This photo from the G8 Summit is *epic.*

Unrelatedly, the John Ensign affair story, which had previously been painfully boring, just got kinda hilarious. There were reports that he paid off his mistress with campaign funds, which his lawyer naturally denies. But the nature of that denial has to be seen to be believed - "In April 2008, Senator John Ensign's parents each made gifts to Doug Hampton, Cindy Hampton, and two of their children in the form of a check totaling $96,000. Each gift was limited to $12,000. The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts. After the Senator told his parents about the affair, his parents decided to make the gifts out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time."

That's right - the senator's *parents* paid off his mistress and her family. So sad.

Annoying Palin-related editorial by the NYT's Ross Douthat - so many problems with this.

Especially surprising/baffling is this paragraph: "Palin’s popularity has as much to do with class as it does with ideology. In this sense, she really is the perfect foil for Barack Obama. Our president represents the meritocratic ideal — that anyone, from any background, can grow up to attend Columbia and Harvard Law School and become a great American success story. But Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal — that anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard."

Yes, that certainly is the democratic ideal - and I think most believers in the meritocratic ideal would say that not going to prestigious schools shouldn't disqualify anyone for a position. It's what you *do* with that non-prestigious education - being a strong student, going on to perform well in your career, and if you want to be elected president, having a strong command of national issues and the ability to discuss them coherently and engagingly in public. That last one is where Palin *resoundingly* fell apart, and still does.

I mean. 'Democratic' as opposed to 'meritocratic' surely doesn't mean that just anyone should be picked to do the job, regardless of whether or not they are capable or can convince a majority of people that they are. When I hear the phrase "anyone can grow up to be president," I don't assume it to mean any ambitionless lump like me could do the job, just that (in theory) if someone from a poor background worked hard and (let's face it) had a hell of a lot of luck, they could get there despite their non-elite upbringing. Does anyone really intend the former meaning when they say this? Is this one of those differences between conservative and liberal outlooks I just didn't realize before? If so that'd be damned ironic, as so many other avowedly-conservative ideas (opposition to affirmative action, for example) are supposed to be based on the meritocratic ideal.

Also, Douthat criticizing the "elite" for how they treated Palin is pretty rich - dude, you are a straight white guy from a rich family who went to Harvard and has a column at the New York Times. THE ELITE IS YOU.

He also has a section on the unfair lessons Palin had to learn as a national candidate, and I have to link to a blog comment on this post (I unfortunately can't direct-link to the comment) that rewrites his lament with a different politician as the subject: "Here are lessons of the BARACK OBAMA experience, for any aspiring politician who shares HIS background. Your WIFE will go through the tabloid wringer. Your religion will be mocked and misrepresented. Your political record will be distorted, to better parody your family and your faith. (And no, gentle reader, OBAMA did not insist on SWEARING IN ON THE KORAN, REFUSE TO WEAR A FLAG PIN, OR INJECT SOCIALISM INTO THE ECONOMY.)

"Male commentators will attack you for HAVING A STRONG WIFE. Female commentators will attack you for BEING A WIMP. You'll be sneered at for how you talk and THE EXCELLENT colleges you attended. You'll endure gibes about your "MUSLIM" looks and your "YOUR TERRORIST FIST JABS," while a prominent female academic declares that your "greatest hypocrisy" is the "pretense" that you're AMERICAN"."

This isn't to say that there wasn't any element of sexism and classism in the reaction to Palin - one only needs to compare her to the very similar George W. Bush to see that. But that only means that the unthinking benefit of the doubt given to Bush's qualifications in 2000 because of his background and his name were the unfair outlier, and that such deference should be extended to all or taken away from candidates such as Bush. Palin was treated very similarly to the democratic candidates this last time around, honestly.

Anyway! Even more trivially, my elbow itches because I have two massive bug bites there. How is this even *possible,* I don't go outside that much! ARGH. Something about my body chemistry apparently makes me irresistible to all bugs.

