The great thing about the scary, reactionary, time-traveling policies the Republicans are advocating, is that it provides a lot of comedic fodder. Funny or Die has another video on the subject of the GOP’s obsession with controlling vaginas. The video stars Kate Beckinsale, Judy Greer and Andrea Savage. See why these women want Republicans ”way, way deep, up there in” their vaginas.

As always, Jay brings it home.

Approx. transcript after the jump (thx Melissa!!)

So one of the stories I’ve missed while I’ve been away is the Trayvon Martin case.  And of course I was watching the story very closely, talking about it on my radio show and in other places, taking part in the protests.  And for the most part, I’ve been glad to participate as one of the rank and file and just add my presence to the movement, since there were so many other people speaking so powerfully and eloquently on the issue. And as I watched it play out, I couldn’t imagine what there was left to say that we hadn‘t already said for Timothy Stansbury, Michael Stewart, Yvonne Smallwood, Sean  Bell, Eleanor Bumpurs, Vincent Chin, Patrick Dorismond, Anthony Baez, and those are just names that come to me off the top of my head. We’ve been down this road so many times and seen justice denied in so many places that when I watched people like Trymaine Lee and Ta-Nehisi Coates and, of course, Trayvon’s incredible family, I felt amazed that any of us still had the strength of will to step up and speak so well on this and once again, fight this fight that we’ve fought so many times and really should never have to fight in the first place.  I mean, this was forty-five days of tireless effort around the country, not to overthrow some unjust system, not to get anybody fired, not to pass some new law, even though those are questions that should be revisited in the long term.  This was forty-five days of outrage and protests just to answer the humblest of all possible requests from Trayvon’s family and simply get an arrest made.  That’s it.  And that may seem like an obvious point, but I think it’s an important one because there’s been a lot of commentary about this case suggesting that it became too polarized, that the coverage and reaction to this case, and specifically the role of social media, became too hateful and too negative and too polarized.  And I think that’s completely wrong.  Because when I think back to all those other cases I mentioned from back in the days here in New York, I remember the reaction being very polarized.  The difference to me is all those cases back in the day just didn’t get the amount of attention that the Trayvon Martin case has gotten, so most of America just never became aware of the polarization that’s always bubbling underneath the surface. So to me, there’s nothing too unusual about what they’re calling about the polarization of this case.  To me, what’s noteworthy is that almost unprecedented amount of attention we’ve brought to the case and even more than that, what’s been remarkable to me is the amount of optimism that’s been at the root of these protests.  Because Trayvon Martin’s family, after everything they’ve been through, they would be entirely within their rights to step up to a podium and say, “To hell with this so-called justice system and to hell with this so-called free country.” But they haven’t done that.  Trayvon Martin’s family, with all of their incredible courage and grace and clarity, have in essence been asking us to join them in acting on the faith that this system can still work if we just push it hard enough.  Even after everything they’ve been through and everything we’ve seen historically – twenty years to the day as I speak since the Rodney King acquittals, fifty years after James Baldwin wrote The Fire Next Time – this family still has enough faith in us as a country to keep on reaching for the water and ask us to join them in reaching for the water instead of the fire.  That is what’s remarkable to me about this story. And I’m not saying that I believe those who want a more radical solution, people who think that we need to abolish or replace this system, are any less virtuous and I’m not saying I think they’re wrong.  I don’t know.  And I think we need people on that front also. But I do think that those who share the belief that we can make this system better, we have an obligation.  We owe it to Trayvon Martin’s family to do everything we can to make good on that faith that they’ve placed in us.  And as we enter this stage of the game where the media narrative starts to sag and drag and fade away, this is when it’s critical for us to remember that debt we owe and remember that faith that Sabrina Fulton and Tracy Martin have placed in us that we will keep on pushing to bring this system closer to justice. 

Saturday night’s White House Correspondents Dinner was chock-full-o corny jokes and problematic jokes (like “fat” jokes about Chris Christie– as if there aren’t substantive things to make fun of the Governor for). But there were some great moments that were both funny and meaningful from President Barack Obama and Jimmy Kimmel. Here’s a video compilation I made with a top 10 list below it. Warning: nothing will ever come close to Stephen Colbert’s brilliant, satirical, subversive and courageous roast of Bush back in 2006.

