the sassmouth chronicles

The Atlantic writer Andrew Sullivan is that most unfathomable of contradictions: a respected, intellectual, openly gay Conservative. But the reprehensible actions of the GOP since the Bush administration have forced him to abandon the movement to which he was once so committed. Click here for his full essay, or read his manifesto below. There’s a lot of truth-bombs in here, and the GOP would be well-advised to heed this criticism from one its most esteemed voices.

“I cannot support a movement that claims to believe in limited government but backed an unlimited domestic and foreign policy presidency that assumed illegal, extra-constitutional dictatorial powers until forced by the system to return to the rule of law.

I cannot support a movement that exploded spending and borrowing and blames its successor for the debt.

I cannot support a movement that so abandoned government’s minimal and vital role to police markets and address natural disasters that it gave us Katrina and the financial meltdown of 2008.

I cannot support a movement that holds torture as a core value.

I cannot support a movement that holds that purely religious doctrine should govern civil political decisions and that uses the sacredness of religious faith for the pursuit of worldly power.

I cannot support a movement that is deeply homophobic, cynically deploys fear of homosexuals to win votes, and gives off such a racist vibe that its share of the minority vote remains pitiful.

I cannot support a movement which has no real respect for the institutions of government and is prepared to use any tactic and any means to fight political warfare rather than conduct a political conversation.

I cannot support a movement that sees permanent war as compatible with liberal democratic norms and limited government.

I cannot support a movement that criminalizes private behavior in the war on drugs.

I cannot support a movement that would back a vice-presidential candidate manifestly unqualified and duplicitous because of identity politics and electoral cynicism.

I cannot support a movement that regards gay people as threats to their own families.

I cannot support a movement that does not accept evolution as a fact.

I cannot support a movement that sees climate change as a hoax and offers domestic oil exploration as the core plank of an energy policy.

I cannot support a movement that refuses ever to raise taxes, while proposing no meaningful reductions in government spending.

I cannot support a movement that refuses to distance itself from a demagogue like Rush Limbaugh or a nutjob like Glenn Beck.

I cannot support a movement that believes that the United States should be the sole global power, should sustain a permanent war machine to police the entire planet, and sees violence as the core tool for international relations.

Does this make me a “radical leftist” as Michelle Malkin would say? Emphatically not. But it sure disqualifies me from the current American right.

To paraphrase Reagan, I didn’t leave the conservative movement. It left me.

And increasingly, I’m not alone.”

• New music update: Zooey Deschanel confirmed to MTV News that She & Him, her band with M. Ward, has a sophomore album coming out in spring. Goldfrapp are scheduled to follow up their lovely but lackluster 2008 folk album, Seventh Tree, with March 22’s Head First, which will reportedly return to a groovier electronic vibe. Alison and Will also wrote the score to the upcoming John Lennon biopic, Nowhere Boy, and are collaborating with Christina Aguilera on her next album. And finally, it’s been four years since Robyn’s eponymous breakthrough album was originally released in Europe, and she’s gradually been teasing out details about her next album — most recently, a fruitful studio collabo with M.I.A. maestro Diplo. Get your ass in gear, lady! Your moment is passing!
• Black Book has an interview with Neve Campbell about Scream 4, which she confirms will begin shooting in spring, as well as what she’s been doing for the last decade (not much, by the sound of it). Evidently she moved to England five years ago, and judging by her cadence and expressions, she’s gone full-Madonna. She doesn’t use the phrase “nibbles and sips,” but she comes pretty close.
• I’ve generally been shying away from all this 2000-09 “Best of the Decade” list-porn bullshit because it’s maddeningly reductive and makes me want to kill myself, but ONTD has a fun one: The 10 Biggest Movie Flops of the Decade. I’m still furious about the failure of Grindhouse, but I blame that one on the stupidity and laziness of the American movie-going public.
• SFist has a fun piece on local drag queen Anna Conda (née Glendon Hyde), who is running for District 6 City Supervisor next year. Get it, girl!
• Broke-Ass Stuart has part two in his Guide to Riding the SF MUNI series, which at this point should just encourage bulletproof vests, a can of mace in each hand, and wearing scary vampire fangs. In related news, the latest evidence of MUNI’s ongoing disintegration: the official list of city-wide service reductions effective Dec. 5 (and yet the cost of the FastPass is increasing from $55 to $70 in January).
• Nameberry has a fairly thorough list of hipster baby names. I have known people named August (he went by Augie), Frances (she went by Francie), Frank (which: really?), Ivy, Piper, and Ray, but they were all acquaintances or coworkers. Generally if I meet someone with one of these names, I want to punch them in the face. My biggest pet-peeve is bullshit pretension in something as basic and definitive as a person’s name. If you have more than five close friends with names from this list, you are a trust-fund hipster and deserve to be tarred and feathered.
• Mike Huckabee is such a conundrum in the GOP: not only has he spoken out against his party’s dignity-free smear campaign against President Obama, but now he’s under fire for being too forgiving to criminals (it was his Christian sense of redemption that inspired him to grant clemency to child-rapist and eventual Seattle cop-killer Maurice Clemmons). All of this actually endears him to me.
• Universal has announced that they will release the first “Flipper disc” in January, which will feature the Blu-Ray version of a movie on one side, and the DVD version on the other. As a giddy recent convert to the magic of Blu-Ray, this excites me very much.
• Big changes are reportedly afoot for the next cycle of America’s Next Top Model. According to sources, Miss J. Alexander is being demoted from panel judge back to runway coach (his original role on the show), while early judge Kimora Lee Simmons and ridiculous faggot Andre Leon Talley may be joining Tyra and Nigel at the judging table. I don’t know what Nigel has on Tyra that his spot at that table is so secure, but it must be some sick-ass shit.
• In case you missed them, here is the full 52nd Annual Grammy Awards Nominee List. Boring as fuck, per usual. I just hope Beyoncé and Gaga win more than fucking Taylor Swift. Also, congratulations to Neko Case for scoring her first Grammy nomination (Best Contemporary Folk Album, traditionally my favorite category, for Middle Cyclone).
• If you, like me, are a homosexual who has also looked at Lea Michele (Rachel) on Glee and thought, “Goddamn, that bitch looks just like Idina Menzel! Elphaba! ELPHABA!!!,” then hold onto your Wicked original cast recording: Menzel’s husband, Taye Diggs, says she is open to appearing on the show as Rachel’s mother. DUET PLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• ABC’s bold-faced, unapologetic discrimination and censorship of Adam Lambert continues unabated: they’ve now canceled his appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Meanwhile, reports have surfaced that Pink did the exact same thing as Lambert’s most controversial AMA move - the simulated oral sex - by thrusting a male dancer’s head into her crotch on the Billboard Awards all the way back in 2004. Nothing happened.
• The National Board of Review has named Up In The Air, which opens in SF tomorrow, as the best film of 2009. I’m seeing it after work and cannot wait! Meanwhile, Movieline has an extensive interview with Up In The Air’s Anna Kendrick, who won NBR’s Best Supporting Actress prize and has quickly surpassed Mo’Nique in the Oscar race. I’ve loved Anna ever since I saw her in Camp back in 2004, so I’m thrilled she’s having a big moment right now.
• Finally, Vulture has a piece on the next film by personal favorite Paul Thomas Anderson, who is reportedly following There Will Be Blood with The Master, a thinly-veiled allegory about the birth of the Church of Scientology, in which he’ll finally reunite with Philip Seymour Hoffman (Magnolia, Boogie Nights). Unless Tommy Girl gets it shut down, this will be incredible!