Scope Paris Hilton’s response to McCain’s attempt to bash Obama by comparing him to her [despite her family’s hundreds of thousands in donations to McCain and the RNC]:

I’ll be the first to defend Tyra Banks…on most occasions. Ever since I read Lynn Hirschberg’s profile of the model/mogul in the New York Times magazine, I’ve felt that Tyra—despite the sometimes ridiculous and offensive segments on her talk show—deserves ample praise for the empire she built, the brains she’s got and, duh, for ANTM. But now she’s gone and done something pretty tasteless. Yes, they’re both strong, black women, but this Harper’s BAZAAR photo shoot in which Tyra enacts a day in the life of (future) First Lady Michelle Obama is horrendous.

No wonder the General Assembly tabled progress on and the Governor vetoed dialogue about medical marijuana compassion centers… just look at what’s happened in California! In this week’s New Yorker, David Samuels offers an insanely long insider’s look at the cannabis culture of California post-Proposition 215 and (the aptly named) Senate Bill 420. Here’s a taste:

One of Captain Blue’s regular marijuana customers was a dispensary in Venice Beach. The store, which has cement floors, a glass display case, and a couch the color of aluminum, looks like a cross between a photographer’s loft and a Kiehl’s boutique. When I last visited, large Mason jars in the display case were filled with designer strains of weed selected by the owner, Cindy 99, whose nickname refers to a variety of designer pot. In a refrigerator, and marked “For medicinal use only,” were treats such as marijuana granola and marijuana milk chocolate with crispy wafers. Above the counter hung a notice: “To our valued patients: in accordance with California law, we are required to add 8.25% sales tax.”

And this excerpt is my favorite:

Growing ganja lets you feel that you’re still living on the edge, especially when you’ve become a little complacent politically. Emily nodded, and took another puff. “The forest is still getting cut down or whatever,” she said, watching the fragrant smoke swirl in the breeze. “But you’re still working out here. You’re still subverting the Man. And you’re getting people high.”

[Full disclosure, since some of our readers have a tough time with sarcasm and send angry e-mails: compassion centers are a really good idea. A ridiculous number of pot-smoking hippies who benefit from the arrangement are merely collateral damage.]

In May CNN correspondent Drew Griffin launched an investigation critical of the TSA’s bloated ‘Watch List’. Shortly thereafter, his name was on it, and traveling became considerably more difficult for Mr. Griffin. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) recently questioned the secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff (why does he still have a job?!!) about this troubling turn of events.

In response, Chertoff said it was “not my understanding the reporter was put on,” but that Griffin may share a name with someone put on the list.

Of course, a person can petition to get one’s name removed from the list. Just ask former assistant attorney general Jim Robinson — the Justice Department’s top criminal prosecutor under Clinton — he’s been trying for three years. (This will soon be moot I suppose; nobody can afford to fly anywhere anymore.)

You can watch and listen to Michael Chertoff actually speak those words with a straight face. Video after the break.

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Tonight is Cruisin’ Night at the A&W Root Beer Stand on Route 44 in Greenville, Smithfield. Every Tuesday night from 5PM to 9PM proud car-owners park their Corvettes, Mustangs, Model Ts and ‘57 Chevy’s for you to ogle and covet. But don’t touch the chrome or you will pull back a bloody stump. Well, don’t touch anything really. Don’t even point. Okay, stay home and rent American Graffiti. No wait, go out. I’m sure they are very nice people — and wouldn’t a frosty cold mug of root beer taste nice?

I never get tired of bitching about the editorial board.

From today’s ProJo, an op-ed on the Electoral College:

“Before citizens jump on the bandwagon [of the dissolution of the Electoral College], they would be wise to consider what the Founders were trying to do in creating what has turned out to be the most successful federal, not unitary, republic in history.

They worked hard to devise a government that would tend to protect the liberties of minorities (except tragically, most notably, the African-American population for many years).”

Yeah, that whole slavery thing with the 3/5 compromise was a low point. And then there were the Jim Crow laws even after the Fifteenth Amendment. Guess all that counts as a little longer than “many years.”

Wait, I know there was some other large group of U.S. citizens barred from voting for “many years.” What part of the population was it again? Wait…. wait… don’t tell me… I think it might have changed in the last 90 years… Help me out…

San Francisco is trying to name their sewage treatment plant after President Bush.

“We think that it’s important to remember our leaders in the right historical context,” said McConnell, a member of the group that was formed after friends came up with the renaming idea.

“In President Bush’s case, we think that we will be cleaning up a substantial mess for the next 10 or 20 years,” he said. “The sewage treatment facility’s job is to clean up a mess, so we think it’s a fitting tribute.”

