So, I've been following this story the New York Times broke 10 days ago now about how there was and is a Pentagon program to place retired officers who would spew Bush doctrine in the media when they were trotted out as independent "military analysts." This is illegal. Our government may not propagandize its own people.

Now, many of us in the KL community may know about this story - we're a well-informed bunch, and it's old news by now. People have been blogging about it all over the place - see here or here or here for just the tip of the iceberg. The News Hour presented some coverage of it last week.

And there are calls for action, including one from Northampton's own Free Press.

I am certainly frustrated that this has gone largely unnoticed by the general public, who properly ought to be outraged. If they knew, that is. The mainstream media is barely mentioning the story... is it because it's embarrassing to the media? Or because it's embarrassing to the Bush Administration? Hmm....

But the stitch in my side is reserved for the many commenters on the many stories - in the Times, on the blogs, and who I've talked with personally, who know, and then say "so what else is new?"

We refuse to get our panties in a wad about this, because we already knew the Bush Administration was corrupt. We already knew the media was in bed with the Administration. We knew, and we are not surprised. Ho hum, another scandal. *Yawn*

One upping each other, the cynics then say don't ask me to DO anything, I won't sign a petition to ask Congress to investigate because it won't lead to anything. Nothing will change. I know.

If we're too cynical to do anything, we might as well pack it in now. Self-fulfilling apathetic crap. Don't they know that smug self-satisfaction in predicting the shit we're in actually helps to keep us all here? Don't we remember that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty? Whether we win or not, we stand up. Because it's the right thing to do. Because justice demands no less.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot, visited Knitting Liberally's home town this weekend and made an appearance at our LYS, Webs.

Many, many, knitters showed up to see her:

including some Liberal Knitters:

I won't recap the day since plenty of people are doing so in other places.  Go check out the great pictures and stories!

Everyone made it through the long line, and got a chance to chat with Stephanie who enjoyed the Knitting Liberally mug we gifted her.  She knew about us and remembered GL's appearance on Ready, Set, Knit!  

After reading the mug, she explained that, in Canada, we wouldn't be calling it Knitting Liberally because the Liberal Party is not the most Left.  The New Democratic Party is the most "liberal."  She said that she is definately left of the Liberals.  We knew we liked her!  She also told us that she was glad we were out there doing what we're doing.  Thanks for visiting, Harlot!  Enjoy the coffee.

From the Indianapolis Star: 

Sharon Jacobs, a 58-year-old retired foundry worker from Auburn, is supporting Clinton.

"To be honest, it's because I liked Bill Clinton as president. I figure two heads are better than one," she said. But she said she's also worried that "if Obama gets in there, the blacks will kind of try to take over." The fact that that thought entered her head "scares me," Jacobs said. She doesn't want to discriminate, she said, but added: "It's there."

I am sure that you have all seen/heard this, but here is the "second head" that she thinks will be better than the one. Listen to the audio...all the way to the end.  The man is lunatic and a liar and if you use race to instill fear or belittle someone's accomplishments, that is being racist.  That's it. I don't care if he is a newly-minted racist just for the purposes of getting his wife (and himself) back in the White House. I don't care that his office is in Harlem, possibly the lamest defense ever. I don't care when or how he has become a racist or if it is temporary insanity on his part. I just call it like I see it. Come and wag your finger in my face, Bill. I dare you.

And, if he thinks he can pull some Dick Cheney "I never said that" move less than 24 HOURS after he said it on tape, he has either lost it entirely or thinks we all are chumps. I am not a chump.

And neither is James Clyburn, whose opinion matters a lot more than mine.

And neither is Barack Obama.

I know we've all been caught up in the whole Hillary/Obama thing, but I got a message in my inbox that reminded me that the true contest will be in November. Here is an exerpt from the email from Moms Rising:

"Yesterday, the Senate failed to pass the Fair Pay Act, which would allow women to demand equal pay for equal work. Senator McCain (R-AZ), who didn't even come to vote, said that instead of legislation allowing them to demand equal pay, women simply need "education and training." Not only is his information wrong -- women still are all too often paid less for the same work, even though they have the same education and training -- he's also sending a message to our nation, to our sons and daughters, that this pay gap is okay, and it's women's fault for being paid less."

