Author: Randy Slovacek

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Stephanopoulos questions Chaz Bono – GMA: Dancing, Cher, Agenda…

Chaz Bono

Bless Chaz Bono. He handles this interview so well.

I’m personally thrilled to see a transgender person take on the spotlight of “Dancing With The Stars” and handle it with so much aplomb. I’m not a regular viewer of the show, but I’ll definitely be watching and supporting Chaz.

I will admit I’m a bit chagrined by George Stephanopoulos’ question regarding Cher defending her child – “Where’s this coming from?” -SRSLY?

George – someone attacks a mother’s child, what do you think she’s going to do?

Is this hard?

Very disappointed in Stephanopoulos. Not his best moment.

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Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin announces run for US Senate

Out U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) on Tuesday announced that she will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.).

In a message to supporters, Baldwin said, “I’m used to facing challenges head on. When I first ran for Congress in 1998, people counted me out. But we worked hard, campaigned across south-central Wisconsin, and we won.”

Baldwin’s potential Republican opponents, along with state and national party members, moved quickly to paint the six-term congresswoman as too far to the left to win the seat held by retiring Sen. Herb Kohl.

“She’s voted for virtually the entire Obama agenda, except when it wasn’t liberal enough,” said Mark Neumann, the only Republican officially in the Senate race.

Baldwin talked past such criticism after announcing her bid in an email and video to supporters early Tuesday. Speaking to reporters later, she said her race will focus on boosting the middle class.

“I am a fighter,” she said. “When you stand up to big and powerful interests, that sometimes leads to the type of labels you’re hearing being offered at this point.”

Read more at NYTimes.com

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CA Supreme Court hears arguments on Prop 8 issue: “Do Proponents have standing?”

Via the Advocate: The California Supreme Court heard arguments today that could have far reaching implications not only for same-sex marriage in California, but also for future ballot initiatives like Proposition 8, which banned gay people in 2008 from wedding.

The question at today’s hearing is about whether a group unaffiliated with the state government has the right to defend a state law in court — in this case, Proposition 8. 

Former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, current governor Jerry Brown, and Attorney General Kamala Harris have all refused to defend the ballot initiative from challenges to its constitutionality. So the proponents of Proposition 8, which spent heavily and organized to pass the law, have been fighting to fill the void left by the state.

Lawyer Charles Cooper, representing the antigay ProtectMarriage.com, argued that other courts have allowed proponents of ballot initiatives to defend their laws because they have a specific interest.

Cooper was pressed by a justice who asked him whether those against marriage equality would be able to show any actual injury if same-sex couples were allowed to legally wed. 



Ted Olson, representing the gay and lesbian couples suing the state for marriage equality, received push-back from one justice who challenged his assertion that the state attorney general has authority to pick and choose which laws are worth keeping. After some prodding, Olson clarified that an attorney general must enforce the laws but does not have to defend them.

After the trial, Olson told reporters that the justices were tough, but he said he felt encouraged by the line of questioning, according to the Courage Campaign.

“There is ample authority that individuals do not have a right to defend a law unless they would suffer a direct and immediate harm from its invalidation,” Olson said in a statement through Americans For Equal Rights. “The proponents of Proposition 8 will not suffer any harm from a decision that grants gay and lesbian Californians their fundamental civil right to marry. It is the Attorney General who has the exclusive authority to make litigation decisions on behalf of the State, and here the Attorney General has made the sound decision that the discriminatory provisions of Proposition 8 do not warrant defense on appeal. Proponents cannot second-guess that exercise of discretion.”

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Listen: New “Footloose” by Blake Shelton

Blake Shelton has recorded a new version of Kenny Loggin’s 80s hit “Footloose” for the upcoming revamp of the movie.

Blake admits he wasn’t the producers’ original first choice to cut a new version of ‘Footloose.’

“[The producers] had envisioned a female cutting [‘Footloose’] this time around,” Blake explains. “So they threw out ideas for some other songs for me, but I finally just campaigned enough and whined about it enough that they said, ‘Why don’t you cut it, and just let them hear your version?’ So I cut it, gave it to them and they wanted to go with mine. I really lucked out.”

