This does not sound like the kind of thing that’s going to make everyone realize what a great president George W. Bush was. In fact, it sounds to me like the world’s easiest video game. Invade a country for no reason or don’t invade a country for no reason? Don’t invade a country for no reason. Celebrate John McCain’s birthday while a deadly storm hits New Orleans or don’t celebrate John McCain’s birthday while a deadly storm hits New Orleans? Don’t celebrate John McCain’s birthday while a deadly storm hits New Orleans. I could do this all day. Torture people or don’t torture people? Don’t torture people. Deregulate and tax cut the country into financial ruin or don’t deregulate and tax cut the country into financial ruin?

There is no reason, people, to overthink the Bush presidency. It was just as bad as you thought. As Bush himself might advise, when you’re considering his legacy, go with your gut.

— Chris Hayes on the “Decision Points Theater” at the Bush library

(via janf)

(via mercy-misrule)

Source: MSN

stfusexists:

It’s amazing what a little thing like death can do to transform your public image. Apparently overnight, Margaret Thatcher went from being the subject of an intense public debate about whether or not she should even have a state funeral to being “a champion of freedom and liberty.”

Being realistic about who public figures were when they were alive shouldn’t be about being “nice.” It should be about preserving the truth and having an accurate understanding of history. Margaret Thatcher was no champion of freedom and liberty. Ronald Reagan was a terrible president who presided over two recessions and foreign policy that at times bordered on treason. Christopher Hitchens was a racist asshole who supported the Iraq War AND was ardently pro-life. Andrew Breitbart doesn’t even need to be described. Being dead doesn’t change that, and it would be nice if the media recognized that. 

Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of “let’s not talk ill of the dead” today and while I understand a little bit of squick about the kind of celebratory postings (and also understand why people would feel like doing that), I feel like it’s disingenuous to be nicer to someone BECAUSE THEY DIED than you would have been the day before.

If you wouldn’t have said “Oh yes, Margaret Thatcher; let’s shush about the terrible things she did — you know, for the sake of her family, why not talk about how she was female instead?” two days ago, don’t do it now. And vice versa, of course. If you supported Thatcher two days ago hopefully you’re still canonizing her now (I mean, at least stay identifiable for the public good). 

If I ever become famous enough for people to bitch about, much less hate, I HOPE they keep bitching the day I die instead of cleaning up my memory and sweeping my strong opinions under the table.  Hopefully though, I won’t have fucked over way more people’s lives than my own.

(via shickalenia)

Source: stfusexists

hanukkahjamboree:

“6 Things That Happened While Y’all Were Preoccupied With Gay Marriage”

dvniela:

Over the past couple days, while everyone on Facebook has proceeded to change their profile pictures in an effort to show support for the American marriage equality movement, I was busy trying to figure out who the hell was who and, oh, found out about, you know, other shit that went on meanwhile:

  1. President Obama signed the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ into law,  effectively barring federal courts from halting the sale or planting of genetically modified (aka GMO) and genetically engineered (GE) seeds, regardless of the health issues might arise concerning GMOs in the future.
  2. A bill that targets transgender people was approved by an Arizona House panel. It shields businesses from civil or criminal liability if they ban people from restrooms that don’t match their birth-assigned sex.​
  3. Kansas lawmakers got closer to passing a new law that will discriminate against people living with HIV or AIDS by forcing them to be ‘quarantined’.
  4. ​Rapper Rick Ross came under fire for the following date-rapey rap lyrics: “Put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it… I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.”​​ Meanwhile, over 1200 women in the U.S. were raped. And approximately 3 were murdered by intimate partners.
  5. Approximately 35,948 Americans were arrested, taken to jail and booked. That’s just in one day. The relative majority of them were arrested for nonviolent drug crimes. ​They were disproportionately Black and Latino.
  6. Around 2,000 queer youth around the country became homeless. That’s a conservative estimate.

The more you motherfuckin’ know (via Mia McKenzie / BlackGirlDangerous.org).

Our country is just fucking disgusting, really.

Like, I DID know about most of these while I was also being preoccupied with something that will most likely decide the course of my future in many ways (in fact, I’ve been campaigning against some of them for far longer than paying attention to this most recent decisionmaking).

But lots of people haven’t and lots of people also think one avenue of oppression is all they need to pay attention to and that it’s “divisive” to call people out on that (sorry, still bitter from a facebook dispute that  eventually had to step away from - new agey poets being passive aggressive is like the MOST ANNOYING THING. “Maybe your attachment to this article calling people out on their shit is actually a reflection of your own negativity and turmoil you should look at that blah blah it’s so NICE to see so many symbols of unity though right? activist snobbery just drags everyone down blah blah ciscentrism blah blah appropriation. Namaste!” Yeah, fuck you.). 

