President Obama Wears Bullet-Resistant Suit at Inaugural

By Jose Fermoso  January 21, 2009 | wired.com

Barack Obama had more than the Presidential 'beast' limo taking care of his safety yesterday.

According to some reports, he wore a suit made by a clothier specializing in bullet-resistant clothing during the inauguration ceremonies.

While no one from the U.S. Secret Service have yet to mention any details about the garment's structure, some are speculating it may have come from the line by Colombian designer Miguel Caballero. As we noted last year, Caballero is well known for his super tough but flexible and business appropriate clothing (see pic at right), such as the $7,500 polo shirt that can stop a shot from a 9-mm revolver.

Due to some of the unfortunately rising levels of dangerous conflicts in Colombia and other parts of Latin America, the need for this type of clothing has also led to a spike in sales.

According to Caballero, many of his garments offer more thanthree levels of ballistic protection and they are about seven times more flexible than the Kevlar vests that are usually worn. Designers that use Kevlar tie together dense strands of the material (500 to 1,500 filaments per strand of yarn, according to Slate), which is then weaved into the clothing.

With close to 2 million people on hand to watch the president-elect take the Oath of Office, the level of security was understandably tight and every precaution was taken to ensure safety for all.

Earlier this month, we noted that President Obama will be using the safest Presidential limo ever built, the so-called Cadillac One (or simply, "The Beast"), whose toughness rivals a tank and seals off like a bank vault in the event of a potential attack.

A recap of the day

Goodbye to our in-articulate president. It will be nice to have one that can speak now.

Gene Robinson: Gay Bishop Giving Obama Inauguration Prayer

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, a vocal gay rights leader, will open President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration with a prayer on Sunday's kick-off event at the Lincoln Memorial.

"I am writing to tell you that President-Elect Obama and the Inaugural Committee have invited me to give the invocation at the opening event of the Inaugural Week activities, We are One, to be held at the Lincoln Memorial," Robinson wrote in an email to friends.

The announcement comes after weeks of outcry from the gay community over Obama's choice of evangelical, anti-gay pastor Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation.

"It's important for any minority to see themselves represented in some way," Robinsonsaid in an interview with the Concord Monitor. "Whether it be a racial minority, an ethnic minority or, in our case, a sexual minority. Just seeing someone like you up front matters."

Robinson is the first openly gay diocesan bishop in the Anglican Communion. "God never gets it wrong. The church often takes a long time to get it right. It is a human institution, but one capable of self-correction," Robinson told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "I believe in my heart that the church got it wrong about homosexuality. There is great excitement in my heart to be living in a time when the church is starting to get it right."

Robinson said he would love to sit down with Rick Warren but believed that the California pastor has "perpetrated lies about the gay, lesbian and bisexual community."

Go Tina

The OTHER MALL: Every town has one. Including ours. Funny

Equality Matters - Join the March

In 2004, the Government Accounting Office identified 1,138 federal laws in which marital status is a factor in determining or receiving benefits, rights, and privileges.

It's time to educate Americans about what the word 'marriage' really means and talk about the critical rights being denied LGBT couples. Tax fairness. Hospital visitation. Government benefits. Medical decision-making. Exemption from estate taxes. Spousal immigration.

Click here to learn more

Sharon Gless

FILM

Sharon Gless (Finally) Goes Gay 
She’s best known for playing the role of an outspoken, eccentric, overbearing PFLAG mom on Queer as Folk, a tough cop named Cagney on Cagney & Lacey, and most recently the mouthy mother on Burn Notice. But Sharon Gless has returned to gay and lesbian audiences playing a new kind of role: an actual lesbian. 
By Byron Flitsch   (READ)

U.S. Rejects U.N.'s Gay Rights Statement, Cites "Don't Ask"

A joint statement addressing homophobia and LGBT rights for the first time at the United Nations was tabled Thursday, without the backing of the United States.

