National Pillow Fight Day

Today was National Pillow Fight Day and at Union Square I got a little too close to the action.

By the way, this video is not speeded up. I was just ducking pillows, hence the jerky camera action.

It's Raining McCain

I can say without exaggeration that this is 100 million times worse than Hitler.

Michael Stipe Press Announcement

Cute, very cute.

Google Knows Where You Are

My obsession with statistics goes into overdrive in the face of the magic of Google Analytics, which reveals some interesting tidbits about JMG readers. For folks dropping by in the last 30 days, by far the largest chunk of you are in NYC, about 11%, twice as many as #2, San Francisco. The top twenty:

1. NYC
2. San Francisco
3. Washington DC
4. Chicago
5. Seattle
6. London
7. Austin
8. Minneapolis
9. Portland
10. Houston
11. West Hollywood
12. Atlanta
13. Oakland
14. Dallas
15. Philadelphia
16. Sydney
17. Los Angeles
18. Denver
19. Beverly Hills
20. Boston

Beverly Hills? How odd. Numbers 7-20 are all at about 1% of total readership, so the order of those cities doesn't mean much. I'm surprised to see London at #6. More surprised that Fort Lauderdale doesn't appear until #66. La-Dee-Da may be where the boys are, but I guess they're at the beach, not reading blogs. Who can blame them?

Broadway Friday

According to New York Post critic Michael Riedel, Sean Hayes isn't butch enough to play the lead in a proposed revival of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's Promises, Promises. Riedel: "That casting's a little odd. Hayes doesn't seem quite virile enough to play a role originated by Jerry Orbach, one of Broadway's greatest leading men."

- A limited-engagement revival of Bob Fosse's Dancin' opens at the Roundabout in April 2009. The show will tour nationally afterwards. Dancin' originally played 1774 performances beginning in 1978.

- Brian d'Arcy James has been announced as the lead of Shrek: The Musical, which will begin performances at the Broadway Theatre on November 8, with an official opening on December 14.

- Off-Off-Broadway: Ladies & Gents is playing in the toilets in Central Park. "The production plays out in two 20-minute halves, performed at the same time in adjacent rest rooms near the Bethesda Fountain. The audience is randomly divided into two groups and sees both parts of the story. Each audience member is directed to a spot in the toilet and told not to move."

- Tony winner Marvin Hamlisch will conduct and host Broadway's Greatest Showstoppers with the New York Philharmonic on May 20th. Appearing: Kristin Chenoweth and Raúl Esparza.

- Curtains will close on June 29th after 26 previews and 511 regular performances.

- Ivan Dixon, best known as Sgt. Kinchloe on Hogan's Heroes, has died at 76. Dixon was in the original cast of Broadway's Raisin In The Sun in 1959 and had a successful career post-Hogan's Heroes as a director of many television shows including Quincy, The Waltons, and The Rockford Files.

Here Comes The Rain Again

Westboro Baptist Church celebrates Good Friday:(Via - Good As You)

Daily Grumble

Every year I remind myself to take Good Friday off. And every year I forget. This year Good Friday also coincides with Purim, so ain't nobody here but us chickens. Bah.

Feds Deny Gay Man Passport Under His New Married Name

Citing the Defense Of Marriage Act, the State Department has refused to issue a passport to a Massachusetts AIDS counselor under his new married hyphenated name.

As an AIDS counselor, Jason Hair-Wynn wants to bring his expertise to Africa, a continent that has been ravaged by the disease. But when the Attleboro resident recently applied for a new passport so he could go to Africa, he learned the U.S. State Department would not recognize his new hyphenated name because he is a gay man married to another man. He said the State Department said it was prohibited from recognizing his new name by the Defense of Marriage Act.

"We are unable to comply with your request for a name change based on the documentation you sent because of the Defense of Marriage Act ...," the letter states. "In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administration bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife."

Another example of the disconnect between state-level LGBT progress and the federal government.

Hulu Time

I've been checking out Hulu, the new joint venture from NBC and Fox. Hulu features free streaming of TV shows and movies, but you have to watch an ad a few times during the course of the presentation. AfterElton complains that there isn't much content of gay interest, but I've watched a couple of black-and-white episodes of Bewitched. That's pretty gay.

In addition to programming from the main partners, Hulu features shows from Bravo, the Sci Fi Channel, FX, Sony, the USA Network, E! and others. The selection is rather random, so if you go looking for a specific episode of a certain show, you might be disappointed. Also rather annoying is the seeming randomness with which some shows' episodes are available in full, while other episodes are only there in clip form. So far, I give Hulu a two-star rating.

Sebastian Horsley Turned Back From U.S.

On the eve of his book tour, notorious author Sebastian Horsley (Dandy In The Underworld) has been denied admission to the U.S.

Sebastian Horsley, a British author who has written an eyebrow-raising memoir detailing a life of rampant drug use and voluminous encounters with prostitutes, was turned back at Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday as he tried to enter the United States for a book party and New York news media tour.

Mr. Horsley, whose memoir, “Dandy in the Underworld,” was published last week in paperback by Harper Perennial, a unit of HarperCollins, said he was detained by United States customs authorities for eight hours and questioned about his former drug addiction, use of prostitutes and activity as a male escort.

“I’m absolutely shattered and upset and gutted about not being able to come to America,” Mr. Horsley said in a telephone interview from London, where he had returned on Wednesday. “I was very much looking forward to meeting everybody.”

Lucille Cirillo, a spokeswoman for the New York office of United States Customs and Border Protection, said she could not comment on specific cases. But in an e-mail message, she said that under a waiver program that allows British citizens to enter the United States without a visa, “travelers who have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude (which includes controlled-substance violations) or admit to previously having a drug addiction are not admissible.”

People who have previously admitted to drug addiction are not admissible? Wouldn't this mean that thousands would be denied every year? Including almost every British pop star? Horsely: "God bless America, land of the free, but sadly not the land of the depraved. I’m not a politician, I’m an artist. Depravity is part of the job description." I've got a copy of Horsely's book lying around here somewhere. Guess I'm going to have to see what the fuss is.

