When the big announcement of the state blogs that will receive credentials to the Dem National Convention came down this week, there was an immediate buzz about the choices made by the DNCC.

The first controversy is over the unclear representation of minority bloggers in the state blogging corps. Francis L. Holland: Jim Crow Blogging at the Democratic National Convention?

I’m concerned that virtually all of the state blogs selected by the Democratic National Committee to cover Denver are white. Of course, it remains possibly that one of these white blogs will bring a Black person along as a blogger. But, Black bloggers and voters are not willing to wait until we arrive in Denver to find out whether a group of virtually all-white blogs will also send a group of all-white bloggers to Denver. We strongly suspect that we already know the answer, and it is totally unacceptable to us. Do any of these all-white blogs even have any Black bloggers who might participate? That’s something we need to know before Denver.

This isn’t the first time this issue has been addressed. When Bill Clinton met in Harlem with an all-white group of bloggers, Black bloggers were furious and Clinton’s campaign never recovered. The Clinton campaign had insulted and alienated the very Black bloggers corps that it most needed to reach out and round up support from voters in Black communities.

(Also see African American Political Pundit, The 2008 DNC Bloggers Corp - No Diversity! Jim Crow at DNC ??)

By the way, I can happily report that BlueNC, the progressive state community blog in my state, where I regularly post, will represent Tar Heels, though I won’t be attending under the BNC credential. There won’t be black representation in the state blog at the convention; the person and alternate on the list to go for BNC are white. Not that I have a problem with the two folks slated, because they are extremely well-versed in state issues, certainly more so than I.

More below the fold.
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The word “penultimate” belongs in the same category as the Oxford comma. What that category is, however, is out of my mental reach. Help from the whip-smart Pandagonians?

I’m really starting to wonder whether this level of stupidity and batsh*ttery by the Right — as they watch their political fortunes swirl the bowl because of Bush’s legacy — has completely untethered them from reality. Take a look at this unbelievable nonsense by Bill O’Reilly, who went on a tirade about the fact that Markos Moulitsas (Kos of Daily Kos) has a Newsweek column, and that O’Reilly was embarrassed that Markos ran a clip of the Faux News blowhard going ape on camera during his old Inside Edition days.

What’s even more entertaining is the bile O’Reilly’s fans unleashed into Markos’ mailbox — out comes the violent schooyard faggotry taunts from the intellectual giants. A sampling is below the fold.
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Oh man, Abstinence Clearinghouse has started a blog, presumably so people can write about all the sex they’re not having. It’s brilliant, like almost like it’s a parody, except it’s not. I loved this post.

Virginity is an asset that holds its value well.

Well, actually, as an asset, virginity ranks below toilet paper in terms of holding value, because after you use the toilet paper, it’s still there. But virginity is gone the second you make use of your “property”. If an asset is utterly demolished to non-existence after one use, it’s not really an asset by any real measure.

And if you hang onto your virginity, unlike other assets, it pretty much is guaranteed to lose its value over time. Though it’s a result of unfair prejudice, the reality is that the older the virgin, the more people tend to classify the virginity as a social awkwardness to outright weirdness. Most virgins over a certain age feel their virginity is an albatross. Even if you’re holding onto it for religious reasons, there’s a point where you choice drifts from “cute example of religious devotion” to “eccentricity bordering on antisocial levels of self-righteousness, perhaps masking deep insecurities”.

I suspect the Abstinence Clearinghouse folks think the way to get around this is for women (who these messages are mainly aimed at) to marry when they’re really young, so that they don’t get a whole bunch of job skills and independent ideas and therefore escape hatches before the fateful day. But that’s just a guess; I suppose we’ll have to keep reading to find out the whole story.

[UPDATE: I wanted to elevate a comment I made downthread since it adds to my thoughts about problem-solving. It’s below the fold.]

I was clearly way out of the blogfeedback loop — I missed the controversy over Amanda’s book. I’ve been so bogged down here in NC primary fever over at my pad (prez and state races), the Day of Silence, a family member in the hospital and — can you believe this — the day job, that people obviously thought I was simply ignoring this pot boiling over on the homebase stove over the color-aroused use of native savage images from “classic” comics.

I think Skippy emailed me about it last week, and left me some links and I promptly filed the email away and moved on to cover the Obama Town Hall in Raleigh.

Well since the train has already left the station — with Amanda’s forthright, all-laid bare apology already out there, all I can say is yes, those images are inappropriate, and certainly would have been called out if, say, someone on the right used them in a tome. The difference, since Amanda obviously wasn’t attempting to promote a white supremacy theme in the book, is the blind spot of white privilege, in this case Seal Press, which has an apology on its site.

Please know that neither the cover, nor the interior images, were meant to make any serious statement. We were hoping for a campy, retro package to complement the author’s humor. That is all. We were not thinking.

As an organization, we need to look seriously at the effects of white privilege. We will be looking for anti-racist trainings offered here in the Bay Area. We want to incorporate race analysis into our work.

