It’s two master showmen together for one fantabulous night!

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.’   

* Sarah Palin unwittingly helped Planned Parenthood raise over $1 million during the presidential campaign when the e-mails asking for donations in her name spread virally in September and October. The e-mail directed people to Planned Parenthood’s Web site to donate in Palin’s name, and money went to the Planned Parenthood branch located in the same ZIP code as the giver.  Donors could then have that branch of Planned Parenthood send Palin a card announcing the gift.

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. 

Holy Jerry’s finger! The Dead are playing the Mid-Atlantic Ball on Inauguration night.  Previously, they’d played an Obama fund raiser at Penn State in September. What a long strange trip, etc.

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.

Okay this is sorta creepy: John Lennon, who was shot and killed 28 years ago, has been resurrected to speak out for the first time since his death. And the subject: One Laptop per Child, a campaign to deliver solar-powered XO laptop computers to the world’s poorest children (no word yet whether internet accessibility will be filtered). The ad which digitally synthesized Lennon’s voice and face, was approved by Yoko Ono.

The reconstituted Lennon, whose image is seen briefly speaking, says:

Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want. I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way. You can give a child a laptop and more than imagine, you can change the world .

A spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the One Laptop per Child Foundation started producing the XO laptop late last year at a manufacturing cost per machine of less than $200.  They’d like folks to donate to provide kids everywhere with a computer. Which is real nice, except potable water, food and vaccines are a more pressing concern for kids in under-developed and developing nations.

I thought Bruce Springsteen was pro-labor. Then I read that The Boss’ Greatest Hits will be released exclusively by Wal-Mart. Okay, its only his greatest hits, which you can download anyway song by song if you have the patience. But still, wtf?

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.