The politics of hair - Neal Boortz edition

[Welcome Buzzflash readers!]

I haven't blogged on this topic in ages, but every once in a while, something crops up that brings it front and center, though the deeper issues involved aren't usually addressed -- and so that's when I post about it again.

Let nationally syndicated radio bigot Neal Boortz show you how hair politics bullsh*t is done. He's talking about Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), and what is and isn't an acceptable assimilationist black hair style in his mind. (Media Matters):

BOORTZ: For instance, or for goodness sakes, jump in and I'm gonna say -- I'm gonna start out with something controversial. I saw Cynthia McKinney's new hair-do. Have you seen it, Belinda?
SKELTON: No.

BOORTZ: She looks like a ghetto slut.
SKELTON: Well, how is it?

BOORTZ: It's just -- it's hideous.
SKELTON: Is it braided? Or --


BOORTZ: No, it's not braided. It just flies away from her head in every conceivable direction. It looks like an explosion in a Brillo pad factory. It's just hideous. To me, that hairstyle just shows contempt for -- no, it's not an Afro. I mean, no, it just shows contempt for the position that she holds and the body that she serves in. And, I'm sorry, there's just no other way to -- it's just a hideous and horrible looking --

...MARSHALL: It looks better than the braids she was wearing.
BOORTZ: No, the braids had some dignity. They had some class.


MARSHALL: The braids had dignity?
BOORTZ: They had more class than this thing.

MARSHALL: This says, you know, kinda 2000s, you know, stepping up to the plate. Contemporary look, you know?
BOORTZ: She looks like Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence.

This bastard is a racist prick, and you know what? I bet he doesn't have a clue how or why he feels the way he does about her hair -- this sh*t is deep and internalized by Americans. It's a topic no one likes to talk about.


Just so you know, that new hairstyle McKinney is wearing is called a twist-out. I used to wear it that way on occasion before I decided to loc my hair. You can do a twist-out this with unaltered, kinky hair, or, if it's not too damaged, with relaxed hair. I can't really tell in her case. You can wrap it wet or damp around rods or in two-strand twists. Once dried you can take it out and shape it; no hair spray needed if your hair is in a natural state.

It's a fierce style - I don't think it's inappropriate for a member of Congress, though it might be non-conformist, which I think is one of the surface objections Boortz has to the style. McKinney's braids might have received the same scorn as this new 'do had she worn them out and loose, as opposed to pulled back, as women with straight hair do when they wear their hair in a bun. It's clear that the Hill has its unofficial, drab "dress code."

I would venture a guess that Boortz would have had serious problems with her conservative braid style a decade ago; braids were not considered conservative or acceptable on the job in many places, women of color (or to be more specific, women with kinky hair), if they wanted to succeed professionally (or often even keep their jobs), had to torture their hair and scalp with lye-laden relaxers to "tame" it to assume European styles -- the old good hair/bad hair beast rises again. It's as bad as the whole brown paper bag test of the black upper class.

The Freepers, I might add, show their racial moxie and affinity with Boortz with some choice quotes.

Actual Freeper Quotes™

"Listen to Sha-Nay-Nay....keep your cracker hands to your damn self."

I ain't birthin no babies!

She looks like she stuck her finger in an electrical socket.


OH TAY!

Did they use a Taser on her?

"Mrs.C don't take no jibba-jabba from no security guard fools!"

Don King's long lost daughter?

Good Lord. I'm surprised she doesn't get tackled every time she goes into a store.

Buchwheat LIVES!! When I saw the presser today, I had NO idea of who that crazy woman was....really....she looks so damn different!!....and NOT for the better!!

ONET, TRITE, TREE TIME A WADY.

Yes. Racism is dead.

From one of my earlier posts on this topic, a reason why McKinney's "hair defiance" is not about disrespect of her position, but a simple acknowledgment of "difference" and personal acceptance of her hair. That's threatening in ways that Boortz isn't conscious of, but it brings that visceral reaction you read right out there into the open.

The bottom line is that many black people are turning away from the chemical processes used to straighten kinky hair. Permanent chemical treatments, like perms, texturizers, alter the hair from its natural state. Sadly, the majority of black women don't even know what the texture of their hair actually is, because they have undergone the lye (and the lie) from the time they were young -- when they were told that kinky hair = bad hair. If they didn't get that relaxer as a young child, then they underwent the torture of the hot comb.



I was old enough to experience the "pleasure" of the thermal hot comb --you rested it over the gas flame of the stove to heat it up. Then the grease was carefully applied to your hair and that comb sizzled through the kinks till it was bone straight, hissing as you prayed the comb didn't touch your scalp -- inevitably you got scalp burns because the "stylist" f*cked up. [By the way, the "stylist" for most folks was usually a relative, but in my case, everyone in my family had straight hair, so my mom had to take me to a salon till she figured out what to do.]

Once the chemical relaxer came into vogue it was the same problem with a different twist, it became a watch-the-clock endeavor to see how long you could leave the vile-smelling chemicals on to achieve maximum straightness before your scalp started to peel, burn and get open sores. Anything for that damn straight hair.

Why would anyone do this? It can't be because it's fun or easy to maintain. Black women who wear their hair in straight styles obsess about it all the time. Don't let it get wet, humid or exercise too hard because if you do, it will "go back" at the least opportune moment. At this point and time, the problem is two-fold:

1) an internalized self-loathing passed down through the generations of being told your natural hair is a "problem" and "fixing" it by using such extreme measures is a means to assimilate into the dominant culture ... and

2) the dominant culture still has bigoted ideas about blacks and kinky hair that can profoundly affect the employment of, and treatment of people. This of course, means #1 will continue to occur.

So to Neal Boortz, this "ghetto queen" says "Vaffanculo."

NOTE: You can file an FCC complaint against Boortz; reference the original audio of his diatribe, which is posted at Media Matters.

***

UPDATE: I've not posted here about the police/McKinney incident because we don't have all the facts yet (there's apparently a videotape of the incident, which I haven't seen). Quite frankly, in the end, it's probably going to look like both sides are in the wrong to some extent. Yes, race probably is a factor, also on both sides (McKinney's post-incident posturing undermines cases of blatant and extreme racism that is still rampant in society).

Whatever the facts of the incident end up telling us, the fact that, Neal Boortz took the focus back squarely on her hair to denigrate her is both racist and sexist. Debating her behavior in the incident is one matter, but it's telling where the RepubliKKKan thinking goes.

Does this make McKinney's press conference race card bloviating justifiable? No. Does it mean the way she was treated has nothing to do with race? No. Is she being punished for deigning to think she should have been recognized? Maybe yes, maybe no. Was it presumptuous to think she should be recognized? I don't know.

I do know personally of a few high-minded folks (not of color), in one case a well-known academic who plays the "don't you know who I am?" card. I hate when someone uses that crap to get rules bent or to get off the hook for boorish behavior, particularly abusive acts toward people of a lower social standing than themselves (service workers, administrative staff).

It was a beautiful thing to hear that, on one occasion, the academic pulled that crap on a service worker and was told "No, I don't know who the f*ck you are and I don't care."

There is a controversial post by John @ Americablog on the McKinney incident with the cop, as well as a very hot thread of comments pro and con.

All I know is that it's too complicated an issue for easy answers or finger-pointing.

UPDATE post with a busy comment thread: Filing an FCC complaint against Neal Boortz

* My own hair journey is here.

Click here for more fresh Blend.

Another flip flopper on fed marriage amendment - Ohio's Mike DeWine

"Marriage is the issue today. Anyone who opposes the marriage amendment is starting to understand that it is a death knell to the family movement. You cannot oppose it and expect the pro-family movement to support you."

-- former porn addict Phil Burress, head of Cincinnati's Citizens for Community Values, letting DeWine know he's on notice to fall in line -- or else.

Like John McCain cozying up to Falwell on marriage for his '08 bid, Ohio Senator Mike DeWine is worried about his re-election race and rounding up the wingnut vote and -- gasp -- flip-flopped -- on his opposing position on both the Ohio and federal marriage amendments in 2004.

Was he for it before he was against it? Just wondering. I smell the flopsweat of desperation here; DeWine must feel the campaign of Dem Sherrod Brown breathing down his back. (The Columbus Dispatch):

Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine said yesterday that he will take a lead role in pushing for a U.S. constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, at least in part to regain support from unhappy conservatives in his state.

...[T]he amendment is symbolically important to social conservatives across Ohio, many of whom were disappointed in 2004 when DeWine did not support an Ohio constitutional amendment to define marriage as solely a union of one man and one woman. That issue sparked a huge turnout of conservative voters who helped President Bush win re-election.

Although DeWine is expected to easily win the May Republican primary, he faces a stern challenge in November from Rep. Sherrod Brown, of Avon, the likely Democratic nominee for the Senate race. To prevail, DeWine will need a heavy turnout from conservatives, many of whom are unhappy with him on issues of same-sex marriage and curbing immigration.

Two years ago it was a completely different story coming out of DeWine's pie hole. He had reservations about the amendment and said the time to discuss it was not "in the heat of a presidential campaign." The big kahuna is that he actually said that he preferred to have the courts -- whoops, woudn't that be the activist judges -- rule on state bans of same-sex marriage.

How's he going to reconcile that little bit of business?

Hat tip, PageOneQ

Transgeneration is out on DVD

The eight-part Sundance Channel verite-documentary TransGeneration, which captures a year in the life of four transgender college students, has been released on DVD this week.


Lucas and Gabbie


Raci and TJ.

If you haven'y had a chance to catch it on Sundance, I highly recommend seeing it. Kate and I saw a 2 hour cut of it at last year's NC Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and T.J. was there for the Q&A.

Hat tip, Hothouse.

Ex-death row inmate tells tale of exoneration by DNA

Jay Lassiter has an interview with Kirk Bloodsworth, who is the first person sentenced to death who was exonerated through DNA evidence, up at his pad as a Podcast.

Bloodworth was charged with the killing and sexual assault of a nine year old girl and served on death row for eight years before his case was taken up by the Innocence Project.

Check it out.

Chevy Tahoe commercials to remember

Apparently there's some sort of promotional tie-in with Chevy and The Apprentice TV show, where they are asking for folks to make their own online customized commercials for the gas-guzzling Chevy Tahoe. Blender Paul emailed me links to two that you better catch before they get yanked. The ads are probably not what GM had in mind.





Ad 1 and Ad 2

Another closet case serving Dear Leader?

Andy Card stepped down this week, and Josh Bolten was named as his successor as chief of staff to the Preznit. Josh sounds like an interesting guy...Mike Rogers over at BlogActive seems to have caught on to something: Josh Bolton dated David Dreier's 'beard'.

So, the new White House Chief of staff is unmarried and brings his mom to official events. It's not that fact that has many in DC raising eyebrows this morning.... It's that apparently The President of the United States thinks his new Chief of Staff is worthy of the same treatment as that closet case David Dreier.


White House Chief of Staff with Official GOP beard, er, um, I mean Bo Derek.

Josh, I don't know if you're hiding something.... Trust me, if you are, Bo Derek is not very good at hiding some things.

Click over for more.

The Army bans privately purchased body armor

Support the troops! Support the troops! Support the troops!

But don't let them try to protect themselves when the REMFs in the Pentagon can't get them the body armor they need:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Soldiers will no longer be allowed to wear body armor other than the protective gear issued by the military, Army officials said Thursday, the latest twist in a running battle over the equipment the Pentagon gives its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We're very concerned that people are spending their hard-earned money on something that doesn't provide the level of protection that the Army requires people to wear. So they're, frankly, wasting their money on substandard stuff," said Col. Thomas Spoehr, director of materiel for the Army.

Sorry, son, we've got no body armor to give you, but we can't let you go buying any body armor that might be weaker than the body armor we're not giving you.

Are there any Republicans out there who are willing to take a stand for the troops?

"Outrageously we've seen that (soldiers) haven't been getting what they need in terms of equipment and body armor," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who wrote legislation to have troops reimbursed for equipment purchases. "That's totally unacceptable, and why this directive by the Pentagon needs to be scrutinized in much greater detail."

Didn't think so. Holding our government to account for the shameful lack of support for the troops, especially when Halliburton is raking in profit hand over fist even when they don't fulfill their no-bid contract obligations, why, that's so much harder than slapping a magnetic yellow ribbon on the back of the Town Car, ain't it?

Still, it isn't unimportant for the military to have safety standards:

"I don't think the Army is wrong by doing this, because the Army has to ensure some level of quality," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "They don't want soldiers relying on equipment that is weak or substandard."

But, Rieckhoff said, the military is partially to blame for the problem because it took too long to get soldiers the armor they needed. "This is the monster they made," he said.

Indeed. You don't want your soldiers going out and buying substandard armor and fighting as if they are fully protected when they are not. But tell me how substandard armor is worse than no armor at all? If someone is shooting at me and I don't have a helmet, I'll gladly throw a deep saucepan on my head and call it good enough for now.

This wouldn't be a problem if not for the incredible incompetence and lack of planning by this administration hell bent on going to war.

Military officials have acknowledged that some troops — often National Guard or Reservists — went to war with lesser-quality protective gear than other soldiers were issued.

"We'll be upfront and recognize that at the start of the conflict there were some soldiers that didn't have the levels of protection that we wanted," Spoehr said. Now, he added, "we can categorically say that whatever you're going to buy isn't as good as what you're going to get" from the military.

And that shipment should be coming any day now, Private. Now get yer ass back out on patrol!

By the time this Iraquagmire is over, the Republican Party will have lost the military vote like the Democrats lost the South after the Civil Rights Act. And when they push that national debt to $10 trillion, they'll lose the fiscal conservatives, too. It's too bad it is going to take over five thousand dead soldiers (just you wait), over half a trillion dollars (mark my words), a domestic attack that makes 9/11 look like toilet-papering someone's house (I imagine sometime around October 2008), and a major economic depression (try to avoid the sidewalks near Wall St.) before enough Americans can get past stopping the gays from doing whatever it is they're upset at gays for doing and finally vote in their own self-interest and for the good of America (c'mon, America, vote for the lesser-evil of the two corporate whore parties in these next two elections, will ya?)

Sorry for the rant, but as a former National Guard troop with a National Guard brother-in-law spending his fourth year on active duty after signing up for two years as a part-timer, I get just a wee bit emotional about soldiers, especially Guardsmen, getting the shaft from their government... a shaft with Halliburton's logo on it, thrust in forcefully without lube by oilmen in business with the House of Saud. I fantasize about having the power to snap my fingers and magically transport Pretzeldunce and Cheneyburton straight to Tal-Afar or Fallujah or Kirkuk with no body armor and an impossible mission. I monitor the casualty reports from Afghanistan and feel relief when my brother-in-law's name is not on the list and guilt when I realize I felt relief at the fact that some other mother's son just died.

I am sick of this war and sick of the incompetent criminal capitalist war profiteers who are running it.

[Post, cross, khaki, 1 ea. for Writ, Radical, FRU# 69-420]

Archdiocese paper fires photographer over Scalia photo

Just when you thought Ratzi's army couldn't find another way to be more damnable, they pull a satanic monkey out of their morally bankrupt asses. (BostonHerald.com):

A freelance photographer has been fired by the Archdiocese of Boston’s newspaper for releasing a picture of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia making a controversial gesture in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Sunday.

Peter Smith, who had freelanced for The Pilot newspaper for a decade, lost the job yesterday after the Herald ran his photo on its front page. Smith said he has no regrets about releasing it.

“I did the right thing. I did the ethical thing,” said Smith, 51, an assistant photojournalism professor at Boston University.

...Smith wouldn’t give up the photo earlier this week but chose to release it when he learned Scalia said his gesture had been incorrectly characterized by the Herald. Smith, who was standing in front of the judge, said the Herald “got the story right.”

An archdiocese spokesman said it was a "journalistic decision" to can Smith, that it was a breach of ethics for the photographer to release the photo.

Yes, ethics...morality...from the very folks responsible for the rape and molestation of thousands. The ass-monkeys fly skyward.

Funny or bigoted?

Queer Beacon has a Dodge/Daimler Chrysler ad up that recently ran during Desperate Housewives.




In the ad, a fairy is flying around NYC, using her fairy dust to brighten up, "prettify" an elevated subway, then a building (above).


She sees the new Dodge vehicle and makes several attempts to, I don't know, make it more "cute", but her fairy dust is repelled by the manly, butch Dodge, including one blast that bounces the fairy onto the pavement (below).


An "average het Joe" is walking his "all-American" black Labrador, and sees what happens to the fairy, points at her and laughs, saying"You silly little fairy!"


So what does the fairy do as revenge for being teased? She turns him into Dodge's vision of a queer boy, complete with what looks like either foo-foo French poodles or Pomeranians (below).



In case you're wondering, since I ran the post on the anti-gay, hypocritical practices going on at BMW North America (it markets to gays, but doesn't have a same-sex spousal equivalent benefits policy for its employees), Dodge is actually noted by Gaywheels.com as a gay-friendly auto company.

My guess that the ad actually tries to play it both ways -- gay folks could find it an amusing jab at stereotypes, but it plays to the homo-bigoted stereotypes held by the red-meat Dodge het crowd at the same time.

The homo-hating Busta Rhymes

A reaction like this really calls attention to someone's inner turmoil. Not that Busta Rhymes's attitude is all that surprising.

Busta Rhymes has lashed out at a gay fan who tapped him on the shoulder. The incident happened as the rapper-turned-actor was leaving the 11th Street Diner in Miami's trendy South Beach district in the early hours Sunday.

Eyewitness Thomas Barker told America's New York Post newspaper: "The restaurant was packed with transvestites, gay men and drag queens, which obviously made him a little edgy...When a young gay guy came up behind Busta and tapped him on the shoulder to congratulate the rapper on his recent comeback."

He added: "Before the guy could even mutter a word, Busta turned around and repeatedly screamed, 'Why the f**k you touchin' me, man? Get the f**k away from me.'..It's claimed the 'Break Ya Neck' rapper then whispered to one of his bodyguards: "I hate f*****g faggots, man.'"

My question: if the ratio of homos to hets in the diner was so threatening, why didn't he and his boyz leave? I doubt there was a lack of places to nosh in the area, though since it was South Beach, didn't he understand that he was smack dab in the middle of a very gay locale?

The All Headline News article also tosses in a bit in the last graph about Busta still smarting from the murder of "one of his minders,and long-term friend, Israel Ramirez." Gee, last time I was in grief over the death of someone, I don't recall thinking about slagging fags as a soothing device or coping mechanism.

BTW, none of the news reports I've Googled on the murder implicates a "transvestite, gay man or drag queen" in the slaying, so even the lame excuse of taking it out on all the homos flies out the window. Perhaps the reporter on the piece, William J. Brown, didn't mean to imply that as a excuse for the behavior with the juxtaposition, but it sure reads that way.

Jasmyne Cannick has more on Busta's fun penchant for homo-baiting on his new album.

The new promotional remix of rapper Busta Rhymes’ hit single “Touch It” features Lloyd Banks, DMX, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliot, Papoose, and Rah Digga.

It also features a new line from Busta saying “Fuck you faggot, I shot at you!”

...Earlier this year in Byron Hurt’s documentary 'Beyond Beats & Rhymes,' which challenged rap's portrayals of masculinity, women and violence, the Smithtown-born filmmaker asked Busta Rhymes to explain the link between machismo and homoeroticism in hip-hop. Busta was so unwilling to go there he got up and walked out of the room. Perhaps he’s lashing out now.

Hat tip, PageOneQ.

At least he wasn't streaking

Jail escapee caught in underwear. The thing is that he managed to scoot over a mile away, on the loose for 20 minutes before he was caught. The report didn't indicate boxers or briefs.

A Shelby County jail inmate briefly escaped from the Shelby County Courthouse this afternoon, taking off his orange jumpsuit and running around downtown Columbiana in his underwear, according to Columbiana Police Chief Johnny Brown.

Shelby County Sheriff Chris Curry personally helped recapture the escapee, according to the Sheriff's Dept. The inmate, identified as Rex McGovern Edmonds, was being escorted to the restroom when he slipped out of his restraints about 1 p.m.

Hat tip, Kathy, who said that "Columbiana is a thriving metropolis of less than 4,000 -- not a great place to disappear"

Merde

Oh shit. Oops. Oh sh*t. This was on the front page yesterday:

Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, has filed an official complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, saying NASCAR has a problem with foul language.

"It seems that every now and then, a participant in a nationally televised race will violate the FCC's clear rules against uttering vulgar terms on daytime television and 'let one slip' on the air," he said. "On one hand, leaders of the sport want families to think they're against it. On the other hand, they don't seem to want it to stop. ... At some point, you have to wonder if NASCAR is really serious about establishing a family-friendly environment for their radio and television audiences."

In addition to Glover's group, the American Family Association is urging people to file a complaint with the FCC against the Fox network.

To hear the sh*tty audio, click here.

West Sacramento mayor comes out

Christopher Cabaldon came out during a during the State of the City dinner, but I hate to break it to sister -- how on earth did folks ever think he was straight?

Seriously, though, one cool thing is Mr. Cabaldon did it with the cameras of gay cable channel Logo there, filming it as a part of a documentary. Now that's coming out. (KCRA):

Cabaldon came out to his family just last year and said he's struggled with how to do the same with his West Sacramento constituents.

He said he chose the State of the City Address because it's one of the rare times when he's directly in front of the people who voted him into office. "This is something I needed to say in a direct way, not in a private meeting with a reporter or at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, but to really say it at a time when I knew the community will hear my voice in a direct way," Cabaldon said.

The mayor said he cherishes his privacy and did not want to make the announcement, fearing it could get in the way of what he is trying to accomplish while in office. But he said the timing was right and he's just recently become comfortable with who he is.

"If I'm ever going to have a personal life, I wanted to be open and direct about who I was with my constituents before that happened," Cabaldon said.

The hardest part for many is coming out to yourself, let alone to a room full of people with cameras rolling. High-five to Cabaldon for doing it so publicly. As we've said many times before, the single most important thing any of us can do in this struggle for civil equality is to come out -- gay folks and our straight allies. Coming out is what threatens the religious right most.

For more about the importance of taking that big step to kick the closet door open and step out, see my post from National Coming Out Day.