As folks know, I discuss race matters a lot and this deserves some attention because this kind of blind spot occurs all the time, and it’s not only in the context of race (or, as we also see in the imagery, gender). The blind spot is that some white progressives, in their zeal to believe we are a post-racial society, in this case the publisher, just assumed everyone only sees camp in the images.

So you might ask, what did I think when I looked at the comic book white Barbie doll -proportioned warrior chick opening a can of whoop-ass on the savage negroes?

Hmmm. I’ll just think “aloud,” — since we’re all friends here, of course — and I’ll give honest-to-dog answers (I guess this is a peek into my brain, so apologies in advance).

* “That looks like a Marvel comic book - I wonder if the artist is Jack Kirby…or maybe John Buscema?” (my brother and I collected comics back in the day)

* “Man, I need to pull out that awesome Jonny Quest DVD I got for Christmas (original series please, not the later crap) — I think some of those episodes have ethnic and racial stereotypes just as heinous as this!”

* Uh, oh…this is the sh*t that hit Amanda’s fan.”

What does the above mean? I have no idea; you all can armchair analyze, I’m just glad the dust is settling on this one. What’s most important is that people need to keep discussing race in an open and honest way, instead of sweeping it under the rug or automatically running to defensive corners.

Interestingly, I was on the air today discussing how we have trouble taking on productive conversations about race. More below the fold.
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Thursday, 10:30 PM - My wrap up on the event, including photos and video, is here.

Livestreaming video is here (via Wayne Sutton).

As I mentioned last night, I received press credentials for the Barack Obama town hall in Raleigh today, and I’m liveblogging over at the Blend (via CoverItLive), and I’ll do my best on Twitter. My open post at my blog is here.

The event is @ the Kerr Scott Building on the State Fairgrounds.

Tickets were free and were gone by 9:30 AM yesterday — they are required for the public event. 

I’m setting up in the press area, which, since it is a very small venue (2000 people), allows a relatively close access to the podium for those of us without long lens cameras.

I’m often asked how I am able to work a full-time job during the day and run the now-nearly-full-time political blog (and contribute here). I don’t know how I do it, other than I am tired a lot of the time. I know I’m not the only one; I believe there are plenty of folks out there who need to step away from the keyboard for a while. The NYT has an interesting piece, In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop, on extreme blogger burnout, as in kicking the bucket. (h/t, Lev):

A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

…To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

More below the fold…
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Starting at 5PM EST (now, that is) today, I’ll be hosting a book salon at Firedoglake on This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor by Dr. Susan Wicklund. It was a great book, very inspiring, and so very highly recommended. I’m going to be in the comments there answering questions about the book, abortion, and reproductive rights, and lucky for all of us, so is the author Dr. Wicklund. I’m really excited about this opportunity, and hope that the Pandagonian crew can hop on over and join the conversation. Especially since, you know, it’s one that often attracts some contentious, mean-spirited assholes.

I’d like to dedicate this post to one of my favorite skeptics out there, Sara from F-Words. Sara, unfortunately, has had a tumor discovered in her head. They won’t know if it’s benign or cancerous until they take it out, but either way, she has to undergo major brain surgery. If you’d like to help her and her husband out during this difficult time, they’ve put up a Pay Pal in the right hand corner of her blog. Insurance will cover a lot of the medical costs, but as you know, these things tend to cost more than just what the hospital bills you, in time lost from work and travel expenses. I’m pulling for a speedy recovery for Sara.

So I was listening to “The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe“, and they mentioned that the blog Quackometer got shut down by its webhost because one of the quacks exposed threatened to sue. Said flim-flam artist didn’t have a leg to stand on, but the webhost somewhat understandably didn’t want to have to deal with it, and dumped Quackometer instead. The site is back up now, and I, for one, intend to start reading it.

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Now that The Left, aka norbizness, has ceased blogging, I thought I would give him a guest blog platform to make the official primary endorsement of The Left.

******************************

Five Reasons Why The Left is Endorsing Senator Barack Hussein-Jamaal Warner Obama in the Texas Democratic Primary, March 4th, and May Himself Even Vote In It.

by The Left

1. I want Obama to trigger bad flashbacks for McCain… no, not of his Vietnam War experiences, but of the dirty campaigning in South Carolina in 2000. All he needs to do is whisper “I’m your black child they were talking about!” in The Maverick’s ear right before the first debate.

2. It is going to be really boring for the apple-cheeked schoolchildren of the future to read and learn about this era if the President’s last name never varies… if you throw in the potential candidacies of George P. (Ricky Martin) Bush and Chelsea Clinton-LaBeouf beginning in 2016, we could be talking a solid 40 years of dynasty, approaching the Suhartos, Duvaliers, and Plantagenets.

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[UPDATE: I’ve added the Blog Buzz transcript below the fold.]

Thanks to Joe Sudbay for the video.

