-- Journalist Sy Hersh,
in a 2004 speech, on rapes of minors by U.S. soldiers caught on camera at Abu GhraibBad timing for the Chimperor and his whimpering minions, eh? (
AP):
A federal judge Thursday ordered the release of dozens more pictures of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib, rejecting government arguments that the images would provoke terrorists and incite violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said that terrorists "do not need pretexts for their barbarism" and that suppressing the pictures would amount to submitting to blackmail.
"Our nation does not surrender to blackmail, and fear of blackmail is not a legally sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory command. Indeed, the freedoms that we champion are as important to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our troops are armed," he said.
Hellerstein ordered the release of 74 pictures and three videotapes from the Abu Ghraib prison, potentially opening the military up to more embarrassment from a scandal that stirred outrage around the world last year when photos of 2003 abuse became public.
Sy Hersh's May 2004
New Yorker, article "Chain of Command" covered the surfacing of these images.
In his news conference last Tuesday, Rumsfeld, when asked whether he thought the photographs and stories from Abu Ghraib were a setback for American policy in Iraq, still seemed to be in denial. "Oh, I'm not one for instant history," he responded. By Friday, however, with some members of Congress and with editorials calling for his resignation, Rumsfeld testified at length before House and Senate committees and apologized for what he said was "fundamentally un-American" wrongdoing at Abu Ghraib. He also warned that more, and even uglier, disclosures were to come. Rumsfeld said that he had not actually looked at any of the Abu Ghraib photographs until some of them appeared in press accounts, and hadn't reviewed the Army's copies until the day before. When he did, they were "hard to believe," he said. "There are other photos that depict . . . acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman." Later, he said, "It's going to get still more terrible, I'm afraid." Rumsfeld added, "I failed to recognize how important it was."
NBC News later quoted U.S. military officials as saying that the unreleased photographs showed American soldiers "severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner, and 'acting inappropriately with a dead body.' The officials said there also was a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys."
This one is definitely a 'Russ report'
I certainly want to know what Blend Contributor and Oregonian "Radical" Russ has to say on this one, because the AmTaliban will waste no time weighing in. I'm sure this judge is going to be blasted.
Oregon Court Overturns Sex-Show Laws.
The Oregon Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional Thursday a state law against live sex shows and a local ordinance that says nude dancers must stay at least 4 feet away from patrons. Both restrictions violate the Oregon Constitution's guarantee of free expression, the court said in a pair of 5-1 decisions.
Justice Michael Gillette, writing for the majority, said it "appears to us to be beyond reasonable dispute that the protection extends to the kinds of expression that a majority of citizens in many communities would dislike'' - including nude dancing.
One case involved a Roseburg club where undercover police paid women to perform sexual activities while the officers watched. The court threw out the club owner's conviction for promoting a live sex show but upheld his conviction for promoting prostitution.
In a dissent, Supreme Court Justice Paul De Muniz said he could not conclude that "masturbation and sexual intercourse in a `live public show''' is a form of speech that the drafters of the Oregon Constitution sought to protect.
Kirk Cameron on how to accost people for Jeebus
You know, if "Mike Seaver" came up to me on the street and got in my face babbling that I needed to be saved, I may have to open a can of Pam's Whoop-Ass
TM on him. It's one thing to have folks dropping literature off at your door to spread the word, but Kirk is
broadcasting training on how to ambush people on the street to witness to them.
The co-host of a popular television show which teaches biblical methods of evangelism says believers can overcome fear when it comes to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Kirk Cameron is co-host of "The Way of the Master" with evangelist Ray Comfort. The weekly half-hour program features evangelism training and video clips of actual street witnessing. Cameron says believers must witness in word and in deed. He acknowledges that most people do not want to appear pushy or offensive when it comes to sharing the gospel; and as a result, he says, many remain silent, choosing instead to just "live the life."
Instead of relying on marketing methods to attract people, Cameron says the true gospel needs to be emphasized. And people respond to a proper use of God's law when witnessing, he says.
Taking graphics submissions on what a can of Pam's Whoop-Ass
TM might look like...
Nancy Goldstein: The Vatican's bold new witch hunt
Nancy's latest
Raw Story column is a worthy read (and that's before I got to the cite of the Blend at the end - thanks, Nancy!). She covers the litany of recent Vatican transgressions and ballsy moves to cover its tracks.
Surely we can count on the Vatican to make restitution for the damage done to thousands of innocent children and their trusting parents through a combination of repentance, financial restitution, punishment where appropriate, and a thorough examination of what went wrong at the highest levels of the church. Um… Would you settle for a witch-hunt against gay seminarians in the US instead?
I hope so, because that’s all you’re going to get. In a move uncannily reminiscent of a certain American leader who responded to Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist attack by invading an uninvolved but oil-rich country, the Vatican has decided to avoid addressing its real problem — pedophile priests and widespread corruption throughout its leadership — by taking a page from the Inquisition playbook.
“Better targets,” as Rumsfeld would say.
Who cares that homosexuality is not what motivates men to have sex with 10-year-old boys any more than heterosexuality is what motivates men to rape women? So what if the vows of celibacy should, and for many years did, render moot the question of sexual identity in the church?
Webcast premiere tonight: Documentary on Gay Catholics
GAY USA is hosted by Andy Humm and Ann Northrup. Rev. John McNeill will be the subject of the documentaryLooks like this will be interesting. You can
find out how to see the web cast via Manhattan Neighborhood Network, channel 34. (
PageOneQ):
Gay USA is presenting the world TV premiere of Brendan Fay’s documentary, Uncommon Jesuit: A Conversation with Rev. John McNeill this evening at 11pm EST via webcast. The 31-minute film will run about twenty minutes into the show, following the news segment. Rev. John McNeill, 80, is the out gay author of the seminal Church and the Homosexual. In 1976, he was removed from the Jesuits for speaking out against Catholic condemnation of gay love. The documentary covers his life from growing up in Buffalo to his experience as a prisoner of war in World War II to his priesthood and his 37-year relationship with Charles Chiarelli. He was one of the first major theologians to say that homosexuality could be practiced in consonance with Christianity. His appearances on the Today Show and Donahue drove the Vatican crazy, eventually leading to his official silencing by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, in the late 1970s.
Jesus' General on David Dreier
Oh, my sides are splitting on this one. Head on over to read the open letter to the homo almost-Majority Leader -- "
Roy Cohn's cold, dead woody." A snippet:
...voting to deny basic human rights to homosexuals isn't the same thing as personally denying them, and the lack of evidence for the latter in your record has always made me wonder if you were truly committed to the cause of heterosexual supremacy. Fortunately, any reservations I had about you ended yesterday when you rejected your own request to be promoted to the position of Majority Leader on the basis of your sexual orientation. Anyone can discriminate against others, but it takes a special kind of man to discriminate against himself. I salute you for that.
I imagine it wasn't an easy thing for you to do. You probably went straight to a bar afterward and drank yourself into a stupor. Hopefully, you also beat the shit out of yourself when you noticed that you were leaving a homosexual bar. After all, you may have voted against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, but have you ever committed a hate crime?
The Governator vetoes CA marriage bill
"By vetoing the Civil Marriage and Religious Freedom Protection Act, Governor Schwarzenegger has come down on the wrong side of history. Governor Schwarzenegger had the chance to enter the pages of history with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson; instead he has chosen to be listed alongside George Wallace and Strom Thurmond. Just as Wallace, Thurmond and many other segregationists came to regret their errors, I hope that Governor Schwarzenegger will come to change his views."
-- California State Treasurer Phil Angelides on Arnold's veto
Terminated.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger followed through Thursday on his threat and vetoed California's same-sex marriage bill.
Schwarzenegger who had been sitting on the legislation since Friday used the confirmation of John Roberts in Washington to draw attention away from the veto.
In a brief statement announcing that he had stroked out the bill the governor said he is supportive of same-sex couples and noted that California has the strongest domestic partner law in the country.
The statement said that if he had signed the bill it would have simply added "confusion to a constitutional issue." Schwarzenegger went on to say, "If the ban of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional this bill is not necessary. If the ban is constitutional this bill is ineffective."
A must-read dual series on black homo-bigot pastors
House Blender Jennifer of
Intous pointed me to the slamming parallel blogging this week by
Keith Boykin and
Jasmyne Cannick to out homophobic black ministers in a five-part series. Keith launched the series on Monday with:
We're tired of the hypocrisy and divisive "Christian" rhetoric that too many black pastors are spreading, and we're tired of these same ministers selling out their pulpits to the highest bidder.
From New York to Los Angeles, black LGBT people have been the backbone of the black church. Through this network, we've discovered that many homophobic black pastors lead secret lives outside the church. We're not naming any names, yet, but if you know something to help us confirm the information from our sources, we'd like to know.
They have put so much into the series that you must go to their blogs to read the whole thing. I'm just putting a tasty sampling of you'll find there.
So far this week,
Jasmyne has taken on some of the most homophobic pastors imaginable, and we all know that many are on the faith-based take. Here's who she's served up on the platter...
*
Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Baptist Missionary in Atlanta, Georgia.
Memorable quote: "Woman is the soul of man. She is his flesh consciousness. In essence, God made Eve to help Adam replenish the earth. Woman has the canal…everything else is an exit. God had to separate Adam and Eve where they connected so he could tell them to reconnect in covenant to duplicate Him. In Christ, God puts his seed in us. Any other way is a spiritual abortion. Cloning, Homosexuality and Lesbianism are spiritual abortions. Homosexuality is a manifestation of the fallen man."
*
Bishop Noel Jones of Los Angeles (brother of Grace Jones).
Fun fact from Jasmyne: Last November, Bishop Noel Jones traveled to Jamaica to tell the Jamaican people not to bow to pressure from American gay rights activists to change their anti-gay laws. Divorced for about 10 years, Bishop Jones is living out his Christianity as a single man. Something to think about -- Jones is known to socialize with self-proclaimed ex-gay
Donnie McClurkin (R).
*
Bishop Paul Morton of the Full Gospel Baptist Church in New Orleans.
Memorable quote: "You don't try to put 2 plugs or 2 sockets together. I want some folk to get deliverance. You ain't got no socket rubbing up against another socket talkin' 'bout 'come on light my fire!' It ain't gon light! We need to break the curse 'cause even some of these older women are attacking some of these younger women and placing them in this lifestyle. That's why you can't even walk right when you doin' that stuff. You hurtin' 'cause it ain't natural."
*
Creflo Dollar of World Changers Church International in College Park, Georgia.
Memorable quote: "When you begin to legislate policies and you take it past its designed intent and boundaries, you're going to end up in perversion."
Fun fact from Jasmyne: Rev. Dollar preaches a ministry of prosperity, and he was one of a a handful of black ministers who joined with controversial conservative Lou Sheldon to declare their support for President Bush's Faith-Based Initiative.
Keith's got high-profile homo-haters up this week at his pad as well. Here's a sampling of the bigots in the pulpit
on his site.
*
T.D. Jakes of The Potter's House & T.D. Jakes Ministries. He's Bush's best bud, showing up to provide some color (or is that cover) when he met with Katrina survivors. He supported FMA.
Memorable quote: "To date, I have not seen scriptural authority that allows me to stand on behalf of God and say I now pronounce you husband and husband, and wife and wife. This is an issue the government is undecided about. The Bible is not."
Fun fact from Keith: Jakes has also adopted another part of the presidential philosophy: his lifestyle. Jakes and his congregation refer to his wife Serita as "the first lady," and they live in a $1.7 million mansion on Dallas's scenic White Rock Lake next to a building once owned by oil magnate H.L. Hunt.
*
Willie Wilson of Union Temple Baptist Church in D.C.: Blenders know this man
all too well for his homo-baiting from the pulpit. It's hard to pick just one quote, so here's two.
Memorable quotes: "When you get down to this thing, women falling down on another woman, strapping yourself up with something, it ain’t real. That thing ain’t got no feeling in it. It ain’t natural."
"Any time somebody got to slap some grease on your behind, and stick something in you, it’s something wrong with that. Your butt ain’t made for that. You got blood vessels and membranes in your behind. And if you put something unnatural in there, it breaks them all up. No wonder your behind is bleeding."
*
Gregory Daniels of Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago.
Fun fact from Keith and memorable quote: A self-identified Republican and supporter of President George W. Bush, Daniels made headlines in February 2004 when he told the New York Times, "If the KKK opposes gay marriage, I would ride with them." Yes, that's a black minister who said that.
*
Bishop Charles Blake West Angeles Church of God In Christ, and second in command of the national body of Church of God In Christ (C.O.G.I.C.).
Memorable quote: "the homosexual practices of same-sex couples are in violation of religious and social norms and are aberrant and deviant behavior. We believe that these unions are sinful and in direct violation of the law of God in that they are a deviation from the natural use and purpose of the body."
UPDATE: Here is Friday's excerpt from
Keith and
Jasmyne as they ask the question --
Is Donnie McClurkin Still Gay?
*
Donnie McClurkin, 46-year-old unmarried gospel singer and preacher at Perfecting Faith Church in New York.
Fun facts: A Bush supporter, McClurkin performed for the President at the Republican National Convention last year. "There is a moral aspect that was overwhelmingly a part of Bush's appeal," said McClurkin, who also appeared in Michigan with Bush during the campaign.
Shortly after, he's quoted on the Christian Broadcasting Network's (Pat Robertson’s organization) Web site saying: "I'm not in the mood to play with those who are trying to kill our children."
So now gays are trying to kill children. That’s completely absurd and there’s no proof to validate that statement.
I think the following portion by Keith and Jasmyne really sums up this list of hypocrite losers in the pulpit.
Listen to what Donnie McClurkin himself says about his sexuality. "There was a big 20-year gap of sexual ambiguity where after the rape my desires were toward men, and I had to fight those things because I knew that it wasn't what we were taught in church was right. And the older I got, the more that became a problem, because those were the first two sexual relationships that I had. Eight years old and 13 years old. So that's what I was molded into. And I fought that. When I tell you from eight to 28, that was my fight -- in the church. And you were in an environment where there were hidden, you know, vultures I call them, that are hidden behind frocks and behind collars and behind -- you know, reverends and the deacons, and it becomes a preying ground, a place where the prey is hunted, and that was what it was like."
McClurkin basically describes a world in which homosexuality is common in the church community. Something we have been trying to tell you from day one in our campaign. The Black church is the most homophobic and homotolerant.
Key: black pastor
Another casualty of the Bush economy
One of my bloggrrrls is getting an unwelcome visit from the beast known as the Bush economy. Melissa of the Koufax-nominated
Shakespeare's Sister was
laid off from her job today.
Last night, Mr. Shakes and I got a notice that our property tax had been increased 100% on our matchbox of a house, and effectively immediately, our monthly payments would be increased by 20%. Then this morning, I got laid off. Wish we didn’t have to, feel terrible, no money and all that.
So, I’m pretty desperate at the moment, and although I hate to do this, I’m asking for donations. If you like Shakespeare’s Sister and if you can afford to, I’d appreciate it if you could help out, because now this is the only job I’ve got.
She has links to Amazon Pay and Paypal on her site in the left sidebar if you're a fan and want to show some love for the incredible blogging that she has done and will continue to do.
'Lapdog' Blair's goons throw 82-year-old party member out of conference
"It was a dreadful overreaction by the stewards, who were understandably concerned about security."
-- Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt
"The stewards behaved completely inappropriately."
-- Liam Byrne, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Care Services
"The treatment was ... tactless and unnecessary."
-- Linda Riordan, MP for Halifax
"The Labour Party reserves the right to remove people who cause a persistent disturbance."
--Labour party spokesperson
"It's heavy handed for people to be ejected"
-- John Austin, MP
Guess Bush's puppy decided to sic his borwn shirt bouncers on a fellow Labour Party member that dare speak out against Blair's war policy. The elderly man only got up and said the word "nonsense" to get his poor ass hauled out. (
Independent):
The Labour Party was forced to make a humiliating apology to an 82-year-old party member last night after he was thrown out of the conference for heckling Jack Straw.
Walter Wolfgang, a party member for 57 years, was bundled out of the conference hall by stewards after shouting "nonsense" as Mr Straw, the Foreign Secretary, defended Britain's role in Iraq. He was later stopped under anti-terrorist powers as he tried to re-enter the hall.
The heavy-handed treatment of Mr Wolfgang revived criticism of the " control freakery" associated with New Labour and even drew comparisons with the way the Communist leaders in Russia and China stifled dissent.
Mr Wolfgang fled Nazi Germany as a teenager for the freedom of Britain. He said: "I shouted out 'nonsense'. That's all I said. Then these two toughies came round and wanted to manhandle me out. 'I said: 'Do you want me to leave? I will leave, you don't need to manhandle me.' "Physically, I am not too well, so I said I would follow them."
Talk about control freaks; lapdog Tony has picked up some tricks (did Bush have to feed him some tasty biscuits as he was training him) about crowd control and protecting deluded government stooges and himself from hearing any dissent or negative news.
In what Tony Blair's anti-war critics have called the "don't mention the war" conference, the party avoided a separate debate and vote on Iraq and the Prime Minister made only a short reference to the issue in his keynote speech. Mr Blair also blocked a motion for the conference to pay tribute to Robin Cook, the cabinet minister who resigned over the war and died in August.
Steve Forrest, the chairman of the Erith and Thamesmead Labour Party, was also ejected for protesting at Mr Wolfgang's treatment. Angry delegates demonstrated at the removal of the two men as Mr Straw made an unapologetic defence of British policy in Iraq.
... Mr Forrest said: "I literally said 'hear, hear' twice. Later, this gentleman shouted 'nonsense'. It was just the voicing of an opinion and they grabbed hold of him. I said: 'You leave him alone, he is an old man' and five stewards pulled me out of the centre. They've taken my pass away and they won't let me back into the conference centre."
Wyoming pharmacists may be allowed to refuse to dispense AIDS meds
First birth control pills, now this. If you have a religious or moral problems dispensing legal, life-saving medications, don't be a f*cking pharmacist. How hard is that? (
365gay.com):
The Wyoming Board of Pharmacy is considering the rule change amid pressure by conservative groups opposed to the sale of contraceptives and birth control pills. But, the regulation could be used to deny service in many other areas critics charge.
"It is so broad, that any pharmacist with any personal belief that is contrary to any particular drug is allowed to refuse to fill a legal prescription," Pamela Reamer Williams, director of the Casper-based Wyoming AIDS Project told the Star-Tribune. "Health care professionals are supposed to help. They're not supposed to judge."
Currently, pharmacists are allowed to refuse to dispense a drug if they think a prescription may harm a patient or if the patient is being overmedicated. But Wyoming law is silent on moral conflicts. Reamer Williams said that the rule change could allow druggists to turn away people they thought were gay.
"It's no secret to any of us that there are people in this state who have religious and moral objections to homosexuality, and it's not just homosexuals in this state or anywhere else that are living with AIDS," Reamer Williams told the paper.
What he said...about DeLay and Dems
Oliver Willis says exactly what I was thinking about this DeLay meltdown -- the Dems are media-AWOL on what should be a slam-dunk marathon of discussion on the MSM tying the GOP and the Chimp admin to corruption.
I think it’s because the Democrats simply do not understand the media, and have been completely clueless about how to play the press since President Clinton left office. Democrats simply believe that we still exist in an environment where someone can simply be left out in the press, to be savaged by the actual facts. Wrong.
That is simply not how the media works today, and I don’t know how many times I have to say it. The way the media works today is that the press simply sits there in the middle, dumb and oblivious and pliable. For Democrats to be effective, they must have a presence in the media beyond a press release.
O-Dub's theory, which plays itself out time and again (think the Kerry non-rapid response campaign), is that Democrat don't want to be viewed as partisan. He's right. They are full of BS, afraid of their own shadows. Such ball-less dweebs. The Right was all over Clinton over a blow job, and Dems can't make hay out of this? Look at what was handed to them on a silver platter -- and it has nothing to do with being partisan, as Oliver points out:
* District Attorney Ronny Earle has prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans
* Earle has been re-elected numerous times by the people of Texas
* DeLay was indicted by a grand jury in the state of Texas, made up of regular American citizens
Any Dem with a pulse should be able to capitalize on this. If you toss in the FEMA fiasco, the Cat Killer's insider trading, and the billions getting flushed down the toilet with no-bid contracts to the Chimp's friends and "base" in both the War on Terror and the post-hurricane Gulf Restoration Project, it's simple. The GOP is rife with corruption -- that can be explained and understood by the average American. Dems, wake the heck up.
Turkish women rip Karen Hughes a new one on her 'listening tour'
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Chimpy's Undersecretary of State Karen "Mommy" Hughes
was scorched by a group of Turkish women when they blasted her boss and his Iraq policy, which has not done a hell of a lot for women.
"This war is really, really bringing your positive efforts to the level of zero," said Hidayet Sefkatli Tuksal, an activist with the Capital City Women's Forum. She said it was difficult to talk about cooperation between women in the United States and Turkey as long as Iraq was under occupation.
Hughes, a longtime confidant of President Bush tasked with burnishing the U.S. image overseas, has generally met with polite audiences -- many of whom received U.S. funding or consisted of former exchange students -- during a tour of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey this week.
In this case the U.S. Embassy asked Kader, an umbrella group that supports woman candidates, to assemble the guest list. None of the activists currently receive U.S. funds and the guests apparently had little desire to mince words. Six of the eight women who spoke at the session, held in Ankara, the capital, focused on the Iraq war.
"War makes the rights of women completely erased and poverty comes after war -- and women pay the price," said Fatma Nevin Vargun, a Kurdish women's rights activist. Vargun denounced the arrest of Cindy Sheehan, the activist mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, in front of the White House Monday at an antiwar protest.
Hughes, looking increasingly pained, defended the decision to invade Iraq as a difficult and wrenching moment for President Bush, but necessary to protect America.
The Dark Wraith on Man-Breasts
While Blenders were chatting up about Jeffy Lube's
newly sprouted breasticles,
The Dark Wraith was doing some serious blogging about a British report on the rise in man breasts over at
Big Brass Blog.
This is not the same as the better-known he-stuff sported by heavy-set and sedentary men who have excessive upper torso body fat deposits resulting from obesity or near-obesity. Men afflicted by gynaecomastia literally develop the glandular tissue characteristic of females. Corrective surgery involves sucking out the fat that has developed (a procedure popularly known as "liposuction"), as well as cutting out the female glands that have pathologically taken root. In essence, the procedure is a highly restrictive form of cosmetic mastectomy, although prophylactic considerations, as noted below, may be included in the decision to carry out the breast-reduction surgery.
Someone should email this critical information to the Bulldog pronto.
'Most Corrupt' Blunt gets AmTaliban seal of approval
You can find out why CREW put Blunt on their top 13 corrupt list here.Roy Blunt, Tom DeLay's bootlicker from Missouri, who got tapped by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) to purportedly keep the House Majority Leader seat warm for Tom DeLay, gets a big thumbs up from the
Family Research Council. Golden boy
Tony Perkins:
"I am confident that House Whip Roy Blunt will continue Tom DeLay's efforts to move forward with pro-family public policies which drove turnout among values voters in the last election. Congressman Blunt has been a recipient of Family Research Council's 'True Blue Award' which is given to members of Congress who have consistently voted pro-life and pro-family.
"Family Research Council looks forward to working with Congressman Blunt in the coming days as Congress considers tax relief for charitable giving, an amendment protecting marriage, a fetal pain bill and a ban on human cloning."
Meanwhile, do you think Tony cares that Roy turned up on this list --
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's
Beyond DeLay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress. See some familiar names on this list?
For the first time, CREW has compiled and analyzed all these members’ transgressions in tandem with the federal laws and congressional rules they may have violated.
CREW has also launched a new website, www.beyonddelay.org, which details the tainted thirteen’s violations and encourages visitors, through the website, to contact their member of Congress to ask for an investigation of these members.
The 13 members are:
-- Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
-- Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA)
-- Rep. Tom Feeney(R-FL)
-- Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)
-- Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
-- Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH)
-- Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)
-- Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
-- Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC)
-- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
-- Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)
-- Senator Bill Frist (R-TN)
-- Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Someone should remind Dave Dreier that his being a
big self-loathing homo was
perceived as a bigger liability to Denny Hastert and his bigot colleagues than Roy Blunt being one of the 13 most corrupt legislators. Nice bunch of folks you're hanging out with, huh Davey?
Still blaming the homos for Katrina
Man, I thought this tired sh*t was through by now. Today we have an unhinged pastor blaming gays at an invocation before the first NOLA city council meeting since the hurricane. As if there aren't more important things to be discussed than queer energy and general debauchery stirring up natural disasters. (
365gay.com):
New Orleans City Council has met for the first time since hurricane Katrina and the priest who delivered the invocation at the start of the meeting said the disaster may have been brought on by gays "and other sinners".
The Rev. Robert Guste of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Kenner said that Southern Decadence, the annual gay festival that was to have been held the week the storm hit, and the city's large number of gay bars could have been a contributing factor. [And the reason Rita hit TX is...?]
He also blamed the "debauchery" of Mardi Gras, gambling and pornography. "Does this not invite divine judgment,'' the 78 year old priest told councilors. Noting that some people call New Orleans "Sin City,'' Guste said the storm was a warning that "God was knocking on our door and telling us to get our house ready.''
...It is not the first time that Guste and his church have been in the spotlight. In 1997 Guste and parishioners at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church claimed that a portrait of the Virgin Mary that hangs beside the altar was weeping. People came from all over the US to see the purported miracle but the Vatican distanced itself from the event.
***
Blender Kathy of
Birmingham Blues noted that another dumb*ss is bleating much the same thing in Alabama.
Sen. Hank Erwin (R-Montevallo) has opened his mouth in public again, and once again it was a mistake. He says God sent Hurricane Katrina and other storms that have caused devastation on the Gulf Coast as punishment for sin. According to Hank, “New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness.” Notice that he doesn’t mention Alabama in his statement. So I guess that means that we don’t sin here. And of course he doesn’t mention Texas; there couldn’t possibly be any sin in W’s home state.
...Erwin is a one-note fanatic who spends his time in the Senate trying to protect us from the evil homos who, at least according to Hank (and other nuts like book-banning Rep. Gerald Allen), are trying to take over the world. What are the chances he’ll also be a one-term wonder in the Alabama Senate? Not great, I’m afraid. People like Hank can always appeal to the smug wing of the Christian faith, those who sit safely in their houses, secure in the knowledge that they have a direct line to God and the rest of us will be roasting soon.
Anita rises from the...oh wait, she's not dead
Mike Tidmus, again...
Sometimes I miss the good old bad old days of going up against a marginally imaginative, at least unscripted, adversary like Anita Bryant. Poor Anita. The former beauty queen and orange juice spokesperson thumped her Bible and we tossed pies at her. Those were the gayest days, my friends.
Now we’re up against huge, well-funded, nationwide, carefully-branded and coached and legally-advised hate groups like the Concerned Women for America.
...CWA has discovered that pimping is their real bread and butter. That is to say, they make a nice living off the sex lives of other people … gay people to be specific. The more they can inflame the gay panic of the non-millionairess and slightly-less-bored (but potentially desperate) housewife set, the more money they make.
Bill Bennett's guide to crime reduction
"...you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
I sh*t you not. This occurred on the September 28 broadcast of high-stakes gambler and moralist Bill Bennett's
Morning in America. (
Media Matters):
Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down."
Bennett's remark was apparently inspired by the claim that legalized abortion has reduced crime rates, which was posited in the book Freakonomics (William Morrow, May 2005) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. But Levitt and Dubner argued that aborted fetuses would have been more likely to grow up poor and in single-parent or teenage-parent households and therefore more likely to commit crimes; they did not put forth Bennett's race-based argument.
The audio clip is
here. Perhaps that is Bill's solution for dealing with those pesky homos that keep growing up and wanting to destroy marriage..
Hat tip, Atrios.
Open thread - and gay day as DeLay steps down
DeLay with Roy Blunt (MO), who's taking DeLay's place as majority leader instead of homo Dreier (r), who had his invitation to lead withdrawn just a bit ago...[
UPDATE: Freeper commentary added...]
[
UPDATE 2: CNN reports that Dreier is now relegated to "helper bee" shuffling the Repug legislation on the House floor; Congressman Roy Blunt is in. Sounds like Davey just got a taste of anti-gay discrimination - up close and personal...]
Contribute your thoughts on Tom ("The indictment is a sham") DeLay and the fun news below. Who knew there would be a homo spin to this story?
It was thought that Denny Hastert would recommend
big old outed self-loathing homo Rep. David Dreier of California temporarily replace DeLay as Majority Leader, but alas, he was passed over
for some reason. Maybe it had to do with some of this information about the California representative...
According to
Raw Story, Dreier has repeatedly voted against gay rights measures, and at least three MediaNews Group newspapers are said to have instructed its reporters not to ask questions about the congressman's sexuality or how it relates to public policy.
This bigot voted for the original DOMA in 1996 and a measure that banned gays from adopting in D.C. It's no surprise then that Dreier has a
92 percent favorability rating from the Christian Coalition.
Mike over at
blogACTIVE reminds us that:
David Dreier was a recipient of a blogACTIVE Roy Cohn Award for being a gay man who worked against gay people. Now, in his newly visible role, provided the House elects him, David Dreier will be in a position to finally put the Federal Marriage Amendment, which he opposed, to bed.
No reaction from radical right groups yet on Hastert's pick -- we're assuming that he didn't check in with the Family Research Council's ok on this.
Here's a look at the original Roy Cohn Award given to Rep. Dreier by blogACTIVE last year.
This last bit from Mike kills me:
If Delay is "The Hammer," perhaps David could be called "The Pounder." Hmmm, on second thought, maybe "The Poundee," is a better call here -- not that there's ANYTHING wrong with that.
To continue to add to the pile-on, John at
AmericaBlog flashes back to the 2004 GOP Convention when Dreier refused to answer a direct question from Mike Signorile about whether Dreier was heterosexual. Ha ha ha ha. John:
I wonder how the religious right is feeling just about now? They can kiss their anti-gay constitutional amendment goodbye, and much more. If the religious right doesn't think we can pressure Dreier to stop their anti-gay crap, then they really haven't been reading up on their gay agenda. :-)
You asked for Freeper response to Delay/Dreier, well here you go...
Actual Freeper Quotes™
"Sad day. I hope he's cleared, but don't know the facts."
"....aren't they jumping the guy a little bit on DeLay who's already said there is nothing to these allegations....."
The Smoking Gun
"Well I've always said, "if" is the biggest word in the dictionary. We'll just have to wait and see..."
"Yep. It was political but it doesn't matter. DeLay's out of action."