“It’s like a lot of stuff from that era — it was rock at the time, but is pretty much what we hear on country radio today. So I knew that we didn’t have to stray that far away from the original,” Blake tells The Boot. “When I open my mouth, what comes out is country. It was going to sound country no matter what, but I didn’t want it to be too different. There are two ways to bring back a song: one is to try to make it your own, and in this instance, you have to remove yourself from it and step into the role of what’s best for the movie and that particular scene. There’s really only one way to approach it when you think of it that way: a fun, uptempo, catchy version just like Kenny Loggins did.”

Listen to Blake Shelton’s ‘Footloose’

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Audra McDonald – “Edelweiss”

I’ve loved this song since the first time I heard it. And pairing it with the extraordinary Audra McDonald and this gorgeous guitar accompaniment – well, it doesn’t get much better than this.

It took me reaching mid-life to understand the song is about the simple beautiful things that “happen” around us when we may be too busy to notice; that we can only appreciate those things when we slow down and realize what’s “happened” in our own backyard.

Historians might like to make note of that fact that this song was the last ever written by the great Oscar Hammerstein II.

And the last word of that last song, appropriately, is “forever.”

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Cher defends Chaz against ‘Dancing’ critics

Cher is lashing out at haters who are making noise about Chaz Bono appearing on Dancing With the Stars.

He is the first transgender competitor on the ABC show.

On Twitter, Cher wrote:
“lovelies! Chaz is Being Viciously Attacked on Blogs & Message boards about being on DWTS!This is Still America right ? It took guts 2 do it. Bet VAST MAJORITY of People will LOVE CHAZ on DWTS ! Chaz isn’t exactly the “Gotta Dance Gotta Dance” kinda Guy”

Dancing fans have posted both supportive and unsupportive comments about Chaz. One used the word “disgusting” Another wrote: “I never and mean NEVER watch DWTS, but will this season to support/vote for (Chaz).”

One Million Moms, a group whose goal is to fight the “filth many segments of our society, especially the entertainment media, are throwing at our children,” is urging people to “email ABC Network and let them know that we will not tolerate these subjects being forced into our homes.” A note on the group’s site says the casting of Chaz Bono and Carson Kressley “is completely unacceptable and Christians should not watch the show, no excuses!”

Chaz tweeted back at his mom last night, saying:
“Thanks for all your support mom. The haters are just motivating me to work harder and stay on DWTS as long as I possibly can.”
(via usatoday.com)

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MDA Telethon beats last year’s total – best since 2008

Despite the absence of longtime veteran host Jerry Lewis, the Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon’s broadcast went on and had what the MDA is saying its best showing since 2008.

So You Think You Can Dance judge Nygel Lythgoe was joined by co-hosts Nancy O’Dell, Jann Carl and Alison Sweeney during the six-hour live broadcast on Sunday night.

According to MDA officials, the 46th annual Labor Day weekend event raised nearly $61.5 million, about $2.6 million more than last year, reports the Associated Press. The telethon was shortened from more than 20 hours of broadcast time last year.
(via usatoday.com)

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Sen. Jim DeMint: “Doesn’t appear” Sarah Palin will run for Prez

The Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial start of the presidential campaign season, and many of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination have started to take shots at each other, not just at President Obama, reports CBS News political correspondent Jan Crawford.

Several jabbed at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, perceived by many pundits as the latest frontrunner.

That list included former half-term governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin – who’s managing to keep speculation alive about whether she’s going to toss her hat into the GOP ring.

At a Tea Party rally in Indianola, Iowa, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee took what Crawford says appeared to be a swipe at Perry, after reports suggesting he was cozy with big donors.

“Some GOP candidates,” Palin said, “they also raise mammoth amounts of cash and we need to ask them, too: What, if anything, do their donors expect in return from their investments?”

Most of the leading Republican contenders will be in South Carolina today at a political forum hosted by powerful, arch-conservative Sen. Jim DeMint.

And DeMint told “Early Show” co-anchor Jeff Glor he doesn’t think a Palin run is in the cards this time around.

“It doesn’t appear that she is,” going to get into the fray, DemInt said. “She’s done a lot, I think, to engage the American people and stir things up, which we really needed to do, to get American citizens more involved in the process. It made a big difference in the last election. My hope is it’ll make an even bigger difference in the next election, as people take back their government.”

According to a new poll from Fox News, 71% of the registered Republicans who were surveyed from Aug. 29 to Aug. 31 said Palin, the former half-term Alaska governor who was John McCain’s running mate in 2008, should sit out the 2012 race. Just 25 percent said they believe she should run.