The Jeff Booth Show

Internet Radio with Pictures

Show Transcripts

November 2nd, 2008

You can contact us at:

Jeff@eroticuniversity.com

(818) 613-9248

This is the Jeff Booth Show for November 2nd, 2008, brought to you by the Center for Sexual Expression and Education, and Erotic University. I’m Jeff Booth. And this is our all politics pre-election special show. In two days, we have the most important election of my lifetime. There is a lot at stake.

Our Pre-Election Special focuses on the sexual aspects of politics, and we have extensively evaluated the presidential and vice-presidential candidates and what their effect on sex would be. You can read our evaluations on our new blog, Porn and Politics, which you can find at pornandpolitics.org. I’ll give you the short version- Obama- pretty good for sex. Biden- Not too bad. Palin- a nightmare. And McCain- If you love how women, sex and gays were treated in the 1950’s, you’ll love McCain.  

At this point though, even though it is critical that everyone still gets out to vote, the polling looks like Obama is going to be our next president. I personally have not felt this hopeful about an election in a long time. He offers policies I have longed for politicians to offer for years. I suspect that he will not waste the Justice Department’s time going after adult entertainment as is now the current policy. I may be wrong, as Democrats have not had a very good track record on these issues either, but he seems like someone who actually knows how to set priorities.

At the same time, a vote for Obama is also voting against my interests, at least as far as this show is concerned. With the Republicans in power, there has been an endless amount of material each week for this show. Some weeks it almost writes itself. That could change under an Obama administration. I may have to work a lot harder to come up with political material. But I guess working harder is a sacrifice I am willing to make in the interests of a better country and a better quality of life for my fellow citizens. We all have to make sacrifices.

As usual, just click on the topic you want to listen to, and thanks for clicking in.

An Open Letter to Comedian Victoria Jackson

Hi Victoria. This is Jeff. Remember the great times we used to have when we both worked at the Variety Arts Theatre in downtown Los Angeles? Those were heady days.  We were both the same age, only a few months apart, we both had met the one we were going to marry, we both did comedy, and we were both at the start of our show business careers.

I worked as a stage manager on the main stage, and you worked as a cigarette girl and photographer in the 40’s themed supper club on the fourth floor. You also did short comedy turns on the stage there. I still remember the first time we saw you sing “I have flipped over you” and then you did a flip. Very funny. Kris and I always enjoyed going upstairs to watch you work. By the way, Kris and I are still together and happily married. I was sorry to hear about you and Nisan.

We always found you funny and likable, even though it was sometimes hard to tell where your character ended and you began. We were thrilled when you got the stint on Saturday Night Live. We rushed out to see your first movie. Well, actually, we rushed out to rent it. Or watched in on HBO. It was not nearly as bad as the reviews made it out to be.

We haven’t heard much about you in years, until your name suddenly got interjected into the presidential and senate campaigns. Even though you worked on Saturday Night Live with Al Franken, you have decided to publicly go after him and do an opposition campaign commercial against him in his run for the Senate seat in Minnesota against Norm Coleman. And ouch, it has to hurt to be described in the Huffington Post as a B-list celebrity and a rabid anti-Obama comedian.

In the Coleman commercial, you actually deliver the lowest blow when you say about Franken "We don't all write dirty articles for Playboy." Really, Victoria? I remember your very early comedy routines which certainly did not shy away from sexual innuendo. You starred in a movie called Casual Sex? And then there’s your comedy CD called Use Me. With titles such as Ravished, Adultery, Bimbos in Bikinis, and I Wanna Be a Slut. Maybe Playboy just never asked you to write anything for them. And is it sour grapes that your career took a dive while Franken has made a huge splash as both an author and a comedian and now potentially a Senator?

But what you said about Franken is nothing compared to what you have been saying about Obama. And that is where describing you as a rabid anti-Obama comedian misses the mark. In this area, you are not at all funny. Crazy, maybe. But not funny crazy. Just crazy.

On your Web site, you wrote: “I don't want a political label, but Obama bears traits that resemble the anti-Christ and I'm scared to death that uneducated people will ignorantly vote him into office.” Victoria, if you don’t want uneducated ignorant people to vote, then, don’t vote. And don’t worry- I don’t think they’ll give you a political label. Another type of label is far more likely.