Gah! He's like your so out of touch great uncle, he says things and probably doesn't even realize it's incredibly insulting. On behalf of all us KLers who are simply just undereducated and untrained (even though, somehow, most of us hold some sort of advanced degree, must be a fluke), I would like to tell Sen. McCain to go fuck himself.

I'm the first? Really?

Anyway, if you're a Clinton supporter, congrats! If you're not, here's a video  to help you get past the hangover.

A few more lovely toys came in just in time to be packed up for delivery to the New England Learning Center for Women In Transition last week:

A few of the knitters were able to take an afternoon trip to NELCWIT to deliver the cuddlies to the organization's director (on right):

The toys will be given to children through the children's counseling program.

Thanks again to Webs for donating the yarn for this project, and to NELCWIT for participating in our first Giving Project.

And thank you to all of the lovely knitters who gave their time to make each of these cuties!

Remember Nash McCabe from the debate? She of what appears to an uber-patriotic flag intarsia sweater (see, I talk about knitting), that dollars for donuts was mass-produced in China. Yeah, check it here and here and here.

I swear, some day this shit is going to give me a coronary.

This is beyond Stitch in my Side.

George Stephanopoulos is the Dick of the Day. Behold video from the documentary The War Room when Stephanopoulos earned his bacon shilling for the Clintons (but in a different way than now). Key excerpt:

STEPHANOPOULOS: What he's going to do in this campaign is focus on what's important to the American people, on the jobs and the education. That's what the American people care about. They want to move into the future. They don't want to be diverted by side issues, and they're not going to let the Republican attack machine divert them.

For reals, people. This is the man that took dictation from Sean Hannity and read it back as a question at the debate. Stephanopoulos, you are a small, small person (again, in a different way).

Here is a Huff Po article from yesterday by Theda Skocpol, the Harvard Prof and former Clinton advisor I referenced on Monday.

Skocpol is backing up Benjamin Barber's account of Hillary Clinton's distain for working-class white voters. Barber wrote in his book The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House (2001) that at a 1995 Camp David retreat he and Skocpol attended, Hillary Clinton said about white, work-class southern voters that they were having trouble reaching:

"Screw 'em," she told her husband. "You don't owe them a thing, Bill. They're doing nothing for you; you don't have to do anything for them."

Skocpol does not recall the verbatim quote, but is certainly corroborating that Hillary Clinton was the least empathetic voice in room.

Harry Boyte and Alan Wolfe were also there. What do they say - oh yeah, she said it.

I was going to go with Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos for the deplorable job they did hosting the Democratic debate yesterday. They are both dicks but George is the bigger dick of the two (not a compliment) since he took a question practically verbatim from Sean Hannity - SEAN HANNITY. I am subjected daily to a huge amount of political discussion on TV... I mean a staggering amount, and there is some good, more bad and a lot of ugly. What I watched last night was truly one of the most embarrassing and despicable displays I have ever had to suffer through. ABC should be ashamed, and don't take it from me, the over 15,000 comments they got after the debate told them the same thing. But, there are a bazillion other better people that are writing about how pathetic the debate was last night.

Anyway, I have another Stitch in My Side. See, there is a children's book coming out on Mother's Day called My Beautiful Mommy that is meant to be a tool to help explain to a child why Mommy is going away to the hospital. Mommy is not sick. Mommy is not in need of expert care. Mommy is getting plastic surgery. No, Mommy was not in a disfiguring accident. Not even a deviated septum. Mommy just wants to look different than Mommy looks.

This book was written by a, you guessed it, plastic surgeon. He is the giant, superhero-like character in the book (not so much in real life - self-loathing much). He showed one of his patients the manuscript because she was worried about how to talk to her child about the surgery she was considering. She spoke to Newsweek about it: 

The reassuring tale helped win Acosta over—she scheduled breast augmentation and a tummy tuck. Since February, when she had the surgery, she and Junior have read the book a half dozen times, and she says it helped him feel excited rather than scared. "I didn't want him to think [the surgery] was because I was hurting. It was to make me feel good," she says.

Right.  I do believe we have reached a new low in our society. Tell Big Tent Books what you think about their upcoming book.

What's worse than Republicans attacking Obama? Dems (er, former Dems) attacking Obama. And Hill's not the only one. Thanks again, Mr. Traitorpants! From Mother Jones:

Your Weekly Joe Lieberman Outrage

Is Obama a Marxist? Good question, says Joe Lieberman.

