Use this thread for GannonGuckert's appearance on Bill Maher

I don't have HBO, but Crooks and Liars is going to tape the show and have it up afterwards. In the meantime, you guys can use this thread to fill the rest of us in on what's happening during the show and how GG does. Read More......

Friday Orchid Blogging

Eplc Orange Crush (Lc. Trick or Treat x Epi. cordigerum)

A new one I got at the NY show a few weeks ago. It's even more stunning in person - those are the real colors, but they're even darker when you see them for real. It's also VERY fragrant, kind of an orange citrus scent (very perfume-like, citrus-y, actually). A really stunning flower. Read More......

More fond memories of the Nazis in the GOP south

From a letter sent by a county commissioner in North Carolina opposed domestic partner benefits. Putting aside the fact that his "facts" are pure lies worthy of Goebbels (he quotes studies by that quack Paul Cameron, the same debunked fool that the religious right groups are now quoting again out of desperation), I wonder what kind of sex Commissioner Bill James has, details folks, ask for details.

You really think that a pool of people (homosexuals) where 45% of them eat feces from the rear end of another male is "normal"? If you do, you are frankly nuts.

A lifestyle where one of their past times is buying gerbils and hamsters from the pet store and cramming them up their rears in an activity called feltching? A group of people who like to urinate on their partners and call them "golden showers"? Where one of the honored members of the Gay Alliance is an organization called the "Man-Boy Love Association" that promotes sex with underage boys?

Feltching? Oh, it goes on and then some. I wonder if Commissioner James drinks his wife's saliva or vaginal secretions? After all, that is what he's talking about above, oral contact during sex. So, we can assume he doesn't do any of that, right? Nothing but missionary, right?

Commissioner Bill James
Wjames@carolina.rr.com Read More......

Don't forget, JimmyJeff is on Maher tonight on HBO

A show not to be missed. Read More......

My commentary in The Stranger

Just came out. Nothing you haven't heard before, but good because it's in Microsoft's hometown, Seattle. Read More......

Jeff/Jim wants to go to the Ball

Okay, this is pathetic. Page Six in the NY Post has Jeff/Jim whining about not being invited to the White House Correspondents Association Dinner tomorrow night:

DISGRACED former White House reporter/male escort Jeff Gannon can't believe no one has invited him to tomorrow's White House Correspondents Dinner. "It seems to me to be odd to exclude the one person who has brought more attention to the White House press corps than anyone else in years," Gannon tells PAGE SIX's Jared Paul Stern. "Probably many who would want to extend such an invitation already assume I will be in attendance." Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, quit his job with the conservative Talon News earlier this year after his fake name, lack of journalistic qualifications and male escort connections came to light.

Yeah, that's what it is. Has nothing to do with your past. Maybe people thought you'd be charging the hourly rate. Read More......

Open Thread

Have at it. Read More......

ChevronTexaco suffering badly, only manage 20% growth

What an embarassment to the industry. With Shell raking in 28%, BP 29% and Exxon Mobil leading the pack with 44% Q1 profits the ChevronTexaco people should really ask the government to step in and offer relief in the form of massive tax breaks and state owned property such as former military bases. Clearly with the massive economic growth that the economy is experiencing a mere 20% growth just isn't going to cut it. Please, reach out and call your politicians in Washington and help these suffering people before it's too late. Read More......

Microsoft demands neutral position on ethnic cleansing

Oh man, read it. Pleae read it. It's hysterical. Read More......

Define "Gouging," Mr. President

Love this little tidbit tucked in the AP story about the Bush press conference last night:

"There will be no price gouging at gas pumps in America," Bush said.

He spoke on the same day the world's largest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., announced that its profit for the first three months of the year had risen 44 percent to $7.86 billion from the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

It's almost the weekend...chat away Read More......

For those who want to privatize trains and subways

Just look at this. What was once among the best, if the best rail and subway system in the world has now fallen on hard times and high costs. Late trains and high costs do not exactly encourage travelers to use the system and while some cities are trying to reduce traffic in their cities (and reduce pollution) by encouraging public transportation, trashing good systems will force even more people into cars. I detest using trains and the underground in London because it's always so late and unreliable when I need to be somewhere on time. What a pitty it is to see such a mess. Read More......

Headline article for the Washington Post

Bush Social Security Plan Would Cut Future Benefits. At least nobody is trying to sugar coat the garbage that is being churned out this time. Read More......

Bush's New Budget: Huge Deficits, Slow Spending On The Sick and $100 Billion in NEW Tax Cuts

In what was mostly a party line vote, the House and Senate approved a new budget that slowed spending on Medicaid (without tackling that problem in any real way), accepted massive deficits as par for the course, approved $106 billion in new tax cuts for the wealthy and, of course, gave the thumbs up to drilling in Alaska because if we drill in Alaska, there's no reason to push our faltering falling-behind car companies -- which are about two minutes away from begging for handouts like the airlines -- into improving gas mileage, god forbid. Read More......