Trev "Interviews" Markos Moulitsas-of-Elections-Past

Transcript and Links

TREV to audience:

Welcome back, tweeps and friends. My guest today is Markos Moulitsas-of-elections-past. Markos founded Daily Kos in 2002 as the "Net Roots" developed on the progressive left. These forces lost the 2004 elections but kept the pressure on for the 2006 races, helping Nancy Pelosi become Speaker of the House and Harry Reed Majority Leader of the Senate.

In ‘08, Kos and the rest of the Net Roots consolidated behind Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries against Hillary Clinton and helped Obama crush John McCain in the general election while also propelling the Democrats to super-majorities in both Houses of Congress.

As a first order of business in 2007, these Kos-backed Democrat majorities tried to force American defeat in Iraq and thankfully failed. With President Bush’s help domestically, however, they did grow the national debt for the remaining two years of his second term through a failed stimulus and then by passing the Wall Street bailout, which morphed into a United Auto Workers Bailout. Oh, and don’t forget the Kos-backed Democrats’ important work of banning the incandescent light bulb.

TREV to MARKOS:

So, Markos of Elections Past, following the ‘06 victories by the Democrats you blogged about "Taking a Bow." Please take us back to that moment and elaborate.

MARKOS:

...in the end, none of this would've happened without the effort all of us made. Those who think the net roots and grassroots don't deserve credit are idiots. We all had our roles to play, and we wouldn't be where we are today without all of us doing our part.
...
So I'm ready to get beyond the "who gets credit" conversation, because we all do. Take a bow. The bloggers. The grassroots activists. The field ops. The 527s. MoveOn. The party leaders...

TREV to MARKOS:

Gotcha. And Markos-of-elections-past, following the ‘06 elections, what was your take on Karl Rove’s earlier predictions of a GOP realignment?

MARKOS:

Let them reap what they sowed. They deserve every humiliation they designed for those in the minority status.

And stripped of their perks, forced to fire large numbers of staff, shunted off to the dingiest offices on Capitol Hill, let's hope more Republicans decide that life on K Street is more enjoyable than life in the minority.

TREV to MARKOS:

What a truly fascinating take from 2006, Markos-of-elections-past!

TREV to audience:

So later, following the ‘08 vote, President Obama and his Democrat super-majorities, again, elected in part thanks to Markos here, then proceeded to spend $800 billion on a new failed stimulus that bailed out state governments and protected the jobs of government workers while millions of Americans in the private sector lost their jobs. Kos-backed Obama then raped the GM and Chrysler bondholders by awarding control of those companies to the same parasitic unions that drove them to bankruptcy. Next the Kos-backed Democrats passed massive new energy taxes and pay-offs to windmill-makers through the Cap and Trade bill in the House. Then, after a year of wrangling, the Kos-backed Democrats, although they failed to establish the "public option" favored by Kos and the Net Roots, did succeed in passing ObamaCare, which so far has resulted in the largest health insurance premium increases in many years and forced many employers to devalue themselves and jettison health coverage, just to name a few consequences. To top it all off, the Kos-backed Democrats left DC to campaign while doing nothing to halt the pending largest tax increase in American history.

TREV to MARKOS

Again, Markos-of-elections-past, this was all made possible in part by your hard work for Democrats, especially the farthest Left Democrats, in ‘06 and ‘08. Take us back to 2008. Going into that election, you wrote about how you wanted to quote "Break their back, crush their spirits." Please share those insights with us again.

MARKOS:

So with conservatives bracing for the worst, they won't experience the kind of pain we did…

TREV to MARKOS:

Your pain of 2004.

MARKOS:

…Not unless we deliver a defeat even worse than their worst nightmares. And I'll be honest with you -- I want them to hurt as much as we did. I want their spirits crushed, their backs broken.

TREV to MARKOS:

Please say that again.

MARKOS:

I want them to hurt as much as we did. I want their spirits crushed, their backs broken.

So the way we do that is we deliver a defeat worse than they ever imagined. We do that by winning states that have no business turning Blue. We do that by electing a 60-seat super-majority in the Senate. We do that by defeating their leadership, like Mitch McConnell in the Senate. We do that by defeating their heroes, like wing nut…hero John Shadegg. We do that by making sure a record number of Americans reject conservative ideology, leaving it utterly discredited.

The day after the election, I want to see an electoral battlefield littered with defeated Republicans, their ranks demoralized, their treasury in heavy debt, and no real leadership to take the helm. I want a vacuum so complete, that a bloody leadership battle between the neocons, theocons, and corporate cons shakes the GOP to its core, and leaves it fractured and ill-equipped to stymie the progressive agenda, much less ramp up for an even bleaker (for them) 2010.

TREV to MARKOS:

Go on, Marcos Circa 2008.

MARKOS:

We're not out to win this thing. We're out to crush them!
...
There's a lot of us, and a lot of little gestures adds up to a whole lot of action. We are approaching a historic night, and one that can radically transform the direction of our country.

TREV to MARKOS:

Excellent round-up, Markos Moulitsas-of-elections-past. After the elections tomorrow, maybe you should write about how the Democrats' big mistake was not being progressive enough. That will provide great post-hangover laughs for the rest of the week.