1. “And that’s why I want to especially thank all the members [of Congress] who took a break from their exhausting schedule of not passing any laws to be here tonight.” (Obama)
2. “Anyway, it’s great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom — or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper.” (Obama)
3. “Jimmy got his start years ago on The Man Show.  In Washington, that’s what we call a congressional hearing on contraception.” (Obama)
4. This video which Obama introduced: “And while both campaigns have had some fun with this, the other day I saw a new ad from one of these outside groups that, frankly, I think crossed the line.  I know Governor Romney says he has no control over what his super PACs do, but can we show the ad real quick?”
5. “David Vitter even went so far as to fly down to Colombia to investigate this [the Secret Service scandal] personally.” (Kimmel)
6. Is that slut Rush Limbaugh here? People are still upset with Rush for comments he made about Sandra Fluke, but you know what? There is a reason Mr. Limbaugh said what he said, and that reason is Percocet…. By the way, just to clear things up for the right wingers. Here’s the difference between Bill Maher and Rush Limbaugh. The people who watch Bill Maher know he’s an asshole.” (Kimmel)
7. “I actually have my own theory about Lincoln’s death. I think John Wilkes Booth was innocent. I don’t even think it was an assassination. I believe that Abraham Lincoln had a vision of what the Republican Party would become in 150 years, and he shot himself. (Kimmel)
8. “I guess it just wasn’t Rick’s year,” Kimmel said. “Rick’s year was 1954. It’s one thing to oppose gay marriage. It’s another thing to do it in a sweater vest.” (Kimmel)
9. “What’s with the marijuana crackdown? I mean, seriously, what is the concern? We will deplete the nation’s Funyuns supply? You know, pot smokers vote, too. Sometimes a week after the election, but they vote.”
10. “Who are these people who think it would be a good idea to attack Iran? I hear people say, Bomb ‘em, nuke ‘em, just do it now. They’re a real bunch of yahoos, and Netanyahus.” (Kimmel)

Tavi Gevinson is a teen fashion and style blogger , self-proclaimed feminist, and magazine Editor-in-Chief extraordinaire. Back when Chloe profiled her for the Feministing Five, it was already evident that she was going to take the world by storm, and that feminism was influencing her increasingly impressive portfolio of projects.

I wanted to share her latest, a video from TedXTeen in which she talks about her own inspiration for starting Rookie Magazine (to which I’ve been honored to contribute pieces!). In her words:

I wanted to start a website for teenaged girls that was not kind of this one-dimensional strong character empowerment thing, because one thing that can be very alienating about a misconception of feminism in that girls then think that to be feminists they have to live up to being perfectly consistent in their beliefs, never being insecure, never having doubts, having all the answers. . . and this is not true and actually recognizing all the contradictions I was feeling became easier once I realized that feminism was not a rulebook but a discussion, a conversation, a process.

Smart, no? Check out the whole thing in the video below.

This has been circulating the interwebs the past couple of days — 22 students from Brigham Young University have released an It Gets Better video for fellow students at BYU and other gay Mormons out there, and it’s pretty powerful.

The producer told WaPo of the group’s intentions:  

“In our religion, there is a lot of misunderstanding and ugliness about homosexuality,” said Kendall Wilcox, a former BYU faculty member who produced the video and serves as an adviser to the school’s unofficial gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender support group. “We wanted to send this message that God loves you just as you are.”

Being openly gay was grounds for expulsion at BYU until 2010, when they removed their ban on “advocacy of homosexuality” — though Jamil at MHP points out that “homosexual behavior” is actually still punishable at the school.

Nonetheless, the group has made a bold statement to the university and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about LGBT Mormons, and will no doubt encourage other folks in the Mormon community who are struggling to reach out. But what I love about the video most (and why it resonates) is the way it challenges the idea that because some major organized religions do openly ostracize the LGBT community (like LDS does), that means it’s impossible to both be gay and have faith. And dare I say this video does make me hopeful that a younger generation can help usher their religion into a more inclusive and progressive space. Kudos to them.

**Trigger warning**

The House has been hearing testimony and discussing reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).  In perhaps one of the most powerful moments during the floor speeches, on Wednesday, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI.) spoke about her personal story of being sexually assaulted during her childhood and raped as a young woman.

Rep Moore made the politics personal. As we mentioned in Wendesday’s WWM, she spoke on the House floor about her experience of date-rape:

I don’t have enough time to share all these experiences with you but I can tell you that when this bill came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with all the Republican Senators, all of the guys voting no, it brought up some terrible memories for me wof having boys sit in a locker room and sort of bet that I, the egghead, couldn’t be ‘had.’ And then the appointed boy, when he saw that I wasn’t going to be so willing , completed a date rape and then took my underwear to display it to the rest of the boys. This is what American women are facing.

