Anyway, instead of crying over a missed opportunity, it's good that fellow invitees did check their email, attend the call and over at Crooks & Liars, John Amato has the full audio of the call. He also has a recap of the Q&A (once there's a transcript, I'll post it); he noted that the President "is pleased that bloggers have been letting Congress know all about the desperation Americans are feeling and that's been critical, and he wants us to keep up the pressure on Congress and the media." and Sam Stein of Huff Post has a good write up. Sam:
In a roughly 25-minute session with a handful of prominent progressive bloggers, the president also asked for help combating disinformation about his health care plan.
"I know the blogs are best at debunking myths that can slip through a lot of the traditional media outlets," he said. "And that is why you are going to play such an important role in our success in the weeks to come."
The call demonstrates just how heated the health care debate has become in recent weeks and how much ammunition the administration is willing to bring to the table. At various points in the call, the president offered a strikingly detailed synopsis of his political strategy and health care policy as a whole.
While he refused to insist that lawmakers stay in Washington during the August recess, he declared definitively that, "the time for talk is through."
"Now is the time for us to go ahead and act," Obama declared. "We are wor king as hard as we can and I have told Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi that it is critical that we have seen serious forward motion before people leave [in August]."
Moreover, for the first time in recent memory, Obama floated the possibility that if it appears that health care reform lacks the 60 votes needed for passage, he might be open to reconciliation, which would allow for an up-or-down vote on budgetary and tax aspects of the bill.
I'm glad the administration acknowledged the role that bloggers can play in moving the health care debate forward, enough so to actually convene a conference call to discuss policy development.
I think you know what my next question is -- why is it that bloggers who focus on LGBT issues don't merit that level of engagement on those issuesg>? Some of those invited to this health care call also blog LGBT issues, but it's clear that we don't exist in that capacity to the administration. I guess our existence and purpose is limited to the issues they believe in. We are seen as essential -- when they desperately need cheerleaders at the grassroots level on the right issues.
Remember, throughout the brouhahas about the Stonewall event and relentless dodging on DADT, DOMA, etc., no LGBT bloggers were invited to the event. There were no conference calls of the sort that was held on health care today. Clearly I wasn't waiting by my inbox or phone anyway since: 1) I've been critical of the admin on progress re: LGBT issues and questions went unanswered; and 2) I figured since I'm living in Nowhereville, USA, and have no connections to Big Gay Orgs, they don't believe what I (or what you, the readers) think is relevant to any LGBT policy discussions. On this subject it's a closed communication circle that includes org heads and Beltway LGBTs of interest, not bloggers.
However, apparently as a progressive blogger I do matter to this White House when it is an "all hands on deck" moment -- they want the right wing myths, lies and propaganda about the Obama health care reform proposal debunked. And I will -- the fact is that I do have a vested interest in fixing the system (see my post "Health care in the U.S. - stop bickering and fix it"), since I'm a frequent user of the health care services. The White House is right to court the grassroots to mobilize actions to put pressure on the members of Congress who are queasy on reform; we need every vote.
However, I just thought I'd point out that big elephant in the room about the inconsistency in how the White House views bloggers. I haven't seen anyone else mention that irony in the blogging so far about the call today.
***
UPDATE: A couple of other nuggets, here from Joe@Americablog:
Before he left, the President mentioned his criteria for reform: Does it cover all Americans; Will it drive down costs over the long-term; Will it improve quality; Are prevention and wellness included; Does it contain insurance reforms on issues like pre-existing conditions; does it provide relief to small business; and, is there a serious public option. He warned that the different bills coming from the House and Senate may not have all of those provisio ns, but the conference committee will be critical.
Also, Michael "MC" Steele weighed in, as only he can do as head of the RNC, in a simplistic, weary fashion that doesn't offer anything as an alternative to what's broken in our current system. Read the press release below the fold.
From the release that hit my inbox from the RNC:
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele today announced a new television ad opposing President Obama’s plan for a government-run health care system during a speech at the National Press Club.