In more exciting news, 6 days until my awesome vacation of awesome! I'm still willing to send people postcards if anyone's interested - comments are screened! (I'll unscreen anything that doesn't have someone's address, of course.)

So Sarah Palin just announced she's resigning her governorship, for reasons unknown. Some have speculated it's so she can devote herself to running for president in 2012, which would just be...completely insane, dear god. This is confirmed by Bill Kristol pronouncing it a potentially shrewd move. His approval is as good as a kiss of death.

ETA: TPM found the highlight of her (completely bizarre) resignation speech: "Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: 'Sit down and shut up,' but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out."

Again...she said this in her *resignation speech.* If this level of ridiculousness were intentional, she'd be among the greatest comedians of our times.

110% pure crazy: a charming Glen Beck segment with Michael Scheuer, in which the latter says, "The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. ... It's an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary." Seriously, not a parody, not an exaggeration - he's openly hoping for an attack on the country, to make Americans demand the government 'protect' them, so we can...avoid being attacked. How out of their goddamned mind does someone have to be to even think this, much less say it publicly? Gah.

Some upliftingly crazy news, to balance out the Beck-related horror: "Asked if he has plans to run for public office, he [Joe the Plumber] replied, “I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, ‘No.’”"

You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, ‘No.’

Have decamped to Panera Bread to the day, as both bathrooms at my house are being worked on now and the noise is hideous. *Will* at least one of the showers be usable?? No one can say.

Oh, also, I have a new fandom, kinda - Merlin! It's pseudo set in the middle ages, has bad CGI magic, and is crazy-slashy, so naturally I love it. Even if it's not what one would call, you know, "good." Seriously, though, there's a dragon that tells our incompetent wizard hero that his DESTINY is to be with Arthur, so. And Gwen and Morgana are pretty great too, and the ruthless king is played by Giles from Buffy. For fun recaps of the first two episodes, go here and here.

The big story, of course, was Gov. Sanford of SC (one of the GOP's leaders in the anti-stimulus fight, and someone raised as an early contender for 2012) going AWOL. The story was as follows: no one knows where he is! Wait, he's hiking on the Appalachian Trail! No, he actually decided to go to Argentina! And, of course, this all ended with him admitting in a press conference that he was actually going to visit a woman he's having an affair with. And while that kind of thing's interesting, it doesn't address the *actual* problem - that, as the chief executive of a state, he disappeared without telling anyone where he was going, or putting someone else in charge in his absence. Sanford seemed genuinely repentant in his press conference, but now he's comparing himself to King David sleeping with Bathsheba. Which kinda dampens any sympathy I had for him.

Commentary coming out of this: Limbaugh naturally blames Sanford carelessly having an affair on Sanford's despair that Obama is ruining the country. And Politico takes the occasion to comment on how Obama's family man image is even more of a contrast to the Republicans now...and that's a *bad thing* for him. Srsly. The author uses as an example the public's rejection of Mitt Romney, and makes a point to mention how devastatingly attractive the man is. It's...quite something.

Something else Sanford mentioned in his conference attracted attention - his mention of 'C Street,' which apparently refers to a house in DC for religious politicians run by a secretive organization called the Fellowship Foundation. For more about them, there's this unbelievably creepy account of a reporter who went undercover there. Interestingly, the organization speaks admiringly of King David as well, as they see that he was allowed to do whatever he wanted because he was "chosen" by God. "That's the way everything in life happens. If you're a person known to be around Jesus, you can go and do anything. And that's who you guys are." *shudder* SO CREEPY.

Media notes -

-The Washington Post fired one of its most popular columnists, Dan Froomkin. The rationale seems to be that the leadership there assumes that all liberals worship Obama, and as Froomkin criticizes Obama from a principled left-leaning standpoint just as he did Bush, liberals now won't be interested in him. The traffic and linking to his column sure haven't gone down any as far as I can tell, though. His last column, linked above, is made of win: "The handful of people who did exceptional investigative reporting during this era really deserve our gratitude [lists some relatively obscure writers] ... Notably not on this list: The likes of Bob Woodward and Tim Russert. Hopefully, the next time the nation faces a grave national security crisis, we will listen to the people who were right, not the people who were wrong, and heed those who reported the truth, not those who served as stenographers to liars."

