That’s not even a particularly funny or evocative juvenile “mind in the gutter” joke.  I’ve got a twelve year old’s sense of humor and can’t avoid chortling at certain things (for example when I’m on a subway that stops at Rector Street, I cannot avoid muttering “Rectal Street” under my breath and giggling about it).  But I don’t think “family planning stimulus” is funny.  At all.  And not even in a self-righteous sense.  It’s just not funny.

Somewhere in G. B. Shaw’s writings is his account of how when he served as a vestryman on the St Pancras borough council, this same behavior was observed when his fellow vestrymen were talking about the funding and building of what Americans refer to as public restrooms.

My corporate internet filters won’t let me see the video.  Nonetheless, I am well-familiar with the “fuck it, don’t study it” credo of some adult men.  No doubt these are the guys who think grabbing tampons at the drugstore for a wife is tantamount to teh homo sex!

Exactly.  I am a fan of stupid dick jokes, and have a really silly sense of humor.  But I just can’t for the life of me see what’s so funny about this.  Except that it’s this frat boy attempt to lash out at women for recent gains in power.

This is what happens when you got your sex education from an embarassed nun and a stack of Playboys.

Some people have no filter.  There is no differentiation between private jokes and professional conduct.  Tee-heeing in a work environment (and yes, political representation IS work) about women’s netherregions is completely unprofessional.  Next up: penises on paper airplanes.

If you can’t see the video, it’s pretty simple.  The elder Bush tells a story of a feminist who told him to stay out of her womb, and he said he didn’t want to be in there anyway, because feminists are ugly, amiritefellas? God DAMN, that’s a sparkling and original joke.  Clinton gets up afterwards and hams it up, wishing he could get away with jokes like that, implying either that his reputation as a philanderer or his reputation for doing ugly feminists prevents this.  And then he compares worming dogs to break dancing, for reasons that I don’t quite understand.

In all fairness, many of my perfectly normal liberal friends have been consistently snickering over news reports about Obama’s massive stimulus package, and how he planned to push it through congress…

Seriously, though, this is a reminder of why “bipartisanship” can not be allowed to mean “democrats give in consistently to republican demands” any more, and why the reproductive health measures that were taken out of the stimulus bill need to be reintroduced independently… immediately.

many of my perfectly normal liberal friends have been consistently snickering over news reports about Obama’s massive stimulus package

Yeah, that’s actually a little bit funny.

The family planning thing rests on the idea that you are so excitable that any mention of anything that only tangentially relates to sex will set you to giggling.  Because we use the term “family planning” as a sort of euphemism that allows us to separate “contraception” from “sexytimes”.  It’s not about fucking more, it’s about deciding whether and when to have children. 

It’s like a preteen boy snickering at the word “tampon”.

For actual humor related to the stimulus package, stay tuned for February 7th’s Krewe du Vieux parade in New Orleans!

Even as juvenile jokes go (and I certainly do love stupid humor), I must say, I don’t get it. Maybe if they kept saying “erectile dysfunction stimulus”, it would have been funnier.

To be fair, I’m as much of a fan of Obama’s massive stimulus, and his insistent pushes to insert it into a speding bill, as the next guy. But, yeah, Bush’s and Clinton’s jokes are really more mean than funny.

There’s also a difference between dumb jokes about sex, and dumb jokes about how people are ugly. Not to mention, you react differently to the president on TV than to some joe or jane doe on a website.

I am a horrible, horrible person for finding Dan’s comment funny.

I’m a a big fan of dirty jokes but there’s a world of difference between jokes that make fun of the inherent humor in sex and/or make fun of or play off our discomfort with sex/bodies.  But this just seems to be in the general vein of Republican humor that finds humor in degrading others or putting them in their place—like Dubya’s fondness for nicknames.  When your punchline and argument is “oh yeah, well you’re so ugly I wouldn’t fuck ya, you uppity broad” you have already lost the argument and your joke has fallen flat.  This goes double for you, Dick Armey.  (I reserve the right to giggle at his name.)

The mention of “lady parts” reminded me I got a flier from these folks not too long ago:

http://www.ladypartsauto.com/contact.html

A case of turning lemons into lemonade? If you can’t beat them, join them?

...but that they are uncomfortable even talking about it.” Or maybe they’re just having an appropriate reaction—snickering, etc.—to the discussion of such a trivial, amusing matter like female reproductive healthcare and, you know, implied naughty bits, in the context of a serious matter like an economic stimulus package.

