There is probably no city in America where women are treated worse than in Las Vegas.

The tone of systematic, institutionalized degradation is set by the mayor, Oscar Goodman, who told me in an interview that the city would reap “tremendous” benefits if a series of “magnificent brothels” could be established to cater to johns from across the country and around the world.

“I’ve said there should be the beginning of a discussion of that,” said Mr. Goodman, a former defense lawyer for mobsters who unabashedly describes his city as an adult playground where “anything goes — as long as you don’t go over the line.”

Most of the lines in Vegas have long since been erased. It is without a doubt, as the psychologist and researcher Melissa Farley, says, “the epicenter of North American prostitution and sex trafficking.”   more »

I suspect that there are quite a few politically conservative stars out there - they're simply smart enough to keep quiet about it.

Anti-abortion songs are occasionally successful in playing to a niche (Flypside's repulsive Happy Birthday, for example) but if a large percentage of your core audience is young and liberal it makes sense not to alienate them.

Bands taking a pro-life position (like P.O.D and Symposium) are so roundly trashed in the music press it acts as a strong disincentive to signing silly petitions.

Rock stars may well have learned the lesson that dance-hall acts are struggling with - hold all the objectionable opinions that you want, just don't spout off about them.   more »

To press its claims of “success” in the military surge begun last February, the White House brought Bush to Al Asad Air Base in Anbar Province, the western region of Iraq which was the scene of the bloodiest clashes with Iraqi insurgents during the first four years of the US occupation.

As the result of agreements reached with Sunni tribal leaders since last fall—greased by substantial bribes in the form of cash and weapons—the US military has declared the occupation in Anbar Province to be on much firmer ground.

US officials claim that the Sunni sheiks, who once supported the insurgency against the US occupation regime, have switched sides, and they cite instances of open warfare between tribal factions and fighters still opposed to the occupation, including those loyal to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The White House pointed to Bush’s ability to visit Anbar—his first trip to any location in Iraq outside Baghdad—as proof of positive military and political trends in the province. But Bush kept far away from ordinary Iraqis in Fallujah or Ramadi.   more »

The fix is in. The Oligarchy has done its work well. Nothing will change, even if the Democrats sweep the 2008 election. True, there will be some superficial changes.

Where Republicans swung a naked broad sword, Democrats will drape theirs in velvet; where conservatives crowed, liberals will coo; where the right swaggered, the 'left' will soft-shoe, but it will still be the same old shit.

The only substantive difference is that when they screw the public, they will feel its pain; you never did.

Whether a Democrat or Republican occupies the Oval Office, the first presidential priority will be the care and feeding of the Corporatist State and the Military-Industrial Complex that protects its overseas interests.   more »

Gay Cruising: "Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex

in Personal Places" detailed exactly the pattern

of foot-tapping in code, hand-gestures,

and other tactics which has lately been

garishly publicized at the

Minneapolis-St Paul airport men's room

   more »

Keywords: danger, thrill, cruising, gay, homosexual, lavatory