Watch: Glenn Beck tells Ben Sasse to his face that his evasive answer is 'kind of weasely'

Nebraska U.S. Senate race GOP primary: Dinsdale pushes back against blitzkrieg of dark money attack ads by D.C. Sasse supporters

Sasse is staying positive while his Tea Party supporters — astroturf puppets of dark money billionaires — do the dirty work of blanketing Nebraska TV with attack ads against his GOP opponents. The Wall Street Journal says: "In Nebraska, Attack Ads Aren't Welcome." 
     Dinsdale, a honcho of Pinnacle Bank, is worth, according to financial disclosure statements between $110 and $250 million, or more.

Ben Sasse's supporters pouring $2.8 million into ads attacking his GOP opponents; one, that wants to kill farm subsidies, is dropping $200,000

Also: a locally-produced video has some fun with Ben Sasse's name. It involves a lot of butt jokes.

From Leavenworth St.:

At this point, nearly $2.8 MILLION in negative ads has been spent in the Senate race, on behalf of ONE candidate.
     Here is a short list of those who have hammered Sasse’s opponents with negative ads:

• 60 Plus Assn
• Club for Growth
• Club for Growth Action
• EmpowerNE.org
• Ensuring a Conservative Nebraska
• ForAmerica
• Freedom Pioneers Action Network
• Freedomworks for America
• Gun Owners of America
• Legacy Foundation Action Fund
• Madison Action Fund
• Senate Conservatives Fund
• Special Operations for America
• Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund

     The latest is $200,000 worth of ads from the Club for Growth attacking  Sid Dinsdale, who is starting to freak out the Tea Party. The Club for Growth is a Wall St. gang that wants to eliminate farm subsidies.
     Here's a press release from last June from that outfit:

“Now that the House has defeated the Farm Bill, we should finally discuss real reform,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. “The time for reform is now. We need to put farm subsidies on a path to elimination...

Firefox's The Web We Want campaign

Watch the Benham brothers nail themselves to the cross after HGTV cancelled production of their show when it found out they are heterosexual supremacists

GoodAsYou has posted an excerpt of their testimony before the Charlotte City Council urging it to cancel a Gay Day permit.

Another deleted @DavidDBenham vid. He spoke at NYC mosque protest on 9/11/10; clip’s scrubbed.  Writeup (&dead link): http://t.co/OtkqflGSLV
— Jeremy Hooper  (@goodasyou) May 9, 2014

Inside Ben Sasse: Nebraskans on YouTube use butt jokes to mock Tea Party Senate candidate endorsed by Rick Santorum

Disclaimer: AKSARBENT had NOTHING to do with this; in fact we first saw it in a tweet from the right-wing LeavenworthST blog. The video was shot and edited here in town by Seven Minutes in Purgatory, an Omaha-based sketch and improv comedy group, made up of Justin Patterson and Price Comstock.



The Washington Post says Nebraska's GOP U.S. Senate primary is a make-or-break contest for the Tea Party, whose astroturf affiliates are spending at least $2.8 million in Nebraska to trash Sasse's opponents in a cesspool of attack ads. Below, the real Ben Sasse sucks up talks to the Nebraska Family Alliance, the predecessor of which circulated a petition which stopped an LGBT equal rights ordinance in Lincoln. In the video, Sasse (endorsed by Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz and Rick Santorum) claims that government does not define marriage.



     Sasse's tea party allies have produced a swift-boat attack ad against his most formidable GOP primary opponent, former state treasurer Shane Osborn, that is so nasty that one Omaha station, KETV, won't run it until it gets more documentation for the claim alleging Osborn "created" a "fake memo" on U.S. Navy letterhead defending his decision to land a damaged spy plane in China rather than crashing it into the ocean during his military service.
     (AKSARBENT noticed this evening that WOWT has had no qualms about taking the money and running the ad.)
     The ad was made by the 60-Plus Association, a dark-money D.C. 501(c)(4) slush fund, that, according to a somewhat dated Wikipepdia entry,

...has sought to offer a privatized option for Social Security, end the federal estate tax, and strengthen gun rights. Current issues include opposing certain health care reform proposals, opposing federal energy standards, opposing the structure of the General Motors bailout, supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act, and opposing tax increases... In 2014, documents left behind by an attendee at an exclusive "donor seminar" put on by Charles and David Koch (of Koch Industries) revealed that the billionaire brothers count the 60 Plus Association as a part of their massive political network.

