Fresh off his stellar gig opening for Wanda Sykes, Barack Obama will be headlining, with Alice Cooper kicking off the night, one show only at Arizona State University’s graduation at Sun Devil Stadium.  Cooper will naturally be performing his hit teem anthem, "School’s Out,"  backed by Runaway Phoenix, a band that includes his son, Dash an ASU junior.

 Obama will perform as POTUS, solo.

It all comes full circle:

In 1983 Arizona’s own John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  and in 1987 supported Arizona Republican Governor Evan Mecham’s rescinding of the state holiday in honor of King created by the Democratic predecessor. In the face of overwhelming public disgust for this position, McCain eventually backed down and encouraged state recognition of the holiday.

Mecham’s infamy continued to grow: He got a triple kick as the first United States governor

to simultaneously face removal from office through impeachment, a scheduled recall election, and a felony indictment

and became the first Arizona governor to be impeached. So it’s kinda really extra huge to have Obama there. Except that ASU officilas did not grant Obama the usual honorary doctorate for a series of reasons that just got weirder and wackier. Instead university administration vastly expanded a scholarship which they renamed the President Barack Obama Scholars Program (which actually will do more good for a larger number  in the long run–by giving more students a chance to complete college–than an honorary degree would do Obama, but still it’s the principle)

Don’t expect conservatives to get all freaked out over Alice Cooper. Quite the contrary. First off,  it’s not like he’s Danzig or even pop-shocker Marilyn Manson. After a lucrative career as a glitter and gloom hard rocker, Cooper founded Solid Rock Foundation whose:

primary goal is to honor Christ by helping to meet the spiritual, economical, physical, and social needs of teenagers and children within our community.

 Cooper, a staunch Republican who’s said

[R]ock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics,

is keeping partisanship out of the mix.  Though he’s shared the stage with  the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Groucho Marx and Johnny Carson, Cooper says:

Of all the people I’ve ever shared a stage with, Obama is the biggest rock star. And I’d like to thank him, in advance, for changing the national anthem to ‘Schools Out.’   

When asked about the fund-raising campaign yesterday, Alaska’s Frost Lady responded:

I have boxes of thank-you notes from people associated with Planned Parenthood thanking me for the donations. Same with some anti-hunting groups, they’re doing the same thing right now. It’s political theater–it’s great theater I guess for some.

Planned Parenthood Alaska–which received $5000 in donations during the email push– said they would earmark the money to help women access birth control, and that the funds would not be used to fund abortions. Palin is vehemently opposed to abortion as well as Plan B (the morning-after pill), but told Katie Couric she was:

all for contraception..all for preventative measures that are legal and safe.

Planned Parenthood provides sex and STD education,  STD care, women’s gynecological health care, and birth control along with abortion counseling and services. In response to yesterday’s query about Planned Parenthood  Palin said:

But on the issue of Planned Parenthood and abortion, at least Planned Parenthood, officials there and, I, we agree on a mission here that we’d like to see fewer and fewer abortions. And I, embracing the culture of life, have perhaps a different approach in how I would like to see that goal reached.

Here’s a pro tip for Gov GILF: Abstinence doesn’t work.

*  To help parents meet their children’s educational needs, the supergroup Fleetwood Mac is auctioning off VIP tickets and meet-and-greets with Mick Fleetwood as a fundraiser. The auction benefits Hilltop Nursery School in Silver Lake, California, a parent-participation, cooperative pre-school founded over 50 years ago. Pairs of tickets for each show on the band’s Unleashed tour–plus face time with Fleetwood–are up for auction on eBay now and the charity auctions will continue throughout the tour.

*  Justin Timberlake joined Bill Murray, Ray Romano, Kevin James, and Michael Bolton on the golf course at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, helping to raise over $6 million dollars for a number of charities including schools, arts programs, services for the blind and senior and food banks.

*  In an essay in Elle magazine, Bono discusses a trip to Africa he took six years ago and the changes he has seen since there has been an increase in awareness and funding in HIV/AIDS care on the continent:

Our science and technology, it turned out, were more advanced than our conscience. We in the West had the means to save lives, but we lacked the resolve.

What can we do? Well, the short answer is: a lot. At the time of that trip, only 50,000 Africans had access to ARVs [anti-retrovial drugs]. That figure today is 2.1 million. That’s because a lot of people have been doing a lot of things, in Africa and all over the world. In the face of the AIDS emergency, we’ve got to gang up on the problem.

Bono points out the effect of conscious consumerism, specifically the (RED) brands–everyday consumer goods from coffee and wine to clothing and electronics–that benefit the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. Since its inception (RED) has raised $120 million for prevention and counseling programs as well as treatment, and is now the thirteenth biggest contributor to the Global Fund, giving more than some countries. Explains Bono:

The companies involved don’t mark up their products to get you to pay a premium. They take a piece of the profits from every (RED) thing you buy, and they use it to buy lifesaving medication for those who can’t afford it. 

