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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Today's Note From a Madman
May 26, 2008
The "R"; The "D"; and The "I"
Here's a troubling trend: Fox News, the other mouthpieces of the GOP; and the
"legitimate" main stream media outlets, such as CNN, are putting "experts" on
explaining why Hillary Clinton should drop out, stay in or - get this - become
an independent candidate for president this November.
The "Draft Hillary" movement is coming from so many on the Right side of the
aisle that it's hard to put the finger on just one. But if you turn on Fox News
Channel at almost any time of the day or night you will see and hear a number of
reasons why Hillary should take up the mantle of independence.
Of course, we all know the real reason that so many on the Right want Hillary to
become an independent candidate: Splitting the vote might be the only chance
that John McCain - a.k.a John McBush - might have to beat a better financed
nominee named Barack Obama.
There are even sights named drafthillary.org and votehillary.org that are
devoted to making the former first Lady and sitting junior Senator from New York
what the GOP want her to be - a vote-stealing independent who destroys the
democratic party on a national level.
And destroy it, it will.
You could make the argument that Hillary Clinton should be the first and only
choice by Candidate Obama for the number two seat on the Blue side this
November. It's a case that former President Bill Clinton is now making. And it
might make sense if you believe that McCain will make a strong showing in the
Northeast Democratic enclaves of New York, New Jersey and other "given" blue
states. Hillary Clinton certainly would help Candidate Obama solidify those
states in November. But the other side of the argument is that there are
probably others in the Democratic Party who might do the same and help in other
states that could be up for grabs where Senator Clinton would be no help at all.
Certainly Senator Clinton isn't thinking about this independent run seriously.
It hurt when, after backing the Iraq War and President Bush, Joe Lieberman lost
his bid to retain the "D" after his name in the 2006 Connecticut Primary and
then ran with the "I" after his name. This would be catastrophic.
And if Mrs. Clinton did decide to throw away her party - the party her husband
helped re-create in 1992 - for the "I" after her name, what would any of us in
the "D" party owe her?
Nothing, except contempt.
But the Independent Candidate idea does not seem to be hers. It seems as if this
scheme were hatched by none other than Karl Rove with the intention of creating
a third George W. Bush term. And if McCain-McBush gets into office, it's just
what we'll get.
But maybe just the idea of an Independent Clinton running for President is
ammunition enough for the hate-radio-mongers of the Right. After all, their
track record, so far, is impressive, to say the least. Perhaps using the idea
that Senator Clinton might join the race at any time after Obama is named the
official Democratic candidate would be enough to cloudy the waters and take the
target off of McCain-McBush and his promises to keep the Bush status quo going
for at least another four years.
Imagine the gullible main stream media latching onto a Karl Rove statement on
Fox News that his "sources" have confirmed to him that Senator Clinton is
running as an independent. There will be discussions about
"should-she-or-shouldn't-she"; they'll be "experts" claiming to "know" what she
is thinking; and they'll be even more time wasted on her denials, the media's
zeal for this "hot news" and Senator Obama's pleading to get back to the issues.
There will be more than enough mud to cloud-up the election waters no matter
what the truth is.
And Bush, McCain-McBush and Rove are just the mud-slingers to do it.
Just look at the traction the Swift-Boat debacle did against 2004 Democratic
nominee John Kerry. The draft-dodging Bush, somehow, came across better than the
Purple Heart and Gold- and Silver-Star winning former Naval officer. It was so
effective that the term "swift-boating" as added to our lexicon.
And don't put it past the GOP to use any means at their measure to do the same
to Obama, or anyone else who stands in their way.
Let the swift-boating begin, if it hasn't already.
-Noah Greenberg
THE LAVENDER TUBE: LIVING LA VIDA
LOCA
by Victoria A. Brownworth
copyright c 2008 San Francisco Bay Area Reporter, Inc.
Sometimes you turn on the tube and it just seems like everyone has gone a little
nuts, a little off their rocker, a little *loca.*
It was that kind of a week–crazy. The big Memorial Day weekend, the frenzy over
the election, the announcement that lesbians and gay men are equal under the law
in California (and Massachusetts, but nowhere else, apparently), the season
finales of some of our favorite shows, new *American Idol* and new *Dancing with
the Stars* winners. All of it turned up on the tube in a wild pastiche of
Americana.
Where even to begin?
With solemnity. There’s precious little attention to the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan these days. Apparently war just doesn’t rate face time on the news.
The war has garnered less than an hour, total, of news time on the networks in
the last month.
This despite 2008 being the deadliest year in Afghanistan since 2001 (yes, we’ve
been there for nearly seven years), this despite the fact that our troops are
being injured, killed and driven crazy with PTSD daily in Iraq.
