Jefe's House

Sorry, Target. You had me at cheap shorts but I didn’t realize you were anti-American.  I mean anti-gay marriage.  Same thing.  I will no longer buy your inexpensive sweatshop threads.  Best Buy, I already hated you so no surprise there.  Go, guerrilla theatre.

Shareholders weigh in on Target and Best Buy’s political giving

“Hi Gangters of Plein Sud Guess What!! We are not moving from this spot.”

I stumbled upon some real-life street theatre in Tribeca this summer and wrote about it for the New York Press.  It’s this week’s cover story, To Kebab and  Conquer, about a street fight between a scrappy halal cart vendor and a highbrow restaurateur.

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 Here’s the online version.  Enjoy.

New York Magazine weighs in.

Hellyeah.

I have never once in my life heard someone say something positive about their health insurance. Have you?  Literally everyone I have ever discussed it with has had only complaints about their insurance company and their coverage, or lack thereof.  Health care reform finally takes a step toward catching us up with the rest of the western world, provides affordable coverage for nearly all Americans, and saves the country a trillion bucks over the next decade.

I found it hilarious during the final weeks before passage that Republicans took the stance that the bill needed to be scrapped and started anew, because suddenly they had decided after years of stonewalling that they had great ideas for how to enact health reform–absolutely laughable, and, as usual from this party, too little, too late.  Finally, the American people, and not the Republicans’ cronies in the insurance industry, won out.  Chalk one up to the little guy.

Too bad the populist Teabaggers can’t figure this out and throw their growing weight fully behind nationalized health care rather than carrying around misspelled placards comparing Obama to Hitler, when their own ranks appear to be filled with racists.  Insurance companies are finally being reigned in, and will no longer be able to hike up their premiums, and overcharge seniors and the other most vulnerable segments of our society.

I am an independent voter, not a Democrat or a Republican or a member of any party.  I vote my conscious, and I voted for centrist Democrat Obama, but  I don’t agree fully with him on all issues.  I loathe some of his thinking,  but I’ll give him this: he is a man of his word, and has time and again — on Iraq, on Afghanistan, on health care reform, on offshore drilling, on repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ on Guantanamo, on financial overhaul – taken concrete steps to achieve, or earnestly try to achieve, exactly what he promised to do when he ran for president.  He has disappointed me at times but has never once, so far, made me feel that he was lying to me, and for a politician this is truly rare.  Would that I could say the same for Wild Bill or the Bush crime family.

As soon as I catch Obama telling me a lie you’ll be the first to know.

(Okay, he does play too much golf and is probably a competitive prick in his personal relationships. I didn't say he could do no wrong.)

[Photos swiped from barackobama.com and the Telegraph].

Somehow I doubt this guy's making $250,000 a year.

Now, I wonder if she made this sign or her mother?

Yeah, this is are-country. We don't go to yore-country and try to make you speak English dew we? Well, yis we dew but, this here's are-country.

It's true. We live in a hugh corporation.

English is not our offical language? That's offal.

Tons more here.   [photos via nydailynews.com]

Originally posted 3/17/10 by Jefe Von Stanley on MediaElites.com.

UPDATE 8/12/10:  Well, it’s only taken 5 months but finally David W. Johnson, one of Gov. Paterson’s closest aides,  has been charged with misdemeanor assault.

Dear New Yorkers,

I have made clear throughout the fiscal crisis that despite our financial difficulties, New York will not shirk from the most fundamental of government obligations – the protection of its citizenry and of its communities [except for abused women]. With that in mind, I would like to inform you of an important new initiative I signed and enacted into law that will enable you to automatically receive an alert when a moderate or high-risk sex offender moves into an area of interest to you or your family, NY-ALERT [it will not include a Johnson Alert for men who have "a history of altercations with women."]

Another top Paterson Aide, Marissa Shorenstein, resigns. New York Times, 3/17/10.

Through this new service, you can be notified by e-mail, text message, fax or telephone when a sex offender [but not a girlfriend beater] moves into or out of your community, or even when an offender relocates within a certain radius (from a quarter mile to 25 miles) of your home [except for David W. Johnson, and believe me ladies, you definitely don't want to be living within 25 miles of him but hey what are you gonna do?]

Continued at http://mediaelites.com/2010/03/18/misogynist-gov-desperate-to-save-rep-in-history-books

Originally posted 3/10/10 by jefevonstanley on MediaElites.com.

Rachel Corrie

Theatre changes nothing, but at least it changes that. The BBC reports that the Rachel Corrie murder trial is finally underway in Israel. Well, okay, it’s a civil suit but still. Never heard of her?

