On Wednesday night's [The Colbert Report], Colbert suggested that the Times could learn a thing or two from Superman (now appearing in yet another movie sequel) about keeping a secret.
Superman, he said, went so far as to hide his identity "by disguising himself as the farthest thing from a hero -- a newspaper reporter." He could have broken the story of his own identity at any time, won headlines and maybe a Pulitzer, but no, he wanted to save his friends Jimmy and Lois from the terror of Lex Luthor.
So Superman, Colbert added, courageously continued to be "a pretend journalist"-- with a title card on the screen next to Colbert commenting "like Brit Hume."
Friday, June 30, 2006
Will He take Up Natalee's Cause?
But Who Will Find Natalee's Killer?
Buddha Smiles.
'Cosby: Live' soon dead at MSNBC
MSNBC personality Rita Cosby yesterday went from the floodwaters of Pennsylvania into the fire of 30 Rock.
After a grueling nine-hour meeting involving Cosby, her agent and top NBC News and MSNBC execs, the third-rated cable news network announced that her weeknight show, "Rita Cosby: Live & Direct," will be canceled in early July.
Always Informed, Always Thoughtful
[In the Hamdan decision,] Justice Thomas refers to Justice Stevens' "unfamiliarity with the realities of warfare"; but Stevens served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. Thomas's official bio, by contrast, contains no experience of military service.
For The Republicans, Not A Set Back But An Opportunity
Analysis that suggests that this is a political setback for the GOP has it exactly wrong. Republicans would like nothing better than a pre-election debate over whether Osama's buddies should receive ACLU approved rights. It is likely that many Democrats will join Republicans in supporting tough guidelines for military commissions. This is the law and order issue of our time.
A Hefty Assignment On A Dark Prince
Some of the Good Bits:
"On December 18th, Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State, joined other prominent Washington figures at FedEx Field, the Redskins stadium, in a skybox belonging to the team's owner. During the game, between the Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys, Powell spoke of a recent report in the Times which revealed that President Bush, in his pursuit of terrorists, had secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on American citizens without first obtaining a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as required by federal law. ...
According to someone who knows Powell, his comment about the article was terse."It's Addington," he said. "He doesn't care about the Constitution." "
"Bruce Fein, a Republican legal activist, who voted for Bush in both Presidential elections, and who served as associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan Justice Department: ... [Bush and Co.] staked out powers that are a universe beyond any other Administration. This President has made claims that are really quite alarming. He's said that there are no restraints on his ability, as he sees it, to collect intelligence, to open mail, to commit torture, and to use electronic surveillance. If you used the President's reasoning, you could shut down Congress for leaking too much. His war powers allow him to declare anyone an illegal combatant. All the world's a battlefield, according to this view, he could kill someone in Lafayette Park if he wants! It's got the sense of Louis XIV: "I am the State.""
"...Bruce Fein said that the Bush legal team was strikingly unsophisticated. "There is no one of legal stature, certainly no one like Bork, or Scalia, or Elliot Richardson, or Archibald Cox," he said. "It's frightening. No one knows the Constitution,certainly not Cheney."
"...[Another] former high-ranking Administration lawyer said that Addington regularly attended White House legal meetings with the C.I.A. and the National Security Agency. He received copies of all National Security Council documents, including internal memos from the staff. And, as a former top official in the Defense Department, he exerted influence over the legal office at the Pentagon, helping his protege William J. Haynes secure the position of general counsel. A former national-security lawyer, speaking of the Pentagon's legal office, said, "It's obvious that Addington runs the whole operation.""
"...[Richard]Shiffrin ... left with the impression that Addington "doesn't believe there should be co-equal branches." Another participant recalled, "If you favored international law, you were in danger of being called 'soft on terrorism' by Addington." He added that Addington's manner in meetings was "very insistent and very loud." Yet another participant said that, whenever he cautioned against executive-branch overreaching, Addington would respond brusquely, "There you go again, giving away the President's power.""
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Signs of Progress
Cause it's all about the Benjamins:
* A majority of Fortune 500 companies, 253 (51 percent), offer domestic partner health insurance benefits. HRC notes that this is the first time it's topped 50%. [Jeff's note: this coverage is considered 'income' by the IRS if you're not 'married']
* 430 (86 percent) of the organizations include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies
* 81 include gender identity and/or expression, marking a tenfold increase from 2001.