TREV to audience:

Tweeps and friends, Trev went door-to-door in 2006 in a Republican district the Democrats took from us that year by less than two percent of the vote. Later, that district's new, Kos-backed, Democrat congressman went on to vote for an agenda that prolonged America’s economic crisis and further indebted us to Communist China. That year, dozens of Republican and generally freedom-loving voters turned down my face-to-face entreaties to keep a Republican majority in Congress. I had the same reservations as they, but I did not think America deserved to be tyrannized by Kos-backed Democrats.

Many Republicans and conservatives also stayed home in 2008 as they had in 2006, or gave into the eloquent temptation of Barrack Obama. And let’s be honest, John McCain did not give us much to vote for.

So here we are in 2010 and some of the Republicans who lost Congress in 2006 and then lost it again in ‘08 along with the White House are still in leadership positions in the Republican party and will be next year. In a moment of crisis, many also voted for TARP. RINOs still inhabit much of the GOP’s upper echelons and will remain there after tomorrow.

But that does not mean they will be in charge.

You see, Markos was wrong about a very important point – America did not reject conservatism in 2008, because conservatism was not on the ballot, conservatism had not guided the leadership of the Republican party for a long time, and many conservatives knew this. So make no mistake and let me be clear: after tomorrow, the Republican Party works for us. For the conservatives, libertarians, constitutionalists and yes, the Tea Partiers, who have stood against a progressive statist agenda foreign to America’s founding principles. Many called us bigoted or crazy, and in the case of a "conservatarian" like Trev, "self-hating."

In closing, freedom-loving patriots, I ask that you recall the treasured memory of United Flight 93 as judgment day is upon us. Remember, not so long ago, when ordinary Americans realized that their nation was under attack from an alien ideology, they fought back against tyranny. The brave patriots on Flight 93 did not want to make the ultimate sacrifice, yet they were willing to risk such sacrifice for their freedom and for the lives and freedom of others. If such patriots and our brave military can risk so much for our freedom, how could any of us fail to risk so much less between now and the time polls close tomorrow?

First, please vote if you have not already. Second, contact your local candidates’ offices or local Republican Party to see if there is anything more you can do. Or contact a group like Freedom Works, Americans for Prosperity, American Crossroads, or your local Tea Party organization. Our voters need rides to polls. Polls need to be watched to counter Obama Justice Department-backed fraud. Signs need waving. Absentee ballots requested need to be returned. Phone banks need callers. Make sure your friends are voting or have voted.

The country is on the line here, patriots. Let us put on the full armor of God. Let’s win one for the Gipper. Let’s water the tree of liberty by firing as many Kos-backed, Obama-backed Democrats as possible.

Patriots, LET'S ROLL!

From Trev's straight guy pal

Dear fans and friends of Trev:

Jason here. I'm a straight guy who is friends with Trev "in real life." He is my best friend, and I'm proud as hell of him.

I thought this was a very important passage from Trev's post on the Tyler Clementi tragedy:

Like I said, I was there once. Actually a few times. In my case, when I broke down and told my straight college roommate that I was attracted to men, specifically him, and that I couldn't take my infatuation with him anymore...he held me. It was something he'd never done before nor wanted to. He assured me of his steadfast friendship. He bought me lunch, listened to me, and prayed with me too. Our relationship was sometimes strained after that, though we were doing pretty well five years later when I served as best man at his wedding. But what I noticed most was that when my heart found genuine friendship with this guy, my sexual imagination didn't fixate on him very much anymore.

In fact, I've been blessed to find that real friendships with other men give me in reality what my libido is looking for in fantasy.

Yes, I know that's not the gay experience you're used to hearing. It's still mine and I wish I could have talked with Tyler Clementi about it and listened to him talk about his. I would have told him that there is more for guys like us. There can be friendship, insight, adventure, unselfish love, and forgiveness if you want to look for it. There's so much more than doom.

Although I am not the straight guy described above, I have known Trev for a number of years, and we were already good friends before he told me about his same-sex attraction. I was in my early 20s living on my own for the first time then, getting a lot of first dates with women but not a lot of second ones. My initial reaction was to be thoroughly weirded out, because like the other guy, this revelation of Trev’s came along with his confession of a painful infatuation with me that he wanted a way out of. He only told me because he was desperate for a way out of the pit he described finding himself in.

Many would have told Trev the solution to his dilemma was to “come out” to the world as gay at that point. I told him myself that I’d be more comfortable with the situation if at least other friends of ours knew, and the situation put a strain on our friendship. I know he felt particularly ashamed to find himself in such a circumstance for a second time. We struggled through it, but we remained friends. Eventually I came to appreciate the pressure Trev was under from trying to follow Christian values in the face of what the culture is telling us. I also came to understand that what Trev really needed was a genuine friend.