     Breitbart.com says Osborn's lawyers may go after TV stations running the "Dishonorable" ad, shown below.

     In a letter sent to television stations airing the ad, obtained by Breitbart News, attorney Patrick Borchers warned networks that the ad in question "contains materially false statements concerning Former Lt. Cmdr. Osborn's service in the Navy and subsequent actions."
     "Your station has a legal duty 'to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising,'" he writes, citing a 1961 court case, and adds that "broadcasting stations are not protected from legal liability for airing false and misleading advertisements," suggesting that the Osborn campaign may take legal action against stations that air the ad.

Tea Party swift-boats NE GOP Senate candidate Shane Osborn with ad so nasty, one Omaha TV station isn't airing it

KETV said it wants more documentation for an ad alleging Shane Osborn "created" a "fake memo" on U.S. Navy letterhead defending his decision to land a damaged spy plane in China rather than crashing it into the ocean during his military service. AKSARBENT noticed this evening that WOWT has had no qualms about taking the money and running the ad.
     The 60-Plus Association is a dark-money D.C. slush fund, that, according to Wikipepdia,

...has sought to offer a privatized option for Social Security, end the federal estate tax, and strengthen gun rights. Current issues include opposing certain health care reform proposals, opposing federal energy standards, opposing the structure of the General Motors bailout, supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act, and opposing tax increases... In 2014, documents left behind by an attendee at an exclusive "donor seminar" put on by Charles and David Koch (of Koch Industries) revealed that the billionaire brothers count the 60 Plus Association as a part of their massive political network.

The Washington Post says Nebraska's wild GOP U.S. Senate primary is a make-or-break contest for the Tea Party, which is going all out for Ben Sasse.
     Breitbart.com says Osborn's lawyers may go after TV stations running the "Dishonorable" ad, shown below.

     In a letter sent to television stations airing the ad, obtained by Breitbart News, attorney Patrick Borchers warned networks that the ad in question "contains materially false statements concerning Former Lt. Cmdr. Osborn's service in the Navy and subsequent actions." 
     "Your station has a legal duty 'to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising,'" he writes, citing a 1961 court case, and adds that "broadcasting stations are not protected from legal liability for airing false and misleading advertisements," suggesting that the Osborn campaign may take legal action against stations that air the ad.

If you were a gay athlete being recruited by Notre Dame and Nebraska, where would you go?

Here's Notre Dame's "You Can Play" video:



And here's Nebraska's!

Guess Tom Osborne and NU don't want to get too far ahead of the curve, like those radical Catholic institutions, right?

Why AKSARBENT sometimes hates its twitter feed

Singapore bureaucrat displeased by Goldman Sachs' brazen LGBT recruitment via dinner and drinks

A story at Buzzfeed Business by Matthew Zeitlin and J. Lester Feder reveals that the august Mr. Chan Chun Sing, Singapore's "Social and Family Development Minister" (seriously?) was terribly unamused by the insolent insolence of Goldman Sachs in pursuing diversity in its ranks by recruiting gay college students in Singapore.

Said Sachs:

     “We hold recruitment events to attract talented people to our firm. Our goal is to hire the best people we can find and to build diverse teams that are a reflection of the clients we serve,” said David Wells, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson.
     ...Goldman’s Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein said in 2012 that the bank’s pro-gay views are “not without a price” and that it had lost a money management client due to its stance.
      Blankfein also recorded a video for Human Rights Campaign voicing his support for marriage equality, saying, “Equality is just good business, and it’s the right thing to do.” When the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, Goldman flew a rainbow flag outside its New York City headquarters.

Sachs' LGBT employee group organized the recruitment event. The firm also will also sponsor Pink Dot SG, an annual Singapore gay event.