Bill Richardson Endorses Obama

From the NY Times:

“I believe he is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America’s moral leadership in the world,” Mr. Richardson said in the statement, provided by the Obama campaign early Friday morning.

“As a presidential candidate, I know full well Senator Obama’s unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation.”

Mr. Obama and Mr. Richardson are set to appear on stage together Friday at the Memorial Coliseum in downtown Portland, according to Democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. An adviser to Mr. Obama also confirmed the endorsement.

The endorsement offers a timely boost for Mr. Obama, who has weathered the most tumultuous two weeks of a 15-month campaign. He has been seeking to reassure superdelegates that his efforts have not been thrown off course by a series of controversies, including inflammatory statements about the government and race in America made by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his longtime spiritual adviser and former pastor.

Still no endorsement from John Edwards.

Huge Setback For CA Wingnuts

In a stunning blow to California's rightwing, an appeals court judge has ruled that parents who homeschool their children must have teaching credentials.

The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.

The parents said they also enrolled their children in Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study program and visits the home about four times a year.

The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home. Some homeschoolers are affiliated with private or charter schools, like the Longs, but others fly under the radar completely. Many homeschooling families avoid truancy laws by registering with the state as a private school and then enroll only their own children.

Yet the appeals court said state law has been clear since at least 1953, when another appellate court rejected a challenge by homeschooling parents to California's compulsory education statutes. Those statutes require children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child's grade level.

Yesterday's ruling is applauded by the state's largest teachers union. Last year California passed SB777, an anti-bullying measure aimed at protecting LGBT students. Since then the Christian right-wing has bleated loudly about the "homosexual agenda" and urged parents to remove their children from public schools for homeschooling. The new ruling by the appellate court effectively outlaws homeschooling in California, although the case will surely be reviewed by the state Supreme Court.

Snooped: Obama's Passport File

Barack Obama's passport information was breached by three State Department employees.

Two contract employees of the State Department were fired and a third person was disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's passport file. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the department itself detected the instances of "imprudent curiosity," which occurred separately on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14. He would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined. The three were working in separate offices within the passport system, according to State Department officials. "We believe this was out of imprudent curiosity, so we are taking steps to reassure ourselves that that is, in fact, the case," McCormack said.

Obama's campaign reacts.

This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an Administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years. Our government’s duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes. This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama’s passport file, for what purpose, and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach.

"Imprudent curiosity"? Anybody buying this? I suppose if I had access to the passport information of celebrities, I'd be tempted to have a look. But surely these guys had to know that a record would be created anytime somebody took a peek. This smells funny.

(Via - Politico)

On Rev. Wright's HIV Claim

Slate discusses Rev. Jeremiah Wright's charge that the U.S. government invented AIDS to kill blacks.

Barack Obama rebuked his former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Tuesday for giving sermons in which he blamed the government for creating a racist state and "inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color." Wright isn't the first to say that AIDS originated in the White House. Others have attributed the epidemic to a laboratory accident, malnutrition, or even God's divine will. Here's a field guide to the most prevalent conspiracy theories:

Government Involvement
The belief cited by Wright—that the government invented HIV—seems to have originated during the early years of the epidemic. In 1986, crackpot East German biologist Jakob Segal published "AIDS: USA Home-Made Evil." According to the pamphlet, scientists at a Fort Detrick, Md., military lab manufactured the disease by synthesizing HTLV-1 (a retrovirus that causes T-cell leukemia) with Visna (a sheep virus). The scientists administered their lethal concoction to prison inmates, who then introduced the disease into the general population. In case you're wondering, Segal has since been accused of being a Soviet disinformation agent.

Similarly, the aptly named Boyd E. Graves (who calls himself a doctor although he has only a law degree) has postulated that scientists in the employ of the U.S. Special Virus Program modified Visna to create HIV during the 1970s. The government, with help from pharmaceutical company Merck, added the virus to an experimental hepatitis B vaccine, which was given to gay men and blacks in New York and San Francisco.

And then there's Gary Glum, author of Full Disclosure, who fronts the theory that scientists at the Cold Spring Harbor lab in New York engineered HIV, and that the World Health Organization spread the virus under cover of the smallpox eradication program. Glum believes the virus was created to wipe out, or at least control, the black population. (According to a study released in 2005 by the Rand Corp., more than one-quarter of African-Americans believe the disease was engineered in a government lab, and 16 percent think it was created to control the black population.)

The article goes on (briefly) to list other double-dumbass AIDS conspiracy theories.

The Taxi Of The (Ugly) Future

Here's the monster that Ford is trying to sell NYC, which is looking to replace its entire fleet of Crown Victoria taxis. Aside from being super fugly, the thing only gets 19 mpg. Ford is calling it the "taxi of the future." Well, everyone has been saying the future won't be pretty.

ABC News Races Fox To The Bottom

Hillary Clinton just released her 17,000-page schedule from her days as First Lady to the National Archives. And already an ABC News "investigative unit" has pored over the pages to discover the shocking news that she was actually at home at the White House on the day of the famous Monica Lewinsky blue dress incident.

Hillary Clinton spent the night in the White House on the day her husband had oral sex with Monica Lewinsky, and may have actually been in the White House when it happened, according to records of her schedule released today by the National Archives.

An initial review by ABC News of the 17,481 pages of Sen. Hillary Clinton's schedule as first lady, released today by the National Archives, also finds significant gaps in time and many days containing only "private meetings" at the White House with unnamed individuals.

The public schedule for Sen. Clinton on Feb. 28, 1997, the day on which Lewinsky's infamous blue dress would become stained by the president, shows the first lady spent the morning and the night in the White House.

Whoop deefucking doo. Garsh, ABC News, what could your motives possibly be?

Blink, Blink

To prove his YouTube fantabulousness, Chris Crocker blinks twice and gets 900K views.

I suppose this is a statement on internet fame. Shrug.

Moscow Pride Crosses Fingers

The organizers of Moscow Pride have invited the mayors of Paris, Berlin, and London to their event in the hopes forcing their local authorities to allow Pride festivities to take place and to act respectfully during the events.

The organisers of Moscow Pride have invited the Mayors of London, Paris and Berlin to attend this year. Last year's event was banned and gay protesters, including Peter Tatchell and Right Said Fred singer Richard Fairbrass, were physically attacked by a homophobic mob.

