Jenny McCartney's blog

Last Monday, the Republican Party broke their collective hip running away from filmmaker Mike Stark. In recent weeks, the Republican base has made clear that healthcare and economic reform are unnecessary, and that our President’s birthplace is the most pressing issue facing Americans today. Stark decided to check-in with their representatives to see how they felt about it.

As Republicans ran to evade hard-line questions from the liberal media, they failed to notice the giant brick wall of evidence standing in their way.

Upon smashing into the wall, several gasped: “Well, whatever, he’s still a Muslim.”

The Party was rushed to the hospital, where x-rays confirmed a fracture.

• Former President Bill Clinton rescued two journalists from North Korea.

• The Nation reports that the founder of Blackwater may have facilitated the murder of individuals that were cooperating with federal investigations of the company. Wag the Dog anyone?

• Open Left discusses the new Republican white voter strategy and some of the problems with it.

• D.C. is going to offer STD tests in every high school. It will be interesting to see how that works.

• NYC is buying plane and bus tickets for homeless people who have families elsewhere. While there is something creepy about the government shipping people away, I would guess it's definitely better than the conditions homeless people must face.

• GLAAD released their index of LGBT representation on television. HBO and ABC earned high marks.

• The California budget gets trimmed down even further in an attempt to pass it.

• President Obama unleashes an eight point argument for health care reform. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there will be a vote before the August recess.

Thank God people who hate fat people have something else to complain about—they’ve had so little to mock before.

The people who hate fat people were all like, “how many times can we say those statistics from Super Size Me, and how many times can we mock people who have to buy two airline tickets?” It was hard to be them. They were tired of standing outside of McDonald’s and counting calories aloud for everyone who purchased something. Their eyes just couldn’t roll anymore.

The clouds parted, and God answered their skinny, little prayers. President Obama nominated Dr. Regina Benjamin to be the surgeon general. Luckily for them, she’s a bit overweight. Not totally overweight, like those people who go on weight loss game shows, but enough to get the fat jokes rolling.

Jimmy Fallon said this in his monologue last night:

They announced Dr. Regina Benjamin is President Obama’s pick for surgeon general. She’s facing criticism for being overweight. I don’t know if Dr. Benjamin’s weight should be an issue, but her food pyramid does call for three to five daily servings of McRibs.

To begin with, that joke is freaking hilarious. Hey-o! McRibs! Way to get creative, Jimmy Fallon. I expected you to go for the classic Big Mac joke, but you totally threw me for a loop there. Original much?

I also love the joke because it totally points out why we can’t have Dr. Benjamin as our surgeon general. I definitely wouldn’t want someone who’s struggled with their weight to try to help others with the issue. It’s not like she would know anything about the social, biological or economic issues that contribute to the high rate of obesity in the country.

Dr. Bejamin is just unqualified in so many ways. When her little clinic in New Orleans got destroyed by some little storm named Hurricane Katrina, she was so crazy that she rebuilt it because she thought it might be useful or something. On top of that, she was the first African American woman to be elected to the Board of the AMA and the Alabama Medical Association. Since then, she’s spent all her time helping a random rural community in Alabama, treating lots of patients who would not otherwise get health care. I guess she just couldn’t get a job in a city like everyone else!

Jimmy Fallon certainly has the right idea. We all remember the tidal wave of hilarious jokes when the male Surgeon General, Everett Koop, was nominated and confirmed. He was also a “chubbie,” as some have called Dr. Benjamin. Everyone bought that “No Chubbies” shirt that the health expert Michael Karolchyk wore on Fox News the other day. Wait, you don’t remember that? Oh. Awkward.

All I can say is that I’m glad Jimmy Fallon is finally giving a voice to the faint chorus of the people who hate the fatties. I’m so proud that he’s working against this clearly unqualified woman. After all, as they always say, the most important quality in a Surgeon General is how she looks.

For more interesting commentary on the subject, check out Linda Bergthold’s editorial on The Huffington Post.

A few weeks ago, I attended a production of The Wiz at New York City Center--, a ‘black rewrite’ of The Wizard of Oz. Originally on Broadway in 1975, the musical has won numerous Tony awards, has been adapted into a movie, and has recently been revived in a production featuring Ashanti and Orlando Jones.

Throughout the show, I couldn’t help wondering what exactly made this musical a black rewrite. Was it the soulful music? Or the names like Addaperle and Evillene? Or was it that the dancing infused contemporary technique with hip-hop moves?

