Open thread

Rudy spent more days at Yankee stadium than at Ground Zero.

Giuliani spent about 58 hours at Yankees games or flying to them in the 40 days between Sept. 25 and Nov. 4, roughly twice as long as he spent at ground zero in the 90 days between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16.

As Alex Koppelman at Salon says, "By his own standard, Giuliani was one of the Yankees more than he was one of the rescue workers."

***

On an unrelated note, I'm sitting here bleary-eyed and look at what I came across -- you just can't make this stuff up. Read the rest of this post...

Documentary on the politics of hair

This is a very different post for AMERICAblog, but you may find it interesting, thought-provoking, and very much about American culture.

I have quite a few posts on the politics of having kinky hair over at my blog. In the past, people sometimes emailed me to say that they didn't understand how or why hair is political. After Don Imus and the whole "nappy-headed hos" mess, they got a taste of why it is very political. What the former radio talk show host did was touch upon the third rail of race in a way opened up discussions of matters not usually heard in public conversations.

Most black women know what it's like to have an arsenal of hair care products, particularly if you choose to wear your hair straightened with chemical relaxers. [Ironically, most of the Rutgers women's basketball team members had chemically straightened hair, which goes to show you that Imus reduced them to his assumption that black women=nappy hair=unattractive.] I had a cabinet full of "hair product" when I wore processed styles.

And oh, the dreaded hot comb. I am old enough to have experienced the "pleasure" of the thermal hot comb -- you rested it over the gas flame of the stove to heat it up. Then the pressing oil was carefully applied to your hair and that comb sizzled through the kinks till it was bone straight, hissing as you prayed the comb didn't touch your scalp. This is what black women did to emulate straight hair. I say emulate because all it took was water or merely a humid day to revert the hair back to its natural state. But that was the only acceptable style for the working black woman working in the dominant culture.

In 2005 I was interviewed by Heather Barnes, who was working on a documentary project on women and their relationship to their hair from a personal and political perspective. Her blog for the project, Hair Stories, is up and running.

The stories might relate to shaving, first haircuts, having long or short hair, losing their hair, hair and ethnicity, stigma about body hair (either too much or too little), and the cultural and social significance of hair in all its manifestations.

Here's my interview. She's intercut it with photos from my hair journey web page. When you watch it you'll see a tortured hair history in the school photos -- while I'm the product of two black parents, neither had kinky hair; it took a while for my mom to figure out how to take care of mine, particularly dealing with the humidity in NC.



Full freedom for me finally came when I decided in the 90s to toss out the relaxer and cut the dry damaged hair off. I wore a short natural for several years. I began the process of growing locs in November 2000, a style I wear today. Free from the burning hot comb sizzling my scalp, curling irons, flat irons or other instruments of hair torture.

The status quo is still straightened hair, even though we see more natural styles in vogue now. Black women are unfortunately still chastised by family and significant others not to 1) cut their hair or 2) let it be kinky. It's one of those "dirty laundry" matters that people don't want to discuss openly, but when you have such poisonous, enabled self-loathing, it needs sunlight upon it. Look at this ad. It implies that the woman got the job because her hair was chemically straightened. The self-loathing is so culturally ingrained, so pathological -- there is nothing wrong with our hair, but nearly every signal received by the dominant culture is that it needs to be "corrected."

The message is clear -- kinky hair is not beautiful -- or good for your pocketbook. And yes, it's still cause to discriminate (Judge Upholds Public School Ban on Cornrows; Dreadlock Lockout: The Dallas Police Department is firing employees based on their hairstyles). We've got a long way to go. Read the rest of this post...

Holy warriors at WingNutDaily

From the Tom Tancredo wingnut school of Homeland Security, the denizens of WorldNetDaily have the answer to the whole holy war thing.

Should U.S. threaten nuclear annihilation of Muslim holy sites for deterrence?

Read the rest of this post...

Susan Collins up to her old dirty tricks

I was going to write a post about another example of the hypocrisy of Susan Collins, but Christy Hardin Smith already nailed it perfectly with the line "Oh, hypocrisy. Thy name is Sen. Susan Collins." Oh, yes it is.

