“I know, because I won both of them.” get on Obama’s shade level

Arguably the best line of the night, most likely adlibbed. The 2015 State of the Union address was, well I had low expectations. Ok, so here’s the thing. I’m not happy, and I know that is because I’m tired, old, and cranky, but this whole President Obama gives no fucks thing needs to stop. It needs to stop because Obama does in fact have fucks to give. You can tell by the way he didn’t threaten to veto a 20 week abortion ban during the speech, which he did that morning. He didn’t say, I’m pro-choice, and I’m going to veto any anti-choice bills. No he said, “We still may not agree on a woman’s right to choose, but surely, we can agree it’s a good thing that teen pregnancies and abortions are nearing all-time lows, and that every woman should have access to the health care that she needs.” Yeah, we can’t all agree that women should have the right to make their own medical decisions. Well, I don’t care people disagree with me, and a man giving no fucks wouldn’t either. Just saying.

What else was missing, well women at large. You’d think I’d be used to it. Also, couldn’t say NetNeutrality? Oh, and Ferguson “We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York. But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed. And surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift.” Now, I don’t want the police murdered, but I’m not sure the murder of children and the deaths of police are on the same level, after all, police sign up for a dangerous job while black boys are just going out for some skittles. #BlackLivesMatter, not all lives matter. Of course, everyone matters, but the point of #BlackLivesMatter is to draw attention to the murder of people of color by the police, which isn’t happening to white people.  And of course the phrasing isn’t mutually exclusive, by saying the lives of black people matter isn’t the same as saying all other lives do not matter, or more specifically, white lives.

All that said no one throws shade quite like our President, and that I can respect. While, I’ll never be on that level of shade throwing, I’m going to need the Obama administration to get on my level when it comes to progressive issues because this shit is weak. 

Photo of the night: 

Imagine my surprise that a white guy who owns a sports team is a racist

And this time I’m not talking about Dan Snyder. Nope this time I’m talking about Donald Sterling, the owner of the Clippers, being an asshole. It is like there is some competition going on where the wealthy white guys got together and said, “No, I’m a bigger racist.”

So Sterling ran his mouth off about what is appropriate for his girlfriend to do at his games. Now, I’m not going to go on about how there is a seriously sexist aspect to this in addition to racist because women can do what they want without asking permission from their partners. Sterling had some amazingly ignorant things to say including:

“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?”“You can sleep with [black men]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that…and not to bring them to my games.”“I’m just saying, in your lousy f******* Instragrams, you don’t have to have yourself walking with black people.”“…Don’t put him [Magic] on an Instragrams, for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.”

A gentleman and a scholar this one. Not to be outdone, everyone has an opinion about this, but personally, I think LeBron James’ response was pretty great and came right after the news broke. James said, if he played for the Clippers he would strongly consider sitting out:

“I kind of wavered back and forth whether I would actually sit out. If our owner would come out and say the things that he said, “ I would really have to sit down with my teammates, talk to my family because at the end of the day, our family, and our teammates are way more important than that. Basketball is huge, obviously the playoffs have been unbelievable, and I hate the fact that something like this has to come out when the playoffs have been unbelievable and the game of basketball continues to grow, but there is no room for Donald Sterling in our league. There is no room for him.”

James concluded by stating the league has to do something quickly. Kobe Bryant has stated he wouldn’t play for Sterling. Kendall Marshall, a guard for the Lakers, called for the Clippers Players to sit out. Many other players are calling for the league to do something. Other owners are also disappointed in the remarks made by Sterling. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has promised to investigate.

President Obama weighed in as well, “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk.” It is almost like he’s talking about the Republican Party.

Obama did expand his perspective on Sterling to include larger themes, 

“The United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and segregation, that’s still there, the vestiges of discrimination. We’ve made enormous strides, but you’re going to continue to see this percolate up every so often. And I think that we just have to be clear and steady in denouncing it, teaching our children differently, but also remaining hopeful that part of why statements like this stand out so much is because there has been this shift in how we view ourselves.”

Below are some great tweets from over the weekend.

Clipper's game pic.twitter.com/InW8Hoty8X
— Maggie Jordan (@MaggieJordanACN) April 27, 2014

Clippers stage silent protest against owner, hide team logo during warmups ... and more. http://t.co/VuFe8V3CQj pic.twitter.com/gEnGNCRfs5
— ABC7News (@ABC7News) April 27, 2014

A day late and a dollar short…

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Finally, Obama does something, well will do something, wait let’s hold off for a minute.

I’m so tired of President Obama’s inability to do anything. I know Congress blows, but it blew yesterday and will continue to blow tomorrow. Get shit done or go home.

Regardless, when I woke up this morning, I saw, President Obama intends to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers by executive order; Sam Stein and Dave Jamieson have a post over at Huffington Post (note the irony). Of course, this is alleged because it is supposed to come out in tonight’s State of the Union Address. This executive order would raise the minimum wage for federal contractors to $10.10 per hour. This is still too low.

However, this will impact thousands of workers, and the added bonus this is supposed to encourage movement on Congress’ behalf, because CONGRESS. Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25, which hasn’t risen since 2009.

This executive order also signals a change. It looks like President Obama will be pursuing policies without Congressional approval (not unlike war in Yemen, sorry, sorry drones in Yemen). The administration hasn’t shared any other areas they would be pursuing. It is also important to remember whatever goes through via executive order can be undone the same way. Think no further than the executive gag order of the Bush Years.

