A Year In: FreshJive Takes on Obama

To be honest, it's "running" rather than fading, but the point gets across in this T-shirt from popular streetwear company FreshJive.

Writes FreshJive: "Pre-releasing on Black Friday is the t shirt design, 'Hope is Fading Fast'. This is actually the first item releasing without the Freshjive brand name on it. Read the recent post on the World's Got Problems blog regarding how the Obama administration is maintaining continuity with its disgraced predecessor."

(via boing boing)

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #572

FISH FRY: Eaten alive?

RELIGIOUS RIGHT: The threat to Obama.

BLOWER: Turn your iPhone into a leaf blower, for very small leaves.

CELEBRATION: A Madonna flash mob in Tokyo.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

Wingnuts Target Lesbian EEOC nominee Chai Feldblum

Obama's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission nominee Chai Feldblum's hearings are scheduled for this Thursday, and according to the Victory Fund, Republican Senators and right-wing religious wingnuts (more specifically the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins) are preparing to unleash "Armageddon" to foil the nomination.

Feldblum would be the first openly LGBT person to serve on that commission.

Says the Victory Fund:

"They plan to paint her as an anti-religious extremist whose confirmation would threaten religious liberty. Feldblum, a Georgetown Law School professor and longtime legal advocate for the LGBT community, helped to draft language for the original Employment Nondiscrimination Act.  One of many Web sites dedicated to her defeat laid out the right’s argument against her confirmation:

Feldblum intends to use her position of influence as EEOC commissioner to force private institutions to follow her radical vision of society, through the enforcement of aggressive and intrusive employment non-discrimination laws.

She is a master at using the language of moral imperatives to further her agenda.

Feldblum is a lesbian activist who supports government recognition of gay marriage as a way to convey approval of gay relationships and homosexuality in general. She has also argued for the equality of “polyamorous” relationships and almost any conceivable sexual relationship to traditional marriage–a position squarely out of line with American tradition, principles, and the mainstream of public opinion.

Far from believing that government should not be involved in private relationships, she is a champion of government interference in moral and religious traditions where they intersect with her personal crusade.

The Family Research Council has edited a video from a forum she appeared at for the group, and heavily edited it to make Feldblum's views appear radical.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Nate Berkus, ENDA, Ken Keechl, Argentina, Beenie Man

Following judge's ruling, paperwork issued for Argentina's first same-sex marriage.

Kardashian sisters don duct tape for NoH8 campaign.

Joe Jackson's last money grab before MJ's fillings?

Retired military chaplains come out in support of repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

ENDA mark-up postponed.

Philippines elections board (COMELEC) says gays "overly represented" in Congress: "Comelec second division chairman Nicodemus Ferrer was defending the poll body’s rejection of the application of gay-rights group Ang Ladlad for party-list representation. 'I have been telling them, you are not under-represented… actually you are over-represented in the Lower House and Upper House,' Ferrer told reporters in an interview. But Ferrer declined to name names."

While Levi does Playgirl, Neil Patrick Harris does Playboy.

Ken Keechl takes over as first openly gay mayor of Broward County, Florida.

Petition Obama to support federal court challenge to Prop 8.

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Community Center of Central Florida in Orlando and nearby gay-owned business hit by anti-gay graffiti: "...a swastika and the words 'Gay Pawer,' 'Die Fags,' 'Go To Hell' and other homophobic slurs. Damage to the two buildings is estimated to be over $1,000.The Center is currently working to cover the messages on the building to deter additional damage."

Horrific undercover investigation of treatment of pigs on factory farms.

Anti-gay Jamaican singer Beenie Man's appearance at Australia's Big Day Out has been canceled: "A statement from the Big Day Out's producers today says that while the concert organisers believe the controversial musician has now renounced homophobia, the storm of protest this week after the announcement that he was in the line-up means his continued involvement would prove too divisive."

Anderson Cooper helms Elton John AIDS Foundation event in NYC.

Chris Pine suits up for GQ's 'Man of the Year'.

Oprah interior designer Nate Berkus to get his own syndicated daytime show.

Max Blumenthal on Palin's ghostwriter Lynn Vincent: "Vincent may have been an effective literary collaborator, but like Palin herself, she entered the project with considerable political baggage. Vincent’s commentaries for World are punctuated by inflammatory characterizations of gays, minorities and liberals that have already provided fodder for Palin’s critics. Among Vincent’s most strident statements were her description of homosexuality as a 'deviant' mental disorder and labeling of President Barack Obama as the 'face of the minority survivor' of abortion, which she dubbed the 'Black Genocide.'"

Tim Gunn on the one item of clothing he can't stand: "I cannot wrap my brain around the ubiquity of Crocs. Kelly Ripa [on "Live with Regis and Kelly"] said, 'I insist that you put them on because they're so comfortable.' And I put them on. I am looking down at my feet, and I feel like I have hooves! They're horrible. If we all succumbed to the comfort trap, to dress as if we never got out of bed -- then we should never get out of bed."

Towleroad Guide to the Tube #570: Obama in China Edition

President Obama spoke and took questions at a town hall meeting in Shanghai, China earlier today.

One of several questions was about the internet, censorship, and Twitter. Said Obama: "Well, first of all, let me say that I have never used Twitter. I noticed that young people -- they're very busy with all these electronics. My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone. But I am a big believer in technology and I'm a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information. I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves."

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

Obama Rejects All Options on Afghanistan, Asks for New Plans

Obama has rejected several options given to him on next steps in Afghanistan, and told advisers to return to the drawing board, after deciding none of their plans would do.

NYT: "General Eikenberry sent his reservations to Washington in a cable last week, the officials said. In that same period, President Obama and his national security advisers have begun examining an option that would send relatively few troops to Afghanistan, about 10,000 to 15,000, with most designated as trainers for the Afghan security forces. This low-end option was one of four alternatives under consideration by Mr. Obama and his war council at a meeting in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday afternoon. The other three options call for troop levels of around 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000, the three officials said."

Also in question is the effectiveness of the U.S. relationship with President Hamid Karzai.

Watch Rachel Maddow's report, AFTER THE JUMP...