So Dr. Tiller's clinic isn't going to stay open after all. I don't blame the family for closing the clinic, not after all they've been through. I just wish the anti-abortion fuckwit brigade wasn't winning like this. Scott Roeder is calling the AP from his jail cell and *gloating*. Motherfuckers.

It didn't work. Women's Healthcare Services will be closed this week to mourn Dr. George Tiller, but Monday it will reopen "back to 100 percent". Three other physicians who previously rotated shifts at Dr. Tiller's clinic will rotate weekly shifts to keep the clinic open. The important women's health services Dr. Tiller provided will still be available in Wichita.

So take that, motherfuckers. You may have killed him, but the work to which he devoted his life, and for which he gave his life, will go on.

RIP Dr. George Tiller.

He saved many women's lives, had already been shot in both arms for his trouble, and finally this morning "pro-life" forces murdered him in his own church.

My mother just told me half an hour ago, and I just want to cry.

I feel really proud of myself today. I'm wearing my new knee-length denim skirt, knee socks, and Converse. And I *didn't* shave my legs! In fact, I haven't shaved my legs in months! Only the bit of my knees between the skirt and the socks shows, but I still feel damn proud of myself, because it's more than I've ever been able to get myself to do before. It's like, "See this? This bit of my hairy knees? *This* is what a feminist looks like!"

My motto right now is "Fuck beauty contests." Really living that makes life so much easier.

Yes, this day in 2003 we won the war in Iraq! Just pretend the last six years didn't happen.

Way to go Vermont!

\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/

Relatedly, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com did an analysis of when states are likely to stop passing marriage bans. It's pretty encouraging:

The model predicts that by 2012, almost half of the 50 states would vote against a marriage ban, including several states that had previously voted to ban it.

[...]

By 2016, only a handful of states in the Deep South would vote to ban gay marriage, with Mississippi being the last one to come around in 2024.

So. Richard Dawkins is scheduled to speak at the University of Oklahoma tonight. I'm not going, because I don't really like Richard Dawkins. I've learned to appreciate the work he's doing as kind of an Overton window thing, expanding the range of acceptable discourse toward the left instead of the right. But that doesn't mean I personally enjoy listening to him insult people with religious beliefs.

That said, I'm proud of OU for inviting him. In fact, they've had to move the speech to a different venue because of demand, so I'm proud that so many Oklahomans are open-minded enough to go hear what he has to say.

Our legislature, however, has decided it hasn't been asshatty enough lately. Even though we had the whole Sally Kerns thing last year and the gay prayer protest last month, Oklahoma still hasn't publicly embarrassed itself enough. So Monday Representative Todd Thomsen filed a resolution demanding, among other things, that the invitation to Dawkins be retracted:

WHEREAS, the University of Oklahoma is a publicly funded institution which should be open to all ideas and should train students in all disciplines of study and research and to use independent thinking and free inquiry; and

WHEREAS, the University of Oklahoma has planned a year-long celebration of the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s theory of evolution, called the "Darwin 2009 Project", which includes a series of lectures, public speakers, and a course on the history of evolution; and

WHEREAS, the University of Oklahoma, as a part of the Darwin 2009 Project, has invited as a public speaker on campus, Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published opinions, as represented in his 2006 book "The God Delusion", and public statements on the theory of evolution demonstrate an intolerance for cultural diversity and diversity of thinking and are views that are not shared and are not representative of the thinking of a majority of the citizens of Oklahoma; and

WHEREAS, the invitation for Richard Dawkins to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma on Friday, March 6, 2009, will only serve to present a biased philosophy on the theory of evolution to the exclusion of all other divergent considerations rather than teaching a scientific concept.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 52ND OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:

THAT the Oklahoma House of Representative strongly opposes the invitation to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma to Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published statements on the theory of evolution and opinion about those who do not believe in the theory are contrary and offensive to the views and opinions of most citizens of Oklahoma.

