sechan19 | Linkland.

Liberals in Arizona have started a petition to have Pima County secede from Arizona as a new state. It's unlikely that they'll be successful, although you never know, but at least they're sending the message that Arizona isn't a total wash. I applaud their efforts to get some distance from the crazies.

Ezra Klein on how President Obama, in his recent speech on immigration reform, has approached the problem of immigration as an economic issue.

Jon Steward and the Daily Show find every last bit of footage they can that shows Bush-era politicians arguing that Bush should get the credit for the OBL kill. I've said it before, I'll say it again: if Bush wants credit for OBL he also gets credit for the economic clusterfuck (and he has to admit that said clusterfuck came on the heels of being handed a great economy by President Clinton). Can we get Seal Team Six to take out Karl Rove?

In an effort to save $21 billion, senate democrats are pushing for an end to tax breaks for oil companies. So you can expect gas prices to soar again. The oil companies have figured out how stupid and reactionary Americans are, after all. The rise in gas prices after Obama's unveiling of plans to put together a panel that would investigate fraud amongst energy companies, and the predictable whiny outcry of Americans (with no evidence that they had connected A and B together) in the aftermath, was ample proof of that.

The coming forward of Peace Corps volunteers who have been raped has led to one of the most hypocritical statements I've ever heard. Take it away representative Ted Poe (R-Texas):

"These women are alone in many cases, and they’re in rough parts of the world. We want the United States to rush in and treat them as a victim of crime like they would be treated here at home."

Seriously? I guess Representative Poe has missed all the times when we've treated rape victims like criminals, with shame or censure or further abuse, instead of like the victims they are. (Alaskan rape kits, anyone? Roman FUCKING Polanski petitions?) It's precisely because our society is so deeply permeated by the global rape culture that organizations like Slutwalk Toronto have been started: to deal with the issue of slut-shaming and victim-blaming that is part and parcel of society. Sure, we don't use rape as an instrument of war (against our own people anyway), but we're not a great bastion of fairness and equality, either.

The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at adjuncting as a form of emotional abuse. They compare working for the university system as an adjunct to being in an abusive marriage. Awesome.

Stephen Colbert and his wife have established a grant program for fine arts majors at the University of Virginia. I love Stephen Colbert a little bit more every day.