Posted by Melanie Nathan; 08-31-10-

- A Personal Memory

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, 93, has reportedly been rushed to a hospital after being found unresponsive by her husband.

Gabor’s husband, Prince Frederic Von Anhalt, called 911 Tuesday morning, and the actress was taken from her Bel Air home to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The television and film star had just finished one of several hospital stays in recent weeks after falling at her home and breaking her hip. She said she wanted to spend her final days at home after she returned from the hospital August 17, having received her last rites from a priest.

Gabor was born in Budapest in 1917 and followed her sister Eva to Los Angeles. After her debut in the 1952 film Lovely to Look At, she appeared in We’re Not Married! with Ginger Rogers, Moulin Rouge, and Death of a Scoundrel.

She was as well known for her off-screen persona as her film and television appearances. Gabor’s husband is her ninth, and she has been married to such notables as hotel magnate Conrad Hilton. Also of note was her three days spent behind bars when she slapped a Beverly Hills police officer in 1989 and was found to be driving with an expired license. Gabor was fined $13,000 in court costs.

I personally recall an encounter with GABOR when I was seconding my Cousin as a stylist back in the 80’s in Los Angeles.  Zsa Zsa Gabor may be best remembered by most for her refusal to admit her age.  That received a lot of press – as I recall her driver’s license may not have been correct.

Well she did the same when it came to the size of her clothing – we were trying to style her for a Vogue Magazine cover. However when she could not fit into the dress that my Cousin had provided, based on the information Zsa Zsa provided herself, – she threw her bra at my cousin and fired us from the job; yelling ,  “AND my name is not ZSA ZSA – it is MS. GABOR to yooooo DAHLING!”

I wish her well and a speedy recovery.

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Curve Magazine has recently announced by way of Facebook that without financial assistance from the public, they may not make it to its 21st anniversary issue. As unfortunate as that is, my check won’t be in the mail.

Curve Magazine has prompted an eye roll from me for many years. Every time I come across that magazine, I open it up to see if my ongoing criticism of there not being any women of color in it are still true. Each time I checked, I put the magazine down with another eye roll because true to form, there weren’t. My queer women of color music festival, Serafemme, got a passing mention in 2008 because 7 time Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Natalie Stewart performed; however, celebrity has often been Curve’s criteria for women of color getting so much as a passing mention and any qwoc affilitations she had got print by riding her coattail so to speak.

I understand that people by nature gravitate towards anything that shares the same characteristics they do so I don’t have a problem with the fact that Curve is a predominately white magazine. I don’t need for my media to be 100% of color to support it but even in reviewing their website – www.curvemag.com – there are very few of-color mentions on a site with over 50 pages – one article on why African-American women find it difficult to come out, a picture before the forums section of a woman who looks a bit Asian and a picture of the Slits which includes one African American member. I don’t count the two Black Pride event listings because those are user-submitted events that the magazine had nothing to do with promoting.

As someone who is committed to highlighting and protecting bisexual and lesbian-safe spaces, I should be “fighting the good fight” for Curve,I suppose. I should be blogging about their plight and encouraging others to contribute. I guess that would be the thing to do if all that mattered to me was that they were lesbian-oriented but I’m not that superficial. I support anything that is lesbian-oriented and inclusive. Curve is not. In fact, Curve supports my criticism that not enough media that outreaches to the queer of color community and I count Curve as one of the reasons why I felt compelled to start my own magazine last year.

It’s important to note, I’m not happy about Curve’s financial woes. In the grand scheme of things, a lesbian magazine is necessary and needed in order to inform, educate and empower women who have such little media directed to them as it is, I only wish Curve would have realized that that was true for me as a Black woman as well. I will not be making a contribution because Curve didn’t make enough contribution to me or the of-color community as a whole. I wish them well but any help they get will not come from me. Should they pull through and continue with the magazine, I hope they do it with a new mindset – one that highlights every racial spectrum of our gay rainbow. In doing that, they will find an explosion of provocative content, people and events to highlight and they’d find me as one of their biggest supports.

Reprinted on Lez Get Real with permission from Marquita Thomas © 2010.

http://marquitathomas.com/2010/07/curve-magazine-needs-help-but-im-not-lifting-a-finger/

Posted as Guest of:
Lez Get Real
by Melanie Nathan.

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07/22/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Curve Magazine, the nation’s most popular lesbian publication, has fallen on hard times. So much so, that they might have to close their doors after serving the lesbian/bi/queer community for 20 years! The popular mag posted the following on their Facebook page:

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Diabetes Mobile- iPod iTouch iPhone Applications

Nadia Al- Samarrie - Publisher of Diabetes Health

Jay Hewitt has traveled miles and miles and more miles in a nineteen year period, racing Ironman triathlons in Australia, Europe, the Carribean and all over North America, climbing and camping at the top of 14,000 foot Mt. Whitney, and of course dozens of family vacations and business trips.

