Chartered in the 17th Century, embracing 21st Century diversity

No one ever will mistake my undergraduate alma mater, the College of William and Mary, for PCU. "The College," which has produced such diverse graduates as Jon Stewart '84 of "The Daily Show," former FCC chairman and noted wingnut Michael Powell '85 (newly announced as a director of internet dinosaur AOL), actor/comedian Patton Oswalt '91, actresses Glenn Close '74 and Linda Lavin '59, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates '65, the NFL's active career interception leader Darren Sharper '97, Super Bowl champion head coach Mike Tomlin '95, and me '87 (not to mention infamous wingnut plagiarist Ben Domenech, who never graduated, and some old dude named Thomas Jefferson '62 ... 1762), traditionally has been a fairly conservative place, where not too long ago the Board of Visitors -- led, not coincidentally, by the aforementioned Powell -- disgracefully drove out an effective, but liberal and therefore controversial, college president on purely ideological grounds.

But every so often, you find a kernel of openness at W&M -- an indication that perhaps all is not lost. In a state where, unfortunately, it looks like intolerant ultra-wingnut Bob McDonnell will be the next governor, The College did something historic last week in the name of tolerance and diversity: its students elected a transgender person to the Homecoming Court.

Jessee Vasold ’11 made history at the College of William and Mary Wednesday when ze was announced as the school’s first transgender homecoming queen, representing the Class of 2011.

Vasold identifies as gender-queer and prefers to be referred to with gender neutral pronouns: “ze” in place of he or she and “zir” rather than him or her. Vasold has also created a Facebook account for a female identity, Kathy Middlesex.

Friends suggested that Vasold run for homecoming queen. Even though Vasold thought that there was a good chance at being elected, Vasold said the win was still surprising to hear.

“We figured it would be something different for the school to go through, something that hasn’t happened too often,” Vasold said. “I was kind of surprised that I won because I knew the other girls running. I know that they’re really friendly; they’re wonderful people, so I was unsure.”

[...]

According to [Junior Class President Mike] Tsidulko, there is no rule against men or women running for opposite roles. Students who made nominations were simply asked to describe how the candidate exemplified Tribe pride.

“In general, most descriptions were about what activities they were involved in on campus or spiritedness at sporting events or any other kind of campus activity,” Senior Class President Alyssa Wallace said.

Those students nominated with a description were put on the ballot.

“It basically came down to nominations,” Wallace said. “Jessee was nominated, Jessee’s peers voted and Jessee won. That’s really all there is to it.”

It may be that Vasold (left) was a member of the Homecoming Court, representing the Class of 2011, with a senior (Class of 2010) actually taking the title of Homecoming Queen -- the sources are unclear on that count -- but that minor quibble aside, this is a huge step forward for William & Mary and for recognition of its long-active GLBT community. Naturally, the comments on the article were somewhat mixed (although the "anti" position was dominated by a single vulgar, closed-minded person), but by and large, there appears to be a real sense that The College is a changing, if not changed, place, not unlike the country as a whole. Even College President Taylor Reveley was supportive, commenting that "[it's] a little more publicity than normal for a homecoming queen, but it's just fine." From a personal standpoint, even I've discovered today that the archaic, anachronistic labels used to identify people are beginning to fade away as we allow each individual the freedom to identify as he or she or ze sees fit ... I wasn't familiar with the terms ze and zir before.

How refreshing. And, frankly, how surprising -- yet how heartening -- to see this happening at, of all places, my dear alma mater. I'm very proud to be a W&M graduate today. Congratulations to Jessee ... and congratulations to the entire College community. Welcome to the 21st Century. And ... Go Tribe!

(cross-posted with introduction at Daily Kos)

Thank you, BuzzFlash

click image for larger version

Well, this is pretty cool.

I learned last night that I have won BuzzFlash.com's "Wings of Justice Award" for this week. They said some very nice things about me, or more accurately, about my video from the Pensacola Tea Party (although I guess they felt like they had to create yet another nickname for me, "Pensacola Jeff," which I suppose is preferable to Keith Olbermann's "unemployed blogger named Jeff"). You can go read what they had to say if you like ...

I'm joining some incredibly illustrious past honorees, including Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Dennis Kucinich, Rachel Corrie, Kurt Vonnegut, my former classmate Jon Stewart, and of course President Obama and the First Lady -- plus my "new friend" Mr. Olbermann himself. I assure you that in no way do I feel worthy to be mentioned in the same breath, let alone with the same award, as all of those truly exemplary Americans, and so it is a tremendous honor and privilege to receive this award today.

Anyway, thank you to everyone at BuzzFlash for this award. I am indeed humbled and grateful.

The facts have a liberal bias

Light posting day today, as I'll be out and about (in the rain) quite a bit.

Hopefully the genius of Lewis Black will hold you over for a while. Here he is on Wednesday's TDSWJS ranting commenting on the appalling "need" for the Right to provide alternative media sources to counter "liberal" sites like Wikipedia and YouTube and CNN.com.



My to-do list for 2008:

1. Help elect a veto- and cloture-proof majority in Congress.
2. Keep Justice Stevens alive and motivated at least until January 20, 2009.
3. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Fake news: more newsy than real news

I'm not sure what qualifies the founder of Craigslist, Craig "Good Thing My Name's Not Vladimir" Newmark, to speak to the annual convention of the Newspaper Association of America, but he did. And he urged his listeners to be more like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart:

Declaring those two shows his primary source of news, Newmark told the annual convention of the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group, that Stewart provided a valuable service by juxtaposing video clips of lobbyists and other public officials giving contradicting statements at different times.

Newmark, speaking in an on-stage interview with talk show host Charlie Rose, says he still prefers reading news on paper rather than online, but he called that preference a "luxury" that was unlikely to endure.

