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www.NationalView.org's Note From a Madman
September 1, 2008
Sexual Education - Back in the News?
"Ahhh, I think I support the president's policy,"
-John McCain, November 2007
Question: What was the above statement in reference to? Select one of the
choices below:
a) Never-ending war in Iraq
b) More tax cuts for the McBush "base of haves and have mores"
c) No funding for teen pregnancy programs or sex education taught in school
Whereas any of the above answers could be true, the correct answer in this case
is:
c) No funding for teen pregnancy programs or sex education taught in school
Thanks to McCain's choice as the second best person in the nation to become
President, Sarah Palin, teen pregnancy is on the map again. The argument is, in
part, this: Should teens be taught about ways to avoid becoming pregnant or
contacting an STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease) or should the only policy be
"Don't do it"?
Sarah Palin's pregnant seventeen-year-old daughter has become a political
football that no child should have to become. But having this conversation is
extremely important. The next President will be appointing federal judges and,
more than likely, a number of US Supreme Court Justices. McCain has promised
that his choices for those high level positions will have to meet his litmus
test: Pro-Life only to meet his "values".
But it goes further than that. The new, McCain-led Republican Party looks much
like the same old Bush-led Republican Party, and on the issue of sex, there is
no difference at all.
Let me say this to the blind followers of no sex-ed in schools: They're still
going to do it, just like Bristol Palin. They're not going to listen to their
parents; they're not going to listen to their teachers; they are going to listen
to their hormones and do what isn't best for them.
And as for those on the Right who rationalize that anything but vaginal
intercourse goes, so have a good time, they dismiss what sex education means to
the teaching of avoiding STD's.
Sarah Palin is apparently keeping her previous opinion that there is no place in
public schools for sex education.
"explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support,"
-Palin from a 2006 questionnaire
In other words, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Surely the
daughter of a GOP Vice Presidential candidate can afford to do the time.
In 2006, McCain voted along with his fellow Republicans against funding sex ed
programs aimed at curbing teen pregnancy. He did, however, endorse President
Bush's abstinence-only programs and the millions of dollars sent to Religious
groups, as long as they don't support abortion or women's rights.
McCain stumbles blindly behind Bush in this, as well as so many other policy
issues. When asked if the government should provide contraceptives of counseling
on contraceptives, his answer was an astounding:
"You've stumped me,"
-McCain
And that's another part of the problem. With McCain so easily "stumped" his fall
back position is whatever President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the
polls of the Religious Right say. After voting 95 percent of the time with
President Bush, one wonders if he even reads a bill any more or if he just calls
the White House and asks, "How do you guys want me to vote on this one."
Certainly there will be no reform performed under
"The-Candidate-Formerly-Known-as-the-Maverick".
As if there ever would be.
-Noah Greenberg
Learning About Candidate Palin and GOP
Election "Rules"
We are all just learning about GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and,
as a result of her out-of-nowhere selection by John McCain to be the one only a
heartbeat away from the White House, if McCain were to win this November, Palin
has a lot of unanswered questions to put a check or "X" next to, and none of
these questions have to do with her daughter.
For one thing, her affiliation with the Alaskan Independence Party. The AIP, as
I assumed they're known in the forty-ninth state, advocates secession from the
United States and wants to put all federal lands in Alaska in the domain of
their new nation. Although the McCain-Palin campaign have answered the question
of how she was registered as a US citizen-voter, that particular question was
never asked.
"Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, told ABC News that Palin and her
husband, Todd, belonged to the party in 1994. Mark Chryson, chairman of the
Independence Party from 1995 to 2002, told the network that Palin attended the
party's convention in 1994. He said he was not certain if she was a party
member, and party records do not date back that far."
-The associated Press
Now imagine had a Democratic candidate for the Vice Presidency had stood up to
speak at a Green Party, Liberal Party or (Heaven forbid!) a Socialist Party
convention sometime in the last century or so. The questions would have come
hard and fast and non-stop from the likes of Fox News, Karl Rove and any number
of Rightie talking heads about that candidate's patriotism.
Certainly the fact (and yes, it is a "fact") that Governor Palin not only
attended the AIP's 1994 convention, but was a speaker at it makes one wonder as
to where her loyalties lie.
"Your party plays an important role in our state's politics. I've always said
that competition is so good, and that applies to political parties as well."
-Palin, at the 1994 convention via video from the AIP web site
Perhaps it was only pandering - something that the GOP are known to do towards
vulnerable groups looking for a champion - that had Palin speak at the
convention, but one has to question her intentions and whether or not she
advocated (as I'm sure she no longer would admit to today) the removal of Alaska
as a State in these United States.