The executive order should cover “workers who are performing services or constructing buildings and are getting paid less than $10.10 an hour.” This will likely include food servers, dishwashers, and construction workers. Of course, this will not impact existing contracts, but it alerts contractors to the changes when bidding.

This appears to be a victory for labor, given we’re so used to losing it is hard to tell. Obama has been meeting a lot of criticism on not tackling the issue. Workers have also been walling out in several government buildings including the Reagan Building, Union Station, and the Pentagon.

In the SOTU, President Obama is expected to call for Congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 as the legislation championed by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif).

For me, I’m having trouble rallying  for this one. First $10.10 isn’t enough. Make it a living wage, a $15 an hour living wage, tied to inflation. Secondly, Mr. Come Lately, what was the hold up? If in the end we’re using an executive order to do this then why not do it before? Finally, as I mention as long as this is an executive order it isn’t really legislation. The Republicans can repeal it if they ever take back the Executive Branch.

President Obama was heckled and Twitter goes nuts

So you guys remember my favorite moment of President George W. Bush’s presidency? It was when the dude threw a show at him. I know violence is never the answer, but no one was hurt; it was funny, and the dude had a point to make to a man who prided himself on not needing facts.

I bring this up because Medea Benjamin, of Code Pink, heckled President Obama. Obama gives his pro-militarization propaganda counterterrorism speech on Thursday afternoon and all of a sudden a hysterical woman starts shouting, ain’t that always the way?

Obama began speaking about closing Gitmo and referenced being limited by Congress, and Benjamin interrupted with: “Excuse me, President Obama, you are commander in chief…it’s you, sir.” She continued to mention the hunger strikes at Gtimo while President Obama continued to speak.

She continued to interrupt him as he spoke, and he stated that she has free speech, but so does he, and then said, “I’m willing to cut the young lady who interrupted me some slack because it’s worth being passionate about.” (Nothing patronizing about that comment at all, sir.)

Benjamin was escorted out of the speech after she shouted about Anwar al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son (and US citizen) who was killed by drone strikes. Benjamin is a regular at national security speeches and hearings, but this time the White House seemed unaware she was present. Someone noted that Benjamin was wearing a press pass like the reporters with her given name “Susan Benjamin” written on it.

I didn’t actually watch the speech live, and I’m writing this before I get to see all of it because I think we need to address a few issues. What caught my attention is my Twitter feed blowing up when some of my favor feminists on each side and not a crazy Republican to be found…they come. But a few feminists whose work I admire were going back and forth on Benjamin’s tactics (Code Pink has some controversial tactics) and respect for the office of the presidency, though I’m thinking this has more to do with the man in the office than the office. As previously mentioned, the shoe throwing incident with GW didn’t seem to generate this kind of reaction from pseudo-liberals like Benjamin’s interruption did (though I’m sure it did on the right). The right-wing nut jobs also got in on the party with the whole office of the presidency “bow down and kiss the ring” talk.

Below is the West Wing’s Jed Bartlet’s take down of a hateful talk radio show host. At the end of his take down, he takes her to task for not standing when he is because that is what you do and decorum states (doesn’t hurt arms guards are present), but note the setting. They are at a party not a press conference, not a speech, not a place when the President is actually doing something and not being a figure head. Enjoy Jed.

I wanted to show this because there are differences between the disrespect the talk radio person shows and what Benjamin does. Benjamin is an author (and perhaps even falls under journalist for her books, but I’m not sure what the classifications are for press). President Obama was giving a speech and Benjamin spoke truth to power. That is how the job is done. President Obama needs a thick skin, and activists on behalf of the people have to demand answers wherever the opportunity presents itself. This is Amy Goodman type shit, which is something we should demand more of from journalists.

Additionally, I can’t help but notice the very gendered language being used to describe Benjamin. Perhaps I’m being overly sensitive as the womenfolk are want to do, but discussions around rudeness and manners have a different connotations for women and men, particularly in the public space. So I ask you was the man who threw a shoe at GW’s ever called rude? I don’t recall that. I don’t recall anyone complaining about Rahm Emanuel’s manners either, and he sent people dead fish. Or any of the defacto Occupy leaders (I know a leaderless movement, but the mens seem to get more talking time). Just saying. The manners discussion only seems to be drug out when uppity womenfolk step out of line. So complain she disrespected the office, but I don’t agree. Complain she disrupted a press event, and I’ll say that was the point. But tell me she is rude, and I have to roll my eyes. Because even if she was rude, who the fuck cares this is politics (Benjamin was a Green Party Senate candidate at one point), and everyone is rude or have we already forgotten Joe Biden’s epicness in his debate with Paul Ryan? Of course, thems the menfolk again, which appears to make being rude ok, entertaining, and what you can expect when you’re outmatched.

Perhaps that is the real problem, was President Obama outmatched? Could he not provide responses to Benjamin? Blaming Congress for Gitmo is weak, and the White House has said in the past killing a US child is the cost of that child having a bad father. Did President Obama not want to say that in front of the press? I think I’m giving everyone too much credit. President Obama has joined the ranks of those who came before him, and no longer knows how to be treated as a mere mortal. We saw it in the Presidential debates as well.

Below you’ll find the video of Benjamin being escorted out and a tweet from Allison Kilkenny of a photo of Benjamin being removed. 

  

Hero RT @rosiegray Medea Benjamin being taken out of the room twitter.com/RosieGray/stat…
— allisonkilkenny (@allisonkilkenny) May 23, 2013