"We urge states to take all the necessary measures, in particular legislative or administrative, to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention," the draft document read.

The unprecedented gay rights declaration was proposed by the French and read by Argentinean ambassador Jorge Arguello. The nonbinding statement is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, stating that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

The United States did not sign the statement, but former U.N. spokesman Richard Grenell said the U.S. was hung up on its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which bars out gays and lesbians from serving in the military.

"The fact that the Bush administration hired as many gays and lesbians with top secret security clearances in and of itself means that we are not criminals," Grenell said. "To later suggest that because of 'don't ask, don't tell' we can't support this resolution flies in the face of real compassion."

Grenell added that before he left his post in October as the longest-running American spokesman for the United Nations, he explained to State Department officials that the United States should sign the statement immediately, as a means to show the Bush administration is compassionate and accepting. "Yet, they came up with this phony argument that legally they had a problem with 'don't ask, don't tell.'"

Sixty-six of the 192 member countries, including the full European Union, Central African Republic, Brazil, Cuba, Israel, and Japan urged the decriminalization of homosexuality on Thursday to fellow member countries. In addition to the United States, China, Russia, and all of the Arab nations refused to back the statement.

A rival statement, read by Syria, garnered 58 signatures, according to Bloomberg News. Syrian envoy Abdullah al-Hallaq, reading the statement, said homosexuality could "usher into social normalization and possibly the legitimization of many deplorable acts, including pedophilia."

More than 77 countries find consensual same-sex relations to be a punishable offense, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Association. Seven countries -- Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen -- punish homosexuality by death. (Michelle Garcia, Advocate.com)

Jerry Brown's About Face: Void Prop. 8

In a surprising change of pace, California Attorney General Jerry Brown made a bold statement Friday by urging the state’s supreme court to void Proposition 8.

The proposition, which reversed a supreme court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in the state of California, passed on election day by a narrow margin. Brown said Proposition 8 is in and of itself unconstitutional because it “deprives a minority group of a fundamental right.”

That’s an about face for Brown, who had previously said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters. The attorney general is legally bound to uphold the state’s laws as long as there are reasonable grounds to do so.

With his surprising 111-page legal brief -- filed at the last possible moment before the court’s deadline -- Brown offered substantial support for overturning Proposition 8.

"It became evident that the Article 1 provision guaranteeing basic liberty, which includes the right to marry, took precedence over the initiative," he said in an interview Friday night. "Based on my duty to defend the law and the entire Constitution, I concluded the court should protect the right to marry even in the face of the 52 percent vote."

Brown served as the governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and is rumored to be seeking the office again in 2010. Though Brown said he personally had voted against the marriage ban, as recently as last month, he said he would fight to uphold it as the state's top lawyer.

Opponents of gay marriage, who also filed arguments with the court Friday, were said to be shocked by Brown’s decision.

The Protect Marriage coalition urged in their brief that the justices uphold the proposition, which voters approved 52% to 48% on Nov. 4 -- the most expensive battle for gay rights in history.

Andy Pugno, the lawyer for Protect Marriage, told the Associated Press that Brown's argument is "an astonishing theory." He said he was "disappointed to see the attorney general fail to defend the will of the voters as the law instructs him to."

Also up for debate –the state of the 18,000 same-sex marriages performed before the election.

Brown argued that Proposition 8 was not written to be retroactive and that the marriages should remain valid.

Protect Marriage countered that none of the same-sex marriages should be legally recognized.

The Supreme Court justices are expected to hear arguments in the case as early as March, with a ruling expected later in the spring. Kenneth W. Starr, the former Whitewater prosecutor and U.S. solicitor general, plans to argue on behalf of Protect Marriage, the group said Friday. (Ross von Metzke, Advocate.com)

Rachel Maddow updates you on the Rick Warren thing

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

"Thrown under the bus before he even gets sworn in. Disappointing. Not surprising, just disappointing."