-The media is in full snit-fit mode because Obama called on a Huffington Post reporter before most of the 'real' organizations. They're claiming it's because it's dangerous when a president decides beforehand to call on particular reporters, but that's been common practice for at least a decade now. And it's not like it's a Jeff Gannon situation - the reporter asked a legitimate question, it's not that they were called on to transparently ridiculously suck up. It's hard to see any reason for all the outrage except their defensiveness over their own status. This comparison of the Times' response to Obama's press conference and some of Bush's activities is a good round-up.

-More on the press conference - Chip Reid took the opportunity to ask whether McCain and Lindsay Graham's criticism will make Obama take a sharper tone with Iran. Yesterday, he criticized the White House's *over*-sharp response to Iran. Brilliant!

A few more miscellaneous things -

-The RNC made a Juneteenth video! Now, see, this is some of that outreach to minorities that Steele promised, and I think that's a worthy goal. But, um, in the video? Steele actually mentions *40 acres and a mule* as part of the close relationship between blacks and the GOP. ...no, really. He does. I...I...whut?

-Obama crush watch: the man reads *Urdu poetry.*

-Okay, favorite! At a conference promoting English-only initiatives by Pat Buchanon, they decided to mock Sotomayor for her college-age efforts to improve her English by reading some children's classics. This is WTF-worthy *enough*, as the goal is supposedly to encourage all US residents to learn their English. What makes this beautiful is that they held the conference under a banner that *misspelled the word.* Epic.

Heads-up for those who like House and Wilson, but don't follow the comm: I, because I am an unbelievable dork, created a bracket to determine the ultimate H/W moment of season 5. Vote for your favorites! No wank has ensued over this thing yet...I wonder if that'll last all week? Odds are against it.

-From Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-MI: "Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House."

-From Roll Call: "House Republicans presented a four-page outline of their health care reform plan Wednesday but said they didn’t know yet how much it would cost, how they would pay for it and how many of the nearly 50 million Americans without insurance would be covered by it."

-Most amazing: a video of a Fire Letterman! protest by some people who are Very Offended by his joke about Palin's daughter. (Which, about that - it wasn't a terribly funny joke, and the kids should certainly be left out of this kind of thing. But the joke was clearly about Bristol, the kid who actually *was* pregnant, so the assertion that he had made a 'rape joke about a 14-year-old' is sheer insanity. But it's not even close to the most insane thing in this video.)

You know, Obama's disappointed me on some stuff so far (gay rights, not pushing for stringent enough market regulations, etc.), but man, I'm still really glad his administration's in charge. Especially considering the alternative. I feel a lot of sympathy for the protesters, but the US more strongly condemning the election could just make the rioters/Mousavi appear to be US puppets. This thing isn't about us, after all; it's about the Iranians, and we need to be careful not to appear to be throwing our weight around.

In less serious news, AUGH OH GOD WHY. We do not need a robot with a single, freakishly realistic human hand, plz, Japan.

I know, I already posted about this today, but this picture from Iran is amazing and gives you a good sense of the sheer scale involved in the demonstrations.

...wow, I really have few good icons for this kind of srs post. *g*

A similar picture.

There's big stuff going on in Iran - millions are protesting the seemingly rigged election results that reelected Ahmadinejad. Most of the mainstream media, with the notable exceptions of the BBC and the NYT, have had surprisingly little coverage. Some sources I'm following: Andrew Sullivan's blog, Huffington Post's round-up (though the post's title of 'Liveblogging the Uprising' strikes me as overly flip), Twitter, apparently one of the only means of mass-communication that haven't been blocked in Tehran, and, for a more native-knowledgeable perspective, Tehran Bureau.

Some of the highlights in reporting to check out -

-A photo from the riots.