The ad, entitled “Grand Experiment,” can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRqQASW3RCY. Starting today, this large, targeted television ad campaign will run in select markets in Arkansas, Nevada and North Dakotaakota. “Once again President Obama and Congressional Democrats are rushing through a grand experiment that will have serious consequences for future generations of Americans. It started with their failed stimulus bill and has now moved on to a trillion-dollar government-run health care plan that is simply wrong for America. Republicans know we need health care reform – costs are too high and families are struggling to afford quality care. But the Democrats’ plan would raise taxes on small businesses and lead to higher costs and rationed care,” said Chairman Michael Steele.
You notice it's all criticism and no alternative plan? What is the Republican plan -- a tax credit? What if you have no job, no insurance and your kid has a chronic disease? A tax break to buy private insurace is no solution, so what does the party of family values do for that family? What is transparent is the goal of the Republicans, and it's not your health care -- it's toppling Obama and the Dems. To hell with reform that affects every last person in this country -- everything is about being partisan.
The GOP ad is ridiculous.
Voice: “They’ve loaned Barack Obama their future, without even knowing it.”Now tell me, how many things listed in the above fear-mongering commercial already applies to the current system? We spend more on health care than other industrialized nations per person. And as far as "massive spending experiment" goes, my jaw hit the table -- no one can top the massive spending experiment called Dear Leader's Big Adventure into Iraq that we continue to pay dearly for. Unbelievable.
Voice: “Trillions for rushed government bailouts and takeovers, banks, the auto industry.”
Chyron: Trillions for government bailouts and takeovers
Voice: “The biggest spending spree in our nation's history.”
Chyron: The biggest spending spree in history
Voice: “And they'll have to pay.”
Voice: “The next big ticket item? A risky experiment with our health care.”
Chyron: A risky experiment with health care
Voice: “Barack Obama’s massive spending experiment hasn’t healed our economy.”
Chyron: Barack Obama’s massive spending experiment
Voice: “His new experiment risks their future and our health.”
Chyron: BarackObamaExperiment.com
Chyron: Risking everything.
Voice: “The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising. ”
ONSCREEN Disclaimer: The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising. Paid for by the Republican National Committee. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. www.gop.com
UPDATE: Gates has released a statement through his attorney, Charles Ogletree. It's at the link and also below the fold.
Ah, yes, post-racial America...it was only a dream, wasn't it? Welcome to a black homeowner's nightmare.
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling.
Police arrived at Gates’s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed.
Here is the police report. The Harvard professor was inside his home when the cop arrived, and he showed them his driver's license and university ID. Apparently the officer was offended by Gates's anger at being treated like a criminal for trying to unjam his front door, so he arrested the professor. 
From the report:
As I reached the [Gates's front] door, a female voice called out to me. I turned and looked in the direction of the voice and saw a white female, later identified as Lucia Whalen. Whalen, who was standing on the sidewalk in front of the residence, held a wireless phone in her hand and told me that it was she who called. She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch of __ Ware Street. She told me that her suspicions were aroused when she observed one of the men wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry.
After this, Gates was in his foyer watching what was occurring on the sidewalk. The cop asked him to step outside. Gates said no, and asked the officer to identify himself. The officer did, then said he was investigating a break-in in progress. At this point, the officer's report says "Gates exclaimed "why, because I'm a black man in America?" It escalated from there, with Gates apparently calling the police department to get the chief on the line to report a "racist police officer." At this point the whole thing turns into chaos, with the officer contending whether gates was lawfully in the residence by his behavior, asked Gates to come oucome outside (he didn't), so the officer went inside and the yelling continued and the officer eventually decided to arrest the academic.
Now this incident raises a few questions to discuss:
- Would a white professor have been subject to the same suspicion by the woman who called in the report of a break-in?
- While a white prof wouldn't have yelled "I'm a black man in America", say he had said something to the effect of "is there some reason you're standing in front of my home?" and proceeded to engage angrily in the same manner. Would he be arrested?
- Would a white prof react as strongly to the police officer's initial inquiry since he would not be a victim of racial profiling?
