Straight Talk Express.

A Moment of Clarity.

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

Words.

"Believe it or not, often I can see the other side of an argument. I know that tough gun control laws save lives and make our communities safer, for example, but I also see clarity in the Second Amendment. I support affirmative action, but I realize that providing opportunity to some worthy individuals can mean denying opportunity to others. Thinking about some issues involves discerning among subtly graded shades of gray.

On some issues, though, I really don't see anything but black and white. Among them is the "question" of granting full equal rights to gay and lesbian Americans, which really isn't a question at all. It's a long-overdue imperative, one that the nation is finally beginning to acknowledge.

Before his inauguration, President Obama called himself a "fierce advocate of equality for gay and lesbian Americans." Now, with the same-sex marriage issue percolating in state after state and with the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy ripe for repeal, it's time for Obama to put some of his political capital where his rhetoric is."

THE WASHINGTON POST: MIA On Gay Marriage

21st Century Breakdown.

Stream here.

For Your Consideration.

The Jonas Brothers.

Paranoid.

Ba da ba ba ba...

Amadou and Mariam.

Masitelad.

Baby Blues.

HE SAID,



SHE SAID.



Words.

"...when it comes to combating teen pregnancy, the Palin family has done enough damage already. What worse message could you send to teenage girls than the one they delivered at the Republican convention: If your handsome but somewhat thuglike boyfriend gets you with child, he will clean up nicely, propose marriage, and show up at an important family event wearing a suit and holding your hand. At which point you will get a standing ovation.

Now a single mom on the outs with the father of her baby, Bristol wants a new kind of happy ending.

“I just want to go out there and promote abstinence and say this is the safest choice,” she said on “Good Morning America.”

“It’s not going to work,” said her ex-boyfriend, Levi Johnston, in a dueling early-morning interview.

If you have ever watched Levi Johnston on TV for two minutes you will appreciate how terrifying it is when he has the most reasonable analysis of a social issue.

Because Bristol’s own philosophy seems, at minimum, tentative, it’s hard to tell whether she believes that cheerleading for abstinence should be coupled with education about birth control methods. She and Levi used condoms, except when they didn’t."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Bristol Palin’s New Gig

EARLIER:

Contact High.

Thought @ Work.

New flava in ya ear!

Rhymefest.

Chicago.

Fantasy Island.

With Rick Ross & The Dream in,

All I Really Want.

"FASHION!"

A Moment of Clarity.


"Hand me my mirror Jerome!"

Words.

"With the current onslaught of homophobic rage against Kanye West and his globally chic crew (comprised of style maverick Fonzworth Bentley and Taz Arnold of musical group Sa-Ra to name a few), it seems like Generation Y has all but forgotten that the ritual of expressive dress was in fact borne of the black-male community. If young audiences would dare to conduct a comparative study, they'd inevitably find that Kanye West’s 2007 Grammy outfit really had nothing on Eddie Murphy’s red-leather get-up in his 1987 stand-up film Delirious, and that Prince and his bedazzled unitards would quickly render André 3000’s Top-Siders and patterned suspenders meek and perhaps even typical.

So what’s gone wrong? How did the community that once welcomed Little Richard become so violently judgmental? And why, in 2009, is “looking gay” in the black community even an issue?"

THE DAILY BEAST: Does Kanye Dress Too Gay?

Coming Attractions.

Ladies & Gentleman I present to you, Joel McHale, John Oliver, & Chevy Chase in Community:



Coming soon to a TV screen near you!

For Your Consideration.

Solange Knowles.

It's Oh So Quiet.

A Bjork cover.

Live in Belgium.

IDOLATOR: Solange Gets Oh So Still

Stand & Deliver.

A Moment of Clarity.



Words.

"After years of unconscionable delay, the House has approved legislation that would, for the first time, extend federal hate-crimes law to give substantive coverage to gay people. The act would be an important step forward in protecting all minorities from violence and a tribute to a young man whose life was cut short by bigotry.

...The Matthew Shepard Act, as the bill is known in the Senate, would provide increased funding to state and local authorities to prosecute a wide range of hate crimes — ones motivated by race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It would also authorize the federal government to prosecute these crimes when states fail to do so.

The biggest beneficiaries would probably be African-Americans, who make up the largest group of hate-crime victims. It would also help Hispanics, who have been increasing targets of anti-immigrant hatred. The bill’s opponents have focused on the protection of gay people, who were the victims in more than 16 percent of the hate crimes reported by the F.B.I. in 2007.