-An indicator of how Twitter has contributed to the protests, and a video of rooftop protests in Tehran organized through Twitter.

-Theorizing that the coup is less about the religious factors and more about the economic interests of the Revolutionary Guard, which according to some reports has more power in the country now than any religious figure except supreme leader Khameini.

-A letter about the internal politicking that may be going on, and another commentary that suggests one of the challengers may attempt to remove Khameini himself.

-A striking video from the BBC.

-A report and photo from a site where students are being targeted by the riot police.

-Tweets live from the protest at which reformist challenger Mousavi spoke despite the state attempting to intimidate him into accepting the seemingly-fraudulent results.

Sullivan's round-up post has more. (Warning, though - it contains an image of an Iranian who's been beaten by the police force.)

And to close out, a commentary on cable news's performance: "Today, as global geopolitics is shaken to its core by events in Iran, I turned on cable news this morning, and saw endless ads for a Larry King Jonas Brothers “interview”, Morning Joe yukking it up discussing Kuwaiti massage therapists, a video of a tomato throwing contest on CNN, talk radio blowhard Bill Bennett…and occasionally a phone call from Christiane Amanpour in Tehran."

ETA: Also, because it can't be said too often, fuck Politico.

Okay, because I can't resist, a few more political notes -

Brilliance from Sen. Shelby of Alabama:

"WALLACE: 'Sen. Shelby, you say that the Obama administration is taking us down the road to socialism. Explain.'

SHELBY: 'Well, obviously. So, they intervene last fall in the bank crisis. No one has ever done it on that scale before.'"

Second, from a Scalia dissent on a case in which the Supreme Court found that a judge that took $3 million in campaign contributions from a coal company and then voted to overturn a huge penalty against that company had violated constitutional due process:

"What above all else is eroding public confidence in the nation's judicial system is the perception that litigation is just a game, that the party with the most resourceful lawyer can play it to win, that our seemingly interminable legal proceedings are wonderfully self-perpetuating but incapable of delivering real-world justice. The court's opinion will reinforce that perception, adding to the vast arsenal of lawyerly gambits..."

Yes, that's right - what's eroding public confidence in the ability of courts to deliver justice is that people keep *pointing out* when a judge is obviously biased. If people would just stop noticing, this problem would be totally eliminated!

Third, apparently Rush Limbaugh is promoting or organizing a boycott of GM because he "[doesn't] want to do anything to make Obama’s policies work."

...wat. Obama's goal is actually to get the company back on its feet and then make it privately-owned again, not a longterm government-owned manufacturing operation. And if this plan/the company fail, that only means that the taxpayer money spent to prop it up will vanish, or it will need even *more* of our money, which I'd imagine he/the GOP faithful wouldn't support. And to screw the union, as this is also designed to do, they'll also screw the overwhelmingly-*Republican*-owned car dealers.

So, hey, 'conservative' supporters of torturing suspects for information - the man accused of murdering abortion-providing Dr. Tiller in an act of domestic anti-choice terrorism is saying that more violence is planned as long as abortion is legal. I guess you'd support waterboarding this guy under your own 'ticking time-bomb' scenario, right? I mean, whatever it takes to protect innocent Americans whose lives are in peril.

I don't support it, by the way, in this case or any other. Torturing prisoners is a categorical wrong. But if you believe it's the right thing to do to extremist 'Islamic terror' suspects, intellectual honesty obligates you to support the same tactics being used on Mr. Roeder or explain why exactly this extremist-Christian terrorist should be treated differently.

...okay, that's probably enough bitterness today. So to conclude, for comedy I'll also link to this collection of hilariously petty Sen. Chuck Grassley tweets (highlight: "Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us'time to deliver' on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."), and a story about Stephen Colbert taking his show to the Persian Gulf.

Wow - there is tone-deaf, and then there's the National Review.