Amidst a whole bunch of fundamentalist Christian ravings against Obama on your site, you call Obama a communist, a racist, a Marxist, dangerous, and a fake Christian. And you quote even worse stuff from others, such as this: "We must in all seriousness ask if Barack Hussein Obama could be a Muslim terrorist sympathizer or a Marxist mole. His closest friends include Communists, domestic and Muslim terrorists, racists and convicted felons. In his book Audacity of Hope, Barack Hussein Obama says, 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'". Are you completely unaware that none of that is true?

Much earlier in a post from sometime last year, one I am sure you have forgotten, you wrote about Joy Behar from The View and her criticism of the current president, and you said that even though you opposed Bill Clinton: ‘I would never use my SNL connection to publicly criticize him and I would never speak of another human being with such vitriol.” Except now you have used your SNL connection to go after Franken, and I guess Obama does not count as another human being, because your vitriol against him far exceeds anything Joy ever said about Bush. And I know how much you love Bush from your site, but my God, the man has certainly earned a little vitriol.

Yes, I know you have always been a fundamentalist Christian, and that the Harriet Hayes character on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was partly based on you. And that character was treated very sympathetically. And I do understand where you are coming from. I went to a fundamentalist school. I understand that world view. And I know that you, like most people in this country, are scared. These are scary times. And as Kris just said, when people are scared, they tend to project their fears onto other people. So I don’t think you have become a bad person. Just deeply misguided, with a remarkably shallow understanding of your own faith. You claim Obama does not understand the Bible, and that he is not a real Christian, but you say a lot of things about him that are not true. Remember the part in the Bible about not bearing false witness?  If you really understood the Bible as you claim to, then you would know that the kinds of things you are saying are not things that Christ would approve of. He was more of a love your neighbor kind of guy, and it is pretty clear that he got the whole separation of church and state thing. Remember his “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”?

So read your Bible and pray. But do try harder to actually understand the message of the Gospels. The kind of hateful stuff you have been spreading is not all that compatible with a reading of scripture.

Down Ticket Candidates

Sure, we focus on the top job when it is a presidential election, but let’s look at some of the down ticket candidates.

One of the nastiest campaigns has been the one run by Senator Elizabeth Dole against her opponent Kay Hagan. Besides what I think will be a career ending attempt by Dole to dishonestly paint her Presbyterian opponent as a rabid atheist, there was also a mailing from the North Carolina Republican State Executive Committee. The mailings warn that Hagan seeks to advance a “radical homosexual agenda” that includes legalizing gay marriage, removing “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, and forcing the Boy Scouts to accept gay and atheist troop leaders.  Since when did homosexuals suddenly also adopt an atheist agenda? I guess I missed that one at the last homosexual and friends agenda setting meeting. This mailer ties in some of the claims from Dole, so she is apparently quite invested in the anti-gay Hagan is an atheist gambit. Say good-bye to the Senate, Elizabeth.

In the Al Franken – Norm Coleman dustup for Senator in Minnesota, a number of people were outraged by what has been dubbed the rape comic book sent out by Republicans. The front cartoon cover shows an unflattering caricature of Franken with the words “Come on in kids… Senator Franken’s going to tell a few jokes…” Well, technically, Franken would dispute that, as he makes it a point to deny that he does comedy, calling himself a satirist. Inside the comic book, it shows a kid thinking “We shouldn’t have to wonder what he’ll say” with the text over another unflattering caricature: “Al Franken wrote a pornographic column for Playboy and thought it was funny.” Gee, I read it and thought it was funny too. Apparently so did publisher Playboy, which has a long record of publishing excellent writing. And it was satire. Satire is not advocacy, as his critics seem to think. It is actually the opposite. And while it was adult humor written for adults, it was a far cry from pornography. But then, these are the same folks that think that Cosmo magazine is pornography.