The McCain campaign is up in arms about the revelations from the candidate they
say they had vetted and knew everything about. But certainly, this one had to
have been missed.
"I think people's families are off limits and people's children are especially
off limits,"
-Barack Obama in response to innuendo and rumors about Bristol Palin
But is that always so? In modern day presidential politics it has not been the
case, and it usually came from Right to Left. In 1972 it happened to Senator
Edmund Muskie (D-NH) and the "Canuck letter" and the attack on his wife by a
Nixon-supportive newspaper in New Hampshire, the Manchester Union-Leader. The
Nixon-Watergate "Dirty Tricks" department was in charge of that one. Next came
George McGovern's choice of Senator Tom Eagleton (D-MO) as his running mate. It
turned out that Eagleton had checked himself in for psychiatric care from
1960-1966 three times. Had Eagleton not withdrew, he would have been the only
candidate with a certificate that proved his sanity.
Moe recently, the Bush-Rove-Cheney dirty tricks campaign slurred the name of
none other than John McCain during the 2000 GOP primary season. McCain, through
what could best be called "agents" of the Bush campaign, called McCain the
Manchurian Candidate , referring to his time in a North Vietnamese POW camp and
brain-washing; called his adopted daughter a bastard black child he had fathered
with an African-American prostitute; and called his second wife Cindy a drug and
alcohol abuser. It get Bush over the hump in Sough Carolina and occurred after
the two men promised each other not to perform any dirty tricks.
Then there was the attacks on Al Gore's war record. Gore, the son of a US
senator, actually went to Viet Nam while his opponent, George W. Bush stayed at
home and "flew" in the Alabama Air National Guard, a unit without any airplanes.
In the 2004 election, it was Bush and the NeoCons who let loose on Senator John
Kerry's Viet Nam record. The "Swift-Boating" of Kerry made his stellar record as
a Swift Boat River Captain appear to those who listened believe that Kerry - the
man who actually served and won numerous purple hearts, two bronze stars and one
silver star for his heroism in saving a fellow officer - was a coward. And if
that weren't enough, the non-stop ridicule of his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, the
former wife of moderate Republican Senator John Heinz - was over the top.
And need we talk about what the GOP did to Candidate, then President Bill
Clinton's wife Hillary? Surely we remember the calls from such NeoCon radio
hosts as Rush Limbaugh calling Mrs. Clinton a "Feminazi"; and you must remember
the cries about Mrs. Clinton's statement about not wanting to stay home and bake
cookies.
How many cookies does Governor Palin bake anyway? The mother is on the road with
a four month old baby at home with Down's Syndrome. Take it from one who knows:
Handicapped children need their parents around.
In our current election cycle we have heard from the Right that Senator Obama
wasn't born in America; that he attended a Muslim Madras as a boy; and the
constant mentioning of his middle name "Hussein" as a sort of curse. And if that
were not enough, the voices of the Republican Party have been calling his wife
"unpatriotic; calling her "Obama's babies' Momma"; have wished the pair of them
dead because it would be "easier"; and called a nice moment between the
candidate and his wife "a terrorist fist-bump."
As the Republican National Convention keeps dragging along, we're sure to hear
how bad the Democrats are. And as the campaign for the White House moves closer
and closer to its November 4th date with history, the attacks on Senator Obama's
race; the attacks on Michelle Obama as un-American; and even Joe Biden's
children family will get worse and worse. Sure, they won't come from John McCain
himself, but they will come.
Certainly the GOP should make the rules they wish for all to follow. Their
definition by the Party of Diminished Responsibility will allow them the
opportunities to break and re-write them as they go along.
-Noah Greenberg
THE LAVENDER TUBE: FALL PREVIEW
by Victoria A. Brownworth
copyright c 2008 San Francisco Bay Area Reporter, Inc.
Ah fall–when we are finally rewarded for the long hot summer of our TV
discontent with shows that augur excitement–or at least enticement–and which
aren’t all reality, reality, reality (which is never quite real, anyway).
This fall’s premiere will be even more anticipated because last season was
truncated by the months’ long writer’s strike.
We await the return of our favorites and anticipate the new shows. TV is busting
out all over in the next few days and weeks.
Of course the election will continue to dominate through October, and with that
in mind another new show is worth a look. Rachel Maddow, longtime guest host on
MSNBC’s *Countdown*with Keith Olbermann will have her own (as yet to be named)
show starting September 8th–the same day the new season of *Ellen* debuts on
NBC, making for a nice lesbian sister act. (Maddow also has her own radio show
on Air America.)
