You might have been noticing in the Twitter updates, each week I've been setting for myself a big picture goal. So far, I've been getting a lot out of it. Last week's, "one step after the other" was a big success and thinking about these macro-sized things and making them into weekly mantra's can be helpful when you get stressed.
This week's mantra is born out of two things; the first, being the death of Tim Russert, who was one of my heroes. I talk about Russert's influence on me as a journalist over at Flaming Politics, but he's a hero to me because of the way he conducted his life. He was aggressive, tough and successful, but remained true to his roots, cared deeply about passing on his knowledge as much as he was excited about absorbing others and brought passion to all the arenas of his life. I believe, and try to live out, that success should never change who you are, because who you are is what makes you successful. Tim clearly embodied that axiom. Here's a guy who worked relentlessly, put his family first and still showed a generosity of spirit to everyone he met, no matter who they were or where they came from.
The second reason I'm keeping "Let There Be Love" in my head this week is that I'm making real headway on the screenplay and it's reminding me why I love writing stories: They surprise you. I keep referring to the movies as "Close Encounters", because I want to do a big, fantastical commercial film that's grounded in an everyday reality. But the surprise over the weekend is that I'm realizing that what I'm writing is an anti-apocalyptic movie. The usual summer blockbuster is about the world put in peril by a killer storm/alien/large rock of kryptonite and someone comes along and beats up someone else and somehow the world is saved. I think I'm writing a film that inverts that formula a bit. The end of the world always seems just around the corner, be it by the hand of war or science or religion and sometimes it does come, whether its in Darfur, on the beaches of Normandy or on the 82nd Floor of Tower One, but we keep living. In the face of apocalypse, humanity doesn't run screaming into the night; we endure. We don't have the luxury of Superman, so we survive through love.
Now, I just need to, you know- make it sell to the 14-28 year old males. Good thing I put in explosions and hot chicks.
Uh-Oh. Video of Michelle Obama Ranting About "Whitey" Leaked
We've heard the rumors, and it seems that someone in the RNC (or maybe a disaffected Hillary supporter?) has released what everyone up 'til now thought was a fairy tale: A video of Michelle Obama at a Louis Farrakhan audience talking about a dude named "Whitey" and saying some rather uncharitable things about him. I guess Larry Johnson was right after all. Bob Beckel called it! G.O.P. strategist Roger Stone was on the money when he said "What other reason would [Hillary] have for staying in the race than this video?"
Once you see the video (link below-- it's too gut-wrenching to embed on this page) I think you'll see what a big mistake America has made in nominating Barack Obama. No matter how affirming of the ideals of America, how much the world embraces his vision of America, no matter how adept at foreign policy, no matter how many stadia he fills with people seeking genuine transformative change in this country, nothing makes up for this. I thought this was just a lie being perpetuated by rabid partisan Clintonista's (like HillBuzz) desperate to give their failed candidate another nanosecond of spotlight. I was convinced that their gambit was nothing more than a pathetic attempt at Rovian innuendo, a sad embarrassing graceless note to the funeral dirge that is the Clinton hold on the Democratic Party.
But I was wrong. I apologize. Clinton people, you were right all along.
Asked for a reason he actually opposes gay marriage, anti-gay marriage lawyer Dan Schweitzer flounders before Bill O'Reilly, comparing gay and straight relationships as being as different as winter and summer. Bill-O, after trying to give the guy as many opportunities to come up with a reason as possible concedes that all the justifications are lame and bigoted. I know this has been up for a bit, but if you haven't seen it, you should.
Check out the latest installment of Flaming Politics at After Elton. This week on Flaming Politics, I put Hillary-talk to rest (at least in my own mind) as I conduct a post-mortem on what worked and what didn't work in her campaign, no character assassination needed. Also, gay victims of the Nazi Holocaust are honored, a Birmingham, AL Mayor puts the kebosh on a pride parade and what you can do to start getting involved in the fight for equal marriage.
Japhy eschews the usual cavalcade of sing-alongs, cartoons, and game show parodies to give you a firsthand, heartfelt, on-the-ground account of the historic marriage decision in his adopted home state of California. You know he's serious, because he's wearing a suit; though it's possible he's just trying to nab wedding invites.
