"Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs and beer. Hank Aaron did it with class. How did you do it?"

WaPo: Bonds Hits 714th Homer, Ties Ruth
Giants Slugger Is 41 Short of Aaron's Record

*'"Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs and beer. Hank Aaron did it with class. How did you do it?"' was on a huge sign held up in left field last week by fans in Philadelphia.

Know Your Friends

John is a synonym for toilet
I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends... they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!
- Warren Gamaliel Harding

An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.
- Benjamin Franklin

I've always said that in politics, your enemies can't hurt you, but your friends will kill you.
- Ann Richards

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
- Woodrow Wilson


So last night, I'm surfing the web, and on AMERICAblog -- a blog I like and have linked to often -- I found the following post:

GOP Senator Pat Roberts is a big girl
by John in DC - 5/19/2006 03:00:00 PM

Of course that title pissed me off. Why oh why do people think it's acceptable to call someone a coward by calling them a girl? So I left this somewhat hysterical post (OK, I was mad, steam coming out of my ears mad).

Oh jesus fucking christ could we STOP thinking calling some[one] FEMALE is an INSULT?

Why don't you just call him, i don't know, testically challenged. insult his manhood. don't insult me. I'm sick of it. Just stop it, now.

quit hitting the tar baby of gender insults.

I'm a girl and i could kick your ass, john aravois, you name the time and the venue.
truth | Homepage | 05.19.06 - 10:34 pm | #

But the whole issue was still on my mind, so I went back and left this somewhat more considered comment:

I can't stop thinking about this. This is the second time in a week I've had to respond to a male blogger trying to insult someone by calling them female. The other one called someone a pussy, and I can't even remember the blog, but it just pisses me off no end. They weren't trying to say the guy was a cat. They were saying he was somehow less than, and therefore calling him female was the appropriate insult.

Female is not a synonym for 'less than'.

Let's say that again.

Female is not a synonym for 'less than'.

Just because male homosexuals commonly use the term 'big girl' in that way does not make it acceptable.

How would it look if I, a straight woman, called people I didn't like homos or queers, because that was common use in my community? Would that then be OK? Hell, no.

And you know what? I'm a true progressive, and I'd NEVER insult anyone by group affiliation like that.

The worst insult I have ever called anyone in my life is Bush Republican. Now that's an insult.

Why piss on your friends, for no reason?

John? John? Plate needs stepping up to, please.
truth | Homepage | 05.19.06 - 11:38 pm | #

Well, this morning I woke up to find that my comments had been deleted. That pissed me off, too, so I found a site that had archived the comment thread and re-posted them. But, you guessed it, they were deleted a second time.

Big year for me -- I've been deleted from the Washington Post blog and from AMERICAblog. (I wonder what blog will delete me next so I can hit the 2006 delete trifecta?)

So the whole kerfuffle got me interested, and I googled John Aravosis, the guy who runs the site & used the term "Big Girl". I love google, even if they are censoring shit in China. And now they own blogspot, so am I getting back at their censoring asses with my free blog? Conundrums.

Anyway, back to google.

Wow, I did not know anything about John Aravosis.

I knew he was a lawyer. I did not know that from 1989 to 1994 he was a staff attorney for .... wait, this is good .... Ted Stevens of Alaska. Mr. Pork himself! And since Stevens is a Republican -- so was Aravosis, until ... well, this is not clear. Not much biographical information about Mr. Aravosis on the 'net.

Here's his SourceWatch bio:

John Aravosis, who operates the AMERICAblog.org web site, is a "Washington DC-based writer and political consultant, specializing in using the Internet for political advocacy. He is the creator of StopDrLaura.com, Matthew Shepard Online Resources, and DearMary.com, among other activist Web sites.

"John has a joint JD and MSFS from Georgetown, where he studied under former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. He is an avid writer, and in addition to writing THE LIST (http://www.gayadvocacy.com/subscribe.html), he has worked as a stringer for the Economist magazine, and for years was the US Politics Guide at About.com.

"John's policy experience includes stints in the US Senate, the World Bank, and the Children's Defense Fund. John is also an occasional TV pundit, having appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball with Chris Matthews, ABCNews World News Tonight, CNN, and more. John speaks five languages and has visited or worked in 28 countries." [1]

Speaks five languages, visited 28 countries, sounds very civilized and urbane, no? This afternoon John Aravosis of AMERICAblog posted this:

Guys, anybody who isn't happy, please leave this blog and don't come back. I'm serious. Get out.