Packing equipment and supplies for an Ironman triathlon and 3 weeks in Australia requires a bit of planning and preparation, but when you have diabetes you feel like you do that for just a weekend out of town.  Meters, strips, insulin, syringes, infusion sets, pump supplies, snacks . . . a simple weekend trip becomes a lunar expedition.

Who could be more qualified than Jay to provide traveling tips such as these and if you want to read more then I highly recommend DIABETES HEALTH Magazine where this article was first published and reprinted here with permission of King’s Publishing Inc.

“Here are JAY’s  top five tips for traveling with diabetes.

1. Bring Extra of Everything. Adopt the NASA triple redundancy system.  If one thing breaks or is lost, you have a back up, and another back up.  If I will be out of town two nights and will need to change my insulin pump infusion set once, I bring one set plus 3 extras.  I bring syringes for a day just in case the pump malfunctions or is damaged.
2. Keep Your Diabetes Critical Pouch Packed. My diabetes travel kit stays packed in my home with insulin pump infusion sets, syringes, alcohol swabs and other miscellaneous supplies.  I call this my diabetes “critical pouch.”  I periodically use and replace each item.  Life is too busy to remember to pack each thing every time you leave the house for a night.  I just grab that little pack and check the inventory and go.  I keep it in a quart size clear plastic freezer bag perfect for airport security and for me to see the contents, and keep it in my carry on bag.  I also bring several glucose meters as well.
3. Prescriptions at a National Pharmacy. Keep prescriptions for insulin, strips, syringes and any other supplies updated and on file with national pharmacies such as Walgreen’s, CVS, or other chain, even if you get your every day supplies from a local pharmacy or mail order.  When you live in Maryland and lose your insulin in Florida, those national chains can refill you there.
4. Pack Supplies in Separate Luggage. My diabetes critical pouch stays with me in my carry on bag on a plane and in the car.  This pouch contains my insulin so that it is not exposed to heat when my suitcase is left outside or in a car.  Packed in my suitcase with my clothes I keep extra supplies such as an extra meter and strips, pump supplies or syringes.  Now you are prepared if you get there, but your luggage does not.
5. Pack Travel Snacks. My briefcase or backpack always has at least 2 sport bars or other snack to munch on the plane or in the car when my blood sugar gets low.  I have extra sport bars packed in my suitcase, and even my glove box.  I like sport bars such as Clif Bar because they are packaged and sealed and travel easily in my bags.  I also keep a non perishable high carbohydrate drink in a plastic bottle in my car to sip when needed.

When flying across the country or internationally be sure to adjust the time on your insulin pump for your basal rate or injection of long acting insulin to correspond to that new time zone.  I make sure I have a bottle of juice or other carb drink in my hotel room.  Nothing is worse than waking in the middle of the night with low blood sugar and having to dress and roam the hotel halls for a vending machine.   When I travel alone I prefer to err a bit on the high side of normal blood sugar when sleeping because no one is in my hotel room to help if I have a severe low.

Traveling usually means eating different foods, and often at different times, so I tend to test more frequently on the road.  A little exercise on the road is always a great way to stabilize blood sugar and refresh your body and mind, especially on a business trip.  You knew I would recommend exercise, didn’t you!  I always pack my running shoes and clothes on a business trip with a packed schedule just so I can feel better, and enjoy a nice dinner.  I love to have dinner within walking distance of my hotel in major cities like Washington or New York so I can walk back and enjoy the conversation and post meal exercise.

A little planning will make for a good trip.  Have fun!  ( © Diabeteshealth.com 2010)”

Traveling with the  recently launch by Diabetes Health Apple Applications, by the California based King’s Publishing Inc. :- This could be a travel savior for those with Diabetes – Imagine being able to take  a compendium of Diabetes Related issues and TV broadcasts on your travels.  read more  at ……..   http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2010/06/29/6740/diabetes-health-is-the-first-diabetes-magazine-to-launch-iphone-and-ipod-touch-applications-dh-mobil/?isComment=1

Please let us know if you are interested in more health related articles here on LGR that specifically relate to lesbian interest ….In 1999, lesbians were identified as an underserved minority by the Institute of Medicine. Some health issues for lesbians are different from those of heterosexual women, and clinicians need to be aware of these differences in order to provide culturally-appropriate care, since at least 5% of their female patients are lesbian.

Articles of interest:
Abstract   Objective: This New Zealand study set out to measure the self-assessed health status of a snowball sample of lesbians in New Zealand, focusing on how lesbians use health services and perceived barriers to accessing health care.  In New Zealand-laws forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation have been in place since 1993, yet 5 years later this study suggests lesbians may have poorer health, and their delaying consultation requires further study. Conclusion: This study supports overseas research showing that lesbians delay seeking health care and find barriers to health care that are different from a random sample of women.  http://www.springerlink.com/content/g8501u5750t752lu/ Percentages were calculated on the general questions and a standardized set of questions and calculated scoring was used to measure the self-assessed health of respondents.