What I now understand (and take to heart as a dad) is that normal male bonding is critical to emotionally-stable boys and men. It's why fathers are so important to young boys and why male-bonding is so important as men pass through their teenage years and into adulthood. I'm glad to see Fox News' Steven Crowder gets this too. And it's an example of how sick our culture is that fatherhood is only now coming back into vogue after decades of being trashed in movies and on tv. I'm especially offended at how male-bonding is mocked as being proto-gay activity (the truth, I think, is more the reverse).

I’m glad Trev trusted me despite the rough patch that followed. I’m honored that in Trev’s life he chooses good friendships like ours over "coming out." I also now agree with him that it wouldn't be in his best interest - if he were to be out to the world, it could impact his career, in addition to him having the debate forced on him all the time instead of being able to compose his thoughts in writing.

The truth is Trev is “out” to hundreds of people by now. Despite some unfortunate misfires (I’ve witnessed a few), Trev shares this part of himself with people he can trust who share his values on manhood, brotherhood, and sexual morality.

So, my job is to be a normal friend to Trev. And his job is to be my friend. We help one another through the daily challenges of life and we’re ready to be there for each other in life-or-death crises.

My Bushie Beer Summit

Trev never wanted Bush.

George W. Bush that is. If I had been old enough in the 80s I would have wanted George H.W. Bush even less. And in the 50s Sen. Prescott Bush, *even* less. So I guess you could say my estimation of the Bushes improves as younger Bush men move up the ranks. Jeb's even better than Dubya...though not as good as he used to be.

Naturally there are enough Bushes for me to have crushes on a couple of 'em. This one is more for old time's sake. For this one my crush derives maybe 90% from this story and his mugshot.

And squishy as Dubya himself may have been on federal spending and government intervention in education, health care, and free speech (not to mention pushing democracy on reluctant third-worlders instead of righteous annihilation), he was ALL MAN here and even here.

While Trev is as fascinated by the Bush dynasty as anyone, and recognizes that they are as a clan both more politically successful and generally way better looking than the Kennedys, I am not now, nor have I ever been a "Bushie." I never campaigned or worked for Dubya, although he somehow wrangled my grudging, halfhearted vote twice.

So it could only have been through a serendipitous turn of events that Trev found himself knee-deep in Bushie gossip over adult beverages last night - my very own Bushie Beer Summit!

I shall spare identifying details (of course!), but here is what I gleaned...

On the Bush White House and its aftermath:

By the second term, Dubya was easily incensed at suggestions that Vice President Cheney was the real decision-maker in the White House. Sounds like by that point a good way to get the President agree to something was to point out Cheney was for the opposite. Of course this usually involved Cheney wanting to do the more politically *conservative* thing.

The picture I got last night confirmed what I have read about conservative Matt Latimer's disappointing experience as a Bush speech writer. Remember - Bush: "I redefined the Republican Party."

That's right, he did do some redefining and we saw the full effect of Dubya's redefinition of the Republican Party in 2006 and 2008. The ultimate result came earlier this year when the overwhelming Democrat majorities in Congress, including a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, abolished America's health care system.

Thanks for all the redefining, President Bush!

Incidentally, a Latimer column out just yesterday confirms - from the Cheney perspective - the consensus among Bushie Beer Summit participants that the former Veep was not much of an inside player in the Bush White House. No one seems to think Dubya at all approves of Cheney attacking the new president who Bush says, "deserves [Bush's] silence."

In fact, the supposition among these Bushies was that Cheney backed down because his criticism were proving ineffective. I don't think I agree with that. Cheney has after all gone through another major surgery on his heart this past year.

Parties out of presidential power tend to go non-interventionist in the wilderness. My suspicion is that public figures like Cheney, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton's mustache have helped keep a chunk of Republican voters and Republican-leaning independents committed to strong defense and victory over Islamofascism. Of course the Ft. Hood shooter, failed Christmas Day "crotch-bomber," and failed Times Square bomber have also helped keep this set of issues on the front burner for conservatives.

On the Obama White House:

According to Bushie Beer Summit participants, the Obama Administration West Wing and EEOB are chock full of do-nothing, patronage job-holding lazy ex-activists. Maybe not at the David Axelrod or Valerie Jarrett level, but the bulk of White House staff.

The upshot of White House staff slothfulness and having way too many of them is they work in an echo chamber preoccupied by their own internal rivalries. They neglect their former colleagues in the "Professional Left" until it's time to give them orders.

A lot of folks who didn't get into the Administration helped get Obama elected, and rather than collaborate with them, the Administration regards them as mere foot soldiers. So that insight provided me with some background on recent hippie-punching charges by Leftists and scolding from Vice President Biden.

On the shear size of the Obama White House staff, I haven't seen much out there on that to be honest, except for this dust-up over comparing Laura Bush and Michelle Obama's respective taxpayer-funded entourages. But I think it would be a good idea for someone to compare the size of Obama's White House staff versus George W. Bush's.

The idea that Obama's Administration is teaming with unaccountable White House policy czars, though, is clearly embedded in today's political environment. Criticism of the czar model will only grow more prominent when (at least) a likely new Republican House of Representatives dusts off the concept of Congressional oversight. Most operatives I talk to - including Bushie Beer Summit participants - expect Obama to abandon a legislative strategy for implementing "Change" and turn exclusively to Executive Branch regulatory efforts.