""Oh goody, another "honest" politician leading us. These people never learn. /sarcasm still on." Don't you know a Republican politician can't be a crook? ;) We'll see how it goes but personally I see this as poetic justice for Delay's recent statement that all the fat has been cut from the budget, etc. One of the most politically stupid and insulting statements I've seen in a while. On the other hand, maybe this shows he's got an insanity defense..."
"IMHO it's pure vendetta because Tom DeLay has been so effective! A blind man could have seen this coming. A totally political attack by a crooked RAT, and the MSM will love it. DeLay will be totally cleared, but the MSM will barely mention that part."
"So the bastards can take down any legitimate congressional leader just by hitting them with bs charges? Sounds like a load of horse**** to me.
"As much as this seems to smell, it may be a good thing in the long run. Hopefully the MSM will run with it for a long time and along with Katrina it will keep the spotlight off the next supreme court nomination - which is REALLY where the liberal power lies. I would love the irony of a frivilous lawsuit helping to create a conservative court."
"Another DNC funded witch hunt."
"To be brutally honest with you, I don't give a rat's rear hind quarters what party you are in or for, but if you break the law, and jail is warranted, then you go to jail. No one is ABOVE THE LAW. No matter HOW IMPORTANT they may think they are, or how big their britches are, guilty, go to jail! That simple. And I don't care what party they are in."
"As a former Texan (please Texans help me out here), I know that Ronnie Earle, the dim DA in liberal Travis County - been there for 18-20 years I believe - has traditionally used his office to file spurious charges against pub pols - mostly they end up amounting to nothing. Just fishing, trying to make trouble etc. As the DA of the county that contains the state capital, Earle has way too much power and he abuses it."
"In this case, we probably shouldn't take any chances, so let's just string him up and then we'll wait and see if he really did it...."
"And the same old Freepers will run for the hills! LOL, they complain and lecture the GOP?"
"...let the chips fall where they may and we'll learn the truth. I suspect this is going to be a Raymond "Can You Tell Me Where to Pick Up My Reputation" Donovan witch hunt by a RAT prosecutor...I've always wondered how RATs escape the political process?"
"Appears the TX Chicken RATS been waiting for this since 2001 when they ran for cover because they didn't want a quorum in the state legislature to plan redistricting, and they blamed their problems on DeLay then."
"Payback is painful. DeLay almost singlehandedly locked in the Republican majority in Congess by his redistricting effort in Texas. This is sour grapes for the Dems. More chicken-sh*tted stuff rather competing on the issues. DeLay is a strongwilled, go for the jugular Republican not a weak-kneed appologetic Republican. That makes him a target. Drier is a better face for the Republicans anyway. He'll win more votes."
"Why don't you wait until the trial before you throw him to the wolves. It's incredibly easy to get a Grand Jury indictment. Look at Earle's success (none) in these partisan witch hunts and then tell me you believe DeLay will be convicted. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts he'll be acquitted. Meantime the MSM will have a field day with this."
"I'm more confident since he stepped down. e doesn't appear to be hiding, and he isn't putting himself before the par"
"Oh yes, David Drier is a great conservative... Sheesh, do I need to say ((sarcasm))??"
"r face for the Republicans anyway. He'll win more votes."
"Think so? Wait until the Dims really start throwing out the rumors about Dreier being gay, and everyone here and in the MSM who is braying in triumph over DeLay's indictment starts hounding Dreier and calling him a "queer"."
"Democrats and liberals love gay men. Just ask Barnie Frank."
"Republicans can be so stupid. Why make Drier the leader? Why not some anoymonous likeable tax cutting Republican Congressman without a spot on his record? Its like we continually want bad publicity."
"Check out laweekly.com and rawstory.com for the answer. They both say David and his COS partner have been bad little boys."
"Apart from the fact that he's rumored to be gay and has lived with his Chief of Staff for a number of years..."
"Have you lived under a rock for the past ten years? Dreier has had PLENTY of face time on talking head shows and was the Chair of GOPAC for quite a while. From what I understand, he is the typicaly California Republican . . . pretty conservative fiscally, more of a moderate on social issues."
"DREIER? Oh God, there goes any last vestige of backbone the House GOP might have had. Expect amnesty for illegal aliens and worse out of this buffoon."
"Is seom part of the gay lingo?"
"Seeing how the only people who seem to hate Dreier are the Buchanan/Tancredo crowd, he must be a good choice."
"Care to elaborate on that accusation? You , like many others at FR who supposedly support FRee speech, use hate like dysentery victims use toilet paper."
"David "Send Us More Illegal Aliens" Dreier. Great choice.
The AmTaliban spin on Love Won Out's Birmingham conference
I posted earlier on the Blend about the '
Love Embraces All' conference in Birmingham that countered the "ex-gay" sham put on by Dobson's Love Won Out recently. Here's coverage from
AgapePress of the LWO event, "Love Won Out Tackles Homosexual Issues With Information, Compassion, Biblical Truth." It's side-splitting, featuring some of our familiar former homos.
Earlier this month, Focus on the Family brought its international Love Won Out conference to Birmingham, Alabama, for a one-day gathering designed to educate and equip participants to wrestle with key issues surrounding homosexuality and to offer hope for those struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions. Speakers included experts on homosexual issues straight from the front lines of the culture wars as well as former gays and lesbians whose personal testimonies affirmed the possibility of freedom in Christ.
Professional heterosexual Melissa Fryrear.
One of the featured speakers at the Birmingham LWO Conference was former lesbian Melissa Fryrear, a gender issues analyst for Focus on the Family. She says even though homosexuality and same-sex marriage are becoming increasingly politicized in contemporary culture, the conference focuses on love and hope in Christ. “We are here to offer a perspective that is rarely heard anywhere else,” she says. “There is a way out of unwanted homosexuality.”
Fryrear presented two separate breakout sessions, entitled “Someone I Love is Gay” and “Questions & Answers on Lesbianism.” In them, she balanced factual information, scriptural truth, and personally vulnerable sharing of her own path out of homosexuality, along the way providing penetrating insights into homosexuality from a female perspective. [OMG.]
“I never met a person who aspired to be homosexually challenged,” the gender issues expert noted at one point. “Sexual trauma is a huge piece of the puzzle. Having talked with hundreds of homosexuals, I have never met one that had not been sexually violated in his or her life.”
Dr Joseph Nicolosi claims to have helped over 200 gay men to change, over time, to a heterosexual orientation. Hey, what about lesbians, Joe?
Other speakers helped supply further pieces of the puzzle. [Fraud scientist] Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, president and principal researcher for the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) presented a talk on “The Condition of Male Homosexuality” and another on “Prevention of Male Homosexuality.” And Exodus International's Randy Thomas presented “Hope for Those Who Struggle” and a two-part session called “Reaching the Homosexual.”
Anne on mom Nancy Heche (above): "The "Ex-gay" events that are going on right now make me sick. The fact that my mother is using my name to promote this movement makes me even sicker."
Also, guest speaker Nancy Heche shared the lessons of faith and forgiveness she learned during her celebrity daughter's high profile lesbian relationship, and even before that, when she lost her husband to AIDS after discovering he had secretly lived a homosexual lifestyle during their marriage. Later, Heche also presented a session called “Three Things to Say When You Don't Know What to Say.”
Tom DeLay indicted
He's not smiling now.Criminal and thieves at the Federal level.
Slimeball gets greased -
DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe.
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.
Actually, he
has to step down as majority leader because the GOP rules say he has to. You'll recall that Congressional Republicans earlier tried to drop that little requirement, but that heat that drew was so bad that it didn't fly.
DeLay attorney Steve Brittain said DeLay was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.
...DeLay has denied committing any crime and accused the Democratic district attorney leading the investigation, Ronnie Earle, of pursuing the case for political motives.
Democrats have kept up a crescendo of criticism of DeLay's ethics, citing three times last year that the House ethics committee admonished DeLay for his conduct.
Earlier, DeLay attorney Bill White told reporters, "It's a skunky indictment if they have one."
As a sign of loyalty to DeLay after the grand jury returned indictments against three of his associates, House Republicans last November repealed a rule requiring any of their leaders to step aside if indicted. The rule was reinstituted in January after lawmakers returned to Washington from the holidays fearing the repeal might create a backlash from voters.
DeLay, 58, also is the center of an ethics swirl in Washington. The 11-term congressman was admonished last year by the House ethics committee on three separate issues and is the center of a political storm this year over lobbyists paying his and other lawmakers' tabs for expensive travel abroad.
Can't wait to see him in prison gear.
Make your own Jeffy Lube pro-war rally poster
[
UPDATE: moving this back up a bit to remind folks to participate in the fun...]
Blender Fritz of
On the Fritz has started the ball rolling on "improvements" to
Joe Tresh's photo of the Ho' Beast "Journalist" of the White House (and, ahem,
new columnist at the Washington Blade) at the pro-war rally last Saturday. The original poster reads "Let Our Troops Finish Their Mission."
Organizers expected 20,000, and only about 400 people showed up, including recently the self-outed "bisexual" Rent Boy. I know, stop laughing...
Fritz's caption with his little P'shop fun:
"Ugh! I can’t begin to express my complete and utter contempt for this self-loathing freak. I don’t know what disgusts me more — his politics, his slimy personality, or his flabby man-boobs and fat gut. This asshole is a complete loser in every respect."
Here's Fritz's submission (L), and one and from Fritz's brother.
Here's one sent in from Blender Sticker-Shock (L), and a howler from
Shakes Sis.
Three more from
Virtual Pus:
Here's another from reader D. (L), and Deborah (R).
Here are eight (!) contributions by my favorite ace P'shop wizard,
Mike Tidmus:
From
Robert in WeHo:
Also: read about JimmyJeff "coming out" as bisexual in my post, "
Perhaps the most ridiculous column ever."
***
And, for the photographer's thoughtful take on the roller coaster over this, see Joe Tresh's blog entry, "
Jeff Gannon at Rally for Families, Becomes Liberal Gannon Fodder."
Crooks, thieves and a homo-bigots at the local level
Rap sheet: I think Vincent Brown has a big future as a corrupt Repug. Is the Bush team hiring anyone for the Gulf Enterprise Zone? Vince may be just your kind of guy.We've got a good little story going on here in Durham. One of the mayoral candidates, Vincent Brown, seems incapable of telling the truth and has a mile-long rap sheet. This guy is a serious scam artist, who managed to get a former Durham County commissioner and the former president of the local chapter of the NAACP to be his campaign treasurer, and was endorsed by the county's pathetic
Republican Party, which is finally asking Brown to withdraw from the mayor's race.
The best part? He has chastised incumbent Mayor Bill Bell for
not being aggressive enough in combating crime. Look in the mirror, fool. He didn't show at a meet-the-candidate public forum sponsored by the local Democratic Party on Tuesday -- the only empty chair on the stage had Brown's name on it.
You can't even get a clear basic background on the man. (
N&O):
Over the years, he appears to have used at least four variations of his name -- Vincent Brown, Vincent C. Brown, Vincent C. Brown Sr. and Vincent Cortez Brown. He has also used at least two birth dates -- one in 1960 and another in 1963.
On a candidate's questionnaire Brown filed with The News & Observer, he wrote that he is 45. When asked his age in an interview, he said 43. Asked to explain the discrepancy, Brown gave the 1960 date used on his voter registration as his true birthday, which would make him 44.
Though he says he has lived in Durham for 12 years, legal records, phone listings and credit reports indicate that Brown and his wife, Jennifer Brown, have moved often -- living in Greensboro, Hillsborough and Danville, Va., among other places.
He pleaded guilty to 46 misdemeanor charges, under plea agreements after first being charged with felonies. A sample of what is on Brown's rap sheet and list of lies, revealed in court documents, police reports, prison files and other public records - there are over 100 charges.
* writing worthless checks
* simple assault
* fraud
* providing fictitious information to a police officer
* possessing a weapon on school grounds
* violating probation
* failing to pay income tax
* driving while impaired.
* convicted of felony forgery in Pender County
* numerous civil actions filed against him, mostly seeking payment. Earlier this month, an order was issued against Brown on behalf of one of his former attorneys for unpaid bills and interest totaling $70,810.
* promoting the prostitution of a minor (with three charges involving the same victim!).
[The charges took two years to go to trial and the victim, a member of Brown's church then refused to testify, according to the N&O.. "The charges were not dismissed because of an insufficiency of evidence or because the defendant was innocent," according to Durham assistant district attorney. "The charges were dismissed because of the desires of the victim and the victim's family. Her father did not want her to go through a trial, and he said it had already been handled within the church."]
* Brown actually drove to an N&O interview last week driving a late-model pickup truck -- even though criminal records indicate his driver's license was permanently revoked back in 1992.
* Brown said he lived in Greensboro in 1988 as a student at N.C. A&T State University, where he said he earned a four-year degree in civil engineering. The university registrar's office said last week that no one under Brown's name or either of the birth dates he has used earned a degree or attended classes there.
What does this dolt have to say for himself on the criminal charges?
He claims it's all a case of mistaken identity. Hmmmm...how does that explain all the people that recognize him and that he has fingerprints on file?
"That's not me," Brown said Thursday. "I don't know who that is. This is wrong. ... There are so many Vincent Browns."
He then said the charges shouldn't matter anyway, because they were dismissed -- information not included on the documents he was shown. Asked how he knew the charges had been dismissed if he was not the Vincent Brown who had been arrested, Brown paused; then he laid out a scenario in which he was a victim of mistaken identity and had to hire a lawyer to help set the record straight. He reiterated that he had never been arrested.
A Durham assistant district attorney, Tracey Cline, identified Brown as the man she was set to prosecute on the prostitution charges.
...Cline said she was surprised by Brown's claims of mistaken identity. When the police investigated the prostitution charges, they used Brown's fingerprints to run a records check that matched his 1963 birth date, his Social Security number and his Pennsylvania birthplace.
I could go on and on, but read even more on this guy in the followup article, "
More say Durham candidate told lies." The first story triggered a ton of phone calls and e-mails from people across the state who say they have had run-ins with Brown.
***
At that open forum, since the buzz on our man Brown was so high, it appears all the
candidates were asked to disclose whether they had ever been arrested on a criminal charge or had been to jail. Eight out of the 17 candidates for mayor or city council has had run-ins with the law. Some of the issues were minor (speeding), but some of these characters really should have thought twice before running for public office. What's worse is that some of these folks
are dumb enough to get up there and lie when judgments and guilty pleas are in the public record. Is there some kind of congenital lie gene in aspiring politicians? More info from Michael Biesecker's
N&O piece:
*
Shawn R. Cunningham (Ward 3): arrested on a felony count of embezzlement in 1996 and a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon in 1992.H e pleaded guilty to both, with the felony embezzlement charge being lowered to a misdemeanor count as part of a deal with prosecutors. Cunningham, whose resume says he has worked for banks and mortgage companies, also has been charged with at least 15 misdemeanor counts of writing worthless checks over an eight-year span.
*
Joe Williams (Ward 1): "I don't have any skeletons in my closet." Records show Williams was convicted in a 1986 trial for a single misdemeanor count of assault on a female. He was ordered by a judge to "pay for damages to teeth" in an amount to be determined by the clerk of court. When asked about the charge after the event, Williams said it resulted from an altercation with his sister.
"Everybody has fights with their sister," said Williams, who was 44 when he was convicted.
*
John Holmes (Ward 2): told the crowd that he had been arrested once for driving with a revoked license, spending about an hour in jail before his wife bailed him out. Court records show Holmes has been charged for driving with a revoked license nine times since 1992, most recently last year. He pleaded guilty to those charges on four occasions. Holmes could not be reached Tuesday night to answer about the discrepancy.
*
Steven Matherly (Ward 3) acquitted on disorderly conduct and trespassing charges from his actions at a Durham school board meeting. But he did not mention five charges for writing worthless checks between 1990 and 1995, or a 1993 charge for driving with a revoked license. Records show Matherly pleaded guilty to two of the misdemeanor check charges, as well as the license charge. Asked about the charges, Matherly said: "They are what they are, and that is all I have to say."
*
John Best (already a council member): sent to jail for two days by a judge earlier this year for his failure to pay child support and alimony. According to the Durham County clerk of court, Best now owes his ex-wife $18,546. The council member has repeatedly said that the outstanding balance is alimony and that he has always paid his child support. But according to the clerk's office, $1,707 in child support is owed. Best also pleaded guilty to driving while impaired in 1998. Best said Tuesday that the conviction resulted from a "mistake in judgment" that had not affected his performance on the council over the past four years.
*
Jackie Wagstaff (running for mayor): charged with two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretense for doctoring city check requests from North East Central Durham Reinvestment Inc., a city-financed social services organization she ran. She later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts in a deal with prosecutors.
*
Victoria Peterson (Ward 1), said she had been arrested for trespassing while protesting at abortion clinics. Records show five second-degree trespassing charges filed against Peterson in North Carolina between 1989 and 2001. She pleaded not guilty on three of the counts, but the records indicate she was found guilty at trial.
***
I have a special place for
Ms. Victoria Peterson in my heart because she is is a good representative of our local Af-AmTaliban, serving as president of
Christians for Morality in Government. She's an ace homo-bigot that didn't make it out of the primary the last time she ran.
In 2003, she testified before the County Commissioners to urge them not to extend partnership benefits because: "
Many of them are infected with diseases, and their lifestyles are very, very dangerous," Peterson told the board. "Many don't live to be senior citizens. Who's going to pay this expense if they get sick in their gay lifestyle?" And here's
another gem of her reasoning: "
The gay community makes plenty of money. Just because of how you have sex, does not mean anyone is entitled to special rights."
The
measure passed, making Durham North Carolina's first county to enact domestic partner benefits. Chapel Hill and Carrboro also offer domestic-partner benefits to both heterosexual and same-sex couples. Peterson threatened to sue the county over the passage of the measure.
When a bill to add sexual orientation to state anti-discrimination
was defeated in 2003, she said: "
They could come to work dressed one day looking like a female and two weeks later looking like a male. We do not recognize people who actively engage in a gay lifestyle."
My favorite Peterson quote came after she was roundly defeated in the 2003 primary. She just couldn't understand how, a good "Christian" conservative like herself came in next to last in a field of seven candidates in queer-laden, progressive Durham (no link to this N&O article, "Bell dominates mayor's race in Durham"):
Victoria Peterson, a community activist and frequent critic of the council, finished seventh, eliminated by the more than 2,700 votes she trailed Herndon.
"I am disappointed, to be honest," said Peterson, who was not endorsed by any of the major groups. "No one told the people who went to the polls to vote for me to vote for me. Politics were played with who got endorsements and who didn't. The political groups aren't looking out for the community."
***
All that said, we do have a progressive candidate out there that has gained the Independent Weekly's endorsement,
Regina Stanley-King. Blender Reina emailed:
I wanted to put the word out to you about a good friend of mine that is running for city council. It's Regina Stanley-King, and she's already done pretty well for herself, getting the Independent Weekly's endorsement, and doing well with Durham's gay community (supporting Liability insurance measures) last night at the Democratic meeting in town.
She's a good woman, and really wants to know the diverse population that makes up the city. Heck, recently she dropped by the new 305 South (new space owned by the old owners of Ooh-La-Latte/Untidy Museum on my suggestion for someplace fun and funky to check out, and ended up chatting with the owners for a good hour about all kinds of things. They loved her, and She's enjoying seeing all the sides of Durham she'd been missing out on.
Stanley-King may have an uphill battle in Ward 2 as her opponent is current city councilman
Howard Clement, who has been on the council a looong time (some say too long), but he has always ended up back in the chair..
Durham's primary elections are on October 11.
MA: Gay affirming priest replaced by Vatican stooge
The beloved, but ousted Cuenin (l), and his Ratzi-approved replacement, Coyne. ''I believe this is about more than money -- that is an excuse, not a reason. They've used that as a way of moving Walter out of the way, and ensuring he can never be a pastor again, and I believe it has more to do with his stand and activities in the sexual abuse crisis and his support of women, of gays and lesbians, of divorced couples, and of marginalized people."
-- Christina Graf, the vice chairwoman of the parish council at Our Lady Help of Christians on Walter Cuenin's ouster
Never mind homos, Ratzi's now ordering the deep-sixing of dissenters that dare think gay people are human beings.
The fig leaf of "fiscal improprieties" is being used to squash dissent, but evidence has surfaced that
Rev. Walter H. Cuenin, pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Newton, MA, was targeted for his pro-gay and progressive public positions. He was a popular figure, leading the parish for 12 years, but he was removed by the Boston Archdiocese in yet another "witch hunt" bent on weeding out clergy critical of the church's hypocrisy and frankly, immoral behavior.
To add insult to injury, the man installed to take his place,
Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, is a part of the Vatican cover-up of the pedophile horror, having
served as archdiocese spokesman at the height of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. This church is so sick and rotten. How many times do parishioners have to be spat on by the Vatican before an outright revolt and schism occurs?
The improprieties held against Cuenin are laughable -- a $500 stipend and a leased Accord -- and Cuenin said that the payments had repeatedly been approved by the parish finance council and reported during previous archdiocesan audits.
A letter surfaced, according
Boston.com, that shows the more likely reason the hammer came down.
In an indication that a Newton pastor's position on gay rights may have played a role in his ouster, a conservative website has posted a letter from a top archdiocesan official saying that Roman Catholic Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley had been ''very disturbed" by an accusation that the pastor had invited parishioners to consider marching in a gay-rights parade in Boston last spring.
...Bishop Richard G. Lennon, the archdiocesan vicar general, writes of receiving complaints that Cuenin had positively mentioned an upcoming gay pride parade in the church bulletin, and says, ''Please know that the archbishop is very disturbed by the information that you, along with others, have sent to him regarding this event and the involvement of Father Cuenin. He wishes to assure you that he is in the process of addressing this whole matter."
The letter was dated July 8, one month after the annual Boston Pride parade on June 11.
...A leader of the parish's delegation to the gay pride parade said Cuenin did not author the bulletin announcement and did not march in the parade.
''It wasn't an invitation from Walter, but from the justice and peace committee of the parish, because gay rights is an issue of justice in our minds," said Larry Kessler, a member of the parish council at Our Lady Help of Christians and a founding director of the AIDS Action Committee.
The wrath against Cuenin is also driven by hardline American Conservatives.
Cuenin has been an outspoken supporter of welcoming gays and lesbians to the church, and his position on that issue, as on many other issues, has angered conservatives, some of whom have been agitating for his ouster for years. The Operation Rescue: Boston website, www.orboston.org, for example, refers to Cuenin as a ''pro-gay, dissenting priest," and to his actions as ''heresy."
...In the parish bulletin at Our Lady's earlier this month, Cuenin wrote: 'We have made a special effort to welcome gay and lesbian persons and their families. The parish is blessed to have many couples, some now legally married, as members of the community. They come on Sundays and are raising their children in the faith. Their marriage seems to have been a good experience for them. It doesn't appear that anyone's marriage has been threatened or compromised by the 1,800 gay marriages that have already taken place in the past year."
...Cuenin had previously landed in hot water in 2002, when he was quoted in The New Yorker magazine saying that divorced people should be granted a ''front-row seat" in Catholic parishes, and that gays and lesbians should be granted the ''other front row."
Cuenin also led a group of priests who wound up signing a letter calling for Cardinal Bernard F. Law to resign in December 2002.
You know that last bit of business was enough to put the Vatican's panties in a bunch. Law in 2002 summarily
banned any church agencies from holding meetings at Cuenin's parish because of the popular priest's criticism of Law's handling of the sexual abuse scandal, so this is sweet revenge. Cuenin had to go, and they were going to find a way to take him out (why didn't they just go ahead with concrete shoes for him?).
The Ratzi-approved mouthpiece has been installed. The announcement that Rev. Christopher J. Coyne was to take Cuenin's place was not met with joy by parishioners. In fact,
they took to the streets in a protest vigil.
Amanda Forster, 9, attends a vigil last night in support of the Rev Walter Cuenin. (Staff photo by Mark Garfinkel)
Protesters at Our Lady Help of Christians began what was to be a 12-hour vigil last night. Newton's Jewish mayor and an openly gay Catholic senator spoke to a spillover crowd in support of Cuenin.
Newton Mayor David Cohen called Cuenin "a leader, a teacher, a healer, a mentor.'' State Sen. Jarrett Barrios (D-Cambridge) said that when priests protested the handling of the sex-abuse crisis, "The leader of those priests was your priest Walter Cuenin . . . while others did nothing, he stood up.''
Reacting to the news of Coyne's appointment, parishioner Donna Giovannini said, ``We want to keep Walter Cuenin here. He is the spirit of this church and the leader of this community.'' Christina Jameson, one of many Catholics who came from other parishes to Cuenin, said of Coyne, ``If there is anything they could do that would be more offensive, that is it.''
Lesbian wins top political party post in Canada
Our
friends to the North make the U.S. look like knuckle-draggers. Again.
Allison Brewer has become the first out lesbian to lead a political party in North America. Brewer won a first ballot victory to become leader of the New Democratic Party in New Brunswick. If her party wins the next provincial election she would become the first out premier in Canada.
Calling it "an historic day for the lesbian and gay community", she said she intends to lead her party to a majority government. "I will make my presence felt and I want Bernard Lord and Shawn Graham to know that I am on my way," she said after her win. Lord is the leader of New Brunswick's Conservative Party and the sitting premier. Graham is the Liberal leader. Both are ahead of the New Democrats in the polls.
Following her win, Brewer's 20 year old son gave her a hug and declared, "You're my leader. You will always be my leader."
'Threats' from Concerned Women for America
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
The bleating of the wingnuts for Bush to remain hardline on the next SCOTUS pick has me laughing. Do I detect desperation? (
AgapePress):
Concerned Women for America is urging President George W. Bush to ignore what it calls the "Left's predictable threats" to filibuster his next U.S. Supreme Court nominee. The pro-family group says Bush must not allow selecting the right nominee to be jeopardized by partisan threats.
CWA chief counsel Jan LaRue says, "Any nominee who thinks the text of the Constitution should be taken more seriously than a supermarket tabloid is filibuster fodder. It isn't about the nominee -- it's about the President. And the seven Republicans in the 'Gang of 14' need to remember that." Democrats are demanding their version of a mainstream nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, but LaRue says if Bush's opponents reject his first pick, he should let them know they will not be seeing any acceptable "moderates." What is needed, the CWA spokeswoman says, is "another nominee with a strong record that proves it's the Constitution that must weigh in the balance, not policy-making poorly disguised as judging." Several outstanding jurists fit the bill, LaRue adds, including Judges Janice Rogers Brown, Emilio Garza, Edith Jones, Michael McConnell, Priscilla Owen, Samuel Alito, and Michael Luttig, to name a few.
AmTaliban wants to make sure casinos don't return to Mississippi
Professional bible beater (and fag-hater) Don Wildmon wants to spar with Gov. Barbour over sinful gambling on the Gulf Coast.Since the dollars have stopped rolling in from casino revenues, Governor Barbour is hot to
get that source of revenue back online. The bible-beaters at the American Family Association and the Mississippi Baptist Convention would like changes to state law to put gambling up for public referendum. It's going to be an interesting catfight. Meow.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has called a special session, beginning today (September 27), during which state lawmakers will debate letting Gulf Coast casinos build on land -- one of a number of Hurricane Katrina recovery issues the governor hopes the lawmakers will resolve quickly. The August 29 hurricane that killed some 219 people also ravaged the state's 80-mile coastline: Katrina's powerful winds and storm surge tossed many of the state's floating casinos ashore and severely damaged others. Mississippi legalized casino gambling in 1990 but limited it to tourist areas along the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River.
The coast gaming industry was generating $500,000 a day in tax revenue before the hurricane, with 12 casinos operating on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and another set to open this month. State Gaming Commission chairman Jerry St. Pe and executive director Larry Gregory recently met with casino executives in Las Vegas to discuss their companies' future in Mississippi. St. Pe says most of the casino officials want Mississippi laws changed to allow casinos on land rather than only over water, although "differences of opinion" exist about how far casinos should be allowed inland.
Harrah's Entertainment released a statement yesterday, saying the company "believes it is critical to move quickly to rebuild the Gulf Coast as a major tourist and entertainment destination," but that the gambling industry must respond to forecasted future disasters with "safeguards" and needs to "be allowed to implement safer design and construction of casino resorts by allowing them to reside on shore adjacent to current locations." But according to Associated Press, a Mississippi Baptist Convention spokesman told reporters after Katrina that the convention might press the legislature to outlaw casinos altogether.
Meanwhile, chairman Don Wildmon of the Mississippi-based American Family Association, is hopeful the special session in Jackson will open the door for other possible changes to state law, such as allowing a referendum on gambling, letting the voters vote casinos out (current law does not give voters the option), raising casino taxes, or putting a freeze on where casinos can locate. "Perhaps," Wildmon notes, "this is a political debate regarding gambling in Mississippi which has been needed for years."
Perhaps Don and the Baptist Convention can replace that revenue with some slamming church bingo.
New Orleans police chief calls it quits
New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass, right, turns away from the microphones as Mayor Ray Nagin, left, looks on after Compass announced his retirement.Heck, you have to wonder how many other municipal officials will
move on -- as if they are getting a paycheck any time soon. It had to be hard to watch your department fall apart during a natural and man-made disaster, let alone control the situation once it got out of hand.
Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned Tuesday after four turbulent weeks in which the police force was wracked by desertions and disorganization in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.
"I served this department for 26 years and have taken it through some of the toughest times of its history. Every man in a leadership position must know when it's time to hand over the reins," Compass said at a news conference. "I'll be going on in another direction that God has for me."
As the city slipped into anarchy during the first few days after Katrina, the 1,700-member police department itself suffered a crisis. Many officers deserted their posts, and some were accused of joining in the looting that broke out. Two officers Compass described as friends committed suicide.
Neither Compass nor Mayor Ray Nagin would say whether Compass was pressured to leave.
Thanks to Blender Cat for the pointer.
Why does the Left hate George W. Bush?
I've been corresponding with a Writ reader who asks a very poignant question:
I went back to your blog yesterday and read some more. It was very interesting. Since you were kind enough to answer me and send more communication today, I'll ask you because I trust that you will give a well reasoned response.
George Bush is far from perfect, but why does the left "hate" him so much?
First off, who's this "the left" I keep hearing reference to?
Second off, "hate" is a strong word. I don't hate the man. I figure he even might be a swell fella, fun to hoist a brew with while watching a football game.