Seven years ago, idealistic human rights activist Rachel Corrie, a Seattle native, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer on the Gaza Strip. Four years ago this month, the US premiere of the play based on Corrie’s poignant if naive political and philosophical ruminations, My Name is Rachel Corrie, was canceled by New York Theatre Workshop. The play, pieced together by actor Alan “Severus Snape” Rickman and Guardian editor Katharine Viner, had had a successful run in London in 2005.

NYTW’s PR nightmare began when conflicting reasons were given for the cancellation. Had they merely postponed it due to scheduling difficulties, or was it canceled because they’d consulted with New York City religious leaders who’d insisted the play was anti-Semitic and incendiary so they chickened out of premiering it? Hard to believe; after all, this was the organization that brought us Shopping and Fucking. Then again that play featured Philip Seymour Hoffman, so if he was bugged by the cancellation (see below) then maybe something was up after all. 

Continued here – http://mediaelites.com/2010/03/10/rachel-corries-ghost-gets-her-day-in-court.

Associated Press, by Nasser Karimi

Huge rally and protests mark Iran revolution

Police clashed with protesters in several sites around Tehran, firing tear gas to disperse them and paintballs to mark them for arrest. Gangs of hard-liners also attacked senior opposition figures as they tried to attend the rallies — including the wife of the head of the reform movement.

NY TIMES:  Arrests by Iran Are a Bid to Quell Wide Protests
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Iranian security officials were believed to have arrested as many as 1,000 people in the past two months, a rights group said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/world/middleeast/10arrests.html?th&emc=th

“Censorship, torture, executions – Iranian authorities will stop at nothing to stamp out peaceful dissent and protest.

“Last week, two men were hanged after being accused of inciting the post-June 12 election violence that erupted last summer in Iran. The Iranian government failed to answer one key question – how these men could have been responsible for the violence when they were being held in detention long before it even occurred?

“As if this injustice wasn’t enough, now the lives of 9 more men hang in the balance on similar charges. Amnesty fears some of them may be executed before February 11^th – a date holding much significance in Iran and one that could signify an end to these abuses.

“February 11^th is known as Victory of the Revolution Day – equivalent to the Fourth of July in the United States; it is meant to symbolize liberty, independence and freedom. Authorities in Iran fear that February 11^th will spark a wave of massive protests and unite Iranians in their calls for change and accountability.

“That is why on February 11^th Amnesty International intends to do all it can to stand in solidarity with the Iranian people on this important date.  In the days following the contested Presidential election, Iranian authorities took aggressive measures to stifle dissent and stem the flow of information. No outside reporters were allowed in. Iranians were not allowed to freely report out. Virtually the only way the Iranian people could expose the horrific treatment being inflicted on them was to share their stories online, using blogs and websites like Twitter and Facebook.

“Amnesty expects Iranians will once again rely solely on the Internet to carry their messages during next week’s expected demonstrations. That is why they are asking everyone to show their solidarity online on February 11^th – whether it’s on your blog, website, or social networking profile. Help us raise the voices of those calling for freedom and justice inside Iran.”

Please go here for more info.

I sang that then and I’ll sing it again. I was saying it in 2007 when directing a small revival of Sam Shepard’s The God of Hell, a 2004 anti-Bush play yes, but as I told the cast then, it’s a play about big government gone out of control and extends beyond Bush. I told them electing a Democrat isn’t gonna get us out of the Middle East, and that therefore this diabolical little play will remain relevant for years to come. At least Obama was up front in his platform from the outset.

I guarantee you someone out there’s printing up bumper stickers right now that read Nobomba, and they’ll sell like hotcakes to the same disillusioned liberals who put him in office. I am one of those people who put him in office and I’m proud of it. I still proudly display my Obama-Biden ’08 bumper sticker on my front door, but I’m no fool, and I never supported all he stood for. One delusion lots of his supporters seem to suddenly suffer from is that he claimed to be some sort of peace bringer, the antithesis of warmonger Bush, when this was never the case. Do you all, my fellow Obama voters, have amnesia? You’re intelligent people, I know you are. So why have you forgotten that going into Afghanistan was part of his platform all along? Don’t you remember his constant stumping that under Bush we “took our eye off the ball” in Afghanistan?

These past months of his “deliberation” about whether to send more troops and the right’s attacking his military “indecisiveness” have all been rhetoric and theatre. He knew, the right knew, and I for one knew (and come on, be honest, Obama fans, you knew, too), what his decision would be all along. At least credit him on this point for delivering the change he promised, whether you agree with that change or not: we’re getting out of Iraq and going into Afghanistan. The times they are a’changin’. And a’stayin’ the same. And deep down you knowed they would.

He is also working to stop torture, to close Guantanamo, and has been pushing relentlessly on health care reform, no? Give him a break and don’t burn your Obama t-shirts just yet.