(h/t Phil Kerpen)

So it was an interesting contrast for Trev to be around such insidery folk after 20 months reveling in the Tea Party revival. Constitutional conservatives need allies in the ruling class if we want to make any kind of difference with the new majority (majorities?) coming in next year. We need hacks and bureaucratic knife-fighter types and in some states and districts we do need whoever's electable who will play ball.

I just don't want these people to start thinking they are back in charge. We saw what they did with the Republican Party and the legacy of 1980 and 1994 when they held power. Every American will be paying for their capitulations to Progressivism for decades to come.

Now, how about we re-redefine the Republican Party on November 2nd AND give Pelosi, Reid, and Obama what they've got coming to 'em!

Human Dignity and Doom on the George Washington Bridge

Bridge. Gay. Jump. Roommate. Suicide.

Reading only those five words brings me back to some my darkest memories of college. That's where my mind's been for some of today, when I wasn't thinking of this story that is too tragic for words.



I'm not Tyler Clementi (shown above), but I almost was. Suffice to say, as I tried to figure out how to deal with my same-sex attractions as a young adult, I had quite the roller-coaster ride emotionally, philosophically, and spiritually.

Those challenges haven't completely gone away, but they've lessened and changed as I've found friends to talk to about it, homosexual and bisexual men who are serious about pursuing chastity in their lives, and especially hetero guys who genuinely value knowing about me.

I won't blame you for questioning my seriousness about chastity if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook. I can only plead that you consider the possibility that making jokes along those lines might help me avoid living along those lines.

Tyler Clementi's foray into living out things he'd only imagined hasn't gone so well. It seems obvious now, but I wonder how obvious it was to his roommate Dharun Ravi that if a guy asks for privacy - and conceals the fact that it's so he can be romantic with another man - the guy probably won't be okay with his sexual experimentation being literally broadcast to the world. Sure Ravi knew this to some extent, but did he have any clue what he was toying with? I think the truth is neither Clementi nor Ravi knew what they were toying with.

My mind is flooded with questions for both of them, of course especially questions we'll never know the answer to.

I wonder if Tyler Clementi's family knew. Did he have anyone to talk to? Was he at all aware of any avenues besides sexually acting out, and once that was exposed, killing himself? Was jumping from the George Washington Bridge something he'd thought about before and the extreme shame of this occasion just triggered him to act on it?

I wonder what his mix of friends was. Did he consider his roommate a friend? I would have been Tyler's friend. I would have answered any question he had about my experience if we could have talked in a private way. I would have listened to him. I would have told him he was valuable to me just as a fellow man with a soul.

As for Dharun Ravi (pictured below with Molly Wei), I am at least a little bit comforted by how utterly ruined his name is and how much like the scum of the earth he must feel right now.



What if instead of asking Ravi for privacy, Clementi had asked him to talk about where he was at with his sexuality, would Ravi have listened? I can only assume not. I can only assume that to someone like Ravi, Tyler Clementi was more a two-dimensional freakshow than he was a real person. At least that's what I get from this lugubrious tweet of his:

Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.

But Tyler was real. He had a real musical talent, a real smile, and a real heartbeat. And now he doesn't.

I've seen an outpouring of shock and anger at this prank gone so horribly wrong today on Twitter and some in the New York and national media. Naturally, a lot of folks express support for Clementi's family.

I've also already spotted tweets seeking to raise money for gay teen suicide prevention and efforts by gay advocacy groups to renew interest in their "anti-bullying" campaigns. I waited all day for a tweet from Lady Gaga tying this tragedy to her campaign to repeal 'Don't Ask-Don't Tell'. I'm sure there's a "marriage equality" angle too.

You can find all that stuff everywhere else, so I won't feel bad saving my own take for right here.

Tyler Clementi obviously had some level of sexual attraction for men. In a sick way, his acting on it cost him his life. Dharun Ravi may have done exactly what someone would have to do to get Clementi to destroy himself, but Clementi was still the one who did it. Because I see my old self (and some of my yet-current self) in him, I believe that Tyler's fundamental error here was in not accepting his own human dignity. His parents believed in it. I believed in it though I only know of him in death. He didn't believe in it.

Tyler sacrificed some of his dignity to give in to his curiosity at least a couple times. Yet when the bright light of public scrutiny shone down on what he had considered his own secret world, all Tyler could see was what he was ashamed of. All he could see was how broken he was. Maybe all he could see was that he might as well be a two-dimensional carnival character to people like Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei and their friends. I think maybe the worst Tyler saw in himself was all of a sudden just too close to how hundreds or thousands of others saw him. In the end, even on an iconic bridge, on a beautiful night with a spectacular view of Manhattan, the Palisades, and the shimmery water below, all Tyler Clementi could see was certain doom.

Like I said, I was there once. Actually a few times. In my case, when I broke down and told my straight college roommate that I was attracted to men, specifically him, and that I couldn't take my infatuation with him anymore...he held me. It was something he'd never done before nor wanted to. He assured me of his steadfast friendship. He bought me lunch, listened to me, and prayed with me too. Our relationship was sometimes strained after that, though we were doing pretty well five years later when I served as best man at his wedding. But what I noticed most was that when my heart found genuine friendship with this guy, my sexual imagination didn't fixate on him very much anymore.

