Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - Posts
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Good catch, Melinda, on how Rudy wants to help the "worst people" in our society as long as they are his pals—and surely Rudy considers child-molesting priests worse than squeegee men. This article describes Giuliani's friendship with the defrocked priest who now works at his firm. It goes back to childhood and the former priest, Alan Placa, presided over two of Giuliani's weddings (and the annulment of the first marriage, over the objection of Giuliani's first wife). Yes, Rudy's big on loyalty, but to a point. Witness his friendship with his former police and corrections commissioner—and crook—Bernie Kerik. Giuliani pushed for Kerik to become head of Homeland Security in the Bush administration, but the guy was such a sleazeball that the nomination had to be withdrawn almost immediately. The embarrassment, and Kerik's subsequent conviction for taking illegal gifts while serving in the Giuliani administration, ended the friendship. But surely Rudy—Mr. Crime Fighter—knew who Kerik really was all along, just as he knows now who Placa is. So why is he so close to such men—and what do they know about him? And won't Rudy soon be forced to rid himself of this troublesome priest?
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Hillary as Scarlett at Twelve Oaks does not work for me, with or without bosoms showing. But what has my big-girl panties in a twist today is Rudy’s regard for a man removed from his job as a priest over multiple allegations of sex abuse. After the church fired Monsignor Alan Placa, he went to work for Giuliani Partners. Where his new boss, the former prosecutor, shows him the kind of compassion he never had for turnstile jumpers: “I know the man,’’ Giuliani told reporters. “I know who he is, so I support him. We give some of the worst people in our society the benefit of the doubt. And of course I’m going to give it to one of my closest friends.’’ Of course; we are all law and order guys until the perp is a pal.
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Parody site of the day, via feministing: Guns for girls. "My Little Carbine" takes the cake for its pastiche of My Little Ponies with assault weapons. It's startling to me how perniciously traditional many children's TV ads still are. We didn't have a TV when I was a kid, and I sometimes think that one reason I didn't realize I was supposed to behave like a "girl" was that I never was held captive by ads like this stunner or this.
Sadly, the Disney Princess Poison Ring seems all too realistic a talisman, at least among eighth-graders; I'm fairly sure I must have worn one, metaphorically speaking, at some point.
via Feministing.
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Emily, I think you are right that Hillary uses the language of “choice” in a really fascinating way. When I covered her Senate race against Rick Lazio in 2000, I was immediately struck by the way she used that word to explain everything from her position on abortion to her decisions about parenting, her marriage, religion, and policy preferences. I think it was one of the central features of her rhetoric then, and it still offers a rather amazing contrast to the language of the Nancy Pelosi's and Laura Bush’s – who tend to say they were chosen for public service but not that it was their own choice.
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A new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll finds that 42 percent of Democrats believe Hillary Clinton was right to stay with Bill after the Lewinsky affair. Just 5 percent say she made the wrong choice. Meanwhile, Hillary talks about her marriage in the new issue of Essence. "Now obviously we've had challenges as everybody in the world knows. But I never doubted that it was a marriage worth investing in even in the midst of those challenges and I'm really happy that I made that decision. Again, not a decision for everybody. And I think it's so important for women to stand up for the right of women to make a decision that is best for them."
In other words, it's all about supporting a woman's right to choose. That's familiar from the abortion context, of course, and also from the debate over women who decide not to work. Does it work here?
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I must confess to a more than passing obsession with the Darren Mack trial, which gets under way today in Las Vegas. Mack stands accused of fatally stabbing his estranged wife Charla with their 7-year-old daughter upstairs in the home, then shooting – sniper style – at the family court judge who was presiding over their divorce and custody dispute. Of course part of my fascination is that I knew Darren and Charla quite well, back when I clerked at a Reno divorce firm.
The current jury pool offers a snapshot of everything weird and wonderful about Vegas, including, at present, a former go-go dancer who has been married three times, a veteran trapeze performer, as well as a floor supervisor for a local casino who’s studied martial arts since he was 5. But I am mostly curious to see whether the defense will indeed be styled as a referendum on father’s rights and their alleged unequal treatment in family courts. After the shooting, Mack left a message on his cousin’s answering machine asking, “If anything happens to me, please make sure that the true story about the injustices that are going on in that courtroom get out to the media and the public.” I guess he’ll finally get his wish.
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