Interesting. Any takers on renaming the the Johnston landfill “The Dick Cheney Stinking Heap of Garbage and Corruption”? What, too much?

This is British comedian Russell Brand. In May he flew into New York City for an appearance on the ‘David Letterman Show’ to promote a movie. An arrest record (”youthful folly”) from his teens popped up and he was pulled aside, questioned and forced to return to London, missing the show. Everyone feel safer now?

Now comes news that the terrorist watch list has topped the 1,000,000-name mark. If there are indeed that many evil-doers who mean us harm, they must be a pretty ineffective lot. Maybe they are all stuck in meetings arguing about parking spaces and the smell in the refrigerator.

Mr. Brand was finally allowed into the country. In this charming Letterman appearance he describes his idiotic interlude with the Immigration Service, including the fact that an utterly suspicious “Gambian gentleman” had also been questioned and allowed in. Video after the break…

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Jeez. While Homeland Security is shutting out all the Brits, the least we could do is keep our own bands here. The staff over at the Phoenix managed to agree on a ‘Fifty States, Fifty Bands’ piece without firing a single shot. For each state they picked best all-time band, best solo artist, and best new band. I declare that they totally nailed Texas, particularly with the new band White Denim whom I have already been pushing in this space (video of ‘Mess Up Your Hair’).

The Phoenix staff recommends the song ‘Let’s Talk About It’… video after the break.

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Good morning, dosers! You gotta love a Guv whose idea of “reaching out” to his constituents is to appear on the Bill O’Reilly show.

Governor Carcieri spent several minutes last night on national television during an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor criticizing Providence’s mayor and police chief for not endorsing his attempt to curb illegal immigration.

The governor cited the recent arrest in Providence of Marco Riz, an illegal immigrant arrested several times before he allegedly kidnapped and raped a Warwick woman, as an example of the need for his executive order.

(On the subject of this Marco Riz thing, I am SO SURE that a legal U.S. citizen has never kidnapped and raped a woman. I just wish violence against women got this much attention from Carcieri on a regular basis. Sigh.)

I’m not going to even bother posting a clip of O’Reilly’s show. You know the drill. Instead, here is Bill Moyers (you know, a real-life journalist) schooling O’Reilly’s producer in a candid video:

Last night, Ari and I watched Elia Kazan’s 1947 classic A Gentleman’s Agreement, the story of a journalist, P. Schuyler Green (Gregory Peck), who pretends to be Jewish for a magazine series on anti-Semitism. When his son, Tommy, faces hateful words at school, Green is forced to explain to him what it means to be a Jew, and the importance of the separation of church and state. His simple words in explaining the Jeffersonian idea to Tommy drive home the simplicity of this idea, even in 1947. Have we made backwards strides?

Tommy: What’s anti-Semitism?
Phil: Well, uh, that’s when some people don’t like other people just because they’re Jews.
Tommy: Why not? Are Jews bad?
Phil: Well, some are and some aren’t, just like with everyone else.
Tommy: What are Jews, anyway?
Phil: Well, uh, it’s like this. Remember last week when you asked me about that big church, and I told you there are all different kinds of churches? Well, the people who go to that particular church are called Catholics, and there are people who go to different churches and they’re called Protestants, and there are people who go to different churches and they’re called Jews, only they call their churches temples or synagogues.
Tommy: Why don’t some people like those?
Phil: Well, that’s a tough one to explain, Tommy. Some people hate Catholics, and some hate Jews.
Tommy: And no one hates us ’cause we’re Americans?
Phil: Well, no, that’s another thing again. See, you can be an American and a Catholic, or an American and a Protestant, or an American and a Jew. But look, Tommy, it’s like this: one thing’s your country, see like America or France or Germany or Russia. The flag is different, and the uniform is different, and the language is different. […] But the other thing is religion, like the Jewish or the Catholic or the Protestant religion, see that hasn’t anything to do with the flag, or the uniform, or the airplanes. Got it?
Tommy: Yup!

Now change “Jew” to “Muslim,” and we’ve got a lesson pertinent to most present-day Americans.

When former Charlotte NC mayor Harvey Gantt ran (twice) against Jesse Helms, he sought the endorsment of former UNC star Michael Jordan. Jordan’s reply at the time: “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”

An endorsement from Jordan could have helped the popular black mayor unseat one of the senate’s most bigoted members, but Mike sat on the sidelines. Apparantly, Helms’ death prompted Jordan to expound on meeting the racist codger, and to finally endorse Gantt:

“A number of years back, I was in Raleigh at some function and I was introduced to the Senator. ‘Hello Senator Helms, nice to meet you,’ I say, offering my hand. He looks up at me, sizes up my hand, and smiles like he’s addressing the help back at the plantation: ‘Nice to meet you too, Fred.’ I’m like, Fred, huh? No, it’s Michael, Michael Jordan, the basketball player. He just goes, ‘Nice to meet you Fred.’ That’s one crazy mother (muffled).”