In fact, I've been blessed to find that real friendships with other men give me in reality what my libido is looking for in fantasy.

Yes, I know that's not the gay experience you're used to hearing. It's still mine and I wish I could have talked with Tyler Clementi about it and listened to him talk about his. I would have told him that there is more for guys like us. There can be friendship, insight, adventure, unselfish love, and forgiveness if you want to look for it. There's so much more than doom.

I'm in New York right now. I got here the day before Clementi leaped to his death, and I'm leaving tomorrow, a day after news of his death broke. On a night when he was in sheer emotional and mental hell across the river, I was in a room catching up, laughing, and praying with other guys living with same-sex attraction. No one said Tyler's name, but we prayed for him nonetheless. I will pray for him and his family by name now. Definitely whenever I see the George Washington Bridge.

Trev & Miss Thing #01: Meet Miss Thing

Trev's September 11th Anniversary Tweets

08:46: American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the north face of One World Trade Center (the North Tower) between floors 93 and 99. #911
_____________________________________________

09:03: United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south face of Two World Trade Center (the South Tower) between floors 77 and 85. #911
_____________________________________________

09:29: @George_WBush: "Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country." #911
_____________________________________________

09:37: American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the western side of the Pentagon. #911
_____________________________________________

09:43: The White House and U.S. Capitol are evacuated. #911
_____________________________________________

09:45: The Federal Aviation Administration closes United States airspace ordering all commercial and private aircraft to land. #911
_____________________________________________

09:59: Two World Trade Center (the South Tower) collapses. #911
_____________________________________________

10:03: United Airlines #Flight93 crashes in PA when Americans defend Washington, DC, by rebelling against Islamist hijackers. #911 #LetsRoll
_____________________________________________

10:14: The White House relays to the National Military Command Center Vice President Cheney's order to shoot down hijacked aircraft. #911
_____________________________________________

10:20: @George_WBush, from Air Force One, tells Vice President Cheney that he has authorized a shoot down of aircraft if necessary. #911
_____________________________________________

10:28: One World Trade Center (the North Tower) collapses. #911
_____________________________________________

10:43: New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani orders an evacuation of Lower Manhattan. #911
_____________________________________________

10:50: Five stories on the western face of the Pentagon collapse. #911
_____________________________________________

13:04: President @George_WBush's remarks at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana air: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5JJV_XB70GU #911


_____________________________________________

14:39: Asked to estimate the number of casualties at the World Trade Center, Mayor Giuliani replies: "More than any of us can bear." #911
_____________________________________________

17:20: Seven World Trade Center collapses. #911
_____________________________________________

20:30 President @George_WBush addresses the nation: http://youtube.com/watch?v=YMiqEUBux3o #911


_____________________________________________

W. Bank & #Gaza: http://is.gd/f6kd7 #flotilla #Hamas #Israel Saddam: Attacks result from "U.S. crimes against humanity." #Iraq #911 #WAR


_____________________________________________

Queen Elizabeth II orders Buckingham Palace guards to play "The Star Spangled Banner" on 9-13-01: http://is.gd/f6oCa #911 #UK #anglosphere


_____________________________________________

Memorial Service at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England, September 14, 2001: http://youtube.com/watch?v=rmpo0csiIMs #911 #UK #anglosphere
_____________________________________________

President @George_WBush at Ground Zero September 14, 2001: "I can hear you..." http://youtube.com/watch?v=f4BkzuV0LYE #911 #LetsRoll #WAR


_____________________________________________

President @George_WBush speaks at National Cathedral September 14, 2001: http://is.gd/f6nI9 #911 #LetsRoll


_____________________________________________

National Cathedral, full prayer service 09-14-01: http://is.gd/f6nKt Bush 41 gives encouragement to @George_WBush: http://is.gd/f6tqj #911




_____________________________________________

President @George_WBush address to Congress September 20, 2001: http://is.gd/f6uoh (GWB enters at 21:46) #911 #LetsRoll #WAR #AfPak


_____________________________________________

President @George_WBush announces Operation Enduring Freedom re:Afghanistan October 7, 2001: http://is.gd/f6uAm #911 #LetsRoll #AfPak #WAR


_____________________________________________

President @George_WBush to police & firefighters November 8, 2001: #LetsRoll! http://is.gd/f6uQs #911 #Flight93 #WAR #AfPak


_____________________________________________

#NeverForget ~ http://is.gd/f6vR6 ~ #911 ~ http://is.gd/f6vE3 ~ #LetsRoll

Why Won’t Sooper Trev Come Out?

A big thanks goes to Will Cain for starting this conversation.

A Time for Understanding and Dialog - for Griffins

With the spirit of mutual understanding and dialog sweeping Lower Manhattan, what with the "Park51" Islamic cultural center and a Muslim-friendly gay bar coming soon, I've discerned a social concern of my own: griffins.

