Regarding the strange bedfellowship between Target and Lady Gaga discussed last week, looks like it was a more of a one night stand than an enduring domestic partnership. Initially, Gaga was touting her success in opening Target's mind and coffers to the wonders of gay causes. But now it looks like Target was just leading her on. According to Rolling Stone:
Lady Gaga has reportedly dissolved a deal with Target over the retail chain's political donations to MN Forward, a political action group that supported the anti-gay candidate Tom Emmer in a failed run for governor in Minnesota last year.
You've got to love how Tom Emmer's support of traditional marriage now earns him the sobriquet "anti-gay candidate Tom Emmer". Now that he's no longer a candidate, does he get to keep the title? On Friday mornings, listen to anti-gay talk show host Tom Emmer on KTLK. On Saturday, anti-gay broomball coach Tom Emmer will attempt to lead his son's pee wee team to victory. Then Sunday anti-gay grocery shopper Tom Emmer will pick up on his family's weekly supplies.
In that Barack Obama espoused the identical belief on gay marriage as Emmer when he was running for President in 2008, I'm hoping Rolling Stone at least has the integrity to call him "anti-gay President Barack Obama."
Gaga's deal with Target, which included giving the store an exclusive expanded edition of her forthcoming album Born This Way, was contingent upon the big box chain showing support to LGBT charity groups. In a recent interview, Gaga told Billboard that she was not comfortable with the Target partnership from the start, and that she had hoped to use her leverage in this deal to push the company to redeem themselves for having supported MN Forward and other anti-gay groups.
The details of the broken deal have not yet been made public.
It looks like Target may have come out of the politically correct daze they've been in since getting sucker punched during the election for the crime of donating money to a Republican. Good for them for finally showing some spine and not getting completely rolled. Whether they've got the corporate courage to once again put their money behind their belief system (as with Emmer) remains to be seen.
Fraters Reader John responds to the initial Target-Gaga post and the mention that the 3M might be next on the hit list, due to their CEO George Buckley recently commenting that the Obama administration is creating an anti-business environment:
Brian - Excellent post!
As I've always said, our readers are the most perceptive and intelligent on the entire Internet.
I'm sure you saw Krugman wanna-be Ruben Rosario's pathetic attempt to smear 3M's Buckley in the Pioneer Press on Thursday and Saturday.Uh, no. Believe it or not, I'm not an avid Ruben Rosario reader. Since Craig Westover has become an infrequent presence over there, the Pioneer Press is not on my regular reading list. But those Rosario pieces remind me that if I'm ever craving some tired, class warfare based apologetics for the Democratic party, that's the place to go.
In other news, Mitch Berg refers to the Days of Rodent Rage post from last week, where I noted the presence of the University of Minnesota's mascot, Goldy the Gopher, at a rally for more tax dollars for higher education, along with my dismay over his antics.
Now it seems Goldy was involved in a violent altercation:
An annoyed fan — a University of St. Thomas math professor and a devoted University of Minnesota booster — socked the fuzzy-suited mascot after tiring of his antics during a men’s gymnastics meet Saturday night.
As Mitch notes:
Someone has obviously taken Brian’s rant to heart. There’s a simmering pot of rage among those middle-aged academics. Gotta be careful, Brian.
Oh man, he's right. It's my Michele Bachmann "armed and dangerous" moment. I'll be haunted by liberal journalist accusations of fomenting violence for the rest of my life. It'll be included in the first line of my New York Times obituary. And if I ever get a mention Rolling Stone, I'll be dubbed "anti-rodent blogger". I better get my PR people working on a partnership deal with Goldy for his next album, and promises (to be broken later) about funding pro Gopher marriage causes immediately.