Anyway I am massively off topic. Read this stuff. Feel free to delete my commentary as well since it’s more important to reblog ;)

(via xmasandribena)

Source: dvniela

When I see a former governor say that the President is “shuckin’ and jivin’,” that’s racial era slave term. When I see another former governor after the president’s first debate where he didn’t do very well, says that the president was lazy. He didn’t say he was slow. He was tired. He didn’t do well. He said he was lazy. Now, it may not mean anything to most Americans, but to those of us who are African Americans, the second word is shiftless and then there’s a third word that goes along with that. The birther, the whole birther movement. Why do senior Republican leaders tolerate this kind of discussion within the party?
Colin Powell calls out the GOP’s racism problem. (via think-progress)

(via stfuconservatives)

Source: thinkprogress.org

mulattafury:

god tumblr is just

awash

in misinformation tonight

guys a few things:

mary gonzalez is not a senator; she ran unopposed for a seat as a texas representative. which is freaking awesome! but not as awesome as a senator

tammy baldwin and tammy duckworth are two different people

maybe you guys should do some fact-checking about tammy baldwin, just a thought. her bit with the gender identity amendment of ENDA back in 2007 was actually a pretty complex issue awash in shades of grey, which didn’t even matter because ENDA died in the senate that year and would have been vetoed by bush if it’d passed in any form. i think she’s pretty aware (for a politician) of the issues she’s representing and even though she’s damn wishy-washy i wouldn’t call her transphobic (i haven’t found anything more recent than this so feel free to prove me wrong because i love being jaded) although actually withdrawing that amendment was transphobic as fuck and actions make the man (or rather, the first lesbian senator-elect), don’t they?

the current version of ENDA does protect gender identity, and it isn’t any closer to passing

also i know everyone’s going on about 51st state puerto rico, but from some of the things i have read it actually seems pretty unlikely that congress will make that a thing. i know little to nothing about this issue but it’s definitely a thing to read up on

finally what the fuck is with that post about the fucking serviceman who killed bin laden dying that one is just straight up fabrication

tumblr’s ‘pasta be dry as fuck

always ask for sauce

Yeah, I’m still seriously unhappy about the ENDA shit, but it is a complex issue (and the complexity is not “we needed to throw you under the bus so we could say we briefly thought about you when attempting to negotiate for our own rights” — that’s bullshit and should never have happened, it’s the circumstances that make it complex). And I just also think people need to read up on these things.

roguebelle:

I’m starting to wonder if Governor Romney isn’t actually alarmingly shrewd in some ways, and if supposed gaffes and “meme-worthy” moments like Big Bird and binders full of women aren’t crafted precisely to keep everyone talking about those the morning after, rather than just about anything else that came out of his mouth last night. The media coverage focuses on the absurd and totally lets slide the lies, prevarications, and obfuscations — and so he gets away with them all.

And the fact that it’s working really scares me. So many people are clearly missing the many important things that got said last night.

My recap, for anyone who missed it (or who has been so snowed by “binders of women” memes that they can’t remember anymore what happened):

  • Gov. Romney apparently totally reversed his opinion on the Blunt amendment, swearing that he has no intention of allowing employers to deny birth control — even though, yes, he does want to do that. I am astonished that no one is calling him out on this this morning.
  • Gov. Romney also apparently totally reversed his opinion on the DREAM act — though with some subtle implications that, really, he would just like it if we could just get nice white well-behaved immigrants.
  • Gov. Romney continued to totally fail to provide any details of his economic plans. He assured us that, yes, he knows we needs jobs and wants to see us get them — but he still won’t say how he’s going to make that happen. Just that he will! Trust him!
  • Gov. Romney also apparently believes that most middle class families are really worried about their capital gains being taxed. Uhm.
  • Gov. Romney admitted to his “let Detroit go bankrupt” statement and followed it up with a convoluted explanation of managed bankruptcy which, I’m going to guess, went over most people’s heads.
  • Gov. Romney still does not know how math works and is apparently incapable of being told, considering how many real studies (not, y’know, blog posts or things he made up) have pointed out that there is literally no way to cut everyone’s taxes and still have more money, no matter how many loopholes he supposedly intends to close.
  • Gov. Romney once again demonstrated that he has no idea how the global oil market operates — or, at least, he’s banking on the fact that most Americans don’t. The US government has almost no ability to affect your price at the pump. What the US government can do is provide incentives to other energy options to get us off of oil sometime soon — which, of course, Gov. Romney is not going to support, given that he’s hand-in-glove with oil tycoons.
  • Gov. Romney implied — while standing next to the son of a single mom who went on to, y’know, become President — that single parents are the most significant cause of gun violence. 
  • Gov. Romney again reiterated his viewpoint that “we are all children of the same God”, a statement that may be seen purely as pandering to his base, but which is also a pretty horrifying glimpse into how he would treat the rest of us, who aren’t. I’m a female bisexual pagan. That’s three counts on which the children of your deity would like to see me made a second-class citizen. Add in the fact that I’m an uppity female who is single, works, lives alone, enjoys sex, and generally takes charge of her own damn life, and, well, I somehow don’t think that your god and mine are seeing eye-to-eye.
  • And the binders comment actually is important, but not because it just plain sounded stupid and awkward. Because the implication behind that entire story is that Mitt Romney made it to the Governor’s office apparently without knowing a single woman who was qualified to join his staff. And that points to a pervasive sexism with very deep roots in his worldview.
  • That sexism was reinforced when Governor Romney totally failed to explain his position on the Lilly Ledbetter pay equity act. He apparently believes that flex hours will solve all problems with pay equity — and that women need those flex hours because they are, of course, the ones picking up the kids from school and fixing dinner for their husbands. Not all women are mothers, Governor Romney. Not all women are the primary caregivers for their children. This attitude reinforces the backwards notion that all women and only women have those domestic responsibilities in addition to their professional lives. 

