bad dad, bad!

Not only did House Minority Whip Eric Cantor dis the Prez by watching Britney Spears shake her stuff  at Washington DC’s Verizon Center instead of attending Obama’s press conference Tuesday, he upset his daughter.

Citing his darling’s school schedule, meanie dad Cantor said she was "mad" she couldn’t go to what he said was

quite a show

but after all conservative father knows best, and depriving his kidlette of a once in a lifetime opportunity is all part of being a politician:

She had school that day, and the next, and I wasn’t going to bring her up here to miss it .

Especially while he was busy raising money for his political action committee, ERICPAC, in the Trucker’s Association’s box  during the the concert. Cantor offered this mea culpa to CNN’s Dana Bash after Wonkette reported on his appearance at the show:

I had a political event there, and it was simply because it was there to help the team, that’s why I was there. 

ERICPAC doesn’t really seem to be a "team," since it directly benefits him, and he sure wasn’t helping his father-daughter relationship either.  I predict years of therapy and a possible facial piercing in his child’s future…

In his first ever interactive townhall meeting, President Obama addressed questions and issues raised online from the change.gov site.  One of the most popular ideas floated online there and on the pre-inuagural citizen’s policy book was the legalization and taxation of marijuana, which could provide additional taxes and jobs, as well as lowering crimnal justice costs. His response:

 There was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation, and I don’t know what this says about the online audience.

Yes, it got some laughs. Then he added that he wanted to make sure the question got answered.

The answer is no, I don’t think that was a good strategy.

And it’s probably not a good strategy to mock your constituents, either. Not everyone who supports legalization of marijuana smokes it recreationally, or even at all.

HBO has announced that Dennis Quaid will star as President Bill Clinton and Julianne Moore as the First Lady in the the docudrama The Special Relationship set during the Lewinsky scandal. Despite the title, it’s not really about Clinton and Hillary, or Clinton and Monica, but rather a political bro-mance about

the frustrated efforts of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to form a working relationship with President Clinton, who seemed increasingly distracted by the fallout from the scandal.

Blair will be played by Michael Sheen, Helen McCrory portrays his wife Cherie. Monica, theinfamous elephant in the Oval Office, will be shown in newsclips. 

Here’s a  quick $90 bucks a day…

Kari Bian, executive producer of The Iron Man, not the box office smash but

a tale based on the life of the inventor of the original "Iron Man"

needs a sexy girl to walk his dog three hours a day, because like he’s a "film maker" and doesn’t "have time to walk Rocky." So he did what anyone would do–posted an ad on Craigslist.

But what’s weird about this ad is not that Rocky likes sexy girl dog walkers–after all this is Hollywood–but that the Pomeranian, basically a dust ball with legs, needs to be driven half an hour away and walked for two hours, two hours, on his weensy little feet, along the trendy Santa Monica Promenade. Like, Malibu has its own ritzy shopping area.

Also, how the heck did Bain find out that the his last sexy girl dog walker was locking Rocky in the car? Did he have a PI trail her?

 No word if you have to supply your own poop bags. I couldn’t reach Kari to check…

Walk a pomeranian $30.00 Per hour. (Malibu-Santa Monica)

---

Reply to: job-fusaXXXXXXX@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}
Date: 2009-03-22, 2:40AM PDT I am a film maker don’t have time to walk Rocky. Walk the most cutest male Pomeranian 3 hours per day $30 per hour 5 days per week all you got to do is pick him up from city of Malibu 12 pm drive him to Santa Monica walk him for 2 hours on the 3rd St. drive him back at 3 pm. He wants a very cute and sexy girl, Send your full body photo-S and resume. His name is Rocky his photo is in my Facebook.com check it out:http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=675276549&ref=profile
Kari Bian
23852 pch #720
malibu,ca.90265
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2168471/

you must own a car, proof of insurance is a must. P.S the last girl was taking him and leaving him in her car for that time and pretending she walked him please don’t try to do that if that is your intention.

Sarah Palin may not want to accept all the federal stimulus money, but citizens and legistlators alike want the $288 million Palin is looking to reject including $170 million for education.

