mooreroom

Not a Good Week

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:02:59 GMT

Over all, this week has sucked.

I won't go into details, but if you have been looking forward to seeing new cartoons up at Wanderlost or In Contempt, you have been sorely disappointed. And it's all cuz my week has sucked. It has sucked like I stepped over the event horizon of a black hole and found myself accelerating toward higher and higher concentrations of suckitude, the gravitational force tearing my body and eventually my cellular structure and my very atoms apart through a process physicists call the Spaghettification of Suck. The end point was, of course, a Singularity of Suck.

I think - I hope - I have emerged on the other side into a calmer dimension. I don't expect to see my embryonic form hovering above me or my ancient self in a giant white room. I just expect a lot less of the factors that contributed to the Suck That This Week Was.

Let's try again next week, shall we?

Let's!!

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Whitey Says "Wink"

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:54:38 GMT

Remember how yesterday I said something like this about Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign?

If Clinton were running a campaign that did not consistently appeal to lowest common denominator Republican talking points and to the worst aspects of American racism, I'd happily encourage her to carry on. As it is, it's become a ginormous headache.

How nice of Clinton to provide us with a fresh example.

“There was just an AP article posted that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.

Em-phas-sis mine. I heard it on the radio this morning, driving along with a kind of drop-jaw stupor, so I'm surprised that I'm not wrapped around a tree right now. But Barry's excellent round-up of outrage, annoyance and analysis reminded me of it, so I thought it best to pass it on. It's actually really good reading, quite informative, and amusing - all necessary antidotes to the poison.

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Everybody Say, "Ick!"

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:45:37 GMT

From The Superficial. Which I am merely citing, not endorsing. The same goes for this other link, which has another repulsive doll to wretch at. Seriously, look at those anorexic legs! Those narrow-set heavily-painted cat eyes! But don't gaze too close lest thou lotheth thy thoul.

All said, as nasty as the doll is, nothing tops Paris.

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What's The Point?

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:32:09 GMT

Narrowly squeaking by in Indiana last night, Senator Hillary Clinton has donated another $6.4 million of her own moolah to a campaign that her own spokespeople admit will not reach the necessary number of delegates to secure the nomination, even if they succeed in seating the delegates from Michigan and Florida.

Earlier in the call, Clinton officials were asked to lay out the math by which seating the delegates from Michigan and Florida would get Mrs. Clinton significantly closer to the nomination. The reporter asking the question, from the Detroit News, said that it appeared, based on estimates of pledged delegates, that even if those delegations were fully counted, “it’s likely you’ll come up behind.”
Mr. Singer said that even if the delegates were counted, the campaign would still be about 100 delegates shy of the number needed. The implication was that the gap could not be made up, even if she wins more delegates in the remaining contests, as she is expected to do. He also said he expected the Democratic National Committee’s rules and bylaws committee to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida to ensure that all voters are represented.
Asked again if it was correct that the Clinton campaign would still not reach the full number of delegates, Mr. Singer said, “That is correct.”

Howard Wolfson and Singer argue that "the process must play itself out" to ensure all votes are counted, no one is disenfranchised and democratic values are upheld. Or something like that. Hot air. This has become a vanity campaign, a multi-million dollar venture in self-aggrandizement. As my friend Amanda commented to me this morning, "She's turning into Mitt Romney." Given Clinton's tendency to echo whatever Republican talking point she can use against her Democratic rival, that characterization ain't much of a stretch.

The only compelling argument I have heard for Clinton to remain in the race is the history-making aspect of her status as a woman coming within an hair's-breadth of winning a major party nomination. I have a great deal of sympathy for this argument, because a) who knows when a chance like this will emerge again, b) were the tables reversed, Senator Barack Obama would be in a similar situation and faced with similar calls to drop out prematurely, and c) Clinton and Obama both have been handed the tricky task of blazing trails for their respective identities as a woman and as an African-American, so that (to extend this much extended metaphor) they are both operating without a map of defined trails. Women of all ages deserve a pioneering candidate who will provide an example to emulate, someone whose history will demonstrate the political power of competent and hard-working women. Women deserve someone who will speak directly to issues that affect them, something Clinton has done significantly better than Obama.

