Month: December 2011

Newt Gingrich becomes the poster boy for adultery– literally!

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Billboard of Newt Gingrich reads Faithful Republican, Unfaithful Husband

Sure, Rick Perry may have the endorsement of the racist, sadistic, and constitution-defying Sheriff Joe Arpaio. But Newt Gingrich has a very special endorser under his belt (no pun intended):  the pro-adultery dating website Ashleymadison.com. “The world’s leading married dating service for discreet encounters” whose motto is “Life is Short. Have an affair,” has endorsed the Newt in a billboard ad for its site in Bucks County, PA. The Billboard features Gingrich and the text “Faithful Republican, Unfaithful Husband. Welcome to the Ashleymadison.com Era.” If you’re looking for a poster boy– or billboard boy– for adultery, Newt Gingrich is your man! He has admitted to cheating on his wives, he’s on number three now, but chocked it up to his love for his country. In one particularly charming adulterous move, he delivered his wife divorce papers while she recovered from surgery from cancer and then married the woman with whom he was cheating on the wife.

Ashleymadison.com’s motives are pro-Newt and pro-adultery. Its founder explained

“Now that Newt is the leading contender in the race for the GOP nomination, we felt compelled to make a point to illustrate how times have changed when a serial divorcee/adulterer is capturing the hearts of the American people…. Gingrich proves that marital fidelity has no bearing on someone’s ability to do a job. Rather than judge him, Americans have finally embraced the reality that affairs are commonplace, and perhaps paradoxically, might be an indication of great leadership to come. He is not the first nor last politician who will step outside of their marriage.”  read the rest of the post here at feministing.


Christopher Hitchens saw WMDs in Iraq but missed the humor in women

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Christopher HitchensChristopher Hitchens’s death, much like his life, provoked much discussion and reflection, as well as praise, sorrow, glee, homage-paying, and copious changing of Facebook profile pictures. Since Hitch died last Thursday, several writershave revisited his unwavering support for the Iraq War and his sexism.  Hitchens was as insistent and wrong about the absence of humor in women as he was the presence of WMDs in Iraq. Clearly, perpetuating the second lie has been more harmful, leading to war, deaths, debilitating injuries, trauma, economic and geopolitical disasters. But, since the debate over WMDs is finished, let’s discuss the myth that women aren’t funny, as immortalized in Hitch’s Vanity Fair article,”Why Women Aren’t Funny.”

Like Hitch did, I’ll use a combination of anecdotes and scientific studies to make my point. (Actually, I’ll cite twice as many studies as Hitch did. Before you get too excited about my exhaustive research, you should know that he only cited one.)

read the rest of the post on feministing  

Inmate on life support wouldn’t be the first to die on Arpaio’s watch

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*Trigger warning for descriptions and images related to extreme prisoner abuse*

It’s still not clear what exactly happened to Ernest Atencio, but we do know that just days after the Department of Justice accused of Sheriff Joe Arpaio “unconstitutional policing” and creating a “pervasive culture of bias” against Latinos,  a 44-year-old Latino man, Ernest “Marty” Atencio, became unconscious while in one of Arpaio’s prisons, and is now brain dead and on life support.  We know that Atencio got into a fight with the officers in jail and that he was put into a “safe cell.” He was found unconscious and taken to the hospital where he was declared brain dead.  The family claims Atencio, who is mentally ill and a veteran of the first Gulf War, was tasered. Atencio’s brother Mike, acting as the family spokesman, said ”The sheriff’s office murdered my brother….That’s what I want to get out to the public right now:Sheriff Joe is murdering inmates.”

read rest of the post on feministing

Latino inmate critically injured while in Sheriff Arpaio’s custody

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Photo of Ernesto Atencio

Last Tuesday I blogged about the fact that Sheriff Joe Apaio’s obsession with immigration resulted in the commission of additional sex crimes. Thursday the Department of Justice issued a report that described Arpaio’s “systemic disregard” for the constitution as well as his penchant for racial profiling and denying prisoners’ rights. According to the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights division:

We found discriminatory policing that was deeply rooted in the culture of the department, a culture that breeds a systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections.

And today, Ernest Atencio is on life support, after he fought with deputies in a Maricopa County jail over the weekend.  State Senator Steve Gallardo said of the case: read the rest of the post on Feministing

My appearance on The Young Turks

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Here’s just a sliver of my appearance on the Young Turks.

Can three progressive Power Panelists kill Cenk’s crush on Ron Paul?

Even though Cenk says Ron Paul is right on 50 percent of the issues — especially civil liberties and the war in Iraq — his Power Panel says he’s a terrible choice for progressives. “He’s worse than any candidate in the race except maybe Rick Santorum on civil rights,” Ben Mankiewicz says. “Nobody who cares about equality and moving this country forward in any kind of progressive way would even consider voting for Ron Paul in a billion years.” Political comedian Katie Halper says, “I think if you are a straight, white man who wants to drink raw milk, Ron Paul is your candidate… I assume he’s equal opportunity bigoted.” Ari Berman from ‘The Nation’ gets the last word: “He’s tantalizing, but I don’t think you should fool progressives into thinking he’s a guy who will speak to progressive points of view on a whole range of issues.”

Guest Hosting on “Opinionated” on Citizen Radio

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I had the pleasure of filling in for Samhita Mukhopadhyay on Opinionated, the new podcast hosted by Samhita and Amanda Marcotte on Citizen Radio, which is hosted by Jamie Kilstein and Allison Kilkenny. Here it is

Bro Down and Out

Published December 14, 2011 | By Opinionated

Samhita’s out of town, so Katie Halper steps in to make fun of Newt Gingrich in her place. Gingrich pledges on to cheat on his wife in exchange for voter support. Andrew Breitbart suddenly claims to have developed a single moral belief, which is bizarrely that you shouldn’t out gay men who support homophobic propaganda. Abortion doesn’t make you crazy, though anti-choicers might. Brits can’t tell the difference between rapists and men’s magazine writers, but then again, neither can Amanda.

Listen now!

We’re Not Racists! We Just Scream the N Word For Good Luck

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By KATIE | Published: DECEMBER 13, 2011

Next time someone says we live in a post-racial world, you can share this gem which shows us that good old fashion racism is still as American as Apple Pie.

Tyra Batts, the only African American on her varsity girls basketball team in Buffalo, New York, felt a little uncomfortable when her team-mates engaged in what is apparently a non-racist 5-year old tradition of chanting “1, 2, 3, N****r.” read the rest of the post here at Feministing

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Too busy “busting illegals” to worry about sexual assaults

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As “America’s toughest sheriff,” Joe Arpaio, knows all too well, it’s hard to investigate sexual assaults when you have so much other stuff (mostly an obsession with “illegals”) on your mind. The sheriff’s office in Maricopa Count, AZ, recently confirmed that between 2005 to 2007, it failed to investigate 432 alleged sex crimes. Arpaio felt so […] read the rest of the post at Feministing here. 

Yet another study says abortion doesn’t pose a mental health risk

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ThumbnailAnti-choice activists, I hope you’re sitting down. It turns out that, contrary to your wishful thinking, having an abortion does not increase the chances a woman* will suffer mental health issues. Of course, some of you anti-choicers won’t be convinced by this evidence because it was done by scientists, which you’ll find sketchy. But just so […] read the rest of the post on Feministing here.