Wonkette

John McCain is such a maverick that he acted like a jerk to a kid who asked him a perfectly reasonable question in one of his precious Town Hall Meetings in Michigan. And then after he intimidated and belittled this very nervous child who wanted to know why he opposed the Fair Pay Act, he went on The Daily Show and referred to her as “a very attractive young woman.” Horrifying video footage after the jump. MORE »

Newsweek salutes Powerful Women! Like Blog-empress Arianna Huffington, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and, uh, Rachael Ray. All fine examples of modern female leadership! One went from successful pundit/author to head of one of the most influential lefty sites on the internet, one is the first female mayor of Atlanta (and the first black woman to be elected mayor of any major southern city), and one is a busty television personality whose Wikipedia page currently describes her as “this hot ass beautiful, young womens.” Just as Arianna proved that you can marry a gay Republican and still amass political power and influence (on the internet), Rachael Ray proved that you can overcome the adversity of being an attractive woman without any training or ability in cooking and still end up the breakout star of a tv network dedicated ostensibly to the culinary arts.

In All Their Glory [Newsweek]

Slate’s head political writer, John Dickerson, wants to know: what the hell is wrong with Hillary Clinton’s crazy laugh? He’s embedded it in the story and everything, just like Matt Drudge did that one time. Apparently Hillary needs to stop laughing because she’s creeping everyone out. Also she laughs every time she lies which is always. Or, specifically, when she voted for Iraq and introduced her health care initiative in 1993 (there’s no YouTube of this, so you’ll just have to take Dickerson’s word for it).

Bwah-Ha-Ha! [Slate] (no, we did not make that headline up)

• To prevent suicides and bad PR, with high schoolers and detainees alike, just be honest. [Eric Umansky]

• John Murtha and Frank Rich get dressed down, respectively: “both of whom argue that Iraq is a disaster, Somalia is either a brilliant tactical decision or a stunning loss for America — and this within hours of each other.” [Captain's Quarters]
• The Senate Commerce Committee will vote on Net Neutrality Thursday. FireDogLake lists the phone and fax numbers of the Senate Commerce Committee members. Commenter says: “Without net neutrality the telecom industry can control political speech on the internet every bit as much as they already control political speech on TV.” [FireDogLake]
• Married women are (not) de facto bitches. Concept “generating a lot of buzz in the blogosphere.” In other news, “generating a lot of buzz in the blogosphere” is the new “pale smattering of freckles.” [Dean's World]
• Glenn Greenwald loves “Federalist 69,” plugs own book. [Unclaimed Territory]

• Bloggers ask about timing of Zarqawi death, wonder how we’ve forgotten that Bush wasn’t willing to nab “this known al-Qaeda terrorist in a known location based on air-tight intelligence before the war even began.” [Political Animal]

• Jonah Goldberg hopes “Zarqawi is greeted in the after life with a giant, tasty, bowl of white raisins.” Urban Dictionary declines to comment. [The Corner]
• The father of Nick Berg, the American allegedly beheaded by Zarqawi, takes the high road, quotes John Donne, is called “twat waffle.” [LGF]
• The FDA approves Merck HPV vaccine, Gardasil. On June 29th the national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decides whether or not to endorse the vaccine. Committee member Dr. Reginald Finger is concerned the vaccine could undermine his abstinence message. Feministing asks: “Are we Finger fucked?” [Feministing]

• Laura Bush, proud owner of a 73% approval rating, just called herself a feminist. [HuffPo]

• When you realize you can’t please everyone, call in the soldiers. [Talking Points Memo]
• Al Gore made some jokes about his would-be presidency. Al Gore. Jokes. Presidency. Convulse with fear accordingly. [Wizbang]
• We’ve been pretending Avril Lavigne doesn’t exist for entirely too long. [Booman Tribune]
• Fascist Chic: Because being cloaked in anything other than the comforting musings of George ‘n Jesus is so last-season Republican. [unbossed]

* Women’s Studies professors aren’t just violently pro-choice; they’ll hang up on you without exchanging pleasant good-byes. [Michelle Malkin]
* God loves your embarrassingly out-of-date Blackberry just the way it is. [HuffPo]
* Protestants — surprisingly more oppressed than every branch of government would suggest. [Evangelical Outpost]
* Islam Does America: A Play in Three Awesomely Xenophobic Acts. [Crooked Timber]
* New Orleans makes Tulane Law students fishers of unarmed, possibly dangerous men. [TalkLeft]

operative: if i may go feminazi for a moment…
operative: why do we have to know how condi keeps her goddamn figure?!
wonkette: haha. ’cause it’s SWEEPS MONTH
operative: arguably the most powerful woman in the country and we’re still talking about her WEIGHT
operative: dude, is she gonna be in seventeen next, talking about her period?
wonkette: what’s funny is that we know her workout routine, but not her actual positions on affirmative action, abortion, etc etc
wonkette: ‘08 PRIMARIES FRONT-RUNNER!
operative: her position on abortion is bent at the waist with back straight, neck relaxed, abs tight, delts squeezed… MORE »

Many people didn’t like former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, who today announced his resignation as president of Harvard. Feminists were infuriated by his controversial comments suggesting that inherent gender differences may explain why fewer women than men have succeeded in math and science. Faculty members were incensed over how he handled the departure of a popular dean, William Kirby. MORE »

Readers have asked why we have not commented on the recent Maureen Dowd mediagasm (mogasm?). Honestly, we can’t think of anything to say, though we were fascinated by New York magazine’s illustration of her hairstyles through the ages. As to her thesis — something about how men are scared of smart and talented women — a friend of ours did wonder if that means the single Ms. Dowd believes her married friends are dumber and less talented than she. Speaking of friends, with friends like these, who needs Wonkette: “She insists that the human logic of events is their primary logic. She’s never distracted by the political or economic explanation.” Yeah. Math is hard. MORE »