You heard me. It's high time that griffins - those majestic half-lion, half-eagle beasts of yore - received a share of the attention lavished for so long on more prominent mythical beasts, such as unicorns. This is America. No animal has more of a right to be mythical than any other.

Yet even in the 21st Century, gorgeous yet virulent anti-griffin hater Greg Gutfeld continues to use his platform at Fox News to bash these beautiful legendary creatures and promote unicorn privilege:



And there's more where that came from. If only Greg's exterior beauty reflected an inner one. {sigh}

We all know by now that Muslims will be welcome at hunky Greg's gay bar, "Dialog." Obviously unicorns and their non-unicorn supporters will be. But what about griffins and their fans? Will Dialog serve carrion along with halal food and drink? Don't bet on it. At least not absent public pressure.

To counter the unicorn-supremacist atmosphere we can expect at sexy Gutfeld's Dialog, I propose to establish a Griffin Cultural Center either next door or across the street. I envision this as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational organization to include a small museum of griffin history and culture and a library with resources for and about griffins. There would be conference space and my favorite part - an outdoor café for the warmer months of the year.

So if you know any open-minded or griffin-friendly donors, nonprofit tax lawyers willing to work pro-bono, and/or building owners on Park Place looking to unload small buildings please put them in touch with me. Naturally there would need to be rooftop access for winged griffins to land (pegasi/pegasuses welcome of course).

Also, I haven't settled on a name for the café. I'm open to suggestions.

A Poem About Trev

This poem was sent to me by a FB friend and fellow "Red Eye" fan during my recent semi-sabbatical from Twitter/FB.

Why did you leave? : ( I had so many fun things to say, and I have missed you so.

I had a break-down yesterday, and thought I would go crazy, just need just a little bit of Trev.

Do you know about withdrawal? I was at the edge, simply at the edge. Insanity loomed, I need a little bit of Trev.

The sky went dark and I got blue, I needed a little bit of Trev.

Screams went high, fists flew by, I needed a little bit of Trev.

I cried and cried until my tears ran dry, until finally I knew that Trev had said goodbye until the second Monday in July.

Still needing a little bit of Trev I went to bed and dreamed a dream of me and Trev on High, by and by in the sky, rainbows one, two, and three.

Bill Schulz' Spiked 2005 Interview with Patton Oswalt

-->


Gentle Readers,

At the bottom of this post appears a spiked 2005 interview between Fox News' "Red Eye" Co-Host Bill Schulz and comedian Patton Oswalt that was to have appeared in Penthouse magazine. This is from a draft version and the beginning contains notes from Bill to his editors.

Some background from Bill's Twitter feed during the wee hours of this Monday morning...

Speaking of people that r dicks? Watching Real Time right now, and Patton Oswalt is on. Biggest dick I ever interviewed.

I actually think he's hilarious. But could not have been more of a c word during our QandA.

Interviewed Patton for penthouse and it was so awk, and bad, I just turned it in as it was---cause it wouldve been a good read...

And they killed it, cause they didn't want to alienate him, or his publicist. U know what? Ill post it online. Maybe on redeye site.

Patton Oswalt owes me a grand. The kill fee for that article was 200. But his bitchiness hurt my rent.

@haydenlink oh it never went to print. But ill find it. Ill print it to u guys tomorrow. Prepare for stomach cringes...

Okay, I'm looking for this old article on my older laptop. I don't come off well, either. But F it. Patton is a douche. It will be seen...

Okay, I don't have a facebook page. Who wants to post this patton/bill noise?

Finally reread Patton interview. Transcripts r worse than what I edited/wrote. But still good. He was a bitch. Itsa word doc. Who wants it?

So, again, background is his publicist said that the interview WILL NOT be printed. And I gotta kill fee and he was reinterviewed.

In a later exchange with this blogger, Bill lamented, "What I wrote goes nowhere near how awful it really was. I should just release the tapes."

Below appears Bill's transcript of the interview he found "cringe-inducing." Judge for yourself.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
-->

HED: Stand-Up Guys

DEKS: Trading punch lines with comedy’s best.

SINCE THE “PUNCHLINE” TAGLINE DOESN’T REALLY APPLY FOR THIS, HERE’S SOME OTHER OPTIONS…

Trading punch lines—or in this case, punches—with comedy’s best.

The latest installment in our ongoing sit-downs with stand-up’s all-stars.

SUBHED: Patton Oswalt

By Bill Schulz

INTROS: Anyone who owns a remote will recognize Patton Oswalt as Kevin James’ buddy, Spence, (that’s short for “Spencer”, I reckon!) in CBS’s King of Queens, as well his occasional punditry in the snarkathon that is VH1’s Best Week Ever. And the casual fan might go on to mention his meager-but-memorable roles in Magnolia, Starsky & Hutch and Zoolander. But true Oswalt aficionados will point to 2004’s Feeling Kind Of Patton and let the comedy album speak for itself. The man is, quite simply, the funniest stand-up working the clubs today. He’s also kind of a prick. I don’t know if it was the fact that Patton had just done a slew of zoo crew radio appearances the previous Friday or if he just saw me for the hack that I am—but, right off the bat, the comic decided that he hated me. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have opened with the Bill Hicks question…