Mike Hilgers, a GOP political hack running for NE Attorney General, didn't vote in 7 of 10 elections before fall of 2012

Hilgers:

• started a political law firm to "run money for SuperPACs"
• he doesn't believe a raped woman should be allowed to terminate her pregnancy even if it threatens her own life, and he
• tells voters the brazen lie that Obamacare is an unconstitutional mandate even though the federal government has had laws requiring the purchase of health insurance since the 1700s!

     Here's an ad Ken Haar ran against Hilgers in 2012:

Barack Obama is the third president to back a health insurance mandate

     Professor Einer Elhauge of Harvard Law School wrote about the U.S. history of health insurance mandates in the New Republic.
     Slate says his research thoroughly rebuts the argument that Hilgers is using to try to con voters.

• In 1790, a Congress including 20 Founders passed a law requiring that ship owners buy medical insurance for their seamen. Washington signed it into law.
• In 1792, another law signed by Washington required that all able-bodied men buy a firearm. (So much for the argument that Congress can’t force us to participate in commerce.)
• And in 1798, a Congress with five framers passed a law requiring that all seamen buy hospital insurance for themselves. Adams signed this legislation.

Boycott over Brunei's stone-the-gays law opens up a can of international trade worms that country's sultan may live to regret

Towleroad reports that a Hollywood-led boycott against the Dorchester Hotel chain (which includes the venerable Beverly Hills Hotel), owned by Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, is casting a harsh light on the Obama administration's secretive negotiations in the TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), which includes Brunei and 11 other countries. From Towleroad:

...Reports The Huffington Post: “actress Frances Fisher called for ‘contacting the Obama administration and Members of Congress and urging them to ban Brunei from the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. The [TPPA] is a dangerous pact in its own right.’”
HuffPo continues:

“[The TPPA] would bind the U.S. to Brunei and give the Islamic Sultanate special economic privileges.

     If the Obama administration gets its way, Brunei could bypass U.S. courts and go before an international tribunal to sue for lost profits from the boycott being pushed by the city of Beverly Hills, Hollywood celebrities and human rights advocates.”

Fisher’s concerns echo those of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF has raised alarm over the TPPA’s black box negotiations saying that its aims“[advance] the agenda of the US entertainment and pharmaceutical industries” while “[omitting] the flexibilities and exceptions that protect Internet users and technology innovators.” Read more...

Hugh Jackman shows Graham Norton how he lured Michael Fassbender out of his trailer on the set of X-Men: Days of Future Past

ACLU: Nebraska's ban on gay foster parents is beatable

James Esseks of the ACLU says the Cornhusker State's discriminatory ban on gay foster parents looks increasingly rickety:

     A Nebraska state trial court ruled today [4/25/2014] that our challenge to the state's ban on foster parenting or adoption by gay people can proceed. The ruling denies the state's attempt to kick us out of court and recognizes that the ban implicates the equality protections of the Nebraska constitution.

     At the heart of the case are Greg and Stillman Stewart, who have been together for over 30 years and are parents to five children that they adopted out of the California foster care system. Most of the kids came to them after suffering years of abuse and multiple foster home placements. When one of their children first came to live with them, at five years old, he was still in diapers and didn't know how to use utensils. By 17, he brought home a report card with all As and one B. Another child, who had been through 17 foster home placements and three failed adoptions in three different states, is now a college sophomore.
     ...Nebraska is kicking out lesbians and gay men who would pass the regular foster parent screening. And it's depriving the 3,854 kids in the Nebraska foster care system, almost half of whom have been there for more than a year, of what could be just the home they need. After all, there aren't many foster parent applicants with a record like Greg and Stillman's.
     ...the judge ruled that Greg and Stillman's case can go forward to discovery and then possibly trial. We fully intend this case to take down Nebraska's discriminatory ban, just as we have taken down similar bans on adoption or foster parenting by gay people in Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri. Nebraska is one of just three states that still have some kind of ban on foster parenting or adoptions by gay people – Utah and Mississippi are the other two – and we're aiming to get to zero.