Our Constitution is on life support and you freaks, a very vocal minority of the people who visit this site and comment, have spent over 24 hours worrying about two words in a title, and you're still obsessed with it. None of us have the time to deal with your weekly fit of hysterics, whether it's over Katherine Harris' photo, Cynthia McKinney being a wackjob, commenter Miles being upset that I "made a big deal" about a hate crime that almost killed a gay couple, you being upset that I criticized Howard Dean for his insensitivity to gay issues (which I was proved right on a week later), and on and on and on.

It took me a while to realize it, but there are a minority of my readers who are never going to be happy. Rather than fight our common enemy, you'd rather sit here and beat me up because somehow you get off on that. That's fine. You're no longer welcome. Please leave. And spare me the emails about how you used to love the blog. The blog is the same it's always been. You however have become increasingly nasty and shrill. And in any case, the majority of our readers are normal people who are actuall worried about their country and want to make a difference. Please stop bothering them with your weekly crises.

I choose to spend my time fighting the enemy. You choose to spend your time fighting friends. Well, you do that. On someone else's blog. You're no longer welcome here, so get out so the rest of us, the majority of our readers and evoted advocates, can get on with trying to fix this country. JOHN
John Aravosis | 05.20.06 - 3:19 pm | #

So, I can take a hint. I removed AMERICAblog from the blogroll. I'll take his words with a healthy grain of salt from now on -- I'm a big girl, after all. I'll only call Aravosis the worst epithet I know of -- Republican. The guy was a Republican for a significant part of his conscious life. How stupider can you get than that?

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
H.L. Mencken

Swillionaires for Sweeney

Head Swiller
Sorry I missed this political protest:

Saratoga Springs: Protest Rep. Sweeney fundraiser with McCain

"Let's Protest Sweeney and the corrupt Republican agenda of Rove, Delay, Cheney, Bush & Abramoff. Unlike Sweeney, who led a violent gang of thugs in Miami in 2000 with the order to shut down the vote recounting, we will be nonviolent."

"Feel free to bring your own signs about corruption and any aspect of the Republican agenda. Bring mops & brooms to hold with the signs, to symbolize a call for cleaning up corruption, & clean elections campaign finance reform. We'll have plenty of extra signs, mops & brooms."

"There may be creative street theater activities, such as Billionaires for Bush (or Swillionaires for Sweeney), or holding an 'auction' selling favors to cronies."

Swillionaires is such a great word, especially given Sweeney's recent frat party shenanigans. Connotations of pork and alcohol, with undertones of plain old dirtiness. Well done activists.

Kirsten Gillibrand for NY-20. Contribute here.

You Go, Girl

The student speaker at the New School graduation in New York City yesterday gave keynote speaker John McCain, fresh off his speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, a piece of her mind. I don't think he enjoyed it too much. Support wars based on lies, pay the price. The first link is to her piece on Huffington Post, the second is to MoDo's column today (sorry, Times Wall)

Jean Rohe, Huffington Post: Why I Spoke Up

Maureen Dowd, NYTimes: Make Poetry, Not War (full article, Ed Strong)

NYTimes: Graduates at New School Heckle Speech by McCain

The first student speaker, Jean Sara Rohe, 21, said she had discarded her original remarks to talk about Mr. McCain.

"The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded," she said, to a roaring ovation. "This invitation was a top-down decision that did not take into account the desires and interests of the student body on an occasion that is supposed to honor us above all."

Noting that Mr. McCain had promised to give the same speech at all of his graduation appearances, Ms. Rohe, who was one of two students selected to speak by university deans, attacked his remarks even before he delivered them.

"Senator McCain will tell us today that dissent and disagreement are our civic and moral obligation in times of crisis, and I agree," she said. "I consider this a time of crisis, and I feel obligated to speak."

She continued, "Senator McCain will also tell us about his strong-headed self-assuredness in his youth, which prevented him from hearing the ideas of others, and in so doing he will imply that those of us who are young are too naïve to have valid opinions."

"I am young, and although I don't profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous and wrong," she said.

She added, "Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction."

Just For Laughs

YouTube video: 10 Things I Hate About Commandments

I saw this on BlogsNow

Democrats: What Not to Say

Good post from derby378 at Democratic Underground on the language Democrats should not use in the 2006 campaign.