Brokeback - too extreme for the Bahamas

"The board chose to ban it because it shows extreme homosexuality, nudity and profanity, and we feel that it has no value for the Bahamian public."
-- Chavasse Turnquest-Liriano, liaison officer for the Plays and Films Control Board of the Bahamas, on Brokeback

My god, what on earth was extreme about that movie? You'd think it was a porno with cum shots or some such BS. The island fundies came out and bleated until they got a ban. (365gay):

A Bahamian government board's decision to ban the movie "Brokeback Mountain" has prompted charges of discrimination and censorship in the island chain.

..."You have a group of people who are telling grown men and women what they can and cannot watch," said Philip Burrows, a theater director in the island chain. "I cannot understand denying people the right to make their own choices."

Theaters in Nassau, the capital, had already begun to advertise the movie Friday when the board announced its ban at the request of the Bahamas Christian Council.

The Rainbow Alliance, a gay rights group, called the ban a "farce," and said most Bahamians reject the idea that a "small group of appointed individuals ... can provide the moral compass for the entire country."

"...This is not a movie to be banned. This is not a subject to be censored," said Bahamas resident Liz Roberts, who has worked in film production. "It is a subject to be aired, a subject to be confronted openly."

While the Bahamas cannot hold a candle to the violent, virulent homophobia in Jamaica, it has its own flavor of wingnut batsh*t fools who have made the Blend:


* Bahamas school official: Lesbianism=bad grades. Stephen Plakaris, deputy director of government school security for the Northern Bahamas was certain that an epidemic of lesbianism had taken over the school system, saying there is a "network of lesbians operating in private and government high schools in Grand Bahama," and that the numbers "are alarming, disturbing and growing." He also noted that it's kind of hard to detect them in his investigations, because "gay women do not physically exhibit the characteristics which make it easy to determine that a man is homosexual." Clearly a Willie Wilson wannabe.

*
On the heels of the above editorial, the Grand Bahama Christian Council President Bishop Ricardo Grant called for called for a probe into the rampant lesbianism infesting the schools.


* Miss Teen Bahamas comes out -- and gets dumped. Gari McDonald decided to come out, and got the boot. A pageant committee member told her that "we cannot have a lesbian Miss Teen Bahamas representing the country."

American Slave Labor Camps... coming soon!

The House Republicans are going nutzoid (moreso) over the illegal immigration issue and the Pretzeldunce's plan to create temporary worker programs for illegals, otherwise known as "let's keep exploiting cheap Mexican labor, but we'll just make it legal."

"I say let the prisoners pick the fruits," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, one of more than a dozen Republicans who took turns condemning a Senate bill that offers an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants an opportunity for citizenship.

Yeah, prison labor camps, that's the ticket! Why, we already have more than 2 million Americans in prison, a figure greatly exacerbated by the War On (Some Taxpaying American Citizens Using Non-Alcoholic, Non-Pharmaceutical, Tobacco-Free) Drugs, so let's put them to work in the fields already!

It's not enough that we have already turned our prison populations into de facto slave labor camps. Many American companies do telemarketing, ticket booking, and other odd jobs through prison labor that is paid less than 50¢ per hour. Think of it as "insourcing" -- the legal way to get around paying Chinese or Indonesian women and children only pennies an hour by paying incarcerated American men and women pennies an hour.

With prison labor, you get hundreds of thousands of prisoners, many in prison for simple drug possession, most of whom are non-violent, and you get them cheap, and you don't have to pay their health care costs, retirement costs, or anything related to housing or transportation. Plus, they are easy to control, have virtually no absenteeism, and are so bored to death that any menial labor task seems refreshing.

Now if you send those prisoners off to the fields, even better. Especially if you make a law that declares all illegal immigrants to be felons. Then you can round them up, send 'em to prison, and they'll be back out in those fields, working for even less money in worse conditions and have no freedom at all. That's what the American Dream is all about, isn't it?

America was built on the backs of slave labor. It made us the richest country in the world. Now those rich men in power are doing everything they can to get back to the good ol' days. It started long ago with "Right to Work (Cheaply and Without Union Protection)" laws in a handful of states, it was empowered by Reagan busting the air traffic controllers' union in 1982, and it continues today with the outsourcing of American manufacturing and telecommunications jobs to cheap third world labor, the insourcing of cheap American prison labor, and the "wink wink nudge nudge" policies that declare "an immigration invasion" and how these illegals are destroying our country, wage base, and taxpayer monies spent on social services, yet do virtually nothing to punish the big business rich white dudes employing these illegals.

And don't think for a second that this has nothing to do with race. I don't think a call for creating a new underclass of 11 million white-faced felons would gather a whole lot of support. Those bitching loudest about the illegal immigrants, how they take away American jobs, how they cost so much in Medicare and schools and emergency rooms, why, they are the same people who never met an American job they wouldn't outsource, downsize, or sub-contract; they are the same people who never met a social program's budget they could just trim down until 45 million people have no health insurance and kids learn on thirty-year-old textbooks in classes of 45 in buildings that leak. And they'll say it all without a hint of irony as they move in to their inexpensive and newly-constructed home while drinking a $1.50 glass of orange juice and sitting on their freshly-landscaped lawn calling for Juanita the nanny to put their Wal-Mart-purchased shirt in the dryer before heading out to the drive-thru to pick up a $10 bag of cheeseburgers.

I've worked in the fields of Idaho... not long, but long enough to know it was the shittiest job I ever had. If someone risks life and limb to swim across the Rio Grande, lives hand-to-mouth in lousy accommodations, struggles with not knowing the native language, faces racism and anti-immigrant prejudice every day, and endures backbreaking work without a whisper of complaint due to fears of La Migra, then by golly, they've proved to me they want to be a hardworking contributing member of American society. It's a shame that people who truly want to live the American dream are shunned, but teenage couch potatoes lucky enough to have had parents who screwed here and stuck around are instantly citizens, free to loaf on the couch and not put in as much work in a week than a migrant worker puts in before sunrise every day.

I don't have the answers to all the immigration questions, but I know the answers do not lie in making migrant workers instant felons, erecting walls along the border, or turning our prisoners into slave labor. I think the answers lie somewhere in the spirit of "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door." (and not just the pale-faced ones, either...)

[También publicado en la "Escritura Radical"]

Why pray against God's will, anyway?

Here's an interesting story just off the MSNBC headlines:

NEW YORK - In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.

Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists tested the effect of having three Christian groups pray for particular patients, starting the night before surgery and continuing for two weeks. The volunteers prayed for "a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for specific patients, for whom they were given the first name and first initial of the last name.

The patients, meanwhile, were split into three groups of about 600 apiece: those who knew they were being prayed for, those who were prayed for but only knew it was a possibility, and those who weren't prayed for but were told it was a possibility.

The study looked for any complications within 30 days of the surgery. Results showed no effect of prayer on complication-free recovery. But 59 percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for developed a complication, versus 52 percent of those who were told it was just a possibility.

I've always agreed with George Carlin that praying to an omnicient omnipotent God is just about the most illogical thing you can do, even from a Christian perspective.

After all, don't the religious folks always say things like "it's God's will" or "If it is to be in God's Plan"? The idea being that God has a plan for all of us, and He's all-knowing, so He's imminently more qualified to determine your fate than you are. I mean, if it was God's plan to knock you down for heart bypass surgery, and it is God's will that you die on the table, then who are you, pathetic human, to question God's Plan? Who are you to think your requests in prayer will be answered if it contradicts The Plan?

So, if God wants you to die, and you pray to live, you're suggesting that God was wrong. If God heeds your prayer and lets you live, He's admitting His own fallability, which is nonsense. If God ignores your prayer and lets you die, then what was the point of praying? If God wanted you to live after all, your prayer was also a wasted effort.

It's interesting that the prayed-for subjects had higher complications. Could it be that a true believer who's anticipating everything will be all right through prayer is somehow letting his guard down and weakening his immune system? Could it be that when people are unsure they are being prayed for, they fight harder to live and pay more attention to their doctors? Or could it be that God is pissed about puny humans questioning his plan so he snuffs out the sick relative they prayed for? (Don't put it past Him; He once sent bears to maul to death 42 children who teased a bald man.)

[Cross-posted at Radical Writ in Dr. Zaius' name, amen.]

Gay-unfriendly BMW wants your homo dollars

Here's a new corporate tactic -- place ads for your product in gay publications, but hope you can slip under the gaydar since you don't provide partner benefits to your employees. Sweet.

That's just what BMW is doing, according to Gaywheels.com and industry pub Ad Age. Both The Advocate and Out Magazine accepted ads for the Z4 M Roadster.



Joe LaMuraglia, in his Gaywheels.com article, "What is the German Word for Hypocrisy?", notes that BMW North America does not offer domestic partnership benefits -- but the company wants your buxxx.

In the ads, the Z4 makes us yearn for some hard-driving, top-down motoring. But look beyond the gloss and you realize that the ads' placement in GLBT-media outlets is hypocritical. We are not talking about the fact that the ad—which lacks both GLBT-specific text and photography—does not speak loudly and proudly to its target audience. The issue is that BMW advertises its products in the gay press, yet it is not a gay-friendly company. In other words, the executives at BMW North America do not spend money to offer domestic-partner benefits to their GLBT employees, yet, at the same time, they buy ads to target the deep pockets of GLBT consumers.

This hypocrisy is apparent not only to the editors of Gaywheels.com. 87% of respondents to a recent Gaywheels.com survey felt the same when asked how they would feel if a non-gay-friendly company advertised to them in the GLBT media. Among the many comments we received about this issue, ones like this were representative: “I’ve boycotted companies for this sort of thing".

Our goal is not to incite a boycott of BMW’s cars, but rather to arm you, our readers, with awareness of the company’s actions as well as of those of the media outlets that published the ad. Speaking of which, one would hope that the publishers of GLBT-owned magazines and web sites would have higher standards than to accept advertising from a major, multinational corporation whose policies discriminate against the very audience that those publications were created to serve. Advertising dollars are scarce these days, but there is plenty of business from other car companies to go after—Gaywheels.com lists no less than 30 brands that qualify as gay-friendly.

He contacted the PR reps at BMW, who confirmed that DP benefits are not offered to U.S. employees -- and that BMW is specifically targeting gay customers by purchasing ads in Out and the Advocate.

That's moxie.

The list of gay-positive companies is quite long. It's easier just to put up Gaywheel's list of nine companies that do not have gay-supportive employee policies: Acura, Hyundai, Mini, BMW, Infiniti, Nissan, Honda, Kia, Suzuki.

Hat tip to Trish of The Pensito Review.

Flashback: Subaru drop-kicks Concerned Women for America

Birds of a feather...

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes a word is worth everything in describing a picture. Today, that word is "vaffanculo".

You've no doubt heard by now about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia flipping off a reporter shortly after communion while still in a cathedral and getting caught on camera doing it. So forgive me for repeating a thread that Pam's already blogged, but I just can't help myself.

(Boston Herald) Minutes after receiving the Eucharist at a special Mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had a special blessing of his own for those who question his impartiality when it comes to matters of church and state.

“You know what I say to those people?” Scalia, 70, replied, making an obscene gesture, flicking his hand under his chin when asked by a Herald reporter if he fends off a lot of flak for publicly celebrating his conservative Roman Catholic beliefs.

“That’s Sicilian,” the Italian jurist said, interpreting for the “Sopranos” challenged.

Although one of his sworn duties is to uphold the freedom of the press, a jocular Scalia told the shutterbug, “Don’t publish that.”

Now you know and I know that the flick of the hand under the chin, erroneously reported earlier as "flipping the bird", is not the most obscene gesture one could present in a church (that would be reserved for George W. Bush showing up to a funeral of a beloved civil rights icon just months after vacationing while black New Orleaneans drown). But it is certainly not a gesture that someone would use in a church.

Scalia, being the good hunting buddy of Dick "Go f*ck Yourself" Cheneyburton, attempted to spin his way out of it by, of course, blaming the media and claiming he'd been misinterpreted.

(Boston Herald) In a letter to the editor, an almost unheard-of step for a Supreme Court justice, Scalia said a reporter misinterpreted the gesture he made when she asked whether his participation in Sunday’s special Mass for lawyers might cause some people to question his impartiality in matters of church and state.

“Your reporter, an up-and-coming ‘gotcha’ star named Laurel J. Sweet, asked me (o-so-sweetly) what I said to those people. . .,” Scalia wrote to Executive Editor Kenneth A. Chandler. “I responded, jocularly, with a gesture that consisted of fanning the fingers of my right hand under my chin. Seeing that she did not understand, I said, ‘That’s Sicilian,’ and explained its meaning.”

In his letter, Scalia goes on to cite Luigi Barzini’s book, “The Italians”: “ ‘The extended fingers of one hand moving slowly back and forth under the raised chin means: “I couldn’t care less. It’s no business of mine. Count me out.” ’ ”

“From watching too many episodes of the Sopranos, your staff seems to have acquired the belief that any Sicilian gesture is obscene - especially when made by an ‘Italian jurist.’ (I am, by the way, an American jurist.)”

See, it was all just a mistake. Scalia's gesture was twisted in a "gotcha" game by female cub reporter who doesn't understand Sicilian hand gestures.

Well, except for the whole "vaffanculo" thing:

(Boston Herald) “It’s inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was no vulgarity in the moment,” said Peter Smith, the Boston University assistant photojournalism professor who made the shot.

Despite Scalia’s insistence that the Sicilian gesture was not offensive and had been incorrectly characterized by the Herald as obscene, the photographer said the newspaper “got the story right.”

Smith said the jurist “immediately knew he’d made a mistake, and said, ‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’ ”

“The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin, Smith said.

The Italian phrase means “(expletive) you.”

Well, not quite. According to the Urban Dictionary, it means, "go f*ck an ass" in Italian, or "go f*ck yourself in the ass". Dick Cheneyburton should be so creative; he only told Senator Leahy to "go f*ck yourself", but never suggested exactly where.

But since Scalia brought up The Sopranos, it was only natural for the Boston Herald to ask some of the Italian-American actors on the show to give their opinions:
You know that I'm not that offended by his gesture in a church. In fact, it is one of the more entertaining ways a member of the Cheney maladministration (a subsidiary of Halliburton, part of the Carlyle Group Family of Companies) has proven their hypocrisy and blasphemed their own sanctimonious celebration of their silly mythology.

The offensive part is not the gesture or the words, but the meaning which they convey. Flipping someone off, giving them the Bronx bird, gesturing a Sicilian salute, or just saying "go f*ck yourself" is the antithesis of reasoned debate among respectful equals. It says not only do I disagree with you, but your point and your standing are so insignificant as to earn total dismissal.

It's the underlying theme behind everything this maladministration does. We'll do what we want, and if you don't like it, "go f*ck yourself". Flipping someone off in a church is the least of the offense produced by these people.

[Cross-posted at Radical Writ, with a special finger-salute for Scalia. Don't worry, Tony, it's an Idahoan gesture that means "you're number one."]

Ratzi's got to pass the plate around

Catholic Church Gets 783 New Abuse Claims. And the hit parade of misery continues, as more and more sexual abuse victims come forward. The numbers are mind-boggling:

* Since 1950, the church has racked 12,000 clergy abuse allegations

* The total cost of abuse just in 2005 was nearly $467 million. This figure includes settlements, therapy for victims, support for offenders and attorneys' fees, and more.

* Adding up that figure to all the payouts since 1950, this nightmare has cost dioceses more than $1 billion.

And you know it will keep on rising.

A touch of class

Just as we were musing about Big Tony's views on homosex and masturbation, comes the revelation of the class-act jurist outside a church the other day, showing everyone the Sicilian "f-you" outside of a church.

Amid a growing national controversy about the gesture U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made Sunday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the freelance photographer who captured the moment has come forward with the picture.
"It’s inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was no vulgarity in the moment," said Peter Smith, the Boston University assistant photojournalism professor who made the shot.

Despite Scalia’s insistence that the Sicilian gesture was not offensive and had been incorrectly characterized by the Herald as obscene, the photographer said the newspaper "got the story right."

Smith said the jurist "immediately knew he’d made a mistake, and said, ‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’ "

As John over at AmericaBlog noted , Vaffanculo means "go get fucked up your ass," which is what he said to the reporter. He gets sextra credit for that bit of business, huh? I think Tony's got some 'splaining to do...

"The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’" punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin, Smith said.

Hat tip, Paul. A DKos diary is up on it.

Breaking news from Massachusetts

The ban preventing out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts has been upheld. If you cannot marry in your own state, then it's not legal for you to do so in the Commonwealth. It's a blow to civil equality for now. (365gay):

Gay and lesbian couples from outside Massachusetts were dealt a blow Thursday when the state's highest court - the Supreme Judicial Court - let stand, at least for now, a 1913 law that prevents clerks from issuing marriage licenses to people from states where that marriage would be illegal.

The law was written when most states did not recognize interracial marriage. After the US Supreme Court ruled that laws barring interracial couples from marrying was illegal the Massachusetts statute fell into disuse.

After the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that it was unconstitutional for the state to deny same-sex couples the right to marry Gov. Mitt Romney began using the old law to deny marriage licenses to couples from outside the Commonwealth.

The ruling today cited the fact that same-sex marriage is banned in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, so this allows Massachusetts to keep its ban in place regarding gay residents traveling to the Commonwealth to marry.

The next step, the court indicated, is to sent the case back to the MA Superior Court to review whether gay civil marriage is legal in Rhode Island and NY, where the matter is winding its way through the courts in those states.

More folks on the Hill sign on to repeal DADT

The Military Readiness Enhancement Act has just received a boost, with four more Congressional lawmakers coming on board to repeal the unfair treatment of gay servicemen and women under the Clinton-launched travesty known as Don't Ask Don't Tell. (SLDN):

Republican Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Democratic lawmakers Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), Julia Carson (D-IN), and Michael Doyle (D-PA) join 110 other Members of Congress in calling for repeal of the gay ban. Boehlert is the fifth Republican co-sponsor and McKinney joins nine other members of the House Armed Services Committee who are also co-sponsors of the bill (H.R. 1059). In all, 114 Members of Congress now support the legislation, introduced in March 2005 by Congressman Marty Meehan (D-MA).

There has been something of a political soap opera going on regarding McKinney's endorsement of the bill, with McKinney’s chief of staff, Warren Miller, and her pop, Billy McKinney tussling with gay activists over whether she would sign on. There were a lot of bruised egos over Cynthia McKinney's loss in 2002, and she wanted assurance that she would receive endorsements from the gay community in her current race against Hank Johnson in the Democratic primary, which is in July. Sigh, politics. (SoVo):

At the March 18 meeting, Billy McKinney chastised gay voters for allegedly not supporting his daughter in 2002 when she lost her congressional seat to Denise Majette. McKinney regained her seat in 2004 and, until this week, had not signed on to co-sponsor any of the pro-gay measures tracked by the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay political group that endorsed her in 2002, but not in her comeback bid.

During the meeting, Billy McKinney suggested that gay groups needed to endorse his daughter to ensure her support for repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." "I want your names saying you support her campaign right now and I’ll make it public,” he told attendees.

In the end, as you see, she finally came around.

Kanab, UT businesses: 'we need gay money'

The tourism industry in the small southern Utah town of Kanab is roiling over the non-binding measure passed by the city council that declared marriage is between a man and woman "ordained of God" and that families should produce a "full quiver of children" (see my earlier post on this story).

Some wingnut organization, The Sutherland Institute, sent out this measure to towns all over the state. Only Kanab's government chose to adopt it. And now they are faced with a gay boycott and the loss of the almighty gay dollar. Some businesses are rushing to put symbols of welcome to gay travelers, hoping to mitigate the short-sighted bigotry of its government. (365gay.com):

Signs began popping up in store windows this week in Kanab, Utah proclaiming ''Everyone welcome here!'' in a desperate move to avoid a threatened gay boycott. Some businesses went so far as putting small rainbow flag stickers on their front doors.

...Tourism is Kanab's biggest industry and business owners say they need gay money. "We're a tourist destination with people coming here to sleep and eat, and we [business owners] have worked hard to have something to show," pharmacist Kort Stirland told the Salt Lake Tribune.

His Zion Pharmacy has one of the welcome signs, which features a string of rainbow-colored human figures, in the window.

...The signs and stickers are being distributed by the Kanab Boosters, a business owners group. The Boosters are selling the signs and small stickers for cars for between $2.50 and $4.50. The group hopes to raise enough money to take out newspaper ads throughout the state to promote the town as a diverse place to vacation.

Ted Hallisey, the executive director of the county Travel Association says that his office has received hundreds of e-mails and letters from people threatening to scrap their travel plans over the council's resolution. But, he said, it was too early to tell what the economic impact might be.

It doesn't help the cause of Kanab business owners when they have members of the religious community like the Rev. Doug Hounshell, pastor of Cliffview Chapel Baptist Church bleating that he:

"thanks God for a community that doesn't think it has to be 'gay-friendly.' We don't mean to be mean-spirited, but the message to a homosexual might be that this is probably not the friendliest town for that type of thing."

Nancy Goldstein's dinner with Napoli

South Dakota State Senator Bill Napoli's a stand-up guy, a man of outstanding wisdom. He knows exactly what's good for all women. After all, he's the one who articulated just what circumstances would be sufficiently moral for an abortion to be obtained:

A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

So when Raw Story columnist Nancy Goldstein was in a dilemma over which ingredients to add to a dish she was preparing, she decided to ring up font-of-wisdom Bill to relieve her female brain of this strain of decision-making:

I wasn't sure whether to use chorizo or bacon in my paella last weekend, so I called South Dakota state senator Bill Napoli and asked him to make my decision for me.

Stephanie Millman inspired me to contact Bill -- one of the most vocal supporters of the new state ban on virtually all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. Millman's brilliant cartoon, which has been making the rounds of the blogosphere, lampoons Napoli's conviction that women can't be trusted to make decisions about our own bodies -- and conveniently provides his work and home numbers.

Even if you don't recognize Bill Napoli's name, you've probably heard of him. He's the South Dakota state senator who created a big splash on the PBS NewsHour earlier this month with his detailed -- some might say prurient -- description of an "acceptable rape" that would merit an exemption from the state's abortion ban.