Does this decision really matter? Will we ever achieve true equality? Don't expect the answers here, but it's a good place to start the conversation.
"In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual's sexual orientation -- like a person's race or gender -- does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights."-- From the California Supreme Court which invalidated a gay marriage ban, thereby making marriage a legal option for me and all gay Californians.
HIL-arious. Sunset Blvd. is, like most marginally employed screenwriters without a car in L.A., one of my favorite movies ever. And who better to play Norma, than -- oh, just watch it. I mean, it's really really mean, but oh-so-awesome.
Taking the AP Headline "Artist Robert Rauschenberg Dead at 82" and prefacing it with the word "Gay", Advocate* paid tribute to the influential pre-pop visionary by unceremoniously -- and inaccurately-- outing him.
The problem? Throughout his life Rauschenberg actively avoided being called "gay" or "homosexual", preferring, when pressed to describe himself as "pansexual". When Rauschenberg's "Combines" show came to L.A. in 2007, I ran a story by art historian Bill Picture called "Why Won't Robert Rauschenberg Come Out?" that covered the issue.
In the article, Picture wrote "according to [Harvey Milk Institute founder Jonathan] Katz, Rauschenberg doesn't identify as a gay man. "He considers himself pansexual," Katz explains. "You have to remember, though, that while we think of the term 'gay' today as a political identity as well as a sexual one, during the 1950s [when the Combines series was created] homosexuality was a pathology." Regarding the standing decision of curators and art historians to skirt the gay issue, Katz believes it has to do with more than just appeasing conservative museum-goers. "I think they're [also] opposed to the idea that there can be any kind of code that will unlock these works".
None of this was in the Advocate piece, which was printed verbatim from the wires except for the addition of the word "Gay" to the headline. What's the big deal, right? Even if Rauschenberg isn't totally gay, he's pretty gay. Obviously, I think a story about Rauschenberg in a gay publication is appropriate, but to tack on the label "gay" to someone on their death, when in life that person had a much more nuanced view of their sexuality is shoddy journalism.
That Advocate makes the claim without bothering to elaborate is just frustrating in its mindless reductionism. Would they print "Eleanor Roosevelt, Gay First Lady, Dead" or "Leonard Bernstein, Gay Composer, Dead"? It would seem so. While both figures are certainly worth talking about in a gay historical context, calling them gay and leaving it at that would be irresponsible. Same goes for Rauschenberg. If you're going to eulogize someone who's sexuality is not cut and dry, you at least owe it to your readers to report on it. The utter laziness in throwing "Gay" onto an AP headline and leaving it at that is infuriating. That it's coming from a gay publication is mind-boggling.
*Full disclosure: I write for Advocate from time to time.
By accident, of course. One image shown in the spot has the caption, "Clinton aides admit it won't do much for you, but would help her politically". Via Dan Savage @ Slog.
Here's some of what I've been working on this week:
An interview with Arthur Dong, director of Hollywood Chinese, a fantastic documentary about the Chinese-American experience in Tinseltown. I could have talked to Arthur for hours-- a really funny, fascinating and thoughtful guy. (The Advocate)
A QnA with photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Sort of got me thinking about how the media's job is to define and label things (this is a trend, it is about these kinds of people, it fits into this category) and fine artists are all about introducing ambiguity and challenging the nature of the boxes we stuff things into. Not that any of that shows up in the piece. (Popnography)
The 400 pound gorilla this week is my big feature story on "The Boys of Buzznet", Jeffree Star, Clint Catalyst and Matthew Lush. I'll probably write another blog soley about the backstory to this piece. For the moment, I'll just say I'm pretty proud of it and really thankful for my editor, Shana. (Out.com)
Obama Responds to "Bittergate"- 'Yeah, People ARE Bitter"
You know, this was the big lesson I walked away with when I did my religious roadside attractions documentary-- people in Middle America aren't hateful. The reason they jump on all these conservative bandwagon issues (extreme pro-life, anti-gay, creationism) has more to do with their own anger and frustration at the poverty, lack of access to education and lack of economic opportunity they find themselves in. It's not a talking point-- if you want to combat the worst of social conservatism the way you do it is by providing these areas with good jobs, education and the opportunity to develop their own communities.