THE SAFE INTRO: “Anyone who tells you how dangerous and edgy they are, isn’t dangerous or edgy.” Patton Oswalt has, in a roundabout way, just told me that he, himself, is dangerous and edgy without actually saying it. But I’ll let it slide due to the fact that, after recently listening to 2004’s Feelin’ Kinda Patton, I found the album to be both those things as well as chock-full of the funniest material I’ve heard in years. This, I suppose, should come as no surprise considering the man’s pedigree consists of collaborations on Reno 911, The Aqua Teen Hunger Force, VH1’s Best Week Ever and HBO’s deeply-missed Mr. Show With Bob and Dave. Oh, and lets not forget Patton’s role on The King Of Queens and his portrayal of the character Hedges in Blade: Trinity! Actually…he’d rather you did forget the latter. Herein the cranky comic opines on laughs, LSD and—I’m just gonna say it—love.

PH: You worked with the late Bill Hicks. What was your take on Joe Rogan’s claim that Dennis Leary stole his material?

PATTON: It’s absolutely accurate. It’s been documented.

Well Leary has said—like on their respective cigarette monologues—that “you don’t own the subject, you own what you say about it.”

And Denis Leary did the jokes. No one needs to come to Rogan’s defense, these are facts. They’ve been documented. Read the book American Scream. They go point-by-point, bit-by-bit, through Leary’s No Cure For Cancer special. He took word-for-word jokes from Bill Hicks. This isn’t a matter of debate or opinion, it’s fact.

Okay, then. So is he sort of looked down upon by fellow comedians? He seems to have a lot of friends in the business.

None that I know of.

Moving on: Your dad named you after General Patton. Name one of the many qualities that you, no doubt, share with the WWII icon?

Um, with General Patton? I resolve all my differences with desert tank battles.

So Ben Stiller strikes me as one who comes off grumpy, moody and obsessive off camera. Am I wrong on that?

He’s obsessive, but not grumpy and moody about it. He just wants things to be as funny as possible. He also takes on a lot of projects—so it’s not that he’s grumpy or moody, but he’s always pretty stressed. We started working together on the MTV movie awards. We wrote a couple of things together and just really clicked. I did a thing with him where he was a Backstreet Boy.

Oh, yeah. And Andy Dick was the crippled Backstreet Boy with a hook for a hand?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I wrote the thing where Will Ferrell came out as that obsessive coach.

Those made me giggle. You used to open for David Cross. Now, are comedians a competitive bunch in the sense that Cross would get pissed at you if you got more laughs than he did?

No. No offense, but it kind of sounds like you have the story already written and you’re kind of hoping for answers you want to hear.

Erm…not at all.

I mean there’s competition among shitty comedians, but the comedians that actually love doing it—it’s not a sense of “I’m counting the laughs I’m getting compared to him.” That’s kind of not how we do it.

Uh, now I know. You recently MC’ed an audience Q&A with The Onion staff. What surprised you about “America’s finest news source?”

How socially awkward they all are. Just, like, not knowing when to start talking and not knowing when to stop. They were awkward, socially, but also very captivating and charming. They’re true comedy nerds. I also never realized it was such a committee thing. Like, even when you write stuff you sort of submit it to the people and then they argue about it, and stuff like that.

What were your impressions of Jim Carrey during your appearance in Man On The Moon? I’m told he stays in character throughout the shoot.

Well, when he would come in it was “hello, it’s Jim,” but for the rest of the day he was Andy [Kauffman]. I heard it was weird at first, but by the time I got on set—I was only in one scene—people we’re kinda like, that’s how it is. In the morning we’d talk, cause we had friends in common, but the rest of the day he was Andy and I didn’t talk to him.

Did you laugh at “Andy” behind his back?

I have so many weird processes myself, that I kind of can’t really judge people on what the fuck is going on with someone else.

Give me an example of some of your proc—

—Can’t articulate them.

[Sighing] Well, you’ve been on Reno 911 a lot. Is there any part of that show that’s scripted?

It’s complete improv. They sort of give you your character, and the situation, and just let you go. I liked doing the D&D character, ’cause we filmed all these extra scenes, and one of my favorites made it onto the DVD. It’s me talking for six minutes, unbroken, about Dungeons & Dragons and Tom Leonard just staring at me and writing down what I’m saying. It’s really bizarre, but it really works. I still play D&D now. Every Wednesday a bunch of friends come over and we’ll play it.

Please tell me costumes are involved.

No costumes.

Do comedians get groupies?

Yeah, but they tend to be kind of sad. If they’re into comedians, it’s like, at least get it up to being with rock stars, you know what I mean?

Give me a good example of the last time you woke up, stared at the thing next to you, and screamed—versus a time when you gave yourself a little pat on the back for her overall hotness.

Put it this way, any woman who’d be excited to wake up next to me is a massive turn off.

Best and worst experience with illegal substances?

