Last year I was pretty broken up about the fact that The Golden Globes were going to suck without writers (I can't decide who I love more: writers or actors, really, both such a gorgeous collective of neuroses, and ego-and an unmitigated desire to constantly be the center of attention-don't tell me writers are all humble and shit, we all know better)!  At any rate, this year I was a little bit bummed that I was unable to attend or host any sort of fabulous Globes party-NEXT YEAR LOOK OUT Bizhes-it's ON.

So-my favorite parts of last night's ceremony:

1)Meryl Streep: "Mamie, Gracie, I Love you kiss kiss!"



2)I loved Collin Ferrel's acceptance speech, although it was a bit rambly and some of it didn't quite make sense.  Still thought it was probably the most interesting and intelligent speech of the night.

3)Tina Fey's acceptance speech when she told the people on the internet who don't like her to "suck it".  "dianefan, you can suck it!" I LOVE TINA FEY!

4)Tracy Morgan: "I am the face of post-racial America-deal with it Cate Blanchet!"



5)I knew Heath Ledger would win whether he deserved to or not.  I was actually saddened by his death, don't get me wrong.  He was a fine actor who I felt like was on the verge of creating history, so I was genuinely saddened by his death.  However, there are only so many times I can listen to people ask Maggie Gyllenhaal how it felt to be in his last movie with him.  I could tell she was sick of it too, although, of course, she remained gracious about it. And I'm sure he did a fine job in his role in The Dark Knight-however, if he were alive he would have to wait for better roles for an award (and I'm positive that he would have gotten great roles, and would have won many awards).

6)Sasha Baron Cohen's speech which strangely offended some people:



7)Kate Winslet's acceptance speech for her second award:



SHE FORGOT ANGELINA JOLIE!  Oh how satisfying that was.  I know it was an accident-but I absolutely LOVED IT! OH GOD Who's the other one?!  OMG it made me SOOOO happy to see Jolie get dissed! She takes herself so damn seriously, and the girl picks terrible roles, she can't even act in those, she has no class... and um, I have never quite figured out why she is considered anything more than a D lister! So while I know Winslet didn't mean to do it, I LOVED it!

My least favorite things about last night's Globes:

Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers-PLEASE GO AWAY.  I am just waiting for them all to be found robbing a convenient store to get enough money for their heroin fix.  JUST LEAVE US ALONE!


Most disturbing moment of the night: Mickey Rourke's acceptance speech. I am not understanding why everyone is loving him this morning for that speech. He was tragic and frightening. I have heard he is amazing in the movie, I'm not arguing that-but a wallet chain all the way to his knees? REALLY? And thanking his dogs? OMG I felt like I was watching a combination of Bar Fly and Urban Cowboy. I could just see him sitting in his double wide trailer drinking coors and in between lines of crank trying to convince people that he had once been a Hollywood sex symbol.  

Thanks to all who came out last night. I had a blast.  I drank too much and tipped the cab driver WAY too much, and managed to get a blister from walking in the wrong shoes.  I also drank cosmos which was totally glamerous and I LOVE cosmos (I never drank one before).  I had a blast though, and wanted to make sure to thank everyone for coming out to bar hop with me on a Sunday night.

I'm looking forward to this trip, but I have a ton of shit to do between now and Wednesday. Also the airlines are canceling trips like crazy because there is a "blizzard" (LOL) in Portland.  Supposedly it's the worst snow storm in 40 years, but I remember being five-before we moved to the country, and getting three feet of snow-it was taller than me.  Well regardless, it's going to be fun hanging out the airport all day Christmas Eve!

Last night I had an awesome dream.  I dreamed I was at a winter carnival walking around in the early evening all snuggled up in warm clothes and came across a cider stand.

Paula Dean was working at the stand.  I ordered hot cider and she told me that they only sold cold cider. I said I'd take it anyway. So she heated it up for me. While I waited I told her how much I loved her cooking show and how fabulous I thought she was.  She was all "well thank you honey" in her accent, and then she gave the cider to me for free.

It was awesome to get free hot cider from the fabulous woman of fat food!

http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/prop8/

Civil Rights Groups Petition California Supreme Court
to Stop Enactment of Proposition 8

Download Writ Petition - PDF || Download Press Release - Word - PDF - TXT

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 14, 2008) - Civil rights groups today filed a petition with the California Supreme Court to stop the enactment of Proposition 8 because it would mandate discrimination against a minority group and did not follow the process required for fundamental revisions to the California Constitution.

In the petition, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Equal Justice Society, California NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. argue that in order to protect the fundamental rights of all Californians, a higher standard is required to overturn the right to marry. Minority communities cannot be stripped of their fundamental rights by a simple majority vote.