This is great news for several reasons. First, Maddow is smart and savvy and
does a great deconstruction of what’s happening in the political arena. Second,
Maddow is the first out lesbian to have such a show in TV history (and she even
*looks* like a dyke, which is a nice change from *The L World* view of real
lesbians). Third, as liberal pundit Glenn Greenwald notes “The New Republic–of
all places--laments the loss of ‘nuance or intellectual rigor’ on television as
epitomized by MSNBC's troubling decision to give an actual liberal her own
show.”
Oh my! Because there aren’t any shows with *conservatives* hosting them? Or
because Maddow’s a *woman* and a *lesbian*? It would take a lot more Rachel
Maddows to balance the conservative/liberal *imbalance* on the nightly talk
circuit, *we* think.
So we’re excited about Maddow. (If you missed Maddow talking about her new show
on *Countdown,* it’s definitely worth watching. She’s pretty excited, too.)
We’re also all anticipatory about how the pundits are going to cover John
McCain’s running mate, the super-talented Sarah Palin. (Yes, we *can* appreciate
the talents of the right, even though they can’t appreciate the talents on our
side. And no, we are *not* unbiased. We lean way to the left and are proud of
it.)
TV pundits were batting a big zero–as was late night’s Jimmy Kimmel, who was the
first to Photoshop Palin naked–in the opening days. Latching on to the “beauty
queen” label and ignoring her 16 years in elected office, journalism degrees and
career, TV pundits decided to go with what had worked *so* well for them with
Hillary Clinton’s candidacy–blatant sexism.
Seems like TV news doesn’t have much of a learning curve. We can’t have Rachel
Maddow host her own show and (*Governor*) Sarah Palin belongs naked on a moose?
What year is this, again?
*Sigh.*
What year it *isn’t* is the year of queer TV. *Surprise!* But there are a
smattering of queer characters on some of the new and returning shows. Some are
worth watching, some not. We’ll tell you the ones that are.
We urge everyone to watch shows that are spectacularly good, whether they have
queer characters or not, like Showtime’s *Dexter.* Dexter isn’t gay. He’s also
not straight. He’s a serial killer. And we really, really love him.
Two shows new to last season that are very queer friendly and got clipped by the
writer’s strike are ABC’s *Dirty Sexy Money* which returns on October 1st adding
lesbian heart-throb Lucy Lu to the cast and *Pushing Daisies,* which returns the
same night, same network, with Kristen Chenoweth hot off her Emmy nod.
*DSM* is high-toned, high-drama, prime time soap and leaves *Gossip Girl* in the
teen queen dust. (Although *GG*–on the CW for those of you who have been off the
planet–*does* have a gay character in Eric van der Woodsen, played twinkily by
Connor Paolo. Eric came out at the tail end of last season and this season
promises to have him find his own boyfriend. And maybe get fag-bashed for good
measure.)
*DSM* features the only actual MTF playing an MTF on network, Candis Cayne, who
is the mistress of Patrick, the politician of the Darling family (played by
William Baldwin). There’s lots of sex scenes, which is waaaay over the top for
prime time. Plus the show is just great, great fun and Donald Sutherland has
never been more complex nor Blair Underwood sexier.
*Pushing Daisies* isn’t queer per se–except in sensibility. The gorgeous,
super-saturated color and the fantasy sequences and Kristen Chenoweth and
Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene all conspire to make it a queen’s delight. Every
night is Tony night on this show with these three Broadway alums.
We *love* this show and you will, too.
Speaking of shows we love–even if they are guilty pleasures–*Grey’s Anatomy*
ended last season with a Sapphic kiss between the recently divorced (by the
show’s *actual* gay actor, T.R. Knight) Callie and boss Erica. Expect to see
this lesbian/bisexual twosome flourish over the new season which has it’s
two-hour premiere on September 25th.
We also have a guilty hankering for Fox’s *Bones,* a holdover from our *Buffy*
crush of years past, David Boreanaz being a vampire of anyone’s dreams. He’s an
FBI guy now, but will always be Angel to us.
Angela (Michaela Conlin), one of the sexy forensics team on *Bones* has a past.
We all knew that. But it seems her past includes an ex-girlfriend. Hmmm. Now we
know why Angela never could quite get her act together with men.
ABC’s Emmy-winning *Sisters&Brothers* returns September 28th, replete with queer
storyline. Scotty (Canadian actor Luke Macfarlane, who came out himself last
season) and Kevin (Matthew Rhys) got married last season after many ups and
downs (like the entire clan) in their relationship.
