Pinko Magazine Hedonism + Activism

Yikes. A colleague passed me this article from MSNBC.com about tent cities popping up in Reno, Seattle, Fresno, Chattanooga and a number of other major U.S. Cities. This is something that predates the current crisis this week (the economic downturn isn’t moving quite that fast) but is mostly made up of people who have already lost homes because of the subprime mortgage crisis. Most of the tent cities are outside homeless shelters, essentially functioning as makeshift shelter extension facilities.

Some of the cities in the piece are places where large populations of immigrant workers live; others are home to larger than average numbers of black Americans, who (as detailed brilliantly in this Kai Wright piece) are losing their homes and wealth at a far greater level than any other group.

I’m not sure what to call these in our 2008 crisis (in 1929 they were Hoovervilles. Bushtowns? Cheneyburgh?) but it’s very sobering to see. Also I usually try to offer some kind of helpful link or action when I post something like this but I’m stumped today; I’ll update over the weekend when I find something good.

NYT:

As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it Friday morning on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”

Physicians for Human Rights is seriously one of the best, most forward-looking and sharpest advocacy groups out there, but if there was one email subject heading that does NOT need three exclamation points it’s the press briefing invitation I got today:

MATERNAL MORTALITY PRESS BRIEFING TODAY!!!

Yay!!! Er — yikes. Anyway I’m sure it’s a briefing announcing a winning and groundbreaking campaign that’s awesome, but still.

It’s election Day! In Virginia! Seriously — early voting starts in Virginia today. (It starts in a number of states in the days just following.) Stirling and I are packing up the kids and heading South, assuming identities, establishing residency, voting, destroying evidence, heading back north, re-establishing real identities, voting again. That’s basically the shape of our next two months. Want to reach us? REALvirginiansforObama@aol.com.

But quickly before we hit the (Hampton) Road(s) a couple items to mention today: 

* The guy who hacked Sarah Palin’s email got into it by guessing the answer to her “forgot your password?” question. Seriously. The answer: “Wasilia High.” Wrong guesses before he hit on the right one: Lock & load; Charlie Gibson; FurryCon; Life begins at conception; velveeta and Ritz crackers; martial law; salon selectives. 

* Still not convinced the wars of the 21st Century will be about energy? The President of Russia is threatening to annex the Arctic for the oil. No shit. Seems like a good time to throw out one more plug for next Saturday’s “Green Jobs Now” day of action advocating a green “new deal” that’s not dependent on fossil fuels, or on President Palin shooting Vladimir Putin from a plane. Sign up! Do it! 

* What would Edmund Burke eat? I thought this was a thoughtful take on Michael Pollan’s new book, which I haven’t read yet. 

* Palin-McCain’s proposal for federal budget transparency in government already exists – Barack Obama passed it into law two years ago. Ooops! 

More later today - Sandy has promised me some non-election related literary gossip omfg and Dinelle is checking back in with some stunning developments on the floating trash heap that’s going to kill us all or at least make us all choke on plastic. Lastly if you’re new to town (and we had some new visitors yesterday) please keep coming back! Sign up for our RSS feed, link us, add your ideas in the comments. Click on an ad maybe? Someone? Hellooooo. Welcome to Pinko.

So either John McCain has some early onset or Spain has joined our enemies list and possibly a new axis of evil. (Eat it Belgium!) Assuming the original maverick is totally lucid here, let’s take a minute to review John McCain’s top ten reasons for attacking Spain: 

10. 1992 Summer Games: WORST. OLYMPICS. EVER. 

9. Tapas. 

8. Spanish Government banned illegal downloads of Cindy’s favorite album, Global House Diva, Volume 2: Live in Ibiza. 

7. Immigrants flooding Texas and New Mexico. Can’t they manage their own border? 

6. I WAS A POW ILL ATTACK WHO I WANT. INCOMING. 

5. Compañero de cuarto de papa, the Spanish version of Daddy’s Roommate, rocketed to #4 on Spanish Amazon. 

4. Sarah Palin saw it from the window of her plane to Kuwait and she just didn’t like what she saw. 

3. “You rhyme the name of your country with my last name I’ll fuck you up.” 

