While heaps of you have probably already seen the really funny Funny or Die Hollywood Supports the Insurance Industry video and Obama accepting a heart shaped potato from an audience member on Letterman–what a POTUS of the people!–the high point of comedy so far this week: Tom DeLay making his terpsichorean debut on Dancing with the Stars.

During rehearsals Twinkle Toes Tommy admitted he’s

Gotta get prissy…One thing I wasn’t prepared for in learning to dance is getting in touch with my feminine side

DeLay showed his GOP-party animal side cha-cha-ing to "Wild Thing" then tripped the lights fantastic in Viennese waltz. His score was enough to get him back next week.

Filmmaker and art community consultant Patrick Courrielche  has made a quite a splash on conservative talk shows by releasing audio clips and transcripts of a conference call that occurred August 10. The purpose of call, which was attended by artists, NEA staff, White House Office of Public Engagement and members of United We Serve, was to discuss engaging communities in the ideas of service, health care, education, and energy and the environment through the use of art.

In his interviews with Glenn Beck, Dennis Miller, and Fox Business News and in his blogging about this, Patrick Courrielche has not discussed how he came to have the recorded conversations, which may be a way of invoking his right to self-protection, since recording that call was illegal in several states where the participants are based.

Courrielche is listed on the United We Serve email list obtained by the Washington Times. He has stated that he was invited to participate in the call, and has blogged about the call, in one post referring to it as “my call,” thus implying he was present on the call. 

On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve… Discussed throughout the conference call… Throughout the conversation my inner dialogue was firing away questions so fast that the NRA would’ve been envious.

ABC News reports that Courrielche "secretly recorded" the call. 

Nowhere in the transcripts Courrielche has posted is there a reference to the call being recorded by United We Serve, by the NEA or by anyone else.  Informed or implied consent to record and disseminate the call was not given by any of the participants.

Courrielche’s business is listed in Los Angeles, California; the business has a Los Angeles-based phone number. At least fifteen of the participants were calling in from California, which has very strict eavesdropping and communication interception laws, stating that all parties on the call must be informed and aware that the call is being recorded.

Three callers were from Pennsylvania. Under that state’s current statutory language, consent of all parties is required to tape a conversation. Illinois law states that eavesdropping device cannot be used to record or overhear a conversation without the consent of all parties to the conversation. Three participants were from Illinois.

Again no one asked for consent to record the call nor was consent given. To secretly record a conference call and then disseminate the information is clearly reprehensible and unethical at a minimum. It is an "ends justifies the means" mentality and a cavalier approach to the law that marked the practices of the previous administration.  Whether Courrielche will be prosecuted for violating California law remains to be seen, but committing a crime in pursuit of exposing what possibly, just maybe, could be some kind of a violation is no small thing.

So tonight I got a call from the Los Angeles Fraternal Order of Police who wanted a donation to support their youth programs, families of wounded officers, etc.

I listened to the guys speech–Hi Brian, if that’s your real name, yes I was paying attention!– and then said

I would be thrilled to donate. I have had so many really nice encounters with the LAPD, they have been so helpful–

Brian responded

We understand ma’am if this isn’t a good time..

 And I replied that I loved the interactions I had with officers during the demonstrations I had witnessed and which I had participated, and would happily give the $10 he was requesting.

He said

Good night

and hung up on me. Uh, what? Was effusive happiness over having postive encounters with the police not in the script? Was I not being clear?

So using caller ID, I called back and was on hold for 13 minutes.  At which point, I gave up.

Obama’s on Letterman tonight, and once agian, he proves he’s smart, and he’s funny. And he’s not gonna play the race card.

Jon Stewart and his witty crew has won Emmys for Oustanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series and for Oustanding Writing for Music, Variety or Comedy Series.

The show has won in Outstanding Series every year since 2003, and Outstanding Writing from 2001 to 2006. They also won Outstanding Series in 2001.

In accepting the award for Outstanding Series, Stewart said:

Many others have taken the stage and said ‘We have the best cast and crew,’ they have lied to you.

And earlier when The Daily Show won Outstanding Writing, Stewart let one of his writers accept the the award. Elegant and very nicely done, since at one point, the broadcast producers wanted to give the writers’ awards off camera and simply announce them–untilt he writers pointed out that wihtout them, there would be no shows (even reality shows, but that’s another story!)

