Today on her talk show, Ellen Degeneres presented Constance McMillen–the teen who challenged the district’s policy banning same-sex dates–with a scholarship check from Tonic.com. Ellen told her:

I admire you so much. When I was your age I never would have had the strength to do what you are doing.

Itawamba County school board canceled the planned April 2 prom after Constance, a high school senior let it be known she was bringing her girlfriend. The school board said the  issue caused a distraction to the educational mission of the high school and cited safety concerns as a factor in their decision, though they said they’d be fine if a private group hosted a prom.

Talk show host Degeneres had offered to pay for a private prom, but Constance said that she wanted the school district to hold the dance.  Good for Ellen!

Did Kathy Griffin offer to bail Lt. Choi out of jail or pay the fines for GetEqual.org protesters arrested at Nancy Pelosi’s office yesterday?

Along with the scholarship and the offer of a summer internship for Constance, Tonic.com is

raising money for a second-chance prom for students in Mississippi that would include gay and lesbian students. The Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition is organizing the dance, but has not released any details about it.

The Fred Phelps family of troglodytes has stepped up to get more youth-oriented, what with Megan Phelps’ recent feeble attempts at disco, and now a Facebook page for Westboro Baptist Church. WBC joined about two weeks ago, judging from when their photos were added, and they have joined as a “person” so friend requests have to be approved but whoever is claiming to be WBC. The wall page is visible to friends only, and there is no list of friends on the info page. Maybe they don’t have any friends?

Facebook is still muzzling the tin-foil hat wearing poodle…

In a separate, but related matter, The State reports

Gov. Sanford also as settled charges that he broke state ethics laws, admitting no guilt but agreeing to pay $74,000 in fines and an additional $66,223 to reimburse the cost of the investigation and his use of aircraft, travel and campaign funds.

The S.C. State Ethics Commission charged Sanford in November with 37 violations of state ethics laws, including buying business class tickets, using state aircraft for political or personal trips and improper use of campaign funds, and approved the agreement Thursday. The agency investigated Sanford after a five-day June clandestine trip to Argentina where he admitted he met his lover.

But I still Jesse James is an even bigger jerk.

As you read this, GetEqual.org members are entering Pelosi’s offices in DC and her district office in San Francisco. They won’t leave until Speaker Pelosi commits to bring the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to the floor for a vote this month – or until they are arrested.

Earlier today GetEqual.org and bloggers had urged followers to call Pelosi’s office to ENDA passed. Caller were unable ot get though becaue health care reform protesters jammed the lines when

radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday afternoon gave his listening audience the Capitol switchboard phone number and encouraged them to call it. At the end of the show, Rush bragged that the switchboard had shut down.

Tags: DC, Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, GetEqual.org, Pelosi, San francisco, sit in

Sarah Palin’s proposal for a an estimated $1 million an episode travelogue/campaign infomercial about Alaska with herself as the host has been nixed by the networks, but a couple channels are expressing interest.

Variety reports that Discovery and  A&E are nibbling and a deal could be inked by the end of the week. A&E makes sense. After all they are home to fellow-frequent-quitter Kirstie Alley’s weigh loss advert/tragicomedy product.

Towelroad reports:

According to Tweets from Robin McGehee at GetEqual reporting from the Kathy Griffin – Human Rights Campaign “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rally, McGehee, who is traveling with Lt. Dan Choi, asked Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese if Choi could speak at the rally and he rebuffed her, telling her it was Kathy Griffin’s rally. Choi took the stage anyway, told Griffin DADT is not a joke, and announced that he was marching to the White House. Choi then began leading hundreds on a march to the White House.

DC Agenda takes up the story from there

Choi encouraged Griffin and Joe Solmonese, HRC’s president, to join him as he and others walked to the White House to protest the law against open service. Neither Griffin nor Solmonese joined him, but part of the rally crowd followed Choi to the White House.

Shortly after Choi and Pietrangelo arrived at the White House, they chained themselves to the fence, an action that drew a fast response from Secret Service personnel. Some agents quickly pushed the crowd of about 50 protesters away from the White House fence and into the street, and others erected yellow police tape around the area. About seven agents stayed behind the tape with Choi and Pietrangelo.

At around this time, McGehee was arrested near the White House fence. The basis for her arrest was not immediately clear.

