Teabagger GOP Rep. Sean Duffy: I Can't Live On My Terrible Salary Of $174,000

Talking Points Memo reports that the GOP is furiously trying to scrub the net of the below video in which freshman Tea Party-backed GOP Rep. Sean Duffy (WI) complains about his annual salary of $174,000.

A day after TPM posted the video we obtained of Duffy talking about his salary at a Polk County town hall meeting earlier this year, the Polk County GOP contacted the video provider we used to host the video, Blip.tv, and demanded the video be taken down. The tape caused a stir for Duffy, a first-term conservative best known for his past as a reality TV show star on MTV's The Real World. Democrats flagged the comments about his taxpayer-funded salary (which is nearly three times the median income in Wisconsin) and criticisms began to flow Duffy's way.

Duffy, who has six kids, was endorsed for office by the Wisconsin hate group that pushed for a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Carol Ann Duffy Becomes UK's First Openly Gay Poet Laureate

The UK has appointed Carol Ann Duffy as its first openly gay poet laureate. She is also the first woman to hold the post.

Duffy, who once said "no self-respecting poet" should have to write verses about the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son, will be expected to produce poems for royal weddings, funerals and other state occasions. A witty and popular writer whose work is widely taught in British schools, Duffy is also the first openly gay laureate. Duffy said she had thought "long and hard" before accepting the job, which now has a 10-year term. "I look on it as a recognition of the great woman poets we have writing now," she told the BBC.

The job pays £5000 annually.

I Met Duffy Last Night

Late last night I met Welsh pop star Duffy after her in-store performance at the Union Square Virgin Megastore. In the last 24 hours she'd done a sold out show at the Apollo, a couple of the morning talk shows, and then Conan - yet she still chatted sweetly and amiably with every one of the hundreds of fans lined up for autographs. My houseguest, a Universal Music exec, told me that it was her first in-store ever. (He also promised us some great Duffy swag to give away here.)

Duffy's debut album Rockferry came out yesterday in the U.S. and is already #2 on Amazon. It should be interesting to see if she dislodges Madonna at #1 in Billboard next week. One funny bit from last night: Outside the store, people were peering in the window wondering what all the ruckus was. Security Guard: "That's Hillary Duff." College Chick: "Wow! She's looks really different than her pictures."

TKTS Giveaway

Midtowners: If you truck over to the new TKTS booth in Times Square (like, right now) Target is paying for the first 1000 Broadway tickets sold. The giveaway starts at 3PM.

Broadway legend Bernadette Peters just announced from the podium at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening the revitalized Duffy Square and new TKTS Booth, that the first 1,000 tickets sold will be courtesy of Target. Ticket buyers standing in line for the booth's 3pm opening will have the opportunity to receive one or two vouchers, each redeemable for one free ticket.

Theatre Development Fund (TDF)'s new TKTS Discount Booth, located "under the red steps" in Father Duffy Square (Broadway and 47th Street, Manhattan), offers same-day discounts of up to 50% off for tickets to Broadway, Off Broadway, music and dance productions to performing arts lovers from the world over.

Later today, from 6:30pm to 7pm, Tony winners Brian Stokes Mitchell, John Leguizamo, Sutton Foster and emcee Julie Halston will join members of the Broadway community for the Inaugural Lighting Ceremony to illuminate the magnificent red glass staircase under which the TKTS booth sits, after which they will welcome the new Duffy Square and TKTS Booth by singing "Give My Regards To Broadway."

The new booth features 12 selling windows, each equipped with the ability to accept credit cards for sale of same-day discount tickets to Broadway, Off Broadway, music and dance productions. There is a special "Play Only" window where there is rarely a wait for tickets to non-musical productions. Hours of operation for TKTS Times Square are: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 3pm to 8pm for evening performances, Tuesdays from 2pm to 8pm for evening performances; Wednesday and Saturday from 10am to 2pm for matinee performances; and Sunday from 11 to 3pm for matinee performances and 3pm to 7pm for evening performances.

Duffy - Warwick Avenue

I cannot get enough of Welsh pop sensation Duffy. And not just because when I first posted about her last year she sent me a sweetly autographed photo. (Which I promptly lost somehow.) This is the third single from the full-length Rockferry, due out here May 13rd.