******

http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2009/07/21/6285/gay-men-and-women-with-diabetes-find-a-voice-through-the-diabetes-and-gay-dang-foundation/

Posted by Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Image via Wikipedia

06/23/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

For those of you who don’t remember, in early May, Newsweek published an article by Ramin Setoodah that stated that gay actors struggle with playing straight characters. Setoodah, who is openly-gay, specifically singled out Promises Promises costars, Kristen Chenoweth and Sean Hayes. Hayes’ plays Chenoweth’s love interest in the play. Setoodah calls Hayes’ casting a problem–”the big pink elephant in the room.” Kristen Chenoweth then wrote an open letter refuting the biased article and other celebrities, such as Cynthia Nixon and Glee creator Ryan Murphy, to weigh in.

Now, Setoodah is a rat that is fleeing from the sinking ship that is Newsweek. Setoodah is going onto greener pastures over at People magazine. A spokesperson for People said that he will serve as a senior writer focusing on news and human-interest stories. He starts his job the second week of July.  The spokesperson didn’t say why they would hire someone who had insulted the entire LGBT entertainment community.
 

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06/23/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

The ‘men’ of MTV’s wildly popular and exceedingly trashtastic The Jersey Shore shot some photos for the cover of the Village Voice. The cover will feature Vinny Gaudagnino, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, with DJ Pauly DelVecchio being the only male castmember absent.  

NY Postis reporting that the guys didn’t know the cover was for the Queer issue, which will hold the guys up as the ideal hot guidos and insinuates that they would be uncomfortable with that.

There are several reasons I think this story is BS. I will enumerate them below for your reading pleasure.

1. The Village Voice is a respectable publication and wouldn’t mislead anyone appearing on a cover of their magazine.

2. These guys don’t care what cover of what magazine they are on, they just want to be on one. They would pose for Barely 18 Big Jugs Weekly or Hot Gay Porn Sluts if they could be on the cover.

3. The Jersey Shore cast is surprisingly not homophobic at all. Hopefully I don’t eat my words when the second season airs, but in the first season, at least they didn’t throw the word ‘gay’ around. As in, the pejorative “That’s so gay!” They also don’t call each other any gay slurs, such as the f word. Which is refreshing considering how often people casually throw that word around. For once, I think these guys are getting less credit than they deserve. Pose on Juiceheads! (I know what you are all thinking, yes I did watch The Jersey Shore and yes, I will continue to watch it.)

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04/30/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

There has been buzz all week about the big celebrity who is going to come out on May 5th in People magazine. The only concrete lead on this story is that the star is represented by Howard Bragman. Here is a list of his known clients:

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04/06/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Actress Zoe Saldana, who shot into the spotlight because of her role in Avatar, is revealing to Siempre Mujer magazine that growing up, people used to think she was a lesbian. Saldana tells the mag:

“People have sometimes told my grandmother, ‘Your granddaughter has a bit of lesbianism in her. It’s that my sisters and I spent all our time among men. We were very popular with them. Our way of thinking is very masculine.”

For those of you who think that sounds strange, in latin culture it’s pretty common to say that someone has “a bit of lesbian in her.” I know that’s what my family said about me! Saldana goes on to say that she is still a bit of a tomboy and that she doesn’t enjoy getting dolled up for the red carpet.

“If you want to punish me, send me to get a manicure or dress me in a skirt or shorts, and I would die,” Saldana said. ”But if you dress me in jeans and a button-down blouse, I feel very sexy, feminine and powerful.”

Saldana is not coming out, so don’t get your hopes up ladies. If you want to read the rest of the interview, you can grab the latest issue of Siempre Mujer.
  

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  O K K I E S (ah-keez’) n.: plural of Okkie, familiar form of Oscar   – When I first arrived in New York City from South Africa, albeit an attorney , my foreign-ness made finding work near impossible.  I moved to Los Angeles and soon found myself running around the City with one of Los Angeles’ most well known celebrity stylists.  As it happens Lauren Landau Hines is my first cousin and I could not be more proud of her achievements.  She scooped me in her protective arms and I was able to help her with Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation, working specifically with the late great Cyd Charrise who had a cameo in one of the music videos as well as a few other exciting projects.  Lauren has since honed her skills to fill a gap (no pun intended) -  she found that there was no loose comfortable  stylish clothes for boys.

Although accomplished, Lauren is probably the single most modest person one could meet, never touting her  ‘own horn’ and it’s a big one that should be blasted loudly. There is barely an issue of People, US, OK and other tabloids that does not show a celebrity child wearing one of Lauren’s simple and recognizable  OKKIE designs.  Now Lauren tells her career story in her own words:-

The thread that repeatedly weaves its way through my life and career is, well, literally thread. Actually, it’s the cut, color and fabrication of clothing that are among my most important memories and, later, my influences.

