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.’   

America has its eccentrics: Emperor Norton, Edgar Cayce, Sarah Winchester, Victoria Woodhull and lawn mower precision drill teamsto name a few. In 1988, David Weeks, a clinical psychologist at Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland, who at the time was completing a study of America eccentrics, told Time magazine:

America needs idealism, vision and humor in the White House. A real eccentric would have all those qualities in abundance. We need another genuine oddball in the White House.

Well, Obama kinda qualifies as an eccentric, especially because he once marched with the World Famous Lawn Rangers Precision Lawn Mowing Team from Amazing Arcola, Illinois–known for their silly dances, decorated lawn mowers and twirling brooms and toilet plungers. Now the Lawn Rangers are marching in the Inaugural Parade, representing American eccentrics, or maybe it’s their philosophy that scored them a spot. Explaines founder Pat Monahan:

Here’s our secret. Find something you like to do, get real good at it, and success will follow.

Reports the Champaign-Urbana New-Gazette:

In all, 57 Lawn Rangers, including 48 marchers bearing mowers, two toilet plunger men and seven banner aides dressed like Abraham Lincoln, will march down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.

Some Lawn Rangers believe Obama’s earlier participation in their zany group–which will be commemorated by a mower in the parade adorned with a banner depicting the president-elect clutching a Lawn Ranger toilet plunger–tipped the scales in their favor and made them one of 60 groups in the Inaugural Parade.

Despite their goofiness, the Lawn Rangers take their parade participation seriously. Says Manuel Barrientos, who immigrated here from Mexico when he was 21 years old, and will decorate his lawn mower with the Mexican flag for the parade:

I’m excited about being in the parade; we’re making history, and I want to be part of history.

And if that isn’t a head spin, Patti LaBelle is the headliner for the Bi-Partisan Dinner at the Hilton Washington which honors Senator John McCain. McCranky shaking his tail feathers to "Lady Marmalade" as Crispy sings the chorus in to his ear….Oh ye ancients of days, banish that image from the mind of the nation!

Other acts for the States Inaugural Balls include Maroon 5 and James Gerard Orchestra at the Vice President Biden Home States Ball, and Sheryl Crow and the Fabulous Motown Revue performing at Midwestern Ball.

James Taylor and Liquid Pleasure with Kenny Mann play the Eastern Ball, while at the Western Ball, Marc Anthony and Party on the Moon provide the entertainment. The Southern Ball offers the Derek Trucks Band with Susan Tedeschi and the Wil Gravatt Band.  And at the President Obama Home States Ball, it’s Common, Jack Johnson and the Don Cagen Orchestra.

But the Dead? The Dead!? Pass the dust, I think I’m Bowie.

As part of his campaign, he answered  a questionnaire for a Chicago gay and lesbian newspaper Outlines (now merged with the Windy City Times) and another for IMPACT which was then “Chicago’s main GLBT political action committee.”

His responses, part of  1996 article were never challenged or corrected by Obama. The original questionaires were recently uncovered by editor-in-chief Tracy Baim while she was going through some old boxes of papers. Eureka!

In his typed answers to the Outlines questionnaire, Obama clearly stated he was in favor of same-sex marriage, which he has since opposed on the public record during both his U.S. senate run and his campaign for president:

I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.

At the same time, Obama completed another questionnaire for IMPACT which discussed a pending same-sex marriage resolution. Obama, in his own handwriting, wrote:

I would support such a resolution.

In 2004 during his bid for the U.S. Senate, Obama sat down with Tracy Baim at Windy City Times for an interview. Here are some excerpts:

WCT: But you think, strategically, gay marriage isn’t going to happen so you won’t support it at this time?

Obama: What I’m saying is that strategically, I think we can get civil unions passed. I think we can get SB 101 passed. I think that to the extent that we can get the rights, I’m less concerned about the name. And I think that is my No. 1 priority, is an environment in which the Republicans are going to use a particular language that has all sorts of connotations in the broader culture as a wedge issue, to prevent us moving forward, in securing those rights, then I don’t want to play their game.

But as Baim points out in this weeks’ cover story about the questionnaires and interviews:

civil unions are not “marriage” unless 100 percent of the benefits are the same across all states and the federal government.

