A Lesbian wrote America The Beautiful

Oh the irony of it all.  Conservative Christians love the song, America the Beautiful, it encapsulates their faith and the government. The big secret, the writer was gay!

The song was written by Katharine Lee Bates. Bates had a relationship with Katharine Coman whom she lived with for 25 years, until Coman died.

Bates said, after the death of Katharine, "So much of me died with Katharine Coman that I'm sometimes not quite sure whether I'm alive or not."

Now American Conservatives are screaming about Coca-Cola ad where kids sing the song in different languages. The second irony here is that the song writer left the Republican party in 1924, due to the growing xenophobia within its ranks.

Thank you universe for this great day, you have to love it when you have a chance to show conservatives how silly they are. One of their touchstones is this song, America the Beautiful. A song written by a community activist and a lesbian.

See Coke-Cola ad from Super Bowl here.

America the Beautiful, for some

America the Beautiful, as long as you're white and speak English...

Coca Cola has been having a bit of a nightmare over its endorsement of the Olympics, in particular for not speaking out against repression and violence toward gays, and seemingly encouraged by elected government representatives.  To counter this bad publicity, Coca Cola ran an ad during the Super Bowl game.  See Not the Real Thing

Coke's ad puts the diversity of America on display, as children of different cultures sing America The Beautiful in languages other than English.  The bigots and Christian right got together to slam this ad. An ad that was un-american because it had different races, languages and horror of horrors, two gay dads and their daughter.  

Here is the ad...

The reaction that Time Magazine recorded... 

It was that last aspect that unfortunately, brought out America the Ugly, at least on some parts of the Internet. “WTF?” asked one post on Twitter. “@CocaCola has America the Beautiful being sung in different languages in a #SuperBowl commercial? We speak ENGLISH here, IDIOTS.” Some of the vitriol may have been satire for all I know, but there was much too much for that to explain all of the “English or GTFO” sentiment–not all of it in impeccable English itself. To wit: “Dear @CocaCola : America the beautiful is sang in English. Piss off. #DontFuckWithUs.” (To be fair, not every Tweet brought up by a search on “Coca Cola English” agreed: “Coca Cola brings the commercial of the night: America the Beautiful sung in Spanish, English, Arabic, and other languages. Beautiful.”)

The xenophobic protesters had one thing right: we do speak English in America. We speak it on official business and in Super Bowl broadcasts; we use it in publications like this one.

Read more: Coca-Cola’s “It’s Beautiful” Super Bowl Ad Brings Out Some Ugly Americans | TIME.com http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/02/coca-colas-its-beautiful-super-bowl-ad-brings-out-some-ugly-americans/#ixzz2sHKZUGSk

Prominent Conservatives took offence that the song was sung in other languages - former GOP Rep. Allen West...

“If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing 'American the Beautiful' in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come — doggone we are on the road to perdition." link

Remember this rendition of the Star Spangled Banner from America Blog...

"Adorable 11 year old Mexican-American mariachi singer Sebastien De La Cruz, a San Antonio, Texas native, sang the national anthem during the NBA finals Tuesday night. And boy were the Twitter racists up in arms." America Blog June 14, 2013

When Social Media is hijacked...

Well now, sometimes social marketing efforts can be very successful, but not quite what you wanted. Witness the Coca Cola effort with Share a Coke on facebook and Twitter. And McDonald's Corp twitter hashtag #CheersToSochi.  Both campaigns have been taken over...



Here is a screen print of the twitter hashtag #CheersTo Sochi

 

And Coke's share a can stunt backfires. See Boing Boing:

Everything from 'Boycott Coke' to 'Puck Futin' - that one is because the web app doesn't allow you to use the words 'Fuck' or 'Putin'. But the English language is a remarkably wonderful and versatile thing - and it's only a matter of time before Coke realizes they've opened the door very wide for a lot of very angry people to reach their foot in and kick 'em hard in the nads. Enjoy it, and share it, while you can." - Word games with the "make your own Coke label" promo 

Want to make your own can? Here's a link to Share a Virtual Coke

It's The Real Thing - Not

Coke and the Russian Olympics. By now you have read of Russian persecution of gays, the LGBTQ communities (Google it).  Coke is the most most identifiable sponsor of the Olympics and to date has refused to speak up on the homophobia in Russia and its association to these Olympic Games.