Hilary Rosen unloads on Warren selection apologists on AC360

I don't know if you watched Anderson Cooper last night, but he did some slamming coverage of the Rick Warren debacle on his program. He basically had to referee a heated debate between Hilary Rosen editor-at-large for HuffPost and a CNN contributor, CNN's Roland Martin and Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committee Member and CNN contributor. Hilary Rosen had the afterburners on last night; she had no patience for the attempt by Roland Martin to give legitimacy to Rick Warren and called it "an outrageous mistake."

Simpler Times

Some funnies

I love Carrie Fisher

Catch her on the TODAY Show talking about her new memoir, WISHFUL DRINKING.

Jon Stewart talks to Mike Huckabee about Gay Marriage

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Iowa high court to hear marriage case

Oral arguments were scheduled to be heard today at the Iowa Supreme Court in a case that could make the state the first in the middle of the country to grant equal marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples. "This is the heartland of America -- a place where family values are revered. It would be an incredibly strong signal for the Iowa Supreme Court to find that same-sex marriages are legal," said Angela Onwuachi-Willig, a University of Iowa law professor who has signed a court brief backing marriage rights. The Des Moines Register (Iowa) (12/7)

'Nanny' state: Fran Drescher seeks Clinton's Senate seat

December 9, 2008

'Nanny' state: Fran Drescher seeks Clinton's Senate seat

Posted: 11:44 AM ET

Fran Drescher is a women's health advocate and a public diplomacy envoy for the State Department.

NEW YORK (CNN) — Actress Fran Drescher has expressed interest in being appointed to the U.S. Senate seat that New York's Hillary Clinton is giving up to become secretary of state, a spokesman for the actress said.

No, seriously.

"Fran Drescher, actress, women's health advocate and public diplomacy envoy for the U.S. State Department, announced that she is throwing her hat into the ring of contenders for the senate seat being vacated by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton," Drescher spokesman Jordan Brown told CNN in a written statement late Monday.

Watch: CNN's Alina Cho break down Drescher's interest

Drescher, 51, is best known for her starring role in the 1990s television comedy "The Nanny" and an adenoidal voice that could strip the rust off an engine block — a talent that might come in handy during a Senate filibuster.

But since a bout with uterine cancer, she has become an activist for better health care for women and was named a State Department public envoy on the issue in September. Drescher recently toured Eastern European countries to raise awareness of the issue on behalf of the State Department.

New York Gov. David Paterson will appoint a successor for Clinton, who still must be confirmed by her Senate colleagues for the Cabinet post. That successor would face voters in a special election in 2010.

A spokesman for Patterson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.

Speculation over Paterson's choice reached a frenzy over the weekend after reports that Caroline Kennedy, daughter of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, had phoned to discuss the position.

Paterson said Monday that Kennedy had called him and "asked a few questions," but dismissed other reports as "gossip."

"And frankly, this is a serious issue which I think is starting to be
treated as some sort of reality TV show," he added.

A senior adviser to Clinton, Philippe Reines, said she would not comment on her possible successors.

"This is entirely Governor Patterson's decision and we're respecting the privacy of his process," Reines said.

Our Mutual Joy: Newsweek Cover Story

Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side.

Lisa Miller

NEWSWEEK

From the magazine issue dated Dec 15, 2008

Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments—especially family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. "It is better to marry than to burn with passion," says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script?

Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so. (READ)

Tina Fey on the cover of Vanity Fair

What Tina Wants.

Tina Fey has rules. They’ve guided the 38-year-old writer-comedian through marriage, motherhood, and a career that went into hyperdrive this fall, when her Sarah Palin impression convulsed the nation, boosting the ratings of both Saturday Night Live and her own NBC show, 30 Rock. Backstage at S.N.L., where “Palin” met Palin, and at the home Fey shares with her husband and daughter, the author reports on how a tweezer, cream rinse, a diet, and a Teutonic will transformed a mousy brain into a brainy glamour-puss.

January 2009, Vanity Fair (READ ARTICLE)