Secondhand Sun

Carol Moseley Braun is starting up an organic food business, because she wants to "expand the availability of healthy foods" to "help people eat healthier." Okay. Presumably she also wants to earn money. Okay.

Anyone see a problem with this?

Apparently someone does. In this Chicago Tribune article, suddenly this bit of news trivia is morphed into a debate over whether it's - what, legitimate? appropriate? acceptable? for Braun to start a business.

It is unusual for former high-level politicians to go into the consumer products business in this way, especially using a government title as a brand name. "Pioneering yet again, here she goes," Braun joked last week. "Where no girl has gone before."

But her latest move provided grist for those who see her political career as a disappointment and Braun herself as someone with promise who proved unequal to the stature of the offices she held.

I'm afraid someone's going to have to spell out the connection for me. Entrepreneurs are lower on the totem pole than politicians now? Quick, somebody tell the Republicans in Congress! Because we need a tax code overhaul to incentivize public service, if this is true.

"If she were a serious politician, then it would be unusual," said Alton Miller, Braun's communications director during her 1992 Senate primary and now an associate dean at Chicago's Columbia College.

Ouch. Her own former communications director. That's gotta hurt. But wait! There's more...

Miller likened Braun's planned new enterprise with the salad dressing popularized by actor Paul Newman. "What he does with salad dressings is what Carol Moseley Braun is doing with organic foods," Miller said. "The difference being that he's a bigger celebrity than Carol Moseley Braun, and probably more politically effective than Carol Moseley Braun ever was."

His former boss' new venture, Miller said, is "very much in keeping with her agility and opportunistic enterprise. She's taken a little bit and made a great deal out of it and never lost a smile and I've got to give her credit for that."

It sounds like this was not an amicable parting of ways. It's a damn good thing we've got old white guys like Alton to warn us about the wily ways of opportunistic black women who aren't as politically effective as white movie actors.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald said in America there's no second act," said Eric Adelstein, a Chicago-based media consultant who worked on Braun's Senate re-election campaign. "It's been proven over and over again to be completely wrong, and I think a former politician, someone with historical significance, going out to do something entrepreneurial is a completely American act in this day and age."

Yeah, you tell 'em, Eric. After all, white guys who happen to be former politicians go out and do this sort of thing all the time! And they don't get hit pieces written about them in major newspapers. But they probably didn't piss off Alton Miller. Yeah, I bet that's the difference.

Added a former top aide, Pat Botterman, a Democratic political consultant in Illinois who worked on Braun's presidential campaign: "She's an adult. She can associate her name with any business she wants to. I think anybody who thinks it's unseemly ought to just pay attention to their own business and stay out of Carol Moseley Braun's. You got nothing nice to say about somebody, don't say anything."

Best advice I've heard all day.

(Hat tip for this entry goes to 54cermak of Peanut Butter Knife, who emailed me the article.)

Posted by Joanna at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Just for fun, for you 24 fans out there, here is a website that offers random facts about Jack Bauer.

Lets get one thing straight, the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.

Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.

Jack Bauer arm once wrestled Superman. The stipulations were the loser had to wear his underwear on the outside of his pants.

When Kim Bauer lost her virginity, Jack Bauer found it and put it back.

If everyone on "24" followed Jack Bauer's instructions, it would be called "12".

And, my favorite...

Jack Bauer's influence is so strong that with one call to the NCAA, the deceased, former director of CTU George Mason was able to make it to the Final Four.

Some of these are pretty funny. Of course, some of the other "facts" submitted to the site are rather nasty and hateful. There's a slam at Rosa Parks, a number of anti-Arab comments, and some stuff with sexist subtexts as well. I was doing some searching last night for 24 fan sites, hoping to find a discussion forum about the show or something of the sort, because I thought it might be fun to engage in speculation with others about What Happens Next. But most of the sites I turned up either were hateful right-wing sites, or were linked to them in some way. It's a little disturbing that a show I quite like seems to have so many devotees who are... well, not my sort of people.

But the Random Facts About Jack Bauer are funny, anyway. The non-racist/sexist ones, at least.

Posted by Joanna at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. There are major marches in Washington DC and a host of other cities. I wanted to go - I planned to go - but I've been sick all weekend, and it's probably the fucking flu. I have a doctor's appointment at 4pm, and I'll find out. Meantime, the show goes on. The Washington Post has an article with a route map. They're expecting as many as 180,000 people. If you are in the DC area and want to go, you can either meet up at Meridian Hill Park (aka Malcom X Park) before the 3:00 step-off - an email I got from PFAW had a call time of 2:00 pm - and march down 16th street, or meet the group at the Washington Monument around 4:00 or 4:30.

I want to talk a little bit about why this is an important issue. For anyone who has a doubt that racism is at the heart of this fuss over "illegals" I want to tell a story. Immigration was something of an issue during the 2005 governor's campaign in Virginia. I worked for the coordinated campaign for a few months, and canvassed every day. In certain areas - invariably the most McMansiony areas, mostly in and around Herndon, I started to find people who would name "Illegal Immigrants" as their issue. In Herndon at the time there was a big fuss over a day-labor center that had been proposed as a place where day laborers could gather, to prevent them gathering at gas stations and the like, which the property and business owners did not care for.

