three four times a charm

little eric cantor's "dems don't mind raising your taxes 'cause they never pay 'em" joke ain't quite so funny anymore (for democrats, anyway.)

six more weeks

war v. art

the $50 million in the stimulus package, designated for the national endowment for the arts (undoubtedly one of the first things that will be cut this week, as the bill gets reshaped in the senate) is less than 1/6 of what we spend in iraq per day.

in fact, the cost of the iraq war to the taxpayers of milwaukee, wisconsin alone could have provided that community with 14,135 music and arts teachers for one year, 127,384 scholarships for university students for one year, or 552,407 people with health care for one year.

what, is it 1950?

michael phelps smoked some pot. at a college party in columbia, south carolina. a british tabloid newspaper published a photo of him doing it. (how those college kids at didn't notice the british guy with the camera wandering around the party...well, they were smoking pot.)

we get this reaction from the united states olympic committee:

"We are disappointed in the behavior recently exhibited by Michael Phelps. Michael is a role model, and he is well aware of the responsibilities and accountability that come with setting a positive example for others, particularly young people. In this instance, regrettably, he failed to fulfill those responsibilities. Michael has acknowledged that he made a mistake and apologized for his actions."

quite honestly, i think wally needs to be grounded, don't you ward?

what i want you to buy

pay close attention to that green sidebar to the right.  things change in it quite often.  

first there was the will blog for coffee button. click on it and you can donate any amount to help support tuesdays. all major credit cards are accepted. buy me coffee, send me to aruba, send me to aruba to have coffee. whatever you like.  just do it soon, 'cause it's cold in new york.

now there's a new ploy exciting new feature in that green column for me to earn a few extra bucks to enhance your tuesdays experience. i cleverly call it: BUY THIS STUFF.

right now it has five items in it. each item has something to do with a recent post here on tuesdays (wanna read about the "fountain" funded by the nea in 2008? like that groucho video and wanna order a whole collection?) either that, or it's something i just wish you would buy so we could talk about it. (remember gay boy record parties? when you'd come over on a saturday night, we'd sit in my basement drinking grape soda, and i'd play the new prince album for you? kinda like that. but without taking off our clothes.)

if you "mouse over" an item, my little note to you shows up. see? try it. now click buy. go on, it's easy. all the other kids are doing it.

okay, it's an amazon.com ad.  thing is, when you click on those amazon links and actually buy something, i get money. dough-re-me. cash on the barrel head. seriously. not a lot, but in today's economy, when people are begging pleading asking politely for a cup of coffee, or to be sent to aruba? well, every little bit helps. and the more you buy, the longer my electric bill gets paid.

the charm offensive

president barack obama's charm quotient was readily on display at saturday night's alfalfa banquet in washington, d.c.

the dinner was founded in 1913 by a group of southerners to honor the birthday of general robert e. lee. during his speech, obama joked that if lee were in at the dinner, he'd be "202 years old, and terribly confused."

much was made of the fact that alaska governor sarah palin would be in attendance, and according to chicago tribune columnist clarence page, obama didn't let that opportunity slip:

"Good to see Gov. Palin here. I never expected to see you pallin' around in this crowd. Congratulations on your Golden Globe for '30 Rock'."

mr. president, there's something you should know...

little eric cantor, the republican whip, got off a good line over the weekend, at the republican retreat (what fun that must have been.)

cantor, commenting on two of president obama's cabinet nominees (timothy geithner and tom daschle) and their problems with back taxes, said:

“It is easy for the other side to advocate for higher taxes because — you know what? — they don’t pay them.”

ooohh. ouch.

and i'm serious. ouch. he's right. the problems for geithner, confirmed as treasury secretary despite having revealed previously unpaid back taxes, and now daschle, obama's nominee for health secretary – much more serious numbers in owed, and paid, back taxes – are an embarrassment for obama not so much because of the taxes themselves, but because of the aura surrounding the new president and his administration. the expectations are so high (set by obama himself) regarding honesty, transparency, and a new kind of government, that these oversights seem even more significant than they are.

don't talk to me about back taxes – it's not a subject i'm happy discussing. for someone making the kind of money daschle or geithner made in the past (modest by some standards, massive by my own) to have this kind of error does not surprise me. what is surprising is the slowness to reveal said discrepancies. granted, they both were revealed, by the parties involved. but neither were caught by obama's vetting team, and both men were somewhat slow to fess up.

geithner answered the questions about his situation and was confirmed, and daschle undoubtedly will be too. but both of these nominees (along with the investigation of gov. bill richardson) put a stain on what has been a squeaky clean transition and first week or so of the obama era.