Yet at some point Clinton's value as a history maker has been undermined by Clinton the typical pandering Democrat, Clinton the Neo-Liberal who runs to the Right when its convenient, Clinton the Neo-Con Dupe, Clinton the bourgeois white feminist willing to exploit racial divisions to her advantage. If Clinton were running a campaign that did not consistently appeal to lowest common denominator Republican talking points and to the worst aspects of American racism, I'd happily encourage her to carry on. As it is, it's become a ginormous headache.

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Jesus, I Look Tired

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:48:09 GMT

From Tom Spurgeon's photo gallery of cartoonists at Stumptown 2008.

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In Contempt: No New Strip Tuesday

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:27:29 GMT

Which sounds like the lamest promotional gimmick ever. "C'mon down to the Hut of Contempt for No Strip Tuesday! We got nothin'! Nothing is half off! Nothing must go-go-go!"

Anyhoo, my dear wife took ill today, so I had no spare time to cartoonize the political situation. Admittedly, the Neverending Primary thing is not inspiring, and some of the other ideas I have kicking around require more time than I had tonight to put them together. Thursday looks good. So long as I don't catch Jenn's virus.

I really need to stop working 6 days a week.

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Wanderlost: "Writing Hiatus"

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:49:21 GMT

Click the image to see the whole cartoon.

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Greasy Kid Stuff

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Sat, 03 May 2008 20:08:02 GMT

Every Saturday morning on my way to work at the reference desk of PCC's Rock Creek Library, I tune into the best rock music radio show I have heard since Doctor Demento in the early '80s. Greasy Kid Stuff, hosted by DJs Belinda and Nova, is so great that They Might Be Giants wrote a song in their honor - which the DJs play religiously at 8:30am on the nose.

The music mix is pretty eclectic and strays beyond the "Alternative" genre constraints imposed on the parent radio station's daily playlist. Hipster parents (who are obviously a target audience as much as the kids) will certainly groove to a playing of Ben Lee or pogo to The Ramones' "Spider-Man". Yet Belinda and Nova love to throw in anything that is kid-friendly and fun. James Kochalka's "Monkey Vs. Robot" and Logan Whitehurst and the Junior Science Club's "Happy Noodle Vs. Sad Noodle" frequently pop up; Captain Bogg and Salty are huge favorites.

And they love themes. Check out part of the playlist from this morning:

# Ghoti Hook - My Bike
Banana Man (Tooth & Nail, 1997)
# The Jellydots - Bicycle
Hey You Kids! (self-released, 2006)
# Frances England - Tricycle
Fascinating Creatures (self-released, 2006)
# Lunch Money - Tricycle
Silly Reflection (Squirrel Mechanic, 2004)

Yes, bikes and trikes! I would have included Sid Barrett's "Bike Song" (it's kid-friendly!), but that's just me.

The DJs take requests and of course have birthday shout-outs to young listeners. Youth librarians can learn a lot from this show, especially the music tastes for young listeners.

[Cross-posted with Kids Music Source for Librarians]

It's 1979 All Over Again

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:20:17 GMT

With only a few minor adjustments to account for dates and sports utility vehicles, this NY Times article on recent car buying trends could have been written thirty years ago. Start with the headline:

As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Flock to Small Cars

I have childhood memories of such headlines. Change the price-a-gallon and replace "sport utility vehicles" with "gas-guzzling boat-sized sedans" and the following paragraph would have been relevant back then, too:

The switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles has been building in recent years, but has accelerated recently with the advent of $3.50-a-gallon gas. At the same time, sales of pickup trucks and large sport utility vehicles have dropped sharply.

Finally, here is where history repeats itself in perhaps the most moronic way:

The trend toward smaller and lighter vehicles with better mileage is a blow to Detroit automakers, which offer fewer such models than Asian carmakers like Toyota and Honda.

Yet as a testament to how the entire auto industry, regardless of country of origin (which means little in a globalized production line), is completely behind the times, consider the gas mileage of the fuel-efficient vehicles the Times lists in a sidebar:

The city mileage does not even reach 30 M.P.G.! We should be getting 100 M.P.G. now. We should have taken care of this thirty years ago. But no-o-o-o-o. We got frightened by the Iranian Revolution and elected an ex-B movie actor who stroked our precious imperialist egos ("It's okay, my fellow Americans, we're still a great big superpower"), and, once in office, undid the energy policies of the Carter Admin that would have saved us time, money, war, lives, and at least a part of the global warming crisis we face. Thanks, Reagan Democrats! I hope you guys learn your lesson this time!

