Money – it’s a gas. Don’t give me that do goody-good bullshit. January 7, 2009

Today’s post will be on (drumroll please)…the wage gap! Woohoo!

First, a couple of YouTube videos to get you in the mood. The first (via Feministe), by the Get Out of the Way of Fair Pay Campaign, featuring Batgirl along with her more famous counterparts, Batman and Robin.

The second is an ad (via Feministing) – subtitled in Dutch, so probably distributed in Belgium or the Netherlands. Original actors seem to be speaking with non-American accents, though, so I would imagine it’s from the UK.

The thing about the wage gap is that it persists, to this day, when feminism is supposedly no longer needed and men and women are completely equal and everybody farts rainbows.

Presidential Debatage 3.0 October 15, 2008

So tonight is the third (and last?) presidential debate, held at Hofstra University, in Some State Not Near Vaguely Near Me. Those In The Know say that McCain needs to unequivocally hit this one out of the park to have a snowball’s chance in Hell of a comeback. Those who are also In The Know say that such a resounding victory is unlikely, as expectations are high on both sides. McCain has said multiple times that he will “call Obama out” on the whole Ayers thingamajig, so if he doesn’t he will be viewed as weak and more talk-talking than walk-walking. However, if (when?) he does bring the matter up, he is almost positive to get trounced, as Obama will undoubtedly call McCain out on his racist and hate-filled speeches and movement within the Republican party, and also counter with the evidence that just surfaced about William Timmons, current member of his campaign team, having helped out Saddam Hussein. A valid criticism? Perhaps, perhaps not. But excellent for the whole “taste of his own medicine” idea.

Other things McCain is going to have to struggle to make look good:

Debatage, Veep-Style October 2, 2008

8:55 Gahhh! The moment is upon us! Awesomely, one of the students at my school is dressed as Palin, complete w/ power suit and pearls. She is being escorted by somebody wearing an elephant suit (as you do). There’s also a ‘bipartisan bake-off’ being hosted, but at $1 per cookie and milk, I’ll just have a couple candy corns when I get back to my room. It’s really cool how into it people are – there will be a professor talkback after, and the room is absolutely PACKED. Woot.

8:58 Because it is my school, most everyone has brought some kind of homework. I see a bunch of laptops, but it’s doubtful as to whether or not there are other livebloggers in the midst – I see lots of word-processing and at least one LoggerPro (presumably being used to do a lab report – for those interested in the matter, for at least one recording, the pH of the solution in question was registered at 7.94).

9:00 Wolf Blitzer, what’s up? Did you know that Sarah Palin wants to shoot you from helicopters? This is first and only VP debate, we are told. 90 minutes of pure awesomeness. A cage match, if you will (I’m just vamping at this point, as Wolf is saying such groundbreaking things as ‘Palin is a VP candidate’ and ‘there will be ground rules’).

9:01 The moderator is Gwen Ifill, a woman of color, which is a nice change from the previous, Old White Dude mode of moderating. Again, the sponsor is some boring debate commission, rather than, say, Apple Computers or Tampax. She explains the format, with time limits and whatnot, but I don’t listen as I’m sure the candidates won’t. Apparently, their audience has promised to not make any untoward outbursts – I wish I could promise the same. Palin hugs Biden’s arm and chirpily asks if she can call him Joe. Oy.

9:03 Predictably, the first question is about The Bailout. Biden goes first, thanking everyone for having him. Oooh, Biden totally goes there about the whole Free Market ™ that is the conservative raison d’etre, and how it’s fucked over the economy like whoa. He brings it back to Obama, which I suppose is important as Biden is more of his secret support than his sequined ballgown. Like Obama, he mentions the ‘fundamental disagreement’ between Republican and Democratic models of economics, as one is rooted in fact and the other is rooted in making rich people happier.

9:05 Palin mentions privilege, but not in the way that would make me happy (it’s more a privilege to be there). She mentions being a mom approximately 0.67 seconds into her answer, and I already wish I were drunk. She says the economy is hurting and we need reform and oversight which the Republican government has not provided, but apparently John McCain has been a proponent of? Whatevs, honey. I guess she’s been coached on an actual instance of this, since she couldn’t think of an example when Katie Couric asked her this in person a week ago.