Because if it's Wednesday, it's Flaming Politics. This week, I ask if Elton John is the proverbial fat lady singing to let Hillary know her time has come to an end.
Storefront for Art & Architecture and the Control Group have an open competition to design a new White House (for kicks). Winners get flown to New York in July for a gallery show. You can keep the original structure ala Renzo Piano, or if you want, knock the whole thing down and put in a Neutra.
The meaning of democracy and we must think of that very seriously. There are new problems. They must be met in new ways....It is a foolish thing to say that you pledge yourself to live up to the traditions of the New Deal and the Fair Deal--of course, you are proud of those traditions; of course you are proud to have the advice of the elders in our party, but our party is young and vigorous. Our party may be the oldest democratic party, but our party must live as a young party, and it must have young leadership. It must have young people, and they must be allowed to lead. They must not lean on their tradition. They must be proud of it. They must take into account the advice of the elders, but they must have the courage to look ahead, to face new problems with new solutions. --Eleanor Roosevelt
As this season hits its nastiest and most cynical, I think it's important to remember what the Democratic Party could be, what it ought to be, what it must be. It is the party that raised America out of the Depression, fought WWII and gave teeth to the idea that "all men are created equal". In my lifetime, I've seen a Democratic party which though the way to win was to be like your opponent, not realizing that Americans don't care who wins at the game of politics, they care about who will lead the people, who will reinvent the American promise for the next chapter of our history.
"Now you see me now you don't, I come and go": Under heavy sniper fire in Pennsylvania today, Hillary Clinton took time away from bringing peace to Ireland to answer some reporters questions and remind them that they can probably get another news cycle out of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. You'll notice she answers the totally random question from notes which she reads from the podium. Immediately after the event, she joined Sinbad in taking down Kim Jong Il with her bare hands.
You say "misspoke", I say, "lied". While this clip is very funny, Hillary's unbelievable exaggerations about her "experience" are finally coming to light. There's nothing wrong with being a First Lady and she seemed to have been a good one, but we've already had a President who exaggerates danger to play on our fears. Can we really stomach another?
I love supporter-generated videos. This one, "It's Raining John McCain", will make your eyes bleed. However, since misguided sympathy for tone-deaf women seems to drive out voters, maybe this'll give him a bump.
He tells The Daily Swarm, "What the fuck?! That ain't no fuckin' name, yo. That ain't that nigga's name. You can't be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here." Read it all here.
Economics journalists are often accused of being Cassandra's; prophesying doom left and right. Take this quote from last year for example:
June 13, 2007:
"It is impossible to predict when the magic moment will be reached and everyone finally realizes that the prices being paid for these companies, and the debt taken on to support the acquisitions, are unsustainable. When that happens, it won't be pretty. Across the board, stock prices and company valuations will fall. Banks will announce painful write-offs, some hedge funds will close their doors, and private-equity funds will report disappointing returns. Some companies will be forced into bankruptcy or restructuring...Falling stock prices will cause companies to reduce their hiring and capital spending while governments will be forced to raise taxes or reduce services, as revenue from capital gains taxes declines. And the combination of reduced wealth and higher interest rates will finally cause consumers to pull back on their debt-financed consumption." --Steven Pearlstein, The Washington Post
In this week's Washington Post, Pearlstein says that the current crisis "is turning into the most serious financial market crisis since the Great Depression". Bet you want to hear what he has to say about our economic future now:
"It's anyone's guess how long this credit crunch will last, but the chances are that we'll have several more market meltdowns and Fed rescues before it's over, probably in the fall. Until then, the dollar will continue to get hammered and stocks will continue their fitful decline. And if the last two financially induced recessions are any guide, it will be well into 2009 before the economy hits bottom, followed a couple of years of slow growth and "jobless" recovery."
