DEAD AIR always did like Iowa!

Once again, listening to the ever-fabulous Frank On Friday...who gives me the courage to confront the right-wing bobbleheads running my state. Sometimes I wonder what he would say if he were still here. Frank Zappa, your country needs you.

Moving to Montana soon
Gonna be a dental floss tycoon

And speaking of Montana, Governor Brian Schweitzer has just caved in time and has accepted his state's stimulus funds.

That leaves us.

South Carolina. The first state to secede from the Union, sweet schoolchildren are frequently reminded!

(((fumes)))

Yes, our beleaguered state is still fucked, as previously written... the deadline for accepting the disputed $700 million is tonight, and Head Dick, Governor Mark Sanford, is still holding quite firm on not accepting it. A press conference/brawl ensues within mere minutes, down in Columbia, and as the infamous Texas Chainsaw Massacre trailer asked: Who will survive, and what will be left of them?

As Kia, commenting on my previous thread, stated: "Surely it's a sign of the apocalypse when Lindsey Graham is a voice of reason."

I couldn't have outlined the situation any better.

Frank, we need you man. Come back, come back...

~*~

I've been a busy little bee this week, but as always, managed to catch some interesting internetz action.

Lindsay Beyerstein attempts to discuss the very serious subject of clitorectomy in New York State and the laws pertaining (or not) to its continued practice:

According to one estimate, 41,000 women in New York are at risk of being cut, or have already been subjected to genital cutting. This estimate is based on data from the 2000 census, so clearly more up-to-date information is needed.

Female genital cutting can range in severity from a harmless ritual pinprick to the complete surgical removal of the external genitals. These procedures can cause acute and chronic infections, loss of sexual sensitivity, difficult labor, and PTSD.

According to a lawyer quoted in the article, no one has ever been charged under New York's anti-FGM statute or its federal equivalent since the laws were enacted in the mid-nineties. The last state-level FGM outreach program in New York took place a decade ago.

Scary stuff.

And of course, before you can say FORESKIN, various obnoxious males show up and hijack the thread: WHAT ABOUT MALE CIRCUMCISION?!

((((reads post back))))

Well, what about it? That was not the TOPIC, assholes. Guys were not the subject. I realize this is disorienting for you, since GUYS ARE ALWAYS THE DAMN SUBJECT. (Of course, if Lindsay had issued a "no guy zone" statement on the thread, they would undoubtedly start screeching about that, too.) Lindsay writes:

Can we ever have a discussion of FGM without the neonatal anti-circumcision crowd hijacking it? This has happened about four times already, and I'm getting sick of it. I'm sympathetic to your position, but folks, please don't commandeer every single thread about female genital cutting. Have some perspective, here. You're cheapening your own cause by hijacking FGM discussions.

Yes, there exist variants of FGM that are roughly anatomically analogous to neonatal hospital circumcision--but they are more like points in logical space than health concerns. The main, pressing, public health problem of FGM is analogous to removing the entire penises of male adolescents (and, sometimes, turning the whole bleeding, unsterile mess inside out and stitching it back together).

There are extremely active forums for you to discuss the evils of neonatal foreskin docking. Please take your concerns there.

And did they? Ha, are you kidding?

As if on cue, typhonblue, a well-known and tedious internet-obsessive on the topic of MALE circumcision, shows up and starts preaching and monopolizing the subject on behalf of the poor oppressed men. (Because you know, men are just more important than women, and don't you forget it.) Even after being politely asked NOT TO.

Some people just don't have any decency; their basic sense of overweening entitlement and abject rudeness just take over everything.

Lindsay is far nicer and much more tolerant than I am.... if any of you assholes show up hijacking HERE, I will eat you for a nice little snack (burp). And I am in a rather contentious mood and kinda hungry, with all this calorie restriction... so bring it, you unsuspecting penis-obsessed pseudo-trolls!

Yum, yum!

~*~

Longish thread at Astarte's Circus, titled Be the President or Marry the President, brings up fascinating questions about whether being a First Lady is something to aspire to, in and of itself. Admittedly, I am rather clueless concerning some of the comments. I don't think Octo was criticizing Michelle Obama, per se, but questioning the whole First Lady cult...of which I am also periodically critical. But check out the thread and comments and see what you think.

Can we criticize the "First Lady culture" without also criticizing the woman who is First Lady? This echoes several old (and unresolved) feminist questions: can we criticize the housewife cult, the Playboy Bunny cult, the supermodel cult, etc etc without criticizing women who have personally made these choices? How to criticize the male-dominant culture, without hurting or disrespecting women within that culture?

It is like we don't quite have the language for what we are trying to say, and what we seek to do...

~*~

And the GOOD NEWS:

The Iowa Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of same-sex marriage!

YES! Congratulations on your progressive politics, Hawkeyes! Alas, a blog, and Feministe are also presently discussing the ruling.

~*~

It's bloody embarrassing how many of my previous musical posts are missing their centerpiece. Warner Music Group, bad capitalists extraordinaire, have taken away so many of my YouTube presentations--they are as bad as WalMart for stealing neighborhood fun away.