"We would be making a grave mistake to view Proposition 8 as just affecting the LGBT community," said Eva Paterson, president of the Equal Justice Society. "If the Supreme Court allows Proposition 8 to take effect, it would represent a threat to the rights of people of color and all minorities."

The petition filed by Raymond C. Marshall of Bingham McCutchen and Prof. Tobias Barrington Wolff of University of Pennsylvania Law School on behalf of leading African American, Latino, and Asian American groups echo the arguments made in the November 5 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights: Proposition 8 prevents the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of enforcing the equal protection rights of minorities.

The California Constitution requires that any measure attempting to revise the underlying principles of the constitution must first be approved by a two-thirds vote of the legislature before being submitted to the voters. Proposition 8 was not approved through that constitutionally required process.

"Proposition 8 contradicts the most basic protection guaranteed by the California Constitution, which is the right to equal protection of the laws," said John Trasviña, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "We can not allow the Constitution to sanction discrimination against one group of people."

"Direct democracy cannot override the California Constitution, which requires more than a majority vote to deprive a minority group of their fundamental rights," said John A. Payton, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

"We cannot become a society that picks and chooses who is entitled to equal rights," said Alice A. Huffman, president of the California State NAACP. "We should include all people from all walks of life in the entitlement to all freedoms now enjoyed by the majority of our population As a civil rights advocate, we will continue the fight of eliminating roadblocks to freedom."

"Consistent with core equal protection principles, minority communities must not be stripped of their fundamental rights by bare majority rule," said Karin Wang, Vice-President of Programs for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. "California went down this path before when the majority population chose to bar interracial marriages involving an unpopular minority: Asian immigrants. The state Constitution exists exactly for this reason - to protect the fundamental rights of minority communities."

"Let's not forget the landmark 1967 case of Loving v. Virginia, which allowed two people of different races to marry," said Paterson of the Equal Justice Society. "People then believed it was acceptable to keep Mildred Loving from marrying a white man because of their ideas of who should marry whom. We must not return to those times."

The court has precedent for invalidating an improper voter initiative. In 1990, the court overruled an initiative that would have added a provision to the California Constitution stating that the "Constitution shall not be construed by the courts to afford greater rights to criminal defendants than those afforded by the Constitution of the United States." That measure was invalid because it improperly attempted to strip California's courts of their role as independent interpreters of the state's constitution.

A copy of the writ petition filed today is available at http://equaljusticesociety.org/prop8 and http://www.apalc.org.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (naacpldf.org) was founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall. Although LDF's primary purpose was to provide legal assistance to poor African Americans, its work over the years has brought greater justice to all Americans.

Founded in 1968, MALDEF (maldef.org), the nation's leading Latino legal civil rights organization, promotes and protects the rights of Latinos through litigation, advocacy, community education and outreach, leadership development, and higher education scholarships.

The Asian Pacific American Legal Center (apalc.org) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for civil rights, providing legal services and education, and building coalitions to positively influence and impact Asian Pacific Americans and to create a more equitable and harmonious society. APALC is affiliated with the Asian American Justice Center, the Asian American Institute in Chicago, and the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco.

The Equal Justice Society (equaljusticesociety.org) is a national strategy group heightening conscious on race in the law and popular discourse. Using a three-pronged strategy of law and public policy advocacy, cross-disciplinary convenings and strategic public communications, EJS seeks to restore race equity issues to the national consciousness, build effective progressive alliances, and advance the discourse on the positive role of government.

-30-

Contact:
Keith Kamisugi, Equal Justice Society
kkamisugi@equaljusticesociety.org
415-876-0589

My phone will be out of service for a couple of days.  It doesn't really matter since for the past three days I have maintained a temperature of anywhere between 101 and 103.  I hurt, and I go from cold sweats, to teeth shattering cold. I am seriously miserable.  I know that I have made commitments that I have not followed through with, and I don't know what to say but I'm sorry.  I didn't intend to stay sick, or get sick again. 

Anyway, I am going to try to sleep while I have some time between doses of tylenol-which works for about 3 hours, and then my temp sky rockets again.

WTF?

This sucks, and I'm totally wallowing in self-pity, TOTAL pity party. TOTAL.

I'm all for the right to marry.  I've been at rallies, I'll keep going.  But PLEASE PLEASE stop equating this to Jim  Crow.  It's absolutely ridiculous, historically inaccurate and only makes us look like dramatic ass-holes.  This is NOT Jim Crow.  We are literally only fighting for the right to partake in an institution. 