(via gaburincho)

Source: roguebelle

‘After the debate, the president came over to me and spent about two minutes with me privately,’ says the 61-year-old Ladka, who works at Global Telecom Supply in Mineola, N.Y. According to Ladka, Obama gave him ‘more information about why he delayed calling the attack a terrorist attack.’ … The rationale for the delay, Obama explained to Ladka, was to make sure that the ‘intelligence he was acting on was real intelligence and not disinformation,’ recalls Ladka.

Erik Wemple called Kerry Ladka, the man who asked Obama about Libya during last night’s debate. (via washingtonpoststyle)

REAL leaders make sure they get the facts straight and use their heads. Not reacting to gut impulses and shooting from the hip like some republicans I know.

(via neverless-wonder)

(via neverless-wonder)

Source: washingtonpoststyle

upwithchris:

Chris Hayes on how Romney broke the rules of the debate, and why it matters:

I thought the moment of the oil drilling, that debate to me was a key moment. The reason was this. Mitt Romney asked the president a direct question numerous times, kept interrupting him, “Isn’t it true? Isn’t it true? Didn’t it go down?” Now the rules for the debate, that we all got leaked, number five, subsection E: “The candidates may not ask each other direct questions during any of the four debates.”

Now, at a certain level, who cares, right? Who cares? Here’s why I care. The theme of the last ten years of this country is the people at the top have felt the rules don’t apply to them. And you send your people to sit down and negotiate a set of rules, and 20 minutes into it you throw it out the window. And everything we’ve seen, from the financial crisis to everything else that’s happened in this country, has been about the oligarchs and the ruling class and the people at the top feeling that they are not a party to the social contract. So some stupid little contract that was negotiated by your people, you don’t worry about.

(via neverless-wonder)

Source: upwithsteve

WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR: Mirror of "Mind The Binder"

wilwheaton:

I’m just making a mirror of the blog post at The Phoenix, because their server is melting at the moment:

Mind The Binder

Hey, I know about that binder! And guess what — Mitt Romney was lying about it.

From the rush…

(via sunlitshadows)

Source: wilwheaton

thebadcgijoshening: election: Paul Ryan’s Soup Kitchen Photo Op According to The Washington Post:  Brian J. Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, said that he was not contacted by the Romney campaign ahead of the Saturday morning visit by Ryan, who stopped by the soup kitchen after a town hall at Youngstown State University. “We’re a faith-based organization; we are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations,” Antal said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “It’s strictly in our bylaws not to do it. They showed up there, and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors.” He added: “The photo-op they did wasn’t even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall.” -Matt Wilstein Hahahaha oh my GOD
Pop-upView Separately

thebadcgijoshening:

election:

Paul Ryan’s Soup Kitchen Photo Op

According to The Washington Post: 

Brian J. Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society, said that he was not contacted by the Romney campaign ahead of the Saturday morning visit by Ryan, who stopped by the soup kitchen after a town hall at Youngstown State University.

“We’re a faith-based organization; we are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations,” Antal said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “It’s strictly in our bylaws not to do it. They showed up there, and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors.”

He added: “The photo-op they did wasn’t even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall.”

-Matt Wilstein

Hahahaha oh my GOD

(via deerie)

Source: Washington Post