Dear Democratic Politicians:

You have a tough choice ahead of you, several of them actually.

You can either do the things you need to do to get re-elected, or you can do the things you need to do to get money to be re-elected.

You have a majority in the Senate and the House. You have the White House. Not stop acting like you're the av club at a frat party and you're gonna get beat up.

We, the people, you remember us right? We sent you there to do a couple of things.

1. Healthcare, single payer or strong public option. No fucking triggers. We all know that any conditions you set up now will only be watered down by insurance vampires later.

2. And BTW- your base is mostly women, our health care matters too. Sell out our reproductive systems and just see how hard it is for you to get fundraisers set up come election time.

2. Stop fucking around with bi-partisan ship. It's a freaking pipe dream and is NOT how our system is set up. Most of you are lawyers. You know about our adversarial justice system. Our political system is the same thing, adversarial, for a reason. If our system was set up for bi-partisanship then we would have more than 2 main parties and have all sorts of laws about how coalition governments are formed. But we don't have that. We have a 51 percent, majority rules system because both sides are supposed to fight with each other. You and your fuzzy across the aisle talk are breaking the system.

3. The economy, the economy, the economy. Everyone not made rich under Bush is hurting bad. That means just about everyone. Do something, preferably something that puts more money in the hands of people and not bonuses in the paychecks of banksters.

4. Don't wanna be seen as the mommy party? Then start acting like you're just as mad as the rest of us over stagnant wages and crooked bosses and corporate thievery and a financial system that can hold the whole world hostage. Just because we don't sink to the lying, tantrum throwing asshatery of the right doesn't mean we don't have a right, shit, an obligation to be mad at what has been done to our country and ourselves. How can we ever think you'll stand up for us when you spend all your time sniveling?

5. The LBGT community and women got you elected. Dance with the ones that brought you mother fuckers. Overturn doma and dadt, protect bodily autonomy, and don't fucking apologize for ensuring human rights for everyone. That is not something that should ever be compromised.

We are mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore. You can join us pissed off masses and do your jobs, or you lose your jobs.

I wasn't totally off my rocker last night

I was, in fact, in the middle of a silent police action.

So much for this being a "good" neighborhood.

What if we all took the day off

No work, paid or not. No phones answered, emails sent, meeting scheduled, copies made, letters typed, reports filed.

No toilets scrubbed, sheets changed, towels folded, dishes washed, meals cooked, dinners served.

No groceries bagged, no items scanned, no inventory counted. No bottoms wiped, dressings changed, homework graded.

No puts scrubbed, weeds pulled, recycling sorted. No lessons taught, no stories read.

No more work, until our work is paid for.


ETA+ I fucked up the link originally- it should now be going to the right place

that last paragraph

This story about a gypsy childhood just hits me in the chest.

I changed schools 17 times. If I could, I'd live out of a suitcase bouncing around the world from one place to another. But the Kid, the Kid still complains because we changed houses once in the last 6 years- not schools but houses.

Oh to be on the road I would give anything.

And in the very very near future- I will be. (Details are still top secret- I shall fill you all in when I can).

It's about motherfucking time

h/t to Od (yes, we spend way too much time together chatting online- what of it?) for sending me this most impressive piece of awesome.

get your own motherfucking blog asshole

How bloggers waste time- surreal edition

You should know, before reading this, that my gmail status is set to "Hold on there Margaret Atwood, you'll get shaken baby syndrom" and that is why I am Margaret. OD is Sparkles because she is mildly peeved that I stole that for my staus before she did. Sucker.

me: Yes- sparkles- I know you are off doing important things, but i thought I should tell someone that i appear to be in the center of a silent police action- lots of flashing lights but no sirens, and a helicopter circling around with big spotlights

Ouyang: not sure why you are still online there margaret...

me: because sleep is for the weak

Ouyang: many moons, no sleep

me: sure

Ouyang: that's how I roll

me: a rolling stone gathers no sleep

Ouyang: it's hard to sleep w/ all that moss choking you anyway

me: true dat

I like calling you sparkels

sparkles

I think I shall keep it up

Ouyang: it's a fun name

and makes me want to kill unicorns

me: Actually- I think it should be Sparkles Glitterbits

Ouyang: hmm...cani have tassels?

it would also be my stripper stage name

me: tassel pasties yes

my stripper name is.....