"Immigration" wasn't as big an issue as "Traffic" which was far and away the #1. But I got enough of this that I, and other canvassers, started to bug the higher-ups for talking points on "Immigration." Canvassers are very loathe to improvise, you see, because we get that instinct beat out of us very early on in our field careers. It's a very uncomfortable thing as a field staffer to be asked a question over and over that you haven't been given a ready answer to.

I was made all the more uncomfortable by the fact that I sensed that the real concern with "Illegal Immigrants" was something more along the lines of "I don't want those brown people living in my neighborhood." Then one day I had this confirmed for me in beautiful clarity. I was in a neighborhood of townhomes in Herndon. It looked like a nice neighborhood, a comfortable one, not upscale, but hardly a place where poor folk could afford to live. About half the residents (who answered the doors) were white, and about half were Hispanic. I'd been there for an hour or two when I knocked on the door of a white woman.

"Hi, my name's Joanna, and I'm here in the neighborhood on behalf of our Lieutenant Governor, Tim Kaine. He's been working with Governor Mark Warner to keep Virginia moving forward. Tim's running for governor this year, and he's interested to know what issues people here in Northern Virginia are concerned about."

Immediately the woman started in on how all these "illegal immigrants" had started moving into her neighborhood, and how they went and stood outside the 7-11 looking for work (presumably these had their status stamped on their foreheads) and on and on and on and on... especially focusing on them invading her neighborhood, which used to be really nice.

When I could get in a work edgewise, I said, "Actually, ma'am, a lot of the Hispanic folks here in the neighborhood are registered to vote. The information on my list here comes from the master list of everyone who is registered, and I've been talking to a lot of them today."

The woman looked confused. "How could they register to vote?" she asked me. "Don't you have to be a citizen to do that?"

The people who are screaming about "illegal immigrants" don't know if the brown people they complain about are citizens. They don't care if the brown people they complain about are citizens. They want them to strip their basement carpet when it gets flooded, paint their houses, and clean up their garbage. But they don't want them to live in their neighborhoods. That is what this fight is about.

Maybe it's a little easier for me to see because I grew up in Louisiana. There's a lot of denial out there about racism. But let's not kid ourselves. That is what this is. Tim Kaine gets it, and that's something to be said for him, if there's a lot that can be said against him (and there is).

So if you believe as I do that racism is to be fought wherever you find it, then please use google to find a march in your area and join. I'll be with you in spirit!

Posted by Joanna at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I had never witnessed the phenomenon of blog "carnivals" before I began reading feminist blogs. I'm not sure how new or old the idea might be. However, I absolutely love it, because it's an opportunity to discover interesting posts from bloggers I don't ordinarily read. There's not enough time in the day to read all the good stuff that's out there, but carnivals help provide a delicious sampling. This week I've been sampling from:

The Radical Women of Color Carnival at Blackademic.

The Big Fat Carnival at This Ain't Livin'

Carnival of the Feminists XII at Written World

Enjoy!

Posted by Joanna at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

If there was any doubt that the Duke University Rapists' Club Lacrosse Team intended to harm the dancers they hired on the night of their ever-more-infamous party, here's some additional info from a search warrant:

The victim stated she did not think the names the suspects were providing her were their own. She stated one male identified himself as Adam, but everyone at the party was calling him Dan. In addition, the witness/co-worker stated the men at the party told her they were members of the Duke Baseball and Track Team to hide the true identity of their sports affiliation - Duke Lacrosse Team Members. In a non-custodial interview with Daniel Flannery, resident of 610 N. Buchanan and Duke Lacrosse Team Captain; Mr. Flannery admitted using an alias to make the reservation to have the dancers attend the Lacrosse Team Party.

One team member, Ryan McFadyen, wrote an email on the night of the party.

tommrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. i plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off white cumming in my duke issue spandex.. all in besides arch and tack please respond

Lawyers for the captains of the lacross team ares obviously at a loss, because they're claiming the email proves a rape did not occur. In yet more proof that you can't throw an e-rock on the Internet without hitting an asshole, commenters and posters at various blogs - most notably Jeralyn of Talkleft, who doesn't get the courtsey of a link - are also claiming that a rape did not occur. Given that the victim left behind four fake fingernails (which came off while she was clawing at someone who was strangling her) and given that the DA found it productive to take DNA samples (useless if there was no physical evidence from the woman), the people who keep talking about how maybe-there-wasn't-really-a-rape and we-don't-KNOW-for-sure can go stick their heads in a beehive.

Oh - I almost forgot. The author of that lovely email above? His smug mug was at a Take Back the Night Rally following the assault, according to the New York Times.

Coincidentally, McFadyen attended a ''Take Back the Night'' march on campus on March 29.

''I completely support this event and this entire week,'' the player told The Chronicle, Duke's student newspaper. ''It's just sad that the allegations we are accused of happened to fall when they did.''

Sad. Is that what they call it, Ryan?

Posted by Joanna at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)