Four former Newton Daily News editors and reporters ripped apart antigay Christer zealot Bob Eschliman in letter to Shaw Media the day before he was fired

From JimRomenesko.com:

The Newton community deserves apology from community newspaper

As former members of the Newton Daily News staff, we are concerned that management has not acknowledged the discovery of our former Editor-in-Chief Bob Eschliman’s lack of basic journalistic ethical principles.
      Over the last several days, not only have the thousands of readers across Jasper County been denied the apology that they deserve, but the Newton Daily News has made a conscious decision to not publish fair and well-reasoned letters to the editor on the matter.
     As Bob Eschliman once wrote, “I think we can all agree that we all have the occasional bad day at work. For most folks, the impact of those bad days is relatively limited. I don’t have that luxury.”
     He knows he lives in the public eye as the Editor-in-Chief of the Newton Daily News. He’s aware that his life and his activities go beyond the scope of his work and are subject to public scrutiny.
     He knows that, because it’s what he taught us. We were warned to take care of our own public images, especially in the political arena, because we might damage our professional credibility and thus the paper’s.
     Our former editor made a decision to write about his politics outside of the work place. He made a decision to share that work through social media. Now the public has been made aware of his deep- seeded, zealously hateful views toward a societal group.
“It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise hell.” These are words that adorn Bob’s wall and words that he inspired other journalists to live by, but what he wrote on his blog wasn’t the news. Hate- filled speech serves its purpose in our society to make us aware of people with not only venomous ideals but venomous natures.
     This nature was revealed to us, a group of his former employees, on multiple occasions. As editor, he would often complain about readers bothering him, personally attack employees behind their backs and make the newsroom, a place that is supposed to be an open environment, fearful.
     While we have the utmost respect for Bob’s right to his personal beliefs and his skills as a talented writer, we do believe that his hate speech makes him unsuitable to his position as a credible leader in the news industry.
     We ask the management of the Newton Daily News issue an apology to its readers and restore the credibility of this newspaper.
Matt Nosco, former Weeklies Editor
Dustin Turner, former Sports Reporter
Dave Hon, former News Reporter
Nicole Wiegand, former Niche Publications Editor

Iowa newspaper fires editor for antigay rant on personal blog, then schools its readers on what freedom of speech ISN'T

Old photo taken by Newton, Iowa photography studio
(Click to enlarge to see embossment at lower right.)

Also: Four former Newton Daily News writers ripped apart antigay editor and Christer zealot Bob Eschliman in letter to Shaw Media the day before he was fired

Undoubtedly anticipating free speech infringement yowls from Christers who never raise such concerns when gay people are fired, because religious freedom, John Rung, presi­dent of Shaw Media, explained to the readers of the Newton, Iowa Daily News why Bob Eschliman no longer edits their paper.
     It seems that good old Bob stepped a little too far off the curb in railing against "the deceivers," (meaning the "LGBTQXYZ crowd," especially the "Gaystapo") for publishing The Queen James Bible, which includes reinterpretations of antigay clobber passages in the Bible sponsored by gay King James I and VI (of England and Scotland; according to courtiers, James literally drooled on his paramours, including the arrestingly handsome George Villiers, whom he made the first Duke of Buckingham.)
     Bob-type Christers really, really hate it when "traditional" translations of antigay passages in scripture are reexamined in the light of cultural context and the actual languages, dialects, context, meaning and usage prevalent at the time they were written, as opposed to sometimes dubious translations, written centuries later.
     Bob's conclusion: "If you ask me, it sounds like the Gaystapo is well on its way. We must fight back against the enemy."
    The Newton Daily News management learned of the blog posting on Tuesday of last week, suspended Eschliman on Wednesday, and fired him Monday.
     Tuesday, the paper published a news story about itself: NDN begins search for new editor.
     Here is how the paper explained its decision to its readers:

EARNING PUBLIC TRUST OUR PRIORITY
     The First Amendment prohibits the making of any law that impedes the free exercise of religion, abridges freedom of speech, infringes on the freedom of the press, interferes with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibits the petitioning of government for redress of grievances.The First Amendment does not eliminate responsibility and accountability for one’s words and actions.
     As reported on page 2 of today’s newspaper, Bob Eschliman is no longer the editor of the Newton Daily News.
     Last week, he expressed an opinion on his personal blog that in no way reflects the opinion of the Newton Daily News or Shaw Media. While he is entitled to his opinion, his public airing of it compromised the reputation of this newspaper and his ability to lead it. Shaw Media’s “Statement of editorial principles,” which can be read in full by clicking on the link at the bottom of NewtonDailyNews.com, starts with this: “Because journalists subject people and institutions to intense and constant scrutiny, we must maintain the highest principles in our conduct. Our integrity is our most valuable asset. Without it, we lose the public trust invested in us by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” In the past week, we have lost some of that public trust that is so vital to our existence. Today, we hope to begin earning it back.
     There will be some who will criticize our action, and mistakenly cite Mr. Eschliman’s First Amendment rights as a reason he should continue on as editor of the Newton Daily News.
     As previously stated, he has a right to voice his opinion. And we have a right to select an editor who we believe best represents our company and best serves the interests of our readers.
     We take our responsibility as a media company seriously. Our Promise is to provide relevant information, marketing solutions for our business partners, and to advocate for the communities we serve. To be effective advocates, we must be able to represent the entire community...

     AKSARBENT applauds Shaw Media, though it cannot condone Mr. Rung's use of the redundant "continue on." Also, journalists aren't supposed to write "past week" when they mean "last week."
     Bitch, bitch, bitch.

Didn't make it to Omaha? CNN covered the Berkshire-Hathaway shareholder meeting circus and what Warren Buffett wants as his epitaph

Berkshire-Hathaway hasn't beaten the S&P 500 in five years, but no matter: "B" stocks are riding high, because shares of Berkshire (especially the cheap ones) aren't just an investment, they're a way to get free tickets to the Woodstock of Capitalism Cult of Personality held every Spring in Omaha at which time Eppley Airfield is littered with private jets.
     Oh yeah, we have to answer the headline tease. Buffett's preferred epitaph: "Here lies the oldest man who ever lived."
     Tour buses now go by Buffett's home, which caused the Oracle of Omaha to confess: "I'm still trying to figure out how to monetize that."
     This year Buffett and Bill Gates played ping pong instead of bridge, but ex-paperboy Buffett again showed off his newspaper toss skills, throwing an Omaha World-Herald (owned by Berkshire) directly to the threshold of a Clayton mobile home set up at the Century Link Centre (Clayton also is a Berkshire company).
     Some time ago, one of AKSARBENT's spies correspondents spotted Astrid, Buffett's wife, on the floor of a shop testing alarm clocks to find one loud enough to get Buffett out of bed in time for meetings when he travels. It seems that even one of the richest men on the planet cannot be assured that his requests for hotel wake-up calls will be reliably honored.

Jay Leno shows up at Beverly Hills Hotel to support protest of Sultan of Brunei's new stone-the-gays law

Also: Ellen Degeneres tweeted last month that she wouldn't visit either the Beverly Hills Hotel or the Hotel Bel-Air until "this issue is resolved.
      The New York Times reports that "several Hollywood-funded charities and other organizations have already canceled or moved events from those hotels — the Global Women’s Rights Awards, which are chaired by Jay and Mavis Leno, and Jeffrey Katzenberg’s annual “Night Before the Oscars” charity ball, among them."
       Travel companies are also black-listing the Sultan's hotels.


Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, worth at least $20 billion and the absolute ruler of oil-drenched Brunei, recently imposed a new criminal code on his subjects based on sharia law:

     Under the first phase of the new legal code introduced last week, fines and jail terms can be imposed for failing to attend Friday prayers, indecent behavior and pregnancies outside of marriage. A second phase later this year prescribes the severing of limbs and flogging for property crimes.
      The third phase set for late 2015 will allow for death by stoning for crimes including adultery and gay sex.

Above: An eloquent and feisty denunciation of Brunei's 67-year-old dictator by Lorrie Jean, CEO of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center; Below: Leno takes care to distinguish the employees of the Beverly Hills Hotel from its owner, who also owns the Bel Air hotel.