Margaret Atwood

Ouyang: or mmy superhero name...and my power would be shitting rainbows

me: pissing rainbows more like

you'd shit magical honey turds

Ouyang: i would shit glitter and honey and piss rainbows, then?

all before bedtime

me: yep

stripper name or my little pony name- it could go either way

Ouyang: I can't find any kale, so I tink I will be serving meatballs w/ a nice salad

me: spam meatballs salad and spam

or just meatballs salad and spam

Ouyang: spam spam, spam meatballs, spam soup, salad and spam

me: ah- that's my favorite

unless it's spam, spam cake and spam

that's a good one too

Ouyang: spam cake spam spam frosting spam spam icecream and spam

me: this entire convo may have to be poster- it's too surreal for anyone to believe

Ouyang: BURMA!

me: spam,chicken and spam, spam lemonade and BURMA!

Do not go gently into that good spam

fight fight for the dying of the spam

Ouyang: you are so funny when you are sleep deprived

me: I've heard that before

and off topic 9was there a topic) I have decided that Ann was the kickass of the Bronte sisters. Screw Charlotte.

Ouyang: i am horribly underread

and no, there was no 9 topic

me: are you making fun of my typos disease

that's typist

and wrong

Ouyang: i would never...

margaret

Edited to add
Ouyang: you forgot to mention my obsession w/ spam

me: if they can't remember that I posted an entire video about spam dedicated to you then they are too dumb to be reading

Ouyang: bwahahaha

Somehow

I have to learn how to make a gluten free version of this plus add the lights and sound effects in time for the Kid's birthday next March.


I am fairly sure that peace in the middle east is an easier prospect than a wheat free, special effects ladden tardis cake.

Virtuous foodies can suck my left one

Ah the moralizing middles, what would us poor people do if they weren't around to preach to us about the goodness of fresh, organic fruits and veggies and lean meats and unprocessed foods. I mean here I've been subsisting on a diet of macdonald's and frozen pizzas when all along I could be feeding my family nutritious salads and whole grains!

Seriously, virtuous foodies are just one more aspect of the middle class values that don't solve poverty. The whole spiel about eating healthy means jack shit if you don't give people the money and the access to actually eat healthy. It's just another way to make poor moms (and it is specifically moms) feel like shit because organic apples are 4 bucks a pound and that's out of the budget.

We poor moms,we know about nutrition. We've had it pounded into our brains the same way you have that more produce, less processed is good. Some of us (ahemmmm) are even foodies ourselves.I've been cooking since I was way younger than the kid, and the Kid has his mom's foodie tendencies. He reads cookbooks like he reads comics. And there are very few women in America who don't know what the calorie per gram amount is for sugars, fats, proteins and alcohol- even poor women. We get it.

What we don't get is the money to make that standard of living possible. We have to pack as much caloric punch into a dollar as possible. And I'll tell you, when all you've got is a buck and you're starving, a snickers goes a whole lot further than a bucks worth of organic celery and carrots.

So unless the virtuous foodies are gonna go screaming to congress about food stamp allotments that allow for organics and farmers markets that take ebt cards and tax incentives to get grocery stores into food deserts, then suck it.

I don't need another lecture.

When I play the dozens

I play to win.

So Joe Wilson- douche du jour (douche du jour may have to become a regular feature)who heckled Obama's healthcare speech (still not a fan of Obama- but what would the reaction have been if a dem had done that to Bushy).

So someone set up this lovely site to help garner support for Wilson's opponent.

After refreshing a few times, I gotta say if you're gonna play, go all out. So I think these need to be added to the Wilson Disses

Joe wilson has an unusual relationship to hood ornaments

joe wilson doesn't wear a flag pin

joe wilson inhaled

joe wilson loves to smell his own farts

joe wilson bites his tonails, fungus and all

Joe Wilson eats endangered species eggs for breakfast

joe wilson took candy from a baby

Joe Wilson kicks puppies

Feel free to add your own in comments -but any insult that insults more people than just Joe Wilson- ie sexist, racist, classist, ableist, homophobis, etc- will be turned into the barney song.

What not to wear

One more time folks-

There is no magical piece of clothing that will save you from oppression. A bikini is no more freeing than a burka, and vice versa. Women all over the world, in every kind of clothing imaginable, have been raped, harassed, groped, cat called, killed, etc.