So: take 20 minutes and go to ABCnews.com and check out the Memorial Day episode
of *Nightline.* It’s a view of the war as told from three returning vets. It’s
sickening, heart-breaking and enraging. But it will remind you that Memorial Day
isn’t just another three day weekend with great sales. It’s a time to reflect on
all those who have given their lives or altered their lives for all Americans.
It’s a time to reflect on duty and responsibility. It’s a time to reflect on
Bush, Cheney and the other warmongers who lied us into Iraq and never planned to
leave.
The *Nightline* episode is superb. If you don’t cry, you’re missing the empathy
gene.
Speaking of empathy, the candidates were continuing their various campaigns here
and there this past week and an empathy vacuum opened up over at MSNBC and
threatened to swallow the network whole.
Keith Olbermann went a tad insane on May 23rd in his special comment section. He
was commenting on Hillary Clinton’s response to a question posed to her by the
editorial board of a South Dakota newspaper earlier Thursday, in a meeting.
(click for full interview)
She said that many primary races run long and cited her husband’s 1992 race and
that of Robert F. Kennedy, which ended in assassination.
Some pundits–not many–went off the deep end and suggested Clinton was asking
someone to assassinate her competition, Barack Obama.
For years the Right Wing has asserted that Bill and Hillary Clinton are serial
killers. (No, really, they have.) So this was nothing new. Clinton, who has made
the same reference repeatedly over the past few months to the assassination,
apologized a few hours after the remarks were made. But since she *had* made the
reference on numerous occasions and in the same context of being asked a
question about the length of the primary race, it was difficult to see where the
outrage came in, as no one had ever commented on it before.
On *The News Hour* with Jim Lehrer on PBS, New York Times columnist David Brooks
dismissed the remark as possibly insensitive, given Ted Kennedy’s current health
status, but said it was nothing to be incensed over.
Olbermann clearly disagreed. He devoted 14 minutes to excoriating Clinton in as
vitriolic a manner as we have ever seen on the tube. Scarily vitriolic. (One
wishes he had ever taken on the Bush Administration with such strength of
purpose.) Olbermann was so over the top that we were wondering if he had lost
his medication earlier in the day.
The rant was especially troubling given Olbermann’s history with the
presidential campaign. His support for Barack Obama has been unabashed. So has
his hatred for Clinton. And given the fact that Olbermann himself actually
suggested last month that someone needed to kill Clinton to get her out of the
race (“Somebody will take her into a room — and only he comes out.”) and then
was forced to reluctantly apologize, it seems rather hypocritical to go off on
Clinton with such vigor when *she* said nothing of the sort.
The inability of the TV media to look at the presidential primary with any
objectivity at all is disturbing and bodes ill for the general election. Had the
media given the same attention to the Bush Administration that it has given to
parsing every word and gesture from Clinton in particular, but the Democrats in
general, perhaps we would have been out of Iraq by now.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a strong and early supporter of Clinton reiterated *his*
support for her after the comment in a news interview, noting, “I understand how
highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take
offense.”
Meanwhile, over on *Ellen,*the queer talk show host was doing the job the
serious journalists are supposed to be doing: Taking on John McCain.
Ellen has hosted all three candidates, but used her time with McCain on May 22nd
to address the recent same-sex marriage decision in California.
The talk show host noted that she had already planned to have a commitment
ceremony with her longtime girlfriend, actress Portia de Rossi, but now that the
marriage ban had been lifted, would be wedding her legally.
She said to McCain, “I legally now can get married like everyone should be able
to.
So I’m obviously excited and this is only fair.”
McCain, obviously uncomfortable at addressing the issue, shifted in his chair
and said, “I think people should be able to enter into legal agreements. And I
think that it is something we should encourage, particularly the necessity of
partnerships for legal agreements in the case of insurance and other areas where
decisions have to be made.” But McCain said the “unique status of marriage”
belongs to a man and a woman.
“We have respectful disagreement on the issue,” he said.
Ellen did not let him off the hook. Having repeatedly taken on civil rights
issues over the past year on her show, she made the analogy to the rights of
women and African Americans.
“Women just got the right to vote in 1920, and blacks didn’t have the right to
vote until 1870,” she noted, adding, “It just feels like there’s this old way of
thinking that we are not all the same. We are all the same, our love is the
same.”
McCain attempted to interject with more about contracts, but Ellen went on, “To
me what it feels like, it feels like when people say you can have a contract it
sounds like you can sit *there* but not *there,*” pointing as if to the front
and back of the bus.
The audience applauded wildly.
“It’s just not inclusive.”
