Is she the greatest theatrical voice of our lifetimes? I love love this song because it reminds me of so many nights spent with dear “Old Friends.”
Archive for the ‘friends and allies’ category
A little night music: the always amazing Betty Buckley
March 14th, 2010So, what’s up with Chile?
March 3rd, 2010When the crisis hit Haitai, it was non-stop news. I know that they are our neighbors. I know thay are very poor. I know we screwed them over many times. But heck, the axis of the earth changed in Chile. People are strarving there. Yes they are a wealthy country, but man they need help. So tell me, what’s happening in the city that we can all do our thing and help them out? Do you want me to put something together. I could be ingnorant, point me that way!
Still, one of the most remarkable speeches ever given
February 4th, 2010This speech by Premier Zapatero in the Spanish Cortes is one of the most remarkable speeches I have ever heard by a straight politician in a legal setting. This was the day same-sex marriage was legalized in Spain. I remember years later having dinner with many of the leaders of the LGBT movement in Spain and one of them said to me:
He said he would do it, and he did it. That’s why we love him
Always pretty remarkable when that happens.
OK. I may have misjudged…
February 4th, 2010
I have been beyond frustrated with the President’s slow progress on the DADT and other LGBT issues. Frankly, a lot of what he has done is far too “center-right” in its policy tone for me. But that’s a different blog entry. For now, all credit is due the President. I believe he has handled a complicated management and policy problem (not to mention political problem) in a way I actually find I work myself. He has lined up as many ducks in a row as he can and has put the Republicans in a very tight place. Republican after republican have stated in the past that they would defer to the military’s opinion on DADT.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in October 2009 that for a reversal of DADT to be successful, there would have to be a “buy-in by the military.”
“They should be included in this,” said Graham. “I am open-minded to what the military may suggest, but I can tell you, I’m not going to make policy based on a campaign rally.”
Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a November 2007 debate was asked if he looked forward to “a day when gays can serve openly in the military?”
“I look forward to hearing from the military exactly what they believe is the right way to have the right kind of cohesion and support in our troops and I listen to what they have to say,” he replied.
In another Republican presidential debate a month later, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee joined Romney in insisting that the country needed to hear first from military command.
“I probably would let the military make that decision,” he said, when pressed. “One thing I don’t think you need is a president who’s trying to tell the military how to run the military, other than set broad policy agenda. The Uniform Code of Military Conduct is the best way to handle that and I would leave it to — to those who run the military.”
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okl.) has insisted, as recently as 2009, that he would “defer in large part to our military leaders on matters of military readiness and code of conduct. This includes the impact changing the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy would have, especially since military leaders note that this issue is fundamentally about military readiness.”
In a 2008 interview, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) defended DADT as a sound military policy by arguing that he had not “sensed that the military is calling for a change.”
Any change to these sorts of comments will again show the blunt bigotry that truly lies behind these men.
I truly don’t believe that this can be done overnight. I think a year is reasonable. My fear was always that the President would not do anything on this at all. It now appears he may have been doing quite a lot. Recently joining in with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is now the former man that held that position; a man who helped to draft this policy: Collin Powell.
So Mr. President, when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. So far on this, I am feeling a lot better. Now about that other stuff…oh, just let well enough alone, Lynch.
Enrique at G.A.Y. in London
January 17th, 2010I really wish I could explain to people how comfortable and open Spaniards have become about LGBT people, especially in the cities. The influence that Spain could and does have on the Spanish speaking world is immense. And the countries to our south are bit by bit going beyond us in the US. I would love to work on a way to strengthen this amazing connection.
I’m sure I’ve posted this before probably, but it always moves me.
The Case for Gay Marriage
January 12th, 2010I’m beat down tired, but so impressed with the trial so far in San Francisco on the Federal Challenge to Prop 8. I’ll have more to say, but let me share this with you:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Excellent Site to follow the day to day coverage of the Prop 8 coverage.
January 11th, 2010I’ve deeply moved by the strength, intelligence and passion of our former opponent on the conservative side, Mr Olson. It helps me to remember that not all conservatives are anti-human rights. And that in this case, at least one is bringing all he can for truth. I have hope at least that a cogent argument is being made. And though we may lose, the courts are not our friends, today, I cry in the joy of hearing our lives described in the mundane and common Americanism that we all represent.
via http://prop8trialtracker.com/2010/01/11/liveblogging-day-1-daily-summary/.
Noche Viejo en Madrid 2010. At the Puerto del Sol. Lots of grapes to eat
January 5th, 2010I have to admit I missed Madrid for the holidays this year. Wigs and all.
Holidays are over, and hope begins
January 4th, 2010I have spent the last two or three years as a cynic. I’ve always been a bit of a cynic, but what I am referring to here is in the classical greek sense of the word, as in pulling one apart from politics or the believe in the ability to change a system as large as the political system of the US and indeed the world. So it’s a glorious ability to throw bombs and share a hopeless sense. But it is not a something you can live with forever. My disappointment in the loss of Constitutional control of the American government under Bush, and Obama’s willingness to not prosecute and in fact set up protections for the war criminals hurt. I left the country for a year and wanted to experience a different set of values. Values I treasure. Individual rights, regulated capatalism and a robust welfare system.
Yet, I am hopeful. I think with all the disappointment I have with the political structure in the United States and its inability to sustain real change and recognize true human rights, Obama has been a vast improvement. I do believe time will help us overcome.
I saw a concert this weekend with my personal diva, Bette, in Vegas. There’s her most signature song, The Rose. It is a song of the hope of a better spring time after a difficult winter. Our winter has gone on for so long, ten years. No job growth, war crimes, cowardize around LGBT rights. Eight years of war. But the seed, with the sun’s love, comes the rose.
I’m committed to fighting and not letting politicians off the hook. But I am also committed to hope. To holding ourselves to a higher standard. I am committed to global connection and universal citizenship. I am committed to be one of many suns that will bring light and bring the spring. In my current job, I’m committed to finding ways that every LGBT person in this city can find help when they need it. Substance abuse, mental health, poverty, HIV and AIDS, and building a sense of community have been my life for the last 25 years. I am recommitted.
What can you do to bring that light. To end the winter of our discontent, to borrow a phrase. To make this city and this country what it can be.
A perspective on debt and corporatism. Change the Banks and Health Insurance Companies Can Believe In
December 15th, 2009- Wins with no facts, principles, or reasons. Just bitter, old, Not better and bold
Taken from the always wonderful CrooksandLiars.com, this wonderful perspective:
This is about to put me in the mind of a stroke. This is how FDR left you know. This from the great Crooksandliars.com
How much is $140 billion?
The U.S. economy grew at a $89 billion annualized rate in the third quarter. That was the first growth since the second quarter of 2008 and came to $22 billion in actual growth in the third quarter.
The bankers, after causing the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression, are rewarded with six times the growth accomplished so far in the much heralded “economic recovery.”
Meanwhile, seven million families face foreclosure and 25 million Americans can’t find full time work.
Add on top of this piece of job is that final version of the HCR plan that will go forward in the end will not have public health obtion or Medicare expansion. We are going to force all Americans to buy insurance and pay big Health and big Farma with no way to control costs. They get millions of new clients forced to pay whatever they want to charge. And they will still be elegible for anti-trust protection. You can’t stop them Our guys in Washington are so brave. Such heroes.
This is change that Corporations can believe in! Can you?
