Live Blogging the SOTU

OK, I'm new to this live blogging thing, but here goes. Bush's quotes are paraphrased, because even I can't type that fast.

1) Decided not to play the "take a shot every time he says 'terror'". Only have three half-full quarts of liquor, so I probably wouldn't make it.

2) Two minutes, forty-five seconds. Who had 2:45 in the "time elapsed before first mention of 'September the 11th, 2001'?"

3) "Just because we have a system of two parties and two elected branches of government," (for now, anyway,) "means that we may have disagreements on issues, but we can still discuss these issues with respect for each other." Like, for example, comparing Michael Moore to Osama bin Laden, or issuing Cheney-esque condemnations of those who criticize war policy as giving aid to the enemy.

4) "We must stand behind our military in this vital mission." Because 'standing behind' doesn't really cost anything, unlike providing body armor.

5) "The United States supports broader democratic reforms in the Middle East. The leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, and work for lasting peace." Uh-huh. That must've been the Hamas campaign slogan that got them 70+% of the vote, right?

6) "The Iranian gov't is attempting to reconstitute its nuclear program... the world must not allow them to gain nuclear weapons..." Because only nuclear-powered nations can be certain that the United States won't invade and overthrow a gov't it doesn't like (see: North Korea).

7) Did he really just talk about making strides in fighting AIDS worldwide... with a straight goddamned face???

8) "The enemy can still strike us!" Boo! Osama's gonna git ya!

9) "Reauthorize the PATRIOT ACT. Law enforcement deserves the same tools we use to fight drug dealers and organized crime."

10) Another "September the 11th". Ooh, now he's defending the domestic spying, saying the Constitution and statute gives him the right. Other presidents have done it, too. Federal courts let 'em do it. Appropriate members of Congress have been told. If Americans are talking to al Qaeda, we want to know, because we won't sit back and wait to be hit again. Two 9/11 hijackers were talking to Americans, but we couldn't tap 'em, so we didn't know what they were up to. I'm gonna spy on whoever I want to, whenever I want to, and if you don't let me, you're gonna get blowed up! (OK, I must've misheard that last part...)

11) "Freedom is on the march!" "No isolationism." Because invading sovereign nations of no threat to us on faulty intelligence is exactly the scenario Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, & Reagan had to deal with. "Presidents of both parties are going to have to fight this long long looonnnggg war."

12) "Four years of uninterrupted economic growth, because I gave people tax relief... make them permanent!" Hey everybody, how's that economic growth treatin' ya? Are you better off today than you were five years ago? Did you buy a new DVD player with your tax cut?

13) I can't even muster the sarcasm necessary to savage his bloviation on reducing the size of gov't, cutting back spending, and reducing the deficit. I'm only human.

14) "Pass the line-item veto!" Because this unitary executive doesn't have quite enough unchecked power. Sure, Alito will let him interpret any law he signs any way he wants, but he needs to also be able to edit those bills line by line.

15) HA HA HA!!! Democrats cheering for Bush not passing his Social Security "reforms".

16) Here comes the immigration stuff... wait for it... Must have humane temporary guest worker program... OK, GOP, now, stand up and cheer! Hello? Hello?

17) We must have affordable healthcare for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility. (Even the gallery could hardly stifle the guffaws on that one.)

18) OB/GYNs are having trouble spreading their love to women... so pass medical liability reform this year.

19) AMERICA IS ADDICTED TO OIL. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. You can be certain that this Texas oilman, my oilman vice president, my Exxon supertanker, er, Secretary of State, and my entire oil soaked administration will do everything possible to break our addiction to oil, including drilling in ANWR, digging up more coal, and a bunch of other things that won't come to fruition until long after we're gone and have built up way more profits than we could possibly spend in sixteen generations.

20) We want to lead in talent, so we'll promote more research programs in sciences and education in the sciences. Except, of course, anything that has anything to do with an embryo. We need more kids to be taught in hard math and science and advanced placement in math and science, and bring in more professionals in math and science. Just as long as they don't tell the kids they descended from a common primate ancestor and that they remember that Genesis is the foundation of cosmology.

21) "A life of personal responsibility"? Paging Lt. Bush, Alabama Nat'l Guard...

22) "Worried about activist courts redefining marriage, worried about judges legislating from the bench, worried about citizens still recovering from disaster..."

23) "Human life is a gift from our Creator, and should never be discarded, manipulated, or put up for sale." So I'm immediately closing all of the fertility clinics nationwide. If our Creator wanted to give you the gift of life, He wouldn't have built you with a barren womb.

24) "Public officials should be worthy of public responsibility, I welcome reform efforts..." Oh, yeah, BIG round of applause for that one.

25) Laura Bush is going to reach out and rescue the wayward youth of America. Because when it comes to understanding the problems of a poor illiterate black kid plagued by gang violence and a drug-addicted mother, the first mentor you think of is Laura Bush. Maybe she'll teach them how to get away with juvenile vehicular manslaughter.

26) "We are engaged in a global ideological conflict we did nothing to invite." Nope, nothing at all. Just sittin' here, minding our own business, supporting brutal Middle Eastern dictatorships, invading sovereign nations, torturing our prisoners of war, placing our military bases on Muslim holy land, blindly supporting Israel's treatment of Palestinians, killing millions through economic sanctions, selling arms to terrorist regimes, and imposing Christian ideology in every aspect of our foreign policy whether they like it or not. We are such innocent victims here!

27) My Middle Eastern misadventure is just like Lincoln's civil war to hold the union and eliminate slavery, just like King's march for civil rights, just like America's World War II battle to free Europe.

Alito confirmed 58-42

Well, well, it's all over but the presidential coronation. Hope you enjoyed 33 years of sovereignty over your own bodies, ladies. Don't worry, big corporations always have the little guys' best interests at heart, so you needn't worry about your class action suit getting fair treatment at the Supreme Court.

While I have no children, I fear the world my nieces are soon to inherit.

I can't channel my disgust any better than The Rude Pundit did today.

Today, Senators who voted for cloture are going to vote against the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. And when Lincoln Chafee, Maria Cantwell, Herbert Kohl, Blanche Lincoln, and Jay Rockefeller, as well as all the others run for re-election, they can say, "Look, I said 'No.'" But that "no" matters so little as the very issues they say caused them to vote that way - the power of the presidency, abortion rights, the right to privacy, the favoring of corporations - are turned against them time and again. Yeah, they voted against Alito, but there's a starving, beaten prisoner in Gitmo, a pregnant teenage girl in Nebraska, a coal mining family in West Virginia who are all gonna be the ones f*cked because of such cowardly courage. And when they say they voted against Alito, someone's gonna be smart enough to say, "Hey, Maria, if it's such a big f*ckin' deal, why didn't you join the filibuster?"

And if someone doesn't wreck Susan Collins, Arlen Specter, or any supposed pro-choice Republican after the first Supreme Court case that limits access to abortion, then DNC consultants need to have their Blackberries shoved up their asses.

...

(And if you really want your stomach to do the Charleston, remember the precedent that's been set: should someone put rat poison in Justice Stevens' creme brulee, Alito's views are now the bar at which a nominee can be approved.)

Update: The vote was 58 to 42. Enough to have sustained a filibuster even without Chafee if 16 Senators believed in more than empty gestures. And Olympia Snowe voted for Alito. There is no middle in the Republican Party. There is only Democratic capitulation masking as moderation.

State of the Union losers

[UPDATE: See my comments on the SOTU here.]

Are folks going to watch? Maybe you'll pop some popcorn and laugh at the Chimperor's performance. Or maybe you'll be attending a SOTU party.

I'll be in my jammies. I'm not live blogging this POS. It's too painful. Some factoids from the AP:

President Bush's State of the Union addresses, by the numbers:



Year 2002 2003 2004 2005
Number of words 3,807 5,367 5,148 5,009
Length in minutes 48 67 54 57
Interuptions for applause 75 76 71 66
Mentions of Sept. 11 5 3 3 1
Mentions of Iraq 2 22 24 27
Millions watching on TV(a) 52 62 43 39
(a)Only 2005 figures include audience from Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Telefutura

According to White House shill Brian Jones:

"A lot of what you'll see the president talk about tonight are things that common sense Americans from both sides of the aisle can agree on." He says Bush is expected to touch on homeland security, the war on terror, reducing dependence on foreign sources of oil and the economy.

I'm sure there will be people taking a swig every time he mentions 9/11.

Have mercy -- AP is reporting that this SOB is going to actually say: "America is addicted to oil" and must break its dependence on foreign suppliers in unstable parts of the world.

Great Caesar's ghost. It'll be worse than I imagined.

***

And, talk about painful, we have to sit through this anti-gay turd below posturing as the latest iteration of the "New Republicrat" in the Democratic response, as he delivers the party's "2006 message of inclusiveness."

Tim will be reaching across the aisle with an olive branch... ::sniff sniff:: I'm misting up now as I type this...NOT.



You know, because Tim Kaine cares about "all Americans from all walks of life" -- except the queer ones. But he is electable, and that's all that matters, right?

Pfffft.

Review and reflect on these earlier posts...

* Anti-gay Dem Tim Kaine tapped for response to SOTU (Jan 20)

* Kaine: 'not comfortable with language' but will sign amendment anyway (Jan 21)

* Tap dancing Tim (Jan 26)

* Spineless leadership (Jan 28)

***

Back to the Chimperor...

52 percent say Bush's presidency a failure

Why is this number so low?

There is something terribly wrong in our country when this man, after all that he has wrought, can muster anything over 30% approval. I assume that about a third of our population is hopelessly drunk on the Kool-Aid, so what is the excuse for the remainder of the American people?


(Jason Reed/Reuters)

The story notes that Clinton had over 80 percent approval in January 1999 -- after impeachment.

***

This and that

Chris Kromm over at Facing South emailed me about The Alito Effect, saying "red states are salivating to pass laws outlawing abortion. They're ready to go."

He's not joking. Alito hasn't even sat down in the chair yet, but lawmakers in five states -- Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee -- are ready with bills that would ban all abortions, except in the instance of the woman’s life is at risk.

***

Carla at Preemptive Karma says, "I've been hearing these 'World Can't Wait' ads on Air America here...and they make me cringe. IMO they make us look nutty and off the cliff." What progressives need to do, instead of protesting, is to hunker down and organize.

All this energy wasted on demonstrations and protests could be channeled into something much more effective: organization. Progressives must continue to rebuild at the state and local level. Our beliefs and values have been allowed to languish in places closest to home. We must rebuild these first. Build the foundation and then work upward toward DC.

Yes, we think Bush is an abomination of governance. Yes we believe that he's done serious harm to this nation that will take generations to fix. But we can't convince the American electorate that we're the better alternative merely staging protests and stamping our feet. We have to prove that we're better.

***

Can't stand the winger beasts at Little Green Footballs? I've got a site to point you to that Blogenfreude highly recommends...Little Green Fascists. He says, "scroll down to look at the Pantload Media graphic."

***

Blender Ron says, "now my country's swung to the right (Canada) -- read all about it www.harpoville.blogspot.com/...Another way things look from North of the 49th."

***

The 2005 Koufax Award nominations are still rolling out, so surf over and check out all the interesting goings-on. Here's what's up so far.

* Best state and local Blogs: The Blend is nominated here; I'm not sure why, I blog out of NC, but I don't post exclusively about NC or even the South. Some other NC noms here: Ed Cone, Facing South, Greensboro 101, NC Conservation Network Blog, Orange Politics.)

* Best New Blogs: I posted some of the ones I know and read here.

* Most Deserving of Wider Recognition: The Blend is nominated in this category again (it made it to the semis last year).

* Best Post: Believe it or not, two of my posts made it: Skin and the Color of Money and Letter from Peter LaBarbera.

Have fun reading the best of the lefty blogosphere; there are so many worthy nominees in these groups.

Voting will not begin until all the of the noms in all categories are posted. Next set of nominations to be announced will be for Most Humorous Post.

Wal-mart executive pig at the trough

It's not enough to make a million dollars a year at a company that screws its workforce over. Here's a guy -- a vice chairman, no less -- who stole cash, merchandise, and freaking gift cards from the House that Sam built.

Maybe he can pass some of that booty around when he's in the clink making friends and influencing people. (CNN):

Tom Coughlin, 57, faces a maximum of 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. He also could be fined $1.35 million.



...Wal-Mart lawyers referred Coughlin to federal prosecutors after discovering Coughlin had embezzled money from the company and used expense vouchers to buy products as varied as snakeskin boots, hunting trips and Bloody Mary mix. They estimated losses at up to $500,000.

...In federal court, Coughlin spoke only when he was asked questions by U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson. Afterward, defense lawyers issued a statement in which Coughlin accepted responsibility for "serious personal mistakes in judgment."

...Coughlin specifically admitted:

* Falsifying a travel expense voucher to pay $700 allegedly for travel and meeting expenses, but which was actually for the care of Coughlin's hunting dogs.

* Using a false invoice for $6,500 to pay for a private hunting lease.

* Using a false expense statement to cover $2,695 for upgrades to his 1999 Ford truck, which he claimed as reimbursement for meeting expenses.

* Using fraudulently obtained gift cards to pay for a cooler, two cases of Smirnoff, two cases of Miller Light beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, a carton of tequila, and other items from a Sam's club in Joplin, Missouri.

* Using a false invoice to receive a check for $3,100 that was cashed for his personal use.

* Filing a false tax return.

Oh, by the way, did you know that this loser also received a $3 million bonus, and holds $20 million in Wal-Mart stock?

Hat tip, Holly.

Women in uniform die to avoid rape by fellow soldiers

Where is the humanity? This story makes me sick to my stomach. And, big surprise, the military wanted to cover it all up.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.

The latrine for female soldiers at Camp Victory wasn't located near their barracks, so they had to go outside if they needed to use the bathroom. "There were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night," Karpinski told retired US Army Col. David Hackworth in a September 2004 interview.

It was there that male soldiers assaulted and raped women soldiers. So the women took matters into their own hands. They didn't drink in the late afternoon so they wouldn't have to urinate at night. They didn't get raped. But some died of dehydration in the desert heat, Karpinski said.

Karpinski, who was in charge at Abu Ghraib, said that the former senior US military commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, was the one who gave orders to cover up the cause of death of these soldiers. Sanchez, you might recall is a piece of work.

Sanchez is no stranger to outrageous military orders. He was heavily involved in the torture scandal that surfaced at Abu Ghraib. Sanchez approved the use of unmuzzled dogs and the insertion of prisoners head-first into sleeping bags after which they are tied with an electrical cord and their are mouths covered.

These women in uniform were willing to die for their country -- and what it should stand for. How humiliating and horrible it must have been to know that your fellow soldiers saw you as nothing more than a vessel for their violent, depraved needs? The enemy was within the barracks, and they felt they had nowhere to turn.

Will Rumsfeld be commenting on this? Right now, the Pentagon knows the problem is severe, but have you seen anything in the MSM?

Hat tip, Shakes Sis.

Oscar noms

Here are all the nominations...

Brokeback Mountain's up for eight. (AP):

The cowboy love story "Brokeback Mountain" led the Academy Awards field Tuesday with eight nominations, among them best picture and honors for actor Heath Ledger and director Ang Lee.

Also nominated for best picture were the Truman Capote story "Capote"; the ensemble drama "Crash"; the Edward R. Murrow chronicle "Good Night, and Good Luck"; and the assassination thriller "Munich."

...Along with best-actor contender Ledger, and directing nominee Lee, "Brokeback Mountain" scored nominations for Michelle Williams as supporting actress, Jake Gyllenhaal as supporting actor and Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for their screenplay adaptation of Annie Proulx's short story.

Director Lee said he was gratified at the reception both homosexual and heterosexual audiences have given "Brokeback Mountain," which has proven a steady box-office draw across the country.

"I didn't know there were so many gay people out there. Everywhere, they turn up," Lee said. "More importantly, I think I'm amazed how people everywhere have had the sensitivity to want to get into the complexity of the issue, the probability of love, the illusion of love, all those things. It's not simple things you can categorize as right or wrong."

A towering figure is gone

Coretta Scott King has passed away. The civil rights matriarch suffered a stroke and heart attack last year, and was last seen publicly just a couple of weeks ago.

This loss is so great because Mrs. King was an advocate for civil rights who believed that phrase was inclusive -- those of us in the LGBT family knew that she was on our side. While other figures in the civil rights movement, including Coretta's daughter Bernice, have chosen exclusion, demonization, and marginalization of gays and lesbians, Coretta Scott King stood regally and spoke eloquently about why discrimination of any kind is wrong.

The following are the remarks made by Coretta Scott King at the opening plenary session of the 13th annual Creating Change conference, organized by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in Atlanta on November 9, 2000.

I think we all need a few days to recuperate from the stress-filled election we have just experienced, but not much more, because we have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination.

I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination.

My husband, Martin Luther King Jr., once said, “We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny…an inescapable network of mutuality.… I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.” Therefore, I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.

In addition to this fundamental moral principle, there is a very practical reason why people involved in human rights should support each other and work together. And that reason is that the whole of us united makes us stronger than the sum of our parts. This principle of synergy is eloquently summed up in the equation “One plus one equals three.” In other words, there are things we achieve together that we can’t achieve separately.

In a way, we have just had an object lesson in the power of coalition unity. And I think we have just seen the future of American democracy flash before our eyes last Tuesday. The coalition that gave Al Gore a popular majority can surely be as powerful as the New Deal coalition that transformed America in an earlier era.

So what comes next for the NGLTF, the King Center, and indeed all organizations working for human rights and social justice must be a new emphasis on working together in coalitions. With this commitment, we can pass comprehensive hate crimes legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and secure full funding for AIDS research, prevention, and treatment. We can defend affirmative action and support a broad range of common legislative and policy priorities.

It is encouraging that we have seen more gay and lesbian candidates elected to political office. It is important for lesbian and gay officeholders and their constituencies to achieve greater visibility as supporters of laws that benefit the entire community. I think this will help educate the American public that lesbian and gay people seek the same goals of quality education for young people, cleaner air and water, safe streets and better health care that straight people want. We have to work harder for the broader vision of the compassionate and caring society that demands decent living standards for all citizens.

Now that the election is finally behind us, we must turn our full attention to building a tightly knit coalition of human rights groups that can act swiftly and effectively for needed policy reforms. Let’s make this first decade of the 21st century an era of unprecedented expansion in freedom and democracy.

And as we work for needed reforms, we must also look ahead to the next elections, mindful that we need more people of color in America’s federal, state, and local political institutions. And we also need more women and more lesbian and gay officeholders as well. This is how we make our political institutions reflect the diversity of the American people.


Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., walks a picket line with others to protest apartheid in South Africa, in this Nov. 29, 1984 file photo, at the South African Embassy in Washington. King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died, former mayor Andrew Young told NBC Tuesday, morning, Jan. 31, 2006. She was 78. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, File)

In closing, my friends, I just want to say that I’m proud to stand with you today as we build a great new American coalition for freedom and human rights for all people. Despite the formidable challenges we face, I believe that we will succeed in creating a more compassionate and just society.

I’ll conclude my remarks tonight with a few words spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. at the National Press Club in July of 1962. The 38 years that have come and gone since then have done nothing to diminish the relevance of his remarks. Indeed, they seem particularly appropriate to the challenge we face today.

“We are simply seeking,” said Martin, “to bring into full realization the American dream—a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men no longer argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character; the dream of a land where everyone will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality—this is the dream. When it is realized, the jangling discords of our nation will be transformed into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood, and men everywhere will know that America is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

With this faith, sisters and brothers, let us work together with renewed passion and commitment to create the beloved community of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, where all people can live together in a spirit of trust and understanding, harmony, love, and peace.

Who will step forward to fill this aching void? Who will be the shepherd of the true movement for civil equality?

Also:
* biography of Coretta Scott King at The King Center site.

Wicked ISP

It looks like sad sack AOL is now going to be targeted by the insane religious whack jobs. Here is the actual banner headline over at WingNutDaily this AM, easily a major candidate for the Batsh*ttery Award of the day. The article grows more unhinged as you keep reading.

Is new AOL IM slogan marketing blasphemy?
'I AM' pitch takes God's name in vain, say some shocked critics

America Online is now acting like God - using what some consider to be His very name in a marketing pitch for e-mail, voice chat, video chat, instant messaging, text messaging and other forms of communication.

AIM's new slogan is "I AM."



[Ian] Millar wonders is any of AOL's marketing and planning directors ever went to Christian Sunday school or attended Jewish services. He points out to AOL executives that "I AM" is the English translation of YaHWeH, the self-proclaimed name of God.

"He is the Creator and Savior of the world," explains Millar. "He alone is to be worshipped. To take His name in vain, or use as a common thing is blasphemy, a vulgar sin of offense. Perhaps you have not read the Third Commandment, since they have removed it from so many public monuments in the last decade. But breaking it as a means of marketing your products offends the mind of everyone who worships Him."

...Millar suggests that perhaps AOL is in need of more religious diversity in its corporate ranks. But he suggests that such oversights would seem implausible in a country "where the Judeo-Christian culture has been pervasive for 300 years."

"You must immediately change the name of your program," he told Jonathan Miller, the chief executive officer of America Online, and John Buckley, corporate communications officer for the company, in a pointed letter. I can assure you that you will lose business over this marketing tactic from people who worship the Almighty. But worse, you have offended Him by your actions; whether they are deliberate or ignorant. To treat as common the name of God is wicked. God is patient, but mankind is today making an error of epic proportions by the deliberate actions of mocking the Almighty; particularly in the technologically advanced society. His patience with the mockery of mankind will come to an end."

An "error of epic proportions"? My god. I'm sure the AOL folks will get right on this... OK. Maybe this is just some random nutcase spouting off, right? Uh oh, take a look at this WND poll:



Actually, here's another reason why AOL is hell-bound for these folks, from last October...

Time Warner's America Online has hired Mary Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, an AOL spokesman confirmed on Tuesday. Mary Cheney will work closely with Ted Leonsis, vice chairman of America Online and head of the unit whose function it is to increase AOL's Internet audience via Web-based programming and products, AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said.

...Mary Cheney recently worked as an aide to her father. A high-profile lesbian [only when it pays], she previously served as gay community liaison for Coors Brewing, which had been criticized for making donations to critics of gay rights.

Despite attempts to keep Mary Cheney out of the news, the subject of her sexuality came up during several debates in the 2004 presidential race when candidates were questioned about their stance on gay rights. The vice president had previously tried to stay quiet on the subject.

AOL has long been a leader in promoting gay-friendly policies and practices, including offering same-sex domestic partners and their children the same benefits as non-gay couples, Graham said.

***

While I was over at WND, I had to snare this priceless, unrelated headline.

Gay-straight alliances targeted by Virginia bill

Ebbin, Lohr. The latter wants to dissolve the alliances: "Whether it be homosexual or heterosexual, school is just not the place to be talking about sexual activity."

The gay-bashing just keeps on coming in Tim Kaine's state. Now the batsh*t homophobes are going after gay-straight alliances, claiming they "promote teen sex." Poor openly gay delegate Adam Ebbin (D-Arlington). He's got his hands full battling these clowns in the legislature. (365gay):

[Harrisonburg Del. Matthew] Lohr's House Bill 1308 would authorize school boards to prohibit the use of school facilities by any student club that promotes sexual activity among unmarried students.

It would essentially dissolve the gay-straight alliances, which typically meet on school grounds, said Dyana Mason, head of Equality Virginia.

The bill won preliminary House approval Monday, and could go before the Senate this week. An identical bill introduced last session easily glided through the House on a 95-0 vote. That bill later died in Senate committee, Lohr said. Monday, lawmakers appeared split over the bill, some arguing it unfairly singled out gay groups while others countered the legislation targeted no one.

"This bill is not aimed at one particular group," Lohr told House members. "The intent is to give local school boards more control over the types of groups which use the buildings."

But when pressed by Falls Church Democratic Del. James Scott about which groups could be interpreted as addressing sexual issues, Lohr referred to a situation involving a Chesterfield County gay-straight student alliance last year. In that case, Lohr said school officials canceled a planned book signing by a gay author after it was learned the author would be including a steamy novel about gay fraternity sex. Lohr argued school officials should have been able to quash the group entirely.

...But gay-straight alliances are focused on helping teens sort out their sexuality — not telling them how to act on it, argued Ebbin, the state's first openly gay House member. "What troubles me is the targeting of student groups because they (acknowledge) the idea that gay people exist," he said.

Massachusetts dominatrix acquitted

"Mistress Lauren M" walks away from a manslaughter charge; prosecutor Robert Nelson put on gear in order to re-enact the deadly bondage session during the trial.

She got off (uh huh huh, Beavis, you said "got off"). Do you think we will see outrage from Concerned Women for America about this? Maybe a pithy quote from Daddy Dobson? Yawn. It looks like there was some seriously bad police work in this case.

A dominatrix was acquitted of manslaughter Monday in the death of a man who prosecutors say suffered a heart attack while strapped to a replica of a medieval rack.

Barbara Asher, a 56-year-old woman who called herself Mistress Lauren M, was also cleared of dismembering the man's corpse to conceal the death. Prosecutors said that 53-year-old Michael Lord suffered a heart attack in 2000 during a bondage session in a "dungeon" in Asher's condominium.

Asher was accused of doing nothing to help him for five minutes, fearing authorities would discover her business. Asher had her boyfriend chop up the body of the 275-pound retired telephone company worker, and they dumped it behind a restaurant in Maine, prosecutors said.

His remains have not been found. Prosecutors said Asher confessed to police, but the alleged confession was not taped. Investigators testified they did not save their notes.

Hat tip Holly.

Another homo-bigot politician's closet door will be flung open

BlogActive has announced that another homo-hypocrite on the Hill will be exposed...

Mr. Senator:

Tomorrow you will be faced with a vote that may have the longest aftereffects of any other you have cast in your Senate career.

Tomorrow you will decide if your political position is worth more than doing what is right for others like you. For others like you, Mr. Senator, who engage in oral sex with other men. (Although, Mr. Senator, most of us don't do in the bathrooms of Union Station!) Your fake marriage, buy the way, will NOT protect you from the truth being told on this blog.

How does this blog decide who to report on? It's simple. We report on hypocrites. In this case, hypocrites who vote against the gay and lesbian community while engaging in gay sex themselves*.

When you case that vote, Mr. Senator, represent your own...it's the least you could do.

Michael Rogers
blogACTIVE.com

Folks are already speculating about who it might be in the comments of Mike's post, as well as in a DKos diary. Some of the usual suspects are coming up.

Filibuster DOA

Defeated 72-25. Alito will be confirmed, folks. As Margo Channing said -- "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." Only it's going to be the beginning of a long-ass series of bumpy days and nights. Hope no one else on the Supreme Court retires or kicks it.

From the desk of Sam Brownback

HRC fired off a letter to the office of proudly anti-gay Kansas Senator Sam Brownback after his "fruits" remark in the Rolling Stone interview (my post here):

"You look at the social impact of the countries that have engaged in homosexual marriage." He shakes his head in sorrow, thinking of Sweden, which Christian conservatives believe has been made by "social engineering" into an outer ring of hell. "You'll know 'em by their fruits," Brownback says. He pauses, and an awkward silence fills the room. He was citing scripture -- Matthew 7:16 -- but he just called gay Swedes "fruits."

This is what Sam's office released today.

BROWNBACK CLARIFIES SAME-SEX MARRIAGE COMMENT

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today issued the following statement concerning his recent comments in Rolling Stone magazine about same-sex marriage in Sweden:

“When quoting Matthew 7:16, ‘Ye shall know them by their fruits,’ I was in no way referring to sexual orientation.

“While this biblical passage was pertinent to our overall conversation about faith and deeds, it apparently led the writer to believe I was making a joke; I was not and would never do so with such a personal and sensitive issue."

That said, Brownback didn't have any response to these gems...

* Does he fully support the beliefs of his chief of staff, Robert Wasinger, who wrote in a campus magazine funded by the Heritage Foundation, that the "innocent sperm" of gay men are, "forced to swim into feces?"

* What about a comment on his opposition to the federal hate crimes bill and that its passage would lead to the eventual criminalization of Christianity.

* And what about that $42,000 funneled to him by Jack Abramoff? How does that fit in his moral world view?

Visit The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

Blend featured on Situation Room today

I just happened to be typing along here with CNN's "The Situation Room" (the 4PM hour) on in the background and Wolf was talking about "liberal activists on the warpath" blasting Hillary Clinton and the selection of Tim Kaine by the Dems to deliver the SOTU response tomorrow. I happened to look up just in time to see blog reporter Jackie Schechner punching up some of the sites in question, and up pops the Blend, lol.



It was onscreen for maybe 3 seconds, showing one of my Kaine posts, Spineless leadership. She also brought up The Moderate Voice during the review.

Homo-bigot of the day: Washington 'activist' boob Tim Eyman

He's known in his parts as a "professional initiative promoter."

Washington's Governor, Christine Gregoire, plans to sign the new anti-discrimination bill into law tomorrow morning, and one wingnut is incensed. Tim Eyman filed an initiative today to repeal the gay-rights bill, which passed Friday in the state Senate. According to this article, the AmTaliban groups plan to get behind this turd to take the matter to a public vote. (The Olympian via PageOneQ):

The longtime initiative promoter said in an e-mail to supporters and the media late Sunday, “Politicians aren’t thinking about what the voters want. Let the voters decide.”

“Politicians are deciding based on special interest group pressure and their own re-election calculations,” Eyman added. “The voters have watched this disgusting display of arrogance and selfishness for weeks. The issue has become hopelessly politicized.”

“It’s sad. It’s appalling. It’s anti-American,” state Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County, said late Sunday when told of Eyman’s latest ballot proposal. “It’s bullying, and it’s a money-making scheme for his organization. It looks like he expects to make a lot of money from bullying innocent people. I think everybody should decline to sign.”

[Democratic Rep. Sam] Hunt expressed outrage over the proposal. “Tim Eyman, have you no shame?” Hunt said. “Eyman is stooping to a new low just to line his pockets and get a mailing list of bigots."

It appears that a padded cell is in order for this guy. Seriously. Look at this post from local blogger Rich of Eye on Olympia:

It was "a dream come true" for his critics, initiative promoter Tim Eyman joked Thursday: the sight of him and two key associates shuffling in jail jumpsuits, handcuffs and leg chains before state lawmakers. With duct tape over their mouths.



Another fundraising scandal? No. Just more political theater from the man who once filed an initiative while wearing a rubber gorilla suit. Eyman, Mike and Jack Fagan, Mike Dunmire and other allies were trying to draw attention to a series of bills that would regulate -- or in one case do away with -- citizen initiatives and referenda.

This particular initiative would include language forbidding sexual orientation or sexual preference as a protected class listed in any anti-discrimination statutes. Here's the language via the Spokesman Review:

Let The Voters Decide

Prohibits government-imposed preferential treatment

Complete Text of “Let The Voters Decide” Referendum

POLICIES AND PURPOSES

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The people oppose important public policy changes being made without voter approval. The voters want an open debate where both sides are given the opportunity to have their voices heard and to persuade the voters on the issues involved. And after months of deliberation and discussion, the voters want to have the final say so that the decision can be made without fear of retaliation or intimidation.

The people oppose the government forcing anyone to impose quotas, set-asides, or other preferential treatment for any group. Under this measure, sexual orientation or sexual preference shall not be a specially protected class. The inclusion of this group as a protected class is preferential treatment over other groups not included in this chapter, such as military status, income level, medical history, or political party membership. The people do not support preferential treatment because the people do not want it to be used as a basis for requiring the legalization of same-sex marriage. Also, the people recognize that more lawsuits are not the answer.

Concerning the new law passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported: “The statewide measure would allow people, for the first time, to sue in state court, where damages could be more lucrative.” The article further reports that their new law provides “the ability to sue in state court where recovery could include not just compensatory damages, but punitive damages.” The people know that the Accept-me-or-else-I’ll-sue-you or the Be-nice-to-me-or-else-I’ll-have-you-arrested approach will only increase resentment and conflict among our citizens. This issue has become hopelessly politicized in Olympia. Politicians aren’t thinking about what the voters want. Let the voters decide.