The NYTimes asks "Why Do Their Wives Stand There, Beside Their Man?" today, looking at Silda Wall Spitzer, Lee Hart, Suzanne Craig, Dina Matos McGreevey and of course, Hillary Clinton. It's an interesting question: Are these ladies dupes being used as political pawns or are they protecting their family? There's no question all of them were duped to begin with, but by supporting their philandering husbands publicly, are they reframing the debate as a personal one, as opposed to a public one?
My two cents is that if the people deign you worthy of public office, with all its enormous power and privilege, the least you can do is keep a lid on the whoring while you're in office, be it with a whore, a page, an intern, you name it. If you really get all hot and bothered and can't control yourself anymore, you can always go fuck your wife.
If the Dems lose to this guy it will be entirely their own fault. I don't get it. Does he think he's the nominee because he's the most partisan Republican around? It's like a pod person took over his brain.
I'm a little more sanguine now that I've had a few hours to digest what happened last night in the Texas and Ohio Democratic primaries. Hillary succeeded in changing the goalposts and as I had expected, she won Ohio and won the popular vote in Texas. At this early in the morning it looks like she might get a net gain of 4 whole delegates out of this.
You're going to hear a lot about how it's increasingly improbable that Hillary can win the nomination. The reality is, Obama cut her 20 point leads down to nearly nothing and at this point, the goalposts that really matter-- that is, the delegates are not just in Obama's favor; there's pretty much nothing Clinton can do to win the pledged delegates.
Here's why I'm happy. Had Obama won tonight, he would be the nominee and McCain and the Republican's would begin an all out assault. Right now, they don't have to because they have Hillary to do it for them. Somebody would be going after Obama and I'd rather it be Hillary. She can continue to throw the "kitchen sink" at him, if she's lucky pick up a delegate or two here and there and at the end of the primaries, still be behind.
But what about all the damage she's doing? Bollocks. She's not saying or doing anything McCain wouldn't be doing or saying. In fact, the tow of them look more like a team every day. The upshot of this is that all indications are Hillary & Co. will do anything to win and as her tactics become more aggressive and dubiously ethical, her critiques of Obama will seem more and more repugnant, weakening their effectiveness by McCain in the general. This lady is going to burn the house down with herself and still, there's just no way for her to win.
For all intents and purposes, Obama will be the nominee. Hillary's continued presence in the race manages to keep Republicans at bay while also, let's be honest, help draw a distinction between Obama and the liberals of the past. McCain will have a far harder time drawing Obama as the classic liberal after Hillary's self-immolation. Obama's continued to conduct himself with grace and dignity. Even after Hillary refused to acknowledge Obama's wins in the 11 primaries after Super Tuesday, Obama congratulated Hillary on her wins, as one example. And for someone who wants to win the general election in November, his focus on going after McCain now is the right move. I'd be standing by him even if he wasn't winning, but he's actually already won. Let Hillary destroy her house finding plumbing to throw at Obama. At the end of the day, he'll still be the nominee and she'll have a real fixer-upper.
Ways in Which Hillary Clinton can become the Democratic Nominee:
Score higher than 20 point margin wins on every contest from here out, including make-up primaries in Florida and Michigan.
Somehow convince the super delegates that they should vote for her even though mathematically it is highly improbable she will wind up winning the pledged delegates or the popular vote.
That's it folks and I'm open for taking bets that either of those things will happen. At least on this planet. It's no longer an opinion that there's no quantifiable way that Hillary Clinton can win. I'm sort of shocked by the myopia of the Democratic base. Do they just enjoy losing elections? Hillary Clinton can not become the nominee through anything resembling a democratic process. And where the hell are her tax returns?
"I was assigned to Precinct 316 (Lovett Elementary School). I arrived, attempted to introduce myself to the Chief Judge Ella Tyler who responded "get out".
I tried to explain that I was an attorney with Voter Protection and she said "get out". She then grabbed my arm and told me to "get out". I was escorted from the building.
We sent in another attorney Monica, a local attorney, who Ms. Tyler threatened with arrest, and Ms. Tyler has rejected her credentials were rejected now three times.
Ms. Tyler is a known Clinton supporter. In my opinion, Ms. Tyler has violated the Texas staututes [sic] and federal lawn. But she's inside and we are outside. I guess we are worried about the election in Texas today!"
