As of today it's been 2,172 days since the president said he would get Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."   As Dr. Phil would ask: How's that workin' for ya?

Day 1.  On August 29, 2005, as George Bush displayed a lovely birthday cake he'd baked for John McCain, a giant category-3 fetus was terrorizing abortion clinics in New Orleans.  FEMA head Michael Brown, drawing on his vast experience in disaster management as former head of the Arabian Horse Association legal department, responded swiftly and surely:

On August 29, the day of the storm, Brown exchanged e-mails about his attire with [FEMA's deputy director of public affairs Cindy] Taylor, [Rep. Charlie] Melancon said.  She told him, "You look fabulous," and Brown replied, "I got it at Nordstroms. ... Are you proud of me?"  An hour later, Brown added: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit.  I am a fashion god."

Given the events to follow, it would soon come to be known by historians as "the good day."

Two years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, “none of the 115 ‘critical priority projects’ identified by city officials” for publicly funded rebuilding efforts “has been completed.” Of the $34 billion “earmarked for long-term rebuilding,” less than half “has made its way through federal checks and balances to reach municipal projects.”

Zbig and Obama   I keep forgetting to link to something about Zbigniew Brzezinski's endorsement of Barack Obama. I see this as a significant development. Brzezinski is one of the leading members of what you might call the foreign policy counterestablishment that's slowly emerged over the past four years. This all dates back, in my experience, to his electrifying October 2003 speech at the New American Strategies conference that was organized in DC by progressives looking to formulate a meaningful challenge to neoconservatism.

Brzezinski fears (and I think it's a reasonable fear) that Hillary Clinton and her circle is dominated by the kind of people and thinking who played the dominant role in shaping Democratic policies between 9/11 and Kerry's defeat in 2004 -- Ari Berman's "strategic class" in short.

The Way Out Of Iraq: How To Safely And Orderly Redeploy In A Year

Opponents of a sensible Iraq withdrawal strategy have tried to argue that a redeployment is unfeasible either because it will be occur too quickly or because it will take too long.  President Bush argued recently warned that “precipitous withdrawal from Iraq is not a plan to bring peace to the region or to make our people safer at home.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates argued that an Iraq withdrawal “will be a long process.”

A new report by the Center for American Progress, entitled “How To Redeploy,” states that “deciding between a swift or extended redeployment is a false dilemma.” An orderly and safe withdrawal is best achieved over a 10- to 12-month period:

A phased military redeployment from Iraq over the next 10 to 12 months would begin extracting U.S. troops from Iraq’s internal conflicts immediately and would be completed by the end of 2008. During this timeframe, the military will not replace outgoing troops as they rotate home at the end of their tours and will draw down force and equipment levels gradually, at a pace similar to previous rotations conducted by our military over the past four years.

Most analysts claim that a withdrawal will be a drawn-out procedure because they assume, that given the amount of military equipment in Iraq, the U.S. is capable of moving out only one brigade per month to Kuwait.

The CAP report accelerates the timetable by placing an emphasis on the troops over the equipment. “It matters more to get soldiers and Marines to safety in Kuwait than it does to ensure one unit’s equipment is shipped out before another’s is able to.” The report explains that, rather than risking the lives of troops or wasting financial resources to stay longer, certain “non-sensitive equipment — such as freezers, sinks, fuel, excess equipment, and x-ray machines” can be left behind.

The report, authored by analysts Lawrence Korb, Max Bergmann, Sean Duggan, and Peter Juul, offers a detailed tactical perspective on withdrawal. Among a host of strategic maneuvers, the plan involves “closing forward operating bases” in Iraq, not replacing units that are rotated out, and securing the routes out of Iraq to Kuwait.

When Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) recently asked the Pentagon about contingency plans for withdrawal from Iraq, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded that she was reinforcing enemy propaganda. If the administration fails to take the initiative in planning for a drawdown, the report warns troops could end up “waiting for the helicopters on the embassy roof.”

Take A Stand.   Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is wrapping up its Iraq summer campaign today with Take A Stand Day. From coast to coast, thousands of concerned citizens will turn out to attend “Take a Stand” events and vigils organized by MoveOn.org, including one in Connecticut that will send a message to Sen. Joe Lieberman and Rep. Chris Shays. Iraq war vet John Bruhns writes, “Since the kick-off, ‘Iraq Summer’ organizers have held 362 press events, planted 30,452 lawn signs (often in the member’s immediate neighborhood), created 265 YouTube videos, and directly confronted members of Congress on their war votes 125 times.” Join tens of thousands of your fellow Americans who are taking part in over 680 events nationwide to Take A Stand against Bush’s disastrous course in Iraq. 

