Further...

02.08.12 - 2:31 PM

In the wake of a study finding right-wing ideologues not the sharpest tool in the barn, a fine rant from George Monbiot in The Guardian on a too-timid left that coddles and enables "crackpot outliers" and "social vivisectionists of the right" with an "ever more extreme, fantasy-based ideology" - proving "there is no pool so shallow that several million people won't drown in it." Great stuff.

"But when I survey this wreckage I wonder who the real idiots are. Confronted with mass discontent, once-progressive major parties...triangulate and accommodate, hesitate and prevaricate...They fail (to) make an uncluttered case for social justice, redistribution and regulation. The conceptual stupidities of conservatism are matched by the strategic stupidities of liberalism."

-Abby Zimet
02.08.12 - 1:51 PM

Jesus Navarro, a 35-year-old father, husband and metalworker in Oakland Ca. with health insurance, needs a new kidney. He waited six years to get to the head of the transplant list. His wife will donate her kidney. But doctors won't do it because he's undocumented. Is there something grotesquely wrong with this picture? Over 130,000 people think so; petition here.

-Abby Zimet
02.08.12 - 12:43 PM

Tide (Slowly) Turning Dept: As in, the ruling striking down Prop.8, J.C Penney standing firm in support of Ellen DeGeneres as spokesperson, and even Bill O'Reilly blasting an attempted boycott by wingnuts as a "witch-hunt." Atypically, DeGeneres confronted on air the notion that Penney was "hopping on the 'pro-gay bandwagon'; typically, she was funny and classy.

"Being gay or pro-gay isn't a bandwagon. You don't get a free ride anywhere. There's no music. Occasionally we'll sing 'We Are Family.' But that's about it."

-Abby Zimet
02.08.12 - 11:59 AM

Nathan Kleinman, a 29-year-old member of Occupy Philadelphia and veteran of political campaigns who lists his occupation as human rights activist, is running for Congress in Pennsylvania. Kleinman didn't sleep at the Occupy site because he gave his tent to a homeless person - one enticing credential among many.

"We can create the systems that should exist in a modern society, but don't exist in ours." - Kleinman, on what he learned from Occupy.

-Abby Zimet
02.07.12 - 1:09 PM

Rachel Maddow has won the John Steinbeck Award, given to writers or artists "whose work captures the spirit of Steinbeck's empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of people." Saying his father "would have adored" Maddow, Steinbeck's son Thomas cited his sense of trust in her, the feeling she projects that "I’m part of an alliance."

"From our beginning, our social direction is clear. We have moved to become one people out of many. We have failed sometimes, taken wrong paths...But we have never slipped back." - Steinbeck in Grapes of Wrath.

-Abby Zimet
02.07.12 - 11:07 AM

Assuming anyone poor enough to need help is too dumb to know what to eat or not eat, Florida Republicans want to bar food stamp recipients from buying anything remotely unhealthy - from chips to a kid's birthday cake. The pending bills also require a campaign to teach clueless poor people about nutrition and not spending their money "in the wrong places." Intrusive and patronizing much? Alas, Florida isn't alone.

-Abby Zimet
02.06.12 - 10:59 PM

For now, the final word on the Susan Komen/Planned Parenthood debacle goes to the inimitable, 80-something-year-old Helen of Margaret and Helen, who is some pissed. She is "tired of pink razors," and declares that "from now on, if you push us, we will push back."

"Exactly what women’s health clinics did they think we women were using for years before we started racing for a cure? Did they think that the millions of us who had gone to Planned Parenthood (weren’t) aware of the services we were provided? Trust me. When you go (and) have a doctor poke around your hoo-ha, you pay attention."

-Abby Zimet

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Wednesday February 8, 2012

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Bill Moyers and Michael Winship:
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