Newmark said the country needed more investigative journalism, not less, and pointed to a recent study suggesting that that kind of reporting could be an important way for newspapers to improve profitability.

And while he said that the business of making, editing and writing news had a "great future," he said he did have "great deal of sympathy" for people running printing presses. "They're screwed," he said.

The funny part, though, was the response to Newmark's suggestion:

Newmark's audience didn't warm especially to his suggestions about newspaper coverage, although one key industry executive conceded that he had a point about using humor to get one's point across, something that Newmark himself emphasized in his remarks.

Jay Smith, the president of Cox Newspapers in Atlanta and a former chairman of the Newspaper Association of America, said in an interview that Newmark's suggestions about exposing contradictions in the statements of public officials was something newspapers already do.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Whew! I haven't had a laugh like that in a while. The next time the Washington Post or the New York Times exposes Republican contradictions, let me know, okay?

Today's Daily Schadenfreude: John McCain

St. John McCain: from Vietnam POW to senator to person unable to put together a coherent sentence. Watch him chase his own tail rhetorically on The Daily Show last night:



And this guy wants to be president.

Well, at least you've got to give him credit, not only for willingly appearing on TDSWJS to have his ass handed to him again, but for being the most frequent guest ever on the show. That's at least as big an honor as being a member of the charter class of the Wanker of the Day Hall of Fame.

My laughing-and-pointing here isn't really for McCain doing anything stupider than usual. His candidacy itself is the joke. So, congratulations, Sen. McCain -- this Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

Nedra Pickler takes on Bill Richardson

AP writer Nedra Pickler long has been known (scroll down) for writing absolute dreck that props up GOP stooges and denigrates Democrats. Today she's unsheathed her red pen to go after New Mexico governor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson.

In a speech today in Baltimore, Richardson, who will be the guest on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight, warned that more attention must be paid to al-Qaeda and less to Iraq, especially with a looming threat that the terrorist network could gain access to nuclear weapons.

But check out who Nedra cited, apparently without provocation:

Asked why he doesn't support a nuclear-free world like former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and other Cold War leaders have promoted, Richardson replied, "I'm a pragmatist."

"I believe what the world needs to do is nuclear arms reductions," Richardson said. He recalled that it didn't work when President Reagan and Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev agreed in 1986 to renounce all nuclear weapons "for about 10 minutes."

Richardson worked on securing Russian nuclear weapons when he was energy secretary in the Clinton administration. But he accused the Bush administration of underfunding their programs.

"Meanwhile, we are spending $10 billion a month on Iraq," he said. "Of the many ways in which the Iraq war has distracted us from our real national security needs, this is the most dangerous."

No word on whether Nedra gets an extra-special bonus for mentioning Kissinger in her article. But it wouldn't surprise me.

Jon Stewart Quote of the Night

Tonight's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart featured an interview with Jeffrey Rosen, author of "The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America."

Rosen described how Justice Antonin "Fat Tony" Scalia "sits in his chambers, he writes his opinions, looks around, and says, 'What's a smart guy like me doing in a place like this?' "

Amid the groans of the audience, Stewart, incredulous, exclaimed, "Oh my God! Scalia's a huge dick!"

Sometimes, I'm just proud to have gone to college with Jon Stewart. This would be one of those times.

UPDATE (12:37 am 2/23/07): I have reason to believe that tonight's show may be a repeat from last week. But, what the hell -- since I hadn't seen it, it's new to me.

Fanaticism

Fellow Atriot Dirk Gently brings his insight to the blogosphere with the recent debut of Albatross!, which deserves a blogrolling and a daily visit from all of you.

Wednesday, Dirk made the excellent point that George W. Bush is, quite simply, a fanatic, in the pure dictionary sense of the word:

And why? Because G. W. Bush is fanatic.

fanatic

adj : marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea; "rabid isolationist" [syn: fanatical, overzealous, rabid] n : a person motivated by irrational enthusiasm (as for a cause); "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject" --Winston Churchill [syn: fiend]
WordNet® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

Bush believes that "victory" in Iraq is not only possible, it is inevitable. Nothing will change his mind. When he says "failure is not an option" it is because he believes that with mindless religious zeal. When he says "whatever the cost" he really does mean no limits in blood or money. Three thousand GIs dead is nothing to him. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi corpses have no impact. Trillions of dollars is a drop in the bucket.

The only way to stop the madness is to remove this man, this zealot, this fanatic, this autocratic megalomaniac from power. We can suffer the losses to ourselves and the world for another two years, or we can remove him now by whatever means possible. The result will be the same.

I don't necessarily agree with the last sentence, because the sooner he leaves office, the sooner we can end the bloodbath and restore our national dignity.

But the idea that George W. Bush is a dangerous fanatic is spot on, and it needs to be a meme that worms its way into the SCLM ... far enough so that you hear more people than just Jon Stewart speculating as to whether the preznit should be removed from office.

Yeah, it's a long-shot ... but so was taking back Congress.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Dirk. Enjoy your stay - I'm sure we will.

Gates: We're not winning in Iraq

How refreshing to see a BushCo nominee tell the truth for once:

Asked if he thought the United States was winning the war in Iraq, Defense secretary nominee Robert Gates answered with a simple "no."

Incoming Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D- Michigan, asked the question during Gates' Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday.

The former CIA director also told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he was "open to new ideas" regarding policy in Iraq and that "all options" remain open.

"I am under no illusion why I am sitting before you today: the war in Iraq," Gates told the committee. "I welcome the many alternative strategies and tactics proposed by members of Congress and others."

Apropos of nothing, I wonder if Jon Stewart will ever mention that he and Gates are alumni of the same college ... as am I. (Gates '65, Stewart '84, me '87.) Curious.