Favorite (unoffical) Political Endorsement 2008

French porn hottie François Sagat lets us know who'd he vote for president if he was a US citizen.

You can see a couple more pics at Francois's blog.

BTW you can get your own YES WE CAN Obama cola here.

Crazy Deja Vu

I know that by now you've heard about Britney Spears' craptacular nervous breakdown last week, but I have to say that it reminded me of when Courtney Love had to be hancuffed to a stretcher on her way to Bellvue Hospital in New York City three and a half years ago. I look at those pictures of Britney being wheeled away and I expect her to say "Today is my birthday and I had an abortion" juat like Courtney did.


BTW Brit's breakdown happened just hours after the results of the Iowa caucuses in which presidental hopeful Obama Barack came out on top. Ah, the politics of distraction.

UPDATE: TMZ.com gives a report of the night of craziness at Britney's house the night she was committed. "It involves profanity, nudity, drugs and wild mood swings," the website drools.

Friday Video #51: Colton, Alicia, and Larry

Singer and former gay porn star Colton Ford does an acapella version of Alicia Keys's "No One" while poking fun at embattled (and closeted) US senator Larry Craig.

This is why the music industry is in the crapper

Up until now you could buy Amy Winehouse's debut CD Frank (which released back in 2003) in shops as an import. But recently Amy's US label Universal has sent letters threatening to sue retailers if they keep selling import copies of that album, since the label plans to release a US version of the album in November.

Excuse me, but couldn't Universal bump up the release date of Frank instead of making Amy's American fans wait for it? Instead of waiting for it, those fans will either go download it on P2P networks, have a friend who already has a copy to burn one for them, or go to a foreign retailer's website like Amazon.co.uk and order it for there. The album is already done, considering that it's been out there for almost four years now. Are the staff at Universal US too lazy to bother to release it here now instead of taking their damn sweet time to release it here in November? And in the meantime they are making the stores stop selling physical product that paying customers want.

And they wonder why the record industry is going down the toilet.


Hell, this could drive you to drink. Which will mean that you'll have some interesting company.

Why my blog won't be playing at Blockbuster

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

gay (23x)
queer (4x)
porn (3x)
gays (1x)

Oh well screw Blockbuster and their censorship policies, I don't patronize their stores. Besides, I hear that they're are going to be some of their stores.

Thanks for Hot Lunch for referring me this!

Internet Radio (and Music) Is In Danger

I enjoy listening to internet radio because it exposes me to music that I wouldn't normally hear on a commercial FM station. For dance music I listen to WMPH (which airs on 91.7FM in Wilmington, Delaware) and The Rhythm Of The City (which airs through Live365.com), and for "alternative" rock I listen to Y-Rock On XPN. Today these stations will be among the thousands of other internet stations that are signing off the air for 24 hours in a "Day of Silence" protest. This is in protest to royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling by the U.S Copyright Royalty Board back in March, and are due to go into effect on July 15. Webcasters have stated that the proposed rates would hike their payments and add an administrative fee of $500 for every channel. Webcasters say it would hike their payments from 300 percent to 1,200 percent. July 15 is also the due date for 17 months of retroactive payments at the new rates. That means that if these rules aren't changed by then, a lot of these web stations will be out-priced of staying on-air and only rich corporations, ones that have bean-counters instead of music fans, will be able to own and run them like they do with the FM and AM radio stations right now.

It pisses me off as a music fan that this might or would happen. I think the reason why the CPB are doing this is these are folks that are involved with the music industry that resents people (like me) who are looking for alternatives to commercial FM radio that plays a limited amonut of songs in tight formats with lots of commercials in between. They would be happy to shut down any alternative outlets and make it easier for them shove the latest Paris Hilton CD or the scowling rapper du jour or whatever acts they're pushing this week down the public's throat. And no, I don't want the new Paris CD. (And a lot of people would agree with me on this, considering her record label recently dropped her!) Does some suit from Clear Channel knows my musical tastes better than I do? I don't think so!

On June 28th The House Committee of Small Business will hold a hearing to look into the resulting effects of the March 2nd CRB ruling and it's impact on the Broadcasters. (My Congressman, Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, is on that committee.) And recently the Internet Radio Equality Act of 2007 has been introduced in Congress, which would overrule the board and put Internet radio on the same royalty rate as satellite radio, 7.5 percent of revenue if it becomes law.