Then they get to the rape charge. A little girl thinks “We shouldn’t have to apologize for his actions” to the text “Al Franken has written so-called comedy routines about raping women”.  With this all in comic form looking very inviting to kids, a lot of folks are not thrilled that this is coming in the mail to them. Since Franken seems more popular with women than men in Minnesota, a television ad was less subtle- the narrator says that “Al Franken had written about committing rape”, which makes it sound like he was talking about an actual act instead of a joke. Then it says that he writes pornography so vile that even Democrats denounced him. But again, it wasn’t pornography, it was satire, and yes, there are plenty of Democrats with no sense of humor and a few of them did get up in arms. But over humor, not pornography. But you’d never know that from the ad. Oh yeah- Franken is also a socialist, according to voter phone calls. The dirty campaigning is working. Norm Coleman, who makes many lists as one of the most corrupt Senators in Washington, is now leading in the polls.

In the Washington governor’s race, birth control has become an issue. Republican challenger Dino Rossi opposes requiring pharmacists to fill birth control prescriptions. Can’t have women getting legally prescribed birth control. That might prevent them from having their rapist’s baby. It has also become an issue in the Senate race between Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican John Sununu. Sununu has consistently voted against contraception, including voting against funding international family planning programs and contraceptive coverage for federal employees. Birth control is also a hot topic in New Jersey’s Fourth District, where Representative Chris Smith is running for reelection.  On twenty-two separate occasions, Smith has introduced legislation to criminalize the birth control pill and IUD. Criminalize as in putting women in jail for using them. He is one of the fiercest opponents in the Senate of a woman’s right to choose, and by right to choose, he means the right to choose not to get and stay pregnant.

The Initiatives

Obviously, living here in California, I have been paying the most attention to Propositions 4 and 8. These are the types of initiatives pushed by the Karl Rove strategy to get social conservatives out to the polls. And California is not alone. Colorado, Arizona and South Dakota have noxious initiatives designed to appeal to social conservative voters.

First up, lets look at one of the worst in the nation- South Dakota’s Measure 11 abortion ban, which is running dead even in the polls. Interestingly, but not unsurprisingly, women tend to oppose it and men tend to support it. It is a total ban on abortion designed to create an opportunity to take it to the Supreme Court with the hope of a test case to undo the Roe v. Wade decision. The legislature tried this before with a bill that had no provision for the life or health of the mother. Whoops, I forgot to put “health of the mother” in air quotes. South Dakota voters undid that bill, but apparently many of them  are not aware that Measure 11 is almost exactly the same. It does offer exceptions for the life and health of the mother and for rape and incest, until you look at the fine print. If you are raped, you have to be able to prove it through a DNA sample, so unless your rapist is caught and convicted and you get a court ordered DNA sample, you get to carry his baby. Once the baby is born,  he can show up, claim that you are a lying bitch, get his own DNA test, and demand parental rights.  The health exception is similarly deceptive. Nothing short of death and organ failure is allowed as an exception, and they even have a way around that. Say, for example, you have cancer. You can’t get chemotherapy while you are pregnant, so under the law, the woman would just have to wait. Maybe until it was too late. And since doctors can go to prison for performing an abortion even if they think it is for the health of the mother, many doctor’s may not want to risk such judgment calls that could destroy their lives over an ambiguous standard. And what about the instance of twins where you might need to abort one to save the life of the other. Under the law, that is in God’s hands, not the doctor’s. It is amazing how the so-called pro-life folks have such a callous disregard for actual life.

In Colorado, they have Amendment 48, one of the craziest amendments to make it on a ballot anywhere. It is not the worst, but only because it is losing badly and stands little chance of being enacted. It declares that an egg is a person from the moment of fertilization. The language is pretty clear- a fertilized egg has inalienable rights, equality of justice, and due process of law. What is unclear is what that would actually mean. Obviously, all forms of abortion would be outlawed. But technically, in vitro fertilization that has to sacrifice a few eggs would seem to be against the law. Eggs could even find that people are suing on their behalf. And since we generally mean by conception that an egg has implanted, not just been fertilized, it could outlaw birth control pills and emergency contraception. You know, the kind of emergency contraception used by rape victims. These pro-life folks seem to be obsessed with making sure that rapists have the opportunity to be daddies. And it would be unbelievably intrusive into women’s lives. If a woman has a miscarriage, she can expect investigators at her doorstep to make sure that it was not her fault. None of this will happen in Colorado, because it is not going to pass, but this legislation will continue to appear in states across the country until they find a state just crazy enough to vote for it.