Born in South Africa, I attended a conservative elementary school that required me to wear uniform dress – a blazer, button-down shirt, skirt, hat and tie. Freedom came at the end of the day and on weekends when I donned my favorite outfit: bright yellow cropped palazzo pants paired with a tank top. I can picture the pants clearly; I remember how they felt against my body.  

At 14, my family and I immigrated to Los Angeles, where in High School, freed from a dress code, clothing was a means of self-expression. I used my mom’s idle sewing machine to make my own clothes that broadcast my membership in the artsy crowd. I was really into upholstery fabric in high school, I made an upholstery fabric pajama outfit with gold buttons that I lived in.

After high school, I moved to New York City to attend design school. Soon my school internship turned into a full-time job: I worked as a freelance editorial stylist for Interview, Details and Face, the fashion-forward magazines of the day. My work was heavily influenced by the aesthetic of my favorite designers Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, whose clothing lines continue to inspire. These Japanese designers effortlessly reduce fashion to simple sophistication; it is amazing how they delineate colors using a monochromatic color palette. And their designs artfully balance practicality with playfulness, seriousness with humor. Yet their clothes don’t overwhelm, instead they enable the wearer to express his or her own personality. 

In 1987 I returned to LA to broaden my freelance stylist and costume designer career. I created costumes for music videos, concert tours and album covers, adding Janet Jackson, the Rolling Stones and Sting, to my client list. I also collaborated with television and print-ad directors styling and designing costumes for A-List commercial accounts such as Coke, Nike and Visa/MasterCard.

In 2001 I added motherhood to my resume with the birth of Hugo and, later, Oscar – nicknamed Okkie by his big brother. Watching my two young, constantly moving boys was easier than finding boy-appropriate clothing. At that time, girls had many fashion choices, boys much fewer. I struggled to find comfortable, easy-care, hip boys’ wear. Choices seemed locked into a few silhouettes merchandised in standard denims, fleeces and twills, in boy-accepted primary colors.

It was in the limited boys’ wear market that I saw opportunity. In 2005, as a natural next-step in my 20 years experience in the fashion industry, I designed and introduced OKKIES, a line of boys’ pants. With four pant silhouettes merchandised in a variety of fashion-forward colorations and menswear patterns, OKKIES debuted in five stores its first season. By fall 2006, I was designated best new designer by the online children’s clothing expert jamesgirone.com. In October 2008, Earnshaw’s national retail survey named OKKIES one of the top three best-designed collections in the boys’ wear industry. 

I am very excited to introduce my newest lifestyle-designed collection: OKKIES ‘girl’, a full line of feminine, but not frilly, interpretations of OKKIES’ best-selling silhouettes, for fall, 2009.

OKKIES girls’ wear Fall 2009 line features 16 styles in a full line silhouettes – from pants to shirts, dresses to leggings, sweaters, jackets and beanies – for size 3 months to 12 years. OKKIES boys’ wear Fall 2009 line features 19 styles – from pants to shirts, sweaters and hoodies, to beanies also for sizes 3 months to 12 years.

I have created OKKIES as a lifestyle approach to clothing – a lifestyle of ease of wear, clothing that allows them to move, stretch, run, climb and relax without restriction. For parents, that lifestyle is about comfort and more. It’s about clothes that are high-quality; that are wash-and-wear; that are appropriate for a full day of activity, going from a play date to dinner with grandma; that reflect an awareness and appreciation of fashion trends without being fussy or over done; that don’t express ‘generic kid’ but allows an individual’s personality to shine.

Up until now OKKIES have been available in over 500 specialty stores throughout the country, but moving forward, we will be offering our lifestyle approach to clothing directly to our customers on our website.

 Enjoy! go to http://okkies.com/information.php/about-i-1     You can take advantage of the online 48 hour sale – great Holiday Gifts

Posted by Melanie Nathan

 Follow my Twittering  @oblogdeeoblogda

During the shoot the two celebrity actresses shared a lesbian kiss with each other, producing some steamy shots. When asked about the upcoming movie in an interview with Marie Claire writer Jessica Henderson, the ladies had this to say:

DB: She was in her frickin’ bra with an open jacket and hot-pink shorts, skating around the rink with red lips and …

EP: I was having a really good time.

DB: … and she was sexy as a mother … a feral creature. It was great. And it’s so screwed up for girls to think, Oh, because I don’t have that cookie-cutter model body, it must mean I don’t have the right body shape. And I love model bodies, but I just want women to embrace several body shapes. That’s the thing I love about derby. It’s really welcoming.

Though the photoshoot slideshow on the Marie Claire website does not include the photo of the pair kissing, CelebrityRumors.com has posted the photo while accusing the pair of “faking that they enjoy kissing one another”. CelebrityRumors.com concluded the kiss was not a genuine lesbian kiss, stating that Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page “got into modern women’s club behavior”.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her online by visiting her website at www.juliephineas.com.