And then all of this pondering led me to another question: Is this so-called black musical a celebration of contemporary urban black culture, as it was thought to be in the 1970’s, or just a throwback to old black stereotypes?

• President Obama won a crucial victory against the military industrial complex that former president Dwight Eisenhower warned against in his farewell address. The law will take away $1.75 billion that goes to F-22 fighter jets that are of very little use to the army in our modern battles.

• Tyler Perry is taking the kids that got kicked out of the Philadelphia pool to Disney World. Thank god he's taking them somewhere where racist assumptions are not made, and instead everyone lives equally in harmony. Oh wait...

• The Washington Post writes today that the individual health care mandate, which would require all Americans to have health insurance, has broad support among reformers. The mandate would require all Americans to have health insurance, and would provide waivers to low income families.

• The L.A. Times reports that the Obama Administration missed the deadline to move Guantanamo Bay prisoners to another location. Obama has now promised that he will close the prison by January.

Last Wednesday, The Tank was filled with lawyers, court enthusiasts, and political comedy fans for Laughing Liberally’s "Supreme Night of Comedy." The show featured comedians Katie Halper, Lee Camp, Scott Blakeman, Negin Farsad, and Elon James White as they took on the Sotomayor confirmation hearings.

The event was co-sponsored by our friends at the American Constitution Society, New York Democratic Lawyers Council, Alliance for Justice, and People for the American Way. With their help, we reached out to new audiences and even gave away free copies of Alliance for Justice’s documentary, “A Quiet Revolution.”

Check out this video of the event:

Think this looks easy? Come show us your stand-up tomorrow night at the Tank for Laughing Liberally’s Open Mic night, starting at 7:30pm.

For more Living Liberally upcoming events, check out www.livingliberally.org/nyc.

With the bad economy, messy health care debate, and ridiculous questioning of Judge Sotomayor, there’s plenty to laugh about this week. Check out these three political cartoons from this week.

First, from Bob Englehart in The Hartford Courant:

I feel like the person in the back seat could be all of America, not just the GOP. I hate how much people talk about how things aren’t getting better and unemployment fell even lower in June. It took us eight years to get into this mess, but people expect to solve it in a few months. Englehart makes a nice point that the stimulus has just started, and there is a long road ahead.

Great news for card-carrying liberals!

Living Liberally would like to welcome one of our newest Liberal Card partners, the New Perspectives Theatre Company. We loved New Perspectives from the start because of their commitment to helping under-served artists and audiences.

From their website:

New Perspectives Theatre Company (NPTC) is an award-winning company founded in 1991 as a multi-racial ensemble dedicated to using theatre as an agent for positive social change. Our mission is to 1) develop and present new plays and playwrights, particularly women and people of color, 2) present classic plays in a style that sheds new light on our lives and work, and 3) offer theatre and its benefits to under-served audiences—especially young people and communities in need—to build life skills and promote positive participation in our society.

New Perspectives Theatre Company will be staging Off the Page, a series of workshop productions of new plays from their Women’s Work Lab. The premiere play will be “Sad Mad Glad Bad” by Andrea Lepcio and directed by Melissa Maxwell. The play is described as “What would happen if Beckett wrote for The L Word?” Check out the synopsis:

Olexandra's marriage has just imploded and Jill's body is betraying her. Each woman is running from the very thing she must confront. In SAD MAD GLAD BAD these two strangers find themselves trapped on a stage with an audience in a wildly theatrical duet about the making of love, self and art.

Performances run July 27-30 at 7 pm at New Perspectives Theatre Company (456 West 37th St at 10th Avenue).

Tickets are $10, but if you’re a liberal card member you can get 2-for-1 tickets with the new promotion. Don’t miss out on the chance to pay $5 for new and exciting theatre. Be liberal not only in your vote, but also in the theatre and arts you participate in and see.

• In honor of last night's Harry Potter movie premiere, check out this article about a group of kids who have formed a non-profit that wants to eradicate poverty, illiteracy, and genocide. The Harry Potter Alliance, as they're called, use the books to raise money for Darfur and Burma.

• The Sotomayor confirmation hearings seem to be fixated on her "wise Latina" remark. Check out The Huffington Post's live feed here.

• Sarah Palin had another ethics complaint filed against her.

• The Venezuelan land distribution program seems to be backfiring. Communism always sounds so good in theory!