Someone later told Jordan that Helms had a “humorous habit” of calling all black people “Fred.”

“Yeah, humorous. Hilarious. It was then that I realized I made a mistake, I should have come out to support the brother. Let him know, if he runs again, give my office a call, we’ll hit the campaign up with all the Air Jordans and Jordan brand apparel they need. On the house. It would be my honor to be the official sponsor - along with Gatorade and Hanes — of Harvey Gantt’s next campaign.”

Let’s first note that calling Michael Jordan - one of the most universally respected people on the planet - “Fred” is just plain disgusting. Let’s also note that Gantt declined the endorsement, citing Jordan’s poor management of the Charlotte Bobcats.

I’ve often seen gentrification as a difficult problem to tackle. For many of my friends—young, working people trying to live in diverse areas and support themselves on small, non-profit or public service salaries—it is a struggle to find housing without becoming an agent of gentrification. But a New York Times piece today about Mount Morris Park, a traditionally-black Harlem neighborhood, explores one of the uglier examples of that phenomenon.

Timothy Williams chronicles the recent dispute over the neighborhood’s Marcus Garvey Park where, since 1969, drummers from Africa and the Caribbean have played an important role in shaping the social fabric and dynamic of the place. “The musicians,” he explains, “who play until 10 p.m. every summer Saturday, are widely credited with helping to make the park safer over the years.”

Across the street from the park however, at 2002 Fifth Avenue, is “a new seven-story cream and red brick luxury co-op with a doorman, $1 million apartments and a lobby with a fireplace.” Predictably, there have been some disputes about the character of the neighborhood.

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As I mentioned in a prior post about the Garrahy Judicial Complex, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately in that facility’s Courtroom 4C, where arraignments for RI’s 6th District take place. The judges at arraignment give a shpiel about the meaning and consequences of a plea whenever someone pleads out at that stage of the game, and I often take much of that shpiel for granted.

An important part of what they must instruct the defendants is that any criminal conviction or guilty plea will affect any immigration status or proceedings. For many, this means that deportation is inevitable. One thing missing from the shpiel, however, is consideration of how a guilty plea and prison sentence will affect the defendant’s status in Family Court. All too often, defendants are counseled to accept a shorter sentence with time served only to be served with Family Court subpoenas on charges of neglect—neglect that occurs while these parents are behind bars—or deportation papers.

Colorlines magazine has a great piece this month on the intersection of systems—namely immigration, incarceration, and foster care. In “ When an Immigrant Mom Gets Arrested,” Julianne Ong Hing and Seth Wessler write:

Immigrant mothers are not the first to deal with the ways that different government agencies intersect, usually to their detriment. The experiences Black families have had with child welfare and criminal justice policy make clear what can happen to communities when family policy intersects with a set of other punitive policies.

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From Rinku Sen, RaceWire:

On last night’s broadcast, a repeat from June 16, Colbert did the kind of thing that I almost never rely on white media figures to do. He was interviewing Kenneth Miller, who wrote a book about how the proponents of “intelligent design” are trying to teach creationism at schools. At one point, Miller compared creationists to women who fraudulently collect welfare checks, saying they’re asking for a government handout, “I would compare them to welfare queens,” he said.

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Or so read the headline yesterday on one of my favorite blogs, History Is a Weapon. And when you look at the late Senator’s resume, he’s left us little reason to mourn. Here are a few of his most remarkable achievements:

• Fighting integration;
• Opposing Martin Luther King day;
• the Helms-Burton act, the centerpiece of the embargo against Cuba;
• Disputing ALL Affirmative Action programs;
• Voting to bail out the savings and loan industry AND to slash school lunches for impoverished children, medical care for disabled veterans, prescription drugs for the elderly, and wages for working families;
• Hating all gay people;
• Supporting apartheid in South Africa;
• Routinely fighting against AIDS research from the beginning, blaming people suffering from the disease for it;
• Leading the fight to discontinue Pell Grants for inmates;
• And, in 1993, singing Dixie to the first African American senator, Carol Mosely-Braun, and promising to make her “cry.”

I think HIAW sums it up well, when they proclaim: “Hell burns hotter tonight.” Want some more inspiring food for thought? Check out “ The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” a speech given by Frederick Douglass in Rochester on July 5, 1852.