THAT the Oklahoma House of Representatives encourages the University of Oklahoma to engage in an open, dignified, and fair discussion of the Darwinian theory of evolution and all other scientific theories which is the approach that a public institution should be engaged in and which represents the desire and interest of the citizens of Oklahoma.

THAT a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the University of Oklahoma, the Dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Oklahoma, and the Chair of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oklahoma.

Yep. That should do it. Public embarrassment achieved. Congratulations, Oklahoma, on your latest attempt to stifle dissent and check out of Western Civilisation.

(Via Peace Arena)

Barack Obama is tired of your motherfucking shit!

Ray, a fellow classmate of Obama’s, was also bi-racial, and also trying to define himself. But what set him apart was his colorful manner of self-expression. Ray cursed like a motherfucker.

This would all be snickerworthy enough, but it turns out that Obama actually read the audiobook version of Dreams From My Father.

And that means he read Ray’s quotes.

And that means you’re about to hear the President of United States using language that would finish Cheney off once and for all.

OMG YOU HAVE TO GO LISTEN TO THIS.

Via DymaxionWorldJohn at Cogitamus, whom I totally want to emulate by replacing all the error sounds on my computer with audio files of the President of the United States using foul language. Too bad it's a work computer.

I don't even--god, there's just nothing to say. This is awesome. Rick Warren sucks, but the guy who gave the benediction was utterly awesome, and the Simple Gifts composition was gorgeous.

I was proud of myself for not crying when he took the oath of office, but when the crowd started shouting "Yes we can!" right after, I was gone.

Another happy moment? Watching Bush leave. FOREVER.

I hate Rick Warren. I started hating him back when I still went to a Southern Baptist church, because my Sunday School teacher based months worth of lessons off his book The Purpose Driven Life, thus giving me the opportunity to observe that it's so much bound patriarchy and drivel.

And now he's been invited to give the invocation at Obama's inauguration. Well isn't that special. I'm not even going to get into why there's even any sort of religious leader at all reciting a prayer at a secular inauguration. I understand that this is a tradition that Obama couldn't just dispense with very easily. But it is NOT traditional to invite someone who holds views that are diametrically opposed to the views of a large number of your own supporters, thus fucking them over while trying to suck up to people who will never ever support you.

As Steve Benen points out in The Washington Monthly:

Warren is opposed, on religious grounds, to abortion rights, gay rights, stem-cell research, and euthanasia. In 2004, he described these issues as "nonnegotiable" and "not even debatable."

He also supported California's Proposition 8 for what Benen simply says are "absurd reasons." Melissa McEwan expands on that:

Those "absurd reasons," by the way, entailed Warren conflating same-sex marriage with polygamy, incest, and rape.

Melissa's rant on this is perfect, so I'm going to quote some more of it here as a stand-in for what I'm able to produce, which is mostly just spluttering indignation.

I understand that Warren isn't going to be driving policy, that he's only leading a prayer at the inauguration (and why there is a prayer at the presidential inauguration is a whole other post), but I also know that there are, literally, thousands of other religious leaders from multiple religions and Christian denominations, who aren't anti-choice, anti-gay, and anti-science, whose presence at the inauguration wouldn't be a sharp stick in the eye to progressive women and GBTQ men, and all their allies, so it would have been really fucking nice if any one of them could have been selected for this prominent opportunity instead of Rick bloody Warren.

WORD. If you say you're on our side, you have to actually, you know, be on our side. To use a reference Obama's esteemed friend Rick Warren might recognize, if you're going to talk the talk, you should walk the walk. Put very simply: We are tired of getting fucked around. I want my goddamn hope and change right the fuck now. I don't want another president like Clinton who says he supports us, then goes and does everything he can to placate religious nutjobs while ignoring us entirely.

They let Lieberman keep his committee chairmanship. Of course. Why should there be consequences for campaigning vociferously against your party's candidate? And we all expected it, of course. Even before the Senate Democratic Caucus voted, Kos joked bitterly "given the Senate Democrats' history of capitulations, expect Lieberman to come out of that meeting as majority leader." Yep, that sounds just about right.

