INTERNATIONAL ROCK CITY

PRIDE WEEKEND

Another great party.

Let me put it this way - PRIDE is a celebration - with both gay and straight people partying their glorious asses off - of that one thing you thought was horrible about yourself for most of your life. I'll never take that for granted.

I did miss most of the Castro parties Saturday night though, instead seeing Radiohead perform at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. It was worth it.

Setlist -

01 Airbag
02 2+2=5
03 Where I End And You Begin
04 15 Step
05 Kid A
06 Dollars And Cents
07 Down Is The New Up
08 Nude
09 Paranoid Android
10 No Surprises
11 The Gloaming
12 All I Need
13 Climbing Up The Walls
14 Go Slowly
15 Myxomatosis
16 Bangers And Mash
17 How To Disappear Completely

Encore 1:

18 Fake Plastic Trees
19 Arpeggi
20 Black Star
21 Everything In Its Right Place

Encore 2:

23 Bodysnatchers
24 The Tourist

THE BEST POSSIBLE OUTCOME

This is what I, and of course, many others, hoped would happen when Hamas was elected to power. That they would moderate for the sake of pragmatism, and the well-being of the Palestinians. Hopefully this new agreement will hold.

Israel must reciprocate and end the assassinations.

F*CK THE GOVERNMENT ALERT

Five years after 9/11, cargo is still not screened for explosives before it is loaded onto passenger airplanes. First of all, that's fucked. Secondly, why didn't the Democrats use that as a campaign issue in '04? Why won't they use it now?

Oh, and, don't expect security to improve anytime soon.

Looks like a plane will have to explode before so-called 'homeland security' will actually secure them. Of course, that's a conscious decision they and the Bush administration have made.

By the way, why no color-coded terror alerts since Bush got re-elected? I wonder...

JUAN COLE, WHY DO YOU DO IT?

Juan Cole makes scathing observations of Bush's trip to Iraq, all of which are valid. Then he adds:

It is hell to be stateless. 200 Palestinian refugees are stuck at a border camp, trying to flee Iraq for Syria. They fear going back to Baghdad. Some 20,000 Palestinians in Baghdad are now in danger; some fear the general violence and insecurity, others fear reprisals. Some Iraqis identify them with the former regime (stateless people are often forced into parlous political compromises). Palestinians were expelled from their country by Zionist settlers in 1948, who refused to let them back in or compensate them for their lost property. Israel continues to insist that millions of Palestinians remain stateless by refusing to recognize the Palestine Authority as a state. In the modern world, there are substantial similarities between statelessness and slavery.

* * * *

By injecting into his critique of Iraq an end paragraph on how Israel enslaves Palestinians, Juan Cole does a very effective job of rendering himself unserious. From his facile description of the events of 1948, to his equation of Israelis as slave masters, Cole's erudition is impotent in positively affecting middle-east conflict resolution. It's one thing to be biased, another thing all together to be ridiculously so and consider yourself an academic. Gross.

Cornel West, on the other hand, rocks.

Slice:

Democracy matters require that we keep track of the intimate link between domestic issues and foreign policies. Like the empires of old—especially the Roman and British ones—what we do abroad affects what we can do here and what we do here shapes what we can do abroad. Probably the most difficult challenge facing our democracy, in the near term at any rate, is that of the centrality of Middle East politics for the American empire. If we are to stabilize the world and enrich democracy in the world, we must confront the anti-Semitic hostility of oil-rich autocratic Arab regimes to Israel’s very existence, as well as Israelis’ occupation and subjugation of Palestinian lands and people. We must act more decisively to stop both the barbaric Palestinian suicide bombers’ murdering of innocent Israeli civilians and the inhumane Israeli military attacks on unarmed Palestinian refugees. These explosive issues test the capacity of all Americans to engage in a respectful and candid dialogue; indeed, they may be pivotal in determining the destiny of American democracy.

SAYS IT ALL

White. Fat. Bloated. This picture is worth a thousand adjectives. This is your government, or, rather, theirs.

UPDATE on Fat Bastard Dennis Hastert. Bloated indeed.

NEW BAND

My new band, Rentboys, is up at myspace. Have a listen.

The second song is dedicated to the two gay teenagers who were publically executed in Iran last July - for being gay.

ANDREW, PLEASE EXPLAIN YOURSELF

From Sully today:

Just to note that Senators Gregg and Specter turned against the FMA this time in the cloture vote. The Senate is more Republican than last time around, and the vote barely budged. If the Senate shifts to the Dems this fall - a likely scenario - this amendment will be pining for the fjords. That's a victory for conservatism and federalism against fundamentalism and hysteria. One more time: Let the states decide.

* * * *

It is victory, but I'm confused with Andrew's advocacy of federalism with regard to marriage rights. So I recently wrote him a letter:

A few years ago you posted my melodramatic (but honest) email to you about my ex-boyfriend who is from and is currently living in small town Brazil, suffering oppressive machismo, and unable to immigrate here because he’s poor and we cannot marry. I insisted that federal legalization of gay marriage was the only just resolution of the gay marriage debate, specifically because immigration is a federal issue, and reducing marriage law to the states would continue discrimination. You responded by telling me you were “with me” on the immigration issue, reminding me that you were an immigrant. I fail to see how you reconcile opposing immigration discrimination for bi-national gay couples while supporting the relegation of marriage rights to individual states. Would you please clarify?

* * * *
I have yet to receive a response or a clarification on his website. I'll keep asking...

UM, YEAH

The Republican leadership is asking us to spend time writing bigotry into the Constitution," said Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, which legalized gay marriage in 2003. "A vote for it is a vote against civil unions, against domestic partnership, against all other efforts for states to treat gays and lesbians fairly under the law."

In response, Hatch fumed: "Does he really want to suggest that over half of the United States Senate is a crew of bigots?"

* * * *

Yes, you are a crew of bigots. It's very curious how people don't perceive active discrimination against homosexuals as bigotry, merely because it's still acceptable in mainstream society. Just because it's mainstream and there's little stigma against it, doesn't mean you're not a bigot.

ANOTHER FUNNY ONE IN 'THE ONION'

This is great.

DEAR PRESIDENT BUSH...

Please go f*ck yourself.