Here's the context. In Bill Kristol's newest column in the NY Times (no link; warmongers don't get links), he says that Obama's "bitter" comments are like Karl Marx's statement that religion is the "opium of the people."

On a radio show yesterday, Fox News' senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano sat down with Joe Lieberman, and the following transpired:

NAPOLITANO: Hey Sen. Lieberman, you know Barack Obama, is he a Marxist as Bill Kristol says might be the case in today’s New York Times? Is he an elitist like your colleague Hillary Clinton says he is?

LIEBERMAN: Well, you know, I must say that's a good question. I know him now for a little more than three years since he came into the Senate and he's obviously very smart and he's a good guy. I will tell ya that during this campaign, I've learned some things about him, about the kind of environment from which he came ideologically. And I wouldn't…I'd hesitate to say he's a Marxist, but he's got some positions that are far to the left of me and I think mainstream America.

Really, Joe? You may be in or close to mainstream America on a lot of issues, but the reason you're supporting John McCain is his position on the war, which is 100 years of occupation. I don't think that's anywhere near the mainstream.

The media and the blogosphere (I include myself here) are going to have to stop getting worked up every time Lieberman plays attack dog on Obama. There are tons of McCain surrogates who, in the course of any week in this campaign, will take shots at the Democratic nominee; we can't continue to treat Lieberman differently just because he's supposedly a member of the Democratic Party (he's technically an Independent, but whatever). He's a McCain operative now, and will say/do what McCain operatives say/do.

The National Security Advisor for our country, Stephen Hadley, confused Nepal for Tibet 8 times on ABC's This Week. But, I don't know which is worse - that Hadley (did I mention that he has been National Security Advisor for 3 years?) finds the two totally different countries completely interchangeable or is so addled and sucky at his job that he didn't catch himself, after say, the sixth time OR that George Stephanopoulos so lives in fear of the Administration that he didn't correct him any of the EIGHT TIMES. 

Obama's awesome response yesterday...

yeah, where is Hillary's six-shooter?

Lest one thinks that the Clintons don't analyze voters - because they are just people like them - remember, they are probably the most poll-driven campaign of any - and that means analysis. Also, the very impressive Harvard Government and Sociology Prof., Theda Skocpol,  can tell you that they have had plenty to say about those voters.

And last but not least, let's take a quick ride in the Bill Clinton Time Machine for our hypocrisy of the day:

"The reason (George H. W. Bush's tactic) works so well now is that you have all these economically insecure white people who are scared to death." - William Jefferson Clinton, 2001 (read on, it gets even better)

So now, the black dude is an elitist and the WASP is the salt of the earth.

Poor people are bitter? How dare you, sir!

Hillary sips whiskey = She Understands Us!

Does someone have a spoon with which to gag me? Are we really going to fall for this again? Bush billed himself as a Washington outsider and Just Plain Folks, and people bought it, despite the fact that he attended both Andover and Yale ( which normally reads, East Coast Liberal Latte Drinking Elitist, but this time somehow no ) his father ran the country for a while. People bought the spin, swallowed the lie whole, and look what we got in return. A tanking economy, thousands of people dead, failing schools, international disdain (at best) and jobs leaving the country like rats from a sinking boat. What makes me nuts is that the people hit hardest by all of this are the same people being targeted to vote against their own best interests AGAIN.

I wish campaigns were simply a list of issues and how the candidates stood. We would all get this list and check the person that stood for the ideals and ideas we stood for. The. Fucking. End.

Comedian Demetri Martin once called glitter "the herpes of craft" supplies:

I like to do crafts. I work quite a bit with glitter, but don’t worry I make tough stuff like daggers and skulls. The thing about glitter is if you get it on you, prepare to have it on you forever because glitter doesn’t go away. Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies. It’s like, oh great here comes the sun; flare up!

Being a crafty person, I love glitter despite the fact that it sticks to you for weeks. I was dismayed to hear that Ellen DeGeneres is anti-glitter. Here, she interrupts a Hillary Clinton rally to ask her if she will ban glitter if she becomes president.

Clinton responds saying that she thinks glitter is ok for young children but maybe should be banned for anyone over 12.

Will Hillary restrict other craft supplies? What is Obama's stance on hot glue guns? How does McCain feel about Mod Podge?

I think that Sam Seder is one of the best voices out there on radio. I have listened to him religiously for over 4 years, and he is consistently the sharpest and most entertaining voice on Air America. 