Bankster – A financial elitist who manipulates the government through the manipulation of money. A Bankster can be a campaign contributor, lobbyist, etc., or can even be the politician/high ranking official itself.

The coverage of Michael Jackson’s death is another great example of the media pushing the distractions, when people are really interested in the real news. One blog poll showed that a whopping 87% of people polled thought there was too much MJ coverage by the Main Stream Media (MSM). I personally can’t stand watching all these vultures circling around MJ’s coffin, trying to soak up all the echo fame they possibly can. It turns my stomach to see all these greedy flies using the opportunity, like some weird sacrifice ritual glorifying his death, for the sake of prolonging the attention.

The story I want to bring to your attention is Matt Taibbi’s latest in Rolling Stone:

THE GREAT AMERICAN BUBBLE MACHINE

“In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on “the Wall Street Bubble Mafia” — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi’s piece is “an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories” and a spokesman adding, “We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good.” Taibbi shot back: “Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it.”Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi’s piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.”

Amy Goodman interviewed Taibbi on Democracy Now back in late March, 2009 for the preceding cover story The Big Takeover:

“AMY GOODMAN: You write in your piece, “In 1997 and 1998”—so like ten years ago—“the years leading up to the passage of Phil Gramm’s fateful act that gutted Glass-Steagall, the banking, brokerage and insurance industries spent $350 million on political contributions and lobbying. Gramm alone—then the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee—collected $2.6 million in [only] five years. The law passed”—not close—“90-8,” you say, “in the Senate, with the support of 38 Democrats, including some names that might surprise you:”—you write—“Joe Biden, John Kerry, Tom Daschle, Dick Durbin, even John Edwards.”

MATT TAIBBI: Right, right. I think one of the things that people don’t understand about this crisis is they—we always have this instinct in America to blame one side or the other for any political problem. You know, people on the left want to say, “Oh, George Bush did it,” and on the right they always want to say, “It was Clinton.” Well, this is as purely a bipartisan problem as we’ve ever had in this country. This was absolute unity on the part of both parties. They both were absolutely complicit in passing these deregulatory moves.

You know, in the instance of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, that was sponsored by Phil Gramm and by the Republicans, but it was very, very enthusiastically supported by Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, and it was signed into law by Bill Clinton and passed with the support of all those very powerful Democratic senators. And this continued to be the case throughout late ’90s and throughout this whole decade, and that’s why we’re in the situation that we are right now, because nobody is really, you know, representing the other side.”

You can watch that interview at the end of the first playlist above.

I’d like to point out here what the definition of fascism is, and why it is so important that we take care of this problem, and not let it get swept under the rug and forgotten like most truly important stories. The videos included in this blog helped me finally gain a real grasp on the economic meltdown, and how to fix it. And it doesn’t involve another $13 trillion going to the banks.

“Fascism, pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzəm/, comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology.”

In laymen’s terms, fascism is the highjacking of Corporations by Government. I think this scenario would be better called Corpratism, since it’s the reverse. Wall Street has hijacked Washington.

In the Big Takeover, Taibbi says: “People are pissed off about this financial crisis, and about this bailout, but they’re not pissed off enough. The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d’état. They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations.

The crisis was the coup de grâce: Given virtually free rein over the economy, these same insiders first wrecked the financial world, then cunningly granted themselves nearly unlimited emergency powers to clean up their own mess. And so the gambling-addict leaders of companies like AIG end up not penniless and in jail, but with an Alien-style death grip on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve — “our partners in the government,” as Liddy put it with a shockingly casual matter-of-factness after the most recent bailout.”

The connection between Wall Street and Washington must be severed. Both political parties are infected with this disease, but We the People are the ones who suffer the symptoms. Now that we’ve heard how Giethner was the one who made sure WS got its bonuses, on top of all his other failures, he should be let go. I’m not going to fall into the left right trap of “Well we automatically have to defend him because the Republicans are attacking him!”, or vice versa. He’s snarky, if you ask me, and he needs that smirk wiped off his face. “I used Turbo Tax”, really? Even I can do my own taxes dude.

Author Nomi Prins is also covering this story on Mother Jones.com.

The writer of the book It Takes a Pillage does a great job breaking down the complex issues in an understandable way. Especially when it comes to the new policies being proposed by Timothy Giethner and the Obama Administration.

“In the meantime, average Americans, who don’t have a $13 trillion federal insurance policy to fall back upon, have fared poorly. Over the past three months, unemployment has hopped a full point, to 9.4 percent—nearly double what it was one year earlier. For the third straight month, home foreclosures have broken the 300,000 mark, with the defaults reaching well into the prime loan turf, and home prices are still falling.