Christy linked to a column in Maine Coast News about Ms. Collins titled "The senator who cried wolf." The column is causing quite a buzz in Maine political circles. Back in 1996 during her first campaign for Senate, Susan, with the help of a reporter at the Bangor Daily News, made a big story out of nothing. Her opponent back then was doing opposition research -- and Susan claimed to be outraged, just outraged. Imagine a Republican being shocked that a campaign is doing oppo research. But, she played the people of Maine in 1996.

Collins is already up to her old tricks in 2007. As we wrote last week, she was already freaking out because someone was filming her in public. This time, thanks to Steve Betts at Maine Coast News (and quite a few bloggers), she's already getting busted for her hypocritical dirty tricks:

Every campaign does research. The political public background of candidates should be scrutinized. No one was looking at her private life, just public documents.

The Collins campaign is pulling out its yellowed playbook again in 2007 because it wants to obscure her dismal record, particularly on marching lockstep with President George W. Bush on the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

A story at the top of Tuesday’s Bangor Daily News was headlined “Collins to Allen: Call off tracker.” The subhead was “Senator miffed by videography.”

Nowhere in the story does it include the history of Collins’ prior plot to divert attention from her record by attacking the integrity of her opponent.

In reality this time, a 21st century researcher used a video camera to tape Collins on public property as she marched in a parade in Stockton Springs. What makes her cooked-up claim of indignation so laughable is that the Collins’ campaign also had someone taking pictures of the parade. Their photos include ones of the video researcher.

This whole matter raised by the Collins campaign would be laughable if not for her prior campaign’s checkered past.

Collins may be right in her tactic, however. Some media members have short memories.

But in reality, she is the senator who cried wolf.

Susan Collins is going to lose in 2008 -- and she knows it. That's why she's freaking out already. She cast her lot with George Bush time after time after time.

The days when Collins could snow people by getting one reporter to write a false and misleading story are over. It's a whole new political world -- and Susan isn't ready for it.

Help defeat Susan Collins. Contribute to Tom Allen. It will be money well spent (and don't forget that Joe Lieberman has already endorsed Collins.) Read the rest of this post...

Petraeus to testify on 9/11, will explain why we haven't caught Osama yet

What other reason could the Bush administration and General Petraeus have for choosing September 11 as the date to testify before Congress on how well he's doing in Iraq? He must be going to tell us why he and his president have failed to catch Osama bin Laden, right?

Petraeus, who is as big a liar as he is a PR-yes-man, claims that he just chose September 11 by chance. Yeah, right. Be a man, general. You chose September 11 as a publicity stunt. Have the balls to at least admit it. We know your story. We know that you got bawled out for lying about how well the security training was going in Iraq a few years back (and yes, general, we KNOW the whole story - surprising it hasn't been public). We've got your number. From what I hear, everyone in the military and beyond has your number. You're a yes-man. All you do is sugar coat the bad news and make it good, regardless of the truth, regardless of the cost in American lives. And now you're going to use the 3,000 American dead from September 11 as more of your public relations cannon fodder.

We've got your number, Petraeus. And it's rather sickening how career-obsessed you are. Read the rest of this post...

Seriously, Enough!

In the time it took you to read the title of this post, the Democrats held another debate. Apparently, on Sunday, the Democratic Presidential contenders held another debate, bringing the total to about 45.

It would be one thing if the public were paying attention, but we're in the middle of August, when most people are on vacation. At this point, it feels like all the candidates are talking to themselves. Hell, I'm barely paying attention to them!

Look, debates are important. But we ought to wait a little bit, let the field thin out, and then hold maybe two more debates. Read the rest of this post...

Correcting the latest misconception about Iraq

The extent to which reporting on Iraq gets basic facts wrong is extremely problematic for informed, reasoned opinions and debate. I can understand a mistake or two here and there, inaccuracies due to a lack of expertise by reporters who don't have the time to understand the minutiae of Iraq's internal machinations ... but sometimes the errors are just massive, affecting the perception of millions of news consumers, and late last week was one of those times.

