Christian Gene Isolated!

This is too funny.

Defendants Have No Constitutional Right to DNA Testing

The U.S. Supreme Court has held in a 5-4 decision that criminal defendants have no federal constitutional right to DNA testing after their conviction. District Attorney’s Office for the Third Judicial District v. Osborne. This sounds crazy to me. Defendants should always have the right to prove their innocence under the due process clause of the Constitution. State laws vary widely on DNA testing. To leave the availability of DNA testing up to the vagaries of legislatures seems fundamentally wrong. See this article in The Hill for Congressional criticism of the ruling. This quote from Rep. Jerrold Nadler is particularly apt:

Today’s Supreme Court decision violates our fundamental notion of fairness and due process of the law. To me, it is common sense that a defendant should have the constitutional right to conduct a test that would establish conclusively whether he is guilty or innocent of an alleged crime."

This is yet another example of Justice Roberts carrying deference to the legislature to an extreme.

Sacha Baron Cohen's crotch meets Eminem's face

Not sure if Eminem was in on this or not. It looks genuine, but who knows. It's pretty funny.

MTV Shows

More negative NYTimes for Sotomayor

I'm starting to wonder if the New York Times is going after Sonia Sotomayor. The front page today had an article entitled "Nominee's Links With Advocates Fuel Her Critics. The article discussed Sotomayor's position on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund ("PRLDF") in the 1980's. She quit that position when she was appointed to the federal judiciary, according to the article. What's strange about this article is that only one "critic" is quoted, and that quote doesn't even mention the PRLDF:

"Curt Levey, executive director of Committee for Justice, a conservative legal group active in judicial nominations, said that “while it’s fine to let your Puerto Rican heritage influence — or any heritage for that matter — influence your positions when you’re on a board, it’s quite a different story when you’re a judge, and I wonder whether she knows the difference.”

That's it! There's nothing in the article to support the allegation near the beginning that "[H]er critics, including some Republican senators who will vote on her nomination, have questioned whether she has let her ethnicity, life experiences and public advocacy creep into her decisions as a judge." What critics? Cite one. It sounds like the alleged "critics" are actually the Times.

In any case, that assertion, that one's "ethnicity, life experiences and public advocacy" shouldn't effect a judge's decisions, is absurd. Judges are human. They can't slice off their entire life experience and not let it effect their legal analysis. I have no doubt that Chief Justice John Roberts' life experience contributes to his siding consistently with the government, the prosecution, and corporations, as detailed in a recent New Yorker profile. This is exactly why Obama selected Sotomayor - for her life experiences. It's incredibly important to have people of diverse backgrounds interpreting our laws. Each brings a different perspective, just as people from all walks of life come before the Supreme Court to have crucial decisions made about their lives.

Sotomayor Too Testy?

Just saw this article in the New York Times: Sotomayor's Sharp Tongue Raises Issue of Temperament. You've got to be kidding. With Scalia on the court? He makes no bones about his opinions in oral argument and sometimes uses opinions to cudgel opposing viewpoints mercilessly. He's not above making fun of his opposition. This is a ridiculous notion, that anyone is too testy, as long as Scalia's on there.

Adam Lambert singing Mad World on TV Thursday

Adam Lambert is going to sing Mad World on the CBS Early Show Thursday morning! Here are videos of him setting up and rehearsing (quietly), amidst some fangirly screaming. Dig the David Bowie T-shirt.

CA Supreme Court upholds Prop 8 today

This is disappointing, but not unexpected and not all bad. Today the California Supreme Court upheld Prop 8, the ballot measure that limited marriage to straight couples. New York Times article here. The good part of the decision was that they upheld the thousands of same-sex marriages performed during the period before Prop 8 went into effect. This will surely throw a wrench into efforts to stop what seems like a steady march towards legality of gay marriage everywhere. There are now 18,000 valid gay marriages in California. These couples will demand recognition of their marriages by the federal government and other states, undoubtedly leading to many more lawsuits challenging anti-gay marriage laws in those jurisdictions.

Of course, Californians still can enter into legally sanctioned civil unions, with some attendant benefits, unlike residents of most other states, including the one I live in.

Here's the ad released by the marriage equality group Courage Campaign minutes after the decision was made public. Nice song by Regina Spektor.



Anti-Prop 8 demonstrators arrested in San Francisco, including two men who "stood for about an hour in the intersection calmly kissing while demonstrators all around them screamed, "Prop. 8 will go down, San Francisco (is a) big queer town" and other slogans." (emphasis added - these guys have stamina!)

Pam's House Blend (politically-oriented GLBT blog) links to a boatload of organizations' reactions to the decision.