In 1971 Coke produced an iconic ad. It's the Real Thing, Coke.

AmericaBlog: This video is brilliant and chilling.  Who doesn’t love that Coke commercial from 1971?  It’s so early 70s, and really just a classic in great American advertising.  But part of what made the commercial so great was the warm and fuzzy “we are the world” nature of its message.

Classic Coke supported diversity. New Coke defends the arrest of dissidents, and even assists in the arrests. Oh how a mighty brand has fallen.

  Here it is re-worked...



And then there is Coke's new social media campaign, a campaign that bans the word "GAY" and many associated words.

I did several using 'gay' and they were rejected. I then had to try Queerthoughts.  I was one letter short, but we like it anyway!

Coke Can 

If you click on the link above, you can make your own can and deliver a message to Russian President Putin and Coca-Cola.

From Joe My God 

Irony as Lyn McLeod receives Order of Ontario as Premier Wynne watches...

Today the Order of Ontario was given to many people here in Toronto.  One of those to receive the honour was Lyn McLeod, former MPP, cabinet minister and leader of the Ontario Liberal party. She was first elected in 1987 and remained in Queen's Park until 2003.

Lyn McLeod, Ontario
Liberal Leader 1992- 1995

In 1990 the Ontario Liberals were in a mess. They lost the election to Bob Rae, they had several interim leaders in the run-up to the 1992 leadership convention. Ms McLeod was one of the favourites, and won the leadership on the fifth ballot by nine votes.

Following her election as Leader the Liberals, lost some by-elections and the party started to flip flop on policy to attract and or keep more rural voters.  One of the policies she jettisoned was Bill 167, same-sex benefits law. Her party had been supportive but suddenly decided to vote against passing this equality bill.  Something I am sure had David Peterson still been leader the party would not have taken. Ms McLeod however had no doubts about it.

The Ontario Liberal party threw the LGBT communities under the bus for hopeful electoral success. (For the record 12 NDP MPPs also voted against the bill.) The electoral success wasn't there. Due to being seen as flip-flopping on issues, the Liberals went from likely to succeed the NDP in 1995 to losing to Mike Harris and the Progressive Conservatives.

Today Ms McLeod received the Order of Ontario. She was the first woman elected leader of an Ontario political party and served as an MPP for many years. Like Kathleen Wynne, she broke through a historic barrier. I can't imagine what it was like today as Premier Wynne looked on as Lyn McLeod received her Order of Ontario. McLeod aspired to be premier. Turns out, somewhat ironically that Ontario's first woman premier Kathleen Wynne is gay, a member of the community that McLeod found politically expendable.

Delicious

Oklahoma Judge, Jimmy Fallon and Bruce Springsteen - Sometimes America gets it right!

Two items in the news from the US of A grabbed my attention this morning.  One being the Oklahoma Judge's ruling that slam-dunked the arguments of the right and religious, objections to same-sex marriage.  And then it was Bridgegate. The New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie's staff decided to close down several lanes on the world's busiest bridge as retribution for a Democrat not endorsing the Governor! 

First this ruling from Oklahoma Judge on same-sex (gay) marriage...

From: The New Civil Rights Movement: The last thing most people want to do is read a court ruling. They’re tiresome, filled with legal jargon, footnotes, and all sorts of oddities.

So I did.

Yesterday, United States District Judge Terence C. Kern ruled that Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional because it “violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution” — another huge win for marriage equality.
(We should note he stayed his ruling opening appeal, so Oklahoma same-sex couples can’t marry yet.) And Judge Kern took a sledge hammer to every argument the anti-gay and religious right is using to prevent same-ex couples from marrying. Read more here.

Governor Chris Christie’s “Fort Lee, New Jersey traffic jam

And then this! Last night, Bruce Springsteen appeared with Jimmy Fallon to perform a new version of his own “Born to Run” dedicated to Governor Chris Christie’s “Fort Lee, New Jersey traffic jam.”

Budget accountability

Stephen Harper ran for office to end the corruption and secrecy of the Liberal government. He promised to be open and accountable. He also promised to appoint only elected Senators. We all know how this has turned out.