In a letter to the three Mayors Nicolas Baev and Nicolas Alexeyev said:

"Knowing and respecting you as prominent supporters of civil rights for LGBT people, we would like to invite you to take part in the human rights conference and manifestation for LGBT rights and against homophobia which will take place in Moscow on May 30th and 31st 2008. You always support the fundamental right of homosexual people to openly manifest and to publicly express themselves. All of you also regularly take part in Gay Pride parades in your own cities.

"Unfortunately, Russian LGBT people have no such an opportunity to manifest and openly protest against homophobia and in support of their civil rights. Their constitutional right to freedom of assembly is constantly violated by Moscow city authorities.

"Taking into account the bans of the public Pride events in the Russian capital in 2006 and 2007, we are not sure that Mosow Mayor Luzhkov will permit Gay Pride manifestation this year. We appeal for your help and your sincere support for the third Moscow Pride which will celebrate 15th anniversary since decriminalisation of homosexual relations in Russia."

FL Bill Would Ease Gay Adoption Ban

A change may be coming in Florida's gay adoption law, although wingnut state Sen. Ronda Storms (left) plans to block the bill in committee.

A state senator has filed legislation to ease a three-decade old ban on gays adopting children in Florida. Sen. Nan Rich (D) has filed similar bill over the past three years but none has made it a vote. The same thing is likely to happen this time. The bill has been assigned to a Senate committee headed by Sen. Ronda Storms (R) who ran on a platform of opposing same-sex marriage and maintaining the adoption ban.

Gays and lesbians in Florida are allowed to serve as foster parents but are barred from adopting. Rich's bill would remove the ban but leave it to a judge to determine the best interests of a child. The measure has the support of a number of groups including state LGBT organizations, the ACLU, the National Council of Jewish Women and Planned Parenthood.

Gov. Charlie Crist (R) opposes the bill. Crist, who has previously voiced his support for civil unions believes it is not in the best interests of children to place them with gays.

Storms said Wednesday she has no intention of letting the legislation come to a vote in committee. There are more than 3900 children are in Florida's foster care system awaiting permanent homes. The ban was passed in 1977 in response to Anita Bryant's infamous anti-gay campaign.

In 2005 the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the adoption ban after the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit declined to hear the case. The American Civil Liberties Union brought the lawsuit on behalf of four gay men who would like to adopt in Florida but are prevented from doing so by the state law.

Florida is the only state that bans gay individuals from adopting.

Black Man Asks For Change

From The Onion:

According to witnesses, a loud black man approached a crowd of some 4,000 strangers in downtown Chicago Tuesday and made repeated demands for change.

"The time for change is now," said the black guy, yelling at everyone within earshot for 20 straight minutes, practically begging America for change. "The need for change is stronger and more urgent than ever before. And only you—the people standing here today, and indeed all the people of this great nation—only you can deliver this change."

The black guy is oddly comfortable demanding change from people he's never even met. It is estimated that, to date, the black man has asked every single person in the United States for change

HomoQuotable - Rita Mae Brown

"The funny thing is, I don't believe in straight or gay. I really don't. I think we're all degrees of bisexual. There may be a few people on the extreme if it's a bell curve who really truly are gay or really truly are straight. Because nobody had ever said these things and used their real name, I suddenly became the only lesbian in America. It was hysterical. It was a misnomer, but it's okay. It was a fight worth fighting." - Author Rita Mae Brown to TIME.

Open Thread Thursday

What's your darkest secret?

CA State Sen. Carole Migden Fined $350K

In the largest such judgment against a state politician, California State Senator (and open lesbian) Carole Migden (D-SF) has been fined $350,000 for 89 instances of campaign finance and disclosure violations and for personal use of campaign funds. Migden's attorney claims that the violations were a result of her 10-year bout with leukemia, saying, "She was battling cancer at the time and she didn't pay attention as she should have."

The 35-page FPPC report says Migden on eight occasions between 2005 and last June spent a total of $16,317 in campaign funds that "conferred a substantial personal benefit" to her without having a reasonable "political, legislative or governmental purpose" as required by law.

Details of Migden's personal spending were not included, though the information may be released later. "It's still a pending issue until the commission formally accepts or rejects the stipulation," said FPPC spokesman Roman Porter.

In addition to airfare and hotel stays, Migden has used campaign credit cards to make purchases at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Tiffany & Co., among other high-end retailers, according to her campaign disclosure reports.

The violations span Midgen's time as state Senator and her previous positions in the state Assembly and with the Board of Equalization.

Under law, which allows the agency to levy $5,000 per count, the FPPC could have fined Migden $445,000 for the 89 counts, but she, Sanders and Potashner stipulated to the $350,000 fine. Migden has paid $100,000 out of her own pocket, but it's unclear whether she will use campaign money to cover the remaining fine, her attorney said. Candidates are allowed to use campaign funds to pay fines if they are related to the committee.

As of the end of 2007, Migden had about $1 million in three campaign accounts. But recently the FPPC ruled that she can't spend $647,000 in political contributions she raised before being elected to the Senate. Chairman Ross Johnson said Migden has already illegally spent $400,000.

Migden's upcoming election opponent, openly gay Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-SF), raised the issue of Migden's campaign improprieties last November. Migden responded by filing suit against the Fair Political Practices Commission, saying she was using volunteer bookkeepers unfamiliar with state rules and should be entitled to use the money as she had.

UNRELATED: In May 2007, Migden rear-ended another vehicle after forcing two drivers off the road, distracted, she claimed, by answering her cell phone. In 2006 Migden had voted for a state bill that outlawed holding a cell phone while driving. That law went into effect shortly after Migden's accident.

VERY UNRELATED: I met Migden several times during her tenure on San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, but most memorably in 1998 at a vigil and march marking the 20th anniversary of the murder of Harvey Milk. Migden was then in her first term in the Assembly and I took an opportunity to speak to her about SF's show-boating new mayor, Willie Brown, who'd just left the Assembly after many years as its Speaker.