Days before election, NE AG Jon Bruning files request to present oral arguments to defend marriage inequality before state supreme court

Attorney General Jon Bruning filed a request Tuesday to defend the state's definition of marriage before the Nebraska Supreme Court in a divorce case between Margie and Bonnie Nichols, two women married in Iowa but seeking a Nebraska divorce.

“In 2000, 70 percent of Nebraska voters chose to amend the Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman,” Bruning said in the release. “The Nebraska Constitution is clear and I will defend it.”

Wow, 2 wks before the primary? What a coincidence! Maybe he can arrange an execution too. @JournalStarNews: http://t.co/iKX3ByOzFF #NEGov
— dannymoe (@danmoser1961) April 30, 2014

Joni Ernest, unhinged, anti-gay, Iowa GOP State Sen. who wants to replace liberal U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, releases an Obamacare shoot 'em up

Joni Ernst, the Iowa state senator who voted in 2012 for an Ag Gag law to send animal cruelty whistleblowers in Iowa to prison and who touted her skills at pig castration in her first campaign ad, is now pandering to bang bang fetishists in her newest ad.
     In 2013, Ernst cosponsored a bill to amend Iowa's constitution to outlaw marriage equality and preclude civil unions and domestic partnerships in the state.

Jon Bruning: 'all prisoners deserve to be in prison'

John Bruning's newest idiotic statement was made during Thursday's GOP gubernatorial candidate debate, during a discussion of prisoner overcrowding in Nebraska.
     Bruning, who is clearly unfit to serve even as attorney general, much less be promoted to Governor by voters, evidently believes that Nebraska's criminal justice system is perfect, that police never manufacture, tamper with, or conceal evidence, and that no one in the state is ever wrongly convicted.
     This, despite the fact that the National Academy of Sciences just released a study saying that at least 4.1% of death row defendants are falsely convicted.
     Since capitol crimes are the most scrutinized, it is likely that an even geater percentage of false convictions occur of lesser crimes.
     According to the World-Herald, Bruning said he's fine with putting more inmates in each cell and added “If they don't like the accom­modations the taxpayers provide, don't get sent to prison.”
     That what-me-worry? attitude only works until overcrowding becomes so intolerable that federal courts step in, as they have repeatedly in such cases. At which point we suppose Bruning will blame the White House if it is occupied by a Democrat.
     GOP candidate Pete Ricketts has called for prison alternatives to deal with nonviolent offenders.

White House Correspondent's Dinner: McHale 0, Obama 1

McHale: I also host a show called "Soup" which is on the E! network. To Republicans in attendance, E! is the channel that your deeply-closeted gay son likes to watch... Democrats, it's the same channel that your happy, openly gay son likes to watch.



Obama: "The Koch Bros. bought a table here tonight. As usual they used a shadowy, right-wing organization as a front. Hello, Fox News!



Below: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Vice-President Biden played hookey together, but got busted sneaking ice cream in the basement by Michelle Obama.

Michelle Obama: What's in your mouth?
Dreyfus: Carrots?

Later, they visited a tattoo parlor, where they met Nancy Pelosi getting inked. She had a joke for them: "Do you know the difference between a tattoo and the Koch Bros.? They're both painful, but you CAN get rid of a tattoo."

Sing it Andrew. Dum did-e um dum dum

AKSARBENT, in surfing YouTube, discovered how radically different was the choreography for The Farmer and the Cowman — and all for the good — in the 1998 London production of Oklahoma!, which was filmed and released on DVD and televised by PBS in 2003.
     Hugh Jackman did a journeyman's job as Curly, but remained firmly in the shadow of Gordon MacRae's awesome voice in the 1955 movie version.
    Below the complete number from the London revival and below that the abbreviated Tony Awards version of the same number from the American offshoot of said revival (with an Actor's Equity-mandated American cast.)