As we’ve written about many times in the past few months of VAWA reauthorization debate, the bill is facing opposition from some members of Congress. It’s also facing procedural hurdles, as Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have not allowed Democrats to bring up the VAWA as a standalone bill. In response, Democrats tried to attach the bill to the vote on the GOP budget proposal on Wednesday afternoon. But with a unanimous vote, Republicans ended the debate on the budget bill before Democrats could attach VAWA.

The Violence Against Women Act would renew grants to U.S. domestic violence prevention and survivor support programs, would increase availability of legal assistance to victims and would extend assistance to battered undocumented immigrants and same-sex couples. Since Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have not allowed Democrats to bring up the VAWA as a standalone bill, Democrats tried to attach it to the vote on the GOP budget proposal on Wednesday afternoon. But Republicans voted unanimously to end debate on the budget bill before Democrats could do so.

While some Senate Republicans have pledged their support for reauthorizing the VAWA, others have pointed to some elements of it that they find too controversial. Specifically, the fact that the bill creates avenues for battered undocumented immigrants to claim temporary visas and extends domestic violence protections to same-sex couples. Because apparently, for some House Republicans, violence against immigrant women and LGBT folks isn’t worthy of the same support.

Students at the historically Black college Howard University have put together this beautiful little video about racial profiling and the assumption that any man of colour in  a hoodie is suspicious.

In light of the comments about how Trayvon Martin’s clothing was as much to blame for his death as the man who killed him, many people have been making the point that any man of colour is considered suspicious in America, regardless of what he’s wearing.  As one of my friends said, “It’s not about the clothes. It’s never about the clothes.” As the men of Howard explain so succinctly and beautifully, it’s about racial profiling.

While the Shit ____ Say meme may be so yesterday, International Anti-Street Harassment Week is just coming to a close, and this video deserves a shout-out.

Thanks guys for having our backs. As one of creators of the video wrote in thoughtful post, it’s not always easy to “to hold ourselves and other men accountable for our violence and our silence.” But sometimes being a good feminist ally is as simple as joining us in our exasperation and saying, “Please stop.”

As of Sunday, 98 advertisers have dropped Rush Limbaugh! This is despite Rush’s so called “apology” (or Rushology) to Sandra Fluke for his poor word choice. Perhaps not as many advertisers would have dropped Rush if there had been an ounce of sincerity in his apology. This video presents what the real Rush knows:  He’s not really sorry, he just doesn’t want to lose advertising.  He and the GOP hate women. And he’s the real “slut.”

Transcript after the jump. Oh and by the way, this is satire.

I want to explain why I apologized to Sandra Fluke in the statement that was released on Saturday. This program has always been about advertising. The apology was about millions of dollars of advertising a year. Millions, folks.  Not about anything else. As you will hear, as I go on here, the apology to her over the weekend, it was not sincere. It’s simple really. Advertising’s a business decision. You, the audience, comes second or third. Because no successful program puts the audience first.

You know that I don’t really apologize to Ms. Fluke. We don’t do that. We never will. Never ever. Republicans hate women.  We want them barefoot and pregnant. We don’t want to hear from women. They’re misogynist, sexist and they’re not really all that concerned about spending. It’s about being in charge of women. I don’t expect– and I know you don’t either– morality, intellectual honesty,  integrity, independence on this program. I don’t know diddly squat. I am embarrassing and ludicrous. The glittering jewel of colossal ignorance, an arrogant snob. I try to suppress the speech, try to use extortion, pressure, threats to silence opposing voices. 

I have demonstrated over and over a willingness to say or do anything, I am the prostitute. The slut, right?

I’m excited to report on a new campaign that aims to end homophobia in sports by promoting the not-so-radical idea that athletes should be judged by talent, heart and work ethic, and not sexual orientation.

As first reported in the NY Times, the “You Can Play” campaign is intended to “make locker rooms safe for all athletes, rather than places of fear, slurs and bullying. Check out the introductory PSA, centering on hockey, below!

But the campaign is especially important when considered in the context of today’s professional sports culture. The NFL only recently added sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination language and has not exactly picked up a reputation for being staunch advocates of sexual assault victims.

As I wrote a few months ago when Michael Irvin, the former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, posed for the cover of Out Magazine to show his support for equality, seeing professional athletes whose public image is one of hyper-masculinity speak publicly about the importance of equality is pretty great. Back in June when the San Francisco Giants became the first major sports team to release an “It Gets Better” video, it was a warm and fuzzy moment as well.

So I’m glad this campaign exists. I hope that it will make a difference and inspire all athletes, not just male hockey players,  to vocally supporting the ever-increasing number of openly gay people on their teams and in their communities, and get involved in pro-equality politics.

You can follow You Can Play on Twitter, @YouCanPlayTeam - like their Facebook page here - and subscribe to their YouTube channel.