Migden (my rep in the Assembly) listened to my two sentence question/complaint, then turned her back on me with a dismissive "I love Willie Brown." Wrong place, wrong time, maybe. But funny how things like that stick with you. I wasn't at all surprised a couple of years ago when Midgen was voted "Worst Senator To Work For" by capitol staffers and was named "Sacramento's Scariest Boss" by the SF Examiner. Migden has also been repeatedly reprimanded in the legislature for being a total bitch. Seriously. But maybe that's what it takes to be a successful female politician. Ahem.

SNL Does Christian Siriano

They should just rename SNL to The Amy Poehler Show.

And Robots Shall Rule The Earth

This is Big Dog, a robot from Boston Dynamics, demonstrating his chops on ice, rocks, and snow. Pretty damn impressive.

(Via - By The Bayou.)

Bottoms For Obama

Cuz tops must be for Hillary. That seems right somehow, but I'm not sure why. Of course, with the reputed ratio of bottoms to tops in the world, this can only be good news for Obama. Get your Bottoms For Obama merchandise here.

(Via - Dan Savage)

HomoQuotable - Angelo Pezzote

"If I feed a plant poisoned water, it can't help but absorb some of the poison. We too internalize society's heterosexism and homophobia that surrounds us, thus imposing limiting standards on ourselves. Those standards are so prevalent that they become a part of us, running our lives whether we're aware of them or not -- whether we believe them or not. We may police our own behavior by monitoring our appearance, mannerisms, and behavior to be seen in a relatively more positive light. When it suits us, we can tone down the signals that we're gay even after we publicly acknowledge it, muting our true rainbow colors. Acting like chameleons, we're careful not to stick out too much, not being too flamboyant. It’s easier because we get less flack. Having evolved over many generations of gay oppression, straight acting may in fact be a leftover survival instinct imprinted on our collective unconscious to keep us safe from harm if we're "too obvious" -- in spite of relatively newfound cultural acceptance." - Advice columnist and author Angelo Pezzote, in a piece published on Advocate.com. Pezzote is the author of Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity and Finding True Love.

Polish Prez Mocks Gay American Wedding

Speaking to a national television audience, the president of Poland played a video of two American men getting married in Canada as he mocked the EU's rules on same-same unions.

A gay man from the United States on Tuesday voiced outrage against Poland's President Lech Kaczynski for publicly using a video of his marriage to bash the EU's proposed charter of rights.

"Of course I am outraged that the president and his party would use images of Tom and I, of a very sacred moment for us as a couple," Brendan Fey told Poland's commercial Radio Zet broadcaster. Kaczynski used a prime-time televised address Monday to argue the EU's proposed Charter of Fundamental Rights, linked to the bloc's crucial reforming Lisbon Treaty, could allow homosexual marriage in Poland, a devoutly Catholic country.

A video of the couple's marriage in Toronto, Canada was broadcast nationwide to illustrate Kaczynski's presidential address. Fey and his spouse were not identified by name in the broadcast. "It is very sad for me when leaders of a nation such as the president of Poland urge people not to support the Lisbon Treaty because of the possibility of recognising equally same sex couples and our families," Fey told Radio Zet.

"Tom and I, we are both Catholic, in fact we met at church at Sunday mass," he added. Fey vowed to complain to Polish authorities that images of his wedding were "used in a derogatory manner."
Poland's liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk also slammed the president's address Tuesday.

"To scare Poles by saying that homosexuals and Germans pose a threat to the EU is stupid, indecent, contrary to our fundamental interests and very damaging to Poland's image abroad," Tusk said. Kaczynski had also said the charter could allow Germans to sue Poles for properties lost after World War II, when the Polish-German border was redrawn.

What Kaczynksi probably didn't realize is Brendan Fay is an internationally reknowned gay activist. Here are some photos I took of Fay at a protest at the Russian consulate last summer.

Hundreds Protest Kern At OK Capitol

The Sally Kern story just goes on and on.

About 300 people gathered during the noon hour today at the state Capitol to ask state Rep. Sally Kern to apologize for calling homosexuality the biggest threat to America.

The Rev. Jim Shields, a retired United Methodist minister who lives in Kern's district that covers parts of west Oklahoma City and Bethany, called on the Republican legislator to hold meetings in the district to talk with gays and Muslims.

If Kern doesn't do those things, then she should resign, said the Rev. Loyce Newton-Edwards, assistant pastor of the Open Arms United Church of Christ and president of the Oklahoma City chapter of PFLAG, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

Kern, a Republican, was not in the Capitol during the 40-minute event in the first-floor rotunda.

Does anybody have photos of the protest?

Morning View - Herald Square

Five Years In Iraq

Five fucking years.

When U.S. President George W. Bush launched Stealth bombers at Saddam Hussein's regime on March 19, 2003, five years ago today, roughly 60 per cent of Americans backed the war. Most were convinced Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Most believed he had ties to Osama bin Laden, their 9/11 nemesis. And most felt sure Iraqi democracy would rise phoenix-like and strong from the cinders.

Those certainties have long since been exploded. In the twilight of the failed Bush presidency Americans are left contemplating a ruinous $3 trillion bill, by Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz's reckoning, for a war former defence secretary Don Rumsfeld breezily predicted would cost $60 billion. Nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have died. And U.S. credibility internationally has suffered a devastating blow. Iraqis, meanwhile, mourn 151,000 violent deaths by their own government's estimate, as they struggle amid "tears and blood" to patch together the broken political pieces, rebuild a civil administration and economy, bring home millions of refugees, and fend off a stubborn insurgency.

Despite the fears the Bush administration fanned at the United Nations before attacking Iraq, there never was a pressing need for war, beyond Bush's demand for "regime change" in an "axis of evil" state. And most Canadians and much of the world knew it. The UN inspectors were right. Saddam had long since given up his nuclear, biological and chemical ambitions. Nor did he have the ties Washington claimed with the 9/11 attackers, who were Saudis for the most part

Finally, while Iraq's new democracy led by President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is incomparably better than Saddam's murderous Baathist autocracy, it is also fractious, unstable and weak. It has yet to agree on laws to hold Kurdish, Sunni and Shia regions together in some kind of federation, or on a plan to fairly divvy up Iraq's oil revenues. Many Iraqis now live in mortal fear of a U.S. military pullout, anarchy, and the breakup of their nation.

