WLIF conference, Friday, pt 2: Massage is another word for engagement

5.38 - Gayle King is going to introduce Michelle Obama; aww, not as big a standing ovation as Oprah's. What do we learn from Gayle? Maria Pinto dresses Michelle Obama, she's never been disappointed by Barack and that Gayle's ex cheated on her! Thanks, Gayle.

5.50-Michelle Obama walks onstage; wow, her suit rocks. It's lean, black and velvety and very urban chic. She looks so good! Meanwhile, I'm a little bloated. For an event that's meant to massage the big donors, this whole day is working for me; it's personal, personable, intimate. It really feels like a tent revival meeting. She gives a version of her convention speech but I don't think anyone minds. What I like about her is her no nonsense, smart, straight up, a little stern but also funny manner - she's the cool mom, the cool older sister who will tell you the hard stuff, shrug and then say 'You know what you have to do.' I totally respect her!

And just like that, the first day's session is over! I can't believe I have to be here tomorrow morning at 7. Dude.

Final thoughts: took a while to get to the mixer but I've sucked down several gin/tonics 95 stories above the city. I'm excited about tomorrow: the policy workshops! Especially excited about the SCOTUS and economy workshops.

Some folks might look at this like an event for privileged, rich donors. Well, yeah. It is (though it's certainly not a pleasure junket.) Fundraising 101: big donors like to be massaged. To be clear, though, these women aren't merely donors. These women spend a lot of time volunteering for the campaign, so it's not just about money.

I liked seeing the energy of the campaign from the other side. I was saying to my roommate that the Obama campaign has been faulted for being aloof, cool, slow to react, whatever. But listening to Ploufe I saw his intensity and I can only assume that everyone involved in this campaign is just as intense. This campaign is anything but aloof. They are angry at the latest smears, they're indignant at our political landscape, they are hungry to win, they believe in their ideas and they truly believe that you change things by leading by example. (So, no. Don't expect the Obama campaign to whip the gloves off and call McCain a Race Baiting Geezer. Ain't gonna happen.) The volunteers are fired up; every woman who stood up there was almost vibrating with their burning desire to win this election. This kind of engagement was amazing to see and feel.

What the hell am I going to wear tomorrow?

WLIF Conference, Friday: Ding is giddy!

2.30- checked in with a great deal of ease; yes, I forgot my feminaries so now I have whole box of tampons hanging out of my purse from hotel shop - tampons and mints; women of all ages are here and just got invited to a mixer at the hancock tonight by the Black Women for Obama folks; she laughed when I asked if it was ok to bring my white roommate-i didn't know! It could be a militant thing!

2.37-the music is very 'praise'-like. (Folks who've grown up in church will know what I'm talking about.) I wonder if slightly vanilla gospel translates into 'hope.' I could really do with a water...

2-something: it's more crwded now and I'm apparently sitting with the tony women from california. Lots of Bulgari. I really want water. Or a drink. Like a gin/tonic. Mmmm.

3.02 - it's not Bulgari; it's like Anais or Tresor. Hm, Tresor. And the praise/hope music really needs to stop. Are women supposed to respond to sappy slow music? It's so bad I want to kill my ears.

3.11 - Sigh. Program running late. Session begins in 20 min. I bet it's Oprah making everything late. Diva!

The women who've come here have brought their mothers, daughters and gay male friends. Very next gen. Very supportive sisterhood montage-like. Hm. That's exactly what the music sounds like: a Lifetime tv show for women.

And don't think I haven't noticed the power ladies from some state that gets a lot of sun.

3.43 - opens with great video narrated by Obamas with images of female volunteers. I'm actually choking up. Pledge of allegiance led by adorable little African American girl. I actually remembered it! You can tell we're all panicking that we'll blank out.

Valeri Jarrett- very cute in a very cute suit (in fact, there are tons of chic women here in very very chic suits. Thank GOD I brought my cute suit to the office); brief roll call - a lot of women here from battleground states and even Alaska! (big laugh) There are Republican and independent women here, too!

Oprah- every cell phone has just gone ballistic. Flashes everywhere! She looks really great. She says: 'That's what women do: we know things and we do things' Big theme is how women have mothered this country. Shout out to Hilary Clinton - very messianic speech about obama being the One. I get it but it's a little creepy. What about managing expectations?

Huge standing ovation when she said we are here to help him cross the finish line. Very intense, the way she repeated it.

Great line: 'We are not in the mood to be fooled again!' Oprah is giving a really great speech. Kinda weird, the messianic overtones. Just slammed on the McCain 'that one' dig. Huge applause. She asked what were going to do now and, very slowly and intensely, she says 'Oh, yes. We are going to elect Barack Obama' She says this is 'An amazing hour' where we can make things right. 'Yes we will.'

4.05 - Howard Dean is next; the WLIF is the hugest fundraising body in the party. Wow, they've been doing this for 15 yrs; a video greeting from HRC who has a great line about this election being a corrective, bringing America back 'from the ashes of the Bushes.' It's a funny line.

Ok, Dean is pretty cute, in a very vintage, clean cut, log cabin way. I am so hormonal and need to get laid after this conference. So weird to see him like this! He was a candidate! He plays up the 50 state strategy, talking about the new battleground states as a product of it; says we're set to make gains in crucial senate races, including the K. Hagan race which gained momentum in September. Brief rundown: 229K new registered voters in NC, OH seat is going to be in play with female candidates and Dean goes down the roll, listing female candidates who are positioned to run very competitively in states that the party hadn't thought about before; a crucial point about how Obama has transformed the race and is energizing other candidates, while the new crop of candidates are also lending support to the Obama campaign - it makes total sense from a communications POV. At last, synergy!!

Very very important: Dean stresses that we need to VOTE EARLY!! Their strategy depends on strong showing in all our crucial states.

Private moments from the convention video: totally sweet; yes, I am tearing up. How hormonal am I? Apparently the Obama girls love the Jonas bros. Who are they?

4.38 - David Ploufe is next; Obama campaign has registered over 1.5 million new voters-ooh! A map! Be prepared. The notes are going to get a little choppy about progress on the ground:

MI firmly on obama map- giving strong electoral base-'lean Obama' states include NM, VA(leans obama and campaign fighting hard for it), IA, MN, NH, WI(comfortable lead here and critical of McCain for campaigning badly which is ultimately turning folks off); PA is a tough state and the campaign needs ads there; PA is ground zero for nasty smears; electorally, the 207 from strong Obama states and 70 from the 'leans Obama' states gives electoral lead firmly to Obama. But now he stuns me: they're going after leaning mccain states! It's so aggressive, I love it.

Battleground states: 101 electoral votes up for grabs; NV is favorable but a scrappy fight anticipated; MT is still a dead heat; CO is like VA; MO and IN also in play with dead heats giving Obama a chance to drain McCain campaign's resources; OH is a surprise with a close lead for Obama. Ploufe estimates that McCain needs to turnout vote at Bush levels and surpass it by 10 pts, which he won't be able to do; NC very close and now leans Obama; FL is troublesome for McCain and will be close, with a slim Obama lead perhaps; Ploufe emphasizes that without FL McCain can't win presidency! We need to keep it from him!

The many paths strategy to Nov 4 is working! Mccain has just one path. Boots on the ground are absolutely crucial. Encourages aggressive pushback for McCain and keep attention on the economy! McCain negatives are rising! Pleased at how aggressive Ploufe sounds about the campaign's progress and attitude: they want to 'lay the wood' to McCain. He says, based on their behavior over the last two weeks, McCain and Palin don't deserve the presidency. Love. It. God, I love smart guys!

5.04 - jill biden is very sweet but not very dynamic. Then again, it's been a loong afternoon. My hormones are making me googly eyed for Joe Biden. Huge standing ovatn for his role in creating VAWA. Jeez, he's telling a dating story!! My lord, he is really chatty and goes from a mom story to how great the Obama family is and the SCOTUS and now to Palin and the 'debate.' All in one sentence.

Re: Palin, Biden says 'being a woman is not the same as being there for women.' Huge applause. Great line but I'm thinking about how a line like that would play in the media. Generally, good stump speech stuff. The crowd is like putty. It's hushed in here; he goes after the Values crap and posits progressive policies are our expression of values. Hey, hello, hot secret service guys. Very tall, very still, very 'I will tackle your ass.'

5.32 - so need a drink. Parched! Sen Amy Klobuchar from MN does the rah rah rah for getting a filibuster proof Senate. Big picture, folks - it's not just the White House we need to fight for!

More in part 2.

dear jesus: don't let me pass out if I meet the Obamas

Sometimes, unexpected opportunities just fall into your lap.

It's been a stressful week at Large Metropolitan Non Profit, as well as with my other non profit board obligation, but all of that will have been worth it because of what's going to happen in a few hours. A colleague (a very generous woman) is giving me her credentials for the National Women's Leadership Issues conference, being held in Chicago today and tomorrow.