National Organization for Marriage issues an invitation that is much stranger than it intended

From Jeremy Hooper, over at Good As You, comes this invita­tion from the National Organiza­tion for Marriage, with some dubious words thought­fully high­lighted.
     Mr. Hooper claimed that NOM's deviant word choice was a dig at the width of some brides. (AKSAR­BENT prefers the word "girth" to "wide," but that's just us and anyway, we digress.)
     AKSAR­BENT thinks Hooper is wrong, wrong, wrong.
     Obviously this was a Freudian slip on the part of some nameless NOM typist who plainly flashed on an image of a handsome groom in his tux and began to daydream about "high, wide and handsome," a venerable American expression which lent itself to the title of a 1937 movie starring Cary Grant's boyfriend, Randolph Scott, and to a song by Tex Ritter, father of Three's Company rainbow faker John Ritter, and the following lovely song by John Denver.



     We do have some helpful advice for NOM: never again assign this functionary anything with the word "Gala" in a headline, or "cocktail" in the copy, because you're already playing with fire.
     Also, if we at AKSARBENT were the bitchy types, we would proffer some Maker's Mark-inspired advice for Mr. Hooper: Peeple hoo live in glass houzes shouldn't call the ketel blak.
     Sadly, even a cursory review of our own copy precludes such hypocritical finger-pointing, keenly inclined as we are to do so.

Documentary about promoter Mario Diaz debuts

Club King - Official Trailer from jon bush on Vimeo.
An independent documentary about legendary NYC/LA gay club promoter Mario Diaz and his fabulous friends.
(Via Towleroad)

Donald Sterling proves once again that an ability to accumulate wealth is not related to general intelligence

Team Colbert has been reading actual transcripts of a 2003 legal dispute between Donald Sterling and his then mistress/girlfriend:

How to hack your microwave

AKSARBENT never sleeps in its quest to bring more quirkiness to its readers. Here's something we found at ovensreviewed.com by Tyler Wells Lynch:
     Nathan Broadbent [AKSARBENT likes him already!], a New Zealand software engineer, used that cheap, Sony single-board computer called Raspberry Pi to develop a program that interacts with his home microwave, and which can be controlled remotely. Here are some of the features of Nathan’s brilliant home-mod microwave:

• Internet-synced clock
• Voice command control
• Barcode scanner for looking up cooking instructions from online database, which Broadbent created himself
• Mobile app phone for setting up cooking instructions for specific products
• Tweets after the timer is up

Here's how he did it.

A wild night of two Nebraska boys, Marlon Brando and Dick Cavett

There's actually a photo of Brando punching out Ron Gallela, here, after which the actor settled out of court for $40,000 but was said to have actually paid only 2/3 of the amount. From then on, Gallela used protection when he snapped Brando. Jackie Kennedy didn't like Gallela either, and got not one, but two restraining orders against him; the second one forbad him from photographing her for the rest of his life. Richard Burton's bodyguards gave Gallela a severe beating.
     On the other hand, Andy Warhol liked Gallela and Liz Taylor used some of his photos of her in her autobiography.

Five years in making, reform of draconian IA HIV law passes unanimously in sudden 2 a.m.vote

Read more:
Iowa Legislature rewrites 'draconian' HIV transmission bill
House takes unexpected vote, unanimously passes HIV transmission bill. Bill goes to Branstad. 


At about 2 a.m., One Iowa, the state's leading gay rights organization tweeted that the Iowa House had unanimously pass Senate File 2297, a long-overdue reform of Iowa's HIV law, one of the most draconian in the USA.
     The vote was unexpected and taken after the bill had been virtually ignored for more than a month, according to the Des Moines Register.
     Under the old law an HIV+ woman in a relationshiop with a man who never became infected or an HIV+ man who used a condom in a consensual act during which no virus was transmitted could both be sentenced to 25 years in prison and face lifetime inclusion in a sex offender registry if convicted in court of not informing their respective partners ahead of time.
     As always, One Iowa's web site assiduously credited all the organizations whose cooperation made the reform possible, putting itself last on the list.