Think about it. All they’ve been hearing for the past few days, from their colleagues, from pundits and commentators, propagandists, and even from President Obama, is that when it comes to important matters like the economy, jobs, etc. female repro healthcare is not a legitimate issue. It’s something to be mocked and tucked away in a more appropriate, sparkly, neon-pink, dreamy, girly bill.

I mean, we can’t keep losing time, after time, after time (rhetoric, propaganda, Overton window, actual legislation; take your pick), while trembling with abject gratitude anytime we’re thrown a maggot-infested morsel and honestly wonder why people point at us, laugh and don’t take us seriously. Why should they?

Maybe they were all making the same joke to themselves about Congressman Boehner.  But, yeah, it would be nice to see some professional from our professional political folks at least while they’re on duty.  Heehee, “doody.”

In all fairness, many of my perfectly normal liberal friends have been consistently snickering over news reports about Obama’s massive stimulus package, and how he planned to push it through congress…

Would a deadpan comment about it being larger than that of any white president’s be over the line or not?  It’s difficult enough navigating our own racial politics.

I don’t really see a big diff in Bush’s joke and the tee-heeing during the presentation.  Both are aimed at making women feel small for caring about reproductive rights.

One way to fix this would be to have a Congress that looks like America—-51% female.

Um, Michele Bachmann.

The part of my Washington internship I remember most vividly was watching a taping of the McLaughlin Group.  It happened to be discussing low-flow toilets, and of course there was discussion of poo, though the pictures shown used simple multicolored plastic blocks to show them.

They just could not stop giggling.  Seriously, it was like the time in my 8th grade science class when one of the guys said “orgasm” instead of “organism” by accident.

I was sitting there wondering, “Who the hell are these people?”

Yeah, but despite a few exceptions, most Republican women are to the left of Republican men on women’s issues.  Only 5 Republicans crossed over to vote for the Ledbetter Act in the Senate—-all four female Republicans and one male Republican.  (Spector.)  We had the same issue on a bill mandating that insurance companies who cover Viagra also cover birth control—-all female Republicans broke the feminist way, and most male Republicans were utter assholes about it.

To make it worse, the snickering assholes in this story weren’t Republicans—-they were Democratic men.

I get the impression that most Republican women politicians are pretty solid on gender-and-work issues, because they can relate to being treated disrespectfully and condescended to.  The politics of the private sphere is where things really break down.

This is what happens when you got your sex education from an embarassed nun and a stack of Playboys.

Please.  Nuns and Playboy have much better senses of humor.

To make it worse, the snickering assholes in this story weren’t Republicans—-they were Democratic men.

*sigh*  I really hope this comes up in their reelection bids in ‘10.

No chance.  This was an off the record interview, so no names were named.  I’m sure it wasn’t Waxman, though.  He’s a grown-up.

Just to support my righteous indignation (is there any other kind?) with some links.

If you take a closer look at just one provision and one amendment. (David, Susan #193 ) you’ll notice the following:

—The provision in the bill gives $100 million (p141) under the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) to eligible faith-based and community organizations. The amendment would increase the funding by an additional $500 million.

—Basically, CCF, a key component of President Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative,  funds intermediary organizations who then turn around and teach faith-based and community organizations (everything from helping the homeless, to abstinence “education”, to prison ministries) how to more effectively apply for funds from the government, and how to better organize their filling cabinets.

—The program’s effectiveness has already been evaluated (by the administration, mind you). If you look at the study used to determine if the CCF program works (p 4, 5), your eyes will bleed and brain matter will ooze out of your ears. [The methodology is a joke and the study tells us absolutely nothing about this program’s performance.]

Bottom line: What amounts to a grant writing/tech support program of unknown effectiveness for faith-based and community organizations matters enough to be included in an economic stimulus bill. It belongs there. Moreover, a proposed $500 million increase in funding for this most pertinent program deserves serious consideration. Anything to do with female repro healthcare, on the other hand, just so much marginal fluff in need of a good snickering.

/rant

I was sitting there wondering, “Who the hell are these people?”

Poop is funny.  We had to order porta-potties at work today and spent the entire lunch break giggling at poop jokes.  Over lunch, no less. 

Who doesn’t think poop is funny?  It could be worse - they could be making racist, sexist, or homophbic jokes.  At least everyone poops.

It’s like a preteen boy snickering at the word “tampon”.