Arizona was the first state to reject a ban on gay marriage, but this year they are at it again with a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman- Proposition  102. It could join the other 27 states that now have gay marriage bans. It seems to have a better chance, since it is less restrictive than the previous measure, which also banned all government employee benefits in domestic partnerships. John McCain, whose home state is Arizona, strongly supports Prop 102 as part of his consistent anti-gay agenda. The last poll we read had it too close to call.

Back here in California, The initiative to require parental child notification for abortion is in the lead. The point is to make abortion more difficult for teenagers, but the probable outcome will be that while abortion stays legal for adult women, we’ll be going back to the back alley abortions or do it yourself abortions for teenagers with parents who might oppose abortion. I am uncomfortable with anyone forcing a woman to carry a baby to term, and if she is pregnant, I have news for you, she is technically a woman. Letting parents decide seems like a reasonable thing, but parents are not always reasonable. Oh sure, you could get an abortion even if the father who raped you objects, once he has been convicted with your help. Oh, and heads up rapists who want to be daddies. All you have to do is a rape a girl who you know has parents that oppose abortion. I guess this is what they mean by being pro-family. You get to have a family whether you want one or not.  

Running too close to call in the polls is the California anti-gay marriage amendment, Prop 8, which wound up being the most expensive initiative in the country. It would also be the first ban on gay marriage in a state that has already legalized it. And if passed, it will create chaos, as nothing in the initiative explains what we are going to do about the California couples already married. Sure, it is pretty clear that their marriages will be considered null and void, but how exactly do you do that? What about all of the folks who undid their domestic partnership agreements, so that they could have the more rigorous protections of marriage? Are they suddenly out of luck? It is a cruel constitutional amendment, and I am appalled and disappointed in my fellow Californians that this thing is so close.

The pro-Prop 8 people have run the typical lie filled campaign generally associated with these types of amendments. There was even a full page ad in the Los Angeles times with a large drawing of Jesus, who although he never said word one about homosexuality, apparently hates the gays too.

Prop 8 has created a dust-up at Pepperdine University, as an associate law professor there has been appearing in commercials with a raft full of lies and distortions- so much so that the increasingly Christian conservative campus has demanded that the Yes on 8 people remove their name from the ads, a request they refused.

The ad claims that a no vote on Pro 8 will lead to people being sued over personal beliefs, churches will lose their tax exemption, and gay marriage will be forced to be taught in public schools. Since none of those things are required now with gay marriage legal, it makes no sense that not changing the law would somehow require them. It’s just designed to scare the dickens out of homophobes. If you are going to lie, why not go all the way? “I’m a law professor and constitutional expert. A no vote on Proposition 8 will lead to lawsuits forcing teachers to have gay sex with your children while shutting down churches that refuse to hire pedophile priests, and interning those who refuse to have gay sex into reeducation camps at Manzanar. Vote no, because your ass is literally on the line.”   

Proposition K is somewhat ironically named, since it is the initiative in San Francisco that would prohibit the use of public funds to enforce laws against prostitutes, for whom propositions are just part of business. It would also mandate that police investigate crimes against sex workers. It takes away one of the greatest problems with this whole criminalizing prostitution thing- the ability of police officers to use the threat of arrest to force prostitutes to have sex with them. And every prostitute I have interviewed has told me that this happens all of the time. Often the greatest physical danger to prostitutes comes from police officers, not clients or even pimps. This has been borne out by study after study. Police also force prostitutes to act as informants, which can put them in physical danger. Proposition K also tells officers that their job is to protect these workers, not abuse them. Sex workers who are arrested often lose their jobs, find it difficult to get jobs when they get out of jail, and even if they no longer want to be prostitutes, the wind up returning to prostitution as a last resort. Proposition K is not a perfect solution and does not eliminate all of the abuses, but it’s a great start, and it’s about damn time. Our anti-prostitution laws result in tremendous abuses against women, and you have to wonder just what their purpose is. Who are they protecting? It certainly isn’t women.