Demonstrations across the country are planned for tonight. Click on that link for further info.

Movie commentary in the theater

Just found out about this from Pop Candy. You can download a podcast of The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson's commentary, a la DVD, and listen to it on your iPod while you watch the movie in a theater! That's incredibly cool. Download from the apple.com website. Pop Candy's Whitney Matheson was concerned that other audience members could hear it through your headphones.

Adam Idolatry, continued

Round-up of various Adam-related articles, pics and vids:

Interesting article in the New York Times about American Idol, the show, its place in pop culture, and characterizing Adam and Kris as a young Elvis Presley and Pat Boone, respectively.

New York Times review of final

New York Times analysis of singing on Idol finale and significance of Kris' win. Not an Adam fan here.

afterelton.com grading all of Adam's outfits.
They hated the long coat in the finale. I adored it!

Adam to be new Queen singer? Brian May responds to rumors.

Rolling Stone post-finale interview with Adam, in which he says his favorite performance was Whole Lotta Love, talks about what kind of debut album he'd like to make ("a collection of different styles"), and says speculation about his sexuality "probably" impacted the final vote. However, he felt like he won just by making it into the finals and that "there's no need to dwell on the negative."

Dorothy Surrenders' take on Adam's loss. I don't know how much of a factor Adam's sexuality was. That's very hard to say. I don't know the demographics of the voters or if they really care about that or not. But I kind of identified with what she says here, on some level.

Ann Powers, L.A. Times pop music critic, interesting review of final performances. Powers writes intriguing articles on pop culture.

Powers also has
analysis of the larger meaning of Adam and Kris' friendship.

From Entertainment Weekly's post-finale interview with Mr. Oh-so-coy:

I want to just get this question out of the way first, something that's been dangling a bit over you for the whole season: Would you like to put to rest all the speculation about your sexuality?

It's not dangling over my head. [Laughing] It may be dangling over yours, but it's not over mine. Yeah, I think speculation keeps things really interesting.

So you don't want to say anything one way or the other?

Like I said, I think speculation keeps things very, very interesting. [Laughs]

Incredibly cute Adam/Kris moment:





ROCK GOD!!!

I think he looks like he belongs with these guys. (Although I prefer Queen.)







Why, yes, those are handcuffs!



Let's do some speculating (LOL):

American Idol winner - wtf?

This is what I wrote that night.

American Idol winner - wtf? possibly the most depressing thing I've seen on TV in a long time. So horribly wrong. Looking forward to seeing what the judges think. I noticed Simon didn't stand up at the end along with the other judges. Trust Americans to pick the safe, bland middle of the road choice. At least Adam won't have to sing that horrible single.

Weird: Cyndi Lauper playing the dulcimer on Time After Time; Steve Martin playing the banjo; bikini girl.

Painful: Having to sit through 2 freakin' hours of crap for a few seconds of revealing the winner.

Evocative: Brian May of Queen playing with Adam Lambert, reincarnation of Freddie Mercury.

On the other hand, maybe America should be scared of  a man who will wear this outfit - (round bling thingy on his thigh certainly reminiscent of handcuffs):

American Idol finale performance show

Catching up here on all the Idol doings this week.

The highlight may have been Adam's outfits. Haha. So...picspam below. Each finalist sang 3 songs. They each picked their favorite performance of the season and repeated it. That was disappointing, as I would have preferred to hear fresh material. Adam sang Mad World, which is definitely my favorite. While his outfit completely rocked, the studio version is much better than his live performance last night. He didn't hit the notes squarely at times, or as the judges would say, at times it was "pitchy". Although none of them said so last night. But the outfit...OMG, I loved it SO MUCH.

Kris chose Ain't No Sunshine, which is a song I really liked, and it was his best performance of the night. I liked the piano on it. Very nice.

Then they performed songs chosen by the show's creator, Simon Fuller. Adam did Change is Gonna Come, a Sam Cooke song and this was his best performance of the night. Absolutely fantastic. As soon as he finished, I wanted to watch him do it again. Amazing. Plus another great outfit, a silvery suit with a turquoise tie and, I think, silver boots!

Kris's song was....can't remember and didn't write it down. It was fine, but boring. Simon said it was like a bunch of guys strumming guitars at home. LOL

The last song of the night was the first single from the season, co-written by judge Kara DioGuardi. I didn't like the song at all. Not even Adam could sell it to me. I preferred his performance of it, not surprisingly. Kris' performance of it was off on some notes.

Last pic below is Adam kissing Kris on the head. Awwww. They're pretty cute together.

Snagged from Dorothy Surrenders (Tanktop Tuesday)

Oh my good lord.


Sarah Shahi, previously on The L Word.