I was on CNN Newsroom’s Blog Buzz at 7:30 ET tonight to discuss the results in Nevada and South Carolina. Tony Harris asked about McCain’s “momentum” and we discussed the issue of race as it has been playing out so far in the primaries.

The blogger/columnist for the Right is Mary Katharine Ham of Town Hall.

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I haven’t been online much since my gall bladder surgery (Cholecystectomy) last Thursday. I’m doing as well as can be expected — very sore, sometimes nauseous, very sleepy because of pain meds, etc. — but looking forward to feeling better in a little while. For once, I’m actually staying in bed like I’m supposed to, and getting up and walking as required, rather than doing something insane like getting in the car and driving because I’m stir crazy.

I am slowly but surely healing, I wanted to thank all of you who sent me emails of support and advice, tips in the tip jar and well-wishes in Facebook before and after the surgery. I was really shocked on Saturday when a package arrived from Mike Rogers of BlogActive and PageOneQ. He apparently put out a call to folks on a couple of listservs I’m on, and they signed onto a sweet get well card and gift. My wife Kate can testify that I was genuinely touched and shocked that folks out there cared enough to do that — after all, I just bloviate across your screens each day, I’m not saving the world or anything.

OK. Do you want to see the gall bladder? For the squeamish, I took the liberty of placing the pic (and the description of surgery) over at my pad so I could avoid placing the blather and gore here.

The NY Times Magazine has a profile of Steve Gilliard in its end-of-the-year issue. I’ve not much to add, but to say that his loss hit us all hard, and I hope he was comforted in the end by the knowledge that he had made an impact.

Today’s the big day — I go in to have my crappy gall bladder removed (cholecystectomy). If there are no complications that result in switching from laproscopic to open surgery, I’ll only be in the hospital overnight — my lovely wife Kate will stay over with me. At this ambulatory hospital they wheel you out to the curb by 9AM the next day if you’re an overnighter. Everyone who’s had the op, says after a couple of weeks I’ll feel a lot better than I do now. Here’s hoping.

Anyway, we have to get there today by 9:15 AM, with the slicing and dicing to begin at 10:45. They estimate it will take an hour, more or less, for the operation itself. After that, who knows how long I’ll be too out of it to blog, but you know I’ll have something up if at all possible, since, well, I’m nuts. I have to remember to ask the surgeon to save the stone(s) for me.

On a relevant political point before I sign off, thank goodness I have health insurance that covers this. It’s a sad state of affairs that one is dependent on one’s employer to have decent coverage, particularly if you have pre-existing conditions. Feel free to use the thread to gripe on the state of health care in this country.

If you’re one of my Facebook friends, you’ll probably hear from me there first, since it requires less energy to post a status update over the cell phone.

I have a regular post in the queue ready to go up in a bit after this one.

Related:
* Blogmistress slice and dice day
* Upcoming holiday slicing and dicing of the blogmistress
* My AM in the ER
* My 2001 ridiculously detailed kidney stone diary (I still receive random emails about this one).

Jon Swift has asked me to think of my best post of the year. I can’t even begin to imagine what it might be, so like other bloggers who have been asked, I beg of you, dear readers, to nominate some favorites so I can narrow down the field.

Former Pandagon blogger Ezra Klein is shutting down his blog and moving over to The American Prospect permanently. Congrats to Ezra. He was one of the first bloggers I read regularly, and his blog is still a daily must-read for me.

The weekend bloggers have started a new blog called Cogitamus. You can subscribe to the feed here.

Feministing is going to do a major upgrade to be a community site, like MyDD or Daily Kos, with diaries and the whole bit. But these changes take money, about $5,000. If you’d like to donate, you can do so here.

Exciting stuff! I’ve been thinking for awhile that the feminist blogging community needs more interactive gizmoness, and Feministing is the perfect community-oriented site for it.

In the shadow of our alarmingly and charmingly pink capitol building, bloggers will be gathering in July for the annual Netroots Nation conference, right here in Austin, TX. Thanks especially to the fine folks at Democracy For Texas for putting together a proposal for why our city is perfect. One huge advantage we have over Chicago is that 95% of what you’d probably want to do if you’re in from out of town for after hours entertainment is in the downtown area; everything is quite walkable. (I can’t figure out from the website what hotels and convention centers they’re using, but if they’re using our actual convention center, it’s three blocks from the famous 6th St. area.) Wireless is abundant here, food is cheap, and so is beer.

My week stepping in for Glenn Greenwald over at Salon ended on Friday; it was an interesting and challenging stint there. Many thanks to Glenn for inviting me; it was a big leap of faith since I'm sure he wasn't certain how his audience, used to his erudite and complex-but-accessible posts on weighty constitutional matters and the endless corruption of the Bush administration, would react to my content.