Barack & Michelle Obama, high-level policy makers, and campaign advisors will all be there and I, little ol' me, will be soaking it all in. To hear about issues directly from the policy wonks I've only read about - for two days! This kind of access is unbelievable. I'm giddy! Thank goodness I brought a cute suit and shoes to work and have an eyebrow appt at lunch.

Yes, I am a sucker for political celebrity.

my lord that debate was boring.

and no questions about women's issues? i'm disappointed by Tom Brokaw for not picking any.

a collection of yays and boos.

Yay - Thanks, Plan B! 'Nuff said. (dodging baby-shaped bullet.)

Yay - To the LiBros I know: happy birthday to JP, Dr. Lee, and Cake of Pan! I'm a little late with the birthday wishes but you knew that about me already.

Boo - Work. Ugh. But so exciting! But, ugh. Stress.

And, yay! Pap smear. Can't wait. Hm. I think I should talk to my OB GYN about more permanent birth control that won't necessitate cutting into me again. Like an IUD or something.

Boo - Ugh. More stress: planning to get new apartment next spring. Budget wrangling sucks.

But yay! More autonomy. Decorating. I don't think I'll get a tv.

And ending with a boo - post fibroid surgery kangaroo pouch is NOT attractive.

i heart joe biden

I'm at a friend's house and we are swooning. Biden did fabulously! Sure, Palin was less incoherent than usual but who cares about that? She still had no idea what she was talking about and sure did a good job avoiding questions.

But Joe! Oh, Joe - you nearly cried manly, patriotic tears! You were firm and humorous and smart and stood by your guy Obama - and you nailed McCain!!

This was a good one, folks. A really good debate that only added to the Obama/Biden lead.

hello, chickens. like your roost?

Speak correctly, or build a big bunker -- chicagotribune.com

Poor conservative Kathleen Parker. She's shocked - absolutely shocked - that today's political discourse has devolved so much. Oh, the invective hurled at her for suggesting Palin isn't fit for the Republican ticket. Goodness! The insults. The ire! The death threats!

Such extreme partisanship has a crippling effect on government, which may be desirable at times, but not now. More important in the long term is the less-tangible effect of stifling free speech. My mail paints an ugly picture and a bleak future if we do not soon correct ourselves.

The picture is this: Anyone who dares express an opinion that runs counter to the party line will be silenced. That doesn't sound American to me, but Stalin would approve. Readers have every right to reject my opinion. But when we decide that a person is a traitor and should die for having an opinion different than one's own, then we cross into territory that puts all freedoms at risk. (I hear you, Dixie Chicks.)

I'm sorry folks said her parents should have aborted her, but the disingenuity here is a little hard to swallow.

Where has Ms. Parker been for the past 8 years? Where was she last month, during the GOP convention, and Amy Goodman was pitched in jail for covering it? Where was she decrying the national trashing of our political discourse when non-Republicans were called appeasers, traitors, terrorist collaborators and folks on the Hill were forced to eat those silly Freedom Fries; where was she when folks who objected to the unconstitutional reach of the Patriot Act, who correctly thought the Iraq war was full of bullshit, who said Guantanamo was a blight to our democratic legacy were called un-American; where has she been as American Muslims continute to suffer racial profiling, terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and have had their loyalties called into question because of their religion or heritage; where was she for the last two elections when two pretty smart presidential candidates lost their races because her party accused them of being soft on defense while backing a mediocre guy whose sole act of mental agility was cooking up ways to get out of military service; and where has she been for the last 18 months as her party, and its lapdog punditocracy, made a point of racially Othering the Obamas?

And, yes, where has Kathleen Parker been for the last 20 years as her party got all comfy in its bed next to the Christian Right, who have no problem wearing the robes of a Pharisee.

Spare me the concern, Ms. Parker. Spare me your disappointment at how the nation's political discourse has become vile, limited, intellectually bankrupt and savage. Your party built this roost and I'd say it's about time you saw exactly what your chickens look like.

It's the stupidity, not the skirt.

'It is going to be so good,' I said.
'I know. I cannot wait,' Roomie said.
'Utter trainwreck.'
'Disaster,' Roomie agreed.

I cannot help but thrill at the upcoming debacle that will be the VP debate. I'm heady with it. I shiver when I think of it. If this was a Roman arena, I'd be one of those barbaric spectators, with my thumb turned down.

It's unseemly, isn't it? Unlike other feminists who've been writing about their conflicted feelings toward Palin and how her running for the 2nd in Command makes them feel bad about their feminism, I have never felt bad about wanting to see this woman get shoved off the political stage, never to be seen again. But until today, I had no idea why I was getting more and more ginned up to see Palin destroyed so publicly.

I saw a glimmer of a reason yesterday when I watched one unbearable minute of the Couric interview. I tried, I really did. I tried to sit through them but the incoherence, the plain cluelessness, the vacuity - it all did me in! Aargh! I couldn't take it and stopped the video. I still haven't seen the whole thing. I can only read it in transcripts, in short spurts.

I couldn't bring myself to watch the Gibson interview, either.

But today, when I was talking to Roomie, I realized that watching Palin get plucked out of nowhere like a modern day Courtney Cox in a Bruce Springsteen video has made me suffer a high school flashback, back to a time when I hated seeing charming mediocrity succeed. There's no good way to explain it without sounding like a bitch so I'll just shrug and admit it: smart people make me swoon, stupid people make me angry. Especially deliberately stupid people.

And Sarah Palin is deliberately stupid.

I count her among the people who refuse to learn; people who refuse to research (or at least do a little digging); people who refuse to think critically or ask good questions; people who refuse to explain things in clean, elegant ways; people who refuse to speak without using jargon, cliches or sentimental shorthand - ugh! I cannot stand seeing these people in positions of authority!

For the last 8 years, such a person has been our President and it has triggered every single one of my snobby, brainiac issues. It infuriates me to see such a person leading our country and if someone like Sarah Palin, a woman several degrees dumber than Shrub, gets into the White House, I might as well lose eternal faith in the benefit of higher education.

LeBlanc at Bitch Ph.D. says it a bit more elegantly than I but the point stands: I can't stand Sarah Palin because she epitomizes everything I don't respect.

And I can't WAIT until Biden wipes the floor with her.

our fiscal mess explained

Bitch Ph.D. has a good post up from her BritFriend, explaining our current fiscal crisis. I'd write about this more but, lately, my reaction has been to confusedly pray I don't lose my non profit job, begin brainstorming a move back to corporate for a bigger paycheck and more stability (yeah, right), begin looking for a sweet but not too bright Sugar Person.

Update: Bailout a No Go!

...And, stocks plunge.

Niice.

[House Rejects Bailout - NYTimes.com]

shorter bailout blame: The Brown People Did It! and what i'm reading this morning

It is a truth universally acknowledged (among Republicans) that when the economic shit hits the fan the one holding the shovel is most likely a low-income person of color.

So it is with this bailout mess. Now that the package has been approved, all eyes are looking for a scapegoat. Surprise, surprise, the luminaries on the Right have lit upon their various whipping persons: people of color, poor people, affirmative action, immigrants and even the nice fuzziness of multiculturalism.

You can catch reaction to this line of spin at Feministe and Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose thread includes a very good parsing of CRA lending policy.

(No, I'm not going to link to Malkin, Coulter or Sailer. You can Google them yourself and gag in the privacy of your own desk.)

Of note is Tim Wise's essay that not only takes this line of thinking to task, it also pokes some holes in the 'personal responsibility' canard the Right is so fond of trotting out:

So there you have it: white conservatives who simply cannot bring themselves to blame rich white people for anything, and who consistently fall back into old patterns, blaming the poor for poverty, black and brown folks for racism, anybody but themselves and those like them. That anyone takes them seriously anymore when they prattle on about "personal responsibility" is a stunning testament to how racism and classism continue to pay dividends in a nation whose soil has been fertilized with these twin poisons for generations. Unless the rest of us insist that the truth be told--and unless we tell it ourselves, by bombarding the folks who send us their hateful e-mails with our own correctives, thereby putting them on notice that we won't be silent (and that they cannot rely on our complicity any longer)--it is doubtful that much will change.

When conservatives say things like 'Oh, if only those darkies hadn't whined about equal access and equal opportunity, we wouldn't be in this mess!' I realize that there is a huge gulf between us that will never be bridged.

Conservative anger always seems to float downward, blaming people who always get the shorter end of the privilege stick; my anger floats up. I'm not going to blame the folks who use pay day loans to make their tiny paychecks last a little longer; I'm gonna look fish eye at the greedy white-collared sonofabitch who calculated that he could fleece more sheep by putting a pay day loan office on every corner in the south side.

I know, very noblesse oblige of me. But it's not, really. It's called freaking compassion!

...

I'm working on a complicated piece I've been wanting to write about intentional motherhood so I've been snapping up essays on motherhood, birthing and contraception. This is one linking increase demand for food and family planning.