The NY Times has an excellent photo timeline of the war.

Death Clock

Via Slog -

A clock, by artist Bertrand Planes, that’s been slowed down 61320 times, so that each line represents a year in the average human life. It’s set to 84 years.

Tick, tick, tick. I don't know, maybe a digital countdown of the rest of your lifespan might be more dramatic.

Arthur C. Clarke, 90

Science fiction legend, the world's most famous futurologist, and gay man Sir Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90 in Sri Lanka, his adopted home for the last 50 years. I began devouring Clarke's novels at the age of 12 when a friend pointed out that the spacey lyrics of David Bowie's 1971 song Oh! You Pretty Things were a reference to the plot of Clarke's novel Childhood's End. Intrigued, I checked the book out of the school library and it remains one of my all-time favorites to this day. Overlords! Scary!

By the end of high school I had read and reread almost all of Clarke's work, with special fondness for The Nine Billion Names Of God, The Sentinel (which is the short story that later became 2001: A Space Odyessy), and Rendevous With Rama, which will finally be made into a movie this year.

Clarke was known to be gay, but always remained coy with the press, never officially coming out. In his later years he was fond of saying, "At my age, now I'm just a little bit cheerful." In 1997, the Sunday Mirror claimed that Clarke had paid young boys for sex, a story that was later disproven by the Sri Lankan police, but still forced Clarke to postpone his knighthood ceremony with Prince Charles. With the stipulation that they not be published until 50 years after his death, his "Clarkives" should tell the story of his gayness, finally, even though it's a widely accepted fact among fans.

It was Clarke who in 1945 invented the concept of geostationary satellites in a paper titled Extra-Terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage? When others later attempted to patent the concept, their applications were denied when Clarke's writing was cited as "prior art." When satellites are launched today, they are put into Clarke Orbit. Obviously, without satellites, most of today's communications, weather, and defense technologies would not be possible. Credit Sir Arthur C. Clarke, a gay man.

The Fantasy Of Faithfulness

The New York Times editorializes on the non-stop "scandal" of philandering heterosexuals:

You can accuse the disgraced ex-governor Eliot Spitzer of many things in his decision to flout the law by soliciting the services of a pricey prostitute: hypocrisy, egomania, sophomoric impulsiveness and self-indulgence, delusional ineptitude and boneheadedness. But one trait decidedly not on display in Mr. Spitzer’s splashy act of whole-life catabolism was originality.

It’s all been done before, every snickering bit of it, and not just by powerful “risk-taking” alpha men who may or may not be enriched for the hormone testosterone. It’s been done by many other creatures, tens of thousands of other species, by male and female representatives of every taxonomic twig on the great tree of life. Sexual promiscuity is rampant throughout nature, and true faithfulness a fond fantasy. Oh, there are plenty of animals in which males and females team up to raise young, as we do, that form “pair bonds” of impressive endurance and apparent mutual affection, spending hours reaffirming their partnership by snuggling together like prairie voles or singing hooty, doo-wop love songs like gibbons, or dancing goofily like blue-footed boobies.

Yet as biologists have discovered through the application of DNA paternity tests to the offspring of these bonded pairs, social monogamy is very rarely accompanied by sexual, or genetic, monogamy. Assay the kids in a given brood, whether of birds, voles, lesser apes, foxes or any other pair-bonding species, and anywhere from 10 to 70 percent will prove to have been sired by somebody other than the resident male.

I'm reminded of a somewhat unpopular post that I wrote in 2005 in which I complained that gay marriage was eclipsing ENDA as the primary goal of the LGBT movement, a trend that I felt was at least partially fueled by assimilationist queers who were kidding themselves about the fantasy of a monogamous marriage.

A Well-Regulated (Queer) Militia...

The Pink Pistols, a group of gay gun owners, were among 68 groups that today filed briefs at the Supreme Court in its hearing to overturn Washington, DC's ban on handguns.

A Washington resident who wants to keep handguns at home for protection is challenging the 32-year-old ban as a violation of his constitutional rights. A federal appeals court in Washington agreed that the city cannot ban handguns.

The court has not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment in the 216 years since its ratification. The basic issue for the justices is whether the amendment protects an individual's right to own guns or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.

Even if the court determines there is an individual right, the justices still will have to decide whether the District's ban can stand and how to evaluate other gun control laws."Does that make it unreasonable for a city with a very high crime rate...to say no handguns here?" Justice Stephen Breyer asked the attorneys.

On the other side, Chief Justice John Roberts asked at one point: "What is reasonable about a ban on possession" of handguns? The case drew 68 briefs from outside groups, most opposed to the ban.

Among them were Pink Pistols - a national LGBT gun club - and Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty. Pink Pistols, which according to its Web site, has 43 chapters nationwide, said that guns should be allowed in homes for self-defense purposes. "More anti-gay hate crimes occur in the home than in any other location," the Pink Pistols said in their brief.

As the story notes, the Supreme Court has not ruled authoritatively on the Second Amendment since its institution in 1791. And it's about time they do. In this situation, I hope the Pink Pistols and the others lose.

Longing For Lullabies

New from Kleerup featuring Titiyo (who is Nena Cherry's sister), Longing For Lullabies is the sort of gorgeous morning music that I'm hoping DJ Joe Gauthreaux will provide for the final portion of this year's Black Party. Fingers crossed.

(Via - Habitat67)

Obama's "Race" Speech

In Philadelphia, Barack Obama has just delivered his highly-anticipated speech on race which addresses the swirling Rev. Wright controversy. An excerpt:

On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

The NY Times has a complete transcript of the 37-minute speech.

An Apology From The Maker of "Homosexual Cleansing"

The following message was just left in the comments of yesterday's post and was also emailed to my YouTube account.

