No Fat Chicks

This week, one of my professors brought up Sarah Palin in class. I always HATE when professors talk about politics, because the power differential in the classroom leaves you without much recourse to respond. So when my professor started criticizing Sarah Palin for bringing cookies into a school in the midst of an unprecedented Childhood Obesity Epidemic, I pretty much just bit my lip and looked away.

Let me explain. The phrase “nanny state” makes me break out in hives. I think that schools should be providing healthy foods for kids, and that junk food vending machines should be a comparative rarity on school campuses- at least until high school, when kids are going to eat what they want if they have to smuggle it in in their underpants. But I can’t help but cringe when I hear the phrase “Childhood Obesity”. So I was kind of cheering for Palin when she brought cookies to a school she visited as a way of protesting the area’s proposed limitations of classroom treats and celebrations (because what school really needs is LESS FUN).

But here’s what you need to know about me: I used to be fat. Not “a little chubby”, but clinically obese, surgical options fat. I am a way-left Liberal. I am a feminist. And I’m working on a doctorate degree in psychology. So when people talk about childhood obesity, here’s what I hear: No Fat Chicks.

Friday Night Cookout Open Thread

Quesadilla Burger

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My recipe of the week:

Quesadilla Burgers

Quesadillas

o 2 (10 inch) flour tortillas
o Olive oil
o 1/3 cup shredded Monterey jack pepper cheese
o 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
o shredded lettuce
o 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
o 3-4 sliced red onion rings
o 2-4 bacon slices
o southwest seasoned hamburger (recipe follows)

Call me crazy, but . . .

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Unless things change dramatically in the next two years there is a pretty good chance that the question in 2012 won’t be “Will the Republicans win?” but instead will be “Which Republican will win?” It could be very much like 2008 when it was obvious that the Democrats could (and did) nominate an empty suit and win.

So if Obama is running unopposed for reelection and there is a close contest for the Republican nomination, wouldn’t it behoove us to try to affect the outcome of the GOP primary?

Now the conventional wisdom among the creative class types would be to try to ratfuck the Republicans by registering as “GOPers for a Day” and voting for their worst candidate, hoping to make it easy for Obama to win that November.

But if that worst candidate were to win in November, then whose rat got fucked?

Matt Taibbi and the Invisible Americans

Part of my problem as we go forward towards a progressively bleak future, is that back in 2008 some of the best progressive writers exposed themselves as pretty horrible thinkers.

For example here’s Matt Taibbi then:

The New Nixon

Moreover, like Nixon, her “invisible Americans” deal is carefully couched to appeal to the fears of her own version of the silent majority — fears about energy prices, layoffs, health care, terrorism. It’s a conscious decision to contrast her approach to Obama’s hokey-inspirational politics — hence the relentless emphasis on the part of stooges like Penn on her “preparedness” and leadership, as opposed to Obama’s airy “vision” and “hope.”

Was Taibbi serious when he dismisses Hillary’s platform issues (and by implication the depth of her knowledge of those issues) as an appeal to Nixon’s silent majority?  And he goes on throughout the piece quoting virtually every classic distortion regarding  Hillary:

Accountability before Austerity: Talk to the Hand

Collaborators

I have a theory about the so-called Deficit Reduction Commission’s “proposals”, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Yesterday, I found this link from USAToday in Paul Krugman’s Mush from the Wimp post at Conscience of a Liberal: Obama to Congress: Stop Shooting Down Deficit Proposals. In it, Obama is lecturing Congress to get on board:

[Barack Obama] said lawmakers in the United States should hold off on comments about his fiscal commission’s proposals to slash the federal budget deficit through spending cuts, ending tax breaks, and a revamping of the Social Security system.

“Before anybody starts shooting down proposals, I think we need to listen, we need to gather up all the facts,” Obama told reporters.

He added: “If people are, in fact, concerned about spending, debt, deficits and the future of our country, then they’re going to need to be armed with the information about the kinds of choices that are going to be involved, and we can’t just engage in political rhetoric.”

[...]

“We’re going to take it out on senior citizens?” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., one of Pelosi’s appointees to the deficit reduction panel. “I am virulently against that proposal.”

At a news conference in Seoul, Obama said he opposes special spending projects known as earmarks, and wants to eliminate waste from the federal budget — but those alone won’t come close to cutting the national debt now pegged at $13.7 trillion.

“We’re going to have to make some tough choices,” Obama said. “The only way to make those tough choices historically has been if both parties are willing to move forward together.”

This is so bad it’s not even wrong.

It’s Almost the Weekend News

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Good Morning, it’s Friday almost-the Thirteenth! What’s going on with you today?

Check out what almost-First Lady Cindy McCain is up to:

Cindy McCain does video opposing DADT, accuses ‘our government’ of sending signal that bullying is okay – her hubbie is the lead defender of DADT

John McCain is leading the filibuster against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” “repeal” legislation in the Senate (it’s not an actual repeal, but we’ll leave that for another time). Today, Cindy McCain joined a number of celebrities in a video about gay youth suicide and bullying. Mrs. McCain’s part of the video condemned DADT and then accused our government of sending bullies a message that what they do is okay.

The woman basically accused her husband of sharing the blame for gay kids killing themselves.

Just one little quibble there, Mr. Aravosis – the guy YOU helped put in the White House is the lead defender of DADT. As Anglachel put it: He’s Your Son of a Bitch. (I love a good rant)

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Next we have an almost-merger of two almost-respectable magazines.

Observer Exclusive: Newsweek and Daily Beast to Merge

Newsweek and The Daily Beast will announce tomorrow morning that the two publications will merge, a source close to the deal tells The Observer.

It will be a 50-50 merger of the two companies. The editorial staffs will combine under the editorship of Tina Brown, who will again run a high-profile glossy.