THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Paula Abdul: The New Lily Ledbetter? Contrary to rumors, Simon Cowell is not the $100 million man. The Hollywood Reporter reports he agreed to a three-season deal to judge “American Idol” for $45 million – a 20 percent increase over the $36 million he got under his old contract. Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Paula Abdul’s decision to leave the show was months in the making:
Her determination to wring greater compensation from Fox and the “Idol” producers was borne of a feeling that they had undermined and disrespected her for years, according to people close to her who were part of the negotiations. They said that she believed that the failure by her “Idol” colleagues to rebut sufficiently insinuations and jokes about her unreliability and possible substance abuse cost her lucrative endorsements. …
Mr. Cowell’s generous pay package, as well as the recent doubling of Ryan Seacrest’s salary for hosting “American Idol,” to $10 million a year, led Ms. Abdul to believe that as a woman she was being treated differently from the men, according to people close to her.
The Times notes that within a week of Abdul’s announcement that she was walking, she “was already being courted” by ABC and NBC, and the producer of FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance.” The lady has other options than to accept being underpaid at "American Idol."
† Obama’s Family Values: Part III (second item): The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine - an animal rights group lobbying to get a requirement for public schools to offer vegan and vegetarian lunch options when the Child Nutrition Act is scheduled for reauthorization in October - put up posters in Washington, D.C.’s Union Station featuring an 8-year old black girl and a thought bubble that reads: "President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?"
The White House contacted PCRM “within 24 hours” and asked that the posters be taken down, reports The Washington Post:
The fact that the poster mentions the president's children has been the main point of contention, though neither the children's names nor their images appear. …
"I do not think you can use the president's daughters for some cause - good or otherwise - that they don't play a role in," says Bonnie Angelo, a former White House correspondent for Time magazine and author of "First Families: The Impact of the White House on Their Lives." …
"[T]hey wanted me to remove [the posters] voluntarily, but made it clear that they viewed this as something that could lead to legal action if I wasn't responsive,” says [PCRM President Neal Barnard]. …
Barnard says that the reception he's received regarding the poster has been positive and that he plans to leave the posters up until Aug. 31, the full period they were scheduled to be in the Metro stop. …
For Barnard, juxtaposing Jasmine with Sasha and Malia was particularly important.
"The direct comparison is: You have affluent children with access to healthy foods, and disadvantaged children have the same rights to the same kinds of healthy meals as affluent kids. And we are fighting for that fairness, so we felt that making that statement as directly as we could was important."
Seeing as how neither the names nor likenesses of the Obama girls is mentioned in the ad, The Stiletto doesn’t put the indirect reference to them in the same league as say, Dave Letterman’s “joke” on national TV about Sarah Palin’s underage daughter having sex with one of the New York Yankees. But if Neal really wanted to draw a contrast between the affluent who have access to healthy foods, and the disadvantaged who do not, the ad should have referenced President Barack Hussein Obama’s brother, George, instead of his daughters.
† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, Incarcerated Murderer Sues To Continue Sex Change Treatments): U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf denied additional taxpayer-funded electrolysis treatments for Michelle Kosilek (née Robert) on the grounds that (s)he has not proved a rights violation or a "serious medical need," reports The Associated Press:
The attorney, Joseph Sulman, said halting the treatment has negatively affected Kosilek's mental health.
A Department of Correction lawyer said there are cheaper alternatives for hair removal, including depilatories and shaving.
Sulman countered that shaving is a "quintessential male" activity. …
Wolf ruled in 2002 that Kosilek was entitled to treatment for gender-identity disorder, but stopped short of ordering sex-change surgery. Kosilek sued again in 2005, claiming denial of the surgery was making her suicidal.
State prison officials oppose Kosilek's request, saying it would create security problems.
† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, “Clunkers” Is Another Edsel): So first we find out that taxpayers spent $3 billion to enable some folks buy foreign cars – which won’t help Detroit all that much. Then we find out that the new cars don’t get appreciably better gas mileage than the cars being traded in – which won’t help the environment all that much. Now, it seems that the “cash for clunkers” program may actually cause environmental harm. The Associated Press reports that because it was forced into bankruptcy by the Obama administration and then reorganized “General Motors has dropped out of a partnership that collects toxic parts from recycled automobiles to prevent mercury pollution”:
The government's "cash-for-clunkers" program will lead to trade-in and recycling of an estimated 750,000 vehicles, some of which contain mercury switches.
GM said its new company is not a member of the [End of Life Vehicle Solutions Corp.] partnership because it no longer makes vehicles with mercury switches and is not responsible for the older vehicles. The old company, which is still under bankruptcy court supervision, said it is reviewing agreements involving the former company and declined to comment.
Roughly 36 million mercury switches were used in trunk convenience lights and antilock brakes in vehicles built in the 1980s and 1990s. More than half of them are in GM vehicles built before 2000.
Yet another instance when the Obama administration “misread” the problem and its solution.
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