From the Human Rights Campaign just released 2005-2006 The State of the Workplace for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Americans
Hey! I Hate! I Hate Beecuzz I Luv
Sweet Buddha, James Dobson's got a kid! The Teen is a Skater for JC and has this to say for himself:
Be Intolerant
"I'm totally intolerant. Totally, radically intolerant. Some people call me a narrow-minded, Bible-thumping, backward-thinking, fundamentalist white male bigot. In fact, it happens every day.""I'm intolerant. I'm not ignorant, but I am intolerant. I'm not a racist or a bigot, but I am intolerant. I don't hate people; I disagree with ideas. Make no mistake, I am intolerant. I am intolerant because I love. The world hates me because I love in this way, but I cannot stop. I dare not stop. I serve a Lord who loved enough to be intolerant. No more trying to please the world and please God at the same time. Get your armor on, take up your cross, and come on out to where the adventure beings. Go out and be intolerant--in love."
Bad For Democracy, But Maybe Good For Democrats
Texas gained 6 Republican seats in the last election by simply gerrymandering the districts just two years after they were last drawn. This can now happen in each state of the union, whenever a new majority shows up in the state assemblies. Our government will make Italy's look stable and predictable.
A dim sliver lining? Democrats control the big states now and look for them (NY, IL and NJ early on) to follow Tom Delay's lead. From Political Wire:
"New maps may well put more Democrats in the House of Representatives, possibly enough to tip the balance of power from Republicans to Democrats. We expect Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey and New York to wind up with Democrats in control of both the governor's mansion and the state legislature after the November elections. So redistricting in those states might shift enough seats to the Democratic column to give that party a majority."
Washington Wire: "The Supreme Court’s decision is the culmination of one of the hardest fought redistricting battles in history."
The best analysis of the court decision comes from Rick Hasen and Nathaniel Persily.
Meanwhile, a Houston Chronicle editorial calls it a "pyrrhic victory" for Texas. "If Wednesday's court decision was a victory for Texas, another such victory, and we are undone."
Read the rest now.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Public Service Announcement
Chicago's Air America Radio Station, WCPT 850 AM, now has a web site and promises to have 24/7 streaming w/in the week.
Ya gotsta lissen. Think of it as your part in the long war on media's dominance by Rush, Sean, Falafel Bill and the like. And I don't mean just you GT12 brainiacs. Get your 'less elite' friends to listen too (esp. the Ed Schultz Show, 2-5 Mon-Fri) so that they can see how little the Republicans really care about them..
Here's the Link: www.wcpt850.com
Now that I'm Older, I Guess That I Can Understand...
Ky. Governor takes limo across the street
By ROGER ALFORD, Associated Press Writer
FRANKFORT, Ky. - When Gov. Ernie Fletcher's day is over, he leaves his Capitol office, climbs into a Lincoln Town Car driven by a state trooper and returns to the Governor's Mansion , which is just across the street.
Meanwhile, his administration is encouraging Kentuckians to get out and walk more for their health.
The Republican governor (a physician by training) makes no apologies for riding back and forth to work. "I think that's been a tradition for a long time," he said. "That's what security likes."
Open a bottle of Perrier-Jouet, turn on the mood lights and read the rest here.
Andrew Discovers Hypocrisy (and worse) In The Catholic Church
Devote Irish RC conservative/liberal and GT12 fave Andrew Sullivan recently discovered that, while giving up on selling indulgences centuries ago, there's still a market for annulments in the divorce-forbidding Roman Catholic Church.
There a number of posts, so I won't link (see the link at right for his blog) to just one but I will include this quote, because Andrew has suddenly also figured out that Marriage is not just a religious term. He does seem to neglect observing that children from an annulled marriage are, by definition, bastards (but not necessarily future members of one of my bands)
If the church is utterly indifferent to marriages conducted by other churches or the state, then why has it devoted so much effort to demonizing civil marriages for gay couples? Shouldn't they be as irrelevant to the Vatican as, say, civil divorce or re-marriages in other churches? The double standards abound. Some of them can be explained by catering to the rich and powerful (the Kidmans and Sinatras and Kerrys); some can be explained by Orwellian-speak (calling divorces "annulments"); but some can only be explained by bigotry and fear. None of it speaks that well of the Church, it seems to me.
One Of These Three For Me
From Slate
The Movie I've Seen the Most
Films that Spike Lee, Peter Farrelly, and Paul Schrader watch obsessively.
Posted Tuesday, June 27, 2006, at 7:13 PM ET
What movie have you seen the most? That's the question Slate asked a collection of filmmakers and critics, knowing that what's addictive is different than what's deemed the best. The answers vary from Ghostbusters to Dr. Zhivago, from Citizen Kane to Election.
Spike Lee, director, Inside Man West Side Story
West Side Story?!? Spike? Well, be cool.
Read the rest of the shocking details here
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Three Turks And A Jew Walk Into A Bar....
Arif Mardin, Partner extraordinaire with Jerry Wexler,Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, died yesterday.