To whom it may concern,

I would first like to make it very clear that Kraljevic had absolutely nothing to do with the making of this video. They are being unfairly targeted. I am the person who made this video, and I am one of the masked men in the video. Kraljevic lives in Connecticut. My username is New York Oluja, and it was made by us guys from Astoria, New York. The person, Peter Vanek, whose picture we are smashing in the video, is actually a very good friend of ours. The video was made for the purpose of being a prank amongst us guys. We are not homophobes who are violent in any which way. We made this video as a joke and it was only meant to stay up for a few days until Pete Vanek finally got to see the clip. We thought it would be funny to smash his photo that we had gotten from his house. It was supposed to be seen just amongst us friends. We meant for this video to be harmless fun amongst us guys. I understand where the anger is coming from and that was not my intent with the making of this video. Please stop unfairly accusing guys that had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this video at all. We used poor judgement in making this video, but I stress to you that we are not homophobes who gay bash. I am urging you all to please stop attacking Kraljevic who had absolutely nothing to do with this video. This is my account, my video that I made with my friends in Astoria Queens, and I take full responsibility and deserve all the anger and blame that is being directed towards the wrong people. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at Nick_Skara@yahoo.com. I am very sorry for the making of this video.

Sincerely,

Nick Skara

I guess I'm satisfied, how about you? What have we learned from this? First, this underscores that the internet is never truly anonymous. Secondly, we've seen a demonstration that a "joke" about gay-bashing is always very, very unfunny. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we see that even people who casually make violent "joke" videos about gay-bashing understand that society has changed and there will be repercussions.

Call off the dogs on Nick and his buddies, he seems properly contrite and ashamed.

Shelley Belly

As Shelley approaches her one year anniversary in Chez JMG in just a couple of months, I've been thinking more about getting her a companion. Logic seems to indicate that a second cat would also have to be FIV+, but that raises questions about the cats possibly giving each other infections. I've read some online about the issue, but remain unclear on how possible that may be.

There is an FIV vaccine out there, but it doesn't protect against all the known strains of the virus and appears controversial. What's the scoop, vets? If I can determine that Shelley has one of the strains that the vaccine guards against, how effective would it be to get an uninfected cat and have it vaccinated? An ugly facet of the vaccine is that it makes the animal test FIV+, meaning if it's caught outside the home it might be put to sleep. Not that I'd let that happen.

In other Shelley news, she's been spending her days on high-alert that the two elderly Labs that live across the alley don't figure out how to climb the fire escape ladder into her window. They are under 24-7 surveillance.

Pennsylvania Tries To Hate Again

The Pennsylvania Senate is trying one more time to pass a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality.

Constitutional amendment legislation failed in the last legislative session but is being considered anew in the current session. During a Senate committee hearing, Maggie Gallagher, President of the National Organization for Marriage, said an amendment to the state constitution would protect against a judge’s ruling that could strike down state law defining marriage as between a man and woman.

“It’s not a fantasy that this could happen. It is happening – it’s happened in New Jersey, it’s happened in Connecticut." Gallagher was speaking to Republican Senator Jane Earll of Erie, skeptical of the need for a constitutional amendment:

“We are going to hold our constitution hostage to the wackiest judge in some other state. I just think that amending the constitution is a very drastic measure.” Earll called the push for a constitutional amendment ‘perplexing’.

Ironically, a couple of years ago Philadelphia launched a campaign to reach out to gay tourists.

And The Pope Wears A Funny Hat

Worldwide Plaza lobby, Monday, 4pm

Ad Guy 1: Wanna get a drink after work?

Ad Guy 2: Is the governor blind?

That didn't take long.

"Gay" #1 Insult For British Kids

According to a new study, "gay" is most-used insult among students in UK.

Every generation of schoolchildren has them, the playground put-downs that can leave a pupil's reputation in tatters among their peers. For the current generation, "gay", "bitch" and "slag" are the most frequently used terms of abuse, according to a survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

They are used by children of all ages, from nursery school upwards. But the worst offenders are secondary school pupils, says the teaching union. The most popular by far is "gay". Of the teachers interviewed, 83% said they heard it being used regularly and much more than its nearest rivals, bitch (59%) and slag (45%).

So how did it achieve this dubious honour? The word has had many meanings over the centuries, often sexual, says Clive Upton, professor of Modern English Language at Leeds University. "In the early 19th Century is was used to refer to women who lived off immoral earnings," he says. Around the 1970s it was claimed by the homosexual community as a descriptive term for their sexual orientation, now its most popular meaning.

But while the word may not be new, language experts say "gay" has only become a documented trend in young people's slang in the last few years. Previously it might have been an occasional insult. "Every generation grows up with a whole lexicon of homosexual insults, in my day it was 'poofter' or 'bender'," says slang lexicographer Tony Thorne. "They were used much more because they were considered more offensive than 'gay', which is more neutral."

Here's the "hit list": gay (83%), bitch (59%), slag (45%), poof (29%), batty boy (29%), slut (26%), queer (26%), lezzie (24.8%), homo (22%), faggot (11%), sissy (5%). Eight out of eleven words are a reference to homosexuality. In the U.S., we'd have to add "punk" to the list.

(Via - Towleroad)

Swag Tuesday

Today's Swag Tuesday booty is two tickets to next week's Saint-At-Large Black Party at the Roseland Ballroom. This year's event is called Rites XXIX: The Dangerous Party For Boys, and stars DJs Stephan Grondin, Jonathan Peters, and Joe Gauthreaux, with a special "performance" by porn star Francois Sagat (below). Check out the Black Party's promotional video (NSFW).

As a benefit for the NYC Gay & Lesbian Center, the Black Party has produced a line of "Dangerous" chocolate bars which retail for $5 each and may contain a special "All Access Golden Ticket" to the event. The Golden Ticket chocolate bars are available at the Black Party's five tickets outlets in Manhattan.

Enter to win Black Party 2008 tickets by commenting on this post. Please only comment once and remember to leave your email address. Entries will close at midnight PST. Publicists: if you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.

RELATED: Here's a few posts I've written about previous Saint-At-Large events. Black Party 2007. Black Party 2006. Black Party 2005.

Paterson Beats Tab To Punch, Reveals Affair

Well, this didn't take long.

The thunderous applause was still ringing in his ears when the state's new governor, David Paterson, told the Daily News that he and his wife had extramarital affairs. In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in a joint interview they each had intimate relationships with others during a rocky period in their marriage several years ago.