Fifty years ago today, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond ended an over 24-hour filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.  Good news: the bill passed and Eisenhower signed it.  Bad news: Thurmond got his voice back.

Today's Must Read They've still got muck.  (And we've still got rakes.)

Gonzo's Top 10 goofs  In case you missed it, and in case you're already in Alberto Gonzales withdrawal, don't miss our special TPMtv Top 10 Moments of Alberto Gonzales Ridiculousness. Help us count down ...  http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/051804.php 

Morning rant In the LA Times today, L.J. Williamson is upset that part-time cafeteria workers in Los Angeles schools want the district to provide them with health care benefits:

Part-time food service employees are seeking the same health benefits — including coverage for their families — that their full-time counterparts enjoy. Extending these benefits to cafeteria staff who currently work only three hours a day would cost an estimated $40 million a year, according to school board calculations.....This is fat that the food service's too-lean budget simply doesn't have. If health benefits were extended to these part-time workers, the CFPA estimates it would mean that the per-plate meal budget would be reduced from 85 cents to 49 cents. Making healthy food available for that amount would take a miracle of biblical proportions. So we'd be improving the healthcare of nearly 2,000 part-time workers at the expense of the 500,000 children who eat in public school cafeterias every day.

I would happily pay for universal health care just so I never had to read an op-ed like this again. It's not that Williamson doesn't have a point, it's just that this beggar-thy-neighbor attitude is enough to make me retch, and I see it all the time. I don't get dental coverage, so why should grocery workers? My copay went up last year, so why shouldn't everyone else's? I don't pay for health care for my housecleaners, so why should I pay it for school cafeteria workers? Our wretched private health care system has turned us into a nation of spiteful and small-minded misanthropes.

It's true that the growing gap between public workers and private workers is a real problem. In the past, there was something of a tradeoff: public sector workers generally got paid less than private sector workers but made up for it with job security and benefits. Today, though, public workers generally get higher salaries and better benefits and more vacation and earlier retirement and more lucrative pension packages compared to comparable private sector workers. And private sector workers are understandably annoyed by this. But their annoyance would be better directed not at the lucky public sector workers, but at the mahogany row executives and conservative politicians who pretend that the only possible use for the mountains of cash generated by decades of economic growth is to give it all to mahogany row executives and the billionaires who contribute to conservative politicians. Maybe they should listen to John Edwards instead.  End of rant.

The Kabuki show continues. The Washington Post reports that President Bush plans to ask for an additional $50 billion to fund the surge:

The request is being prepared now in the belief that Congress will be unlikely to balk so soon after hearing [David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker] argue that there are promising developments in Iraq but that they need more time to solidify the progress they have made, a congressional aide said.

So that's that, I guess. The White House already knows what Petraeus and Crocker are going to say and they figure it's going to be $50 billion of good news.

Soul-crushing moments.  And here I was, all set to join Ted Nugent and his merry band of machine gun-toting rebels.  Now I find out that he avoided military service by deliberately wetting his pants and pooping in his drawers.  Please don't let me down, Fred Thompson...you're the only hero I've got left.

Condi dresses down minimum wage worker.   In his upcoming biography of Condoleezza Rice, Washington Post correspondent Glenn Kessler shows how the Secretary of State “has lost none of her bluntness” while working “hard to soften her edges.” In one anecdote revealed by Kessler, Rice dressed down a jewelry store clerk who gave her less than satisfactory service:

 Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor who is one of the secretary of state’s closest friends, recalls going into a shop where Rice asked to see earrings. The clerk showed her costume jewelry. Rice asked to see something nicer, prompting the clerk to whisper some sass under her breath.

Blacker remembers Rice tearing the woman to shreds.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” he recalls her saying. “You are behind the counter because you have to work for minimum wage. I’m on this side asking to see the good jewelry because I make considerably more.”

A manager quickly brought Rice better baubles.

And they say Hillary's a bitch....

Hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SeL6i3sHM0

Warmongering by any other name stinks just as bad The Corner's Andy McCarthy writes that "At the Weekly Standard Kim Kagan's account demonstrates in detail that Iran's war against the U.S. in Iraq goes back some five years." Just yesterday, Jamie Kirchick scolded readers that "it's not 'warmongering' to simply state the fact that two rogue states are themselves complicit in unwarranted acts of warmongering against the United States and a nascent democracy in the Middle East."

I'm not sure if Kirchick is entirely clear on what the concept of "warmongering" means, but I'm pretty sure that this is, in fact, warmongering. But rather than quibble over semantics, the basic point is that these writers for America's top conservative publications would like to see the United States take military action against Iran (and possibly Syria) and to that end they're trying to convince the public that those countries are already at war with us. They started it, you see. I mean, arming and supporting Iraqi factions! What meddlers! Where do they get the nerve!

Well said!  GOP political consultant Scott Reed, reacting to the Larry Craig debacle:

“The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness,” said Mr. Reed, sounding exasperated in an interview on Tuesday morning. “You can’t make this stuff up. And the impact this is having on the grass-roots around the country is devastating. Republicans think the governing class in Washington are a bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country.”

Welcome to the reality-based community, Scott.  By the way, Democrats and Independents also think the GOP, in power for way too long, is "bunch of buffoons who have total disregard for the principles of the party, the law of the land and the future of the country."

Please, stop thanking me for my service  Raf Noboa at OpenLeft is tired of the empty rhetoric of supporting the troops.

Is there a Republican senator who's NOT having bathroom sex?

Dole?

As for Larry, Bob, David, Tom, Harlan, Randall, Al, Duke, Jeff, Ted, Joseph, Mark, Edward, Jim, Matthew, and all the rest -- I don't have time to list all your names and details, but other people do -- go to Hell.  Here's what they all have in common: they pretend it didn't happen; they try to buy people off to shut them up; they cry that they've been victimized; and then they continue to persecute everyone else by:

Voting YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage.
Voting NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes.
Voting NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation.
Voting YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage.
Voting NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation.

Welcome To Bedwetter Nation:

We are now officially a nation of hysterics:

Two people who sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare and now face a felony charge. The sprinkled powder forced hundreds to evacuate an IKEA furniture store Thursday.

New Haven ophthalmologist Daniel Salchow, 36, and his sister, Dorothee, 31, who is visiting from Hamburg, Germany, were both charged with first-degree breach of peace, a felony. Read more…

GOP sins: Craig vs Vitter  Lots of conservative bloggers, following Hugh Hewitt's lead, have called for Larry Craig to resign even though they didn't call for David Vitter to resign when he was outed for visiting prostitutes last month. Is this because Craig was trolling for gay sex and Vitter was trolling for straight sex? Probably, but before we go too far down that road I think Scott Lemieux is merely stating the obvious with his alternative explanation:

In the specific case of Hewitt, though, there's probably a more important factor: Louisiana's governor is a Democrat, and Idaho's is a Republican. Craig resigning would mean a Republican incumbent going into the 2008 election; Vitter resigning would mean another Democratic Senator. So no conservative pundit should get credit for standing on principle for demanding that Craig resign, and that goes triple if they haven't made the same call for Vitter (who actually violated the law, although he did so in a more heterosexual way that will help to earn forgiveness from conservatives.)

Does anyone seriously want to argue that Scott is off base here? Of course conservatives are turning against Craig secure in the knowledge that they're running no actual political risk. We're not children, are we?

Health care in America  The latest news from the health care front:

The nation's poverty rate declined for the first time this decade, but the number of Americans without health insurance rose to a record high of 47 million in 2006, according to Census figures released today.....The addition of 2.2 million people to the roster of the uninsured was attributed largely to continuing declines in employer-sponsored insurance coverage.

Cue an avalanche of blog posts, op-eds, TV rants, and floor speeches insisting that (a) the census figure is unreliable for one reason or another, (b) uninsured people get all the health care they need anyway, (c) it's all the fault of liberals who have driven up the cost of health care with pointless regulations about doctors washing their hands and so forth, (d) Canadians have longer wait times for hip replacements than we do, (e) the media only reports this stuff when Republicans are in office, (f) poor people ought to exercise more and eat better, (g) Michael Moore is fat, or (h) all of the above. I can't wait.

