Serious and Funny Feminism Videos

What an easy way to blog! The first video is a very serious, stylized rant.



The second is a puppet-filled hoot.

Here comes the sun - the solstice sun: new music video

I've been waiting for this day for six months to catch the sun coming up on summer solstice. Oops! It was yesterday. Oh well, who can tell? Enjoy the video!

Hillary Clinton's Run No Real Gain for Women or Feminists

The three women at left graced the December 22, 2002 cover of Time Magazine as "Persons of the Year." The article describes how Sherron Watkins, an Enron vice president; Coleen Rowley, an FBI staff attorney; and Cynthia Cooper, a WorldCom staffer, all risked their jobs and careers by exposing mistakes or crimes by their male bosses. Even if they weren't feminists, they were women other women could look up to.

And then there is Hillary Clinton, who has covered up for every patriarchal crime imagineable, including sexual assaults and even rape by her own husband, in her quest to become the most powerful person on earth. Of course, that's only because our patriarchal nation state has created more conventional and nuclear weapons than all other nations put together. (Which is why we also are the most in debt nation on the planet.)

I've found two female pundits who agree with me.

Sherrilyn A. Ifill, a civil rights lawyer and University of Maryland School of Law professor, in a June 8 article called “No loss for feminism” in the Baltimore Sun writes: “...very little about the candidacy of Hillary Clinton reflected feminism. First of all, to be a modern feminist necessarily means to reject racism. No 21st-century feminist could fail to understand the complicated but very real connection between patriarchy and white supremacy. Thus, it is impossible to run a campaign as a feminist while making racist appeals to white, male voters....When she knocked back a shot and a beer in that bar in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Clinton ended any pretense of running as a feminist. The whole point of feminism is to reject the idea of masculinized power. Feminism seeks to counter the mythology that stereotypically masculine behavior is the only legitimate way in which leadership can be exercised....Finally and most important, Mrs. Clinton's campaign at the outset was premised on the idea that she was the inevitable nominee. This air of inevitability was based largely on her connections to one of most powerful men in the Democratic Party, her husband, the former president. She campaigned hard, but it was her relationship to Bill Clinton that enabled Mrs. Clinton, who had never held elective office, to walk into New York - a state with which she had no historical ties - and become a U.S. senator on her first try. Given Mr. Clinton's political gifts and legacy and the power-packed Rolodex of both Clintons, it never occurred to Mrs. Clinton until after Iowa that she wouldn't be able to attain the presidency on her first try as well....Achieving power largely on the name of your husband is not feminist. In fact, it's very traditional.”


Susan Campbell, in a June 15 Hartfort Courant Column “I Am Feminist; Hear Me Roar Against A Clinton Mandate,” writes: “My take on feminism is this: If you believe in the radical notion that women are people, too, then you know that means we think outside the box. You know that no job is the special provenance of any gender. Our genitalia does not limit our choices, whether it's how we earn our living, the compensation we receive for said work, or how we choose our political candidates...And it means we fearlessly examine and then choose our political candidates, regardless of their — or our — gender....She was not my candidate, but not because of gender. Suggesting we all move lock-step to support only the people who look like us robs grown-ups of their ability to make their decisions based on a candidates' promise and past practice.... Because I am a woman, I must think for myself because I don't trust the yahoos to do it for me.”

And then there is the 1999 allegation of former Clinton campaign worker Juanita Broaddrick, who told a national television audience that Bill Clinton raped her in a hotel room in April 1978. In a "Letter to Hillary Clinton" published by the DrudgeReport on October 15, 2000. In it she wrote:

I have no doubt that you (Hillary) are the same conniving, self-serving person you were twenty-two years ago when I had the misfortune to meet you. When I see you on television, campaigning for the New York senate race, I can see the same hypocrisy in your face that you displayed to me one evening in 1978. You have not changed.