Nonetheless, I plow onward... let's hope some brave tunes remain!

Meanwhile, here is the song I can't get off my mind/official earworm for this week, which also helpfully fits into our Hawk motif:

Jayhawks - Waiting for the sun (1992)

Stimulus Deadline approaches, South Carolina appears fucked

...in ohhh, so many ways.


Photo of Governor Mark Sanford is from NBC news. He is the cause of all this. Inscribe his face on your memory. After he is out of office, he deserves to be made unemployable for the rest of his days.



States have until midnight on Friday to apply for the economic stimulus package, and as regular Dead Air readers know, our sorry-ass governor has yet to do so, citing some kind of half-baked, Ayn Randian bullshit. He is proudly refusing the funds on principle. And our state, of course (no thanks to him and his type), is in some pretty bad shape.

Needless to say, South Carolina is in some dire economic straits. Where is Sanford getting the idea that we don't need the money? Pulled right out of his clueless, rich, white-boy ass.

Of all 50 states, only my state and Montana have not applied for funds.

And only Governor Sanford can apply. It is all on him. And since he refuses, as my post title today proclaims: we are fucked.

There was a protest in Columbia, at the South Carolina statehouse, yesterday. According to the STATE newspaper (Columbia):

Rally urges Sanford to 'Take the money'
Educators, students, lawmakers rally at State House
By GINA SMITH - gnsmith@thestate.com

More than 1,000 teachers, college students and others converged on the State House Wednesday with a message for Gov. Mark Sanford: Take the $700 million in federal stimulus money.

Without it, an estimated 1,700 teachers, like Lisa Matthews, could lose their jobs, according to the state Department of Education.

Estimates by some Democratic lawmakers put the job loss number in the 3,000 to 4,000 range.

The House version of the budget uses $350 million of the federal funds to offset cuts to K-12, higher education and law enforcement.

Matthews, carrying a sign that read: “Pink Slip for Mark Sanford,” said she has been put on notice by Kershaw County school district leaders that she will lose her job as an in-school suspension teacher at Lugoff-Elgin Middle School if Sanford doesn’t accept the funds.

The governor has until Friday to make a decision but has already made it clear he won’t take it unless state lawmakers agree to pay down a corresponding amount of state debt.

“I just don’t feel like he understands, like he gets it,” said Matthews, who has been a teacher for nearly seven years. “He’s trying to make a name for himself. And he’s doing it.”

Behind her, Janet Haselden, a media specialist assistant at Lugoff-Elgin Middle School who also will lose her job without the stimulus funds, said she is disappointed with the governor.

“I don’t think he’s looking at the big picture right now. I don’t think he’s thinking about the needs of schoolchildren,” she said.

At least one of DEAD AIR's readers may also lose her job.

It's personal, Governor Sanford, you swine!

From Tim Smith, of the Greenville News:

Sanford has said he will only accept the $700 million -- part of $2.8 billion in stimulus money available to the state over two years -- if lawmakers agree to spend the same amount to reduce the state’s debt.

Sanford for months has protested the federal stimulus legislation, arguing it will only heap debt on taxpayers and not cure the economy. He said accepting the $700 million for the budget will only postpone dramatic pain to agencies for two years, when the money runs out.

Lawmakers argue that rejecting the money will in effect send South Carolina taxpayers’ money to other states without any of the benefits. And without the stimulus, they argue, thousands of teachers will lose their jobs, tuition will be hiked by double digits at state colleges and prisons will close.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, met Wednesday afternoon with Sanford in his Senate office about the issue and told reporters afterward that the meeting was "utterly fruitless."

"He offered no compromise, no stepping back from the cliff upon which he has plunked our state," Leatherman said, who accused Sanford of becoming "personal" in the meeting and telling Leatherman he just wanted "to grow government."

Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Sanford, said Leatherman’s complaints were an attempt "to distract from the real issue here: the governor has offered a very reasonable middle ground in taking a quarter of the stimulus money and using it to pay down debt." Sawyer said the governor is continuing to work with some legislators on a plan to spend the money on debt.

Leatherman said he told the governor the state couldn’t afford to use the stimulus on debt and is already in a bind over the potential loss of federal matching dollars if further cuts are made to education and Medicaid agencies.

One of Sanford’s closest allies in Congress, Rep. Bob Inglis of Travelers Rest, on Wednesday urged Sanford to accept the funds.

"It’s like this," he told the Gannett Washington Bureau, "a table full of food has been prepared. And South Carolina is going to join the other 49 states in paying for the food. That being the case, it seems irrational to me to refuse the sustenance."

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has also urged Sanford to accept the money, on Wednesday released a letter to him by Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, who said Sanford, not lawmakers, has to apply for the stimulus money. But Orszag said Congress should change the law.