But, like Detroit, you probably won't.

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In Contempt (5/2/08): Gods Damn America

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:13:43 GMT

Click to see the whole cartoon.

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Has He Thoughts Within His Head?

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:43:29 GMT

I had already decided that I would not go see Iron Man, because it looked like just another multi-million dollar piece of shit. But David Denby has given my smug leftist heart a moral reason to avoid it altogether:

The director, Jon Favreau, and two writing teams, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, have enlisted Iron Man in the war on terror. Stark is now showing off his advanced missiles to American forces in Afghanistan. He gets ambushed by a mysterious group of burning-eyed men who hang out in caves and scream in foreign tongues. They are never identified, though their leader, Raza (Faran Tahir), says that they want to conquer the world. In any case, the freelance fanatics, or whatever they are, waterboard Tony Stark, which, considering what some American interrogators and their surrogates have done to suspects recently, is enraging to watch. Such are the ways of pop: we cast our sins onto others. The complaint sounds a little wan, but it’s worth noting that, possibly, more Americans will see this dunderheaded fantasia on its opening weekend than have seen all the features and documentaries that have labored to show what’s happening in Iraq and on the home front.

That said, I still haven't forgiven Denby for recommending A.I. Then again, it was Kubrick. I'da seen it anyway.

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Barack Obama and Racial Paranoia

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:46:53 GMT

Barack and Michelle Obama went on the Today Show this morning to perform some serious damage control following Monday's performance by Reverend Jeremiah Wright before the National Press Club. Indeed, to be fair, we should view both television appearances as performances, one by Wright, the other by the Obamas, in a larger drama playing out several conflicts at once: between two generations of African Americans, between two strains of political philosophy on the American Left, and between Black political actors and the American media over how to define the image of political participation by African Americans. As an example of the latter, consider Maureen Dowd's snarky portrayal of Obama as the Sort of Angry Black Man and Wright as the Really Angry Black Man. (Cripes, is she annoying.)

That is by no means an exhaustive list. For example, I have not mentioned Michele's role as supportive wife, and the balancing act she has to perform as providing "strength" as his advocate while "softening" her husband's image via her very presence. Better minds than mine can explore the implications of this role for women in political life, and Black women, especially in the context of this conflict over the image of Black political participation.

What strikes me is the relevance of a theory I recently came across in a new book written by communication and anthropology professor John L. Jackson, Jr., Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness. Don't let that subtitle fool you; I think it was an editor's choice, because Jackson is not ranting about the "excesses" of "P.C. culture" like some Limbaugh boor. Rather, he puts forward a rather thoughtful thesis:

Racism is characterized by hatred and power: the hate people express for other racial groups and the relative power they possess to turn that hatred into palpable discrimination or material advantage. The concept of racial paranoia, however, stresses the fears I've been talking about, the fears people harbor about other groups potentially hating or mistreating them, gaining a leg up at their expense. Racial paranoia is racism's flipside, even if those two analytically discrete sides can sometimes effortlessly meet. (p. 4, Introduction).

Examples Jackson cites in the Preface and Introduction are Dave Chappelle's perception that one of the crew member's on his show was laughing inappropriately at his use of black face; and the Reverend Louis Farrakhan's promotion of a theory that the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers had deliberately dynamited the dams near black neighborhoods in New Orleans to spare white neighborhoods from the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. I thought especially of the latter when I read that Wright in his press conference had repeated the old theory that the C.I.A. had brewed the HIV virus and tested it on vulnerable populations, including poor working class people of color. Such assertions put Obama and any other Black politician attempting to appeal to "mainstream white voters" on the defensive. Indeed, much of Obama's reluctance to distance himself from Wright stems not only from his personal relationship, but also from the differences in perception that Jackson identifies among Blacks and Whites regarding events that disproportionately affect the Black community, such as the spread of AIDS and Hurricane Katrina. Regarding the latter, Jackson relates an appearance by Chuck D. on Tucker Carlson's thankfully now-kaput MSNBC show; typically, Carlson plays the Reasonable White Guy flabbergasted that anyone would believe Farrakhan's theory and that Chuck D. - "a smart guy" in Carlson's disingenuous words (p. 7) - would not immediately denounce it.