In the course of several interviews in the past few days, Paterson said he maintained a relationship for two or three years with "a woman other than my wife," beginning in 1999. As part of that relationship, Paterson said, he and the other woman sometimes stayed at an upper West Side hotel — the Days Inn at Broadway and W. 94th St.

He said members of his Albany legislative staff often used the same hotel when they visit the city. "This was a marriage that appeared to be going sour at one point," Paterson conceded in his first interview Saturday. "But I went to counseling and we decided we wanted to make it work. Michelle is well aware of what went on."

In a second interview with Paterson and his wife Monday, only hours after he was sworn in to replace scandal-scarred Eliot Spitzer, Michelle Paterson confirmed her husband's account. "Like most marriages, you go through certain difficult periods," Michelle Paterson said. "What's important is for your kids to see you worked them out."

The First Couple agreed to speak publicly about the difficulties in their marriage in response to a variety of rumors about Paterson's personal life that have been circulating in Albany and among the press corps in recent days.

Good for them for beating the tabloids to the punch. Now move along, no hookers or illegal wire transfers to see here.

Morning View - Bleecker & Christopher

Another shop bites the dust at the gayest corner in Manhattan. I just don't get it, that's got to be the third place to die in that location in a couple of years. During the blackout in 2003, half of the Village was fed by the pizza joint that used to be there, thanks to their gas-fired ovens.

Dream Ticket

It's actually an ad for a school in Brussels.

Homosexual Cleansing

Jeremy at Good As You found this clip, just posted to YouTube under the title Homosexual Cleansing, in which two masked men mock their "ex friend Pete the homo" and smash a photo of Pete with a baseball bat while an off-camera man shouts "Eliminate the faggots!" through a bullhorn. Chilling and disturbing.

There seem to be enough clues in the poster's other YouTube videos to identify the guy. It would be such a shame for his name to be associated with this video out on the internet, you know, should a future employer want to Google him.

UPDATE: The author of the video has scrubbed his YouTube account of the other videos that may have identified him. (Probably too late, thanks to the JMG sleuths!) If somebody out there knows how to capture the Homosexual Cleansing clip, I'll be happy to send it to the Stamford, Connecticut police.

UPDATE II: Thanks to JMG reader Kevin, I've got an copy of the clip.

Paterson Sworn In As Governor

I just watched our new governor, David Paterson, being sworn in at a joint session of the state legislature. Probably like most of the people of New York, this was the first time I'd heard Paterson speak and I found him quite charming. After taking the oath of office (which was followed by a standing ovation and chants of "David! David!"), his speech reminded me more of a Catskills master of ceremonies than of a stuffy politician.

Paterson started by cracking a joke about being blind and then launched into a lengthy recognition of the many politicos in the room for the historic ceremony including Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former NY governor George Pataki, and former NYC mayor David Dinkins. As he recognized the evil Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, Paterson mentioned that Bruno had invited him to dinner at his ranch. Paterson: "I'd told him I'd come, but I was bringing my food taster." Rim-shot! I like this guy already.

Hillary Supporters Striking At Daily Kos

About a hundred Hillary-supporting diarists are "striking" over at Daily Kos, refusing to blog at the site due to virulent anti-Hillary sentiment from the site's Obama fans. From the originator of the strike:

This is a strike - a walkout over unfair writing conditions at DailyKos. It does not mean that if conditions get better I won't "work" at DailyKos again. As a regular contributor to the discourse in our community, I would certainly hope to take part in the conversation at DailyKos again some day if we ever get to the point where we’re engaging each other in discussion rather than facing off in shouting matches. But not now. Writers need a safe place to reach out and exchange ideas, to communicate and challenge one another. DailyKos should be that place, but its tone, its essence has evolved into something ugly and destructive. Good writers can't survive in that kind of atmosphere. Democrats shouldn't have to put up with that from fellow Democrats.

Sadly, the majority of the administrators have allowed this hostile environment to develop in our online community for anyone who isn’t planted firmly in the Obama camp. They've routinely ignored personal attacks and allowed disruptive, spam-like posts to go unchecked whenever anyone expresses support for Hillary or challenges something their candidate has said or done. There are however several front-pagers who have managed to avoid taking part in the attacks on Hillary and for that I’m grateful. But the site has grown to the point where they simply can’t – or won’t monitor it.

And the left continues to eat their own.

CNN On American Idol's Gays

(Via - Queerty)

Sacramento's Gays Vs. Violent Immigrants

The LA Times has an interesting piece on the continuing clash between Sacramento's gay community and the thousands of evangelical Slavic immigrants who have relocated there in recent years.

With as many as 100,000 newcomers from republics such as Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, the Sacramento region has one of the nation's largest concentrations of Soviet immigrants. Most began arriving in the late 1980s -- about a third of them conservative evangelical Christians seeking religious freedom.

The influx has created a thriving Russian community with Russian-language newspapers, cable TV and radio shows, as well as 70 Slavic churches -- nearly all adherents of a fundamentalist creed that condemns homosexuality.

Those beliefs, preached from the pulpit and voiced in Russian-language media, did not attract much attention until 2005, when a vocal crowd of Slavic evangelicals mounted a protest at the state Capitol against same-sex marriage.

In the years since, they have become the most aggressive anti-gay contingent in the region. Holding signs and wearing T-shirts proclaiming "Sodomy is a Sin," they have mounted protests against state legislation, rallied at school board meetings and picketed fundraisers for politicians backed by gay-rights groups.

Sometimes their protests have taken a more personal tack. Nathan Feldman, 30, said Slavic protesters have shoved him and spit on him at gay-pride events. Feldman said he lost his job at a jewelry store after a Ukrainian co-worker discovered he was gay and lied to get him fired. That wasn't all. A vandal scrawled graffiti on a trash dumpster outside his apartment: "Nathan Feldman, Die for AIDS."

Last year a 26 year-old gay Fijian immigrant, Satender Singh, was killed by a single punch after a group of nearby Russians objected to his flamboyant ways while celebrating a job promotion with friends at a public park.

Andrey Vusik, 29, fresh from morning church services with his young children in tow, stared with disgust as Singh danced and hugged the other men while their wives giggled. To the Russian, Singh seemed rude and inappropriate, a gay man putting on an outrageous public display.

