The Barbaras

Via the one and only Meredith Shiner:

omg this pic MT @SenatorBoxer Every woman in Senate has stories of @SenatorBarb reaching out to us, mentoring us... instagram.com/p/qrcLG-u5ba/

—
Meredith Shiner (@meredithshiner) March 02, 2015

Such reflections come on the heels of news that Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) will retire at age seventy-eight, after a thirty-year run in the upper chamber:

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski announced Monday she will not seek another term in the Senate.

Speaking at a press conference, the Maryland Democrat said she asked herself: “Do I spend my time raising money, or do I spend my time raising hell?”

Mikulski, 78, is the longest serving woman in Congress. She has been in the Senate since 1987, after serving 10 years in the House.

Her retirement will likely launch a feeding frenzy among candidates eager to run for a rare open Senate seat in Maryland. Both party campaign committees quickly released statements arguing the seat’s competitiveness in a state Democrats have dominated statewide in federal races ....

.... Mikulski is the second senator to announce she is retiring next year, following California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

(Levinson and Lesniewski)

2016 will be an interesting cycle, to say the least.

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Image note: Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA; left) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), in undated, uncredited photo via Instagram.

Shiner, Meredith. “omg this pic”. Twitter. 2 March 2015.

Levinson, Alexis and Niels Lesniewski. “Mikulski Will Not Seek Another Term (Updated)”. At the Races. 2 March 2015.

Futility (Boehner Repeat Rehash Remix)

“He’s never wanted to just be speaker. He’s wanted to be a historically significant speaker.”

―Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK04)

It seemed a strange enough thing to say at the time. Consider that John Boehner’s historical significance as Speaker of the House might well be that he is the worst Speaker in history, at least until another Republican holds the job. Mr. Cole spoke of his friend and colleague just last November; Republicans had won a bicameral majority, and the article from Carle Hulse and Jeremy W. Peters is significant to this moment, opening:

John A. Boehner does not want to be remembered as the Shutdown Speaker.

As Congress returns from recess on Monday facing a Dec. 11 deadline for funding the government, Mr. Boehner and his fellow Republican leaders are working to persuade the rank and file — furious over President Obama’s executive action on immigration — that engaging in a spending confrontation is the wrong way to counter the White House. That would set the wrong tone, they argue, as Republicans prepare to take over Congress and fulfill promises to govern responsibly.

And, well, as matters of House leadership go, kicking the can so we can do this for another week works, but the question of tone and avoiding a spending confrontation over immigration worked out just about as well as you might expect.

That is to say, Nancy Pelosi bailed Mr. Boehner out, and all she really gets in exchange is to do this again later this week.

And all of this leading to Josh Hicks’ headline today explaining “Why a DHS shutdown won’t stop Obama’s immigration orders”.

While Boehner’s allies in the House explain, as Jesse Byrnes reported yesterday, that the Speaker’s job is not in jeopardy, it’s worth noting that when Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH04) “repeatedly denied” the prospect of an ouster, it would seem someone was asking him directly.

A Picture of Some Bugs Talking to Another Bug

Temptation is as temptation will, but we are not giving away the punch line, today. Consequently, the detail from Bug Martini is not what it looks like.

Or, well, who knows, maybe it is.

Doesn’t look like much of anything, does it? Still, though, that can’t be good.

But the punch line is awesome.

Well worth the click.

Go. Click. Do.

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Huber, Adam. “An Act of Faith”. Bug Martini. 2 March 2015.

Last Month’s List o’Links

Notes from the Culture Wars:

• Kevin Thornton, or, queer alt country on being gay and forty in the twenty-first century. (HuffPo)

• Paige Lavender on Texas and the transgendered. (HuffPo)

• Tresa Baldas tries to explain the unfortunate intersection of compassion, hatred, and your doctor. (Detroit Free Press)

• Sam Levine, and this time it’s Kentucky and the transgendered. (HuffPo)

• Cavan Sieczkowski on Freud on homosexuality. (HuffPo)

• Two reports, from Tammy Mutasa and Casey Weldon on a die-in demonstration at Fountain Square, Cincinnati, calling attention to violence against transgendered. (WLWT, WCPO)

• Education? State? Justice? Jennifer Bendery reports that the transgendered also have the Department of Defense on their side. (HuffPo)

• At this point, Michael Tomasky’s piece tying social conservative politics to the precipitous decline spectacular crash of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential ambitions to … Jerry Falwell. (The Daily Beast)

Filler

No, really, we got nothin’ on this one, except to say that there are testifiable merits in binge-watching. In truth, having to wait from week to week in order to follow the story can be trying; there is a difference in the way these stories are told.

Which stands out because there are many who would advise aspiring writers toward what seems at first glance a cookie-cutter assertion of in medias res, and each with their own variations on just how it should be done. And the market numbers driving this outlook are most certainly straightforward; there is a reason certain forms strongly resembling tropes work so well.

Nor is the alternative in this case without its tropes and clichés. But where the shape and rhythm can slip by unnoticed in a quick hit like FLCL, the early episodes of Durarara!! can try the patience. They’re not bad episodes, but structured to a specific purpose.

Nonetheless, for so nearly sycophantic an ode to Ikebukuro, the Brain’s Base team really did work out a functional, compelling story that at some point genuinely overcomes the absurdity that few storytelling media can create. Headless love, and such. Yeah. Never mind. Just, you know, watch. When you’ve got the time. It’s worth it.

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Image note: Top―Major players in Durarara!! (L-R): Izaya Orihara, Masaomi Kida, Mikado Ryugamine, Anri Sonohara, Shizuo Hewajima. Left―Just another one of those. Don’t look at us, we just found this thing along the way.