I'll say this for the senator: he returned the message I left on his home machine promptly, which would have been very useful except that he said he'd never heard of paella (or Google, when I suggested that he look up some recipes online). Even my description of the dish's primary ingredients didn't seem to help him with my chorizo/bacon quandry. So we shelved the paella dilemma and moved on to the abortion ban.

Read her column to find out what Nancy told Bill -- and what Napoli had to say, including the unbelievable claim that Nancy was the first woman ever to tell him that contraception fails on occasion.

We only want Stepford Kids in the classroom

Straight-A Student Pulled From Class Over Hair Color. Before clicking over to this story and seeing the picture, I couldn't imagine what this young woman's hair was going to look like -- what does it take these days to be "distracting" to others in the classroom?

Based on the picture below, these school administrators at Bueker Middle School in Marshall, Missouri must be living under a rock somewhere to think this is outrageous:


Kristen McCorkle's hair looks like simple, cute, colorful highlights; how does this impede learning? Are the students of Bueker that easily distracted?

School officials said there is a rule at Bueker that hairstyles that are distracting to the educational process are not allowed.

"Doing this is taking away from people's individuality," student Kristen McCorkle said. The 14-year-old, who is a straight-A student, said the school's assistant principal told her she had to go to in-school suspension and that she would be there until her hair is fixed.

..."I don't feel that her hair is out of control," said Tim McCorkle, the girl's father. "It's definitely not outside of the boundaries that we have established here in the home."

The district's superintendent, Dr. Robert Gordon, said he was alerted to the situation Tuesday afternoon.

"This, as I understand it, is a matter of interpretation. I believe the assistant principal was doing what he felt was in the best interest of the kids," Gordon said.

True conservatives will be the ones to end the Drug War

In fighting the War On (Some Taxpaying American Citizens Using Non-Alcoholic, Non-Pharmaceutical, Tobacco-Free) Drugs, I often find myself allied with many left-leaning progressive types. Many times, they'll launch into anti-conservative, anti-Republican tirades, and I've been guilty of the same more often than not.

So it always surprises them when I say that it will be the conservatives (true conservatives, not these Bushites in power now) that stop the ridiculous prohibition of drugs. Why? It's about the money and that invisible hand of the marketplace.

The latest example of conservative / libertarian newsman John Stossel - certainly no friend of liberals - writing in Townhall.com:

I was once among the majority who believe that drug use must be illegal. But then I noticed that when vice laws conflict with the law of supply and demand, the conflict is ugly, and the law of supply and demand generally wins.

The drug war costs taxpayers about $40 billion. "Up to three quarters of our budget can somehow be traced back to fighting this war on drugs," said Jerry Oliver, then chief of police in Detroit, told me. Yet the drugs are as available as ever.

... Richer criminal gangs. Alcohol prohibition created Al Capone. The gangs drug prohibition is creating are even richer, probably rich enough to buy nuclear weapons. Osama bin Laden was funded partly by drug money.

Government's declaring drugs illegal doesn't mean people can't get them. It just creates a black market, where even nastier things happen. That's why I have come to think that although drug addiction is bad, the drug war is worse.

Many conservatives have been against the drug war, notably William F. Buckley, Jr. and economist Milton Friedman, who has long warned us that we're wasting our money in a futile attempt to eliminate a market through prohibition, and told us that we're missing out on $14 billion a year on potential tax revenues and law enforcement savings.

But what would your average red state denizen of Freepersborough think about such heresy?

The WOD can't be won. Even if you make drugs illegal doesn't mean people can't get them; it just makes things worse. As John Stossel notes, even if you think drug addiction is bad, the cure has has resulted in more crime, more terrorism and the existence of powerful criminal cartels that can do all kinds of things we don't want with illicit money. And our resources could better be spent on prevention and treatment programs than to lock people up for pursuing recreational fantasies with a couple of pills. Its called common sense.

I think the WOD was Reagan's biggest mistake. The price has been high in both blood and treasure with little if anything to show for it. One only has to look back at a little history to know what the result would be. Oh well...

Milton Friedman and others who think like him, called exactly how the drug war would turn out. More crime, more prisons, bigger government, less rights for individuals, and drugs as available as ever. The drug warriors remind of communists. They both imagine a utopian world, if just the state can intervene, with the ends justifying the means.. and oh yes they won't screw up like the last communists did.

Nixon was more successful than any president after him in battling illegal narcotics. In Turkey he created a model program to persuade poppy farmers to grow alternative crops. He developed a massive anti-drug education program aimed at elementary school age children. He founded the DEA. He funded drug and alcohol treatment facilities. The difference between the Nixon era drug war and today's drug war is that the Nixon Administration spent 25 cents of each WOD dollar on enforcement/interdiction and 75 cents on education and treatment. Today 75 cents goes to enforcement/interdiction and 25 cents goes to treatment/education.

Here's what I don't get: everyone I know- liberal or conservative- thinks the War on Drugs is a disaster, a waste of time, and a horrible idea that must be put to an end. It's probably the one issue everyone agrees on. My question is this: who are the people that are actually supporting this nonsense? There has to be a pretty sizable group out there somewhere, or else this money wouldn't be wasted every year. From what I can see, most people want this fake war ended.

:If we did not have this drug war going on, we could spend more time going after robbers and rapists and burglars and murderers. This has always been my take. In London we had a operation called Operation Bumble Bee targeting career burglars withing a few months we had cut break ins by 10% and the figure was going down. Then a newspaper the Evening Standard ran a series of stories about dealers in Soho. The offshoot was that resources were diverted from BumbleBee and put to use tackling the dealers. After a man hour intensive five month operation they busted a gang of dealers many were arrested an jailed, withing a week new dealers had taken over. As a by-product house break-ins rose again.

I think most people are still brainwashed by the government on this matter. Second, there are hundreds of thousands of government workers whose career depends on the War on Drugs. Notwithstanding the utter moral imperative to end the war, the government is "addicted" to the War to keep their parasite class employed. Remember, it came out after 911 that many FBI staffs around the country were mostly dedicated to the WOD, not terrorism. It would take a strong visionary leader to end this insane drug war.

The shame is that most people who have drug problems have serious emotional problems that need compassion, not incarceration, to help solve. The Drug Warriors like to imply the drugs cause the problem these people have, when it is their sad state that causes them to fall into the drug dependency. We would have a much more civil society if we treated them with compassion instead of police state actions.

... and just paging through the many many comments, it seemed about 2-to-1 against the drug war. There were a few crazed Freepers out there, though:

When this country enforced draconian drug laws ON USERS there wasn't a problem. When middle class parents wailed about junior's 20 year sentence for a joint, those laws changed. They don't have a problem in Singapore. Guess why?

But legalistic and economic reasons aside, one of the reasons I was drawn to conservatism as a political philosophy is because of its clarity of moral purpose. Legalizing drugs is another step on the road to cultural acceptance and affirmation. Look at gambling: the same murderous rats who ran the casinos in Vegas are running the casinos now, only nationwide. Gambling is accepted, even celebrated, with its grubby, loathsome philosophy permeating everything from the Internet to the local 7-11, teaching children that the one thing infinitely better than hard work and study is the luck of the draw. After drugs, I suppose prostitution is next. After all, we're talking 'victimless' crimes, right? And prostitutes aren't really prostitutes: they're 'sex workers', and their johns are 'participants in the sex industry', consumers. That is the logic, correct?

And all those drug buyers and sellers would be model citizens if only the evil government wouldn't ruin their fun by banning drugs. Anybody who would steal to get mind- and body-destroying drugs, and anybody who would buy a gun and form a gang to sell them, is either evil or stupid. Chances are they'd end up criminals anyway.

Stossel is wrong on this issue. People who are intent on destroying themselves need to be locked up. Treatment only for those who want it and show a commitment to it. We aren't responsible for making sure everyone makes the right choices in life, but we are responsible for removing those people from civilized society. The public health problems created by "recreational" users is incredibly damaging.

Most of the anti-Stossel responses on Free Republic followed that general theme, i.e., all drug use is abuse destined to wreck society, and all drug users are immoral cretins with no impulse control and criminal tendencies.

Still, I think the conservatives will end the drug war and I'd love to have liberals prove me wrong and do it first. But I don't get my hopes up, after decades of spending and an entrenched economy of prisons, crime, gangs, pharmaceuticals, drug testing, politics, and so much more that depends on the continued prohibition of drugs, it's hard to see an end in sight. I can't really believe Democrats will do anything about it; they're willing to just ignore stolen elections, torture, gay rights, outright fraud and lying, war on false pretenses, and a lawbreaking president. They're really not likely to jump up and say, "let's decriminalize drugs!" The hope I hold for the Republicans is their natural greed, belief in individual liberty, and dislike of government intrusion.

One potential end: we continue to be wrapped up in wars in the Middle East and our economy takes a dump when foreign governments start calling in their debts. As our country goes broke trying to fight wars in Asia (just like we taught Osama bin Laden to use against the Soviets), we'll be desperately trying to raise funds, and the temptation to tax drugs and save law enforcement money and manpower will be too great to ignore.

On the other hand, maybe in order to continue feeding these wars in Asia, we scapegoat the drug users even more, and enact mandatory minimums that send drug users to the military. That'll be an easy sell, won't it? Punish the druggies and make 'em go through boot camp to learn discipline -- oh, and we get to shave their hippie heads! -- and make 'em go shoot an insurgent to help spread democracy. Damn, that's almost a GOP campaign commercial!

[Cross-posted at Radical Writ]

Dan Curtis, TV producer, dies at 78

He wasn't a household name, but if you watched TV in the 70s and 80s, you saw Dan Curtis's work:

* Dark Shadows (soap)
* The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler (the movies, not the TV series)
* The Winds of War and War and Remembrance (miniseries)

As Blender Donica noted in the comments of another thread, "if you are of a certain age, you would certainly remember the frightening 1975 made for TV movie Trilogy of Terror, featuring a campy Karen Black and that horrifying devil doll."



Oh yes I did. That was one of my favorites, with the "Zuni fetish" devil doll segment of the film the most memorable, lololol. I need to get that movie on my Amazon wish list...

Thanks for sharing the love, Scalia

He's ready to roll back Lawrence v. Texas and doesn't mind saying it. (365gay):

A tape of a speech given earlier this month by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has drawn the ire of LGBT civil rights activists who worry the landmark high court ruling on sodomy could be revisited.

Scalia rarely speaks to the media and seldom allows the press into speeches he gives but a recording of a March 8 address at the University of Freiberg in Switzerland was obtained by CNN.

..."Question comes up: is there a constitutional right to homosexual conduct? Not a hard question for me. It's absolutely clear that nobody ever thought when the Bill of Rights was adopted that it gave a right to homosexual conduct. Homosexual conduct was criminal for 200 years in every state. Easy question."

"The court has taken sides in the culture war," Scalia said, adding that he has "nothing against homosexuals."

Do you think he sodomizes his wife? Just asking.

Actually, he let us know that muffin' buffin/yankee-ing the doodle makes the hit list as well (and certainly he doesn't engage in that activity, right?). On the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court ruling, the master of his domain said:

"State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are likewise sustainable only in light of Bowers' validation of laws based on moral choices. Every single one of these laws is called into question by today's decision; the Court makes no effort to cabin the scope of its decision to exclude them from its holding."

Peter LaBarbera's trolling for scat talk

[Welcome Crooks & Liars readers, you're about to enter a zone of fundie obsession with sex acts...]

Man, oh man...after he wrote me a letter to chastise me for making fun of his excursions to leather clubs to do undercover work for Jeezus, Illinois Family Institute's Peter LaBarbera just lets it all hang out in an article on Salon (registration required) by Michelle Goldberg, "Sinners in the hands of an angry GOP." It's an inside look at the goings-on at the War on Christians and the Values Voters conference.

Because Petey's efforts to demonize the entire gay community are failing miserably (the Gay Games are going on in Chicago with Walgreen's sponsorship; his marriage amendment initiative can't get the signatures it needs) he must now escalate the homo-hate wars with a little spice -- by trolling on gay boards for research on how to scare youth away from the gay agenda.

Perhaps worrying that anti-gay rhetoric hasn't been sufficiently inflammatory lately, some speakers urged listeners to start using more scatological and stigmatizing language. Peter LaBarbera, who heads the Illinois Family Institute and is known for his obsession with gay men's most outré sexual practices, told the audience, "My greatest frustration has been our side's inability to make homosexual behavior an issue in the public's mind." In order to inspire the kind of revulsion he wants to see more of, he read from a posting on a gay message board: "Hey guys, I know this is kind of gross and all, but I was wondering if I'm the only one. I'm usually the bottom in my relationship with my boyfriend. After having been the receptive partner in anal sex it's only a few hours before I start to experience diarrhea ... it really stinks, because I really like sex, duh, but it takes the fun out of it when I know I'll be tied to the bathroom for the next day."

"I don't think so-called GLBT teens are told anything like this" by their school counselors, LaBarbera said. "We need to find ways to bring shame back to those who are practicing and advocating homosexual behavior."

Now, I'm a homo and I don't spend days and nights thinking about someone else's sexual proclivities and activities. Peter LaBarbera makes a career out doing this, and asks his "Christian" following to give him money so he can continue to do his research. How sick is that?

***

Rod Parsley strokes his pole on stage at the same conference

The rest of the Salon article is full of the bullsh*t from that "Values Voter/War on Christians" conference that Petey attended, and there's a section containing what can only be described as an unhinged orgasmic experience for Talibangelist Rod Parsley (pastor of the World Harvest Church, and head of Reformation Ohio) as he addressed the crowd of bible beaters.

When he speaks and shouts, his words building to alliterative climaxes as his arms wave in the air, sparks seem to fly off him.


"A spiritual invasion is taking place," Parsley roared to the packed banquet hall on Tuesday morning, drawing out the "a" in invasion. "The secular media never likes it when I say this, so let me say it twice. Man your battle stations! Ready your weapons!" He paused to take a preemptive jab at his critics, his voice going soft and scolding: "They say, 'his rhetoric is so inciting.'" Then he nearly screamed, "I came to incite a riot! Man your battle stations! Ready your weapons! Lock and load!"

Parsley preached for a half hour, dabbing at his sweating face with a navy blue handkerchief as his excitement grew. Near the end, he promised, "A great and noble and righteous nation can resurrect itself out of the smoldering ash heap of moral decline that we find ourselves in today."

Read the rest of this article. It really captures the desperation of these religious extremists as they suddenly realize their influence with the public is in a death spiral, and they are desperate to cling on to their Washington bed buddies.

Hat tip to Blender Scott of Reality Cubed, who said "I know you have a soft spot for good old Pete, apparently he's cruising gay message boards now."

More fresh Blend here.

Here are more Blend posts about Peter LaBarbera and his "investigations" on gay sex, leather conferences and the like.

Back to the drawing board, Ken

Editor and Publisher: Gallup: In Shift, More Americans Now Call Themselves Democrats.

All that GOP outreach...do you hear a giant flushing sound?

"Hetero" dancin' man and RNC head Ken Mehlman's got to be crying into his embroidered hanky right about now.

After Dear Leader's incompetence during Katrina washed away the black votes you were trying to shave off, and Congress is working hard to decimate your master plan to build a permanent Republican Latino base, maybe you should just chill, go on a bender, cut loose, and dance under the disco ball for a while to forget your troubles...maybe you'll even "get lucky" one night.



Iraq's so f*cked up that you're losing the independent vote at this point, so party hard, dude.

It's comical at this point

Read this headline and just shake your head: Bush blames Iraq's instability on Hussein.

Yeah, the guy in custody, sitting in that sham of a trial, is the one fomenting violence out there, and has the country all FUBAR. He did it.

At this point it's like juvenile Dear Leader, caught with his hand in the cookie jar, pointing to Jeb sitting over at the table and saying "he did it, mom."


Ah, leadership. Thank you sheeple.

Ah, I see Waveflux at Shakes Sis bites on this one, The "It's Clinton's fault" defense.

Newsflash: fundies are f*cking before marriage

"The young people are receiving the data, but they're not translating it into values that result in a lifestyle of purity and holiness."
-- Byron Weathersbee, interim chaplain at Baylor University, on the abundant sexual behavior of young Christians before marriage

Gee, did you think that any light bulbs came on in the cobweb-laden brains of the Dobsons, Falwells and Wildmons of the movement?

Abstinence education and purity pledges aren't doing jacksh*t for many of these fundies -- Baptist couples are boinking before tying the knot according to a Baylor study.

Any bets on how many of these couples actually used contraception when they did the nasty? (AgapePress):

Byron Weathersbee, interim chaplain at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, conducted a study on the effects of sexual-purity pledges and sex education on abstinence before marriage in a Christian context. Baylor is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

As part of his research, Weathersbee surveyed young married couples of less than five years in Texas Baptist churches to determine the impact churches made on their sexual behavior. The majority of the couples surveyed admitted to having sexual intercourse prior to marriage. However, the study was consistent with previous findings in its suggestion that Baptist couples were more likely to save sex for their wedding night if they took a formal abstinence pledge.

Here are some of the findings:
* 100 percent professed faith in Christ
* 99 percent attended church
* 84 percent grew up in church
* 87 percent grew up in a two-parent home
* 62 percent of males had premarital sex
* 65 percent of females had premarital sex

And to put the cherry on top, so to speak, only 27 percent of fundies surveyed managed to stay completely chaste, not engaging in intercourse or Clintonian "non-sex" acts.

Lunchtime laff-riot

I'm sure the Freepi will claim that the header "How alcohol works" was intentionally put up there by a CNN smartass, but it's too good to be true.

Blend flashback: You may have to remove the 'dry' from dry drunk

Hilarious hat tip, AmericaBlog.

Log Cabin DADT lawsuit gets booted by judge over anonymity

This is what happens when you support the closet.

PageOneQ reports that a lawsuit filed by the Log Cabin Republicans to overturn Don't Ask, Don't Tell was tossed out by a judge, not because the case has no merit, but because no plaintiff was named as a member of the LCR -- ostensibly because they haven't the cojones to be out of the closet, or perhaps, affiliated with the LCR. Who knows?

The United States District Court in the Ninth Circuit of central California has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) against the US Military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy PageOneQ has learned. The decision by LCR to not include the names of plaintiffs in the original suit resulted in the court ruling that the organization "lacks associational standing" to pursue the case. The Log Cabin organization has told PageOneQ they will re-file the case, meeting the decision’s requirements.

The court ordered the LCR to reveal the name of at least one of the plaintiffs if they want the case to proceed, and requires that the named plaintiff(s) be active members of the national Republican political organization. The ruling also requires the plaintiff to be a current or past member of the US Armed Forces who has been injured by the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. The court-imposed deadline for re-filing of the case is April 28.

Gee, those sound like reasonable requirements, don't they? The reason that LCR gives for withholding the names of its members who are the plaintiffs in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States of America and Donald Rumsfeld is because they fear it "subjects them to investigation and discharge."

Now you all know that the Servicemember's Legal Defense Network has been at the forefront of action to repeal DADT for years. In fact, the judges cited SLDN cases to refute LCR claims that anonymity is necessary for the case. Plantiffs in SLDN legal challenges to DADT have been named for a decade.

LCR, if you can't play with the big boys on this one, step aside for those who are willing to be out in this fight.

You can read the ruling here.

Wayne Besen also comments on this.

Tom DeLay's problem: he loved Christ too much

In my post on the goings-on at the unhinged "Values Voter/War on Christians" conference put on by Rick Scarborough of Vision America, I somehow missed this gem about ace-crapmaster of corruption, Tom DeLay.

Apparently Jack Abramoff's bed buddy's real sin was his faith in Christ in service to this great country simply turned everyone against him, not the rank corruption and power-play politicking. Can you believe this came out of a sane person's mouth? Scarborough on the sins of Bug Man:

"I believe the most damaging thing that Tom DeLay has done in his life is take his faith seriously into public office, which made him a target for all those who despise the cause of Christ," Scarborough said, introducing DeLay on Tuesday. When DeLay finished, the host reminded the politician: "God always does his best work right after a crucifixion."

Spindentist at All Spin Zone:

I'm unable to write more just now, as I've got this image of Tom DeLay, “loving Christ too much,” in my head. And I can't shake the image. No, it's not a porn thing, and I'm not imagining DeLay fellating Jesus or anything, but more imagining him sitting at a bar and drowning his sorrows, slurring his words at the bartender and crying in his Shirley Temple. Yes, Jesus would have rejected Tom DeLay's advances.

***

UPDATE: It looks like Jack will have plenty of time to think about his own misdeeds, as he makes friends and influences big burly cellbuddies in the Big House.

Jack Abramoff, a disgraced lobbyist at the heart of a Washington influence-peddling scandal that has rattled top Republicans, was sentenced to nearly six years in prison on Wednesday for fraud in the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line.

Abramoff, who is cooperating in a federal investigation into whether Washington politicians gave his clients favorable treatment in exchange for campaign contributions, Super Bowl tickets and other illegal gifts, was sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison.

Abramoff, along with co-defendant Adam Kidan, was ordered to pay $21.7 million in restitution. Kidan was also sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison.

Abramoff pleaded guilty in a Miami federal court in January to conspiracy and wire fraud charges, acknowledging he faked documents to get a $60 million loan to buy the SunCruz fleet of gambling ships in 2000.

Washington state county adds gender identity to rights law

Progress, yet again, in King County. (Seattle Times):

Transgender individuals will now enjoy the same civil-rights protections as other minorities under legislation passed by the Metropolitan King County Council Monday.

The council added gender identity to laws already prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, sex, race and religion.

The legislation will protect transsexuals, transvestites and any other individuals with a gender identity that differs from their sex assigned at birth.

"It's going to make employers aware of discrimination," said supporter Smitty Petersen. "People generally don't do things if there are consequences."

Deliver us from this 'freedom'

The "ex-gay" fest Exodus Freedom Conference, is going to be held June 27-July 1 at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion. The meeting features a cavalcade of movement "stars" and guests. This year's theme is "Live Out Loud" -- and this is the message from conference honcho David Fountain, who's setting up Exodus as the victims of persecution that need to speak out. This is really getting tired.