Angry stares led to an afternoon of traded insults. As the long day slid toward dusk, the tall Russian immigrant approached with a friend to demand an apology. Singh refused. Vusik threw a single punch. Singh's head smacked into a concrete walkway. The joyful young man with the musical laugh died four days later of brain injuries.

With the violent and anti-gay Watchmen On The Walls recruiting heavily in the local Slavic community, gay activists are concerned about violence at next month's pride events in Sacramento. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Watchmen as a hate group, along with the Aryan Nation and the Golden State Skinheads.

Fire Sale

Wow.

In a shocking deal reached on Sunday to save Bear Stearns, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay a mere $2 a share to buy all of Bear — less than one-tenth the firm’s market price on Friday. As part of the watershed deal, JPMorgan and the Federal Reserve will guarantee the huge trading obligations of the troubled firm, which was driven to the brink of bankruptcy by what amounted to a run on the bank.

Reflecting Bear’s dire straits, JPMorgan agreed to pay only about $270 million in stock for the firm, which had run up big losses on investments linked to mortgages. JPMorgan is buying Bear, which has 14,000 employees, for a third the price at which the smaller firm went public in 1985. Only a year ago, Bear’s shares sold for $170. The sale price includes Bear Stearns’s soaring Madison Avenue headquarters.

The deal is going to put thousands of NYC-based bankers out of work.

Daily Grumble

A houseguest reported that I was talking about Hillary Clinton in my sleep last night. This really troubles me.

PhoboQuotable - Gary George

"As an employer, I don’t wanna hear about it. This workplace is for work purposes. My advice to the gay community is SHUT UP, just don’t talk about it. If you walk around talking about what you do in the bedroom, you should be on the pervert channel." - Oregon state Senator Gary George, co-sponsor of an initiative to repeal Oregon's just approved Equality Act, which bans anti-gay discrimination.

O'Donnell & Banta

Yesterday at the Dugout I finally met New York Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell and his partner of 27 years, John Banta, who is Director of Special Events at the American Ballet Theatre. Sweet guys! Danny and I had a nice chat about the anti-bullying law he just successfully sponsored in the Assembly and the chances of getting the bill passed in the state Senate. And don't forget that it was O'Donnell who last year led the Assembly to approve gay marriage in New York by a vote of 85-61, although the Senate has yet to consider the issue.

Morning View - Gay Liberation

Although George Segal never meant his Gay Liberation sculpture to evoke AIDS, by the time it was installed in Sheridan Square's Christopher Park in 1992 the disease was at its height, causing some to read an unintended message from the figures. I know I always did.

Friday Night Specials: Threeways For McGreevey, Wife, Aide

Well, this is a fascinating development.

A former aide to James E. McGreevey said today that he had three-way sexual trysts with the former governor and his wife before he took office, challenging Dina Matos McGreevey's assertion that she was naive about her husband's sexual exploits.

The aide, Theodore Pedersen, said he and the couple even had a nickname for the weekly romps, from 1999 to 2001, that typically began with dinner at T.G.I. Friday's and ended with a threesome at McGreevey's condo in Woodbridge.

They called them "Friday Night Specials," according to Pedersen.

Pedersen described the encounters during an interview with The Star-Ledger. He said he wanted to refute the innocent image that Matos McGreevey has projected - both during the couple's ongoing divorce battle and in interviews she gave after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned last week in a sex scandal. He said he was also incensed by her portrayal of herself as an unsuspecting wife in her book: Silent Partner: A Memoir of My Marriage.

"I wanted to get this out now because it was so offensive to me that she goes on television playing the victim," Pedersen said. "She's trying to make this a payday for herself. She should have told the truth about the three of us."

Pedersen did not say if he was gay or bisexual and only described having contact with Matos McGreevey during the trysts. He also said he never knew for sure if McGreevey was gay.

Oh, the innocent wronged wife!

UPDATE: Dina denies it all.

"Theodore Pedersen's claims, as reported in the Newark Star Ledger on March 16, are completely false and were prompted by Jim McGreevey. This all has to do with the publicity I have received since Governor Spitzer resigned. Jim has enlisted one of his cronies in trying to distinguish that situation from his own, and to discredit me in the media. He cannot stand it when I am receiving attention in the media rather than him.

"This is not the first time. Jim started with a false claim, made shortly before my book was published, that I knew he was gay when we were married. The falsity of that claim is made clear on the very first page of Jim's book, just as his description of our relationship in his book stands in stark contrast to Pedersen's false allegations.

"Jim again became the focus of the media's attention, just one day after my book was released by announcing his intention to become an Episcopalian priest.

"Jim has had a close relationship with Pedersen since his days as Mayor of Woodbridge, and arranged jobs for Pedersen from that time through his years as Governor and beyond. They have continued their close relationship since Jim left office. Most recently, in August 2007, Jim and his partner, Mark O'Donnell, funded Pedersen's vacation to China, along with Jim, O'Donnell, and other members of Jim's inner circle. This was obviously payback time for Pedersen."

Was Wall Street Behind Spitzer's Downfall?

The Sunday Times is speculating that Eliot Spitzer's downfall might have been orchestrated by Wall Street bankers angry with Spitzer's vigorous pursuit of white-collar criminals. Both of the banks that reported Spitzer's money transfers (which proved to be payments to the Emperors VIP Club) had been the subject of investigations by Spitzer's office.

When the case against the one man and three women accused of running the international network reached court earlier this month, it was the presence of a federal prosecutor from the political corruption squad that first alerted New York Times reporters to the possibility that a politician might be involved.

It has since been established that both North Fork and HSBC were on the receiving end of Spitzer investigations in his days as attorney-general. In 2003 North Fork was obliged to refund $20,000 to dozens of home-owners after Spitzer claimed that the bank had been charging illegal fees.

No evidence has been produced that the bank reporting of Spitzer’s transactions was maliciously intended, yet Dershowitz and other commentators have noted that the system was designed to ferret out drug dealers, the mafia, terrorists and major financial fraud.

“Once federal authorities concluded that the ‘suspicious financial transactions’ attributed to Mr Spitzer did not fit any of [these categories], they should have closed the investigation,” said Dershowitz.

I'll wager that we hear a lot more of this angle.