"It would be unfortunate (and we believe unintended) policy outcome if the children of South Carolina were to be deprived of their share of federal stimulus dollars, which South Carolina citizens have already paid for," he wrote.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the House Majority Whip, had tried to head off this week’s crisis by inserting language in the stimulus legislation allowing legislators to bypass governors who don’t accept the funds.

Clyburn on Wednesday said in response to the White House letter that Sanford’s refusal of the money would cut education funding for two-thirds of the state’s children who would have been helped by the money.

Meanwhile, on the state Senate floor, Sen. John Land, leader of Senate Democrats and the Senate’s longest-serving member, displayed what he called the "countdown clock to chaos," showing the time left before Sanford has to make a decision.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler asked the governor to change his mind, "pretty please with sugar on top." Others called Sanford "Don Quixote" or suggested his actions were influenced by White House ambitions.

Sen. Michael Rose, a Dorchester County Republican, pleaded for a compromise.

"This is mutually assured destruction. That’s what we’re headed for," he told the Senate. "This is too serious to risk brinksmanship."

But three of Rose’s resolutions, non-binding statements that he said were attempts to reach out to the governor, were sent to Leatherman’s committee, where he predicted they would die.

Leatherman said if Sanford doesn’t apply for the money Friday, he will seek passage on the first available legislative day afterward of a resolution asking for the stimulus money, as allowed by Clyburn’s provision.

Furious barely covers it for me, folks. I have pretty much been reduced to sputtering level, no good for a blogger.

Ohhhhh, won't someone help us?! (((cries))) (((howls)))(((starts singing any number of trad blues songs)))

As one commenter said on one of the above articles: Governor Sanford seems to have a pretty high tolerance for other people's pain.

I remember people used to actually engage in tarring and feathering. It's a thought.

Lindsey Graham releases White House response to stimulus dilemma

And the conservative wrangling over the stimulus isn't over. Are you kidding?

One doesn't quite know whether to laugh or cry.



Senator Lindsey Graham releases White House response to stimulus dilemma

By Tim Smith • CAPITAL BUREAU
Greenville News • April 1, 2009

COLUMBIA - The White House Office of Management and Budget says that only Gov. Mark Sanford can apply for $700 million in federal stimulus funds, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said this morning.

Graham, who last week called attention to a congressional report raising legal questions about a provision allowing legislatures to bypass governors in claiming the money, had asked for an opinion from the White House.

The White House letter follows release of an opinion on Tuesday by State Attorney Henry McMaster that said the governor would have to approve spending the money, even if the Legislature requested it.

Sanford, who has until Friday to request the money, has said he will only do so if the Legislature agrees to spend it on state debt. Lawmakers have warned that without the stimulus money, thousands of teachers will be fired, tuition at state colleges will increase by double digits and some prisons could be closed or inmates released early.

"Regardless of one’s opinion about the provision’s constitutionality, the Congress will not be able to fix this problem by Friday and allow the state legislature to apply for the funding," Graham said in a statement. "Also, it is unlikely other states would want to pass a legislative fix that would assist South Carolina. By doing nothing, other states increase the chances they will receive a portion of the funding originally directed to our state."

Graham repeated his opinion that Sanford should ask for the money because it is money paid by South Carolinians that could go to other states if he doesn't.. He also said he hopes the governor and lawmakers can strike a compromise.

"It is my hope a win-win solution which addresses our state’s needs today while building a solid foundation for future generations can be achieved,” he said.

The $700 million is part of $2.8 billion in stimulus funds available to the state.

Lindsey's fingers are itching, and he wants the money. This is, as far as I can see, the only way we might actually get it.

Help us Obi Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope!

Wordless Wednesday: Greenville at dusk

Governor Sanford says he's in "a game of chicken"!

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford defends his game-playing at the CityRange Grill. (photo by Patrick Collard of the GREENVILLE NEWS.)





Dear God, it just never ends.

A GAME OF CHICKEN, he said. HE REALLY SAID THAT, OUT LOUD, IN PUBLIC, WITHOUT SHAME.

Rich, clueless, spoiled white-boy politician thinks this is all a fucking game!

Gov. Sanford defends decision to reject $700 million to Greenville audience

By Rudolph Bell
Greenville News • March 30, 2009

Gov. Mark Sanford brought the politics of economic stimulus today to Greenville, defending his decision to reject $700 million from Washington to members of a local Rotary Club.

Sanford told about 50 members of the Rotary Club of Greenville East that he was going around the state trying to make sure he is "not missing something" regarding his differences with lawmakers over how to use the money in the state budget.

The governor brought a stack of charts and pointed to some as he spoke at the CityRange Steakhouse Grill on Haywood Road.

Sanford said he was in "sort of a game of chicken" with lawmakers who want to take the $700 million and have created a "chaos budget" purportedly showing thousands of teacher layoffs and closed prisons if the money is turned down.

He called on Rotary Club members who agreed with him to contact friends, neighbors and relatives across South Carolina and urge them to share their views with their lawmakers.

And rest assured, those of us who think you are an evil, stupid swine, will spread the word too, Governor!