Considering the true size of the bailout, the continued loan deterioration, and the weakness in the overall economy and job market, the economic signs simply aren’t that positive. For Geithner to pretend that a few banks paying back federal money with other federal money is an encouraging sign is to miss all of them.”

And here she breaks it down well in another DN interview:

“While the treasury secretary conveyed to the senators some understanding of the plight of the rest of us, this show was all about Treasury and the banking sector. Geithner praised the government for pulling off stress tests of the 19 largest financial institutions last month. “The clarity and transparency provided by the tests,” he said, “has helped improve market confidence in the banks, making it possible for them to collectively raise nearly $90 billion through private equity offerings, bond issuances without government guarantees and sales of business units.”

But Tim’s not playing it straight,” Prins continues. “The fact that most of these banks passed their stress tests would only have mattered if the tests had any value. As I discussed when the tests were first unveiled, these tests were designed in tandem with the banks, the evaluations were provided by the banks, and some of the assumptions they were based upon—such as where unemployment would be—had been exceeded before the test results were released.”

Secretary Geithner is quickly proving to be the “Heck of a job Brownie” of the Obama Administration.

He’s a Corporatist Bankster in my book, and at the very least he’s an idiot who got laughed off the stage on his trip to China. By a bunch of economic STUDENTS, no less. This is NOT the best guy in America for the job.

Why is Obama clinging to these Wall Street Banksters, and giving them such high ranking positions? Why is he relying on Goldman Sachs? Where is the accountability for this crisis, which more and more seems to be entirely manufactured by the Banksters? How bad does it have to get before Americans wake up and smell the coffee?

Obama better take a broom to these crooks before the American people do, or he’ll get swept right out the door with them. This is why we need to support Ron Paul’s bill HR 1207 to Audit the Federal Reserve! Let’s open the books on these crooks, and clean up our government so we can really get the change we need, and that we deserve dammit.

I’m not going to hold my breath though, this 2008 article in the New York Times reports that Goldman Sachs was one of Obama’s biggest donors:

“When you break it out by individual companies, you find that employees of Goldman Sachs gave more to Obama than workers of any other employer. The Goldman Sachs geniuses are followed by employees of the University of California, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, National Amusements, Lehman Brothers, Harvard and Google. At many of these workplaces, Obama has a three- or four-to-one fund-raising advantage over McCain.

When he is swept up in rhetorical fervor, Obama occasionally says that his campaign is 90 percent funded by small donors. He has indeed had great success with small donors, but only about 45 percent of his money comes from donations of $200 or less.”

This is finally catching fire in the blogosphere, but how long will it take for the MSM to get mad and start sticking up for the little guy? I guess that’s means its up to us to fend for ourselves till more brave journalists like Taibbi start to stand up too.

I’ll try to end on a more upbeat note. Getting through all this information can certainly feel like a chore, but I don’t know of any way to fix our economy, and government without understanding more. Go ahead and tell the people about Tiny Tim, Lady Sings the News!

Here is a video from the red carpet of the gala event where Michelle Obama opened the 2009 celebration:

Others who made the list include Edward Kennedy, John Legend, Ted Turner, Brad Pitt, Stella MacCartney, and The View. For the entire list visit the Time 100 here.

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/2009/05/rick-warren-bernie-madoff-sara-palin-just-a-few-of-times-100-most-influential-people/feed/ 2 http://lezgetreal.com/2009/04/wendy-lisa-come-out/ http://lezgetreal.com/2009/04/wendy-lisa-come-out/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:45:20 +0000 ~Julie Phineas~ http://lezgetreal.com/?p=9494 In an interview with Out Magazine, Wendy & Lisa, the duo most known as part of Prince and The Revolution, came out as a lesbian couple.

Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman sat down with Out Magazine writer Barry Walters and after just a few questions revealed that they have been married since before the duo rose to fame with Prince and The Revolution.

Here are just a few of the questions and answers from that interview:

Why did the two of you decide to keep working together after you left the Revolution?
Wendy: We were married and I was her biggest fan. Everything that she played broke my heart and still does and I wanna own it and covet it and make it mine.
Lisa: [Laughs at that] Yeah, we’re chained together. We’re shackled. No, I love Wendy. We’ve known each other our entire lives practically. Once she was finally hired into Prince’s band, it was like a dream for me. I had fallen in love with Wendy, my childhood friend, and suddenly we were looking at each other differently, but I had to leave on the road all the time. It was always just torture. Finally Prince met Wendy and there was some trouble with the other guitar player [Dez Dickerson], and providence moved in such a way that Wendy ended up on the road with us.

Was the image you projected in Purple Rain a function of who the two of you were together? Or did it come from Prince, or the director?
Wendy: I don’t think the director had anything to do with it. I think Prince saw us as the couple that we were and used that relationship to add more mystery to him. And I think Lisa and I were willing to go there because at that time we felt mysterious. We were young and it was the thing, so we went with it, not knowing what the result of that would mean or imply later in life. We didn’t think about it in those terms. We just thought, Wow, this is cool!