This is also one about black midwives fighting the AMA for the opportunity to provide black maternal care.

And, of course, the asshat from Louisiana who thought it was a good idea in a brainstorming session to throw out 'sterilize black women' as a way to combat poverty. Uh-huh. No, that's not racist or problematic as shit at all.

Oh, and then there's this - it only took one month for the bloom to be permanently rubbed off the rose. (Yeah, there are huge problems if Parker thinks Palin is a picture of modern feminism but to get a huge, horking female conservative to admit Palin was a bad pick? I'll gloat.)

And here - a third party (who??) solution to the economic crisis at hand from Cynthia McKinney (via Alas, a Blog.)

Get to reading!

The Debate: Finally!

I'm sitting here, with my girls and amid a fab spread of cheeses, pate and chips/dips (as well as a hell of a lot of beer), watching the debate. And we're taking a drink everytime we hear the words: war, POW, Main Street, and hope. We won't get as plowed as watching the Orientalizing opening cermonies of the Olympics, but maybe we'll get a nice buzz on.

Consider this your space to share your thoughts, reactions, funny asides and observations during this debate.

Carry on!

[I've also opened a thread at Bitch, PhD if you wanna take part over there.]

happy (39th) birthday to me

Birthday resolutions:

Birthday resolutions:
Stop smoking. I had no idea the cigarette I had when I got home on Tuesday night, exhausted, would be my last. Now I know.
Exercise more. Yes, I've internalized our culture's messages about age and beauty and I refuse to be the dumpy, cute, near-40 year old.
Stop procrastinating. Feh, maybe tomorrow.
Be mindful.
Go to church more. (see Procrastinating)
Get more sleep.
Eat more salads - or at least alternate them with the bags of Doritos I love.
Find a tailor. (see Salads and Doritos)
Be open.
Make an effort.
Call the family more often, for god's sake!
Get regular Paps. And get on the mammogram tip, too.
Finish Worst Romance Novel Draft #1 by New Year's. Then sell it and begin to stalk Eloisa James because she is my hero.
Write more. Write better.

(And, because I'm creepy like that, remember Agatha the Fibroid? She who was untimely ripped from my woman parts last fall? You can take a gander at what that looks like over here. Neat!)

shorter McCain: 'the dog ate my homework'

McCain calls for debates to be delayed - msnbc.com

Really?! Better yet, let's suspend the election altogether until this whole icky mess blows over.

It's just too good, so I'm posting the whole thing:

McCain called for Friday's first presidential debate to be postponed, according to prepared remarks released by the campaign. The dates for the debates were set more than 10 months ago by the Commission on Presidential Debates, on Nov. 19, 2007.

From a Senior McCain source:
-- McCain called Obama before he made the statement and told him he was going to suspend his campaign and move back to DC until the economic crisis has been figured out.
-- McCain wants to create "a political free zone" until a deal is reached between now and Monday.
-- McCain also spoke with Bush and urged him to get both sides to work together

The Obama campaign's Bill Burton said in a statement: "At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details."

Here's part of what McCain said, in part:

"Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me. ...

"We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved. I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.

"I am confident that before the markets open on Monday we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people. All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so."

student voting: a handy legal guide

[crossposted at Bitch, Ph.D.]

So I'm at work, trying to put together communications for GOTV and I am realizing that there is a huge gap in my knowledge re: the voting process for students. I know the rules for early voting, absentee voting and registering and what to do if you're challenged at the polls here in Illinois, but what about for students?

Everyone I've spoken to has drawn a blank when I try to develop a guidesheet for students voting in this election. The best I can come up with is, 'Uh, be familiar with the laws of the state you're going to school in or, uh, vote absentee.'

Not good enough. I had no idea there were so many barriers to student voting - and it's no wonder that previous elections have seen younger voter turnout remain so flat. We make it virtually impossible for them to vote!

Some states have flat out refused to recognize students' residency as valid (hello, Texas, Virginia and New York); some states don't recognize student IDs as valid identification, making it impossible for students to comply with HAVA (Help America Vote Act) guidelines; some states require drivers licence addresses to match voter registration card addresses, which unfairly burden students from another state; and then there are those state officials who claim that students voting where they go to school could endanger financial aid or scholarship awards.

So what are the rules? Where can student voters go for clean information?

Thank goodness I didn't have to do much legwork.

The Brennan Center has developed a web tool that provides a handy legal guide for students during this election year. They code states according to how student-voting friendly they are - green is friendly, red is not. (Just guess which states aren't friendly.) They give you what the regulations are and what maze of red tape you'll have to navigate to come out the other side. They also dispel all the myths WRT losing financial aid, imperiling parents' taxes and endangering tuition.

The guide does not say that students merely have to show up to vote, but helps prepare students for whatever bullshit their state throws in their way. Forewarned in forearmed.

So, professors and grad student instructors, or anyone who knows a college student voter who's fired up - do your students a solid and tell them about this guide so they can prepare themselves for what they need to do to vote without too much issue. They don't have a lot of time.

Updated: to add that Jack (from Jack & Jill Politics) has created a Voter Suppression Wiki. They have an action page that is pulling information together from voter suppression watchgroups, contact information to report irregularities, different campaigns and legal actions already in progress to halt voter suppression.

being busy - and being invisible at church

good gracious!
this week has been a little bit full.

had a date on monday (which was fun), worked furiously to get ready to leave town for a meeting on tuesday, was in indianapolis on wednesday for my meeting, flew back, worked furiously on thursday to catch up and now - hey! more working furiously while also getting ready for a church retreat over the weekend, a birthday party and maybe a tennis date.

but what i really want is a nap.
...

speaking of church, here's a little story i haven't had a chance to share. it reminded me that, as progressive as my congregation is, it has a LOOONG way to go to recognize something that Macon D over at Stuff White People Do has written about here and here. (And has posted a fine analysis of non-white reaction to what white people do here.)

i was with some church folks at a farewell reception for a church colleague. most of the people there were from Session, some i recognized from my years as Deacon, and some from my position as board member on the non profit organization housed at the church. in other words, these were not complete strangers to me.

but as the cocktail party wore on, it became clear that people did not recognize me to the same extent that i recognized them.

little old white ladies rushed up to me and cooed, 'oh, stacy! it's so good to see you here!' repeatedly, they did this - even after someone else had introduced me as 'Ding,' member of the Such&Such Board. oh, the stiff smile i'd wear as their eyes would blink and flutter and i could see their confusion, which probably sounded a little like this:

'what? but - but - stacy is The Black Girl! this is a Black Girl, so...this must be stacy! but she says she's not stacy! but she must be! why isn't she stacy?!'

sigh.

when i put in my requisite 90 minutes of cocktailing, i sat in the lounge area to check my messages on my cell phone. a man from the reception came up to me, hugged me and said, 'oh, stacy! it was really good to see you tonight!'

i had been standing next to this man when the departing executive director of our organization publicly thanked me for my service on the board - and said my name.

flatly, i said, 'i'm not stacy.'
he said, 'oh.' silence. uncomfortable silence as i stared at him, with my cell phone in my hand. i was not smiling.

he said, 'well, it was good to see you.' and rushed away while i really tried not think bad thoughts about white people - and failed.

who is stacy? stacy is the african american woman who runs the very successful tutoring and mentorship program at our church.

and, clearly, the white people i serve with at church think she and i are exactly the same person. this is not the first time this has happened to me. at our mission benefit, at a board dinner, and during coffee hour while i stand at our organization's table during a fundraising campaign - i am every other black woman in church except who i really am.

do white people really not see the differences between us? do we really blur and blend into indistinguishable shapes? are we just all brown and black and yellow blobs that float indistinctly in and out of white vision?

this is the kicker: not one person apologized for mistaking me for stacy. not a single word of apology passed their thin, christian lips.

excuse me, your freudian slip is showing

Scene: breakfast bar at suburban indianapolis hotel.

Ding: hi, I'd like french toast.

Chef (a congenial pink faced man):sure thing!

(Whipping up breakfast)

Chef: brown sugar? Uh, I mean, want sugar? I mean, how about some powdered sugar?!

Ding: um, yeah. Sure. Powdered sugar.

Chef: I don't know why I said brown sugar! I mean, brown sugar! Ridiculous.

Ding (wondering why he won't stop saying brown sugar):no worries. Powdered sugar is fine.

