Justice John Paul Stevens, king of the cranky-pants dissents, today writes a concurrence in Graham v. Florida for the sole purpose of bitch-slapping Justice Clarence Thomas.  The ladies of SCOTUS joined him in the pile-on.

Read more »

Meg Whitman has conducted the most imperial of campaigns for the GOP nomination for California Governor, refusing to speak to editorial boards, refusing to take questions from the audience at the few public events she has done, and plowing more and more of her money into her campaign ads that run ad nauseam on radio and TeeVee.  Her opponent, Steve Poizner, who was written off as dead in the water a few months ago, has pulled up with her in the polls. (On the back of endorsing Arizona’s SB 1070 and immigrant-bashing, but that is for another rant).

Whitman’s radio ads bashing welfare recipients are constant and continuous, even on my groovy progressive local San Francisco radio station KFOG.  So far I have been spared Whitman’s anti-immigrant ads playing in Sandy Eggo that torture Nojo.

Bashing the poor and voiceless has been a go-to strategy for politicians of both parties for generations, from Reagan to Clinton to Whitman, who to date has spent $64 million of her own money on her campaign.  While Clinton’s “End of Welfare as We Know It” in 1996 shows the equal-opportunism of campaigning by bashing the poor, the Cadillac-driving welfare queens have been the go-to boogieman in Republican primaries around the country for decades.  With the not-so-subtle coded racism and city-bashing imbedded in the attacks (nevermind that the majority of recipients of welfare assistance in this country are rural whites), it’s almost a cliché at this point.

Let’s deconstruct the ad, shall we? Read more »

Since many feminist commentators often note the fixation the media and popular culture has on the attire of female politicians (I plead guilty), and given the recent ad nauseam attention to Elena Kagan’s attire, physical shape, and sexuality, the Stinque Department of Lady-Bits has chosen today to focus on two male politicians and their sartorial choices. Stinque Fashionistas, join me in the critique. Read more »

Brad Goehring, Republican Congressional candidate for California’s 11th Congressional District, said yesterday that it was “opening day” of the hunting season for liberals.  Apparently inspired by Talibunny’s “aim and reload at Democrats” comment and map on her Facebook page, Goehring (unclear at press time whether any relation to Hermann Goehring) said on his Facebook page:

If I could issue hunting permits, I would officially declare today opening day for liberals. The season would extend to November 2 and have no limits on how many taken as we desperately need to ‘thin’ the herd.

Predictably, a “clarification” was posted a few hours later.

Read more »

Stinque’s 2009 Golden Anal Pear Asshole of the Year and runner-up for 2009’s Crystal Douchebag for Lifetime Achievement, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, is introducing legislation today (co-sponsored by Senator Centerfold of Massachusetts) that would give the State Department the power to strip citizenship from any American that the department thinks has ties to a terrorist organization.

Read more »

From the New York Times:

A suspicious vehicle in the heart of Times Square led the police to clear thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening.

Police officials said a witness reported a running Nissan Pathfinder with Connecticut plates, with smoke coming out of the back. A bomb squad robot popped the back latch of the Pathfinder, and officers found what they initially believed was a bomb. The vehicle was found to contain explosives, gasoline, propane and burned wires, a Fire Department officer told Reuters. The officer, who did not give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said that a man was seen fleeing the S.U.V. and that the police evacuated the area in case there were other threats nearby. Police were treating the vehicle as a “failed device” and were searching for a suspect.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, when not suing the federal government over health care reform, demanding President Obama’s birth certificate, or saying LGBTQ state employees are not protected by anti-discrimination laws, recently found the time to take a stance for decency in fashion.

Cuccinelli was shocked – nay, stunned – that the Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which dates from 1776, features the Roman Goddess Virtus (virtue) standing in victory over Tyrannis (tyranny) in a lovely blue one-shoulder number.  No doubt, due to the exertion in defeating Tyranny, her left breast has popped out of her robe. Those Founding Fathers were such perverts!

Taking a stance for modesty and against Colonial Virginia’s porn (and perhaps one-shouldered dresses?), Cuccinelli took time out of his busy schedule to have a more modest version of the seal created for his state agency.

Read more »