The agents cut Choi and Pietrangelo free after an hour and arrested them.

I wish Kathy Griffin had the guts to chain herself to the White House fence…

There’s more at Pam’s Houseblend.

Tags: chained ot white house fence, DADT, Dan Choi, don’s ask don’t tell, get Equal, Human Rights Campaign, Jim Pietrangelo, Joe Solmonese, Kathy Griffin, protest rally, Robin McGehee, secret service

Las Vegas Now reports that on March 8 a two person team–a special agent from the FBI and a prosecutor from the Criminal Division, Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice–descended on Sin City

to interview several prominent business and political figures in what appears to be a wide-ranging and deadly-serious criminal probe….

A parallel investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee has also generated subpoenas to Nevadans. Most of those subpoenaed by the grand jury were also subpoenaed by the Ethics Committee, but a few served by the Senate were not served by the DOJ.

The investigations center around scenario wherein various business were asked hire Doug Hampton, husband of Ensign’s sweetie Cindy, because in theory a job would make Doug keep his mouth shut about the senator’s affair with Cindy.   Additionally it appears at least one company was asked to make a nice financial donation to the GOP in exchange for Senator Ensign helping them out regarding pending legislation. Sleazy!

Las Vegas Now breaks it down:

Mike and Lindsay Slanker were hired by Ensign to run the fundraising effort for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Mike was also helping Doug Hampton get a job as a lobbyist while Lindsay arranged contributions to the GOP from eComm, a Nevada based pre-paid credit card company

Senator Ensign’s then-Chief of Staff John Lopez welcomed the opportunity to help a Nevada company. But sources say Ensign’s office quickly seized on the opportunity to get something in return.

Sources close to the situation say Ensign’s office warned eCommLink and others about pending prepaid card regulation and that donations and support could make those troublesome rules go away.

Ensign’s office wanted a lunch meeting and a fundraiser. Then he planned an office visit a few weeks later. Then the big push — more protection from regulation in exchange for a $28,000 contribution to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Majority Makers…Ensign’s people wanted someone, anyone, to hire Hampton as a lobbyist. Many companies declined.

Ensign of course says he has done nothing wrong legally or ethically.

Alex Chilton, whose gritty vocals gave The Boxtops their signature sound has died in New Orleans of an apparent heart attack. His band Big Star was to play South by Southwest this weekend.

Big Star and Chilton himself became cult favorites, through the championship of REM and The Replacements. In 2003 Rolling Stone magazine named all three Big Star albums to its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

For a donation of $10,000 to the Minnesota-Bachmann Victory Committee, you and a friend can pose with Sarah Palin and the lovely Michele B at a private meet and greet during Bachmann’s April 7th fund raiser being held at the Minneapolis Hilton Hotel. The $10K also gets you a table for ten, valued at $5,000, so actually a snap with the GOP snappers is only worth five large, or what Elliot Spitzer spent for an afternoon with Ashley Dupree.

This event appears designed for big money donors, but isn’t Sarah is so of the people, so vox populi? I hope the Dye-manic Duo does some fundraising events in WalMart parking lots so that their real constituents can pose with them for $15…

I wonder how well that Bachmann rubber chicken dinner will do in this economy?

According to documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Federation, US Law enforcement have been using social networking sites to gather crime fighting info. Or at least that what’s agents tell their bosses as they cruise the intert00bs for strange.
PC World reports

The following information is listed as being useful evidence that can be gathered from social networking sites:

• Reveal personal communications
• Establish motives and personal relationships
• Provide location information
• Prove and disprove alibis
• Establish crime or criminal enterprise

While Twitter won’t “preserve data without legal process,” Facebook will comply with emergency requests. And there’s nothing stopping agents from giving themselves an identity and beginning to collect friends in order to move towards accessing their target. Agents can’t impersonate you or some other “real” person, but they can become a plausible looking goofball with similar interests and start clicking away, linking to people.

I actually don’t have a huge problem with that because undercover work is part of investigations and if anyone is dumb enough to talk about their crimes on a semi-public forum, well um…gosh. Yeah.

And hopefully agents aren’t just spending time on FB and Twitter looking for trouble, but rather using the social networking sites to further ongoing investigations.

Facebook has privacy settings–use them. And don’t add everyone who asks–especially if you plan on posting a status update about how easy it was to rob that bank in Oxnard.