems…say hello to Speaker John Boehner.

6 Senate seats lost, but thanks to the overreach and the stupidity of some Tea Party/Republican nominees like Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, and a few others, the Dems barely retain control of the Senate…at least, formally.

Some decent progressives gpt run….Grayson (FL), Conroy (OH), Perriello (VA), and Murphy (PA) in the House, Feingold (WI) in the Senate.

The Blue Dogs mostly got waxed but good:  41 lost their seats.

The Dems lost big in most states (California excepted): 8 governorships lost, total wipeouts in Wisconsin and North Corlina, where Repubs now control the governorships and both houses of their state legislatures.

Rubio beat Crist/Meek in FL; Toomey beat Seestak in PA; Lincoln lost in AR. President Obama’s old Senate seat flipped to Repub, too.

Alaska is still up in the air, though…and probably will be for days if not weeks.

But, all in all, a devastating night for Democrats, if not catastrophic. And, a disaster for progressives/liberals.

So….what happened??

Simply put: the Right showed up, the Left didn’t, and the Center broke late with the Right.

Mostly, it was the activism and big bucks of the Tea Party, reinforced with the anger and rage of the usual right-wing suspects that have been gunnning after Obama and the Democrats since time immortal, motivating their peeps to go out and vote.

And, just as mostly, it was the pitiful and shameful treatement of the thie own most fervent suppoeters by the Democrats, as well as the tepid efforts ad addressing their basic giievances and insulting and degrading treatment by the Democratss, that contributed to their demise.

When you promise to do one thing and don’t deliver, you desereve to get beat. When you promise radical “change” and then promptly don’t change a thing, and in fact simply replicate and even extend the very things you promise to change…well, then you deserve to get not only beat, but beat down.

And that, in a nutshell, is what happened to the Democrats yesterday.

You don’t promise to reverse 8 years of past Republican policy, then promptly give the perpetrators of that policy carte balance to sey your own policy.

You don’t promise progressive reform of health care, but then reject the most common sense progressive model (comprehensive universal single payer) in favor of a convoluted, confusing, and ultimately woefully inadequate “forced mandate” for people to be coerced to buy private insurance that falls short of even the most basic needs.

You don’t come to power promising to end your opponent’s endless wars, then promptly move to extend them and even increase funding commitments for said wars.

You don’t go into negotiations trying to make nice with an advesary who wants to basically kill you, who thinks that you are at your core illegitimate, unfit, and even an “alien” ruler contaminating “their” White House.

But most of all…you don’t take the very voters who put you in power and basically and continually take proverbial dumps on them by neglecting their core issues, and then expect them to totally love you for the crumbs of corn located within that mountain of crap….all because the other side has gone totally loony batshit mad and fascist.

Unfortunately, that has been the Democratic Party’s modus operandi for the past 40 years: use progressives and liberals as stepping stones to power, only to abandon them when they get power to serve their real masters (the corporate/industrial complex) and pander to virtually the same conservative/right-wing base as the Republicans.

It was the way for the presidency of Bill Clinton in 1992: fake Left with promises of lifting prohibitions ogainst gays in the military along with “managed care reform”; only to switch gears towards “welfare reform” and other means of punishing thei supporters after the Newt Gingrich-led Class of 1994 took over.

Very fortunately for Bubba and Hillary, the Repubs back then overextended themselves on impeachment, and the Clintons were able to react and respond.

Problem is, though, Clinton had a booming economy, a decent liberal base that stayed loyal in their masochistic way, and Newtie as an advesary.

The curent president may still have the Senate behind him, but his situation may be much worse…and so are the progressives.

For one thing, the lunatic fronge of the Grand Old Tea Party will be raking every leaf for anything they can use to smear Obama with. Already, there is talk of inventing some ground for impeachment (a purported deal with Seestak to have him drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate race and grease the weel for former GOP gadfly Arlen Specter; or some new invention of “Birtherism”, or the “selling” of Obama’s former Illinois Senate seat..or whatever they can invent). Their best interest os to simply obstruct and veto and block anything Prez O attempts, unless he completely surrenders to right-wing dogma..and even then their eternal hatred would probably win out.

Secondly…the usual forces of elite neo-reaction within the Democratic Party are already on the case, milking the Beltway media with the time-honored “Third Way”/Democratic Leadership Coucil meme that this election proves that liberalism is a dead ender and that the Dems must throw liberals and progressives under the bus (even more than they already have) and adopt to the new “center”, which translates into moving even further to the Right than ever while supposedly “isolating” the GOP to their Teabagger anchor.