Before we continue, I have to ask: Have you come out before? Is this it?
Wendy: We’ve never done a “Let’s come out” interview. We’ve never been in the closet, but we never said, “Let’s get an interview with The Advocate. Let’s get an interview with Out.” I didn’t want to be a lesbian musician. I felt really uncomfortable with that role. I was already fighting, being a guitar player in a man’s world and to have that on top of it — Lisa and I were so very married at the time, it just didn’t seem like something I could handle.
Lisa: With Prince and the Revolution, I think that it was just taken for granted that we were supposed to be the gay reps in the band. [Laughs] The blacks, the whites, the gays. And people would say, “Gee, do you think this lesbian thing is going to work for them?” [Everyone laughs] So, after the band kind of split up, the record labels would be like, “You need to be wearing fur coats and sitting on motorcycles and long fingernails . . .”
Wendy: It was just horseshit.
Lisa: “And why don’t you wear that lingerie like you used to?”
Wendy: Which I never did.
Lisa: I did.
Wendy: But you wore it in a very different way.
Lisa: Yeah, it was more punk, like a fuck-you thing, not, “I’m a sexy girl.”

Were the record companies aware that you were lesbians and in a relationship together?
Wendy: They’d never talk to us about it. I think everybody knew, but nobody said to us, “But you’re a lesbian couple. We could work the Lilith Fair angle. We could work the Olivia Records angle.” No one used that kind of language with us.
Lisa: We were so hung up on the fact that these people wanted us to be Prince. It didn’t matter what our sexuality was. After we would leave the record company offices, I remember one of our managers mentioning that the art department people would comment on the way Wendy and I would talk to each other. LIke I would say, “Yes, dear,” and they would be all like whisper-whisper after we would leave the room. “They’re gay, aren’t they? They’re like an old married couple.” At that point, we had already been a couple for 10 years. It was very normal for us and very precious.
Wendy: I saw a lot of other women coming out at the time and I didn’t want that on my plate. I wanted my life with Lisa to be so much more private and so much more conventional than that.
Lisa: You know, Wendy, I don’t know if you’ll mind me saying this, but we did slightly differ on our consciousness about it. We would do interviews together and people would ask us questions like, “What is it like living in LA?” And I’d start talking about living in a house together and literally get a kick from Wendy under the table like, “You’re going too far.”
Wendy: Lisa, at the time we were talking to bullshit magazines. I just didn’t want the judgment from people who didn’t know about us or the struggle it takes for gays to fucking live a normal life.
Lisa: I know, but I felt that you had to teach by example instead of making some statement.
Wendy: I disagreed at the time. You can hear it still. Lisa and I are so much on the same page as older women, but at the time it was like, “Fuck that!” I’m not gonna go there. I want more control of this. I just simply do. I lead the way for Lisa and I to be closeted.

You were dealing with this during the Reagan years when the AIDS crisis was exploding and the progressive attitude regarding gays started reversing. It must’ve been hard to contend with that while the music industry pushed you to be the next Mary Jane Girls.
Wendy and Lisa, nearly in unison: That’s exactly what they wanted.
Wendy: We couldn’t have been more opposite of that. We were just geeky musicians. We still are. We did a record 10, 11 years ago with Trevor Horn that was never released. We were hoping that we would have the next fucking Grace Jones “Slave to the Rhythm” extravaganza. We thought, “This is going to be genius! We’re going to be musician freaks and experiment.” And he, honest to god, wanted us to be the Spice Girls. My heart was broken.
Lisa: Not only that, but he was so homophobic. I hate to say it, but he wouldn’t even let us eat off of his silverware on Friday because he was Jewish. It turned into this nightmare. He and his wife, oh God, I don’t want to talk disparagingly about anybody, but it made us very uncomfortable.
Wendy: Our homosexuality became quite an issue for them.

You can read the entire interview with Wendy & Lisa in Out Magazine here.

In 2005 she caught the wrath of the “Christian Right“ when she joined Mandy Moore, the Dixie Chicks, Yoko Ono, Christina Aguilera, Emmylou Harris, Pink and Carole King in making a CD called “Love Rocks”, to raise money for the Gay and Lesbian advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign.

In a 2006 interview she told People Magazine… “Having a big gay following, I get hate mail and threats,” Dolly also said in that interview, “Some people are blind or ignorant, and you can’t be that prejudiced and hateful and go through this world and still be happy. It’s all right to be who you are.”

For years now I have been reading that Dolly Parton has an on going lesbian relationship with her personal assistant, Judy Ogle.

These rumors stem for the fact that Ms. Parton and Ms. Ogle, who have been best friends since the third grade and are pretty much seen everywhere together, while her husband of 42 years, Carl Dean, a retired construction man who ran an asphalt-paving business in Nashville, has always shunned publicity and rarely accompanies her to any events, preferring instead to stay home when the country diva is on the road.