Speaking of civil war in the south of Iraq — and we were just speaking of it, weren't we? — here's the latest:

Clashes between rival Shiite Muslim militias in the holy city of Karbala today killed at least 50 people, torched three hotels and prompted Iraqi authorities to order the evacuation of more than 1 million pilgrims from the shrine where they had gathered.

More than 150 people were injured in the helter-skelter panic that followed random gunfire by militants in the Mahdi Army loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr and those of the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.....The death toll threatened to climb, with witnesses reporting dozens of bodies in the streets surrounding the Imam Hussein shrine and amid the smoldering rubble of the three buildings set on fire during the rampage.

I don't know about you, but I'm sure glad we're sticking it out in Iraq in order to referee a fight between the country's two leading Shiite political blocs. Pretty shrewd use of American power projection, isn't it?

Faux pas by someone who should know better.  First it was "Five Deferments Dick" who said he was moved by the "crosses" at Arlington National Cemetery.  Now Virginia Senator John Warner---a Korean War vet---rearranges the masonry on Meet the Press:

You know, this president, I know him pretty well.  It’s a privilege.  I remember this Memorial Day, he invited me to go to the ceremonies at Arlington.  My wife and I went up.  We drove up in the car with him and drove back.  And I sensed, as we passed those white crosses after he spoke up there and came back, he feels most sincerely the loss of our forces.

Yeah...all those crosses.  Time to retire, Gramps?

Just sayin' Consortiumblog: While writing his new book about the Bush presidency, Robert Parry was surprised at how often former Vice President Al Gore turned up making tragically prescient comments.

The Gulf Coast 2 years after Katrina How do we allow this to continue in this great country. Please watch the video, think about how much change is needed to keep this from continuing to happen in the US, and visit the web site to learn more and to support new legislative efforts to help the Gulf Coast.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95XH7pTPg2U

John Edwards Calls For “Brownie’s Law” For Federal Agencies  Reuters Via Yahoo:

Former Sen. John Edwards said at a Hurricane Katrina conference he would propose what he called “Brownie’s Law” requiring that qualified people, not political hacks, lead key federal agencies.

Edwards, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, drew laughter when he spoke on Monday of the proposal at the “Hope and Recovery Summit” ahead of the two-year anniversary of the storm on Wednesday.

“It’s an absolute travesty to have people who are essentially political hacks in a very responsible position,” he told the audience at the University of New Orleans.

“Brownie” refers to Michael Brown, who was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency when Katrina struck the United States on August 29, 2005. He was criticized as being a political appointee unprepared to lead FEMA when a floundering government effort stranded thousands for days in flooded New Orleans. Read more…

Wisconsin wingnut now US top cop  The Hudson Star Observer reports that a Wisconsin native == Paul Clement -- has been appointed interim attorney general.  As Wikipedia reports, Clement's professional life is solidly conservative, including stints with right-wingers such as Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, SC Justice Antonin Scalia, and as an associate of Kirkland & Ellis, Kenneth Starr's firm.

Clement has also argued major cases for the Bush administration defending its power grabs for the executive branch, and an aggressive right-wing legal agenda.  Law.com reports that he has "perfectly appointed conservative résumé." 

Legal Times' Vanessa Blum writes that: "During his brief return to private practice, Clement collaborated with the conservative American Center for Law & Justice on two amicus briefs in Bush v. Gore, supporting George W. Bush on behalf of Republican voters."

One has to believe that Clement, a former member of the Federalist Society, is much too politicized to expect much of his coming tenure in office.

From Prairie Weather:  Paul Clement as liar?

Our concern about Clement is of a slightly older vintage. When Clement appeared before the Supreme Court on behalf of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the Jose Padilla case on April 28, 2004, skeptical justices asked him about the risk that a detainee like Padilla might be abused while in custody. Clement's response: "Where the government is on a war footing ... you have to trust the executive to make the kind of quintessential military judgments that are involved in things like that." When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that some governments engage in "mild torture" to obtain information from detainees, Clement shot back: "Well, our executive doesn't."

From the Hudson Star Observer:

He collected rocks and was an excellent debater while growing up near Cedarburg.

Now, Paul Clement is about to become the nation’s “top-cop.”

President Bush named Clement, 41, Monday as the interim attorney general, from when Alberto Gonzales resigns Sept. 17 until a new person is confirmed.