- Did Dr. Gates's explosion of anger in his own home warrant an arrest? Is this a manifestation of the "angry black man" phenomenon, where the lower threshold of public anger by black men is seen as more threatening than it would be for a white man?
- Was the fact that Gates threw down the "don't you know who I am?" card a mitigating factor?
OK, while ruminating on the above, here's a comment from one of Gates's colleagues.
[Harvard Medical School professor S. Allen] Counter, who had called Gates from the Nobel Institute in Sweden, where Counter is on sabbatical, said that Gates was “shaken” and “horrified” by his arrest.
Counter has faced a similar situation himself. The well-known neuroscience professor, who is also black, was stopped by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect as he crossed Harvard Yard. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.
Does that change any of your answers to the above questions?
Gates is the editor of The Root, which obtained the statement.
This brief statement is being submitted on behalf of my client, friend, and colleague, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This is a statement concerning the arrest of Professor Gates. On July 16th, 2009, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 58, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor of Harvard University, was headed from Logan airport to his home [in] Cambridge after spending a week in China, where he was filming his new PBS documentary entitled “Faces of America”. Professor Gates was driven to his home by a driver for a local car company. Professor Gates attempted to enter his front door, but the door was damaged. Professor Gates then entered his rear door with his key, turned off his alarm, and again attempted to open the front door. With the help of his driver they were able to force the front door open, and then the driver carried Professor Gates’s luggage into his home.Professor Gates immediately called the Harvard Real Estate office to report the damage to his door and requested that it be repaired immediately. As he was talking to the Harvard Real Estate office on his portable phone in his house, he observed a uniformed officer on his front porch. When Professor Gates opened the door, the officer immediately asked him to step outside. Professor Gates remained inside his home and asked the officer why he was there. The officer indicated that he was responding to a 911 call about a breaking and entering in progress at this address. Professor Gates informed the officer that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard University. The officer then asked Professor Gates whether he could prove that he lived there and taught at Harvard. Professor Gates said that he could, and turned to walk into his kitchen, where he had left his wallet. The officer followed him. Professor Gates handed both his Harvard University identification and his valid Massachhusetts driver’s license to the officer. Both include Professor Gates’s photograph, and the license includes his address.
Professor Gates then asked the police officer if he would give him his name and his badge number. He made this request several times. The officer did not produce any identification nor did he respond to Professor Gates’s request for this information. After an additional request by Professor Gates for the officer’s name and badge number, the officer then turned and left the kitchen of Professor Gates’s home without ever acknowledging who he was or if there were charges against Professor Gates. As Professor Gates followed the officer to his own front door, he was astonished to see several police officers gathered on his front porch. Professor Gates asked the officer’s colleagues for his name and badge number. As Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,” and then placed Professor Gates under arrest. He was handcuffed on his own front porch.
Professor Gates was taken to the Cambridge Police Station where he remained for approximately 4 hours before being released that evening. Professor Gates’s counsel has been cooperating with the Middlesex District Attorneys Office, and the City of Cambridge, and is hopeful that this matter will be resolved promptly. Professor Gates will not be making any other statements concerning this matter at this time.
Helen Boyd of the en|gender blog (and the books My Husband Betty and She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband) posted a blog entry entitled Trans Documentary Drinking Game for those planning on watching ABC's special on Chloe Prince (airing at 10 p.m. on ABC
Helen's blog post is for those who aren't aware of the stereotypes of how transgender women are shown in most documentaries and network television shows about trans people. That these documentaries almost always focus on transition itself as well, and not on the lives of trans people after transition...well, that's key to how trans people's stories are told.
So, out of the closet comes the drinking game! Here are the rules:
1. Putting on makeup. Two drinks for reverse camera shot into mirror.
2. Doing anything better done in jeans and sneakers in heels and a skirt. Examples: cleaning the house, shoveling the sidewalk, yard work, walking the dog.
