George and Laura Bush did an interview for StoryCorps, a national oral history initiative, conducted by his sister Doro Bush Koch. In it, the outgoing president and the first lady touched upon the normal talking points that I would expect (Afghanistan, HIV/AIDS relief in Africa, No Child Left Behind), but the underlying messages strung through the whole thing leaves me so angry:

-Bush talks about the unconditional love he received from his father. “It is the greatest gift a father can give a child,” he said. “And it has made life to much easier in many ways, because if you have the ultimate gift of love, then the difficulties of life can be easier handled.”

- On faith playing into politics, Bush says he’s read the Bible every day since he was inaugurated in 2001, but he cautions other politicos from dragging their faith into the public arena: “…politicians should not be judgmental people based upon their faith. They should recognize — as least I have recognized I am a lowly sinner seeking redemption, and therefore have been very careful about saying accept my faith or you’re bad…”

Then, he goes on to say that the best part of being American is that we can choose to be religious or not, “and be equally American. And it doesn’t matter how you choose to worship; you’re equally American…It’s very important for any President to jealously protect, guard, and strengthen that freedom.”

Um… all of those sentiments are all well and good, but I can’t take an ounce of what he said seriously. Remember in 2004, when the Republicans using the Rovian playbook, decided to further polarize the country by basically running a national campaign on same-sex marriage? It may as well have been George Wallace in 1964, running under the banner of segregation. As we know, any issue pertaining to gay rights, polarized (and continues to polarize) families. Where’s the unconditional love for teenagers who are kicked out of their homes for being honest with thier parents by coming out? Well, it’s not in the form of shelters because federal funding has been cut off to support those places of last resort.

Better yet, where’s the governmental protection of such peoples’ basic rights? You know, like making sure people aren’t fired from their jobs because they are LGBT? How about allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military instead of allowing ex-cons to take guns and shoot at Iraqis?  How about a bill that would make sure that if someone is violated because of his sexual orientation, the offender would be  effectively punished?

Why didn’t these things happen? Because President Bush, and his conservative, Christian cronies and followers played the Bible Card. Somehow, letting people just live their lives goes against the Bible — gays can’t reproduce, so they shouldn’t be allowed to prosper in society like the rest of us. But now, in 2008, Bush will tell you that faith shouldn’t play too much of a role in the political process, and that children should have the unconditional love of their families. Too bad a lot of people who were listening to you four years ago will never show their children the unconditional love that George Senior and Babs give him.

Check out an excerpt of the interview here.

photo by BohPhoto

As Barack Obama is outlining his cabinet, and team of advisers, I am here wondering what Joe Biden will be doing in the upcoming administration. Perhaps his strongest credential to me was his years on the senate foreign relations committee — it was the main reason why I thought he should be vice president. However, with Hillary Clinton taking the post as Secretary of State, will he really be able to take that on as his big cause of the administration? George H.W. Bush fought drug abuse and called for financial deregulation; Al Gore had the environment and technology; Dick Cheney had defense, and general tomfoolery.

It makes me wonder, What Will Biden Do? Here’s a few issues (aside from the foreign stuff) that he might be privy to:

• Biden used to be the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he passed the Biden Crime Bill, putting more cops on the streets and upping federal support for law enforcement; he proposed the White House install a “Drug Czar;” and, one of his more prominent bills, the Violence Against Women Act.
• He seems to be fairly involved with worker’s rights, and labor. He’s a proponent of OSHA, the Family Medical Leave Act, the expansion of Head Start, wage regulations, and curtailing exporting jobs overseas.
• Biden’s getting up there in age, so he might find working on elder’s rights and the expansion of medical care.
• Perhaps Biden would concentrate his knowledge of defense and foreign affairs to focus on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The way he has been talking about both wars has seemed pretty smart to me.

Last week I went to jury duty for the first time ever. I think there’s some sort of pandemic of jury duty summonses going around, because nearly everyone I know here in L.A. has served within the past few months.