Charities and non-profits are feeling the economic chill, and sadly–between the markets, Madoff and budget cuts–it looks like it’s going to get colder. Celebrities help draw attention and money (maybe giving some of their own cash in the process) to causes, hopefully helping to maintain or increase donations as the need for services is on the rise. 

The master-minds of this credit-based boom partied like it was 1929–a birthday party where  Elton John performed, lavish meals and the usual glut of excess. Then ooooops! In October the bubble burst, banks failed, and

with 300,000 British savers holding suddenly uninsured accounts at Landsbanki, Britain invoked anti-terrorism laws to freeze all of Iceland’s assets.

That’s cold! Now Iceland is pretty much bankrupt. But there’s hope! (which coincidentally is the title of the song in this post’s video). Icelandic’s best known export, Bjork

is working with Audur Capital, a Reykjavik-based investment company founded and managed by women. Audur Capital will oversee the fund’s day-to-day dealings, directing an initial investment of 100m Icelandic krona (£575,000) toward sustainable, environmentally-friendly businesses.

According to their website, Audur was:

founded by women with a vision to incorporate feminine values into the world of finance.

The fund is named BJORK after the musician who

 has become a spokeswoman for innovation, creative thinking and increased diversity in the Icelandic economy.

Hopefully, the fund–unlike Bjork’s ill-fated Oscar dress–won’t lay a egg.

Some of my illusions about Springsteen were destroyed at a concert in the mid-80s when an usher told me that every night he pulled a girl out of the audience at exactly the same time for “Dancing In the Dark”–naive me, I thought that was like, spontaneous.

Could Springsteen’s exclusive release be a reward for Wal-Mart’s attempts at reform? Okay, the mega-retailer has made some effort, but not from the goodness of their own heart. They were forced.

In May, 2008 the mega-employer expanded their anti-discrimination policy to included transgendered employees, a proposal made by shareholders, and opposed by the WalMart board of directors.   And today the New York Times reports:

Wal-Mart said  it would pay at least $352 million, and possibly far more, to settle lawsuits across the country claiming that it forced employees to work off the clock…In a case still pending, Wal-Mart has appealed a 2005 verdict in which a California jury ordered it to pay $172 million for making employees miss meal breaks.

But Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar told the Associated Press in August:

We believe the Employee Free Choice Act is a bad bill and we have been on the record as opposed to it.

Way to support diversity and the unions, Bruce.

And Wal-Mart’s health coverage sucks. The company covers around 50% of its employees, while nationally, 64% of workers at very large firms (5,000 employees or more) receive their health benefits from their employer.

Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart Executive Vice President for Benefits, for the Wal-Mart Board of Directors, wrote in a 2005 memo:

Specifically, our coverage is expensive for low-income families, and Wal-Mart has a significant percentage of associates and their children on public assistance.

That’s taxpayer money. And its morally reprehensible. Surely WalMart, the world’s largest retailer with its gianormous profits, could kick down more cash to cover the cost of employee health care.

And don’t get me started on Wal-Mart’s manufacturers.

The Boss could have found a much more socially responsible way to release his Greatest Hits.

address the unfortunate division and restore consensus

as  SAG Executive Director Doug Allen wrote in an email late Monday night.  Both Allen and Guild president Alan Rosenberg are staunch strike supporters, but there is growing dissent within the union, and throughout Hollywood, regarding a strike.

The strike authorization vote will start after after the union’s national board meets to discuss the matter. Last week at a SAG meeting in New York, Rosenberg met with vociferous opposition as members demanded the strike be called off. New York board members have advocated replacing the current negotiating committee with a task force.

Allen wrote that the delay in the strike vote

will provide us with more time to conduct member education and outreach on the referendum before the balloting.

But last year’s Writers Guild strike–and the overall slowdown in production caused by the anticipation of the actors’ strike–is all the education many working SAG members require to see the hardships striking would cause on many levels.

To pass, a strike authorization must be approved by 75% of members who cast votes. The Guild has 120,000 members, 80% earning under $13,790–the baseline for insurance qualification. Is a strike that big a deal to the majority? However, the employment of the minority provides direct and indirect income for tens of thousands–not only other actors, crew and production staff but via general spending: restaurants, shops, service professionals, the travel and recreation industry, schools and charities are all affected when Hollywood grinds to a halt.

In the past weeks, over 130 prominent actors–including George Clooney, Sally Field, Helen Hunt, Charlize Theron, Tom Hanks, Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman–spoke out against the strike, citing the overall economy and adding:

Three years from now all the union contracts will be up again at roughly the same time. At that point if we plan and work together with our sister unions we will have incredible leverage.

Mel Gibson, Martin Sheen, Valerie Harper, Connie Stevens, Ed Asner and several dozen other actors are pro-strike, arguing that the studios’ contract offer is unacceptable and threatens the future of actors in the digital era. 