It has also been eye-opening and disturbing to see regularly how Exodus is portrayed and attacked. It brings to reality Matthew 5:10 – 12, when Jesus preached, “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. Not only that, count yourself blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close to comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens, give cheer even, for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds.”

... The bigger picture became more clear to me -- Christians and the Church at large are under attack. Even within the church there is confusion and compromise when it comes to homosexuality. Satan will stop at nothing to silence us from sharing God’s truth. We all carry redemptive stories that is proof of God’s existence; stories that prove that Jesus is alive and through His Holy Spirit still saving and healing people. But we believe a message that is unpopular, even hated. He allows us to share in His own suffering.

Slated to appear...


Alan Chambers will share his journey out of homosexuality with attendees; Membership Director for Exodus International, Randy Thomas, "who communicates the hope of transformation to those struggling with unwanted same sex attractions"; and "award-winning talk show host, recording artist and pastor" on "sexual brokenness" Sy Rogers who will help folks out with inspiring speeches of praying the gay away.

Join us at the Exodus Freedom Conference as we impact lives through biblical training and education, and LIVE OUT LOUD, by proclaiming freedom from homosexuality through Jesus Christ.

For this life-changing week, more than 1000 men and women will come together for worship, celebration, and encouragement. The conference provides help to those who personally struggle with homosexuality, and those who have a loved one who identifies as gay. We also provide training to those ministering in the area of homosexuality, and education for all who wish to learn more about this important topic.

A new feature this time around for Exodus is a special interest group just for ministering to men. Get out the disco ball, guys, it's time to party.

This year, we will be adding an Oasis group for Men. These groups meet every night after the Evening General Session in various locations on campus. The only exception is the Parent’s Oasis Group that will meet from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. This is a time to relax, reflect, be ministered to, and connect with other delegates for some fun and fellowship.

Yes, my friends, I'm sure there will be plenty of fellowship and freedom from homosexuality at Oasis.

The icing on the cake is that Exodus has invited loudmouth homobigot and the subject of numerous posts on the Blend, Ken Hutcherson.


Hutcherson photo art via Mike Tidmus.

This dunce tried to orchestrate a boycott of Microsoft to punish it for backing the addition of "sexual orientation" to Washington state's anti-discrimination law, even proposing a silly stock buy and dump scheme to do so.

Paston Ken's also the author of a scintillating piece of work, The Safety of Natural Order, Same-Sex "Marriage" is an Injustice to Children and founder of MayDay for Marriage. Here's that organization's statement of belief:

We believe God, not man, created marriage.

We believe marriage was the first institution designed by God. We believe the Bible teaches that the covenant of marriage is sacred and life long.

The Bible makes it clear that marriage is a legally binding public declaration of commitment and a private consummation between one man and one woman, never between the same sex.

Therefore, we believe God gives a wife to a husband and a husband to a wife, and they are to receive one another as God's unique and personal provision to help meet their mutual needs.

Pandagon is up

Pandagon is up on the new host, but it seems to be loading slowly for me. Drop by and show Amanda some love.

Call him Sir Tom

Singer Tom Jones Is Knighted. But did the Queen throw her knickers at him?

Memo to Ken: Congress better not buck Bush

RNC memo to our dancin' man Ken, via Hotline, putting out the word that members of Congress up for election better not slam Dear Leader to gain needed votes. Oh, what a feeling!

To: Ken Mehlman
From: Jan van Lohuizen
Date: March 3, 2006
Re: Bush -- Congressional Republicans

...Most members will be elected with between 80% and 100% of their support coming from Republicans. I don't see that Republicans driving a wedge between themselves and the President is a good election strategy.

...The President is seen universally as the face of the Republican Party. We are now brand W. Republicans. The following chart shows the extremely close correlation between the President’s image and overall ratings of the party.

President Bush drives our image and will do so until we have real national front-runners for the '08 nomination. Attacking the President is counter productive for all Republicans, not just the candidates launching the attacks. If he drops, we all drop.

Folks, brand W is going down like a mafia squealer with cement shoes on in the Hudson River. If you want to join Dear Leader and don a pair to sink with him, please, go right ahead. You've hitched a ride with the War President on the way up in the polls, and now you can endure the downward spiral of broken "conservative" promises, lying, criminal behavior and power-grabbing of the executive branch along with your man. What's not to love?

The national debt clock will break under Dear Leader

The national debt clock in New York, shows the total US government debt (top) and the calculated amount per family. The clock does not have enough digits to show the debt when it reaches the ten trillion dollar mark, which is expected in the next couple of years. Mon Mar 27, 8:58 AM ET. (AFP/File/Stan Honda)


Debt clock pic taken around 4:30 PM on Thursday, June 30, 2005 -- when Kate and I were last in NYC.

By the way, Kate and I will be up in NY next week (Wed-Sun).

Cross Sharon Stone off my list

"I think Hillary Clinton is fantastic, but I think it is too soon for her to run (for president)...Hillary still has sexual power, and I don't think people will accept that. It's too threatening."

-- actress Sharon Stone, clearly in some altered mind-state, on sHillary.

One adjective I would not use to describe the former first lady and faux-Dem Senator from NY is sexy. Not that there's anything wrong a politician projecting with a healthy dose of sex appeal. It's just not there in this case.

No, sHillary's problem, Sharon, is that she is a craven politician who is willing to abandon any and all core values if it will garner a few precious winger votes and acquire some fantasy "values voters" cred. She's the poster child for Dems interested in their own political ascendancy, pols who have every intention of tossing gays under the bus each and every time because they don't have a spine to discuss and reframe the issue -- and take it away from the Rethugs. She isn't fooling anyone and she can't win.

Compare and contrast with...

"I find Hillary to be a great disappointment. She's lost her progressive following because of her caution and centrist approach. It bothered me when she voted for the war. There were brave people who didn't. She's not worse than other politicians, but I hoped she would be better. What America is looking for is authentic people who want to go into public service because they strongly believe in something, not people who are [just] trying to get elected."

-- Susan Sarandon

Also:
* Fallout from leaked Empire State Pride Agenda memo
* What is wrong with Americans?
* The sHillary backlash continues
* Molly Ivins has had enough of the D.C. Dems too

The War on Christians and the Values Voters conference

The looniest of the fringe right met yesterday and today in D.C. to obsess about fetuses and homos in preparation for the 2006 elections.

Vision America's The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006 conference featured an all-star cast of the bible-beating, religious right-fawning set. My earlier post on this, Extreme fringe winger intel, has more on the organizer, Rick Scarborough.

Some of the folks attending:

Senator Sam Brownback, Senator John Cornyn, Congressman Tom DeLay, Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, Phyllis Schlafly, Janet Parshall, Janet Folger, William Greene, Ron Luce and Rod Parsley. Here are some choice quotes from folks you may recognize who bleated away at the conference.

Defending the family is a key goal of the so-called "values voters." The traditional or natural family is one of the targets of the political Left, said Peter LaBarbera, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute. He said he was proud to share the stage with "heroes in the fight for normalcy."


Peter Sprigg, the Family Research Council's vice president for policy, noted that the family "is not merely a social construct subject to infinite redefinition. "We believe what makes a family is one man and one woman uniting in marriage for a lifetime and bearing children from that union," Sprigg stated. "We are against anything that threatens the traditional family or undermines that idea," including pre-marital sex, pornography, adultery and prostitution. "And yes, we are also against the practice of homosexuality," he added.

Sprigg said Christians do not hate homosexuals. "On the contrary, we desire the best for them. However, we believe engaging in behavior that is unnatural, immoral and dangerous to the public health and their own health is not the best thing for people with same-sex attractions." He noted that the FRC and similar organizations also oppose the "gay agenda," which "demands full acceptance of the practice of homosexuality -- morally, socially, legally, religiously, politically and financially. "Indeed, it calls for not only acceptance, but affirmation and celebration of this behavior as normal and even desirable," Sprigg said.


The Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman and founder of Traditional Values Coalition, stated that the "gay agenda" would come to a quick end if Americans rose up in numbers against it. However, "Christians are nice guys, and nice guys finish last," he added.


LaBarbera agreed with Sheldon's analysis. "By simply saying we oppose the sin and not the sinner, we leave the playing field to homosexual activists and their euphemistic talking points, which are 'discrimination,' 'equality' and that poor euphemism, 'sexual orientation,'" he said.

...While most speakers said they prefer using the word "homosexual" instead of "gay," Sheldon said he usually sticks with the term's original meaning: "sodomite."

One of the interesting things unveiled at the conference is the Values Voters' Contract with Congress, an unhinged document that I am presenting to you here (and this is the SHORT version) for commentary, jaw-dropping and all-around ripping up. It's an amazing piece of batsh*ttery.

We are citizens of the United States of America and subjects of the sovereign Creator, acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence as the Supreme Ruler and Judge of the World. We strongly affirm our allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, and are moved by our faith in God to join together now to defend government of, by, and for the people against the greatest assault it has ever faced: the destruction of our Constitutionally-mandated republican form of government by judges who legislate from the bench and, thereby, subvert our liberty and our entire way of life.

In defense of our national principles, our Constitution of self-government, our decent character, and our shared national identity, we the undersigned citizens of the United States come together in support of actions we hereby agree to be right and necessary for the common good of all.

We therefore seek the following:
1. TO AFFIRM the national relationship with God in our places of worship, schools, mottos, and public spaces, we call for the passage of -

* The Pledge Protection Act to prohibit activist judges from taking "under God" out of the Pledge (H.R. 2389, S.1046);
* The Constitution Restoration Act to prohibit activist judges from ruling against acknowledgments of God (H.R. 1070, S.520);
* The Public Expression of Religion Act to prohibit activist judges from ordering taxpayers to pay lawyers who seek to erode our national relationship with God (H.R. 2679); and
* The Workplace Religious Freedom Act to promote religious accommodation in employment (H.R. 1445, S. 677).

2. TO SECURE our national interest in the institutions of marriage and family, we call for the passage of -

* A constitutional amendment to completely protect the institution of marriage; and
* The Marriage Protection Act to prohibit activist judges from forcing states to redefine the institution of marriage (H.R. 1100).

3. TO SECURE our fundamental right as parents to the care, custody, and control of our children, we call for the passage of -

* Legislation to codify the principles set forth on Nov. 16, 2005, in House Resolution 547 which would protect parental rights;
* The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act to prohibit the transportation of minors against parental rights (H.R.748);
* The Parental Consent Act to prohibit the use of federal funds for any universal or mandatory mental health screening (H.R. 181);
* The Child Medication Safety Act, to protect children from being coerced into taking drugs in order to attend school (H.R. 1790);
* Legislation that empowers parents to choose schools for their families that share their value choices, as well as ensures families are not forced to pay twice for their educational choices; and
* We call for enforcement of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), which prohibits schools from using privacy invading surveys or evaluations without prior written parental consent (20 U.S.C. 1232h).

4. TO SECURE our God-bestowed right to life, we call for the passage of -

* Legislation to affirm the right to life of our children before birth;
* The Human Cloning Protection Act to prohibit human cloning (S.658, H.R. 1357);
* Legislation that protects life by prohibiting the use of human embryos for research;
* The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act to raise awareness of the pain experienced by children before birth (S.51, H.R. 356); and
* Legislation to prohibit any taxpayers' money for organizations that perform, promote, and/or fund abortions.

5. TO SECURE our God-granted liberties, we call for the passage of -

* Legislation to reverse the loss of religious liberty for churches concerning their involvement in moral and social issues;
* Legislation to ensure that speech and lawful religious expression are never punished as a "hate crime";
* An amendment to the Higher Education Act to guarantee First Amendment rights of worship, speech, and association to students and employees as a condition of federal grants and student assistance;
* Legislation to complete the incarceration process through prisoner re-entry training and child mentoring; and
* Legislation or policies that call for continued rejection of the anti-family and deceptively-named "U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)."

6. TO SECURE our God-given stewardship of property, we call for the passage of -

* Legislation affirming that government may not redefine "public use" to take the private property of one person to give to another.

7. TO SECURE an environment of decency that is free from pornography and obscenity, we call for the passage of -

* Legislation to restrict obscenity and pornography, and guard against its mis-stated protection under the First Amendment.

8. TO SECURE just taxes, and end immorally destructive taxation, we call for the passage of -

* Legislation to fundamentally reform the national tax system and reduce the tax burden on Americans; and
* Legislation to make permanent Marriage Penalty Relief and the Child Tax Credit.

9. TO SECURE our national borders and identity, we call for the passage of -

* True Enforcement and Border Security; and
* Legislation to prohibit, in cases of constitutional interpretation, the use of foreign law as authority.

10. Judges who legislate from the bench subvert our republican form of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and threaten all these legislative aims.

THEREFORE, WE URGENTLY CALL FOR Judicial Restraint, and an end to Judicial Activism.

* We call for the passage of the Judicial Conduct Act to hold federal judges accountable to the Constitution.

Above every consideration of selfish passion, ambition, or interest, we hold to the ultimate intention of our Constitution: to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. For this purpose, and in support of the beliefs and actions we have herein declared, we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our faithfulness, so help us God.

Man, these folks are overreaching. If they think this is going to go over like the Contract With America, they are sorely mistaken. This document reeks of extremism and a tenuous grasp on reality.

And remember. these are the kinds of people folks like tools John McCain and Mitt Romney are trying to suck up to for '08. Please, let them have to answer questions about whether they endorse the Values Voters' Contract with Congress.

AP lifts reporting from Raw Story

This should piss you off. The AP doesn't consider Raw Story, a great news source which does original reporting and investigative journalism a news outlet.

It's a blog, the AP powers that be say, and the AP feels it's ethical to lift all the work, in this case reporting by John Byrne and Larisa Alexandrovna, and republish it without crediting Raw.

The Raw article in question is U.S. quietly tightens access to classified information.

Katherine Shrader's AP article is entitled Security Clearance Rules May Impede Gays.

Go read the piece and the bullsh*t excuses AP gives for not crediting Raw Story.

'Bushit' bumper sticker gets woman $100 fine in GA

Sigh. This is nuts. Is it the "Bush" or the "it" that's the problem, or the "Bu" and the "shit", officer? Round up the bumf*ck beat cops/highway police who don't have anything better to do. (Atlanta Journal Constitution, via Raw Story):

[Denise Grier] pulled over on Chamblee-Tucker Road, unaware of her infraction.

"The officer asked if I knew I had a lewd decal on my car and I thought, 'Oh gosh, what did my kids put on my car?' "

As it turns out, the decal was an anti-Bush bumper sticker Grier slapped on her 2001 Chrysler Sebring last summer. The bumper sticker — "I'm Tired Of All The BUSH—" — contains an expletive.

The officer "said DeKalb had an ordinance about lewd decals and wrote me a ticket" for $100, said Grier, an oncology nurse at Emory University Hospital who lives in Athens.

"This is all about free speech," Grier said in a telephone interview Monday. "The officer pulled me over because he didn't agree with my politics. That's what this is about, not whether I support Bush, not because of the war in Iraq, but about my right to free speech."

Grow the damn corn for fuel

With gas prices heading skyward again and troops dying to protect access to a steady supply of oil for our SUV-driving nation, where is the real plan to reduce our consumption of it?

The other day I was watching CNN, and saw a clip from a segment of Powering the planet by Frank Sesno, a look at the dependency of the U.S. on a resource that guides our economic and foreign policy in ways the average consumer who tanks up never thinks about.

This was, to be honest, simply a different kind of journalism. I've never done anything quite like it. It was time travel, globe-trekking and fact-checking all rolled into one. It was about oil and our addiction to it, how we keep it flowing and what happens if the supply is interrupted. At every turn, I discovered something new and saw the complexity and the global nature of it all.

...Are there alternatives? Yes, and I saw one of them in the most surprising place I visited: Brazil, where sugar cane covers millions of acres. "A green ocean" was how my Brazilian host described it. About half of it becomes sugar. The other half becomes ethanol for cars and trucks. "Alcool" was sold at every gas station I saw. It is cheaper than gasoline and when you fill the tank, it smells like molasses.

The real eye-opener: The car I drove, a made-in-Brazil Chevrolet, was a 'flex fuel' vehicle that can run on either gasoline or ethanol. Three quarters of the cars sold in Brazil are now flex fuel vehicles.

And an astounding 40 percent of the transportation fuel used in Brazil is ethanol. Brazilians say within the next year, they won't need to import a drop of oil. Independence. One official who was in on the ethanol program in its earliest days 30 years ago smiled impishly and told me, "We won."

In the U.S., ethanol represents only 3 percent of the fuel we burn.

Someone who knows more about this please explain to me -- why can't we do this? We have millions of acres of land that could be used to grow corn, which can also be used to produce ethanol. What is the problem, aside from the obvious one -- Big Oil has the most to lose, and thus any change in the current source of fuel will happen at a glacier's pace -- if at all -- because of the political power that lobby has.

Talk about an easy way to support farming, reduce time, money and the lives of troops worrying about power plays, terrorism and creating political chaos in the oil states of the Middle East.

It's another example of our elected leadership continuing to fail us over and over as they whore themselves out to the lobbyists instead of acting in the best interests of the country. Crap, it's the sheeple's fault as well, putting oil men in the damn White House.

Some facts about ethanol:

* Ethanol is a renewable, environment-friendly oxygenate prepared from corn that biodegrades quickly in water.

* The Southwest Research Institute determined that a new blend of ethanol and diesel fuel can reduce particulate matter emissions by as much as 41%, nitrogen oxides by as much as 5% and carbon monoxide by 27%.

* Ethanol reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 22% more than any other transportation fuel.

* Ethanol fuels reduce greenhouse gases that cause global warming by approximately 40%.

* Ethanol enhances engine performance by increasing octane and raising oxygen levels, cleaning and preventing engine deposits, and acting as a gas-line antifreeze.

Hat tip, Susan.

A dilemma for the 'pro-life' crowd...

Since every human life is precious to the bible-beaters -- no exceptions allowed -- how do they weigh in on a case like this? From the South African news site IOL:

In a rare operation, Pakistani doctors on Tuesday removed two foetuses, one of them fully grown, from the abdomen of a 45-day-old baby.

The infant, Nazia, was brought to Pakistan's Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad with a swollen abdomen four days ago by her parents who are poor labourers from the Swat district in the North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP).

"Such cases in medical history are very rare," Dr Muqqadar Shah, one of the surgeons who performed the surgery, told Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa).

The doctors carried out the surgery after X-ray and ultrasound tests showed abnormal growth in the abdomen.

***

Almost as if on cue, Jan LaRue of Concerned Women of America makes her case that every life is precious...

A spokesperson for Concerned Women for America says more and more pro-lifers are rejecting the past ideas of "abortion exceptions" when it comes to incest and rape. CWA's Jan LaRue says she is glad to see this new attitude among defenders of the unborn. LaRue says pregnancies resulting from incest and rape always produce two victims -- the mother and her unborn child -- because in the past, pro-lifers have been willing to go along with an abortion in those instances. "But when you think long and hard about it, you recognize that we can never, never allow killing under the pretext of curing," says the organization's chief counsel.

The change in attitude is important, she says, because "this is a human being. It's just a matter of age, development, and ability," says LaRue. "We would [never] think of allowing a rape victim who gave birth, and then had a flashback to the rape, to consider killing a three-year-old child." Likewise, she says, "we shouldn't think of allowing her to kill a child of three months gestation either." LaRue is excited about the change in attitude among pro-lifers. She believes it is part of a turnaround in the nation that may on day set the stage to bring an end to Roe v. Wade.

Hat tip, Paul.

McCain to Rev. Tinkywinky: I support a federal marriage amendment

Enough of this f*cking tool. He voted against a marriage amendment in 2004, saying this:

"The constitutional amendment [banning same-sex marriage] we're debating today strikes me as antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans. It usurps from the states a fundamental authority they have always possessed and imposes a federal remedy for a problem that most states do not believe confronts them."

Guess that core was rotten. Now he's not only humping Dear Leader, he's rubbing hard on the leg of Rev. Falwell and the AmTaliban as well, telling him that he's ready to vote for the Marriage Protection Amendment, which is coming up in June. (News and Advance):

Falwell said McCain’s appearance at LU’s graduation is another sign that McCain is wooing evangelical Christians.

“He is in the process of healing the breech with evangelical groups,” Falwell said. Falwell said McCain has expressed a willingness to support a Federal Marriage Amendment, an issue dear to conservative Christians.

The amendment would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Christian conservatives, including Falwell, are concerned about efforts by homosexual groups to have civil unions between same-sex partners recognized as marriages. McCain previously has said the matter of defining marriage should be handled by state legislatures, but now concedes that a federal statute may be necessary, Falwell said.

I'm just sick of people talking about how moderate McCain is. He's the sHillary of the Republicans, willing to do anything to achieve and maintain power. Actually, he's worse. The man's a war hero and he's sh*t all that political capital away as a tool of GWB, the man who kicked him in the balls in SC in 2000, and keeps coming back for more.

As Michael Jensen at The Big Gay Picture notes:

So what changed between McCain's statement in 2004 and today? Why is there a sudden urgent need to amend the constitution to take away rights? Why is McCain outing himself as an utter hypocrite? It's because he believes he stands a real chance of being the next Republican presidential nominee. And as anyone who follows presidential politics knows by now, you don't get that nomination without first selling your soul to the religious right. McCain just sold his--and all he had to do was sacrifice our rights.

* McCain slips between the sheets with Falwell

Where's Pandagon?

I'm moving this back up, in case Pandagonians are surfing by...

UPDATE 3 (3/28, 4PM): We have a new host, but the server is not up yet. The link takes you to the new home, where there's a kick-ass message:

Your web host sucks. They all do. Site after site tried to shut us down, but they pissed off the wrong crackers. Pandagon and Hyperbolic Films have teamed up to smack the geeks of the world upside the head with punkasshost.com, a hosting service fueled by panda-like lazy insolence and obnoxiously embellished narratives. Feel the ground shaking? That's the host-tatorship trembling in fear. They know we're coming and no bandwidth restrictions in the world can stop us now.

UPDATE 2: "Pandagon's taking control of its own destiny and firing up a dedicated server for the panda nation. We expect to be up and running by Thursday morning. So take this week to reflect on how much you miss us and we'll be back in less than 48 hours."