LiberalOasis has a great post on how Sam and Janeane Garofalo's show The Majority Report, and now Sam's show, The Sam Seder Show have been at the forefront of recognizing the voices of bloggers.

Randi Rhodes has quit Air America over the controversy in San Francisco last week. Regardless of one's feelings about that, it leaves her weekday 3-6 spot open.

Now, I have watched Air America make stupid decision after stupid decision for these 4 years. Not the least of which was moving Sam Seder to a Sunday show and putting Lionel in the spot he had.

Join me in asking Air America to make the right decision and put Sam Seder in the 3-6 weekday spot.

Email pcollin@airamerica.com and politely ask that they return Sam Seder to the Monday-Friday lineup.

Hey, support Knitters for Knockers, a group of Richmond, VA knitters who are going to Race for the Cure on May 10, 2008.

Plus, every $5 you donate gets you entered into a drawing for some great knitting prizes like: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock; a Chic Knits pattern and 7 skeins of elann.com Peruvian Highland Silk; a skein of Sunshine Yarns...but I know you all will do it just because you are excellent people.

Spotted as katywhumpus and I walked down Main Street from Knitting Liberally to Drinking Liberally recently:

(full disclosure: we didn't have a camera that day. we went back a week or so later with a camera)

It's in the front window display at Guild Art Supply.
The small card next to the knitted creatures only said Angela Zammarelli and listed her flikr address. A quick google search reveals that she is a local college alum but I haven't found any info about this specific installation.

Does anyone out there know anything more about this? We're curious.

I was excited to see headlines like this yesterday…

Penn Out As Clinton Senior Strategist

And

Top Clinton Aide Leaving His Post Under Pressure

See, I am not a fan of Mark Penn, even though he condescends to acknowledge knitters. But, of course, saying you are not a fan of Penn is like saying "I don't like poison ivy." Who does?

My excitement was short lived because I can read.

As usual, the media is not conveying the real story, at least in the headlines.

Here is the statement from the Clinton campaign manager, Maggie Williams:

"After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as Chief Strategist of the Clinton Campaign; Mark, and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign."

Umm, are the words after the semicolon invisible? I can see them, but maybe headline writers can’t.

I have heard something like this before. When the going gets tough, Penn tries to diminish his involvement in the campaign. Like back in March when he claimed to have "no direct authority in the campaign," which was news to everyone else.

Harold Wolfson told the Huffington Post that he will now do the strategic messaging. If this weekend’s real gem was his handy-work, then it looks like the campaign will continue to have some of the worst messaging I have ever seen. Maybe it was Penn’s parting gift?

But please note what Williams and Wolfson were actually saying: The Clinton Campaign has not fired Penn. He is still their pollster and advisor. And, Penn is still the president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller PR firm, which has worked for all sorts of great companies like the "private security firm" Blackwater and subprime mortgage lender Countrywide. I told you, he is one heck of a guy, and so the conflict of interest in the Clinton campaign is still alive and well. But you know who did fire Mark Penn over this scandal, and did it before the Clinton campaign took any action? The Colombian government. Good to know they have more scruples than the Clinton campaign.

Who is the Stitch in My Side here? We have a trifecta: Mark Penn for being the dick that he is, and not having the integrity to truly step down, the Clinton campaign for not really firing him although he is a dick and makes a lot of money from stuff they claim to be firmly against, and the media for making it seem like they fired the dick, when they did not.

In the spirit of Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World,” and Atrios’ “Wanker of the Day,” I present today’s Stitch in My Side (Get it? Cause, it’s like a knitting blog and all).

Glenn Beck is today’s Stitch in My Side. To be fair, I think he is a dick every day, not just today.

Since he is a dick, I don't seek him out. But, thanks to today’s corporate Stitch in My Side, I was presented with him.  No, not Big Oil, to whom Beck is claiming we are so unfair, but really only as a lame segue to bash Al Gore. It is CNN for employing Glenn Beck, and putting his idiocy as a "Latest News" headline at CNN.com.  In attempting to find out what is happening of importance in the world at the moment - ie the latest news, I was faced with this headline "Glenn Beck to Big Oil: Thank you." Glenn Beck’s insane editorializing is not the "Latest News." It is not news. I don't need to tell you what it actually is.

I think this could become a regular feature for KnittingLiberally.com. What do you think?