Wasilla Republican Sen. Charlie Huggins told ADN:

The (Palin) administration worked through the weekend and they fixed some of their slides based on public sentiment. And that’s the way the democratic process works: It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just sobering.

Republican Rep. Mike Hawker, who is leading the House effort on the stimulus as co-chairman of the finance committee says

I think at the end of the day we will end up taking most of the funds.

 At a margin of 58% to 42% Gainesville voters rejected Charter Amendment 1 the anti-equality amendment which would have overthrown the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance, which written by a far right conservative group in Michigan. 

The city’s original law, passed last year, protects transgender people and other categories of people not specified by the Florida Civil Rights Act from housing, job and other discriminations.

The group Equality is Gainesville’s Business led a coalition  local, state and national organizations working together to stop discrimination from being legalized in Gainesville. Gainesville City Commissioner Craig Lowe  who is also EQGB’s Chair said in a statement on Equality Florida’s website:

Today Gainesville voters showed that they value the rights of all citizens. They have rejected the politics of fear and instead chose to retain the values that make our city such a beautiful place. Today, our voters showed their true character by emphasizing that, in Gainesville, every person matters.

A Victory Fund endorsee, Lowe–the only openly gay member of the Gainesville City Commission and a driving force behind passage of the trans-inclusive law–added this statement to supporters in email:

This is a fantastic validation of what I’ve always thought, which is that the people of Gainesville are fair-minded and believe in true equality for all. I’m proud of my city.

Donald Wildmon is  calling for a Pepsi boycott over an episode of Family Guy , Pepsi’s pro-LGBT ads and donations to PFLAG and  HRC.  Time to call Pepsi and say keep up the good work!

From January:

Donald Wildmon’s conservative homo-hatin’ AFA is at it again. That dodo  is pissed at PepsiCo because the soda company gave $500,000 to PFLAG and another $500K to the Human Rights Campaign. And to add insult to injury, Dobson he got what he terms a "condescending" letter about the matter from Pepsi’s director of public policy Paul Boykas. Wildmon has worked his Bible into a bunch because the organizations are using the money to:::gasp!::::

help promote homosexuality in the workplace. Pepsi refuses to give money to any pro-family organization that opposes the homosexual agenda. Plus, every homosexual organization we know of is overwhelmingly pro-abortion. 

And Wildmon reports, in bold letters signifying super outrage,:

Pepsi forces all employees to attend sexual orientation and gender identity diversity training where they are taught to accept homosexuality.

Oh noez! Diversity training! Um, Dr Wildmon, as of May, 2008 WalMart has workforce protections in place for transgendered employees which enhances the company’s anti-discrimination guidelines. Why haven’t you started picking on them? And heck, everybody who pays attention to Wildmon better start boycotting Tim McGraw because Fritos, which is a PepsiCo brand, sponsored his tour and gave him his own flavor (Spicy Jalapeno). And y’all gonna burn in hell if you don’t lay off the Gatorade, Mountain Dew and oatmeal, not to mention, stop watching NASCAR, since Jeff Gordon drives the official Pepsi car and Pepsi sponsors NASCAR races.

Wildmon wants his angry followers to sign the boycott pledge, then call and complain about Pepsi’s lack of "neutrality" in the culture wars. So heck, I guess if you feel like it, you can call Pepsi and thank them, using this list Wildmon so kindly compiled. Or just buy some Fritos and a liter bottle of Dew to kick start your blogging.

Six months ago Matt Drudge ran a secondhand comment about Sandra Bernhardt’s stand up performance at Theatre J in Washington DC, a remark about Sarah Palin and what might make Alaska’s Frost Lady change some of her views. Other conservative blogs picked up on Drudge repeating a review by someone who wasn’t even at the perfomrance, and the furor got Bernhardt removed from a benefit for the Boston-based abused women’s shelter Rosie’s Place.

Bernhardt was making a theoretical, comedic comment about an imagined scenario. She was kicked off the benefit for using her imagination to create an absurdist scenario. She was thinking and speaking about something that never happened and was excoriated for it.