Carlson is a perfect example of America's too-quick willingness to dismiss the significance of racial paranoia. Of course, such dismissal allows everyone to sleep better at night, believing that a few racial cranks say nothing meaningful about more general racial suspicions in American society, but we can't begin to understand race today (or the volatile racial fault lines of contemporary national politics) without taking such beliefs (as wild as they may seem) quite seriously - not as points of fact but as organizing principles for how people make sense of their everyday lives and the forces potentially allied against them.

I have only begun to read this book, obviously from the source of my quotes, but I really appreciate Jackson's approach. In calling such fears "paranoia" Jackson does not "mean that they're not after you." He doesn't off-hand dismiss these fears, but sees them as rooted in a post-Civil Rights environment in which readily identifiable sources of discrimination such as Jim Crow laws have been largely eliminated, yet more subtle practices continue and social inequities along lines of racial and ethnic identity persist without a larger narrative to explain them. As such, the demand for Obama to completely renounce Wright - sever ties, hit him with a shovel and bury him in ditch, or whatever means would truly satisfy the Sean Hannities of the world - are inherently racist in nature, reflecting the institutionalized blindness Whites enjoy as a social privilege.

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Obama and Wright and Church and State

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:49:11 GMT

The editorial board of the Detroit Free Press could not come to a consensus opinion regarding the latest "controversy" (cough, distraction, cough) over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's relationship with Barack Obama. So they did a neat thing and published the thoughts of individual editorial board members. They're pretty amusing, but I like Barb Arrigo's best:

After enduring what is arguably the most faith-based presidential administration in history, why are we attacking the candidate who is most likely to ensure a strong separation of church and state? Or why are we not at least asking him (and the others) how much faith-based money the federal government should continue to hand out, and whether hearing the voice of God factors into their major decisions? From everything I’ve read about Obama, he takes the Constitution very seriously after teaching constitutional law. I think he’d steer us away from church-state entanglements, rather than into more of them, regardless of who his pastor is/was. In fact, if you’re a constitutionalist ala Ron Paul, I think Obama is your best bet among those left standing in the major party fray.

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Ha Ha Ha Ha!

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:45:51 GMT

Wonkette provides the background. Tip to August.

In Contempt (4/29/08): Credibility

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:13:55 GMT

Click the image to see the full cartoon.

And the full explanation for it.

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Playing With Flock

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:48:13 GMT

If you are familiar with flock, then feel free to ignore this post. I am testing its blog posting features. My friend/colleague/fellow theory monkey Allie got me curious about flock, a web browser designed for managing all the social software tools that one can't seem to live without these days.

It's actually pretty handy to have a sidebar that allows you to hop from email to blog to facebook to flickr to whatever and back again. But does making access more convenient to the various ways we can waste time really make our lives more meaningful? Is that question even relevant?

Anyhoo, I'm testing to see if it'll make it easier to post to both my livejournal and wordpress blogs.

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Stumptown Comics Fest Sketch Gallery

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:53:36 GMT

I was drawing random people walking by with my fountain pen and pen brush, when Sara Ryan said, "Dude, you should create a Flickr gallery out of those! They'd be awesome!"

And so I did.

Actually, I don't have any more "galleries" left, unless I upgrade. Eh. I'll spend my money on beer.

Cops Shoot Unarmed Black Man, Get Off Scot-free; repeat ad nauseum

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:23:38 GMT

I have nothing original to add to the discussion of the police murder of Sean Bell and the judge's decision to let the guilty cops go free. Maybe because I'm too pissed off, or nauseated, or both by the loss of life, the criminal murder of an innocent man, the inherent racism of the police state, the loss to the man's wife and young daughter and the rest of his family - I could go on. But others are writing more eloquently than I can muster today, so I link with approval to them.

Holly writes at Feministe that the police murder of black men is a feminist issue. She makes a strong, eloquent case.

The problem is that this disproportionately affects communities of color. The black men who are most often slaughtered by such violence, and all the women and children in their lives too, their loved ones, friends and relatives. A system that is all too eager to exonerate “the thin blue line” and continue business as usual. All of these are feminist issues. Racism must be a feminist issue, for any kind of feminism that counts. Police brutality must be; the biases of the criminal justice system must be.