Uh-huh.

john mccain = bad judgment

i think today should be john mccain=bad judgment day.

make it the title of whatever blog post you write and then write whatever you want. it's up there; it's sending the message.

for this post, i have about 30 minutes before i leave for the airport and i wanted to vent a little about this election (as if i'm the only one going through fits.)

to the american people - you're still a bunch of fekkin' idjits. really. you're like the apostle paul who was stuck on his anti-bacon thing. how many times did he need to have the vision of the sheet with all the food on it? 3 times before he got the message??

well, here we are, living the past two republican administrations and you're still willing to give those GOP fuckers a third try.

if we get stuck with Gramps and Hockey Mom for President, i'll blame you. you and your home schooled values. (anyone see that SNL skit? gosh, it was hilarious.)

i mean, i frakking give up, you know? you'd think the past 8 years was proof enough that the GOP is venal, corrupt, ideologically retarded and just plain bad for the country. but, clearly, most of us really are too stupid to vote in our own best, long-term interest.

so, as our country's banks fail, our industrial sectors fail, our economic indicators fall, and we wage war on more countries because the Hockey Mom doesn't know why the Bush Doctrine is a failure, i hope you're happy.

after all, you sure did stop those slutty girls from using birth control and killing teh babehs.

frakkin' idiots.
(yeah, i'm pissed off. i'm going to be sitting in an airport lounge while Fox News blares at me! frak!)

Quick Hit: Can I touch your hair? - Feministing:

Renee at Womanist Musings has a great post up, Can I Touch Your Hair? Black Women and The Petting Zoo.
Natural hair equals revolutionary because it says I do not covet whiteness. It says I have
decolonized my mind and no longer seek to embrace the qualities of my oppressor. It flies in the face of beauty traditions that seek to create black women as unfeminine and thereby undesirable. My natural hair is one of the truest expressions of the ways in which I love myself because I have made the conscious choice to say that I am beautiful, without artifice or device. It further states that I will not be judged by the yardstick of white womanhood. My beauty is a gift from my foremothers who knew on a more instinctual level than we know today, that 'woman' is as beautiful as she believes herself to be.

Yeah, well, my relaxed hair says, "Shit, this humidity is driving me fucking nuts!"

amazingly candid

What to Expect When You're Aborting
[via WomenStake]

shameless plug: follow me!

Hey!

If you read Screed (in fact, if you just can't get enough of Screed) show me your love and Follow me!
Yes. I am totally craven for attention.

I'm a Libra.

do *you* have friends of another color?

I'm glad Glamour had this panel (h/t Racialicious.) I've always had friends, close friends, of other ethnic backgrounds and I sincerely believe that most of this stuff about race and difference, privilege and white supremacy, would be addressed in a more thoughtful way if folks actually knew people of another ethnicity.

(Like, KNEW them. Not knew OF them. You know?)

Slightly related, but sort of different, over at Stuff White People Do, Macon D. had a really thought provoking post about all-white spaces and the cultural, historical, social blindnesses that kind of monochromaticity can create.

(Hm. 'Monochromaticity.' Perhaps not a real word. But, like, Lollapalooza. Did anyone else notice how White Lolla was and how nearly all the social pairings/groupings seen were monochromatic?)

In a similar way, I think having friends all of one color is...limiting. It speaks to an insularity that I think is really puzzling.

Anyway, Glamour wants to know and I do, too: Do you have intimate friends (not mere acquaintances) from another ethnic group? If so, what's your story?

(I'll show you mine if you show me yours.)

Community Organizing: Not a tea party

I live in Chicago.

My adopted city is one with a vibrant history of immigration, ethnic pride, migration, work, violence, poverty, ambition, and working class values (with a little head breakin' and racial segregation thrown in for good measure.)

It's also a city that has always taken part in community organizing, that thing the GOP sneers at. A better word for it would be grassroots community organizing.

The thing about grassroots organizing is that it happens outside of power. It goes directly to the folks being impacted by bad policies, by inequity, by disenfranchisement and it helps them fight against all that and work in their own best interest.

It's hard work helping people fight in their own best interest, especially when those in power say that the interests of the rich ARE the interests of everyone else. It's hard to mobilize folks to go up against big institutions and work for reform and actually win, especially when those institutions pretty much depend on the bafflement of the communities they exploit or neglect.

Community organizing does what government can't or won't.
Without community organizing, where would we be?

The organization I work for was founded in the 19th century by 13 women meeting in someone's home. They saw women migrating to the city from Illinois farms with no way to navigate this new environment and so they vowed to do something about it. These women helped with housing and employment; they helped these women build community with one another and, later, they integrated their clubs long before most other women's clubs were comfortable with the idea. They went on to agitate for women's sufferage and then helped organize Wednesdays in Mississippi, during the Civil Rights movement. In the 70s, these women helped mobilize the working women of Chicago to fight for sexual harrassment and gender discrimination laws that literally transformed the way thousands of working women were treated in this city.

These were ordinary women, hidden women. Wives, daughters, secretaries and students - going up against political disenfranchisement, racism, and sexual discrimination - meeting in lunch rooms, living rooms, libraries, churches, and community centers, sharing their stories, identifying deep systemic problems and dedicating themselves to solving them. These were women writing letters, crashing city council meetings, rallying in plazas, and riding buses to help other women fight police violence and racial conflict.

Who benefits from community organizing?

Mostly poor people, working people, elderly people, children, people of color, people who don't usually have access to power and influence.

Who doesn't the GOP care about, if they're so ready to be contemptuous of community organizing?

Poor people, working people, elderly people, children, people of color, people who don't usually have access to power and influence.

Ideally, grassroots community organizing allows for the flattening of power. Maybe, just maybe, this is a clue into why the GOP hates it so much. For some reason, the GOP just doesn't like the idea of ordinary people taking up the mantle of changing their circumstances - or the idea of anyone helping them do so. Though they say they're the party of 'personal responsibility,' when a community decides to take responsibility for itself and mobilizes to fight for its own interests, they characterize the effort as lazy or irresponsible and feckless.

It's funny. They say a lot about Christian values. They spend a lot of time holding hands (or kissing ass) with the Christian Right. But they don't have a firm grasp of the Golden Rule or the Beatitudes. To me, a woman who grew up in Sunday School and still remembers her lessons about the sermon on the mount, religious minded folks who express contempt for the poor and disenfranchised screams hypocrisy.

If you work as an organizer share your story here: what you do, who you fight for and what you're up against.
Tell the GOP exactly , and other folks who hate the idea of fairness, what community organizing is about.

RNC 08!: it's about McCain

Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process - NYTimes.com (h/t Americablog)

There are so many things wrong with this, where to begin?

Well, let's begin with how this story is a perfect example of how Republicans say one thing and reality dictates something else, entirely.

They say: McCain's campaign thoroughly checked Palin out
Reality: "A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin."

They say: McCain's campaign knew Palin inside and out
Reality: "top aides were vague on Monday about how and when he had learned of [Bristol Palin's] pregnancy, and from whom."

They say: McCain's campaign went through the vetting process painstakingly
Reality: "[McCain] had his first face-to-face interview with her on Thursday and offered her the job moments later. Advisers to Mr. Pawlenty and another of the finalists on Mr. McCain’s list described an intensive vetting process for those candidates that lasted one to two months."

They say: McCain's campaign had the FBI check her out
Reality: "an F.B.I. official said Monday the bureau did not vet potential candidates and had not known of her selection until it was made public."

They say: McCain's campaign did a good job gathering all background information
Reality: "officials in Alaska said Monday they thought it was peculiar that no one in the state had the slightest hint that Ms. Palin might be under consideration" - including the state's GOP chair, state legislative leaders, business leaders, community leaders - leaders of any kind.

They say: McCain's campaign wanted the selection to be a surprise.
Reality: They didn't do their homework.

But the biggest gap in what McCain's camp says and what the reality is becomes clearer once we discover who the main driver was behind the Palin pick.

They say: McCain is a maverick, a reformer beholden to no one.
Reality: "As word leaked out that Mr. McCain was seriously considering [Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge], the campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates."

And who were these influential conservatives? The Christian Right.

Wow, McCain. Way to stand tall.

Ohmigod.
They really did just throw a dart at a map to pick a VP.

RNC08!: leaving no civil right unviolated

La Chola has updates on her space on the arrests at the RNC convention.

Oh, haven't heard about the arrests? Haven't heard about journalists, independent media and people being arrested, harassed, detained and whole neighborhoods being raided?

Don't worry. That's exactly how the Republicans like it. Burn that platform they distributed. They crap on the idea of democracy in the name of national security.

Nihilix has posts up at Bitch, PhD about the St. Paul arrests here and here.

Bitch also has good links for coverage here.

Also check out The Campaign Silo and Fire Dog Lake for updates.

Number of arrests: 187 and counting.

Thank you, Republicans. Thanks for the peek into your worldview: you, all safe and pink inside your bunker of freedom while rubber bullets and tear gas flies outside.

omg: fire in the neighborhood

It pays to be the crazy lady who stays up waay past her bedtime to read.

Around 2 am, I was getting ready for bed and saw flames coming from the alley across the way. I thought I was seeing flames from a deck so I ran to the windows in the living room.

Shit! The trash behind one of the buildings was burning and the fire was slowly climbing higher. The houses are so close here, it would be no problem for it to spread.

I grabbed my phone, gabbled my information to 911 and began pulling on jeans and a shirt over my nightie. I ran down the hall, the stairs, my flip flops really loud on the concrete. The sirens could be heard just about a street away.