Congratulations to The Daily Show writers Steve Bodow, Jon Stewart, David Javerbaum, Josh Lieb, Rory Albanese, Kevin Bleyer, Jason Ross, Tim Carvell, John Oliver, Sam Means, Rob Kutner, J.R. Havlan, Rich Blomquist, Wyatt Cenac, Elliott Kalan, and Rachel Axler !

In case you’re wondering what to program on your iPod for Halloween, here’s a handy guide:

People have been asking me what secular albums are "safe" to listen to. As a good guideline, ask yourself this… "Does the band / music you wish to listen to include any of the following themes:

Rebellion
Violence
Nihilism (belief in nothing) / Apathy
Escapism / Suicide
Drugs / Alcoholism
Sexual Perversion / Fornication / Pornography

Self-Mutilation
Dissonant / Offensive Sound
The Occult / Satanism
Anti-God / Anti-Authority
Cult-like Organization, Terrorism

Here are some of the reasons bands made "The Rock’nRoll Hall of Shame" featuring "Rock Music Straight from Hell" on the website Jesus-is-Savior.com: (emphasis mine)

Beatles: promote Communism in "Back in the USSR," sexually degenerate lyrics… "Why don’t we do it in the road (1968)," rebellion, fornication, false religion (Catholicism and Eastern Mysticism). Lennon called Jesus a ‘garlic eating fascist bastard.’ Paul McCartney is an admitted atheist. ‘Sgt. Peppers’ album cover has Aleister Crowley’s face on it.

Alice Cooper: on-stage mutilation, rebellion, "School’s Out" prevents mice from solving mazes, objectionable album art (Constrictor)

Cramps: "degraded" sexuality (Date With Elvis)

Foreigner: promotes sexual immorality in songs "Dirty White Boy" and "Urgent," also promote alcoholism in "Double Vision"

Frankie Goes to Hollywood: rebellion, songs about sex and sadomasochism, objectionable album art (Welcome to the Pleasure Dome), ruined Live Aid, homosexuality

Smiths: Satanic imagery 

I guess the site-writer isn’t familiar with Morrissey’s sexuality, since that’s perceived as one of Freddy Mercury’s sins and a good reason not to listen to Queen (along that band’s use of backwards masking!).

But the most ludicrous is The Doors:

Doors (The): Patricia (Kennealy) Morrison is a devout Wiccan witch.

That’s it. That’s the only reason given!

Patricia–the author of The Keltiad, an eight-volume series of science-fantasy novels; Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison, and The Rock & Roll Murders: The Rennie Stride Mysteries, a series of murder mysteries set during rock’s halcyon days of the late 1960s and early ’70s–married Doors singer Jim Morrison in a pagan handfasting in 1970.

She had this to say to La Figa about being the sole reason The Doors made Satan’s Greatest Hits List:

Though I’m certainly flattered to be described as ‘a devout Wiccan witch’, I’m really a devout Celtic Pagan priestess. But the fact that in spite of all the Doors’ other ‘offenses’ ("Mother, I want to…"), the fact that it’s I who landed the band on the list of evil rock & rollers is simply too delicious. Especially since I never even sat in with them onstage…maybe the site is getting me mixed up with Linda McCartney? 

But maybe for fundamentalists, marrying a witch in real life is way worse than singing about imaginary parricide and fornication!

And wow, look! The Dickies made this list along with the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag, but not the Circle Jerks, Christian Death or the Superheroines. Or the Go-Gos who aside from being lust-inducing feminists, sang a song called "Unforgiven."

Artist Shepard Fairey who created the iconic HOPE posters for the Obama campaign–along with posters for marriage equality other progressive issues–has received the wrath of anti-ACORNites who tagged his neighborhood and workshop Studio Number One in Los Angeles with the words

ACORN Funded Prostitution Zone

Studio Number One receives no government funding and does no work for ACORN, according to a spokesperson.

BigGovernment.com snagged these shots–including one of famed LA photographer Gary Leonard taking pictures- before the studio removed the graffiti.