Since I was required to post original pieces there, it meant double duty writing posts here at the Blend and at Pandagon and burning even more of the midnight oil to craft material for the general audience at Salon. Fortunately I had a lot of timely news to comment on — the Obama mess; the announcement that Jim Neal, who is running to unseat Liddy Dole, is an out gay man; ENDA and the fundie crowd (the list of posts is below).

It was a tough crowd, particularly on the Obama articles, for obvious reasons — talking about race, religion, homophobia and presidential politics, an already prickly combination, is bound to raise hackles. You should check out the banter in the comments; someone didn’t know what “LGBT” stood for, so that was a bit revealing for me. I think my favorite troll-esque comment was that I should have, in the interest of journalistic integrity, revealed to them that I was black and gay.

If it wasn't already insane enough that I was down to three or four hours of sleep this week, I somehow found a reserve of energy to write a post (at 2AM on Tuesday) for Rick Perlstein of Campaign for America's Future's blog Common Sense, "The Professional Intolerance Movement: Fading?." I was so tired that when the post went live on Thursday that I forgot to post a squib for Blenders that I had an article up over there.

Anyway, I'm not moaning really; it's an honor to be asked to share the flavor of the Blend with audiences that don't get exposed to the kinds of things we gab about here every day. I just know that there are simply not enough hours in the day or that I have limitless energy. I still have to slog at the day job just like most of you out there do, so I'm glad I was able to turn out anything remotely coherent for Glenn and Rick.

It was nice to receive this pat-on-the-back email from a regular commenter at Glenn's pad Saturday:

It was a pleasure to encounter you and your ideas over the past week.  And, to the extent that you may have brought along some of your regular readers who commented, thanks for those fresh voices and points of view.  Lastly, thanks to your readers who were willing to accept your temporary relocation and share you with the 'Salonistas.'  IMHO, you all did some great teaching.  The homework load (as another reader noted) was a little on the heavy side, which made it tough to keep up, but was worth every minute invested.  Now, I have a couple of new bookmarks, and will be able to check in to keep myself up to date in some newer areas.

Glenn was also kind to the trio of house-sitters in his return column:

Thank you very much to the superb guest-bloggers who filled in for me this week while I made excellent progress towards finishing my book. I read Pam Spaulding, Chris Floyd and Anonymous Liberal on a daily basis and have for some time. I am sure that those of you who hadn't can see why that is, and I encourage you to continue reading them at their blogs. Even in those instances where you don't agree with them, they are always as thought-provoking as they were here this week.

Now I need some serious shut-eye, so thanks Blenders, for continuing to put up some great diaries while your blogmistress recovers a bit. In any case, I have to get myself recharged by next weekend — Saturday (Nov. 3)  is the 2007 Equality Conference & Gala; I'm looking forward to seeing Neil Giuliano of GLAAD, Alabama State Rep. Patricia Todd, and Rev. Reggie Longcrier. I'm moderating a timely panel, "Still Crossing Those Bridges: Facing Racial and Ethnic Barriers." I'll have more information about the conference and sessions during the week.

 

***

Here are my posts from the week at Salon:

* 10/22/2007: Pam Spaulding for Glenn Greenwald: Out gay man challenges Elizabeth Dole
* 10/23/2007: Pam Spaulding for Glenn Greenwald: Straight sex-predator teachers, ENDA and paranoid fundamentalists
* 10/24/2007: Pam Spaulding for Glenn Greenwald: Obama zapped by the third rail of black homophobia
* 10/25/2007: Pam Spaulding for Glenn Greenwald: "For the Bible Tells Me So"
* 10/26/2007: Pam Spaulding for Glenn Greenwald: More Obama campaign miscalculations

Ampersand has a post up quarreling—actually, just picking nits on the details—my post on MRAs and whether or not they have legitimate complaints. We agree on the most important points, which that are MRAs are arguing in bad faith, that they care more about oppressing women and helping men is a faint concern, if a concern at all, because their solutions to the “problems” men face are not forthcoming. Their only and repeat solution for all problems tends to be, “Kick a bitch.” Men get abused? The solution is roll back help for women getting abused. Men die on the job? The solution seems to be that women need to shut the fuck up and take that lower paycheck. Anyway, onto some of Amp’s points, of which there are mainly two nits picked.

The draft really is terrible.

Certainly the US draft is an issue of only symbolic relevance today; but it’s nonetheless objectionable on its own sexist merits, without implying anything who bears most of the costs of war. (And if we don’t limit our view to the United States, military conscription is alive and well today).

He then goes into a discussion of the costs of war, and I think we violently agree that trying to gender it is a way to valorize war, make it an issue about manhood, and distract from the fact that the vast majority of war, especially in our modern era, is about economics and class-based oppression. The symbolism of having the potential for a draft that drafts only men is about establishing the story that war is about big men protecting fragile women, and pointing out that big men actually rape and kill women in combat is a way of blowing through that story. Is it sexism? Yes. Is it “against men”? I’d say that it’s, like many things, a form of sexism designed to distract men and women from the issues of real importance. Pushing war as a way to show masculine mettle convinces people to fight in a way that telling them that we need to seize some other sovereign nation’s assets does not.

