News: Shia LaBeouf, Cow, Dan Renzi, Swish, Cynthia Nixon

American art legend Robert Rauschenberg has died at 82.

Holy cow.

Swish: One New Yorker's quest to become the gayest person ever. Radar: "Despite his book's provocative title, Derfner in fact doesn't necessarily want to be the poster boy for the gays, or at least, he doesn't have the stamina. 'I basically don't have a social life. It's really sad. I don't go to bars, I don't go to parties, I don't like events. I'm too old to stay up that late; I've never gotten home at five. I like going to the movies and eating at cheap chain restaurants.'"

Emergency help button switched on in gay village in Birmingham, UK.

Marc Jacobs goes Brazilian.

Cynthia Nixon is thinking about getting married: "It's something my girlfriend is interested in and it was not something my boyfriend ever was. I think that to get married to her would be a little act of rebellion. It's like if you've never had the vote and then you get it you're going to run out there and vote.”

Bob Barr joins presidential race as Libertarian candidate. TPM: "Normally these third party candidacies don't amount to anything. And I don't expect this one to either. But on this one ... maybe. Barr is enough of a media darling that if he runs he'll get a lot of free media. And there's enough weirdness going on in the Republican party right now that I could imagine a few scenarios where he'd draw non-trivial numbers away from McCain. As always in these cases the place to look isn't in aggregate national numbers but in particular states where a drawing off a few points in one direction could make a state competitive where it otherwise wouldn't be."

Shia LaBeouf spiffs up GQ.

Bravo, Apple, Showtime, HBO,
Absolut, and Levi's named the most gay-friendly brands in 2008 Prime Access/PlanetOut Gay and Lesbian Consumer Study. Least gay friendly were WalMart, Dunkin Donuts, Cracker Barrel, Exxon Mobil, and Samsung.

Gay teen Jonathan Siden nominated for "Citizen of the Year" in Ann Arbor, Michigan: "He began to be open about his sexual orientation in ninth grade. He said being open about his sexuality has 'taken a great toll.' Lori Roddy, program director at the Neutral Zone, nominated Siden for the Young Citizen of the Year Award. She said she's amazed at his focus. Under such pressure, other students might withdraw or drop out of school, but Siden was motivated to try to bring about change."

An email from Burma: "Two days after the storm the men in uniforms came to our village with blankets, food and water. We accepted their gifts and posed for their cameras. When they were done taking pictures they took back the food, the water, and the blankets and drove away. I do not think that I can face such disappointment again."

The DL hip-hop book revealed.

Sarah Jessica Parker's hat attends Sex and the City premiere in London.

Tori Spelling signs on to 90210 spin-off.

El Salvador man denied refugee status in Canada says he'll be killed if he returns as scheduled on May 15: "Ramirez, who came to Toronto as a delegate for the International AIDS Conference in August 2006, says he's afraid that if he's sent back he'll face violence at the hands of three federal police officers who he claims beat, raped and robbed him in a sugarcane field more than two years ago. Since the alleged attack Ramirez says the three men have visited his family in El Salvador threatening to kill him because, they claim, he infected at least one of them. I am sure that I will be put through torture,' says Ramirez through an interpreter, 'and I am sure that I will be assassinated if I go back. There have been four men who have come to my sister's home in a car and have parked outside her house. They have asked my little niece if I had come back yet and they have also called my sister and told her that they were going to kill me.'"

SF Weekly questions cost of Harvey Milk City Hall bust: "about as much as 14,860 gallons…"

Former Real World star Dan Renzi appointed editor of South Florida's Express Gay News.

Homo-hating Bush tool Scott Bloch shut down Karl Rove investigation: "The corrupt anti-gay head of the Office of Special Counsel, Scott Bloch, who allegedly employed Geek Squad to try scrub emails from his computer before the FBI took away his office and home computers, is a busy tool. While he was coming up with that ace cleansing project, he also deep-sixed an investigation into politically motivated allegedly illegal activities by the dark lord Karl Rove."

UCLA looking for 20 more participants in gay twins study.

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News: Myanmar, Eddie Cibrian, Coldplay, Hung, Shia LaBeouf

Dutch gay couple have been foster parents to over 100 children.

Even though the death toll could exceed that of the southeast Asian tsunami, the Myanmar government has refused U.S. aid: "The junta not only wouldn't allow U.S. aid planes to fly in badly needed supplies, they also continued to refuse visas to United Nations relief teams trying to get in to make sure the aid gets to the victims. Despite the military clampdown, reports of the horrendous toll the storm was taking on Myanmar's people began trickling out."

Sick: Kardashian sisters make a joke out of Myanmar/Burma situation, record PSA while trying on closet of dresses.

Is Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" single stolen from French pop starlet Alizée? Listen and you be the judge.

Alexander Payne signs on to direct HBO dark comedy Hung, about a man with a huge endowment: "'Hung' revolves around a well-endowed man who is plodding along in middle age as a struggling father and high school coach. The character was once a high school sports legend, and his luck returns when he figures out a way to use his best asset. 'Think of him like Spider-Man,' Burson told Daily Variety last month. 'He's an average guy who gets in touch with his innate superpowers.'"

Turkey's gay magazine Kaos GL just published its 100th edition.

Washington University students, PFLAG in uproar over school's decision to award anti-gay, anti-feminist crusader Phyllis Schlafly an honorary doctorate at May 16 commencement.