Or my seventh grade son banking some serious peer cred for asking the French teacher how one would say “shower” in French.

You know, given the results of Mr. Bush’s attempts at procreation, I’d say it’s probably a good thing he’s scared of ladyparts.  The less of that seed polluting the gene pool, the better.

Really? I’m the only one who saw the Beavis and Butthead movie? Where they go to Congress looking for a woman who they think is going to have sex with them?

B&B;(over loudspeaker): Attention…we are looking for the chick with big boobs.
Congress: uhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuh.

The less of that seed polluting the gene pool, the better.

Oh, so when it comes to the Bush family men and their “seed” _are_ responsible for procreation?    Bar ain’t getting off the hook for those offspring.  She doesn’t worry her beautiful mind about them.

Opoponax, I just think “the quality of Mercer St. is not strained.” My sister gets a kick out of High Street being the stop after Jay Street.

The elder Bush tells a story of a feminist who told him to stay out of her womb, and he said he didn’t want to be in there anyway, because feminists are ugly, amiritefellas?

So Bush actually went there?  Is he that ignorant of the jokes made at his wife’s expense?

I don’t know if The Daily Show makes a habit of insulting women for their appearance, it seems like they don’t, but I almost want them to pick up on this story.  Barbara Bush is a nasty piece of work anyway and Elder Bush, with that “joke” about those ugly feminists, is just itching to get slapped.

Ah, Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn street names…  Does it get any better?

Houston they forget.

Oh, jeez. That reminds me of the time back in high school I was asking my stepfather, who is German, if he had any blank floppy disks I could use but accidentally said “floppy dicks.” My stepsister busted out laughing to raise the dead, but my stepdad didn’t even bat an eyelash.

3 and a half inch or 5 and quarter?

/lame computer/dick joke

No doubt these are the guys who think grabbing tampons at the drugstore for a wife is tantamount to teh homo sex!

That, or it’s because we transwomen are totally famous for buying tampons during our pre-transition days and if they’re seen with any period-related product everyone will think they’re one of us and not, y’know, a guy who lives with a woman out doing the shopping.

“Um, Michele Bachmann.”

Psycho McCarthyite that she is, I’m relatively sure that even Ms. Bachmann has long since come to terms with the impossibility of swapping her vagina out for a more privileged organ and the steps necessary for uterus-bearers to take so as to not wind up swarming with children.

Hey is it possible that those males have ....COCKS!  Oh goodness me!!!! Those could be linked to reproduction too!  Oh deary, dear.  It could seem as if we’re all in this reproduction business together!

What are the chances we could get the names of these snickerers?

“No doubt these are the guys who think grabbing tampons at the drugstore for a wife is tantamount to teh homo sex!”

The only problem I have with this is that I ALWAYS seem to get the wrong ones. Even if I write it down. Granted, I’m no scholar, but still…

Bush’s little anecdote was atrocious.  Not only was it self serving in a “what a clever boy am I” sense, it was almost certainly untrue.  I doubt the man has sufficient wit to get off that little zinger in the moment; if the story isn’t completely apocryphal he probably came up with his supposed retort well after the fact.  Also, why go out of your way to mention looks?  Self aggrandizement aside if he had kept physical attractiveness out of the story it would have been a somewhat amusing bon mot, instead it just comes off as mean.

“Bar ain’t getting off the hook for those offspring.  She doesn’t worry her beautiful mind about them.”

*lol* very true.  i didn’t immediately think of her because she’s not genetically a Bush, but you’re right, she’s absolutely no better.

I thought it was interesting that he had to read it.  He said, “I’ll never forget it,” but he had to read every word, not just look down to keep his train of thought.  So this wasn’t a funny joke he decided to get up and tell, this was written by a speech writer as a premeditated act.  You can tell he didn’t write it because when he got to the word “crowd”, he pronounced it like “crow” with a long o.

I don’t know if The Daily Show makes a habit of insulting women for their appearance, it seems like they don’t, but I almost want them to pick up on this story.  Barbara Bush is a nasty piece of work anyway and Elder Bush, with that “joke” about those ugly feminists, is just itching to get slapped.

Did you actually just suggest that the valid way to counter Bush’s attack on an “ugly” feminist is to attack another woman (Barbara Bush)?

On a feminist blog?

Really?

Maybe you want to rethink that one?  And this time, how about we target the MAN who actually made a jackass of himself and not the closest female to him. M’kay?