MRAs love to dwell on the draft, not because they oppose a patriarchal system that needs symbolic reinforcement of the myth that men are stronger, braver, and all around more important than women, who shiver and need protection. They bring it up for roughly two reasons: One camp basically argues that the system that puts men over women has some downsides for men and they’re not complaining so STFU, feminists. The other just doesn’t get why men, who of course better than women, should have any noblesse oblige to their inferiors at all and wish to just trash any form of social convention or law that pushes forward the notion that men should be gentle and protective to women. Sometimes they figure they could grudgingly allow those things back, but women would have to show a lot more subservience than they’re currently doing to “earn” chivalry. They seem to believe that feminists want men to be chivalrous while women don’t exchange subservience. Which is incorrect—feminists wish men to quite beating and raping women not because women are delicate, but because beating and raping are wrong. And I’d say a lot of feminists are opposed to conscription for various reasons, including the fact that it reinforces gender roles that are deadly to men and women.

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Early last month I received an email from Chris Johnson, the blogmeister of Human Rights Campaign's institutional blog, HRC Back Story, asking whether I'd be interested in participating in an profile/interview for the organization's membership publication, Equality about my blogging at my home base, Pam’s House Blend (only some of my posts are shared with Pandafans).

I said yes because there seems to be a lot of mystery and misconceptions about political blogging (and bloggers) out there. Based on many conversations I have had online and offline, people think: 1) you're online all the time; 2) you blog for a living (I wish!); 3) the goal of your writing is to conquer the political universe and destroy political institutions and people from the comfort of your keyboard, and 4) bloggers are somehow disconnected from the real world.

Since the publications of this type have a lengthy production turnaround, this all took place before the Employment Non-Discrimination Act brouhaha. Interestingly, my answer to the last question of the interview is quite apropos, as you'll see. Timing is everything, huh?

Read and weigh in.

***

Pam Spaulding's blog is one you want to definitely keep your eye on – if you don't already. Spaulding, 44, is the whirling force behind Pam's House Blend, one of the most admired and beloved blogs coming out of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. As an out lesbian living in the South, a woman of color and a shrewd political commentator, she offers a singular voice that cuts through the congested blogosphere. Every week, more than 40,000 visitors – gay and anti-gay alike – stop in. Spaulding's blog has become a high-profile counterpoint to right-wing, anti-gay propaganda. It's also a national outlet for discussing election issues, the Iraq War and anything else on which she has an opinion. Spaulding, of course, will be the first to tell you how mind-blowing it is to know how much of a voice she has – considering she's just "someone typing away opinions as a hobby in their jammies in the dead of night in Durham, N.C."

Recently, Spaulding took time from her busy work-by-day (she's an IT manager at Duke University), blog-by-night schedule to talk to HRC's Chris Johnson about "third rail" topics, married life and, especially, the Larry Craigs of the world.

[The Q&A is after the jump…]

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Jeff rules. Seriously, just read this post. A small, tempting sample so you click over and read it all:

Is that like the “National Association for the Advancement of White People” or the folks who think the Christian Right is oppressed?

Yes, the Men’s Rights Movement is the same kind of animal. All of these groups share a common worldview, that the traditionally oppressed groups, be they women, minorities, or non-Christians, have somehow seized control of the country and are systematically denying the straight, white, Christian men their rights.

That’s insane!

Well, yes, but don’t ignore the reason for the pushback: men’s traditional privileges really are under attack. It’s just that these rights, like the right to beat and rape your wife with impunity, are anathema to a truly free and equitable society.

So they agitate for the right to rape and assault?

Not in so many words. But the MRAs do certainly seem preoccupied by the loss of that privilege. Look at the Glenn Sacks/Helen Smith interview we talked about early this week. It was all about how the Violence Against Women Act is a debacle for men, because, they say, men get sent to jail unfairly in domestic disputes. VAWA is a traditional hobby-horse for the MRA set.

The. Whole. Thing.

To my friends, neighbors and electronic versions of the same:

Gentlemen today can be so enamored of the flashy young ladies, but I should caution these young gentlemen not to overlook the charms of Miss McArdle. She is quite the accomplished young lady and well-renowned for her sensibility, a quality which should suit her should she ever find herself tasked with the management of a large household. Her generous, condescending manner towards the poor speaks not only of her virtue, but of the likelihood that she is worth one thousand pounds a year or more.

Please do not abuse Miss McArdle for her indiscreet writings praising her own inarguably humble nature. Modern times being what they are, young women don’t often have the benefits of friends to praise them to suitable gentlemen, and young ladies find that they must recommend themselves or go without recommendations at all. ‘Tis a pity we live in such indecorous times, but now that I have made it my business to praise Miss McArdle to you, she can be relieved of the burden of carrying on piteously about her own virtues and, more distressingly, denying the virtues of other lovely young ladies.