From The NYT:
An arranger and composer as well as a producer, Mr. Mardin was a guiding force behind hit records by many pop luminaries, most notably Aretha Franklin, the Bee Gees, Bette Midler, Chaka Khan and Norah Jones, whose careers he was instrumental in shaping. Winner of 12 Grammys, including two for best producer, nonclassical (in 1976 and 2003), he was a major architect of the pop-soul style nicknamed the Atlantic Sound in the late 1960's.
That influential style was a three-way collaboration with his fellow Atlantic Records producers Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd; Mr. Mardin was the arranger of the three. It resulted in a series of stirring groundbreaking pop-gospel albums that catapulted the career of the young Aretha Franklin out of the doldrums and earned her the nickname Queen of Soul. The same basic formula of recording with Southern musicians was successfully applied to a number of other artists, most notably Dusty Springfield in her classic "Dusty in Memphis" album.
Out of the Atlantic Sound grew the sophisticated mainstream style of rhythm and blues made by white musicians that he developed working with artists like Daryl Hall and John Oates, Average White Band and the Bee Gees that was labeled "blue-eyed soul." His work with the Bee Gees reignited their stalled career and directly influenced their score for "Saturday Night Fever," whose soundtrack became the best-selling album of all time before being surpassed by Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
His association with Atlantic, which was founded by his fellow Turks Ahmet Ertegun and his brother Nesuhi, began in 1963, lasted for nearly four decades until he retired in 2001.
Put on Son of A Preacher Man then Read The Rest Here .
Screw The Link, You Need To Read This.
By Dana MilbankTuesday, June 27, 2006; Page A02
The Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming, 33 percent increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year.
The number has increased to four, from three.
The naive among us may have trouble appreciating how four flag-burning episodes would constitute a constitutional crisis. But the men and women of the Senate, ever alert to emerging threats, are on the case.
"I think of the flag as a symbol of what veterans fought for," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said as he opened the debate yesterday, "what they sustained wounds for, what they sustained loss of limbs for and what they sustained loss of life for."
In pursuit of this urgent matter, floor leader Specter mustered all manner of argument: the military service of his brother, Morton; his brother-in-law's service in the Pacific; his father Harry's service in the Argonne; his mother's emigration from Ukraine; his own stateside service during the Korean War; a pickup-truck accident his father once had with his sister; bicycle rides he took as a 7-year-old in Kansas; the "treachery of Mussolini"; the light casualties sustained during the Persian Gulf War, and a trip he made to VA hospitals 15 years ago.
"I think it's important to focus on the basic fact that the text of the First Amendment, the text of the Constitution, the text of the Bill of Rights is not involved," Specter argued. The Judiciary Committee chairman did not explain how he could add 17 words to the Constitution without altering its text.
Fortunately, the Senate will have plenty of time to discuss that matter. The chamber has scheduled up to four days of debate on the flag-burning amendment this week. If that formula -- one day of Senate debate for each incident of flag burning this year -- were to be applied to other matters, the Senate would need to schedule 12 days of debate to contemplate the number of years before Medicare goes broke, 335 days of debate for each service member killed in Iraq this year and 11 million days of debate on the estimated number of illegal immigrants in the country.
Unfortunately, the Senate has only 49 days left on its legislative calendar for the year.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) saw the calculus somewhat differently.
"They say that flag burning is a rare occurrence; it is not that rare," he told the chamber. An aide hoisted a large blue poster detailing 17 incidents of flag desecration over three years. Hatch, citing "an ongoing offense against common decency," read them all. "That's just mentioning some that we know of; there's a lot more than that, I'm sure," he said.
Never mind that, in most cases, the perpetrators could be prosecuted for theft or vandalism. For Hatch, this was sufficient evidence of the need for an amendment. "Now, I have to tell you," he vouched, "the American people are aggrieved."
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) countered with a different set of figures. "There have been only seven acts of flag desecration annually in America in the last six years, so to argue that we have this growing trend toward desecration and burning our flag defies the facts," he said. "In fact, it rarely, if ever, happens. And so why are we about to change the handiwork and fine contribution to America of Thomas Jefferson?"
Next on the floor, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) presented yet another set of statistics. "Exceedingly rare," he concluded. "Two hundred cases in 215 years. Less than 10 cases over the last 10 years."
But Durbin and Dodd were in the minority in their inability to recognize the threat to the flag. Nearly two-thirds of the senators -- tantalizingly close to the number needed to pass the amendment -- are expected to vote for the flag-burning amendment this week, including Sen. Harry Reid (Nev.), the Democratic leader.