DemocraticUnderground: What Democrats should never, never, NEVER say if they want to win in 2006

Go read the whole thing. Here's the executive summary:

Framing is important. How we say things it important. Don't say:

1. Terrorist Surveillance Program
2. Homeland Security
3. English as our "National Language"
4. War on Terror

Derby368 doesn't offer alternatives, here are mine. When those subjects are discussed, Democrats should say:

1. KGB Spy Program;

2. United States of America;

3. Strong America;

4. Quagmire.

And, as often as possible, say, Incompetence. Corruption. Cronyism.

What do you think?

Connecticut Wants a New Drug

They're trading in the Joementum for some Nedraline!

Ned Lamont needed to get 15% of the voters at the state Democratic convention today to force Joe Lieberman into a primary; he got 33.9% of the vote. Amazing victory from the party regulars (not exactly the angry left), despite all the lengths to which Lieberman went to stop Ned at the pass.

Bush's favorite Democrat, going down! Whee-hoo! If he's feeling like he was violated, and they won't treat him at a Democratic hospital, sure he can get a quick cab ride across town. Enjoy the ride, Joe. Out you go, through the window or out the door!

Video of Helium Boy Ramesh Ponnuru

YouTube video: Ramesh Ponnuru On The Daily Show

Suck the helium, dude.

I saw this on Suburban Guerrilla.

Previous post: Ramesh Ponnuru (May 17, 2006)

Just For Laughs

Roger that, Chico.
David Letterman:

Top Ten Signs The Government Is Spying On You

10. Post office wall has several photos of you sleeping

9. Your houseplant occasionally sneezes

8. Domino's keeps delivering to unmarked van parked across the street

7. Birthday card from your mom has several words blacked out

6. You get nominated for "Outstanding Lead Performance in an NSA Surveillance Video"

5. Your dishwasher functions are "Wash," "Rinse" and "Record"

4. Local news only reporting things that happen in your living room

3. Every time you say goodbye on the phone, you hear a strange voice say, "Roger that, Chico"

2. You googled a recipe for humus and the FBI raided your house

1. Suddenly discover there's an antenna bolted to your ass

Halfway There

FDA Acting Commissioner Andrew C. Eschenbach
An FDA advisory panel has approved a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. Now this medical miracle, a vaccine that prevents a cancer, must approved by the FDA.

Before we celebrate, we must remember that the FDA's Acting Commissioner is right-wing nutjob Andrew C. Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute. In that position, one of his first official actions was to alter a factsheet on the NCI website to make it seem like there might be a link between breast cancer and abortion, although there is no such link and that what's the NCI website said before he got there. So even though the advisory panel decided to endorse the science, there's no telling what fundie Eschenbbach will do.

WaPo: FDA Panel Endorses Cervical Cancer Vaccine

WASHINGTON -- A drug company hopes to win federal approval early next month for a novel cervical cancer vaccine that it touts as the next biggest thing since the pap test in fighting the No. 2 cancer in women.

Merck & Co. already has won a key endorsement of the vaccine, called Gardasil, from a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee. A final decision by the FDA is expected by June 8.

The vaccine, administered in three shots over six months at a cost of $300 to $500, protects against the two types of human papillomavirus (HPV) believed responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.

Krugman: 'The Start of a Serious Economic Slowdown'

Unfortunately, I don't think Krugman is Henny Penny here; he's right. What was that phrase Alan Greenspan used? "Irrational exuberance" must eventually give in to the pressures of reality. Even if President La-la-la-I-Can't-Hear-You won't admit it. When has he ever had any grip on reality? Right.

Paul Krugman, NYTimes: Coming Down to Earth (TimesSelect)

As I summarized it awhile back, we became a nation in which people make a living by selling one another houses, and they pay for the houses with money borrowed from China.

Now that game seems to be coming to an end. We're going to have to find other ways to make a living — in particular, we're going to have to start selling goods and services, not just I.O.U.'s, to the rest of the world, and/or replace imports with domestic production. And adjusting to that new way of making a living will take time.

Will we have that time? Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, contends that what's happening in the housing market is "a very orderly and moderate kind of cooling." Maybe he's right. But if he isn't, the stock market drop of the last two days will be remembered as the start of a serious economic slowdown.

The whole article: Ed Strong

Chimp-Human Hybrid Descendent Rides Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Border Patrol Vehicle

Chimp-human hybrid exits Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Border Patrol Vehicle


Whee! Being The Decider can be fun!

When Will Our Media Ask This Question?

