The Malcontent

Gay and Other Bits

Laura Bush says gay-marriage legislation shouldn't be a "campaign tool."  I guess no one told her husband.

Former Senator Bob Kerrey admits blocking cocks.

Alabama AG candidate shows that racism knows no party boundaries.

Gay Left-Coast Kookiness

I'm sure there are more such reports to be found in California alone, but a casual perusal of blogs this afternoon helps underscore the dogged determination of some gay liberals to alienate the rest of us who might otherwise support them on issues that concern us all.

BoiFromTroy writes about a trip to his local gay bookstore, during which he had hoped to find a copy of gay American Mary Cheney's new tome.  But the shop was good enough to carry plenty of copies of straight American, and frothy socialist, Noam Chomsky's new book.

Perhaps these are wise business decisions for someone with a West Hollywood clientele.  But why, then, call yourself a "gay" bookstore?  Answer: Because a disturbing number of gay Americans naïvely consider ultra-leftist politics part and parcel of the homosexual experience.  For millions of the rest of us, this just doesn't compute.

In a somewhat related story, Queerty reports that the California State Senate has passed a bill "that would require textbooks in public schools to instruct students on contributions by gays and lesbians in the state's development."

Normally I would decry the balkanization of education by officious politicians.  But the bill already reads like a laundry list of aggrieved groups — "men and women, Black Americans, American Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and other ethnic groups, and people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender" — so gays might as well join the hit parade.  (It's similar to my thoughts on hate-crimes laws: They're stupid and pointless, but as long as we have them, gays should be protected by them.)

But why can't they just teach students about Californians' contributions to the state, regardless of whatever preferred group to which they belong?

Hilarious Item of the Week

This is awesome:

Los Angeles' top rated English language Latino radio talk show, The Pocho Hour of Power on KPFK 90.7 FM , Fridays at 4pm, has made an unprecedented financial offer to so-called "illegal immigrants". In the interest of racial harmony and assimilation of immigrants into U.S. culture, the co-hosts of the Pocho Hour of Power make this offer: The first undocumented immigrant to name their U.S. born child "Lou Dobbs," before September 16th, 2006, will win $500.00 worth of baby nursery items from participating East Los Angeles merchants supporting the Name Your Baby Lou Dobbs Challenge.

Now if I could just find a gay baby to adopt, I'll name him Rick Santorum.

The Gayest Story Never Told

If you think you know the whole story behind ABC's never-aired reality show "Welcome to the Neighborhood," think again.

The series, yanked by the alphabet net at the last minute last summer, was to have shown a white, Christian, conservative cul-de-sac in Texas called "Circle C Ranch" that was tasked with deciding the winner of a home worth about $500,000 in their neighborhood.  The candidates, however, included Wiccans, Hispanics, African-Americans, a family with a stripper mom, and finally, a gay couple and their African-American son.

While much of the media coverage leading up to the premiere-that-never-was focused on bigotry and discrimination, the ending turned out to be fairly positive – and probably one that America would do well to see.  (ABC still won't allow the show to air, however.)

In its second episode last night, "The Advocate Newsmagazine" on Logo told us more about the rest of the story, focusing on an especially hard-boiled Texan known to his neighbors as "The Governor."

The results might surprise you.  And if you don't get at least a lump in your throat while watching it, you might want to check yourself for a pulse.

[Watch video – 14:53, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 14:53, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Directionless

From the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News:

As many as 15 people claiming ties with white-supremacist groups apparently lost their way Monday night and tried to stage a march at the wrong place, a Miami University spokesman said.

Their intended target apparently was the ACLU, which held a seminar on immigration at the Miami University-Hamilton campus, said Richard Little, a MU spokesman. [...]

Little said he believes the group had come from Toledo: "They were there simply because they were lost and confused."

To coin a phrase: Heh.

Jon Stewart Tosses the Racial Salad

Recently, the Daily Show examined the Afrospanicindioasianization of America in a program devoted entirely to race relations. Stewart and his correspondents not only highlight the vast differences in subway etiquette between the ethnicities, but raise objections over the simplicity of the current vocabulary used in racial classification.

When something this hilariously unPC is aired, I'm afraid my hand is forced in posting it.

(edit: Video should be fixed now)

[Watch video – 10:22, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 10:22, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Surreal Time With Cynthia McKinney

I don't know what school of PR Cynthia McKinney's lawyers and handlers went to, but one of the first things I ever learned about damage control was, "If you're in a hole, then put down the damn shovel."

In the latest stop on her you-a culpa tour, the Georgia congresswoman was on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher," denying that she had asserted that her altercation with a Capitol policeman was a function of racism, and then disingenuously expounding in the same breath on the racist nature of society.

Using the royal "we," McKinney argued essentially that her liberal credentials put her personal behavior off-limits to scrutiny, even when such behavior is potentially criminal.  To his credit, Bill Maher tried to call her on her bullshit – in his own timid, left-leaning way.

[Watch video – 8:26, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 8:26, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Quote of the Day

"I'm going to put your ass in jail. I'm a police officer."

— Rep. Cynthia McKinney's bodyguard, an ex-police officer

Building a Bridge to the 19th Century

Jesse Jackson dropped by the Colbert Report last night to discuss Hurricane Katrina, immigration, and Tom Delay's resignation.

While Jackson's comments include their usual bizarre flair - including strange Palestinian rhetoric such as "right to return" in reference to Katrina victims - it's really Colbert's needling questions that provide the majority of the fun.

[Watch video – 8:21, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 8:21, WMV ormat, low bandwidth]

McKinney's Basic Instinct

As I write this, Cynthia McKinney and her fellow race hustlers are pleading the notoriously anti-Semitic congresswoman's case in her cop-smacking incident at a news conference before a hallelujah chorus at Howard University.  The case being, naturally, that the cop she physically assaulted was racist (and a far cry from her much more conciliatory "official" statement).

I'll leave my personal feelings about the congresswoman aside for the moment, or the cast of characters backing her up that included the America-hating Harry Belafonte, but I was struck by at least one thing:

Two rationales were provided for McKinney's behavior.  First, that the Capitol Police should be better trained to know who the Members of Congress are because it has a bearing on their safety.  (I'd add that a 10-year political veteran of D.C. like myself also can no longer recognize her after she ditched her trademark braids for a radically different 'do.)  I have also personally witnessed something similar happen to a white senator.

And second, Team McKinney is alleging that the police officer knew who she was and was harassing her merely because of her race.

Now, if you're going to mount a defense in advance of what is reportedly her potential arrest, shouldn't you at least be sure that the two reasons you give aren't directly contradictory?

Her Gardener is a Big Fan

After the long-distance bashfest between Joy Behar and Star Jones Reynolds, I've been leaving the View idling in the background whenever I'm working at home. There is something tantalizing about the possibility of seeing people disdained by all of America tear each other to shreds.

As America's Most Famous Glitter Maiden is still recovering from mammary elevation, the girls are joined by a special guest co-host. Today, the lymph is being generously supplied by star Hispanic journalist, Myrka Dellanos.

All the hosts are being very complimentary of their guest . . . and then Barbara Walters opens wide and eats a pump:

"You are such a star in my house, because I have Spanish-speaking . . . *sudden realization* ah, people *mumble* *rapid change of subject*"

Oh, yes. Observe.

[Watch video – 1:00, WMV format]