Standing in the alley (our alley behind my building) I watched as the flames grew bigger and reached the electrical and phone lines. Then I began counting how far in the fire was - about 5 houses, in the middle of the block.

My friend, G-, lived in the middle of the block. Running down the street, around the corner, to the front of the building on fire. I pounded on G-'s door, yelling her name. I called her cell phone - it said it was out of service. The condos behind and beside the building on fire began to evacuate. People carried their kids and their pets.

I called T-, another neighborhood friend, to see if she could track G- down then remembered that she mentioned going to DC to visit her brother. Her cat - ? No clue. The fire was soon out in about 10 minutes.

The three engines are leaving now. The street next to the loft is a lake, practically.

SO glad I didn't fall asleep on the couch watching Law & Order reruns.

palin: not a maverick!

this was funny (in a piece on the GOP possibly cutting back its convention):

As to Palin's lack of national security experience, Cindy McCain said, "Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia. So, it's not as if she doesn't understand what's at stake here. It's also about making decisions and be targeted in what she thinks. She has a great mind. And she has a very serious direction in where she goes."

Also defending McCain's running mate choice was Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, passed over by McCain for the No. 2 spot. He called Palin "a maverick with a record of reform."

1. Proximity does not translate into knowledge.
2. Do people know what 'maverick' means?

For the undecideds who are flirting with voting for a McCain/Palin ticket because you think they're somehow not as problematic as Bush (or any other Republican) or an improvement over Obama/Biden on the issues, here's how her image as 'maverick' (i.e., a lone dissenter who takes an independant stance apart from her associates) stacks up to her Rovian image on the issues:

Reproductive Justice: "I am pro-life and I believe that marriage should only be between and man and a woman." (her campaign website, 2006)

The Economy: She's looks like a budget bulldog and balanced Alaka's budget while Governor.

Crime & Punishment: she's pro-death penalty and her goal as governor was to beef up law enforcement

Civil Rights: she doesn't think gays and lesbians need them

Education: pro-No Child Left Behind; school accountability; building a strong work ethic in students; early child care education

Energy (she's on the record most about this): suspend AK 8-cent fuel tax for one year. (Aug 2008); Gasline Inducement Act: 1,715-mile natural gas pipeline. (Aug 2008); Commercialize Alaska's North Slope natural gas. (Aug 2008); Agrees with Obama on more Alaska oil & gas production. (Aug 2008); Windfall oil profits tax prevents investment. (Aug 2008); Lift moratorium on offshore drilling. (Jul 2008); Convinced McCain to drill offshore; not yet on drilling ANWR. (Jul 2008); Unlock ANWR; we're ready, willing and able to contribute. (Jun 2008); Fully fund for the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office. (Feb 2008); $250M for proven alternative energy, including wind & hydro. (Jan 2008); Gas pipelines are approved if they meet Alaska's needs. (Jan 2008); National energy policy not an either/or proposition. (Nov 2007); Fund cellulosic biofuel research in Farm Bill. (Oct 2007); Submitted legislation to build natural AGIA gas pipeline. (Mar 2007); Stranded Gas Development Act no longer applies. (Nov 2006); Get ANWR open. (Nov 2006)

The Environment: Sue US government to stop listing polar bear as endangered. (Aug 2008); We must encourage timber, mining, drilling, & fishing. (Jan 2008); Provide stability in regulations for developers. (Jan 2007); Convince the rest of the nation to open ANWR. (Jan 2007)

Health Care: Health care must be market-and business-driven. (Jan 2008); Take personal responsibility for personal health & all areas. (Jan 2008); Doctors should manage health care, not bureaucracies. (Jan 2008); Personal responsibility & choices key to good health. (Jan 2008); Flexibility in government regulations to allow competition. (Nov 2006)

Homeland Security/War: Armed forces, including my son, give us security and freedom. (Jan 2008); Visits Kuwait; encourages Alaska big game hunting to troops. (Sep 2007); Promote from within, in Alaska's National Guard. (Nov 2006)

Here's the GOP platform, which the Family Rights Council calls the most conservative, pro-family, and pro-life platform in history (you can see the full draft here):

Immigration: calls outright for English to be recognized as official language; thrws out any hope for amnesty; defines immigration as a national security issue (Palin does not seem to have any position on immigration - yet. How much you think she's going to veer away from this plank?)

The Environment/Energy: the platform weakly acknowledges there is some 'warming effect' in carbon emissions but also cautions against 'doomsday' scenarios 'peddled' by 'aficionados' of a centralized control/spend gov't (I guess that would be us. We're aficionados. Can't you just see the sneer?) It also calls for offshore drilling and avoids mentioning ANWR.

The War: interestingly, the GOP appears nearly to avoid any mention of Iraq - only aying that national security is the first priority of gov't and shouldn't be micromanaged by a platform or Congress (or aficionados, either, I expect.)

Social Issues: women, gays and lesbians get thrown under the bus again and there's the de facto protest against stem cell research. Yup. That's as much social issues as you get with the GOP. Nothing about poverty, healthcare, economic empowerment, equal pay - nothing. Just abortions and gays.

Do you really think Palin, an evangelical Christian, is going to oppose any of these positions?

picking palin: maybe not so crazy after all

the Democratic Strategist has given me pause about the Palin pick. his reasons why Palin is more than a bizarro attempt to woo female voters:

But what I saw in Dayton was (1) the "maverick" GOP presidential candidate introducing his "maverick" running mate, although Palin, even more than McCain, is actually a conservative ideologue whose selection thrilled both cultural and economic factions of the Right; (2) a direct appeal by Palin to HRC supporters to consummate Hillary's campaign by shattering the splintered "glass ceiling;" (3) a compelling personal story of a woman who (a) has one son with Down's Syndrome, (b) another who is being deployed to Iraq on September 11; (c) is married to a Native American (at least technically) union worker and athlete; and (d) has bravely defied her party and oil companies in Alaska.

yesterday i thought that Palin would be unappetizing to testosterone-obssessed GOPers but her conservative creds are solid: anti-choice, anti-gay, fiscal conservative, believes global warming is fiction, wants to teach Creationism in schools, dedicated evangelical - no wonder ralph reed loves her. (which should have been my first clue!!)

so what's a dem to do?
i'd say leave the gender thing alone. we're too far along to keep playing these identity politics games.

yes yes yes - she's a chick. but so what? her gender is incidental to her regressive social and political beliefs. but more importantly, she's a chick who believes in all the things that tanked this country for the last 8 years. rip the mask of her so-called 'freshness' and 'maverick' status and frame her this way: she's a good-looking theocrat who wants to turn the clock back, basically a george bush in a skirt. we've done bush before, remember?

it should be really interesting to see the Dems in conflict with their desire to win and their unwillingness to be the bully.

ohh, that's trump! McCain picks running mate

It's a girl!

ooh, way to trump the Friday news cycle, gramps (thus endangering any post convention bounce Obama's camp might receive)!

Sarah Palin...what do we know about her?

Background Information
Gender: Female
Family: Husband, Todd
5 Children: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig.
Birth Date: 02/11/1964
Birthplace: Sandpoint, ID
Home City: Wasilla, AK
Religion:

(no religion?! how can she call herself an American??)

Education:
BA, Communications/Journalism, University of Idaho, 1987.

Professional Experience:
Media
Utilities.

Political Experience:
Governor, Alaska, 2006-present
Former President, Alaska Conference of Mayors
Former Mayor/Manager, Wasilla City
Former Council Member, Wasilla City Council.

Organizations:
Member, Alaska Miners Association
Member, Alaska Outdoor Council
Member, Alaska Resource Development Council
Member, Chambers of Commerce (Various)
Member, Iditarod Parent-Teacher Association
Member, National Rifle Association
Member, Valley Hospital Association Board
Coach/Hockey Team Manager, Valley Youth Sports
Member, Youth Court Steering Committee
Former Member, American Management Association
Former Member, Salvation Army Board.

Caucuses/Non-Legislative Committees:
Chairman, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, 2003-2004
Former Member, Alaska Municipal League Board
Chair, Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission
Vice Chair, National Governors Association Natural Resources Committee.

Her record? Check out what Project Vote Smart has collected here.

Compare this 'bright shining star in the Republican firmament' to McCain on women's issues, economic empowerment issues and, other progressive issues (gay rights? racial justice?) and compare her to Bush on these things, too.

Good thing? Bad thing?

LeBlanc has this to say over at Bitch, PhD.:

I want you to hammer Sarah Palin on this stuff. If I were you, or if I were a reporter, or anyone who had a loud voice, today I would ask Sarah Palin the question:

If you were elected vice-president, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act came before the Senate once again, and the vote was tied, and you were called upon in your constitutionally-mandated role as tie-breaker, how would you vote? Would you, like me, vote that when women are denied equal pay for equal work, they should get restitution, or would you, like John McCain, vote that a Supreme Court decision making it nearly impossible for them to receive that restitution, should stand?