Anyway, so I headed downtown, to the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center at 7:45 a.m. last Wednesday. Of course, after getting off the train, and then having to go through a security check, I was a few minutes late, and I missed the jury duty guy’s initial schpiel about the process. We marched single file into a room and sat down with about 100 other people. Then one of the judges talked to us for a few minutes about the importance of jury duty, and because I’m such a civic dork, I got all pumped about it, even though I was dreading being picked up until that moment.

So after more procedural stuff, they called up the first panel, for a 25-day case. As they were calling the names, they called out a familiar name, and I later verified that it was Kevin Roderick from LA Observed! And even though I came equipped with my laptop, ready to work, they told us that the courthouse’s wifi and internet connections on their supplied computers for jurists was down, and wouldn’t return until mid-December.

And for some reason, there was a woman doing a gigantic jigsaw puzzle…really.

Then there was our 90-freaking-minute lunch, which was really rad. I had lunch on top of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in their rooftop garden and read an article in Wired about a facebook revolution in Egypt. (Girlie side note: I reeeeeally want to get married at the WDCH garden…).

Then I got back from lunch, only to sit around for another couple of hours and then go home. I didn’t even get called into a panel. I’ve heard that if you list your occupation as “journalist”, which I am, they won’t even call you up.

On my way out, I snapped this photo of Judge Frederick Wapner’s door…if you don’t know who his father Joe is, you probably didn’t watch a lot of television in the 1980s.

So Michelle Obama will be the subject of a new book about her style savvy. I’m kinda excited, because if I were the wife of a senator, or just a senator myself, I would dress like Michelle Obama. Oh, I’d have to get those amazing arms first…According to Page Six:

Avon vice president Carrie Feron said: “Not since Jackie O have we had a first lady become a fashion icon. Michelle Obama will be one of history’s most vibrant first ladies; she has a distinctive style that every American woman can aspire to, whether the consumer is a Target shopper or some one more likely to be found on Miracle Mile.”

And, basically, she’s right. The book is due in September. Let’s hope America still like the Obamas by then…

So President-elect Obama is set to name his economic team this morning. A lot of the names are a relatively inside baseball, but perhaps you may remember one familiar guy: Lawrence “women-suck-at-science” Summers.

Summers was Harvard’s 27th president, and during his tenure, he never strayed too far from controversy. At the Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce in January 2005, Summers said the reason there weren’t as many women in major science and engineering positions was because of different innate abilities that enable men to be better scientists than women. He also cited discrimination and that men are more willing to commit to the time demands.

He was also a vocal critic of African-American studies, particularly professor Cornel West. He claimed that West missed too many classes, contributed to grade inflation, and neglected serious scholarship. West later called Sumers “uninformed” and “an unprincipled power player” in is 2004 book, and left his post at Harvard to return to Princeton.

So basically, he’s kind of a tool, but he fortunately won’t be the face (or true voice) of the economic team. Summers, who was Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton, will be the head of Obama’s National Economic Council, so his job will deal with a lot of policy making, not a lot of talking.

Photo by Army.mil

Army Lieutenant General Anne Dunwoody became the first woman to earn four stars after her 33-year career in the military.

At an emotional promotion ceremony, standing room only, Dunwoody said that no one was more surprised that she.

“Thirty-three years after I took the oath as a second lieutenant, I have to tell you this is not exactly how I envisioned my life unfolding. Even as a young kid, all I ever wanted to do was teach physical education and raise a family.”

And yeah, she was a SUNY grad, like yours truly :D

President Bush nominated her for promotion to the 4-star ranking in June.

There are currently 21 female generals in the army (didn’t know that!), and all by four are at the one-star ranking of brigadier. The first female one-star was Anna Mae Hays, chief of the Army Nurse Corps.

Sorry, I’m an Army brat, and once considered going to West Point before I realized I’m a lover, not a fighter. But this kind of news is still really interesting, and a great step forward for the ladies.