Drug addict and talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh urged his listeners in Texas and Ohio to vote for Hillary Clinton tomorrow, saying:
"The strategy is to continue the chaos in this party. Look, there's a reason for this. Our side isn't going to do this. Obama needs to be bloodied up. Look, half the country already hates Hillary. That's good. But nobody hates Obama yet. Hillary is going to be the one to have to bloody him up politically because our side isn't going to do it. Mark my words. It's about winning, folks!"
Rush may not be right about much, but here he's dead on. Hillary's continued presence in the race only damages the chances of a Democrat taking the White House next year and does very little in the way of helping her catch up in delegates. While she can't win this nomination or beat Obama's delegate lead, she can prevent him from winning. We'll see what she says tomorrow and if she'll accept the reality that failure to win Texas and Ohio means there's no way she can win the nomination or if she'll sabotage the election to satisfy her own ego-- and you know, help out Rush Limbaugh.
Though I'm not a Hillary supporter, I think she's probably overqualified for the job she seems to be angling for in her latest "Save your babies! Boowgawooga" ad.
The New York Times Answers My Question About William F. Buckley
I asked Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The Times Book Review and Week in Review, who is writing a biography on William F. Buckley:
"Who in your -- or perhaps Buckley's estimation should you know it -- carries on his legacy of intellectual conservatism? If you had to nominate someone to ascend to the lectern of Buckley, who would it be?"
Clinton hack Rep. Hillary Tubbs Jones says of the photo of Barack Obama wearing a traditional Kenyan outfit, "There's nothing wrong with him wearing the clothes of his native country." By which she obviously means the outfit was manufactured in the U.S. I guess bitch really is the new black.
"How does he do it?" we're all asking ourselves. Sure, Barack Obama is a talented and gifted politician, but that doesn't explain "the movement": The cheering crowds, the inspired-by videos, the accusations that his followers are "delusional". What is the magic spell he holds over his supporters? If we could only figure out where he gets his 'mo' from, we could stop him, or copy him or at least wake up from this fantasy. What's the key to Barack Obama's rise? Just what is the "something" that he claims is happening in America?
Not to steal from Obama's thunder, but the truth is that every sweeping change a nation undergoes, whether for good or ill, is the result of some deep seated national anxiety; be it about taxation, abolition, financial insecurity or something else.
When I was in high school I always wondered why it wasn't until mid-May that my American History teacher got around to teaching about the 20th Century. It seemed that all the most important things; The Great Depression, WWII, Communism, The 60s, all happened then. As I got older, I realized that the consideration was political. While discussing the demise of the Whig Party is no big deal, no teacher wanted to have a parent chew them out for giving Nixon an apology or for judging Reagan's response to the AIDS crisis. But for us living in 2008, we have a clear line between past and present: Our world began on 9/11. Everything before that date is history.
The narrative vision of our country since then has been nightmarish. We're afraid. In fact, we're so afraid, we've declared war on fear itself and those who attack through fear. I won't repeat all the highlights of the last seven and a half years, be it anthrax or Abu Ghraib, the FREEDOM Act or Katrina, but if you're an average American, you feel under attack.
In the first days after September 11th, I wandered around the city imagining how someone could blow up whatever I happened to be standing near, on or under. I think the visceral closeness to the tragedy of that day inoculated me to the later bogeymen. I worked at ABC when the anthrax scares happened and my feeling towards terrorism now, while decidedly unpatriotic, is that it happens. This doesn't mean that it shouldn't be prevented and fought, but if some wacko really wants to blow himself up, there's really only so much we, the people, can do about it. If living in a world free of terrorism means sacrificing our democracy, I'm not sure it's worth the trade off.
But, I'm in the minority on this. Survival trumps all other concerns and as George W. Bush has said on more occasion, the conflict we're in is "existential", which might be what sparked his interest in Camus' The Stranger. I've just never been convinced that America was as fragile as all that and our long history has shown that our greatest dangers have never come from external sources, but from within ourselves.
Now, on that many would agree with me-- and point to the red sate blue state divide in this country. On one side, people like me are painted a
Barack Obama speaking at a rally in Portland on Sunday. 75,000 people attended.