But Bill O’Reilly–the featured guest speaker at a luncheon benefiting rape support foundation It Happened to Alexa–has made horrific, grotesque and revolting remarks condemning real victims of sexual assault, implying that they were partially at fault (18-year-old Jennifer Moore, who was raped and murdered) or enjoyed it  (Shawn Hornbeck, kidnapped at age 11 and held as a sexual captive for three years). And let’s not forget O’Reilly’s sexual harassment of co-worker Andrea Mackris, the notorious affair of the falafel: The bloviator never denied her charges and a confidential settlement was reached. 

Liberal bloggers, most notably Amanda Terkel at Thinkprogress.org,  brought up this cognitive dissonance reported by Newshounds and Media Matters, and O’Reilly went into a spin. This weekend field reporter/producer Jesse Watters and his cameraman went to Terkel’s apartment and followed her on a two hours drive to Virginia (creepy! and again cognitive dissonance) where they ambushed-interviewed her and then  broadcast the "interview" in an edited form.

O’Reilly says he doesn’t ambush people unless they’re public figures who’ve turned him down for a discussion. According to Terkel, she was never invited to discuss the story with Billo, nor is she a public figure. And hypocrite O’Reilly claims 

far-left smear machine Media Matters

took his August 2, 2006 comments about Jennifer Moore out of context and distributed them to MSBNC and blogs. Niiiiice, Bill–how’s that paranoia working for you? And nice editing on the Terkel piece too, wherein the Bilous One claimed that ThinkProgress — working with NBC News — deliberately tried to cause pain and suffering to the foundation’s Alexa and her family. 

Oh and NBC president Jeff Zucker "hires the hate" and is somehow behind all of this. Oooh, Bill, now They know you are onto Them!

What’s the Mel Gibson reference in the Terkel ambush? On his blog, O’Reilly says:

What do a murder in Manhattan and Mel Gibson have in common? Over-the-top alcohol consumption. We’ll look at why personal responsibility is key in one’s life and what can happen when alcohol consumes you in the second hour of the Radio Factor.

Pro tip, Bill: Being drunk is not an invitation to be raped, so STFU. And realize that you and your self-righteous rightwing gang of media misogynists are everything you claim the progressives to be. And worse. Fer realz, in context and not imagined.

 With 82% of the precincts reporting, and 61% against Charter Amendment 1, it looks like Gainesville, Florida  has voted down the anti-equality amendment which would have overthrown the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance.

The city’s original law, passed last year, protects transgender people and other categories of people not specified by the Florida Civil Rights Act from housing, job and other discriminations.

From the Equality Florida blog:

For over a year, supporters of Charter Amendment 1 have waged a fear-based campaign that blatantly lied to voters about the intent and impact of Charter Amendment 1 and specifically targeted transgender people with harmful discrimination. The sweeping language of the ballot initiative, which was written by a far right conservative group in Michigan, would have prohibited the City of Gainesville from providing nondiscrimination protections beyond the minimal protections set forth in the Florida Civil Rights Act.

Again.  It’s still unofficial, but I  feel confident in saying the ugly tactics to dehumanize transgender people have failed.  Today the City of Gainesville has once again proven itself as a beacon of progress.

[h/t Tobias Packer, Equality Forida ]

Al Gore’s third book on the environment and climate change, Our Choice will be released November 3 by Rodale Press–and will be printed on recycled paper. In a statement the former Vice President, Oscar winner and Nobel laureate said:

An Inconvenient Truth reached millions of people with the message that the climate crisis is threatening the future of human civilization and that it must and can be solved. Now that the need for urgent action is even clearer with the alarming new findings of the last three years, it is time for a comprehensive global plan that actually solves the climate crisis. Our Choice will answer that call.

 Gore’s first book Earth in Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit was published in 1992, followed by An Inconvenient Truth which was made into the Oscar winning documentary of the same name. Last year Assault on Reason, his critique of the Bush administration and analysis of current democracy and marketplace economics, was released.