You may have seen that Prime Minister Maliki formed a "new alliance" or a "new government" last week, following an emergency meeting with various political parties. While the gathering failed to placate Sunnis and Sadrists, rendering the effort -- which was supposed to establish reconciliation and a "unity" government -- a total flop, Maliki valiantly tried to apply a veneer of success, touting a new alliance of his Islamic Dawa party, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), and the Kurds.

Virtually every news outlet I checked reported this alliance as a new governing majority. From the usually-reliable IraqSlogger ("giving the parties a parliamentary majority") to often-wrong FoxNews ("it will control a parliamentary majority"), and everywhere in between (with similar reporting from LA Times, AP, WaPo, and many more), the story was the same: new majority coalition.

That is completely and utterly wrong. Give or take one or two seats each, those parties have the following number of representatives in Iraq's parliament: Kurds 53, SIIC 36 (including Badr Organization reps), and Maliki's Dawa (not to be confused with the other Dawa) 13. That's a grand total of 102 ... out of 275. I know the US is falling behind in math, but somehow I don't think all those reporters believed 102 was a majority of 275. Now, maybe it's a little unfair of me to criticize; after all, I know these numbers off the top of my head, having written endlessly on the subject. But it's not like it's a secret -- the data is on Wikipedia for goodness sake! It's a simple matter of adding up three numbers.

The LA Times, in fact, gets special idiocy recognition for actually reporting a number, indicating that some thought went into what constitutes a majority, saying, "The alliance of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and the Islamic Dawa Party -- both Shiite -- with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party gives the two factions a 181-seat majority within the 275-member parliament". I guess if you count *all* the other Shia parties (Sadrists, Virtue Party, and Independents), each members of the in-name-only United Iraqi Alliance, that works, but Sadrists and Virtue are very pointedly resisting involvement in this new group. They may vote similarly, but that's a whole different story.

If reporters prefer not to Google the information, this kind of knowledge is also just an email or a phone call away. When in doubt, check it out! I bloviate on this stuff all the time, and my email is public (I can even be quoted as a Very Serious Person); Brian Katulis at CAP knows these numbers off the top of his head, Juan Cole at the University of Michigan does too, as do many others. It's not ... that ... hard, and I promise experts won't judge, we are *more than happy* to provide information to those who are willing to ask.

It's not like I'm asking all reporters to know all the details of every country in the world. But come on, we've been at war in Iraq for four years. Either get the requisite knowledge to report on the most important issue of the day, or start talking to people who have it. Either way, people should not be misled like this. The results of Maliki's meeting were negative, indicating a failure to reach agreements with unhappy political groups, not a positive development of new governance. The distinction is important. Read the rest of this post...

Family Research Council: Same-sex marriage = marrying a corpse

The Family Research Council, established by James Dobson and headed up by Gary Bauer until Tony Perkins took the helm, is one of those of "family values" conservative lobbying groups whose membership the GOP clown car candidates have been courting so desperately. Perkins and his organization is on speed-dial at the Bush White House.

FRC gets my quote of the day award for this gem....

In Rhode Island, a same-sex couple married in Massachusetts is seeking a divorce; because their marriage was not recognized in R.I., when they filed for divorce, it is now in the courts to decide whether it can be dissolved there.

FRC decided to weigh in on the matter by filing a brief to argue that the marriage cannot be recognized (even though there is no law in R.I. banning same-sex marriage), citing this unhinged thinking:

"Following the logic of the appellants and their supporters, man/animal marriage and man/deceased woman marriage must be permitted under Rhode Island law simply because the General Assembly has not expressly prohibited it."

Tony and Co., when you are able to explain how animals and corpses can grant consent to enter a union of any kind, please let us know.

I'd love to hear the GOP candidates comment on this kind of rhetoric coming from one of its allies in the fight to restore family values to this great nation.

Perkins, by the way, gets bonus family values points for having paid $82K to David DuKKKe for his mailing list. Read the rest of this post...

Bush's Brain

Yesterday morning, I watched David Gregory's interview on Meet The Press with Bush's brain, Karl Rove.

As difficult as it was for some to sit through, it wasn't for me.

For the last 6 1/2 years it has been a rarity that I've heard a word uttered from Rove.

The most I've heard came from the teary eyed exchange between him and W at a recent press conference where Rove announced his plan to depart his beloved President.