Knight: 'Safe space' posters lead to disease-laden homo-sex

"This is about bullying people and saying you will kneel down and bow to the Baal god of homosexuality -- or we'll make your life very miserable."

-- penis-possessing Bob Knight of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute, getting his homo-related fix for the week.

Last week I blogged about the safe space poster that was causing all the hubbub out in California's San Leandro Unified School District (SLUSD). The district mandated that teachers display the signs in classrooms to indicate to students that "This is a safe place to be who you are. This sign affirms that support and resources are available for you in this school."

No biggie...well...since we are living in strange, culturally regressing times, it was not surprising that five teachers refused to endorse their classrooms as safe spaces for LGBT/Q youth because to do so would conflict with their religious beliefs.

You knew Bob Knight was going to be all over this. He had to uncover our latest initiative of The Homosexual Agenda^TM. His preference is to let the bullying and violence against gay kids continue in the schools, I suppose. I don't see anything on that poster about sexual activity.

He believes [SLUSD superintendent Christine] Lim's talk of safety is cover for the homosexual agenda. "What [such policies] produce is intolerance toward anyone who won't accept homosexuality," he says, adding that in this case, that means "teachers who know that it's not a good thing to sell kids on the idea that it's okay to be gay."

...The CFI spokesman maintains the school district is demonstrating intolerance toward the five teachers who are choosing not to display the posters -- and those teachers, he adds, are courageous for standing up to the mandate. "The school district has no business telling teachers to glorify behavior that has such a long list of known health risks," Knight says. "This ought to be treated as a public health issue -- not a matter of civil rights, as [homosexual activists] like to frame it."

And it is wrong, Knight adds, to force teachers into a situation that implies their approval of an unsafe and unhealthy lifestyle. "When you put a rainbow poster up in your classroom, you're lending the authority of the teacher to the gay-rights movement," he explains. In essence, says Knight, the district is saying: "Kids, go ahead and try this behavior. Even your teacher is for it."

Damn; he's one bright cookie.

Shakes Sis adds a witty, relevant comment on Bob's obsession, and how he might make better use of his time.

All we have to do to cure homosexuality is put up posters endorsing heterosexuality in every classroom, and then all the gay kids will know their teachers are "for" straightness! Eureka!

Although...you might have thought that all those teachers getting busted having sex with their opposite-sex students might have done the job even better than pro-straight posters.

Study: Bush voters more likely to be racist

I'm trying to muster up some sense of surprise, but as you can imagine, it's quite difficult to be shocked by these findings.

University of Virginia psychologist Brian Nosek and other researchers conducted a study that confirms what we all pretty much assumed. Unfortunately, the study doesn't investigate the complexities of "why" folks who vote Repug are more likely to be racist. Anecdotally, of course I'm sure we can come up with a boatload of reasons. (WaPo):

For their study, Nosek, Banaji and social psychologist Erik Thompson culled self-acknowledged views about blacks from nearly 130,000 whites, who volunteered online to participate in a widely used test of racial bias that measures the speed of people's associations between black or white faces and positive or negative words. The researchers examined correlations between explicit and implicit attitudes and voting behavior in all 435 congressional districts.

The analysis found that substantial majorities of Americans, liberals and conservatives, found it more difficult to associate black faces with positive concepts than white faces -- evidence of implicit bias. But districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.

"Obviously, such research does not speak at all to the question of the prejudice level of the president," said Banaji, "but it does show that George W. Bush is appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-black prejudice."

...Jon Krosnick, a psychologist and political scientist at Stanford University, who independently assessed the studies, said it remains to be seen how significant the correlation is between racial bias and political affiliation.

For example, he said, the study could not tell whether racial bias was a better predictor of voting preference than, say, policy preferences on gun control or abortion. But while those issues would be addressed in subsequent studies -- Krosnick plans to get random groups of future voters to take the psychological tests and discuss their policy preferences -- he said the basic correlation was not in doubt.

"If anyone in Washington is skeptical about these findings, they are in denial," he said. "We have 50 years of evidence that racial prejudice predicts voting. Republicans are supported by whites with prejudice against blacks. If people say, 'This takes me aback,' they are ignoring a huge volume of research."

Hat tip, Raw Story.

Tar Heel gay couple protests marriage inequality by refusing to pay taxes

"By not paying taxes, this is a deliberate act of civil disobedience towards a President that wants to make an amendment to the Constitution to only allow marriage between a man and woman, rather than two people who love each other, and that discriminates against us as full citizens of the United States."
-- Hendersonville, NC resident Charles Merrill

A Tar Heel couple decides to take a stand on marriage inequality here. NC does not a state amendment pending (we do have a DOMA in place). I'm sure folks in the states who will be facing an amendment on the ballot this fall will be thinking of following suit. (PRNewswire):

Charles Merrill, a 71-year-old artist, and his partner Kevin Boyle, have announced they will not pay Federal or North Carolina Income Tax on over two million dollars worth of stock sales and income for 2004, because of unfair discrimination in the Federal and State Income Tax Codes.

Merrill said, "I have no intention of paying Federal and State Income taxes because my same sex partner and I cannot be legally married and receive the same tax benefits as other married couples."

...Charles Merrill and Kevin Boyle are founders of a group called Citizens Against Discrimination. In 1996 they organized and protested an anti-gay resolution in Rutherford County, NC, which caught the attention of national media.

NOTE: I'm not endorsing this, since we all know the IRS, even before it was under the Chimperor's watch, didn't look kindly upon this kind of act of civil disobedience. For homos to do it under this Administration is particularly dicey. Blender (and CPA) Melinda chimed in on this via email:

I realize us gays have few options to protest our second class citizenship, but please be assured that what these folks are doing is *not* an option. The IRS doesn't fuck around with these things. As a CPA of almost 15 years, I can't count the number of times that I've read about the IRS going after tax protester with the usual outcome of serious interest and penalties and, on occaision, even a prision sentence. Usually, the protesters are of the ilk that try and frame their non filings by false statements such as "Congress never ratified the Federal Tax amendment", or some such nonesense.

Now, you might fly under their radar if you don't draw attention to yourself and try this tactic, but I guarantee these people will get their asses nailed to the wall on this - especially since there are significant dollars involved. I just hope that they don't get others thinking that this is a good way to protest the gross unfairness that is happening in this country.

Boning up for SOTU

Actual caption: US President George W. Bush listens to a reporter's question during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, 26 January 2006. Bush's State of the Union speech is his best chance to shape the debate on difficult issues like Iraq ahead of critical November legislative elections.(AFP/File/Jim Watson)

and this one for extra credit (fight the nausea):


U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis "Sexy" Hastert (R-IL) (R) while answering questions from the media about developing a plan for comprehensive lobbying reform on Capitol Hill while standing next to (politically closeted) Rep. David Dreier (R-CA). REUTERS/Larry Downing

Feel free to caption...

Arizona: You can visit, but you won't want to stay

Cities and communities in Arizona are courting gay travel dollars, but the welcome only goes so far. (365gay):

Phoenix, Tempe and other Arizona communities are reportedly preparing to launch ad campaigns designed at attracting LGBT tourism. City tourism officials are preparing to sit down with the Greater Phoenix Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to map out a strategy, the Arizona Republic reports.

The chamber already offers an 89-page guide for gay visitors. Tempe has already launched its gay marketing campaign. The strategy began three years ago when the Tempe Convention & Visitors Bureau began to research the gay market. The bureau later joined with area hotels and launched a gay tourism web site and an ad campaign in the gay media.

The gay travel market is worth an estimated $65 billion annually.

That said, this is also a state that bans same-sex marriage, and has an amendment up this year. Its text:

To preserve and protect marriage in this state, only a union between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage by this state or its political subdivisions and no legal status for unmarried persons shall be created or recognized by this State or its political subdivisions that is similar to that of marriage.

Bush-humping McCain and Protect Marriage Arizona chair Lynn Stanley smile with glee in support of the petitions in support of the gay-bashing amendment.

Why should gay people from around the country spend any hard-earned money in a state that is going to vote to make its own gay residents second-class citizens? At this point, polls show that folks aren't completely sold on the amendment because of its restrictions on partnership rights, but the wingers are working hard. (AZ Republic, in Sept 2005):

The poll of 390 voters done last week found that 60 percent are likely to oppose the Protect Marriage Arizona initiative if it makes the November 2006 ballot. Only 33 percent said they would vote for it, and the other 7 percent were undecided.

But check out the same paper's polling in October 2005:

A new statewide poll done by The Arizona Republic indicates most voters would support a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, but the survey didn't touch on the most controversial part of the ballot measure: denying benefits to unmarried couples.

The Republic poll of 600 Arizonans found that 57 percent are likely to back an initiative defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman if it makes the November 2006 ballot. Only 37 percent said they would vote against it; 6 percent were undecided. The poll, with a margin of error of about 4 percentage points, says the idea of a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriages is popular with voters when not linked to wording that may prohibit cities, towns and counties from giving legal status to unwed couples.

AZ Blenders out there -- what's the state of things now?

It must have come in a revelation

Frist: Gov't Unwanted in End-of-Life Cases. The Senate's doctor in the house has now had a change of heart for some reason. Could it be that the autopsy of Schiavo proved that her doctors were correct -- she had irreversible brain damage, with her brain shriveled to half its normal size, or did Cat Killer Frist just take a poll for 2008 and saw he was on the wrong side of the issue?

The one thing I do know, the fundies won't let him off the hook after this position shift. (AP):

Frist, considered a presidential hopeful for 2008, defended his call for further examinations of the brain-damaged Florida woman during the last days of a bitter family feud over her treatment. Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state.


The case became a rallying point for right-to-life advocates, an important segment of the Republican Party. It also drew interest from those supporting the right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment and led to charges that the GOP was using a family tragedy for political gain. Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if he had any regrets regarding the Schiavo case, Frist said: "Well, I'll tell you what I learned from it, which is obvious. The American people don't want you involved in these decisions."

...Frist, R-Tenn., said in the full Senate that he supported what he called "an opportunity to save Mrs. Schiavo's life." A heart surgeon, Frist had viewed video ordered by a court and taken by a board-certified neurologist who had concluded she was not in a persistent vegetative state.

Ang Lee, DGA director of the year

Great news.

Ang Lee was named filmmaker of the year by his peers, winning the Directors Guild of America award for the epic romance "Brokeback Mountain."

The win affirms Lee's position as favorite for best director at the Academy Awards on March 5. He has captured more than 10 honors for his work on the film, which follows a 20-year forbidden love affair between two Wyoming ranch hands. Oscar nominations will be announced Tuesday.

The Directors Guild award is one of Hollywood's best barometers for the Academy Awards. Only six times in the 57-year history of the Guild honors has the winner failed to go on to win the directing Oscar.

Dem lobbyist to left blogosphere: generate money and shut your piehole

Here's a real bottom-line statement from a Democratic lobbyist, and it speaks volumes:

"The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections."

-- Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

You have to read this WaPo piece, Blogs Attack From Left as Democrats Reach for Center, which is where the above shite quote came from. I've been talking about this crap for a good long time now re: gay rights -- they want our queer bucks and our silence and endless "patience" as they tilt the party rightward.

This dishonesty was barely hidden beneath the surface during the 2004 race and, as you can see from the above quote, it's out there stark naked before us now as the 2006 races heat up. This "bend over, you've got nowhere else to go" mentality is as bad as the Right's plan to drag out the gay boogeyman again for this election cycle.

As a progressive, the feeling of being continually used in this manner makes my blood boil because it expands to so many issues we've thought about as core values of the party (e.g reproductive freedom, the environment, the economy, social justice, etc.). The Dems are publicly abandoning (or hiding from) anything resembling novel thinking in their quest to become Republican-lite. They've decided that learning how to frame core issues is just too much work for them. Just water down the GOP playbook a tad and (hopefully) slide into office.


As you can see, weasel Elmendorf (who, by the way, is also an openly gay man) and the rest of the tired Democratic infrastructure in Washington hates the lefty blogosphere overall, except as a tool. The establishment is just that -- established -- and they want to stay that way, rocking no boats, sitting on new ideas generated from the netroots.

These folks cannot handle the level of public scrutiny, instant analysis and questioning about the quite obvious lack of risk-taking coming from those in leaderships roles in the party. They do not like to be called out to explain what core issues they stand for, because they know today's core value is about as firm as the next focus group or poll of the NASCAR set. Blogs expose that duplicity, and that's what has the spineless elements of the party riled up.

These activists -- spearheaded by battle-ready bloggers and making their influence felt through relentless e-mail campaigns -- have denounced what they regard as a flaccid Democratic response to the Supreme Court fight, President Bush's upcoming State of the Union address and the Iraq war. In every case, they have portrayed party leaders as gutless sellouts.

...The blogs-vs.-establishment fight represents the latest version of a familiar Democratic dispute. It boils down to how much national candidates should compromise on what are considered core Democratic values -- such as abortion rights, gun control and opposition to conservative judges -- to win national elections.

Many Democrats say the only way to win nationally is for the party to become stronger on the economy and promote a centrist image on cultural values, as Kaine did in Virginia and as Bill Clinton did in two successful presidential campaigns.

The new twist in this debate is the Web, which in recent election cycles emerged as a powerful political force, one expected to figure even more prominently as more people get high-speed connections and turn to the Internet for news and commentary. Unlike the past, the "pressure is conveyed through a faster, better organized, more insistent medium," said Jim Jordan, a Democratic strategist.

Any Dem politician who toes the Elmendorf line should not get a dime from anyone in the netroots. Period. If all we represent are money-machines and virtual foot soldiers, I call bullsh*t. No more of that. If a candidate cannot make civil equality or the protection of reproductive freedom a core value that they are willing to publicly defend, then what is the point of being a Democrat? What good does it do to win an election if the politician cannot stand up to the wingnuts, or worse, votes on our core issues just like a wingnut so it can be touted in their next race? The end result is the same to those of us directly affected by the cowardice.

Jim VandeHei, in the WaPo article, accurately portrays the netroots left as being in the same state of the right wing of the Republican party back when its influence was nascent.

The closest historic parallel would be the talk-radio phenomenon of the early 1980s, when conservatives -- like liberals now -- felt powerless and certain they did not have a way to voice their views because the mainstream media and many of their own leaders considered them out of touch. Through talk radio, often aired in rural parts of the country on the AM dial, conservatives pushed the party to the right on social issues and tax cuts.

Blogs and online communities provide an effective way to counter party drift, in some ways, in other ways the influence is minimal. The progressive wing may be out in the wilderness for now, but don't expect us to stay silent (or allow ourselves to be fleeced) any longer.

Sorry for the above disarray, it just all spilled out because of the rage.

***

Shakes Sis posts on yet another example of the problem. Dem Senator Barak Obama is the latest to get a queasy tummy about the prospect of a filibuster.

I know there’s a big chance of a filibuster backfiring because the Dems will be tagged as obstructionists and, quite frankly, they haven’t done enough work in getting out the message that there are very good reasons to filibuster Alito on behalf of voters. And I agree that the best way to ensure that rightwing douchebags don’t get nominated to the Supreme Court is to win elections.

But, on the other hand, part of what the Democrats need to do to win elections is reassert their commitment to liberal values. Yes, the media proactively supports the GOP, which makes it infinitely harder for the Dems’ message to get out, but the Dems need to share some of the blame for being seen as a mixed-message party. They have largely supported the war and the Patriot Act, they allowed Bush to claim bipartisan victories on some big legislation like the bankruptcy bill and bipartisan support for many of his nominees, including Alberto Gonzales, Condi Rice, and John Roberts, and many of the most prominent Dems are public triangulators, like Hillary Clinton, aligning themselves with such conservative legislation as flag-burning amendments. At some point, the Dems are going to need to take a stand against the GOP and their attempt to obliterate all liberal principles and actors from governance. Filibustering Alito’s nomination is drawing that line in the sand. Or at least it should be.

And Shakes Sis responds to my post here.

***

John at Americablog opposes the filibuster, and I understand his reasoning; it's hard for me to muster up any energy for the fight either. It's frustrating.

All the efforts now at the Netroots are struggling because because of Dem inaction and lack of preparation when the battle for SCOTUS has been clear from the outset. Continuing the theme here, we need better leadership in the Democratic party and in the advocacy groups that are only interested in the status quo. We aren't going to get core values back on the table by playing nice -- and we're not just talking about the Alito battle. John (my emphasis):

Far too many in the Netroots think that the choice before us is fighting for this filibuster or doing nothing. And in the grand scheme of things, they're tired, we're all tired, of sitting back and watching the Democratic party do nothing. Therefore they're excited to at least try the filibuster because at least they're doing something. I hear ya.

...But, you need to recognize that those are not the only two options available to us. There's a third. Destroy the Senate Democrats who did nothing to launch a REAL campaign to convince the American people that Alito must be defeated. Destroy the traditional non-profit advocacy groups who took our millions of dollars and did NOTHING to launch a real campaign to win the public to our side. And go after the rich donors who continue to enable these failed Democratic politicians and these failed advocacy groups like some addict who only needs one more fix, then promises he'll get better. If we do not go after them, if we do not force them to change or get out of the way, the same problem, the same failure, the same ineffectiveness will continue to plague our party and our movement, with no change in sight.

We have a choice. We have the ability to make change in our party. We have the power to make the Democrats stand up and fight like real Americans for real principles in a way that shows how fierce and tough and committed we can be.

TCF turns three

Happy Blogiversary to That Colored Fella (who's also a Big Brass Blog contributor)!

Jeb's faith-based prisons

Florida has no scientific study to back up claims that inmates attending church lowers the number of disciplinary actions or has affected recidivism rates, never mind all the dicey church/state separation issues.

I wonder how the fundies feel about Wicca and Scientology being among the "supported" religions in these prisons? (ABC):

Florida is where nearly half of all felons released end up back in prison within five years. The state's prison system doesn't seem the most likely to enlighten its inmates.

In December 2003, Gov. Jeb Bush converted the medium-security Lawtey Correctional Institution into the nation's first entirely faith-based prison. The governor put his plan into motion by stating "people of all faith, people who believe in a higher power are compelled to take actions in their lives that improve their chances of living a wholesome life that is crime-free."

At Lawtey, 28 different religions are represented — Christianity, Orthodox Judaism, Wicca, Scientology.

...But what about the separation of church and state? Isn't this violating that mandate? Officials at the Florida Department of Corrections say no, because all the religious materials and time devoted to religion come from more than 600 volunteers representing a variety of faiths.

But Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State called this arrangement "constitutional quicksand." Lynn said that "parts of a government cannot be run by religion, and it's just as wrong for the state of Florida to set up, in any way, a faith-based prison as if it were setting up its own faith-based schools, its faith-based fire department or police department."


Fireman for Jeebus.

Since Gov. Bush oversaw the conversion of Lawtey, Florida's Department of Corrections has opened two more faith- and character-based prisons — one for inmates serving long sentences and another that's exclusively for women. The state plans to open as many as 30 more. The state believes that these kinds of programs mean less disciplinary action and lower recidivism, but no scientific study has proved anything of that nature.

Spineless leadership

It's painful to continue posting about this, but when the Dems, as well as our supposed lobbying voices in the community, can't find a spine, you have to call it out.

The Washington Blade's Chris Crain has a spot-on column about the spineless Dems and the "new face" of the Party, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. I have quibbles with Chris from time to time (a big example here), but lately he has been on the mark.


You'll recall my recent rant about the rotten pick of just-inaugurated Kaine to represent the Democratic party's "American values" in the official response to Bush's State of the Union address. He is 'not comfortable' with the language' but will sign off on the heinous marriage amendment when it hits his desk, and where are the gay Democratic organizations? Are they holding his feet to the fire pressuring Kaine to veto it, as it will discriminate against gay and lesbian families, a subset of the "working families" he is attributed with championing?

Certainly, holding the new governor's feet to the fire is warranted, right? The defeatist attitude just blows you away. Chris (with my emphasis):

Not to worry, gay Virginians. You still have plenty of leverage here because Kaine is a Democrat and has aspirations to higher public office. Given the influence gay Democratic groups have within the party, pressure will surely be brought to bear on such an abject betrayal of an important constituency, not to mention the party's historical commitment to civil rights.


Enter Josh Israel, president of the Virginia Partisans Gay & Lesbian Democratic Club, which endorsed Kaine's election. Contacted by the Blade, Israel… well… he didn't exactly call on Kaine to veto the amendment. In fact, he didn't even ask Kaine to pressure the Senate to limit its scope. Instead, Israel begged (apparently from within Uncle Tom's quarters at the plantation, since that term is being bandied about so much these days) the governor to at least make sure the ballot wording is fair.

How's that? The ballot wording? Why not call on him to oppose the measure? Because, according to Israel in a remarkable bit of Orwellian spin, "it's not the governor endorsing this effort when he says he will send it to the ballot. It's just the governor doing his job."

With gay rights activists like that, who needs party hacks?

Maybe the only recourse gay Virginians have is to get the hell out at this point, or perhaps stop paying taxes to a state that is not providing you with adequate representation and basic civil rights as a form of protest. If the folks leading the charge for your rights are folding up the tent, the show is over. It's not much better at the national level either. Empty promises by elected officials who are our allies when they pass the hat around and run for cover when asked to defend us cannot continued to be tolerated.

...The Stonewall Democrats and Virginia Partisans aren't the only gay groups who would much rather brown nose than do the unpopular work of standing up to their political friends. The Log Cabin Republicans have a decidedly mixed record of bucking the GOP, which offers innumerable opportunities on gay issues, obviously. The national gay rights groups similarly waste their energy currying favor and offering political cover to our "friends" rather than leveraging those we can actually influence.

...[T]he issue couldn't be clearer for gay Democratic leaders and the national gay groups. The party that enjoys our votes and our money, and that claims to cherish civil rights, has selected as its "new face" a governor who won't lift a finger to stop the most punitive anti-gay constitutional amendment since Colorado adopted Amendment 2. They should join together to call on Kaine to act and act now, and if he won't he should be stripped from his new role as party spokesmodel.

Exactly. If this is the kind of gay leadership we have to depend on, we're screwed; we're not getting a return on the investment -- on either side of the aisle. We have to expect follow-through from the advocacy groups we give time and money to. We need them to lobby and hold responsible both parties on our behalf in the struggle for civil equality.

Politically closeted lesbian Maryland Senator Mikulski on gay marriage in her state

[UPDATE: Mikulski's against the filibuster re:Alito, more at the end of the post.]

How on earth can a Senator have no opinion on her state's wrestling with the question of gay marriage? Maryland's been in the news for the last week after a judge ruled that an anti-same-sex marriage law violated Maryland's constitutional guarantee of equal rights.


Somehow, Democrat Barbara Mikulski hadn't found time to issue a comment on all the goings-on. As Mike Rogers over at BlogActive notes, Senator Mikulski was outed in the 90s by Queer Nation, but she has managed to keep herself politically closeted.

So, Mike contacted the Senator's office to see if we might have missed Mikulski weighing in on the topic.

I was told by Senator Mikulski's office that there was little chance the Senator would comment since she "usually does not comment on state matters." "Does not comment on state matters?" Is that some kind of fucking joke? Despite her reply, I asked the press spokesperson to ask the Senator -- after all, if there was an "unusual" time this is it.

He finally did get a statement out of her press secretary. Surf over and take a look at the insight and thought Mikulski put into her statement on a major issue being debated in her state.

***

Mikulski against filibuster

UPDATE: Mikulski, by the way, is one of the Senators georgia10 at DKos has identified that has not announced any support for a filibuster re: Alito. That's an unacceptable position for this Senator, let alone a lesbian elected official, given what a rightward swing in the composition of the Supreme Court could mean for LGBT citizens.

Mikulski's line is here: 202-224-4654. You can find the other spineless Dems at the diary. More from georgia10:

Senators Biden, Nelson, Akaka, Landrieu, Dorgan, and Snowe have stated they would likely not support a filibuster. Not a firm stance, like Chaffee, Salazar, Pryor, and Conrad, so there is reason to  keep calling them.

Some key things to keep in mind:

 Pressure from the blogosphere is working.  We've seen that with Senator Feinstein changing her mind and voting against cloture.  
* Fax. The mailboxes of many Senators are full, as are some of their inboxes. You can fax a filibuster fax to 13 Senators for free over at SaveTheCourt.org..  Their form targets the following Senators: Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd, Joseph Lieberman, Joseph Biden, Richard Durbin, Evan Bayh, Olympia Snowe, Harry Reid, Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Lincoln Chafee and Russell Feingold. Fax numbers for all senators will be listed in the comments.

* Do They Want A President Or A King?: This should be the talking point, for Judge Alito has made it clear the Presidency has no one to answer to but itself.  A vote for Alito is a vote for a man who believes the President can thumb his nose at Congress and at our precious system of checks and balances.

* The American People Oppose Alito.: 56% of Americans say Alito should NOT be confirmed if he will overturn Roe. Alito refused to call Roe "well-settled" law, and has throughout his lifetime taken the legal position that Roe should be eroded and overruled.

* Let our Senators know that a vote for cloture is a vote which silences the will of the American people. And let's see if we can pull off a little weekend miracle...

* 1-888-355-3588 is the toll-free number for the Capitol Switchboard. Fax numbers for all senators are here.

My friends to the north -- a message from Paul Weyrich

Here's a snapshot of WingNutDaily's screaming complimentary headline, analyzing the political state of things in the Great White North:



Weyrich, head of the Free Congress Foundation and The Arlington Group, has a screw loose. Too bad we can't ship him up your way so that he can cuddle with Stephen Harper and his boyz. (Toronto Star):

It turns out Canadians are simply too "liberal and hedonistic" to change political orientation overnight and change will take time, says Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation.


"The people of Canada have become so liberal and hedonistic that the public ethic in the country immediately could not be reversed," Weyrich says in an email analysis to allies. "It will take time. But with leadership it well may be possible to change the public ethic."

The culturally conservative organization compared Harper's victory in Canada to the election of Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, an extreme right-wing, pro-life legislator, to the position of governor of Massachusetts, a liberal state which has legalized gay marriage. [More on Sam "fetus is a citizen" Brownback here.]

Weyrich did not return phone calls to expand on his analysis.

...Weyrich said one Canadian Conservative contact told him Harper had little room to manoeuvre in the new Parliament. "My pessimistic friend said that inasmuch as Harper's is a minority government, Harper could do almost nothing to encourage the country to adopt a more reasonable view of the United States and to correct some premises of Cultural Marxism, which Canadians have espoused, such as same-sex marriage and abortion-on-demand," he wrote.

The solution, he said, would be for Harper to pack the Canadian courts with conservatives.

Alaskan homophobes move to rescind partner rights via constitutional amendment

How homophobic to you have to be to want to roll back basic rights for gays and lesbians that have just been officially recognized? The answer lies in the actions of some horrible politicians in Alaska. These bigots want to amend the state's constitution to prevent even the granting of partner benefits. (Juneau Empire):

Senate Judiciary Chairman Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, told the Legislative Council Thursday evening he has a draft constitutional amendment that could be introduced by his committee as early as next week. A constitutional change would require approval by two-thirds of the House and Senate and approval by a majority of voters in November's election.

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in October that denying gay couples the same public employee benefits as married couples - life and health insurance, plus retirement and death benefits - violates the Alaska Constitution's equal-protection clause. The court noted that unmarried straight couples also are denied benefits, but they - unlike gay couples - have the option to legally marry.


Bigots: Seekins, Murkowski, Dyson.

Following that ruling, Gov. Frank Murkowski and state Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, separately called for changing the state's constitution to strike the ruling. "We have no choice but to defend our actions against an interventionist court that is, in my opinion, hard of hearing," Dyson said Thursday. "We're going to give the people a chance to speak again, this time maybe a little bit louder."

The Legislature in 1996 passed a law that said a same-sex couple is not entitled to the benefits of a married couple, which the Alaska Supreme Court found unconstitutional. In 1998, voters approved an amendment to the state's constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Dyson declined to say what the draft amendment specifically says. He said the debate so far has been whether to expressly ban benefits for unmarried couples or to leave the decision to the state and its political subdivisions.


A Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he would wait to see what comes to the panel before making a judgment, but he appeared skeptical. "You're going to have a tough time convincing me that this is an issue important enough to require an amendment to the state constitution," said Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage.

To add insult to injury, gay Alaskans will have their tax dollars spent by the state on an attorney who will consult with the legislature on how to best handle the language of the amendment -- to ensure homos' second-class citizenship is ironclad.

The Legislative Council on Thursday approved a $50,000 contract for Anchorage attorney Kevin Clarkson to help the Senate Judiciary Committee refine the draft amendment and provide legal assistance and research.

Marsha Buck, a member of the Juneau chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said the contract meant lawmakers were seeking state money to prove that her 36-year-old daughter is not equal to their own sons and daughters.

"What happened to liberty and justice for all?" Buck said.

Thanks to Blender Michelle for the pointer.

Target pharmacist fired for refusing to dispense morning-after pill

"I believe life begins with two cells and I don't want to be part of the end of that life"
-- former St. Louis-area Target pharmacist Heather Williams, on why she wouldn't fill prescriptions for Plan B

Finally, the red bullseye store makes the right call. If the woman cannot do her job properly and lawfully, she needs find another profession. Williams opposes use of Plan B, or any other emergency contraception, because they can prevent a fertilized human egg from implanting in the uterus.

She got in hot water because she not only declined to fill prescriptions for Plan B, she said that she would have refused to refer the patient to another pharmacist. (St. Louis Today):

Paula Gianino, chief executive of Planned Parenthood for the St. Louis Region, lauds Target’s commitment to fill such prescriptions, and contends that Williams is at fault because of her refusal to refer patients or physicians elsewhere.

“She could refuse to fill the prescription, but she took it to the next level,” Gianino said. “Target has done everything possible to try to fill patients’ health-care needs and accomodate individual pharmacists.”

Said Williams: “I’m not in judgment of anyone. I want my right not to fill something, much as they have their right to get Plan B filled.”

...The matter became an issue among Target pharmacists locally, she said, after last fall’s publicity over an incident at a Target in Fenton, where a pharmacist refused to fill a Plan B prescription. Soon after, Target required its pharmacists to sign a “conscience policy” — in which they agreed to fill or refer such prescriptions.

Williams balked. In her refusal letter to Target, dated Dec. 1, Williams explained that because of the referral requirement, “I would be required to do almost everything except count the pills.”

On Dec. 21, she said that Target’s district pharmacy officials reluctantly told her that her refusal to sign was forcing them to let her go.

Williams has filed a complaint with the EEOC.

Related:
* Woman refused emergency contraception at Target

Barbie's Been Busy

Our* favorite crusader for the Government Enforced Procreation™ Movement, Princess Barbie Talibania, just sent me the nicest note to fill me in on all her hard work in Washington DC supporting the Scalito nomination and protesting the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Emphasis in the quotes are mine, just to highlight the slick use of language to frame the debate. Remember, folks, these Religious Reich wingnuts are more looney tunes than Friz Freling's and Chuck Jones' nightmares**, but they are not stupid.

Over the national March for Life weekend, I had the chance to catch up with Bobby Schindler, the brother of the late Terri Schindler-Schiavo. [She never referred to herself with a hyphenated last name when she was conscious. It's interesting that we're all interested in a liberated feminist surname now, huh?] He was doing well. When I asked about his parents, he said they were still mourning their daughter's death. Bobby informed me that Michael Schiavo (Terri's husband who forced her starvation [Not "ended her life", "allowed her to pass", or "granted her wish"]), recently got married to his live-in girl friend of 10 years. [The scoundrel! He's abandoning sinful cohabitation for holy matrimony!]

Nearly 75,000 pro-lifers passed in front of the Supreme Court where the March for Life ends. A huge number of youth joined us for our drum circle for life. It was amazing to see the passion behind this emerging post-roe generation [Shouldn't that be "Roe"? Or is the the generation that eschews fish eggs?]. As teens danced, sang, and played the drums to express their pro-life views, a small number of pro-choice demonstrators were speechless and aghast. Pro-life teens out number pro-choicers by a large margin. [Uh-huh. They usually are, right up until they pull up to the clinic.] It was so evident in this year's march that the Washington Post actually got it right [Because that liberal rag rarely gets anything right.] in this year's coverage.

