Friday, December 18, 2009

A Skin-Deep Twitter Roundup of Early December

I've recently become totally immersed in Twitter. In fact, I swear by it so much that if I want a record of news, thoughts, or opinions that are important to me, I go back and look through what I've tweeted. So here that is:

Weeks of concessions in Copenhagen and Congress give way to this--The U.S. is going to pay $3.4 billion to settle a Native American suit: http://ow.ly/LEZx

Health Care Reform goes down the shitter, and Lieberman proved his evil genius. As much as I fucking hate the shit out of him, I'm in awe of how much power just one guy can have. Too many links to post. Here's a few:
  • Organizing for America volunteers got pissed at the epic CongressFail on health care: http://bit.ly/6zevZ9
  • WAHAAA! Wielding Gavel, Franken Shuts Lieberman Up: http://ow.ly/No1N
  • Paul Krugman said that we should still try to pass the mangled runt of the health care bill we have left: http://tinyurl.com/yagasyg
  • SEIU Union Leader Calls Out Obama On Health Care: http://ow.ly/N3ha
  • The Chamber of Commerce started giving out Hooters Gift Certificates to people who agreed to fight health care reform. Could you be more transparent about your target demographic? http://bit.ly/77hXyA
  • Abortion was protected when Stupak and Hatch-Nelson amendments were both squashed, thank god: http://bit.ly/lKlOn

LGBTQ rights are way up and way down:
  • DC Mayor signs marriage equality bill! http://ow.ly/NwxM
  • Uganda plans death penalty for HIV-positive gays. It took the White House almost 2 weeks to say anything about it, and then finally some people joined a facebook group: http://bit.ly/6LKZue
  • Obama admin violates judge's order, refuses health benefits to lesbian partner: http://bit.ly/5nLyHN
  • New York rejected gay marriage, but extended protection to trans folk: http://ow.ly/MoyZ
  • Very interesting article on Gender Identity Disorder: "treating transgendered children as mentally ill creates the problem" http://bit.ly/4SsUcP
  • Chicago City Council speaks out for equal rights for LGBT immigrants: http://bit.ly/5JOsAX
  • Pelosi to shy away from "controversial" bills in 2010--"controversial" meaning anything about queers: http://bit.ly/4UJRPh
  • HOUSTON of all places elected an openly gay mayor! I really didn't think Texas had it in 'em. http://su.pr/346evP.
Generally fucked up shit was abound, especially with immigrants. Some people were still optimistic about reform though:
  • Cop Charged w/ Hate Crime Cover-Up Was Also Named In Fatal Beating Of Latino Inmate http://bit.ly/5LIOIL
  • Immigration agents are holding US residents in unlisted and unmarked offices http://bit.ly/7D4iFo
  • Top 10 List of Resources on Immigration Reform http://j.mp/7cMAf3
  • Monsanto is definitely in my list of top-5 corporations I want to see destroyed by scandal: "Millions Against Monsanto Campaign - Organic Consumers Association": http://twitthis.com/ao6obl
  • UC students kept going nuts and the University lied. A UC Davis professor responded: http://bit.ly/6xTlXU
  • Citi got a $38 billion gift for leaving the bailout program: http://bit.ly/7UfesF
Also the House passed some important financial reform things that I won't go into detail about, mostly because I don't totally understand them.


And finally--the overall most important and redeeming development, even more than anything that happened in the world of human rights or climate change:

Hannah Tepper started a blog.
The Happy Pizza Heart Blog.
Praise be to the lord.


Maybe the next time I do this, I'll make it easy to read and add some real analysis.