Dailykos diarist karateexplosions explains the *teeny* slap on the wrist they gave him (they took away his chairmanship of a subcommittee or something):

In consultation with the Democratic Caucus and Leadership, we are ready to impose the following sentence upon you:

* We will give you an ice cream cone. However, no sprinkles. And when you eat your ice cream cone, wishing you had sprinkles for it, maybe you'll think about what you've done.
* You are no longer allowed to hang your coat in the Democratic Caucus cloakroom. You must hang your coat on a hook which we have had installed next to the cloakroom for your convenience.
* Your parking space has been moved two rows back. We think the extra 19 steps each morning will give you a lot of time to reflect on your actions.
* Your committee meetings and hearings will now be aired only on CSPAN3 -- the MTV2 of CSPANs.
* The next time you go on Hannity's show on Fox News and proclaim that President Obama is a terrorist-sympathizing, baby-eating, grandma-raper, we reserve the right to be quoted by the Washington Post saying that although you are a very good guy and a close personal friend, that your comments were probably not fully accurate. So THERE.

Everybody thinks this is about revenge, that the netroots want to get back at Lieberman for what he did. Why can't they understand that that's not it AT ALL? There need to be some actual serious consequences for this kind of behavior, or there's no disincentive for doing it again! Lieberman has gotten to run around criticising his caucus and his party and palling around with Republicans, particularly on votes that *mattered*, and there's been no consequences. Now he's endorsed the Republican nominee for president, campaigned vigorously for him, to the point where there was serious speculation that he would be McCain's VP pick, and even gave a speech at the Republican Convention. No consequences. He said Obama voted to take money away from our troops, he said asking whether Obama might be a Marxist was a "good question", and he refused to use that committee chairmanship Senate Democrats just let him keep for what it's actually for: oversight. Again, NO CONSEQUENCES. Why are we keeping him in the caucus if he's not actually going to be IN THE CAUCUS?

Because we're Democrats. Evidently, that means we don't believe in winning.

Everybody knows I fangirl Rachel Maddow, right? I listen to the podcast of her show on my drive into work. I love when she talks about the Alaska senate race, because she sounds so gleeful every time she gets to refer to Ted Stevens and call him "convicted felon Alaska Senator Ted Stevens". It makes me giggle every time. And last night Kent Jones rickrolled her! I know everyone thinks rickrolling is old and boring, but I still think it's hilarious. I burst out laughing just as I needed to be navigating to my exit from the interstate. Good times.

OMG WE DID IT! WE ACTUALLY ELECTED BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/

And god I hope that's true. Listen, I don't watch debates. I don't watch speeches. I didn't watch more than maybe 10 minutes of either convention. But I watched Obama's half-hour message tonight. I know this is coming from a die-hard progressive who was going to vote for him anyway, but I thought he sold it.

I don't know if he can really do all the things he said he'll do. (People don't tend to realize how much it depends on the Congress to work with the President to get things done.) Hell, some of the things he said he'll do I disagree with (mostly related to the environment--natural gas, "clean" coal, and domestic oil) and some of things he said he'll do I don't think go far enough (health care). But I'm ready to support him and push him to be the best president he can be. I want a president who is truly MY president, and I feel like he will be.

I think this is adorable (via Ezra Klein):



Almost as adorable as the original Barack/Michelle fist bump.

Making plans for next Tuesday....These will involve going to vote on my way home from work, then spending the rest of the evening flipping between various news channels, refreshing about 15 tabs, and biting my nails.

Still haven't gotten my computer fixed, but I set up a couple podcasts and videos on my work computer to sync with my new birthday iPod. So now I can listen to Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann on my way to and from work! And I found a free program to convert .avi files to .mp4, so I'm putting some MST3K eps on the iPod too. My dad didn't understand the point--won't I be driving? Yeah. I've seen them so many times I really only *need* the audio at this point. My iPod is currently named Rupert. I plan to change its name to Ripper after I get my computer fixed and can actually put cool music on it.