UPDATE (3/28): Amanda's found a host -- HostGator -- and someone to go in on a dedicated server. She says that HG has been really helpful. A server will probably be set up this morning, an account in place and then the WordPress site will be migrated. No ETA yet, but we should be back up soon, with a Paypal button up for folks to send a little love for the mondo increased costs.


***

The back story...

Where is Pandagon? The answer is, I don't know. If you go over there, you'll see a message about the account being suspended (a more explanatory index page is now up). Amanda, the site admin, switched hosts over the weekend and all seemed well, but this AM, I went to post, and well, you can't get in.

11:45: Amanda emailed me that she's working on it; hopefully we'll get news on alternative plans or a fix soon.

2:45: Amanda -- "What I'm probably looking like doing now is redirect to the PowWeb site for now. That means the weekend stuff will be temporarily gone, but there will be a site for people to see."

She also said that the site may need to move to a dedicated server, since it sounds like use of bandwidth is a major problem.

Late this afternoon: Amanda's got a temp index page up to say the site is down.

Pandagon is temporarily down, due to the broken promises of our new (soon to be old) server host. After the Crack Pandagon Geek Squad sleeps off the despair-driven bender we went on, we'll be moving the site yet again. Please bear with us.

Bush may have started WWIII

You know, I spout off a lot about the Iraquagmire and my critics will often point out "you've never been there" and "the media doesn't report the good news" and "you were a tuba player in a National Guard band; what do you really know about the military?" (Aside from the fact that, unlike our president, I fulfilled my National Guard enlistment, and unlike our vice president, I didn't avoid serving my country when I could.)

So let's get a look from someone with far more military and terrorism experience than I. From an interview with retired Command Sergeant Major Eric Haney, one of the founders of the US Army's Delta Force, the military's elite counter-terrorism unit:

Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?

A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.

We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

Utter debacle? World War III? Gee, Sergeant Major, that's awfully harsh. Why don't you support the troops?

Q: What do you make of the torture debate? Cheney ...

A: (Interrupting) That's Cheney's pursuit. The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It's about vengeance, it's about revenge, or it's about cover-up. You don't gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world knows that. It's worse than small-minded, and look what it does.

... It's an act of cowardice. I hear apologists for torture say, "Well, they do it to us." Which is a ludicrous argument. ... The Saddam Husseins of the world are not our teachers. Christ almighty, we wrote a Constitution saying what's legal and what we believed in. Now we're going to throw it away.

Sergeant Major, don't you realize that what you're saying gives aid and comfort to our enemies? Why do you support the terrorists, Sergeant Major? Why do you hate America?

[Traitorously cross-posted at Radical Writ]

Andy Card steps down

Dear Leader's chief of staff couldn't take it anymore.

White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Josh Bolten, an administration official said Tuesday.

President Bush was expected to announce the shake up during a meeting with reporters with reporters Tuesday morning in the Oval Office of the White House.

The move comes amid a sharp decline in Bush's approval ratings and calls from Republicans for the president to bring in new aides with fresh ideas and new energy.

Card will be immortalized in pictures like the one above as the man who, on 9/11, whispered in the President's ear that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center. Card then had the pleasure of watching the leader of the free world sit there looking like a deer in the headlights, reaching over in his stupor to pick up and read The Pet Goat.

Anti-gay MN state senator bleats away at convention

Eva at Dump Michele Bachmann passed on the latest from Minnesota's answer to Colorado's Marilyn Musgrave. Bachmann has a homo-fixation so intense that it comes at the expense of adequately serving her district.

Recently, Michele was bleating her profound thoughts on homos (her speech: "The Effect of Same Sex Marriage on Education") at a Republican District Convention, put on by Edwatch. A partial transcript:

One of the reasons why I felt I was called to take up this issue, of bringing a constitutional amendment to the state of Minnesota before our people - I was the chief author in the senate - is because of the profound impact this would have on every man, every woman, every child in the state of Minnesota. Because everyone thought this would only impact the 1.3 percent of our population that is a same-sex individual.

And again, don't misunderstand. I am not here bashing people who are homosexuals, who are lesbians, who are bisexual, who are transgendered. We need to have profound compassion for the people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life, and sexual identity disorders. This is a very real issue. It's not funny, it's sad.

...Any of you who have members of your family that are in the lifestyle - we have a member of our family that is. This is not funny. It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say this is gay. It's anything but gay.


...It's profoundly sad to recognize that almost all, if not all, individuals who have gone into the lifestyle have been abused at one time in their life, either by a male or by a female. There's been profound hurt and profound things that have happened in almost all of their lives. And this gives us great compassion. So this is not about gay bashing. Do we understand that? This is not what this is about.

This new legal enforcement of a new status - homosexuality, lesbianism, bringing it into the mainstream, if you will, giving it a legitimacy if you will, that will impact not only the gay community, but every man, woman and child, particularly the schools. Because the first thing that will occur, once the legalization occurs, is that if this curriculum is not being taught already, it will be mandated, it must be taught in the schools. You cannot get out of it. Why? If you would not teach this, it would be considered discriminatory.

You can see Michele on video here. Eva also has coverage of a Minnesota Public Radio debate between Bachmann and openly gay state Senator Scott Dibble on the state's proposed marriage amendment. A transcript is over at Eleventh Avenue South.

***

Andy of Eleventh Avenue South also noted that infamous ex-gay sidekick of Michele Bachmann, Janet Boynes, had a booth at the recent bible beaters rally for a marriage amendment. The Minnesota Family Council featured a booth, as Andy aptly said, "promoting God's power to turn Janet Boynes from butch to breeder."



Also at the rally was a really witty winger with a new spin on "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."



Also:
* 'Ex-gay' Janet Boynes and Michele Bachmann
* Minnesota Poll Shows Marriage Amendment Would Fail (365gay.com)

Asheville minister resigns ordination over church's position on same-sex unions

Blender Ann in Asheville, NC keeps me up to date on the goings-on there, and today she emailed me some awesome news about another area minister who is standing up for same-sex unions. Rev. Howard Hanger was pastor at Jubilee! Community, a nondenominational church of about 500 people, and he chose to take a firm stand on principle. Ann:

Jubilee is a all welcoming and affirming church here in Asheville. Very large congregation. Even though the church is not technically "Methodist," the minister, Howard Hanger, is ordained under the United Methodist faith. And as a United Methodist minister, he is officially prohibited from performing homosexual union ceremonies. Howard is currently under investigation by the United Methodist Church for disobeying that prohibition. He officiated at the union blessing of Laurey Masterton and Christine Keff. The result of this violation could mean that the United Methodist Church will disavow Howard's ordination. He would no longer be a United Methodist minister.

This was covered in the Asheville Citizen-Times; Hanger joins Revs. Joe Hoffman and Mark Ward, who stopped performing all marriages to protest the state's prohibition of same-sex marriages, as ministers who are publicly putting themselves out there on the side of equality.

Let every bible-beating moralist take a look at Rev. Hanger's letter:

March 17, 2006

Committed Love

Dear Randy,

As a Minister of the Gospel you are well aware that ministers do not marry anyone. Can not marry anyone. Cannot "perform" a union blessing. What we do is to witness the marriage. Witness the love. We witness and are there as symbols of God's grace. When we officiate at a wedding ceremony, we walk the couple through their marriage. We do not marry them. They marry each other.

I did indeed witness that union as listed in the NY Times. I officiated, I walked them through it. I was gladly there as a representative of Christ's love. I was very clear to that couple (as I am very clear to every heterosexual couple) that I will not... cannot... marry them. Every couple I meet with - or have ever met with - know this up front.

That said, I must declare to you and to Bishop Kiesey and to anyone who cares to listen that I TRULY BELIEVE in committed love. I truly believe that as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (a man who said NOTHING about homosexuality and everything about love) we are called to affirm love WHEREVER we find it. And to offer love where it is not.

And, if given the choice of obeying my conscience and my call to God or obeying a blatantly biased and judgmental policy against the rights of God's children, then I will wholeheartedly choose the first.

Please forward this to the Bishop, if you will, and let me know if you still want me in your ranks. I will not participate in any church trial. We had enough of those in the Middle Ages.

In God's redeeming and forgiving love,
Howard Hanger

What a missive that was. The personal web site for Howard Hanger is here. And here's his email.

United Church of Christ's newest TV commercial rocks

The one thing you can say about the United Church of Christ is that it doesn't avoid controversy. The latest commercial, to launch on April 3, is just as challenging to the closed-minded bigoted houses of worship as the "bouncer" ads that ran in 2004. That ad was rejected by CBS and NBC, whose reps said said the ads were "controversial" and, therefore, amounted to "issue advocacy," something the networks have said they do not allow.

The spot, by the way, said nothing about gay marriage, and nothing specifically about gays at all -- it was about the UCC's tolerance and extravagant welcome to anyone that wishes to worship.

This time around, the ad pulls no punches, and it's managed to be rejected by CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and WB, claiming -- again -- it's a controversial, issue-advocacy ad. From UCC's release:

The 30-second commercial begins with a shot of an African- American mother trying to calm a crying baby. Sitting in a church pew, the mother fidgets anxiously, as she endures disapproving looks from fellow worshippers. Eventually, someone in the wings pushes an "ejector" button to rid the church of her - and her noisy baby. Into the air they go flying.


In similar fashion, a gay couple, an Arab-American, a person using a walker, among others, get "ejected." Finally, when a homeless person wanders in and takes a seat, nervous parishioners - expecting she'll get the boot for sure - scoot away from her.

The commercial ends with a mood shift, where shots of diverse, friendly people set the stage for the announcer's invitation: "The United Church of Christ - no matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome here."

You can view the commercial here.

Hat tip on the screen shots, Good As You.

Some bloggers can cook too...

A gaggle of bloggers, including your Blend blogmistress, came together in the virtual world to contribute to the cookbook pictured above, And They Can Cook Too, which is now available at Lulu Press.

As you can see, it is a fundraising effort for Doctors Without Borders, put together and edited by the talented Ginger Mayerson and Kathy Flake.

I just received my copy and it's in a nice spiral binding for ease-of-use when you're blowing up the kitchen trying out recipes submitted by your favorite bloggers. including Guacamole Deviled Eggs from Elayne Riggs, Jalapeño Cornbread by Kathy of Birmingham Blues, Mors Grov Brod from the kitchen of Lindsay Beyerstein and Bolognese Sauce by Blogenfreude just to name a few.

What did I submit? House Blend Tarragon Chicken Salad, which tastes really good on a warm whole wheat pita.

You can purchase it at Lulu for $15.

Hostage's homosexuality kept under wraps

Freed Canadian hostage James Loney (front) rushes to greet friends as he is followed by his partner Dan Hunt (back), brother Matt, wearing glasses and sister-in-law Donna as he arrives at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Canada on Sunday March 26, 2006. (AP Photo/CP, Frank Gunn)

With the homo fatwa in place, why on earth would recently freed Christian peace activist James Loney have told his captors that he was queer? The sad truth is that his partner back in Canada was left out of the media pleas for his release, as he and Loney's family knew that if this bit of business got out, none of them would likely see James again.

he co-director of the Christian Peacemakers Teams says the family of freed Christian peace activist James Loney kept his sexual orientation quiet out of fear for his safety.

Doug Pritchard says the family feared Loney might come to harm at the hands of his Iraqi captors had they known he was gay. Pritchard says it likely wouldn't have helped if Loney's partner, Dan Hunt, had come forward with public pleas for his release.

Hunt made his first public appearance since Loney's ordeal began last November when he greeted his partner Sunday at the airport. Loney arrived in Toronto after he and two other peace activists were rescued by coalition soldiers in Iraq.

The 41-year-old Loney was kidnapped in Baghdad along with fellow Canadian Harmeet Sooden, Briton Norm Kember and American Tom Fox, whose bullet-ridden body was found earlier this month.

Mr. Bush, your pants are on fire.

George W. Bush answering Helen Thomas at a press conference last Tuesday (emphasis mine):

Q I'd like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet -- your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth -- what was your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil -- quest for oil, it hasn't been Israel, or anything else. What was it?

THE PRESIDENT: I think your premise -- in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist -- is that -- I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect -- Excuse me, excuse me. No President wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it's just simply not true.

New York Times, today, reporting on a confidential leaked memo that the British press reported on months ago (emphasis mine):

In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.

And no one could've anticipated terrorists flying planes into buildings. And we'll rebuild New Orleans. And we'll get Osama bin Laden dead or alive. And Mission Accomplished. And we'll bring accountability and decorum back to the Oval Office. And we'll shrink the size of government. And when we're talking about wiretaps, why, that requires a court order.

Ladies, please, somebody, give this man a blowjob so we can impeach him already!

[Cross-posted at Radical Writ, or else the terrorists win]

AFA fire sale

Wayne Besen reports that failed "ex-gay" Michael Johnston's video "It's Not Gay" has reached the fire-sale price of $10 at the American Family Association web site. For some reason, it's not flying out of Don Wildmon's stockroom. From the video description:

It's Not Gay presents a story that few have heard, allowing former homosexuals the opportunity to tell their own story in their own words.

Along with medical and mental health experts, these individuals express a clear warning that the sanitized version of homosexuality being presented to students is not the whole truth.

BTW, the reason Johnston's a failed "ex-gay" is because after claiming in commercials that he "walked away from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ" he experienced a "moral fall" and had to fold his Newport News, Virginia-based Kerusso Ministries.

Hat tip, PageOneQ.

Class on the bench

Justice Scalia flips the finger in church. Nice touch of class -- he did it after attending a special mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Can't wait to see if the photo surfaces. (via Raw Story):

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics.

A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state.

"You know what I say to those people?" Scalia replied, making the obscene gesture and explaining "That's Sicilian."

The 20-year veteran of the high court was caught making the gesture by a photographer with The Pilot, the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper.

"Don't publish that," Scalia told the photographer, the Herald said.

Bird boy also made a speech in which he dismissed the notion that detainees had any rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions.

Hat tip to Paul, who said "You wouldn't understand, it's a Republican thang... Must be their "message to America", so far we have Cheney, Bush and now Scalia."

Wingers gloat over "killing" Charlotte's Pride fest

The bigoted mayor of Charlotte, Patrick McCrory, was against last year's Pride, saying that it belonged in a hotel, and not where the public could see the festivities. McCrory also made headlines that year for snubbing a major HRC convention's request for a letter of welcome from the Queen City.

I know that Charlotte Pride has had financial and political difficulties to deal with, aside from the pressure from area bible beaters like Flip Benham, who has had his group Operation Save America picket Pride there in the past. Now Flip seems to be crowing that he's killed Charlotte Pride altogether for 2006.

"Charlotte Pride," that horrific abomination where homosexual perversion is paraded publicly in Marshall Park in Downtown Charlotte every spring, is finished! Thank God! - Rev Flip Benham, Operation Save America, formerly known as Operation Rescue.

No more open displays of obscenity with photos of males in full frontal nudity. No more vendor booths selling S&M merchandise. No more sound stage with transvestite dancers simulating sodomy with children. No more vile and threatening comments made toward children by homosexual comedians. Marshall Park will be free this year from the vile assaults of the homosexual community.


Operation Save America Director Rev. Philip L. (Flip) Benham baptizing Norma (Jane Roe) McCorvey.

We pray that God will push the radical homosexual agenda – not just back into the closet – but all the way into its lying, murderous grave, and leave no marker for it. We pray that what happened here will provide a bright ray of hope for gentle Christians who are battling the radical homosexual agenda and "Gay Pride Events," in their own cities. We pray that many who are lost in the bondage of homosexual lust and sin will be set free by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

How did this happen? Gentle Christians took the battle to the streets. For the past four years we have been bringing King Jesus to "Charlotte Pride," the very gates of hell! We have found that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ!

As the Church has come out of the closet, the homosexual community has returned to the closet. Light and darkness cannot coexist. Life and death are not compatible – the beginning of one is the end of the other. Christianity and homosexuality are sworn enemies – one brings life, the other brings death.

Flip and his stooges are planning a press conference the Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center, 600 E. Fourth Street in the main chamber tonight at 6:30 PM bleating for "victory is claimed in the name of Jesus Christ!"

I hope there is a counter protest out there, gay Charlotte.

Remember, this is the same county with a district that keep sending wild-eyed, anally fixated bigot Bill James back to his county commission seat unopposed.

***

Now, the facts: there will not be a Pride celebration in Marshall Park, but there will be visibility and a celebration in Charlotte, and local gay publication QNotes has details on the tactics being used by OSA to try to get information on the event.

These wingers are sick people. Here's David Moore, QNotes editor:

After organizers of last year’s event bowed out on continuing production of the festival, Q-Notes came together with the Charlotte Gay and Lesbian Community Center to form a new event: PrideCharlotte.

Now under the direction of an organized task force run by co-chair and Center Director Laura Witkowski and Q-Notes Publisher and interim co-chair Jim Yarbrough, PrideCharlotte is putting together plans for a new and even better event.

And you better believe we’re already under the microscope from OSA founder Flip Benham and his minions.

Michael Brown, the director of an organization known as the “Coalition of Conscience” — the red shirts that invaded last year’s Pride — has been in direct contact with me, requesting “dialogue” on Charlotte Pride and wanting to know info about the upcoming event. Benham recently called Center Director and Pride Charlotte Co-Chair Laura Witkowski to see what details he could glean from her.

Do we look like we were born yesterday guys?

OSA landed on our previously peaceful turf a little over four years ago and immediately set their sights on Charlotte’s gay and lesbian community. They haven’t let up since. If recent developments are any indication — they’re still chomping at the bit to bring their warped interpretation of Christianity to Charlotte’s LGBT community.

Here at the Q-Notes office we’ve been deluged by callers insisting on anonymity, but requesting any and all information we have on the year’s Pride festival. Where will it be held? What’s the date? Where can we go to find out more details?

Fact of the matter is, none of those details have been confirmed as of yet. That information will be released as soon as all plans are in place.

Right now — there are a few things I can tell you.

Coming up at Charlotte’s Gay and Lesbian Center on May 6 — the originally scheduled date for this year’s Charlotte Pride — will be a Pride Block Party. A fundraiser for the upcoming PrideCharlotte festival, the day-long event will include speakers, musical performances, food vendors, a bazaar and a car and dog wash. For more details contact the Lesbian and Gay Center at 704-333-0144.

On May 26 the Wyndham Garden Hotel is hosting a formal cocktail reception, dinner and fashion show fundraiser — also for PrideCharlotte. Details about that event can be found at www.pridecharlotte.com.

As you can see — the spirit of LGBT Pride is alive and well in Charlotte. Word to OSA — and we know you’re reading — your actions have backfired. You woke up the wrong sleeping bear.

Hat tip, Adrian

Hypocrite

(AFP/File/Paul J. Richardson)

The man and his minions have spent years demonizing the "other" (gays, ethnic minorities, women who think their wombs actually belong to them) to roll in the votes of The Base, and now that it's blowing back them with this immigration "reform" effort, all of a sudden he calls for calm, reasoned thinking. Bullsh*t - it's all yours, Dear Leader. Substitute "marriage" for immigration in his quote. (AP):

"The immigration debate should be conducted in a civil and dignified way," the president said as the Senate prepared to tackle the hot-button election issue of what to do with the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants this week.

Bush used a naturalization ceremony for swearing in 30 new citizens from 20 countries and five continents to press his call for a "guest worker" program. The Senate Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, faced a midnight deadline for completing a bill.

"No one should play on people's fears or try to pit neighbors against each other," Bush said. "No one should pretend that immigrants are threats to America's identity because immigrants have shaped America's identity.

25K teen bible-beaters flock to San Francisco

Do you think anyone "inadvertently" got laid, or whether the sale of Jesus-head rings was brisk, to counter all of those teens that had the hormones flowing. (SFGate):

More than 25,000 evangelical Christian youth landed Friday in San Francisco for a two-day rally at AT&T Park against "the virtue terrorism" of popular culture, and they were greeted by an official city condemnation and a clutch of protesters who said their event amounted to a "fascist mega-pep rally."

"Battle Cry for a Generation" is led by a 44-year-old Concord native, Ron Luce, who wants "God's instruction book" to guide young people away from the corrupting influence of popular culture.

Luce, whose Teen Mania organization is based in Texas, kicked off a three-city "reverse rebellion" tour Friday night intended to counter a popular culture that he says glamorizes violence and sex. The $55 advance tickets for two days of musical performances and speeches were sold out, but walk-up admission was available for $199.

Shakes Sis has more.

More on the lesbian-baiting Penn State coach

Coach Portland must have been worried that Sapphic desires might be catching.

Penn State's basketball coach Rene Portland, who has an infamous "no lesbians" policy on her team is the focus of a good piece on homophobia and college sports in the Boston Globe today. Check it out.

Their legacy of pain began in 1982, when, Cindy Davies says, Penn State coach Maureen T. ''Rene" Portland threatened to expose her as a lesbian. The legacy endured as Portland in 1986 publicly espoused her opposition to coaching homosexuals and reaffirmed her stance in 1991, all the while allegedly engaging in a pattern of bias based on sexual orientation. And the legacy grows as Jennifer Harris pursues a federal discrimination claim that Portland cut her from the Penn State team last year in part because the coach considered her a lesbian.

As the women's basketball community converges on Boston this week for the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament, the Portland case looms as a watershed chapter in a decades-long struggle to eradicate prejudice that has long festered in the sport against homosexual players and coaches. Numerous athletes and coaches said in interviews that nearly every facet of women's college basketball, from recruiting to hiring practices, has been affected by discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Tancredo, keep on flapping your gums

Beautiful. Rep. Tom Tancredo, the Republican congressman from Colorado, is on a death wish to destroy the GOP on the immigration issue. I hope he gets on all the chat shows and continues spewing crap like this, especially after the sight of 500,000 people marching in protest of the current "immigration reform" legislation the Rethugs are threatening to put in place. (MSNBC):

Tancredo may not be a household name yet, but he's doing everything he can to change that. As the House and Senate debate the nation's immigration and border-security laws, the four-term Coloradan has positioned himself as the loudest, angriest voice against the estimated 11 million illegal aliens now living in the United States. They are "a scourge that threatens the very future of our nation," he says. He laments "the cult of multiculturalism," and worries about America's becoming a "Tower of Babel."

