politicians

There aren't all that many fictional depictions of women in politics, at least compared with fictional portrayals of women in domestic service, women in trouble with the law, women in the porn industry, and women in some stage of being attacked and killed by a psychopath. Parsing through characters to search for patterns in these portrayals of politicians has led me back through decades, which has given me a little bit of reservation because I believe that different eras highlight their own tensions. On the other hand, we're only one remake away from reviving and re-distilling those stereotypes for today's audiences (I'm looking at you, Manchurian Candidate).

We've spent quality time assessing the lead-in and results of the 2010 US midterm elections, and now that we're on the cusp of the 112th Congressional Session, I'd like to turn our attention to another level of civic participation: contact with our representatives and senators. After all, we are all someone's constituent, whether they received our vote or not. But more than finding resources to their phone numbers and email addresses, let's take a look at how to keep on top of the Congress schedule.

It's Dia de los Douches here at Bitch HQ, and Clint McCance, anti-gay bigot and former school board member in Arkansas, is our Master of Ceremonies this afternoon. McCance posted the following on his facebook page in response to Spirit Day at the end of October (TRIGGER warning- warped thinking AND warped grammar)...

Sure, it's hard to live in the spotlight, even if it's a local spotlight, like the one we shine on mayors. I can't think of many other jobs as thankless as being mayor, because the people who fancy themselves watchdogs are really, really into it and there's not much that escapes public scrutiny, even if "public" is limited to fewer than 500,000 folks. The current mayor of Washington, DC, Adrian Fenty, was raked over the coals of the local media for keeping his personal garage unlocked while his daughters' bikes were stolen. Of course he should know to lock the garage, but sheesh. I haven't heard that many disparaging radio show callers since Rush Limbaugh promised to move to Costa Rica if the health care bill passed. (Note to Rush: We're still waiting.)