The proper feeling is "despair". George W. Bush makes me despair for my country. I can't speak for everyone on "the left", but it is my feeling that Bush is the Worst President Ever, a man who never met a corporation he wouldn't benefit and a little guy he wouldn't screw over. He is the great and powerful Oz, a sham of a leader acting as the puppet for Grover Norquist, Dick Cheney, Halliburton/Bechtel/KBR, ChevronTexacoExxonMobilShellBP (why don't they just get the mega merger done already?), EliLillyMerckPfizerBristolMyersSquibb (again...), and the babbling biblical literalists who think the earth is 6,000 years old (dinosaur bones, oil, and all) and the omniscient maker and shaper of the Universe is deeply concerned about what we do with our pee-pees.
Or, as one of blog friends on "the left" (
Days) so elequently puts it:
- For 1,900+ dead American soldiers. 15,000+ American soldiers wounded. Countless numbers of innocent Iraqi civilians dead. ("We don't do body counts.") For what? For nothing.
- For doing squat since 9/11 to make us safer here at home.
- For the policies that have led to the tripling of global terrorist attacks around the world.
- For seizing on the fear that surged across this country post-9/11 to push your unjustified, unnecessary war on Iraq. Mushroom clouds anyone?
- For "fixing the facts around the policy."
- For flat-out lying about WMDs. And soooo many other things.
- For joking about those missing WMDs while soldiers were still dying. Yep, that was hilarious.
- For attempting to conduct a 'war on the cheap'.
- For not putting enough troops on the ground in the first place.
- For not properly equipping our troops before sending them to war.
- For failing completely to plan for or understand the post-invasion chaos and insurgency. Rumsfeld's explanation? "Stuff happens."
- For not firing Donald Rumsfeld.
- For losing track of $1 billion in Iraq earlier this week, added to the $8.8 billion you lost earlier. And hey, how about the $300 billion already spent on this endeavor? We can pretty much consider that 'lost' too, can't we? $300 billion... that's like an entire hurricane.
- For approving the interrogation practices that led to torture at Abu Ghraib.
- For the August 6, 2001 PDB which stated "Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S."
- For being too busy 'clearing brush' to pay attention to that memo.
- For clearing brush. Period.
- For 'My Pet Goat'.
- For continuing to cover-up 9/11 failures.
- By the way, where is Osama?
- For that bullshit bullhorn moment.
- For squandering the good will the world showered upon us after 9/11.
- For turning so many goddam corners in Iraq that we're now running in circles with no way out.
- For sending America's children to be blowed up when you yourself spent the Vietnam era swilling beer in Alabama.
- For the Swift Boat attacks.
- For Karl f*cking Rove.
- For rushing back to DC from your ranch to 'rescue' Terri Schiavo.
- For fiddling at your ranch while not rescuing the entire city of New Orleans.
- For having the audacity to link anything, including Hurricane Katrina, to the War (Struggle?) on Terror in order to justify your policies.
- For continuing to reward loyalty over competency, moving forward with your policy of cronyism (and nepotism!) even in the face of the Michael 'Heckuvajob' Brownie debacle
- For continuing to allow the crooks and thieves who permeate your party to run wild.
- For having Lynyrd Skynyrd on your iPod.
- For completely ignoring the environment.
- For saying "the jury is still out" on Global Warming.
- For saying "the jury is still out" on Evolution.
- For thinking Jesus Christ was a philosopher. And a Republican.
- For being the only president ever to cut taxes during wartime. And for cutting them in such a way that the richest 1% benefit the most.
- For continuing to insist on making those tax cuts permanent, even in the face of a $200 billion+ reconstruction effort in New Orleans.
- For proposing cuts to benefits for military families to pay for that reconstruction instead.
- For repeatedly treating disaster as an opportunity.
- For an all-time high trade deficit nearing $700 billion.
- For the 7 percent decrease in real value of minimum wage over the past four years.
- For the 11 percent increase in poverty over the past four years.
- For four straight years in which median household incomes have not increased.
- For the 6 million more uninsured Americans created in the last four years.
- For hiding the true cost of your Medicare prescription drug bill until it was already passed.
- For ramming through a transportation bill filled with a record amount of pork to support such "special projects" as Alaskan Don Young's "bridges to nowhere".
- For pushing through an energy bill which includes billions in tax breaks for your oily friends as gas prices continue to soar.
- For treating your failed war as though it were a charity, asking Americans for donations to support it. Talk about last throes.
- For ignoring real crises while claiming a "crisis" in Social Security when there isn't one.
- For being a divider, not a uniter.
- For fueling discrimination and hatred of homosexuals by pushing the frivolous idea of a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in order to polarize the electorate so you could win re-election.
- For "Mission Accomplished"
- For "Bring 'em on"
- For "Last Throes"
- For "We'll be greeted as liberators"
- For "Smoke 'em out"
- For "Watch me hit this drive"
- For generally being an asshole.
By any objective standard, this administration is a dismal failure and has made a mockery of all the things I love about America. Things like fair elections, habeus corpus, privacy, separation of church and state, care for the less fortunate, protecting our homeland, respecting the environment, curbing the power of corporations, standing for human rights, transparency in government, respect for our military, and so many many more. Bush is steering our country back to the pre-New Deal rich-man's playground of the Robber Baron era, while simultaneously squandering any post-9/11 worldwide goodwill and alienating what few allies we have left.
But I will say one thing good about Bush: he never got oral sex from an intern and lied about it to America.
(Huge hat tip to Jed at Days)
Jeff Gannon attends pro-war rally
Go to
PageOneNews for an exclusive pic by Joe Tresh of
Jeff Gannon at the pro-war rally. He's holding a sign that says "Let Our Troops Finish Their Mission." Barf.
There are also photos from the Cindy Sheehan arrest. How incredible that Jeffy Lube keeps resurfacing.
Read about JimmyJeff "coming out" as bisexual in my post, "
Perhaps the most ridiculous column ever."
Anglican schism threatened -- over transsexual priest
Sarah Jones and Bishop Priddis."What's important is that she's a person made by God, loved by God and given gifts by God who feels that she's called to be a priest and that's a call that's been checked out by the church rigorously."
-- Bishop Anthony Priddis, on transsexual Sarah Jones ordination as an Anglican priest
At least outside the church, you can't call the Anglicans boring.
They are really stirring the pot in a big way. The American church is already reeling from the election of openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire; the worldwide conservative element in the church has already severed ties with the Church of England.
The Bishop of Hereford has defended the decision to ordain a transsexual woman as a priest.
Assistant curate Sarah Jones, 44, from Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, spent the first 29 years of her life living as a man. Evangelical group Evangelical Alliance said there was no "Christian acknowledgement" of gender realignment.
But the Right Reverend Anthony Priddis said Ms Jones - being ordained on Saturday - was "made and loved by God".
Ms Jones was a "superb candidate" who had the gender realignment surgery "many years ago - long before she explored the possibility of being ordained", Bishop Priddis said.
...But Don Horrocks, of the Evangelical Alliance, said the Bible made it "absolutely clear that God created human beings as male and female". "Therefore there is absolutely no Christian acknowledgement of the 21st Century human idea that it's possible somehow for a person to take charge of their own destiny and to decide what their own sexuality is," he added.
"Someone who does that... is therefore actually perpetuating an illusion or masquerading and any Christian is clearly not going to be supportive of someone who purports to be what they're not."
Jamaican homo-bigot charged with hate attack
As I've
said before, gay rights struggles are tough here, but in Jamaica, it's so much worse. The violence against gays and lesbians is out of control, ignored by the government, encouraged by some musicians. One singer decided to act on his hate lyrics. (
365gay.com):
Buju Banton, one of Jamaica's most famous singers, has been charged with assault in connection with a vicious attack on six gay men. Police allege that Banton was one of about a dozen armed men who forced their way into a house in Kingston last year and beat up the occupants while shouting homophobic insults. Several people were taken to the hospital following the attack.
Banton, whose song Boom Boom Bye Bye threatens gay men with a "gunshot in ah head", was identified by several witnesses. He will appear in court on Friday to answer the charges. In the meantime Baton is out on bail.
"This trial is test case on whether gay people can get justice in Jamaica," said Brett Lock of the UK-based gay human rights group OutRage, which has spearheaded an international campaign against homophobia by reggae singers. "Some Jamaicans fear that Mr Banton’s celebrity and the strongly homophobic attitudes that exist in Jamaica will deny justice to the victims of what was a horrific homophobic assault," said Lock.
Gay sex is illegal in Jamaica, punishable by jail, with the possibility of hard labor.
Last year, a concert in London by Beenie Man, another Jamaican singer who calls for beating and killing gays, was cancelled. One of Beenie Man's songs contains the lyrics: "I'm a dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays."
Please let this be true - Brownie behind Enquirer story
Brown defended his response to the disaster and said 'My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional.' -- WHAT? (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)Newly hired FEMA consultant Brownie is on C-SPAN
testifying at the sham GOP "investigation" into how he f*cked up before, during and after Katrina.
What I seemed to have missed is this interesting scuttlebutt (from Jane at
Firedoglake), courtesy of a
Shakes Sis post today (my emphasis):
Brownie, as you'll no doubt recall, did a heckuva job according to the man whose boozing he allegedly revealed to The Enquirer in a fit of pique as payback for the scapegoating he got, but this morning has told the committee he made "specific mistakes,” such as not persuading Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to better coordinate their efforts.
Whoa. That's hot gossip, and certainly he's a prime candidate for leaking about The Boozing Chimp. That would explain the brain-dead PR decision to hire him as a FEMA consultant after the whiz-bang job that got him sh*tcanned. Maybe that Medal of Freedom really is in the mail too.
Also see:
You may have to remove the 'dry' from dry drunk
'Love Embraces All' event counters 'ex-gay' conference in Birmingham
House Blender Kathy sends in a report on a conference on "reparative" therapy, "
Love Embraces All" held earlier this month, at Pilgrim Congregational Church (UCC) in Birmingham, AL. It took place on the same day as James Dobson's "ex-gay" road show
Love Won Out.
Faces of LWO in their own words: "Ex-gay" Mike Haley is director of the Homosexuality and Gender department for Focus on the Family's Public Policy division; fastidious Alan Chambers "left homosexuality" in 1991 and is now the President of Exodus International.Below are pictures of the "Love Embraces All" event, which was sponsored by
Equality Alabama,
Communities of Faith for Full Inclusion, and several local churches and organizations. Kathy's report on the conference:
We had about 50 people in attendance with a very short lead time and little publicity. We also had a film crew from the United Kingdom that came in at the end to get some footage for a documentary on reparative therapy. They had attended the "Love Won Out" conference that morning and told us there were only about 400 people there. I understand the Dobson folks typically bus in people from out of state to inflate their numbers. I'd say we won that contest. I don't have any pics from their conference; the local news didn't cover either event, and none of our people wanted to register and pay $50 to listen to drivel.
I was struck by our attendees' need to talk. We only met from 9 am to 2:30 pm, but I believe we could have gone on for an entire weekend. What came out of our discussions was the need for safe spaces, particularly for youth, to be able to tell stories and be affirmed. I think we'll do this, or something similar, again soon.
Therapist panel, listening to the stories of those that had been through "ex-gay" programs.
Kathy: "Two men told their stories of experiencing reparative therapy. Zach, on the left, is our adopted nephew. He's only 22, but his parents put him through all manner of hell -- therapy, religious counseling, laying on hands to drive out the demon, then disowning him) while he was still a teenager. The other gentleman, Patrick, is a good bit older and put himself in for treatment back when psychiatrists routinely gave shock treatment to "cure" gayness. He says the doctors thought he would forget he was gay, but mostly he just forgot big chunks of his life."
Kathy said that this is an empty chair representing several people who were asked to share their stories but were afraid of the repercussions.
The panel of clergy and lay people discussing their experiences ministering to the LGBT community and advocating for more inclusive faith communities.
All involved in this conference deserve a huge pat on the back for countering the brainwashing of the Dobson crowd and creating an open and safe space for those willing to come forward. One can only hope that news about this success can spur on more events to help people come out from the shame and blame. Thanks, Kathy.
Interesting survey: American Catholics and party politics
This is from the
National Catholic Reporter. The information is particularly surprising to me, but it's still fascinating to see it broken down like this. I wonder how the Democrats and Republicans will digest this information and target this group in campaigns.
Actually, the person who should be taking a hard look at this is Ratzi and his Vatican hit squad. He's not on the same page as American Catholics at all, and the numbers detect real potential for a backlash as he attempts to rein in the flock.
American Catholics played an important if not decisive role in the 2004 national elections. Abortion, same sex marriage and stem cell research were all important issues on the minds of voters, and all indications are that they will continue to be. These issues have become part of a culture war in which two opposing views of the good society have increasingly spread across secular and religious lines. The lines are clearly drawn within the U.S. Congress, where conservative Protestants and Catholics form the core of the Republican Party while progressive Catholics, Jews and African-Americans form the core of the Democratic Party.
For American Catholics, the roots of this growing polarization, and with it a questioning of moral authority of the Vatican, are multifold. They are found in the rising level of formal education of Catholics, in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, in the decision of Pope Paul VI to reject the recommendation of his Birth Control Commission to change the church’s teaching on birth control, in the failure of U.S. bishops to support the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s effort to open a national dialogue on “the consistent ethic of life,” in the efforts of Pope John Paul II to refocus the church’s moral authority back to the Vatican, and most recently in the sex abuse scandal.
Thus, just as the Catholic church’s moral authority has been weakened by its teaching on birth control, its teachings on abortion and same-sex marriage have drawn attention away from its teachings in support of issues such as poor families without health insurance. Increasingly, knowing a person is Catholic does not predict her or his attitudes on these issues.
Here are some of the demographics on party affiliation:
* 41 percent of Catholics are Democrats
* 37 percent are Republicans
* 22 percent Independents
* Catholic women that are Democrats: 57 percent
* Catholic women registered as Republicans: 51 percent
* Catholic women who call themselves Independents: 54 percent
* Republicans are slightly more likely to be married, but also divorced
* Democrats more likely to have never married.
* Republicans have more members with college and graduate and professional degrees
* Democrats have more who had a high school education or less.
There is a distinct generational difference that is meaningful, with more drift away from hardline thinking:
Post-Vatican II Catholics were significantly more Republican than Democratic. However, when we break down the post-Vatican II generation into Gen X, all those born between 1961 and 1978, and the new Millennials, the youngest group of Catholics born between 1979 and 1987, we find a striking difference:
Generation X: Republicans, 49 percent; Democrats, 34 percent; Independents, 17 percent.
Millennials: Republicans, 29 percent; Democrats, 58 percent; Independents, 13 percent
Here are the findings on church teachings.
And here's a little info that is going to make Pope Ratzi's head explode. Only 29% of the flock think celibate male clergy is important, and:
Plus, the laity wants to decide where the money goes. If Ratzi doesn't watch out, the cash flow is going to dry up.
What does it all mean? Who knows. I'd love to see data on the black faith community like this.
Male SUV drivers more likely to hate homos
I'm wondering how many of these "rugged individualists" are also Viagra consumers. (
365gay.com):
The ad shows a ruggedly handsome man behind the wheel of a four-wheel-drive all terrain vehicle, portaging a river, climbing a rocky hill. He's hip, urbane, and a trendsetter. But a new study shows the guy in the ad bears little resemblance to the men who buy SUVs.
The study, by the Australia Institute, indicates the average 4WD driver is a male city dweller in his late 40s or 50s, and far from cool. The institute based its study on a Roy Morgan Research survey of 24,718 people aged 14 and over.
It found that the drivers were more likely to be homophobic than other drivers. It also discovered they were not community minded and less likely than drivers of other vehicles to give to a charity. The study additionally found they were more likely to suffer road rage. According to the institute four-wheel-drive vehicles also had a higher rate of being involved in accidents that kill or maim people in other vehicles.
Raleigh wingnuts worried about yoga corrupting kids
Watch out, that
deep breathing is going to corrupt your kids. I'm sick of
Called2Action, a group of professional AmTaliban protestors and activists. Usually these folks spend their time homo-bashing. C2A
promoted a state marriage amendment here in NC, but since that failed to get out of committee this year, I guess the wingnuts have some time on their hands so the next big issue is...
yoga in schools. Yawn.
...A Christian group says some stress-reduction classes for elementary school students promoted "New Age" religion and were unconstitutional in a public school. Called2Action says it received complaints from a mother whose children were asked to do breathing exercises, chant and use their "life forces" last month at Partnership Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina. The group has sent a letter to Wake County's school board and superintendent asking them to make sure this kind of "spiritual and religious program" does not happen again.
I had to go to the C2A web site to see the "
Action Gram" for myself. This, Blenders, is a howler of bullsh*t wingnuttery. My emphasis on what made me laugh out loud.
Friends,
In August we received an email from one of our members regarding an incident that took place at Partnership Elementary School in Raleigh. This member's children were disturbed by some odd things they had been taught in class. A New Age "Elder", Ms. Emily Gunter, had been invited in by the school Principal to teach K-5th graders about dealing with "stress" via her Rites of Passage Youth Empowerment Program. Activities such as "Conscious Breathing for a Relaxed Mind", "Unity Circle", "What Are Your Colors and Values", as well as something along the lines of chanting (non-english words/sounds) were taught to children as young as Kindergarten. A brief note in the school newsletter informed parents that there would be a class on dealing with stress, but it did not elude to the new age nature of Ms. Gunter's teachings.
As a Christian, you may be most offended by the teaching of a false religion to children, whether they are yours, a friend's, a neighbor's or a stranger's...but the issue runs to matters of law as well and should be troubling to people of all religions, or those with none at all.
We immediately did some fact checking and paid a visit to Ms. Gunter's website where her mission statement reads: "Bringing peace to our world through the personal development and spiritual empowerment of the youth". The new age basis of her teachings is easily discerned when you spend just a few minutes going through her site. Not knowing exactly what we were dealing with, we placed a call to the Christian Law Association and law firm of David Gibbs III, who you may recall was the attorney for Terri Schiavo. They put together a very detailed evaluation and came to the conclusion that the Wake County Public School System (via Partnership Elementary) had, in fact, broken the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. At this point, we knew we had to pursue some course of action.
We have sent a letter to Superintendent McNeal, as well as all of the School Board members, asking them to do two things:
* Issue a formal reminder to all Wake County Principals and Administrators regarding these types of religious activities in the classroom.
* Inform all of the Partnership Elementary parents of this incident and and what they are doing to keep it from happening again.
We gave them copies of the Overview and Legal Opinion Memorandum provided by Mr. Gibbs' firm, as well as Guidelines for Religious Freedom in Public Schools which was put out by the Department of Education in the 90's to every school district in the nation. In most cases like this one, the school officials simply do not understand the law. Our prayer is that Superintendent McNeal will take strong corrective action to see that it does not happen again. Here is what we are asking of you:
* Pass this email on to people you know who have children in the Wake County Public School System so that they can be on the "lookout" for this kind of activity in the future.
* Take the time to download and read the overview/legal memorandum so that you will fully understand the facts surrounding this incident.
* If you have children in the WCPSS, download the Guidelines for Religious Freedom because you need to know the facts... remember, Christmas is right around the corner.
* Please inform us if anything like this has happened at your school.
* Pray that this will be well received by our WCPSS leadership and that they will act accordingly.
Last but not least, VOTE in the School Board Elections on October 11th for those candidates who support our values! We will have a non-partisan voter's guide available online by October 1st for you to download and distribute. We have also started a Political Action Committee (Called2Elect) which will be endorsing individual candidates in these critical races. We must act to protect the innocence of our children (more information on the election will be coming soon).
As always, thank you for your prayers and action. Together, by the grace of God, we are making a difference.
In His Service,
Steve Noble
Chairman
(Photo by Sher Stoneman, N&O)
This guy is outrageous, but hey, he's a
rising star in the AmTaliban, catching the eye of James Dobson of Focus on the Family and invited to join the super-secret Council for National Policy (a group that includes Paul Weyrich, the co-founder of the Heritage Foundation and Mother Phyllis Schlafly).
I'm curious as to how far this effort will get in Raleigh. You can check out the list of churches that work in partnership with C2A
here. One is the virulently homophobic Upper Room Church of God in Christ, home of our local bigot black pastor,
Patrick Wooden, who said "We have to block the use of euphemisms when we talk about homosexuals. They are not gay. We've got to use terms like 'deviant' and 'abomination.'"
Patrick Wooden.I also located another of C2A's partners.
King's Park International Church, just a few miles from my house, geez.
***
That reminds me, when I'm feeling better, I have to go take a picture of a house that's about a mile from ours; it is the apex of wingnuttery. I have no idea why these people built their compound here in Durham, amidst the homos.
They have a heinous life-size white statue of a
white couple embraced in an ode to traditional marriage, with a "
Jesus is Lord" banner strung along the
iron fence gating in their property PLUS the Ten Commandments mounted at the driveway gate. Our jaws dropped one day when we finally saw someone emerge out of the compound as we drove by (it's on a main road) --
a black family lives there.
And people say that the Religious Right isn't making inroads with black evangelicals. Alrighty then.
Watch the Kerry '04 campaign implode
Monday, September 26, 2005
After learning about the release of
Inside the Bubble, I have to agree with
Shakes Sis -- "reason #1,336,892 why Bob Shrum needs to be exiled to Loserville, Nerdovia, pronto." It sounds like Steve Rosenbaum
caught the slo-mo mess on film. John Kerry should have been able to kick the Chimp's ass all the way back to Texas in a landslide, yet it all came unraveled with cameras rolling. I don't think I could watch this without hurling or wanting to throw something at the screen. (
NY Daily News):
Kerry spinmeister David Wade - one of the senior staffers who allowed Rosenbaum to film his private moments - tried to dismiss Rosenbaum's effort as "a childish home movie destined to be forgotten."
Wade E-mailed me: "The 20 poor souls subjected to this movie will be reaching for caffeine and begging for old Lamar Alexander tapes on C-Span 2. Michael Moore has nothing to fear. I think the working title was 'The Snore Room.'"
But people who've screened the documentary say it's compelling and revealing.
It features, among other not-ready-for-prime-time moments, Clinton scowling and rolling her eyes over an apparent Kerry gaffe during a presidential debate; Kerry pretending to interview himself and babbling in Italian while waiting for a real interview to begin; Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) cursing at reporters during a campaign stop, and Kerry message guru Robert Shrum confidently declaring a few days before the 2004 election: "Zogby [a prominent pollster] just announced who's gonna win. Us!"
Shrum told me he personally didn't cooperate with the movie, which captures him on camera only a couple of times. Asked if he plans to see it, he answered: "Absolutely not."
...A press release claims the movie - which won't be shown publicly until Thursday - "turns a harsh but deeply revealing mirror on the campaign ... a disorganized, contentious, self-absorbed team that thought they could win by 'not making mistakes,' and keeping their candidate in the public eye without clarifying a position on anything."
Director Rosenbaum, meanwhile, told me: "I'm a lifelong Democrat and I supported Kerry. I think people will see the film as fair, and maybe searing."
CBS: Brownie rehired by FEMA as 'consultant'
Guess he can wear the shirt while he's freelancing.Only in Washington can something
this stupid happen. Brownie's now a hired gun, contracted to help investigate how he f*cked up. Who authorized this contract?
CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports that Michael Brown, who recently resigned as the head of the FEMA, has been rehired by the agency as a consultant to evaluate it's response following Hurricane Katrina.
Maxwell Smart's shoe phone goes offline
Don Adams of TV's
Get Smart passes away at 82.
Fun with strep
Felt really bad yesterday, having a hard time swallowing, painful, as if it was obstructed. Woke up today and it wasn't any better. Anyway, a short trip to the doctor revealed I likely have
strep throat (and I was walking around with a 101 degree fever). So I came back with penicillin and will stay home tomorrow, since I'm contagious for 1-3 days after starting meds. That's great. I probably exposed everyone in my staff meeting today...
The weird thing is that the doctor didn't perform a test to confirm strep. As long as I met three out of four criteria - fever, swollen glands, sore throat and no cough/congestion, she could just dole out the antibiotics. I asked her about this and she reiterated the guidelines. That seems kind of hit or miss, no - is this some sort of cost-saving measure? Aren't we supposed to be using as few antibiotics as possible since so many resistant strains of bacteria are cropping up?
Anyway, this should be ten days of fun, knowing what antibiotics usually means for me. Bleh.
Lynndie England convicted
She
may have done it for love, but now she gets to think about that decision
behind bars. She faces a max 10 in the clink.
Sick U.S. forces pay tribute with
their own version of "
Doing a Lynndie".
250K bullets for each insurgent downed
The U.S. is firing so much ammo that the military is turning to Israel to keep up. Do they need more target practice? (
Independent):
US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.
...A government report says that US forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more than doubled in five years, largely as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as changes in military doctrine.
...Estimating how many bullets US forces have expended for every insurgent killed is not a simple or precisely scientific matter. The former head of US forces in Iraq, General Tommy Franks, famously claimed that his forces "don't do body counts".
But senior officers have recently claimed "great successes" in Iraq, based on counting the bodies of insurgents killed. Maj-Gen Rick Lynch, the top US military spokesman in Iraq, said 1,534 insurgents had been seized or killed in a recent operation in the west of Baghdad. Other estimates from military officials suggest that at least 20,000 insurgents have been killed in President George Bush's "war on terror".
John Pike, director of the Washington military research group GlobalSecurity.org, said that, based on the GAO's figures, US forces had expended around six billion bullets between 2002 and 2005. "How many evil-doers have we sent to their maker using bullets rather than bombs? I don't know," he said.
"If they don't do body counts, how can I? But using these figures it works out at around 300,000 bullets per insurgent. Let's round that down to 250,000 so that we are underestimating."
How to address mail to same-sex couples
Judith Martin, a.k.a. Miss MannersIt's nice to know that Miss Manners is
up to speed with the homo thing...
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I work for a company that specializes in wedding products for gay and lesbian couples and, because we offer wedding invitations and bill ourselves as "mother-approved shopping," we often get questions about proper etiquette when addressing envelopes and wedding gifts to gay and lesbian couples. However, I have found myself stuck in how to best answer this question:
How do I address a wedding invitation to a lesbian (gay) married couple who have the same last name? Can one add in both names with something along the lines of Mrs. Sally & Betty Jones, or is it most proper to drop one name (Mrs. & Mrs. Betty Jones)? If so, how does one determine which name to drop?
GENTLE READER: "Mrs. and Mrs." not only encounters the problem you mention, but it is jarring to those who know the traditional rule that "Mrs." is never used with a lady's first name. Furthermore, those who violate that rule do so to indicate divorce or widowhood, neither of which is appropriate here.
Miss Manners has a simple solution:
Use the plural form of "Mrs." or, in the case of two gentlemen, the plural form of "Mr." These are, respectively, "Mesdames" and "Mssrs" ("The Mesdames Sally and Betty Jones," "The Messrs. Trevor and William Cartwright").
All right, Miss Manners admits that these are odd plurals. But they are at least traditional and dignified.
BlogActive outs another White House hypocrite
Self-loathing homo-bigot Berkowitz.Mike Rogers of BlogActive
uncovers another loser fighting against gay civil rights. This time it's
Bush's liaison to the Jewish community,
Jeff Berkowitz, a 26-year-old from the president's scheduling office.
In addition to speaking extensively with two of the four original tipsters, this information has been confirmed by five independent, separate, corroborating sources, including:
-A source inside of the White House
-A lobbyist for a top conservative lobbying firm
-An individual who had a sexual encounter with Mr. Berkowitz; and
-Two personal acquaintances of Jeff.
...Jeff Berkowitz has had his hand in building the current anti-gay majority in Congress. And, on top of the many sources above, this story has been confirmed by an individual who used to work with Mr. Berkowitz at, get this, Generation GOP. GenerationGOP is the organization created to recruit young people to the GOP platform (including the denial of civil marriage equality) and candidates.
To add special flavor to this sell-out, Jeff is also an Eagle Scout and Vigil member of the Order of the Arrow, the National Honor Society of the Boy Scouts of America. How about that for complete bullsh*ttery? How can he support that bigoted organization when he's a big old homo?
Mike has
action items in his post to write Berkowitz and editors of major Jewish media outlets.
Iraqi women say freedoms are slipping away
Bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq. Wasn't that one of Chimpy's prime justifications to overthrowing Saddam? Women's rights groups have been warning that without specific constitutional protections, women in the "New Iraq" were going to suffer a rollback of rights. The radical zealots are making sure that the modern Iraqi woman knows her place, and the culture of anti-feminism is being fomented. (
Middle East Online):
"Women cannot walk freely out in the street," said activist Ban Jamil, who directs the Rasafa Branch of Assyrian Women Union, a local non-governmental organisation in Baghdad.
"Women face lack of respect when they walk uncovered," said Jamil, a Christian, who said women are insulted if they show too much skin or walk in public without wearing the Islamic veil, or hijab, to cover their hair. She blamed "imported extremist doctrines, which were never experienced in the past" for the new restrictions.
The tide of Islamisation has risen in Iraq as fundamentalist Shiite parties have come to power following the ouster of former leader Saddam Hussein. Although not enforced by the newly established laws, which were written under US patronage, a conservative dress code is widely observed in much of the war-torn country.
The backsliding begins, and is this being covered in the press? Nope. As the calls for a pullout mount, it's clear that people are willing to let Iraqi women pay the price for a failed war, as extremism casts a shadow over their freedoms -- with U.S. approval.
"We cover and change the way we dress unwillingly due to pressure," said Jinan Mubarak, a Muslim who heads the Iraqi Centre for Training and Employing Women in Baghdad. She said some neighbourhoods are off-limits for women if unveiled, saying that women like herself are forced to change their behaviour in such environments.
Iraqi state television - a shopwindow of the new regime - allows some female presenters to appear unveiled, despite a clear Shiite influence in its programmes.
However, religious zealots who were curbed under Saddam's secular grip can operate freely now, as evidenced by one notice billboarded in a Baghdad street near a church, Jamil said.
"To all unveiled Muslim sisters and Christian sisters: You should wear a veil because Virgin Mary used to be veiled," it said.
Women are also concerned that the American influence in running post-Saddam Iraq plays a major role in protecting women rights, and that a future departure of US troops might result in further radicalisation. "This might regrettably be the case, as much as we would like to see the Americans out of Iraq," said Mubarak.
The fig leaf that the U.S. government clings to is the claim that the Iraqi constitution, as drafted, is that is one of the most progressive in the region. To the women, the language is murky, and their ability to participate fully in government affairs is limited.
US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad has called Iraq's draft constitution the most progressive document in the Muslim world, claiming it ensured women's rights.
"Women have the right to participate fully in public activities," he said in August, pointing out that 25 percent of parliament seats were reserved for women. But activists say that the current female MPs do not represent women's advocates and were brought in by male-dominated political parties to fill the 25 percent quota.