Yours In Rejection Of Fairy Princess Tales,

Miss Marcotte and Miss Zuzu

[Laughable update (8PM): Instapundit links to this post, saying “It was hard to get a clear narrative that made sense of what was going on.” He also cites Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy, who has this excuse for the lack of upper-tier blogging about today’s events:

I’d really like to blog about the case, and I spent about 30 minutes this morning trying to research it, but I couldn’t get a good enough sense of what the facts are or what the precise cause of the protest is to really know what to make of it.

Now that’s unbelievable.  Are we talking about the same bloggers who were able to follow the intricacies of the Plame case? The Abramoff scandal? The whole WMD/yellowcake fracas? Come on, people. Try again.]

[My god. The depth of ignorance and denial over the lack of progressive blogging on this story is displayed in full flower at Chris’s diary at DKos, where he cross posted — and some of the excuses are mind-boggling.]

Chris Kromm of the Institute for Southern Studies and its blog Facing South, is appalled, rightfully so, at the sparse coverage of the historic march for justice in Jena, Lousiana.

It's not to say that it isn't being covered in the blogosphere at all — black bloggers have largely been responsible for the high profile of this case, picking up the ball where the melanin-challenged blogs of influence have dropped it. You'd think that the events today, which are being covered by the MSM, would mean that the story is now mainstream blogworthy, but you would be wrong. Chris:

* DailyKos features a handful of posts about injustice in Iraq today — but not a single entry on its main page, or even its user-generated "diaries," about this important case.

* TalkingPointsMemo, a favorite of the DC wonk set, is similarly incensed about foreign policy, but apparently not about racial justice in the South — nothing there either.

* Long-time progressive blogger Atrios doesn't have a lot of posts up,but found time to touch on Paul Krugman, Iraq and the state of the Euro — but not this major issue.

* Surely TalkLeft — which has positioned itself as the leading progressive blog about criminal justice issues — would have something? Think again — not a single mention, not even in the quick news briefs!

* What about another progressive favorite, FireDogLake? A rant about Republicans being "little bitches," but nothing on the Jena 6.

When the Jena 6 does make an appearance on progressive blogs today, it's little more than a passing nod. Huffington Post has a blog post buried below the fold; ThinkProgress gives it a two-sentence news brief.

However, many of these blogs are eagerly pointing to news stories which suggest the Republican candidates don't care about black issues.

What is the explanation? Oh, I could think of several, but overt racism isn't one of them. I have a couple of theories.

* "It's not my area of expertise". This is an old saw used to avoid  discussing race — it's uncomfortable for white folks and they want to avoid land mines. the easiest way to do that is to say nothing at all, which still speaks volumes. Just about anything can be viewed through the prism of race; in this case it's not solely about race, the story of the Jena 6 is about our system of justice and how it can be affected by color, class, power structure, and the almighty dollar.

* "It's not my issue": Sorry to say, this gets reinforced by the professional race-bating, blacker-than-thou crowd such as Jesse Jackson, who chastised Barack Obama for "acting white" on the issue. That only makes otherwise supportive whites further paranoid.  The "black enough" nonsense is divisive and so reflective of old-school mentality often seen in the establishment civil rights set still clinging to power. Of course then Jackson and his ilk will then criticize the lack of diversity in the group of marchers. it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

That said, it's not just the Jena 6. Sitting in the comfort of their bedrooms/offices/kitches (wherever), progressive bloggers got more riled up about a student at the University of Florida getting tased at a Kerry speech than an equal, no worse case up in NYC — a young black man, the son of a police officer, who was tased four times at a community barbecue and beaten with a nightstick 15 times and choked. He wasn't even charged with a crime, btw.

As Chris also noted in his post, many of the top blogs have eagerly cited a WaPO story that  suggests the GOP doesn't care about black issues as Giuliani, Romney, Fred  Thompson and Sen. John McCain are skipping Tavis Smiley's forum at Morgan State University in Baltimore that's coming up on PBS (9/27).

It's disappointing, but not surprising to see this blindness. As you all know I try mightily to make the Blend a safe space to discuss race, and even then, threads on the topic, save the Imus debacle, garner few comments. The progressive community still has a long way to go on race when it comes to the rubber hitting the road.

[UPDATE: Jane Hamsher of FDL isn’t keen that I blogged about this topic, she emailed me that she feels that she (or any of the A-List) cannot post on the matter are placed in a bad position because of this post now without having and will have to defend challenges of racism. She actually had someone slated to post on Jena 6 who bailed on her. That’s clearly not FDL’s fault, and Chris obviously wasn’t aware of that when he did his cursory surfing of the A-list.

Anyway, I specifically said that I don’t think any of the lack of “big boy” bloggers are racists trying ignoring the issue. That’s too black and white (ironically) a read on the subtleties of this — all of us are products of a racist culture, and the evil of that has made it so hard to overcome barriers even to discuss the topic. That’s what I said above.