...Tancredo's anti-immigration campaign is also brazenly, almost gleefully, taking aim at George W. Bush and Karl Rove. The president had once hoped the immigration debate would center on his proposed guest-worker program, which would allow illegals—who fill millions of unskilled, low-wage jobs—to stay in the country for a set period of time...Rove pushed the pure political benefits of the plan: immigrant-friendly policies would help the party reach out to the fast-growing Latino vote.

Instead, the immigration debate has split the GOP, with many Republicans in the House and Senate, worried about alienating voters, openly opposing the president. In December, the House tossed aside the worker program and passed a bill that features tougher security at the Mexican border—including Tancredo's cherished fence—and crackdowns on illegals who are already here. "You can't ignore him," says a GOP leadership aide who wouldn't be named because he wanted to keep his job. "The administration doesn't want to hear this, but a lot of Americans think he's right."

Tancredo is so brazen about the support from The Base on the immigration issue that he intimates that if Congress doesn't address it to his liking that he will run for president in 2008 to force others in the race just to keep the issue in the forefront.

That's got to make Karl and Kenny Mehlman feel queasy.

Also:
* 500,000 march in L.A. over Fed immigration legislation
* Immigration vs. Invasion
* There's dumb, dumber, and then there's Tom Tancredo

Welker was warned by GOP about his email duncery

I posted last week about loose-screw Colorado State Representative Jim Welker, whose e-moronic behavior got him in hot water. He forwarded racist messages to friends and constituents on several occasions, blaming black Katrina victims for their own fate, smeared Muslims, Mexicans, and homos, of course. He was oblivious to the fact that someone might be offended.

Why, I don't know, because in an article in the Rocky Mountain News, Welker was told to stop sending out and forwarding bigoted messages -- by his own party -- back in 2003. Read the unhinged homo BS (right from the Bill James playbook):

A Loveland lawmaker under fire for sending a racially charged e-mail about black Hurricane Katrina victims was warned in 2003 by his own party about forwarding offensive material.

The admonition from the House speaker came after Rep. Jim Welker, R-Loveland, sent an e-mail quoting a conservative study that discussed lifestyles of gays and lesbians. The article Welker forwarded claimed that gay men regularly ingest the urine and feces of their partners, leading to massive outbreaks of various diseases. It questioned why gays and lesbians were allowed to work with children, the elderly and in the food industry.


"The homosexual and lesbian behavior is not a healthy lifestyle and can even result in early death," Welker wrote after quoting the study. "Our society worries about people wearing seat belts, losing weight, smoking, taking drugs and abusing alcohol. Where is our consistency?"

Welker said Friday that the e-mail the public received in November 2003 was not the one he wrote.

"Somebody changed it," he said, but added he could provide no details as it happened nearly three years ago.

However, the e-mail is nearly identical to a column Welker published in the Northern Colorado Courier two weeks later.

And look at this pathetic defense. These wingnuts aren't very quick on their feet, are they?

Several Republican lawmakers say they have warned Welker on a number of occasions to stop sending controversial essays.

"Just because I send something doesn't mean I agree with it," Welker said Friday. "It's like letters to the editors. It can be a very powerful tool for discussion."

Ohio's domestic abuse laws deep-sixed by marriage amendment

The Buckeye State's heinous marriage amendment, gay activists warned, would jeopardize the ability of prosecutors to effectively enforce the domestic violence laws on the books.

On Friday, the 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled that state amendment leaves all unmarried people, straight or gay, ineligible for protection under the law in domestic abuse cases.

Each and every state that has passed one of these anti-gay amendments is, in fact, penalizing anyone in a partnered relationship who is a victim of domestic violence that isn't legally married. (Ohio News Network):

Friday's decision by the 2nd District Court of Appeals is the first from Ohio's 12 appellate courts to rule that the Defense of Marriage amendment, passed by voters in 2004, means that the domestic violence law does not apply to unmarried people.

The appeals court upheld the dismissal of a domestic violence charge against Karen Ward of Fairborn, charged with assaulting her live-in boyfriend in Greene County.

Ohio's amendment defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman and barred the state from granting legal status to unmarried couples.

..."Until the high court decides, unmarried defendants, who would have faced felony domestic violence charges, will be charged with misdemeanor assault charges in Greene County," Schmidt said.

And up on deck: amendment battles are going to be on the ballot in Alabama, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Folks in these states need to be prepared to discuss their respective amendments and what the unintended consequences will be if bigotry rules over common sense.

***

On the marriage recognition front, cases are making their way through the state courts that may pave the way for legal same sex marriage, using the strategy of comparing these cases to the challenge of state bans on interracial marriage.

David Buckel of Lambda Legal says the lawsuits are focused on states where public attitudes toward same-sex unions seem particularly friendly and where amending the state constitution to counter any ruling for same-sex marriage would be difficult.

Such lawsuits are awaiting rulings by the top state courts in Washington state and New Jersey. Similar lawsuits are making their way through state courts in California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland and New York. The lawsuits generally claim that the states' constitutions allow gay couples to marry on the same terms as heterosexuals.

Obviously , the big question is, are these cases, if they are decided in favor of same-sex marriage, going to be fuel for the Republican fire, energizing the base once more with the "gay boogeyman" as motivation to get sheeple to the polls. Only time will tell.

The 'satanic art' made them do it

"These images, unrecognized by the untrained eye, can be a ticking time-bomb to an individual who is unaware of their presence, especially someone who is already predisposed to deviant sexual behavior."
-- author and "pornography expert" Judith Reisman, featured in a documentary that suggests art is responsible for deviant priests.

Is this going to be proposed to Papa Ratzi as the excuse for all the pedophile priests he allowed to run wild, raping and molesting innocent children? From the "breaking news" section at WingNutDaily, another "I'm not sh*tting you" item.

Could the Roman Catholic Church's sex abuse crisis be tied to embedded Satanic and occultic imagery in its artwork – some of it hundreds of years old? That is the seemingly incredible thesis of a new documentary, "Rape of the Soul," made not by anti-Catholic bigots, but by devout followers of the Church.

The documentary explores the prevalent use of satanic, sexual, occult and anti-Catholic images in historical and contemporary religious artwork. The film also discusses the mysterious acceptance of the artwork at the highest and most trusted levels of the Catholic Church.

"Rape of the Soul" is rated R because of the disturbing content involving demonic, violent and sexual imagery. The film, which is being released by Silver Sword International, contends a major cause of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church could be due to prolonged exposure to sexual and satanic images being incorporated into the religious art.

...Experts are featured in the film to offer detailed accounts of the subconscious programming effects of the sex and occult images on the human brain and how it promotes sex, Satanism and the occult. Religious education materials, songbooks, children's story books, devotionals and the Sunday Missals all have been found to contain embedded imagery.

This is batsh*t crazy.

Now she won't blow her daddy's buxx

"Let me tell you what the truth is. I’m staying. I’m in this race. I’m going to win. And let me tell you how. I’m going to put EVERYTHING on the line. Everything, not just my future and my reputation, my father’s name. I’m gonna take his legacy… Everything that I have and I’m gonna put it in this race. I’m going to commit my legacy from my father, $10 million… This is everything that I have.”

-- Katherine Harris to Sean Hannity on 3/15 -- declaring how she's going to spend it all to win.

What a difference a few days make. The musty scent of Florida Republican flopsweat is in the air. (Orlando Sentinel):

In an effort to jump-start her sputtering Senate campaign, Rep. Katherine Harris went on national television invoking the memory of her late father and saying the money he left her will form the financial foundation of her challenge to Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

Now the Harris campaign says that's not the case.

Campaign spokeswoman Morgan Dobbs said Thursday that Harris will sell her existing assets rather than rely on money from her father, a bank executive who died in January. "It is my understanding from her statements that she does not plan to use inherited money on the campaign -- rather, money from liquidating her personal assets, which she says total $10 million," Dobbs wrote in an e-mail to the Orlando Sentinel. "I think I am being pretty clear."

...On Friday, a day after being asked about the apparent discrepancy between what Harris said last week and what Dobbs said Thursday, Dobbs sent an e-mail to the Sentinel saying she would provide no additional information.

"I do not have an official comment from the campaign on this issue," she wrote.

Department of Defense acknowledges lesbian-baiting in article

Rebecca Sawyer over at the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), which has been leading the fight to repeal DADT, passed along an interesting profile of a woman who had served in the Women’s Army Corps, Kasha Zilka, in recognition of Women's History Month.

The article, by Elaine Wilson of the American Forces Press Service, chronicles Zilka's career and the difficulties of service and promotion in the ranks for women in the late 60s. She joined the Army at the age of 17.

"Today, the military is probably one of the best equal opportunity employers in the United States," said Zilka, who would eventually achieve the rank of sergeant major. "But it hasn't always been that way."

...The requirements to join were a bit more challenging for Zilka than for the men in her family. Along with being a high school graduate, women could not be married or pregnant, and mental health and police checks were conducted in every state the applicant had resided in for the past 10 years. Two moving traffic violations disqualified an applicant. Additionally, women had to pass testing with a minimum score 32 points higher than the male minimum.

...The stringent enlistment standards were designed by leadership to ensure the Army "accepted as few risks as possible in mental, physical and moral qualifications," according to "The Women's Army Corps, 1945-1978" by Bettie J. Morden.

It's no surprise to read about the stunning sexism that Zilka encountered, but it was very eye-opening to see that this military publication actually acknowledges the lesbian-baiting that was part of the military culture.

Zilka found positive female role models within her unit and was praised for her work but still found it difficult to be accepted as a "contributing, effective member," she said. "Women were often labeled as a nymphomaniac, lesbian, husband hunter, or someone's ugly sister. We were judged by our looks rather than our capabilities."

Dating was nearly impossible, Zilka said. "If you turned down a man, you would be labeled a lesbian. The problem was being choosy without getting labeled."

Zilka told of a male brigadier general who wrote a WAC colonel in 1964 to ask for a female officer and NCO who could organize a Women's Army Corps in the Republic of Vietnam. He spelled out his prerequisites in detail, requesting a WAC officer who was "extremely intelligent, an extrovert and beautiful. The NCO should have the same qualities, plus be able to type."

Fast forward to today. According to the SLDN, women in the service are disproportionally affected by Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- female service members comprise about 15% of the total military force, yet they are 30% of those discharged for being gay.

“Lesbian baiting goes back to the early days of World War II, when women began volunteering for service in what was traditionally a man’s world,” said Brigadier General Evelyn “Pat” Foote, USA (Ret.), an honorary board member of SLDN. “Women have never been deterred, however, from raising their hands, volunteering and putting their lives on the line. In Iraq today, women represent approximately 15% of the forces reporting for duty and have made sacrifices equal to men. They should be valued for their service and in no way held back because of gender or sexual orientation. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ doesn’t pass the common sense rule and continues to deprive our nation of talented Americans who have important contributions to make.”

...An October 2004 study by the Urban Institute indicates lesbians comprise 5% of all female service members and that nearly 10% of all coupled lesbians between the ages of 63 and 67 served during the Korean War. In the ten years from 1990 to 2000, service rates among coupled lesbians aged 18-27 were more than three times higher than rates among other women. Lesbians also tend to serve longer than other women, the report said, noting that nearly 82 percent of coupled lesbians report serving more than two years, compared with 74 percent of other women.

You can read more at SLDN's blog, The Front Lines.

500,000 march in L.A. over Fed immigration legislation

This may be the straw that breaks the Rethug camel's back. The 30% or so clinging to the delusion that Dear Leader is god will turn on him on this issue.

The freeper set is so virulently hateful towards undocumented workers (who are here mowing their lawns, working in restaurants they nosh in and picking the fresh produce they buy, of course) that this is the issue that will eat the GOP alive -- and the pols know it.

Immigration rights advocates more than 500,000 strong marched in downtown Los Angeles, demanding that Congress abandon attempts to make illegal immigration a felony and to build more walls along the border.

The massive demonstration, by far the biggest of several around the nation in recent days, came as President Bush prodded Republican congressional leaders to give some illegal immigrants a chance to work legally in the U.S. under certain conditions.

...The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, require churches to check the legal status of people they help, and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border.

As I've discussed in prior posts, this is a complicated issue, fraught with political landmines for both parties, but as the party in charge of things, Bush and the the Rethugs on the Hill will be the ones to take the fall if they accommodate the xenophobic cretins or the business bed buddies who love the cheap, exploitable labor pool. Play that tiny violin and watch the racist Freepi explode...

Actual Freeper Quotes™

Encircle the rally. Move the herd back to Mexico.

One thing about being packed in like that in a crowd, ya never know what kind of communicable diseases you are exposing yourself too.

Boy that's alot of American jobs, food stamps, welfare, housing, while their pay goes to mexico.

It's officially an invasion now. They're getting snippy.

If Americans can't see that we are being invaded, they're either blind or don't care anymore.

They weren't rallying for immigrant rights. They were rallying in favor of anarchy.

HELLO? Immigration and Customs? Hello?............. (sound of crickets chirping)

those who want illegal immigration want it more than those who are against it want to stop it.

It doesn't matter. What our senators must remember is most of those 500,000 do not vote (legally that is) So if our Senators want to keep their jobs they better worry about the silent majority that is fed up with illegal immigration.

"voices must be heard and that they are contributing to the country's economy."

So does the drug trade, prostitution, and organized crime, by those standards.

Never mind Harry Reid. Can Republicans impeach one of their own?... :)

They don't vote. It doesn't matter if 100 million showed up they don't vote. they are not citizens they don't vote. It doesn't matter. And there are a lot more than those that want reform.

dont be so confident they dont vote

Today we walked out of a restaurant after a non-speaking illegal came to our table before we did we all told the manager we will NOT be back till all illegals are GONE out of this restaurant!

We called our lawn service and told them they better not dare send any illegals to work on our lawn.

We called a foundation company and told them we better not see any illegals working on our foundation or they are so out of here.

Americans need to take a stand and if you go to a hotel and you see a non english speaking person cleaning your room callthe manager and front desk and have them remove the person immediately.

Take a stand, boycott all mexican destinations like cozymel.

If our politicians wont help lets show them where they can work in another country since they decided to insult every American today by waving their flag .

Sexual deviants would love for us to become part of Mexico. That way they can watch donkey sex shows and sleep with 12 year old prostitutes.

..I think you can declare it official--California is lost...


Seeing this just makes me REAL mad.... and disgusted with our Government for not doing anything a long time ago! Close the borders!!!!

you realize that one of the problems is that there are lots and lots of legal immigrants here, even from Mexico...also Ireland is one of the largest sources of illegal labor in Boston...but they speak english

No I am VERY serious about this and we all know what a non-speaking illegal looks like by now.

that isnt true...sounds like you have never met a non-english speaking legal immigrant

Let's see....in 1984, there were 70,000 illegal protestors and in 2006, there are 500,000. I'd say that we've been invaded and taken over in the intervening 12 years..

Invasion? Yup. We gonna do anything about it? Nope.

the people who favor illegal immigration are more intense about their position than those who oppose illegal immigration...when a few hundred thousand people show up to protest illegal immigration, Ill change my view.

I have already called mine and said basically the same thing. I think it is a disgrace that our leaders have allowed this. To see the Mexican flag in the streets of America being waved instead of the stars and stripes. I will be voting in the primary and the general election this year. My school district is talking about floating a 5 BILLION dollar bond to pay for new schools so we can teach the illegals enough is enough.

Related:
* Slave wage, er, slavery, in the Gulf
* Immigration vs. Invasion

Fun with pictures

Why is Little Ricky smiling, and what is Dear Leader saying to him?



Actual caption: President Bush, right, puts his hand on the back of Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., upon his arrival at Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station Friday, March 24, 2006. Bush is attending a re-election campaign fundraising event for Santorum in Sewickley Heights, Pa., before returning to Washington. Looking on center is Sgt. Jim Malloy, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 1. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

And look below -- do you have any idea what Ben Franklin, one of the founding fathers, would say to W? I think the real Ben might want to use his cane on the guy.


Actual caption: President Bush speaks to the invited crowd in the East Room at the White House, after a performance by Ralph Archbold, left, portraying Benjamin Franklin, to honor the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, Thursday, March 23, 2006, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

And I laughed out loud at this one: 666 -- the puppet of the beast.


Actual caption: Protesters dressed as U.S. President George Bush (R) and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, carry banners and shout slogans against the war in Iraq on the way to a protest in New York's Times Square March 18, 2006. Anti-war protesters marched through cities across the world, three years after the invasion of Iraq, calling for U.S. and British troops to pull out. REUTERS/Chip East

The NY GOP is in sad shape

"Hillary Clinton is really worried about me, and is so worried, in fact, that she had helicopters flying over my house in Southampton today taking pictures."
-- Kathleen "KT" McFarland, a Republican who hopes to challenge sHillary in U.S. Senate race

sHillary's massive war chest is enough to squash her opponents; I don't think she needs psyOps to decimate Ms. McFarland. She's doing a good job of self-destruction on her own.

It sounds like the GOP is truly in a sad state of affairs in the Empire State. (NYPost, via Raw Story):

A Republican challenger to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is bizarrely claiming that the former first lady has been spying in her bedroom window and flying helicopters over her house in the Hamptons, witnesses told The Post yesterday.

...McFarland's Republican primary opponent, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, was present at the event, and said he came away bewildered. "I'm standing there, and I kind of put my head down and said, 'I can't believe I'm hearing this,' " Spencer said.

McFarland, a Park Avenue matron who has never run for public office, has had a string of problems since announcing her candidacy earlier this month. The Post reported last week that she had failed to vote in numerous New York elections and had even missed voting for President Ronald Reagan in 1984, when she claimed to be an important Reagan administration official.

The Easter (fashion) wars

Shakes Sis has a post at her pad that picks up on my earlier blogging about the claim by the wingnuts at WorldNetDaily that Easter, like Christmas, is under attack. No, not by folks raking in the dough menacing us to worship at the altar of Peeps and pastel M&Ms, but the war over the right to call the rabbit bearing candy the Easter Bunny versus Spring Bunny. It's insane.

Also in her post, Shakes Sis offered up the real war -- the fashion wars, and shares a pic that you don't want to miss. Those of us who grew up having to suffer through Easter services in uncomfortable clothing chosen by parents (sorely mistaken that the outfits looked cute) suffered the additional indignity of having the fashion mistake committed to film.

My sacrifice...


I'm sure that this outfit involved unnatural fibers, argh.

NC's precious homobigot Bill James rises again

A lot of Blenders are fairly new to the pad, so you may not be familiar with North Carolina's version of Rick Santorum when it comes to homo-sex obsession, Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James.

Last year, James went on an e-rampage in opposition to the board's effort to add sexual orientation to the county's anti-discrimination ordinance. It eventually passed, but not without some extremely entertaining and outrageously embarrassing emails that Mr. James sent out in his capacity as Commissioner (representing district 6). Here's just a sampling of the kind of language he used to make his point.

From: Commissioner Bill James
To: =emails deleted=
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 8:56 AM
Subject: Perversity is not diversity

You really think that a pool of people (homosexuals) where 45% of them eat feces from the rear end of another male is "normal"? If you do, you are frankly nuts.

A lifestyle where one of their past times is buying gerbils and hamsters from the pet store and cramming them up their rears in an activity called feltching? A group of people who like to urinate on their partners and call them "golden showers"? Where one of the honored members of the Gay Alliance is an organization called the "Man-Boy Love Association" that promotes sex with underage boys?

That behavior is worthy of protection? That behavior is worthy to be taught in our schools? to our children? You are one sick "Independent, white, married-heterosexual, presbyterian" if you do...

Commissioner Bill James
Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners
Matthews, North Carolina
http://billjames.org
Wjames@carolina.rr.com

***

Or this gem:


From: "Commissioner Bill James"
Subject: RE: doing god's work
Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 16:30:59 -0400

All the GOP are opposing it. Perversity is not diversity. You can try and re-define the Bible all you want. Fake Christians are good that way.

The Bible condemns it and clearly says that unrepentant homo's are going to Hell.

That is the kind of Christian I am. One that understands the Bible, knows what it says and believes it. I will not support or endorse Sodomy. Period.

Bottom line (a term homo's seem to "understand"). The Democrats promotion of sodomy and other perverse activities including "gay marriage" will be used against them in the next elections.

This homobigot psycho is a sex-act-obsessed publicity whore, and he has appeared, as you can see in the picture up top, on Hannity and Colmes, spewing his nonsense. It's hard to believe that this man ran unopposed in his district.

When I ran that first post, the comments and responses to it were fabulously entertaining. Take a look.

But back to the present day. I received an email this week from one of my inside sources on the goings-on in Mecklenburg County, and he's at it again; this time Bill James is getting his knickers in a twist over the prospect of a diversity summit sponsored by the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ). Heaven forbid they teach young people that gay-bashing is bad. All the emphasis is mine.

From: Commissioner Bill James
wjames@carolina.rr.com
To: = deleted=
Importance: High

March 14, 2006

Dear Dr. Haithcock, Ms. Clark, Mr. Green, Ms. McGarry, Mr. Gauvreau and Mr. Gjertzen:

In a follow up to the request for clarity regarding "diversity days" or "days of silence" I received on my desk at the County Commission this week the following letter from NCCJ (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews). The letter is attached for your review.

In that letter, dated March 9th the NCCJ indicates that it intends to put on a "diversity summit" at Providence High School and E.E. Waddell High School using CMS [Charlotte-Mecklenburg System] taxpayer resources during the school day with students present and participating. It references that its focus is to "empower students". Perhaps the event doesn't involve students but if it was just a seminar for adults it could be held at the Marriott not a two high schools. The letter is signed by Macey Williams, Youth Program coordinator of the NCCJ, Caroline Choe, Student Planning Team Providence High and Nikeeta Pal, Student Planning team at Waddell High. I do not know if the last two are CMS employees or students.

In the second paragraph is a statement that the Summit (which will be held on a School day during school hours) "will address diversity in ALL of its aspects - race, religion, socio-economic status, gender, age, ability/disability, sexual orientation......"