ACLU of Iowa
Iowa Nurses Association
Iowa Medical Society
Iowa Association for Justice
Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Action Fund
Iowa Annual Conference of United Methodist Church
Iowa Attorney General, Department of Justice
Community HIV/Hepatitis Advocates of Iowa Network (CHAIN)
Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault
League of Women Voters of Iowa
Family Planning Council of Iowa
Iowa Public Health Association
One Iowa

     The new law is more nuanced than the one-size-fits-all statute it replaces.
     Here's the press release from OneIowa, in its entirety:

Breaking News: Historic HIV bill passes Iowa House Unanimously
Category: HIV Criminalization Law, In the News, Press Release

DES MOINES–After a series of negotiations, a historic bill passed through the Iowa House early this morning that will modernize Iowa’s discriminatory HIV law. Iowa’s current law, 709c, is based on outdated science and beliefs that actually discourages testing and disclosure because of severe penalties associated with simply knowing one’s status. The new bill, Senate File 2297 (SF2297), will change the law so that it is no longer HIV specific, and converts sentencing into a tiered system instead of the “one size fits all” approach used in 709c. The bill unanimously passed the Iowa Senate in February, and moved to the House for debate this morning. The bill, which also passed unanimously in House chambers, will now head to Governor Terry Branstad’s desk for his signature.
     The proposed changes to the law are supported by One Iowa, the state’s leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organization, and by Community HIV/Hepatitis Advocates of Iowa Network (CHAIN), an organization that has spent the last 5 years trying to reform Iowa’s HIV law. Iowa currently has one of the harshest laws in the nation that targets people living with HIV and AIDS.
     "After 5 long years of fighting to change Iowa’s law, those of us living in Iowa with HIV and AIDS can finally breathe a sigh of relief,” said Tami Haught, Community Organizer with CHAIN. “We commend the leadership in the Senate and the House for understanding the importance of this bill and the need to modernize Iowa’s draconian 709c law. None of this would be possible without the bipartisan support of Senators Matt McCoy, Steve Sodders, Charles Schneider and Rob Hogg; in addition to Representatives Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, Chris Hagenow and Chip Baltimore. The changes in this new bill are a step in the right direction.
     “While the bill that passed today will have a lasting and positive effect on the lives of many Iowans who currently live with HIV and AIDS in our state, our work is far from over,” Haught added. “We must continue our outreach and education within the public sphere about the realities of those living with HIV, to dispel the harmful stereotypes, stigma and misinformation often associated with the disease. Our hope is that by beginning to modernize the laws in Iowa, it will signal other states with similar legislation to do the same. HIV is not a crime; our laws here in Iowa and across the country need to reflect this fact.”
     “We are pleased to see Iowa’s policy makers move this bill forward,” said Donna Red Wing, Executive Director for One Iowa. “The changes proposed in this bill will have a profound impact on the lives of Iowans living with HIV and AIDS. This bill will send an important message across the nation, most significantly to those states that still operate under the misinformation of the past. We applaud CHAIN’s efforts, but especially the work of Community Organizer Tami Haught. Tami has fearlessly and passionately shared her story with legislators and community members alike. She has changed hearts and minds, and should be commended as one of the many unsung heroes of this movement. After 5 years of conversations and perseverance, today we celebrate a victory for Iowa’s HIV community.”

Another victory in GOP war on women! Rep. Aaron Schock arm-wrestles female MSNBC cohost and wins

Schock was on MSNBC's Morning Joe in Chicago to discuss immigration "reform" but first the GOP narcissist/exhibitionist explained how shocked he was that personal, private perfectly-composed photos of him surfing in Hawaii, shirtless, ended up on TV, because "as you know, in public office nothing's private so I just learned that anything I post to my friends and my family could end up on Morning Joe."
     Schock then reminded the TV audience that he's "never been bashful about being in shape" and that he planned to be part of a new "fitness caucus."
     When Mika Brzezinski said "Let's launch it," and teasingly goaded Schock into arm-wrestling her, Schock, hardly the brightest bulb surrounding the GOP makeup mirror, stupidly took the bait.
     From GregInHollywood:

     Schock made his previously public Instagram account private after Americablog did a post on The 7 Gayest Aaron Schock Instagram Posts of 2013. This led to former CBS journalist Itay Hod essentially out Schock in a Facebook post that went viral in January.
     Hod says Schock is closeted, which infuriated him because he has consistently voted against pro-gay legislation such as the demise of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Below: an image previously published on AKSARBENT which we discovered on his congressional web site. Feel free to write your own caption.