...After the House’s strong vote — 249 to 175 — in favor of the bill, the Senate needs to follow. Senator Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, has introduced the companion bill, which has bipartisan support. Harry Reid, the majority leader, should quickly schedule a vote."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Matthew Shepard Act

Straight Talk Express.

With Christianity Today and "Joe the Plumber"!

Words.

Christianity Today: "In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?"

Wurzelbacher : "At a state level, it's up to them. I don't want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it's wrong. People don't understand the dictionary--it's called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It's not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we're supposed to do--what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we're supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I've had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn't have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they're people, and they're going to do their thing."

Pause.

THE COLORADO INDEPENDENT: ‘Joe the Plumber’ on Dobson, ‘queers’ and GOP rebranding

Love is a Battlefield.

Ladies & gentleman I present to you for your consideration, Keri Hilson & Kanye West in Knock You Down, live on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Loose Rap.

Same script, different cast?

"Some days you have to ask yourself, my God, what if these people were Republicans?

...Let's look at the here and now. Barack Obama, who vowed he'd provide a transparent administration staffed with disinterested public servants with the self-restraint of Roman castrati, appointed an admitted tax cheat to run the Treasury Department -- and he's hardly the only one in the administration.

...We ain't seen nothing yet. For starters, the real corruption isn't what the media are ignoring or downplaying as isolated incidents. It's what the media are hailing as bold, inspirational leadership. The White House, as a matter of policy, is rewriting legal contracts, picking winners (mostly labor unions and mortgage defaulters) and singling out losers (evil "speculators") while much of the media continue to ponder whether Obama is better than FDR.

If a Republican administration, staffed with cronies from Goldman Sachs and Citibank, was cutting special deals for its political allies, I suspect we'd be hearing fewer FDR analogies and more nouns ending with the suffix "gate." "

LOS ANGELES TIMES: Democrats wallow in a 'culture of corruption'

Three Guys, A Party, and a Pizza Place.

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

Words.

"I've been thinking a lot lately about our party and its future. A president of the opposite party reaching his milestone first 100 days in office; a veteran senator changing parties; the media speculate about whether the Republican Party can win another election. But the Republican Party's core is strong...

...Things change because things change, not because of any ideological primacy or purity on a particular end of the political spectrum. The American people are, for the most part, highly practical and pragmatic. They like what works, and in a properly functioning political system, two broad-based national parties will offer them reasonable alternatives for what is likely to work best.

The core Republican beliefs in less government, lower taxes, more liberty and greater security in a dangerous world united people as different as Mark Hatfield and Jesse Helms during my years as leader of the Senate. Those same beliefs carried Ronald Reagan into the White House in 1980 and 1984. Those beliefs still have power today. And if the American people perceive overreaching or underachieving in the Obama administration and among its allies in Congress, the Republican way may prove very attractive again in very short order.

It's happened before."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Time and the Political Tides

Super Tuesday!

I Stay in Love.

No, seriously. Last week I finally got my hands on my very own copy of Bat for Lashes' latest LP Two Suns, and this? This song right here? I come back to it often/it stays on repeat. Definitely one of 2009's finest thus far.

Bat for Lashes.

Daniel.

Live on the Late Show with David Letterman.



Big ups once again to the folks over at

Stereogum for putting this on my radar. That's what's up!

The End.

"It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times."

THE HUFFINGTON POST: Supreme Court: Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction Ruling Thrown Out

The Bad News Bears.

"COME ON GET UP!"

Words.

"The economy has imploded, the auto industry is in danger of being vaporized and more than half of all working Americans are worried that they may lose their jobs in the next year. So what’s the Republican response? To build a wall of obstruction in front of efforts to get the economy moving again, and then to stand in front of that wall chanting gibberish about smaller government, lower taxes, spending cuts and Ronald Reagan.

It’s not a party; it’s a cult. I’m no fan of Arlen Specter, but if I were a Republican, I wouldn’t be shoving him out the door and waving good riddance. This is the party of Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Newt (“I’m trying to rise from the ashes”) Gingrich, and the dark force who can’t seem to exit the public stage or modify his medieval ways, Dick Cheney.

It is losing all credibility with the public because it is not offering anything — anything at all — that could be viewed as helpful or constructive in a time of national crisis. And it has been unwilling to take responsibility for its role in bringing that crisis about..."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Out of Touch

EARLIER:

"HEY HO!"

2NITE!

For Your Consideration...

LOS ANGELES TIMES: TELEVISION REVIEW: 'Jonas'