She is going to be insufferable this week.
After my irritation at all chatter on Twitter about yesterday’s protest about the Tar Sands Pipeline boiling down to “Jane Hamsher and others arrested” (despite that a quick Google search reveals that Jane Hamsher seems not to have cared much about this issue prior to yesterday), I began to read about the pipeline.
Needless to say, it sounds like a spectacularly bad idea that will screw over farmers and screw up the environment. As with hydraulic fracking, too little is known about preventing the oil from seeping into the groundwater, too many scientists seem to have been bought off, and there is no guarantee that any benefits — either in the form of jobs or energy — will inure to Americans.
You should spend some time reading about it especially if you are, like I was, resistant to even giving a crap simply by virtue of the involvement of Hamsher (and her sidekick Choi).
Here’s a video from Mark Ruffalo. He’s pretty. Focus on him. We like Mark Ruffalo:
What follows is The Hamsher making everything about The Hamsher.
First, her update from jail:
Central Booking, Washington DC – The President promised in 2008 that when he was elected the earth would begin to heal. Instead, he allowed 65 environmentalists to be arrested and held for two days on a charge that’s equivalent to a traffic ticket, in order to deter others from following our example.
I hope that people across the country will see through their ploy and be inspired by how many of us have backed up our beliefs with our bodies. People from all over the United States and Canada are on their way here right now to join us. Take a stand for what you believe in! Come join the Tar Sands Action!
Really, Jane? He’s allowing environmentalists to be arrested? Or is getting arrested the point, as it so often is with civil disobedience?
I want to know how involved Hamsher is with the Tar Sands Action (or whatever it will be called when FDL circulates its fundraising petition). It seems to me that these protests have been well-coordinated and that folks expected to get arrested. In fact, 1500 people signed up to “court arrest,” according to this post — “Massive Protest at White House Against Alberta Tar Sands Pipeline” — and folks had planned for that. (Dozens more have already been arrested today.) To hear The Lake tell it, Jane is leading the charge on this thing; it’s all her.
I obviously cannot claim that Jane Hamsher is not passionate about this issue. I can say for certain that I don’t believe she is, and further, I don’t believe a thing she does or says is genuine; and that feeling shades my view of anything in which she involves herself or which she promotes.
We’ll see as the situation plays out this week, but from where I’m sitting, it looks like Jane is — yet again — engaging in Martyr Porn. Earlier this year, it was hysterics about being held hostage after she tried to access a military base with expired license plates. Now it’s, “Obama and his jackboots are trying to scare the pipeline protestors.” Look at Obama! He’s punching hippies AND tree-huggers now!
That said, let the beatification begin!
To be fair, it’s not that bad… until you get the entirely gratuitous, totally unsupported claim in the final paragraph that “the police have made it clear that they are using jail time to try to discourage people from participating in the rest of these actions – a choice sadly ironic as the capital prepares to commemorate Martin Luther King with the dedication of the MLK Memorial on the National Mall on August 28th.”
Riiiiiiiight. And where’s your link for that statement, missy? Methinks you don’t have one. Methink you just desperately wanted to find a way to throw MLK in our faces. Hey! Look over here! MARTIN LUTHER KING!!
/eyeroll.
Get ready for a wave of emo, folks. This wave might actually drown us. But also, get involved in with activists in fight the pipeline. We can do both!
Fighting the emo and fighting against this pipeline: Like walking and chewing gum.
[image via The Green Market***]
***which, interestingly, doesn’t list Jane Hamsher as involved with McKibben in fighting the pipeline. In FDL’s article, McKibben is a “friend of Jane’s” second to Choi, of course. This woman is so self-aggrandizing it’s a wonder she can even breathe without having a minion breathlessly report it.
UPDATE: Beulahmo points out something I neglected to mention: Mark Ruffalo demonstrates how to push Obama from the left:
“Hundreds of people are joining a sit-in at the White House to show President Obama he has the support to stand up to the coal, gas, and oil industry.”
Now if you were Obama, who would you acknowledge? Some shrieking woman who calls your supporters “the dumbest motherfuckers in the world”? Or people who show up to protest peacefully while still supporting you as Democrats?
Some shrieking woman who works with the Tea Party to kill a bill that helps 30 million people? Or Mark fucking Ruffalo?
‘Nuff said.
While I sometimes think the crew here goes a little overboard in its criticism of the Professional Left, I definitely agree that Jane Hamsher is an insufferable self-promoter. Her work is far too little “Look at this terrible injustice!” and far too much “Look at me!”
It’s only an “injustice” if she can work Obama Haterade into it.
When, or maybe I should say IF, Jane Hamsher gets passionate about anything except Jane Hamsher I might listen to her.
Ooh, Mark Ruffalo is purrrty!! I wish I lived closer to DC so I could participate too.
I like the way Mark Ruffalo said “…show President Obama he has the support to stand up to…”
It’s so different from the Hamwald style — it’s selflessly focused on the cause, rather than the histrionics and the invective.
Jane and fans of her sanctimonious schtick are such a fucking bummer.
I like the way Mark Ruffalo said “…show President Obama he has the support to stand up to…”
It’s so different from the Hamwald style — it’s selflessly focused on the cause, rather than the histrionics and the invective.
DING!
I was a little sympathetic to the whole weekend-in-jail bit until I realized that courts aren’t open until Monday. There’s a reason why Appalachia Rising, Winter Soldiers, and other White House arrest scenes were scheduled for the middle of the week.
