OETA's 30-minute documentary on being gay in Oklahoma, which premiered Wednesday night, actually hit one out of the park. I was stunned that not half, not 25%, but none of the time was wasted showing fundamentalists railing against the homos in the name of "balance."

Oklahomans might have thought they ended the debate with the overwhelming approval of state question 711, a "defense of marriage" admendment, in November, 2004.

Some of those who felt targeted by SQ711 have left the state. Others say they will stay and become a political force.

The June edition of Stateline examines some of the issues--of fairness, family, and the law - which remain Unresolved.

It airs again on June 26 (the day of the OKC Pride Parade) and on June 28. Be sure to catch it. It's enough to make me reconsider Why I don't contribute to OETA.

Speaking of the senior embarrassment from Oklahoma, Think Progress notes today:

In this morning’s USA Today, Sen. James Inhofe (R., OK) complained:

“Despite the lack of a scientific consensus to warrant such measures, climate change alarmists – in the heat of the summer for the scariest effect – are promoting mandatory caps on carbon dioxide emissions.”

In fact, President Bush was one of those “alarmists.” He promised mandatory caps on CO₂ emissions during his first campaign. In the Bush Environmental Plan – dated 9/29/00 – the president vowed:

“[If elected], Governor Bush will work to…establish mandatory reduction targets for emissions of four main pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide.”

Inhofe has dismissed every scientific study on climate change not sponsored by the Energy Industry as a "scare tactic." Could that be because some forty-odd of the organizations "disputing" global climate change are all funded by ExxonMobil, and Inhofe himself received $290,000 from oil and gas companies (including ExxonMobil) for his 2002 re-election campaign?

Inhofe has certainly given them what they paid for:

In a folksy summation, Inhofe again called the notion that humans are causing global warming “a hoax,” and said that those who believe otherwise are “hysterical people, they love hysteria. We’re dealing with religion.” Having thus dismissed some 2,000 scientists, their data sets and temperature records, and evidence of melting glaciers, shrinking islands, and vanishing habitats as so many hysterics, totems, and myths, Inhofe vowed to stick up for the truth, as he sees it, and “fight the battle out on the Senate floor.”

Seated in the front row of the audience, former ExxonMobil lobbyist Randy Randol looked on approvingly.

Not just a dangerous idiot, but also a tool.

I was reading this blog entry by Arianna Huffington when something struck me that I've noticed before:

God knows I've had plenty of disagreements with Hillary -- especially on Iraq. But what Klein is doing is disgusting. It has nothing to do with Hillary's politics -- and everything to do with feeding the right-wing sleaze machine.

This bears no relation to legitimate political reporting -- and should not be treated as such. In fact, if there's a rape involved in this book, it's Ed Klein's attempted rape of the public discourse.

But with the help of bloggers (and as you'll see from the links below, they've been at it already), Klein's book can be seen for what it is: a sordid, slimy attempt to make a buck while helping advance a sordid, slimy political agenda.

Twice in one paragraph, Mrs. Huffington refers to the former First Lady and current junior senator from New York simply as "Hillary" - a term of personal friendship that may be appropriate for some but is not in an article on politics or public policy. Note that the author of the attack book is "Klein" or "Ed Klein," not "Ed."

Methods used to control the public discourse are subtle, and one of the most subtle is intentionally reducing a public figure to the personal, intimate level so you can attack them personally and not professionally. We heard eight years of "Bill and Hillary" but haven't heard much about "George and Laura." The current president's father started this art form by always, always referring to the dictator of Iraq as "Saddam" (pronounced "Sodom" instead of "suh-DAHM", for obvious reasons), never as "Hussein" or, God forbid, "President Hussein." However, he does refer to the current dictator of Pakistan as "President Musharraf" and not as "Pervez."

Admittedly, it takes an unusual name to get away with this, which is why it hasn't happened to Sen. Kerry, Gov. Dean, or Al Franken. The only one it's happened to on the right is Rush Limbaugh, though there's just as much press using his last name as his first, even from his detractors. Possibly next: Barack Obama.

Progressives should stop enabling this. Unless you know Senator Clinton personally, you should refer to her by her title, just as you would Sen. Obama or Sen. Kennedy, or for that matter, Rep. DeLay or Sen. Frist. (Last-name only doesn't work for Sen. Clinton, since you must be clear on first reference that you're not talking about her husband, the former president.) The only way the knuckle-draggers look foolish using first names improperly is if they're the only ones doing it.

For example, imagine that you were accused of theft, and then the prosecutor and the court refused to tell you exactly what you're supposed to have stolen.

WICHITA, Kan. - A federal judge on Tuesday denied a request by Omniplex Executive Director Max L. Ary for a detailed list of all the artifacts he is accused of stealing.

U.S District Judge J. Thomas Marten denied the motion from attorney Lee Thompson of Wichita, Kan., who represents Ary. Thompson has said prosecutors have not provided enough information for him to adequately represent his client.

"The details don't matter, you're guilty, so shut up and get convicted." Yeesh.

I just watched the first season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman on DVD last week while sorting through a billion news items, and was wondering why Smith hadn't appeared in any of the new special features. I guess he was too ill.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Lane Smith, a longtime character actor who played a small-town district attorney who crossed words with Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny, died Monday. He was 69.

Smith, who also played Richard Nixon in the TV movie The Final Days and Daily Planet editor Perry White in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, died at his home in Los Angeles, according to his wife, Debbie Benedict Smith.

There were actually a bunch of jokes in the various episodes about Perry White and Richard Nixon, which were doubly-funny if you had ever seen The Final Days. Smith also played the composite television newsman character Emmett Seaborn in Tom Hanks's miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, the coach in The Mighty Ducks, the district attorney in My Cousin Vinny, a network hotshot in Network, and did a couple of vocal guest shots on King of the Hill.

I always enjoyed seeing him on screen.