This post wasn’t about “making” any of the mainstream A-list progressive bloggers cover this event, it was observing that a major event didn’t receive major blog coverage and musing why that is, given the groupthink on political issues of many stripes covered on large progressive blogs.

People can obviously blog about whatever they wish, but is it not unusual to see A-listers off-step on an issue the MSM is covering so widely? Usually it is the other way around. It’s an interesting and complex issue to discuss, but even on this level it’s obviously a third rail topic.

And no, I didn’t continually blogging about Jena 6 over the last while, it deserved all the attention it could (and it has now thankfully received it, from a core group of committed bloggers and the MSM). That I can add any more eyeballs to it now that haven’t been focused on it is what I’m doing now.]

[UPDATE 2: I’ve amended the above to precisely reflect the issue as Jane sees it, which is only fair. Here I am trying to ameliorate and all I get is grief. Oh well, it’s clear I’ve set some house on fire. For what it’s worth, it appears that the use of the ColorofChange “Free the Jena 6″ banner in itself is cause for surprising and enlightening commentary, as if I was endorsing no punishment for the teens.

This whole matter is like a Rorschach test. Everyone sees what they want to see in the post — perhaps it’s because of my poor writing, or maybe it’s because this topic of race is so charged (fear on both sides), that even an earnest observation becomes accusatory from another perspective. ]

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Joe Solmonese of HRC gave a speech at the DC rally, linking the quest for social justice to us all — it should not be deterred by color, sexual orientation or any other attribute. It’s below the fold.
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I have my suspicions that when the Republicans talk up “tort reform” to stop “nuisance lawsuits”, they’re not exactly talking about stuff like this:

Some of you may have heard about the latest in frivolous lawsuit madness: PZ Myers and his blog’s mothership, Seed Magazine, have been sued for FIFTEEN MILLION DOLLARS.

He’s been sued in New York’s Southern District Court because he panned a book by Stuart Pivar, a tool of creationists who has sinned against the truth by writing books denying that Stephen Jay Gould—yes, that one—didn’t really believe in evolutionary theory, specifically defined as believing that selection was a “creative” force. I love when people speak for the dead, knowing full well that the dead can’t defend themselves, such as the people who erroneously claim that Margaret Sanger’s main motivation was eugenic in nature (which means that you can’t have your basic rights, wouldn’t you know?).

My first inclination was to fear for the blogosphere if the next strategy is abuse-by-court strategies, but looking over the complaint (PDF), I suspect this will become a dog and pony show that will end up being most humiliating for the plantiff, even if it gets aired in court. And this has “thrown out by the judge” written all over it, so we may not even get that far. Generally speaking in the U.S., the standards for libel are pretty high. Pivar would have to prove he’s definitely not a “classic crackpot” as PZ called him, and if I’m not mistaken, he’d have to prove that PZ knew he wasn’t a “classic crackpot” when he called him that. Which, if the case doesn’t get thrown out right away, could mean that Pivar’s theories get aired in court, which is hardly what he wants if he wants people to take him seriously.

Pivar would have to argue in court that there’s nothing crackpot-ish at all about claiming that prominent biologist Gould was the victim of some sort of academic censorship/oppression of his theories. The entire situation seems to be like a classic creationist wedge. That there’s a rather obscure, nit-picking disagreement between biologists about the exact patterns of evolution is being trotted out as a reason to believe that the theory is about to collapse on itself. I have my theory as to why creationists or global warming denialists act like minor disagreements on the particulars would collapse an entire scientific theory. It’s the infallibility of the Bible thing—a lot of people are familiar with the idea that the Bible is infalliable, which would mean a single erroneous sentence would cause their “theory” to implode. It’s easy to frame scientific theories that way. But since no one claims that global warming theories or evolutionary theory is the received word of god, brought to us perfect and in no need of tweaking or further research, their infallibility framework doesn’t quite work.

If you haven’t seen too much about this on the blogs, it’s because the science bloggers at Seed are all holding their keyboards until this is over. So if those of you not under their umbrella would like to blog your support of PZ and of science blogging, particularly that kind which pushes back against political enemies. In the meantime, the Dover case—where creationists humiliated themselves by creating a situation where they had to put their pseudo-theories side by side with the real theories of biology in court and demonstrate how their “theories” aren’t really theories at all—is instructive reading on why it’s probably best for opponents of evolutionary theory to refrain from bringing their ideas into the light.

Hey, everyone remember the posts about New Orleans and how the survivors of Katrina are getting screwed left right and center? Remember Leigh, who gave a lot of good information? Well, she will be one of the people speaking about the post-Katrina Gulf Coast recovery tonight at The Democracy Center from 6:00-8:00. The center is located at 45 Mt. Auburn Street Cambridge, MA.