It also states they will have "workshops" that include "building and managing a diversity club". Thankfully, the Principal of Butler has rejected announcements involving the promotion of such seedy behavior for this year however it seems clear that this push to promote this behavior goes beyond a few schools but to a broad push by the NCCJ and others to get students to accept through the back door what their parents have said is wrong and the State says should not be taught or promoted.

This is wholly inappropriate on school property, during the school day with students in attendance. Whether this program is directly related to the previous "day of silence" that I have complained to you about (and await an answer) I can't say. Ann Clark's e-mail dated April 13th of last year mentions that the reason that these were organized was in part as a result of a national campaign to raise awareness of "discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LBGT) individuals."

Clearly, the assumption made by the NCCJ and the principals at the two High Schools and other CMS management is that LBGT individuals are unlawfully discriminated against. As you know (and Mo will tell you) that is not the case because LBGT identified individuals do not qualify as a "protected class". "Diversity clubs" that include "sexual orientation" as a goal are unacceptable as taxpayer funded school day events because State law does not recognize sexual orientation as a valid or approved class and State law related to public education discourages such behavior (see 11-3-2005 decision of the State Board of Education).

It is frankly distressing that CMS appears to insist on both flaunting the law and public opinion by using taxpayer resources (two high schools and assorted staff) as well as CMS students. Both the process by which the event is planned and its location appears to be nothing more than an attempt to force children to accept that which their parents teach them is wrong. Most parents teach their children that homosexuality is wrong, a sin, illegal or immoral).This summit undermines that parental authority and State law.

Until such time as the NC Board of Public Instruction approves of "Sexual Orientation" as a valid protected class, and NCGS 115c-81 and NCGS 14-177 are changed you should not allow CMS students to be involved in such a mis-guided event on School Property, subsidized by Federal, State and County resources during the School day where students will naturally assume that the positions presented are the law.

Were this just an "activity" club that was done after school that would raise limited issues. Having it on school property DURING THE SCHOOL DAY and involving students throughout both schools who will see the banners, discussions and other promotion of pro-homosexual positions is to clearly send the message that CMS considers "perversity" to be "diversity".

If such a "diversity event" is to be held on taxpayer property and involve CMS school children during the regular school day it should be limited to diversity as defined by state law and exclude any discussion of homosexuality.

What the State condemns you can not sanction during the school day. I urge you to require modifications to this function or cancel it.

Regards,
Bill James

Related:
* CharMeck homo-bigot will not STFU
* CharMeck County Board meets tonight; wingnuts are coming out

Yucking it up with Mike Huckabee, the Base and 2008 GOP clowns

“We’ve seen our country go from ‘Leave It to Beaver’ to ‘Beavis and Butt-head,’ from Barney Fife to Barney Frank.”
– Governor of Arkansas (and Baptist minister) Mike Huckabee, cruising for The GOP Base votes for '08

Jon over at The Pensito Review gives us the heads up on the latest nonsense coming from the like Rethug 2008 prez candidates. This time it's the holy rolling governor of Arkansas, who yucked it up with the above knee-slapper about openly gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) during a stump speech addressing a crowd of Iowa bible beaters. Jon:

It’s interesting that Republicans feel free to say nasty things in about gay people today just as they openly made racist slurs back in the day. Equating Rep. Frank to Beavis and Butthead is beyond the pale — and, frankly, I don’t think Jesus would approve.

***

So-called "values voters" are auditioning prospective GOP presidential candidates. These bigoted moralists need their egos to be stroked as hard as their well-worn bibles -- and there is a helluva lot of stroking going on by those that want the GOP nom. None of the names that come to mind have a lock on the winger vote yet, and it's also clear that the clowns in the GOP are still scared of being blackballed by the AmTaliban if they don't stroke hard or often enough. (LA Times):

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has disavowed past statements supporting abortion rights. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) dropped his support for covering homosexuals in hate crimes legislation. Even Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, whose liberal record on social issues is anathema to many conservatives, recently spoke to a meeting of evangelical leaders in the South.

But social and religious conservatives' influence may be limited by the fact that they have not rallied around one candidate. The potential candidates with the best showings in early polls — Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — are viewed with suspicion by many conservatives. Yet those whom many regard as soul mates of religious conservatives, such as Huckabee and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), are among the least-known, which suggests they would have the highest hurdles to cross to win the nomination.

So some activists are urging social conservatives to close ranks behind a like-minded candidate to maximize their impact.

"If we get together and get behind a single candidate, we can be formidable," said Paul M. Weyrich, a conservative leader. "But if we are split up into eight different camps … it's going to destroy any chance of being effective."

It is not clear when or whether that agreement will happen. But it is clear that this faction is still a force, as potential candidates move to curry its favor — or at least stay off its enemies list.

Who do you think is going to be the official American Taliban GOP candidate in the primaries?

La Peter is unhappy with Illinois Republicans

Bring out the tiny violin for our friend...

An Illinois pro-family activist is urging conservative voters in his state not to vote for the Republican nominee for governor because of her enthusiastic support of the homosexual agenda. Peter LaBarbera of the Illinois Family Institute is launching a private campaign to derail the candidacy of State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, who is challenging incumbent Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich for his position.

LaBarbera notes that Topinka failed to receive a majority of the GOP vote in Tuesday's Republican primary, securing the nomination by only 38 percent after two other conservative candidates split the vote. "She'll be running against Gov. Blagojevich, liberal Democratic governor from Illinois," LaBarbera says, "so we're going to have basically a liberal Democrat running against a liberal Republican."

But the Illinois Family Institute spokesman believes Topinka's primary victory goes far beyond just the governor's race. "The problem is that this will establish the liberal control of the Republican Party for four more years," he says. "Illinois' Republican Party has been struggling because liberal, corrupt Republicans run it. It's time for a conservative revolution in the Republican Party so the voters have a choice." In the upcoming election, LaBarbera says he may vote for the Constitution Party candidate or simply not vote for governor at all.

* LaBarbera goes after Illinois gubernatorial candidate

David Englin thanks you

Virginia Delegate David Englin (D-45) had the courage -- and that rare Dem spine -- to speak up for civil equality on the floor of a homophobic legislature that voted in favor of a marriage amendment on the ballot (see my post, Taking a positive stand, one state officeholder at a time).

You might recall that Delegate Englin's wife Shayna wrote me a couple of weeks ago, noting that there are already challengers prepping to unseat him.

Now that the session is over, the next campaign cycle is beginning. David’s already got challengers for his seat – one, a Democrat, who says that David’s stand on the floor wasn’t “good strategy”, and a Republican who’s convinced that David’s strong progressive voice for equal rights for all Virginians makes him vulnerable – and $30K in campaign debt that makes fighting back very hard.

It wasn't "good strategy" to give a speech to call out bigotry? You know what? Delegate Englin's speech wasn't about strategy or jockeying for political gain, it was about taking a principled stand against the majority that he saw was making a terrible mistake -- voting to discriminate because of fear and ignorance.

You know, if we want to talk about strategy, fine. Here's the DNC's framing of civil equality issues, right there in its self-labeled "bold new direction" door hanger -- a big fat goose egg. There's no plan to counter the unhinged GOP legislators as they gleefully vote rights and freedoms away. Well, maybe there is a plan, but they can't talk about it publicly -- they just whisper it into the ears of selected activists in private conversations to pacify them and keep the cash flowing in.

Delegate Englin is well-aware of our desire to support those politicians who choose to do the right thing, even at some political risk, rather than to constantly follow the brain-dead, butt-covering, triangulating advice we see in politicians following at the national level (hello, sHillary?). They run from the gay community, holding out the hat as they run by, asking for us to toss the dollars in.

I received an email from Shayna Englin yesterday:

I just wanted to loop back to you and say, again, THANK YOU, for spreading the word about David. The GLBT community backed David up in a big way in the last few weeks - we raised over $7K online alone. He and I both really appreciate your long-distance support.

Based on what is happening at the national level, we have to continue to encourage the fearless people out there willing to put themselves at political risk. They want to be on the right side of history, but there is intense pressure from the deluded political machinery (that wants to court the winger vote) to de-spine themselves. Civil equality-affirming pols, particularly those in Red states, need to be held up as the example of what good, responsible (and responsive) politicians can be -- in either party -- and that they can still win races.

Those days of wasting hard-earned money, time and votes on the bloviating triangulators in the Democratic party are over. Our dollars and support are going to go to candidates who don't pander to the bible-beating, womb-controlling, privacy-invading, power-mad homobigots -- the real enemies of the principles of freedom upon which this country was founded.

The tired, focus group-blinded, poll-driven career politicians who have little interest in anything other than separating you from your cash with no return on the investment should continue to receive our scorn, as well as the Liberal Failure Support Organizations that enable these spineless individuals time and again.

We need more allies like David Englin in office -- people who don't have to wait for the polls to shift in our direction before they feel safe enough to come out from behind their mother's apron.

Related:
* David Englin's web site.
* From the DNC spambot

AFA: Wal-mart's on a downward spiral with 'Brokeback' DVD

"It's quite obvious to anyone who shops at Wal-Mart that they're no longer the family-friendly company that they used to project in their image. We've seen a downward spiral trend by the Wal-Mart Corporation in which they are more and more becoming like the world rather than the family-friendly company we grew up with."

-- Randy Sharp, director of special [homo-obsession] projects, American Family Association

Brokeback Mountain's DVD will be sold on the shelves of Wal-mart, and Don Wildmon's band of bigots are incensed. Whiny babies. The movie, AFA contends is not "family-friendly," and has no busines being stocked on the shelves where the tender eyes of Middle America might be burned at the site of Jake and Heath on the DVD cover as if they trained their eyes on the burning light of the sun.

An official with a pro-family advocacy group is encouraging concerned Christians to contact Wal-Mart regarding the upcoming home video and DVD release of the movie Brokeback Mountain. He claims the retailer's plan to distribute the pro-homosexual film is evidence Wal-Mart has strayed from its family-friendly roots.

Wal-Mart stores nationwide will carry the controversial movie when it is released on DVD. In-store posters and billboards are already advertising the upcoming release, scheduled for April 4. The movie, which opened in a limited number of theaters in early December, tells the story of two cowboys who carry on a homosexual relationship while maintaining traditional marriages.

...The pro-family activist contends the giant retailer is abandoning its core principles and moving "further and further away" from its historical family-friendly image. "It's becoming now more important for Wal-Mart to make money than to serve consumers," Sharp observes.

And don't you know it, the old hoary threat card gets tossed out. Does the AFA realize how stupid it looks, bleating and crying wolf every five minutes on anything remotely related to gays?

Believing that turnabout is fair play, Sharp encourages concerned Christians to let their local Wal-Mart managers know how they feel and that they are not pleased over the chain's decision to promote and carry the pro-homosexual movie.

Woman's hair bursts into flames, house burns

Strange story of the day. You have to see the damage to believe it (there's video). One can only hope it wasn't flammable hair products that set it all ablaze. The young Port St. John, FL woman went to blow out a candle, her hair caught fire, and then the fire quickly spread and engulfing the whole room and then much of the house.

Peeling Away The Base

The Neo-cons "base" of traditional small-gubmint conservatives, freedom-loving libertarians, Jeebus-loving Evangelicals, and your average racist jingoist 'murkins is fracturing, and it does my leftie heart good to see the GOP starting to sound like a bunch of bickering identity-politik liberals.

First up, John Cole, writing in Balloon-Juice, about the recent Roberts dissent in the recent "cops can't come in if two homeowners disagree" case:

In the new Republican era, only fetuses , tax shelters, and 'traditional' marriage deserve protection. According to the actions of the current Republican party, the rest of us need to be wiretapped, monitored, have our homes inspected for whatever reason without warrants, and are incapable of making decisions on our own. My 20 year affair with the Republican party is coming to an end. I am not voting for any Republican in 2006 at any level, and I will be hard pressed to vote for this party in 2008- unless, of course, Cindy Sheehan is the Democratic candidate. These 'conservatives' need abut 10-15 years in the wilderness.

Next up, Tony "Yeah, I've never heard that before" Perkins rails on Bush in the case of the Christian Afghan who faces death under Sharia law:

"That there should even be such a trial is an outrage. How can we congratulate ourselves for liberating Afghanistan from the rule of jihadists only to be ruled by radical Islamists who kill Christians? Such a 'trial' is a flagrant violation of Article 18 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights--which the current Afghan government even incorporated into its constitution.

"Democracy is more than purple thumbs. Americans will not give their blood and treasure to prop up new Islamic fundamentalist regimes. Religious freedom is not just 'an important element' of democracy; it is its cornerstone. Religious persecution leads inevitably to political tyranny. Five hundred years of history confirm this. Americans have not given their lives so that Christians can be put to death."

Now cue the Republican moderates like Sen. Chuck Hagel who don't think an unchecked executive spying on Americans and violating the law with impunity is a good thing:

HAGEL: I don't believe, from what I've heard, but I'm going to give the administration an opportunity to explain it, that he has the authority now to do what he's doing. Now, maybe he can convince me otherwise, but that's OK.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But not yet.

HAGEL: Not yet. But that's OK. If he needs more authority, he [Bush] just can't unilaterally decide that that 1978 law is out of date and he will be the guardian of America and he will violate that law. He needs to come back, work with us, work with the courts if he has to, and we will do what we need to do to protect the civil liberties of this country and the national security of this country.

Enter the border state Republicans fearing the influx of damn Mexicans:

Growing frustration over President Bush's immigration plan and lack of fiscal discipline came to a head behind closed doors at last weekend's Republican retreat in Philadelphia.

House lawmakers, stunned by the intensity of their constituents' displeasure at some of Mr. Bush's key domestic policies, gave his political strategist Karl Rove an earful behind closed doors.

"It was intense, but I was not surprised at the tone of questioning during Rove's session," said Rep. Tom Feeney, Florida Republican. "But then this was supposed to be a no-holds-barred discussion, and our constituents are upset."

"They were all over Karl on immigration and spending," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and a leading House proponent of controlling the nation's borders and curbing illegal immigration. "This is the first time I didn't even have to raise the immigration issue myself. Everyone else did."

And though it's about a month old, let's not forget the Republican outrage over giving over control of our ports to the United Arab Emirates:

"Dear Mr President: In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just NO but HELL NO!" Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) wrote to Bush in a one-sentence letter.

Ah, I love the smell of Republican Bush-bashing in the morning. It smells like... victory! And it looks like... a bluer America.

Here's a real welcome wagon statement in Utah

Your gay and gay-ally dollars don't need to be spent in Kanab, Utah. The county has a quarter-million visitors a year, so tourism is the bread-and-butter of the region. (Salt Lake Tribune):

The nonbinding resolution - drafted by the conservative Sutherland Institute - calls marriage between a man and woman "ordained of God" and urges homes to be open to a "full quiver of children." It also encourages young women to become "wives, homemakers and mothers" and young men to grow into "husbands, home builders and fathers."

I take it that the quiver of children means a mother is required to shoot an infant out of her womb every year or so, with accuracy.

Ever since Kanab's City Council unanimously adopted the nonbinding document last month, the topic has been issue No. 1 in this scenic southern Utah city. Letters filled four pages of the Feb. 1 Southern Utah News.

"How mean-spirited, how sad," writes Kanab resident Vicky Cooper. "We are not all the same. Some of us don't have a quiver of children because we see problems from overpopulation and choose not to add to them." Says Greg Metcalf of Kanab: "I would showcase my heroic, widowed, working mother's 'unnatural' family with the council's natural family anytime."


The Rev. Doug Hounshell says he "thanks God for a community that doesn't think it has to be 'gay-friendly.'"

"We don't mean to be mean-spirited," says Hounshell, pastor of Cliffview Chapel Baptist Church in Kanab. "But the message to a homosexual might be that this is probably not the friendliest town for that type of thing."

Let's see...yes, you do mean to be mean-spirited you cretin.

RedState blogger is g-o-n-e

I updated the original post with the letter from WaPo editor Jim Brady and Red State reaction.

Here's the latest RedState thread on his resignation.

The left has their blood today. Ben resigned from the WashingtonPost.com. He did not resign from RedState - and even if he tried to do so, we would have refused to accept it. The four Directors of this site, including Ben, had a call earlier today shortly after he spoke with the Post and we're happy that Ben's staying right here.

We are disappointed in the turn of events, yes. We are also disappointed in some of our allies in their rush to judgement. But, alas, we live and die by the speed of the Internet. As I said yesterday, the conservative movement is larger than me, you, Ben, Redstate, or any individual or group.

Back to quality original blogging, eh Ben? Cya...

It's all in tatters

He's above the law. No more questions from the peanut gallery called Congress. He signed the Patriot Act reauthorization, but he has no intention of being held accountable. Trust your Dear Leader.

The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.

Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a "signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law.


In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

Well, what doesn't that cover in the mind of this megalomaniac?

Sucking the Right off feels so good to Mitt

Can he work any harder to give the Right an orgasm? Just asking.

In an apparent pitch to the crucial evangelical base of the Republican Party, Governor Mitt Romney says he has been ''at the forefront" of the nation's toughest cultural battles and that his values are ''on the same page" with the Christian right.

Romney, a possible presidential candidate, says in an upcoming interview on C-SPAN that conservative values that ''lead to our success as a nation" are ''under attack." He also says that evangelical Christians in Massachusetts have been among his key supporters.

Some political analysts have suggested that evangelical Christians will not support Romney because of theological differences with his Mormonism. Romney tried to dispel that notion during a taping of the C-SPAN program ''Q&A," to air Sunday night. ''I know a number of great evangelicals that I speak with and that are very interested in me and what I stand for," he told host Brian Lamb, according to a transcript of the interview released yesterday. ''We worked together in Massachusetts. They had no difficulty supporting me there."

Hat tip Holly.

Hospital patient-dumping caught on video

Downtown Los Angeles is now the official dumping ground for homeless patients in the greater L.A. area. For months, city officials have been told about hospitals in the outlying areas putting discharged patients into cabs and having them dropped off on Skid Row downtown.

NPR has video and screen shots of one incident, which was captured by the cameras at the Union Rescue Mission

Security cameras outside the Union Rescue Mission, the city's largest homeless shelter, show a taxi pulling a U-turn in front of the building. Several seconds later, an elderly woman in a hospital gown shuffles into view. She appears to have only hospital socks on her feet, and walks in the street for a while before turning back to the mission entrance.

...It was later determined that Reyes was released from the Kaiser Permanente hospital in the city of Bellflower, 16 miles southeast of the mission.

..."We have a very high concentration of services in a small geographic area," [City Council member Jan] Perry says. "And for municipalities who don't want to... extend themselves to the homeless, it's an easy excuse to just bring them over here and leave them here."

Hat tip, Paul, who said: "Well here is the result of Bush's "Faith Based" social services - pray like hell that nothing happens to you."

Plagiarist WaPo blogger - how long can he hang on?

[UPDATE: He resigned; the WaPo letter is at the bottom. Also see the Red State reaction.]

I haven't blogged on the travails of wingnut blogger Ben Domenech, who was hired by the WaPo as "balance" to counter the alleged liberal bias of Dan Froomkin, an actual journalist. Surf over to Eschaton, Americablog or DKos for what seem to be endless examples of Domenech's plagiarist past and present. It's going to be the death of a thousand cuts for this loser. Cue the tiny violin...

Aside from the liberal - ha - lifting of content from other people, one of the most ridiculous instances of bloviating was Domenech's assertion, posted during the day Coretta Scott King was buried, that she was a Communist. Nice. He posted a lame apology once his behind was ripped raw across the blogosphere.

Chris Kromm at Facing South has a good takedown of this moron, posting the history of red-baiting and the Kings by disturbed closet Queen J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.

The idea that King and the movement had Moscow on speed-dial is, of course, total bunk and laughable to any informed observer (I don't include Domenech in this category). There were surely members of the left, including communists, who were deeply involved in civil rights, including King's close friend Stanley Levinson.

But most weren't communists intent on helping the Soviets: for example, the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee that trained Rosa Parks and other civil rights figures -- and which the right wing still uses as "proof" of King's nefarious red ties -- was led by home-grown Christian socialists and pacifists. The Kings themselves were never members of any group.

That leads to another key part of this story that most bloggers are missing. If Martin and Coretta King "associated" with communists, it was for the simple reason that leftists were often the first and most dedicated defenders of civil rights. For example, the communist International Defense League was the first group to step forward to defend the "Scottsboro Boys," the nine black teens sentenced to death in trumped-up charges of raping a white woman (even the NAACP wouldn't take the case).

UPDATE (2:15 PM): Finally, the folks at the WaPo couldn't deny the sheer volume of plagiarism going on in Ben's World, he's g-o-n-e...

Ben Domenech Resigns

In the past 24 hours, we learned of allegations that Ben Domenech plagiarized material that appeared under his byline in various publications prior to washingtonpost.com contracting with him to write a blog that launched Tuesday.

An investigation into these allegations was ongoing, and in the interim, Domenech has resigned, effective immediately.

When we hired Domenech, we were not aware of any allegations that he had plagiarized any of his past writings. In any cases where allegations such as these are made, we will continue to investigate those charges thoroughly in order to maintain our journalistic integrity.

Plagiarism is perhaps the most serious offense that a writer can commit or be accused of. Washingtonpost.com will do everything in its power to verify that its news and opinion content is sourced completely and accurately at all times.

We appreciate the speed and thoroughness with which our readers and media outlets surfaced these allegations. Despite the turn this has taken, we believe this event, among other things, testifies to the positive and powerful role that the Internet can play in the the practice of journalism.

We also remain committed to representing a broad spectrum of ideas and ideologies in our Opinions area.

Jim Brady
Executive Editor, washingtonpost.com

***

And they are in full mourning mode over at RedState.org. First Charles Bird, and then Commenter Esoteric:

By: Charles Bird · Section: Other Politics

When blogospheric swarms gain critical mass, they can be extremely fast-moving and overwhelming. It looks like we're in one right now, but it's not about Darfur or the War Against Militant Islamism, but about a conservative blogger newly hired by a mainstream media outlet. The charges of plagiarism are serious business, especially the one in NRO. It may be happening at this very writing, but a complete and timely response is needed by the co-founder of this site, answering fully every charge made. I count myself a supporter of Ben Domenech, but the credibility of this site and the Redstate project is at risk. I await Ben's response, but if the answers are insufficient, we must all strive to do what's right.