While I understand that the law is insane, and I get that what it boils down to is legalized discrimination, we are not being lynched.  We are not being barred from walking down the street.  We are not being beaten, raped, tortured.  We are not facing systemic terrorism. I also get that there are terrible people in this world who do beat us, but the real difference is that we are not facing an entire system of violence set to break us spiritually, and physically.

So fight this law.  It sets a terrible precedent and if it does not get overturned, it basically is going to allow civil rights be put to a popular vote.  That is awful, and it affects everyone of every race and gender.  But please have some respect and appreciation for real history v. your perception of history.

Today I made a crazy decision.  I am selling all of my shit and going across country.  My ultimate destination is Washington DC January 20th to see the inauguration.  I don't have a ticket into the actual inauguration, but I will be able to see the parade, and be in the city as it happens. 

My idea is to document everything I see and hear between here and there.  I want to meet as many people along the way and experience this incredibly crazy time in American history. 

This will not be cheap.  So I am going to be having a fundraising party in the next couple of weeks.  Additionally I will be having a garage sale, and if you have anything that you don't want anymore, but want to donate to me to sell, please get in touch with me.

Additionally to help me document this adventure I am in need of a digital voice recorder and/or a digital camcorder.  If you would be willing to loan a digicam to me I would give it back to you in the same condition in which you loaned it, and you would have the original tapes of the inauguration and all the other things I tape along the way. 

Also if anyone in Detroit or Chicago has a couch they would be willing to let me sleep on for a night or two in the first weeks of January please contact me.

I will also be setting up a pay-pal account for people to donate funds to.  This will totally help me out along the way.

Please wish me well, and any help you are able to give would be eternally appreciated.

PEACE!

So, Dr. Laura, that radio show nut job said that Homosexuality is considered an abomination according to Leviticus.  After she made that statement the following was passed around the internet.  I feel it is time for some levity (ha ha) and a reminder of how ridiculous using the bible to justify bigotry is:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

I am able to set aside all of my cynicism for tonight and be proud.

Thank you.
The only thing that I wish is that my parents had lived to see this. They worked so fucking hard, they also deserve this victory.

This is (old, I know, but still) fucking AWESOME



















I had an asthma attack so I used albuterol and I'm SOOOOOOOOO tired, but I can NOT go to sleep because I'm jacked up on crazy steroid shit. argh.

I stopped going to see D&B dj's years ago because I got so sick of how "sceney" it was, and how driven it was by ridiculous fashion and "cool" kid attitudes. But I've never stopped loving the music. Annie Mac from BBC 1 did a mash-up show last week of all D&B, and I've been obsessing over it again. I really love the internets because at 4 in the morning you can pretty much satisfy any music/pop culture obsession you are currently in the middle of. I like the really hard D&B, like that superman mix, I heard someone do a much more hardcore version of it. It was pretty fucking amazing the first time I heard it. The DJ opened with it. So the music was stopped and he walked up and you just heard those first few opening notes, and then BAM you were hit with this amazing bass and that beat. I'm no longer cool am I?

I never was cool, I don't know who I think I'm fooling.

Fuck the man!

I got this in an email, and really it takes five seconds. Pass this on too.

Dear Friends and Family,

PBS has an online poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is qualified.

Apparently the right wing knew about this in advance and are flooding the

voting with YES votes.

The poll will be reported on PBS and picked up by mainstream media. It can

influence undecided voters in swing states.

Please do two things -- it takes 10 seconds.

1) Click on link and vote yourself.

Here's the link:

http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

2) Then send this to every single Obama-Biden voter you know, and urge them

to vote and pass it on.

The last thing we need is PBS saying their viewers think Sarah Palin is

qualified.

Thanks!

http://www.pbs.org/now/palin-poll.html

About The Sarah Palin Poll
From John Siceloff, Executive Producer, NOW on PBS

The Sarah Palin Poll
New and Improved - One User, One Vote.

  I am writing in reference to the now famous "Palin poll" that appeared on the NOW on PBS homepage on September 5. It's no longer on the homepage; in fact, it's no longer a page that the online user can navigate to using menus, but hundreds of thousands of unique visitors are still accessing the poll and voting. How is that possible, and is that a good thing? More on that in a moment, after a side trip through the world of Internet "cookies."

PBS headquarters made the decision on September 22, to implement a cookie registration system on the Palin poll. That system is now part of the poll's inner code, and as of September 23, a user can only vote once per computer. PBS acted because the entire pbs.org site had been experiencing system overload due to massive accessing of the poll.

The poll asks the question, "Do you think that Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States?" The user answers clicks to answer "Yes" or "No." From September 5 to September 22, our software allowed online users to vote repeatedly. Sounds bad, right? But we at NOW had serious concerns about user privacy. "Cookies" are small text files placed on the user's system without that person's knowledge. Many computer users regard them as invasive.