Obviously, progrsives and liberals within the Democratic Party think otherwise…but with no power whatsoever to enact any means of resistance, and the cross of ridicule from the Dem establishment, it would be very difficult for them to overcome their disadvantages in the face of the Village Media consensus….not to mention the overwhelming power of the right-wing propaganda machine.

And then, there is the new factor of unaccountable campaign spending by the wealthy, librated thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision throwing out campaign spending limits and allowing corporations and wealthy individuals a virtual free reign to buy themselves elections. Since wealthy folk tend to be way more conservative and even right-wing, you can probably figure for yourself the outcome.

Of course, having lots of cash doesn’t insure victory….ask Carly Fiona or Meg Whitman. But, when strategically used in “swing districts” where the Tea Party and the GOP Right (redundacy intended) are already locally strong and organized, the streams of cash spent on attack ads can be a difference maker.

Such is the climate we are now in. The issue is now: How should the Left respond??

I have my own opinions, of course.

Those who say that we should stay in the party and simply use “netroot” and local power to support “more and better Democrats”, in my view, are jsut shuffling chairs on the Titanic. The “netroots” have been found to have simply no power or even so much a pinprick of an impact on Democratic strategy or policy…in fact, most of the netroots’ favorites went down in flames when faced with the organized power of the Teabaggers and the dismissiveness and abandonment of the Democrats.

And considering the emerging consensus brewing among establishment Democrats and implicitly endorsed by Obama himself, the progressives will simply face an even more frosty reception, if not total abandonment and extention. The main goal of today’s Democrats are to remodel themselves to the center-right and pick off “moderate” conservative Republicans and White middle-class  “Reagan Democrats” as their new base, and liberals and progressives are simply cannon fodder. “Don’t fear the Left, for they have no place to go…and if they protest, let ‘em have President Palin” is the prevailing view of most elite Dems, and they are most protected by privilege and financial contributions from any accountability.

Meanwhile…the establishment Republicans will continue to mine the Tea Party/”Old” New Right themes and myopias — also fueled with a fresh plowing of anti-Black racism, homophobia, antifeminism, xenophobia, and White nationalism — as a crutch to mask their main campaign of rampant unregulation and removing any fetters or constraints on capital accumulation and exploitation of resources and people. The “free market”, “personal responsibility”, and “less government” themes are simply ruses to cover the ultimate assault on the very notion of using the power of the federal government to attack economic and social inequality; and insted usher in the authoritarian state that uses religion, advertising, and state control to freeze out dissenters.  Of course, the hard Right is also fond of using private militias and lone wolf assassins to target those they feel threaten their “way of life”, too….but as or right now, even mainstream right-wingers do go that far.  At least…not yet.

So…we have one conservative happy face party masquarading as “liberal” (the Democrats), and one absolutely fascist, kooky-eyed, mostly White nationalist party masquarading as “conservative” (the Repiblicans).  And, then there is the splintered Tea Party, who could potentially act as a spoiler role in both parties…indeed, there have been threats of Teabaggers going to an independent party if the Republicans don’t cater fully to their demands,  Some may even attempt to outflank the GOP as Democrats, especially in the South and rural Midwest.

There is a huge vaccum thus emerging on the Left, and one that traditional Democratic liberalsm simply isn’t capable of exploiting because they are so sold all in on the Democrats and Obama.

Now, there are the PUMA’s who say that only Hillary Clinton can save the day for the Democrats, and that the fault lies totally with Obama who, they say, bamboozled and grifted his way to the 2008 nomination to begin with. Problem with that illogic is, that assumes that Hillary is a true progressive, not the corporatist, DLC clone copy of her husband who was willing to play several race cards against Obama herself, while playing a “populist” in the process. And, it’s far more likely that Hillary will be recruited by Obama and the Democrats to rescue him from his debacles via a Obama-Clinton ticket in 2012, once they get Joe Biden out of the way, that is.  Then again, many of those PUMA’s most willing to promote Hillary are generally the same ones who also say that Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle are just “conservative feminists” who are victims of rampant “male liberal” sexism.

My sentiments, though, are much more with the more institutional critiques of Obama and the Democrats as merely one wing of the corporate system, and the belief that the Democrats are basically sold out as a tool of progressive change. My belief is the same I haave held for the past 25 years since I first abandoned the Democratic Party: that only an independent, popularly rooted, populist/democratic Left dedicated to challenging the roots of institutional as well as physical injustice and inequality will be capable of confronting both the Teabagger Right AND the Democraiic “Center”.

What kind of a program would that be, and how does it compare to other Left proposals theough the recent times?? That’ll have to wait until a future post. Stay close….

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