Back from a brief hiatus. Recently returned from much needed R&R in San Francisco, California. This is community building video diary inspired by a few things from my trip, as well the recent 2012 Presidential debate, and tonight's upcoming Vice Presidential debate.
As always, please rate it, even if you hate it. And feel free to post your favorite video clip to keep the mojo going.
To begin with, my good friend Mark Morford, writer for San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com, E-RYT500 yoga teacher @ Yoga Tree SF, admirer of trees, and author of 'The Daring Spectacle: Adventures in Deviant Journalism' asks what many Kossacks may be asking, "Why won’t Obama step up?"
Is this not the plea? Has this not been our innermost wail, our collective hue and cry when we watch Obama sort of meekly, sort of halfheartedly go at it lo these past mostly so-so, only occasionally encouraging, but oh my God they could be so much better past few months/four years? You bet it has.
Because oh, what fun it wasn’t to watch in sort of jaw-dropped disbelief as Obama let opportunity after opportunity whoosh on by like a sweet softball from heaven during that first debate, countless chances to unleash some devastating intellectual whoop-ass all over Mitt Romney’s oily head and wooden heart, not to mention his endless falsehoods and pathetic open threat to giant talking birds who help children learn to read.
Theories abound as to Obama’s reluctance, inability, outright blindness when it comes to seriously throwing down in F2F encounters. Maybe it’s because he’s an introvert. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t really enjoy that kind of gloves-off, high-pressure combat (unless, apparently, he’s playing basketball with the Secret Service). Maybe it’s because he has no stomach for badass mud-slinging, and is far better suited to calmly thinking through his points before articulating a savage counter offensive that actually contains a semblance of truth.
And speaking of debates The Rude Pundit thinks:
At tonight's debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Republican nominee Paul Ryan, if moderator Martha Raddatz asks Biden about his opinion of Paul Ryan's budget plan, and he doesn't say, "Listen, everyone, before I get to that, I want us all to take a moment and look at Paul Ryan. Just look at him for a moment. He's young, handsome, a good-looking guy, strong jaw, deep blue eyes that I'm sure made all the girls in Wisconsin just swoon. Look at him. You are literally looking at everything that's wrong with the Congress. You are looking at the problem. You are looking at the reason why we can't get a jobs bill, the reason we can't get a rational tax plan done, the reason that we can't close Guantanamo, all of it, the fact that 'compromise' is a dirty word to Republicans, it's all right there, in one package," then the debate will be useless.
Next up is a politically charged video package from
Madonna's (yes,
THAT Madonna)
MDNA World Tour 2012. I caught her concert in San Jose on 10/6 and again on 10/7 and she put on an amazing show, including this little gem:
While we're on the subject of strong, outspoken women, and celebrity, take a minute to watch the video below. Today, the Center for Reproductive Rights has launched a star-heavy initiative called Draw the Line, which controversially asserts that women are people who should be able to make decisions about their own bodies.
It seems crazy that we've arrived at a place where this is a necessary thing that we have to tell our elected officials ("HEY! DID YOU KNOW I HAVE NERVE ENDINGS, MEMORIES, AND FEELINGS AT ONLY TWENTYSOMETHING YEARS OLD?!), but these are crazy times.
If you've felt yourself overwhelmed by a blinding, temple-squeezing rage-on when reading about the neverending parade of reproductive health care fuckery, there's a petition for that. Draw the Line encourages people as pissed off as you have been over the last couple years to finally declare "Oh, FUCK NO. Enough of this" and sign what's being touted as the Bill of Reproductive Rights. From the Center,
The Bill of Reproductive Rights states:
We the people of the United States hereby assert the following as fundamental human rights that no government may deny, and that our governments at every level must guarantee and safeguard for all.
1. The right to make our own decisions about our reproductive health and future, free from intrusion or coercion by any government, group, or individual.
2. The right to a full range of safe, affordable, and readily accessible reproductive health care-including pregnancy care, preventive services, contraception, abortion, and fertility treatment-and accurate information about all of the above.
3. The right to be free from discrimination in access to reproductive health care or on the basis of our reproductive decisions.