And the pro-amendment crowd is armed with powerful constitutional arguments. "Ever since the Boy Scouts first taught me how to care for our flag over 40 years ago, it has always held a special place in my heart," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said in a press release yesterday.
That's not to say the senators were feeling energetic as they took up the amendment. The day's session started at 2 p.m., but by 2:21, there was no senator on the floor to speak, and the chamber went into a quorum call -- its equivalent of a nap -- for the next hour.
At 4 p.m., Specter tried to wake the chamber. After a brief tour of the legal issues, the Pennsylvania moderate tossed aside his prepared remarks, noting that while they were "excellent staff work," he didn't want to read them. Instead, he tried for the personal appeal: treating the almost empty chamber to some family history.
"My father, Harry Specter, was hit by shrapnel in the legs," Specter disclosed. "But had the shrapnel hit him a little higher, Harry Specter might have been in one of those [European] cemeteries and he wouldn't have been my father, and I wouldn't have been."
And the urgent work of amending the Constitution would have fallen to somebody else.
One Vote Away From Total Implosion
WASHINGTON (AP) - A constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration died in a Senate cliffhanger Tuesday, a single vote short of the support needed to send it to the states for ratification a week before Independence Day.
The 66-34 tally in favor of the amendment was one less than the two-thirds required. The House surpassed that threshold last year, 286-130.
The proposed amendment, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, read: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."
I Am A Big Tobey Maguire Fan
Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...
You are Spider-Man
You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.
Spider-Man 85%
Green Lantern 65%
Superman 55%
Hulk 50%
Robin 47%
Catwoman 45%
Iron Man 45%
Batman 40%
The Flash 20%
Sunday, June 25, 2006
And, Of Course, The More-Than-Obligatory Post-Parade Post.
Parade Number 26 in GT12's life has now come and gone. For the 26th consecutive time there was no rain. For the third or fourth time rain which had been falling all morning stopped just as the parade began (I am not making this up).
Both our incumbent governor and his opponent were in attendance (as they always are) along with most other politicians (we missed the start so we can only assume that Rahm Emmanuel showed up).
Few Drag Queens, fewer naked butts in chaps and hundreds of thousands of nice normal people such as yours truly (seen here w/ a festively accessorized 'Buddy' post-parade).
Oh, BTW, I learned today that Dan Savage, in his first book, deals with the incident mentioned below.
Go Gay!
Friday, June 23, 2006
Obligatory Pride Week Desperate Grab At Celebrity Reminiscence
Obligatory Pride Week Cultural Activity
I added my copy of Judy Garland's 'legendary' Carnegie Hall concert to the 32,000 other tracks in my digital collection. I was given the CD like four years ago. Clang Clang Clang rang the Trolley!
Actually, Mick Jagger in 1969 tour regalia is my gay icon. I'll stick my knife right down your throat baby and it hurts.
Wotta Coincidence!
Cheney scheduled to Speak in Chicago 6/23/06
FBI Robert Mueller scheduled to speak in Cleveland OH about "Homegrown Terrorism": 6/23/06.
Totally lame IslamoTerrorists who needed US Govt mole money to buy boots and a memory stick arrested for plotting to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower 6/22/06.
Cue Dorothy Parker: There's no 'There' there.
(Obligatory Pride Week Innuendo provided by pic of Sears Tower)
And Of Course, There's This Guy
A man truly getting comfortable in his (American) skin.
SOLEDAD O’BRIEN: In 2004 you came out very strongly in support of John Kerry and performed with him - your fellow guitarist, I think is how you introduced him to the crowd. And some people gave you a lot of flack for being a musician who took a political stand. I remember…
SPRINGSTEEN: Yeah, they should let Ann Coulter do it instead.
Think Progress has the both the video and the full transcript.
I do really hate Soledad O'Brien though....
Why Can't The Democrats Get Guys Like This?
Legendary Texas musician, detective novelist and raconteur, Kinky Friedman makes the ballot for governor as an independent. Isn't the guy who wrote "They Don't Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore" just the type of candidate the Dems need? This shot is from his celebration.
For a bio, go here.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
More Reasons To Hate Lieberman
Haggard, isn't she?
From ThinkProgress:
Coulter Derides Call For New Iraq Strategy, Endorses Lieberman Approach
Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter appeared on Fox News this afternoon to discuss the war in Iraq. Coulter derided the lawmakers who have called for a redeployment strategy from Iraq, questioning whether “FDR [had] to deal with this during World War II.” She argued that the only type of politician she “admires” is someone like Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) because he “does want to defend America and fight the war on terrorism.” Lieberman has argued “our troops must stay” in Iraq. Watch it.
GT12 Official Pride Week Political Foto-Spread
(GT12 soooooo thanks TH from Austin TX.)