Senators Kennedy and Kerry are crying for a filibuster [unlike, say, Senator Stevens crying about a bridge... sheesh, the only one crying is Scalito's well-coached wife], but the reality is they probably won't be able to make it happen. Republicans need 60 votes to force a cloture vote on Monday. They have 55 in the Republican Caucus [Isn't a caucus supposed to be a sub-unit of a party?] plus about 9 Democrat votes which puts us over the 60 needed. The vote will probably be early next week.

Gee, how does such an attractive, intelligent, ambitious Christian woman remain an unmarried virgin at age 29? Certainly, one of the manly heterosexual Christian males in the anti-gay movement would have asked her out on a date by now.

The Talibania Chronicles:
Princess Barbie Talibania for Scalito... but he doesn't have any sort of agenda, you know
Brandi's important resolution for 2006
Princess Brandi Talibania goes down by 10,000 votes

OK, not "our", but certainly "my". I've got a strange fascination for outwardly religious attractive blonde virgins. Just something I picked up over the years, somehow...

**Alex, I'll take "Obscure Pop Culture References" for $1,000. (Might as well; Dennis Miller isn't using them anywhere.)

82nd Airborne paratroopers on gay porn site?

[UPDATE: I have located the web site and the owner; details at the end of the post.]

This is just too much. Good grief -- with Don't Ask, Don't Tell; you'd think these NC men in uniform would think twice before dropping trou for a gay porn site. Of course you don't have to be gay to appear on a porn site, so maybe that will be their defense. Unfortunately if they are engaging in any homo activity, that might be a tad hard to explain away when the Pentagon homo police come a callin'. (Durham Herald-Sun):

Army officials are investigating allegations that members of the celebrated 82nd Airborne Division appear on a gay pornography Web site, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Authorities at Fort Bragg have begun an inquiry into whether the paratroopers' actions violated the military conduct code.

Division spokeswoman Maj. Amy Hannah declined to say how many paratroopers are involved or identify their unit within the division. A defense official speaking on condition of anonymity said up to seven soldiers are involved.

... The military-themed Web site does not appear to make any direct reference to the 82nd Airborne or Fort Bragg. The registered owner of the Web site's domain name lists an address in Fayetteville, the city that adjoins Fort Bragg. E-mails to the registered owner were returned Friday as undeliverable, and the phone number listed on the domain-name registration is no longer in service.

...Martha Rudd, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said soldiers accused of homosexual activity might be removed from their units, although she did not have specific information about the investigation of the 82nd. When asked if the soldiers involved had been moved out of barracks, Hannah declined to comment.

***

UPDATE: The web site in question is ActiveDuty.com. I did some sleuthing, and found more information to go on in a story on this by WRAL-TV (our local ABC affiliate).

The website shows men in sexual situations with other men., saying they're "real military men." The site displays dozens of pornographic pictures and has Fayetteville ties.

The site lists its custodian of records and producer as D. Ashe, and it gives an address along Cain Road. When WRAL went to the address, a young man said it was wrong place and he didn't know anyone with the last name "Ashe."

WRAL, unfortunately, didn't dig very far. All I had to do was Google that info around and found that "D. Ashe" was connected to an operation called "Active Duty Productions." I did a WHOIS for ActiveDuty.com and up popped all the info they needed.

The name of the web site is actually Dink Flamingo's Active Duty. I didn't bother going into the site, mind you. I'm just passing along the information.

***

Jon at Perrspectives offers this spin:

Defense Department spokesman Todd Vician helpfully noted "we define homosexual conduct as homosexual acts or verbal or nonverbal communication that a member is homosexual."

Conduct unbecoming to American soldiers, however, is just fine with Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan. As you'll recall, Jeff Gannon, the former male escort turned conservative mouthpiece for the right-wing Talon News, was a regular for two years at Bush White House press briefings. Gannon/Guckert left the press gallery only after he was exposed as a faux journalist; the Bush White House apparently had no issue with nude photos of Gannon that appeared on gay, military-themed web sites.

NOTE (2/1): I have an update post here.

This isn't reality TV

But I fully expect this to end up on Law and Order at some point.


Assistant District Attorney Bob Nelson puts on the mask found in defendant Barbara Asher's makeshift 'dungeon' to show the jury how Michael Lord may have died, in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Jan. 27, 2006. Asher is accused of failing to seek medical help for Lord who authorities believe suffered a fatal heart attack during a bondage session. (AP Photo/Gred Derr, Pool)

Frist will bring 'Marriage Protection Act' up for full vote

Since they've got nothing positive to show aside from pork and corruption, the GOP moves to pull out the gay boogeyman for this election cycle. This is getting tired. Raw Story is reporting that Frist is itching to move this to the floor this year for a full vote to drum up the fundies -- again.

Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO), who was a co-sponsor of the 2005 joint resolution, is crowing about it.

"Senator Bill Frist has indicated he will try to bring the Marriage Protection Amendment to a full vote again this year," Allard spokeswoman Angela de Rocha told RAW STORY. "Senator Allard believes that a constitutional amendment is the best way to make it crystal clear that marriage is between a man and a woman."

Senator Frist's office did not return a call seeking comment.

...The November 2004 election saw 11 states -- championed by conservative groups like Focus on the Family -- approve constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage. The concept of the nebulous "moral values" voter emerged as the reason given for the perceived mandate in President George W. Bush's reelection.

Yet what was seen as a moral victory by conservatives soon became a political bargaining tool, one that did very little to affect the stalled status of the once promised amendment that drove so many voters to cast their ballot.

...The public sentiment on same-sex unions differs greatly from the view of conservative groups pushing to amend the constitution. A Pew Research poll conducted in August of last year found that 53 percent of Americans polled supported civil unions, which would confer upon same-sex couples the same rights enjoyed by married couples. Thirty-five percent favored gay marriage.

With that in mind, Raw notes that Karl Rove conspicuously left the marriage amendment off the list of the GOP's agenda for this year when he addressed them at its winter meeting.

All that said, how many Dems are we going to see standing firmly against this? It's nail-biting time all over again.

Did you like the Bush Net Approval Map?

Well, this Kos diarist has just kicked my ass in the mapmaking dept. I bow to my superior!

US held Iraqi women hostage to 'leverage' their husbands into surrender

Remember, they hate us for our freedoms.

(AP) The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show.

In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young mother of a nursing baby, a U.S. intelligence officer reported. In the case of a second detainee, one American colonel suggested to another that they catch her husband by tacking a note to the family's door telling him "to come get his wife."

In one memo, a civilian Pentagon intelligence officer described what happened when he took part in a raid on an Iraqi suspect's house in Tarmiya, northwest of Baghdad, on May 9, 2004. The raid involved Task Force (TF) 6-26, a secretive military unit formed to handle high-profile targets.

"During the pre-operation brief it was recommended by TF personnel that if the wife were present, she be detained and held in order to leverage the primary target's surrender," wrote the 14-year veteran officer.

He said he objected, but when they raided the house the team leader, a senior sergeant, seized her anyway.

"The 28-year-old woman had three young children at the house, one being as young as six months and still nursing," the intelligence officer wrote. She was held for two days and was released after he complained, he said.

I think Ann Coulter should be sodomized with a splintered Louisville Slugger

...Though I wonder if it will have enough girth for her to even feel it?

Oh, and that's just a joke, for you in the media.

(CNN) Coulter had told the Philander Smith College audience Thursday that more conservative justices were needed on the Supreme Court to change the current law on abortion.

Stevens is one of the court's most liberal members.

"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media."

(Hat-tip to AMERICAblog)

[UPDATE] After doing a little more surfing, I find this quote on the story from Editor & Publisher:

The college president, Walter Kimbrough, had told the audience, that inviting Coulter to speak at the black school made sense because like hip hoppers she is "raw, outspoken, uncensored." He also called her the "conservative answer to rapper Lil' Kim -- [both] attractive and sexy, long-haired blondes. ..."

You mean Coulter is the conservative foul-mouthed spinner who raps about cunnilingus, has been convicted of perjury, conspiracy, and possession of marijuana, and couldn't give two-tenth's of a tick's turd about politics? Or do you mean Kim is a liberal transgendered columnist who eviscerates conservatives, calls for terrorist acts against the judiciary and the free press, and wouldn't know gangta rap from Reynolds' wrap? I'm confused, Walter... but that often happens when I'm presented with false comparisons.

The last part of your comparison is just so easy to refute:

On your left, the long-haired blonde, attractive, voluptuous pint-sized rapper and sex symbol, Lil' Kim. On your right, a long-haired blonde with big hands and a prominent Adam's apple.

After the thought of "Coulter" and "sexy" in the same sentence and the recent revelations about Larry King's Big Chief Suspenderbritches sex outfits, I need some good ol' fashioned American porn to cleanse my perv palate. [type... click... click...] Ah, that's better. Thank you, Mr. Hefner!

Victory in Washington State -- by one vote!

The state's senate passes gay rights bill that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, lending and employment. I'm sure Ken Hutcherson is about ready to blow his stack. Gov. Christine Gregoire is ready to sign the bill. (Seattle PI):

Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, has championed the legislation for a decade. The openly gay legislator, who waited in the wings for the vote, embraced his partner as the clerk read the vote count.

"I'm very happy," Murray said. "It's a moment of joy." Democrats said the bill was about preventing discrimination. A tearful Majority Leader Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, uncorked champagne in her office to celebrate the occasion.

"The rights of the minority must always be protected," said Sen. Rosa Franklin, D-Tacoma. But polarized views on homosexuality drove emotional debate that was almost identical to that which preceded the vote last year -- when the bill failed by one vote. Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, reversed his previous position to turn the tide this year. "This has been a terribly difficult issue for me," said Finkbeiner as he explained his change of heart. "What we are really talking about here is...whether or not it's OK to be gay or homosexual in this state. On whether or not it's appropriate to be discriminating against or to discriminate against someone because of that."

...The rest of the Republicans argued that it promoted immoral behavior, undermined religious freedom and could be seen as Legislative endorsement of gay marriage.

Sen. Bob Oke, R- Port Orchard, said his daughter is a lesbian. He said though the issue has been a long-standing point of conflict in his family but he held his position on the issue and voted against the bill. "That's called tough love," Oke said. "I believe homosexuality is morally wrong," Oke said. "The Bible is very clear on this."

What kind of father is Oke? Good lord.

The New Bill of Rights

In addition to contributing to The Blend, I also contribute to Operation Yellow Elephant, which is run by the master satirist, Jesus' General. The General has a post up today detailing the revised Bill of Rights under the Bush Administration that deserves a read. Here's a taste:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law without the expressed approval of the executive or his deputy chief of staff. respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated militia A confident male citizenry, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people white, Christian men to keep and bear arms of very large caliber with long, hardened, masculine barrels, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III

No soldier fighting keyboarder shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house required to leave his basement for the purpose of procuring Cheetos, without first receiving from his mother, a sum equivalent to the cost of a single family sized or six "Big Grab" bags the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but with the additional funds equivalent to the cost of a six-pack of Mountain Dew and a package of pepperoni in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures is a pre-9/11 concept that is inoperative for as long as the most patriotic citizens continue to wet their pants at the sight of a brown person. shall not be violated, and nNo warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause the whim of the executive or his deputy chief of staff, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the ideological leanings, degree of browness, or resale value of persons or things to be seized.

Mmm, I love the smell of satire in the morning. Smells like... victory!

Sam is the man

Brownback has stated that he will not hire openly gay people. The pious prig is thinking about a presidential run in 2008.

Rolling Stone has a profile of one of the darlings of the fringe Right, the proudly anti-gay Senator from Kansas Sam Brownback. The piece, by Jeff Sharlet, is entitled God's Senator -- Who would Jesus vote for? You get a good feel for this wingnut -- he's the real dangerous deal, a true believer, not a lip-service conservative. For Jeebus's sake, he considers fetuses "citizens." You can't get much more batsh*t conservative than that.

Back in 1994, when Brownback came to Congress as a freshman, he was so contemptuous of federal authority that he refused at first to sign the Contract With America, Newt Gingrich's right-wing manifesto -- not because it was too radical but because it was too tame. Republicans shouldn't just reform big government, Brownback insisted -- they should eliminate it. He immediately proposed abolishing the departments of education, energy and commerce. His proposals failed -- but they quickly made him one of the right's rising stars. Two years later, running to the right of Bob Dole's chosen successor, he was elected to the Senate.



Killer 'fro: unretouched scan of Sam's Kansas State University 1977 yearbook.

...Brownback is not part of the GOP leadership, and he doesn't want to be. He once told a group of businessmen he wanted to be the next Jesse Helms -- "Senator No," who operated as a one-man demolition unit against godlessness, independent of his party. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a man with presidential ambitions of his own, gave Brownback a plum position on the Judiciary Committee, perhaps hoping that Brownback would provide a counterbalance to Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican who threatened to make trouble for Bush's appointees. Instead, taking a page from Helms, Brownback turned the position into a platform for a high-profile war against gay marriage, porn and abortion. Casting Bush and the Republican leadership as soft and muddled, he regularly turns sleepy hearings into platforms for his vision of America, inviting a parade of angry witnesses to denounce the "homosexual agenda," "bestiality" and "murder."

He is running for president because murder is always on his mind: the abortion of what he considers fetal citizens. He speaks often and admiringly of John Brown, the abolitionist who massacred five pro-slavery settlers just north of the farm where Brownback grew up. Brown wanted to free the slaves; Brownback wants to free fetuses. He loves each and every one of them. "Just . . . sacred," he says.

...The nation's leading evangelicals have already lined up behind Brownback, a feat in itself. A decade ago, evangelical support for a Catholic would have been unthinkable. Many evangelicals viewed the Pope as the Antichrist and the Roman Catholic Church as the Whore of Babylon. But Brownback is the beneficiary of a strategy known as co-belligerency -- a united front between conservative Catholics and evangelicals in the culture war. Pat Robertson has tapped the "outstanding senator from Kansas" as his man for president.

This is a long, good article, worth the read. It's frightening. I have to pull a couple of additional fun facts from the article:

* Brownback's chief of staff, Robert Wasinger, wrote in a campus magazine funded by the Heritage Foundation, that the "innocent sperm" of gay men are, "forced to swim into feces."

* Sam is working to defeat a measure that would stiffen penalties for violent attacks on gays and lesbians ,saying the hate-crime bill would lead to the eventual criminalization of Christianity.

* Brownback has received money funneled through Jack Abramoff ($42,000) and blocked a casino that Abramoff's clients viewed as a competitor.

* On gay marriage, which is legal in Sweden: Sam believes is against "natural law" and has been made by "social engineering" into an outer ring of hell. "You'll know 'em by their fruits."

* Sam struggles to square that homosexuality may not be sanctioned by the Bible, but slavery is -- and that he believes Good Book is never wrong. His logic: "the Bible views slavery as a 'person-to-person relationship,' something to be worked out beyond the intrusion of government. But he quickly abandons the argument; calling slavery a personal choice, after all, is awkward for a man who often compares slavery to abortion."

Bring him on for 2008, GOP!

Come to think of it, Sammy would definitely back the pregnant woman who contended the (citizen) fetus inside her womb allowed her to use the HOV lane on the highway (see my earlier post, My fetus is my co-pilot).

UPDATE: Human Rights Campaign fired off a letter to Brownback about his "fruits" comment.

Hat tip, Nate from The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog.

The vegan threat to homeland security

"We believe that spying on American citizens for no good reason is fundamentally un-American, that it's not the place of the goverment or the best use of resources to spy on its own citizens and we want it to stop. We want the spies in our government to pack their bags, close up their notebooks, take their cameras home and not engage in the spying anymore."

-- Gerald Weber of the ACLU of Georgia during a news conference

I'm not kidding. The ACLU of Georgia has released photos and documentation that vegan groups are being monitored as potential threats by the FBI and the DeKalb County Division of Homeland Security. This would almost be amusing if we knew that we were actually any safer, you know, if we actually had the real terrorists in the bag. Even then, there's little humor in the fact that this Administration has given us countless examples of bullsh*t like this that show its complete disregard and respect for our Constitutional rights.

What it's come down to is that government stooges are performing Homeland Security surveillance at f*cking HoneyBaked Ham store protests.



As one of the ACLU attorneys noted in this story, we haven't seen any news about the government mounting surveillance campaigns on attendees at pro-war rallies. Your tax dollars at work, your rights slipping away. (WXIA)

For example, more than two dozen government surveillance photographs show 22-year-old Caitlin Childs of Atlanta, a strict vegetarian, and other vegans picketing against meat eating, in December 2003. They staged their protest outside a HoneyBaked Ham store on Buford Highway in DeKalb County.


Government photos of Caitlin Childs, terrorizing one ham at a time.

An undercover DeKalb County Homeland Security detective was assigned to conduct surveillance of the protest and the protestors, and take the photographs.

As if this BS wasn't bad enough, the surveillance goon didn't know his ass from his elbow. Goodness knows if he had to go up against an actual terrorists.

The detective arrested Childs and another protester after he saw Childs approach him and write down, on a piece of paper, the license plate number of his unmarked government car. "They told me if I didn't give over the piece of paper I would go to jail and I refused and I went to jail, and the piece of paper was taken away from me at the jail and the officer who transferred me said that was why I was arrested," Childs said on Wednesday.

...As for Caitlin Childs' protest against meat eating, the files obtained by the ACLU include the DeKalb County Homeland Security report on the surveillance of Childs and the others. The detective wrote that he ordered Childs to give him the piece of paper on which she had written his license tag number, telling her that he did not want her or anyone else to have the tag number of his undercover vehicle.

The detective did not comment in his report about why his license tag number was already visible to the public.

Hat tip, Raw Story

Bush Boys and NOLA

Scout Prime keeps uncovering more sleazy goings-on with the Bring New Orleans Back (BNOB), one of the committees charged with restoring NOLA. BNOB is the one with ties to Bush, and with that comes the cronyism, corruption and manure-fragrant decisionmaking. Commission members Donald Bollinger and Joe Canizaro, Bush's Boys, are in control.

Canizaro who has been the leading force in the BNOB commission contributed over 1 million dollars to Republicans since 1997. Bollinger, who owns the 3rd largest shipbuilding company in the country, contributed over $130,000.

These two (and Bush) want to derail efforts to pass the Baker bill, use treasury bonds to buy back damaged homes at 60% of equity and then parcels would be packaged and redeveloped. How the Bush Boys and their leader see things is that the government should buy out only 20,000 out of 185,000 homeowners whose homes have been destroyed. Scout:

Without government money it appears they face either......

1) free market forces determining what they will receive

or worse

2) Eminent Domain......"commissioners say, not every neighborhood will be sustainable and there will be a need to use eminent domain to seize some property"

So if you severely limit the number of people to receive a buyout you leave a large number of homes (ie Land) available to be bought up cheap or taken. With that much land on the market at once and sellers needing to sell, it most likely will be very cheap.

Gay panic defense tossed by California Assembly

It's a tactic that rarely wins, but the fact that it has been legally acceptable to attempt to mitigate violent criminal acts using a defendant's homophobia is the reason this ludicrous excuse of a defense should be taken off the table. (365gay):

The California Assembly late Thursday passed legislation to limit the use of the so-called gay panic defense.

If a defense attorney attempted to use the argument that a client committed a crime out of panic because the victim were gay or trans a judge would be required to instruct the jury that the use of societal bias, including so-called "panic strategies," to influence the proceedings of a criminal trial is inconsistent with the public policy of the State of California.

The Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act passed the Assembly on a 45 - 32 vote along party lines. Two members did not vote and 1 member was absent. The bill now moves to the Senate.


Araujo was only age 17.

Araujo was a transgender teenager from Newark, Calif., who was attacked and killed in 2002. Defense lawyers in the trials of her killers claimed their clients acted out of panic after having sex with the teen and then discovering she was born biologically male.

The Assembly bill was authored by Assemblywoman Sally J. Lieber (D-San Jose). "This is a critical step forward in the effort to rid our courtrooms of bias," said Lieber following the vote. "We must ensure that California's criminal justice system treats all victims equally."

The first Araujo trial ended in mistrial, after seemingly endless use of this defense. The second trial resulted in the conviction of two men (second-degree murder) and a third plead out to voluntary manslaughter.

Also:
* Wikipedia entry for Araujo and gay panic defense.

Tripling priorities

Congress is wallowing in the mud, tacking on pet projects at a rate that represents a tripling of pork over the past 10 years, according to figures from the Congressional Research Service.


SOURCE: Congressional Research Service | GRAPHIC: The Washington Post - January 27, 2006

Yet look at this -- Bush is going to try to slip this through this GOP-run, sleazy, oinking Congress. (Army Times):

A Pentagon proposal that could triple some Tricare insurance costs for military retirees and their families is drawing sharp criticism from military advocacy groups and members of Congress.

The plan, being considered as part of the 2007 budget request to be unveiled Feb. 6, would increase Tricare fees for retirees under age 65 beginning Oct. 1. Increases would be substantial — as much as $1,200 more a year by 2009 — with no end in sight because the plan calls for annual rate hikes in 2010 and beyond that would match inflation.

Defense Department officials confirmed that Tricare fees were being considered as part of the 2007 budget, but would not discuss any details until the White House releases the federal budget plan. Senior Pentagon leaders, both military and civilian, know their plan will meet with stiff opposition and are trying to prepare a united front, defense sources said. The Joint Chiefs are considering sending a rare joint letter to Congress explaining why the fee increases are important because they do not see how the military can afford needed weapons programs if soaring health care costs remain unchecked, sources said.

A key element of the proposal is to discourage retirees from using the military medical system if they have other options, such as insurance through a post-service employer, because this would generate savings far greater than any money raised through higher enrollment fees.


“This is wrong on so many levels,” said Steve Strobridge, government relations director for the Military Officers Association of America. “In the middle of a war, with troops and families vastly overstressed, recruiting already in the toilet, and retention at risk, the Defense Department wants to pay for weapons by cutting manpower and trying to cut career military benefits by $1,000 a year or more? That’s just flat unconscionable. Not only is it grossly unfair to the people, but it poses terrible risks for long-term retention and readiness.”

Why does Bush hate our men and women in uniform?

Some folks on the Hill want to know. Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader, along with Steny Hoyer, House Democratic Whip, James Clyburn, Democratic Caucus Chairman, Lane Evans, Veterans Affairs Committee, ranking member, Ike Skelton, Armed Services Committee, ranking member, John Spratt, Budget Committee, ranking member, and Chet Edwards, Veterans Affairs Appropriations, subcommittee ranking member fired off a letter to Dear Leader, basically asking him that question. (U.S. Newswire):

It is unconscionable that you would even consider a fee increase on the men and women in uniform who bravely sacrificed for our country, especially during a time of war. We must demonstrate our commitment to our troops and future veterans by assuring them that just as they protected us, we will take care of them when their service ends.

Not only is this premium increase unfair to the military retirees who have given 20-30 years of service and sacrifice, it will not help maintain our military strength. A report released today by the National Security Advisory Group identified serious problems in military recruiting and retention. (Copy enclosed) Cutting health care benefits for our nation's veterans will only exacerbate this current problem.

We urge that, in your State of the Union Address, you disavow these reports and state forthrightly that in the budget you submit to Congress next month, adequate resources will be allocated for health care for both veterans and military retirees. That is necessary to clearly and unambiguously set forth a national policy of respecting and preserving all health care benefits earned by those who have served. Your Administration must not shift additional costs upon veterans or military retirees. Anything less is would be a national disgrace and constitute a pointed rebuke to those who served and have earned those benefits.

Harper to push on gay marriage right away

REUTERS/Andy Clark

What a wiener. As promised, right out of the box, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to go after same-sex marriage. He's doing it as lip service to the homo-bigots who helped elect him, knowing that his measure will make his minority Conservative government like a bunch of fringers and will likely go nowhere.

It sounds like Canadians will spend a lot of time cringing at this guy (we've got our own clown here, folks) trying to run the government for the next good while; it sounds like he's politically tone-deaf.

Stephen Harper says he wants to move quickly as leader of a fractious new Parliament to reopen the same-sex marriage debate. The makeup of the new House of Commons suggests the prime minister-designate knows there's a good chance such a motion will be rejected.

It would not be a total loss, however. In fact, an honorable defeat on equal marriage would satisfy obligations to Harper's most right-wing supporters while defusing a politically explosive issue. Winning a vote to wade back through that political quagmire would lead the Conservatives straight into a legal morass, most experts say.

It would also be a costly and perhaps fruitless attempt to redefine marriage as the sole domain of one man, one woman _ a fight that would only shine a spotlight on the party's most extreme social conservatives.

Colorado braces for marriage amendment fight

This is the land of Daddy Dobson, so his forces are working full-bore to get a marriage amendment in Colorado. His folks need to get 68K signatures to move forward, and that is not going to be hard to do. (Denver Post):

One simple phrase - "only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state" - is about to set off a costly and emotional campaign in Colorado about marriage, gay rights, religion and the state's economy.

A coalition of religious and conservative leaders plans to ask Colorado voters in November to add that phrase to the Colorado Constitution, in effect barring gay marriage here, according to a copy of the language obtained by The Denver Post.

A new nonprofit group, Coloradans for Marriage, is expected to file paperwork with the state next week, kicking off a debate over whether Colorado should become the 20th state to adopt a constitutional amendment that would prohibit gay marriage. The coalition - which includes Focus on the Family, the National Association of Evangelicals and the lobbying arm of Roman Catholic Church in Colorado - is expected to have little problem gathering the roughly 68,000 signatures needed to put the proposed amendment on the November ballot.

"Marriage is a fundamental aspect of our society," said Jon Paul, executive director of Coloradans for Marriage. "The constitution is one of the documents that draws up the fundamental aspects of our society. Marriage needs to be in there as one of those fundamental aspects."

Not in sync: Daddy Dobson wanted to ban civil unions, domestic partnerships and the like; Rev. Ted Haggard of Colorado Springs, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and the RCC in Colorado thought that was overreaching.

There's somewhat of a silver lining here. The language in this measure has been diluted. There is nothing that would allow a rollback on domestic partnerships, private contracts, or same-sex couple benefits. Daddy Dobson wanted the whole enchilada, but his cohorts didn't think that would fly in Colorado.

Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, which first floated the idea of putting a gay-marriage ban on the November ballot, had pressed for a more sweeping measure that would also do away with domestic partnerships.

But [Ted] Haggard said Tuesday that the main players have coalesced around the simpler language, which was supported by Haggard and the state's Roman Catholic leadership. "The amendment supports marriage but doesn't stand against anything," said Haggard, pastor of 12,000-member New Life Church, one of the state's largest congregations. "We want to say marriage is something, and we also want to give the freedom for citizens or legislators if they want to give similar benefits to other people."

That leaves some fertile ground for groups like Equal Rights Colorado (ERC) and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Colorado to place this in the context of fairness, and put the screws to Dobson. After all, playing this as a Dobson "loss" on his home turf is worthwhile; it's about the only spin in a state that is likely to pass whatever amendment is placed on the ballot.

Claymate heartbreak?

What will the teen Claymate girls do now? Your gaydar would need to be in the repair shop if it didn't go ballistic over my fellow Tar Heel and American Idol finalist Clay Aiken. I have no clue whether Clay is family or not, but whoever this Paulus guy is, I hope he's got a good lawyer (well the Enquirer's got a stable of them). Clay's fan base is of the clean-cut, Dobson-approved variety. (Contact Music):

AMERICAN IDOL star CLAY AIKEN is being urged to come clean about his sexuality by a former US Green Beret, who claims to have had a passionate tryst with the singer.

JOHN PAULUS, 38, took a lie detector test in a bid to prove claims he has made about Aiken's sexuality in an American tabloid are true. Paulus tells the National Enquirer that he spent the night with Aiken after the singer emailed him just before Christmas (05) after seeing his ad on a gay website. He claims he arranged to meet Aiken at a hotel in North Carolina after the singer asked him to be his "discreet bf (boyfriend)" and the couple had sex.

NOTE: I agree with some of the commenters that this guy Paulus is sleazy. The fact that he felt the need to get a payday out of the Enquirer for outing a C-list celeb is an example of the kind of counter-productive nonsense that is out there.

Gay or not, the man is not anti-gay and has even been willing to acknowledge the rumors (see the link on his name): "Aiken denied he was gay in a Rolling Stone interview in June, 2003, and, in fact, he good-naturedly lampooned such speculation in the opening monologue featuring him as a member of a gay men's chorus when he appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live's February 7, 2004 show."

I don't know whether coming out would hurt Clay's career. Look at the Chad Allen post; there's always going to be some numnuts who cannot get over their internalized homophobia. Clay's audience is what it is because of his genre (non-threatening, asexual pop); it nothing to do with political conservatism really. He's seen as a safe pop idol for young teens by parents; that would include a large slice of the bible-thumpers. It's more likely that no one will care, as long as he projects the same image he always has.

I think of someone like Johnny Mathis. Did anyone give a flip when he came out (1982, in US magazine)? The talented, apolitical, non-threatening pop singer's record sales or concert attendance didn't suffer (in fact he's nominated for a Grammy this year). My mom loved the guy, and assumed that he was gay before he came out. She attended a sold-out concert of his at Radio City in NYC in the late 80s and said the audience was filled with middle-aged women (and couples of all kinds) who couldn't give a rip who Mathis slept with, they just enjoyed his music.

Headline of the day

Baptist Pastor Disapproves of Priest Blessing Waco's New Hooters. Actually, the whole story is a hoot, um, pun intended. This restaurant opened to LONG lines of evil, boobie-and-chicken-wing-lovin' heathens, so this pastor gave up his protest.

Earlier this week Hooters opened a restaurant in Waco, home to Baylor University. Greg Brumit, pastor of Kendrick Lane Baptist Church, led a petition drive and a number of protests in an effort to stop the business from locating in his city. Other area pastors and protesters got involved in the campaign to stop the construction on the eatery famous for its female servers' low-cut tank tops and short-shorts.


Brumit: clearly frightened by the boobies.

Brumit says he was not surprised by a report in Baylor's newspaper, The Lariat, which quoted a manager as saying that several of the university's students work at Hooters. "Each individual student's different there at Baylor. They're not all Christians," he notes. "Those students can choose to work where they want." The pastor adds a note of suspicion. "I'm sure that Hooters was hoping for some Baylor girls to work there," he says.

What did come as a surprise to Brumit, however, is the move on the part of a Catholic priest to bless the restaurant's grand opening. The evening before the new Hooters opened, Monsignor Isidore Rozycki, head Catholic priest for the Greater Waco area, offered a special prayer of blessing for the restaurant at a VIP reception at the restaurant.

Kendrick Lane Baptist's pastor says the incident was bizarre. "I would think with all the problems [the Catholics] have had that they wouldn't promote something like that. I was a little disappointed," he observes. "The Catholic priest that they had seemed to think that the rest of these ministers, about 60 who signed the letter of petition against Hooters opening, were a little narrow-minded," Brumit continues. "But the Bible does say, 'Narrow is the way' to life, and wide is the road to destruction."

Fundie teachers will put up 'safe space' poster

I received a lot of emails about this story -- before the five bible-beating teachers, who were hiding behind "faith" as an excuse to discriminate, relented and agreed to put up the above poster in their classrooms.

This shouldn't even be an issue; we're talking about a public school, for god's sake. And the sick thing is that these people are charged with educating young people. The only message in the above poster is that the teacher is committed to making his or her classroom a place where students know they will not have to tolerate slurs and violence. What religious principle did that violate? The intellectual dishonesty of these people is breathtaking. (365gay.com):

Several teachers who earlier this week refused to abide by a diversity directive from the San Leandro Unified School District have begun complying with the order. The policy requires teachers to hang posters in their classrooms promoting LGBT diversity and proclaiming the space is "a safe place".

Earlier this week five teachers at San Leandro High School informed Principal Amy Furtado that they would not display the posters because they violate their religious beliefs. Following a meeting Wednesday with the teachers Furtado said that most of the group had agreed to hang the posters. The others have a week to comply, although Furtado did not say what would happen if they did not.

As with most of the spineless bigots you read about on the Blend, the five teachers were so committed to defending their belief system that they were "unavailable for comment" when they initially declared they wouldn't hang up the posters.