McCain, clearly wishing he were elsewhere, said politely, “I’ve heard you
articulate that position in a very eloquent fashion. I just believe in the
unique status of marriage between man and woman, and I know that we have a
respectful disagreement on that issue. And I along with many, many others wish
you every happiness.”
Ellen got the last laugh, “So you’ll walk me down the aisle?”
“Touche,” said McCain.
Touche indeed. Ellen, once again doing the real work the press has forgotten how
to do.
Meanwhile, over on ABC, the top-rated *Grey’s Anatomy* brought their season
finale to a close with a lesbian kiss.
The most heterosexual hour on TV goes...Sapphic? *Yes.*
So goes Seattle Grace, so goes the nation.
Callie (Sarah Ramirez), Erica (Brooke Smith) and Mark (Eric Dane) are sitting
around chatting in the cafeteria. Erica says they are sharing a Sapphic salad.
(We want to try that one.) The women joke with Mark that he is *so* imagining a
threesome. Erica lays her head on Callie’s shoulder. Mark sighs heavily.
Cut to the elevator. The women are still joking with Mark when Erica leans over
and kisses Callie, long and hard.
Erica gets off the elevator and goes one way. Mark walks out of the elevator.
Callie stands for a few seconds, gobsmacked, then she too walks out. Fade to
black until next season.
Yikes!
We haven’t been so stunned since David Cook won *American Idol* instead of David
Archuleta. (For more girl-on-girl action, tune in to CBS’s new show *Swingtown,*
which debuts June 5th.)
Speaking of *American Idol,* we watched the final show, we heard Cook and
Archuleta sing and we find it *incomprehensible* that Archuleta didn’t win.
First of all, he’s adorable. We know he’s a Mormon, but if he doesn’t grow up to
be gay, we will be stunned, stunned, stunned.
But beyond his cuteness, he’s *such* a superior singer to Cook and he’s only 17.
Who voted for Cook over Archuleta? The same people who voted for Ruben Studdard
over Clay Aiken? Please.
And can we just say: 97.5 million people voted last week. Cook won by 12 million
votes. That’s about as many votes as John McCain got in the Republican primary.
If we put Hillary, Obama and McCain on *American Idol,* would that be the best
way to choose a candidate?
As our beloved noted when told Cook had won (after the initial shock that it
wasn’t Archuleta): “Well that’s it then. David Cook is president.”
If David Cook is president, what does that make Madonna and K.D. Lang? We ask
because we caught k.d. on Craig Ferguson the other night looking about as butch
as we’ve ever seen her look. She still croons like a rat packer and we still
swoon when we hear her. When Ferguson asked her about *American Idol* she said
it was telling people that’s what singing really was and that people who were
classic stars would never have made it on *AI.*
Speaking of stars who might not have made it and thus our lives would be oh so
much poorer, Madonna was the featured interview on *Nightline* on May 23rd and
the material girl was as fascinating and irritating as ever.
Interviewed with a fan’s fervor by Cynthia McFadden for the full segment,
Madonna focused on her new documentary which premiered at Cannes on May 22nd. *I
Am Because We Are* debuted to an SRO audience and received rave reviews. The
film, which Madonna produced, narrated and found the director for is about AIDS
orphans in Malawi, the African nation from which she adopted her son, David.
It’s always heartening to see celebs using their fame for good, not self-serving
evil. Catch the entire interview plus more that wasn’t on the show at
ABCnews.com, click on *Nightline.*
While you’re checking that out, check out the May 24th *Nightline* segment on
fast food and calories. And be sure you do it before your next stop at
McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Taco Bell, Starbucks or any other fast food chain.
If you were wondering why Americans are so fat, this will explain it pretty
clearly. If you get a latte from Starbucks plus a Big Mac from MacDonald’s with
fries, that’s your calories for the day. And those are the low-cal items.
*Nightline* lists links to the info the chains don’t want you to have. Check it
out.
Finally, we must once again sing the praises of CBS and *As the World Turns* for
the Best Gay Storyline Ever. We know it’s a tad juvenile to keep saying “They
kissed! They kissed!” particularly when it seems every show on the tube has
women kissing whether they are queer or not just to jump the shark. (At least
*Grey’s Anatomy was honest by having Mark in on it.)
But two *men* kissing–not something we see. *ATWT* clearly does not care about
boycotts when its ratings are soaring and viewer response is overwhelmingly
positive.
This past week Luke and Noah faced yet another impediment to the consummation of
their relationship, but viewers got to see a lot of kissing and a little bit of
fondling before they headed out of the bedroom and off to another adventure. CBS
is coming as close to treating this relationship just like it does heterosexual
relationships–with a sense of normalcy. Bravo!
So goes Oakdale, so goes the nation? We can only hope.
Stay tuned.
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg