Monday's Man: Trevor Immelman

The cute South African recently won the Master's Tournament, defeating Tiger Woods by three strokes. It was his first major tournament victory.
Unfortunately, he hasn't done as well in the follow-up Byron Nelson. No matter. Once a Masters champion, always a Masters champion.

I'm posting this on Sunday because next week will be very busy for me. Posting will be light.

Breaking: Gay More Fun Than Straight

One of my gal-on-the-go New York friends recently took time out of her crazy career girl life to send me this article that found that gays were much more "active in the blogosphere" than straights (just saying the word "blogosphere" makes me feel like Arianna Huffington). In any case, according to the survey, 51% of gay adults read some sort of blog compared to 36% of straights. "27% of gay respondents had posted a comment on a blog in the last month and 21% had written a personal blog post in the past month. Just 13% and 7% of heterosexuals surveyed did the same, respectively."

Broadway, camp, disco, now blogging. Gays are always the trend setters, don't you think? Actually, so do psychologists. In this article from American Sexuality Magazine (what? You don't subscribe?), that Andrew Sullivan posted on, a study found that perceived differences between gay and straight men and gay and straight women have a strong basis in psychology. The study found that gay men score higher than straight men on the psychological traits of "agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, and expressiveness." We're also positively off the charts when it comes to feminine occupational and hobby preferences. This explains all those flight attendants.

So, we're both neurotic and open minded. We're conscientious, expressive (and how) and open to new experiences. Now there's scientific proof. Being Gay:
Is so much more fun than being straight.

Joe Feeney Dead at 76

Joe Feeney, the Irish tenor who performed with Lawrence Welk, has died at the age of 76 of emphysema. He performed on the Welk show from 1957 to 1982.

My grandmother absolutely adored him. When I was a kid, I would giggle and scoff at the corny show, but she demanded silence and respect when Mr. Feeney performed. "He's raised 8 children with that voice" she would remind me.

Read more at Konagod.

Luke and Noah Finally Kiss Again

It's been seven months since their last kiss, but the cuter than cute gay couple on As The World Turns finally did it again yesterday. Watch it:



CBS blamed the seven month drought on slow soap opera pacing. I'm not a big soap watcher, but it seems to me that het sex is one thing that never slows down in daytime. I don't want to be too critical though, because it's terrific that they have a young gay story line.

Man, seven months between kisses. How long do they have to wait for third base?

H/T Towleroad.

Hillary Wins Big in PA

The pundits said Hillary would have to win a decisive victory in Pennsylvania to make a difference, and she did. The final total was 55% to 45%. The New York Times, however, is reporting that her victory "was probably not sufficient to fundamentally alter the dynamics of the race, which continued to favor an eventual victory for Mr. Obama." So, now on to Indiana and North Carolina in two weeks, and endless calls for her to drop out. Maybe Obama should just try beating her.

Thrilla in Penna!

Well folks, this is it, the make or break, crucial, all-important Pennsylvania primary! This is the one that will decide it all! The fate of the free world rests with the voters of Pennsylvania! Unless, of course, Hillary ekes out a narrow victory in which case Indiana will become the make or break, crucial, all-important primary that will decide the fate of the free world. Or is that North Carolina? After all, wasn't Texas supposed to decide it all? Or was that Ohio? Super Tuesday?

Anyway, in what seems like 7 years of campaigning in a state that's been described as 2 big cities with Alabama in between, all those bitter, gun-toting voters are finally going to the polls. This morning on Good Morning America, Hillary explained to that cute Cuomo guy why she would be a better president than Obama by saying "I think I'm a more experienced cook and my meal will be better seasoned." WTF? She also said that if Iran launches a nuclear attack on Israel, "we will obliterate them." The lady has brass ones, although this seems like a manufactured issue to me (particularly since the National Intelligence Estimate has determined that Iran poses no such threat. But what the hell, nukes are butch. Let's talk Nukes!)

Obama told Robin Roberts that we've had a lot of tough talk over the past few years and that hasn't gotten us very far. Good point, but I think all those bitter voters will prefer the tough talking gal over the intellectual. I actually think they're both highly intellectual (in sharp contrast to the current president), but Hillary has learned how to be more appealing to the common man than the somewhat effete Mr. Obama. He can be kind of a tight ass, you know? Not that that means he wouldn't make a good president, on the contrary, I like the idea of an effete intellectual tight ass in the White House, but Hillary has learned to temper her tight ass qualities and go bowling and I think that will appeal to the voters in Penn.

Watch Hillary here.

By the way, I love Robin Roberts' new, post-chemo look! Watch it here.

Hillary and Obama Get Raw

What are Hillary and Obama doing on the eve of the crucial Pennsylvania primary? Appearing on WWE's Monday Night Raw, of course (that's professional wrestling for the uninitiated, like me). Unfortunately they won't be literally fighting it out in the ring, instead they'll be saying something awkward and dumb, trying to get down with the beer 'n burp set. (Actually, Hillary vs. Cheney is the one I'd pay to see. You know she'd knock the shit out of that pasty old bastard.) The press has decided that the "White Man" is the forgotten voter in this election, so it's all about beer chugging and body slams. If you'll excuse me, I'll be moving to Canada now where the politicians are more dignified.

Oh wait, maybe not.

One Sentence Story

This is the best idea I've seen lately. It's a site devoted to one sentence stories. Writing one is not as easy as it sounds. My favorite is American Girl's story about her dream trip to Israel. Go read it.

Monday's Man: Luke MacFarlane

The Canadian actor, who basically defines cute, recently came out in a newspaper interview.



It isn't exactly a shock to find out he's gay, after all he plays a gay character on Brothers and Sisters very convincingly, but it's nice to see up and coming young actors live openly and honestly.

Gay Athlete Remembered

Jackie Walker was a ground-breaking athlete in Tennessee in the late 60s and early 70s, but was largely forgotten when he left football and was never inducted into the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame. According to his brother Marshall, that was because Jackie Walker was gay. Now all that's changing, according to the New York Times.

Jackie Walker began his college football career at Tennessee in 1969, only 2 years after the team was integrated. One of 3 African-American players at the time, he became the first black All-American and the first black team captain in the Southeastern Conference. He came out in his senior year and was recruited by the San Francisco 49ers, but was cut before the season began. According to his brother, Walker's openness about being gay was the reason his football career ended. Walker moved to Atlanta and had a successful career with the City's recreation department. He died of AIDS in 2002.

An article in the Knoxville alt paper, the Metro Pulse, resurrected his career and now it appears that the Hall of Fame will right a decades-long wrong and induct this great athlete.

Jackie Walker came out in 1973. Even today, professional athletes wait until retirement to come out, but he did it in his prime. That took guts. What a man.

ABC Thinks You're Dumb

ABC News took the Presidential debate train to Philadelphia last night for yet another debate between Hillary and Obama. Hosts Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos turned it into an exercise in stupidity. There were exactly zero questions on health care, the financial crisis, Afghanistan (remember that?), immigration, global climate change, or terrorism. Instead, ABC's intrepid "journalists" asked the candidates for leader of the free world about Jeremiah Wright (3 questions!), small town "bitterness," Tuzla airport, and freaking lapel pins. Daily Kos calls it the collapse of the national press.

Watch the hacks get booed.

Cindy and John McCain: Partners in Integriy

Cindy McCain, John McCain's Stepford wife, obviously shares her husband's scrupulous honesty. The McCain campaign web site, until yesterday, included a page called "Cindy's Recipes" featuring the beer mogul's "favorite family recipes." They included passion fruit mousse, ahi tuna with Napa cabbage slaw and farfalle pasta with turkey sausage, peas and mushrooms. Lovely, right? The only problem is they were lifted wholly from Junior's Obsession, the Food Network. A fourth recipe, rosemary chicken breasts and warm spinach salad with bacon, "bore a striking resemblance to a similar recipe by Rachael Ray," according to the New York Times. Finally, Wonkette discovered that Cindy's "no bake cookies" were taken from a box of Quaker Oats. Even Hillary bakes her own cookies!

The McCain campaign blamed it on an unpaid intern, naturally. Blaming someone who can't fight back is the Republican way.

First of all, Cindy better hope she hasn't pissed off Rachael Ray. Rachael's making nice for now, saying she's "flattered," but I bet if she were pushed she would rip that bleached blond chignon right off Cindy's too-tight head. Secondly, who on earth has "ahi tuna with Napa cabbage slaw" in their "family recipes?" I don't think grandma Budweiser was making a lot of "passion fruit mousse." Cindy needs to channel her inner Mamie and learn how to make meatloaf, like a good Republican wife.

McCain = Dubya

Pro-Democratic organization Progressive Media has launched an ad that drives home the point that a vote for McCain is a vote for four more years of Bush. Watch it.



So much for all that "maverick" "straight talk" bullshit.
Via Crooks and Liars.

Obama's Naivete

Recently, at a San Francisco fundraiser, Obama addressed the cultural divide in America and said the following:

"But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

I found this statement stunning in it's intellectual heft, it's honesty, and it's naivete. I appreciate that he's speaking to Americans like adults and I think he was absolutely accurate, but I have to wonder if he wants to loose this election. Did he really not know that he was handing Hillary and the Republicans a big, juicy issue on a silver platter? Did he forget that the Pennsylvania primary is coming up soon and that all those small town, gun toting religious folk will be going to the polls?

Hillary is already knocking back boilermakers and talking about her grandfather teaching her to shoot out behind the lake house on Lake Winola. She knows that Americans have a history of voting for the guy they'd most want to have a beer with, and she's that gal. Obama is the guy you'd most want to sip a complex pinot noir with at a wine bar in San Francisco. That doesn't win elections.

If Obama thought the mainstream media would parse an intellectual idea like that rather than reduce it to the buzzword "bitter" then he was sadly mistaken. The headline on CNN.com today is "Behind the Scenes: Are Small Town Voters Bitter? The clear message to small town voters everywhere is Obama thinks you are, and he looks down on that silly religion of yours. Of course that's not what he meant, but that's how it's being perceived. He's already gone through his scary Muslim phase and his scary Christian phase, is he trying to be a scary atheist now?

John Kerry lost because he was perceived as an elite intellectual, out of touch with the average Joe. Obama seems to be trying as hard as he can to make sure he suffers the same fate.

Monday's Man: Chris Carmack

The first post-writer's strike episode of Desperate Housewives was on last night and Chris Carmack played Susan's accountant cousin or something, as if anybody cares what role he plays as long as he takes his shirt off, right? He's the latest in a long line of stud muffins on the show, following in the footsteps of Jesse Metcalf and Ryan Carnes. He dutifully stripped down and hopped in bed with the nurse from China Beach .


Nice.

I Love Joy Behar

John McCain was on The View today and Joy didn't pull any punches. First, she asked him if he would reinstate the draft, then she asked him "How are you different from George Bush?" Watch it. Imagine if real journalists actually asked questions like that instead of constantly fellating him. Maybe she can replace Katie Couric.

McAvoy in the Morning

I read Junior's amazing post on James McAvoy this morning. OK, maybe it wasn't totally about McAvoy, but that's what stands out in my mind. It got me thinking, it's been weeks since I've posted a picture of the guy, so here it is. Thanks Junior!

It turns out that I'm not the only obsessed McAvoy fan. None other than Courtney Love has written about him on her blog. Go visit it, it's a mind blowing experience. Ms. Love eloquently wrote "Who the f**k wouldn't swoon over that kid! Wow!"

Maybe she's not so crazy after all.

Mario Lopez to be Chorus Boy

This story brings together two of my favorite obsessions: Broadway and the godlike Mario Lopez. He will begin starring in A Chorus Line on Broadway on April 15. He'll play Zach, "the demanding director." I was kinda hoping he'd play Paul.

Top Down Torture

ABC news is reporting that "enhanced interrogation techniques," i.e., torture, were specifically discussed and approved by top White House officials including Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, Colin Powell, and John Ashcroft. Unnamed administration officials have told ABC that there were a series of "Principals Committee" meetings in which they explicitly approved specific details of the CIA's torture program. The White House has said that "enhanced interrogation techniques" were developed at Guantanamo or were the result of a few bad apples at Abu Ghraib, but now there is direct evidence that the decision to torture prisoners, and the specific methods, came from the very top.

One person who was reportedly troubled by this was John Ashcroft, but not for any reason related to morals or ethics. The man who covered bare breasted statutes reportedly advised that torture was legal, but didn't think the specific details should be discussed at such a high level. According to sources, he said: "Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly."

For me, the most damning quote from the ABC article is this:

"At one meeting in the summer of 2003 -- attended by Vice President Cheney, among others -- Tenet made an elaborate presentation for approval to combine several different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time, according to a highly placed administration source.

A year later, amidst the outcry over unrelated abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the controversial 2002 legal memo, which gave formal legal authorization for the CIA interrogation program of the top al Qaeda suspects, leaked to the press. A new senior official in the Justice Department, Jack Goldsmith, withdrew the legal memo -- the Golden Shield -- that authorized the program.

But the CIA had captured a new al Qaeda suspect in Asia. Sources said CIA officials that summer returned to the Principals Committee for approval to continue using certain "enhanced interrogation techniques.

Then-National Security Advisor Rice, sources said, was decisive. Despite growing policy concerns -- shared by Powell -- that the program was harming the image of the United States abroad, sources say she did not back down, telling the CIA: "This is your baby. Go do it.""

In other words, after the abuses at Abu Ghraib were known and after the 2002 Yoo memo which, proported to provide legal authority for torture, was withdrawn, torture techniques were approved by Condolezza Rice. After.

Now it's in the White House.

Read more at ABC News and Talking Points Memo.

Derek Flanzraich For President

Harvard student and anchor of humor show Harvard Time Derek Flanzraich interviewed Turd Blossom and put every lame "professional" journalist to shame. Pretty cute, too. Watch him rip Rove's throat out. Verbally, of course:



Via Wonkette

Some Enchanted Baritone

Paolo Szot is an opera singer turned Broadway star in the new production of South Pacific. He plays Emile DeBec, the romantic Frenchman who falls in love with Nellie Forbush. The folks at Modern Fabulousity have apparently fallen into giggly, teenboy love with Mr. Szot and have posted a breathless piece about meeting him backstage.

"My friend ushered Paolo over, and he shook my hand, unaware that I had silently orgasmed."

Go read the whole thing. "Yesterday I happened to meet a new man, a real man, a strong man...a baritone. "

Today's GOP

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read:

"God Bless our Troops, Especially the Snipers"

I don't understand, and don't want to understand the sort of psyche that believes killing human beings is an appropriate subject for a jokey bumper sticker. But don't think this sort of relaxed humor about death is confined to rednecks driving gas hogs in Texas. Consider this flippant quote from the Weekly Standard regarding the John Yoo torture memo:

"I haven't really been following this issue, mostly because I'm pretty sure that whatever the government is doing to these terrorists wouldn't "shock my conscience."

via Andrew Sullivan. It reminds me of the conservative reaction to the AIDS crisis. It's all a laughing matter as long as the right sort of people are dying.

Monday's Man: Jay Brannan

The Twinkalicious singer-songwriter from New York starred in the John Cameron Mitchell film Shortbus, a terrific movie that featured real, not simulated, sex.



Mr. Brannan is also known for performing his music shirtless.



What is it about a shirtless guy with a guitar?

Canadian Conservative MP in Hot Water for Homophobic Comments

Tory MP Tom Lukiwski from Saskatchewan had a really bad day yesterday. A 1991 videotape made at conservative party headquarters in Regina has surfaced. In it Mr. Likiwski, who was 26 at the time, says a lot of offensive things about all sorts of people including the following charming exchange when the camera man made a comment about growing old:

"'As we say on tour, I may be old but I'm fucking A,' Lukiwski responds."

"The camerman retorts: 'And who is this A person?'"

"'Well let me put it to you this way. There's As and there's Bs. The As are guys like me. The Bs are homosexual faggots with dirt under their fingernails that transmit diseases,' Lukiwski says."

Quotes from CBC Saskatchewan.

Lukiwski apologized within an hour of the tape becoming public:"I am truly, truly sorry. I'm ashamed for the comments. If I could take those comments back I would. . . . They do not reflect the type of person that I am.

"Lukiwski was the general manager of the Saskatchewan Progressive Conservatives in 1991. He was first elected as a Conservative MP in 2004. Interesting enough, he replaced MP Larry Spencer who was suspended from the Canadian Alliance caucus after he told a reporter he would support a law to outlaw homosexuality. Nice group, these Sask Tories.

The tape came to light when the New Democrats moved into opposition offices in the Saskatchewan provincial legislature.

Read more about it at Canada.com and CPC Saskatchewan.

I heard this story on CBC radio on Sirius last night and a reporter for The Regina Leader-Post expressed the opinion that Lukiwski would have to resign. Read the editorial in today's paper.

There is a vast gulf between the US and Canada in dealing with gay issues. Lukiwski's apology was quick and complete, not at all like the American style "I apologize if anyone was offended by my remarks" non-apologies politicians here are famous for. Further, no one in the press or Parliament is defending his remarks in any way. He has landed himself in a deep mess for making stupid, bigoted comments about gays and his political career may very well not survive. On the other hand, in America, a conservative elected official can make stupid, bigoted comments about gays and receive a standing ovation from her Republican colleagues and a rally in her honor.

Update: Liukiwski's 1991 video is up on You Tube, naturally. He acts like a total tool.

Senator McTorture

I used to think John McCain had principles and integrity, after all he served with distinction in Viet Nam he has spoken out eloquently against the Bush regime's torture policies and and has always stood up for veterans, right?

Right?

