MONDAY, JANUARY 9 The week got off to a stellar start with some well-timed learning and growing, thanks to Washington State Senator Bill Finkbeiner, the Kirkland Republican who spiced up the first day of the 2006 legislature by announcing his change of heart on the issue of gay rights and pledging his support for a long-stalled antidiscrimination bill for gays and lesbians. Details on the evolution of Finkbeiner come from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which reports that the senator's mind was expanded by a series of conversations that led him to better understand the threat of discrimination against the state's lesbians and gays. "I now find it is both appropriate and necessary for the state to make it clear that this is not acceptable," proclaimed Senator Finkbeiner, instigating competing avalanches of hope and fear. As usual, fear comes first and from the right, with a number of state Republicans clinging to the baseless belief that when it comes to gays, equal rights are special rights, with the contention that outlawing discrimination against gays would "promote homosexuality" while advancing the cause of gay marriage (in much the same way that outlawing segregation promoted blackness while advancing the cause of miscegenation, no doubt). But such reactionary squabbles were squashed by the optimism engendered by Senator Finkbeiner's landmark announcement, especially after the torturous close-but-no-cigar shenanigans of last year, when the senate rejected the antidiscrimination billâwhich would place sexual orientation alongside race, color, religion, national origin, gender, and disability on the list of forbidden grounds for discriminationâby a one-vote margin. But as Senate Majority Leader and fervent gay rights bill supporter Lisa Brown told the P-I, despite her pledge to never celebrate a bill until the governor's signed off, "I have thought all along that this year might be the year." It better be, according to Senator Erik Poulsen, the West Seattle Democrat who supplies the P-I with some well-placed wariness: "I still think opponents will pull out all the stops to not let that bill pass. This bill could still go sideways and we'll look pretty bad if it does. If we don't get this done this year, it will be a colossal failure."
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10 Speaking of colossal failures (and outspoken senators): Today the architects of the Iraq war came under fire from the hawkish harpy of their nightmaresâSenator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who blasted the "incompetent" Bush administration for its failure to provide U.S. soldiers in Iraq with adequate body armor. Support for Senator Clinton's outrage comes from a recent Pentagon study, which found that of 93 marine fatalities in Iraq, 74 were caused by bullet and shrapnel wounds to the shoulders and torsoâareas left unprotected by standard-issue armor. According to ABC News, the cost of supplying troops with sufficient side armor would run about $260 per person; according to Senator Clinton, such a sum is perfectly reasonable in light of the United States' half-a-trillion-dollar defense budget. "This is Bush/Cheney policy," said Senator Clinton to ABC, declaring the government's failure to protect our troops "unforgivable" and calling for an investigation into how such a sorry state of affairs came to pass. "I am just bewildered as to how this president and this vice president continue to isolate themselves," spoke the smartest Clinton. "[President Bush has] got three more years in office. Some of us wwish this wasn't the case." Hurrah for Hillaryâ˘, who may use this slogan in her presidential campaign materials as she sees fit. Still, when the fiercest voice of support for troops in Iraq comes from a Democratic Senator from New Yorkâwith a vagina, no lessâshit's effed up.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11 The week continues with Day Three of the harsh-but-he-asked-for-it grilling of Judge Samuel Alito, the would-be Bush appointee (is that phrase libelous yet?) gunning for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Chief among today's Senate Judiciary Committee delights: the sobbing of Alito's wife, who wept then fled during her husband's artless dodging of questions relating to his membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a radically conservative organization that sought to limit the admissiown of women and minorities to the university. Despite having specifically listed his involvement with the Concerned Alumni in his application with the Reagan Administration, today Alito professed "no recollection" of ever dealing with such a group. Aside from spooky denials hinting at both internalized racism and early-onset Alzheimer's, Alito also offered some meandering words on abortion, acknowledging Roe v. Wade as "an important precedent" while adamantly avoiding recent nominee John Robert's description of Roe as "settled law." To quote the hostess at Olive Garden: Be afraid, be very afraid.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12 This morning, thanks to half a Xanax and six hours on JetBlue, Last Days awoke in New York City, where we were promptly greeted with a horrible headline on a perpetual Last Days theme: "Death of an Angel," the New York Post's exhaustive series devoted to Nixzmary Brown, the 7-year-old Brooklyn girl found beaten to death on Wednesday. The alleged culprit: her stepfather, 27-year-old Cesar Rodriguez, who was arrested on charges of second-degree murder, sex abuse, and endangering the welfare of a minor before getting a gloriously trashy trial by media courtesy of the Post. Truly, even Last Days was amazed at the vitriol the Post spewed at this alleged angel-killer, with each day's issue documenting another facet of Rodriguez's evil, from snapshots of the actual chair Nixzmary was tied to at the time of her fatal beating to unsubstantiated claims from "a source" that Rodriguez was dismissed from the army for possession of kiddie porn. But who's complaining? Certainly not Nixzmary, whose death was preceded by extensive but ultimately insufficient investigation by New York's Administration for Children's Services, and whose funeral will likely be followed by an administrative bloodbath. Stay tuned.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13 Nothing happened today, unless you count Last Days' joyful patronage of the Museum of Television and Radio, where we thrilled to a one-of-a-kind, only-in-NY art exhibit: the museum's two archived episodes of Cop Rock, Steven Bochco's legendarily horrific crime drama with blowout musical numbers we've been hearing about ever since we missed its aborted run on ABC in 1990. Needless to say, Cop Rock is magical, from the singing-and-dancing displaced-hobo encampment to the vamping dispatch clerks. Deep thanks to the MoT&R for preserving this most valuable piece of American trash.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14 Nothing happened today, unless you count the death by heart failure of legendary American actress Shelley Winters, or the second wedding of Eminem and his famously estranged and fantastically tortured wife, Kim. May Winters rest in peace, and may the reunited Matherses enjoy a life of love and blissâat least until the next time he feels like sawing off her head, then dumping her corpse in a lake during a play-date with their daughter.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15 Nothing happened today.
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