This week, Ted, Teresa, and Maegan talk the ethics of outing closeted lawmakers. Last week, the movie Outrage opened, a new documentary by the compelling filmmaker Kirby Dick, who’s previously confronted the MPAA’s rating system and the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal. This time he’s going after Congressmen, Senators, and other elected officials, most of them Republicans, who have held anti-gay positions in public while hiding their own homosexuality in private. Kirby names names in the film, which many news outlets have refused to do in reviewing the film. We have an exclusive short interview on today’s show with Dick, as he talks about the news coverage and calls out these lawmakers as hypocrites. But the film raises thorny ethical issues. A person’s sexuality is intensely personal; what right is it of Kirby’s to expose these people? After all, it’s not against the law to be a hypocrite.

Moving on to lighter subjects, the White House Correspondents Dinner held its own fair share of laughs and even a few groan-worthy moments. But most people agree President Obama knocked it out of the park, right? He was hilarious, certainly, but should the President of the Free World be making so many mean-spirited remarks? Obama’s acid tongue has more than a few similarities to a past presidential jokester: President George W. Bush. And what about the Wanda Sykes roast? She had a few choice lines, and the biggest one – calling Rush Limbaugh a terrorist and accusing him of being the 20th hijacker – is getting some nasty responses from the beltway. Was she out of bounds? Can a joke about 9/11 be funny, even if it’s tasteless?

Finally, we talk the new Star Trek movie. Our resident trekkie, Teresa, calls out the moviemakers for their portrayal of torture: they show it without dealing with any of the issues surrounding it. Can a summer blockbuster like this preserve the brainy thought-provoking aspects of the Star Trek franchise while still corralling a new audience? And what’s with all the mocking of trekkies by the movie’s stars, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, on SNL? You do know that trekkies pay your bills, right? All this on today’s Wilshire & Washington!

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Torture memos here, torture memos there, torture memos everywhere! On the left, they’re screaming bloody-murder for public hangings of all people involved; on the right, they want Obama’s head for letting out this confidential information. We’re all embarrassed and horrified, but is that a reason for not talking about the fact that the United States DID torture? How do Lynndie England and her crimes at Abu Ghraib fit into this equation? Can you chastise one and not the other? And if letting out the memos is bad for morale, isn’t torturing people bad for morale too? Maegan feels these the authors of these memos should be subjected to some sort of justice, and Teresa tries to remind us that if we want to do it right, we must be patient. Rome wasn’t rebuilt in a day, after all.

Besides torture, wiretapping is all the talk in DC right now after CQPolitics.com broke the story about Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) being wiretapped and getting caught offering to lobby for AIPAC. How much of it is true? Could this be a tempest in a teapot? Is this just another story the media is trumpeting without much evidence? Ted admits this is a big part of the media environment now, with everybody being under a tremendous amount of pressure to break a story.

And the big news yesterday is Gavin Newsom announcing he’s running for Governor of California, and did it via Twitter and Facebook! He might get new media, but he still has to get his message out there to, um, “regular folks” (aka non-twitterers). Will he make his stance on gay marriage a major part of his campaign? Of course, California is lining up a whole host of high-tech candidates for major office: Steve Westly, Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman, even Chris Kelly from Facebook. But to command the youth vote, you’ve got to do more than engage the new mediums – you’ve got to speak the language.

Finally, we’ve got a growing controversy, possibly, around Ron Howard’s new film, Angels & Demons, with certain members from the Catholic Church calling it out. While this is surely going to fail in stopping the movie from becoming a massive box office success, a more interesting question is this: do boycotts even work anymore?

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

FADE IN:

BAM! THE LOGO FOR “EXTREME MAKEOVER” APPEARS ON SCREEN, THEN THE SUBTITLE: “RENDITION EDITION”

EXT. HOUSE – DAY

Our host, Shifty McFly, 30s, stylish, clearly gaying it up for the camera, stands in front of: A REGULAR HOUSE. White picket fence. Lawn. Windows. Everything he says is happy, and super excited!

SHIFTY MCFLY
And welcome back, everyone. Tonight on Extreme Makeover: Rendition Edition, we’re in an ordinary Muslim neighborhood, where we’re going to make the dreams come true for one great Muslim family! By the time we’re done, they’re going to have the pimpest, flyest, most-extreme torture chamber for rendered American captives in the whole Middle East! Now, let’s meet our family!

CUT TO:
INT. HOUSE – MOMENTS LATER

Shifty McFly bursts through the front door, and LIKE TOTALLY surprises the Family, made up of AHMED the father, 40s, SAHID the clearly gay son, 20s, the DAUGHTER, 20s, who doesn’t get a name, and the MOTHER in a burka who hides in a corner.
Shifty HUGS each and every one of them really enthusiastically.

SHIFTY MCFLY (V.O.)
As we all know, Muslim extremists are a great moral threat to American national security but they’re totally cool with torturing people, so let’s meet our lucky family!
Shifty’s assistant ALEX, 20s, Hollywood actor-type, distributes a thin booklet to all the family.

ALEX
Hi, I’m Alex, and these are your Department of Defense-approved Guidelines for Torture.

Ahmed flips through his. All the pages are blank.

AHMED
Sweet.

Shifty speaks with the Daughter.

SHIFTY MCFLY
Now, I don’t have a complex understanding of the enemy, so I’m gonna assume you want to kill the Infidel American because you’re Muslim.
The daughter shakes her head. Mortified. Passionately:

DAUGHTER
No, no, that’s all wrong. No where in the Koran does it encourage the violence perpetuated…

Shifty cuts her off and moves past down the hall.

SHIFTY MCFLY
That’s hilarious! She’s gonna be a comedian someday, just like Janeane Garofalo… HEY!

He waves at the MOTHER, who shrieks and runs away.

SHIFTY MCFLY
Cute. She doesn’t have civil rights. And she’s not gonna get ‘em. We need oil. Hahahaha!

CUT TO:

INT. BASEMENT – MOMENTS LATER

The camera goes down some stairs into a basement.

SHIFTY MCFLY (V.O.)
Now, let’s check out their potential torture chamber.

Ahmed and Shifty look around. The place is bright, airy, pleasant even. They inspect the bench and tub where prisoners will be waterboarded.

SHIFTY MCFLY
This is pathetic, dude.

AHMED
I know. Very, very sad. We just don’t have the money to keep our torture chamber up to par.

A tear comes to Ahmed’s eyes. He and Shifty embrace. A warm moment.

SHIFTY MCFLY
Don’t worry, big fella. We’re gonna make it right.

Shifty runs around the room, pointing and gesticulating.

SHIFTY MCFLY
We’re gonna make this place sing… It’s gonna be incredible. First you need some dank and darkness. We’ll get some iron hooks on the walls, bar up the windows, put the Iron Maiden in this corner, the rack in here, the boiling oil over here. Ever heard of Chinese water torture? It’s awesome. We’ll even decorate with a few bamboo plants here are there.

AHMED
Bamboo?

SHIFTY MCFLY
Yeah! Bamboo’s great. It grows so fast that you can tie someone up in a chair and have the bamboo plant actually grow right through them! It’s awesome and it’ll totally give the place some color.

CUT TO:

EXT. HOUSE – MOMENTS LATER
Shifty runs out the door, enthusing.

SHIFTY MCFLY
Okay. We’ve got our workers here to come help… Say hello to our audience back home!
He confronts the LABORERS. They are clearly Mexican day laborers and illegal immigrants. They cover their faces from the camera.

IMMIGRANT WORKERS
No, no, no quiero…

SHIFTY MCFLY
Hey, isn’t it great? These guys are everywhere! Is there a Home Depot Tehran or something?

The workers shrug.

IMMIGRANT WORKERS
Que?

CUT TO:

INT. HOUSE – LATER

Shifty moves down the hallway and speaks to the camera.

SHIFTY MCFLY
While certain international treaties prevent me from revealing our exact location, we can give you a hint: there are no gay people here!

A hallway door opens, and Sahid is making out with Alex. Shifty doesn’t even flinch.

SHIFTY MCFLY
They’re just fasting. For man meat.

ALEX
Aren’t we in Iran?

SHIFTY MCFLY
My lips are sealed. Unlike that guy’s. Oh yeah.

SAHID
But I like man meat.

SHIFTY MCFLY
(matter of fact)
No, you don’t. You don’t exist in this country. You’re like dragons.

CUT TO:
EXT. HOUSE – LATER

Shifty addresses the camera with the family behind him.

SHIFTY MCFLY
Now don’t go anywhere! We’re gonna be right back with Extreme Makeover: Rendition Edition! We’re gonna see a total makeover of this torture pit and it’s gonna be totally rockin’!

A LOGO SLAMS ONSCREEN for Extreme Makeover: Rendition Edition appears on screen!

FADE TO BLACK.

Dear Senator Feinstein,

As a volunteer on your last re-election campaign, I am very disappointed in your decision to vote in favor of Michael Mukasey as our next Attorney General. The position on torture for our country’s top law enforcement official should be unequivocable, and yet you voted for a man who refused to call waterboarding torture, despite the practice having already been defined as torture internally by the Department of Justice.

Whether or not a vote against Mukasey in this situation would have defeated his nomination is irrelevant. In this time of crisis, you did not stand up and defend our civil liberties as Americans and that makes you an accessory to whatever breaches of justice will inevitably follow.

You have failed your state and your country with this vote. I hope the path that takes you forward will be guided by a greater moral compass than that which has led you so far astray. Good luck.

Blaise Nutter