Verizon, Telcos Go For TKO

That's technical knockout for you non-boxing fans.

Why do I say they're going for the technical knockout? Because today they claimed they didn't turn over any information to the feds. In a carefully worded statement released today, six days after the charges were made in USA Today. They're claiming they didn't do it. They're going with the technicality.

C'mon, I'm a lawyer, I know why it takes six days to put out an official statement. The truth is simple. Yes or no. We did it, or we didn't. Instead, after six days of creative lawyering, we get this (WaPo):

New York-based Verizon said yesterday that it would not confirm or deny any relationship with the NSA, but that "one of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by the NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers' domestic calls. This is false."

The statement outlined the three major businesses that Verizon ran between Sept. 11, 2001, and the MCI acquisition four months ago: wireline phone, wireless phone and directory publishing. The company "also had its own Internet service provider and long-distance businesses," the statement said. "Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide, customer phone records from any of these businesses, or any call data from those records.

"None of these companies -- wireless or wireline -- provided customer records or call data."

Verizon also denied published reports that information about local telephone calls is being tracked. "Phone companies do not even make records of local calls in most cases because the vast majority of customers are not billed per call for local calls," Verizon said. But it did not mention the MCI long-distance business.

Blogtopia (yes! skippy coined that phrase!) has already figured out that they're carefully saying they didn't give the data, because what they really did was give the feds access to the switches. They didn't have to give them the data -- they gave them the keys to the castle, lock, stock and barrel.

emptywheel, dailykos: Domestic Spying: They're Not Getting Data, They're Getting the Switches

Conveniently for the Bush Administration, less than two weeks ago it issued a presidential memorandum, whatever that is, that lets the telcos lie to us to protect the secret spying program.

ThinkProgress: New Presidential Memorandum Permits Intelligence Director To Authorize Telcos To Lie Without Violating Securities Law

So go ahead, believe Verizon's statement. Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again, as Commander Codpiece once said.

We Love Lists

NYTimes: Hope, Saved on a Laptop

This article (behind the TimesWall) has the life to do list of Ann Nelson, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11th. Her parents didn't/couldn't open her laptop for almost five years. This is what they found when they did. It's a great list.

1. Be healthy/ healthful.
2. Be a good friend.
3. Keep secrets.
4. Keep in touch with people I love and that love me.
5. Make a quilt.
6. Nepal.
7. Buy a home in North Dakota.
8. Get a graduate degree.
9. Learn a foreign language.
10. Kilimanjaro.
11. Never be ashamed of who I am.
12. Be a person to be proud of.
13. Always keep improving.
14. Read every day.
15. Be informed.
16. Knit a sweater.
17. Scuba-dive in the Barrier Reef.
18. Volunteer for a charity.
19. Learn to cook.
20. Learn about art.
21. Get my C.F.A.
22. Grand Canyon.
23. Helicopter-ski with my dad.
23. Spend more time with my family.
24. Remember birthdays!!!!
25. Appreciate money, but don't worship it.
26. Learn how to use a computer.
27. Visit the New York Public Library.
28. Maine.
29. Learn to write.
30. Walk — exercise but also see the world firsthand.
31. Learn about other cultures.
32. Be a good listener.
33. Take time for friends.
34. Kayak.
35. Drink water.
36. Learn about wine.
37.

Ramesh Ponnuru

Who is this joker, why is he on Jon Stewart tonight, and how can I take seriously anyone who sounds like he inhaled helium before he speaks?

Oh.

Ewww. Conservatives are gross.

Call It Global Warming

In Peabody, Ovel Santiago, Chayanne Vasquez, Scott Ingham, and Keiana Christiansen floated down Walnut Street yesterday on a piece of styrofoam they found. (Bill Greene / Globe Staff)

Finally the rains have stopped. Here in Central Mass., we just got days of rain, high rivers and streams, and puddles. The coast from Boston to Portland got soaked, with flooded houses and roads, dam collapse, and entire city centers under water.

Local news has pre-empted regular programming for wall-to-wall coverage of rain falling, water coursing down closed Route 1, the Spicket River Dam collapsing in Methuen, A hundred year rain, our governor the Mittwit called it, the worst in 70 years. Wonder why it came 30 years early? Could it be the phenomenon that dare not speak its name, global warming?

No answers to this question from our local meteorologists. I watched plenty of local weather coverage, and not once, not once did I hear anyone mention global warming.