I missed work yesterday because of a really bad migraine. When I got in this morning (after YET ANOTHER traffic jam because PEOPLE DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE), I found a giant printer sitting in my cubicle. It's the one from the classroom, and it's broken, but I don't know what the hell it's doing in MY area. B has a WHOLE ROOM to scatter junk in, after all.

Oh, and "Undead Journal" can bite me.

I got an email from some Oklahoma Democratic organization. (Yes, there are Democrats here. Just not very many.) Here it is:

Oklahoma County Democratic Party Pancake Breakfast August 23

Hi everybody,

The OCDP's Annual Pancake Breakfast will be Saturday, August 23 at 8:00a.m at the DelCity Community Center, 4505 SE 15th St, Del City.

This annual event allows those to donate to Oklahoma County's effort to elect Democratic Candidates to Office. [...]

And maybe they'll raise enough funds for next year's pancake breakfast!

And now (in celebration of the crappy grammar that you don't even want to get me started on), hard candy for everyone!

So, I was just bookmarking a fic and discovered that del.icio.us has a "bold new design" which is supposedly "more powerful and easier to use". I find it annoying and disconcerting, and I want it to go back to the way it was. Because I am very uncomfortable with change. (It probably is more useful and better and blah blah blah awesomecakes. I'll just have to get used to it. Grr.)

Also, I just got a call from the Andrew Rice campaign. Upshot: I will be phonebanking for them next Thursday evening. Yikes. *hyperventilates* I really want him to win, and I want to help (because he's running against Inhofe, who blows goats). But I'm terminally shy, and I've never done phonebanking, and I hate talking to people I don't know. So it sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. They assured me they'll have a script and tell me what to do and stuff, so I really hope it's very specific.

This is fun!

Via Cogitamus:

1. Take out your iPod (or Zune, I guess...really, who buys a Zune?)
2. Press shuffle songs.
3. Answer the following: a) How many songs before you come to one that would absolutely disqualify you from being President? b) What is that song?
4. Leave your answers.

My first song is "Tomorrow, Wendy" by Concrete Blonde, which I'm told is a song about AIDS, not that I've ever been able to tell. So that one right there probably disqualifies me. Oh, plus the Bible Belters wouldn't like the part that goes:

I told the priest, Don't count on any second coming
God got his ass kicked the first time he came down here slumming
He had the balls to come, the gall to die and then forgive us
No, I don't wonder why, I wonder what he thought it would get us

(That's one of my favorite parts of the song, BTW.)

Okay, assuming Concrete Blonde is too obscure, let's see what's next. Ooh, next up is "Underdog" by Audio Adrenaline! Good Christian band, good Christian song. I can still be president with that one on my iPod!

Next!

"So far Away" by Staind. I think that one's probably pretty safe. It was a Top 40-ish song, no obvious problems in the lyrics.

Next we have "London Calling" by The Clash. Hmm. I'm gonna consider that one safe. Feel free to argue with me, but I don't think punk is associated too much with the '60s, and "London Calling" is one of their tamer songs.

Ahh, here we go. "Complicated" by Heavens to Betsy. Riot Grrl music. Still, no one's ever heard of it, so probably would scoot under the radar.

Aaaand, I think we've hit it. "The Last Junkie on Earth" by The Dandy Warhols. Ahem:

But I never thought you'd be a junkie
because heroin is so passe
now a-day.
You never thought you'd get addicted,
just be cooler in an obvious way.
I could say, shouldn't you have got
a couple piercings and decided
may-be that you were gay.

So either the 1st song disqualifies me, or, if you don't want to count Concrete Blonde, the 6th song disqualifies me. (And FSM help me when it scrolls up "Fuck You" by the Headstones.) Ah, politics. Gotta love it, right?

George Takei is going to get married!

He and Brad Altman have been together for 21 years and they're going to get married in California! That article is so sweet, too.

"We've worked in partnership; he manages the business side of my career and I do the performing.

"We've travelled the world together from Europe to Asia to Australia. We've shared the good times as well as struggled through the bad.

"He helped me care for my ailing mother who lived with us for the last years of her life. He is my love and I can't imagine life without him."