3. Before picture shown. Two drinks for picture in stereotypical male mode (sports team, facial hair, military, wedding tux)
4. Camera shot putting on or taking off a bra.
5. Photo of any wig, breast form, padding, etc.
6. Surprise disclosure, when a trans woman is introduced and then partway through the piece, her secret is revealed.
7. Camera focus on masculine body parts: hands, feet, Adam's apple, height, etc.
8. Any reference to genital surgery that refers to "becoming a woman" or "finally a woman"
9. Minor chords played softly on a piano
10. talk show host saying "you go girl"
11. any discussion of plumbing or electricity
12. black and white childhood shots, MTF with cap gun and cowboy hat, FTM as ballerina.
13. Trans woman saying, "I am not a crossdresser. Not that there's anything wrong with that."
14. Trans woman clutching large teddy bear in hospital bed.
15. Birthday balloons after surgery.
16. Trans woman with new boyfriend (after shot of tearful ex-wife).
17. Trans woman sitting in chair in above-the-knee skirt, posed so you can see what great gams she has.
18. Patient wheeled off to surgery ...
19. ... lingering shot of the hospital bed with the teddy bear (or wife) left behind.
20. Shot of protaganist sitting at the computer keyboard, looking at a trans support website or surgeon's website....
21. Any helping professional teaching deportment
22. Camera in the operating room - just drink the whole bottle
23. Any and all deployments of soft focus = 1 shot
24. Close up of dotted lines in magic marker on pale fleshy body parts = 1 shot
25. Earnest surgeon describes his motivation as "to help [girlname] become the woman she's always really felt herself to be" = 3 shots
26. Before picture with extreme facial hair - 1 shot
27. Before picture in uniform - Military, Football, etc... - 2 shots
28. Video from hair removal session : Laser - 1 shot, electrolysis - 2 shots
29. Before picture - Last time she wore a dress (F2M) - 1 shots
30. Breast binding - 2 shots
31. Taking Hormones - Self-injecting3 shots, orals1 shot
32. Did anyone mention an arduous and lonely childhood?
33. Meeting the school bully as "the new me" at the High School reunion?
34. Looking at the old picture of self and saying something to the effect of "he was a nice guyice guy...." or "Ken was a lot of fun, but his time is over. It's Ginger's turn now!"
35. Trans woman claiming to have [intersex] chromosomal pattern, an affinity for washing dishes, a sudden dislike of sports, etc.
Professor Boyd adds:
Believe it or not, these are not the most snarky suggestions, but also remember: there are quite a few people who hang out on our boards who have done this kind of media work, including me & Betty, of course, but also Jenny Boylan. We need to laugh at ourselves as much as we laugh at the inanity of it all.Twelve-Steppers should find their own version, of course. Maybe those ice cream poppers? But the point is to feel as physically ill by the end as the drinking crowd.
I personally don't drink, and I don't eat lots of sugar any more due to the gastric bypass, so I'll just have to feel ill watching the special itself if too many of the stereotypes are dragged out from the documentary closet.
Special thanks has to go to Gwen Smith, who came up with the original version of this drinking game.
'Tis the season for PRIDE Festivities everyone! Listed below are this summer's upcoming PRIDE festivals around the state. Click on the image or link for more information about each festival, and make sure you show up and are PROUD!
te. Click on the image or link for more information about each festival, and make sure you show up and are PROUD!Oregon PRIDES Calender & Information
When: August 8th from 12 p.m.-7 p.m. Where: Alton Baker Park in Eugene
BRO Staff in Attendence: Aubrey & Alejandro
When: August 15th from 12 p.m.-7 p.m. Where: Cascades Gateway Park in Salem
BRO Staff in Attendence: Juan
When: September 18th- 20th. Where: Various locations in Lincoln
BRO Staff in Attendence: Andrew
When: August 8th. Where: McKenzie Park in Hermiston
BRO Staff in Attendance: Jessica & Dan
If you are interested in volunteering with Basic Rights Oregon at any of these PRIDES, please contact Kyle at kyle@basicrights.org.
Don't see your city's pride here? E-mail Andrew at andrew@basicrights.org to have it added to BRO's Pride calender.www.GayTalkRadio.org
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