« Monday | Main | Friday Night Bills »
August 28, 2007
Tuesday Morning
Can't believe I forgot these last night. Probably old news by now, but fuck it: I'm posting em up for posterity.
1. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) tried to get busy in an airport bathroom. Gross - misdemeanor gross. Sad, too. Dude's in denial:
During that interview, the Statesman played Craig an audiotape of the man claiming that he and Craig had sex in the Union Station restroom. Like the Minnesota airport restroom, the Union Station restroom is known as a place where men can find anonymous sex.
Craig denied the man's account and said, "I am not gay and I have never been in a restroom in Union Station having sex with anybody.
"There's a very clear bottom line here," Craig said. "I don't do that kind of thing. I am not gay, and I never have been."
Yup. Would be a whole lot sadder, but hey - karma's a motherfucker, huh. Here's Craig in 1999 on "Meet The Press" re: Monica & Bill:
SEN. CRAIG: Well, I don't know where the Senate's going to be on that issue of an up or down vote on impeachment, but I will tell you that the Senate certainly can bring about a censure reslution and it's a slap on the wrist. It's a, "Bad boy, Bill Clinton. You're a naughty boy." The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy. I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.
Yo.
UPDATE: Seems like there's a long history of whispers about Senator Craig. (Actual quote from the latter link, which is the Idaho Statesman's summary of nearly 20 years of accusations about Craig's sex life: "I've been in this business 27 years in the public eye here. I don't go around anywhere hitting on men, and by God, if I did, I wouldn't do it in Boise, Idaho! Jiminy!") And here's a 1982 video where then Rep. Craig denies rumors about blowin coke and having sex with male pages. Check the last 30 seconds.
2. Bloom County and Opus author Berkeley Breathed had his Aug. 26th Opus strip - wherein Steve Dallas confronts his girlfriend Lola Granola, who's turned "radical Islamist," the "hot new fad on the planet" - censored by the Washington Post and other papers around the country.
In a sentence, fuck all that. On one hand, I'm glad to see ol' Berkeley's still pissing people off. On the other hand, the Washington Post and Writer's Group comics editor Amy Lago should be ashamed of themselves. The comic the week prior - which made fun of dearly departed Jerry Falwell - wasn't censored. Here's Lago on the difference:
Lago said she didn't flag newspapers about that strip because she didn't think readers would misunderstand the humor.
"They're not going to take it seriously," she said.
But she did alert newspapers about the Muslim-themed cartoon because there was a question about whether Muslim readers would be offended.
"I don't necessarily think it's poking fun [at Islam]," Lago said. "But the question with Muslims is, are they taking it seriously?"
Wow. Really? If I was a Muslim, I'd be deeply offended. Just because my religion has a murderous fringe, I'm suddenly held to their standards of taste? While not as significant an example as, say, the Patriot Act's wiretapping provisions (and their recent renewal), the Iraq War, or Bush's re-election in 2004, I would argue that this more evidence of the terrorists winning.
Full disclosure: I completely revered Bloom County when I was young - D. Moore, L. Abelman and P. Jones, I see ya! - and Opus & co. influenced me in ways big and small. In fact, my lifelong obsession with all things political can probably be traced back in some part to the Meadow Party. That's what is my Iacocca.
Posted by caps at August 28, 2007 07:57 AM