The previous single, Mercy, topped every chart in Europe, stayed at #1 in the UK for five weeks, and has gotten 7.5 million views on YouTube. The album is already out overseas and is presently #1 for the 7th week on Billboard's Top European Albums chart. Duffy plays Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater on May 12th (get tickets here) and will be performing a free in-store acoustic set at the Union Square Virgin Megastore the next day.

Duffy - Well, Well, Well

Here's the first single from the upcoming new album by Welsh sensation Duffy, whose 2008 debut album Rockferry was my favorite from that year and landed her the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal. Plus she was very sweet when I met her!

Morning View - New TKTS Booth

Risking the long arm of the Showtune Police, I snuck around the barrier and grabbed this shot of the front side of the new TKTS booth in Times Square, which is due to open this month. The ticket windows are under the bleachers.

The classic TKTS booth is (almost) back with a bold new look: the discounted theater-ticket sales window (and de facto Times Square gathering place) is scheduled to reopen on Oct. 16 at 12:30 p.m. in Duffy Square, the Times Square Alliance announced. The new booth, where Broadway and Seventh Avenue intersect 46th Street, is made of fiberglass and has an amphitheater-style staircase, with 27 slip-resistant steps that will be able to seat more than 500 hot-chocolate-sipping bargain hunters who are after half-price tickets to “Mary Poppins” or “Avenue Q.”

Unbelievably, this thing cost $19M and has taken over two years to build. But hey, soon you'll be able to park your butt in the middle of Times Square.

CORRECTION: According to this Playbill story, the cost for the TKST booth renovation is only $2M, money raised by the Theater Development Fund. The rest of the remake of Father Duffy Square was part of an $18M project taken on by the Times Square Alliance. The square, actually an official NYC park, is now 110% larger.

Duffy - Rockferry

My boss from back in my music biz days is staying with me this week and he's just turned me onto Welsh popster Duffy, whose single Rockferry sounds a lot like Lulu to me. With maybe some Dusty Springfield thrown in.

Grammy Nom For Sam Sparro

Openly gay Australian singer Sam Sparro received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording last night for his single Black And Gold (above), which was released at the start of the year. Even though the single has had 8 million views on YouTube, somehow I'd never heard of Sparro until the Out 100 Awards last month where he was a performer. And I missed his show because I was backstage at the time, dammit.

More nominations:

Dance recording

Harder Better Faster Stronger Daft Punk
Ready For The Floor, Hot Chip
Just Dance, Lady Gaga & Colby O'Donis
Give It 2 Me, Madonna
Disturbia, Rihanna
Black & Gold, Sam Sparro

Album of the year

Coldplay, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
Ne-Yo, Year of the Gentleman
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand
Radiohead, In Rainbows
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III

Song of the year

American Boy by William Adams, Keith Harris, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, John Stephens Estelle Swaray & Kanye West, songwriters (Estelle Featuring Kanye West)
Chasing Pavements by Adele Adkins & Eg White, songwriters (Adele)
I'm Yours by Jason Mraz, songwriter (Jason Mraz)
Love Song by Sara Bareilles, songwriter (Sara Bareilles)
Viva La Vida by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, & Chris Martin, songwriters (Coldplay)

Best new artist
Jazmine Sullivan
Jonas Brothers
Adele
Duffy<--JMG pick! Lady Antebellum

UGH: Kate Perry received a Best Female Vocal nomination for her ode to fake lesbians, I Kissed A Girl.

UPDATE: The Best Dance Album category wasn't covered in the above-linked story, so I missed Cyndi Lauper's nomination.

- New York City, Brazilian Girls
- Alive 2007, Daft Punk
- Bring Ya To The Brink, Cyndi Lauper
- X, Kylie Minogue
- Last Night, Moby
- Robyn, Robyn

INDIANA: Haters Have The Sadz, Allies & LGBTs Say "Fix" Isn't Good Enough

While FRC vice president JP Duffy and other crackpots rend their garments, our side is pointing out that Indiana's RFRA fix isn't nearly good enough. Via Think Progress:

LGBT people in Indiana gain no new rights from the fix: In the wake of the backlash against the original Indiana RFRA law, many LGBT rights groups hope that the state would enact anti-discrimination provisions protecting gay and trans people in Indiana at the state level. The fix includes none of these protections. What that means is that LGBT people who live in cities like Indianapolis will regain the rights they already enjoyed before the state RFRA law took effect, but LGBT people who were unprotected before this law will remain unprotected.

Also dismissing the fix is Angie's List.

Help Teabagger Sean Duffy

(Source)

Attack Ads Launch Over GOP/Medicare

Talking Points Memo on the clip below:

In a significant escalation of the progressive campaign to make Republicans pay a political price for voting to end Medicare, the progressive advocacy group Americans United for Change will run broadcast TV ads in the districts of Reps. Steve King (R-IA), Sean Duffy (R-WI), Chip Cravaack (R-MN), and Paul Ryan (R-WI). "What are House Republicans thinking asking millions of seniors, the less fortunate and the disabled to make more sacrifices and the richest among us to make less," says AUC executive Tom McMahon in a statement.

FRC Has The Wisconsin Sadz

Duffy is the Family Research Council's vice president of communications.

CLEVELAND: Muslim Cab Drivers Refuse To Work With Gay Games Advertising

Cleveland television reported on Friday that some Muslim cab drivers have walked off the job rather than drive taxis with the above advertising for the Gay Games, which take place there in August.

19 Action News reporter Brian Duffy spoke with about 20 cabbies at the airport who are still driving and all of them confirmed there are drivers who have walked off the job on protest. Representatives of AmeriCab, one of the three cab companies on the job at the airport, also confirmed the protest but say only one of their drivers has been reassigned. We're told at least 16-17 drivers who work for Ace Taxi, another company working out of the airport, are no longer driving. We went to Ace but were told they were too busy to talk to us. Yellow Cab, a third cab company at the airport, never returned our calls. Tom Nobbe, the executive director of the games, says he's a bit disappointed. "When you look at what's going on around the world it's not a huge surprise. In some parts of the world LGBT folks are not very welcome," said Tom Nobbe of the Gay Games.

Cleveland International Airport has issued a statement:

Today, two of the three taxi cab companies (Ace and Yellow Taxi Cab) operating from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) were informed by several of their drivers they will no longer participate in the airport's (CLE) dedicated taxi cab program. The drivers informed their respective companies their decision was based on religious reasons. The airport is committed to providing this necessary customer service to our arriving passengers seeking transportation from the airport to their final destination. An agreement has been brokered by the airport between the taxi cab stand operator, Standard Parking, and the affected taxi cab companies that will allow for the replacement of those drivers who no longer wish to participate in CLE's taxi cab program. The affected taxi cab companies will backfill the airport's dedicated fleet with metered taxi cabs until each company can hire permanent drivers for the airport's taxi cab program. It is expected to take approximately two to three weeks to repopulate the airport's Taxi fleet.

(Tipped by JMG reader Dan)

2009 Grammy Winners

It was definitely Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's night, wasn't it? I was especially pleased to see gay favorite Adele win Best New Artist. I'd never even heard of Adele until seeing her perform at last fall's Out 100 Awards here in NYC. Complete list of winners here.

Album of the Year: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand
Song of the Year: Coldplay, "Viva la Vida"
Record of the Year: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, "Please Read This Letter"
Best Rap Album: Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance: John Mayer, "Say"
Best New Artist: Adele
Best Rock Album: Coldplay, Viva la Vida
Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, "Rich Woman"
Best Electronic/Dance Album: Daft Punk, Alive 2007
Best Dance Recording: Daft Punk, "Harder Better Faster Stronger"
Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group: Sugarland, "Stay"
Best R&B Album: Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson
Industry Icon Award: Clive Davis
Producer of the Year, Non-Classical: Rick Rubin (Death Magnetic, Home Before Dark, Mercy, Seeing Things, Weezer)
Best Rock Song: Bruce Springsteen, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"
Best Pop Vocal Album: Duffy, Rockferry
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals: Coldplay, "Viva la Vida"
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance: Adele, "Chasing Pavements"
Best Contemporary R&B Album: Mary J. Blige, Growing Pains
Best R&B Song: Ne-Yo, "Miss Independent"
Best Musical Show Album: In the Heights

FRC Has The Oregon Sadz

Duffy is the Family Research Council's vice president of communications.