Don't let her get away with the "I'm a woman, of course I care about women" bullshit. Make her answer for the hypocrisy of her party.

This is the identity politics election sweepstakes, folks.
Who's feeling some conflict?

DNC 08: 'putting Barney Smith over Smith Barney'

nice one, barney. and how hilarious is the whole stadium chanting 'barney! barney! barney!'

i'm watching this on a slight dvr delay with Roomie and have to admit these 'voices of the people' are probably the best thing ever. i mean, the little latina woman who got an entire stadium of people to yell 'si, se puede'? awesome! and the pam lady who switched parties? loved how droll she was. other highlights: al gore and eisenhower's granddaughter.

(roomie has expressed love for dicky durbin. i've always thought of him as a smart little turtle. but i, too, must admit that durbin is a favorite of mine.)

my hopes for this speech: make it hard and make it aggressive and about policy and differentiation. go on the attack! punch them in the political groin!

and who called the voiceover for the obama video? i did! david strathairn! yes. these are the important things that roomie and i ponder while on the couch. if we had our own cable show, this is the quality of discourse you'd hear.

my heart just leapt a little when he accepted the nomination.

ok, he just 'addressed' HRC as an inspiration to his daughters and ours. enough to clear the bitterness? hm.

is he going after mccain? will he do a good a job as kerry in delineating himself from mccain? 'mccain doesn't get it.' is it strong enough?

'mccain won't even follow bin laden to the cave where he lives.' um, is that a snap?

the stuff about tactics and strategy worked for me. if the media doesn't get it, they're disingenuous and ass-hatty.

'it's not about me; it's about you.' nice and and easy target for the mccain camp.

'it is what is unseen' that keeps people coming to these shores - faith, people. faith in american promise.

nicely done. no political groin punch but now i feel bad for wanting one. see what you do to me, obama? you make me regret my violence!

asshat: this guy and whoever listens to him

Listen Up, Females. This Man Is Talking. - washingtonpost.com

It's so early in the morning I can't bear it, but here's a piece of this guy's wonderfulness:

'the cover [of his book] is eye-catching: a man towers over two black women sitting in desks (those awful ones from high school with the wooden writing surface attached to the spindly metal chair, remember?) with the book's title, "The Re-Education of the Female," scrawled on a chalkboard. The "students" are listening in rapt attention. This must be every man's dream.

[snip]

Read his book, ladies, and you can snag a catch just like him. Your responsibilities include cooking, staying skinny, wearing sexy things around the house and doing whatever your man tells you to do'

You know who I want to thank for giving me indigestion so early in the morning?
Prof. Lee, who emailed this to me.

Thanks, sir! Thank you very much.

DNC 08: it's the pundits turn. sigh.

Word from Bitch PhD is that Wolf Blitzer is tiny. I can totally see that. He has the large, elvish head of a tiny man.

Anyway, the incredibly disingenuous dude on MSNBC asks Rep. Patrick Kennedy why Michelle Obama's story was so necessary to convey to the voters. (Roll of eyes.) Why isn't he asking a black person why this story is necessary? Because a smart black person would tell him: "Well, MSNBC dude, it's because, for centuries, you folks haven't seemed to grasp the fact that we're Americans just like you."

10.22 pm - Chris Matthews asks Michelle Bernard, as another tall woman, what she thinks about Michelle Obama's speech. Yeah, Chris - that's the entry point for Michelle Bernard to this speech. Her height. What an asshat Chris Matthews is.

DNC 08!: it's Michelle's turn! (or, The Last Idealist)

9.23 pm - the Michelle Obama intro. OMG. I am a total sucker for a romance story.

(Grrr! I'm kicking myself a little bit. I totally could have met Michelle Obama this week through a professional connection. Dangit!)

Though the bio was just as slick as any other, it was a good piece to counter claims of 'uppity-ness' or 'elitism.' I really don't get it. You can put Michelle Obama next to Cindy McCain and, yet, we're supposed to believe that Cindy McCain is 'of the people' while Obama lives in the rarefied airs of the elite. What a topsy turvy world our pundits and political strategists have created for us.

(Incidentally, I wonder if the convention's soundtrack would be available on iTunes. It kicks ass.)

Ahh. 'Looking down on' vs 'looking over.' Nicely done. (Believable? Maybe.)

What I'm hearing in her speech is the same narrative that I, and other people of color like me, have lived. It's familiar to us. It's a narrative, however, that mainstream America still cannot believe about communities of color; like the Mark Penns of this country, mainstream America can't grasp the fact that black, brown or non-white people have the same American dream as they and that they have lived by that dream and hoped for the day when their lives as full Americans will be acknowledged.

I was saying to a friend today that people of color are the last idealists in this country. Fundamentally, we believe - despite the slights and the snubs and the daily presence of racism - that the Great American Story of fairness, hard work and reward for that hard work still has the possibility to exist. Oh, we can be disappointed; daily, we are disappointed. But we still believe in it and we believe in the application of fairness. This is our creed: If the world works one way for some people, we want the world to work the same way for the rest of us.

What could be more American than that?

That's what her speech has done - it has subtly re-established Black Americans as citizens of this country, the Mark Penns of this country be damned.

Go 'head on with your bad self, Michelle Obama.

DNC 08!: ignoring the TV people

8.06 pm - Shorter David Gergen: 'Waah! It's boring! Entertain us!'

Who knew that the real purpose of the convention was to entertain the TV people? Glad he straightened that out for me.

This, fundamentally, is the problem with pundits and why I prefer the unexpurgated feed. They see this whole political process as a source of entertainment, rather than a process that has real material impact on ordinary people. This convention is a show for them, a piece of political choreography that's being judged for its impact on them, if it plays to them, instead of if it matters to us.

Frakking smug bastards.

8.14 pm - they just can't stop showing the awkward dancing, can they? If Gergen was looking for a unified theme, this would be it: progressives might be wonky but they can't dance.

But Roomie and I will say this about the CNN coverage - it's chock full of useful trivia. Stats on gay, black and latino delegates and a rolling schedule of the night's events. How very new media. It's like they almost know what Twitter is. Or someone remembered what Pop Up Video was.

8.18 pm - Caroline Kennedy, hammering home the point that the programs ordinary Americans use and depend on exist because of Ted Kennedy. Good point.

8.30 pm - Roomie just said that Ted Kennedy looks like Mrs. Doubtfire. Sigh.

8.45 pm - Miguel del Valle. What I really want: a whole speech in Spanish. Wouldn't that just freak out Joe Scarborough?

(taking a brief convention break to send an email finalizing a coffee date.)

DNC 08!: live blogging after dinner

7.44 pm - Jesse Jackson, Jr. Very nice opening with the mountain top thing. And it's not in iambic pentameter. Very nice, indeed. I'm thrilled that he's speaking instead of his dad (and I'm wondering how his bid for Obama's Senate seat will go, if he goes that way.)

"Illinois is America. America, we need you to be with Barack Obama!" Nice.

And a good, strong close from the IL Congressman - and a Lenny Kravitz rocker, 'Going My Way'! Niice.

DNC 08!: live blogging after dinner

7.31 pm - don't you love Jimmy Carter? I do. Wait. He's not speaking? Roomie just said, 'Did he collapse??'

DNC 08!: live blogging while cooking dinner, pt 2

6.51 pm - Wow. The dancing. Go on with your bad selves, delegates. You know, about the music, it's almost like Obama's trying to send us a message: 'Rock Steady,' 'Respect,' 'No one,' 'September.' What could be next? 'Play that Funky Music White Boy?'

6.58 pm - ok, weird panel. gotta check the carbonara.

7.08 pm - mmm, carbonara. pancetta. and nancy pelosi! that's a nice phrase she used to describe her career - 'from the kitchen to the Congress.'

7.12 pm - Roomie just described the set design as very 'Newlywed Game.' I couldn't agree more.

7.15 pm - granted, the Democratic congress did some good things - but it would've been nice to see it hold the line on some things.

DNC 08!: live blogging while cooking dinner

Roomie was made uncomfortable by the live feed of un-rhythmic liberals grooving to the live soul band so now we're trying to find something else to look at.

And about that live band - kudos to the convention organizers for hipping America to soul music. (roll of eyes) I guess it's better than Fleetwood Mac.

Boy that John Legend is a cutie. And is it universal that gospel choirs code for Hope? It's just a question.

Ok, I gotta get back to my carbonara. But first - hey, you think Michelle Obama is going to lose her composure tonight and call someone whitey?

DNC08! Who's covering what?

You may or may not know that I now write for Bitch, PhD. Well, my sister Bitches got press credentials for the convention (I coulda been there with them but, eh, my travel schedule didn't work out.) But they have a plan for covering this historic convention and they're sticking with it! Check in with them for juicy tidbits, their trademark biting academic snark and for critical thinking skills that turn stupidity into wet toilet paper. (Did that make sense?)