I remember it as though it was yesterday. I only wish that it were yesterday and maybe there would still be time to do something about what your husband, Bill Clinton, did to me. There was a political rally for Mr. Clinton's bid for governor of Arkansas. I had obligated myself to be at this rally prior to my being assaulted by your husband in April, 1978. I had made up my mind to make an appearance and then leave as soon as the two of you arrived. This was a big mistake, but I was still in a state of shock and denial. You had questioned the gentleman who drove you and Mr. Clinton from the airport. You asked him about me and if I would be at the gathering. Do you remember? You told the driver, "Bill has talked so much about Juanita", and that you were so anxious to meet me. Well, you wasted no time. As soon as you entered the room, you came directly to me and grabbed my hand. Do you remember how you thanked me, saying "we want to thank you for everything that you do for Bill". At that point, I was pretty shaken and started to walk off. Remember how you kept a tight grip on my hand and drew closer to me? You repeated your statement, but this time with a coldness and look that I have seen many times on television in the last eight years. You said, "Everything you do for Bill". You then released your grip and I said nothing and left the gathering.

What did you mean, Hillary? Were you referring to my keeping quiet about the assault I had suffered at the hands of your husband only two weeks before? Were you warning me to continue to keep quiet? We both know the answer to that question.

Bob Barr Embarassingly Funny on Colbert

See video below... and my neat graphic celebrating the Libertarian Party putting The Right to Alter or Abolish Government (from the Declaration of Independence) in its platform. Barr's obviously being affected by hanging with pot smoking libertarians. He admitted to Colbert the possibly he'd ingested drug-laced brownies and later joking about waking up with heavens knows who in bed, due to his sexy mustache. "Loose" women, men, 16 year old hermaphrodites? Oh, Bob, the wit!! Of course, it was a bit much for him to declare that he is the first good candidate of the Libertarian Party, as if the many others weren't quite good (and more hard core) in their own rights, especially Ed Clark, Ron Paul and Harry Browne.

Obama Slips at AIPAC: Supports America (first)

Barack Obama was doing great at kissing the Israel Lobby's butt speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, so the pro-Israel media doesn't smash him down any more than it already has (repeat Rev. Wright 100,000 times).

But then he slipped and he said he's going to do what's best for America's interest. He controlled self and didn't mention registering AIPAC and its friends as foreign agents or creating a totally nuclear free middle east, including Israel.

The AIPAC candidate - Hillary Clinton, coincidentally technically defeated in her quest to extend the Clinton dynasty - picked up on that and made it the second paragraph of her speech that followed right after Obama's. (Or maybe she knows he's been rolling around in the political bed with "realists" who just love Mearsheimer and Walt?)

Just further justifying the fun graphic I put together after Obama made his "America first" statement. See my rocking video of last year's protest at the AIPAC conference that I helped organized. Photos of past years AIPAC protests here or interspersed here.


Update: William Hughes video from this year's smaller protest here(DC activists) and here (Rabbi Weiss of Jews Against Zionism).

Update: Looking at the actual transcript, Obama blabs about US-Israel "shared interests" a number of times before issuing this line which doesn't make it clear they are the same, as a good puppet would have done: "But as President of the United States, I would be willing to lead tough and principled diplomacy with the appropriate Iranian leader at a time and place of my choosing - if, and only if - it can advance the interests of the United States." If Obama wins it will be interesting to see how hard he fights the lobby.

Update: Here's a good Chris Hedges' article critical of Obama's speech, ending with "Barack Obama, when we need sane leadership the most, has proved feckless and weak. He, and the Democratic leadership, is as morally bankrupt as those preparing to ignite our funeral pyre in the Middle East.

Excellent "Don't Bomb Iran" video

American and Jewish Consciousness Shifting on Israel/Palestine

Blogger Philip Weiss makes a hopefully accurate assessment on his blog Mondoweiss. Go to link for whole May 21st entry.

[T]here has been a tremendous change in American consciousness, and the Jewish consciousness of Israel/Palestine in the last year. Jimmy Carter deserves great credit, so does Jonathan Demme, so do Walt and Mearsheimer, so do all the capillaries of the progressive movement, from the late great Hilda Silverman to the great Hannah Mermelstein to Adam Horowitz, who will be speaking tonight on the Nakba in Brooklyn, along with Zachary Lockman of NYU. There, I have just run off a few Jewish names without scratching my head. We are legion, and we are having a real effect. So is Obama. So is the Nakba recognition movement, which has shifted the focus from '67 landgrab to '48 landgrab. Israelis are panicked.Anti-Zionist Jews at a 2005 (top) and 2007 (bottom) protests of AIPAC conference. June 3rd DC peace activists will be doing another one.

Palestinian "Al Nakba" Commemorated on National Mall

I couldn't make this commemoration of the massive ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Arabs from Palestine by Israelis in 1948. But at least I can blog it!