The SuperSpade is rightly flabbergasted and bitter:

I know there will be rallies held in New York to protest this miscarriage of justice and if you are in the area, you should go. After the marches though, Bell’s story like Amadou Diallo and others will be filed in the Black consciousness as the continuing saga of injustice that has plagued Black folk since we were kidnapped from Africa. Surely this is worth Black folk being bitter right?

Mikhael B. Reid expresses her outrage and posts links to cartoons she has done on this case and on police brutality.

I'll post more when I find it.

Oh, And: Barack Obama registered the predictable "we are a nation of laws so don't go crazy in the streets" admonishment. Not that I expected him (or think he should) advocate rioting, but it would be refreshing to hear a prominent politician say something like, "We are a nation of laws, sure, but I don't see how the police can be allowed to gun down a person in cold blood and get away with it. Something is wrong with our justice system. Cases like this make the law seem like a sham to protect the power of the state against the rights - the very lives - of the people."

NOTE: I'll be posting updates as I find them at the entry on my WordPress blog.

Cartoon Friday

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:58:49 GMT

My fellow Cartoonists With Attitude Matt Bors and Jen Sorensen will be at Powell's Bookstore on Burnside this Friday at 7:30pm. Here's how Matt describes it:

Jen Sorensen and I will present a live slide show and reading of our comics and Jen will be signing copies of her new collection of cartoons, "SlowPoke: One Nation, Oh My God."

We'll be doing some live drawing as well, showing folks how we cartoonize McCain's numerous cheeks and Obama's massive smile.

Maybe I'll even draw a cat's asshole for you.

That last link brings you to a drawing Matt did for a Willamette Week editorial on the politics of spaying cats. It is all that it should be.

There will also be a pre-Stumptown Comicsfest Party at Guapo Comics.

I hope to make it, but no guarantees from this father of two.

I'll Be at Stumptown?

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:40:39 GMT

Why, yes I will.

I'm sharing a table once again with Chris Baldwin. I don't have anything new to sell, but I will have fresh copies of the first Sheldon comic book, "Into the Woods," an In Contempt collection from 2002, several old undergrounds called "Dreck" I did with other cartoonists (including mister_punchy in the late 90s/early 00s. Oh, and I do have t-shirts, but they are all at CafePress.

I really need to get another Sheldon/Wanderlost comic book printed, as well as a new In Contempt collection. I started a 2000 - 2004 retrospective called Nothing But Contempt in December 2004, but grad school in January 2005 and nothing was ever the same again. Had Stumptown been in October of this year like it was last year, I would have gotten much of this done in time, but APE decided to mix it up. So here we are, and I know I'm not the only one who was caught off-guard.

Like, say, the poor organizers. Props to them for pulling it off on short notice.

Kermit Seeks Piggy

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:41:01 GMT

This is Not Safe For Work, just so ya know.

A craigslist ad that brings the Muppets into the lands of the furries:

Some time ago, I found an original full head rubber Miss Piggy mask, circa 1977, complete with a full head of long blond hair. I am looking for a tall, sexy BBW, preferably over 300 pounds, to wear this mask to bed. She should also be open to playing with plastic wrap and liquid latex. Blonde is best, I suppose, but not necessary. Who knows – for the right woman I might just get a green rubber suit and a Kermit mask.

The accompanying images are interestingly modified. To put not too fine a point on it.

In Contempt (4/22/08): Snappy Answers to Stephanopoulos Questions

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:09:33 GMT

Click the image to see the full scale cartoon.

By now everyone is familiar with the idiotic questions ABCNooziz Georges Gibson and Stephanopoulos asked of both Senators Obama and Clinton during last week's debate. But I focus on Stephanopoulos, because he seems to have a knack for asking Obama utterly moronic questions.

For instance, the question about Obama's "cool style" comes from a one-on-one interview back in May, 2007.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You have a very cool style when you're doing those town meetings, when you're out on the campaign trail. And I wonder, how much of that is tied to your race?
OBAMA: That's interesting.

Following that interview Charlton McIlwain and Stephen Maynard Caliendo co-blog their dismay:

We LOVE the response. “It’s interesting,” which means, “what the hell is THAT supposed to mean?! All black people are ‘cool?’”