Clement has been the nation’s Solicitor General for the last two years, arguing cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the Bush administration.

He’s been with the Justice Department since 2001, and was with the conservative Federalist Society before that.

Richard Samp of the Washington Legal Foundation says Clement is the one person who’s been unscathed by the numerous accusations against the Justice Department.

Steve Biskupic of Milwaukee, U.S. Attorney, says Clement is very bright and has never forgotten his Wisconsin roots. Liberal groups have not had good things to say about him.

Nan Aron of the Alliance for Justice calls Clement “part of an ultra-conservative group of lawyers recruited by this administration to limit the rights and liberties for Americans.”

Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Senate Democrats, have not commented on him.

Religious Reich to purge the GOP?   The Idaho Values Alliance--whose fortuitous juxtaposition on its website of articles praising Sen. Larry Craig's pro-life voting record and warning of the dangers of homosexuality and airport restrooms I highlighted the other day--is now calling for Craig to resign his Senate seat (you'll have to overlook the ignorant misuse of scripture):

The Judeo-Christian tradition says that the standard for identifying the truth is that “by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact is confirmed.” The senator’s guilty plea, when added to the officer’s testimony, satisfies the biblical standard for confirming the essential truth of what happened, and unless the senator can provide a compelling and convincing explanation for his plea, we will need to regretfully accept that the fact of his behavior has been established. It seems unlikely that he can “unring the bell” his guilty plea has sounded.

I'm sure the "ring the bell" double entendre was completely unintended (as was, by the way, the opening line of Craig's press appearance yesterday: "Thank you all very much for coming out today . . .").

In any event, the IVA isn't stopping with Larry Craig. It won't be satisfied until all homosexuals are run out the GOP:

One larger issue must be addressed. The Republican Party platform clearly rejects the agenda of homosexual activists. The Party, in the wake of the Mark Foley incident in particular, can no longer straddle the fence on the issue of homosexual behavior. Even setting Senator Craig’s situation aside, the Party should regard participation in the self-destructive homosexual lifestyle as incompatible with public service on behalf of the GOP.

No member of the Republican Party in the 1860s could represent his party and be a slaveholder at the same time. Nor can the Republican Party of today speak with authority and clarity to the moral issues that confront our society and at the same time send ambivalent messages about sexual behavior. It is time for the Republican Party to be the party that defends the American family in word, deed, and by personal example.

Let the purges begin. Presumably, in addition to homosexuals, the GOP must be cleansed of the divorced, adulterers, abortion recipients, gamblers . . . the list goes on. Once you remove all the "sinners" from the Republican Party, the Democrats should hold a decided electoral advantage.

So true (bwahahaha)  Palm Beach Post columnist: bathroom mishaps "serve as a cautionary tale on the importance of guy bathroom etiquette for the rest of us."

Cheers to late bloomers.  At age 88, Lorraine Barr---who never once played footsies with anyone in a bathroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport---just came out of the closet and explains why in an eloquent Newsweek essay:

Why am I now able to speak the unspoken? A friend at the retirement community where I live recently came out in the local and national newspapers.  When I saw her do that, I thought, for heaven's sake, nobody can fire me, I'm 88 years old, my parents are gone.  Still, I was frightened. It took me several days to put this essay in the mailbox.  I owe a lot of credit to people who are comfortable enough in their own skins to say, "This is who I am."

Shall I be haunted for trying to tell my story now, when many might still not wish to address it, or shall I, perhaps, be congratulated?

Pshaw, lady.  Your toaster oven's already in the mail.

Minnesota sex lawyer GFR brings you everything you wanted to know about cruising in Minnesota men's rooms, reaching the conclusion that it seems to be perfectly legal.

The coming swoon  Kevin Drum and Ilan Goldenberg raise some doubts as to how trustworthy David Petraeus' much-anticipated September report on the "surge" is really going to be. And, of course, they're right to. I'm not sure what else one would expect -- when people self-evaluate, they usually come up with positive accounts of themselves. Besides which, as long as Petraeus thinks what he's doing is working on any level, he's going to decide that he ought to exaggerate how well it's working in hopes of bolstering support. And, of course, if the war ever does end Petraeus is going to want it to be because politicians decided to end it despite his brilliant successes rather than because he failed.