I linked to this post at Balloon Juice (yeah, I don't know what the name's about, either) yesterday under friendslock, but wanted to do so publicly as well. Key quote: "What this country really needs right now is a serious case of mind your own damned business. We’ve turned into a nation of busybodies and scolds, and people just need to back off. And that goes for the people opposed to and trying to make illegal Andrew’s marriage, for people like Andrew who sound like they want the weight of the law to come down on people making tragic medical decisions that lead to late-term abortions, for the nutjobs who thought they knew better than Michael Schiavo how to handle his horrible situation with his wife, to the lunatics screaming “murder” when we do stem cell research, and so on."

The 'Andrew' being discussed is Andrew Sullivan, an interesting but often vexing pundit. He's a former-Republican-classically-conservative-maybe-Libertarian who I enjoy reading because he shows his thought process and grappling with issues and how he evolves, a rarity in the political blogosphere, which often as not is a competition for who can sound the most sure of their conclusions. So I think that's valuable. But more and more I get the sense that his empathy is able to overcome what he'd been taught only when it's an issue that affects him directly.

For example, as an HIV-positive gay man, he's been outspoken on issues related to gay rights, for example ending discrimination in immigration considerations for gay couples, which I consider to be a worthy endeavor.

Compare this to his stance on abortion: even after days of posting wrenchingly personal abortion stories from his readers (examples are here, here, here, and here), he still says "I still cannot in good conscience support these abortions; but I can offer my profound gratitude for the readers who have forced this blogger to see things I had not fully grasped so keenly before; and to return to them respect and empathy in the particulars, even while we may disagree in the abstract."

On the one hand, as I said before, I appreciate that he at least recognizes the human complications that challenge his views. As someone who also was raised Catholic, I can even sympathize with his gut-level discomfort with the idea - I'm pro-choice and about as lapsed religiously as one can be, but I still get the occasional twinge of Catholic guilt about that. (Like everything on Earth, amirite?) But after reading all those personal accounts of doubt and anguish, it's hard to see how he can justify retreating to the 'abstract' where he's sure he's got the correct moral idea and there's an always-right way to handle these difficult situations.

Dr. George Tiller, a doctor who's been a longtime focus of resentment for anti-choice forces, was shot to death today in his church. This isn't the first time he's faced violence - he was shot while coming out of his clinic in 1993. He was, apparently, one of only three practitioners in the country willing to perform 'late-term' abortions; it's shocking to me that more doctors aren't willing to do so even in cases of extreme medical need, as he seemed to largely do.

This blog post contains a number of stories from people who have turned to the doctor's services over the years. He was, I believe, a courageous man who despite repeated threats and intimidation helped women who had nowhere else to turn. We need more like him.

I'm going to look for a place to donate to his family, and this seems like a good occasion to make a donation to Planned Parenthood, if anyone else is so inclined.

ETA some sobering statistics: "If his murder was the result of anti-abortion ideology, Tiller’s would be the eighth death in the last 20 years. In addition, there have been 17 attempted murders, 41 bombings, 175 incidents of arson, 96 attempted bombings or arson, 390 invasions, 1,400 cases of vandalism, 1,993 cases of trespassing, 100 butyric acid attacks, 659 anthrax threats, 179 cases of assault and battery, 406 death threats, four kidnappings, 151 burglaries, and 525 cases of stalking directed at abortion clinics, doctors and patients according to the National Abortion Federation."

Stealing a meme from...somewhere! Name your 15 absolutely favorite couples (het/slash/canon/fanon) and ask people to see what trends they notice about your couples. Try to pick different fandoms. Some of these may be too obscure, but, we'll see. In no particular order:

1) House/Wilson (House)
2) Liz/Jack (30 Rock)
3) Barney/Robin (How I Met Your Mother)
4) Laura/Lee (BSG) (a)
5) Wesley/Gunn (Angel) (b)
6) Giles/Anya (Buffy)
7) Fraser/Ray V (Due South)
8) Lorelai/Luke (Gilmore Girls) (c)
9) Crowley/Aziraphale (Good Omens)
10) Jack/Daniel (Stargate SG-1)
11) Weir/Sheppard (Stargate Atlantis) (d)
12) Clark/Lex (Smallville) (e)
13) Jim/Blair (Sentinel) (f)
14) Sheldon/Penny (Big Bang Theory)
15) Shawn/Gus (Psych)