Late last month, in an effort to clear this up, she told Larry King: “I am not gay. I have been accused of that. But I have been happily married for 42 years to the same man. And he’s not the least bit, you know, threatened by the fact that I may be gay.”

“And he’s not the least bit, you know, threatened by the fact that I may be gay”?

Ok… Seems that interview only served to confuse more people.

Last week the 63 year old Dolly took another shot at it when an interviewer for AARP magazine asked the country music legend one more time if she and Ms. Ogle are actually lesbian lovers. To which Dolly answered…

“We’re absolutely, totally honest, open, and comfortable with each other…. We’ve been accused of being lovers. We do love each other, but we’ve never been like that.”

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In the interview Martina said while she think it is a marvelous idea, she’s not so sure it is an idea the country music audience is particularly ready for.

McBride told Out Magazine that the idea of a gay country star might be a hard sell, saying that country music audiences are known for being very conservative and very Middle America, very Bible belt people. Martina says she would be fine with it but isn’t sure if the industry is ready to embrace the idea.

McBride told Out that she grew up in a Kansas town of 180 people and had never encountered a gay person before moving to Nashville, where LGBT’s were more prevalent in society. However, McBride said she has grown comfortable with the concept at that point and now teaches her three daughters they should all be tolerant and embrace the strengths, differences, uniqueness and beauty of others.

She also said that since the time she has been in Nashville, she has become introduced to gay people and our culture, she discovered that her song, “From The Ashes,” has inspired many of her fans in their coming-out process.

Martina said that if her music empowers people to do whatever they need in life, then her music is doing what it is supposed to do.

Ms. McBride has recorded a total of nine studio albums, one Greatest Hits compilation, one live album, a Christmas compilation, as well as two additional compilation albums. Seven of her studio albums and two of her compilations have received an RIAA certification of “Gold” or higher.

Worldwide, she has sold over 16 million albums. In addition, Martina has won the Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year four times (tied with Reba McEntire for the most wins), and the Academy of Country Music’s Top Female Vocalist award three times.

Martina McBride also works with a variety of charities. She is currently the spokeswoman for the National Domestic Violence Hotline, as well as the National Network to End Domestic Violence and National Spokeswoman for the Tulsa Domestic Violence and Intervention Services.

Martina’s new album, Shine, arrives in stores on Tuesday March 24^th and you can read her full interview with Out by clicking HERE.

I bet this is a day the self-described butch never saw coming! This is really awesome, especially since there are so many stereotypes against the “butchies”. In fact, I think we’ll all agree that when people hate on lesbians, they think butch. So, not only is this a victory for Rachel, but for all the tomboi’s, butches, and just plain tops in our community. Word is that she’ll be wearing… pretty much what she wears on her show! Surprising? Not to me. What’s surprising to me is how you can lump any group of our LGBT community and call them Femme, or Butch. Yes, there are members of our community who love and live it up, and I support that, I’m just saying I personally HATE the labeling.

And I agonize over that, seriously. Is it just that I was called Butch, and Dyke enough times when I was a kid that I don’t ever want to hear it again? Am I butch, even though I choose not to be described that way? I do want to be in charge, and I like being able to pay for everything. But how much of that is my sexuality, and how much is it my socio-economic status? I come from a big, and thus broke, family, so of course being able to pay for stuff makes me feel good. And yes I abhor dresses, but I grew up in Catholic school where they would make us kneel down every day and make sure they were long enough. Who wouldn’t?

I know plenty of young tomboys when I was a kid who are straight, but what I never got to see was one of them in a magazine, all grown up. This is definitely going to effect someone out there, so kudos to you Rachel for all your hard work. Enjoy the attention, though it may be uncomfortable, because it means so much to me, and to kids who were just like us.

Jenime is an artist living in the SF bay area. You can watch her musings and ravings any time by visiting her channel on YouTube.

In this month’s issue you can find a picture of me and my wife from our wedding day on page 33. Curve boasts nearly 15 years of publishing, and was named Best Gay and Lesbian Publication by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which makes me extremely proud that our photo was included. The spread includes photos of couples from all over California who were married and submitted a photo. Our photo is right next to the photo of legendary lesbian couple Robin Tyler and Diane Olson.

Here is a tearsheet of page 33, and you can see our photo on the right (middle).

Curve Magazine can be found at Barnes & Noble and Borders Book Stores, or you can subscribe online to have the magazine delivered to your door.

Curve also has a page on MySpace where you can keep up to date on the latest with the magazine, which is how I found out about the photo submission. It’s very exciting to have our picture included in the October issue, and the kids are proud of us too. Be sure to check out this month’s issue of Curve, and thanks for reading this post here on Lez Get Real.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her online by visiting her website at www.juliephineas.com.