Jack & Jill Politics - they are one of a 'could have been bigger' coterie of bloggers of color credentialed for the convention and they have a really neat convention coverage page. Get all your brown political coverage here - with additional links to other bloggers of color at the convention, too.

So far, this is where I'm going for my convention information.

Drop links if you have other sources!

Of VPs, Dates and Being the Other

First things first: Biden as Obama's VP pick.

I am not bothered by this.
I think it's brilliant, funny and totally expected. In fact, earlier this week, I called it while emailing with some friends. Friends called it for Bayh, Schweitzer and Webb but I went for Biden.

My reasoning:
As evidenced by an ample Google record, Biden has a long history of saying problematic shit re: people of color. I will not offer an opinion on Biden's racist tendencies - I'm just saying he says problematic shit.

The things he says are not that substantially different from what 98% of the general white population, conservative or self-identifying liberal, say/think about people of color in general, black people in particular. So, in effect, Biden is familiar to most of the population. He's easily recognizable; he is our American mirror.

By choosing Biden, the Obama campaign is saying to America, 'See? I get you. I know you're scared, but it's ok. Joe is just like you, and I like him! I'm not mad.' By signaling to the electorate that they're overlooking Biden's 'off the reservation' problematic racial shit, they are asking that we also overlook some things - primarily, the color of Obama's skin and all the weight it carries.

Yeah, yeah. Biden brings some bizarro 'connection' to 'everyday' people (pundits need to STFU) and foreign policy experience which is a good thing, but his biggest contribution to the Obama campaign is his whiteness. His benign, problematic, clueless whiteness. It's a gift and I hope Obama uses it well.

...
So I had a date today. Will there be a second? Just wait until the end of the story.

We went to the MCA for the Koons exhibit (which he didn't like at all because it had naked ladies and girly bits in it) and then talked for a bit on the patio while a wedding dinner was arranged. Our conversation, which I will spare you, reminded me of something a friend sent me from a Doctor Who recap:

In broad terms, the entire process of anima development in a male is about the male subject opening up to emotionality, and thus broader spirituality, by creating new paradigms as he encounters/projects new forms of femininity. The first is Eve, the Maiden: the emergence of the object of desire; has the troubling habit of simultaneously generalizing all females as evil and powerless. If you haven't met a guy stuck in this place... Well, trust me. You have. I don't know what else to say.

The second is Helen, as in Helen of Troy. In this phase, women are viewed as capable of worldly success and of being self-reliant, intelligent and insightful, even if not altogether virtuous. This second phase is meant to show a strong (untempered) schism in external talents but still lacking internal qualities (inability for virtue, lacking faith or imagination). You want the key to boys? This is it. Halfway through the rubric, and they're still not convinced women have an internal sense of ethics. Welcome to being the Other, if you hadn't noticed yet.

Brother Dude was stuck in Phase 2.

He asks me if I am looking for marriage.
I say, Not particularly.

He asks why.
I say, truthfully, that I don't think marriage particularly benefits me.

He asks me to explain.
I explain how the cultural construct of marriage is irrelevant to me and, frankly, I just don't see the social, financial or physical benefit for me. I've thought of this often and I've thought carefully about it; it's not a position I take casually.

His reaction? He says I must have suffered some kind of personal, abusive trauma to make me adopt such extreme ideas.

I explain that there has been no trauma, no abuse. These are my personal set of values and I'm sticking by them - because they're my values, you smug bastard, I thought.

He then called me inflexible and leaned back, saying that I'd change my mind.

A man telling me I don't know my own mind and I'll change it is a freaking red flag for me. He made me want to take my soda straw and plunge it into his frakking jugular.

The idea of a woman having real ideas and actually living by them is somehow stunning, apparently. Men are allowed to have Grand Theories and Values, but women aren't? This man is in his mid-30s; if he doesn't understand by now that there are women out here who actually live our lives according to our individual principles and ethics (which aren't ever up for approval by some dude) then he's not a guy I need to be around.

So, no. There won't be a second date for him. Smug bastard.

movin' on up

Alpa Chino: That's the theme song for the Jeffersons!
Kirk Lazarus: Just because it's a theme song doesn't make it any less true.
- Tropic Thunder

Say hello to the new Government Relations Officer at Large Metropolitan Chicago Non Profit.

That almost makes up for not joining my sister Bitches at the convention next week.

huh. i just realized i broke my august moratorium on all things racial.
see what you made me do, Problematic Academic Paper??

'those mulattoes sure are tragic'

Good lord. (via Racialicious, where I cribbed the title of this post - and you can read the original paper here.)

There is something to be said against reading half-assed academic crap in the morning before your coffee. Not only will you get gas, you will also want to take out your copy of Freakonomics and burn it at your desk in protest.

This paper might very well be a paragon of statistical analysis but, from a racial justice POV, this is what I find problematic about it:

The question - 'What's it like to grow up with one white parent and one black?' First, what value system is underlying this question? What impact will answering this question have if not to make us multiracial/biracial folks even more Other, or to pathologize interracial marriage or parents? And why this concentration on just black/white when biracial identity is so much more varied and complex? If we take their conclusions, on average, life for biracial kids pretty much sucks. How nice we're good to look at.

The sample of self-identifying biracial kids - extremely small. And then the overall study was 'informed' by conversations with a small focus group of 9 self-identifying biracial undergrads. Wha-huh?? And no one in this group said that this shit was problematic? That seems weird to me.

The survey - part of the big problem I have is with the negative behaviors that are coded 'black' and 'white.' Apparently, bad black kids are 'at risk' for sex and violence and white kids are 'at risk' for drinking and smoking. Mixed kids, the study concludes, take on both bad black and white behaviors. Nice way to codify some really problematic sterotypes and pass this off as value neutrality.

Numbers aren't without some kind of ideological underpinning. At one point the paper asserts 'For example, fighting is one aspect of behavior more associated with blacks than whites.' Really? By whom? School administrators? Is it more associated with blacks or is it that school fighting is punished more when the participants are black?

(see here for sources on race, equity and school discipline - as well as here and here.)

The conclusions - what's really interesting and frustrating is that the researchers try to overlay some kind of social or economic theory over their findings (1. black/white kids live in similar, fatherless homes like the average black kid, 2. black/white kids are middling academics, 3. but they sure are cute, and 4. they act out both black and white at risk behaviors) but end up saying "it is not obvious what type of economic model can reconcile the patterns in the data, particularly their especially bad behavior."

And the big red flag for me: Any study that links the social construct of race to 'bad' behavior, which negatively impacts people of color.

So economic theory can't provide any cover so where do they go to next? Here:

If we had to pick an explanation that best fits the facts, it would be the old sociology model of mixed-race individuals as the “marginal man”: not part of either racial group and therefore torn by inner conflict.

It sounds to me like some folks took a weekend to watch Imitation of Life and got all inspired.

I have a problem with the fact that the best theory they can come up with is something from 1928, not really a time known for solid, rigorous racial theory. And I have a problem that the basis for this bogus marginal man theory is the 'tragic mulatto' - hysterical, self-hating, sexually promiscuous (or easily compromised because they're just so desperate for affection), prone to criminality, alcoholism, and suicide.

Basically the Tragic Mulatto is fucked up - think Mariah Carey pre-Mimi or read Clotel and try not to gag - and that's what this paper is saying, ultimately. Roland Fryer, who I'm assuming is the primary author, may be an unapologetic voice on racial inequity who just follows where the data leads but his data goes to a place I would have thought we left behind.

on dating and hobos

prepare for a whiny, 'woe is me' mini-rant on the travails of dating while in your late 30s. 'travail' might be too strong. dating is no hardship (not compared to strategizing how to help launch a statewide legislative campaign) but it's not exactly filling me with light and joy. instead, what i feel is something akin to gas.

at this point in my life i'm thinking that celibacy might be the new black.

...

The Girl and the Hobo (as told to me by Roomie):

Roomie: So I'm waiting for my chiropractor and the door opens and this woman walks out. She's in a suit, pretty, very Lincoln Park lawyer type. So he opens the door and he's giggling and he says, 'Hurry up hurry up.' So I get on the table and he starts working on me and he's laughing so much I say what's up?

He says, 'So you saw that woman who just left? She comes into my office and the first thing she says to me is 'Oh my god. I fucked a hobo last night!''

Ding: Shut up! She fucked a hobo?!

Roomie: Oh, yeah. Apparently, she was at Friar Tucks -

Ding: Well, there you go. Friar Tucks is disgusting. No wonder she fucked a hobo. That's where they hang out! When I lived up there, we used to call it Tired Fucks.

Roomie: (snort) Tired Fucks! Classic. Anyway, she got plowed and woke up the next morning, naked, at her place, next to this guy.

Ding: Shut up!

