Tuesday Mashup (11/30/10)

This tells us that those “values voter” wingnuts have sprung into action once more and forced the Smithsonian Institution to bow to their collective will…

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery is under fire for hosting an exhibit that is filled with homoerotic art, an image of Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts and a video of Jesus on a crucifix covered in ants, outraging conservative leaders and prompting some Republican lawmakers to call for a congressional investigation.

“Absolutely we should look at their funds,” Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, told Fox News.

“If they’ve got money to squander like this – of a crucifix being eaten by ants, of Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, men in chains, naked brothers kissing – then I think we should look at their budget.”

The video, “A Fire in My Belly,” is included in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibit titled, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” which is scheduled to run through the Christmas season.

An update on the Fix Noise site tells us that, because of the collective screeching of these life forms, the Smithsonian is canceling the video exhibit, even though…

National Portrait Gallery historian and exhibit co-curator David C. Ward told CNSNews.com, which first reported the story, that “A Fire in My Belly” reflects the “violent, disturbing and hallucinatory” aspects of the AIDS epidemic.

“Fire in My Belly is an example of political engagement in artistic form with the AIDS epidemic by an artist deeply concerned with the exploration of our response to that medical and societal calamity,” Ward said. “That it is violent, disturbing, and hallucinatory precisely replicates the impact of the disease itself on people and a society that could barely comprehend its magnitude.”

This is a timely reminder due to the following (noted here)…

After 15 years of increased support for HIV/AIDS programs, funding stagnated due to the global economic crisis. In 2009, commitments from donor governments totaled $8.7 billion, equal to that in 2008.

National testing campaigns have proven successful in several African countries like Burkina Faso, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania. South Africa has launched the world's largest HIV testing campaign, aiming to test 15 million people by June 2011.

"It is clear that without continued and strengthened financial and programmatic commitments, there is considerable danger that these achievements could be undone," the report said.

For this reason, anything that can possibly draw attention to the fight against HIV/AIDS is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. And it’s not in the least bit surprising that “family values” hypocrites like Jack Kingston (who, apparently, is still searching for his flag lapel pin) and Bill Donahue have sprung into action to criticize the Smithsonian video (and OMIGOD! Ellen DeGeneres is HOLDING HER BREASTS!!).

(And yes, I’ll be honest and say that I can live without seeing Jesus on the cross with ants on him also. But sometimes, art needs to be shocking to make a point, particularly concerning HIV/AIDS.)

However, now with the Congressional Republicans ascendant, we can look forward to a fresh round of caterwauling over “values” stuff like this as a smokescreen while they shower more perks on their true “base” in the form of tax cuts, spending and legislation designed to make their alleged burden as light as possible.

Still, though, it galls me in the extreme that a bunch of uptight, self-serving hypocrites think that, as usual, they can dictate what kind of art I choose to patronize. Well, two can play at that game.

This tells us that the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery is scheduled to run an exhibit on The Sainted Ronnie R starting next July; if you wish to follow my lead and protest the exhibit, contact the Smithsonian by clicking here (And by the way, Smithsonian, which “four failed presidencies” are you referring to in the Reagan writeup? That’s a rather snarky and pointless jab at at least one Democratic president. Is it necessary to point out the benefits of The Great Society and the Panama Canal treaty once more?).

Actually, I think protesting Reagan in the name of activism on behalf of HIV/AIDS is highly appropriate, since, as noted here, it was his cowardly neglect in the face of the fight against it that exacerbated it (which I’m sure will be dutifully ignored in the Reaganalia scheduled to inundate us beginning next February, the 100th anniversary of his birth…maybe someone can find a “welfare queen” and evict her as a “tribute”).

Update 1: More from Think Progress here...

Update 2: Even more apropos to acknowledge the exhibit given this...

Next (speaking of self-serving Repugs), Rick Santorum tells us the following about health care reform (here)…

"First, get rid of Obamacare," Santorum said. "Repeal it. There is nothing, nothing there that is worth saving, in my opinion."

Most calls for repealing the law exclude provisions such as stopping insurers from rejecting clients because of pre-existing conditions or allowing children to stay on their parents' plan until they are 26 years old. Polls show wide support for those provisions. Voters do not like the law's mandate that everyone must buy insurance.

Asked for clarification at an evening event, Santorum stood by his earlier remarks. He said the pre-existing conditions clause in the law doesn't work because it allows people to wait until they get sick to buy insurance, which he said would cause insurance premiums to "skyrocket."

(Hence the need for the mandate, but good luck trying explain that to Little Ricky – maybe there’s some wiggle room on the “tax” against those who don’t subscribe, though.)

While it seems that the polling numbers on health care reform have pretty much solidified for the moment based on this, this tells us that only 14 percent of those polled want our politicians to tinker with the new law as opposed to, you know, doing stuff to create actual jobs.

So yeah, Ricky, you go ahead and harp on something that is at least partly favorable with a majority of those polled, to say nothing of lowering the deficit over time. Just keep running on that and let me know how you make out, OK?

Finally, Senator “Country First” (Which one, I sometimes wonder?) had some good words to say here about departing U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Russ Feingold (and once again, an eternal pox on that state for tossing Feingold in favor of the odious Ron Johnson).

What an utter shame that this charlatan (McCain, I mean) didn’t have the moral character to, in tribute to his exiting colleague, support the DISCLOSE Act as noted here, the passage of which would have prevented in future elections the disgrace of the “U.S.” Chamber of Commerce ads that largely proved to be Feingold’s undoing (actually, as Steve Benen tells us, McCain not only opposed DISCLOSE, he filibustered it).

With the Repug takeover of the House and their gridlock of the Senate, you can rest assured that DISCLOSE is dead for the foreseeable future.

And McCain will still continue to be invited to the Sunday morning gab fests as if absolutely nothing has happened.