Comments on some of these (ie. defensiveness, in some cases) -

a) ...this made sense in the first two seasons! Honest!

b) I loved Wesley/Lilah a lot too, though. But, when House and Wilson 'broke up' over Amber's death, the Wes/Gunn OTP experience may be why that wasn't all that upsetting to me - hai, these two were BFFs, Gunn accidentally got Wesley's girlfriend killed, and then Wes stabbed him in the stomach and left him to die. SO.

c) See, I can too like canon het!

d) Yes, I am one of the approximately ten slash fans on the internet who liked Atlantis and yet didn't care for McKay/Sheppard. I don't know why either.

e) I'm embarrassed now, because holy god is that show bad. The first two or so seasons were at least fun/camp bad, but I had to give up on it around the time Lana was possessed by her magical-witch-with-martial-arts-powers ancestor. ...yeah.

f) This show was *even worse.* In my defense, I was 16-17 at the time? It's still a sentimental favorite mainly because it was my first real slash fandom, introduced to me by a real life high school friend that I used to geek out over fanfiction with in chemistry class.

New wingnut talking points (...I find these sorts of things fascinating, obviously, apologies to those of you who are probably bored with me talking about them by now!): 1) she's a racist because she once gave a speech suggesting that one's different life experiences necessarily affect outlooks and judgment, and that the make-up of our institutions/judgeships should roughly resemble the population as a whole; and 2) she's somehow "taken a vow of poverty"/haz teh poors because she has 'only' about $100,000 in the bank. Ahahaha. Nate Silver of 538.com, always-awesome but now getting into the snark game, has an excellent take-down of this kind of argument.

ETA: TPM highlights a paragraph in another outlet's reporting that...*has* to be a joke, right? I mean. What:

"Sotomayor also claimed: 'For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandoles y pernir -- rice, beans and pork -- that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events.'

"This has prompted some Republicans to muse privately about whether Sotomayor is suggesting that distinctive Puerto Rican cuisine such as patitas de cerdo con garbanzo -- pigs' tongue and ears -- would somehow, in some small way influence her verdicts from the bench."

Seriously. My brain refuses to accept this as anything but a lame attempt at humor, or it will explode from sheer wtf-ery.

ETA, the 3rd: APPARENTLY NOT A JOKE. wtf wtf wtf. Are they trying to kill parody again?

ETA, again: OMG, just as crazy: this comment from Republican Rep. Tom Price. He says Obama is a divider, unlike the uniter Lincoln. ...Lincoln's election was what started the freaking *Civil War.* And then, as an example of how Obama divides people up into interest groups, he talks about the poor *hedge funds* that Obama refused to stand up for.

...wat. Okay, no more political reading for me today.

Is there a mood encompassing both horror and crazy amusement? Because there should be. *I'd* use it a lot, anyway. For example: the Governor General of Canada, while on a cultural visit with an Inuit tribe in the arctic, "sliced off and sampled a piece of seal heart from the dripping carcass of a freshly slaughtered seal." The article goes on to quote Governor General Jean describing it as "absolutely delicious."

...I have no comments, because my mind? Is blown.

Ahaha, oh god, this piece from the 'Weekly Standard' may well be the definitive conservative wingnut take on marriage/gay marriage. It's...jaw-droppingly, offensively wrong in so many ways that I would not even have expected! Quite impressive in a way, I suppose. ( excerpts )

Well! That was fun. In other news, I watched Idiocracy yesterday, and liked it - it's a satire in which an average man and woman from today are frozen and wake up 500 years in a future in which mankind has become much, much stupider. Some of the jokes are super-crude, but of course, that's the point - it's to show how much humanity's declined. Of course, it was unsettling to watch it as I did, with commercial interruptions. It was hard to avoid the conclusion that OMG WE'RE ALREADY THERE.