Last time I looked, ensuring the safety of students and keeping an orderly classroom is an expectation parents have, and certainly it's not a f*cking political statement. Shakes Sis accurately points out:

Lots of things in public schools violate someone’s religious beliefs. But, much like pharmacists who choose a profession in which they may be required to dispense medications they may personally not like, professional public school educators must respect that many of their students’ personal beliefs and traits will be different from their own. That’s why Pentecostal public school educators can’t require their female students to not cut their hair and wear only ankle-length skirts, and Jewish public school educators can’t demand that their male students all wear yarmulkes, and atheist public school educators can’t forbid crucifixes and yarmulkes and hajibs. It simply isn’t the job of public school educators to dictate their own religious beliefs (or lack thereof) to their students.

And, as an aside, even if homosexuality does violate one’s religious beliefs, respect for and protection of homosexuals does not.

The real point of the fundies making moves like these is that they want to keep pushing the envelope with this crap to see if anyone will push back. They'll lose some, as in this case, but they are mounting a hell of a lot of wins.

Hat tip, Catherine at PovertyBarn.

Tap dancing Tim

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is being quite the weasel over his state's awful marriage amendment. He's got everyone confused now after his radio address today, in which he again stated his discomfort with the amendment's language. (365gay.com):

In his first statewide radio address as governor the Democrat said that the amendment is flawed and needs fixing.

Speaking on the Virginia News Network Kaine said that he supports prohibiting same-sex marriage in Virginia but one provision in the proposal could destroy the right of all unmarried individuals to enter into personal, legally binding contracts.

However, look at these actual headlines on this same story and tell me exactly what Kaine's position is...

Kaine Says Gay Marriage Amendment Needs Fixing

Kaine to oppose amendment; says it puts personal contracts at risk

Virginia Governor Issues Warning On Anti-Gay Amendment

I'm sure he likes it that way, hoping no one will corner him before he does his little counter to Bush's SOTU address.

Related:
* Anti-gay Dem Tim Kaine tapped for response to SOTU
* Kaine: 'not comfortable with language' but will sign amendment anyway

It's called 'acting,' you dumbf*cks

The Right is continuing to lose its cookies over openly gay actor Chad Allen portraying a Christian missionary in the End of the Spear (see my earlier post). The commentary on this is almost as stupid as the hysteria over Brokeback Mountain.

Look at the batsh*t nonsense from the homo-obsessed in the Toledo Blade (hat tip, Holly):

More than 150 ministers across the country have signed a letter of protest expressing "deep disappointment" in the producers of End of the Spear and vowing not to support the film because Chad Allen stars in the dual role of slain missionary Nate Saint and his adult son, Steve.

Christian station WLMB-TV (Channel 40) in Perrysburg pulled 30-second promotional ads for the evangelical film, which it had been airing for free.

"Given the publicity of Chad Allen's activism and the intensity of his mission to normalize homosexuality … it is hard, if not impossible, to suspend belief and see him as a missionary martyr for the Gospel of Jesus Christ," said Jamey Schmitz, the station's CEO and general manager.


Mr. Allen, 31, told The Blade yesterday that he never wanted his sexual orientation to attract more attention than the movie and its message of faith, love, and acceptance.

"My greatest hope would be that through the premiere, through all the advertising and promotion, that everybody would focus on the message of the movie and what it means to them," Mr. Allen said from Los Angeles.

Chad Allen is showing a lot of class while dealing with all of this.

For the Christian TV station manager who cannot suspend his disbelief, did he think Anthony Hopkins was really eating human flesh in Silence of the Lambs? Or maybe he was one of the poor souls who thought Rock Hudson was actually straight. Idiot.

I'm sitting here eating my lunch and laughing at the Freepi as they hurl turds at one another. It's interesting that some are speculating as to the percentage of homo actors in Hollywood -- we have guesses at 10% and 20%, lol.

Actual Freeper Quotes™

"I am not surprised. It's not like the old days when John Wayne and Steve McQueen got the leading roles. You can't ask whether a person is gay when you hire them for a movie role. You can figure that at least 10% of the roles played will be played by queers, because the number of gay people in acting is incredibly high. I hear the movie is great."

"My wife has been looking forward to this film; I've actually seen one of these tribal members who on stage with the son at an event gave this testimony. But I have to agree w/ you. One wonders how the process of choosing the actors was 'allowed' to be such that this could even happen. For it is unlikely that readers of the Advocate and the Village Voice will swamp theaters to watch this film just b/c Chad is starring in it."

"Allen made a gentleman's agreement with Every Tribe Entertainment to not use his association with the film as a platform for promoting homosexual rights."

"You know, it's really sad when well-meaning Christians fall for poor logic. There is no way this gay activist should be playing this part. Obviously the movie has now morphed into being about gay issues instead of being about the story itself. Sometimes people can't see what is right in front of them."

"You can't ask whether a person is gay when you hire them for a movie role."

"They knew before they hired him."

"It's too bad. I would have enjoyed the movie. But, with things coming out, so to speak, as they have, I won't spend one cent to see this. It looks like a hijacking to me."

"Gathering a collection of five in Hollywood almost guarantees at least one gay."

"But, shoving their agenda in my face almost guarantees that I won't see their film, too."

"Uh...hate to have to remind folks, but the homosexual community has been trying to legitimize it's lifestyle as 'Christian', with an ever increasing effort. A 'gay bishop', homosexual congregations, etc. It would not surprise me if mr. (or ms.?) Allen wants to further 'prove' that one can be gay and Christian. Let's see,... what other sin should not be a sin. :-/"

"Only people who obsess about homosexuality would see it otherwise, and one has to question why. Chad Allen is way, way off on thinking there are many paths to God, or whatever he was babbling in that interview, but I do know that no sinner - homosexual or not - ever was led to Christ by someone who hated him. Maybe we ought to try loving the sinner and hating his sin, instead of being the first to throw stones."

"I don't see you hating his sin. And apparently I do not define "hating the sinner" in the same way that you do. Read you Bible and see what you are supposed to do about people who profess to be a Christian yet live in sin. Then tell me if you find that response loving or unloving."

"It's a beautiful film...very emotionally wrenching. I had no idea that the fellow was gay...he's an excellent actor."

"That there is a gay actor in the film about missionaries is less than irrelevant. God is greater than one actor's sin, and I trust Him to use this movie for good. Good grief, what if one of the actors in the Passion of the Christ was homosexual? Does that negate the worth of the entire movie? I think not. I wonder if some here have decided to see only those movies starring only actors who are more holy than they. Good luck with that."

"Why is it relevant that a gay activist actor is in a film portraying a Christian missionary?"

"Because fans of Chad Allen can go to his website www.chadallenonline.com to be indoctrinated about gay activism. Imagine someone struggling with life and they decide to go online to this website because they admired Chad’s acting in a movie or TV show of his. Maybe they are effeminate or have same sex desires. They can easily be linked up with PFLAG and if they are in public school PFLAG or GLSEN will direct them to a gay club for advice. Chad Allen’s website has an address for fan mail or you can be put on his mailing list. He will send you info on gay pride events, etc. Does this all sound far fetched? Not when you are dealing with a gay activist."

"Satan seems to be in control of that whole situation."

"All they had to do was hire Kirk Cameron or Stephen Baldwin, give ;em a crew cut and call it a day. Now they have a very active sodomite who promotes sodomy as the star of the film. YES teens will look him up on the net. YES they will now be opening portans to a satanic world of homosexuality. The film will not get my money."

"Who's throwing stones? The guy is a sodomite and that is something that I don't want my children exposed to, no matter WHAT the movie is supposed to be about!!!"

"No viewer, not even your children, would have any idea from seeing the movie that one of the actors is a homosexual. It's not like a) Chad Allen's going to attack them; or b) he could do it through the movie screen."

"Do you keep your kids locked up in the house, too, so they never will come into contact with any sinners anywhere? Oops, I guess that means they couldn't go to church, either."

His lips are moving

[Welcome to the Blend, Wonkette readers...]

He called a hasty press conference this AM. I guess the spinning will be endless all the way up to the State of the Union hot air festival.

Holding his first news conference of the year and his 10th in office, Bush previewed some elements of his upcoming State of the Union speech and continued to defend his administration's program of warrantless domestic surveillance.

Talking about the National Security Agency eavesdropping program, Bush said "there's no doubt in my mind it is legal."

He repeated that it is "legal, designed to protect civil liberties and it's necessary."

What was that?

Oh, and how about this picture from yesterday, a look at the real threat:


Actual caption: President Bush gestures during a statement at the National Security Agency on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006 in Fort Meade, Md. Bush is traveling to the heavily-secured site of the super-secret spy agency in suburban Maryland Wednesday to give a speech behind closed doors and meet with employees in advance of Senate hearings on the much-criticized domestic surveillance. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

More fresh Blend here.

Gays get the cold shoulder in Papa Ratzi's 'Love' document

In the Prada Pope's first (copyrighted) encyclical, he pontificates on L-O-V-E (homo-free, that is). (365gay):

The encyclical distinguishes among different meanings of love, including patriotism, friendship, familial love, and love of God, but then makes the statement that “one (definition of love) in particular stands out: love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined…”

“According to whom?” asks Mary Hunt, co-director of the Women’s Alliance for Theology Ethics and Ritual, and another member of the Roundtable.

“The argument is without any reference to anthropology or social science that would make clear that love which joins the body and soul comes in many forms — monogamous heterosexual marriage is only one of them. The leap of faith and leap of logic on Benedict’s part is based on a hierarchical view of the world which says that just because the pope says it, it must be so. Many Catholics will not agree.”

Miltary booting gay medical personnel

First it was the linguists, now we learn that sorely-needed medics have been discharged simply for being gay. With all the severe injuries and rehab needed for all the men and women fighting in Iraq, and an admitted shortage of qualified personnel to treat them, this Don't Ask Don't Tell policy makes absolutely no sense.

The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military reports that 244 medical specialists were kicked out between 1994 to 2003. The Pentagon information was obtained by Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA), a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (The Advocate):

According to a Senate report issued in 2003 by senators Christopher Bond and Patrick Leahy, hundreds of injured Guard and Army Reserve soldiers "have been receiving inadequate medical attention" while housed at Fort Stewart because of a lack of preparedness that includes "an insufficient number of medical clinicians and specialists, which has caused excessive delays in the delivery of care." The situation created the perception among soldiers that they were receiving care that was inferior to that received by active duty personnel, which had a "devastating and negative impact on morale." (Advocate.com)

What are this government's priorities? I would like to see the current discharge rate since the Iraq war began to see if some hypocrite smoke is blowing when the warm bodies are needed. I blogged about the dropping rate of discharge last February.

***

The Army: 'Over 35? No problem.'
Army raises enlistment age, doubles cash enlistment bonuses. I'm posting this just so the more mature Yellow Elephants are aware of the change, in case they have a hankering to step up and serve in Dear Leader's military expeditions for Freedom and Democracy^TM (and since your homo fellow citizens aren't needed or wanted).

All Spin Zone takes note.

“And yet we have brave men and women who are willing to step forward because they know what's at stake. They're willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country. What I'm asking all of you tonight is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. Is it that much to ask? Is it that much to ask to step up and serve your country.”

if you're Rick Santorum.

If you're a Young Republican it means:

Petrille recommended Democrats show support for troops in other ways; his group helped raise money to pay for soldier care packages.

Top ten ways to reach the homos

Let's put our thinking caps on for "former practicing homosexual" and radio talk show host Stephen Bennett. He's shilling this on his Straight Talk Radio web site.



I'm sure you all can suggest what a few of the ten most effective ways might be for the man to reach the homosexual after reading this:

But in most cases, they will tell me I was never "gay" in the first place. And I tell them, "Yeah, you go and ask my 100-plus partners how 'gay' I was not." I was "gay." Many homosexuals are in extreme denial, and I believe, again, that it's based upon all the rejection they've experienced. So when someone tells them, "I've come out of the lifestyle," they will just verbally attack you. One of my favorite analogies is that the thing a smoker hates the most is an ex-smoker. It's the same situation with homosexuals.

Hat tip, Good As You (which is nominated for best LGBT blog in the 2006 Bloggies).

Glenn Greenwald nails the Bushies on illegal wiretaps

As Russ pointed out in his post, the Bushies and supporters have been spending a lot of time spinning that they have the legal latitude to wiretap and monitor electronic communication of Americans without a warrant. Russ:

But Bush didn't bother asking. Why? Is the FISA court too much bother? No. Would Congress, the FISA court, or American public opinion rebuffed his attempt? No. So the only logical reason I can come up with is that Bush wanted to do some spying that he knew the Congress, FISA court, or Americans would never approve of.

Guess what Russ, it's even worse.

In 2002 there was proposed legislation to expand the ability of the administration to spy (less latitude than Bush claims now) and his people said then that legislation was likely unconstitutional -- and that didn't include spying on American, btw.

Glenn Greenwald of Unclaimed Territory blows it wide open.

'Ex-homo': Brokeback is the tip of the iceberg

So says the poster-child for the success of "ex-gay" therapy, Alan Chambers of Exodus Global Alliance, "an organization that includes the largest evangelical network of former homosexuals and that promotes the message to people struggling with unwanted same-sex desire that change from homosexuality is possible through the power of Jesus Christ." The folks at AFA "news site" AgapePress have outdone themselves this time. The writing is a hoot.

But while Exodus is offering hope based on scriptural truth, the ministry leader contends that movies like the homosexual "romance" Brokeback Mountain are fostering confusion and desperation.

"They don't point to the truth that homosexuality is a very difficult lifestyle," Chambers says. "It's one full of desperation and devastation and heartache. And the great thing is there are men and women who have overcome that lifestyle. That's something I wish was more talked about in the mainstream media."

It comes as no surprise to Chambers that the highly publicized film about two male sheepherders who meet and carry on an adulterous homosexual affair across 20 years has received four Golden Globes and was also named the Best Picture of 2005 by the Producers Guild of America. Brokeback Mountain is also being called a likely Oscar contender, and mainstream film critics have lavished the film with praise.

The president of Exodus Global Alliance expects the film -- sometimes casually dubbed the "gay cowboy movie" in the press -- will usher in similar homosexually-themed projects. He says Hollywood will doubtless continue to push the boundaries of decency, and "certainly, we'll see movies that I think will cause Brokeback Mountain to pale in comparison to what might come down the pike."

Alan is probably dreaming about what is coming down the pike for him. His tactic to combat the infiltration of the Homosexual Agenda^TM into cinema (I take it he has no idea about gay porn, right?) is to ask Christians to only go see family-friendly films, and sending Hollywood a message that gay doesn't pay.

Christians can and must fight back, Chambers asserts. "We in the evangelical community, the Christian community, even the pro-family community need to come out and support the movies that are family-friendly by going to see them," he says. "And we need to tell Hollywood that we don't want the others by sending the message that we're not going to pay for this, and we're not going to support it, and we're not going to allow you to bring it into our communities."

By the way, Alan says he "left the homosexual lifestyle" back in 1991, and is now married (poor woman; hopefully she is "ex-gay" as well), with kids.

Trolling on the Blend

I've been getting deluged with emails from readers who are tired of dealing with a particular commenter. Some are not happy because they believe the comments represent trolling (posting purposefully inflammatory notes to spur arguments), others are simply tired of having to scroll past long diatribes of commentary that they feel is pointless and irrelevant.

In either case, a good number of folks have decided that they'd rather stop visiting the Blend than dealing with perceived trollish commenting.


On the other hand, some of the regulars here like debating trolls.

Personally, I skip over the comments that I find outlandishly inflammatory; my threshhold has been to only ban people that launch personal attacks at fellow commenters.

That said, my experiment is to put it to a vote, to take the temperature of folks out there regarding troll policy on the Blend.


Vote here.


You're welcome to use the comments here to say how you voted and why.

Bush Approval Map for January

The Bush Net Approval Map is now updated for January 2006. Looks like our Dear Leader was down, but not out. His latest approval ratings have dropped to 36% according to one poll, but our state-by-state tracking (courtesy of SurveyUSA), however, show Bush's base (the Intermountain West and Midwest and Deep South) turning back to crimson. Even the Northeast, solid Bush haters, have dropped from 30%-40% disapproval into the 20s. But the West has become more anti-Bush, and surprisingly, so has Florida.

(These Net Approval numbers subtract his approval in a state minus his disapproval. The deeper the red, the more they love Bush, the deeper the blue, the more they hate him. Click on the picture for a more readable, 800x600 version.)

Laurel Hester appears at meeting granting her last wish

It's been a long, painful, hard road for Laurel Hester, but at last, she can leave her pension benefit to her partner. (365gay.com):

Ocean County freeholders officially ended months of anguish for a dying lesbian police officer on Wednesday and voted to allow Sgt. Laurel Hester's death benefits to be given to her same-sex partner.

The move was not unexpected. On Saturday 365Gay.com reported that freeholders had decided to reverse their position following a conference call between state GOP leaders from the county and freeholders.

One Republican lawmaker threatened to bring in legislation forcing the county to transfer the benefits if it did not act on its own.

Appearing weak, and breathing with the help of a machine, she said on a video tape that was played in the council chamber she feared partner Stacie Andree would lose the home they shared after Hester dies.

Wednesday Hester showed up at the freeholder's meeting against the advice of her doctor. She was in a wheelchair and hooked up to any oxygen tank. A mask covered her face and hands.

...Following the vote in a voice barely audible Hester thanked the freeholders saying it "was democracy at its best."

Hat tip, DBK of Blanton's and Ashton's.

Marriage bill breezes through Virginia's Senate

"I feel an overwhelming sense of sadness today to think we are deliberately doing something so intolerant, so discriminatory and so overreaching."
-- Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington, on the swift thumbs up given by the Senate to send the amendment to the voters.

It's a sad day in Virginia, where this onerous bill flew through, ready to enshrine discrimination into the state's constitution after a public vote in November. Virginia will join 18 other states that have amended their constitutions to ban gay marriage if it passes.

Remember, freshly elected Dem Governor (and the party's pick to give the response to Bush's State of the Union address) Tim Kaine's "not comfortable with the language" but will sign off on it anyway. (VA Daily Press):

With only a fraction of the debate the measure received before a preliminary vote Tuesday, the resolution won final passage in the Senate 28-11.

If voters approve the matter on the November ballot, it becomes part of the Constitution.

...Sen. John Edwards warned that barring contracts that approximate the rights of marriage between two people of the same sex could undermine all private and personal contracts. Edwards, D-Roanoke, noted that last year the legislature passed a bill allowing companies to offer health care benefits for same-sex domestic partners of their employees.

"This constitutional amendment could unravel that," he said.

Even with the odds squarely in favor of its passage, both sides are planning for a fight to convince voters one way or another.

Victoria Cobb, executive director of the Family Foundation of Virginia, which is among the proposal's top supporters, said the fall push for voter approval will be high-profile.


The wingers behind va4marriage.org: Victoria Cobb and Chris Freund of The Family Foundation, Helen Blackwell of the Virginia Eagle Forum, Jeff Caruso of the Virginia Catholic Conference, Dr. Jack Stagman of the Virginia Church Alliance.

"We have seen that it has received a tremendous amount of attention," she said, referring to campaigns in other states. "It has had millions on both sides poured into the effort."

...Equality Virginia, a gay-rights organization, today plans to announce a coalition of community and religious leaders to work to defeat the amendment this fall.

Dyana Mason of Equality Virginia said it could include business executives who fear the proposal will make it more difficult for their firms to attract and retain top workers who are gay.

Why did this young man put up with this crap?

Michael Guinn needs to wake up. Why did he go to this bible beating school in Arkansas? The 22-year-old gay man was told that he had to abide by separate, more stringent rules of conduct to attend school than the straight students. He was dismissed anyway when he violated the ridiculous, agreed-upon conditions.

John Brown University, a private Christian liberal arts university, requires students to agree to behavioral codes, including a promise not to smoke, drink, have sex outside of marriage or gamble while attending the school. Guinn said the administration asked him to adhere to additional behavioral codes not required of other students because he said he is gay and that he ultimately was dismissed from the university on the grounds that he violated that agreement.

Being a homo, even a Christian one, meant Guinn had to agree to the following (this is so ludicrous):

* not to dress in women’s clothing
* not slap other players on the rear end if he played sports
* not hug or shake hands with other men for too long
* not "broadcast" his lifestyle
* not tell other students he was gay until he got to know them well.

Also, a meeting was held every few weeks by the administration and Guinn had to dispel rumors brought before them or take heat for being "too flamboyant". Eventually, however, Guinn slipped up and his online journal provided the ammo needed to get him booted.

Sometime before classes resumed earlier this month, an anonymous e-mail informed administrators of potentially offensive materials Guinn posted on Facebook, an Internet Web log site. Guinn said he posted pictures of himself in drag from before he attended the university but meant to post the pictures under a private setting that would allow only certain people to access them. Guinn said he mistakenly posted them in way that allowed access to anyone.

School administrators dismissed him from the university, but said he could return next semester, Guinn said.

When asked why Guinn was dismissed, Beers said, "We work redemptively with all students who struggle with behavior issues in their lives and we discipline students after we have credible, substantial and typically repeated evidence of violation of our Community Covenant."

OK. Help me out here. Why is he able to return to campus next semester if everyone on campus knows he's a big old homo?

Hat tips to Blenders Diamondark and Pop Renaissance.

Towleroad: Interview with 'Brokeback' producer

Head over to Towleroad for a great chat with Brokeback Mountain producer James Schamus. I love this section where he discusses that f*ckwad Larry Miller, who wouldn't allow Brokeback to be shown in his theatre.

Have you spoken with Larry Miller regarding his decision to drop Brokeback from his Utah megaplex?

No. In our book he's just a bona fide creep. If for no other reason than we had a legal and binding agreement to screen the movie and he reneged on it. He has refused to speak with anybody publicly — certainly none of us — about his decision. But I find it hilarious that if you went to his movie theater to go see Brokeback Mountain you would have found a ticket available for the movie that he did screen which was Hostel. If that is some kind of moral response to our movie you can keep your morals! By the way, Hostel is a very entertaining film. Nothing wrong about that.

...Do you feel that Larry Miller helped rather than hurt Brokeback?

No. Before he did what he did, we had already opened in Salt Lake on one screen and we did $40,000 on that screen. On one screen in Salt Lake. The bottom line is I am so thrilled that we're not sharing any of the profits of this movie in Salt Lake City with that guy.

Walken for President 2008

Sigh. If only it were true. I'd vote for Walken before Hillary Clinton any day.

www.Walken2008.com

The War in Iraq:
"We are committed to Iraq now, and nothing can undo that. As President, I will not abandon our troops or the Iraqi people, both of whom have made great sacrifices in the name of peace and freedom. I will seek the aid of the world community to form a special peacekeeping coalition to assist with the consolidation of power in Iraq. My top priority will be to stabilize Iraq under this international force and end our occupation."

Campaign Finance Reform:
"I believe that campaign finance is a very tough issue, with good points on both sides; but I feel, as a wealthy American, that I should have no more say than even the least fortunate American citizen. Free speech in politics is about the voices of all those who support you, not who supports you with the biggest voice."

Military Funding:
"I am a huge supporter of the military. I have always thought of them as our guardians, and when our guardians are making less than the poverty line, and children are suffering because their parents decided to join the military, well, I get very upset. I feel that instead of sending billions to the Pentagon's pet projects, it should go to the troops."

Abortion Rights:
"I believe in the American family. I believe that every child deserves a loving home with parents who can afford to raise and care for them. Every woman has the right to have a child when she is ready, and I believe her government has no right to force a child upon her when she is not."

Stem Cell Research:
"I'd met Chris Reeve several times before he died, and after having met him it is tough to be against [stem cell research]. I am for human knowledge and expansion of human life. If stem cells are one way to do that, I cannot support legislation to restrict this potentially life-saving research."

They say when something seems to good to be true, it usually is. But if the Democrats ran on a platform like his (even if it is fake), and used the same sort of straight talk and commitment to clearly articulated values, we'd have a Democrat majority in no time at all.

Bush isn't "lying", he's just "reporting his personal opinions of the reality he interprets to the best of his recall"

I'm scanning the news headlines this morning when I see a link entitled Bush renames 'spying'. Being a writer, I'm fascinated by language, and being a reader of George Orwell, I'm nervously anticipating Bush's latest attempt to out double-speak the master:

WASHINGTON - President Bush heads to the National Security Agency on Wednesday for another speech defending his controversial spying program, one that he insists should be called a "terrorist surveillance program" -- not domestic spying without a warrant.

Nice. Nothing like adding a few syllables to obfuscate the issue. It's not a crime if you re-define it, eh, George? Officer, I'm not a bank robber, I'm a non-traditional cash extraction specialist.

The White House says the program is not domestic spying, since one end of the phone call or e-mail is always outside the United States. A better term, the president said Monday, would be the "terrorist surveillance program."

Hmm. Assume, for the moment, that they are sure that one side of the call or e-mail is outside of the United States, a dubious claim in the Internet era (my PC's IP address and my cell phone number are the same in Bangladesh as in Beaverton, and regardless of where I'm physically located, I could route the data in such a way that you'd think I was in Boise, Boston, or Bhopal). That would mean, wouldn't it, that one side of the call or e-mail is INSIDE the United States, correct? And that call or e-mail is being placed to an American citizen inside the United States, no?

Let's also drink the kool-aid and assume that they are absolutely positive the call is coming from a known al Qaeda operative to a citizen within the United States. Because we know for a fact that the terrorist watch lists are 100% accurate and nobody at the NSA ever makes the mistake of confusing Ali Ahmed the terrorist with Ali Ahmed the father of the local 7-Eleven clerk who remained back in the homeland.

AbuGhraibo Quaintzalez is just one of the many spinmeisters out on the road for the "We'll Do What We Want, Punks, Or Al Qaeda's Gonna Git Ya!" Tour. He spoke at Georgetown University Law School:

During his remarks in a packed law school lecture room at Georgetown, the attorney general also said the legal standard the administration uses in deciding whether to carry out surveillance on people with suspected al-Qaida ties is equivalent to the standard required for complying with the Fourth Amendment, which bans unreasonable searches and seizures.

The reasonable basis standard, said Gonzales, "is essentially the same as the traditional Fourth Amendment probable cause standard."

Oh, yeah, I forgot. Quaintzalez has been reading the Constitution with the George W. Bush Between-The-Lines™ Translator again, which makes the invisible portions of speeches and documents visible in a red italic font:

The right of the people who the president decides aren't terrorists to be secure in their persons (except for their wombs), houses, papers, and effects (which can't possibly include cell calls and e-mail, since this was written in 1789), against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, unless there are drugs or terrorism involved, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause or reasonable basis or a really good hunch, supported by the president's oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched (e.g., "cyberspace"), and the persons (e.g., "Americans") or things (e.g., "whatever") to be seized.

Quaintzalez and Bush want to scare us again with the spectre of al Qaeda. They only want to spy on the terrorists and the Americans who might want to help them. They've got to have this freedom to get more information to prevent another 9/11, because the pre-9/11 information that there were Arab Muslim youth learning to fly planes but not land them, a PDB that said "Bin Laden Determined To Attack Within the United States", a previous attack in 1993 on the World Trade Center, numerous war game scenarios where terrorists fly airliners into buildings, standard operating procedure to scramble fighter jets for uncommunicative planes off course (see: late golfer Payne Stewart), and intercepted terrorist chatter from 9/10 saying "tommorrow is the day" that didn't get translated until 9/12 because we don't have enough Arabic and Farsi translators (because we had to get rid of the gay ones) wasn't enough for them to prevent the first 9/11. The solution to the inability to process data is to collect even more data.

The problem here, and most Americans know it in their gut, is that we have laws set up for just this kind of "ticking bomb" scenario. There is a FISA court that is virtually a rubber-stamp on executive requests for wiretapping warrants. He can even wiretap surreptitiously and request the permission three days after the fact. And he has a Congress that gave him just about all the authority he ever wanted by supporting the USA unPATRIOTic ACT nearly unanimously.

In other words, had Bush gone to Congress or the FISA court and said, "I want to wiretap these Americans because they're talking to al Qaeda," he almost certainly would have been given that latitude. And, almost certainly, most Americans would've supported that move.

That's why this is a public relations disaster for the Republicans. Even Americans who don't follow politics or get the nuances of 4th Amendment law understand basic fairness and rule of law. It's like when a co-worker steals a diet soda from the 12-pack you've put in the company fridge. You'd gladly have just given him the diet soda if he'd only asked for it. The fact that he went behind your back to steal it and thought you'd never notice is what gets you angry, not the loss of the diet soda.

But Bush didn't bother asking. Why? Is the FISA court too much bother? No. Would Congress, the FISA court, or American public opinion rebuffed his attempt? No. So the only logical reason I can come up with is that Bush wanted to do some spying that he knew the Congress, FISA court, or Americans would never approve of. Like spying on Quaker peace groups or political opponents or prominent journalists.

"We did go to certain members of the congressional leadership a year and a half ago," Gonzales said on CBS's "The Early Show."

"It's amazing that people say to me, 'Well, he's just breaking the law.' If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?" said Bush.

If by "briefing", you mean "telling certain select members of the Intelligence Committee what you're going to do, regardless of what any fancy lawyers or congressmen or courts think or the Constitution says, and knowing they can't talk to anyone else about it because of their national security clearance."

Bush, Cheney, Quaintzalez, and all the rest are in full campaign mode (the one thing the Bush Administration does quite well) to sell this domestic spying. And I predict they'll get away with it, too. People will soon be soothed by the "oh, it's not me they're spying on" mantra and those who are not soothed will find legal recourse impossible in the Roberts/Scalia/Thomas/Alito court.

Worst of all, they will continue to employ the Magic Tiger Rock™ logic to justify their action no matter what happens. (The Magic Tiger Rock™ theory goes like this: I have this magic rock that keeps tigers away. But there are no tigers in Oregon! See, it works!) They'll say, as Cheney has, "if we had this kind of power of surveillance in 2001, we might have prevented 9/11," and the scared sheeple will gladly hand over more of their liberty for the illusion of security. If al Qaeda doesn't attack, they can say, "see, it works!" If al Qaeda does attack, they can say, "see, you civil liberties types let another 9/11 happen; we need more power!"

Orwell was right; he was just premature. We have a president who declares war on terrorists because on 9/11 they declared war on us, but when we capture them, they are not prisoners of war. We are a country that tortures those captured but it's not really torture because the Attorney General says so. We spy on our own citizens, restrict our citizens' free speech, lock citizens up without charges, acccess to counsel, or communication with the outside world because terrorists want to destroy our freedoms. We're dedicated to fighting terrorism, so we ignore the pursuit of its leader in favor of creating a new recruiting ground for his followers. We support the troops by extending their tours way beyond their contract, not properly equipping them, slashing their benefits, and sending too few of them to get the job done and replenishing their ranks with the lowest percentile of recruits. We fight to plant the seed of democracy -- the idea that will of the people should decide -- by invading and occupying them against their will. We have a president who fights for a culture of life so that every woman's fetus will come to term (pregnant Iraqi women attending a wedding party that's accidentally bombed need not apply). We have an administration that ran on the platform that Bush will keep you safer than the other guy (poor black residents of New Orleans and West Virginia miners need not apply). I haven't written so much irony since I last described the molecular makeup of the dumbbells at the gym.

It's amazing to me how much we've learned about the criminal misdeeds of BushCo, yet how little outrage there is about them. As long as there is a new season of "24" to watch, cheap Big Macs to eat, and gas doesn't get too outrageous, most people just don't care. I've always maintained that people and systems are loathe to change until the need for change becomes unbearable (think, for example, of the many consumer safety measures that are easily implemented, but only enacted after somebody dies). Unfortunately, I think that by the time things get bad enough here that average people figure out what has happened, it will be too late to do anything about it.

Fortunately, I have no kids, so I don't have to worry about the future they'll inherit. Our government has czars, the administration has its own apparatchiks, the Republican Party is turning into the politburo, we're mired in a guerilla war in southwest Asia that is draining our treasury with no end in sight, we're spying on our own citizens, and we're operating a foreign policy where our political ideology will be forced upon one country against its will and the rest will fall like dominoes. All we need is Bush to start banging his shoe on a podium and the transformation will be complete.

No more Jacko

It's time for permanent exile and complete media blackout on this guy. I just want to remember Michael Jackson like this:



Not like this:



Or, for god's sake, this, from MSNBC today:


Michael Jackson, center, wears an abaya, the traditional Arabic women's veil and all-covering gown, and holds the hand of one of his children, also veiled, as they walk toward their car Wednesday behind a shopping mall, in Manama, Bahrain.

Hat tip, Holly.

Alabama politics news and notes

Former state Chief Justice Roy Moore prays with ministers and fellow bigots from around the state on the steps of the Alabama State House before a news conference yesterday. (AP)

Have to keep wifey Katie informed about the juicy goings-on in her home state...

Of course we all know it is a foregone conclusion that Alabama is going to vote to amendment its constitution this year, telling its gay citizens that they are not entitled to civil equality by banning gay marriage. This is as safe a Red State as one can imagine (even with the Bright Blue Dots isolated in there).

So why does Roy Moore, Rethug candidate for governor, feel the need to bible-beat on this topic? My only guess is that his campaign is flagging, coffers must be emptying out, and his wife has not been successful in her transparently desperate holiday fundraising appeal to refill them (Kayla Moore: "I can think of no better time than this Holy Season to begin our campaign to return morality to our country and God to our public square.").

That means now it's time to bring out the homo boogeyman before the June GOP primary. (Montgomery Advertiser):

"Christians across the state have an obligation to turn out on something as important as this," Moore said.

The outcome of the statewide referendum on same-sex mairriages is hardly in doubt -- voters in Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky and Arkansas approved similar bans in 2004, and this Bible Belt state is overwhelmingly expected to do the same. But a political scientist said that even though Riley also supports the ban, a big turnout might help Moore a little in their primary battle.

"The most fervent anti-gay marriage voters are his voters," said David Lanoue, chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama. The 16 ministers at the news conference are helping organize the Alabama Coalition Against Same Sex Marriage, and Moore agreed to serve as their honorary chairman.

...Equality Alabama, the state's largest gay rights organization, said it will encourage Alabamians to vote no on the constitutional amendment, arguing it would enshrine hatred in the state's constitution much like the unenforceable segregationist language that remains in Alabama's organic law.

"I hope our people will say we've had hate in the past, and let's not do this anymore," chairman Howard Bayless said. Despite the opposition from Equality Alabama, supporters say the only unknown about the June 6 referendum is the size of the margin of victory.

***

I'm sure Kathy at Birmingham Blues will have something to say about this gay-baiting BS from Roy. Right now she's blogging about the low-life exploits of former HealthSouth CEO (and sleazebag supreme) Richard Scrushy. This guy is incredible.

It turns out that during Scrushy's trial for fraud (he was acquitted), he promised to pay a local black pastor $5000 a month to drum up support (there were seven blacks and five whites on the jury). Herman Henderson, pastor of Believers Temple Church, had an associate named Audrey Lewis, write sympathetic articles printed in the local black paper, the Birmingham Times. The PR pieces were reviewed for approval by Scrushy.


Scrushy, Henderson and Lewis.

The Richard M. Scrushy Charitable Foundation (this story gives new meaning to that word "charitable") was already paying off the pastor to the tune of $25K, which the Believers Temple received as a "donation" during Scrushy's trial.

Scrushy's mistake, if you want to call it that, was not paying up on the $5K "fee" -- now Henderson is squealing to the media, and Scrushy denies hiring Henderson.

Boohoo. Another corrupt corporate captain, another morals-free pastor on the take. Kathy's right -- these clowns deserve each other.

One more Scrushy story for the road...Kathy notes that at Richard Scrushy threatened to can HealthSouth’s investment bankers if they didn’t make a substantial donation to then-Gov. Don Siegelman’s lottery campaign. In this case, former gov Siegelman and his former Chief of Staff Paul Hamrick are being tried on racketeering charges; Scrushy is up on bribery charges. Jeebus. This guy really is one of those fabled captains of industry!

[Former HealthSouth Chief Financial Officer Mike] Martin testified that, at Scrushy's instruction, he contacted one of HealthSouth's investment bankers, William McGahan of UBS, to inquire about a sizable donation to the 1999 lottery campaign. McGahan initially refused, Martin testified.

"Well you need to tell them they're going to be fired if they don't raise that money," Martin testified that Scrushy replied.

Martin testified that he subsequently had a harsher conversation with the banker using a curse word. "I told him he would be... and he would be fired - ... if they didn't raise the money," Martin testified.

McGahan testified to the grand jury that he took that to mean he would no longer be HealthSouth's banker unless he found a way to come up with the donation. Martin told FBI agents that Scrushy indicated the donation couldn't have his or HealthSouth's fingerprints on it, according to an interview summary that also was released.

For all the twists and turns, visit ScrushyWorld and Report from Birmingham.

Indiana legislator tries an end run on human rights ordinances

Advance Indiana has the story of sleazeball Rep. Jeff Thompson (R-Danville), who attempted to amend a bill in order to nullify the human rights ordinance adopted by Indianapolis (and other cities) that bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It caused quite a bit of chaos because the bill he intended to amend had nothing to do with anti-discrimination -- it was an eminent domain bill. When cornered, he finally admitted his "motivation" -- he wants to be able to discriminate:

Thompson was more forthcoming to reporters. He told them he opposed Indianapolis' HRO because it was close to his suburban Danville community. "It's a philosophy of do we allow local governments to go in and intrude on private property and put restrictions on them," he said. "To me a restriction is just as bad as taking (under eminent domain), in some cases worse."

Where did all the money go?

Juan over at Boozhy is pissed at the above stats.

I'm shocked. I thought we were in this war to win it. I thought that our lobbying groups were fighting the good fight. And by that, I mean spending our money on campaigns to oppose the gay ban on marriage. Where was the HRC, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Log Cabin Republicans, GLAAD? All groups which promised me in their literature asking for my time and donation that they were fighting for my right to marry. What the F*CK did they do with the money I sent to them? And the money YOU sent to them?

For instance, the Dobson-Falwell-Weyrich Axis of Evil, The Arlington Group, gave nearly $2 million to fight gay rights initiatives.

Some organizations on our side spent effectively. I know that EqualityNC was quite effective here in keeping a marriage amendment bottled up in committee in our General Assembly. I recall being steamed at HRC for wasting money to roll a billboard truck around NYC during the 2004 GOP convention with "George W. Bush: ‘You’re Fired" emblazoned on it. Highly visible -- and highly ineffective as a lobbying tool -- as if the GOP really cared that HRC was there?

HRC could have been pouring more funds into state-level activities, especially where marriage amendments were on the line. My question for gay rights organizations -- will you praise the Dems and Repubs equally if they are supportive of our cause?

'Hutch' is at it again

Pastor Urges Microsoft Stock Buy-And-Dump. Well this is a nice tactic to win friends over to the batsh*t crazy crowd. Rev. Ken Hutcherson is so riled up at the homos, that he wants to wreck the software giant for backing the addition of "sexual orientation" to Washington state's law that bans discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, religion and marital status.

Maybe Ken really does want to run on Linux...(AP):

A pastor who threatened a national boycott against Microsoft and other major corporations for endorsing a gay rights bill urged supporters Tuesday to buy up the companies' stock and dump it to drive prices down.


Graphic: Mike Tidmus

Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, said the stock-dumping plan had been part of his strategy all along. "You got to find out how you affect a company," Hutcherson said, conceding that it would be hard to get people to shun products from companies that dominate the marketplace as Microsoft and Boeing do.

He wants supporters to buy one or two shares over the next few months, then sell them May 1.

...Experts said the pastor's plan has no chance of hurting the stock price of a company such as Microsoft.

Hutcherson is a nutcase. He's also author of the entertaining The Safety of Natural Order, Same-Sex "Marriage" is an Injustice to Children.

Teens into the supernatural, pious parents losing control

Can we do the happy dance now? All witches, watch out for the AmTaliban; I don't think burnings at the stake are beyond these folks.

George Barna's research group interviewed more than 4,000 teens about their exposure, through the media and otherwise, to the "supernatural world" -- and the findings should be enough to send shivers down Christian parents' spines.

Three nationwide studies conducted by The Barna Group indicate, for example, that three of four teens (73 percent) have "engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity" beyond that contained in the media; only a minority of teens believes that horoscopes are not accurate and should be avoided; and only 28 percent of churched teens recall receiving any teaching at their church over the last year that affected their views on the supernatural world.

David Kinnaman, author of the report and vice president at The Barna Group, says churches need to do more to help teens become wiser consumers of media -- and to train them how to integrate scriptural perspectives into their decision-making. Teens' comfort and familiarity with today's technology and media-driven tools, says Kinnaman, enable them to accomplish their choice of spiritual goals -- "But millions of teens," he says, "are precariously close to simply shelving the Christian faith as irrelevant, uninspiring, and 'just a phase.'" He adds: "The supernatural world represents the epicenter of the spiritual struggle for their hearts and minds."

The research group has compiled the results from the three studies into a report -- Ministry to Mosaics: Teens and the Supernatural --designed as an aid to help youth workers, pastors, and parents understand and respond to the spiritual needs of America's youth. The "Mosaic generation," explains the Barna website, consists of those Americans currently age 3 to 21.

I think this supernatural trend dovetails nicely with the Homosexual Agenda,^TM exponentially increasing the level of destruction of the faith-based family -- more than we could have ever imagined. I'm still waiting for my decoder ring for all my hard work though...

Holy bat balls - size does matter

Some stories really ache for commentary. I will leave that up to you, my fine Blenders...

For some male bats, sexual prowess comes with a price — smaller brains. A research team led by Syracuse University biologist Scott Pitnick found that in bat species where the females are promiscuous, the males boasting the largest testicles also had the smallest brains. Conversely, where the females were faithful, the males had smaller testes and larger brains.

"It turns out size does matter," said Pitnick, whose findings were published in December in "Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Science," an online journal.

The study offers evidence that males — at least in some species — make an evolutionary trade-off between intelligence and sexual prowess, said David Hoskens, a biologist at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter in England and a leading authority on bats' mating behavior.

[QUOTE OF THE DAY] "Bats invest an enormous amount in testis, and the investment has to come from somewhere. There are no free lunches," said Hoskens, who did not participate in the study.

..."If female bats mate with more than one male, a sperm competition begins," Pitnick said. "The male who ejaculates the greatest number of sperm wins the game, and hence many bats have evolved outrageously big testes."

...Large brains, meanwhile, are metabolically costly to develop and maintain. Pitnick's research suggested that in those bat species with promiscuous females, the male's body used more of its energy to enhance the testes — giving it the greater adaptive advantage — and lacked the energy it needed to further develop the brain.

Hat tip, Paul.

Now that's the way to do it!

"As someone who was raised to believe in traditional marriage, it does not mean others cannot have different beliefs. I recognize [civil union] laws don't cover all the benefits and all the rights that could and should be accrued to same sex couples."
-- Kweisi Mfume, former congressman and one of the leading Democratic candidates for Maryland's U.S. Senate seat.

Maryland Senate candidate Kweisi Mfume dares to do what all the spineless Dems will not -- come out strong in support of gay civil equality. He was at first tentative about taking a position on same-sex marriage last year, but he is loud and clear now. (Wash Blade):

Leading Maryland Senate candidate Kweisi Mfume supports equal marriage rights for gay couples, he told the Blade Monday.

Maryland has been pushed into the national spotlight since the Baltimore Circuit Court ruled Friday that it was unconstitutional to prohibit gays and lesbians from marrying. The decision is being appealed.

...Gay marriage is a difficult religious and philosophical issue, Mfume said on Monday. However, governments must respect equal protection for all people regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation, he said.

"Are we prepared to give that equal protection to all people?" he said. "I don't know how the courts could have come up with any decision than what they did."

In the rest of the Dem field, the Blade reports that Congressman Ben Cardin, supports civil unions but has not taken a position on gay marriage; he does oppose an amendment to the state's constitution. Lise Van Susteren, another Dem, backs full marriage rights for gay couples. None of the others have taken a position.



Michael Steele (here with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.). Photo: Baltimore Sun

Trying to ride the fence is Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who also avoided the issue, saying that it was a state matter. He did, however attend the same Defend Maryland Marriage rally calling for a constitutional amendment that Don Dwyer did. [See my earlier post on Defend Maryland Marriage.]

Also:
* Who's race-baiting now - Steele's phony Oreo-pelting story

Perhaps he would like to experience a can of whoopass

Cincinnati City Councilman Sam Malone, a Repug that just wanted to "whip the black off of" his son, is on trial.

As I said when I first posted on this sorry-ass loser of a human being, I don't think there's a parenting book out there that would have helped Malone succeed at beating the melanin out of his 14-year-old son's hide unless the belt had magical, Neverland properties.

Malone doesn't deny hitting his son; lawyer claims that this was permissible corporal punishment. His 14-year-old son arrived at the hospital with belt-inflicted red welts covering his entire body. At one point during the beating, the boy told police he fell down, yet Malone continued to hit him.

"The law is very clear in the state of Ohio. The Ohio Constitution recognizes the right for a parent to discipline a child in a reasonable and prudent fashion," Arenstein said. "Physical harm is not enough" to charge a parent with domestic violence.

There are three exceptions. To prove domestic violence, prosecutors must show death could have resulted, that there was substantial pain or there was serious physical harm.

None of those three exceptions applies to this case, Arenstein said. "We won't deny Mr. Malone disciplined his child," he said. "The only thing (Malone) is guilty of is tough love," Arenstein said.

This bullsh*t doesn't sound like "tough love."

In the year before Malone's arrest, the teen said he and his father had had a rocky relationship because he was failing eighth grade. Then the boy missed the checkpoint, prompting his teacher to call Malone. Malone's son testified that Malone was angry and told him to go upstairs and take his clothes off.

"He started whipping me with a belt, he had it wrapped double on his hand," the teenager said. "He kept on hitting me, and I fell over, and he kept on hitting me."

Asked by Murray to demonstrate how he tried to defend against the blows, the teen crossed his arms against his chest and tucked his head down.

"I was in pain, crying," the teenager said. "He hit me all over, on my back, arms, side, stomach, chest and my legs."

Hat tip, Holly.

Don Dwyer's constituent services

You might recall that I consider my Senator, Elizabeth Dole, to have the worst constituent services ever (see my post "Empty letter from the Empty Wig").



Blender Laura H. decided to email her state representative, anti-gay MD Delegate Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel). His priority is to "protect marriage" and he has attended rallies to defend "our families, our children and our civil society" from the homos. Dwyer makes it clear where he stands by affiliating with nice outreach projects like DefendMarylandMarriage.com, which is "committed to not remain silent as the homosexual agenda attempts to overtake the laws and social order of Maryland."

The hearing on Maryland's Marriage Protection Act (HB 48) is Tuesday 1/31/2006, so Laura wanted to express her concerns.

From: Laura H.
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 11:22 AM
To: don.dwyer@house.state.md.us
Subject: Marriage Amendment

Please give me ONE good example of a gay marriage hurting a straight couple’s marriage. I think the divorce rate is testament enough that straight couples do a good job themselves of ruining a marriage.

Why do you feel the need to have a Marriage Amendment when Maryland law already states that a marriage is between a man and a woman? Are you that much of a homophobe? Do gay people scare you or something? Please tell me how gay people hurt you and your family? Do you know that most scientists agree that you are born gay and that it is not a choice? If that is the case then God made gay people that way! Please don’t quote the bible either, because it was man who wrote the bible and man is fallible. Besides if the bible was made to be followed, then why would MAN re-write parts to make the New Testament, so it benefits himself? One day it is you who is going to be standing in front of the Lord and he is going to ask you why you hated so many people for NO GOOD REASON!!!

Laura H.

Two months later, she received an email from a Dwyer staffer, Caleb Griffin.

From: Delegate Don Dwyer
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 2:03 PM
To: Laura H.
Subject: RE: Marriage Amendment

The Constitutional Amendment Delegate Dwyer proposes simply allows the issue to go before the public for a vote. If Marylanders are in favor of same-sex marriage, the vote will reflect that and the Amendment will die. It is not hatred but democracy that motivates the Amendment.

In regards to social consequences of same-sex marriage, we refer you to the following two articles. You'll find many common arguments against and objections to gay marriage, including how gay marriage can hurt traditional marriage.
http://www.defendmarylandmarriage.com/11arg.html
http://www.defendmarylandmarriage.com/Caleb_art2.htm

Caleb Griffin
Legislative Aide
Delegate Don H. Dwyer, Jr.
31st District

As Don's stand-in, one might want to know a little more about Caleb. He's apparently a big wig at DefendMarylandMarriage, and thus he is an expert on same-sex marriage. He's the author of the document at the second link that he provided to Laura in his response for Dwyer. This page is full of bogus science and outlandish statements like this...

In America, the debate has just started. If we were to legalize same-sex marriage now, or even pass half-way measures, the ensuing cultural changes would be devastating. Can the nation that is already the world leader in divorce afford the further weakening of its social standards? Can we afford to adopt a new culture that celebrates single parent homes and unmarried cohabitation as more "timely" or appropriate than the traditional family? Without the Church as a cultural check, what would the new America look like?

...Our liberties should never be extended so far as to infringe on the rights of others, particularly those most vulnerable among us – our children. Should our clamor for appeasement drown out the needs of our society and the needs of our children? Despite the images we see on television and film, the evidence is abundant that homosexuality is a dangerous behavior. When we love each other in healthful ways, everyone wins. The Church’s stand against homosexuality is not one of hatred and prejudice. It is one of hope and love...God doesn’t hate people; He only hates the things that kill people.

And what about this section, "America At Risk"? Somehow he drifts from gay marriage into a discussion of the fall of the U.S. because of the urban darkies.

America is at risk because we have a large class of urban poor. In industrialized nations, the urban underclass has higher out-of-wedlock birthrates than the general public. We are particularly vulnerable to the potential effects of same-sex marriage because our current welfare state would be unable to support the likely increase in out-of-wedlock births among our poor. Scandinavia has no class of urban poor, however Great Britain does.

I think Laura should write Delegate Dwyer again, and ask him why he has someone like Caleb Griffin speaking on his behalf. Ah, never mind. This guy is a complete asswipe, Laura. Work hard to get Don and his boy Caleb out of office.

Email: Don@delegatedwyer.com.
Phone: 410-841-3298
District Office 410-768-094

Bonus: Angry atheists pelt Don with emails

U.S. sides with Axis of Evil clubmember over homos

"It is an absolute outrage that the United States has chosen to align itself with tyrants — all in a sickening effort to smother the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around the world."
-- Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, on the U.S. siding with anti-gay countries on a UN vote.

This is embarrassing. How low can we go? I'm almost speechless. Well, we're the same forward-thinking, "freedom-loving" country that "doesn't torture" either.

The United States joined with four of the world's most repressive regimes to reject an application by two international LGBT groups seeking to join a UN agency that advises the world body on economics and social issues.

The application by the International Lesbian and Gay Association and the Danish Association of Gays and Lesbians was dismissed without a hearing. The groups had sought inclusion on the United Nations Economic and Social Council, a think tank made up of non governmental agencies from around the world.

The United States voted with Iran, Zimbabwe, China, Cameroon against granting a hearing for the application.

...President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has long scapegoated and persecuted gay men and lesbians. The recently-elected president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has overseen an anti-gay campaign in recent months, in which many young people accused of homosexual acts reportedly have been executed.

..."Apparently Iran, which President Bush has deemed part of the 'Axis of Evil,' is a suitable partner when it comes to discriminating against gay people," said Foreman.

...The Bush-Cheney administration has also opposed women's and children's rights treaties, sex education, contraception and family planning in international forums.

Banning the pro-choice poinsettia

Hartline is concerned that buying this plant will result in assault on the "pre-born."

Will American Family Association start a boycott of poinsettias now? Its faux-news organ, AgapePress, is reporting that bizarre "ex-gay" fundie James Hartline has uncovered an unholy bankroller of Planned Parenthood -- Ecke Ranch, a poinsettia farm in California. He's on the case, to warn churches not to buy any of those wicked plants during the next "Christ in Christmas" holiday.

A Christian activist in California says Christians need to know that a major producer of poinsettias for the U.S. is also a major supporter of Planned Parenthood. James Hartline says it is no secret in the San Diego area that the Ecke family has long supported abortion financially. But according to Hartline, many churchgoers across the country do not know that the Eckes produce about 70 percent of all the poinsettias sold in the U.S.

"During the holiday season nearly every church in America -- tens of thousands of churches -- are full of poinsettias," he observes. And there's a good possibility that those poinsettias are coming from Ecke Ranch [in Encinitas]." To those who might question how the purchase of poinsettias ties in with support abortion support, Hartline has this response: "[T]hink about the profit in the tens and tens of millions [from the sale of poinsettias], and ... look at how much money the Eckes are pouring into Planned Parenthood, which is hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Laurel Hester's lasting impact on gay rights

This story continues to change minds and change lives. Former police officer Laurel Hester, who is dying of cancer, finally won the right to leave her pension benefit to her partner last week. She has already had a huge impact on gay rights in the state of New Jersey. All state employees, and county employees in Bergen and Hudson, Mercer, Union and Monmouth now have the ability to do so, due to elected officials in those townships extending the benefit after witnessing Laurel's courage.

Last night, Jackson Township Committeeman Mark A. Seda, a Republican, convinced his colleagues to unanimously vote for their town to extend domestic partner benefits to employees there as well. National Dem leadership -- you, the spineless ones who cannot and will not speak out for your gay constituents, look what a Republican has the courage to say.

Like many other people around the world, I've been learning a great deal recently about the issue of Domestic Partner rights that has placed Ocean County front and center on the world's stage through the incredibly courageous story of Ocean County's own hometown hero, Lt. Laurel Hester of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

From what I can see, I'm only one of millions who's been touched in a very big way by Lt. Hester's story. If it weren't for Lt Hester's heart-wrenching story, I would probably not have paid much attention to this issue. Her dignity and the incredible bravery she's displayed at the end of her life in wanting to change the world has inspired me to realize that as an elected official I should be standing by her side.

I've been approached by a lot of people in Jackson and elsewhere about this issue. I was very pleased to learn that the overwhelming majority of them agree with me that this is an important civil rights issue; an issue that as Americans we all have to address. To me, it seems like it's nothing other than a very simple matter of fundamental fairness and Equal Rights for All Americans. If it weren't for Lt Hester's heart-wrenching story, I would probably not have paid much attention to this issue.

But now I have, and I'm alarmed to learn of the loop holes New Jersey law dealing with Domestic Partnership Rights.  I've found there are a lot of gaps in existing state laws that have been created in recent years and quite frankly in my estimation need to be closed.

It's that simple. Admit you didn't understand the complexities, say this is something that needs to be corrected, and move ahead and do it, because it is about fairness. Seda was able to say "civil rights" without having a conniption out of fear of offending groups of people who claim to be more aggrieved in the phony zero-sum game of "rights entitlement" (you know who you are).

You can read the rest of Seda's statement and Michael Jensen's thoughts on Laurel Hester's long-term impact on gay rights at The Big Gay Picture.

NBC yanks Book of Daniel?

[UPDATE: Confirmation. A story on the cancellation is now up on 365gay.com. ]

From NBC's Book of Daniel bulletin board:

Unfortunately, due to many reasons, "The Book of Daniel" will no longer be aired on NBC on Friday nights. I just wanted to say "thank you" to all of you who supported the show. There were many wonderful, talented people who contributed to it's success - and I do mean success. Whatever the outcome, I feel that I accomplished what I set out to do: A solid family drama, with lots of humor, that honestly explored the lives of the Webster family. Good, flawed people, who loved each other no matter what... and there was always a lot of "what"! I remain proud of our product, proud of my association with Sony, NBC Universal, and NBC, who all took a chance on a project that spoke to them, and proud to have made an impact on so many of your lives.

Thanks for watching.
Sincerely,
Jack Kenny
Creator, The Book of Daniel

I'm still waiting on more confirmation about the cancellation; I don't see reporting on this anywhere else -- except WingNutDaily, which is taking credit for an "Exclusive." However, a look at NBC's Friday night schedule shows no BoD on it. Law and Order is in the "Daniel" slot this Friday at 10 PM.

In a later post on the board:

I continue to be grateful for all these messages of support. Especially after such a difficult day. Rest assured that I will try my best to find some way to make the remaining episodes available to you. I may fail, but I will certainly try. Again, many many thanks.

Yesterday, Kenny seemed to be hinting that the ax was near, so this outcome would not be a surprise; the AFA's pressure on advertisers did have an effect. (The Christian Post):

Jack Kenny, who created NBC's new show about an Episcopal priest and his dysfunctional family, is asking fans to show their support in contacting stations as opponents such as the American Family Association (AFA) protest the "offensive" program.

"You are in danger of never seeing their most brilliant work yet," writes Kenny on a weblog hosted by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Many predict NBC will pull the plug on the show before it runs all eight episodes.

"NBC is losing between $2 (million) and $3 million each time they air The Book of Daniel," said Donald Wildmon, the association's chairman, according to Religion News Service. "With those kinds of losses, NBC may decide to cancel the show."

Advertisers along with affiliate networks have pulled their support for the program.

Fighting 'marriage protection' in Pennsylvania

The bible-beaters in Pennsylvania are salivating as a "Marriage Protection Amendment" bill starts its trip through the legislature. This one bans civil unions, and place domestic partnership benefits in jeopardy. The language:

"Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this commonwealth, and neither the commonwealth now nor any of its political subdivisions shall create or recognize a legal status identical or substantially equivalent to that of marriage for unmarried individuals."

The Pennsylvania Family Institute and Pennsylvania for Marriage folks are clear that the fight is not just about the word "marriage," and it will be tough to build a successful opposition effort in Santorum country.

Blender and blogger Nathan Henning of Nathan Ranting wrote in and said he like some help in organizing Pennsylvania blogger/activists.

The supporters of the Pennsylvania state marriage amendment have a huge advantage: organization. Simply with an email to their "church ops" network, they put church bulletin inserts in front of hundreds of thousands of constituents.

Where is the central message of the Equal Rights camp on the day that press conferences are being held in the Capitol Rotunda? The ACLU of PA (not even on their homepage!?!?), Liberty PA, and a smattering of bloggers. We've got to do better.

Pennsylvania equality supporters need a centralized point of information, education and collaboration. I've begun a Wikipedia page on the Pennsylvania Marriage Amendment and would invite as many as possible to responsibly participate. The goal? To keep them honest. We will shine the light of accountability and truth on this process.

The only way to defeat discrimination is through education.

PastorDan over at Street Prophets took up Nathan on his offer to join the wiki, and emailed me that he's giving the wingers something to chew on over at his fine pad (it was also published in the Lancaster Sunday News.). A snippet:

Look at the list of states with defense-of-marriage bills either on the ballot or in process: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wisconsin. One thing should jump out at you almost immediately: nearly all of these are swing states in this year's fall elections. South Carolina is the only one without a race that could be reasonably in play.

Our own situation is instructive. Rick Santorum has made a career out of representing conservative Christians. He's also getting crushed in the polls against Bob Casey, Jr., by as much as 50-35. If he's to have any hope of retaining his seat, he'll need to get those value voters motivated. Hence his appearance in favor of Samuel Alito at Justice Sunday III, sponsored by some of the same organizations pushing for the marriage amendment.

Now, I know that some people will say that I'm being far too cynical, that this is about defending a concept of absolute truth as defined by Biblical morality. It says in Leviticus that a man shall not lie with another man, and that's all we need to know.

To which I say: fine. I'm a Christian, and I'm comfortable debating scripture. But the proper place for scriptural debate is in the church, not state legislation. Like it or not, we live in a nation marked by ever-increasing diversity. Sooner or later, we will have to reconcile ourselves to the notion that not everyone shares our values--or our religion. To do otherwise is to create a religious litmus test for full participation in our society, the very thing many of our ancestors fled.

Head over to Street Prophets for more.

Immigration vs. Invasion

WingNutDaily addressed the immigration dilemma in style yesterday AM (screenshot)...



The graphic referred to in the last item is actually quite interesting, despite the freakout WND headline. For them the browning of America is the most frightening aspect of illegal immigration. Hmmm. No surprise there.

Neither party really wants to tackle this issue, btw. Business interests love the cheap labor, Dems are afraid of appearing racist in addressing the problem, and consumers take for granted the cheaper prices of goods and services produced on the backs of undocumented immigrant labor. I should qualify that -- elected officials in the border states, Dem and Republican, don't have their heads in the sand -- it's a crisis for them, and they are getting no real solutions out of Washington.

What complicates the issue is how to equitably handle the situation of those who have taken the time and effort to be here legally. That process is woefully bogged down, with so many people in green card queues that the backlog will take years for the government to address. Clearly any process that remotely smacks of amnesty for undocumented workers is a slap in the face of those following the rules to be here.

On the other hand, folks are streaming over the border because there isn't an incentive to stop coming here; businesses are more than happy to pay these folks a fraction of the prevailing wage under the table (it's more than they can make in their home country), driving overall wages down. OSHA safety standards? Ha. And health care for undocumented workers is often handled by trips to the emergency room.

This means the taxpayer is really shelling out for this in the most expensive ways possible because too many constituencies want to remain in denial that we have an underground economic engine chugging along on the backs of people who officially "don't exist."

It's a big mess. Efforts like the one below certainly don't help; they only provide a look at how immigration is splitting the GOP -- and the Dems aren't positioned to take advantage of it, of course.

***

Charlotte will be graced by the presence of batsh*t crazy wingers Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and Rethug tool Bay Buchanan on January 30.


They will be stopping here as part of their "Secure America (from the Mexicans) Now" tour. From the seriously low-end web site, this announcement from Bay:

We will be traveling in a Winnebago and going into small towns and large cities meeting with as many people as possible and using the media to get the message to thousands of others. I am certain Americans will join this cause if we can just get the word out.

Please join us on the road if you can, and if you have a Winnebago, come drive us through your state! We are counting on volunteers to make this tour successful. And if you can't join us, keep an eye on our website and follow our progress. We will be reporting in every day we're on the road.

Also we need your help to keep the Tour wheels rolling. We are using volunteers and will be eating a whole lot of hamburgers so if you could help pay for some of the gas with a contribution of $12.50 we would be really appreciative.

Please e-mail me directly if you can help with a Winnebago or if you can join the Tour. baybuchanan@teamamericapac.org


Actual marketing shill for Team America Minuteman T-Shirts ("100% Made in the USA By Americans for Americans" screams the slogan): Team America custom designed these quality t-shirts to bring with us when we traveled to Tombstone, Arizona to support the Minuteman Project. We have a limited supply remaining. Please send in your orders as soon as possible...First come - first served!

Team America Pac is harsh on NC's pro-business/pro-undocumented worker-exploiting Senate tag team of Empty Wig Dole and Richard Pharma-boy Burr.

Unfortunately, Senators Burr and Dole have been leaning towards supporting a Guest Worker Amnesty which is favored by many corporate Political Action Committees. The US Senate is expected to try and insert guest worker amnesty language into a bill soon.

Dole and Burr's positions are out of line with North Carolina voters in a state where benefits and rewards for illegal aliens are opposed by over 80% of the population in numerous polls. Concerns about illegal immigration have risen to a top issue in NC after at least 6 people were killed or maimed by drunk driving illegal aliens in the second half of 2005.

Also:
* There's dumb, dumber, and then there's Tom Tancredo

Canada election results open thread

Just in case there isn't news to report before I shut off for the night, I wanted to put up an open thread for folks to post about the results in the Canadian elections.

UPDATE (3:30 AM): AP reports Harper and the Conservatives won, but it will be a minority government.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper is seen after winning the federal election. (CP PHOTO/Tom Hanson)

Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party won national elections Monday and ended 13 years of Liberal rule, a victory expected to move Canada rightward on social and economic issues and lead to improved ties with the United States...With nearly all votes counted in the race for the 308-seat House, officials results showed Conservatives with 123 seats; Liberals with 103; Bloc Quebecois with 50, New Democratic Party with 28; and one seat to an Independent. Three seats still haven't been determined.

...Prime Minister Paul Martin conceded defeat and said he would step down as head of the party, though remain in Parliament to represent the Montreal seat he won again. It was an unusual move to do both on the same night, but Martin appeared upbeat and eager to continue to fight the Conservatives from the opposition benches of the House.

The Canadian Press adds more detail:

The Tory leader won the election aided by gains in Ontario and a Liberal collapse of historic proportions in Quebec. But he failed to capture a single seat in the country's three biggest cities - Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver - indicating a stubborn urban-rural divide.

Harper's government will be a far tamer animal than the mighty Liberal and Tory majorities of the last 20 years. With 124 seats, Harper could be forced to negotiate every piece of legislation that goes through the 308-seat House of Commons.

That should ease fears by many that he will try to ban gay marriage and that his backbenchers might try to reopen the abortion debate.

...It's a massive win for Harper, who was dismissed as unelectable less than two years ago when he took the reins of a new party born out of a merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives.

As expected, the Conservatives dominated in the West, taking most ridings in the Prairies and scoring a clean sweep in Alberta, while dropping several seats in B.C.

Their big breakthrough was Ontario, where they won 40 seats, up from 24 the last time around. They also collected 10 seats in Quebec, a province where they have been shut out.

In Atlantic Canada, the expected Conservative breakthrough didn't materialize, delivering only nine of the 32 seats in the region, up just two from the last time around.

The Liberals lost seats nearly everywhere, but suffered the most damage in Ontario, where they gave up 21 of the 75 ridings won in 2004.

In Quebec, the Liberals suffered their worst defeat in history - matching the 13-seat low of 1882.

Also:
Voters take a chance, accept Stephen Harper for change

GLAAD Media Awards nominations are out

Nominations for the 17th Annual Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards have been announced. Here's a sampling of some of the good work out there that's being recognized...

OUTSTANDING FILM - WIDE RELEASE
Brokeback Mountain (Focus Features)
Capote (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Family Stone (20th Century Fox)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Warner Bros.)
Rent (Sony Pictures)

OUTSTANDING FILM - LIMITED RELEASE
Beautiful Boxer (Regent Releasing/here! Films)
Mysterious Skin (TLA Releasing)
Saving Face (Sony Pictures Classics)
Transamerica (The Weinstein Company)
Walk On Water (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Commander in Chief (ABC)
The L Word (Showtime)
Queer as Folk (Showtime)
Six Feet Under (HBO)
South of Nowhere (The N)

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
Out of Practice (CBS)
Shameless (BBC America)
Will & Grace (NBC)

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL EPISODE
(in a series without a regular gay character)
"Alien" Law & Order: SVU (NBC)
"Best Friends" Cold Case (CBS)
"Pilot" My Name Is Earl (NBC)
"Someone's in the Kitchen with Daddy" What I Like About You
(The WB)
"Transitions" Without a Trace (CBS)

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY
American Experience: Kinsey (PBS)
Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She (HBO)
Same Sex America (Showtime)
TransGeneration (The Sundance Channel/Logo)
We Are Dad (Showtime)

OUTSTANDING TV JOURNALISM -
NEWSMAGAZINE
"Becoming Diane" 20/20 (ABC)
"Gay Rodeo" Only In America (Discovery Times Channel)
"Lady Lions: Alleged Discrimination" Outside the Lines
(ESPN)
"Lucky" Dateline NBC (NBC)
"The Mirror" Nightline (ABC)

OUTSTANDING NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
"A House Divided" by Laura Bond (Westword)
"The New Radical" by Kim Martineau (The Hartford
Courant)
"Paradise Lost" by Michelle Boorstein (The Washington
Post)
"The Stewards of Gay Washington" by Anne Hull (The
Washington Post)
"When an Employee Switches Gender, What's a Company
to Do?" by Stephanie Armour (USA Today)

OUTSTANDING TV JOURNALISM - NEWS
SEGMENT
"Andrew Goldstein" ESPN SportsCenter (ESPN)
"Coming Out" Live From... (CNN)
"Peter Hams" ESPN SportsCenter (ESPN)
"School Outing" Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
"Secret Sex Lives" Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)

GLAAD also announced that this year's Barbara Gittings Award will be presented to the three new LGBT cable networks, Logo, here!, and Q Television. The awards will be televised on Logo, and, VH1 will air the program for the first time. The Logo airdate for the GLAAD Media Awards is April 15, 2006 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). The VH1 airdate is April 16 at 11 p.m. (ET/PT).

The Prada Pope's pontificating has a price tag

I'm not making this up. This Pope's behavior is descending into the level of farce. The church must be getting low on the cash flow based on this action, with the millions of dollars being paid out in settlements for the criminal behavior of pedophile priests enabled by Pape Ratzi.

The Vatican has been accused of trying to cash in on the Pope’s words after it decided to impose strict copyright on all papal pronouncements. For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

The edict covers Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, which is to be issued this week amid huge international interest. The edict is retroactive, covering not only the writings of the present pontiff — as Pope and as cardinal — but also those of his predecessors over the past 50 years. It therefore includes anything written by John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI and John XXIII.

The decision was denounced yesterday for treating the Pope’s words as “saleable merchandise” and endangering the Church’s mission to “spread the Christian message”.

...Vittorio Messori, who has co-authored works with Pope Benedict and John Paul II, said that he was “perplexed and alarmed . . . This is wholly negative and absolutely disastrous for the Vatican’s image.” A pope’s words should be available to all free of charge, he said, and to “cash in in this way surrounds the clergy with the odour of money”.

Publishers will have to negotiate a levy of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of the cover price of any book or publication “containing the Pope’s words”. Those who infringe the copyright face legal action and a higher levy of 15 per cent.

Porn on the Pod gets Bob Knight hot

Mike Tidmus pointed me to the latest unhinged rant by the penis-possessing pornfighter of Concerned Women of America's Culture and Family Institute, Bob Knight. It appears that his latest obsession is the iPod's capability to download and display some skinshots. (AgapePress)

According to reports inside the porn industry, parents who already have to compete against earbuds pumping music directly into their children's ears may soon be facing an even more frightening opponent: pornographic images on video-capable iPods.

Parents are being warned of the smut industry's effort to make hard-core pornographic imagery available to users of Apple Computer's iPod and similar portable video devices. The popularity of Apple's new video-capable portable technology has driven porn industry providers to introduce iPod-compatible video content.

...Bob Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, is more emphatic. "This is a nightmare for parents who are trying to protect their kids from early exposure to porn," Knight says. "In terms of delivering smut, the hand-held gadgets are already making the Internet look like a quaint, old steam engine.

"Parents need to know that they are potentially putting an X-rated porn shop right into their kid's hands when they buy these [portable video players] for them."

Mike doesn't see what Bob's problem is. Mike calls this video iPod, the Diablo in ravishing red.

Image via Idealist Future.

A nightmare for parents? Early porn exposure? As opposed to what, vine-ripened porn exposure?

So just to add a tad more agony to every christer parent’s nightmarish dilemma, here are the iPods on which your kids need to be watching Debbie does Dr Dobson ... (drumroll) ... the Podstar Diablo! Pictured above and described by their creator as, “Designs you’d sell your soul for,” Podstar offers four unique designs, each available in black or red.

And, hey, christer kiddies … all your friends are gonna own one!

The Crawford Cowboy is asked about 'Brokeback'

Actual caption on that Bush photo: US President George W. Bush looks over the crowd and collects his thoughts as he is introduced on stage to deliver remarks on the global war on terror at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. (AFP/Paul J. Richards)

The BradBlog has the video of the Crawford Cowboy-wannabe as he was questioned today about whether he's seen Brokeback Mountain. He was speaking at Kansas State University about the War on Terra.

QUESTION: You're a rancher. A lot of here in Kansas are ranchers. I was just wanting to get your opinion on "Brokeback Mountain" if you've seen it yet. (LAUGHTER)

You would love it. You should check it out. (LAUGHTER)

BUSH: I hadn't seen it. I'd be glad to talk about ranching, but I haven't seen the movie. (LAUGHTER)

I've heard about it. (LAUGHTER)

I hope you go, you know...(LAUGHTER)

I hope you go back to the ranch and the farms is what I was about to say.

I hadn't seen it.(LAUGHTER)

Why see it when you can live it, Dear Leader?

Hat tip, Holly.

Fed LGBT website is gone

Blender Andy of Eleventh Avenue South shot me an email to answer the question I posed in an earlier post, How long before a Bush drone puts a stop to this?

The answer is 12 days. That's how long it takes for a Bush drone to scrub a government web site of gay-positive content.

The URL: http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/features/lgbt/ used to go to the "Celebrating the Pride and Diversity Among and Within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations" section (Google cache of the yanked page here) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's web site. Surfing there today, you receive the following message:

We are currently updating our Web site to better server our customers. The page you are trying to access is no longer available. We apologize for the inconvenience.

SAMSHA is a division of Health and Human Services. Here's the mission of the agency:

SAMHSA's vision is a life in the community for everyone. SAMHSA's mission is to build resilience and facilitate recovery for people with or at risk for substance abuse and mental illness.

Apparently HHS head Mike Leavitt got a phone call from Family Research Council head Tony Perkins and his bible beating, friends, who went apesh*t when they saw the site's gay-positive content.


Leavitt yanked the whole section. I guess something made the fundamentalist HHS head's cranium explode. Look at what I said in the first post.

Once he's alerted about the gay-positive resources on the SAMHSA site, you may see it "disappear" or receive a little editorial facelift, considering his vision for HHS, laid out in his "500 Day Plan".

One can only hope that the hammer didn't come down on gay-friendly Nancy Kennedy (nkennedy@samhsa.gov) of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention/SAMHSA/DHHS. She has 30 years of professional and personal experience in mental health, substance abuse and sexual orientation, and (up until now) has been able to offer open, clear, honest and inclusive information to the LGBT community at this taxpayer-funded site.At least she tried.

Pentagon: we won't release docs about spying on homos

I think this reaction suggests that the Pentagon has something to hide, don't you? (365gay):

The administration is refusing to turn over documents related to allegations that it spied on LGBT civil rights groups.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which represents gays in the military, and other LGBT rights groups sought the documents under the Freedom of Information Act. They filed the request early this month and asked that the government respond within 20 days.

Last month media reports said that the Pentagon has been spying on "suspicious" meetings by civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military’s "don't ask, don't tell".

Last year, Lisa Myers, Douglas Pasternak, Rich Gardella and the NBC Investigative Unit obtained a secret 400-page Defense Department document listing peace activists and monitoring people at Iraq war protests. SLDN contends that gay groups were spied on as well.

The FOIA request included a demand for “any and all documents” concerning meetings and communications within and between LGBT organizations, including SLDN. The filing included a request for “reports, video recordings, audio recording and photographs” obtained through Pentagon surveillance.

...The Department of Defense turned down the request saying that SLDN is not an organization primarily engaged in disseminating information to the public and that there is no imminent loss of substantial due process rights.

"I'm not surprised to learn that the government is attempting to stonewall our original FOIA request," SLDN spokesperson Steve Ralls said on Monday.

Unscripted questions, hand-picked audiences

Bush to Take Unscripted Audience Questions. If it's not an open forum (tickets are required), it's hard to spin that Bush-bot will be "thinking" on his feet. What garbage. (AP):

Move over, Oprah. President Bush is making himself into television's newest talk show host by featuring audience participation in his appearances.

Bush has been taking questions from audience members in recent speeches, and the White House says none has been prescreened even though the sessions are limted to invited groups. It's a throwback to the folksy style on the campaign trail that helped him win re-election and a departure from the heavily scripted speeches that were the norm last year.

...The White House has grown so comfortable with the format that most of his appearance Monday at Kansas State University was reserved for Q-and-A with the audience.

And unlike the more intimate settings where the president has taken questions before, this appearance was set in front of a coliseum full of 9,000 ticket holders, including students, soldiers from nearby Fort Riley and invited guests.

Bush has taken a wide variety of questions in three other appearances during the last six weeks. Many of the people he has called on have fawned over him, thanking him for his wartime leadership, saying they pray for him and bringing best wishes from other fans in their family who couldn't be there.

Brilliant Alito ad released by NBJC

[UPDATE: Welcome, Raw Story readers. I've added Freeper reaction to this ad at the end of the post...]

This is a slam dunk ad on Alito by the National Black Justice Coalition. It will be published in black newspapers in Baltimore and Washington, and in Roll Call, the Congressional newspaper.

NBJC Director of Religious Affairs Dr. Sylvia Rhue noted that "Forty years ago, opponents of interracial marriage cited the Bible to justify their discrimination. Today, opponents of same-gender marriage cite the Bible to justify their discrimination."

There's nothing like turning the tables on the wingers, especially Clarence Thomas -- the ad asks, "Offense Before God?" I converted the ad to text to post (click here for the PDF).

Offense Before God?

Clarence Thomas and Wife Virginia

Before 1967, laws would not allow Clarence Thomas, a black man, to marry his wife Virginia, a white woman. Opponents of interracial marriage cited the Bible to justify this discrimination.

In 2006, laws do not allow two men or two women to marry each other. Opponents of same-sex marriage cite the Bible to justify this discrimination.

Using Religion To Justify Discrimination Is The Real Offense Before God.

---

In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that laws against interracial marriage were unconstitutional.

We wonder: If Clarence Thomas had been on the Court in 1967, how would he have voted?

We wonder: If Samuel Alito had been on the Court in 1967, how would he have voted?

Today, America is faced with the challenge of how to treat a group of its citizens fairly. We've been down this road before. We can't allow powerful people to use religion to justify their bigotry. It wasn't right for African Americans, and it's not right for gays and lesbians.

In America, the framers of our Constitution created a separation of church and state for a good reason: to protect minorities.

Don't turn back the clock. Let's protect our Constitution.

Of course, the larger question, even with this meaningful ad campaign, is whether the Democrats are going to do anything about the Alito nomination at this point? Sigh.

Contact your Dem Senators and tell them the filibuster shouldn't be off the table.

***

Well, well, the knuckle-draggers in Freeperville don't like the ad for some reason. Read some of the deranged comments.

Actual Freeper Quotes™

This ad is absolutely reprehensible. Justice Thomas and his wife deserve so much better than this. So much for the left being the party of tolerance!

There are people who just can't get over Justice Thomas' white wife. They should be taken out and flogged in the streets.

Total apples and oranges, interracial marriages and gay "rights."

American Blacks sink lower and lower each day that goes by. Hispanics and Asian are blowing right by them as they continue to wallow in racism and hate. Problem is, they can't even see the trees for the forest. Fifty years from today, unless they get real, they will be in the same straits they have been in for the past fifty years as slaves of the Democrat Party. What fools!!!

I feel so bad for all the decent, smart, God loving people who are black and who have leaders who are dragging them down into racism. There's so many who are hurt by the few who carry on like this.

I fail to see the logic. Are they accusing Justice Clarence Thomas of miscegenation? Black people, for the most part, are Christians, so accusing Alito of being a Christian isn't going to fly very far, either. This ad campaign should be about as effective as hitting yourself over the head with a hammer. You would need to be a twisted fanatic to understand what the hell they are talking about.

So, are we going to let ther racists and fags take the country? I think not.

They think this is a "teachable moment", eh? Well, maybe someone should take a moment to teach them that the black community doesn't equate homosexuality with race as a civil rights issue.

We keep seeing evidence of the black racism, and yet no one will point it out....because, it is not possible, in some people's eyes...Besides, Thomas wouldn't have had to worry about making that decision about whites/black marrying ---he wouldn't have been on the Supreme Court....which shows how far black people have come in the Republicans eyes...

I'm going to wait for the rebuttal ad from The National White Justice Coalition. LOL

Blacks who support gay marriage? You can count them all on one hand. What a joke.

Technically, all humans are of the same race. It's nothing but skin color. So basically, they're ACTUALLY saying that they want to equate the marriage of two homosexuals to the marriage of a man and a woman. Which is bogus. Homosexual Agenda/Moral Absolutes double-ping!

Clarence and Virginia Thomas may be of different color, but they are MAN and WOMAN.

I think the matter is complicated. It's possible, for instance, that there is actually a higher percentage of black homosexuals than white homosexuals, because one probable cause of homosexuality is broken families and absent fathers. But actual homosexuals are only a few percent of either the black or white populations. What matters more is large numbers of politically correct fanatics who support homosexuality as a way to destroy traditional values. In that regard, there are far more white supporters of homosexuality, maybe something like a third of the white population. The black community as a whole does NOT support issues like gay marriage, and is more conservative as a whole than the white community on such issues.

More fresh Blend here.

Canada goes to the polls today

Angus Reid Global Scan

Good luck, friends to the North. Stephen Harper is about 10 points ahead in the polls. (CTV.ca):

The polls leading up to election day point to a win by Conservative Leader Stephen Harper. It won't be clear until late this evening whether those results will prove true. Either way, it appears as if we are headed for another minority government.

Buoyed by the promising poll number, Harper spent his final day of campaigning urging Canadians to vote for a change. He opened the day in Liberal Leader Paul Martin's hometown of Windsor, Ont., before heading west, and picked up on his familiar theme of Liberal "corruption."

The Christian Science Monitor has this interesting observation.

Perhaps the most dramatic campaign story has unfolded in Quebec, where Conservatives failed to win a single seat in the last election. According to a recent poll, the Conservatives' leader, Stephen Harper, is more popular in Quebec than he is in his home province of Alberta, the most conservative region in the country.

"That's like saying George Bush has higher positives [ratings] in Massachusetts than in the state of Texas," says Tim Woolstencroft, managing partner with Strategic Counsel, the Toronto firm that conducted the poll. "It's stunning." Nationwide, Mr. Harper's favorable rating is over 50 percent.

Gee, who is the gay 'top Bush aide'?

The New York Daily News sheds some light on what kind of spinning is done at the White House -- closet control. There are plenty of aides that probably need a gay damage control specialist.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is importing Bush-Cheney political A-teamers to try to salvage his stumbling campaign.

The California governor has hired Steve Schmidt, Vice President Cheney's top strategist and spokesman...Schmidt is a formidable political pugilist whose battles range from taking on Democrats over the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to killing Internet rumors accusing a top Bush aide of being gay.

Hat tip, AmericaBlog

***

In other, possibly related news...


Mehlman outed on MSNBC -- and they censor the transcript

The problem isn't that Rachell Maddow outs the RNC chairman and Bush strategist on Tucker Carlson's show, it's that MSNBC feels the need to edit its transcript. Gee, is Kenny Boy so precious and delicate that a newschannel feels the need to censor this? That's offensive. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Here's Ken showing some hot moves last year in a DC bar with a chick (one in a series of pix on Capitol Buzz), quashing all those rumors, of course.



Hat tip to DKos diarist Mike Stark.

Another perverted pastor

Paulk believes little things like marital fidelity were for "the little ones...commoners."

Bishop Earl Paulk has a special interpretation of the scriptures that seems to involve a lot of extramarital sex. The leader of Chapel Hill Harvester Church in Decatur, GA is being sued by Mona Brewer, a former member of the church, charging sexual misconduct and acts of sexual coercion.

Read and decide.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mona says she came to view Paulk, a married father and grandfather, as a holy messenger of the lord selected by God to speak for the almighty. And, over time, Bishop Paulk's church became her life. Mona became a teacher in the church school, a soloist in the church choir. And, at age 27, she even married an associate church pastor, a union blessed by Paulk himself, a man she believed so close to God that his words could never be questioned.

BREWER: There were signs on the walls at the church. They didn't put scriptures on the wall. They put his sayings, his quotations. And one of them was, "The kingdom of God is built in trust." And we were taught that we were to trust our spiritual authority, and we were taught not to question it.

MATTINGLY: She says this man she respected so much, it turns out, had been moved by her singing and wanted to take her to a higher level of ministry...But Mona was about to get something she never expected. She says, in her next few meetings with Paulk, his plans for her became shockingly clear.

BREWER: He said, well, I guess you will just have to take your clothes off, because I'm going to have to love you. Whoa. And I thought, oh, God. You know, I didn't want to do it, but what choice did I have? I mean, I have been taught for all these years not to question him. And I had this word from God. I mean, God obviously wanted me to do this.

And it was so foreign to me, but I -- I didn't know what else to do. I was on the spot. So, I took off my clothes, and we did it.

...MATTINGLY: The liaisons continued, she says, and became frequent. She says that Paulk used the scriptures to justify the seemingly unholy behavior, claiming that God had elevated him above the sin of adultery.

BREWER: Because he said, you know, the adultery issue was for the little ones. It was for the -- the people, the, you know, commoners. It wasn't for people who God elevated and trusted with special things like this, relationships like this. And that's the way he explained it to me.

This went on for 14 years. One of the other "holy engagements" Paulk convinced Brewer to participate in was to provide sexual hospitality to other visiting charismatic preachers as well as Paulk's family members. Nice.

Paulk also secretly had others watching while they had sex. Cindy Hall, another church member was instructed to watch, and then "take her turn" after he was through with Brewer. Hall has given a deposition for Brewer's lawsuit.

The pious Paulk says it's libel and slander, and told CNN that "It would be interesting to see what percentage of viewers would buy into this beautiful 40-year-old woman's preposterous sex fantasy."

And this isn't the first time he's been in trouble either, despite his protests of innocence and fantasy on Brewer's part. In 2001, another female church member sued him, claiming the bishop sexually molested her when she was a child and as a teenager. That suit was settled out of court in 2003.

After leaders of the International Communion of Charismatic Churches (ICCC) caught wind of this current nonsense, the body asked Paulk to step down from his position as archbishop last October, he then offered up his resignation.

The full transcript is here.

Fred Phelps and the fag-infested hell-hole known as West Virginia

It's a great laugh-fest over at DKos and Carnacki's blog today.

The latest from the Rotting Cryptkeeper^TM is hilarious. Fred has decided that West Virginia, of all states, is the center of the fag-damnation universe. He says it is "by far the worst."

Does Fred know about some party district up in the West Virginia mountains that Damron hasn't heard about? He thinks it's even more sodomite-loving and filthy than The Castro, Greenwich Village or the den of sin where Bush said he partied hard in his "former" wild days, the French Quarter of NOLA.



Carnaki decided to write an open letter to the homo-fixated "minister." A snippet:

I take pride in the fact that of all the places you've picketed, the worst "by far" reception you ever received is in West Virginia. And yes, we are blood-thirsty thugs. Keep that in mind when you mess with one West Virginian, you mess with the entire fucking tribe.

...Phelps, keep in mind what you wrote about West Virginians. You looking for wrath, you just might find it. The people in coal country are not people to mess -- even when you've got field artillery and the U.S. Army behind you as people found out in the Coal Mine Wars of the 1920s.

I believe God is loving and merciful.

But you fuck with West Virginians at your own risk.

Plausible deniability going up in smoke

So, shall we start taking bets on how long it will take for Scott McClellan to go fetal during the White House press briefing when these photos of Bush and Jack Abramoff surface? Remember, the Chimperor says he hasn't met the now-radioactive lobbyist. (Time):

Peppered for days with questions about Abramoff's visits to the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the now disgraced lobbyist had attended two huge holiday receptions and a few "staff-level meetings" that were not worth describing further. "The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him," McClellan said.


The President's memory may soon be unhappily refreshed. TIME has seen five photographs of Abramoff and the President that suggest a level of contact between them that Bush's aides have downplayed. While TIME's source refused to provide the pictures for publication, they are likely to see the light of day eventually because celebrity tabloids are on the prowl for them.

...In one shot that TIME saw, Bush appears with Abramoff, several unidentified people and Raul Garza Sr., a Texan Abramoff represented who was then chairman of the Kickapoo Indians, which owned a casino in southern Texas. Garza, who is wearing jeans and a bolo tie in the picture, told TIME that Bush greeted him as "Jefe," or "chief" in Spanish. Another photo shows Bush shaking hands with Abramoff in front of a window and a blue drape. The shot bears Bush's signature, perhaps made by a machine. Three other photos are of Bush, Abramoff and, in each view, one of the lobbyist's sons (three of his five children are boys). A sixth picture shows several Abramoff children with Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is now pushing to tighten lobbying laws after declining to do so last year when the scandal was in its early stages.

Now how do you suppose the President "forgot" about all these meetings, however brief? Unfortunately there isn't even wiggle room left for The Weasel in Chief to claim a faulty memory, according to The Washingtonian.

Sources say the photographs are being kept safe. Abramoff would tell prosecutors, if asked, that not only did he know the President, but the President knew the names of Abramoff’s children and asked about them during their meetings. At one such photo session, Bush discussed the fact that both he and Abramoff were fathers of twins.

Bush proclaims today 'National Sanctity of Human Life Day'

Thinking fetuses everywhere can rejoice, while those of us of the post-born variety shall continue to suffer under this Administration. Wake me up when the irony train arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Today's proclamation:

"Our Nation was founded on the belief that every human being has rights, dignity, and value. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we underscore our commitment to building a culture of life where all individuals are welcomed in life and protected in law.

America is making great strides in our efforts to protect human life. One of my first actions as President was to sign an order banning the use of taxpayer money on programs that promote abortion overseas. Over the past 5 years, I also have been proud to sign into law the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and a ban on partial-birth abortion. In addition, my Administration continues to fund abstinence and adoption programs and numerous faith-based and community initiatives that support these efforts."

I guess it's too much to expect the President to understand the irony of his proclamation.

What about all the sanctity of lives obiliterated in Iraq? Iraqi citizens and our own troops aren't on his list of the lives he is concerned about with today's declaration. No need to list them anyway, since actions speak louder than words, so little matters such as not giving your soldiers adequate body armor (or even enough bullets) pretty much says it all.

Come to think of it, Dear Leader wasn't known as the Texecutioner for nothing. He really knew how to determine the sanctity of life back in the day.



During his six years as governor of Texas, Bush presided over more executions than any other governor in the recent history of the United States. Tucker was executed in 1988 and was the first woman executed in the U.S. since 1984 -- the first in Texas since the Civil War.

Bob Geiger has more to say about this outrageous proclamation (which coincides with the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, no less).

Bush then goes on to brag about all the steps his administration has taken to ..."protect human life" while neglecting to mention the many safety-net programs cut in his most recent budget. Likewise, he says nothing about his party's 2005 blockades of a minimum wage increase and low-income heating programs and his refusal to even acknowledge a health care crisis that systematically leaves millions of elderly Americans and children with no ability to stay healthy.

That's those wacky Republicans: Love the fetus, hate the child.

...It's also a damn shame this stirring resolution comes too late for the 2,224 U.S. military dead in Iraq or the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have been sacrificed in the name of Bush's "culture of life."

Tasty new redesign over at Shakes Sis

She did it again! Take a look at Shakespeare's Sister's new pad.

Koufax 'Best New Blog' noms are up

If you love surfing the progressive blogosphere, you're going to see quite a few familiar stops along this list. Wampum has the Koufax nominees up for Best New Blog.

These are just some of the fine blogs that I read that made the cut: The Adventures of the Smart Patrol, Agitprop, Blue NC, BobGeiger.com, firedoglake, Good as You, The Heretik, My Left Wing, Pensito Review, The Petrelis Files, The Reaction, Some Watery Thoughts, Street Prophets, Unclaimed Territory by Glenn Greenwald.

There are many more over at Wampum, and all deserve your review this year. The top 8-10 vote recipients will move on to the final round of voting. Surf over to Wampum (voting via comments isn't live yet), to see some worthy nominees. Nominees in other categories will be coming up soon.

Great interview with gay soldier

Kyle Lawson, the gay Army Private who was attacked by a soldier after being inadvertently outed at a party with fellow members of the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, is interviewed over at Queerty.com. After the his orientation was revealed, Lawson was attacked by a fellow soldier, his nose broken, and received multiple threats. Another soldier assaulted Lawson with a knife. Since the incidents, Lawson has been honorably discharged and the assailants have received light punishment. A snippet:

Tell us how the soldier who attacked you was punished. What is his current status?
Loss of Phase and extra duty, which means he can't hang with his friends on the weekend. He must instead work on post - not even a slap on the wrist.

Your attacker said you provoked the assault by making sexually suggestive remarks? True? If not, what exactly sparked it?
This is a typical response when gays are assaulted. Someone has to answer to the military. Look at the case of Private First Class Barry Winchell. When the guilty soldiers had to answer to their chain of command they used the "he was hitting on me" defense.

We were talking about a girl he had the hots for and I was telling him to go for it. He’d found out earlier that I was gay he told me to get the f**** away from him so I walked over to a group of friends. I was extremely upset, asking what his problem was. He came walking up behind me grabbing me by that shoulder and said "Get the f*** out c*** sucker. I told him to back off and I turned away from him. He grabbed me by the shoulder and said "don't ignore me you f**** queer." He then punched me in the face and I fell to the floor.

What was it like for you to be confronted with a knife after the first attack? Was that when you realized you needed to leave the military for fear of your own safety?

Before I was attacked the first time I went to my command and asked if my sexuality would be a problem because I was being harassed and thought something should be done. They assured me that my being gay had nothing to do with being a soldier and I would be perfectly fine as long as I kept it to myself. The same weekend I was attacked, I was moved to another unit where everyone knew why my nose was broken. Everyone there was very accepting of my being in the military and gay. They really didn't care. Only one person had a problem with my being gay. One day I was in the barracks hanging out and he came up to me, pulled a knife on me and said if I didn't get out of his barracks he was going to cut me up. I just let it roll off thinking he was just an idiot trying to act bad. He continued making remarks to other soldiers saying he wanted to see me cut up into little pieces. He would even cut his arm saying the blood on the floor was my blood and he couldn't wait to see more all over (freak maybe he shouldn’t be in the army). So once I heard this I went to my commanded and requested a discharge.

Thanks to Blender Adam for the pointer.

Rent boy a-go-go across the pond

I think this man has a future in American politics! How about this story in Britain's News of the World:

LIB-DEM leadership challenger Mark Oaten has been leading a sordid secret double life — sneaking off from Parliament to pay rent boys for three-in-a-bed sex.

And the News of the World can reveal insiders are convinced THAT is the real reason the married dad of two suddenly pulled out of the race for his party's top job this week. Following our shock investigation the shamed high-flyer last night quit as the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman.

One young male prostitute told us: "Oaten was a regular punter for six months. He loved gay sex and humiliation. "It was a huge turn-on for him. He couldn't get enough. He's a very troubled man living a very dangerous double life."

The news will stun his party, already reeling from leader Charles Kennedy being forced to quit over his secret drinking AND yesterday's revelation that House of Lords Lib Dem leader Tom McNally was also an alcoholic.

This story is chock full of sordid details from the twenty-something rent boy, who received regular calls "for service" from Oaten. Hey, maybe the rent boy has a future in journalism -- just like Bulldog Gannon...

The cherry on top, of course, is the hypocrisy. Good grief, Oaten must be getting training from some of our residents of the Conservative Values Monitor -- and he isn't even conservative...

The scandal exposes Oaten as a hypocrite. Last year he CONDEMNED a judge who was sacked for hiring rent boys. And he has no qualms about using family values to further his career. His website boasts he is a family man who lives with them in his constituency.

The BBC has more.

Hat tip Holly.

Florida bible-beaters wringing hands over lack of signatures for amendment

The drive to get enough folks to sign a petition for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage is failing miserably. Nice to see the incredible overreaching. (Baptist Press):

Barring an incredible effort by Florida churches in the final days of January, a signature drive for a constitutional marriage amendment there appears likely to fail.

Needing 611,000 valid signatures to place an amendment on the November ballot, the effort in Florida thus far has only 220,000, according to figures posted on the Florida Department of State website. Conservatives say the effort still can succeed, but not unless pastors take the lead by getting their members to sign the petitions, which are available for downloading at www.florida4marriage.org/signpetition.html. The petitions must be delivered to the local county's supervisor of elections by Tuesday, Jan. 31.


..."As much as we have tried to get our churches co-engaged with this project … it's been difficult," Bill Bunkley, legislative consultant with the Florida Baptist Convention, told BP.

Here's my favorite part. He blames the lack of success on the hurricanes and the holidays -- you know the "put the Christ back in Christmas" holiday. And as far as the hurricanes go, was this a sign from God that they were not supposed to succeeed? Just asking.

Conservatives, Bunkley said, have battled a number of distractions, including hurricanes and the busy seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas. He also said that the late date for the Florida Baptist State Convention -- it took place in mid-November -- gave Baptists little time to gain momentum before the petition deadline.

'Wicked' letters in the WingNutDaily mailbag

This is almost as good as Freeperville. You might remember the news I posted a couple of days ago about openly gay actor Chad Allen landing the dual role of a slain evangelical Christian missionary and his son in End of the Spear .

The casting sent the wingers into a tizzy -- gasp -- a homo playing the role of a religious person! They were shot down by the son of one of the missionaries portrayed in the film, Steve Saint. He endorsed Allen's casting after reading an article in The Advocate, where Chad spoke about the importance of doing good works and serving others.

I thought this would be the end of it, but some WingNutDaily readers couldn't let it go. Check out some of this mail, they get quite catty.

Christian lap dogs

The fact that a blatant homosexual is playing the famous missionary is a mockery. However, why have so many news outlets been strangely silent about the fact that women openly involved in pornography played significant roles in "The Passion"? Should not this fact be mentioned when discussing this latest film? Is not the movie industry playing Christians for little lap dogs who can't wait to stand on their hind legs and yelp for the next doggie treat given to them by the big movie producers? Do they not secretly laugh when pornography queens play Christian women, and so many Christians are silent? Yes, they are willing to look the other way (i.e., stand on their hind legs) if they can actually have a big "Christian" movie.

***

Wicked and pagan

Once again, Hollywood has demonstrated its determination to take a story, which has been dear to the hearts of Christians for years, such as "Through Gates of Splendor," and hijack it to promote their own wicked homosexual agenda.

Nate Saint, Jim Elliot and the other missionaries did not compromise in their commitment to bring the Gospel to people who were living in murderous pagan ignorance, even laying down their lives willingly to accomplish it. Jim Elliot was quoted as saying, "He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep, in order to gain that which he cannot lose." Does this sound like the kind of man who would tolerate wicked pagan homosexuality to flourish in America, and even be accepted by Christians?

Any Christian who pays good money to see this wicked slander to the memory of these brave and honorable missionaries should be ashamed, and any "preacher" who endorsed it, should be immediately fired by his congregation.

***

WND gossipers

How truly annoying you are most of the time now. You are the ones making a bigger deal out of this actor's role and activism. Who are you to swirl up the controversy when it may actually be God who wanted this young man involved? By stirring up the controversy you are showing the very worst side of Christianity.

I think the movie production company showed true Christianity when they overlooked this man's lifestyle and cast him for the role. Jesus would do it. He would love him but set boundaries, and through that the man could be changed. But by your gossiping, you are making Christians seem worse.

***

Drop the sex!

I have been sadly disappointed in the attention WorldNetDaily has been giving to sex-related articles. It seems you are using the depravity of men to sell your own newssite.

I have had to remove your site from our favorites to keep my children from seeing inappropriate and distasteful news. It's beginning to look like the Enquirer and tabloids at the check out stand at the grocery store.

After reading some of the really unhinged letters, I have to wonder what would these people think if they knew how many of their favorite stars, past and present, are big old homos?

It will be tough to get black churches to embrace gay rights

That's the message coming out so far at the two-day conference on homophobia in the black community, put on by the National Black Justice Coalition. It's being held in Atlanta, and conservative pastors have not come forth to confront the issues for fear of losing parishioners. (NYT):

Though most black Christians are liberal on pocketbook issues, they are social conservatives, speakers at the conference said. Yet getting black churches to accept gay men and lesbians has gained particular urgency over the last two years, participants noted.

The high rate of H.I.V. infection among blacks stems in part, they said, from the unwillingness of black ministers to discuss sexuality. They contended that the Republican Party and white evangelical Christians attracted a small but significant number of black votes in the 2004 presidential election by arguing for a nationwide ban on same-sex marriage and appealing to their conservative mores.

Now I hear plenty of bleating from those on the right that because Bush only received 11 percent of the vote in 2004 (and that support would have dropped down to about zero if the election had been after Katrina), that this is somehow evidence that blacks have not bought into the Right Wing Fever.

This is crazy. What we are talking about is social conservatism; while there may be some drift to the GOP in small numbers, most will vote Dem. What the naysayers seem to forget is that even if someone casts a ballot for a Dem, if there's a marriage amendment on the ballot, the chances are high that this core group of religious blacks will vote for the amendment too. In fact, at this point, it's entirely possible if a Dem that is progressive on gay rights is on a ticket and a "family values" Republican who can cloak him/herself as otherwise moderate, the Repug could win. The issue for the GOP is that blacks have no use for most of the fringe candidates out there.

Conservative black ministers in Atlanta have so far not taken up invitations to discuss attitudes toward gay men and lesbians, said the Rev. Kenneth L. Samuel, pastor of Victory Church in nearby Stone Mountain. Moreover, ministers who are willing to preach acceptance of gay men and lesbians stand to lose many parishioners, Dr. Samuel and others said.

... "This is a learning experience, and it has not been without costs," the Rev. Timothy McDonald, pastor of First Iconium, said of his decision to be host of the conference, organized by the National Black Justice Coalition, an advocacy group for gay men and lesbians based in Washington. "Have we gotten nasty phone calls? Yes. Do I have the marks to show for it? Yes. But I think Jesus took some unpopular stances, too."

Through 2004 and early 2005, black evangelical ministers worked with their white counterparts to muster support for a ban on same-sex marriage. That campaign's momentum may be flagging somewhat because of inaction by Congress and the president on a constitutional amendment to prohibit the unions, said Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., a proponent of the ban and pastor of Hope Christian Church in College Park, Md.

Still, black preachers like Mr. Jackson are crisscrossing the country, trying to draw more black members of the clergy to their cause.


Bishop Harry Jackson is chairman is author of a six-point "Black Contract with America on Moral Values." He believes that most black churches oppose same-sex marriage because of "the clear teaching of Scripture." Oh, and he is a pastor who has received $824,000 of faith-based funds.

... Some blacks are also loath to accept gay men and lesbians in their midst because the sexuality of African-Americans has been stereotyped as promiscuous and unhealthy, said Alton Pollard III, director of black church studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

"I don't think that black people are more homophobic than anyone else," Dr. Pollard said, "but blacks have been stigmatized for so long as sexual beings that any discussion of homosexuality causes even greater discomfort."

Pollard's point has not been discussed much in the media coverage of this topic, probably for good reason. How, then, are Dems going to be able to overcome the reticence of the conservative religious black community to think beyond that painful stigma and discuss and accept the reality that the discrimination they perpetuate upon gays and lesbians is wrong on many levels, particularly for the community itself. The explosion of HIV among black women is real -- not frankly talking about sex and sexuality is deadly.

There's not been a lot of success making white evangelicals see the light about civil equality; the ability to do so with socially conservative religious blacks seems doubly hard.

It is a given that, even in a progressive community like the Triangle area of NC, when issues surrounding gay rights are concerned, it's representatives from the most socially conservative black churches that show up to protest and demonize, joining up with the white evangelicals.  Our local bigot that gets the most face-time is Patrick Wooden of the Upper Room Church in Raleigh.

Breaking: Laurel Hester will be able to leave pension benefit to partner

The Ocean County, NJ Freeholders finally do the right thing. It only happened after the five heartless Republican Freeholders were avalanched by calls, emails and critical TV coverage. In the end, Laurel Hester will be able to pass her pension benefit to her partner, Stacie Andree. It was Laurel's bravery -- and the support from around the world -- that made this happen. It's sad that it took that amount of exposure to overturn such bigotry, but the happy ending is worth it.

Following Hester's emotional appeal freeholders refused to reopen the issue. But following news coverage including television reports which showed Hester's deteriorating condition, freeholders were besieged with critical phone calls and emails.

Late Friday state Sen. Andrew Ciesla (R-Ocean) said he intends to bring in legislation that would amend the police and fire pension fund to permit domestic partners to receive benefits. That was followed by a conference call between state GOP leaders from the county and freeholders.

The conference call ended with freeholders agreeing to a special meeting next Wednesday where a new vote will be taken and Hester will be allowed to transfer her benefits. "This is one of the happiest days of my life," Hester said on Saturday morning. "I feel like David conquering Goliath."

Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality - the group that fought for Hester and prepared the video so she could make her final appeal to freeholders - expressed relief on Saturday.

"Truth be told, we did lose hope for a reversal in the last couple of weeks. We had applied all the pressure in the world, embarrassing the freeholders as few public servants had ever been before in the state of New Jersey or in this country, and they would not budge. Finally they did. Hallelujah! There is a God."

Michael Jensen of The Big Gay Picture just spoke with Laurel and has this update.

I just got off the phone with Dane [Wells, the straight man who supported Laurel's effort] and Laurel. It sounds like there is a mob of reporters, including NBC, besieging Laurel's house to cover the story. Dane sounded exhausted, not surprising given how much time he has spent keeping Laurel company while simultaneously fighting for her cause. If Dane doesn't come out of this whole experience known as one of our communities best friends it will be a shame. He and Laurel have changed so many lives and minds in New Jersey and beyond, that it's remarkable. After Dane's life has calmed down, I'll talk with him again for his thoughts on the whole experience.

More coverage in the Ocean County Observer, Hester to win as freeholders change mind.

Related:
* Outrage: NJ Freeholders turn down Laurel Hester's plea for partner benefits

Kaine: 'not comfortable with language' but will sign amendment anyway

If this statement is supposed to take the heat off of the Virginia governor, his shill is sorely mistaken. I see the PR weasel is squirming and Tim Kaine is desperately trying to have it both ways, soothing the bigots and trying to get the gays off his back.

Let's see, if Tim Kaine doesn't like the language of the current marriage amendment making its way to his desk, but will sign it anyway, what is the point of blowing this hot air? Your legislature is going to send it to you, Tim, and you could decide not to sign it, but that's not politically palatable is it? All the efforts in the legislature designed to limit the scope of the amendment were defeated. You're on your own.

Unless, of course, the governor is planning on engaging his state's Senate before it takes the final vote to send it to him. Highly unlikely, as Kaine is counting on raising his national profile during the SOTU response as a "new face of the Democratic party."

The Senate's ballot language, by the way, prohibits anything that "approximates marriage," so it's pretty muddy and broad territory, vague enough to leave gay Virginians twisting in the wind. Kaine is already on the record opposing same-sex marriage and civil unions, so it's pretty ridiculous at this point for him to suggest there is something about the amendment's scope he objects to.

These games about what he's "comfortable with" are not going to change the fact that Kaine's about to let the voters of his state relegate its gay citizens to second-class status. You hate it, you own it, Tim. (WashBlade):

"He was not comfortable with [the current amendment] language," said Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner. "He preferred language that was not as broad."

...Skinner told the Washington Blade for reports earlier this week and in today's print edition that Kaine supported the amendment. She did not mention his reservations about the scope of the language.

Kaine, a Democrat sworn into office just this week, agrees with the first line of the amendment, which limits marriage to a man and woman, but does not support the additional language, she said. Kaine wants to discuss measures "to make sure people can still be able to contract with each other," Skinner said.

Further down in the article, the bottom line is that spineless elected officials are not willing to take the heat to oppose this hate amendment because they are afraid a "no" vote would have been interpreted as endorsing gay marriage. So, for their cowardice, a host of hurdles and lack of legal protections await gays and lesbians in Virginia, many of which have already been experienced in Ohio, which passed an amendment last year.

Stacy Ruble of the Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance said some Ohio domestic violence activists, often on the advice of prosecutors and courts, don't even bring unmarried victims to court anymore.

"I can see it happening here," she said. "It could be those people are turned away. They wouldn't have protections."

Legislators are sympathetic to her group's arguments, but fear that voting against the amendment will be seen as an endorsement of gay marriage, Ruble said.

Gay and lesbian couples already have difficulty finding courts that will provide protective orders in domestic violence cases, she said. If the amendment is approved in November, the few jurisdictions and judges that do offer protections will likely stop, she predicted. Ruble declined to name the jurisdictions because she feared they could be targeted.

Yes, Tim -- you're the Democratic Party's best representative "to deliver its 2006 message of inclusiveness" after Bush's State of the Union address, "representing all Americans from all walks of life."

Karl's bringing 9/11 to a 2006 campaign near you

Karl Rove isn't even bothering to hide the fact that we're going to be hearing about 9/11 and terrorism nonstop during the upcoming campaign season. Since the Administration and the Hill are rife with corruption and incompetence, they might as well start jerking the terror alert chain that they have attached to the sheeple's collar ASAP. (CNN):

"Republicans have a post-9/11 view of the world. And Democrats have a pre-9/11 view of the world," Rove told Republican activists. "That doesn't make them unpatriotic, not at all. But it does make them wrong -- deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong."

"The GOP's progress during the last four decades is a stunning political achievement. But it is also a cautionary tale of what happens to a dominant party -- in this case, the Democrat Party -- when its thinking becomes ossified; when its energy begins to drain; when an entitlement mentality takes over; and when political power becomes an end in itself [Is he looking in a mirror?] rather than a mean to achieve the common goal," Rove told Republican National Committee members ending a two-day meeting.

...Reading from a prepared text, the deputy White House chief of staff began with a call for election-year civility -- "Our opponents are our fellow citizens, not our enemies" -- and quickly turned to portraying Democrats as weak on defense.

"The United States faces a ruthless enemy -- and we need a commander-in-chief and a Congress who understand the nature of the threat and the gravity that American finds itself in," Rove said. "President Bush and the Republican Party do. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many Democrats."

Turdblossom was playing tag team with RNC head Ken Mehlman, who had the unfortunate task of spinning/explaining away the myriad ethics scandals.

The admonition reflects growing concerns among senior Republicans that ethics scandals in the Republican-led Congress could hurt the party in November, even among staunch GOP voters who may begin to blame corruption for Congress' runaway spending habits.

Mehlman couldn't have been more blunt: "One of the oldest lessons of history is that power corrupts," he said, telling RNC members that any Republicans guilty of illegal behavior should be punished.

Also:
* Going below Rove's belt
* Ken Mehlman, practicing some 'hot moves'

More Katrina corruption and incompetence

Yesterday I enjoyed great conversation and a delicious Foster's scone with Chris Kromm of Facing South. We were shooting the breeze about politics, journalism and blogging in the unseasonably warm weather here in Durham, and mini-ranting about the state of politics today. Actually, I was the one ranting.

Chris has an excellent post up on yet another Katrina failure: it took nearly a week for FEMA to mobilize buses to evacuate thousands of city residents from the filthy, dangerous Superdome and convention center. The reason for this is buried in a DOT audit that Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch reporter Tim Shorrock, who dug into. It's a story of cronyism, incompetence, and taxpayer pickpocketing.

The audit is also focused on Landstar Express America Inc. A trucking and logistics company based in Jacksonville, Fla., Landstar is a politically well-connected corporation that's risen to the top of the U.S. transportation industry without actually owning any trucks. Chairman Jeffrey Crowe served until recently as head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and last April Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appointed him to his Advisory Council on Base Realignment and Closure.

Landstar managed the evacuation contract for the FAA under a $100 million subcontract signed in October 2002. The audit "is an ongoing thing," said Barnes. IG inspectors are still not sure how the contract ended up at FAA, which manages the nation's air traffic control system, he added.

The FAA would not comment, and FEMA press officials did not return telephone calls. A Landstar vice president did not respond to a request for comment, either.

Landstar, however, has not been reticent to talk about its profits from the contract. Last October, the company disclosed that $129.8 million of the $676 million it earned in revenue during the third quarter of 2005 was directly attributable to its "disaster relief" contract with "the United States Department of Transportation/Federal Aviation Administration."

By all accounts, the FAA and Landstar failed miserably to help the citizens of New Orleans escape from their drowned city. And when the crisis hit, FEMA, whose bungling during Katrina has become legendary, was unaware that it had even contracted the operation to FAA, or that FAA had subcontracted the work to Landstar,

Jesus' General, WaPo beta tester

You have to go over to see the mockups of the "new" WaPo. I just about died laughing.

The Washington Post is losing readers. They aren't sure why that is, but they're desperate to reverse the trend.

Right now, they're beta testing a new look and style. The Post is trying to bring what they call a "cable news feel" to newspaper publishing.

I was lucky enough to be chosen to be one of their first testers. Although I can't send you to their test site--it's password protected--I screencapped a couple of pages so that I could share them with you.

'Black Jesse Helms' wants to challenge Mel Watt

I will always fight for what's right and you will always know where I stand. We cannot redefine marriage as any grouping of adults and children. I will vigorously oppose homosexual marriages, marriage-lite proposals and adoptions, as well as "gay" Scoutmasters. While my opponent believes that those in a drag queen parade and Rosa Parks are both civil rights leaders, I will join the dozens of Congressmen who sponsored an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that provides that "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman."

"I want your children to be able to say 'under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance" and see the Ten Commandments on public property."

"As we have witnessed over 50 million babies killed since Roe v Wade it is important to note that a country that will accept 50 million dead babies will accept anything; obstruction of justice, perjury, suborning perjury, witness tampering, bribery, criminal violations of campaign finance laws, pardons for cash, the criminal misuse of confidential FBI files, violations of the Oath of Office, the desecration of the Oval Office, High Crimes and Misdemeanors, trading missile technology for cash from the Chinese, rape, serial adultery, sexual harassment, even treason. "

-- some of the wit and wisdom of Vernon Robinson, who wants Mel Watt's job

NC politics can sometimes be strange, funny, scary or all three; it's not boring. Someone should sell tickets to the debates in this race. Mel Watt, head of the Congressional Black Caucus, is going to wipe up the floor with this clown; I'm just shaking my head at this guy's web site. When he loses, perhaps he can get a gig at Project 21. (Charlotte Observer):

A Winston-Salem Republican who's touted himself as "the black Jesse Helms" says he's gearing up to possibly challenge seven-term Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., of Charlotte -- the state's most liberal member of Congress.

Vernon Robinson said Wednesday he's sent 40,000 letters to conservatives explaining "why this is do-able and saying, `I want your support.' "



Two years ago, Robinson was a controversial but nearly successful candidate in the 5th Congressional District, which stretches from Forsyth County to Tennessee.

An outspoken opponent of illegal immigration and same-sex marriage, Robinson drew national attention for raising almost $3 million from a national conservative donor network and spending it on provocative ads -- including one in which an announcer decried illegal "aliens" from Mexico while the "Twilight Zone" theme played in the background.

Robinson still lives in the 5th District. But he said he'd run this year for Watt's seat in the 12th -- a district that snakes up I-85, from Charlotte to Winston-Salem and Greensboro -- to give voters a clear choice.

Watt, reached for comment Wednesday, said there wasn't a Watt-Robinson race and wouldn't be unless Robinson won a GOP primary.

Here's the AgapePress spin on the Easter Egg Roll dustup

Oh this is too funny. What a bunch of freaks.

A spokesman for a Protestant renewal organization warns that homosexual activists are planning to crash a traditional Easter event at the White House this year. Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) says the pro-homosexual religious group Soulforce and the Family Pride Coalition are teaming up in an effort to fill the White House lawn with as many "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families" as possible at the annual Easter Egg Roll on April 17.

..."Soulforce is a lobby effort to persuade America's churches to abandon their scriptural teachings about homosexuality," Tooley explains. He says the group's members frequently resort to "very radical demonstrations, acts of civil disobedience, and even arrests in order to gain attention and make their political point about demanding acceptance of homosexual behavior within Christianity."

Related:
* White House responds to LGBT families attending the Easter Egg Roll

***

While I was on the AFA's "news" site, I thought I'd post the latest eruption on Brokeback.

The American Family Association's director of research says after the release of the film Brokeback Mountain, he expects Hollywood will be bolder than ever in its promotion of homosexual causes. The movie, which chronicles a homosexual relationship between two sheepherders in rural Wyoming in the 1960s and 1970s, received four Golden Globe awards this past week, and several critics predict it will garner Oscar honors as well.


But AFA's Ed Vitagliano, who recently screened the film, describes it as a boring movie with no real plot -- but with a clear agenda. "This movie is the latest in a series of movies that Hollywood has put out which promote the homosexual agenda," the researcher says. "The disturbing difference in this movie is that it has explicit homosexual acts and is, I think definitely, aimed at the heart of the viewers to drum up sympathy for that lifestyle." The movie opened in limited release in metropolitan areas with large numbers of homosexual residents. Vitagliano believes the recent media blitz for the pro-homosexual movie is a sign of Hollywood's true agenda.

I don't remember seeing any "explicit" scenes in this movie. What on earth is he talking about? Maybe he confused the movie with the fantasies that he was experiencing.

Washington state's gay rights bill scoots through its House

Almost there...it moves on to the Senate, where it is expected to pass. I am waiting for the head of bible-beating black bigot of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Ken Hutcherson, to explode. (365gay.com):

Legislation banning discrimination against gays, lesbians, and the transgendered in jobs and housing was passed in the state House on Friday. The measure was approved on a 60-37 vote.

"This discrimination is a reality,” said Rep. Ed Murray (D-Seattle) leading off final debate on the bill and working diffuse critics who claim there had been no proof the legislation was needed.


The no votes came mainly from Republicans. "We think this needs to go the people," said House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt (R-Chehalis). “We don’t think we should impede on the religious freedom."

It is expected the legislation will pass the Senate this time. The senator who cast the deciding vote now says he will support the measure.

This time around, the bill has support from Microsoft, which caved to the right the last time around, and other big boys on board: Boeing, Hewlett Packard and Nike. Hutcherson, the cry baby, has called for a national boycott against Microsoft.

As other folks have commented, I guess this means he'll be moving to some flavor of Linux, huh? Apple's too gay friendly, so Hutch is pretty much f*cked.

Why did I laugh when I saw this headline?

Gay Ex-Gov. Turns Blogger. Corrupt former NJ Governor and freshly minted out gay man James E. McGreevey put his pajamas on and started a blog with gay rights guru David Mixner -- it's on HuffPost. Hey, he has to start somewhere with the political rehabilitation.

Two for one: perv pastor and drunken skinhead

Baptist pastor admits molesting 2 girls. How much more of this can we take? Pious pillars of the community, men who stand in the pulpit, supposedly leading the flock to spiritual fulfillment. Afterwards they put on the figurative trench coat and start perving through that community.

Today's example of depravity comes from Salinas, California. This sick perv molested his own daughter a mentally disabled parishioner. (Monterey County Herald):

Donald Domelle, 65, pastor of the Baptist Temple of Salinas, admitted to two felony counts of lewd conduct with a child and agreed to a minimum of 15 years in prison Thursday in a remarkably swift case that kept one young woman and a teenager from recounting in court their stories of repeated sexual abuse at the pastor's hands.

"(Domelle) has accepted responsibility from the beginning," said defense attorney John Coniglio. The pastor was arrested at his church Dec. 21 after Sheriff's investigators looked into allegations that he sexually molested a 16-year-old girl that prosecutors described as "educationally challenged." Initially, Domelle denied the allegations, said prosecutor Gary Thelander, but during a two and a half hour interview with sheriff's deputies he admitted to having sex with the first known victim.

...Seven days later, investigators contacted Domelle's 25-year-old adopted daughter, who was living in Northern California with her biological father. That is when authorities confirmed there was a second victim, Thelander said. The daughter came under Domelle's custody when she was 3 years old and was adopted six years later. Between the ages of 10 and 19, Thelander said, Domelle repeatedly had sex with her.

"She never told law enforcement. She told people in the community and nobody believed her," Thelander said. "(Domelle and his wife) then sent her off to Christian school in Texas."

Lock and load Domelle up in the Conservative Values Monitor, Russ!

Hat tip, to Fritz on that one, and this followup, which he sent, saying: "Here's something in stark contrast to the Ohio man who was sentenced to attend an African-American church."

In that case, the judge, who is black, said dumb*ss drunk Brett Haines could go to jail or attend a black church -- to give him "cultural awareness." This was the punishment for throwing punches and screaming racial slurs at a black cab driver and his wife. Haines did his first stint with Jehovah's Witnesses last Sunday. The white supremacist in this story had what I think is a more appropriate sentence for the crime.

Boulder Creek man gets 195 days in jail (Santa Cruz Sentinel):

After expressing concern about a Boulder Creek man's apparent white supremacist beliefs, a judge Tuesday sentenced the 21-year-old to 195 days in jail and 100 hours of community service for threatening a man who is a minority and for resisting arrest.

Miles Kelly, 21, was arrested Nov. 9 in downtown Boulder Creek by sheriff's deputies who said he began punching a man's car because the motorist had dark skin and then used a racial slur and threatened to kill the man.

Judge Jeff Almquist ordered Kelly to perform half the 100 hours with minorities and half with San Lorenzo Valley groups "dealing with problems of young people that advocate white supremacist beliefs." He also ordered treatment for alcohol abuse and three years probation.

...Kelly was originally charged with a felony hate crime, but Almquist bumped that charge down to a misdemeanor threats charge, telling Kelly on Tuesday that he got that "benefit" because he was "obviously very intoxicated."

But prosecutor Steve Drottar said it was not just drunken stupidity.

"The people feel this sentence is inadequate," he said. "...You don't get to run around like some kind of Nazi. Free speech is one thing, but to lash out in violence is another."

Maryland moves same-sex marriage forward

Pissed-off Governor Robert Ehrlich; plaintiffs Stacey Kargman-Kaye with Jodi Kelber-Kaye, pictured with one of their two sons. Photo on R: Leigh H. Mosley

God, it's great to be able to post some good news, after this horrible week of bullsh*t. (Wash Blade):

Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich is already promising to fight the ruling today by a Baltimore Circuit Court that a 1973 state law that limits marriage to a man and woman is unconstitutional.

"After much study and serious reflection, this court holds that Maryland's statutory prohibition against same-sex marriage cannot withstand this constitutional challenge," ruled Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Brooke M. Murdock, in an opinion issued this morning.

"[The ban] violates Article 46 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights because it discriminates, based on gender against a suspected class; and is not narrowly tailored to serve any compelling governmental interests."

The suit, Deane and Polyak vs. Conaway, was filed in July 2004 by the American Civil Liberties Union and Equality Maryland. Nine gay Maryland couples and one man whose partner died have joined the suit.

Related:
* MD: Suit opens challenging state's prohibition of same-sex marriage

Sharpton charges Bush with fueling homophobia

He may be nutty, but he calls this truth out. I do wish that he'd step back and shine the light on the black pastors that have fomented bigotry from the pulpit and bellied up for faith-based dollars. That's where the real blame lies. Follow the money; no one is forcing those bigots to take the cash -- those folks are selling out their gay brothers and sisters. (365gay.com):

The Rev. Al Sharpton told a conference of African American gay leaders Friday that the Bush administration is fostering homophobia in the Black community for his own political gain.

The New York Democrat said that Bush focused on same-sex marriage and traditional fears of gays among Blacks to get re-elected in 2004 when he should have been addressing education, health care and jobs.

Speaking in Atlanta at a national conference called by the National Black Justice Coalition, Sharpton said that gay African Americans must engage in dialogue with Black church leaders.

About 150 people from across the country are attending the three day conference aimed at combating homophobia within the Black community.

Sharpton began his speech by saying he grew up in a family that had a gay member. He did not identify that member, but he said that he saw firsthand the bigotry that gay people confront.

The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) is holding a summit, hosted by First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta today and tomorrow. For Sharpton, this is his first participation on a conference dealing directly with homophobia in the black community. This summit is long overdue, given the long list of black pastors that have been cozying up to the religious Right.

Related:
* Sharpton calls out black homophobia and addresses HIV
* Wilson bans NBJC's Keith Boykin from the podium at the Millions More March

Anti-gay Dem Tim Kaine tapped for response to SOTU

[UPDATE: I was still steaming overnight about this. I've redigested some of my thoughts from the comments and moved it back up. There are a couple of new posts below.]

I ask you -- why was Tim Kaine picked to represent the Democratic Party's "American values" in the official response to Bush's State of the Union address? The Dems have sent a loud and clear message re: 2006/2008 to its gay voters with this selection.

Kaine ran an unnecessary gay-baiting campaign against an even-worse homo-bigot Jerry Kilgore in the Virginia governor's race, and Kaine has pledged to sign off on an onerous marriage amendment that enshrines bigotry into the state's constitution.

That said, I'm willing to take the gay-baiting of Kilgore issue off of the table, since it's noise that's distracting some people from the larger issue, which is what Kaine represents as the new face of the party. The gay residents of Virginia were stuck with two pro-marriage amendment choices for governor because it reflects the political lay of the land there. I feel for folks there.

Any gay Dem should be sick to their stomach at this pick. Kaine is just another Republican-lite clone from a Red state, and that's where the Dem leadership has indicated it wants to move the party. We are on notice -- homos are going to be tossed overboard -- again -- in search of the elusive win. They haven't figured out that voters need and want to see a party that has values it actually believes in and is willing to defend -- and they won't get a dime from me with this bullsh*t.

As you read this it's painful -- like nails down a blackboard. (PageOneQ):

National Democratic leaders today will ask Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) to deliver the party’s response to the president’s State of the Union address, believing that the new governor can best deliver their 2006 message of inclusiveness, American values and high ethical standards.

...A Democratic House aide called choosing Kaine “a no-brainer,” adding that the new governor also provides a fresh face for a party running on a message of change and reform.

...Another Democratic source said that Kaine “just got elected on a winning message. He talks about values and serving all the people. Certainly, as Democrats, that’s one of our themes. We represent all Americans from all walks of life, not the wealthy special interests that the Republicans represent.”

All walks of life except if you're a fag or dyke. We'll hang you homos out to dry -- after we court you at every fundraising opportunity that arises so we can (attempt to) win.

What does this party stand for? For the new faces of the Democratic Party, what's OK? I'm just asking because I honestly don't know what the core values are...

For instance, regarding reproductive freedom issues, are you a Fresh-Faced Electable Democrat^TM if you:
-- personally don't approve of abortion, but don't want to restrict access
-- want more restrictions such as parental notification
-- believe that late term abortion is always wrong
-- want Roe v. Wade overturned
-- want to restrict access to reproductive technology for unmarried women

or

Regarding same-sex civil marriage, are you a Fresh-Faced Electable Democrat^TM if you:
-- believe marriage is between a man and a woman, and there should be no access to marriage or any civil equivalent for gays
-- believe marriage is between a man and a woman, but there should be some separate, but unequal civil accommodation for gays
-- believe marriage is between a man and a woman, but there should be a separate and equal civil accommodation for gays
-- believe gays can marry

Are they even debating these things at the upper levels of the party bureaucracy?

Let's look at it another way. Where's the line in the sand that if you cross it, you will not get party support?

I'm assuming that if Kaine believed, for instance, that Intelligent Design should be taught in the Virginia schools, the Dem establishment would not be tapping him for this speech. That lunacy should be a deal-breaker (but who knows at this point). But it is A-OK for Kaine to take the position that his state's constitution should be permanently amended to discriminate against an entire group of tax-paying citizens.

As I said in the comments, I just think of poor Laurel Hester and her fate, in a state (NJ) with patchwork gay rights.

For gays living under Kaine and his endorsement of a marriage amendment, it's a clear message that your life partner relationship has no legal footing or recognition in the state -- and it will NEVER be recognized. Oh, and keep paying taxes for that luxury.

Yet that's fine and dandy with the Democratic Party establishment, which tacitly endorses Kaine's position with this pick. Defenders will say: "just ignore that and look at 'the whole package' or 'the long view'.

Well, I'm looking at the long view, and so far all I see are states falling, one by one, passing marriage amendments because Dems are silent. I take that as either an endorsement of the bigotry, or complete impotence and incompetence on how to counter the message coming out of the right wing.

That's when you know that civil equality is not a core value in this party.

To me, a true fresh face from Virginia is Delegate David Englin. He is a Fighting Dem that had the balls to publicly slap back at bigotry in his statehouse with a speech that should be read by Howard Dean and the rest of the shiftless, bleating Dem talking heads. The party leadership had plenty of choices to tap for this speech -- and they chose Republican lite.

That's why I said the day with putting up that bullsh*t is over. I can no longer cast a vote that ensures my basic rights are not granted, or worse, taken away because both parties have put up anti-gay, anti-choice candidates.

I can sit out on voting or just vote for people I know have the balls to do the right thing. And it's not because I'm a single issue voter, either. I think back to the last governor's race here. I had to choose betwwn centrist Dem Mike Easley for governor over the awful Repug Patrick Ballantine. Both were clear that neither supported gay marriage. It was easy to cast a vote for Easley only because of one reason -- NC didn't have an amendment looming. Our General Assembly has kept the wingnuts in check, bottling the marriage bills submitted by the fringe, redneck elements in committee. That's also due to a lot of effective work by Equality NC -- the Tar Heel State was the only state in the Southeast that faced an anti-gay amendment and stopped it.

Had an amendment truly been in play, I couldn't vote for either of them. Not when legislation to ensure that I am going to be a second-class citizen in my state is at stake. I don't know how long we can stave off the bigots here, but they'll be back.

LBJ had the balls to counter the bigots in his party because he knew he had to do the right thing. Today's Dems are so fixated by winning that core values don't matter; it's about job security and pandering to the emotions and not the brains of the sheeple, instead of risk-taking and reframing difficult issues that have been hijacked and demonized (successfully) by the Rove machine.

That is not leadership, that is cowardice and lazy thinking.

Follow-up post:
Kaine: 'not comfortable with language' but will sign amendment anyway

Gazing into the 2008 crystal ball

University of Virginia Center for Politics Director and frequent talking head Larry Sabato puts his two cents in on the Dems jockeying for 2008 position, and it makes for entertaining reading. He clearly sees success with moderate candidates -- but that's no surprise. Sabato's focus is solely on conventional wisdom and perceived electability. (There is actually a Sabato spoof site, btw).

Anyway, there is a lot to chew on here, particularly given the news that marriage amendment-supporting Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has been tapped to give the Dem response after the SOTU, indicating where Dem leadership wants to take the party. From Sabato's Crystal Ball:

* The nomination of Hillary Clinton would be an enormous gamble by Democrats. Instead of a laser-like focus on the inadequacies of the Bush administration, the campaign might well turn out, at least in good part, to be rehash of the mistakes and scandals of the Clinton years. The GOP nominee might get a pass, positioned as an unsullied alternative, while Americans sought to turn the page on both the Clinton and Bush eras after 16 consecutive years of two-family rule.

* John Kerry had his chance in 2004, and few are anxious to repeat that experience.

* John Edwards has shrewdly picked the underclass as his issue (even before Hurricane Katrina), but his thin public office resume and weak base of support in North Carolina are serious obstacles; he also had his first, best chance in 2004.

* Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is a fine fellow, an honest, principled public official, but he is well to the left, has no real appeal in most Red States (especially in the South), and would test the limits of Americans' tolerance in a couple of ways (he is twice divorced and Jewish). His relatively early call for withdrawal from Iraq has made him a liberal favorite among bloggers and activists, a la Howard Dean in '04, so he cannot be dismissed in the Democrats' nominating process. Still, Feingold, under most circumstances, would be an easy mark for the Republicans in the fall.

* Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware will have had 35 years of Senate experience by 2008, and few know foreign policy as well. Yet his tiny base in Delaware, limited fund-raising potential, and off-putting speaking style make him quite a long-shot. Biden's performance in the Alito confirmation hearings did nothing to help him, either, and few graduates of Princeton University will be signing up for his campaign, we suspect.

* Some liberal Democrats keep talking about Al Gore and Howard Dean, but neither one will, or should, run.

* Governor Mark Warner has just finished a successful stint in Virginia's top job, having well managed a difficult fiscal situation and also having elected a more liberal successor, Tim Kaine, in a conservative Red State. Warner built an attractive record in a wide variety of areas, from education to mental health to the environment, and he truly made the most of the one four-year term to which Virginia's Constitution still limits its governors, consecutively. Although a certified suburban yuppie, Warner made deep inroads in rural areas by lavishing attention upon rural people and their problems. He adopted NASCAR, country music, and an antipathy to gun control. With roots in Indiana and Connecticut, not just Virginia, Warner has the wealth and the appeal to run an impressive national campaign.

* Evan Bayh of Indiana is yet another respectable, mediagenic, family-oriented moderate with presidential ambitions. In the deeply Red Hoosier state, Bayh has won two landslide elections as governor and two as senator. These eleven Midwestern electoral votes, possibly combined with the twenty from neighboring Ohio, might be deducted from the GOP and added to the Democratic column by Bayh--making a Republican presidential victory difficult mathematically. A Warner-Bayh or Bayh-Warner ticket could be well nigh unbeatable, with Warner adding Virginia's thirteen electoral votes and probably West Virginia's five. The total of forty-nine electoral votes from these four Red states (OH, IN, VA, WV) would be nearly impossible for the GOP to make up, should this come to pass. Republicans need not worry: The Virginia-Indiana pairing makes so much political sense that the Democrats will never actually do it. This is not to say that Bayh has no disadvantages. The good senator is, well, boring and cautious to a fault. Even well funded, as he is likely to be, it is difficult to imagine how he gets traction in a large field.

Sabato also mentions Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, and Sen. Barack Obama briefly, but he discounts them for 2008.

***


This should run on every blog the moment McCain announces.

Sabato also speculates on the Republican field, which has some pretty sad pickings for 2008 as well. He spends a lot of time on Bush-humping McCain, but I won't bore you with that. This section was quite hilarious.

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is magnetic, articulate, intriguing, and close to New Hampshire, so he could surprise us. But how does a Mormon from Massachusetts--the enemy state for Republicans--overcome all the obvious obstacles in his path, such as only one term as governor, some moderate positions in his 2002 campaign, and his lack of foreign policy experience? New York Governor George Pataki is also underwhelming. He is surprisingly obscure for a three-termer, is leaving office unpopular in his home state, would be unlikely to carry New York in November, and has positions on social issues so liberal that he cannot hope to secure the votes of most GOP conservatives.

Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee lost over 100 pounds, which is admirable, but it doesn't make for much of a presidential platform. And can Republicans contemplate choosing a presidential nominee from Bill Clinton's state so soon after the Clinton administration? Little known Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas has a geographic advantage, perhaps, in the Iowa caucuses, but he is perceived as a Sammy-one-note on abortion. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a hard-driving, exceedingly bright man who has secured the worst reviews for his budding candidacy in the entire field. Maybe once he leaves the presidential candidacy hellhole called the Senate in early 2007 he will be able to regenerate his White House bid. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is eternally engaging and creative, but no one yet takes his potential candidacy seriously. Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska might be a substitute for John McCain if McCain chooses not to run, yet he has most of McCain's problems and few of his advantages. Oh yes, Nebraska is also close to Iowa.

OK, folks, it's your turn, what do you think of Sabato's observations?

Hat tip Holly.

Read 'ems

* Scout Prime has two great Katrina-related posts up:
-- "Consistent Info" on Missing Persons Leads to Search of 400 NOLA Homes for Bodies" . This is heartbreaking and enraging because we are five months out from the hurricane and Louisiana officials are now calling for the search of 400 homes "because authorities have consistent information about people missing from those locations." Many of us, including Scout, believes there are still bodies in the rubble and filth in of NOLA -- some remaining homes in Ninth Ward have never been searched.

-- "More Housing Discrimination Against Katrina Victims." The second post, well, who can be surprised that the government has had to start an ad campaign to remind tenants and landlords that housing discrimination against people of color is illegal. Complaints have been lodged against five apartment complexes in Texas, Florida and Alabama for doing so.

* MadKane's latest Sam Alito poems are up, for your reading pleasure.

* Blender Val points to this mind-blower, "The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion," about anti-choice women that choose to have an abortion. From the site.

Abortion is a highly personal decision that many women are sure they'll never have to think about until they're suddenly faced with an unexpected pregnancy. But this can happen to anyone, including women who are strongly anti-choice. So what does an anti-choice woman do when she experiences an unwanted pregnancy herself? Often, she will grin and bear it, so to speak, but frequently, she opts for the solution she would deny to other women -- abortion.

* Michael Stickings, Shakes Sis and Carla at Premptive Karma mull over Kevin Drum's post on last week's missile attack in Pakistan and a moral dilemma posed -- whether the bombing of the village (intended to kill al-Zawahiri) was or was not justified when innocent civilians die, even if the benefit is that top al Qaeda officials were killed.

What is the level of comfort for those of us on the Left with the use of force as in the war on terror, given at some point the Dems will return to power -- and it's not like the WoT will be over when the Chimp departs.

I have mixed feelings on this, because the whole issue is clouded by the complete incompetence and criminal behavior of this administration. Military action has its place, but I think the whole "surgical strike" BS is just a term tossed out to soothe people that are repulsed/offended by violence and death. For all the "precision" there are countless (and officially uncounted in Iraq) civilian casualties, er, collateral damage, involved in these strikes.

Force of this nature is sometimes necessary, but it should be paired with good human and electronic intelligence - the U.S. seems to be hopelessly under-resourced on the former, and when they don't have it, they just make sh*t up to justify an action. This government seems to ignore clear evidence that this type of military action creates even more terrorists. We blow up countries on a whim, leave people to live in an obliterated society, and then wonder why our men and women in uniform are getting killed. These terrorist networks are headless, as opposed to a terrorist state, so our ham-handed military tactics aren't effective. One would think that a better approach would be to have covert assassin teams trying to take these al Qaeda heads out. We actually probably do, but they clearly haven't produced the desired result.

New Bin Laden Tape Threatens Heartland Attacks

Well, lookee here. Seems like the terrorist mastermind with a $50,000,000 bounty on his head, the one Bush swore he'd get "dead or alive", has released a brand new audiotape:

"... The war against America and its allies will not be confined to Iraq," [Bin Laden] said, adding that "Iraq has become a magnet for attracting and training talented fighters."

Gee, there weren't any trained talented fighters there before we invaded. A cynic might think that an American invasion of Iraq was exactly what Bin Laden needed for recruiting purposes.

[Bin Laden] also said insurgents were winning the conflict in Iraq and warned that security measures in the West and the United States could not prevent attacks there.

"The proof of that is the explosions you have seen in the capitals of European nations," he said. "The delay in similar operations happening in America has not been because of failure to break through your security measures. The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your homes the minute they are through (with preparations), with God's permission."

"It's only a matter of time," [Bin Laden] said, referring to attacks. "They are in the planning stages, and you will see them in the heart of your land as soon as the planning is complete."

That's something I've been warning people about, which is that their culture measures battles and grudges in generations and centuries, not months and years. What better return on investment could Bin Laden get for his money than to launch a cheap but devastating attack every five years or so that causes us in reaction to spend $100,000,000,000 a year and shed our civil liberties? A cynic might think that the lesson the CIA taught this terrorist mastermind on how to mount a long-term guerilla war in order to bankrupt a super power from the outside and rot its politics from the inside was learned very well.

"In response to the substance of the polls in the U.S., which indicate that Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stick to.

"We are a nation that God banned from lying and stabbing others in the back. Hence, both parties of the truce will enjoy stability and security to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, which were destroyed by war.

"There is no problem in this solution, but it will prevent hundreds of billions from going to influential people and warlords in America -- those who supported Bush's electoral campaign. And from this, we can understand Bush and his gang's insistence on continuing the war," the voice said.

Isn't it interesting how whenever there is a threat to Bush's standing, either from a presidential candidate three days before a razor-thin election, or from a growing anti-war sentiment, or from mounting corruption scandals, or from concern about his domestic wiretapping, the Osama-in-a-box pops up to support the anti-Bush position, forcing Bush's opponents into rhetorical agreement with that murderous criminal bastard (Osama, I mean) and providing Bush's supporters more fuel for their pro-war fire. A cynic might think that this terrorist mastermind whose family did business with the Bushes prefers to keep Bush in office so the war will continue. It would be even more cynical to suggest that Bush didn't capture that terrorist mastermind when he had the chance and he is "...truly not that concerned about him" afterward because he needs the terrorist boogeyman to pop up from time to time to scare us back into meek compliance with the "unitary executive's" Orwellian domestic policies.

But I'm not that cynical. I don't think they are working together, but I do think they are complimentary sides of the same evil coin -- a megalomaniacal religious fundamentalist symbiosis, if you will. Neither one would be as successful without the other.

White House responds to LGBT families attending the Easter Egg Roll

[UPDATE: A commenter asked who was the reporter at the briefing who asked the slanted question. WingNutDaily's Len Kinsolving says it was someone from that outfit, not indicating it was himself or someone else representing WND.]

PageOneQ has the latest mishmash coming out of Scotty McClellan's mouth, since he was asked about the plan by the Family Pride Coalition to have LGBT families line up to participate for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. It's not a protest; folks are just going to queue up with the rest of the public.

Look at this loaded question from a reporter at the briefing.

Scott, ...There's been extensive reporting of a homosexual group, Soulforce, calling on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual and transgender Americans to be the first in line at this year's White House Easter Egg Roll on April 17th, as a way to show the nation their so-called families. And my question: Will the President take any measures to prevent these activists from using this non-political event as a way to push their agenda on the rest of us?

McLellan responded:

Well, this event is a time to celebrate Easter and to have a good family celebration here at the White House. And in terms of any other details about it, I think it's still a few months off, so we'll talk about it as we get closer. I've seen a couple of reports about it; I don't know how extensive that reporting has been. But this has been a family event for a long time and the President always looks forward to this event.

The main issue is whether the White House, in an effort to stop gay families from participating, will make the event invitation-only.

This guy should hook up with "the Dean"

Saving young conservative minds, one at a time.

The Green Knight takes a torch to the ass of whiny baby wingnut Andrew Jones of the Bruin Alumni Association, which has launched a nifty campaign to expose UCLA's "30 most radical professors," who are allegedly brainwashing young minds with extreme left-wing political views.

The BAA (nice how that represents the sound of the sheeple), has launched a web site, UCLAProfs.com, that lists the "dirty 30."

UCLAProfs.com is a long-term project dedicated to exposing UCLA’s most radical professors. The extensively researched profiles you will find here are proof of an increasingly radical faculty. As a large number of the profiles also demonstrate, these professors are actively proselytizing their extreme views in the classroom, whether or not the commentary is relevant to the class topic. The result for students is nothing less than a debased education.

The Green Knight:

Let's see how much he's suffered at the hands of those Evil Marxist Professors^TM, shall we? Checking out his web page, we can see that he graduated with a degree in Political Science; thus, he seems to have kept his right-wing beliefs intact. This doesn't say much for the indoctrinating powers of the Evil Marxist Professors ^TM does it? His advisory board seems to be a pretty well-connected bunch, including Linda Chavez, so I'm thinking he won't be lacking for money any time soon. In fact, he seems to be making an entire career, and a pretty prosperous one, out of complaining about his alma mater. That's probably the point. God forbid he should get a real job, after all.

I'm waiting for BAA to call in clown "Dean" Christopher Flickinger of the Network of College Conservatives to give "Liberal Academia Its Final Exam."


"So, how can we expect Americans, who have been brainwashed for years by leftwing educators, to embrace conservative philosophies when all they've been taught are liberal ideologies?"

"The Dean" is on a one-man mission (I guess it's now a two-man mission, with Andy setting up shop) to save young conservative minds.

The mission of the Network of College Conservatives is to educate, inform, expose and counter the liberal bias on college campuses throughout America. The N.C.C. will offer students an advanced and manifold educational experience based on conservative thoughts, views and opinions. It will inform students of liberal and conservative activities taking place on campuses across the nation, as well as keeping conservative students aware of the liberal establishment that permeates our institutions of higher learning and its tools of indoctrination.

Outrage: NJ Freeholders turn down Laurel Hester's plea for partner benefits

[UPDATE 2 (1/21): Laurel Hester will be able to leave pension benefit to partner! The Freeholders relented - see my update post.]

An update on Laurel Hester, the NJ police officer who has terminal cancer and has been repeatedly told by the Ocean County Freeholders that Hester cannot leave her pension to her partner, has decided to turn her down once again, and added insult to injury by saying the body has no plans to change its position on the subject before she dies.

Laurel is now so weak that she couldn't attend the Freeholders meeting held last night, and Garden State Equality played a video taped testimony by Hester pleading for fairness. Appearing frail, her hair gone, it didn't matter. The Freeholders declined to extend benefits. From the NJ Star-Ledger:

When a dying Laurel Hester appealed to the Ocean County freeholders a month ago, she sat in front of them in Toms River, spoke in a soft voice and asked the five- member board to allow her pension benefits to be extended to her life partner.

Yesterday, Hester was in front of the freeholders again -- but this time she was in a videotaped message played on a laptop computer at the freeholders meeting -- making what could be her last plea to them before her cancer kills her.
Although the freeholders appeared moved by the three-minute video, they were not budging from their decision to not extend Hester's pension benefits to her life partner, Stacie Andree. At least one freeholder said the board would not change its mind before Hester's death.

"The board has said so far it is a legitimate and reasonable position we've taken," Freeholder John Bartlett Jr. said after the meeting. "In my opinion, I don't see any need to change it."

Readers have asked about the passage of legislation in New Jersey that gives same-sex couples the same rights as married couples regarding inheritance and funeral arrangements (and extends partner access to health benefits in the public sector) and whether it affects Hester.

The answer is no. All state employees, and county employees in Bergen and Hudson, Mercer, Union and Monmouth have extended the benefit, and Passaic County is expected to join them this month. But after 24 years of service to the county in a state that passed a Domestic Partnership Act, this is happening to Hester because the Legislature that covers these workers left it to local and county agencies to decide to grant or withhold the benefit -- and this is why it's rolling out piecemeal.

These are the men who have decided against equality by saying "No" in Ocean County:


The county's five (conservative, "pro-family") Republican freeholders: John C. Bartlett, John P. Kelly, James F. Lacey, Gerry P. Little, and Joseph H. Vicari. In fact, Kelly said that if Hester's request was granted it would "violate the sanctity of marriage."

Freeholder Bartlett, who is well-aware of the state's extension of benefits, doesn't give a damn.

Little left the room immediately after the meeting, but Bartlett, one of the freeholders who remained, told a reporter he saw no need to petition the Legislature for a change in the pension law. He said lawmakers were well aware of the flaw yet did nothing to correct it when it they amended the legislation for another matter two weeks ago.

"This is the way the law is structured at this time," Bartlett said. "It has been this way forever. We are not denying someone by not extending the benefits, but I could see how people would disagree with me."

For gays to have to beg and scrape for basic rights that married couples take for granted is depressing.

Joan Hervey of Plainfield, vice chairwoman of Garden State Equality, said having to go to each municipality is "dehumanizing. . . . We have to go door to door . . . asking, "Please, can we have some more?' " she said.

"Ocean County is (the) poster child for the homophobia in New Jersey," Hervey said. "As a board I hope you are not proud of that."

"She put her life on the line every day for each of you," said George Farrugia, president of the Gay Officers Action League of New York and New Jersey. "You are being called to task for Ocean County to not sit behind numbers."

Michael Jensen of The Big Gay Picture, who has been covering this from the start, including a three-part interview with Hester on her life, career and this controversy, will be reporting on the outcome as well.

Read Mike's prior posts on Laurel Hester's fight, and The Big Gay Picture Action Center/Issue Watch has more on how you can politely let the Freeholders know that they are wrong. They can be emailed at: CountyConnection@co.ocean.nj.us.

Click here to see Laurel's video.

Related:
* Laurel Hester stands tall
* More on Laurel Hester
* Must read on Laurel Hester

Democrats: the 'baby talk' and incompetence continues

Nancy Goldstein's latest column at The Raw Story illustrates perfectly why the Democrats are running out of time to fix their incoherent, uncoordinated message and organization into anything viable. They cannot expect to gain power by waiting for the Republicans to self-destruct, but based on the Dems pontificating with empty questions and empty threats of filibuster at the Alito hearings, they are in big trouble.

Effective immediately, the Democrats will be known as the lyin'-ass boyfriend party - the perfect date for progressive voters looking to be stood up, bullshitted blind, or left holding the tab.

For five years now it's been "Please baby, baby, baby, please! I'm sorry I was a no-show last time, but hey, that was because I was working overtime to save up to do something extra special for next time, which is the really big event - right, baby?"

Nancy points out the consistency in message and discipline of Newt Gingrich's "Republican Revolution" and the "Contract with America," is something sorely lacking in Harry Reid's leadership, and it's costing Dems.

...Gingrich was a consummate strategist who grasped the power of talking points and framing very early on, and got his party to step in time: "We've got to start talking about a conservative opportunity society replacing the liberal welfare state. Bang that language into your head. Use it every night. Use the same words and pretty soon it will permeate to the American people," Gingrich said. And even though not all his colleagues liked him, they were sick of losing, so they gritted their teeth and did it.

By contrast, anyone who tuned into the Alito hearings witnessed an incoherent Democratic party in utter disarray - a virtual parody of a drawing room comedy with Kennedy as the slightly disheveled elder statesman with a taste for whiskey, Schumer as the earnest young bounder with a taste for power, and Biden as the crazy, delusional nephew who thinks he's Napoleon.

Gingrich and his crew had an eye to the next generation, and were willing to bypass seniority in favor of hunger and talent when appointing committee chairs. By contrast, political ascendancy in the Democratic Party still operates like the succession of kings. Howard Dean and Barack Obama, who would be treated as rising stars in any functional organization, are kept under lock and key. Dean's only allowed out to raise money and take flack from the same Democrats who have been steering the party into a ditch for nearly a decade, and Obama's only allowed out to criticize Dean.

Excellent stuff in this edition, Nancy. Folks, go read the rest.

Ohio bigot spends a Sunday with Jehovah's Witnesses

Earlier on the Blend I posted about the highly questionable alternative sentence given to a dumb*ss drunk in Ohio who threw punches and screamed racial slurs at a black cab drive and his wife. The judge, who is black, said Brett Haines could go to jail or attend a black church -- to give him "cultural awareness." Haines decided to go to church. (Cincinnati.com):

Haines did not disclose the church he attended but said it was a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation in Cincinnati. He showed the judge a piece of paper signed by the minister to prove he attended.

His lawyer, Dennis Deters, said Haines enjoyed the experience and would likely return to the same church this weekend and, possibly, for the remaining Sundays of his sentence. Haines did not return a phone call seeking comment.

As I and others said in the comments of the prior post, extensive community service in the black community would have been a more appropriate alternative sentence for this guy, along with some anger management and substance abuse counseling.

Hat tip Holly.

Virginia drops womb-control bill

HB 187 was quickly dropped. The legislation would have prevented unmarried women (gay or straight) from using assisted reproductive technology. The wingnut pushing this bill was Delegate Robert Marshall (R-Manassas), who said: "To say women are desperate for this, well Al Capone was desperate for money ... just being desperate doesn't mean you have a right to anything period."

Lawmakers on a House health subcommittee wasted no time dispensing with the bill.

"It's frustrating how many invasions of peoples' personal lives members can come up with to introduce," said Del. Adam Ebbin, D-Arlington, the only openly gay Virginia lawmaker.

"It would be funny if it wasn't so scary that some of these bills could pass."

Let's hear more about the CWA 'Sex Pyramid'

The Dr. Ruth of the bible-beating set, Janice Crouse.

What is a Sex Pyramid? You'll have to ask Janet Crouse of CWA about that; but I don't thing it will have much to do with sex or pleasure, adult toys or same-sex encounters -- otherwise our penis-possessing CWA friend Bob Knight would be all over that. (AgapePress):

Dr. Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America (CWA) is commending First Lady Laura Bush for her passionate support of a woman's right to choose abstinence as an effective means of preventing sexually transmitted infections. During a recent trip to Africa, Mrs. Bush has encouraged young women to exercise their right to abstain from sex, especially in light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that is wreaking havoc among the populaces of so many countries across the continent.

Crouse, CWA's senior fellow of the Beverly LaHaye Institute, is a former U.S. delegate to the United Nations and is among CWA's representatives at the U.N. She is also the creator of the "Sex Pyramid," a resource for parents to use in talking with their children about sex, and author of a weekly column about sex and society for United Press International. Crouse says Laura Bush should be applauded "for taking a stand for abstinence" and supporting the president's policy on that issue. "She has offered hope and encouragement to many young girls in Africa," the CWA spokeswoman adds. "By taking a bold stand for women's rights," Crouse contends, "Mrs. Bush has helped girls realize that their lives do have value, and that they deserve the utmost respect."

OK, I sullied my browser and headed over to the CWA site to see what this Sex Pyramid was about. Here you go...

Let me offer a simple, effective lesson in how parents can talk with their children about sex. Here is a "sex pyramid" similar to the familiar "food pyramid," which gives a hierarchy of balanced nutrition. The "sex pyramid" provides a "roadmap" for parents to talk about the hierarchy of elements in sexuality.



...At the top of the sex pyramid is the mechanics of the sexual act -- the "birds and bees" aspect. This actually should receive the least attention because it is the easiest part of sexual interaction to explain and understand, though, ironically, comprehensive sex education tends to focus on the biology of sexuality rather than the foundation on which sex is built. Ideally, though in our sex-saturated culture it gets harder and harder, each couple needs to "discover" sex on their own. Wise parents will focus on the foundational aspects of the sex pyramid throughout their offspring's childhood and, at the appropriate time, give accurate and complete biological information. During the dating years, parents should be available for counsel, as requested.

...These adults need to plainly say, "The best choice for you is to remain abstinent until marriage and to be faithful within marriage." Those choices lead to the greatest well-being in life - as well as the greatest sexual happiness. The hand of Divine Providence has ordained it thus.

Have at it, y'all.

Swirling the celebrity bowl

Former Teen Idol Garrett Charged With Heroin Possession. Question of the day: Who's more f*cked up in the celebrity bowl-swirl?

Michael Jackson doesn't count. He's on top.

The friends of homo-bigot Ken Blackwell

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, hanging with his homies at the Patriot Pastors and Ohio Restoration Project rally, said Christians must "define, fortify, help shape, influence the mores" of the culture. Photo: Lew Stamp/Akron Beacon Journal

This is so over the top. Repug Ken Blackwell is completely bedding down with the fringe element in Ohio, wrapping himself in the flag, and declaring -- I'm not kidding -- "Christians should show that they are not going to be whupped." (Ohio.com):

About 330 Christian faithful rallied at the Hartville Kitchen to sing praises of America, to remind themselves of the dangers of complacency, and to hear gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell preach on God's call to action.

...A choir and a gospel quartet brought the audience to its feet with praise songs as images of American landmarks, heroes and troops moved across the screens.

Yes, he's hanging with his homies: Talibangelist Rod Parsley of Reformation Ohio and the man who qualifies as one of the looniest, shameless bible beaters of the week, the above-mentioned Russell Johnson, founder of the Ohio Restoration Project.

Blackwell was a featured guest of Johnson's 10-city Patriot Pastors tour, which made a stop in the Akron-Canton area on Tuesday, as Ken hopes to sew up the freakshow Right vote in the gubernatorial race.

I have no idea why he would want to associate with someone that sounds like he's gunning to outdo The Rotting Cryptkeeper^TM. Read the following without your jaw dropping.

Johnson warned that Christians have allowed a "secular jihad" to remove prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Bible from public places.

He likened it to Nazi Germany, where church congregations would sing so that they could not hear the passing of trainloads of crying Jews headed for a nearby concentration camp.

Too many Christians lead "Neville Chamberlain lives," Johnson said, referring to the British prime minister who signed a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler. A picture of Hitler and Chamberlain flashed on the screens.

"We're calling God's people to pray, to serve, to shine and to be salt and light,'' he said.

Johnson criticized the "handful of our religious friends on the left who have formed an unholy alliance with the secular left" to challenge the religious exemption of his organization.

See my earlier post, Group calls for IRS to investigate two winger churches for more on the "unholy alliance" of 31 pastors who wrote a letter asking the IRS to investigate Johnson and Parsley to determine whether their groups have engaged in illegal partisan political activity that would violate their tax-exempt status.

Parsley and Johnson don't seem like they are shaking in their boots over this, and neither is Blackwell, who is the only candidate that has been invited to these bible-beating PR events. Somehow, they can't find the phone numbers of any Democrats to contact, but Ken's on their speed dial.

Blackwell was the only candidate for governor invited to address 450 pastors and Christian conservatives at a luncheon north of Canton sponsored by the Ohio Restoration Project two days after it and several allied religious entities were accused of illegally engaging in partisan politics.

...Johnson said that yesterday’s lunch at the Hartville Kitchen was the fourth of 10 planned meetings across the state by the Ohio Restoration Project to enlist "Patriot Pastors" and register voters who share its values, particularly its opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

He accused the 31 complaining pastors of "spiritual adultery" for aligning with the American Civil Liberties Union, adding: "On the day we celebrated Martin Luther King’s accomplishments as a leader and minister, the religious left sent people to the back of the bus. They wanted to muzzle people of faith."

Johnson claims that that "every statewide officeholder who supported" a ban same-sex marriage was invited the luncheon, but that's not the case. Apparently you have to agree with Johnson's crowd on every winger issue.

A spokesman for state Auditor Betty D. Montgomery, who supported the ban, said Johnson’s group did not invite her.

Asked why, Johnson replied: "She is pro-abortion."

You know this is a brass knuckles crowd we're dealing with when the 31 pastors who have requested the IRS investigation won't release their names because "some have a fear that there could be acts of retribution against them," according to Eric Williams, the senior pastor of North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus and spokesman for the clergy involved.

Washington state senator: homos are hell-bound

"After I became a Christian, I started reading the Bible, and I'm not a scholar but I did a lot of reading. It became obvious to me that homosexuality is in the area of sin."
-- Washington State Sen. Dan Swecker, the Republicans' chief spokesman against gay-rights legislation

Well, the state GOP picked a winner to represent their position on adding sexual orientation to the state's anti-discrimination laws.

This amateur scholar is grade-A batsh*t crazy. I think this is a big tactical error on the part of the gay rights opponents, but maybe they are going for more drama. (Seattle Times):

The lawmaker tapped to speak for Senate Republicans opposing gay-rights legislation is an affable, soft-spoken man who believes gays will go to hell unless they change their ways.

"I just read the Bible for what it says. It basically says that homosexuality is an abomination," said Dan Swecker, a 58-year-old veteran lawmaker from the rural town of Rochester, Thurston County.

He wants gays to know they can be saved. "Somehow that message has to get out. Because if people don't realize that it's a sin or there's not an opportunity for redemption, then we're going to lose them."

The state's gay rights bill that has been introduced, it is expected to pass the House by the end of this week -- then the issue goes before the Senate.

Lest you think that he doesn't have the backing of his Republican colleagues, here is what their leader says:

"I make a point to use who I think is the best person in our caucus to be our spokesperson," said Senate Republican Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla.

And it's not just the homos that Swecker is concerned about. He has well-rounded wingnut credentials -- he wants Roe v. Wade overturned, prayer back in schools and the inclusion of creationism -- but the homos are a special focus for him.

He's about as conservative as they come when dealing with social issues. Swecker opposes abortion, except in limited circumstances, and wants the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. He supports prayer in school. And he'd like to see creationism taught as well.

"I think creationism is as reasonable an explanation for the origin of species and mankind as the theory of evolution," he said.

...He argues, for example, that gay rights is a steppingstone to gay marriage. And if gay marriage becomes legal, he says, it will overtax the social safety net that supports traditional marriage by allowing gay spouses to tap into Social Security benefits, pensions and health insurance.

He also says gay rights would violate individuals' right to free association, and that business owners and landlords who oppose homosexuality should have the right to deny gays a job or housing.

Of course then he contradicts himself with this statement.

Swecker said his views on gay rights do not come from anger or hate. "What I'm trying to reflect from my position on homosexuality is love, not discrimination, not persecution, not punishment, not any of those things," he said.

You may not be surprised to learn (and may be horrified by the fact) that Swecker home-schooled his now-grown four children for part of their education.

GOP: corruption central

Utah's Chris Cannon got "a little help" for his company from a Nebraska bank president.

The Raw Story's John Byrne uncovers another slick dirtbag.

Utah congressman Chris Cannon loaned nearly $100,000 to the president of a Nebraska bank who extended at least $250,000 in credit the following year to the representative's business venture in the state, RAW STORY has found.

Cannon's office confirmed that the congressman had extended a loan of between $50,000 and $100,000 to First National Bank of Nebraska president Gary Ruse in September 1996. The following year, the Utah Republican's kosher beef-packing plant, Premium Beef, received a $250,000 to $500,000 loan from Ruse's bank.

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