Other possible fixes: we could have insisted on voters registering with their email addresses. But people could still vote several times using different email addresses. Or we could insist on a unique identifier - a user's social security number. This was clearly way over the line in violation of user privacy.

What are other media organizations doing? CNN.com does exactly what we had been doing—their polls allow multiple votes. The website of the newspaper USA Today also uses polls, called "USA TODAY Snapshot", but it employs the "cookie" approach to restrict multiple voting.

So, is the Palin poll now "scientific"? Absolutely not. It is still subject to large scale efforts on the left and the right to mobilize people to vote. The poll has become something of a Rorschach test, a tiny political marker in a tightly contested race. Over the past two weeks, the results of the poll see-sawed back and forth from a majority saying "No" to a majority saying, "Yes". At the moment the single-voter system was implemented, it was close to a tie: 50% say Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President, and 48% say no. Those results, in my view, are actually a measure of the mobilization and manipulation efforts by partisans on both sides. Now it will be all about mobilization, and less about manipulation. Blogs on the left and right are circulating viral emails with the exact address of the poll.

Some users have raised questions about our decision to collect opinion about Sarah Palin's qualifications in a poll. For a more complete discussion, take a moment to read the September 19 column of Michael Getler, the PBS Ombudsman.

The Palin poll is no longer in our home page rotation. We've moved on to other polls; each week you'll find one in the bottom right corner of our home page. The current poll asks, "Who do you trust more to fix the nation's economic mess—Barack Obama or John McCain?" It has already attracted a lot of interest.

And let's keep in mind the purpose of these weekly polls. They invite people who might not ordinarily come to our site to participate, and they encourage people to explore the deep journalism that is offered throughout NOW's nearly 10,000 web pages and 1,000 video streams. They don't provide the nuanced interpretation of our investigative journalism and deep content, but do provide a gateway to that content. An example: on Friday, September 19, we aired a one-hour special about women and politics on our broadcast. In the days since the air date, that online video has become the most viewed video on the PBS Election Site. For online users who are deeply interested in the issues raised during this election, the polls are only a starting point. There's a lot more to explore, to read, and to view.

I welcome your thoughts and comments about the Palin poll. Please use this specific Feedback Forum to share your opinions.

Learn more about John Siceloff

---

UPDATE: As of October 15th, the Palin poll had received over 52 million votes. We've received inquiries about why the percentages in the poll results have not changed much in the last couple of weeks. There's a simple answer. There are so many votes now that even the hundreds of thousands of new votes each day don't have much of an effect on the overall totals.

Another question is about math. As of October 15th, the "Yes" answer had 49%, the "No" answer had 49% and the "Not Sure", 0%. The question is why these numbers don't add up to 100%. Here's the reason: the poll software rounds the results down to the nearest whole number. The "Not Sure" is less than one percent, so it rounds down to zero. The rounding-down is why why the numbers may not total 100%.

With all the questions--and answers--about the percentages and the math, it's easy to take a further step and regard the results as accurate and scientific. Not so! The Palin poll is a measure of voter interest and mobilization in the closing weeks of the campaign. It should not be taken as an accurate barometer of the views of the wider public about Sarah Palin's qualifications.

I was lazy the better part of my early morning.  I had terrible nightmares that kept me awake half the night, so I decided that I had a good excuse to be lazy.  So when I finally set foot outside to go for a walk, my street was full of cars.  Someone had even moved our pile of grass and leaves onto the sidewalk to make more room for parking.  Here's what I learned.

Today is the 300th anniversary of the Sikh Holy Scripture and the Sikhs were at the park  right next to my house providing food, voter registration (I needed to register for Sacramento so I had an excuse to sit down and talk with someone) and food and tea.  Awesome.  I also learned today that the name of the Sikh Holy Scripture is Siri Guru Granth Sahib, it has 1430 pages in it.  They are poems and are written it 31 different meters.  It is written in Punjabi, Persian and Sanskrit (as well as several other languages).  It also incorporates other messages from the Muslim religion as well as the Hindu religion.  It originated in Punjab.  It is the world's fifth largest religion.

Also I got to eat Indian food and drink Indian tea for free.  Additionally I am a volunteer at the polling places in November-something I've been meaning to do for a while now.

And that is why I adore the neighborhood I live in.  I learned something I would never have learned otherwise (since I didn't have any specific interest in the Sikh religion when I woke up this morning) simply by taking a half-block walk from my house. 

Awesome.

This is the first time in history where a singer sang harmonies with herself.  She recorded each of the four harmonies on separate tapes and then recorded a fifth version of her singing over the others.