The Rude Pundit invited several black bloggers to contribute entries while he was away…

Thursday, August 2: Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen
Friday, August 3: African American Opinion of African American Political Pundit

Monday, August 6: Shark-Fu of Angry Black Bitch

Tuesday, August 7: Angry Independent of Mirror on America

Wednesday, August 8: Pam Spaulding of Pam’s House Blend, Pandagon, and, for August, Americablog; and Terrance of Republic of T

My post, and it’s rude — Big Black Buck Blowjob.

I headed down to the main ballroom at 8AM to hear 2004 presidential candidate General Wesley Clark rip the administration a new one (politely, of course) regarding the mess in Iraq. The crowd went wild. Some video for you:

Watch the whole speech at the YK site.

It was an impressive keynote and he didn’t hold back with some real quotables:

“Mr. President, the failure in Iraq is not the troop strength, it is not the surge, it is not how good our men and women in uniform are, it is the failure of your leadership in the region.”

and…

“We are not questioning the generals. Mr. President, we are questioning you! Stop hiding behind Dave Petraeus.”

and…

“Bush always listens to the generals — when he gets tired of listening to them he replaces them.”

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Also, Clinton campaign internet director Peter Daou announced today that she has decided to attend the breakout session. Organizers announced last night after Howard Dean’s speech that she wouldn’t be holding the individual candidate session (more here on the flap).

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I meet Amanda and talk about religious hypocrites with Sam Seder after the jump.
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Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean gave the keynote speech tonight about the influence of the netroots, and the restoration of democracy that George Bush has undermined, federal election reform (Bill HR811), the effect of the YouTube debate, and Iraq. Here’s a snippet of Dean (I shot this from my table) comparing this Congress to the do-nothing Republican-controlled Congress.

You can watch the full video of Dean’s speech here, at the YearlyKos site.

Dean announced a new initiative by the Democratic Party to go out to every county in the country (down to the precinct level) and identify voting problems in advance of the 2008 election, looking at how vote counting and administration is handled, and whether an adequate number of voting machines is available for voters in those precincts.

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Hillary Clinton to skip breakout session

Breaking news out of the convention — Hillary Clinton will appear at the Presidential Leadership Forum on Saturday night, but it was announced by YK organizers after Dean’s speech that Clinton will not appear in a breakout session (that includes taking questions from attendees). All of the rest of the candidates will attend the forum and breakout sessions (except Joe Biden, who couldn’t make YK). In her place will be senior advisor Ann Lewis. That announcement brought a lot of boos in the room from attendees, who had to pick in advance which presidential breakout session they were going to attend. The Hillary attendees are now understandably unhappy because it’s not possible to trade in access wristbands for different presidential breakout session at this point because the other top tier candidate sessions are already full, I believe.

There’s a lot of banter about it in this DKos diary.

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As A.J. mentioned earlier, Air America’s Sam Seder moderated last night’s dinner. Seder wants to interview some of the not-so-well known bloggers at YK, and I’ve been tapped for a slot. (I do it Fri at 11AM, but I think it will air Sunday).

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I still haven’t managed to meet Amanda yet, but I’m bound to run into her eventually!

Over at my pad I’m liveblogging the All-American Presidential Forum this evening, held at Howard University in Washington, DC. It will air from 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET (there will be a simultaneous webcast at the PBS site).

Appearing at the forum tonight: U.S. Senator Joe Biden, U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, former U.S. Senator John Edwards, former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel, U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Senator Barack Obama and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

The candidates will be asked questions about key areas of concern based on Tavis Smiley’s book, The Covenant With Black America.  These are issues that greatly affect black citizens — as well as other minority populations. The forum seeks to hear perspectives, insights and plans from those who seek the presidency in 2008.

About 20 bloggers are present as credentialed media thanks to the Media Bloggers Association and PBS. You can take in our commentary at the MBA web site’s feed. We are actually located in Blackburn Center, which is serving as the media center/spin room for the event. Who’s blogging the event? There is a good mix of perspectives…

* Faye Anderson, Anderson@Large
* La Shawn Barber, La Shawn Barber’s Corner
* Andy Carvin, www.andycarvin.com
* Earl Dunovant, Prometheus 6
* Michael Fauntroy, www.michaelfauntroy.com
* Terrance Heath, The Republic of T. — and Blend contributor
* Danielle Holley-Walker, feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu
* Sherrilyn Ifill, www.blackprof.com
* Casey Lartigue, The Casey Lartigue Show
* Susie Madrak, Suburban Guerrilla
* Maegan “la Mala” Ortiz, VivirLatino.com
* Kim Pearson, Professor Kim’s News Notes
* Liza Sabater, CultureKitchen.com
* Matthew Sheffield, Ace of Spades HQ
* Your co-panda Pam Spaulding, Pam’s House Blend
* Gerardo Vazquez, americantaino.blogspot.com
* Laurie White, LaurieWrites
* Oliver Willis, OliverWillis.com

Related:
* Pam’s House Blend feed for the live blog.
* A look at the Covenant With Black America
* John Edwards on The Covenant With Black America