I hope that the CRB ruling will be overturned and some other rate that's more reasonable and sensible in its place. I'd hate to see stations like WMPH or Y ROck On XPN either curtail their webcasting or drop it altogether and genres like dance and alternative rock (which aren't on many commerical FM stations in the US these days) lose more exposure (and having their sales go further down in the process). And I'm certainly not going to regular FM radio where they play the same 20 Paris Hilton, 50 Cent, and Nickelback songs over and over with lots of commercials in between. As a fan of music I demand more than that. And you'd agree with me if you're one too.

See SaveNetRadio.org for details on how you can get involved. And also, please sign the online petition (courtesy of WXPN) to urge your member of Congress to pass the Internet Radio Equality Act.

Circuit City seeking slave labor

On Wednesday Circuit City announced that they're going to cut 3,400 jobs from their stores, mostly "better paid" workers, and replace them with lower-paid new employees as soon as possible. The workers that are laid off will get a severance package and the chance to reapply for their old jobs at lower pay after 10 weeks.

Speaking as someone who had a similar thing happen to me with a previous day job, I think that sucks. How can the Circuit City clerks make a living with meager wages? And no word on their multi-office executive staff, which I'm sure that they're "better paid" than the clerks they're letting go? I'm sure that those changes will lower the workplace morale and the service will go downhill. I don't think I'll be shopping there again sometime soon; who wants to encourage a company that uses Third World methods to pay their employees? If you believe that workers ought to get a living wage, don't patronize Circuit City until they reverse their decision.

PA House turns blue

An update on the election for state representative in the 156th Legislative District (where I live)--after the absentee votes were counted Democrat Barbara McIlvaine Smith has now won by 23 votes over Republican Shannon Royer. That victory means that the majority of the Pennsylvania state house of Representatives has now shifted to the Democrats. The last time the Democrats had the majority there was twelve years ago. Whether Royer will have demand a recount is not certain at this point. The fact that Smith has now won by only 23 votes is more proof that if you think your vote does not count, you're wrong.

Democratic Party still third-party status in Chester County

In Chester County PA where I live, all the election races for state representative with a Democratic candidate have been won by Republicans in spite of the momentum of the Democratic Party nationwide. That means that they'll unfortuneately still be doing their annual 10K fag stomp, also known as efforts to write anti-gay marriage laws into the state constitution. I'm so sick and tired of having of local politians not giving a shit about my issues as a gay person. I want some politicans in this county to treat me with some fucking dignity.

At least Barbara Smith, the Democrat who ran for state representative in my district, will be not be taking her loss to the Republican by 19 votes lying down. She demands a recount. Go get him!

In spite of the increases of voters registering as Democrats in this county, the Republican Party still has a wide majority of registered voters--63,000 more than the Democrats. In other words, the Democratic Party still has third-party status in Chester County. Sadly the same as it ever was.

Election recap

As I mentioned earlier, incumbent Rick Santorum lost his seat to Democrat Bob Casey in the election for US Senator last night. Pennsylvania got a little bit bluer today.

Syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage muses on Satan-torum getting the boot.

What's up with the face of Santorum's daughter? Did she get it from the same store Tammy Faye Baker and Tonya Harding got theirs, "The Store For Women Who Cry Every Which Way The Wind Blows?"

It was a pretty good election for Democrats in my area. Governor Ed Rendell got re-elected. In the election for US representative, Republican incumbent Curt Weldon (who held the office for ten terms, was defeated by Democrat Joe Sestak.

The only disappointing thing was the race for state representative in the 156th district. At press time Republican Shannon Royer edged Democrat Barbara Smith McIlvaine in a very close race--with a difference of nineteen votes! This is definte proof that if you think that your vote doesn't count, you are dead wrong! All results are unofficial until verified by the Chester County Board of Elections. The winner will be replacing state representative Elinor Z. Taylor of West Goshen, who announced earlier this year that she is stepping down. (To which I say good riddance; she supported the failed attempt to rewrite the state constitution to include language to prohibit gay marriage earlier this year, and for voting against including gays and lesbians into Pennsylvania's hate crimes law!)

In other election news, Arizona was the first state to defeat a constitutional ban on gay marriage by popular vote. Fifty-one percent of that state's voters voted against it. Another reason why every vote counts. Seven other states weren't so lucky, which means a lot of gay and lesbians will be negatively affected by this. At least the voters in one of those states, South Dakota, overturned on Tuesday a state abortion ban that supporters were hoping to use to undermine a 33-year-old U.S. Supreme Court decision making abortion legal.