There is no magic piece of clothing because clothing is always just an excuse or a symptom, and not the cause of abuse.

We will know we are free when a woman, any woman, anywhere, can walk down any street naked as the day she was born and not be bothered. Since that day is still very far off, arguing over the merits of one form of clothing over another as tools for liberation is silly.

The clothes don't dictate the oppression, the oppression dictates the wardrobe.

Eye Candy

Who says feminists hate men, or that women aren't visually stimulated?


For Gidget Commando- Cade Courtly (how have I been missing him on my tv?)

And since I tend towards the very British when it comes to imaginary crushes:

And from the best spy show ever (Spooks) :(Ruth watched one episode of this show with me and her immediate comment was something about how I was totally having gay sex fantasies about these two- and she was right)


And the ONLY thing that make the Twilight movie worth watching is this guy- granted he is totally breaking the french rule for age difference (half your age plus 7) and my own personal "if they can't buy their own drink they are too young" rule. But he's still pretty to look at.


Leave your lusty requests in comments.

For OD- She knows Why

Sex work is like military service

It should not be the only option available to poor young people. It should only be performed by people who truly want to do it, and not people who are only selling their bodies into service because safer methods of making a living are unavailable. And the people that choose to perform these kinds of jobs should have every single measure of protection available to them.

If we can't have single payer now

then we have to have public option NOW.


And we need the public option for the exact reason that insurance companies are afraid of. If people have the option of choosing a non-profit based, government run system where merit is measured by health outcomes rather than profit margins, then they will choose the public option just as soon as they can. And insurance companies will fail.

And I think that is a good thing.

Your blogmistress is tired, y'all

I've spent the last 24 hours feverishly writing, discarding, rewriting, and finally finishing 3 sample pieces for some actual paying freelance work. Sample pieces are currently with the lovely Ms. J for editing. Then they shall be sent off into the blogosphere where hopefully my (much dampened) dazzling wit and clever insights will win me some pay.

And my brain is hurty now.

So friends, bloggers, country-people, lend me your links. I need entertainment and to not be required to string comprehensive sentences together.

Consider this and open thread. Lurkers, please feel free to de-lurk and say hello. I promise I won't bite.

Yep

Toil and Trouble- A Labor Day Post

We don't value work.

We value money. That's not the same thing. We disdain those who make less than us and worship those who make more than us, but we don't value the actual labor of people.

We value investment, which is not work. We value finance, which is not work. We value interest, also not work. We value the people who does these kinds of jobs, the pushing of money from one place to another, not because of the work but because of the money. If those same men were pushing something less important around, like a broom on a dirty floor, they would not be valued so highly.

So here's a little econ 101 lesson for you. There are 3 segments of society: business, government, and the rest of us who are both consumers and laborers. Economists will tell you that all three are inter-dependent, (well libertarians will tell you that government is superfluous, but they are idiots so we will ignore them) and that you need all three sections for a society to work.

But they are wrong.

Both government and business need us, the laboring consumers. Without us nothing gets made or bought, no taxes get paid or votes get cast. Armies don't exist, business meetings aren't made. When we don't work, the economy fails and governments tumble. When we can't buy, the economy fails and businesses falter.

But we still exist. Even unemployed and broke. We are the thing that the entire system is dependent on. We can, and have lived, without trade, without rulers. We need them less than they need us.

That is what Labor day should be about.

People have died to prove that point. We don't remember, and we are not taught in school, but neither business or government has ever gone gently into labor reform. People usually have to die first. They died so that we aren't locked into unsafe buildings. They died so that we could work only 40 hours a week instead of 72. Children died (and still do) doing horrible tasks for tiny pay that no adult would ever agree to.

Our labor is important. And there is no reason why a full days work shouldn't be enough to provide for the basics, when a full days labor now provides 20% more productivity than it did 30 years ago.

We did that. But wages don't keep up and when times are hard we pay the price. We are not the ones being bailed out with massive government funds and getting bonuses for failed ideas. We get pink slips. We can't get our government to provide for the basic health and safety of us laboring consumers by instituting single payer healthcare. We are asked to make the sacrifices of our time, our health, our families, but we do not reap the benefits of those sacrifices. That is for the business class alone.