And this really is a great example of an issue that Jane DETRACTS FROM by her involvement. The XL pipeline project is dirty, filthy energy of the worst, most carbon-intensive kind; I’d like to see Dems pick up this issue as it is SO important — but most Democrats are going to see her name and just tune the issue right out.
I’ve always paid attention to Mark Ruffalo..I like his style. This only strengthens it. What a class act.
Why would anyone give the dumbest, screeching, mofo in the world any attention?
Thank Goodness for Mark Ruffalo and his voice for our Environment! Thank you for this clip, ABL~
Jane seems to be acting sorta GOPishly here. What I mean is, she only has started to publicly show an iota of giving a toss about this issue when it began to look like a cudgel she can use against Obama, and that seems similar IMO to the GOP’s near-constant u-turns on policy positions they once held when it turns out Obama feels the same way (cap and trade, health insurance mandate, etc). The formula with them is 1) GOPer: “I love Policy X or Issue Y SO HARD”. 2) Obama: Hey, me too, awesome! 3) GOPer: POLICY X OR ISSUE Y SUCKS MY LEFT ONE AND WILL DESTROY THE COUNTRY AND MAKES JESUS CRY AND BLARGLE GARBLE!!”
Now with Jane and the FDLers it’s a little different: 1) Jane/FDL: “”. 2) Obama says or does something on Policy X or Issue Y that someone somewhere on the left doesn’t like so much. 3) Jane/FDL: “POLICY X OR ISSUE Y IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER AND SHOWS HOW MUCH OBAMA HATES US AND IS JUST LIKE BUSH AND OH YEAH BRADLEY MANNING OR SOME SHIT”.
Fucking tiresome as hell, not to mention childish. And what actual results do they ever have to show for all their grandstanding? Of course, also like the GOP, when some good result does happen (like DADT repeal) plenty of those assholes will happily claim it was their lame ass pseudo-activism that brought it about. Yeah, nice fantasy world you’ve got there, but I’ve got some shit to do over here on Planet Earth.
It’s always seems stupid to me when people protest at the WH when nobody’s home. I’m sure the housekeepers are thrilled at all the excitement but really, shouldn’t they be up at Martha’s Vineyard? The WH press corp is even up there with nothing to do.
THIS!
How dumb is it to stage a protest at the White House when a president (and the white house press corp.) is out of town.
Aside from Obama not being at the WH, isn’t Calamity Jane in the wrong capital city? It seems that Ottawa has more to do with this than DC. If this pipeline isn’t built, another will be to the Canadian west coast.
The wonderful Aji did a diary over on the orange about the issue. Perhaps her passion and facts were what got Miz Jane interested. This interest, such that it is. /eyeroll
So they have a guide to jail over at FDL. Maybe you should link that. You know, to help out Mark Ruffalo. You could go to jail, if you wanted, too. How about that?
Nobody gives a shit about you people for a reason, you’re worthless sucker bobbleheads, and your candidate is a loser. It’s fun watching you gyrate though sometimes. Suffer.
You people? Suffer? And why did I think that the Left had on a monopoly on nice compassionate people.
Why would anyone link to fire in the hole? They have nothing to offer but hate and how to spread it.
As for the rest of your poor, vicious, insecure post..you seem like someone to feel sorry for if you weren’t such a danger to society.
This action is supported by Bill McKibbin and James Hansen, two of the nation’s leading climate change activists. Because I’m heavily involved in environmental issues, I received at least two dozen emails from different groups inviting me to participate and/or watch what’s happening. This is the first time I’ve read Jane Hamsher’s name in connection with the protest. Her ability to make everything about herself and her ongoing grudge against Obama is astounding.
I’m amazed that more progressives don’t see through her. Are we supposed to believe that Obama is personally directing the Capitol police to hold people for an extra day? Frankly, the meanest thing the police could have done would be refusing to arrest anybody. They went to DC because they WANT to get arrested and to go jail for this cause.
Obama does need to be pressured on this issue. The protest is a good thing and I appreciate that the main organizers are keeping the focus on the pipeline rather than just looking for the excuse du jour to attack Obama.
Did you see Mark Ruffalo’s vid on it, Will? It’s an excellent way to encourage people to get active on not allowing The Tar Sand Pipeline.
He’s respectful and wants to show the President that we will support him and we can all work together in not letting it happen.
Thanks for sharing that information with us, Will. It’s sadly confirmatory of what many of us have come to expect from Hamsher. She and her ilk are like remoras, attaching themselves to legitimately famous people and causes.
To be fair, Allan, remoras are actually in a symbiotic relationship with sharks, providing them with a cleaning service whilst reaping the benefits of errant food and protection.
You’re thinking of a lamprey, which burrows a hole from one side of its host to another. Jane Hamsher is a lamprey, the rabid
Vagina DentataFree-Floating Maw of the Sea…Gross. There are plenty of legitimate points of disagreement with her without resorting to using misogynistic language. Can we take it from the schoolyard/locker room/halls of the Heritage Foundation, please?
Well, to be fair, I was describing a lamprey. But I’ll concede the unfair use of the analogy to the Vagina Dentata WRT to Jane.
That said, she’s still a lamprey.
Only because “hagfish” sounds like it has connotations beyond the biological ick factor.
Obama should come out FOR the pipeline…thereby guaranteeing everyone from the firebaggers to the republicans to the sole patrol comes out AGAINST it. And then it will be defeated. The end.
Yeah, Dvnix, didn’t not understand the flow of the sentence. Still stand by my assertion and am not all that interested in playing fair when it comes to nasty, anti-woman language.
Hence why I changed it. Removing the potentially misinterpreted undertones. Please forgive the indiscretion, but it still stands that Hamsher’s a parasite.