Jay Strell, a spokesman for Studio Number One and Fairey told the Washington Post

While we support free expression, it is ironic that…the conservatives and right-wingers who called pro-Obama art propaganda and if it was posted publicly, they called it vandalism, are now vandalizing private property in their campaign against ACORN

Set in Washington D.C., Dan Brown’s newest super-novel The Lost Symbol uncovers the ghastly truth of America’s history: OMG, the Founding Fathers were Freemasons and so are a bunch of theother important politicians nowadays; Benjamin Franklin was an astrologer and alchemist; and oh noes, America wasn’t founded on Christian principles, but rather on Deist ideals. Oh and there’s lots of Roman and Greek idolatry to be found in our nation’s capital (and Capitol).

It was pretty easy for me to stay ahead of some of the plot points–yeah, I guessed the antagonist’s real identity with no trouble–and knew a few other things, mainly because I have read esoteric stuff for ages, but all in all its a fun, though thin read, with lots of visual puzzles, maps, magic squares, wrong turns and dead ends to keep readers guessing (what do Newton’s temperature scale and your spinal column have in common?), though the "Oh wait, it’s not really this, it’s that!" exposition did get a wee bit tiresome.

Plus everyone knows that if you tell a bad guy what he wants to know, he’s just gonna kill you anyway, so next time you’re face down over a pool of ethanol, just lie about your PIN number and save us a lot of trouble. And a couple things were just effing ridiculous (a guy with his hand freshly chopped just hours before off traipsing about D.C. giving a guided tour), but again, it was overall a fun read that is sure ot provoke lots of water cooler conversation.

Some Bible interpretations will piss off fundies, but that’s part of Brown’s agenda–to inform people of all sorts of nifty occult and art history trivia, and let them know there’s more to religion than just one path.

Brown’s book is also designed as a guidebook to Washington D.C. and hopefully will encourage a boom in tourism like one Paris, LOndon and Scotland experienced after  The Da Vinci Code exploded.

Brown draws a lot from Manly P Hall’s books  Secret Teachings of All Ages and The Secret Destiny of America, and  actually doesn’t diss Aleister Crowley, so that makes him okay by me.

And yes, you do learn the lost secret word of Masonry, which actually isn’t that much of surprise…I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s not "rosebud"!

Cathy Maples, a spunky stalker fan of Sarah Palin, paid $63,500 in a charity eBay auction to dine with former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. The auction will benefit Ride to Recovery, a charity for service men and women disabled in the Iraqi war. Maples of Huntsville, Alabama owns a defense contracting business, so I guess what comes around goes around.

It won’t be Maples’ first time meeting ex-Gov GILF. Oh no, this granny is really a huge fan!

The first time the two met was at a fundraiser in North Carolina during the presidential campaign. The second time was this July in Alaska when Maples took her grandson, family members and friends to Alaska as a graduation present. The Hunstville Times reports:

Maples, who said "persistent is something they say about me," made several phone calls trying to see Palin. Finally, Todd Palin himself called her to coordinate the meeting, which came just after Palin announced she was resigning as governor.

The couple spent about 15 minutes with Maples’ group at the Anchorage airport, and Palin posed for pictures with everyone.

The eBay auction terms prohibit the winner from reporting on or posting pictures of the Palin dinner, so don’t expect Cathy Maples’ Facebook page to be filled with glowing reports. In anticipation of the meal, Maples told the Huntsville Times his feelings about sassy Sarah:

I like her morals, and I believe she loves America and would like to do what is best for America. She doesn’t compromise her morals for votes. That’s very unusual in a politician.

Maples beat out author/Palin critic Joe McGinnis who had bid over $60,000 for the dubious dining privilege. Since Palin had veto power over the winner, it seems unlikely she would have agreed to break bread with him anyway.

I’m not of the tribe but growing up in Los Angeles you can’t not be exposed Jewish culture, from liberal to hardcore Hasidic Orthodox to Ethiopian, Sephardic, even Chinese! So let’s celebrate 5770, think about what we can do to make things better, swap recipes for sweet treats and party like it’s 5999!

I think Bill O’Reilly bringing up public option might be in the spirit of the season…Meanwhile here’s POTUS on Rosh Hashanah. Shofar so good!