I reluctantly admit - Sunday morning I was fascinated.

As I listened and hung on every word it all made so much sense to me - the myth is true, W is Karl Rove's creation.

I always knew that W is incapable of thinking for himself. I mean come on - he can barely complete a coherent sentence. But I was always unsure of who exactly makes W tick. After hearing Rove speak this morning I'm convinced he is the one.

Rove dominated the interview with his views on Iraq, the Republican party, the past four elections , and the CIA leak scandal. He even gave us a brief display of his testiness when Gregory asked him questions he didn't like.

And for those who didn't know just how long Rove has been in the game, we even got look at a skinny & long-haired Rove from 1972 talking politics with Dan Rather.

For me the highlight of the interview occurred when Rove compared W's failures in Iraq to casualties we sustained in WW2 when FDR made the decision to battle the Nazis in North Africa and to fight on the shores of Italy. I realized then and there that Rove has probably been giving W his talking points all along. Plus the fact that Rove is so smart he's stupid. Not to mention the total insult to the memory of FDR by comparing him to W.

Luckily for us Rove will leave the White House at the end of the month. However, it would be very naive to think he is out of the picture. For W, Rove will most likely just be a phone call away, readily available to give more bad advice on how W can continue to incompetently run the country.

I can't give all the credit to Rove. There have been so many moving parts in this engine. Cheney, Condi, Rummy, Libby, Card, Wolfowitz, and my apologies to any other war mongering chickenhawks I left out.

I'm hoping that Rove's departure is the beginning of a new era. I think we are long overdue for the neoconservative ideology in our government to join the dinosaurs in extinction.

John Bruhns
Take A Stand Read the rest of this post...

Iraqi police and military are helping plant anti-US IEDs

This is what General Petraeus calls success:

A few nights ago, for example, we witnessed the death of one American soldier and the critical wounding of two others when a lethal armor-piercing explosive was detonated between an Iraqi Army checkpoint and a police one. Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament: had they informed the Americans of the bomb before the incident, the Iraqi Army, the police or the local Shiite militia would have killed their families.

As many grunts will tell you, this is a near-routine event. Reports that a majority of Iraqi Army commanders are now reliable partners can be considered only misleading rhetoric.

Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

A new week begins. August is supposed to be a slow news month -- never is. And how could it be when we're still in an endless war? Bush and the Iraqi Parliament are on vacation, but the insurgents and the troops aren't.

The media is, of course, still fawning over Karl Rove. They loved hearing from him on the talk shows yesterday. And, the media still fall for every prediction Rove makes.

On a much, much lighter note, this weekend my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Had a great, fun party with my whole extended family and a lot of friends on Saturday. They get a big kick out of AMERICAblog so indulge me the opportunity to say: Happy anniversary Rita and Chuck.

And now, thread the news. Read the rest of this post...

GOP Senate leader McConnell: New French president proves that "we won"

I'm not sure what "we won," but GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell seems to think that the fact that French president Nicolas Sarkozy jogs is indicative of some great victory. Hmm. I can think of better evidence of a great American victory: catching Osama. But then again, I don't claim to understand the far-right that controls today's Republican party. I'm sure "jogging" is just as important as catching the guy who murdered nearly 3,000 innocent souls.

And as an aside, as I wrote the other day, what an incredibly rude and un-statesmanlike speech to give only days after the French president visited the United States as George Bush's guest. The Republicans truly aren't ready for the world stage. Here's a snippet:

“Well, I can tell you that in the Senate it seems as though the other side is still looking to Old Europe for answers. In one of the great political ironies of our time, the new Majority in Congress seems intent on taking America down the path of bigger government and higher taxes just as Europe is frantically trying to steer themselves away from it. These guys want to turn the United States into France when even the French are beginning to have second thoughts.

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, when the French President prides himself on being a tax-cutter, jogs around Paris in an NYPD t-shirt, and spends his summer vacationing on a lake in New Hampshire, it can only mean one thing: we won. But the only people who don’t seem to have gotten the memo just took over the House and the Senate. For the last seven months, Republicans have been fighting off a raft of proposals that seem better suited to The Hague than The Heartland.

Read the rest of this post...