Roomie: Wait for it. She wakes up and the guy is like, Hey, can I hang out here...today? She says, No fucking way! I'm taking a shower, going to work and I'll drop you off at your place. So they get in her car and - he gave her the address to the homeless shelter in Uptown!! She saw him get in the breakfast line!

Ding: Girl, no.

Roomie: Uh-huh. Fucked a hobo. She told Dr. X she thought he was a surfer!!

Ding/Roomie: Bwa ha ha ha ha!!!

The Front-Runner’s Fall: the Clinton Campaign memos

The Front-Runner’s Fall

If you haven't read the piece in The Atlantic about the internal workings of the Clinton campaign, you really should. Oh, not because it gives you a little thrill to have all your bad feelings against the Clinton campaign reaffirmed (if that was your wont) but because of what you can learn about basic lessons of management.

For me, especially if I put myself back in the strategic communications firm I worked in a few years ago, the story of the campaign's implosion was a textbook lesson of what happens when an organization A) fails to ensure proper values and strategy alignment among its teams, B) doesn't address bad information flow and C) lacks trust.

Not to sound all Fast Company, but values and strategic alignment is the glue that holds an organization together. In corporate speak, it's what folks talk about when they say they're 'on the same page.' Folks in suits talk a lot about 'being on the same page' but there is usually a big gap between where the Leader says they are and what folks on the frontline see. Say what you will about the GOP, in every single one of the candidates they run, values and strategy go hand in hand.

In the Clinton campaign's case, HRC and her staff seemed to come from totally different directions: Penn wanting to go immediately negative (which I'll note later), other key staff resisting, the Leader being conspicuously absent from the final decision. Did HRC really believe that BO was 'un-American'? I seriously doubt that. Yet, what made Penn think she'd be open to that? What values gap existed between them?

(And sharing the same goal does not mean people share the same values.)

My biggest takeaway from the piece was how important information flow is to any successful campaign (not just political campaigns, either.) The memos reveal how information was plugged, or viewed with distrust, at various points. Information on budgets, tactics, shifting electoral landscape - all, at some point, went ignored by key people after being floated 'up' or 'across' the organization from people on the frontline. As a result, the leader was left without the tools she needed to do the work she needed to do. Does this kind of isolation make a leader trust her team or does this make her assume more responsibility because she can't trust her team to do what it needs to do to deliver? And, in return, does a team look at their leader's withdrawal and respond positively or panic, withholding bad news and leading to more distrust?

High performing teams don't have these issues; they see and act (quickly) through the same goggles, acting with flexibility to good and bad environmental factors; ideas are evaluated on their value-addedness (is this idea going to enhance our mission and vision, stretch it or take us outside of it?); high performing teams act with autonomy but there's always an honest touchstone with leadership, marked by free flowing communication.

If only someone on Clinton's staff had read a few issues of the Harvard Business Review.
...
Reading the Atlantic piece, I was riveted. Reading Penn's memos where he suggested highlighting Obama's Otherness and 'un-American-ness,' I thought, 'Wow, he actually said it.' If we take his suggestion and pair it with his note that the campaign was trying to 'neutralize' race as a major factor, then we get a picture of a man with his head very far up his ass. You want to take 'race' out of the picture but you don't mind telling a whole bunch of black and brown people that a man of color is un-American.

Talk about problematic - and talk about an opportunity for the Dems to ask themselves if that kind of strategic thinking reflects the values of their party.

This piece also makes me hope the Obama camp will be careful of values/strategy misalignment, mission and vision creep, or perceptions thereof. (In other words, no more FISA or offshore drilling shit!) But I'm almost positive Obama reads the HBR. Right?

asshat, special infidelity edition: john edwards

You heard me. John Edwards is an asshat.

What kind of asshat runs for President knowing his adulterous shit is probably going to be made public, very very soon? And what would this asshat have done if, by a miracle, he had nabbed the nomination?

What kind of asshat gets his ass caught by the National Enquirer?
(OJ Simpson, you say? Touche.)

What kind of asshat still has an affair with a campaign aide?
(At least try for something different - a lonely, blind schoolteacher from Fresno who fears she'll never know the heat of passion, or something.)

For that matter, what kind of asshat still has affairs?

(Dear political dudes, have you learned nothing from Bill, Eliot or the scads of other political dudes who've been caught ball walking? For the love of the citizenry, develop a chemical addiction or something. We will readily forgive a big ol' pipe smoking meth head over a guy who cheats on his cancer-stricken wife!)

Then again, we get the asshats we deserve. After all, what country still insists their public officials live like virgins?

So there you go. John Edwards, asshat.

ChurchGal: the Olympics, the Other and Orientalism

From my other blog, ChurchGal, a post is up on 'the Olympics, the Other and Orientalism':

I love the Olympics. Not for sports - I could care less, frankly, though I enjoy watching the more obscure things, like fencing. I like the Olympics because the nationalism is just so immensely wrong and amusing.

Friday, my friends and I made up a drinking game during the Beijing opening ceremonies. For kicks, and because we are students of the problematic ways our media covers other countries during the Olympics, we made a list of things that might be said or shown during NBC coverage of the games that might be a little problematic or just drive us nuts.

We weren't disappointed. You can catch the rest of my post over here.

the agony of the feet

What a weekend.

Friday: left work early (hello, summer hours), went to see a friend's condo I was thinking of renting (my bed won't fit in the bedroom so it's off my list), and on the bus ride back to my 'hood, got caught up in the most absurd email thread with girl friends who were coming over to celebrate Roomie's birthday and watch the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Games.

Giddily, we devised a drinking game but our mockery of the U.S. Orientalist coverage of the Games was too dead-on.

(Not only did we predict many mentions and camera shots of the Forbidden City, the use of the word 'ancient' and the imputation of Chinese 'inscrutability,' we also predicted the following exchange:
'Well, you know, Jim, the Chinese invented paper and the printing press.'
'As well as gunpowder, Bob.'
We howled.)

Within a half hour of the ceremonies, we were plowed. By the end of the ceremonies we were - well, I can't even remember what we were. (If you haven't seen the ceremonies, you should. It'll blow your mind. "And how do they do it? They do it with PEOPLE!!" Awesome.)

Saturday: a day of recovery.

Sunday: early morning tennis with Roomie and then more recovery while reading comic books.

Happy Olympics, folks.
...

2nd most favorite Olympic ceremony moment:

NBC Chinese 'expert': And this is the Chinese character for 'harmony,' which will be a repeating theme tonight of these Games. What's so ironic and interesting is how there are so many disharmonious things about Chinese culture and life - the environment, human rights. So it's really, you know, an ideal.

Ding: Yeah, sorta like our ideal of, you know, democracy.

ouch.

just in case i ever get too full of myself i can always count on the universe to keep me in check:

Ding (texting Boy): hey, you busy tomorrow night?
Boy: Who?
Ding: Just thought if you weren't busy you'd be up for hanging out.
Boy: When?
Boy: Who r u?

niiice.

asshat, international edition: Russia!

I was totally going to just keep on working but a pal sent me this: Sexual harrassment okay as it ensures humans breed, Russian judge rules - Telegraph

What. The. Hell.
There are no words to describe the frakked-up-ness of this news item.

Choice bits:

The unnamed executive, a 22-year-old from St Petersburg, had been hoping to become only the third woman in Russia's history to bring a successful sexual harassment action against a male employer.

The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

"If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled. Who knew the word 'Please?' could mitigate patriarchy? And where the hell did that judge get his law degree? A cereal box?

I could make a joke about mail order brides here, but I won't because it's just too messed up.

Sorry, poppets.
Ding has a job and is workin' it. Hard.

on patriarchy, Lolla and my 'build'

Patriarchy: My alter-ego,ChurchGal, has a post up on LaVena Johnson and sexual assault in the military, which has been a story I've been tracking for a bit. It's depressing but something needs to be done about it. Please visit and read.

Lollapalooza: Great show on Saturday; Roomie and I sat, sunburned, ate and tried to put off peeing as long as possible. Devotchka was fun, Jamie Liddel had a weird set (beat boxing? really??), Booka Shade sounded like a lot of fun, Brand New was meh, Sharon Jones was fabulous, and Broken Social Scene was teh awesome. Where to party your ass off? Perry's tent. Man, I wished I was young again, under a disco ball. Instead, I rocked gently to the electronic beats while standing next to two hot, strapping CPD officers who also loved the music. I was really surprised at how civilized and clean everything was. If every music festival could be this organized I'd go all the time. Note to self: next time, bring a whole packet of baby wipes.

My 'build': So my life insurance has told me that my policy needed to be adjusted because of my 'build.' My 'build' is dictating that I need to lose 15 pounds; my 'build' will be reevaluated in 6 months or so. But they reassured me that others with my 'build' have gone on to living quite happy and healthy lives. (Thanks, 'build!') While grocery shopping with Roomie, she reminded me that Weigh Watchers ice cream bars are 0 pts for my 'build.' Heh. My 'build' is happy with that.