Not so fast. John McCain is a two-faced liar when it comes to torture. He is one of the chief enablers of torture in the name of our country. It is true that in 2005 he introduced a bill to ban torture by US personnel, but he caved to Cheney and Bush and agreed to exempt the CIA. The restrictions on torture would only apply to the Army Field Manual. Earlier this year, Congress tried to extend the Army Field Manual restrictions to the CIA and John McCain, man of integrity, voted against it. Torture has continued specifically because John McCain allowed it.

But what about his precious veterans? John McCain has refused to sign-on to a new GI Bill of Rights. Why? Because Bush opposes it. In reality, McCain has voted lock-step with Dubya 90% of the time. Remember that next time you hear CNN talking heads rhapsodizing about the Straight Talkin' Maverick.

True Love Waits

A recent survey found that some Florida teens believe that drinking a cap of bleach will prevent HIV and Mountain Dew will prevent pregnancy. As a result, Florida lawmakers are trying to pass something revolutionary: actual sex education.

Abstinence only education. Another fine benefit of the Bush administration.

via The Slog.

Boobs For McCain!

John McCain has been endorsed by none other than singing and acting Supastah and Junior fave Heidi Montag! According to Wonkette, the multi-talented songstress who's breasts are totally natural, has told TMZ that she is entering the "political arena" and is like, totally for McCain.

"He's the cute Hawaiian guy, right?" she didn't but could have said.

First, Fabio endorses Hillary and now this. It's the battle of the Boobs! Who will endorse Obama now? Mamie Van Doren?

Actually, I have no idea who Heidi Montag is and don't want to know, but I just had to post that pic of her in public in a negligee with her bizarre plastic tits. Besides, after the John Yoo post, things were getting entirely too serious around here.

This brings up a question for my straight male readers. Are plastic Barbie tits really a turn-on? I don't really expect an answer since I don't think I have any straight male readers.

Jay Leno Apologizes for Being a Dick

Here's the apology.

He's still not funny.

The Banality of Evil

This is John Yoo who's 2003 DOJ memo providing legal cover for torture has been published. This bland looking former deputy assistant attorney general wrote the 81 page memo that provided the underpinnings for Abu Graihb, extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo, the shredding of the Constitution and the destruction of America's reputation in the world. He is now, amazingly enough, a law professor at Berkeley.

According to the Army's then Judge Advocate General, Thomas Romig, "it appears to argue there are no rules in a time of war." Yoo's defense is that his memo is practically "boilerplate" law, but in reality it was a radical departure from official military doctrine that always erred on the side of humane treatment of prisoners and that applied the legal restrictions liberally. In Yoo's mind, according to the memo, the President's authority as commander in chief trumps all and just about the only actions that were impermissible and indefensible were those motivated strictly by malice or sadism.

Yoo's method of releasing the memo is quite suspicious. From Marty Leiberman:

"On Friday, March 13, 2003, Jay Bybee resigned from his Office as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, to become a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The very next day -- a Saturday, mind you -- John Yoo, merely a Deputy AAG in the Office, issued his notorious memo to the Pentagon, on behalf of OLC, which effectively gave the Pentagon the green light to disregard statutory limits on torture, cruelty and maltreatment in the treatment of detainees."

Interesting timing for someone who claims his memo was merely "boilerplate."

Obama Wins Texas

Wait, didn't Hillary win Texas? Oh yeah, we had that primary/caucus/goatscrew thingey so even though Hillary won the primary vote, she lost the delegate count. A month later. Not that anybody will notice.

George W. Bush Booed at Baseball Game

All Washington Nationals fans are now on the no-fly list.

Pentagon Freaks over Presence of Lesbian

Politico is reporting that Rep. Tammy Baldwin, the only openly lesbian member of Congress, recently had some trouble taking her wife, Lauren Azar on a Congressional fact finding trip to Europe. They were flying on military aircraft and members of Congress routinely take spouses on official trips for protocol purposes. Baldwin and Azar were married, but her home state of Wisconsin doesn't recognize such icky things as people in love making a life long commitment to each other. The military balked at letting the couple on the plane because the rules only allow for spouses and Azar isn't the Congresswoman's legal spouse and besides, she might get lesbionic couties all over the place. Nancy Pelosi intervened and sent a letter to Defense Secretary Gates asking for an exception, which was allowed. Baldwin and Azar then spent the flight to Europe turning women solders into lesbians.

Barney Frank said the military's reluctance to let Azar fly had more to do with the administration's opposition to same sex marriage than the military's don't ask/don't tell regulations. He said "I think the military was following orders. I think the administration disproves of same sex marriage." Gee, ya think, Barn? That might just be the understatement of the year.