Lastly, Think Progress has the audio clip making the Hannity-Stephanopoulos connection.

HANNITY: There are two questions that I don’t think anybody has asked Barack Obama, and I don’t know if this is going to be on your list tomorrow. One is – the only time he’s ever been asked about his association with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist from the Weather Underground who on 9/11 of all days in the New York Times was saying “I don’t regret setting bombs. I don’t think we did enough.” When asked about it by the Politico, David Axelrod said that they have a friendly relationship, and that they had done a number of speeches together and that they sat on a board together. Is that a question you might ask?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I’m taking notes right now.

Wanderlost "Tongue-Tied": Last Page!

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:30:43 GMT

You gotta click it to make it bigger. And, yeah, it's in B&W. Sorry. Been busy.

Like the post title sez, this is the last page of the current story, "Tongue-tied."

After this I am taking a week off so I can concentrate on Stumptown and a job interview. The new story will start on Monday, May 5.

Racism Ain't No "American Value"

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:50:04 GMT

The Arizona legislature is considering legislation that would pull state funding from education programs that "denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization," reports the East Valley Tribune. And I quote:

SB1108 also would bar teaching practices that "overtly encourage dissent" from those values, including democracy, capitalism, pluralism and religious tolerance. Schools would have to surrender teaching materials to the state superintendent of public instruction, who could withhold state aid from districts that broke the law.

Another section of the bill would bar public schools, community colleges and universities from allowing organizations to operate on campus if it is "based in whole or in part on race-based criteria," a provision Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said is aimed at MEChA, the Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, a student group.

Em-phas-is mine. Firstly, "capitalism" is a value? But second of all, this fails the First Amendment on so many levels I lose count. Hey, how about academic freedom? Debate? Inquiry? The socratic method? Are those not, er, "Western values"?

Hmm. Maybe this is just a nativist ploy to punish Chicana/os, Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants for creating more culturally relevant educational programming. Hey, whaddaya know!

The legislation appears aimed largely at the Tucson Unified School District, whose "Raza Studies" program has annoyed some people. Tucson resident Laura Leighton read lawmakers sections of some books used in classrooms which she said promote hatred.

And:

Tucson school officials have said the program under fire has helped Hispanic students improve their academic achievement by building pride and focusing on their cultural heritage.

But Pearce, who crafted the measure, said the program doesn't stop there. He said taxpayers are funding "hate speech paid for by tax dollars."

And Pearce said some of the teachings amount to "sedition" by suggesting that the current border between the United States and Mexico disappear, with Mexico - and Hispanics - taking over the American Southwest.

Leighton had specific problems with a text called "Occupied America," a book touted by its publisher as examining Chicano history from the coming of the Spanish in 1519.

She read one line which said "kill the gringos." Another talked about a plan to take back the U.S. Southwest and deport all the Europeans.

A closer look, at the book, though, showed the line about the gringos was a quote from someone referenced. And that the plan to take back the area was not urging current action but instead detailing one pushed by Mexico in 1915.

Again, my emphazziz. I guess I could indulge a desire to cast this misreading of the book in ways that disparage the literacy levels of the legislator and his aggrieved constituent. But a) illiteracy is not a sign of low intelligence, but a sign that the education system failed the illiterate; and b) Pearce and
Leighton are deliberately distorting the text book's contents to play off racist fears. Put plainly, these bastards are lying.

Hat-tip from my buddy Max, who is deeply troubled by this shit. He recommends contacting Russell Pearce directly to express appropriate levels of disgust.

A Young Discerning Eye

kevinwmoore@gmail.com — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:04:18 GMT

Kimberly Pauley has announced the winners of the Swan Kingdom Giveaway Contest. Competing for one of five free copies of Zoe Marriott's The Swan Kingdom, contestants answered the question, "If you could be any character from any fairy tale (traditional, new, or re-imagined), which character would you be and why?"

This one's my favorite:

Judith Rycar: If I could be any character from a fairy tale, I would be the stepmother in Snow White. I would realize that the king was a creep who only wanted a young, beautiful woman and that was why I was afraid of not being the loveliest in the land anymore and i would get Snow White out of their before he noticed how lovely she was becoming! We could both go live with the 7 Dwarfs and make apple pies for everyone.

Smart kid.