My best was my first acid trip on the night Clinton got elected—sitting in a friend’s apartment, and it was full of action figures, and it looked as if they were all on the shelf dancing. The worst time was probably, oh man, probably spring break in college—way too drunk and way too sunburned. Nothing fun. I’ve had worse experiences on alcohol than I ever have on drugs.

Ever over imbibed before a gig?

Whenever I drink too much I kind of just stop caring. Too much booze, for me, makes me not excited to be up there.

You’ve been known to go off on Jay Leno’s comedy in interviews. Ever gotten any feedback from The Tonight Show camp on that?

Why would he even know who I am?

Oh, I definitely think he’d know who you are.

Nah. It’s frustrating when you see someone who’s such a good comedian make those kind of choices, I guess.

Is Leah Remini as much of a hellcat in real life as she comes across on screen?

Um, are we just going to talk about celebrities I’ve met? Because this just seems, I don’t know, kind of boring.

Fine, then. I’ll go for the personal: You’ll be married by the time this hits newsstands. Are you going to have kids?

Nope. Don’t want ’em.

And is the wife in agreement on this?

Nope. [Pauses] But hopefully we’ll come to some sort of compromise.

Uh-huh. Well good luck with that.

END BUG

Trev's E-mail Read on FoxNews.com's Strategy Room 03-25-2010

Watch the on-line broadcast "Strategy Room" at FoxNews.com weekdays starting from 9 AM.

Dissenting from the Gay Agenda

From a comment on a Huffington Post link around the time of President Obama's inauguration:

What self-respecting gay would go near the Republican party? Any time in the last 20-30 years?....You would have to love being dissed and ignored and having people coming up to you asking why you haven't been reprogrammed yet, or else stayed in the closet.

Assumptions like those evidenced above are part of why I - a man who lives with same-sex attraction - choose to remain "closeted" and participate in the Republican Party as a libertarian-conservative.

It is true that the earliest realizations of my own homosexuality were coupled with the sense that it was a bad and a shameful thing I should hide. But as I grew older, I came to realize that the "gay pride" movement threatened something far more sinister than what any schoolyard bully could. I realized that publicly admitting this private characteristic meant, in some sense, surrendering my individual identity to a collective identity dictated by the "out" gay community. It would also mean accepting a label whose evolving meaning in our culture is not something I want to define me.

I experience same-sex attraction (SSA), but it is hardly the sum of who I am.

SSA is a part of my life that affects me in the most personal of ways, and I remain unconvinced that my SSA belongs to anyone else but me. For one thing, my having SSA doesn't mean to me what it apparently means to many Americans, gay or straight.

This distinction between SSA in my life and what "gay" has come to mean in our culture became more stark as I grew in faith as a Catholic man. What the Catholic Church and Bible teach about sex and gender made more sense to me than what our if-it-feels-good-do-it culture appears to believe about these things. I no longer see myself as a "gay man," as though homosexuality and heterosexuality were equivalent, but simply as a man. I am a male, complementary to a female, although a male with a predilection to same-sex attraction. My sexual orientation is not intrinsic to who I am the way my sex is. My SSA is just one challenge in my life that I have to deal with. All men and women have challenges in their lives and we are all responsible for discerning God's will in our lives.

Despite the excesses of the Sooper Trev character I play on Facebook and Twitter and in viewer e-mails to FoxNews.com's Strategy Room, in my life in the world, I reject the gay label, the gay identity, and the dominant gay cultural and political agenda for my country. Some will say this makes me a hypocrite, but I say I have reached my own conclusions based on my own experience.

I am not alone. The opinion and experience of same-sex attracted men and women is much broader and more varied than the self-proclaimed leaders of the gay rights movement would have you believe. Even among those who do accept a gay identity and who seek same-sex life partnerships, forcing social acceptance through government coercion is not the top priority of us all. Many self-identified gays and lesbians would prefer self-defense through the right to bear arms to the fleeting protection of PC "hate crimes" legislation. And many of us are more concerned with containing and defeating Islamofascism than we are with subjecting the mightiest military in the world to the social engineering exercise of repealing Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell.

For me, rejecting the gay label reinforces my dissent from gay collectivist allegiance to the Democrat Party and its victimology-based LBGT constituency groups like Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, PFLAG, GLSEN, and countless others exploiting and cashing in on the pain of the homosexual experience.

Thankfully there are other voices for same-sex attracted men and women in public debate besides the Leftist gay mainstream. I'm glad that a group like GOProud is out there. However, I'd hope anyone reading this understands that there are still, even to the right of that, plenty of us who experience SSA who maintain more traditional views on homosexuality. And we're not hypocrites for reaching our own conclusions.

So to the Huffington Post commenter I mentioned above and to those who agree with her: my self-respect comes in part from thinking for myself. I suppose I'll stay "closeted" as long as so many of my fellow Americans remain ensnared by the collectivist, politically correct, grievance-cult programming that you're trapped in. I reject your narrow labels and the presumptions behind them.

Red Eye's Tom O'Connor Mentions Trev on "Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend" 02-10-2010

Catch TV personality and writer Alison Rosen, of "Red Eye" fame on Ustream.com where she hosts "Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend" weekly.

Trev's Message for Greg No. 1

Greg & Trev's Sauna Summit