2. Pesky rule requiring America to defend the territorial integrity of fellow NATO allies elitist, sexist. 

1. That trollop Penelope Cruz.

Add your own in the comments …

Lady de Rothschild seen here leaving the gym.

Yesterday Lady de Rothschild, wife of Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild and a former Hillary Clinton supporter, announced that she would be supporting John McCain.

Rothschild, who’s full name is Sir Lady Lynn Forester Luxembourg de Puddingcup Hufuffpuffing Von Furstenberg vanden Heuvel Bergdorf Goodman Al Qaeda Lou Hensley Bookshelfhead de Rothschild, said that she is supporting McCain because Obama is out of touch with ordinary people.

She also thinks he has a funny name.

While I don’t nessasarily object to members of the British illuminati elite commenting on American politics, I do find it odd that she chose to make her announcement while seated on a gold-leafed white arabian horse.

Seriously. Or kind of. He wants to kill the President of Spain but only because he thinks that he’s President of Venezuela or Cuba, maybe, and it’s all the same really, right? It’s probably fine though because he didn’t mean any of it because he has dimentia was a P.O.W. Also when Sarah Palin climbs Mount McKinley to shoot wolves she can see clear into the soul of the Prime Minister of Spain and Sarah plus Palin EQUALS Spain so everything is fine. What the fuck! gah! Sigh.

Policy schmolicy! Sometimes all you want to hear is a really good zinger.

Yes we can.

Hey team. A few things to do besides work today:

• Is anyone following the most genius voter disenfranchisement tactic ever? Michigan Republicans are planning to use foreclosure lists to block people from voting at the polls. So if you lost your house and maybe you feel like you lost your house because of the Bush economy, they will tell you at the polling place you can’t vote (presumably against four more years of the Bush economy) because you don’t have your house anymore. Unreal. Obama’s campaign is hitting back hard though.

• Jealous of Trig, Bristol and Track? See what your name would be if Sarah Palin was your mom at the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator! (I’m Falter Locust Palin; Stirling is Chin Trout Palin, which sounds slightly Asian-American, which means he’s a Muslim, which makes him unfit to blog. STOP BLOGGING STIRLING.)

• Finally! Hairspray actress Nikki Blonsky speaks about that thing that happened in Turks and Caicos where her dad beat up that girl from America’s Next Top Model and everyone got arrested. The good news is that Zac Efron sent her a card; my Dad is visiting me in New York today and if all it takes to get a card from Zac Efron is for my Dad to beat up a model than people better watch their backs.

• What else did John McCain invent? Add your ideas to the list here. (I added “cunt”) Also, is he dying of Cancer? President Palin omfg a growing list of Doctors and Democrats hope so want to know.

+ This is a GREAT piece from Treehugger on McCain vs. Obama on renewable energy. Totally substantive and helpful.

• Have an older parent who values their health care and might vote for McCain? Bob Herbert’s piece yesterday is appropriately terrifying, laying out the very radical McCain/Palin agenda for health care.

• Oh no a Sex and the City kids book!

• A couple people wrote me wanting HOPE. (Ha ha Sandy wants hope.) Here.

Lastly, Gondoliers for Obama:

If typing this sentence won’t spike our web traffic I don’t know what will: Have you been dreaming of Sarah Palin’s tan lines? A controversy has broken out between the American Tanning Industry Association (uhm, pro-tanning) and the American Cancer Society (Debbie Downers) over the news that Sarah Palin had a tanning bed installed in the Governor’s Mansion. ATIA fired the opening salvo in the greatest press release ever this morning. I’ve bolded my favorite parts!

While partisan bloggers and the sun scare industry will use this as an opportunity to undermine Gov. Palin and demonize the indoor tanning industry, the fact is that Governor Palin’s decision to get UV light from a tanning bed positively impacts her health. “Moderate amounts of indoor tanning allow Governor Palin to experience the many health benefits that come with exposure to UV light,” said Dan Humiston, President of the Indoor Tanning Association and candidate for United States Congress (R-NY27). “Especially in dreary northern locations like Alaska, indoor tanning can help guard against wintertime depression and ward off diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency.”

They may help Palin, but they’re not winning any friends in Alaska.