Yesterday I googled 'new england', flooding, and 'global warming'; I only got one relevant article written after our flooding rain started. This is it:

ABC News: Wild Weather: Global Warming, or Just Weird?

It's a typical corporate journalism effort, giving both sides of the global warming debate as though they were equal (although they are not; there is no longer any significant scientific debate over the reality of global warming). The article ends with a passive voice non-conclusion, so popular in modern journamalism:

Call it global warming or don't. But most people can agree that all this extreme weather can be a costly proposition. Just last year the world incurred more than $200 billion in economic losses as a result of weather-related natural disasters.

That makes 2005 the costliest year on record, according to the Munich Re Foundation. That's the same figure U.S. Public Interest Research Group reported that the United States spent resolving weather-related incidents throughout the whole decade of the 1990s.

It's time for the corporate media to wake up and call it global warming. The evidence is overwhelming; why is it never mentioned in weather news is incomprehensible. Even articles about record-breaking high temperatures say nothing about global warming. Look at this little blurb, again from ABC News:

ABC News: April '06: Warmest on Record in U.S.

Drought, Wildfires and Tornadoes Swept Nation

— - This past April was the hottest ever in the United States, according to records going back to 1895, said the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

The hottest states were Texas and Oklahoma, which had their warmest April on record, while New Mexico, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee recorded their second warmest. Twelve other states recorded one of their top-five warmest Aprils on record.

The intensely warm spring weather helped intensify thunderstorms that spawned hundreds of tornadoes across the Midwest, killing at least 10 people.

It also exacerbated drought conditions, which affected 31 percent of the contiguous United States, an increase of 5 percent from March. There were numerous wildfires, especially in the Southeast.

The good news: The record warm temperature led to below-normal residential energy demand across the country, as measured by the nation's Residential Energy Demand Temperature Index.

Like that little 'on the other hand' conclusion? No mention of global warming, but there is good news to be found in record-breaking heat. Because there are two equal sides to every story in the happy-talk world of the modern corporate journalist.

Journalism is dead. Long live the corporate medial.

Ancient Mayan Art Discovered

NYTimes: On Ancient Walls, a New Maya Epoch

9/11 EPA Victims

Angel Franco/The New York Times
Some of the people working in the cleanup and recovery effort after Sept. 11 wore masks, but the most effective ones were effective for no more than 20 minutes.

A good review of news reports of lung disease in 9/11 clean-up workers, who were told it was safe to breathe the air in lower Manhattan by EPA and spineless EPA head Christy Todd Whitman, from the best blog on the 'net for workplace safety news, Confined Space:

Confined Space: World Trade Center Tragedies Continue

Read the whole thing. Firefighters, police, paramedics, anyone who breathed that toxic air for weeks and months, now are fighting debilitating lung disease, from sarcoidosis to mesothelioma.

Have a nice day, Christy Todd Whitman.


Previous posts:

First Death Officially Linked to 9/11 Clean-Up (April 12, 2006)

Have a Nice Day, Christy Todd Whitman (April 12, 2006)

Liars (April 9, 2006)

Too Bad This Isn't a Criminal Case. Christy Todd Whitman Should Be in Jail. (February 2, 2006)

Republicans to FDNY: Drop Dead (November 15, 2005)

Environmental Protection Agency Also Run By "Inept Political Hacks" (September 11, 2005)

Christy Todd Spineless (March 23, 2005)

Bush Immigration Proposal': 'Horribly Over-Expensive and Very Difficult'

Michael Chertoff, the DHS director, 6 months ago during an appearance on Faux News:

TPM Muckraker: Chertoff: National Guard on the Border Would Be "Horribly Over-Expensive and Very Difficult"

"Why don't you put the National Guard on the border to back up the border patrol and stop the bleeding, and then start to increase the Border Patrol, the high-tech and all of that?" O’Reilly asked. . . .

"Well, the National Guard is really, first of all, not trained for that mission," Chertoff told O'Reilly. "I mean, the fact of the matter is the border is a special place. There are special challenges that are faced there."

Chertoff added that that it would take a huge amount of National Guard troops, that they would need new training. But couldn’t the National Guard pull it off, O'Reilly asked?

"I think it would be a horribly over-expensive and very difficult way to manage this problem," Chertoff said. "Unless you would be prepared to leave those people in the National Guard day and night for month after month after month, you would eventually have to come to grips with the challenge in a more comprehensive way."

In Rovespeak, Chertoff was against Bush's immigration reform before he was for it.