Queercents has 10 money questions for DNC Treasurer Andrew Tobias. On political contributions: "Politics is tacky and all the awful things it is — but you can’t have democracy without politics, and politics requires money. That said, it’s wonderful how the balance of power is shifting away from the $500,000 and $5 million contributions (now illegal) — and even the $28,500 contributions (the current annual max to a federal political party like the DNC) — to the potential for millions of $10 and 25 and $100 and $250 contributions over the Internet."

Porn police pair on patrol at Seattle gay bars: "'We have judges, attorneys, police officers, who all come in here because it's a safe place for them,' said [Seattle Eagle manager Keith] Christiansen. 'This kind of attention [from the police] has cut my business in half.' Back in 1998, Christiansen says he went before the liquor board and asked for permission to display his posters. In spite of the law, he says, they let him do it. But because of an increase in enforcement in the area and, Christiansen says, the fact that O'Neill and Gallagher are new to the neighborhood, that era of tacit acceptance has ended. 'This is a whole new breed of people,' he said. 'They don't understand what the Hill is about.'"

Eddie Cibrian on Ugly Betty: hey, coach.

Four openly gay candidates seek seats in Georgia General Assembly.

Isaiah Washington pissed that ABC is using his photo in Grey's Anatomy promotion. Rep: "Isaiah has no plans to go back to Grey's Anatomy ... That being said, we were more than a little surprised that ABC used his likeness in a promo for the show, and indeed advanced his character's storyline. Mr. Washington's attorney has contacted the Screen Actors Guild and ABC as to the appropriateness of that action."

Shia LaBeouf and Andy Samberg play in the bushes.

Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute announces massive grant to fund gay leaders: "The David Bohnett Foundation has teamed with the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute (GLLI) to help the organization sponsor lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender public officials in attending one of the nation’s most prestigious mid-career executive development programs — the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. The program, to be named the David Bohnett Gay & Lesbian Leadership Fellows, is being funded by a $500,000 grant to GLLI."

Time's 100 most influential honored.

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Myanmar Devastation Revealed in Satellite Photos

Looking at this before and after photo (via joe.my.god and daily dish), it's no wonder that the death toll from Myanmar's deadly cyclone Nargis might exceed 100,000.

Hopefully, the junta will accept foreign aid.

But here's the issue: "'The Burmese military is concerned about white faces...seeing what they’re doing,' said Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst exiled to Thailand. Others pointed to bureaucratic paralysis. 'Only three people in the whole country can make decisions, one of whom is the senior general’s astrologer,' one foreign aid worker said."

Related
Laura Bush and Burma: Echoes of Disaster [tr]
As Brutal Burma Crisis Continues, Monks Sent to Prison Camps [tr]

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Laura Bush and Burma: Echoes of Disaster

First Lady Laura Bush held a rare press conference today about the cyclone that struck Myanmar (Burma) that may have killed up to 50,000.

AFP today:

"US First Lady Laura Bush accused Myanmar's military rulers Monday of failing to warn their citizens in time about a killer cyclone and pressed the junta to accept US aid in the disaster's wake. 'Although they were aware of the threat, Burma's state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm's path,' Bush said in an unusual appearance at the White House briefing room podium. 'It's troubling that many of the Burmese people learned of this impending disaster only when foreign outlets, such as Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, sounded the alarm,' she said. Washington calls the country Burma."

Not that Burma's military government doesn't deserve to be criticized for the treatment of its people. But then, of course, there's this:

Washington Post, 1/06: "In the 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, the White House received detailed warnings about the storm's likely impact, including eerily prescient predictions of breached levees, massive flooding, and major losses of life and property, documents show. A 41-page assessment by the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), was delivered by e-mail to the White House's 'situation room,' the nerve center where crises are handled, at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, the day the storm hit, according to an e-mail cover sheet accompanying the document...The documents shed new light on the extent on the administration's foreknowledge about Katrina's potential for unleashing epic destruction on New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities and towns. President Bush, in a televised interview three days after Katrina hit, suggested that the scale of the flooding in New Orleans was unexpected. 'I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm,' Bush said in a Sept. 1 interview on ABC's 'Good Morning America.'"

Laura Bush urged Myanmar to take the foreign aid to help its people. Of course, if Myanmar uses the U.S. as its example, they'll likely refuse it.

Clip AFTER THE JUMP...

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As Brutal Burma Crisis Continues, Monks Sent to Prison Camps

Bad as it was last week, the military government's crackdown on protesters and monks in the country appears to get more tragic by the hour:

"Reports from exiles along the frontier confirmed that hundreds of monks had simply "disappeared" as 20,000 troops swarmed around Rangoon yesterday to prevent further demonstrations by religious groups and civilians. Word reaching dissidents hiding out on the border suggested that as well as executions, some 2,000 monks are being held in the notorious Insein Prison or in university rooms which have been turned into cells. There were reports that many were savagely beaten at a sports ground on the outskirts of Rangoon, where they were heard crying for help. Others who had failed to escape disguised as civilians were locked in their bloodstained temples. There, troops abandoned religious beliefs, propped their rifles against statues of Buddha and began cooking meals on stoves set up in shrines. In stark contrast, the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay - centres of the attempted saffron revolution last week - were virtually deserted."

Below left, a short piece on the Burmese army's offensive against rural ethnic minorities.

And on the right, a Japanese journalist is shot to death trying to record the human rights atrocities underway there. Here's more on the photographer's story.

Now, the BBC is reporting that thousands of monks detained in Rangoon are being rounded up and sent to prison camps in the far north. What hope have they? Little, I fear.

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