"These were voted in to fill the quota... None of them serves in the politburo of any of their parties... They are mere mouthpieces," Jamil said. "We fear the same might happen in the next elections," she added, claiming that independent women have very slim chance of making it into the national assembly.
It's quite easy to cut and run when you have equal rights that you take for granted. The Iraqi women have few advocates as their rights slip away due to the cowboy decision of our President to ride in and get the man that wanted to kill his daddy. He had no exit plan, he had no plan that really amounted to ensuring freedom for all Iraqis. It falls by the wayside as the polls dive, and the body count rises.
W is for women left behind.
See my earlier post, "
The Iraq mess and the rights of women."
Sick military Iraqi death porn
John at
AmericaBlog has up what has to be some of the sickest sideline action of this immoral war -- alleged soldiers trading photos of dead Iraqis and Afghanis for fun and games. Is this part of some sick military culture that is condoned by Rummy and Co? After all, it's floating out there for all to see on the web -- someone at the Pentagon has to know about this. If they don't, they do now, so John's archived the filth at
NowThatsFuckedUp.com in case it "disappears."
The soldiers on this site are offering up the death porn in exchange for hardcore porn. Here's just one photo John has up:
It's a burned Iraqi body. Here we have an update on the Abu Ghraib "doing a Lynndie" theme -- the title of it is called "
Cooked Iraqi."
Uncensored version.
Particularly disgusting is the treatment of a dead woman.
The page titled "Nice puss / bad foot" is devoted to the photo of a nude woman laying down on a table, her foot has been blown off by a land mine, blood, muscle, skin and bone are dangling in its place, and her naked crotch is clearly visible in the photo (thus the reference to "puss").
It's mind-blowing that they are so stupid as to share this heinous crap on the internet - have they learned nothing from Abu Ghraib? I don't doubt this kind of sickness occurs and we just don't find out about it. Witness the stories about soldiers cutting off ears as trophies in Vietnam. It's the underbelly of war - how does one cope with the stress of seeing human beings blown to bits each day? What will the parents of these guys think when some family friend sends them a few linkees to this disgusting site. How is Jr. going to explain this one away? Sick.
Now it's simply broadcast to anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection.
Someone is going to need to confirm or deny the authenticity of these sites -- the Pentagon better think fast.
Moderate Repubs promise no 'free pass' on next SCOTUS nominee
Sunday, September 25, 2005
The
NYT has a story today on Republicans that plan to take a hard line on the next SCOTUS pick, to ferret out any nominee that is too far left or right. Clearly the current political climate has humbled some of these boobs on the fringe and emboldened the few moderates that have been sitting at the back of the GOP bus.
..both socially conservative and more liberal Republican senators say they may vote against confirmation of the next nominee if the pick leans too far to the left or the right on prominent issues like abortion rights.
Any Republican defection could provide cover for Democrats who want to oppose confirmation, protecting them politically in Republican-leaning states. Democrats have vowed to dig in for a tough fight over the nominee to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor because she was a pivotal swing vote on the court.
"It is going to be different," said Senator Lincoln Chafee, Republican of Rhode Island, who is socially liberal and has said he will vote to confirm Judge Roberts. Mr. Chafee said he would apply a more skeptical standard to the next nominee because of the balance of the court and might even oppose a jurist similar to Judge Roberts. "I will be looking very carefully" at the next nominee's views on privacy rights, "separation of church and state," and the scope of federal power, he said.
Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, a Republican who supports abortion rights and has said she will vote to confirm Judge Roberts, took a similar view. She previously voted to confirm some of Mr. Bush's appeals court nominees who met stiff liberal opposition, like Judge Priscilla R. Owen and Judge Janice Rogers Brown, two people said to be on Mr. Bush's shortlist. But Ms. Snowe said she might not support either one for the Supreme Court.
"This is certainly a different level of evaluation," Ms. Snowe said, "especially because of the balance of power on the court."
This news, of course, has set off shrieking in Freeperland. They would love to bite their rotting fangs into Chafee and Snowe. Some even want to sidle up next to Holy Joe
Lieberman for support of a conservative nominee.
Actual Freeper Quotes™
Add together Snowe, Chafee, Collins, and Specter, and we're down to 51 votes. Note that Snowe is telegraphing that the RINO caucus will vote "no" for Priscilla Owen or Janice Rogers Brown. She's also decided that a "different standard" applies for the Supreme Court, and hence opened the door for a Democratic filibuster of any nominee approved under the "Gang of 14" deal.
But Brown has already been approved by this Congress. Difficult to say that now she's no good. Snowe be damned. 06 is coming up.
The gray hag never misses an opportunity to drive a wedge between Republicans. Show the world how divided we are....
The President needs to nominate a conservative .... and make it known that with each nominee struck down, the next nominee will even be more conservative!!! Tell them that the first one will be the most moderate... Start with Owen, then go to Rogers Brown, then Luttig. We won this damn election!!!
Sounds to me they are trying to dictate. That is just what the Democrats are trying to do. The President ran on the idea of choosing conservatives and he should stick to it. We have to much judicial activism and now we have legislators trying to circumvent to process and choose for the President.
That's true but Snowe knows what she is doing when she speaks to the NY Times. I think that she's making a real threat, and she may have just enough RINO pals to keep an anti-Roe judge off the Court.
As far as I am concerned, Snowe, Collins, Chafee, and Specter are all definite "no" votes against a solid conservative nominee. So it comes down to John McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Warner, George Voinovich, and Mike DeWine. Snowe needs 2 of those 5.
Basically, the Supreme Court Justice will have to pass the "Voinovich Tear Duct Test." [He cried while opposing the nomination of the ambassador to the United Nations (John Bolton) ]
The NY Slimes lies. This story is an assumption disguised as a fact. Once again, the NY Slimes will try to set an agenda. Expect a FAKE POLL to back up their FAKE STORY within the week.
The bigger problem is that we might need 50 votes to invoke the "nucular" option to stop a filibuster. If Republican Senators like Snowe and Chafee aren't willing to confirm a nominee, then I don't see how we get past a filibuster. I just don't think there are 50 Republican Senators willing to do that over a nominee with total 'Rat opposition AND some Republican defectors.
The Republican Party in Maine IS NOT and WILL NEVER BE Conservative. We are virtually a one-party State- that's reality in Maine.
A question we should be asking ourselves for 2006: would our party be in a stronger position WITH 53 votes and WITHOUT Olympia Snowe and Lincoln Chafee, or is it better to have 55 votes and have to listen to this nonsense?
The President ran on the idea of choosing conservatives. Naw he ran on the idea of sticking a stake in the Heart of Reagan's party. Looks like he might make it. If he has the little demons lined up as well as it sounds.
We can even lose one of the worms from Ohio and have the VP break a tie. The President MUST give us the most conservative person he can find. If this works out right we will have at least one of the nelsons voting with us. If it's Ben we win big. We'll beat him anyway and wooden head will be gone because of his vote. This will be close but it need not be a worry. We hold the aces here. All we have to do is act like we do.
Reagan, the great conservative, put O'Conner and Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
Two points: 1. Don't forget McPain. 2. Specter had to sell his nuclear option soul to Frist to get the Judiciary chairmanship. I cannot believe that he would go against the majority if this comes to a vote. This assumption was the basis I used for arguing in favor of giving Specter the job - even though we all know the guy is a lefty at heart. We need his vote on the nuclear option.
We don't even know who the nominee is yet. This NY Times article is constructed for the sole purpose of dividing Republicans. If they want to exert pressure on Chaffee and Snowe and their ilk then we must counter with equal pressure on Red State Democrat Senators like Pryor of Arkansas and the Nelsons. We can do it. We have our right-leaning groups that can persuade conservative democrats. We conservativers need to be untied and make sure we let our senators know how we feel. And when the nominee is named, it wouldn't hurt to send some letters to Lieberman and some other Democrats with a quarter of a brain.
Don't forget John Warner. He's retiring in 2008 and will do whatever he feels like. Maybe he can call his ex-girlfriend Barbara Walters over at ABC News for some advice.
I want to tell you that if the RINOS draw a line in the sand on this one, they will lose in a big way. This is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue. This is a life vs. death issue and a Constitution issue. The wrath of conservatives will hit on all side if Snowe, Chafee, Collins and Specter decide this. They will not know what hit them.
Olympia Snowe is the most popular politician in Maine and according to a recent poll has the highest approval rating of ANY Republican Senator. Losing Jeffords was no loss as his voting record was solidly Left. Snowe and Collins and Chafee and Specter and other Moderates do vote with our Party about half the time, and they allow us to run the Committees. Run them all out, and we'd have maybe 40-45 Senators. Snowe isn't going anywhere.
If you want to reduce her influence, elect more Senators in Red States. Expecting Conservatives in the Northeast is unreasonable and political suicide. Why can't we get Republican Senators in ND, for example?
Vermont - Leahy and Jeffords.
New York - Chuckie and Shrillary
Mass - Mr. Ed and Ted.
Conn - Lieberman and Dodd.
Maine looks pretty good in comparison. Hell, I might even trade DeWine and Voinovich to Maine to get those gals here. At least we'd never see Olympia cry like a little bitch on the Senate floor.
NC Pride and meeting the Log Cabin folks
Above is the Mad Hatter Bakery, dressed up for the occasion.
It was a great day out at the state-wide NC Pride Saturday. Kate and I had a great time; I actually had a chat with some Log Cabin Republicans, too! I marched with my old neighborhood association (Old West Durham, which is the host neighborhood of the annual parade - below). From the
N&O:
In Saturday's parade, participants marched from Duke University's East Campus to the Ninth Street retail strip and back, forming a rainbow-colored stream of floats, church groups, high school students, drag queens and local leaders including Stormy Ellis, an assistant district attorney in Durham, and Carrboro city councilman Mark Kleinschmidt, who gave a speech earlier in the day.
Buzzing kazoos and barking dogs wearing rainbow flower leis added to the din of hooting and clapping.
"Most of us are the only gay person at work, or the only gay person in the family," said Keith Hayes, spokesman for the NC Pride Committee that organized the event. "It's an unusual and uplifting experience to be in a place where you're not the only one."
The crowd was a mix of singletons and parents pushing their children in strollers. They clustered around vendors peddling gay pride symbols and entertainment, as well as information about gay-friendly churches and gay marriage.
The Durham community has been welcoming of PrideFest, Hayes said. Though anti-gay groups have visited Durham in the past, there haven't been any protests to PrideFest that Hayes can recall. In most larger cities, anti-gay protesters frequently appear at such events, he said.
Several local organizations wanted to make sure participants in the parade knew they were welcome in the Bull City, including the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, a group whose residents live in areas bordering Duke's East Campus. "What this parade is about is what our neighborhood is about," said Phillip Barron, an Old West Durham resident. "It's about being inclusive and neighborly."
The NC Pride Marching Band.
Coverage in the
Durham Herald-Sun:
It can be hard to stand out when you're marching in a parade behind floats with dancing drag queens, shirtless bikers donning leather vests and adorable dogs sporting rainbow-colored bandanas.
But one group of gay marriage supporters carrying poles with hundreds of dangling hearts had no trouble eliciting cheers from the scores of people who lined up along Duke University's East Campus wall Saturday to watch the 21st annual N.C. Pride Parade.
Hundreds of people hollered and applauded when the group from the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh walked down West Main Street raising poles covered with foam hearts decorated with messages like "love should not be legislated" and "love is for all."
"We're showing that there is a significant amount of support for marriage equality within faith communities," said Tracy Hollister, the project leader for the Equal Hearts campaign.
Durham has been the backdrop for the parade and festival for the last six years. The event offers a "a real sense of solidarity" to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community, said event spokesman Keith Hayes.
Raleigh resident Josh Runyon, 23, and his boyfriend snagged a spot on the rock wall facing West Main Street to watch the parade. Runyon's 21-year-old partner has yet to tell his family he's gay, but he welcomed the opportunity to kiss Runyon and hold his hand in public without being stared at.
"I don't have to worry about homophobic people, gay bashers, stuff like that," Runyon's boyfriend said.
Fourteen-year-old Ashley Felts told her parents earlier this year that she is a lesbian. The Jamestown resident said her dad was supportive and drove her to Saturday's festival so she could carry a flag in the parade.
"It's a right-of-passage coming out somewhere where there's a lot of people like you," Felts said.
You can see Kate's other pictures from Pride
here.
***
Meeting the NC Log Cabin folksSo look at who else was in the parade -- the
NC Log Cabin Republicans.
We were perplexed at the group's appearance here, given they probably wouldn't get a wildly popular reception. I was marching in the parade so I didn't see firsthand the reaction to the LCR, but I was told that they were booed.
That's really too bad. I kind of feel sorry for them, especially the NC chapter. They have zero traction in trying to return the state party to the center, given the fringe wingnuts in the North Carolina General Assembly (the Dems are in control of the legislature). If I were in the LCR, I'd be pretty pessimistic.
The LCRs had a tent up in the vendor area, and there was little traffic at the booth. It was sad. I thought I'd go over and chat them up. Kate snapped a pic of the encounter.
I went up to
Jami Taylor, secretary of the LCR chapter. She's on Equality NC's board of directors, and a PhD student at North Carolina State University, her research focused on transgender related public policy. I asked her what kind of progress they are making, given the hostility with which the party hierarchy despises homos. We're talking about a party that
wouldn't even allow the LCR to set up a table at the state convention last year or this year. N.C. GOP Chairman Ferrell Blount was
famously quoted as saying:
"I reviewed what the Log Cabin national Web site was advocating and promoting and in my opinion, it is diametrically opposed to the values of the North Carolina Republican Party... As state party chairman, I support the definition of marriage as being a union sanctioned by God between a man and a woman. That is what the Republican Party talks about in its platform and will talk about this weekend."
Jami did manage to find a positive note on the slight by saying that the LCR
aired a 30-second response commercial in Asheville where the convention was held this year to spur discussion by challenging the party not to "follow Jerry Falwell, Pat Buchanan and Rick Santorum's lead by dividing the GOP with an intolerant social agenda based on fear and exclusion."
Jami also pointed out that the LCRs did have a hospitality suite at the hotel where the convention was held, and that they had quite a bit of traffic and interest because of the controversy. I asked whether if any legislators came to the room, and she said that some did. I then asked whether any were willing to go on the record and comment one way or another about it. She said no.
I told her that the LCRs have a LOT of work to do in NC, since there are zero prospective GOP candidates worth backing in 2006 that aren't good-old-boy homophobes. Her last attempt to convince me of any meager progress to bring the party from the twilight zone of wingnuttery is that
Republican Senator Stan Bingham of Denton signed on to a bill in March which would add sexual orientation to the protection from discrimination employees of the North Carolina General Assembly would receive. The
LCR site notes that two other Republican senators signed on that day,
but later withdrew their support.
Sad, sad, sad, but as much as the LCRs drew catcalls from the progressive crowd in Durham, they deserve credit for trying in the Reddest of state GOPs. Someone's got to confront the bigots from within.
White supremacists pulled over, bomb found
As Blender Janean asked as she pointed me
to this article, "
What do you think would have happened if these guys had a little color in their skin?" Hmmm. Anyone venture to guess they would have been whisked away for a little Homeland Security hospitality?
Las Vegas police arrested two "admitted white supremacists" during a traffic stop Friday after discovering an explosive device in their vehicle, police said.
Police stopped a 2002 Chevy Blazer at the intersection of Cheyenne Avenue and Marion Drive about 5 p.m. because the vehicle had expired plates. The Blazer's occupants, David Jones, 34, and Darrell Cooper, 22, behaved suspiciously and were asked to exit the vehicle, police said.
The men consented to a police search of the Blazer, which turned up the device, police said. The bomb squad transported it to a remote area where it was "rendered safe," police said.
Jones and Cooper, whom authorities described as "admitted white supremacists," were arrested for possession of an explosive device. Jones, the vehicle's driver, was also charged with transportation of an explosive device and manufacture of an explosive device.
How many more Mike Browns are in the Bush Admin?
The Raw Story has the goods on other unqualified cronies holding posts, notably at the FDA, Procurement and Immigration.
Time to play 'spot the homo'
Mike Tidmus is at it again...
Mike asks: "The Vatican cracks down on gay priests. Who’ll be left to ring the bells and swing the burning purse?"
The
rest of his post is a howler.
Bush, you are majorly f*cked...
...when a fundraising appeal for your Iraq reconstruction
only raises $600. It's bad enough that the
Yellow Elephants won't enlist, but they and the rest of the Chickenhawks and Religious Right minions won't open their wallets for their president's war either, ha ha ha ha. Hey Hannity and O'Reilly -- did you each contribute $300?
An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.
...It is understood to be the first time that a US government has made an appeal to taxpayers for foreign aid money. Contributors have no way of knowing who will receive their donations or even where they may go, after officials said details had be kept secret for security reasons.
USaid's Heather Layman denied it was disappointed with the meagre sum raised after a fortnight. 'Every little helps,' she said.
Hat tip, Shakes Sis.
100,000 protest against Iraq War in DC
I'm sure Chimpy wasn't paying attention to
this as he was working hard on monitoring the hurricane from the safety of NORAD's US Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs and down in Austin.
A large rally of anti-war demonstrators gathers on the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument (Rear) in Washington D.C., September 24, 2005. Thousands of protesters flooded Washington on Saturday to stage dual demonstrations against the U.S.-led war in Iraq and economic globalization, and to demand that President George W. Bush bring troops home. REUTERS/Jim Bourg
Anti war demonstrators carry posters as they march past the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Anti-war protesters wearing prison uniforms and masks depicting from left to right Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney, sit among crosses and flag draped coffins during protests on the National Mall. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Here's your president working hard (next to fastidious Gov. Rick Perry) thanking emergency personnel in Texas on Saturday,
courtesy of the White House:
"I'd like to thank you all for the hard work you're doing. I appreciate Senators Hutchison and Cornyn, Congressman DeLay, Governor Perry. First of all, the people of the state are counting on you. I know you're working hard."
***
Meanwhile, an interesting WaPo story suggests something amounting to mild panic in the Bush White House about the fact that the well-crafted image has peeled away, revealing the "dry" drunk Chimperor. I love the headline --
President Struggles to Regain His Pre-Hurricane Swagger.
A president who normally thrives on tough talk and self-assurance finds himself at what aides privately describe as a low point in office, one that is changing the psychic and political aura of the White House, as well as its distinctive political approach.
In small, sometimes subtle but unmistakable ways, the president and top aides sound less certain, more conciliatory and willing to do something they avoided in the first term: admit mistakes. After bulling through crisis after crisis with a "bring 'em on" brashness, a more solemn Bush now has twice taken responsibility for the much-criticized response to Hurricane Katrina.
Aides who never betrayed self-doubt now talk in private of failures selling the American people on the Iraq war, the president's Social Security plan and his response to Hurricane Katrina. The president who once told the United Nations it would drift into irrelevancy if it did not back the invasion of Iraq last week praised the world body and said the world works better "when we act together." A White House team that operated on its terms since 2000 is reaching to outside experts for answers like never before.
Time to throw another one back, huh, Chimpy? It doesn't help that
Daddy Cheney's back in the hospital for "elective surgery."
No need to worry, right? 
After all, Darth has only had four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-clearing angioplasties and an operation to implant a special pacemaker in his chest.
Fred Phelps weighs in on Rita
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Predictably, the storm hits land and the
Westboro Baptist "Church" damnation publicity machine of the Rotting Cryptkeeper
TM churns out a release. From his viewpoint, Rick Perry has a lot of feces-eating faggot Texans responsible for pushing the storm front toward the Lone Star State. Who knew? For your pleasure (I've retained the precious formatting)...
Viva Rita!
Thank God for Hurricane Rita! Another Direct & Immediate Visitation of the Wrath of God Upon Sinful, Sodomite America - Avenging America's Abuse of WBC!
Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew sentenced Earl Krugel, 62, to 20 years for merely PLOTTING to set off an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) at a mosque in Culver City. Krugel pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers. Mind you, he set off no bomb, or other act of violence.
In the night hours of August 19-20, 1995, several fag students at Topeka's Washburn Univ. actually set off an IED at our church - and the federal government did nothing. And, the state court sentenced the ring leader to 16 days - not years!
Last week in the night hours some fine Americans again vandalized our church and did thousands in damages in an attempted aggravated burglary- the latest in a long line of hundreds of unsolved, uninvestigated, unpunished, violent crimes against us.
"And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." Luke 18:7,8.
"And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Rev, 6:10.
Gov. Perry says, "Say a prayer for Texas." Bush says, "May God bless America." Listen up, you blaspheming atheists, God Almighty does not hear prayers for this evil, feces-eating faggot nation. And it is a sin to pray for America. Jer. 7:16;11;14.
For weeks, front page news is only about the wrath of God. Hurricanes in America. IED-killed soldiers in Iraq. As God pours his vengeance, see this: God is laughing, mocking and taunting His victims; worse and more is on the way; and, no power on earth can stop the slaughter. Retaliation for your 15-year reign of terror against Westboro Baptist Church.
"And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood."
(Isaiah 2:15)
Rita update and open thread
Storm weakens to Category 2 after hitting as Category 3.
At 8 a.m. ET, Rita was downgraded to Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength, the National Hurricane Center said. It was centered between Jasper and Beaumont, Texas. Rita's sustained wind speed has reduced to 100 mph as it moves northwest at near 12 mph.
NHC Director Max Mayfield said the storm could produce 10 to 15 inches of rain over the next day or two and it may stall and remain stationary.
Lake Charles police said they had received reports of severe damage to a terminal at the Lake Charles airport, and also a report that an Interstate 10 overpass had collapsed. Conditions weren't safe enough to check on the reports.
In Lumberton, Texas, police had to rescue a family trapped in their home when a large tree fell on it. No injuries were reported. Earlier, Port Arthur Mayor Oscar Ortiz said he was concerned about Rita moving across Sabine Pass and pushing a large surge of water toward the city. "If that's true, it will be under water," Ortiz said. "I hate to see what my city's getting right now."
...In downtown Galveston, Texas, two historic residences and a commercial building were engulfed in flames. Winds of up to 70 mph fanned the flames and caused a blizzard of blowing embers as firefighters fought the blaze.
Today is NC Pride
It's the big queer event in the Tar Heel State, with events in Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Greensboro. More on the testivities
here.
We were at last year's Pride, and here are
some pictures and
other posts on the Blend.
Bush Disapproval Map
Friday, September 23, 2005
Ah, there's nothing like the power of graphics to soothe my liberal soul. This one's for all the righties who beat me over the head for weeks with the red/blue map of the Electoral College votes from the 2004 election. "See," they'd type with glee, usually abusing punctuation along the way, "you lefties are so far out of the mainstream. The whole country is almost all red! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
So I stumble upon this website,
SurveyUSA, that tracks polling data from all 50 states. They have this nifty chart showing the Net Approval Rating of President Bush, broken down by state. And for my rightie friends, it ain't pretty.
The Red states represent the states where Bush's Approval numbers are greater than his Disapproval numbers, giving him a positive Net Approval. Utah leads the pack at 63% Approve, 36% Disapprove, for a Net of +27%. Idaho follows at 57%/40%/+17%, then Nebraska (+13%), Mississippi* (+12%), Wyoming (+11%), Alabama (+7%), Texas (+7%), Louisiana* (+5%), North Dakota (+5%), Oklahoma (+5%), Alaska (+1%), & Montana (+1%). In all, there are twelve states where Bush's Approval beats his Disapproval, and only the top ten of those where Bush's Approval tops 50% (there must be some N/A's in the polling.)
*And this is polling as of Sept. 5th, when many people were unreachable by phone in Mississippi and Louisiana, and it's far too early to tell the effect of Bush's slow reaction to Katrina.
The Blue states represent the places where Bush's Disapproval beats his Approval, led by Vermont at 29% Approve, 69% Disapprove, for a Net of -40%. Thirty-eight states have a Net Disapproval of Bush, all of those states have his Disapproval at 50% or better, and 29 of those states have Net Disapproval rates in double-digits.
Best of all, when you look deeply at the tracking for those twelve remaining Red states, Bush's Net Approval is in decline over the last month in all of them except Utah, Oklahoma, Alaska, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Only 5 Red states where Bush has gotten more popular between August and September... and two of those states have yet to be polled post-Katrina.
If I may be so bold: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Pentagon admits sending openly gay service members to war
The military has lied on the record for years. Someone confirmed the obvious. From a
Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military release that I just received:
An official military spokesperson has acknowledged that the Pentagon is sending openly gay service members into combat in Iraq. Kim Waldron, of the U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, said that, "The bottom line is some people are using sexual orientation to avoid deployment. So in this case, with the Reserve and Guard forces, if a soldier 'tells,' they still have to go to war and the homosexual issue is postponed until they return to the U.S. and the unit is demobilized."
Waldron's comments follow the discovery of a controversial regulation halting the discharge of gay soldiers in units that are about to be mobilized. That regulation, contained in a 1999 "Reserve Component Unit Commander's Handbook" and still in effect, states that if a discharge for homosexual conduct is requested "prior to the unit's receipt of alert notification, discharge isn't authorized. Member will enter AD [active duty] with the unit." The 1999 document was obtained by researchers at the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM), a think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Although the "don't ask, don't tell" policy remains in effect, Waldon's acknowledgment appears to confirm that in some cases, the Pentagon ignores the law by retaining service members who say that they are gay. Statistics confirm that during the present war, as has been the case in every war since World War II, gay discharges have fallen during the conflict and then increased during peacetime. However, prior to Waldron's acknowledgment, official spokespersons often denied that the military intentionally sends gays to fight despite the existence of a gay ban.
Also see the Blend post,
Gays OK when the recruiting runs dry.
Diary reveals vote tally for Pope
When Ratzi was voted in after JPII kicked it, there was a real horse race. So says a cardinal's unauthorized diary that was published Friday. (
Guardian):
The anonymous diary appeared in the respected Italian political magazine Limes. The magazine said it obtained the diary from a ``trustworthy'' source it had known for years...A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, declined to comment.
In the first round of voting, Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, received 47 votes and [Cardinal Jorge Mario] Bergoglio, the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, received 10. Italian cardinals Carlo Maria Martini and Camillo Ruini had nine and six votes, respectively.
...Ratzinger needed 77 votes in the final round to win the necessary two-thirds majority of the 115 voting cardinals. He got 84, Bergoglio got 26, and three other cardinals also registered one vote apiece in the last round: Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Italian Cardinal Giacomo Biffi and American Cardinal Bernard Law, according to the diary.
Who the f*ck was the maniac that voted for that bastard, pedophile-hiding Cardinal Law?
This hurricane theory takes the cake
Former KPVI-TV weatherman Scott Stevens is a freakshow.We've heard that homo decadence in NOLA was responsible for Katrina (the jury's still out on what the Right will say is the cause of Rita), or a change in the climate due to global warming, or maybe a cyclical weather pattern, but out in Pocatello, Idaho, a former weatherman knows the real reason --
Hurricane Katrina was caused by the Japanese mafia using a Russian electromagnetic generator.
So not kidding. (
SeattlePI.com):
Scott Stevens' last appearance on KPVI-TV was Thursday.
His departure comes after station officials learned a link labeled "Make a Donation" on Stevens' Web site, http://www.weatherwars.info, where he expounds on his theory, opened a payment form connected to Stevens' KPVI e-mail address.
Stevens believes a little-known oversight in physical laws makes it possible to create and control storms using a Cold War-era weapon allegedly made by the Russians in 1976. The nine-year KPVI weatherman said he's received 120,000 hits on his Web site in two days, now gets about 100 e-mails a day and has 15 radio bookings in the next five days. [Do you think he might have some Freeper fans?]
"I needed more time to do everything that's been put in front of me," said Stevens, 39. "I have not been able to dedicate the 40 hours a week to this place."
Earlier this week, scientists told the Idaho Falls Post Register the theory was bogus. "It's laughable to think it (Hurricane Katrina) could have been manmade," said Rob Young, a hurricane expert at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.
School expels girl for having gay parents
First of all, I do have to say that this California lesbian couple should have checked out this Christian school for wingnuttery and intolerance before placing their child there. As a religious school, they
are within their rights to set who qualifies for admission. (
365gay.com):
A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians, the school's superintendent said in a letter.
Shay Clark was expelled from Ontario Christian School on Thursday.
"Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, the girl's biological mother.
Stob wrote that school policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship," The Los Angeles Times reported in Friday's edition.
Stob could not be reached for comment by the newspaper. Shay and her parents said they won't fight the ruling.
School administrators learned of the parents' relationship this week after Shay was reprimanded for talking to the crowd during a football game, Tina Clark said.
Clark and her partner have been together 22 years and have two other daughters, ages 9 and 19.
You have to ask, would the school reject a child if one of the parents was an exotic dancer, or ate shellfish and the meat of a beast with cloven hooves? Come on. What are the knuckle-draggers thinking?
Actual Freeper Quotes™
"Two things: 1) Congratulations to the school for standing on solid, moral, principle.
2) A BS article in that the liberal writter doesn't understand that the child can not have two parents of the same sex. The writter must understand that the child would not have been born with "parents" such as this.
"So a person can become wicked because of a choice someone else makes that they are powerless to stop? If the school wants to have a code of conduct for it's students and require them to agree to certain teachings, fine, but to punish a kid for something they are not accountable for is wrong and stupid. This kid will have enough troubles in life without so called Christians pushing her away from the thing that would give her peace."
"What about the influence on all the other students when those parents show up to school functions or just when it is found out her parents are gay?"
"This kid will have enough troubles in life without so called Christians pushing her away I didn't miss your point. I got it exactly. Your touchy-feel goodism isn't Scriptural, though. Jesus didn't condemn the harlot. He told her to go and sin no more. Paul made it perfectly clear, (see my quote from Scripture above) that you, as a Christian are not to have fellowship (eating, etc) with unGodly people. By allowing the child to remain, the Church would not be obeying Scripture by associating with the two moms. My biggest interest is in how these two dykes, of 22 years, have ACQUIRED three daughters, of less than 22 years age?"
"I think the kid certainly got educated about a certain kind of Christian. The kind that think it's a good idea to punish children for the sins of their parents. At least up to several generations."
"So we should all run background checks on the families of people we associate with? If you are running a Christian school, or any other Christian association, you should be able to control your membership. I don't condemn the girls, but I would not want my 16 year old daughter visiting their home..."
"I find it funny because in an earlier thread you said, "The Catholic School system has become a refuge for all Christians sick of the relentless PC garbage in the public school system." Why would lesbians send their children to a Christian school but as a ploy to legitimize their lifestyle? And obviously this Christian school doesn't consider them Christians so why should they give them refuge?"
"And this girl may be lost to religion for the rest of her life. I'm all for a private institution making their own rules, but it's a sad situation."
"So you can't see how students will be influenced seeing a fellow student(who they may be friends with and go to sleep overs, social functions, etc) with lesbian parents. Give me a break."
"I don't understand what influence you are concerned about. The only I can think of is that they lesbians would attempt to seduce the daughter's friends, is that what you mean? Or is it that the ki So what are the chances that this student would grow up to see homosexuality as a sin?"
"I swear, this reminds me of the case where a child was expelled because their mother was a stripper. That school was demonized by practically everybody because they see it as punishing the child. Nobody takes into the concerns of the other parents."
"These two dykes have used these innocent children to promote their agenda. The school just prevented them from using other people's"
"Seriously, were you home schooled? Do you no longer remember the social structure of schools? When word would have got out that her parents would be lesbians that is exactly going to be known for. It will be mentioned often during her tenure of a school student. THERE IS NO GOOD THAT CAN COME OUT OF HER STAYING THERE. NONE. Not for the child, and not for the school."
"There is a boy in my son's school with lesbian parents. He doesn't get teased. And another on another son's soccer team. The kids even care (and they are 14, so they understand.)"
"I fully support the school's RIGHT to refuse any student. Heck, I fully support my kid's school kicking out a few, too. I just think this girl will have a dim view of Christianity for the rest of her life. Agree with them or not, the women raising her are the girl's family and she loves them."
"Well, at least they didn't burn her at the stake."
"I'm glad the parents were punished for putting their kid in a Christian school. The two shouldn't have been allowed to get their hands on a child in the first place.
Thanks to Blender Sonda for the pointer.
Perhaps the most ridiculous column ever
Jeff "Rent Boy"
Gannon has his defenders on the Right, but you will not believe who's not only sticking up for the faux journalist, but is blaming the gay left for picking on the poor little man-toy: the
Washington Blade's Chris Crain.
This is incredible:
Gannon, of course, made headlines earlier this year after a softball question he asked President Bush at a press briefing led members of the White House press corps to do some digging into his background. They discovered that Gannon’s legal name was Jim Guckert and the media outfit he represented, Talon News, was owned by a wealthy Bush backer and published reports severely slanted in the president’s favor.
Then things got really interesting, when liberal gay blogger John Aravosis got a tip that before entering journalism, Gannon had advertised online as a gay male escort. Gannon largely evaded questions about the claim, suggesting he merely owned the sites or provided web consultation services.
Gannon also avoided questions about his sexual orientation, leading this newspaper to report in February that he attended a gay sex party in Virginia. A week later, we apologized for the story, saying that while accurate, we had unnecessarily reported on private details of Gannon’s life that were not critical to the story.
Since then, Gannon has become a target celébre for liberal bloggers, one of a handful of shorthand symbols they use for all they see wrong with George W. Bush’s America. [Uh, yes, hypocrisy. Boinking other men for pay while railing on the evils of homosexuality and the pious purity of the Right is, perhaps, a teensy reason to point out this little issue.]
So it came as a surprise to many readers when the same Jeff Gannon showed up on the opinion pages of this gay newspaper and its affiliated publications, arguing in his debut column that liberal gay bloggers were too far on the fringe of American politics, dragging down the rest of the gay rights movement with them.
...The job of any good opinion section is to challenge readers, not just preach to the choir. For that reason, our Forum pages are open to anyone, gay and non-gay, whether or not they support the goals of the gay rights movement. [Yes, I can deal with opposing opinions, but not from a two-faced, professional GOP pole smoker that eggs on politicians that would enact legislation taking away rights from gay citizens. [The guy's a lying sack of sh*t, not a journalist. He was playing politics to advance his career on the backs of openly gay people that are taking the heat for fighting for his right to live a queer life.]
But Jeff Gannon doesn’t represent that sort of challenge. He doesn’t oppose gay equality. In fact, he confirmed just this week that he is bisexual. Even still, he is very clearly a conservative who supports the policies of the Bush administration, and that plus his headline-grabbing past has been more than enough to enrage some gay liberals.
And then, this paragraph, which indicates a large consumption of Mehlman Kool-Aid:
Our activists groups have grown quite fond of talking about the “conversations” we need to have with straight America. Well half of that conversation involves listening, not talking. And if we won’t even listen to the heretical views of our own kind, then how can we be open to one of “them”?
Gee, you regular readers of the Blend have had plenty of stories to peruse about AmTaliban nuts that have no interest in dialog. These people would prefer us
dead, in
"ex-gay" programs, fired from our jobs and unable to
adopt or
foster kids, to name a few. There's not much wiggle room for dialog.
About the only figure of note that has moderated his position at all has been
Jerry Falwell, who now believes that gays are
entitled to basic civil rights. I'm sure that coming close to meeting his maker had more to do with this realization, rather than any dialog with gay leaders.
In any case, Kenny, please pass Chris another glass of Kool-Aid, pour one for JimmyJeff and make a party of it.
***
Read more fresh House Blend
here.
NOLA: Lower 9th Ward levee breached, possibly others
Water is pouring into the poorest section of NOLA again, with 3-8 foot surges expected from Rita yet to come. Only about 1/4" of rain has fallen; this is from the weakened levees, as the brunt of the hurricane hasn't hit.
Live pictures show a rushing torrent running over from the Mississippi River-fed canal into the Ward, it's bad.
Hurricane Rita's steady rains sent water pouring through breaches in a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city's lowest-lying neighborhoods in a devastating repeat of New Orleans' flooding nightmare.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
"Our worst fears came true," said Maj. Barry Guidry of the Georgia National Guard. "We have three significant breaches in the levee and the water is rising rapidly," he said. "At daybreak I found substantial breaks and they've grown larger."
Dozens of blocks in the Ninth Ward were under water as a waterfall at least 30 feet wide poured over and through a dike that had been used to patch breaks in the Industrial Canal levee. On the street that runs parallel to the canal, the water ran waist-deep and was rising fast. Guidry said water was rising about three inches a minute.
The impoverished neighborhood was one of the areas of the city hit hardest by Katrina's floodwaters and finally had been pumped dry before Hurricane Rita struck. Throughout Friday morning, water began rising again onto buckled homes, piles of rubble and mud-caked cars that Katrina had covered with up to 20 feet of water.
...Mitch Frazier, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said contractors were being brought in Friday morning to repair the new damage. The corps had earlier installed 60-foot sections of metal across some of the city's canals to protect against flooding and storm surges.
Clearly, that didn't do any good; in shoring up part of the canals it's likely that more pressure was shifted to weaker parts of the dike system. They can't possibly work fast enough to avert even more of a disaster.
That's it -- NOLA's the dykes' fault
Paul just put up a good one (my photo embellishments):
President Bush announced today that after an exhaustive review of the tragedy in New Orleans the primary cause has been pinpointed.
"I personally sat down and reviewed the DVD of the news footage that my staff prepared for me in the days immediately following the flooding" the president said "The cause was apparent from early on. As the newscasters kept repeating; the dykes failed."
President Bush said that this only proves that the gay and lesbian community is irresponsible. "Everyone knows that all that lesbians think about is softball, motorcycles and their Subaru cars."
Texas bus fire with evacuees on board kills as many as 24
Emergency crews investigate the scene where a bus caught fire and exploded on northbound Interstate 45, Friday, Sept. 23, in Wilmer, Texas. The bus carrying elderly evacuees from Hurricane Rita caught fire and was rocked by explosions early Friday on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, killing as many as 24 people, authorities said. The bus, with about 45 people on board, had been traveling since Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)Just heartbreaking. The tragedy just keeps on coming. (
KHOU):
The bus was engulfed with flames, causing a 17-mile backup on a freeway that was already heavily congested with evacuees from the Gulf Coast. By early Friday morning, the bus was reduced to a blackened, burned-out shell, surrounded by numerous police cars and ambulances.
"The early indications are this is a mechanical issue," Peritz said. "The driver did survive the accident. It's my understanding he went back on the bus several times to try to evacuate people."
Rescue crews were trying to get to passengers trapped by the flames, but multiple explosions -- apparently caused by oxygen canisters -- kept them away. "Deputies were unable to get everyone off the bus," spokesman Don Peritz said. Several people were treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries.
Tina Jones, a nurse from Ennis, was driving behind the bus when she saw it start to smoke and pull to the side of the road. "I saw the smoke and then there was an explosions," said Jones, who pulled over and helped treat cuts and bruises. She said she saw at least six dead bodies.
"I'll probably go home and have a good cry," she said
Thanks to Blender Paul of Paul's Rants for the pointer.
Bloggrrrl: Bye, Blue? (redux)
Shakes Sis has a good follow-up to
her March post on whether it makes sense for progressives to continue supporting the Democratic Party and whether to go Green or Independent.
Why the hell are we sticking with the Dems?
I don’t know about you, but I invested time, energy, and money into the Democratic Party during the last election, and I’m not getting much of a return on my investment. In fact, lately I’ve been feeling like the party to whom I’ve been loyal for my entire life is giving me the finger.
The confirmations of Condi Rice, Alberto Gonzales, and Michael Chertoff … the slow response to broaching voting accountability legislation … the passage of a measure to limit class-action lawsuits … the bankruptcy bill … the constant move toward the center … and on and on and on. I complain about the idiocy of the Dems almost as much as I do the Republicans, and I’m starting to get more than a little pissed off.
If you are, like me, a true progressive, you’re being let down by the Democrats. They can’t pull together an effective opposition, they can’t deliver a concise message, and they sell out liberal interests in a heartbeat as they make a break for a muddy middle, which they inexplicably remain convinced will help them win elections. I’m finding myself increasingly required to defend positions (such as gay rights or legal abortion)—to other Dems—that shouldn’t even be in question. And to boot, many career Dems are just as beholden to special interests as the GOP and are motivated little by the needs of the people they are meant to represent.
Good rally, Sis. I think a third party can allow some voices to rise above the focus group, poll-loving Dem establishment talking points addiction, but I think the most effective tactic is to very publicly (gay folks and allies, are you listening?)
withhold raising money for and giving time to Dem candidates that refuse to publicly support progressive issues with the vigor that they ask for dough.
Money talks. Be loud about asking for our rights and sound policies -- they need our progressive dollars and foot soldiers to turn it all around. And they use the Right Wing Boogeyman to scare us into supporting them. For all the coddling and head-patting (and accepting of our money) in terms of solidarity, what do we have to show for it? Repug control of the House, the Senate and two appointees by a dumb*ss, corrupt,
not-so-dry drunk president to the Supreme Court.
I don't like getting patted on the head and told to be patient while the Dem buggers have their hands out looking for cash to try to win over "soccer moms" and Joe Six Pack, playing to their fears instead of educating them. We've made it easier on Dems to suck up to these demographics than to explain that it's more relevant to their lives that corporate greed, malfeasance (and dare we say unpatriotic actions) -- Bush's "base" -- are ripping them off. That's certainly more important than a gay couple that wants to marry. The Dem establishment is too f*cking lazy and spineless.
Some worthy thought pieces
Drop by writer and blogger
Leonce Gaiter's pad for some really insightful writing. He pointed me to two interesting pieces:
*
MLK was Wrong: The Jewish Model, on a rethinking of the civil rights model: "We must free ourselves from the civil rights movement idea that the majority can effortlessly, or organically achieve "colorblindness." This suggests that being an Afro-American means nothing more than skin color. This is what has allowed conservatives to use the civil rights movement rhetoric AGAINST civil rights for us. The civil rights movement insisted that we were "just like" white Americans, except black. Subtly embedded in this is the idea that there's something wrong with being 'unlike.' "
*
Fags and Witches, on the gay purge by the Vatican: "The Church’s hatred toward gays has nothing to do with religion. The Church is seeking to squash that which it hates. The Church and those like it consider gay men, and gay sex, the ultimate expression of “untamedness.” Thus, they cannot believe that we live in stable relationships and make good parents. To them, freedom from the strictures of heterosexual marriage means chaos and licentiousness. If you’re straight, those bonds can be replaced by the bonds of the priesthood. If you’re gay, however, no bonds are strong enough. For no voice so different from theirs can be allowed to flourish."
Pious Bill Frist -- is he going down?
Image from BlogActive.Ol Cranky at
Disenchanted Forest points out the feds are going after the Good Doctor.
Wow, the feds actually issued a subpoena to HCA related to an investigation of Bill Frist's order to unload HCA stock holdings. Frist called to unload holdings for himself, his wife and their children on June 13 (the stock peaked 6/22/05 at $58.40/share) just prior to the stock taking a 16% tumble in July. Frist claims the sudden move was an effort to avoid conflict of interest, but he'd been criticized for years for refusing to sell due to that same conflict of interest. I expect his anti-abortion rhetoric will increase substantially now that he's no longer profitting from abortions performed at his family's hospitals and his urgent need to get the repubevangelicals to forget his flip-flop on stem-cell research.
For an unbelievably keen in-depth analysis of the Cat Killer's little dealings, please surf over to Big Brass Blog for
The Dark Wraith's excellent post,
Questions Surround Frist Blind Trust Stock Sale. A graphic from it, showing some
interesting timing (click to enlarge)...
No planning
Interstate 45 is jammed with traffic moving at
100 yards an hour.
This morning's laughably unfunny news was that all those military tanker trucks with gas to help folks stuck on the highway
didn't have the right nozzles to fit civilian vehicles. I sh*t you not. How is it possible no one thought of this before they got on the road?! The Guard had to
fly in a 1-inch fuel nozzle.
Really makes you want to move to a coastal city, huh? I think of the Outer Banks of NC, and the evacuation routes there. There are no seven-lane highways to get folks out. If something happened during the height of tourism season in NC, the area would be just as f*cked as what you're seeing in Houston, even with fewer people in this state out at the beach.
Never mind, of course, if NYC or DC needed to be evacuated for an unplanned event like a terrorist attack. Where's the plan? People should be asking their state officials and city governments about how ready they are for a mass evacuation for a natural or man-made disaster. I'm sure we wouldn't like the answer.
I did see a clip on the news this AM that indicated some intelligence at work in Houston. Dr. Sanjay "
Papal Fluids" Gupta was interviewing an administrator at a Houston hospital that was prepping for the hurricane. This hospital had:
* generators located throughout the hospital, not just on the ground floor, where they could short out in a flood
* floodgate barriers that close off to keep out rising waters
* plenty of extra fuel to run the generators
* satellite phones so they can communicate when power goes out
* wireless communication devices like PDAs to put medical information on.
It makes you wonder why NOLA hospital administrators weren't required to think about these, given the city is below sea level.
Group flips on whether religion lets doctors refuse to inseminate lesbians
Guadalupe Benitez (right), with partner Joanne and son Gabriel, sued her doctors, saying they would not perform artificial insemination because she is gay. (John Gastaldo/San Diego Union-Tribune)Like the pious pharmacists unwilling to fill prescriptions for birth control pills, we have doctors now
ready to decline artificial insemination services to lesbians because of "religious beliefs." The California Medical Association (CMA) filed legal papers in support of two San Diego doctors who refused the services to Guadalupe Benitez on religious grounds, but they have withdrawn the brief, citing the Golden State law that treats same-sex partners as married couples. (
AP):
Benitez sued the North Coast Women's Care Medical Group for discrimination after alleging doctors Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton refused to inseminate her because of her sexual orientation. She turned to another doctor outside her health plan and eventually gave birth to a son.
The clinic's doctors have argued that they should not have to treat women like Benitez because inseminating an unmarried woman contradicts their religious convictions.
Oral arguments are scheduled before the state's Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego on Oct. 11. The California Medical Associated wants to file a new brief arguing that neither Guadalupe Benitez's sexual orientation nor her marital status was medically relevant to whether her doctors were obliged to treat her.
...The CMA's new brief states that legal and ethical standards prohibit physicians from discriminating, but says they can refuse to perform certain procedures on religious grounds, if they refuse such treatment for all patients.
St. Pete city council candidate attacked for being white, gay
Darden Rice is having to take heat, not only because she is running in a black majority district, but because she is a lesbian. The homo-bigots came out to blast her.The black AmTaliban comes right out in the open again. I guess the saving grace here is that it can be exposed and discussed, right? The attack on a candidate for city council,
Darden Rice because she is white, is not surprising either. She is the only white candidate in a primary where
fewer than 4,000 votes could decide the outcome. Black voters account for more than 54 percent of registered voters and nearly 60 percent of residents. (
St. Pete Times):
A town hall meeting with City Council candidate Darden Rice turned ugly after some audience members criticized her for being white and a lesbian. The meeting, held at the Enoch Davis Center Tuesday night, attracted about 40 people. Among them was Theresa "Momma Tee" Lassiter, an outspoken city activist.
During the question-and-answer session, Lassiter asked Rice if she was gay. When Rice replied that she was, Lassiter stormed out of the building.
"I answered her question, but she didn't want to listen to what I had to say," Rice, 35, an organizer for the Sierra Club who is running for the District 6 council seat, said Wednesday. Lassiter said she didn't approve of Rice's answer. "God's not down with that," she said.
... Also in the audience at the town hall meeting were several members of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement. Group members believe a white person is unfit to represent District 6, which includes parts of downtown and Midtown and has a predominantly black population.
Karl Nurse, a Rice supporter who was in the audience, said several Uhurus shouted at Rice because of her race. One person called her family "murderers."
"This is just straight up racism, and I don't think we should roll over for it," Nurse said. "It's evil. It's a very offensive argument."
Just about every community has a self-styled, self-important community "activist" like
"Momma Tee" Lassiter, who adds nothing to attempts to problem-solve, spending time showing up at community meetings and exacerbating race relation problems (both real and imagined), stroking their own egos for attention. Heaping the anti-gay nonsense onto the fire is the latest divisive tactic. It's sad, and leaves all parties feeling defensive and more embattled.
It should be noted that Lassiter has been
used in the past by Lockheed Martin to serve as a "community liaison" to conduct a smear and harassing campaign against whistleblowing government workers on behalf of the defense giant. Why does that not surprise me either. Sigh.
Whatever real tensions that exist in St. Pete won't be addressed until all sides can communicate in a civil manner about hard topics -- and misunderstandings that perpetuate the tensions. There is common ground to be found by all people that want to build a community, but it's not going to happen with flamethrowing like this.
Dumping of L.A. homeless suspected
This sounds like our country's plan for dealing with the ills of society -- dump it in a corner and hide it away, you know, corral it all on skid rows and in ghettos and let "losers" fend for themselves along with the criminal element. That's how it's being done in L.A. (and likely, many other cities). (
LA Times):
For decades, it's been an enduring urban tale about downtown Los Angeles, often talked about but never proved: Police departments wanting to get rid of society's lost and neglected — the homeless, mentally ill and criminals — simply drove through downtown and dumped them in skid row. But on Tuesday, evidence landed in the lap of the person who most needed it: Capt. Andrew Smith, commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division.
Smith said he was out on patrol with his partner about 10 a.m. Tuesday when he noticed a Los Angeles County sheriff's car driving down 6th Street. The cruiser, he said, turned south on San Pedro, then west on 7th Street to San Julian Street. There, Smith watched in disbelief as two deputies "pulled over, took a guy in handcuffs out of the car. They took off the cuffs and handed him a bag," Smith said.
The captain and his partner immediately got out of their car and questioned the man and the deputies. Smith said the deputies told him that the man had been released from the Men's Central Jail and was standing outside on the street when a supervisor ordered them to take the man to a downtown mission.
"But there was no mission nearby," Smith said. "Only a line of guys sitting on milk crates."
...To the captain, the incident reaffirmed what he believes has been going on downtown for years. Other police agencies, Smith said, and even some hospitals, "are dumping homeless, drunks, narcotic addicts and the criminal population into the downtown area…. We're fed up with it," he said.
And yes, it seems like police departments from more tony locales are doing it...it's easy just to dump the small-time dealers, junkies and other criminal elements into the urban areas, where they can terrorize citizens there. And lo and behold, then it's also easy to later point fingers at these neighborhoods and demonize the whole population of black and brown people as criminals as the more gated-away well-to-do blame the victims for their own ills of living in a ghetto.
Sheriff's officials deny that the deputies were trying to keep Harris downtown or prevent him from going back to Long Beach.
But LAPD officials and downtown community leaders aren't so sure. They have long been concerned about the possibility of dumping by other agencies — so much so that for several months, officers patrolling downtown have been under orders to stop and question any out-of-town police car they see cruising the area.
Smith said they enacted the policy after his officers reported seeing police cars from far-flung communities in the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley and South Bay letting people off in downtown.
No one is saying that these problems aren't complicated (and expensive) to solve, but this is clearly not the answer. It was thrust upon us during the aftermath of Katrina in NOLA, when it was clear what happens when you concentrate the criminal element with those that cannot afford to wall themselves -- or drive themselves -- away from it.
So many lessons to learn in evacuation planning
Thursday, September 22, 2005
A Houston resident waits on the road to Dallas as thousands in cars evacuate ahead of Hurricane Rita in north Houston September 22, 2005. Evacuees jammed Texas highways and Louisiana braced for its second major hurricane in less than a month as Rita roared through the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday toward the center of the U.S. oil industry. The path of Rita, downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane when its winds fell to 145 mph, shifted northward and appeared to be headed slightly east of Galveston and Houston, the National Hurricane Center said. REUTERS/Carlos BarriaThis is piss-poor planning in Houston, as it was in NOLA, just different mistakes. What brainiac waited
until today to open both sides of the highway for outbound traffic? One report had it taking
ten hours to go six miles. It's a
mandatory evacuation you dumb*sses. You've got people sitting in bus terminals with no way out, and drivers running out of gas in 14-hour traffic jams.
CNN just announced (9:32 PM) that the Mayor of Houston, Bill White has
urged people that have not yet left to stay home rather than getting caught in the traffic.
On the air travel front,
Houston, we have a problem.
Mayor Bill White says most of the airport's federal Transportation Security Administration personnel didn't show up for work today. Those are the security people, including the ones that screen passengers. White says the loss of those essential workers means delays for travelers of possibly four or five hours.
If states don't work on better planning after these two disasters, citizens will just assume that we're on our own.
More faith-based BS: School Readiness Act allows gays to be fired
This is more of the AmTaliban agenda rolling through, opening the door to all kinds of discriminatory nonsense by employers. An Ohio winger tacked on the provision, which is backed by the White House. (
365gay.com):
The House of Representatives on Thursday passed an extension of the Head Start early childhood program but an amendment added at the last minute could put the jobs of LGBT education workers at risk.
The bill, which now goes to the Senate, aims at improving teacher quality in preschool programs. About 900,000 preschoolers from low income families currently take part Head Start. The extension passed Thursday seeks to increase that to more than 1 million.
The School Readiness Act, which is backed by the White House, passed 231-184 with most Democrats and a handful of Republicans voting against it after an amendment was added that would allow taxpayer funded faith-based organizations to discriminate in employment.
The amendment put forward by Rep. John Boehner (R Ohio) will allow faith-based Head Start providers to hire exclusively on the basis of adherence to a particular religion. The provision could allow an employer to use "religion" as a proxy to fire a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender Head Start teacher. The amendment also threatens to override local and state nondiscrimination laws that protect workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The White House backed the amendment to the bill, saying it would protect religious groups from having to "forfeit their religious hiring autonomy."
During debate, Rep. Maxine Waters (D Cal) called the amendment divisive. "A faith-based initiative has no place in Head Start. Don't start the resegregation of America."
Wingnut Lou Sheldon unhinged by 'Stealth Homosexual Hate Crimes Bill'
How can anyone take this lunatic seriously?Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition is a whack job who's
a little slow on the uptake. He missed the news about the House passing a hate crimes act in a bipartisan vote last week, and he's hopping mad.
The homo agenda, it seems,
slipped one in on him. Muuwahahahahahahaha...his hysteria is over the f*cking top!
While the nation’s attention was focused on the Judge John Roberts confirmation hearing and on aiding victims of Hurricane Katrina, pro-homosexual forces in the U.S. House of Representatives snuck through a pro-homosexual hate crimes bill by attaching it to legislation designed to protect children from sexual predators.
Democratic Congressman John Conyers (MI) attached as an amendment, the homosexual hate crimes bill known as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act to the Children’s Safety Act (H.R. 3132) last Wednesday. See how your Congressman voted: GovTrack: H.R. 3132: Children's Safety Act of 2005 Pro-family groups had no prior notice that this was happening.
... the hate crimes law will add “sexual orientation,” “gender,” and “gender identity” to federally protected categories. “Gender identity” is code for transgenders (individuals who think they are the opposite sex, cross-dressers, or drag queens.) If passed, this legislation will provide federal protection for homosexual behavior, placing anal intercourse on a par with race or religion. It will also be used to normalize drag queens, cross-dressers, transsexuals, and she/males (individuals who choose to remain female from the waist up and male from the waist down with the help of hormones).
...This Kennedy-inspired bill is a threat to free speech, freedom of religion, and association. Homosexuality is a behavior, not a fixed identity. It is similar to smoking or drug use, not an immutable characteristic like race or ethnicity. There are no “former” Hispanics or Caucasians, but there are ex-homosexuals. The existence of ex-homosexuals is clear evidence that homosexuality is behavior-based, not an unchangeable characteristic. It should not receive special minority rights protections in federal law.
The persecution of pastors, therapists, and others will be inevitable if the Kennedy hate crimes legislation is passed.
There we go with the "persecution of Christians" meme again. The Freepi are frustrated that it's in a bill that they like.
Actual Freeper Quotes™
"Talk about a poison pill. If it doesn't pass they can claim that "Republicans are soft on sexual predators.""
"They just keep getting what they want."
"Too bad they wont prosecute the homosexuals, since they must hate themselves to be that way in the first place."
"Hit their pocketbook and they'll take notice. What this country calls "leadership" is no more than a sick group of pansies. I truly hope every Represenative who voted for it gets anal intercoursed for their vote."
"Now this is downright nasty."
"Time to communicate with those who have some influence with the clowns in DC. I want to know how many Republicans voted for this knowingly. It must be taken off the final bill or President Bush has to veto it, or it's all over but the shouting."
"It's not stealth if we all know about it."
"Do we all know about it?"
"And, who is responsible for the failure of any advanced noticed on this? The party that controls the House?"
"Freep the GOP Reps who voted "aye" on special rights for gays"
"In regards to our last debate about the murdered transvestite: Looks like your soluton of punching the guy in the nose will now become a federal crime. Now these perverts will basically get a free pass to trick drunken men into sodomy."
"Giant waste of time writing and calling senators. Didn't they pass this in the previous senate and house never took it up? If it has passed the house, it will sail through this senate. We can sit home in '06 and put the ones who voted for this out of a job, but there won't be anybody to vote for to replace them. Don't think they don't know it.
And here are some Freeper reactions to the original news, "U.S. House backs hate crime measure protecting gays.""I had better get this off my chest now. Against nature, queer, fag, abomination!"
"If I state that I believe homosexuality to be abnormal and an abomination can I be jailed for hate speech? If I say a two parent heterosexual marriage is superior for raising children can I be jailed?"
"When do they start jailing my pastors for reading from the Bible?"
"Homosexuality is a fetish, not a lifestyle."
"ChiMark you are a homophobe and I support you! Here in MA gays have rights over and above the MAJORITY, what happened to MAJORITY RULES? MA is already okaying sodomy, gay marriage is legal here."
"I don't think Bush will sign anything like that."
"I didn't think a Pubbie-led House would pass it either."
"
So posting the above picture could soon be a federal "hate crime"?
Oh, give me a break..."
"This is BAD, BAD, BAD. Very, very bad. I am disgusted. The House has stood up to this vileness for some time even though the good ol' boys in the Senate kept shoving it at them. Now the principle-less so-called Republicans have surrendered without a shot being fired. I am steamed, angered, sickened, repulsed, and we need to email, write, call President Bush. He has to veto this. Has to."
"Yea. I can't believe I'm reading this story. Guess they had to one up the Judge that threw God out of the pledge today."
So Many People, So Few Buses
(or, "Hortense Hears a Who WTF?")From the
Hurricane Rita blog at the Houston Chronicle:
Hortense Davis is waiting at the Houston Greyhound station for a bus that may not be coming.
The 73-year-old woman called the Red Cross today to find out what she should do about the storm. She said she was told to go to the bus station and tell them she had no money and needs to get out of the city.
"But when I got here, they said they couldn't help me," she said. "So now I'm just sitting here."
Davis is trying to evacuate to Lufkin because she is scared hurricane Rita is going to causing major flooding in Houston.
"I'm stuck here," she said. "I don't have anywhere else to go."
Hundreds of people packed the downtown Greyhound station tonight hoping to get a ticket to safety.
Carolyn Rivera, 62, said she bought a bus ticket to Dallas today, but when she arrived at the station she discovered all the buses were filled. So she called her daughter and the two women plan to drive to Arkansas tonight.
"There are so many people and so few buses," she said.
Rivera said she has been through two hurricanes and numerous tropical storms, but Rita has her worried.
"I think this one is going to be stronger than those others," she said.
Don't worry, Hortense, every thing will be okey-dokey fine and dandy. I mean, Bush isn't on vacation during this hurricane, and even the coke-addled brain of a
dry drunk can remember and understand cause and effect with only four weeks' gap from Katrina. Besides, the governor of Texas is a Republican and... uh, oh, the mayor, Bill White, is a popular Democrat! Run for the hills, Hortense!
I smell an AmTaliban Amazon boycott in the air...
Woohoo! I hope the wingers waste precious time and effort on trying to punish Amazon, since it won't have any impact. These folks are just tired and looking silly (and besides, we all know they are buying and using those toys anyway. (
AgapePress):
Sex sells -- so perhaps that's why retail Internet pioneer Amazon has quietly expanded its offerings of "adult sex products" over the past few months. That observation comes from eMarketer.com -- which also wonders if the addition of the new product category under "Health and Personal Care" will be tolerated by Amazon regulars like Toys R Us and Tommy Hilfiger. An Amazon spokeswoman apparently has no problems with the online company's bid to become perhaps the largest sex-toy store in the world. "It is just another of our selections for customers in all categories," Patty Smith tells Financial Times. "Whatever you want to buy, you would be able to find it on Amazon." The retailer's expansion into the arena of sex products has gone relatively unnoticed, says another report. The San Francisco Chronicle reports Amazon added the new product category "with zero fanfare and zero marketing -- and zero apparent intolerant outcry."
Is that a gun in your pocket?
An
actual NOAA image. AmTaliban sheeple, avert your eyes, those Red Gulf States look like they really are going to be f*cked in more ways than one.
This reminds me of the "
Penis or L.A. County" post.
Thanks, Holly for the pointer (from AmericaBlog).
Amnesty Int'l: alarming police abuse of LGBT community in U.S.
"The police are not here to serve; they are here to get served…every night I'm taken into an alley and given the choice between having sex or going to jail."
-- Amnesty International interview with a Native American transgender woman, Los Angeles
Several Blenders sent this one in; it's the release of an Amnesty International's report,
Stonewalled: Police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the U.S..
The findings are not news to a lot of people, especially gay folks living in hostile Red areas of the country. (via
PageOneQ)
In the most comprehensive report of its kind to date, Amnesty International (AI) reveals that police mistreatment and abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people is widespread throughout the USA and goes largely unchecked due to underreporting and unclear, under-enforced or non-existent policies and procedures.
"Across the country, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people endure the injustices of discrimination, entrapment and verbal abuse as well as brutal beatings and sexual assault at the hands of those responsible for protecting them the police," said Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA).
"Some, including transgender individuals, people of colour and the young suffer disproportionately, especially when poverty leaves them vulnerable to homelessness and exploitation and less likely to draw public outcry or official scrutiny.
"It is a sorry state of affairs when the police misuse their power to inflict suffering rather than prevent it," he added.
..."Police officers are hired to protect and serve all of their communities, not only the ones they deem worthy," said Michael Heflin, Director of Amnesty International USA's OUTfront program, which focuses on LGBT human rights.
Some examples from the report:
* A Native American transgender woman reported that two Los Angeles police officers handcuffed her and took her to an alleyway. One officer reportedly hit her across the face, saying "you fucking whore, you fucking faggot," then threw her down on the back of the patrol car, ripped off her miniskirt and her underwear and raped her, holding her down and grabbing her hair. The second officer is also alleged to have raped her. According to the woman, they threw her on the ground and said, "That's what you deserve," and left her there.
* Two lesbians of colour reported that two men in Brooklyn, NY, followed, harassed and threatened them, saying, "I'm going to kill you, bitch. You’re not a man….I’m gonna put you in your place." The verbal abuse escalated to physical abuse; the two women called 911. When police were told this was a homophobic crime, the officers reportedly left without further investigating the incident or taking a complaint, telling the ambulance attendants responding to the women’s call to leave. One woman reportedly was bleeding from the head due to a blow from one of the men. Her companion stated, "It was ridiculous. There she was running down the street bleeding and chasing after the ambulance."
* Young gay men and advocates in Chicago told Amnesty of a police officer who, according to one man, will "remove his badge, gun and belt and then beat you unless you give him a blowjob, after which he’ll just leave you there."
The Vatican's got to pay the bills somehow...
Bishop admits church has received drug money. Where's the bible-beating crackdown, Ratzi?
A Mexican bishop has admitted that the local Catholic church receives donations from drug traffickers, but claimed these are "purified" through good works.
Bishop Ramón Godínez said "bad money shouldn't be burned it should be transformed". He said the church should ignore the origins of donations just as Jesus showed no curiosity about the expensive perfume Mary Magdalene used to wash his feet.
Government officials have said that receiving illicit money is illegal, but shied away from opening a money laundering investigation into the church.
Yes, it should be transformed into legal fees and settlements, pronto, hmmm?
Hat tip, Mike Tidmus
Ready for $5 gas?
On the bright side, perhaps the lack of digits for the gas station signs will force companies to start measuring and dispensing gasoline by the liter, and we can finally join the rest of the world in adopting the common sense and standardization of the Metric System. Well, maybe not. Imagine pulling up at the pump where the sign says "$1.25", only to find out that was "per liter" and your fill-up just cost $100.
(CNN/Money) Katrina damage was focused on offshore oil platforms and ports. Now the greater risk is to oil-refinery capacity, especially if Rita slams into Houston, Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas.
"We could be looking at gasoline lines and $4 gas, maybe even $5 gas, if this thing does the worst it could do," said energy analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. "This storm is in the wrong place. And it's absolutely at the wrong time," said Beutel.
If Rita hits the Houston-Galveston area, as well as the Port Arthur-Beaumont region near the Texas-Louisiana border, that could take out more than 3 million barrels of capacity a day, according to Bob Tippee, editor of the industry trade journal Oil & Gas Journal in Houston.
"Before Katrina, the system was already so tight that the worst-case scenario was for a disruption that took 250,000 barrels of capacity out of the picture. That would have been considered a major jolt," said Tippee.
"We're already in uncharted territory now. We can't project what happens from another shot the size of Katrina or worse."
Some loonie American Taliban think God is punishing us for our sinful, decadent ways, like homosexuality, pornography, and abortion. They could be right, but perhaps the sins God is thinking of are remaining dependent on foreign sources of oil, propping up cruel dictatorships so we can keep getting the oil, and dirtying up His magnificent creation by not developing clean alternative fuels.
(But since I'm an atheist, I prefer to think that this is just our global warming chickens coming home to roost. Except, of course, global warming doesn't exist... heh heh...)
NJ: both candidate for governor oppose marriage amendment
Forrester and Corzine are dodging.That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that both Doug Forrester (R) and Jon Corzine (D) oppose same-sex marriage and won't say what they would do if the courts ruled that the right to marry extends to gay couples. Do I smell a spineless Dem -- AGAIN -- punting on gay civil rights? (
Newsday):
In a debate Tuesday, gubernatorial candidates Doug Forrester and Jon Corzine found common ground on the issue. Both said they oppose same-sex marriage, but that they would oppose a constitutional amendment banning it.
Their positions could be tested next year, when the state Supreme Court is expected to rule on a lawsuit from several same-sex couples who claim the state Constitution gives them a right to marry. Arguments have not been scheduled in the case and are likely to be heard sometime after the Nov. 8 election.
In the debate, both candidates gave a nuanced and nearly identical view on gay marriage.
From Corzine, a Democrat: "I believe (that) the fundamental and traditional view of marriage is between a man and a woman. On the other hand, I don't believe constitutions are about taking away rights. That's why I wouldn't have supported an amendment in the federal government and I won't support one in New Jersey."
From Forrester, a Republican: "I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. I believe that a constitutional amendment isn't the right tool to make that defense."
When pressed for clarifications on Wednesday, the campaigns had little to say.
Lower courts have twice held that gay couples do not have the right to marry in New Jersey, but court-watchers on both sides of the issue think there's a good chance the state Supreme Court will overturn those rulings.
Wednesday, Corzine spokeswoman Ivette Mendez said she would not answer questions about what Corzine would do in that case, saying they were "hypothetical." [So, he just has no opinion on the matter? Come the f*ck on.]
Forrester spokeswoman Sherry Sylvester said Forrester believes the gay marriage decision should be made by elected lawmakers, not appointed judges. And if judges allowed same-sex matrimony, she said, he would "take any steps to return the debate to the Legislature, where he believes the decision should be made."
Give this man his own Klan sheet
I'm just going to toss this one out there, because here is the New Black Right, laid out for all to see. From
WorldNetDaily - the
Delusional Bush/Mehlman Self-Loathing NegroTM, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and president of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny:
If whites were to just leave the United States and let blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within 10 years. The audience, shall we say, disagreed with me strongly. Now I have to disagree with me. I gave blacks too much credit. It took a mere three days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into ghettos, rampant with theft, rape and murder.
President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks. Had New Orleans' black community taken action, most would have been out of harm's way. But most were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves.
He's spouted sh*t like this before, most recently
here. He goes on to blame blacks generally, and Mayor Nagin in particular. I agree that Nagin was a moron who lacked the will to do anything for the underprivileged in his city, but it isn't because he's black, which is dumb*ss Peterson's argument, it's because Nagin cannot identify with someone that can't get a ride out of town because of
classism.
Anyway, most of the rest of Peterson's essay is so offensive that I won't post any more of it. White power to you, "brother," pass the Kool-Aid.
From the Klan store, Jesse (no, I'm not going to link back to it):
This is an authentic Klan Robe complete with hood, mask, cape, belt and stripes! Each robe is tailored made, by hand to your exact specifications. No rack room products small, medium, and large here! These robes are not made until your order is completed. This assures a custom fit for you, and no one else. You choose the color and number of stripes, and you choose the color of the cape. Most places that you can have robes made (which is very few and sold as a novelty) wont even give you the stripes or cape, much less sew them on!. Here at Klan Store not only will we do this, but we’ll even sew on any patch that you purchase from us (MIOAK, Blood Drop, etc) at no additional charge!
The maker of these fine robes is a professional tailor, and is rumored to be third generation Klan, (you’ll get no straight answer from Klan Store about that subject) so you can just image the high quality of these custom, hand tailored robes.
The shipment time on this product, due to the custom tailoring for each individual, will be approximately 6-8 weeks. Please remember, that these are not made until you complete your order, so it will be custom fit.
Please print out the Measurement Chart (the picture to the top right) to use as a guide while measuring each reference point.
Note: ALL MEASUREMENTS MUST BE DONE IN U.S. INCHES.
Each Point is as follows:
Do you want the mask portion of hood to be detachable? - Yes or No
Do you wear glasses? - Yes or No
Do you want an extra lining added to the inside of robe? - Yes or No
Hood size - Circumference of Head
Point 1 to Point 2 - From Neck to 8 inches above Shoe
Point 3 to Point 4 - Across Back Shoulders
Point 5 to Point 6 - Diameter around Waist
Point 7 to Point 8 - Diameter around Hips
Point 9 to Point 10 - Shoulder to Wrist
Point 11 to Point 12 - Right Shoulder to Left Hip
Point 13 to Point 14 - Diameter around Chest
While we're at it, let's give minister Peterson extra bigot points for his
anti-gay and anti-feminist outlook on life.
It should come as no surprise that the homosexual lobby has launched a campaign to use black America for its pernicious purpose of promoting same-sex "marriage." Blacks have proven time and again to be a useful tool in promoting the sick desires of black leaders, the Democratic Party and the elite white feminist movement (yes, most feminists are upper-class angry white women) – why shouldn't radical homosexuals continue the trend?
If we fail at this time to expose the homosexual movement and its malicious goals, then its agenda will carry the day. Thus, we must clarify what is at stake in its argument, and why it must be strongly opposed.
Yes, a true moral leader -- and man of the cloth.
You may have to remove the 'dry' from dry drunk
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Bruise from the "pretzel choke incident.""The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him - but the word is his drinking has been going on for a while in the capital. He's been in a pressure cooker for months. The war in Iraq, the loss of American lives, has deeply affected him. He takes every soldier's life personally. It has left him emotionally drained. The result is he's taking drinks here and there, likely in private, to cope.And now with the worst domestic crisis in his administration over Katrina, you pray his drinking doesn't go out of control."
-- unnamed Washington source about the Chimperor falling off the wagon
Oh boy. Blender Cat pointed me to this
National Enquirer piece on the
Chimp being back on the sauce. Normally, of course, people dismiss the Enquirer because they pay sources, but more often than not, its reporting on high-profile people turns out to be true, particularly regarding politicians (Clinton/Lewinsky, Gary Hart/Donna Rice) and celebrities (Whitney Houston and cocaine) -- and just about anyone that's been outed. It's just that the MSM won't touch the stories because they cannot get anyone to go on the record or get independent verification.
What do you think -- BS or the real deal?Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again, The National Enquirer can reveal. Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe.
U.S. President George W. Bush (R) and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan share a toast at a luncheon at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, September 14, 2005.
Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster.
...Following the shocking incident, disclosed here for the first time, Laura privately warned her husband against "falling off the wagon" and vowed to travel with him more often so that she can keep an eye on Dubya, the sources add.
"When the levees broke in New Orleans, it apparently made him reach for a shot," said one insider. "He poured himself a Texas-sized shot of straight whiskey and tossed it back. The First Lady was shocked and shouted: "Stop George!"
...Bush is under the worst pressure of his two terms in office and his popularity is near an all-time low. The handling of the Katrina crisis and troop losses in Iraq have fueled public discontent and pushed Bush back to drink.
...Another source said: "I'm only surprised to hear that he hadn't taken a shot sooner. Before Katrina, he was at his wit's end. I've known him for years. He's been a good ol' Texas boy forever. George had a drinking problem for years that most professionals would say needed therapy. He doesn't believe in it [therapy], he never got it. He drank his way through his youth, through college and well into his thirties. Everyone's drinking around him."
Another source said: "A family member told me they fear George is 'falling apart.' The First Lady has been assigned the job of gatekeeper."
Dr. Justin Frank, a Washington D.C. psychiatrist and author of Bush On The Couch: Inside The Mind Of The President, told The National Enquirer: "I do think that Bush is drinking again. Alcoholics who are not in any program, like the President, have a hard time when stress gets to be great.
"I think it's a concern that Bush disappears during times of stress. He spends so much time on his ranch. It's very frightening."
See this
earlier Blend post about Justin Frank's book, which I've read. If even a fraction of what he says is on the mark, we'll be lucky to survive the next few years before the psycho is finally out of power.
Gawker and
Wonkette also give some time to this one.
No end to the corruption in this Administration
Dave Sirota on the criminal Bush Admin's protection of the oil companies as they pick your pockets. Expect more when they come crying to him after Rita takes out some of their resources:
Good news: Democratic governors have embarrassed the federal government into acknowledging the oil price gouging issue, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced a formal probe.
Bad news: President Bush made sure to preempt any real investigation into price gouging by his financial backers in the oil/gas industry when last year he appointed a former ChevronTexaco lawyer, Deborah Majoras, to head the FTC.
Some would argue that any investigation - no matter how rigged - is better than no investigation. But, then, I'm not so sure, especially when we inevitably see in a few weeks an oil-industry-written FTC report that gives a government stamp of approval to oil industry profiteering.
Some would argue that any investigation - no matter how rigged - is better than no investigation. But, then, I'm not so sure, especially when we inevitably see in a few weeks an oil-industry-written FTC report that gives a government stamp of approval to oil industry profiteering.
Lynndie England 'did it for love'
Pathetic. Her boyfriend, the sadist bastard Graner, is doing 10 years in prison -- and get this -- he's since married another woman that was Graner to ten years in prison earlier this year, and get this -- since his incarceration
he has married another woman who pleaded guilty in the scandal.
I just don't want to hear any more about "depraved" gay folks being ruled by their "impulses" from the bible beaters.
Isolated amid the chaos and often bizarre life inside Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, Lynndie England posed in now notorious abuse photographs because she loved and trusted the scandal ringleader, her lawyer said at the start of her court-martial.
England, 22, who was pictured holding a leash to a naked Iraqi prisoner, was lured into posing for the photographs that caused worldwide outrage by Charles Graner, the father of her baby, said military attorney Capt. Jonathan Crisp.
"What mattered to her was her relationship to Corp. Graner," said Crisp, who added that Graner was her superior officer, was 14 years older than England and had worked as a prison guard.
"She thinks: 'I love him, he loves me, he's not going to do something to hurt me,'" Crisp said in opening arguments.
The Army reservist faces a maximum penalty of 11 years in jail if convicted on all seven counts on charges of conspiracy, maltreatment of subordinates and indecent acts.
See earlier Blend post,
Lynndie England pleads guilty, and surprise - top brass get away
Florida school settles lesbian tuxedo dustup
"I’m just relieved it’s over and that no other student in Clay County will have to go through the embarrassment, humiliation and frustration I went through. I hope the new policies will help the faculty understand it’s their responsibility to intervene when kids are being picked on because they’re gay or because they don't meet society’s stereotype of how they are supposed to look or act."
-- openly gay student Kelli Davis, whose picture was rejected as "unfeminine" by the principal of Fleming Island High
Back in February
I blogged about Kelli Davis, a senior at a Florida's Fleming Island High (with 4.0 grade point average) who committed the heinous act of wearing a tux instead of the traditional frou-frou femme outfit for her HS yearbook picture.
Her principal wigged out and rejected the above cute photo.
Kelli, who is now a student at the University of South Florida, and her HS agreed to settle -- with a great outcome. A big thumbs up to Kelli for standing up for her rights! (
365gay.com):
A Florida school district has settled a discrimination claim by a lesbian student whose picture was removed from the yearbook because she was wearing "boy's clothes".
The dispute arose in February when Principal Sam Ward of Fleming Island High School ordered the picture removed when he was proof reading the year book before it went to press.
...The county school board and its superintendent backed the decision, which was debated at a School Board meeting attended by about 200 people. Fifteen of the 24 people who spoke at the meeting were in favor of Davis and nine supported the principal's decision.
Davis contacted LGBT civil rights groups and the National Center for Lesbian Rights sent a demand letter to the school threatening a lawsuit.
In the settlement agreement, the school board agreed to change its senior portrait policy, add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy for both students and teachers, distribute a copy of the new non-discrimination policy to all secondary school students, provide annual non-discrimination training that includes sexual orientation to all faculty and staff, and provide diversity training that includes sexual orientation to all junior high and high school students in the district.
JetBlue with crippled landing gear successfully lands
9:18 -- he's trying to land right now...the back wheels are down. Now the front tires are burning up as it slows down and it's coming to a stop safely; the front gear didn't collapse. Good night. That was scary. The passengers are coming off of the plane through the front door normally. (
CNN):
A JetBlue airliner with its front landing gear stuck sideways safely landed Wednesday, balancing on its back wheels as it slowed on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport.
Anne Heche unloads on 'ex-gay'-promoting mom
Her daughter may be an alien, but Dr. Nancy Heche, a counselor and psychotherapist, is a homo-bigot.I hesitated about posting something about this because there was no way to tell that the message was indeed from the actress, but the story seems to have made it onto the news sites now, so someone must have verified it's Anne.
Anne Heche's board has a post by the actress blasting her mom and the "ex-gay" movement. Nancy Heche has been traveling in the James Dobson 'ex-gay' roadshow known as Love Won Out, telling audiences that the power of prayer made Anne "go straight." Thank goodness Anne came out of her mental fog to set the record straight -- pun intended.
This post is meant to address a couple of questions some people have about my mother, Ellen and me. I realize that the break up with Ellen made a lot of people feel many things, but hopefully this will help you have more of an understanding of it.
Ellen and I had a three and a half year relationship that ended sadly, not because we were both women, but because we both wanted different things for our lives.
This NONSENSE about my mother praying for me is really making me angry. My mother never approved of my relationship with Ellen. Her hatred for our relationship is one of the many things that ultimately led to my breaking off all communication with her. (My mother, that is, not Ellen.)
The "Ex-gay" events that are going on right now make me sick. The fact that my mother is using my name to promote this movement makes me even sicker. I could not disagree more adamanty with what she and her group of unloving, unaccepting, Bible preaching hate mongers are doing. I do not believe that homosexuality is something that should be brainwashed out of someone. I do not believe that homosexuality should be anything but celebrated if that is the thing that makes an individual feel good about their life. I believe, as I have always said, that people should love who they want to love.
And for anyone who ever thought that Ellen and I broke it off becuase of sexuality, you couldn't be more mistaken. And for anyone who thought my mother's prayers had anything to do with me marrying a man, forget it. I can safely say that my mother has nothing to do with any decision I make. It has always disturbed me the way religion can twist something to make people feel badly about themselves. Isn't a loving heart an accepting, caring heart? Certainly my mother has never been "loving." But that's just my humble opinion.
Anne
It should be noted that Nancy's husband secretly lived a gay life during their marriage. He died from complications due to AIDS.
See this
other Blend post on Nancy Heche.
Hat tips to Jennifer of ReddTurtle and Jeremy of Good As You.
Rita's a nightmare 5
This is so f*cking bad, from just about any point of view you can imagine. The human toll, the possible wiping of cities clear off the map, the political nightmare for this Administration.
I don't want to get petty, but damn, I have to agree with John at
AmericaBlog: "
Why does God hate George Bush, Tom Delay and Rick Perry?" Where are all the bible-beaters now?
Gaining strength with frightening speed, Hurricane Rita swirled toward the Gulf Coast a Category 5, 165-mph monster Wednesday as more than 1.3 million people in Texas and Louisiana were sent packing on orders from authorities who learned a bitter lesson from Katrina.
...With Rita projected to hit Texas by Saturday, Gov. Rick Perry urged residents along the state's entire coast to begin evacuating. And New Orleans braced for the possibility that the storm could swamp the misery-stricken city all over again.
Galveston, low-lying parts of Corpus Christi and Houston, and mostly emptied-out New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders as Rita sideswiped the Florida Keys and began drawing energy with terrifying efficiency from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Between 2 a.m. and 4 p.m., it went from a 115-mph Category 2 to a 165-mph Category 5.
Forecasters said Rita could be the most intense hurricane on record ever to hit Texas, and easily one of the most powerful ever to plow into the U.S. mainland. Category 5 is the highest on the scale, and only three Category 5 hurricanes are known to have hit the U.S. mainland - most recently, Andrew, which smashed South Florida in 1992.
By late afternoon, Rita was centered more than 700 miles southeast of Corpus Christi. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore along the central Texas coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi. But with its breathtaking size - tropical storm-force winds extending 350 miles across - practically the entire western end of the Gulf Coast was in peril, and even a slight rightward turn could prove devastating to the fractured levees protecting New Orleans.
...Galveston, a city of 58,000 on a coastal island 8 feet above sea level, was the site of one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history: an unnamed hurricane in 1900 that killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people and practically wiped the city off the map.
Shakes Sis pointed to a
Reuters story that reminds you that if you thought Katrina was bad re: short supplies of gas, wait until Rita takes its toll on oil rigs along the Gulf near the Lone Star state -- and the refineries, the lack of which has been declared the "official" reason gas prices have spiked over the last year (price gouging, what's that?):
Valero Energy Corp Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Greehey said Hurricane Rita's impact on U.S. crude oil production and refining could be a "national disaster."
"If it hits the refineries, and we're short refining capacity, you're going to see gasoline prices well over $3.00 a gallon at the pump," Greehey said in a Tuesday night interview.
..."It's going to be coming across the (U.S.) Gulf (of Mexico)," Greehey said. "There's a lot of oil platforms, oil rigs, (natural) gas platforms, gas rigs. It could have a significant impact on supply and prices, and then, depending on what it does to the refineries, there are still four refineries that are shut down. So this really is a national disaster."
Map of strike area and where oil refineries and rigs are. Click to enlarge. (CNN)
Soulforce board member attacked
Photo of Paul Dodd recently speaking out against the Texas constitutional amendment that would discriminate against GLBT people. He was beaten by two men in his apartment.House Blender Kathy sent me this release from
Soulforce, the gay answer to the religious right run by
Mel White (former ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson). It's sad news to see violence against Paul Dodd, a member of an organization that has a mission to work for "freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance."
Soulforce board member Paul Dodd was attacked in his apartment in Austin, Texas, Tuesday night, September 20, by two men who beat him severly. Though evidence points to this being a hate-crime, police are continuing to investigate.
Paul is currently hospitalized. Though his physicians say his injuries are not life threatening, stitches were needed to close deep gashes in his face.
Soulforce staff member Jeff Lutes is with Paul in the hospital and will report as he hears directly from Paul's doctors.
Besides being a Soulforce board member and a front lines activist in our attempt to Stop Spiritual Violence against GLBT people, Paul, a former Army Chaplain, is also an active member of the Service Members Legal Defense Network's Honorary Board.
Report torches Philly Archdiocese for abuse cover up
"The evidence is clear. This reaches the top -- the very top of our archdiocese. Regrettably, the perpetrators of these crimes and the people that protected them will never face the penalties they deserve."
-- Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham
More sickness in the Catholic church, this time in the City of Brotherly Love, where heinous abuse was covered up yet again. I'm sure Ratzi, with his newfound sense of morality, will get right down to the bottom of this -- after he's through with homo purges at the semenaries. (
NYT):
Leaders of the Philadelphia Archdiocese including two cardinals concealed sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests for four decades, a grand jury has found, but no criminal charges can be brought against the church or its clergy because of the limits of state law.
Depraved criminals Krol and Bevilacqua.
The grand jury, convened more than three years ago, issued a scathing report Wednesday that documents assaults by more than 60 priests. It also alleges a cover up by the late Cardinal John Krol, archbishop of Philadelphia from 1961-88, and his successor Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who retired in 2003.
"To protect themselves from negative publicity or expensive lawsuits -- while keeping abusive priests active -- the cardinals and their aides hid the priests' crimes from parishioners, police and the general public," the report said.
The grand jury explored the possibility of charges against the archdiocese, but said the organization can't be prosecuted because it is an unincorporated association rather than a corporation.
"Archdiocese leaders have endangered and harmed children in parishes and schools by keeping known abusers in ministry and transferring discovered abusers to assignments where parents and potential victims are unaware of the priests' sexual" behavior, the report said.
The report names 63 priests "whose abusive behavior was well-documented in archdiocese files and by witnesses who testified" before the grand jury.
Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham convened the grand jury investigation in April 2002 amid the nationwide scandal following the disclosure of widespread abuse in the Boston Archdiocese. In the Philadelphia area, church officials have said that 44 priests had been "credibly" accused of sexual assaults since the 1950s but only one priest in the archdiocese has been indicted.
Thanks to House Blender and Julien's List contributor Holly for the pointer.
Take those homo mags out of the library
"Our children coming into the library have fragile minds. They're in a critical state of being formed, and they're vulnerable, sexually confused, and wondering about many things in this period of their life. And this kind of explicit moral debauchery or filth -- it's pornography -- has no place in our library or in the minds of our children."
-- "former lesbian" Deb French, who wants "provocative homosexual magazines" out of an Ohio public library
Toss another AmTaliban log on the fire...this time the fuss is about two magazines I've not heard of that are
poisoning the minds of children. When I looked to find the online versions of these mags, what I found was so tame that you have to wonder what kind of threshold for arousal this chick has? Hmmm. Let this "ex-lesbian" show the way.
A former lesbian who became a Christian is among several residents calling on a local library to remove two provocative homosexual magazines from its shelves. The Board of Trustees for the Upper Arlington Public Library recently voted unanimously to continue displaying and distributing the publications Outlook Weekly and Gay People's Chronicle.
The decision was made despite the concerns of individuals who object to the sexually explicit content of the two magazines. One such individual is Lancaster resident Deb French, a former lesbian, who believes the publications have been strategically placed in the library by "the enemy" to seduce the young minds of children.
As a former lesbian who is now a follower of Jesus Christ, French feels it is her duty to warn people that homosexuality is anything but a "gay" lifestyle. In fact, she contends, it is a "death lifestyle." At a recent public forum, the Lancaster resident implored the Upper Arlington Public Library to remove the two offensive magazines from circulation or, at the very least, put them out of children's eyesight. However, the library's board refused both options.
French says one of the main reasons she attended the forum was that "this is an issue that's dear to my heart, because God walked me, personally, out of homosexuality 16 years ago. And I know there's power to change in Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 6:11 even says, 'such were some of you.'"
But in spite of the objections of French and other concerned area residents, the Upper Arlington Library Board of Trustees decided to keep both Outlook Weekly and Gay People's Chronicle in sight and in circulation. The board argued that neither of the two homosexual magazines meets federal obscenity standards.
Young NC wingnut sucks up to geezer wingnut
Guess they rolled the pre-corpse coot into his Raleigh office for this photo op with Congressman Patrick McHenry.Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10) is the youngest member of the 109th Congress (born in 1975). Little Pat's your garden-variety asshat Southern conservative -- anti-choice, against same-sex marriage, for the "sanctity of life" -- and also an ace brown-noser, as you see in the above photo with the barely-breathing retired five-term Senator
Jesse Helms. Read the shameless butt-kissing. (
NC Rumors):
"As a strong fiscal and social conservative, I look to those who have served before me for guidance, and there is no greater conservative of our time than Jesse Helms," Congressman McHenry stated. "I am keenly aware of the role that Senator Helms played in getting Ronald Reagan elected, helping bring about the fall of communism and in defending our moral values that are under attack every day in this country."
...Senator Helms also took the opportunity to sign a copy of his new autobiography, Here's Where I Stand, for Congressman McHenry. The book, which the Senator spent the last two years writing, will debut in bookstores this week and a Washington, DC gala will be held to celebrate its release. Congressman McHenry was honored to be asked to deliver the invocation at the event. "I am deeply humbled to be asked to participate in an event of this magnitude honoring our State's greatest senator ever," McHenry commented.
Pass the barf bag, please. While McHenry has Mr. Helms on the pedestal, here's a little reminder of the brand of conservatism Jesse represents, courtesy of
The Independent Weekly piece on him, describing his WRAL-TV editorials that spewed the most bigoted crap imaginable.
What he doesn't say is that the 2,751 editorials were based in some of the most venal bigotry of the times. "Are civil rights only for Negroes?" he asked in 1963. "White women in Washington who have been raped and mugged on the streets in broad daylight have experienced the most revolting sort of violation of their civil rights. The hundreds of others who had their purses snatched last year by Negro hoodlums may understandably insist that their right to walk the street unmolested was violated."
In his five-minute editorials, Helms condoned lunch-counter segregation; said civil-rights protesters were "no less an affront to society" than the Ku Klux Klan; and accused civil-rights marchers of participating in "sex orgies of the rawest sort." He also insisted that four Alabama Klansmen who murdered a Detroit woman in 1965 were responding to "deliberate provocation" by Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson. If Helms feels any remorse for inflaming racial tensions in North Carolina during the 1960s, he reveals none of it in his new autobiography.
By the way, all of Helms's closest winger friends showed up to pay tribute to him the other night
at a big shindig (my earlier post on that
is here). Even Chimpy sent a video air-kiss:
President Bush appeared in a video message, listing Helms' accomplishments, including his sponsorship of legislation calling for regime change in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
"When Jesse Helms came to Washington in 1973, conservatives were a lonely crowd in Washington," Bush said. "But over the course of three decades in the Senate, the world moved in his direction."
Angie Paccione taking on Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado
Angie Paccione (l) has a chance to unseat the unforgivable FMA homophobe.Colorado Rep. Angie Paccione (D-Fort Collins) is going to try to unseat the pathetic homo-bigot FMA sponsor
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave.
The GOP machine has always been a strong supporter of this witch Musgrave, with
Darth Cheney raising an estimated $200,000 for her reelection campaign back in May, so Paccione has an
uphill battle with fundraising.
The good news is that Musgrave is on shaky ground and vulnerable, even to the point of
toning down her drumbeat for a marriage amendment. She is also facing a challenge
from her own party, in Eric Eidsness.
Angie has plenty of practice dealing with the wingnuts in the state legislature, so she'll be well-equipped to deal with the DeLay losers on the Hill. A snippet of the unhinged thinking that she has had to stand up to (from an
April post):
Two Colorado lawmakers got into a shouting match when one of them marched into a news conference the other was holding to denounce same-sex marriage. Rep. Kevin Lundberg (R-Berthoud) and Rep. Jim Welker (R-Loveland) called the news conference to tout their proposed amendment to bar gays and lesbian from marrying. Colorado already has legislation that blocks same-sex marriage. But, Lundberg said that it could be overturned by judges. Lundberg called it "the most significant domestic issue of the decade."
At that point, Rep. Angie Paccione (D-Fort Collins) had enough. "We have over 700,000 Coloradans without health care," she said, her voice rising, she yelled as she marched up the podium. "How could we possibly say that gay marriage is more important than health care?" Paccione, who is half black, also reminded him that interracial marriage used to be illegal in Colorado. She said denying gay people the right to marry is no different.
Her website:
http://www.angie2006.com/More info:
*
DKos diary*
Q&A on Unbossed*
BiographyAngie Paccione, Ph.D.
State Representative
House District 53
Majority Caucus Chairwoman
Vice Chair House Committee on Education
P.O. Box 1182
Fort Collins, CO 80522
(970) 495-0407
angie@angiepaccione.com
Feds: the Sierra Club caused the levees to fail
The below internal email, obtained by the MS Clarion-Ledger, shows that the Bushies, in an attempt to shift the blame ANYWHERE, decided to go after environmentalists as the source of the disaster in NOLA.
A small problem -- the levees that failed were not the ones in question that involved retaining Lake Pontchartrain, but ones that are still standing, holding back the Mississippi.
E-mail sent to various U.S. Attorney's offices:
SUBJECT: Have you had any cases involving the levees in New Orleans?
QUESTION: Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps' work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation.
District: __________
Contact: _________
Telephone: ________
What kind of horse manure
is this?
Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.
The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."
Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said Thursday she couldn't comment "because it's an internal e-mail."
Shown a copy of the e-mail, David Bookbinder, senior attorney for Sierra Club, remarked, "Why are they (Bush administration officials) trying to smear us like this?" The Sierra Club and other environmental groups had nothing to do with the flooding that resulted from Hurricane Katrina that killed hundreds, he said. "It's unfortunate that the Bush administration is trying to shift the blame to environmental groups. It doesn't surprise me at all."
Federal officials say the e-mail was prompted by a congressional inquiry but wouldn't comment further. Whoever is behind the e-mail may have spotted the Sept. 8 issue of National Review Online that chastised the Sierra Club and other environmental groups for suing to halt the corps' 1996 plan to raise and fortify 303 miles of Mississippi River levees in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
The corps settled the litigation in 1997, agreeing to hold off on some work until an environmental impact could be completed. The National Review article concluded: "Whether this delay directly affected the levees that broke in New Orleans is difficult to ascertain."
The problem with that conclusion?
The levees that broke causing New Orleans to flood weren't Mississippi River levees. They were levees that protected the city from Lake Pontchartrain levees on the other side of the city.
Thanks to Blender Laura for the pointer.
The Heretik takes on a big blogging dog
You must surf over to
The Heretik to leave a comment on the post
IN VAGINASTAN TODAY, taking on the Lefty blogosphere status quo. Whew -- it's harsh...
Kos, the recently and freely elected King of Penistan, only has the most kindly thoughts for the tribe of Uteri. While the Uteri may think themselves proud citizens of an indepedent Vaginastan, kindly King Kos knows you are but the misguided children of a province of a greater Penistan. All praise to mighty Kos as he swings heaven's hammer.
With the power of right given to "the left," kindly and all knowing King Kos shall take heaven’s hammer and a mighty big tent erect with his most excellent exertions. Many a pole will hold up this great tent for all of Penistan to take comfort in, both the Uteri and the Peni. But some of the poles should be acknowledged by all as larger and more important than others.
The Heretik has links to other bloggers that are discussing the issue (including
my post here); check it out.
PA wingnuts: ban Gay-Straight Alliance or face God's wrath
This happened in Little Ricky
Santorum's state. An unhinged AmTaliban couple mouthed off bible versus and promising disaster would befall their little slice of heaven if the school board continues to allow Gay-Straight Alliances.
They get bonus points using Katrina to bolster their case and for reading propaganda from the American Family Association about "ex-gay" ministries. (
Lebanon Daily News):
A local couple addressed the Cornwall-Lebanon school board last night with a demand for the abolition of the high school’s Gay/Straight Alliance, asserting that Hurricane Katrina was retribution for homosexual behavior.
...Carl and Abigail Jarboe claim the alliance encourages homosexuality. “We shouldn’t tell them (students) it’s acceptable behavior. It’s not acceptable behavior,” Abigail Jarboe said.
In their most shocking claim — one that drew dumbfounded stares from the board — Abigail Jarboe suggested that Hurricane Katrina may have been God’s way of punishing New Orleans in advance for a large, homosexual event that was scheduled to held shortly after the storm hit the Louisiana city.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” she said.
The Jarboes, who say their opposition to “sodomites” comes from their strong Christian faith, gave the board several examples of people who have left the homosexual lifestyle in an attempt to prove that being gay is a conscious choice people make.
While the board listened patiently and politely, Carl Jarboe handed out an article from the American Family Association Journal that told the story of a young girl who claimed she stopped being a lesbian after becoming a Christian. The story said that part of the reason the girl became homosexual in the first place was her involvement in an organization that supported homosexual and transsexual youth. “These clubs promote this behavior,” Carl Jarboe said.
Abigail Jarboe continued where her husband left off, citing three individuals she said she has known who have make a choice to stop being gay. She also said the school promotes homosexual activity — which she called an “abomination” — by allowing the Gay/Straight Alliance to exist.
Slick Willie gets immortalized as a condom
Go with
a name you can trust, eh?
A condom maker in southern China's Guangdong province is marketing its products under "Clinton" and "Lewinsky" brands and has registered the names as trademarks, state press said.
The Guangzhou Haojian Bio-science Co is selling its wares under the Chinese spelling of the names that read "Kelintun" and "Laiwensiji," the New Express reported.
...The Clinton brand is set to be the company's top product selling for some 30 yuan (3.7 dollars) for a pack of 12, while the Lewinsky brand was expected to fetch 18 yuan.
Rita is Cat 4 and heading for TX
This storm is so big that Louisiana is going to get drenched again. Bush, meanwhile, is trying to look effective as this one heads toward buddy Rick Perry's state. (
AP):
Rita intensified into a Category 4 hurricane Wednesday with wind of 135 mph, deepening concerns that the storm could devastate coastal Texas and already-battered Louisiana by week's end.
Mandatory evacuations already have been ordered for New Orleans and Galveston, Texas, one day after Rita skirted the Florida Keys as a Category 2 storm, causing minimal damage.
The storm is expected to remain a Category 4 storm until it makes landfall, meteorologist Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. That's now predicted for Saturday somewhere between northern Mexico and western Louisiana, most likely in Texas. "But our ability to forecast wind speed is limited," Landsea said. He said the storm could strengthen to Category 5 with wind in excess of 155 mph or ease to Category 3, with wind less than 130 mph.
Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Director R. David Paulison said the agency has aircraft and buses available to evacuate residents of areas the hurricane might hit. Rescue teams and truckloads of ice, water and prepared meals were being sent to Texas.
Stung by criticism of the government's slow initial response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush signed an emergency declaration for Florida and spoke with Texas Gov. Rick Perry about planning for the storm's landfall.
This is one piece of evidence you don't want to handle
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Perhaps former Judge Donald Thompson needed to "prime the pump" to stay alert during those two murder trials. Jurors Will See Judge's Alleged Sex Toy.
Jurors hearing the case against a former judge accused of exposing himself in his Creek County courtroom will be allowed to see the sex toy at the center of the state's allegations, a judge ruled Tuesday in rejecting a defense motion.
They also can hear testimony that a second "penis pump" was seen under former District Judge Donald Thompson's bench, among other evidence Thompson's attorneys sought to have barred from next week's scheduled trial.
"It's so fantastic and so unconnected to factual support, and so prejudicial," attorney Clark Brewster complained in trying to convince Judge C. Allen McCall to suppress some state evidence. Thompson, 58, who spent more than 20 years on the bench before stepping down more than a year ago, faces three counts of indecent exposure.
Prosecutors allege he masturbated with a penis pump under his robe while presiding over two murder trials and a civil trial in 2003. Thompson denies the allegations and said the penis pump seized in the case was a gag gift from a friend.
Brewster argued that the state should be prevented from submitting the device as evidence, contending that not only did it not function but that it also was sawed in half while in the state's custody.
...Tuesday's hearing offered a glimpse at the lurid details jurors can expect to consider and even see if the judge decides prosecutors can admit a photo they say will be used by a witness to identify Thompson's penis.
If Chimpy's taking it, it isn't working.
I was surfing over at that queen
Matt Drudge's site, and I saw this nutty ad shilling fish oil capsules using a picture of the Chimperor. I went ahead and clicked on it to see what kind of nonsense was there. The only connection to Bush is this screaming headline: "
President Bush's most recent physical showed that he is in near perfect health. His doctor revealed he takes only one supplement a day – it's Omega-3."
Blaylock blathers on and on in a breathless manner and says a variety of Omega-3-rich foods and supplements can:
* Help treat bipolar disorder
* Restrain anger, anxiety and fear
* Block depression
* Counteract a variety of autoimmune diseases
* Prevent and treat cancer
* Inhibit stroke
* Reduce arrhythmia
* Combat brain diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
AND
* Cut the risk of heart attack
OK, I'll buy that Omega-3 is good for you, but there's no damn way you can tell me that it's working on the Chimp, because his unhinged, detached behavior signals he needs something a little stronger -- his brain is clearly diseased, and he has a terrible reputation for his anger. Who knows, he may have a few others on that a la carte menu up there.
I think that if I were a quack like Blaylock, I'd find a better subject to do the shilling for my fish oil.
Corporations and straight folks support workplace equality for lesbians and gays
Findings from fourth annual the latest national
Out & Equal Workplace Summit survey are going to be presented in Denver, Colorado on Thursday, and the news is good --
if you're not a right-wing asshat. This should make some Freeper heads explode. (
Harris Interactive/Witeck-Combs Communications):
* 76% of heterosexual adults strongly agree that employees should be measured by their job performance, not their sexual orientation
* More than half (55%) of heterosexual adults feel that regardless of sexual orientation, all employees are entitled to equal benefits on the job, such as health insurance for their partners or spouses.
The survey also shows that in the last three years, heterosexuals and LGBT adults increasingly consider diversity to be an important factor when deciding which company to work for.
* Nearly seven out of 10 (69%) heterosexuals consider it extremely or very important that a company offer equal health insurance benefits for all employees, compared to 57 percent in 2002.
* Fifty-seven (57%) of heterosexuals consider it extremely or very important that a company have a written non-discrimination policy that includes race, ethnicity, sex, religion, age, sexual orientation and disability, compared to only 43 percent in 2002.
* Almost nine out of 10 (88%) LGBT adults consider it extremely or very important that a company have a written non-discrimination policy that includes race, ethnicity, sex, religion, age, sexual orientation and disability, compared to 66 percent in 2002.
* More than eight out of 10 (81%) LGBT adults consider it extremely or very important that a company offers equal health insurance benefits for all employees, compared to 71 percent in 2002.
“Regardless of how Americans feel about LGBT issues, majorities still support fair treatment for their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender peers in the workplace,” said Selisse Berry, executive director of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. “Employers are demonstrating leadership in providing parity for LGBT people, helping all employees understand the value of diversity in the workforce.”
In addition, the survey also found that LGBT adults are more comfortable with “being out” at the workplace today as compared to 2002 when the same survey questions were asked for the first time.
* Sixty-nine percent (69%) now report that they are comfortable – including those saying “extremely comfortable” (31%), “very comfortable” (13%) and “comfortable” (25%) – discussing their “after work” social life, including details about who they share time with, such as spouses, dates, friends or partners in their current or most recent job, compared to 53 percent overall – including those who said “extremely comfortable” (11%), “very comfortable” (24%) and “comfortable” (18%) – who said this in 2002.
The online survey involved 2,242 U.S. adults, six percent self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).
***
Also released today is the
Human Right Campaign 2005 Corporate Equality Index, which "rates Fortune 500 and other major companies on a scale from zero to 100 percent on seven key indicators of fair treatment for GLBT employees. Indicators include policies prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as well as equal health care benefits." Some of
these findings:
* A record 101 companies score 100 percent, which is attributed to a sharp increase in gender identity non-discrimination policies. In 2002, only 13 companies earned a perfect rating.
* Today, 5.6 million people work at the 101 companies that score 100 percent. In 2002, approximately 690,000 people were employed by the 13 companies that scored 100 percent.
* Eighty-one percent of scored companies offer health benefits to the domestic partners of employees, up from 70 percent in 2002.
100 percent ratings: companies that fully support workplace equality for LGBT employees
-- Prudential Financial
-- IBM
-- defense giant Raytheon (a first for its industry)
-- BP and Chevron (the first oil companies to hit this mark)
-- Dow Chemical -- also the first in its industry to do so
-- Citigroup
-- J.P. Morgan Chase
-- Met Life, which touts its 100 rating in a
press releaseBlack hat corporations -- shown to be actively working against equality include:
* Emerson Electric with a 29 percent score
* Entergy with 36 percent
* Exxon Mobil with 14 percent
* Perot Systems with a 14 percent score.
In electronics retail:
-- Best Buy offers full protections to GLBT employees
-- Circuit City holds a 43 percent score
-- Radio Shack scores only a 29 percent rating.
The caption says it all
Via
impeachbush.org. (Thanks to Blender Carolyn for the pointer).
Recruits Sought for Porn Squad
Hey, all you red-blooded straight Red State guys who voted for Bush because he was going to rid your world of those disgusting homosexuals? Pastor Niemöller* is holding for you on the white courtesy phone:
(Washington Post) Early last month, the bureau's Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of "the Director." That would be FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.
The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against "manufacturers and purveyors" of pornography -- not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults.
"I guess this means we've won the war on terror," said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. "We must not need any more resources for espionage."
Among friends and trusted colleagues, an experienced national security analyst said, "it's a running joke for us."
A few of the printable samples:
"Things I Don't Want On My Résumé, Volume Four."
"I already gave at home."
"Honestly, most of the guys would have to recuse themselves."
It's sort of like shooting fish in a barrel to point out that the Bush maladministration's priorities are way out of whack, considering that they are pushing for their Medicare Prescription Drug (Companies Will Really) Benefit (By Screwing Over Senior Citizens), a permanence to Bush's Tax Cut (To The Wealthiest 1% of Americans), and an elimination of the (Paris Hilton Might Have To Pay Some) Estate Tax, all in the face of massive deficit, funding Iraq, and rebuilding New Orleans.
But now they want to take vital resources that could be working on some serious terrorism investigations (how about capturing bin Laden or al Zarqawi?), domestic security, or crime fighting issues to concentrate on the legal production of legal pornography consumed by consenting adults legally in the privacy of their own homes?
The article goes on to point out how difficult it is to get obscenity convictions due to varying "community standards" and First Amendment concerns. So...
Applicants for the porn squad should therefore have a stomach for the kind of material that tends to be most offensive to local juries. Community standards -- along with a prurient purpose and absence of artistic merit -- define criminal obscenity under current Supreme Court doctrine.
"Based on a review of past successful cases in a variety of jurisdictions," the memo said, the best odds of conviction come with pornography that "includes bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior." No word on the universe of other kinks that helps make porn a multibillion-dollar industry.
Of course, the Just-Us Department puts forth the oft-repeated line about how pornography is harmful to women, children, and other living things (like poor Jenna Jameson, pictured, who's burdened by the oppression of a successful career and millionaire status), but it's really about the Religious Reich losing the culture war. They can't stand sex and they can't stand that you like it.
Popular acceptance of hard-core pornography has come a long way, with some of its stars becoming mainstream celebrities and their products -- once confined to seedy shops and theaters -- being "purveyed" by upscale hotels and most home cable and satellite television systems. Explicit sexual entertainment is a profit center for companies including General Motors Corp. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (the two major owners of DirecTV), Time Warner Inc. and the Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt hotel chains.
But Gonzales endorses the rationale of predecessor Meese: that adult pornography is a threat to families and children. Christian conservatives, long skeptical of Gonzales, greeted the pornography initiative with what the Family Research Council called "a growing sense of confidence in our new attorney general."
Good luck with that, AbuGhraibo Quaintzalez. For some reason, you see, stripping people, smearing them with sh*t, forcing them into oral sex, strenuous positions, and naked human pyramids, that's good old-fashioned American intelligence gathering activities... unless the participants engage in those activities, film them, and attempt to sell them over the internet or on DVD.
Pastor Niemöller was a pastor in the German Confessing Church who spent eight and one-half years in a Nazi concentration camp. His famous poem reads:
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out--because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out--because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out--because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Or as I reworded a few months ago...
First they came for the homosexuals and transgendered, and I said nothing, because I was not a homosexual or transgendered.
Then they came for the swingers and fetishists, and I said nothing, because I was not a swinger or fetishist
They they came for the cohabitators and the divorced, and I said nothing, because I was not cohabiting or divorced.
Then they came for the married men who masturbate to internet pr0n, and there was no one left to speak up for me.
Gay man beaten and lashed in Iran
From UKGayNews: Amir escaped Iran after the authorities threatened him with execution for being gay - but not before he was subjected to the barbarism of 100 lashes, which left his back covered in huge bloody welts.PageOneQ has an exclusive interview with this young victim of the anti-gay crackdown in Iran. Amir recently escaped from Iran -- and advance excerpts from the interview by Senior Contributing Editor
Doug Ireland for New York's Gay City News
conducted the interview with a translator. A snippet:
"There was a metal chair in the middle of the room -- they put a gas flame under the chair, and made me sit on it as the metal seat got hotter and hotter. They threatened to send me to an army barracks where all the soldiers were going to rape me. There was a soft drink bottle sitting on a table -- Ali Panahi told one of the other basiji to take the bottle and shove it up my as, screaming, ‘This will teach you not to want any more cock!’ I was so afraid of sitting in that metal chair as it got hotter and hotter that I confessed. Then they brought out my file, and told me that I was a ‘famous faggot’ in Shiraz. They beat me up so badly that I passed out, and was thrown, unconscious, into a holding cell.
"When I came to, I saw there were several dozen other gay guys in the cell with me. One of them told me that, after they had taken him in, they beat him and forced him to set up dates with people through chat rooms -- and each one of those people had been arrested, those were the other people in that cell with me.”
"We were eventually all taken to court, and cross-examined. The judge sentenced four of us, including me, to public flogging. The news was printed all over the newspapers that a group of homosexuals had been arrested, with our names. I got 100 lashes -- I passed out before the 100 lashes were over. When I woke up, my arms and legs were so numb that I fell over when they picked me up from the platform on which I’d been lashed. They had told me that, if I screamed, they will beat me even harder -- so I was biting my arms so hard, to keep from screaming, that I left deep teeth wounds in my own arms."
More of the graphic images of torture
are here.
This one's for you, Russ...
Large marijuana farm found in Duplin County (NC): Don't get too much news of this kind in these parts. I wonder how they even locate it in some of the rural areas of the state. As if they don't have better things to do.
Authorities have discovered a 10- to 15-acre pot farm near Wallace, valued in the millions of dollars and considered the area's biggest marijuana bust in recent memory.
"I don't recall a bust this big in southeastern North Carolina in my time," said Sheriff Blake Wallace, who worked for the State Bureau of Investigation for 11 years before he became the Duplin County sheriff in 2002.
The marijuana recovered Sunday morning, which weighed in at 4,160 pounds, has a street value of about $9.9 million, Wallace said, adding that the numbers were likely to increase as deputies continue their recovery work on Monday.
No arrests had been made as of late Sunday.
...Deputies went to the location about 2 a.m. Sunday and said they found themselves in fields of pot plants, some as tall as 13 feet.
Rita's big and on the move
Rita Strengthens Into Category 2 Hurricane.
Hurricane Rita strengthened on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, heading on a path that may threaten the Texas coast and parts of Louisiana devastated by Katrina three weeks ago.
Rita, a so-called Category 2 storm with 100 mph winds, is moving south of the Florida Keys today into the warm waters of the Gulf, the National Hurricane Center said. It will gain power as it moves over the warm water, and will be a Category 3 storm with winds of at least 111 mph when it reaches the Texas coastline by the weekend, center meteorologist Chris Sisko said.
While Rita is forecast to come ashore anywhere from Corpus Christi to Galveston, there is a chance it may veer to the east and strike Louisiana's coast, Sisko said. This threat to the coastal region already devastated by Hurricane Katrina prompted New Orleans's mayor to suspend plans for residents to reenter the city and for officials in Texas to call for some evacuations.
Breaking: Benedict to approve gay seminarian ban
"If this is true, it's a disaster. I know many celibate gay priests who feel they could not live with any integrity in a church that treats gay men like this. And I know many gay seminarians who have been living celibate lives with ease, who would simply leave."
-- a gay priest, who asked not to be named, in a Newsday article
[
UPDATE: added an item at the end about married priests asking Ratzi to lift the celibacy ban.]
What a f*cking criminal enterprise. He's the head of a church that conspired to hide the mass molestation of children. This man is going to be responsible for the destruction of his own church.
His document will state that all gay men have a personality disorder which disqualifies them from serving. This is complete bullsh*t. And what will the "test" be to rule out the homos?
I hope that Ratzi's happy when 1) all the good gay priests get out, 2) all the heterosexual pedophiles keep on destroying the lives of children, 3) there aren't enough men willing to serve in the priesthood because of this unfair, ignorant witch hunt; and 4) American Catholics shut their wallets.
From Catholic World News, which
Newsday reports, is "an independent news service with links to the pope's American publisher." (
CWN.com):
Pope Benedict XVI has given his approval to a new Vatican policy document indicating that men with homosexual tendencies should not be ordained as Catholic priests.
The new document-- which was prepared by the Congregation for Catholic Education, in response to a request made by the late Pope John Paul II in 1994-- will be published soon. It will take the form of an "Instruction," signed by the prefect and secretary of the Congregation: Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski and Archbishop Michael Miller.
So Father Mychal Judge, the hero priest who died in the ruins of the World Trade Center ministering sacraments to fallen NYFD, was unfit to have been a priest in the eyes of Benedict?
The text, which was approved by Pope Benedict at the end of August, says that homosexual men should not be admitted to seminaries even if they are celibate, because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve as ministers.
Priests who have already been ordained, if they suffer from homosexual impulses, are strongly urged to renew their dedication to chastity, and a manner of life appropriate to the priesthood.
And from the
Newsday piece:
"I believe it would have a strong impact, but I'm afraid it would be negative," said the Rev. Donald Cozzens, a former seminary rector who wrote a book several years ago describing how the priesthood "is, or is becoming, a gay profession."
"The number of seminarians is already dramatically down from 40 years ago," Cozzens said. "This may make the situation even more dire than it already is. And I'm also concerned that it might drive out men who might be destined to give very fine service to the church."
Also critical is how the directive is enforced, a process likely to vary from seminary to seminary.
"How one goes about making these determinations will be key," said John-Peter Pham, a papal scholar at James Madison University. "In some places, I could see witch hunts and anonymous accusations. In others, I'm sure it will simply be observed in the breach, much like the ban on contraceptives."
In other,
related news, our government seeks protection for Ratzi from prosecution for covering up molestations. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston covered up abuse
with his help during the mid-1990s...
The United States government has told a Texas court that Benedict should be given immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian, court documents show.
Assistant attorney general Peter Keisler said in Monday's filing that, as pope, Benedict enjoys immunity as the head of a state - the Vatican. He said allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be "incompatible with the United States' foreign policy interests".
And while we're on the morality tip, how about this Vatican action:
War crimes chief accuses Vatican.
Pope Ratz photo illustration by "evilgenius" Doug at Reality Stick.
Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, has said she believes Gen Ante Gotovina is hiding in a monastery in Croatia.
Ms del Ponte's spokeswoman told the BBC News website that the Vatican had refused to help in the search for him, despite being in a position to do so...Ms del Ponte wrote to Pope Benedict XVI in July this year in an effort to secure the Vatican's co-operation, her spokeswoman told the BBC News website.
The Pope has yet to reply to the prosecutor's request for a meeting, the spokeswoman said. Ms del Ponte earlier told British newspaper The Daily Telegraph she believed Gen Gotovina was "hiding in a Franciscan monastery and so the Catholic Church is protecting him".
"I have taken this up with the Vatican and the Vatican totally refuses to co-operate with us," she said.
***
Pope Ratzi via AgitpropIt's been a real Vatican Celebration day at the Blend, with all the
spirit-uplifting news about Benedict about to approve a gay seminarian ban, and the Bush Administration seeking to give the sex-obsessed Pope immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys in Texas.
Here's an interesting item on the
International Federation of Married Catholic Priests, which is calling for Benedict to
lift the ban on marriage for priests. The odd thing is that Ratzi has signaled some softness in this area, according to the organization.
The federation draws its optimism from a rumoured account of remarks by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in summer 2004, well before his election as pope, when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
He reportedly asked a delegation of U.S. bishops, "What would your people think about a re-introduction of the tradition of married priests?" The Americans were supposed to have been speechless for a moment with surprise.
According to the federation, this means that Benedict recognizes that priests were often married in the early church. A council of the church imposed the rule of celibacy in 1139, along with the requirement that clergy who marry abandon their priesthood. Former priests have also been keenly aware that Pope Benedict made no mention whatever of celibacy when he addressed 600 seminarians gathered in Cologne during World Youth Day.
I think whoever is spreading that rumor must be hallucinating.
Thanks to House Blender and Julien's List contributor Holly for the pointer.
TN Love in Action 'ex-gay' camp ordered closed
Love In Action spokesman, "ex-gay" Gerard Wellman, says the organization will comment "when the time is right" about its doors being shuttered by the state.Thank goodness Tennessee is taking action against this snake pit. This sick organization made the headlines as the place a teen blogger was sent to by his parents to "de-gay" him. Exodus International's Love In Action, ran the camps, and it caught the eye of state investigators. (
AP):
The state Department of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities has ordered the closing of what it calls two unlicensed personal care facilities run by a Christian group that counsels gays to give up homosexuality.
The state inspected two facilities in Memphis on Aug. 19 and determined Love In Action International Inc. was providing housing, meals and personal care for mentally ill patients without a license, according to a subsequent letter to the organization from the Department of Mental Health.
The department gave Love In Action until Sept. 23 to cease operation of the facilities and apply for a state license.
Love In Action spokesman Gerard Wellman declined Monday to answer questions about the state's allegations. "We will be commenting when the time is right," or when the case is past its initial stage, Wellman said.
Lawyer Nathan Kellum responded to the state on Sept. 14 with a letter acknowledging Love In Action had received the state's notice and promising to respond fully by Sept. 23.
"The issue is these being supportive care facilities," state spokeswoman Lola Potter said Monday. "Supportive care must be licensed."
Former Love In Action client Peterson Toscano said Monday that a house manager for the program told him one of the manager's responsibilities was dispensing drugs that had been prescribed for participants.
"He told me that it was to keep people from misusing the drugs," said Toscano, who is now a writer and performer living in Hartford, Conn. Under state regulations, facilities that dispense medication to patients require a license.
Earlier Blend posts on Love In Action
are here.
Hat tip, Wayne Besen.
We get freep mail
I don't get too many hate mails or psycho diatribes in my inbox here at the Blend. The classic one was the "
monitor your Bevis" email back in July.
Today's entertainment comes from "dan," who seems to have a little problem with the content here...
Actual Freeper-like Mail™This site has no integrity. It cannot be trusted. You misrepresent the evidence and assume things that are not true. Hmmm you must be a liberal! It's ironic how the very things that you accuse these conservative of doing the liberals actually don't think are a big deal (i.e. adultery, homosexuality etc.). You should be praising some of these conservatives for upholding your values! The same old tiresome attempt to bring down our honest president (a real leader) by repeating that he did not report for duty when he was in the national guard has been proven over and over again to be a lie (where's Dan Rather these days?). But you insist on retelling the lie...hoping that someone would believe the lie to be true.
I also love the lie about Bill Bennett as well. If he likes to gamble (it is legal you know) this in no way means that he is an addict. He's not. He can do what he wants w/ his money. Keep your nose out of his and other people's business. He didn't spend the "milk money" (since you're a liberal I'll explain...this means he's not taking money away from his family that would be needed to provide for them). You want him to be an addict in your own mind so you can put him on your web page. In fact many of those you have on your site would be removed if someone with a knowledge of current events were running it...but that wouldn't be you.
You are just proving what most Americans know...that the democrats and liberals are out of touch w/ America and reality. They don't seem to be the intellectual type...since they have to spread lies instead of dealing w/ the truth. Liberals can only criticize yet have absolutely no plans or ideas that would be better. All of you just fill our country with negativity and hinder progress. You take away our freedoms by enslaving us to barbaric ways of living. You cry child abuse when a mother spanks her child in love to correct him/her but then you run to a pro-choice rally to fight for a mother's "right" to slaughter her child (i.e. no child abuse). I know, if you're really for choice why not let the baby be born, let him/her grow up just enough to make the decision on his/her own, and if he/she wants to be slaughtered then let the mother do it That's more logical than killing a human being w/o even giving him/her a chance to speak up for his/her own right live or die. You also enslave women in hatred towards men (division) and enslave them to the idea that if you are a stay at home mother there's something wrong with you...."you could be so much more." You limit their capabilities and creativity by shoving them into a business suit and an office. You enslave blacks to poverty by assisting them w/ handouts (in return for votes) instead of an education that will lead to a job. You label them "stupid" in your treatment of them but blame the Republicans for the problem. We need to examine this wellfare failure. It's not working (except for the Democrats..to get votes).
You enslave homosexuals to a less than human lifestyle and encourage them to be animals by telling them to be "themselves" and that they were born this way. You have enslaved them to AIDS & death. The Conservatives are the only ones who care about them as people (ask what the homos think of conservative & former surgeon general Koop!!). We don't need money for a cure for AIDS...they need to be taught that homosexuality is abnormal (anus is exit only!) and immoral. They need to be counseled emotionally to heal their broken relationships w/ their parents. You also enslave people to broken families by demeaning the family...by redefining the family. You have no right to define anything.
I find it very humorous that people like you will passionately tell people that you can believe and live anyway you want just don't push it on someone else. But this is exactly what you're doing. You're really saying that you shouldn't push your beliefs on anyone else except for the belief that you should not push your beliefs on anyone else (can anyone say 'illogical'). But this is totally fine for the liberal. He/she lives illogically all the time and the hilarious thing is....they're comfortable there!! They may not be bright enough to notice.
All this to say that your web site is filled with typical liberal lies, confusion, inconsistencies, propaganda, and bias. I think you know it...but again maybe you don't. This is the sad part....living outside of reality. I wonder what it's like...but again I don't really want to know. I can just watch you...and laugh (i.e. Bush caused Katrina; there's actually global warming; Bill Clinton was a good president...yeah if he was planning for 911 to be a huge success...for more on this read Bill Gertz's book "Breakdown"; Also for Clinton & Gore selling nuclear weapons secrets to our deadliest enemy China in return for huge donations to the Democratic party read Gertz's book "The China Threat"; for a reality check read "Bias" by Norman Goldberg..a liberal who couldn't take working for Dan Rather and CBS anymore b/c of the lies and bias of the media...he exposes it all...the media hate him & he no longer has a job..just for voicing his opinion...who is it that really has too much power?!!; if you have an open mind you'll read these books that are well documented as facts not opinions or imaginary stories like those that come from the liberal and the liberal media. Thank God for conservative radio (Rush, Hannity, Levin, etc.) and Fox news that give us a balanced viewpoint..which scares the hell out of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, & Al Franken. Why do you think Air America was started? The fear that Rush and Hannity were exposing the liberal lies...so now Franken is a liberal Rush wannabe. He's pathetic & rather simple minded (i.e. the Downing Street report was real he says!).
Well, now that I've convinced you to become a conservative (haha, I don't expect you to read the above books or consider the opinions since liberals are extremely narrow-minded) I'm heading to a Christian right wing extremist conspiracy meeting to plan more ways to screw up the left (i.e. same agenda every meeting: "Leave the liberals to themselves, they'll take of themselves for us!!).
Sincerely,
A husband (male) of one wife (female) who cooks, cleans, submits, &takes care of our two biological children (ours...really!)
Lesbian's name change freaks Alabama judge
Elmore County Probate judge Jimmy Stubbs says he was hoodwinked into issuing a marriage license to a lesbian couple.It's a legal name change, so
what's the problem? You don't have to have a sex-change to use a traditionally male name. The marriage license was rescinded, but why didn't the judge check things out before issuing it?
A suburban Montgomery judge has invalidated the marriage of a couple he says misled him. In December 2003 Elmore County Probate judge Jimmy Stubbs issued a marriage license to Joseph Cutcher and Patricia Hammon.
But, following an anonymous telephone tip last week Stubbs discovered that Cutcher was a woman.
Born Juanita Cutcher she legally changed her name to Joseph two years earlier. "To me, they just falsified to the court, or to this office, what they [were] doing." Stubbs told WSFA television.
Elmore County's District Attorney and its Sheriff are trying to determine if any law has been broken. The National Center for Lesbian Rights is also investigating. A spokesperson for District Attorney Randal Houston said that although Cutcher had changed her name she has never applied to have her birth certificate or drivers license amended indicating she does not regard herself as transsexual.
Houston's office believes Cutcher changed her name for the sole purpose of entering into a same-sex marriage. Alabama has a 'Defense of Marriage Act' which bars same-sex marriage. This November voters will decide whether to enshrine that in the state constitution.
Hat tip, to bloggrrrl Ms. Julien, who is not in Miami enjoying Rita's "visit."
Ohio State's Queers on Wheels affirms the destructive homo lifestyle
Monday, September 19, 2005
"There's a long history here in Columbus of homosexual activism, and very powerful homosexual faculty at OSU that goes back three and four decades. So this is a longstanding situation. It's very unfortunate. Many people have tried to do various things about it."
-- Linda Harvey of Columbus-based wingnut group Mission America on the Ohio State University deviants running a sexuality workshop for the disabled
Yet another case of
asshat wingnuts with too much time on their hands. It's actually good to see queer visibility and activism in Ohio, given the attempts by the Right to squash gay rights there.
Ohio State University is being criticized for sponsoring two October workshops on homosexuals with disabilities. In an effort to celebrate both National Coming Out Week and Disability Awareness Month, OSU is holding a "Queers on Wheels" sexuality workshop.
The pro-homosexual event is being billed as a workshop that "will cover sexuality issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual people with disabilities." Ohio State also plans to hold a "Queers on Wheels" disability sensitivity training, which will include lectures on "using proper people-centered language," "etiquette dos and don'ts," and a "general discussion about disability and the GLBTQ community" -- that is, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, and queers.
Linda Harvey of the Columbus-based conservative group Mission America says such events are par for the course on the homosexual-friendly OSU campus. "This is not doing people with disabilities any favors at all by encouraging or affirming them further in the destructive homosexual lifestyle," she asserts. "I think it's a real tragedy that student fees and tuition money or any money at all goes toward something like this."
...Harvey is urging outraged Ohio taxpayers to write a letter of protest to OSU's Board of Trustees and to the state's governor, Bob Taft.
See another post on Linda Harvey,
Another wingnut ties ACLU to the Homo AgendaTM
Alaska's Don Young: not sacrificing his $223 million bridge to nowhere
The senator on giving back some of his pork to help pay for NOLA reconstruction and Katrina victims: "They can kiss my ear!""Surely Rep. Don Young, the Alaska Republican who is chairman of the transportation committee, might put off that $223 million 'bridge to nowhere' in his state's outback. It's redundant now -- Louisiana suddenly has several bridges to nowhere."
-- The New York Times
"That same half a billion dollars (for the two Alaska bridges) could rebuild thousands of homes for suffering New Orleans evacuees."
-- The Wall Street Journal
This $223 million bridge that the Repug Young deems essential will connect Gravina, a town with less than 50 people, to Ketchikan, population 8,000. He's not in the charitable mood to trim the fat to pay for his man Chimpy's reconstruction efforts. (
adn.com):
In any case it won't die: the idea that Alaska, to help Hurricane Katrina victims, should forfeit the dough it got in the federal highway bill for the Knik and Gravina bridges.
...No doubt to make Alaskans look bad, city leaders in Bozeman, Mont., are investigating whether they can give Katrina victims the $4 million they got in the federal bill for a downtown parking garage.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., raised the charitable pork idea on the Senate floor last week, although he stopped short of endorsing it. So, how about it, Mr. Chairman?
"They can kiss my ear!" Young boomed when Sam Bishop, Washington correspondent for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, asked him about the many pleas to redirect the bridge money.
"That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Young went on, noting that Louisiana did quite well in his highway bill.
NOLA Mayor Nagin is insane
I'm sorry, but this man was irresponsible to encourage people to return to New Orleans this week, with the lack of power, water and well, toxic sludge all over the place.
He wouldn't listen to anyone until he saw that
there's another storm coming.
"I am concerned about this hurricane getting in the gulf. ... If we are off, I'd rather err on the side of conservatism to make sure we have everyone out," Mayor Ray Nagin said.
The announcement came after repeated warnings from top federal officials — and the president himself — that the city was unsafe. The mayor reversed course even as residents began trickling back to the first neighborhood opened as part of Nagin's plan, the scarcely damaged Algiers section.
The mayor said he had wanted to reopen some of the city's signature neighborhoods over the coming week in order to reassure the people of New Orleans that "there was a city to come back to." He said he had strategically selected ZIP codes that had suffered little or no flooding.
But "now we have conditions that have changed. We have another hurricane that is approaching us," he said. He warned that the city's pumping system was not yet running at full capacity and that its levee system was still in a "very weak position."
Anyone that thinks this man cares about the poor in his city (too many on the Left are trying to give him a pass), needs to wake up.
After all, Nagin appeared on
the DVD that never made it into the hands of the poor, saying they "were on their own" to save themselves in case the "Big One" hit.
"Everybody needs to have their own plans. Check with your neighbors, check with your relatives."
...Some 275 public buses had been lined up to carry the most vulnerable from the city, but drivers were in short supply. Recruitment of bus drivers was barely underway when the storm shut it down.
A plan to warehouse life vests and rubber rafts also remained on the drawing board. Truehill said he had intended to submit an acquisition plan to the city. But even then, city leaders had been counting on federal funding to put much of the plan into place.
At least one goal had been met: the distribution of 700,000 pamphlets specifying what items to bring during an evacuation. Red Cross officials say the pamphlets' advice apparently was heeded by many who fled the storm.
Even if the entire plan had been operational, it contemplated 72 hours' notice to get everyone out. Only half that time was left when mandatory evacuation orders were issued by Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
His evacuation plan only considered those with cars and the means to get out. That's not a plan.
What will it cost to "finish the job"? And what exactly is "the job"?
There is a car parked outside my work that has a self-made laserjet printout taped to the inside back window. It is a silhouette of the outline of Iraq, and some pithy statement like "Don't dishonor our soldiers - Stay and finish the job!".
I've heard that line, usually when some dispassionate conservative is speaking about Cindy Sheehan. The logic, I suppose, is that over 1,899 soldiers have died in Iraq, so we need to have more soldiers die in Iraq so that the ones who are already dead will not have died in vain. Because, you know, they died to prevent Saddam from using his weapons of mass destruction against us. I mean, to topple a cruel and vicious dictator who tortured his own people in Abu Ghraib prison. I mean, to liberate the Iraqi people and bring them sovereignty, security, electricity, water, schools, and the vote. I mean, to make Iraq into the model democracy of the Middle East where Shia, Sunni, and Kurd live in blissful harmony and the entire region cascades into America-lovin' capitalism like falling dominoes.
Hell, I don't know what I mean. I think last I heard it was to protect the oil fields and pipelines from the terrorists who weren't there until we went and invaded. Whatever. As long as those boys don't die in vain.
So, all I ask is this:
What is "the job" and how much is it going to cost? We heard "overthrow a dictator with WMDs, about six months, very few lives, and the country can pay for its own reconstruction." Now we've heard ever-shifting rationales, it's 29 months later, we've lost 1,899 lives (actually more) and thousands of limbs, and it's cost $200 billion. So what is it?
Let's even give them the "We have to fight them there so we don't fight them here" point for the sake of argument (as if terrorists can't multi-task). Let's even dreamily delude ourselves into the idea that the three ethnicities who've hated each other for centuries and all desire their own land can somehow be cobbled together into the shining beacon of Middle Eastern democracy. Even ceding those ridiculous pipe dreams, I still ask "what's it going to cost?"
What's the answer, untax-and-overspend conservatives? Bush said "whatever it takes?" What is that? Three more years? Five years? Ten years? Twenty years?
How many lives? Another 2,000? 5,000? 10,000? A Vietnam-like 50,000?
How much treasure? Another $200 billion? $500 billion? A couple trillion?
I wouldn't let a contractor remodel my house without nailing him down to at least some sort of estimate. Yet we're supposed to "stay the course" in Iraq, giving the president a blank check, an open calendar, and neverending pool of twentysomethings, even after every previous estimate has been shown to be fraudulent, even after two-and-a-half years of proven failure and incompetance?
An American serviceman never dies in vain. The act of sacrificing oneself for the ideal of protecting one's county is never a misbegotten act. We must have a military and we must have people willing to volunteer to follow orders without question, or else that military cannot function. In trade for absolute obedience to elected authority, all the military ever asks is that the mission be clear, the goals be achievable, and the deployment of lethal force be used only as a last resort. The serviceman who dies in the line of duty is always noble, even if his leadership is not.
Withdrawing from Iraq would not be a failure of our military. It would not render any dead serviceman's sacrifice unworthy. It would only be a recognition of the failure of our administration and render our leadership unworthy. But since this is the gang that can never admit any mistakes, I have a feeling that many, many more servicemen are going to not die in vain before this is over.
Little Ricky enjoys a little Man-Dog
Mike Tidmus is at it again. Little Ricky is trying to subscribe to one of his new favorite magazines,
Man-Dog.
Maybe Santorum was right when he suggested that if you give the gays an inch the next thing you know you’ll have hot man-dog sex action. As evidence take a close look at the cover of the latest issue of Man-Dog magazine. Disgusting. Repulsive. Silly! Precisely what Pennsylvanians will get if they vote for Bob Casey and send Lil Rickie to the dog house. And it seems the voters are not getting that message. Santorum continues to slump in the polls — down by 14 percent.
Maybe the right-wingers would do better if they could settle on a consistent man-species-relationship-threat to traditional marriage:
Santorum says dogs. O’Reilly says ducks or goats. Colorado state Representative Jim Welker says horses.
I say, oy! Serious psychiatric intervention warranted.
Mike's also launched a CafePress site featuring some of his handiwork that you've seen on the Blend.
Check it out.
Someone misdialed a fax from Karl Rove's office
Oopsie. Guess incompetence reigns, even at the administrative assistant level on the Bush team.
An immigration memo intended for embattled White House advisor Karl Rove arrived instead on the fax machine of a Democratic congressman, RAW STORY can reveal.
The congressman who received the fax opted not to comment, and asked that his name not be used.
The focus of Smith's memo, addressed to "Hon. Karl Rove," is on immigration politics.
"Immigration needs to be considered in the context of: (1). Media Bias, (2). Animosity toward the president and (3) the feelings of the Republican base," Smith's memo states.
Turdblossom's approach towards the Left is simple: "Liberals can easily and accurately be painted as opposing enforcement."
How influential are political bloggers?
Check out
Peter Daou's thought-provoking essay "
The Triangle: Limits of Blog Power." It's an interesting analysis of what kind of
real effect bloggers are having on politics.
How influential are bloggers?
It’s a difficult question to answer. First, there’s no consensus on metrics. Second, blogs serve many purposes, some of which are more social than political. Third, the use of the Internet in political campaigns cuts across so many areas that it’s easy to confuse netroots influence in the communications and messaging realm with other Internet-based political applications such as organizing and fundraising. Fourth, "influence" is a hazy term.
It might be easier to approach the question by setting a more specific, and admittedly somewhat arbitrary, definition of political influence: the capacity to alter or create conventional wisdom. And a working definition of "conventional wisdom" is a widely held belief on which most people act. Finally, by "people" I mean all Americans, regardless of ideology or political participation.
...Looking at the political landscape, one proposition seems unambiguous: blog power on both the right and left is a function of the relationship of the netroots to the media and the political establishment. Forming a triangle of blogs, media, and the political establishment is an essential step in creating the kind of sea change we've seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Simply put, without the participation of the media and the political establishment, the netroots alone cannot generate the critical mass necessary to alter or create conventional wisdom. This is partly a factor of audience size, but it's also a matter, frankly, of trust and legitimacy. Despite the astronomical growth of the netroots (see Bowers and Stoller for hard numbers), and the slow and steady encroachment of bloggers on the hallowed turf of Washington's opinion-makers, it is still the Russerts and Broders and Gergens and Finemans, the WSJ, WaPo and NYT editorial pages, the cable nets, Stewart and Letterman and Leno, and senior elected officials, who play a pivotal role in shaping people's political views. That is not to say that blogs can't be the first to draw attention to an issue, as they often do, but the half-life of an online buzz can be measured in days and weeks, and even when a story has enough netroots momentum to float around for months, it will have little effect on the wider public discourse without the other sides of the triangle in place. Witness the Plame case, an obsession of left-leaning bloggers long before the media and the political establishment got on board and turned it into a political liability for Rove and Bush.
Influence is not something you can easily measure, but the former netroots emissary for John Kerry has some thoughts regarding how the Right and the Left differ on their approach to obtaining and controlling influence through the netroots.
Working within the triangle construct (netroots + media + party establishment = CW), bloggers and netroots activists on the left and right have very different strategic imperatives.
With a well-developed echo chamber and superior top-down discipline, the right has a much easier time forming the triangle. Fox News, talk radio, Drudge, a well-trained and highly visible punditocracy, and a lily-livered press corps takes care of the media side of the triangle. Iron-clad party loyalty – with rare exceptions – and a willingness of Republican officials to jump on the Limbaugh-Hannity bandwagon du jour takes care of the party establishment side of the triangle. The rightwing netroots, therefore, is already working within the triangle on most issues. Their primary strategic aim is to prevent the left from forming its own triangle, as occurred with Katrina. It’s a defensive posture, with the goal being the preservation of the status quo. Which explains why the right is profoundly hostile to dissent and why the pretense to libertarianism is common: "independent thinkers" don’t like to be seen as defending the powers that be.
The triangle construct also explains rightwing bloggers’ relentless attacks on the "MSM" and on anyone who contends that the media is conservative. In a nation dominated by shrill rightwing voices, with all branches of government in the hands of Republicans, and an ineffectual press corps, the "liberal media" myth is so absurd that it requires no rebuttal. But the right desperately needs to keep the media from doing what they did in the aftermath of Katrina: tell the unvarnished truth. They need to block the left from building the kind of triangle that Katrina generated, where outspoken left-leaning bloggers are joined by leading Democrats and reporters who have no choice but to describe the catastrophic results of Bush’s dismal leadership. The result in Katrina’s case is a major political crisis and a dramatic shift in public perceptions, a body blow to the long-standing conventional wisdom of Bush as a "resolute leader" and a protector.
I think his analysis is spot on regarding the formula (netroots + media + party establishment = CW), and the Right's charge to keep the triangle from forming on the Left. They've done an excellent job, and headily feed on disagreements on the Left to bolster their fraudulent positions. As you stated, dissent is squashed on Right-leaning blogs (no comments enabled, or banning when dissent is expressed -- Free Republic is a good example.)
The weakness on the Left that I notice, is the schism in the lefty blogs between men and women. By and large most big bloggers don't cite female political bloggers often -- Peter doesn't cite any in his piece either (though he does a whiz-bang job of promoting women on the Daou Report). I noted to him that bloggrrl
Shakespeare's Sister deserves equal visibility with many of those male bloggers he mentioned (Kos, Digby, Oliver Willis, Atrios -- you know, the usual go-to guys), because her political writing is second to none. This lack of inclusiveness of female political bloggers is reflected in what seems to be the eternal conflicts on gender issues such as reproductive freedom and gay rights issues, which are seen by many larger, male lefty bloggers as political liabilities if discussed, let alone promoted.
It's certainly a phenomenon that I don't know how the Left blogosphere can address, when it's clear that the Right benefits from promoting its
Michelle Malkins and, have mercy,
Ann Coulter, keeping them highly visible (it hurts to even type those foul names) to deflect charges of sexism. They do the same with their black Republicans columnists and paid-off pastors, trotting them out as tokens to deflect charges of racism. On the Left, it's more about fighting for visibility at all, so there's a ways to go.
It's all about getting a notch in the "Win" column, the move toward the political center, appeasing the middle rather than educating the sheeple. They seem to forget that these sheeple have been carefully molded by the Right -- by the political party, Faux News and right-wing radio. This didn't happen overnight, but the Right was persistent. The Republicans have built an excellent good spin-down machine in place to deflect the Left.
Katrina was a prime (and tragic) example of an issue that the Left could galvanize and build upon to point out the political disaster that is the Bush Administration. This event merged social and economic issues that could be successfully and easily blogged on the Left that the Right couldn't dismiss. It's actually kind of sad that an event of this magnitude is what is able to uncover the incompetence and malfeasance that the Bush Administration has papered over for years. But that's where things stand now.
Head over to Peter's
Daou Report to read more.
Porn-addicted pastors in the pulpit
Former pastor Jody Burgin (now with Dynamic Living for Men) preached sexual purity in church, but couldn't stop surfing for porn at home.I'm shocked...SHOCKED that there are good Christian leaders that are ardent consumers of porn. Who knew? There's a lot of beastly things going on in
this article. It's hard to feel sorry for these hypocrites. It's a long article worth reading in World Magazine.
This particular pastor blames life stressors for undoing his ability to compartmentalize his two lives. Oh, so if he hadn't been found out by his wife and outed, he would have just continued his bible beating and guilt-mongering at his parishioners about porn each week.
Jody Burgin drawls with melodious deliberation, littering conversations with first-name references as if every stranger were an old friend. "Hey John," he might say in a first meeting. "Let me tell you something."
Folks find Mr. Burgin's accessible personality easy to trust, his counsel easy to revere, his authenticity easy to believe. For 20 years, churchgoers first in Birmingham, Ala., and then Cincinnati, Ohio, trusted, revered, and believed the impeccable reputation Mr. Burgin built from his pulpit. But beneath the thick varnish of smooth oration and doctrinally sound sermons, this conservative pastor secretly harbored a monster. "I was a master of duplicity," he said.
Six years ago, the shadow-dwelling beast got out; Mr. Burgin was addicted to internet pornography. For the entirety of his ministry and even before, Mr. Burgin tumbled silently through a cycle of shame, repentance, and broken vows. Seasons of apparent victory collapsed in times of stress, when the comfort of habit proved too difficult to resist. Despite a guilt-ridden conscience, Mr. Burgin often preached on sexual purity, slogging through such sermons undetected. "I compartmentalized it in my mind," he said. "I rationalized. I minimized. I would stop while preaching and teaching on it."
Mr. Burgin's exposure came during a spell of particularly high internet activity. A series of stress-filled events—his father died, his eldest son left for college, and he relocated to a new church—drove him to new levels of daring. He left undone the practiced ritual of covering his tracks, failing to delete his computer's history and temporary internet files. "I got sloppy, and I got caught," he said.
Mr. Burgin's wife of 25 years did the catching and unlocked the cage of her husband's secret monster by releasing printouts of his activity to various church leaders. She then chose divorce, taking the couple's young daughter with her. His ministry and family lost, his reputation soiled, Mr. Burgin turned to the church for help and found little. "Churches didn't know how to handle me," he said.
The numbers in several studies indicate that a lot of bible beating, church going pious folks are getting down and dirty in front of their monitors with their pants down at their ankles.
The Bible likens lust to adultery and fornication, both expressly forbidden. Nevertheless, Mr. Burgin's disaster is far from unique:
• A 2003 survey from Internet Filter Review reported that 47 percent of Christians admit pornography is a major problem in their homes.
• An internet survey conducted by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in 2002 found 30 percent of 6,000 pastors had viewed internet porn in the last 30 days.
• A Christianity Today Leadership Survey in 2001 reported 37 percent of pastors have viewed internet porn.
• Family Safe Media reports 53 percent of men belonging to the Christian organization Promise Keepers visit porn sites every week.
• One in seven calls to Focus on the Family's Pastoral Care Hotline is related to internet pornography.
• Today's Christian Woman in 2003 found that one in six women, including Christians, struggles with pornography addiction.
These moral high ground claims of the Right have no merit when you've got numbers like these exposing the two-faced "moral leaders" that have such a warped relationship with sexuality. All the praying in the world didn't stop them from logging on to view what they condemn from the pulpit on Sundays.
Balls or dumb*ss -- 'Brownie' already shopping resume
Aside from waiting till his profile was lower, perhaps he should have taken some time to at least rewrite the fraudulent resume -- or go with a legal name change, which is about the only way Brownie's going to land a job. (U.S. News & World Report via
Raw Story):
Ex-FEMA Administrator Michael Brown, was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows, seems to be doing for his career what he did for the beleaguered agency. Less than a week after FEMA's dismal Hurricane Katrina response forced Brown out of the agency, he has been shopping his resume to headhunters and Washington PR firms.
And it's not working.
"He's radioactive," said one exec. An ally of Brownie in the PR world said he should have waited a month before starting his job hunt. "It's just a bad play.
The new poll tax
Good old boy, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue's feeling a little nostalgic, I guess.Both
Outrage of the Day and
Facing South covered this one. Instead of the South's poll tax on blacks, we have the New South's requirement for a driver's license or an ID card
that you must pay for to be able to vote. This time, it's
Georgia rolling back the clock.
Outrage:
...The state's Republican governor, Sonny Perdue, has just signed "a new voter ID law that requires many people without driver's licenses - a group that is disproportionately poor, black and elderly - to pay $20 or more for a state ID card." The [NYT] article points out that not only is there no facility in the largest metro area of Georgia - Atlanta, selling these cards, but out of 159 counties in the state, only 58 are set up to sell these ID cards.
Georgia's Republicans insist the new requirement for a State ID is just a way to prevent voter fraud. But really, isn't this just a way to prevent voting? Certainly, it's a way to keep a certain populous away from the polls. When faced with the choice of paying $20 to vote in a Presidential election, or, applying that same $20 to a month's rent or grocery bill-- the whole voting idea seems a little extravagant, doesn't it?
Possession of a driver's license isn't a right-- yet, the Georgia legislature has made it a litmus test for who is qualified to vote. Sadly, if the ACLU doesn't succeed in it's challenge of the law, other states will certainly follow Georgia's lead.
Hat tip to Kris of Classic Dykes Online.
Phelps protests Rehnquist's funeral
Raw Story has exclusive pix of the Phelps clan picketing Rehnquist's funeral and celebrating Katrina. These folks are just plain uncreative at this point.
TX bible beaters hold voter drive for marriage amendment, Rick Perry re-election
"We will have Citizenship Sundays that are intended and designed to encourage the voters then registered to turn out and vote and to vote as Christians, to vote not on the basis of their party affiliation or their economic status or their ethnic background but as Christians."
-- Laurence White, pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Houston, ready to register voters to re-elect Rick Perry
"If the governor is going to use clergy and churches to build his reelection machine, he should be open about who is paying for it. After all, Texans have a right to know what big-dollar special interests are dragging our churches into partisan politics."
-- Kathy Miller, of the Texas Freedom Network
Rick Perry and his band of Texas Taliban supporters continue to pump up voters for his re-election. No doubt the churches will be trying to register the Katrina evacuees that are now permanently settling in the state, trying to convert a natural response to the governor's generosity in their time of need into votes for the gay-bashing Perry. (
Houston Chronicle):
About 2,000 socially conservative ministers across Texas will be collecting more than tithes today as they call on their congregations to register to vote so they can be ready to add a ban on gay marriage to the state constitution in the November election.
Texas Restoration Project, which organized the voter-registration drive, says the effort is an attempt to bring morality to government by empowering Christian voters, regardless of party. But critics say the Texas Restoration Project is nothing more than an adjunct of the state Republican Party and Gov. Rick Perry's re-election campaign.
The political consulting firm handling the Texas Restoration Project's logistics is a company that did $3.2 million in business last year with the state GOP and Republican candidates for office. It is headed by the former spokesman for a Republican congressman and the former executive director of the Texas Republican Party.
...At the core of the current voter-registration drive is Proposition 2, a proposed state constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would define marriage as the union of one man with one woman and would prohibit civil unions. Texas already has a law banning gay marriage.
If the amendment is adopted, its supporters say, it would safeguard that law from judicial challenges.
The
Texas Freedom Network, which is fighting the influence of the Religious Right in the state, is calling for transparency in the operations of the Restoration Project.
The president of the Texas Freedom Network today called on Gov. Rick Perry to reveal who is paying to recruit hundreds of Texas pastors to hear him and his political backers at campaign-style events around the state.
"It’s time for Gov. Perry to come clean," said TFN President Kathy Miller. "Texans have a right to know who is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to get pastors to support the governor’s reelection campaign."
...More than 500 pastors attended the first "Pastors’ Policy Briefing" in Austin. Hundreds of others attended this week’s event. Organizers have not revealed who is paying for the pastors and their wives to attend these events for free.
At this week’s event, however, wealthy San Antonio businessman Dr. James Leininger sat at the front and was repeatedly thanked by speakers. East Texas chicken tycoon Bo Pilgrim introduced the governor today. Together, Dr. Leininger and Mr. Pilgrim have donated or loaned more than $1.6 million to the governor’s election campaigns since 1997. Each donated $50,000 to the Gov. Perry’s reelection campaign in June of this year, according to records from the Texas Ethics Commission.
Thanks to Blender Adrian for the pointer.
Posse Comitatus: going down in a blaze of glory?
On my drive home from work on Friday, NPR was broadcasting a piece on the effort by the Bush administration to revisit the Posse Comitatus Act, which prevents the military from being deployed in a law enforcement capacity domestically.
It was enacted after the Civil War to prevent federal troops from supervising elections in former Confederate states, but it has been an issue that fires up the militia/survivalist/fringe Right crowd, who have pointed to various incidents (
Ruby Ridge,
Branch Davidians) as a sign that the government is bloodthirsty in its contempt of the Act.
Bush's speech on Thursday started raising hackles on the Right when he said the military is "the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice." In this case, a repeal of this Act would give the already criminal, incompetent, meglomaniacal Bush Administration even more power to f*ck the country up under the guise of "caring" for the sheeple. Sounds familiar?
Karl Rove, after all, revealed in an
off-the-record gathering in Aspen, Colorado this weekend that the Katrina mistakes were
simply a problem of the feds not being able to override the local government.
I wonder how much support there will be in Congress for this. After all, they rolled over and played dead for The Patriot Act, all because of fear, ignorance and laziness. (
AP):
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is reviewing a wide range of possible changes in the way the military could be used in domestic emergencies, spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Friday. He said these included possible changes in the relationship between federal and state military authorities.
...Di Rita said Rumsfeld has not made recommendations to Bush, but among the issues he is examining is the viability of the Posse Comitatus Act. Di Rita called it one of the "very archaic laws" from a different era in U.S. history that limits the Pentagon's flexibility in responding to 21st century domestic crises.
Another such law, Di Rita said, is the Civil War-era Insurrection Act, which Bush could have invoked to waive the law enforcement restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act. That would have enabled him to use either National Guard soldiers or active-duty troops - or both - to quell the looting and other lawlessness that broke out in New Orleans.
The Insurrection Act lets the president call troops into federal action inside the United States whenever "unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages - or rebellion against the authority of the United States - make it impracticable to enforce the laws" in any state.
The political problem in Katrina was that Bush would have had to impose federal command over the wishes of two governors - Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana and Haley Barbour of Mississippi - who made it clear they wanted to retain state control.
I was wondering what the Freepi were thinking of this little move by their demi-god in the White House. They are not happy -- some are turning on one another.
Actual Freeper Quotes
"The failures at the state level should not be solved at the federal level. Alabama and Mississippi handle Katrina well, it was the Louisiana State government that failed. Regardless, I don't want to see the National Guard in a foreign country, and the US military in our streets."
"Calm down...they're just continuing to lay the foundation for the Police State 1984 style. Don't worry. I'm here from the government and I'm here to help."
"Slippery sloap... alert!"
"I knew this bullchit was coming...thanks to an absolute incompetence of the lousyana dembos"
"I strongly suspect the Pentagon's lawyers will seek to limit any changes to the Posse Comitatus themselves. We in the military don't WANT to be the police. We don't train to be police officers and don't want to. To put soldiers who don't train f
