Ay-ight A-eady REPEAL This Sh*t Now

Up late watching Rachel Maddow rebroadcast and she just SLAMMED Obama et al when it comes to that stupidstupidstupid Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy.

It's 8:50 and completely worth watching.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The other annoying thing about this whole deal, besides the stupid bigotry and discrimination, is that Fehrenbach is gay. Phwoar. I wish I were a gay dude just for him. No I don't. But you know what I'm saying. Sizzlin'.

I'm not just going to copy and paste news stories to my blog. When I come up with some concrete action to take, I'll share here.

Thinking about Buddha Statues and Nukes

My favorite news media person, Rachel Maddow, covered a story on the region of Swat, Pakistan being taken over by the Taliban recently.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#29247369

Yeah, that Taliban have now, essentially, in-so-many-words, expanded and govern a section of Pakistan, nevermind their still-threatening presence in Afghanistan. More information from the Washington Post here.

And what was the reaction of the Obama administration's Secretary of State, Hilary My Love? Well, she said it was a problem but the whole region was a problem.

33,000 additional troops were brought to Afghanistan recently, but that's Afghanistan. The strategy will take a turn with the new administration, apparently. Exactly what has not yet been laid out for the public, mostly because domestic issues are overshadowing.

All of this made me remember the Buddha statues, for some reason. Six months before the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Taliban destroyed two gigantic, ancient Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Province of Afghanistan. While there was an international outcry for this action, there wasn't any substantial action-against, and despite furied calls from other Islamic leaders, from international governemtns, both allies and foes alike, to leave the archaelogical gems alone, Mullah Mohammed Omar, the then leader of the Taliban and thus leader of Afghanistan, followed through with his threats and had the statues destroyed - dynamited, to be more exact. These Buddhas were 175 and 120 feet high and dated from the 3rd to 5th century.

Why did these statues enter my head today? Well, in addition to the Swat region issue, I was just thinking about people's apathy or ignorance and how it leads to much worse situations.

A parallel experience in domestic issues is last year, when people began losing their homes because of the housing crisis and everyone uneffected said, "Meh, doesn't have an effect on me..." and now we're all screwed...

Like that Reverend Niemoller quote about the Nazis going after Catholics and Social Democrats and Jews and him never saying anything & when they went after him, there was no one left to speak up.

We've got to pay better attention. We've got to fix the leak before it becomes so damaging is makes the whole dam crumble. So, I think that the shiria law coming into power in Swat is a major RED FLAG about Taliban resurgence and we, as in America, better nip that in the bud ASAP before the dynamited 175 foot Buddha statues turn into practice for the skyscrapers, metaphorically speaking. That is, before the Taliban insert themselves into the power in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan because, as Rachel Maddow pointed out today on her show during the segment linked above, the Pakistan government in is possession of muclear weapons.

As if we needed another reason to love Rachel Maddow

Turns out everyone's new best lesbian girlfriend, Rachel Maddow, the self described "blogger with a tv show" is more than just awesome. More than just super awesome, even. She is, in fact, UBER AWESOME.

Not because she's a young, hip news anchor. Not because she's the only lesbian news anchor (well, outed lesbian anchor, that is). Not because she's funny and MAD SMAHHHHRT yo.

We knew all those things. We knew her show was fab-u-lous. We agreed with the findings of the Pew Research Poll and her dorky coolness.

No, the thing that vaunts her past awesome and super awesome into UBER AWESOME is the fact that she, being a resident of Hippie Western Mass, LOVES THE RED SOX.

Nail in coffin. She's the bestest.

Rachel Maddow Fights Back

This isn't 2001, nor is it 2004. When someone like David Frum gets all subtly evil, as he's wont to do, someone like Rachel Maddow doesn't just let it go and move on; she goes right into the debate. I have news for you, Mr Heritage Foundation bullies, the left wing has finally learned how to stop just taking it. We fight back now. And there's no shouting; there's no character assassination; there's no spewing and general malaise. This is 2008. We're going to lay it all out on the line. We're going to stand up. We're going to be adamant that you can be liberal and patriotic -- and funny -- all at the same time.

Here's the video of Rachel Maddow taking David Frum to the mattresses, so to speak, but you have to go to 3:08 to start the David Frum part. Of course, I suggest you watch the entire thing. And, um, the show on a daily basis on MSNBC. (I know; I'm obsessed But for good reason.)

More on How Rachel Maddow Kicks A$$

Alrighty, as time goes by, I am more and more impressed with my new favorite news personality, Rachel Maddow (my former one being Stephen Colbert, even though it's fake news).

Not only is she a chick, she's a chick who's a lesbian. Talk about odds against. Yet she's thriving on the teevee. And you know why? It's cause she's smart, funny and honest. She does have a left bias, but not in a vitriolic, "cool it now, Keithy" sort of way, like her colleague Keith Olberman does. She makes salient point about the absurdity that is in front of us and speaks oftent o real issues and concerns, instead of the tit for tat name calling that both wings of poltics often fall into.

My favorite thing is the comeraderie she shares with her "fake Uncle Pat", Pat Buchanan. It's like that, "Some of my best friends are Republicans" joke I always pull, spinning the "some of my best friends are [insert minority here]" that Republicans (like Sarah Palin) pull out. Pat Buchanan is kinda nutty, in a clueless sort of way. I heard this crazy story about him and the production staff at ABC Portland pretending to be "hair and makeup" people because he thought the Portland ABC had a hair and make up staff and would use them before going on Larry King via satellite from the Portland studio. Something about a makeup sponge rinsed off in a cup of water, foundation, and Pat drinking from the cup...I don't know. Anyway, clueless.

Rumor has it that Rachel Maddow is not just a great personality & genuinely nice but a true scholar as well. Rumors I found on the internet, so I haven't had a chance to confirm the wiki entry and other blogs. But it makes sense. Also, she is good friends with Chuck D, of Public Enemy. They used to have a show on Air America.

Fight the power.

One last thing: she has a great sense of humor, especially about her sexuality. She interviewed a congressman and at the end of the interview, after thanking him, he said, "Thank you sir--I mean ma'am." And she said, without missing a beat, "No problem. Happens all the time."

Effin funny, I tell yah.

Things I Love - The Rachel Maddow Show

MSNBC's new program: The Rachel Maddow Show

Olbermann is too partisan for me, sometimes. I mean, he's very O'Reilly-esque in his vehement anti O'Reilly-ism. Like that documentary I watched back in college that showed that David Duke and Louis Farrahkan were so divisive they were eerily similar in their bigotry and speech (The Shadow of Hate). Anyway, a more thoughtful yet clearly left leaning show is the new "Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC. I truly love this program. Unlike many of the other shows on the 24 hour news networks--Fox, CNN & the other ones on MSNBC--this one offers thoughtful, non-vitriolic and thorough commentary.

More info:

Rachel Maddow page at MSNBC

The show airs at 9pm on MSNBC during the week and repeats after live airing at different times.