While Allen wrote that the strike vote would begin immediately after the meeting, moderates are expected to press for a delay in the strike vote to see whether negotiations with the studios can resume.  The board also could move to have Allen removed as negotiator.

There is room on both sides of the table for negotiating, for both the producers and the actors to walk away with wins. And if coalitions can be built during the next three years, the film unions will be in a stronger position.

After eloquently explaining the struggle for equal rights and her preconceptions of Pastor Rick, Etheridge describes her phone conversation with Warren:

He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn’t want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. 

She goes on to say that maybe instead of marching on his church

we can show up en mass [sic] and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world. Maybe if they get to know us, they won’t fear us.

Well, okay…not to nit pick, but his church doesn’t believe in condoms or family planning for HIV/AIDS prevention, and works hard in Africa to proselytize his message of Jesus and abstinence, using HIV outreach as an evangelical tool. His church believes that gays who are actively practicing homosexuality are not welcome as members. And Warren says gays should suppress their urges the same way other people suppress anger or shyness.

Melissa, Warren and his ilk aren’t "afraid" of gays: They think gays are sinners who are convertible to their belief system, which includes no gay sex and straight sex only in marriage. 

If you can get Warren to believe that civil marriage equality  does not mean a religious marriage..right on. If you can get him to expand his vision to have marriage be more than just a religious concept, that would be awesome. And, btw, he’s wrong about 5,000 years of marriage being solely between one man and one woman. There are plural marriages still in Islam, as there have been for 1500 years, as well as in the past history of the Mormon church and in current Mormon sects which allow for polygamy…

Many pray daily that closed minds like Warren’s are opened, that the scales will fall from the eyes of Pastor Rick and his ilk. But thinking that "they" are afraid is a wrong move. This type of Christian think they are right, and that (their) God is on their side. And there’s too much at stake in terms of worldly power and wealth to make a sudden sea change. But I do share Melissa’s view that:

…we are headed in the direction of marriage equality and equal protection for all families.

I just don’t share her views that Rick Warren could be a vehicle for that. But hey, if he gets Divine Revelation and sees the light–halla-freakin’-lujah!

Tammy Lynne & Melissa 

Tammy Lynne Michaels, Melissa’s Etheridge’s wife, wrote a blog which makes me cringe, and not because she misspelled yamaka either. In the LGBTQ+A world I fall into the A (ally) position, so I can’t speak as someone whose rights are denied.  And sometimes I will probably make an ass out of myself while trying to say the right thing…but oh sweet raptor baby Jesus and his mama, wtf was Tammy Lynne thinking?

In her blog, reposted on Good As You, Tammy Lynne writes:

i’m starting to think that there are indeed some people… some well-meaning and loving people… who are not at all ANTI-GAY, that’s not why they don’t want the word marriage used… they are merely RELIGIOUS. and for religious (archaic) reasons, they want to stay safe and respectful to WHAT THEY’VE BEEN TAUGHT…

rick spoke of some "stupid" things he’s said (his word, not mine), some missquotes that were given, and lots of ammunition from the media.

Has she seen the Rick Warren video where he equates equal marriage rights to pedophilia, incest and polygamy? Has she watched the Ann Currie interview?

honey and i are to go to his church sometime soon. and honey invited him to our house for an afternoon, to be with our family. (w.t.f.) 

WTF is right! Did she read this statement from Saddleback Church?

Someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted at a member at Saddleback Church. That does not mean they cannot attend church – we hope they do! God’s Word has the power to change our lives. 

So um, Tammy Lynne, basically Pastor Rick is inviting you and your honey to visit his church in the hopes that (his) God’s word will change your your lives. And maybe eventually un-gay you. You will be his trophies, proof of how libuhrul he is and how powerful his God is. Nice.

You write that he "LOVES gays."  But he doesn’t love them enough to let them be church members. He doesn’t love them enough to be able to want them to have civil marriage. But he "loves" them enough to want to convert them into being non-practicing homosexuals.  

Now maybe you and Melissa can help him to understand why civil marriage equality is so important, since Pastor Rick has gone on the record saying that:

I support full equal rights for everybody in America. I don’t believe we should have unequal rights depending on particular lifestyles so I fully support equal rights.

But he later backtracked, as you can read in his "clarifications" on Beliefnet.com.

From my perspective, you and Melissa being used by a very slick guy who wants to convert you to his way of thinking, to his viewpoint, to stifle Melissa who has a very influential voice. Spit out his self-righteous Kool-Aid and don’t think that a nice lunch chez Etheridge-Michaels is gonna make him say, "Oh it’s only a word, give gays ‘marriage’ too, that word is big enough for everyone," because in Rick Warren’s mind "marriage" is a God-given right only for straights.

And that’s wrong on so many levels.