Happy Banned Books Week, everyone. The most challenged book of 2007 is And Tango Makes Three, a children's book based on a true story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who raised a female penguin chick. Among other challenges, a resident of Lodi, California, objected to the book's presence in the public library because of its "homosexual story line that has been sugarcoated with cute penguins."

Open Thread below...

Rachel Maddow appeared on"Countdown" last night to talk about John McCain's joke(?) about entering his wife in a topless beauty contest, and hit on an important point: in order to compete with Barack Obama's rock star appeal, the McCain camp has decided to find places where large people gather for other reasons and bask in the unwarranted limelight.

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OLBERMANN: Also, maybe a somewhat serious point contained in all this malarkey; on stage at Sturgis, he referred to the—preferring the roar of the 50,000 Harleys to 200,000 Germans cheering in Berlin. But in doing that, did he not underscore the fact that those 200,000 Germans in Berlin actually showed up to hear Barack Obama speak, but the 50,000 bikers on the roar of their Harleys, they had shown up at Sturgis not to see John McCain, but to see Kid Rock, Kelly Pickler and a bunch of female wrestlers and other women not wearing tops?

MADDOW: This is a critical and basic difference between the John McCain campaign for president and the Barack Obama campaign. Barack Obama creates large crowds when he gives speeches. John McCain‘s campaign has just figured out to find out where there‘s going to be a large crowd for another reason and to hope to slip their candidate in between other acts.

I guess you can't really blame McCain. When your opponent draws tens of thousands of people who genuinely want to hear him speak, and you have trouble filling the dining room of a Sausage restaurant, you have to find ways to compensate. It's just ironic that they attack Obama's celebrity appeal yet try to emulate it any way they can.

The Impolitic: The Ugly American

The Big Picture: Is there any surer sign of an impending disaster than a reassurance from the White House that it doesn't expect it to happen?

BAGnews Notes: McTownhall vs McTeleprompter

at-Largely: Karl Rove's minions still hard at work in Alabama.

The Saccharinist: While we were sleeping...

Senate Guru: 2010 could be a strong cycle for female Democratic Senate candidates

An honor well deserved. Yes, we really like her, we really do. She's been an incredible influence and blogging role model for me personally. Women's Voices. Women Vote selected her as their favorite female blogger.

I can't believe I had to make that statement. I thought it was a pain to have to remove your shoes and dump your baby's bottle to get through the security checkpoint. Now this?

A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation. [..]

Hamlin, 37, said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.

The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.

Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewelry, Hamlin said.

Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked whether she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was out, she said.
She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring.

"Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her," said Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred, reading from a letter she sent Thursday to the director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties. [..]

She said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring.

Okay, this is just stupid. The belly button ring stays, but the nipple piercings have to go? Does anyone feel safer knowing the skies are free of some body piercings? What is the fear? That she'll rub up against the plane with her chest and scratch the fuselage? Alan Colmes has the pictures of the confiscated hardware. (h/t Tim in Japan)

I understand that the blogosphere is an intense place right now with an incredibly competitive Democratic primary and a Republican primary that has fractured the conservative movement. C&L receives a wide range of readers and commenters, mostly left but a fair amount of right wingers too---who are most welcome to the discussion. I've been lucky enough to have a few incredible people volunteer to monitor the threads (I'm always looking for more) so they don't get out of hand. You know, trolls and all.

However, the treatment of Digby and many others (mostly female) is really getting out of line. It's hard enough to produce good content every single day (Digby does lengthy analysis) and then have to deal with banning and deleting people who bring nothing to the table. Please be kind...

Thank you,

JA

Michael from The Reaction here. So much good stuff, let's get right to it:

Mustang Bobby at BBWW: Don't ignore the Malkins and Coulters of the world, make fun of them. (And, I would add, call them out on their bigotry and stupidity.)

Pam with the steamin' House Blend: Oh no! Sexual addition among female fundies! Internet porn! Masturbation! Good times.

Maha of Mahablog: Dalai Lama Derangement Syndrome.

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic (who also blogs at my place and at the very fine Newshoggers): Bush's new "Family Planning czar," yet another anti-sex wingnut. See also Thought Theater.

The Gun Toting Liberal: American Oligarchy -- Verizon, AT&T, and the corporatist police state.

Eric at Total Information Awareness: The insurgency in Somalia, and the brutality of America's allies in the region. (Yes, Bush is destroying America's image everywhere.)

Finally, L-girl at We Move to Canada reacts positively to the Doris Lessing Nobel win.

I'm sorry I can't link to everyone, but keep the e-mails coming: mjwstickings [at] yahoo [dot] ca

Via Feministing:

Last week, a Federal court ruled that, despite Illinois law, pharmacists in Illinois can refuse to dispense emergency contraception. The state passed a law in 2005 that requires all pharmacies to dispense EC. As a result, Wal-Mart (and other companies) have disciplined pharmacists that refused to follow the rule. Then came the lawsuits and the bad news.

U.S. District Judge Jeanne Scott denied a request Tuesday by Wal-Mart to throw out a lawsuit filed by pharmacist Ethan Vandersand. Scott sided with Vandersand, who had claimed he was legally protected from discipline by the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act when he declined to dispense Plan B. Vandersand, who lives in Bluffs, formerly worked at the pharmacy in Beardstown's Wal-Mart. He was put on unpaid leave after he refused to fill a Plan B prescription requested by a nurse practitioner at Springfield's Planned Parenthood on behalf of a female patient in February 2006.

Wal-Mart had contended the state's right-of-conscience law doesn't cover pharmacists. Walgreen Co. has made the same argument in other Illinois lawsuits filed by fired pharmacists.

But Scott wrote in her ruling, "The statute prohibits discrimination against any person for refusing to provide health care because of his conscience." Read more...

There were quite a few offensive Supreme Court rulings this year, but one of the more surprising decisions was in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, in which the court ruled 5 to 4 (natch) that workers who face wage discrimination only have 180 days to challenge the initial discrimination in court. (Slate’s Richard Thompson Ford explained the case quite well a couple of months ago.)

Goodyear Tire intentionally shortchanged Lilly Ledbetter, a female employee, for two decades. The court majority (Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy) said if Ledbetter wanted to challenge the discrimination, she needed to sue within 180 days of her first unfair paycheck — even though she continued to receive unfair paychecks for 20 years.

Today, the House took up legislation — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — that would put into law a clarification — wage disparity based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and disability is not a one-time occurrence. Every discriminatory paycheck represents an ongoing violation. Employees would still have 180 days to challenge the discrimination, but from the last check, not the first.

The good news is the House passed the measure. The bad news is Bush plans to veto.

 As a favor for the Young Democrats who will be shaping the future in our dotage:

Have you heard about the Other female candidate for President?

The good folks of Team Lisa over at the New Organizing Institute's Summer Campaign Boot Camp have released the following statement from their candidate, Lisa Simpson of Springfield. -

As the younger sister one of society's most notorious troublemakers, I've seen my share of injustice. Even Bart was never let off with such blatant disregard for the law. Being a proud American and citizen of Springfield, I am appalled to learn of President Bush's decision to commute Scooter Libby's sentence.

America is about liberty and justice for all, whether you're a C-average college cheerleader from Yale, a lapdog named Scooter, or a MENSA member with a 159 I.Q.. If I were president, I would uphold the principles and ideals laid out for us by our Founding Mothers and Fathers.

On this great American holiday, I wish delicious potato salad, yummy tofu dogs, and Duff Beer for all, and remember a vote for Lisa is the Intelligent Choice!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone.