…but I couldn’t resist this.

From the Billings Gazette…

Montana’s gay and lesbian community is calling on Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., to apologize for a gag he recently played on one of his colleagues.

On a congressional trip to the Middle East last month, Rehberg left an “Idaho Travel Package” on the airplane seat of Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. The contents included a stuffed sheep with gloves attached to it, a Village People CD, books on cross-dressing and sign language and a T-shirt that reads, “My senator may not be gay, but my governor is Butch.”

The shirt referred to Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who was caught in a men’s airport bathroom sex sting, and Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter.

Let’s set aside the tiresome conflation of homosexuality with cross-dressing (straight men cross-dress, gay men do drag) and bestiality (some straight men fuck dogs, all gay men are dogs) and focus on Rep. Denny Rehberg’s real crime: attempted murder. Sending a colleague into the Middle East with a Village People CD and a t-shirt with the word “gay” on it? Is Rehberg nuts? Or was he trying to get Simpson beheaded?

This news should please Chris Crocker’s haters:

A boy of ten hanged himself after telling his mother that he wanted to become a girl, an inquest was told yesterday.

Cameron McWilliams, who liked to wear girls’ underwear, asked if he could start using make-up just days before committing suicide, the hearing heard. His mother, who described him as a lonely young boy, told the coroner: “It was apparent he was unhappy and said he wanted to be a girl. He did like girls’ things.”

She said he had been teased after being found in his half-sister’s underwear, but had been forbidden from wearing make-up until he was much older.

Via Queerty.

More creepiness. From the Vancouver, BC, tab the Province:

Human right foot found on Valdes

A third severed foot has washed up on a Gulf Island. All three are right feet, and all were in sneakers.

“It is unusual,” RCMP Const. Annie Linteau said yesterday. “We are in the preliminary stages of this particular investigation, and, of course, we will not enter into speculation.”

The latest foot was found Friday on the east side of Valdes Island, south of Gabriola Island.

The RCMP can’t speculate. But you can, Sloggers.

From Flickr pool contributor shapefarm

Film

‘Persepolis’

• See what else is happening in Film on Saturday »
• More Stranger Suggests for this week »

^{Hans Jorgensen’s Fashion Photograph (1948), vintage silver print}

At Martin-Zambito Fine Art.

Another Try: Kosovo will declare independence tomorrow, Serbian president vows to peacefully fight secession, EU deploys troops.

Another Bombing: 37 killed at opposition rally in rural Pakistan.

Another Cartoon: Danish ambassadors cancel trip to Iran.

Another Miracle: Huckabee ignores GOP’s hints to quit.

Little Brother: You done gone broke my telescreen.

Little Victory: Blu-Ray wins.

Little Less: State revenue forecast shrinks.

Negotiated: Deal for Democratic convention.

Burned: One man dies in south Seattle house fire.

Gassed: Senegal police fire tear gas at anti-gay protesters.

Crushed: Street racing is for idiots.

Yellow Plates for DUI convicts: Red plates for racing, purple for texting…

Gold Plates for Dead Vets: Families want badges for loss.

No Title: Ohio ballot lacks word “president.”

No Bids: Chinook ferry could be yours for only $4,500,000.00.

License to Ill: UK considers tobacco permits.

Shit-fire, do we have a lot of readings going on today.

There’s an open mic, an anti-evangelical Christian, a discussion about love, something called Killer Year: A Criminal Anthology, and Mitsuyo Kakuta, reading from her U.S. debut novel at the Panama Hotel. Also, up at Third Place, and possibly most intriguingly, Toby Barlow is reading from Sharp Teeth, which is a werewolf novel told entirely in (unrhymed) poetry. I’m about halfway through it, and I still don’t know what to think about it. Here’s part of a stanza:

“Some of us have problems./They still talk about Bone and what the grease does to him./He can’t go into fried chicken places/the smell, the scent, turns his blood right away./They say he took out a Popeye’s once./It made the news unsolved.”

Full listings here.

UPDATE: The conversation about love at the Hugo House, listed as being at 10:30 pm in the listings, is actually at 10:30 am, or about eighteen minutes from now. I regret the error, but not as much as my team of calendar-assembling monkeys is going to regret the error on Monday.

The gas station in Cheney, Washington, offers convenient one-stop shopping for area serial killers.

We heard from Washington Rep. Brian Baird on the Slog this morning.

He seems to think superdelegates should consider the will of their constituents when deciding whom to endorse in the presidential race. Now comes an email from the Clinton campaign calling my attention to the “must read” words of House Majority Leader Jim Clyburn in an AP story headlined: “Superdelegates should keep quiet on candidate support”

While Clyburn said he’d prefer superdelegates not announce their support until much later in the nominating process, he said he also doesn’t agree with superdelegates shifting support from one candidate to another based on how their constituents vote in a primary or caucus.

Clyburn said superdelegates are not in place simply to mirror the popular vote. “I don’t think people are really thinking through what they’re saying,” he said.

It takes 2,025 to clinch the nomination - a number Clyburn said Friday he didn’t think either candidate will be able to reach before the convention. The August convention in Denver is where the superdelegates will have their say, he said.

“Nobody is going to have 2,000 votes when this is over,” Clyburn said. “The superdelegates are there to provide the rest of those votes. That’s why we were supposed to be unpledged.”

Here’s the full story.

UPDATE: However, the “most super delegate of all,” Nancy Pelosi, has now broken her silence and declared that superdelegates should not reverse the will of the people:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who may be the most super delegate of all as chair of the Democratic national convention in Denver — gave an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Al Hunt in which she laid down the law for super delegates:

Don’t veto the people’s choice.

“I think there is a concern when the public speaks and there is a counter-decision made to that,” she said, adding quickly, “I don’t think that will happen.”

Two very different events, tonight. We’ve got Robert Ferrigno, a mystery/thriller author who writes lots of books with words like “sin” and “assassin” and “prayer” and “ninja”* in their titles, reading at Third Place Books up in Lake Forest Park.

Conversely, there’s “Love is the Drug,” at the Hugo House. I’ve not been crazy about Rick Moody’s last two books (I read all of The Black Veil and regretted it, I read a good chunk of The Diviners and couldn’t continue with it) but his short stories, especially in Demonology, can be pretty mind-blowing. I have not read Monica Drake’s last book, Clown Girl, but the talented and charming Cienna Madrid liked it. (“Just as there is something alluring about a plucked rubber chicken with its legs demurely crossed, so Clown Girl, a debut novel by Portland author Monica Drake, has its charms.”) David Wagoner, Hugo House’s current writer-in-residence, is lovely. There’s also a band and a party. It’s a little pricey, but it looks like a full evening’s entertainment.

Full listing is here, and the next week or so of readings is here.

Continue reading "Reading Tonight" »

A King County Superior Court judge has overturned an injunction obtained by Democratic Party fund-raiser Colby Underwood, against his former employee, McKenna Hartman. Underwood sued Hartman ‘when she attempted to go into business for herself after leaving his firm, arguing that a nondisclosure agreement in Hartman’s contract actually constituted a noncompete agreement. Hartman has been unable to work since leaving Underwood’s firm in November. Underwood reportedly also sought unsuccessfully to obtain an injunction against Cathy Allen, a local political consultant who attempted to help Hartman get her business underway.

Hartman’s new attorney, Roger Townsend, was unavailable for comment.

UPDATE: A few more details about today’s ruling. Both Underwood and Hartman showed up for today’s hearing. The atmosphere in the courtroom was reportedly quite jovial and friendly, despite the sometimes overheated nature of the dispute between Underwood and Hartman. The decision to overturn the injunction frees Hartman, 27, to seek her own clients at least until the case goes to trial—currently scheduled for July 2009.

UNRELATED: I’m currently Slogging from the Columbia City library—tell me again why we can’t have free wi-fi in every business district in the city?—and I just literally got shushed by a librarian.

Greg Tate is Coming to EMP’s Pop Conference: That makes Charles Mudede very happy.

Disco Love: Valentine’s Day is over, but these disco tracks will keep you feelin’ in love over the weekend.

Don’t Shut It: The best Queen lyric of the day.

Olympia Riot: A cop car gets overturned after a hiphop show at Evergreen state college last night.

Don’t Leave Home Without It: A pocket-sized version of Guitar Hero coming soon to a store near you.

Yes We Can!: Boston’s frontman turns down Huckabee, announces support for Obama.

Portishead Record Coming Soon: Another reasons Charles Mudede is stoked.

First Live Show at King Cobra: Trent Moorman was there to feel the metal love.

MP3 Truffles: The secrets behind the show.

Club Pop—Valentine’s Day Edition: And all the hook-ups that happened therein.

Tonight in Music: DJ Starski, Blaqstarr, Six Organs of Admittance, and more.

Also Tonight: Ruby Doe, Sunday Night Blackout, the Whore Moans. And Avenged Sevelfold’s logo, hold the pickles.

In Honor of the Riot: A little Dub Narcotic Sound System.

If you don’t have any plans for this weekend but you do have a King Tut costume gathering dust in your closet, this might be just the thing for you. The Guerrilla Masquerade Party (Seattle Chapter) is hosting a celebration, World Leader Pretend, this Saturday at Sunset Bowl, starting at 9 pm.

The history of the world has been full of crazy queens, powerful presidents, and charismatic cult leaders. There have been good, bad, and downright awful men and women who have held positions of power, probably for as long as humans have been walking the earth. Now’s your chance to masquerade as one of them for a night!

Politicians and Monarchs will surely be present, so you can hobnob with Hamilton, visit with Victoria, converse with Khrushchev, or pick up on Prince Harry. This may be your chance to buy Boris III a beer, make eyes at Mussolini, or cuddle with Kim Jong-il.

And world leaders come in other varieties… like religious leaders. You could parade as a Pope, dress up as the Dalai Lama, or make believe you’re Charles Manson.

This is also an opportunity for the Abraham Lincolns of this past Tuesday to get the band back together one last time before Halloween. I’m not going—got plays to review, don’t’cha know—but if you do go, and somebody actually shows up dressed as Adolf Hitler, please hit him (or her) once for me.

Rep. Jamie Pedersen’s (D-43, Capitol Hill) bill to expand domestic partners’ rights (and responsibilities!) passed the House today 62-32.

Last year, the state created a domestic partnership registry and granted about 23 of the rights that married couples have, including hospital visitation and allowing partners to give informed consent in medical decisions, make funeral arrangements, and inherit property in the absence of a will.

This year’s bill would add about 174 more rights (there are 480 total). Some of the new rights in this year’s bill are the right to go to family court when dissolving a partnership, the right to transfer property between partners without paying real estate excise taxes, the right to share nursing home rooms and private nursing home visits, and the right to exclude your house as an asset when applying for Medicaid funding for nursing home residency.

Two unfriendly amendments, one to put the issue to a referendum and one confirming the state’s belief in the institution of marriage, failed.

Now, it’s off to the Senate side.

P.s.
Meanwhile, there are 3,247 registered domestic partnerships in the state right now (since the law passed last year). And there are couples in every legislative district in the state including places like Monroe (39 couples), Yakima (9 couples) and Wenatchee (17).

Seattle leads the way, of course, with 1,101 couples registered—where 52% of the couples are gay and 45% are lesbian. (2% are hetero senior couples). Statewide, lesbians make up 53% of the registered couples while gay men make up 39% of the couples.

Ruled: Pharmacists can continue withholding Plan B until case is resolved.

Stabbed: Mom nagged son to get off the pot. Son also reportedly in possession of three human skulls used for “money-making rituals.”

Charged: Garden-supply shop owner faces 40 years.

Backed: Support for medical marijuana from the American College of Physicians.

District Attorney in Texas: “Although I have enjoyed excellent medical and pharmacological treatment, I have come to learn that the particular combination of drugs prescribed for me in the past has caused some impairment in my judgment.”

County Treasurer in Oklahoma: “I resign now with enormous regret, however, in light of recent events, I find it impossible to effectively serve as Treasurer any longer.”

Hole in One: Dunkin’ Donuts rivals Starbucks.

Do not Use Exactly as Directed: FDA nods to drugs’ unapproved uses.

Passing Once Wasn’t Enough: Hailey, Idaho to consider pot measures again.

Federal Prosecutors: Won’t block commuted sentences.

Hot Water: Britain considers tea ban for students.

The news, celebrity red carpet edition:

The Oscars are totally back, and you have just over a week to catch up on movies you missed and obsess over your picks. I have to say, I like this brief lead time. We should have a writer’s strike that threatens the Oscars every year.

Madonna’s directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival this week. Variety sums up the plot:

Story revolves around three flatmates living in London. Ukrainian-born aspiring musician A.K. (Eugene Hutz), haunted by memories of an abusive father, now dominates and humiliates pervs for pay. Ballet dancer Holly (Holly Weston), for whom A.K. carries a weighty torch, tries her hand at pole dancing to raise extra cash at A.K.’s suggestion. Finally, pharmacy assistant Juliette (Vicky McLure) dreams of going to Africa to help starving children and thus escape some poorly explicated family strife.

Steven Spielberg quit his Olympics gig over displeasure with China’s dealings with Sudan. And the controversy won’t end there.

This week’s crop:

In On Screen this week: George Romero’s Diary of the Dead (Andrew Wright: “Diary of the Dead, the filmmaker’s faux-camcorder revamp of the mythos for the YouTube generation, might be his jumpiest film yet, as a group of student filmmakers stumble haplessly into a zombie apocalypse. In most other respects, though, this is a bit of a bummer, drowning its predecessors’ virtues in what feels like an endless Mad Lib of Wired magazine buzzwords”), Definitely, Maybe (Megan Seling says that despite its “blatantly ridiculous outline, the movie doesn’t suck), Jumper (Bradley Steinbacher: “At a mere 85 minutes, the film is a blur of set pieces without a backstory, a cool idea never honored with coherence”), and The Great Communist Bank Robbery (Charles Mudede: It “has to do with what Fanonians call ‘the betrayal’”)—which opens Monday.

Limited runs are abundant, as ever.

Especially notable: André Téchiné’s The Witnesses, about AIDS in the ’80s (I know, I know, but it’s not bad); SIFF Cinema’s lineup of double-feature noirs, which don’t look quite as good as last round, but still intriguing (SIFFblog has the breakdown of which films aren’t available or are only available in poor transfers on DVD: The Prowler, The Hard Way, Moonrise, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Woman in Hiding, Reign of Terror, Road House, Conflict, and The Suspect); two programs of Academy Award-nominated shorts (the sucky live action films and the mixed bag of animated films, notable mainly for Madame Tutli Putli, pictured above); three more Finnish films at NWFF; the Seattle Human Rights Film Festival at Northwest Film Forum (I recommend China Blue); Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion at Grand Illusion; a dirty movie called Pets Chained Heat at Grand Illusion late nights; Charles Burnett’s My Brother’s Wedding at Seattle Art Museum; and Heathers with screenwriter Daniel Waters at EMP’s JBL Theater.

And last but hardly least, Lindy West takes on the What the Hell Did I Just Watch? Comedy Video Festival (continuing this weekend at the Rendezvous) in Concessions.

The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) is planning to picket City Hall, to protest the long, drawn-out and acrimonious contract negotiation process with the City. SPOG is holding a meeting February 25th to iron out the details of the the picketing.

Several people familiar with the contract talks tell me things have completely broken down, and the City and SPOG aren’t speaking. The Guild wants a pay hike for officers—to keep up with Seattle’s cost of living—but the City’s trying to negotiate for more police accountability, some of which SPOG has resisted.

Originally posted yesterday.

Nicholas went missing Wednesday, February 13th some time after 6 pm. Anyone who’s seen him or his car—a red hatchback Paseo, license plate 601RHX— since then is asked to call 911.

(Click image for larger version.)

If you have ANY information, please call 911.

It was a loud, long, wild night—thanks to everyone that came out last night, brought mementos from their failed relationships, and let us smash ‘em to bits.

Wounds were healed, emotional closures achieved, crock pots destroyed, exes peed on (well, their photos anyway), love letters shredded, and rare Def Leppard albums were burned. Good times!

Does the Prayer Warrior read the Slog? If not, then maybe the fact that this note from him arrived on the same day that Dan posted this news is just… coincidence.

Friday, 15 February 2008

This poster is hanging in the window of a classrom at Mt. Si High School!

It’s time we wake up and realize we are in a culture WAR!

When teachers are allowed to hang posters like this in our local school, we’ve got a big problem. It’s time to take back our schools.

Pastor Hutch

Were you one of the many, many denizens of the internet who were looking to get a golden Ron Paul Liberty Dollar, only to be thwarted by the unconstitutional reach of the federal government? What if I were to tell you that while you may not have the chance to win the battle for liberty and sound currency, you might be able to at least strike a blow of the libertarian ideals of deliciousness?

Enter the Ron Paul Chocolate Currency.

The website suggests that the best value would actually be to order 15,000 of the gold coins for the low price of $2,200. Why would anyone want that many pieces of chocolate with Ron Paul’s face on them?

ronpaulchocolate.com sales have been slow. Any ideas how we can boost sales toget rid of the remaining 10000 chocolates?

Now that super tuesday is past, it seems much harder to find people to support ron paul causes, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re 2000 dollars in the red from this second batch. we need to find 100 people who want 100 chocolates each for 30 bucks. At the current order rate (about 1 per day) it’s going to take until May…

This appears to have been a less successful idea than the race car.

Added bonus: It’s pretty dang funny.

So Romney endorsed McCain yesterday, which gives me a fresh Mitt Romney newspeg to hang this post on: Last Friday the Wall Street Journal ran a postmortem on Romney’s campaign. Their conclusion? A lot of Americans—half of all Americans—wouldn’t be comfortable voting for a Mormon.

Mitt Romney’s campaign for the presidency brought more attention to the Mormon Church than it has had in years. What the church discovered was not heartening…. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in late January revealed that 50% of Americans said they would have reservations or be “very uncomfortable” about a Mormon as president….

The Mormon religion “was the silent factor in a lot of the decision making by evangelicals and others,” says Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted the poll. The Romney campaign ran into “a religious bias head wind,” Mr. Hart and his Republican polling partner, Bill McInurff, wrote late last month.

I’d like to see a state-by-state breakdown of those poll results. Because I’d like to know exactly where all those religiously intolerant voters are. All I know now is where they’re not: They’re not in true-blue, largely-secular, Ted-Kennedy-electing, gay-and-lesbian-marrying, left-leaning Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney won the governorship by 5 percentage points in 2002. Liberal voters, it seems, weren’t “very uncomfortable” about voting for a Mormon chief executive—well, at least they weren’t uncomfortable about supporting the 2002 version of Mitt Romney, i.e. the pro-choice, pro-gay-rights, fiscally-conservative, socially-liberal Mitt Romney. I’m thinking that if the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll were broken down by state, we’d find that those states with higher percentages of “values voters,” i.e. conservative Christian voters, would be much less likely to vote for a Mormon governor or president than the voters in liberal, secular Massachusetts.

So, Joel, please explain to us again how it’s “the secular left [has] to be more tolerant.” It seems to me, as I’ve already pointed out, that the secular left is a model of religious tolerance. Hey, we voted for Romney 2002 despite his Mormonism. Religious voters, however, couldn’t support Romney 2008 on account of his Mormonism.

Romney’s political success when he faced liberal voters Massachusetts, and his political failure when he faced conservative and religious voters in GOP primaries, makes it pretty clear that if anyone needs to learn to be more tolerant, Joel, it’s the religious right, not the secular left.

I just got off the phone with Washington Congressman Brian Baird (D-Vancouver), a superdelegate who today announced he is supporting Barack Obama.

Of the three superdelegate Congressmen in this state who were still on the fence as of this morning, Baird was the last one I would have expected to suddenly back Obama. After all, Baird is best known these days as a Democrat who strongly supports the surge in Iraq.

Baird says things like this:

I am convinced by the evidence that the situation has at long last begun to change substantially for the better. I believe Iraq could have a positive future. Our diplomatic and military leaders in Iraq, their current strategy, and most importantly, our troops and the Iraqi people themselves, deserve our continued support and more time to succeed.

While Obama says things like this:

The notion that somehow we have succeeded as a consequence of the recent reductions in violence means that we have set the bar so low it’s buried in the sand at this point. (Cheers, applause.)

We—and I said this before—we went from intolerable levels of violence and a dysfunctional government to spikes and horrific levels of violence and a dysfunctional government, and now two years later we’re back to intolerable levels of violence and a dysfunctional government.

So why, I asked Baird, is he endorsing a candidate whose views on the defining issue of the time, the Iraq war, are so diametrically opposed to his? Baird replied:

One of the most interesting things to me about our political situation these days is so many people feel it’s important to agree with someone on 100 percent of the issues, 100 percent of the time, or you can’t support him…

It’s clear my position is somewhat different from Senator Obama’s right now. [But] most importantly, it’s not where we differ, but where we agree, and where we agree is I think Senator Obama brings a new voice…

I’m particularly impressed with the enthusiasm of people who have never been involved in politics before, particularly young people. I think there’s just such enthusiasm here that could really help turn the tide in this country.

Like the enthusiasm demonstrated in your district this past Saturday, when your constituents voted overwhelmingly for Obama in the Washington Democratic caucuses? Baird:

Yes, of course.

So should other superdelegates take the wishes of their constituents into account when making their decisions on whom to endorse?

I’ve never thought that the role of an elected person is simply to follow the whims of a majority. I think they should pay attention to that. But that’s why we call it a Republic, even though most people don’t…

I don’t really think the superdelegate process is all that bad. Think about it. The superdelegates themselves have to be elected… I very much respect what people on either side of this election process may say because people have to make their own decisions.

Ok, but should other superdelegates do as you’ve done and factor the will of their constituents into their decisions?

I think it should be a factor, certainly.

Will you talk to Obama about his differing views on the success of the surge?

I will if the opportuntity arises. I will tell him what I’ve seen on my trips over there and in the region. Thankfully, the facts on the ground have improved since I made my position known in August. I really think it’s a mistake on either side to say that today, given the situation today, I know exactly where the next president should stand when he or she takes office a year from today.

Yes, but Obama has made clear where he will stand if and when he takes office. He wants to begin withdrawing troops immediately.

My point is, I believe what we do is elect a person who you think has good judgment and who evaluates the facts… One of the things Senator Obama has talked about is trying to find areas where people come together… I think Senator Obama is saying that people of good principle have a right and responsibility to occasionally disagree with one another.

Let’s look at where we agree. We agree that we need change in this country. We agree that the American people are thirsty for us to unite around common values… And that’s what I think is exciting people, that they are seeing a candidate who is stepping forward and saying, ‘I am not going to spend a lot of time tearing people down, I’m going to put forward a positive vision for this country.’

How are we to read this piece of news?

WASHINGTON — A Navy cruiser in the Pacific Ocean will try an unprecedented shoot-down of an out-of-control, school-bus-size spy satellite loaded with a toxic fuel as it begins its plunge to Earth, national-security officials said Thursday.

President Bush made the decision because it was impossible to predict where a tank containing the fuel might land in an uncontrolled descent.

Here is one way of reading it:

Motives debated

The announcement set off an immediate debate on defense blogs and among experts who questioned whether there was an ulterior motive. Some experts said the military was seizing an opportunity to test its controversial missile-defense system against a satellite target.

But others noted that the Standard Missile-3 has successfully been tested against warhead targets, which are far smaller than the satellite.

“There has to be another reason behind this,” said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a liberal arms-control advocacy organization. “In the history of the Space Age, there has not been a single human being who has been harmed by man-made objects falling from space.”

There is probably truth in this reading. But there is a better (more poetic) way to read all of this—the falling spy satellite (only launched a year ago—another waste of our money), and the attempt to solve its death in space with a piece of dead (SDI—Star Wars) technology. The fall of the US 193 is to the Bush era what Cosmos 954 was to the Soviet period. US 193 marks the end of Bush (and the hegemony of the kind of power he represents), and also it captures the essential irrationality of his presidency and form of power.

Not the current president, but his father, George H.W. Bush, the former president. But can W’s endorsement be that far behind?

So the Poetry Foundation has been commissioning cartoonists to turn poetry into comics. The newest one is A.E. Stallings’ poem Recitative. The artist they chose to illuminate the manuscript (so to speak) is R. Kikuo Johnson, who is a really good choice for this sort of thing. I love his art, but his stories are sometimes so minimalist as to be pointless. At the bottom of this page, there’s a link to Johnson’s cartoon of Recitative.

I have to say, having read the poem first, the cartoon second, and then gone back and read the poem again, that I can positively say that I’m not sure what to think. The art is gorgeous, but it seems almost too obvious. Or maybe the poem itself is obvious. Or do I just think that it’s obvious because it rhymes and the rhyme scheme is really obvious?

This one,by Jeffrey Brown, illustrating a poem by Russell Edson, is pretty good, I think, and proves that the idea has some merit. Is this a case of bad writing making a bad comic? Does it matter? Who can say?

From Flickr pool contributor fffssss

As Eli noted earlier, U.S. Rep. John Lewis (totally my hero) is sending some mixed signals about the Democratic nomination.

However, this isn’t the first time Lewis has confounded Presidential hopefuls with his convoluted endorsement tactics.

In 1980, not yet a Rep., but an important name in the party, Lewis fielded an angry phone call from President Jimmy Carter after it became totally confusing whether Lewis was backing President Carter or Democratic insurgent Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Lewis, had ties to both men. Lewis, like Carter, was from Georgia and was a big player in Georgia’s Democratic circles. He was also appointed by and served in the Carter Administration bureaucracy. Meanwhile, Lewis was a key organizer in Bobby Kennedy’s campaign for President in 1968 and was part of Ted Kennedy’s left-wing wing of the Democratic Party vs. Carter’s centrist wing.

I never quite sorted out the story (as Lewis re-tells it in his autobiography), but it sure read like he wanted it both ways, and he seemed oblivious to the fact that he was messing with Carter’s mind.

The Hucka-strategy becomes clear, if slightly mad: he’s hoping to take it to the convention, and he’s convinced that Texas is going to put him there.

A few weeks ago, I stood at Chuck Norris’ ranch before a crowd of people and said that Texas would be the place where the dynamics of this race changed dramatically in our favor.

Since then, after winning West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas and Louisiana and fighting close races in Washington, Oklahoma, Missouri and Virginia we have positioned ourselves to do just that.

Remember the Republican nominee must have 1,191 votes to claim the nomination or else there will be a brokered convention where the Party’s top candidates will have an opportunity to make an impassioned plea as to why they are the best choice to represent the Republican Party in the fall against the Democrat candidate.

There are a few minor holes in this scenario:

• John McCain is already, by CNN’s generally cautious estimate, at 830 delegates.

• Mitt Romney’s decision to endorse McCain yesterday, and request that his delegates do the same, puts McCain even closer to victory. Romney presently has 286 delegates.

• While Huck’s polling numbers in Texas look pretty good, they don’t look good enough to challenge McCain for that elusive big win.

• He’s still using Chuck Norris, which was funny two months ago, but now seems slightly sad. Doesn’t he have a sympathetic former-governor to stump with? Anybody but the patron saint of the Bowflex?

The Wisconsin primary is on Tuesday, so there’s still plenty of time for this to go a few more rounds. But to catch you up: Yesterday there was this. And today there’s this:

More than a few things I’d wanted to say have already been touched upon in the comments thread (nobody knew my concert review was Amazon-related, etc), and Rotten In Denmark really nailed it. I don’t think that my personal complaints do much good—yeah, I disagree with what happened. Huge insight. But I can’t help but be amazed—almost impressed—at the stupidity behind the intent of the whole deal.

The company thought the blog post was bad PR. If that’s your opinion, don’t you speak to the offender and attempt to make the thing as quiet as possible? Could’ve been that simple. But instead of a largely ignored post (only had one comment before I was fired) that told a funny story about a weird “concert” in Seattle, there’s a follow-up about a silly, brash firing, along with a bunch of complaints from former—and current—Amazon employees. PR=Fail. And the only reason anyone’s reading it is because it happened to involve The Stranger. What about the commenter who developed a long-term sickness and was fired? Or the other perfectly capable employees and temps who have their careers upended over corporate overreactions and have no legal recourse? That’s the issue. Local companies who project their own versions of “Do No Evil” should be held accountable when they don’t treat blurry-line work issues with some adult perspective and respect—especially when said issue isn’t doing a thing to the company’s bottom line.

Anyway, I’m glad this could get other horror stories out in the open, and beyond that, I figure it’s not too rude to ask if Slog readers know of any openings for volunteer work—writing-intensive, teaching, etc. I’ve got 826 Seattle in mind; any other leads or interest would be appreciated, and I promise that if, say, Michael Bolton visits the office, I’ll obtain level-four clearance before whispering his name into the wind.

…are emerging about the 15 year-old gay kid shot by a classmate in California.

[Greg King] said his son was headstrong, confident, artistic and sweet. Larry King loved to sing songs by folk rock trio Crosby, Stills and Nash, and was studying “The Star-Spangled Banner” in hopes of singing it at his younger brother’s baseball games, his father said. “He had a very gifted singing voice.” He was so good, in fact, that one of Greg King’s friends — unaware of the family’s tragedy — called Wednesday to say his son should audition for “American Idol.”

It’s some comfort to know that this kid, shown above, had the support of his family before he was gunned down for the crimes of being effeminate and making the straight boys at his school uncomfortable.

And to all the unhinged Chris Crocker haters out there? I don’t mean folks that find Crocker annoying, but folks that seem to be utterly enraged by Crocker’s effeminacy? I hope you realize that your fury—the irrational fear and hatred you direct at feminine men—helped pull the trigger in this case.

Larry King will be taken off life support today, his organs will be donated, and he will die. Somehow I doubt we’ll see a crowd of Christian fundamentalists outside the hospital today, Schaivo-style, demanding that the brain-dead gay teenager be kept alive artificially. Once Larry King is dead, the charges against the 14 year-old boy that shot him will be upgraded from attempted murder to murder. The state of California plans to charge King’s murderer as an adult.

More details at Towleroad.

Today I’m flying south to see the Robert Irwin retrospective everyone’s been talking about. While I’m down there, I’m also going to check out the new BCAM, which got the art diss last week and the architectural diss this morning. (Watch Roberta Smith’s narrated slide show here.)

I’ll be back Tuesday with a head full of responses.

This time in Maryland:

A Republican delegate [read: legislator] from Washington County has resigned after authorities conducted a search of his home. Del. Robert McKee issued a statement today, saying local authorities searched his Hagerstown area residence on Jan. 31. The cyber crimes unit includes investigations of child pornography.

McKee said authorities seized his personal computer and other items. Although McKee did not specifically say in the statement what the material consisted of, he said it’s deeply embarrassing to him and reflects poorly on his service as a lawmaker.

McKee said he has entered treatment and that he has stepped down as executive director of Big Brothers and Sisters of Washington County. The 58-year-old McKee has served in the House of Delegates since 1995.

Art

‘Monster Movie’ at Western Bridge

• See what else is happening in Art on Friday »
• More Stranger Suggests for this week »

Tennessee:

When she was 14, [Debbie] Vasquez met [Dale “Dickie”] Amyx, who would eventually rise through Calvary ranks. In Amyx, Vasquez thought she’d finally found a confidante. “He told me he was a man of God, and I thought I could trust him,” she says. “I thought he could help me.”

She says Amyx started taking her on long country drives to talk about her problems. It was then that Amyx began touching her inappropriately…. Vasquez hid it until the age of 18, when her pregnancy made three years of abuse hard to hide. When the church’s senior pastor called Vasquez into his office and asked who the father was, she told him. And Vasquez says he made her march to the front of the church during Sunday service and ask her fellow churchgoers for their forgiveness. She was forced to confess that she was a pregnant, unwed teenager. But she was forbidden from fingering Amyx as the father—a fact that was not only proven years later in a paternity test, but which Amyx also has admitted.

Indiana:

A former youth minister accused of having sexual contact with a boy was taken into custody Thursday when a judge revoked his bond, citing allegations that he listed an abandoned home as his address. Tyree Coleman’s new bond was set at $250,000….

Coleman, a former youth minister at Temple of Refuge Church, is awaiting trial on allegations that he had sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy during a sleepover at the church. He was charged in August 2006 with two counts of sexual misconduct, sexual battery, criminal deviate conduct and child solicitation.

Florida:

Haunted by his past, Tom Ferguson spoke publicly for the first time on Tuesday. “I am a victim and survivor of childhood sexual assault,” said Ferguson.

The Ohio man says it was at the hands of a man he looked up to and trusted. Ferguson says it was his former Catholic youth minister, a deacon named Glen Shrimplin who is now 74-years-old.

“I was 14-years-old when he groomed me - 15 and 16 when he started abusing me,” said Ferguson.

^{From Fall Together/Fall Apart by Melissa Pokorny, 2008}

At Platform Gallery.

You, Jen Graves!, know as well as me that the only music better than the race record underground circa 1951 is the experimental white weirdoes underground circa 1950. They too had no use for the home key.

However, you also know, while its disappearance was wonderful for a while, it has now returned. Gloriously. Csharp, Dsharp, Esharp, Fsharp, Gsharp, Asharp, Bsharp, Csharp, for example, is a great home key that today’s kids use that the Brahms kids didn’t use so much.

And so, I look forward to the return of the home key in new and different ways.

…on the streets of Seattle. Sent last night from Hot Tipper Greg:

I was walking in Pioneer Square today about 3pm. In the area near the toy store on the corner, I noticed a small crowd of people gathered in a circle. Being human, I was curious to what I was missing and decided to walk down toward them. Turns out it was a photo shoot, that susposedly was taking place in a studio inside the building, but had poured onto the street for outdoor shots. My first shock was that the models (there were two) were wearing very little clothing, which eventually came completely off. After about five minetes of watching the shoot, I saw a few more people come out of the building with another model. The people accompanying the model were Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green. I was amazed, because I’ve honestly never seen a celebrity in Seattle before. After hanging around a while, I was informed that the shoot was for the website UrbanBombshells.com. I guess it’s some new pin-up photography site like Suicide Girls, but based in Seattle. I was told that Seth Green is dating one of the models from the shoot, and that Macaulay was in town hanging out with them.

Dear Greg: Thank you for noticing and sharing. As for your claim of never having seen a celebrity in Seattle: Are you blind?

Not those lefties, these lefties.

I’m normally the host on In/Visible, but this time, I’m the guest, interviewed by Christopher Frizzelle.

In the story “Gray Area” in this week’s paper, I take a look at accusations that two prominent Seattle artists—Lead Pencil Studio, winners of a Stranger Genius Award—are copycats.

“Which is worse,” I write, “theft or ignorance?”

On this podcast is everything that didn’t make it into the story: more opinions from curators and the artists, what I think of the whole thing, and how it crossed my desk in the first place.

Listen in.

The New York Times says he’s now backing Obama. The Washington Post says he’s made no decision. And this seems to suggest he’s going to try to thread the needle, maintaining his endorsement of Clinton while casting his superdelegate vote for Obama. Got that?

“Cool School: How LA Learned to Love Modern Art” is one of the most fun art documentaries I’ve seen. (It opens next week in Seattle.)

Shot largely in black and white (with color accents) as a gesture by the filmmaker, Morgan Neville, both to memory and to a certain irony, I found myself laughing out loud several times. There’s important stuff here, sure—this scene, of the late 1950s and early 1960s, based at Ferus Gallery, was where Ed Kienholz’s grimy assemblages, Robert Irwin’s space-melting discs, and Andy Warhol’s soup cans made their first appearances on the world stage.

But there are also some hysterical cliches. For instance, the scenes where Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell sit in leather chairs, suck on cigars, and talk about real art, man.

Neville’s choice of Jeff Bridges as narrator—basically, the Dude—is pitch-perfect. When all the guys get together for a reunion, it’s “Broadway Danny Rose” all over again, nostalgic and cranky. Ken Price and Craig Kauffman (I think it’s those two) get in an argument over who blackballed Richard Diebenkorn from the gallery roster. Throughout, nobody holds back: Kauffman recalls the moment when he realized he was Irving Blum’s whore. Blum, in his genteel Cary Grant accent, recalls just how he stole Walter Hopps’s wife. Irving Karp disses LA from his perch in NY. Hopps, who everybody at first thought worked for the CIA because of his suits and his secretive voice, confesses his speed addiction. Just 12 days before his death, Hopps recites his favorite quote about art, by a poet friend of his: “Art offers the possibility of love with strangers.”

It’s great stuff, and Neville acts like the amber that encases canonical figures hasn’t hardened yet on these guys. The result is a movie that’s true to the best parts of its subjects.

^{Given the machismo of these artists, I love the hugginess of this photo.}

In the race to pass bills out of one chamber into the other—the deadline is next Tuesday—the parade of floor votes continue.

Two votes we might see in the House today: expanding the rights (and responsibilities) of domestic partners and making executive boards of public agencies tape their closed door sessions so the public can demand to listen to them.

Here are two earlier Slog … posts … detailing the new rights the domestic partner bill will give gay and lesbian and hetero elder couples.

Oh, and one of the responsibilities? It concerns lawmakers themselves. Currently, on their financial disclosure forms they don’t have to list the income and assets of their partners. Now they will.

The good news: Last year saw a significant increase in book sales.

The bad news: Last year saw the release of the last new Harry Potter book, which might have singlehandedly caused the increase.

Pleading “Not Guilty”: Accused Central District shooter.

$695,000: The total Obama has given to superdelegates to help them with campaigns. (Clinton gave a total of $195,000).

Resigning?: McCain thinks about it.

Interest Rates: May get cut further, due to “sluggish” economy, Bernanke says.

In Chad: A state of emergency after recent coup attempts.

Suspended: Students who wore “Safe Sex or No Sex” shirts to school.

In New Mexico: Clinton wins caucus.

Six Dead: Shot by gunman at Northern Illinois University.

Four Percent: The percentage of the world’s oceans undamaged by human activity.

Just Blow it Up: US will shoo