In the 2004 interview, Obama also comes out against a Constitutional amendment against gay marriage, saying:

I would oppose that.

Which gives hope that DOMA will be repealed–if it can get through the House and Senate.

[H/T Ben Smith at Politico]

 There are a lot of things I’d like to see implemented in this country, a lot changes made, and from reading what I write you pretty much know that marriage equality is a huge issue for me, and there are several suggestions in the briefing book including the repeal of  DOMA. I voted on ideas important to me and then I…uh, wrote up one myself.

Rather than be redundant and draw away from the many articulate ideas I share with others who had posted their  (far less typo-ridden) thoughts, I wrote something new something I hadn’t really gone into before, which like Civil Marriage Equality, won’t cost the government very much money, won’t raise taxes and will benefit millions of citizens: Opening scientific medical research exchange with Cuba. I know it’s a tiny weird idea, but Cuba’s CIM, the Center of Molecular Immunology, has made some amazing strides in immunology research projects  focused on cancer immunotherapy, especially the development of molecular vaccines. Yeah, cancer vaccines.

In the United States cancer is the second leading cause of death, with some half a million people dying every year from that disease. Cancer knows no political boundaries, the immune system is not a political entity, and scientific research–like art–is both inspiration and hard work.

But in 2003 the  Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") established a regulation stating that publishing works–articles, short stories, research papers–from Cuba, Libya, Sudan and Iran was in violation of the embargos imposed on those countries, and required a license in order to publish anything from poetry to scientific articles. Those who did not comply with the regulation could have been fined up to $50,000 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

A group of publishers and editors quickly filed suit and the matter was thankfully resolved in 2007. Now I’d like to see that embargo further lifted to allow scientists from the US and Cuba to  inspire and work together in laboratories.

Opening the door for Cuban researchers to work with their American compatriots in the field of immunology allows for the exchange of ideas and information that can help speed cures and vaccines, not only for cancer, but for diabetes, hepatitis C, diabetes, allergies and HIV/AIDS. Unlocking the secrets of the immune system can lead to lowered health care costs; better, cheaper drugs in the pipeline; and and overall growth of scientific research. And yes, an end to cancer and other immune system disorders.

 So have fun in the Briefing Book, write up your own ideas, vote for what’s important to you and enjoy this new way of making our thoughts and concerns known to our new administration.

Today Rep.John Conyers joined the voices, including Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman in  expressing dismay over the telegenic Lipitor shill  whose work for AccentHealth, as LaFiga mentioned yesterday, is kinda blurry.

In the letter to his Democratic colleagues, Conyers  writes:

there are highly experienced medical professionals who question whether Dr. Gupta has the necessary experience or even the medical background to be in charge of some 6,000 physicians or more who work in the United States Public Health Service… Clearly, it is not in the best interests of the nation to have someone like this who lacks the requisite experience needed to oversee the federal agency that provides crucial health care assistance to some of the poorest and most underserved communities in America.

The Surgeon General operationally heads the 6,000-member Commissioned Corps of the USPHS, a cadre of health professionals who are on call 24 hours a day, and can be dispatched by the Secretary of HHS or the Assistant Secretary for Health in the event of a public health emergency. Like oh say, an outbreak of samonella in 42 states?

A public health emergency…those are chilling words. And is the handsome neurosurgeon up for that? Howard Dean, himself a doctor thinks Gupta is good choice. Well, okay then…

Conyers quotes Gerard M. Farrel, Executive Director of the Commissioned Officers Association saying Gupta

does not have the "experience or qualifications to be the leader of the nation’s public health service."

It is vital to have a Surgeon General whose vision is more that "take two of Brand Names and watch me discuss it on the teevee."   Gupta is slick polished, he’s eloquent, and he’s media savvy.   It’s quite possible that his familiar face will be an asset to the president, who can make use of him to send out the presidential message of health and explain Obama’s health plan, which hopefully will be one of affordable, preventative care and swift affordable access to services for all.

Hopefully along with raising the the issues of experience and policy during the confirmation process, Congress will ask for a full disclosure of all speaker fees, corporate sponsors, payments, salaries and sources of income for Dr Gupta, thus laying all these matter to rest.

But will Gupta want to give his income streams–the televsion contracts, fer instance, for the gig? But again, it does come with a cool uniform.