Stephen Harper, Prime Minister

Open and accountable government has been pushed aside other than talking points which suggest the government is the most open and accountable government in our history.  Lets look at the budget. The budget lays out how the government will raise the money to meet its commitments and how it will spend the money.

Your home budget is fairly straight forward. You have an income source, you have to pay for housing, food, transportation, entertainment and health. Sometimes you need to finance to meet your needs. It could be a mortgage on the house, a car loan, using the credit card or borrow from a friend for unexpected costs or for that special event. As long as you have the same or better level of income, you can make your payments. You know what you can afford to pay.

The federal government is required to do the same. They project the revenue they will raise from us, then tell us how they will spend it.  At least that is the way it use to work. Governments assign money to different envelopes (some of you still do this. Put money in the rent, mortgage or food envelope).  The MP's then vote on the budget after debating each envelope in estimates. The envelopes are bi
g, Health, Indian affairs, Defense, Transportation, etc, you get the idea.

To vote, MPs have to make an informed vote. They need to know where the money will be spent. They can vote to agree, modify or defeat the spending. This no longer happens. Budgets provide very little detail, they are passed purely on partisan positions.

Thomas Mulcair, Opposition Leader

Once the budget is passed in Parliament, the government has authority to raise the money and then spend it. Over the course of the year the government has keep the MPs informed as to how they are doing. That's where things are falling down again. This government often spends money in areas that were not approved. Most of us recall the money approved for border security to fund projects in the Treasury Board President's (Tony Clement) riding.

We only find out how money was spent after the fact, even misappropriated spending. MPs have lost the most important power they once held, the purse strings. It's one thing to have a majority governments MPs support a budget, its another for those MPs to turn their backs on the governments failure to show us exactly where the money is going and how much was spent.

The current government, encouraged by the trend of previous governments, has absolved itself of being accountable.

Canada is Broken

The middle class is falling further and further behind. The well-to-do are doing better than ever. And lets not even contemplate the fate of those in poverty. Their lot has gone from bad to worse.  Just how has all this happened? How did we get here?

We got here because of several decisions made by our federal government. Decisions that see the tax base shift from corporations onto the middle class, whole-sale chopping of federal support for affordable housing, slashing health care, welfare and post secondary education, and major changes in Employment Insurance.

Liberal PM Jean Chrétien

The changes started primarily under the Jean Chretien government (also a 39% majority govt). First his government slashed transfer payments to the provinces. The Federal government had for years undertaken to meet this commitment to protect our social safety net.  The changes came as a significant shock to provincial finance ministers. Many provincial governments slashed budgets as a result.

Next the Liberal government ended funding for affordable housing. Many provinces could not continue without help from the federal government. The cuts would stay like that

Liberal PM Paul Martin

until the 2005 Paul Martin minority government, facing certain defeat by the NDP on its budget, agreed to put money back into affordable housing.

Remember when it use to be called Unemployment Insurance? The plan was originally the result of a gentlemen's deal between CCF Leader JS Woodsworth and Liberal Prime Minister MacKenzie King. Over the years the benefits improved. That is until Jean Chretien was elected Prime Minister in 1993. First the Liberals transferred money from the UI fund to balance the budget.  Then they raised the amount of money deducted from your paycheque to pay for UI.

The programs name was changed to Employment Insurance. Benefits were cut. Benefits like weekly maximum, qualification for benefits restricted, and grounds for appeal removed.

The next piece to seriously affect middle class was the reductions in Corporate Taxes. These cuts started under Jean Chretien and accelerated under Paul Martin. These cuts removed much needed revenue from the federal budget necessitating cuts to programs and further reliance on taxes paid by the middle class.

With the election of Stephen Harper, we saw the government rapidly slash federal funding, continue to move

Conservative PM Stephen Harper 

tax burden from corporations as per projections put in place by Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, to middle class Canadians.

Harper moved to raise rates for EI, and has cut benefits every year since being elected. Today less than 37% of Canadians qualify for EI. This action has passed the cost of unemployment onto workers and provincial governments. Those provincial governments are cutting their own programs, leaving many without support.

There is much more. This is just a primer, about the inequality of income, the Liberals and the Conservatives have given us.

This is what people like Linda McQuaig and the NDP are trying to change.