At any rate, it seems safe to assume that the most recent round of congressional junkets has adequately previewed what we're going to hear in DC, namely some misleading spinning of the Anbar Awakening plus some unconvincing data about declining civilian casualties plus the usual screwed up political situation.

Ben's new threads.  The U.S. Treasury is giving the one hundred dollar bill---which is the most widely counterfeited U.S. currency---a high-tech makeover:

It combines micro-printing with tiny lenses — 650,000 for a single $100 bill. The lenses magnify the micro-printing in a truly remarkable way.  Move the bill side to side and the image appears to move up and down. Move the bill up and down and the image appears to move from side to side.

And if it stands perfectly still?  Find a designated driver.

I'm getting sick of hearing the beltway pundit argument that goes something like this: "Well, there have only been two Democratic presidents elected in the last 40 years, which means they suck."  Oh really?  Well let's zoom out a bit, shall we?  If you go back 75 years to 1932, Democrats have either been elected or re-elected ten times, verses nine for Republicans, and one of those times the reins were wrongly handed to the GOP by the Supreme Court.  So in terms of being elected fair and square it's ten to eight in our favor.  Next year we'll take back the White House and get re-elected in 2012, and that'll make it twelve to eight.  Who sucks now, nincompoop?

Context and History  From TPM Reader TB ...

Fine coverage, as always. I very much enjoy and appreciate your site.

Regarding Larry Craig's bathroom actions and American public sex in general: there are two comments I'd like to add to the discussion. First, male-male sex in public bathrooms has been going on in America for at least 100 years...probably since the invention of the public bathroom. Our culture's lack of understanding of sexuality, and our gender-segregated bathrooms, created an environment where males naturally happen upon each other in stages of undress (much like the locker room). Such scandalous behavior has been uncovered at YMCAs (originally built as boarding houses for World War I soldiers), park restrooms, and transit station restrooms since the early 20th century. Typically, men who had sex with each other in these restrooms were caught by plainclothes investigators who pretended to accept their suitors' advances (and, in some cases, were quite passionate about their ... investigations) before booking them. Long prison terms, psychiatric "treatment", and public humiliation were common outcomes of these investigations. For most of the 20th century, there were very, very few public places in most of America for men to meet each other. There was certainly no public space friendlier to gays in Boise, Idaho, than the library and park bathrooms when Sen. Craig was a young man. I call them preliminaries because they preface more intricate coded behavior that can indicate a variety of things: whose stall the contact will happen; what activities are amenable to either party; whether money will change hands; whether there is a lookout; whether the place itself is safe; and much more. "Tearooms," as these bathrooms are called, established an entire non-verbal dialectic to facilitate sexual union between American men. They are as enshrined in gay culture as Sunday afternoon "tea dances," or Bette Midler singing at the baths, or Stonewall, or, currently, Internet dating. Even for me, as a young gay man from Wisconsin curious about gay sex in the mid-1980s, the park restrooms were the place where it all happened. The restrooms were not just an urban legend: they were living history -- noisy, confusing, heady, stinky, and nervewracking places for a sexual -- and cultural -- initiation. The codes that Craig and his arresting officer used (looking through the stall door; tapping one's foot; touching your stall neighbor's foot) are historical preliminaries to sexual contact.

Which leads me to this: we do not live in the 1930s anymore, or even the 1980s. One can make the distinction now between furtive behavior and discreet behavior. There are lots of ways by which and places where men can meet other men to wine, dine, kiss, screw, get married, or just civilly unionize. It doesn't have to happen in the bathroom, unless that is what you choose. I feel some fondness for tearooms, where men would look at me, then just 18, like I was Ganymede come back to earth. There is an excitement and danger and kink to public sex that I still enjoy, in empty cemeteries on moonless nights with someone I like, offending only the dead. There are so many ways to meet someone and approximate the thrill of the tearooms. We could say that Sen. Craig was just unimaginative, or wouldn't have it any other way; I think he hadn't caught up with the ways gay culture has changed, and he didn't know how.

But it's never too late: if I were him, I'd be on Craig's list with a crotch shot and a "married, discreet" tag.

“Moon Karl Rove, and you’ll be arrested. When the politico spoke on American University’s campus in April, he was met by a throng of angry Democratic students’ behinds as they dropped trou and blocked Rove’s motorcade. Most of the kids were given 40 hours of community service by the university, but on Friday, the cheeky group was notified that the Secret Service has issued warrants for their arrest.”