Can a gay marriage last longer than a straight one on the tube? That will be one
of the challenges for Scotty and Kevin this season.
It’s the final season of *ER* on NBC. *ER* has taken many a twist and turn over
the years and has regularly featured queer storylines and this final season will
likely see some of that as well. For the finale, NBC has hired a very big gun
for the cast–Oscar-nominated Angela Bassett. Reason alone to tune in.
Meanwhile, over on the reality side, CBS debuts *Survivor: Gabon.* The perennial
favorite in the reality category often has gay players and this season is no
exception. Watch *Survivor* (in exquisite Gabon–could Africa be more beautiful?)
for Charlie Herschel, a gay New York lawyer who is a marathon runner when he’s
not trying cases.
Herschel is 29 and very cute, so expect to see him sans shirt throughout the
season. *Survivor* has had two other queer winners, so the odds aren’t bad for
Charlie if he learns the ropes. *Survivor* has its two-hour opener on September
25th.
Among the new shows this season, there’s plenty to check out, notably queer
writer/producer/director (*American Beauty,* *Six Feet Under*) Alan Ball’s new
series on HBO, *True Blood,* which debuts Sunday September 7th.
We love the ultra-talented Ball and we love what we’ve previewed of *True
Blood,* which has another gay character of color (there seem to be more queers
of color this season than ever before–Conlin, Sarah Ramirez on *Grey’s*) in
Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsen Ellis). Lafayette plays to the show’s lead,
Oscar-winner Anna Pacquin’s Sookie.
Lafayette is a queen of all trades–he sells blood (vampire blood), runs a porn
site and is a queer escort. Sometimes he’s butch, sometimes he femme. But he’s
always gay, which makes for a change.
Paris Barclay was long the only black queer on the other side of the camera on
the tube. He directed myriad episodes of the Emmy-winning *NYPD Blue* and was
responsible for getting gay characters into the show. Most recently he was
executive producer on HBO’s popular *In Treatment,* where he brought Blair
Underwood’s character out of the closet.
Barclay, who started out as an actor, has been everywhere and done all of
that--directing and producing on network and cable. Now he has a new show of his
own on BBC America.
*Skins* debuted on Britain’s Channel 4, known for excellent showcasing of edgy
stuff. (We wrote ecstatically about *Clapham Junction* here a few weeks back.)
The show has been edited for palatability to American audiences (read: the sex
has been cut down dramatically because we are such prudes), but it is still
superb.
For those addicted to *The Hills* and *Gossip Girl,* *Skins* is oh-so-much
smarter. And it has Maxxie, a gay boy in this teen-driven drama. Maxxie has a
lot of issues. The show has a lot of sex. And *Skins* covers the waterfront of
teen angst, from eating disorders to sexual identity. The show debuted during
the Olympics (stupidly) but airs Sundays on BBC America. (Oh and it has
subtitles when necessary, even though the Brits think *we’re* the ones who
distorted the language.)
A few more new shows to ponder: *Raising the Bar* on TNT, *Fringe* on Fox, *The
Eleventh Hour* and *The Mentalist* on CBS.
*The Eleventh Hour* is superb. Starring Rufus Sewell (late of *John Adams*) as
the brooding and brilliant Dr. Hood and Marley Shelton (the babe from
*Grindhouse*) as the bionic woman. This show is one of those remakes of a
British drama–except it works, unlike *The Office.* Premiering after *CSI,* it
will hook you right from the first episode. A definite must.
*Fringe* has a similar theme–science gone awry. It debuts in a two-hour opener
on September 9th. Created by JJ Abrams, who created the best show on network,
*Lost,* as well as *Alias* and *Felicity,* *Fringe* is a sure-fire sci-fi hit.
We’re excited already at the prospect of all these new shows! We can’t help
it–we *love* TV. Stay tuned–there’s more to come.
In response to, "Yet the question cannot be ignored: Why are the numbers so
close? Statistically, Obama has gotten more than 80 percent of all news coverage
to McCain’s paltry 54 percent. As veteran reporter Daniel Shore noted when Obama
was in Germany, 'Obama’s news. McCain isn’t,'" Anonymous writes:
Perhaps you haven't seen the latest polls. Obama has gained many points in
several important polls. I won't list them all here, but some include women who
previously said they wouldn't vote for him.
Note: A recent study (I believe it was on CNN) showed that Senator Obama is
shown more on the cable news channels and other media than John McCain by a
wo-to-one margin. That same study showed that the bad Obama news overshadowed
the good Obama news by a 74-to-26 percent margin.
Be careful what you wish for. -NG
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg