AddieStan

Speaking of poets, this just in: the incomparable j. scales (poet, singer, musician, songwriter) has been added to the entertainment line-up for this Saturday's D.C. Dyke March , an annual Gay Pride event that has spread to cities throughout the country since its inception in Our Nation's Capital a dozen years ago. If you're lucky (or you stuff enough singles in the leg pockets of her cargo pants), j. just might perform her cult hits, "Maybe She Thought" and "Does Yr Mama Know", from her debut CD, "ohm".

E. Ethelbert Miller has an excellent new poem on his blog, E-Notes . Do check it out. And while you're there, your blogstress recommends wandering around the rest of Ethelbert's site , where you will learn about everything from poetry to baseball to jazz to gentrification in Our Nation's Capital.

Perhaps a day late and a dollar short, some Democrats are questioning the compromise of some of their so-called "moderate" peers that was crafted to avert the Republicans' use of the option they've termed "nuclear" on the matter of the filibuster, long a Senate tradition. In the Washington Post, Charles Babington reports on a protest by the Congressional Black Caucus of the confirmation of the atrocious Janet Rogers Brown to the D.C. circuit court. "Our problem with the compromise is the price that was paid," Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said yesterday. She and other Congressional Black Caucus members plan to march into the Senate today to protest the impending confirmation of Janice Rogers Brown. Note that Norton, despite her office in the House of Representatives, bears the title "Delegate" and not "Representative," because the Congress has deemed the citizens of the District of Columbia--mostly black people and other ...

Welcome to the debut of your blogstress’s long-promised and eagerly anticipated occasional feature, Lexiconography , wherein your cybertrix examines the rhetoric of the day for its etymology, wit and/or effectiveness, with sporadic suggestions for alternative wording when warranted. Today’s winning entry warrants no alternative phrasing; it is a true gem of literary insult in its deployment of the unexplainably discarded term "wing-nut" as shorthand for "right-wing nut." (Note the moving hyphen. Check your style guide.) In Michael Tomasky’s excellent piece on right-wing revisionism and selective reporting, he notes, in reference to the trial of Hillary Clinton fundraiser David Rosen, " the galloping accelerando of wing-nut anticipation. " Sweet, n’est-ce pas ? Now, get out there and use it! For the punch line on the Rosen case (the guy was acquitted), click here to read Tomasky at The American Prospect Online .

At the risk of sounding like a major fan of "Larry King Live," your blogstress feels compelled to note last night's remarkable show. Dan Rather had been the scheduled guest--reason enough for a journalist to watch, given the circumstances by which the Texan was forced from the CBS News anchor chair. But in the wake of the stunning revelation by Mark Felt's family that their patriarch was the famous Watergate source, Deep Throat, King added an extra hour with Woodward and Bernstein . Most fascinating was both men's insistence that nobody, not even they, truly knows the full scope and details of the Watergate conspiracy. As noted here yesterday, the timing of the Felt revelation is exquisite, given the administration's vilification of Newsweek for the use of an anonymous source in the Koran-flushing item run in Periscope several weeks ago. Appearing after the first hour of Larry King with Woodward and Bernstein, Rather made note of how the Nixon administra...

Just how delicious is it that Deep Throat has chosen to reveal his perhaps befuddled self at the very moment when the Bush Administration is trying to slam Newsweek for its use of an unnamed source in its infamous Koran-flushing item? Scrumptious, mes amis . Absolutely scrumptious. Now, if the progressive movement had a decent spinmeister in its ranks, s/he'd be out there right now, demonstrating all sorts of parallels between the Nixon and Bush Administrations (penchant for secrecy and invasion of your privacy; political use of the FBI; enemies list-- Helen Thomas likely on both lists). Of course, that would be if the progressive movement had a decent spinmeister in its ranks. In the meantime, your blogstress will have to fill in. Speaking of your cybertrix (and you know we must), she herself has a dark secret to reveal: back in the days when she was a mere Selectrix (think indestructable IBM product), she performed the critical function of periodically receiving a locked bri...

Sometimes your blogstress thinks that Larry King gets a bum rap. He's always accused of asking softball questions, but that's not really the case. He just asks hard questions in an extraordinarily annoying, mincing manner. Anybody who watched him last night interviewing Vice President and Mrs. Cheney will know what I mean. During the interview, Cheney asserted that, as of Thursday, the Republicans had enough votes to pass the Bolton nomination in the Senate with an up-or-down floor vote. Fifty-seven, to be exact, which ain't exactly the 60 he'll need to end debate. He also took shots at the Dems for blocking a pre-Memorial Day vote: There's been a lot of talk these last few days since they put together a sort of gang of 14 that negotiated an arrangement on the judges that somehow now we've entered a new era of bipartisan cooperation that lasted about 48-hours, and the Democrats filibuster Bolton. But I think we'll get him through. He's a good man. H...

More analysis of the filibuster. Michael Tomasky, on the Web site of The American Prospect (which he edits), explains why he thinks the compromise deal is acceptable . Your blogstress still reserves judgment. NOTE: Interestingly, a range of opinion on the filibuster deal is displayed on The Prospect site . Kuttner is not impressed.

Let's give a little wave to the Dems for showing enough discipline in the ranks to delay an up-or-down vote on the nomination of the dreadful John Bolton to the post of U.N. Ambassador. Your blogstress asks for only un petit signe , since the Dems are holding out for some info on Bully-Boy that the Administration refuses to cough up [material on Bolton's requests for info on State Dept. employees gleaned through wiretaps by the National Security Agency (NSA)]. After the Administration gives the Dems the goods, says Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, they'll allow the vote to take place. How come? The guy's a nightmare. Why not keep him out by any legal means necessary? Liberal Oasis offers a thoughful break-down on why this maneuver is nothing over which to dance the Snoopy dance. On his Washington Note blog, Steve Clemons fills in an interesting bit of the backstory . It seems that, as ranking member of the Senat...

Herewith the first in an occasional series whereby your blogstress makes note of stylistic trends in punctuation, linguistic notation and latter-day usage. It will run as a companion series to the yet-to-be-introduced AddieStan occasional feature, Lexiconography, wherein terminology coined in the think shops of Our Nation's Capital will be scrutinized, often with suggestions for alternative appellations. Today's observation centers on the clever use of a font feature usually reserved as an editing tool: the strike-thru. Weary of plodding through the thicket of Orwellian terms employed by the right-wing, liberal writers--at least those in the outsider communities--have found a way to deflate such ridiculous terms so as to reveal their true meaning. First appears the actual meaning of the term in a strike-thru font, and then its rhetorical form as deployed by the right. (It is alternatively used as an implied subliminal subtext.) Dig this, from Confined Space : One of our favo...

Speaking of the Great Compromise, the writing of satirist Tom Burka on this subject is priceless: Senate Republicans to Reject Nuclear Option in Favor of Biowarfare Senate Republicans who feared that they would not get the 50 votes they needed to destroy the filibuster spoke of abandoning the so-called "nuclear option" in favor of biological or chemical warfare. "We should just gas all of them," said Sen. Rick Santorum of the Democrats, almost immediately after he had called them Nazis. Sen. Santorum later told critics that he had meant "sedating all of the Democrats with a non-toxic inhalant." Tom's work is found on his blog, Opinions You Should Have .

Is this a good thing or a bad thing, this act of comity on the future of the filibuster? On the one hand, the filibuster lives to see another day, and the traditions of the Senate are temporarily preserved. On the other hand, three truly frightening judges now ascend to the federal bench. Of these, Priscilla Owen of Texas has received the most attention for her exemplary judicial activism that is, at once (to steal an idea from Molly Ivins), both theocratic and plutocratic. Far more troubling to your Webwench is the specter of Janice Rogers Brown of California occupying the D.C. circuit court, to which most cases regarding the operation of the federal government are brought. Here's Rogers Brown on the virtues of government: "Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates, and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of ...

What with her pesky day job, multiple social commitments and erstwhile singing career, your blogstress has had barely a bustier-clad moment to look up, never mind put words to her blog. Among her other endeavors is this recent piece for The American Prospect Web site on why one issue must trump all others right now: saving the United States Constitution. Even for queer folk, your cybertrix places this burning issue ahead of gay marriage, a cause in which she deeply believes (for those who are the marrying kind, natch). Your thoughts, dear reader?

Your blogstress has said many a rosary awaiting the reply to the probing question posed by Swiss Watch. Here, at last, we display a carefully parsed reply--well, the only reply received. Our good friend, Marimba Man, writes: I'm afraid that if I leave the Catholic Church I'll burn in hell. Aren't you? Well, actually, your cybertrix harbors a greater fear of being sentenced to loll about in Heaven, wearing something white and shapeless, plucking a lyre to a beatless tune. Vive l'existentialism!

A new friend from Old Europe, whom we'll call Swiss Watch, sends this: Obviously, I have to agree with you that the election of Ratzinger is a disaster--for the church and way beyond. Here is what I, as an outsider, cannot understand: Why don't you just leave the church and become Methodist? (Most of the teaching is quite similar, but there is no pope...) In my home country of Switzerland there is a church that calls itself "Old Catholic" or "Christ Catholic" that split from the Roman church after the First Vatican Council, protesting the infallibility doctrine. It has never had a great geographic reach, but it is an obvious alternative for Hans Küng (to whom the vast majority of Swiss have been very sympathetic), yet he never chose to take it. (The church is also present in Southern Germany, where he is a professor.) What is it about the Catholic Church that makes it so hard for people to leave it? Hmmm...Any takers on this one? Your blogstress, rosary gri...

A day has passed since election of the Enforcer to the papacy, and your blogstress has calmed down sufficiently to do a bit of writing on the subject for The American Prospect Web site that should explain her adverse reaction to the naming of this particular pope. (And did he have to be from Bavaria, of all places?) Last night, on MSNBC , Carl Bernstein suggested that, as pope, Ratzinger might surprise us; he might not be all that bad. Carl, from your mouth to God's ears. One presumes Carl is speaking in relative terms, despite Ratzinger's condemnation of moral relativism just the other day. (Your cybertrix does concede, however, that Mr. Bernstein tends to be right more often than not--one of his many maddening traits.) BERNSTEIN: I think that, one, that he may be open-minded on some questions that some of the members of the panel might be holier than the pope about. I think...that Supreme Court justices, kings, queens, and popes, people who get jobs for life, sometime...

If one is seeking further evidence that the eschaton is about to be immanatized, one need look no further than the election of Cardinal Jozef Ratzinger to the papacy. The entire College of Cardinals has much to account for with the election of this zealot, this disdainer of women, hater of homosexuals, enthusiastic enforcer of the most authoritarian aspects of church doctrine with apparent disregard for the words of Jesus of Nazareth: "Judge not lest ye be judged." For years, Ratzinger served as JPII's attack dog, the guy threatening to throw nuns out of their convents for having had the courage to speak their minds; the guy insisting that theologians who took issue with the Vatican's interpretation of God's word lose their jobs; the guy who saw to it that an American bishop who dared to minister to gay people was publicly humiliated. Your cybertrix is truly shaken by this. She wasn't expecting Gandhi, but she never truly believed that the church would anoi...

Your blogstress waits with bated breath to hear the name of the pope who has just been elected at the conclave. She's nearly certain it can't be the dreaded Ratzinger, since his name was so heavily floated--usually a sign of doom for a papal candidate. Let's all stay tuned, shall we?

It is with sadness that your blogstress notes the passing of Andrea Dworkin, the great feminist writer, even if she and Ms. Dworkin found themselves on opposite sides of a gigantic row in the feminist movement. Though Ms. Dworkin would surely not have been amused by your cybertrix's sense of style, she had ferocity and talent enough to warrant respect. In fact, your écrivaine believes Dworkin to be one of the best American writers of her generation, but, alas, she will no doubt be remembered more for her role in stoking the porn wars of the 1980s than for her greater gifts.

It's not that your blogstress doesn't love you--no, no, no! Alas, your cybertrix's publishing tool, Blogger.com, has been struggling to do its job lately. Yesterday, for instance, the system was virtually shut down. So do bear with, dear reader, and perhaps let the Google people (who own Blogger.com, the service that fuels more blogs than anybody else) know that you are not amused when they create such a rift in the time-space continuum of the blogosphere.