Nuclear Rays From My Halogen Haze

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I can’t help but miss Dana Perino! January 30, 2009

Filed under: Personal Shit,Politics — prodigalsonnybono @ 6:18 pm

 Just for the record, I hate George W. Bush.  And virtually everybody involved in his cabinet deserves to die painfully, or at least to be tried as a war criminal.  And in particular, I am ashamed that anyone would even attempt to defend Bush’s atrocities.  During his tedious and evil reign, every moment his spin-masters protected Bush from the media and therefore from public scrutiny, I  felt we lost precious time for peace, and I often expressed rage at those who provided that spin and gave Bush that time.  In fact, I publicly rejoiced at the death of Tony Snow, an opinion for which I incurred serious anger from a few folks who previously kind of liked me.

But Jeezuz and Gomorrah, how could I feel ill will towards the lovely Dana Perino, Snow’s replacement as Bush Press Secretary, and the angel of many a Republican’s wet dreams? 

Okay, okay, I know that part of this comes from some ugly, sexist component of my brain, and I’m as disturbed by it as you are.  Not only am I sexualizing a successful public figure simply because she’s a woman, but I’m also sending the clear message that if you’re cute and kind of dumb and a woman, you get a free pass when you fuck up, because hey, you’re just a gal!  Our expectations are lowered by your gender (perhaps coupled with your news-anchor hotness).  We didn’t expect hard reality from a blonde cutie anyway.  When we heard Perino spin Bush’s ridiculosity for us, we just laughed it off as we would any woman’s estrogenic ramblings.

I know it sounds like that, but hear me out, and not just to assuage my own sexist guilt. Though I acknowledge having a really twisted crunch on Dana Perino somewhat similar to Drew Grant’s admitted hotness for John McCain, you know that there was something different about Perino’s approach to Press Secretary than her predecessors’.  And it’s not just her womanhood.

By contrast, let’s take the late Tony Snow.  Though I don’t believe Tony Snow actually drank the White House Kool-Aid (ironically, because he was far too right-wing), he certainly played the indignant, smug role well.  He lied like it was breathing, he spoke arrogantly to reporters, he turned questions into excuses to insult people.  He basically took Fox News and put it in the White House.

Perino had an entirely different tone.  She was more human, less smug, and though I think she was definitely a dyed-in-the-wool Bushie, she was incapable of the glib lying her predecessor excelled at.  According to conservative pundit Ronald Kessler, “what you notice when she is interviewed on TV is her expressive delivery. You stop and listen for her interesting nuances of emphasis. She doesn’t project the total confidence of the polished newscaster, and as a result, she inspires more trust.”  

He was right, in a sense–she inspired more trust because we knew her lies were lies, or at least that she was reciting the lies with a knowing glance, like she was in on the hilarity of it all.  It was her job to protect Bush, not to beat up on reporters, and she had the air of someone who’s just doing her job.  Sometimes she would nearly level with the press, giving answers that amounted to saying “okay, I’m going to give the ‘official’ Bush White House account of what happened, and I know you won’t believe it, and neither do I, but I have to say the words written on this little paper anyway.” 

Anyways, maybe in all of my lust, I’m actually picking on her, and that’s not even fair–she went to the same college as me (sadly, graduating a year before I got there), but then went on to grad school, which I didn’t even do, and worked her way into the public eye largely based on her merits.

And after last week’s appearance on the Daily Show, I can’t decide, in the parlance of Vice Magazine’s “Do’s and Don’ts,” whether I want to fuck her or be her.  This is just too amazing.

 

Obama’s “Sunlight Before Signing” January 21, 2009

Filed under: Obama,Politics — orangehairboy @ 1:38 am

What a nightmare we’ve been in!  It’s been such a joy today to realize that the Bush administration is finally over.

One of the best things I got to do today was peruse the new whitehouse.gov site!  Besides just generally looking awesome now that Whistle-ass’s face is off the damned thing, it’s really informative and interesting to read Obama’s agenda all in one official and officious place that has “.gov” at the end of it.

In particular, this section on Ethics is really encouraging:

Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. President Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.

I mean, if Bush had honored that rule after 9/11, we might not have the Patriot Act!  And then we wouldn’t see things like this, a woman who went to jail for three months and lost custody of her kids because she spanked her kids and then sassed a flight attendant, in a New York Times story from today:

A flight attendant confronted Freeman, who responded by hurling a few profanities and throwing what remained of a can of tomato juice on the floor.

The incident aboard the Frontier flight ultimately led to Freeman’s arrest and conviction for a federal felony defined as an act of terrorism under the Patriot Act, the controversial federal law enacted after the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

“I had no idea I was breaking the law,” said Freeman, 40.

After three months in jail, Freeman agreed to plead guilty in exchange for being released on probation. A court-appointed attorney told her that a plea deal would be the fastest way to see her children, who had been taken back to Hawaii and put into foster care.

Her probation required her to stay in Oklahoma City, where she grew up, and prohibited her from flying. Meanwhile, legal proceedings in Hawaii have begun to allow the children’s foster parents to adopt them.

Freeman has been denied permission to attend custody hearings in Maui over the last six months, court records show.

“I have cried. I have cried for my children every day,” Freeman said. “I feel the system is failing me.”

Congress and Bush failed us when they passed the Patriot Act, and I’m glad Obama is addressing things like this from day one.  Clearly we’ve been going about it the wrong way for far too long.  God, I can’t wait to return to a time when laws kind of make sense, and transparency and rationality returns to legislation and executive power.  Obama better not break his fucking promises (except the one about not bringing Bush to justice–it’s okay by me if he wants to flip-flop on that).

 

Bush’s judicial legacy January 16, 2009

Filed under: Politics,Religion,Satan — orangehairboy @ 10:36 pm
button seen at last summers Republican convention

button seen at last summer's Republican convention

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: we’ll soon be seeing an about-face on the concept of “legislating from the bench,” a practice that Bush and the Republicans adamantly talked shit about for the last eight years.  Unfortunately for them, on a Federal level, that’s about the only place they’ll be legislating for a while, and they know it and are beginning to savor it.

Luckily, the new Congress is hip to it, too.  The first thing they did last week was undo Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

It was no accident that the first piece of major legislation the House of Representatives passed last week was a rebuke of one of the two justices President George W. Bush put on the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito.

To open the new Congress, the House passed a bill which seeks to undo the 2007 Supreme Court Ledbetter decision which Alito wrote.

House Democrats weren’t shy about pointing the finger at Alito as the man they saw as the culprit in the 2007 decision.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., said Alito “wrote the flawed decision…. Lilly Ledbetter was denied justice and the rights afforded to her under the Civil Rights Act. Justice Alito’s opinion runs contrary to decades of civil rights law.”

And Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who has often led the opposition to Bush’s judicial nominees, said in 2006 that Alito is one nominee he wished he had done more to block. “My greatest regret in the last two years is that we didn’t stop Alito…. You don’t filibuster unless someone is way out of the mainstream…. Alito clearly seemed to me to be that,” he told reporters.

Bad news is, the Justices Bush appointed are going to be around, like, forever.

But Alito at age 58 is likely to be on the court for at least another 20 years.

Chief Justice John Roberts, nominated to the court by Bush in 2005, is 53 years old. If he serves as long as Justice John Paul Stevens, who is the court’s oldest member, Roberts will still be on the high court in 2040.

Even more striking: Bush appointee Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the powerful United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is only 44 years old.

Though during the civil rights era, the Supreme Court did a decent job of upholding the constitution in the face of evildoers, let’s not forget that some of the worst policies of discrimination in this country’s history were enshrined by the Supreme Court and other Federal courts in years past.  The Judiciary, being a non-elected body, has a unique ability to lean against the winds of change.  Since we can all agree that Hurricane Hope is more or less a blowin’ again, those of us who aren’t atheists might do well to pray for Samuel Alito to get Typhus or somethin’.

 

Elvis is still the King! January 10, 2009

Filed under: Celebrities,Elvis,Movies,Musicals,Performers,Religion,Satan's Favorite Bands,Soul Music,The Beach Boys,The Beatles,The Rolling Stones — prodigalsonnybono @ 1:43 am

I know, I know, the Beatles were better at the music, the Beach Boys were better at major sevenths, Chuck Berry was better at the lyrics, and Little Richard was better at falsetto.  Carl Perkins was better at being down-home, Billy Lee Riley was better at crazed-cat rockabilly, Buddy Holly was better at bringing pop into his rock, and Bo Diddley had a better beat.  Even among the Sun Records cats, Johnny Cash did more drugs, and Jerry Lee Lewis was more dangerous.

But Elvis was an amazing performer–the biggest shining personality of the fifties–with all the moves, lots of style, great looks, and a wild personality.  The fact that he had bad management, mental problems, and an addiction to food and drugs shouldn’t tarnish that amongst modern myth-makers who tend to prefer the Bolans and Joneses to this man.

I mean, fuck, Elvis sang better than Frank Sinatra.  Last night, to celebrate Elvis’ 74th birthday, my gal TiVo’d Fun in Acapulco.  Goddam, could that boy sing!  Listen to this shit!

Fuck all contenders!  This man is the KING!  F U C K !!!

 

Ron Asheton RIP January 6, 2009

Filed under: Albums,Garage Rock,Glam Rock,Obituaries,Punk,The Stooges — orangehairboy @ 7:55 pm

Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton was found dead today.  He was only 60.

Though all obituaries about him will start by mentioning his work with the Stooges, including mine, I think perhaps he’d prefer to be remembered for some of his work without Iggy Pop.  So here it is, a track from his mid-seventies hard rock band, the New Order:

It’s a shame to think I’ll never get to see him play live.  I loved him in the super group Wylde Ratttz from the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack, and I think his avant-noise band Destroy All Monsters sounds pretty rad, too, if I can ever get my hands on a fucking copy of their collected recordings.

 

 
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