***

Esoteric: I've looked at the evidence, and though I don't like what it tells me, I won't close my eyes to it: Domenech is guilty, and the worst part of it all is the fact that he has demonstrated serial tendencies - this isn't an isolated deal.

The only honorable response in this situation is to remove Domenech from the masthead/editorship of RedState. Can any other conceivable option be entertained for a plagiarist? Obviously he should still be allowed to post or write diaries like any other member, but I would be deeply hesitant to promote to the front page, given that it would inevitably appear to be a tacit endorsement.

The Freeper reaction is just plain lame. Yawn.

WingNutDaily: Easter is under assault

Please, someone, help -- I can't take this garbage anymore, on either side of the fence:

FAITH UNDER FIRE
Is Easter latest holiday hijack?

Already, many stores and malls across the U.S. are preparing for seasonal events, with some refraining from usage of terms like "the Easter Bunny," opting instead for more generic terms like "Spring Bunny," or other names avoiding the name "Easter."

One such location is the Somerset Collection, an upscale mall in Troy, Mich., serving 14 million shoppers per year. It's now publicizing an event with its "Spring Bunny" and Walt Disney's Winnie the Pooh.

The event caught the attention of WorldNetDaily reader Tim Edwards, who says, "It appears that this very important Christian holiday is under assault just like Christmas is."

I feel safer now

First we found out about the vegan threat to homeland security that required government surveillance.

Now we learn that federal agents and Seattle police have been monitoring an even more insidious threat to public safety, and agents of the War on Terror -- Quakers and the peace-marching Raging Grannies.


Grant M. Haller / P-I

The safety helmet tip goes to SpinDentist.

Send this to the adoption bigots

This is why the efforts to prevent LGBT citizens from adopting have to stop now. The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a nonpartisan adoption advocacy organization, released a report yesterday that shows discrimination hurts the tens of thousands of children who need loving homes -- and gay families can provide them.

Some folks who need to receive a copy of the report, just off the top of my head: that witch from yesterday's post, Tennessee State Rep. Debra Young Maggart ("homosexual couples have numerous emotional dysfunctions and psychological issues"), as well as Ratzi's goons forcing Catholic Charities to discriminate or pull out of the adoption arena rather than let gays adopt.

The principal findings of the report, which is entitled "Expanding Resources for Children," are:

* Against a backdrop of increasing public acceptance, social science research concludes that children reared by gay and lesbian parents fare comparably to those of children raised by heterosexuals on a range of measures of social and psychological adjustment.
* Studies are growing in number and rigor, but the body of research on gay/lesbian parenting is relatively small and has methodological limitations. Still, virtually every valid study reaches the same conclusion: The children of gays and lesbians adjust positively and their families function well. The limited research on gay/lesbian adoption points in the same direction.
* Though few states have laws or policies explicitly barring homosexuals from adopting, some individual agencies and workers outside those states discriminate against gay and lesbian applicants based on their own biases or on mistaken beliefs that such prohibitions exist.
* Laws and policies that preclude adoption by gay or lesbian parents disadvantage the tens of thousands of children mired in the foster care system who need permanent, loving homes.

"The bottom line for those of us who advocate for children is clear," said Adam Pertman, the Executive Director of the Adoption Institute. "There's simply no credible research to indicate that children are harmed in any way when they're adopted by gay and lesbian parents, but there's lots of evidence to indicate that they do well in those homes. So, if we as a society believe that kids should be our primary concern, we have to put aside our prejudices and preconceived notions, and do the best we can for them."

What this Dick needs in his hotel suite

The Smoking Gun tells you what Darth Cheney needs in his "downtime suite" when he's traveling.

One item: Faux News has to be pre-set on the TV so he can flip on that filth when he arrives. I didn't see a shotgun listed.

Hat tip, AmericaBlog.

Rhode Island retro abstinence program deep-sixed

Your tax dollars at work. The public schools in Rhode Island had in place a Bush-funded abstinence program that, based on this description, was a real winner. It has been yanked.

The article makes me want to call in Justin Wankadoodle from yesterday's post ('Motivational speaker' at school compares girls to meat) to help them out over at winger org Heritage of Rhode Island.

Lawyers at the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union first complained last year that a now-abandoned textbook used by Heritage of Rhode Island taught students that girls should wear clothing that doesn't invite "lustful thoughts" from boys. The book described men as "strong" and "courageous" while women were called "caring."

A speaker on an accompanying videotape said abstinence helped him "honor my relationship with Jesus," although Heritage officials said the tape wasn't used in public schools.

"The curriculum had these incredible sexist viewpoints about men and women and boys and girls that seemed to come out of the nineteenth century," said Steven Brown, executive director of the state's ACLU.

...Heritage of Rhode Island has a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides $400,200 annually, a department spokesman said. The group has presented its curriculum to more than 600 public school students in Providence, Pawtucket and Woonsocket.

Pawtucket's top school official complained that he was duped by Heritage officials and halted the program even before a parent complained to the ACLU.

"We really don't promulgate any religious opinion in this school system. I think basically that's what they were trying to do here," Pawtucket Schools Superintendent Hans Dellith said.

Hat tip, Raw Story.

Nigeria's government goes after the homos

Dear Leader with his old bud, homobigot Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. The U.S. State Dept., however, opposes a third Obasanjo term.

The president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, is about to make a trip to the U.S. while his elected officials are hell-bent on passing anti-gay legislation. The “Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act” has been approved by the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria and is heading to the national assembly for a vote. It's is a cornucopia of hate, according to Human Rights Watch. (UKGayNews):

The bill calls for five years imprisonment for any person who “goes through the ceremony of marriage with a person of the same sex,” “performs, witnesses, aids or abets the ceremony of same sex marriage,” or “is involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies and organizations.”

It also prohibits any public display of a “same-sex amorous relationship,” as well as adoption by lesbian or gay people.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is clearly no friend of the homos. In fact, he has heaped praise on the Anglican bishops who have been steadfast in their intolerance of gays. (BBC):

Mr Obasanjo told the bishops he had followed "with keen interest your principled stand against the totally unacceptable tendency towards same-sex marriages and homosexual practice."

"Such a tendency is clearly un-Biblical, unnatural and definitely un-African," Mr Obasanjo, a born-again Christian, added in his speech to the conference in the commercial capital Lagos.

But back to this bill and its supporters. Look at this unhinged BS from Dr. Lateef Adegbite, secretary-general of Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), from a publication called Vanguard. The article is entitled WAR AGAINST GAYS, LESBIANS: We must use all we have to chase ‘em away, say clerics.

It sounds strange to the ears that a man and another man can get hooked up in a sexual relationship or that a woman and another woman can get to do the same. It is anti-Islam. It is an evil practice and Islamic religion is against it in all entirety. Islam is against homosexualism, lesbianism and sodomy. We are delighted with the quick way government rose to arrest the situation. It is a good thing that the world is kicking against it and Nigerians are opposed to the practice gaining grounds in our country. We Muslims are delighted with the legislation that has made it an illegal practice and a punishable offence in Nigeria. We support the action of government.

It is a commendable thing to do. But I want to add that passing a legislation is not just good enough. We should be vigilant in monitoring the lifestyles of our people and their relationships to ensure that such practices are exposed in Nigeria and that offenders get their due punishment. [And how are these folks different from our own AmTaliban?]

The practice is dirty. It’s incredible. It’s sinful and a crime against humanity and against God. It depicts the height of animalism in man and such should be tackled immediately so that the practice does not gain ground here in Nigeria.

And let me share one more bit of sad ignorance from the pulpit, the words of Archbishop of Lagos, Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie. God help LGBT people in Nigeria, who have to deal with thinking like this.

All these stories are geared towards destroying the marriage institution. It’s very strange, indeed very absurd. How could a man and a man or woman and woman be in a sexual relationship? It’s crazy. This is a curse. All they (gays and lesbians) want to do is destroy the human race.

It is the same thing that made them to start using the condom. They call it family planning. People now want to have less children. So, they brought in the condom. Actually, there is a company that produces condom that wants to be located in Nigeria. They want to start producing condoms in Nigeria! That is besides the abortions they commit on daily basis.

Haven’t you also heard about people doing sex exchange? Men transform into women and women can become men! These are all targeted at destroying human life.

This makes you sick to your stomach to read such garbage.

The kind of campaign site that works for me

Fellow Tar Heel blogger Scrutiny Hooligans pointed me to a fitting Charles Taylor for Congress (a.k.a. taylorsucks.org) parody web site. It's put up by "concerned citizens of western North Carolina" who want his Rethug ass out of there.

An eight-term Congressman from NC-11 and House Appropriations subcommittee Chairman, Taylor is one of Jack Abramoff's boyz, and he's not apologizing for it, even as other pols are scurrying away from Abramoff to give back or give their dirty money to charity.

Congressman Charles Taylor of Brevard said he will not give back contributions he received from former Washington lobbyist and now convicted felon Jack Abramoff and his wife.

...About returning the money, he said, "I think members are giving back $150,000 and $95,000. I didn't have that kind of contribution from Mr. Abramoff. I didn't ever have any real contact with him. But the $2,750 that he and his wife contributed over a period of six years has been spent, so I won't be giving it back."

Taylor's record is rife with corruption, cronyism and wingnuttery. Some of his key positions:
* Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage.
* Voted YES on protecting the Pledge of Allegiance.
* Voted YES on constitutional amendment prohibiting flag desecration.
* Voted YES on Constitutional amendment prohibiting Flag Desecration.
* Voted YES on banning gay adoptions in DC.
* Voted YES on bankruptcy bill
* Voted YES on allowing school prayer during the War on Terror.
* Voted YES on deauthorizing "critical habitat" for endangered species.
* Voted YES on denying non-emergency treatment for lack of Medicare co-pay
* Voted YES on limiting medical malpractice lawsuits to $250,000 damages.

Rated 0% by NARAL
Rated 7% by the ACLU
Rated 0% by the LCV

It goes on and on...

***

In my recent post, Fundamentalist hatefest held in Asheville, fringe loon Dr. J. Wendell Runion, organizer of the homo-hate rally, touted that he is "an advisor on church and religious matters since 1990" to Taylor.

You HAVE to visit the "For the Kids" section of the "Charles Taylor for Congress" site, where it has a Find the Sodomite game.

Boys, I've often said that I support Christian businessmen trying to be Christian in their work lives as well as in their personal lives, and I meant it. If I win the election, there is a good chance that you will grow up to be Christian businessmen.

When you are running your very own Christian lobbying firm, you should ask yourself one question: what would Jesus do? The answer to that question is an easy one. Jesus would fire all of the Sodomites.

To help you prepare for your futures as good Christian soldiers, I've prepared a little puzzle to help you on your way.

Girls, since you might be working as Christian secretaries while waiting to snare good husbands, you should learn to spot Sodomites as well, to save your bosses the time and energy of interviewing inappropriate job applicants. It will also come in handy in your real lives by helping you choose the right hairdressers or interior designers.

Take a look at the picture below and prayerfully pick out the Sodomites to whom you would appropriately give pink slips.

Go to the site to see the answer.

By the way, in order to maximize the Googlebombing of Taylor, the organizers of the "Charles Taylor for Congress" site have announced that whoever links it the most between Friday, March 24 and Friday, March 31 will get a free pizza or $20, lol.

The folks hoping to take Taylor's seat:
John Armor (R)
Clyde Michael Morgan (D)
(former NFL quarterback) Heath Shuler (D)

Big h/t, Blue NC

Religious freedom? Women's rights? What's that?

I was waiting to see how long it would take before this business came back and bit the Bushies in the ass.

The case of Abdul Rahman, the man who converted to Christianity and is now facing execution in Afghanistan (under Sharia law, that's a big no-no), puts the issue of human rights and freedoms and the Iraqi constitution right back in the spotlight.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, one of the holy rollers on the White House speed dial, makes a direct comparison to Iraq in relation to religious freedom, and the Bushies have to be wringing their hands (Crooks and Liars has video).

"Their constitution and the wording of giving deference to Sharia law is very similar to what is in the Iraqi constitution....The resolve of the American people will not long stand if they know that they are giving their sons and daughters to die for just changing the names of regimes."

Back when there was debate about the fate of women's rights in the Iraqi constitution, I was incensed, but not surprised, that the Bush admin did not defend language for full equality for women. Islam is "a main source" for legislation and bans laws that contradict religious teachings in the Constitution of Iraq. From Asra Nomani's article, The Sharia Problem, in The American Prospect:

In seemingly innocuous language, the constitution is in fact a nightmare for women. Article 2, for example, is a self-fulfilling prophecy for disaster: “First: Islam is the official religion of the State, and it is a fundamental source of legislation.” The notion of Islamic law in legislation wouldn’t be so frightening if the new leaders of Iraq could be trusted to rise to the highest principles of social justice and women’s rights in Islam, but they can’t--particularly considering the pressures exerted on them by militant and extremist political forces both on the Sunni and Shiite sides who seek to make Iraq a model Islamic state in the vision of Saudi Arabia, Taliban Afghanistan, and Iran.

...The constitution rhetorically provides for gender equality and women’s rights. Article 2 (Section B) says: “No law that contradicts the principles of democracy may be established.” And, in another place in Article 2 (Section C), it offers: “No law that contradicts the rights and basic freedoms stipulated in this constitution may be established.”

But, ultimately, Article 2 leaves room for Islamically mandated inequality to trump women’s rights. The prevailing schools of Islamic sharia, for instance, have as one of their “established provisions” the notion that daughters receive less inheritance than sons, theologically justifying such a system. In a logic that denies women independence and self-determination, women are “maintained” by men. Article 29, stipulates, “All forms of violence and abuse in the family, school and society shall be prohibited,” but what about “established provisions” of sharia that interpret a verse of the Qur’an (Chapter 4, Verse 34) to allow men to “beat” disobedient wives? A growing movement called Islamic feminism challenges many of these interpretations but it hasn’t yet taken root in the mainstream Islamic establishment.

Why, then, should anyone be surprised to see in Afghanistan, the full-flowering of intolerance by religious extremists when the very law of the land permits the execution of someone who dares to follow another faith? If the clerics are in control, it's not just going to be women who are under the thumb of the oppressor.

So, Dear Leader sent the young men and women of our country to fight and die to "liberate" Iraq and now who knows what women or those who choose another faith will be subject to in Iraq -- the clerics in the end will decide.

The human rights horrors of a religious state like Afghanistan are not beyond possibility in the "democracy" we've created in Iraq. It's not the bright, shiny model of freedom Bushies were fantasizing about while in their fugue state over the bungling of Iraq -- and now the fundie base has finally been awakened to the ramifications of Dear Leader's amoral international warplay and is speaking out.

Of course when it's only homos that are being killed because of a fatwa issued by an Iraqi Muslim cleric, no one gives a damn.

Ministry grants for ventures offering to 'rescue' victims from homosexuality

This is just plain brain-dead. From WingNutDaily.

Pro-abortion, anti-war, "gay-rights" and other liberal-left groups seem to have no problem obtaining funding from everyone from George Soros and MoveOn.org to hundreds of nonprofits, PACs and trusts. But where do you turn if you're a pro-family organization?

Enter the Pro-Family Charitable Trust, part of the California-based Abiding Truth Ministries.

The organization is seeking worthy ventures to consider for grants. Specifically, PFCT is currently focused on projects that:

1. Help individuals recover from homosexuality,
2. Oppose the recruitment of young people into the "gay" lifestyle or its defense, or
3. Counter the effect of pro-"gay" propaganda in media and culture.

One of the recipients of PFCT's largesse is "former homosexual" activist James Hartline's Hillcrest Mission, which landed a grant to set up shop in what it deems the "gay- and porn-dominated" Hillcrest District of San Diego.

Jesus on the drywall

Blender Joseph Rainmound points (via Pharyngula) the latest Jeezus miracle cure-all appearance, this time in the drywall of an Alabama church. You have to see the WLTX video to get an idea of how unhinged these people are, believing in the healing properties of rubbing a wall crack.

Do you see Jesus on the cross?
Members of the Triumph Learning and Worship Center for Life in Saraland, Alabama, want to share what they're calling a miracle. The church was flooded by Hurricane Katrina; causing some drywall in the building to buckle into an image that church members believe is an image of Jesus on the cross.

..."Many have been healed," said Pastor Ella Roberts. "One young man that belonged here was scheduled to go on dialysis. "The next week, he laid his hand there on the wall on the image, went to the doctor and they said they can't see where, why, how."

Church members say miracles occur when you touch the wall. "From touching that, my eyesight began to clear up completely," said Benita Bogan.

Skeptics like James Broughton are not sure what to make of it. He suffers from diabetes and is hoping for a better life. "I heard about it a couple of hours ago," said Broughton. When he was asked why he came, his response was "I don't know."

Holy Joe on-air meltdown

The man who humps Bush only slightly less vigorously than John McCain must be feeling a little challenged by the "love" coming from the blogosphere. Holy Joe flipped out on the air. Jane @ firedoglake has the goods.



Dem opponent Ned Lamont must be smiling at Joe's meltdown.

The Right Was Wrong and The Left Was Right

SusanG over at DailyKos wins the "Radical" Russ Nail on the Head award for March. Please go read it all, but here's the gist:

What I need from the conservatives who were wrong is this:

A statement, a simple statement, that they were wrong and we were right. Period. Not that Bush incompetently executed a terrific idea, but that the idea itself was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. As wrong as you can get. You simply cannot force democracy on another nation at gunpoint. Period.

And you were wrong because - it pains me to say this - you lost your minds in the aftermath of 9/11.

War critics who did not, in fact, shut off their higher cortex and retreat to the reptilian brain during this period can make it easier for conservatives to admit they wrong - and we need to do this to move this country forward, like it or not - by quit rubbing their faces in it. A horrible thing happened on 9/11. We were shocked as a nation, horrified, terrified, wounded and grieving. It is understandable - completely understandable - that a large portion of this country suddenly was willing to kill people - any people - for any trumped-up reason whatsoever to assuage the bleeding of this national wound. But ... being understandable doesn't make it right. I can understand how a parent reaches a point of slapping a child out of frustration for asking one too many times for a Mr. Goodbar in the check-out line; that doesn't mean I approve the action or want to see it repeated in the future.

But it was then - right then in the fresh, raw, losing-our-minds stage after 9/11 - that the few outspoken critics should have been most honored, that critical speech should have been most strenuously preserved: saying whoa whoa whoa whoa now here, let's slow down. Let's look at the facts. Let's see if a military solution is going to prevent this kind of thing again - or whether it's going to further enrage an already clearly enraged group. That was when it was most vital to hear "slow down the juggernaut and let's examine our options" counsel.

And that's when we were labeled traitors. Fifth columnists. America haters.

[Patriotically cross-posted at Radical Writ]

Mommy earmarks Katrina donation to Neil's biz

Look at this shite; I want to hurl. Please god, tell me someone in the MSM is going to pick this up. (Houston Chronicle):

Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil.


Neil Bush has a colorful history, including failed S&Ls, insider stock trading scandals, and well, general Bush family corruption.

Since then, the Ignite Learning program has been given to eight area schools that took in substantial numbers of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

"Mrs. Bush wanted to do something specifically for education and specifically for the thousands of students flooding into the Houston schools," said Jean Becker, former President Bush's chief of staff. "She knew that HISD was using this software program, and she's very excited about this program, so she wanted to make it possible for them to expand the use of this program."

Related:
* No Child Left Behind: the Bush family cashes in too
* No Bush left behind: Investors from the United Arab Emirates helped fund the $23 million Neil Bush raised for Ignite!

Example #5,671 why you can't reason with the Pro-Life Anti-Woman Lobby

If there were any doubt that the anti-abortion people have very little to with preserving the lives of the womb babies, and a whole lot to do with punishing the sluts for being irresponsible man-teasing jezebels with wicked, wicked naughty bits, one needs only cast one's gaze over to the state of Misery, er, Missouri, which is contemplating changing its motto to "The Don't Show Me State". The Repugnican legislators there are falling all over themselves, giddy with the annointing of Alito to the Roberts/Scalia/Thomas court, and are no longer able to hide their true intentions.

From Fired Up! Missouri comes this e-mail from Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-Victorian Era). Surf over and read the whole thing... but here's a tasty tidbit:

I appreciate your dedication to your legislative duties while on Spring Break. Your letter seemed to indicate that if we create chemical and pharmaceutical ways to tamper with mother nature, then we will solve the problem. Even if you solve a physical problem you still have not solved the moral, emotional and spiritual problems that come with a promiscuous lifestyle.

When I was listening to the debate last week I wondered what kind of man would want to enjoy free sex and then expect her to provide for her own contraceptives? These are the kind of men who want free whores. Any man who would be so low life as that does not deserve to have any woman love him. Smart women will stay away from men who use them and abuse them.

Yeah, that's it, Cindy. It's us men who are using and abusing women by sticking our pee-pees in their hoo-hoos without the expectation of love, marriage, and the potentiality of procreation. We men want the free sex and we want the irresponsible promiscuous women as our free whores.

Notice how this is always about how the women are these evil temptresses, denying any possibility that the women themselves might actually have an interest in enjoying sex for pleasure free from worrying about pregnancy? Of course, that fits in with their view of women as subservient brood mares for the state, now, doesn't it?

My fellow Oregonian at Alas, a Blog takes a look at the conundrum that is the alleged "pro-life" position, which claims that human life begins at conception and deserves the same constitutional protections as a living, breathing child, by masterfully comparing how "pro-life" positions, when applied to an actual living, breathing, four-year-old child, are absolutely ludicrous (click to the site for a handy comparison chart):

A lot of people who favor forced childbirth for pregnant women say that they believe that an abortion, even early in pregnancy, is identical to child murder. Have an abortion, shoot a four-year-old in the head; morally, it's the same. Or, anyhow, that's what they claim to believe.

In contrast, pro-choicers tend to think that the abortion criminalization movement is motivated by a desire - perhaps an unconscious desire - to punish women for having sex.

A few of the examples include:

* Abortion bans which explicitly protect the mother from legal consequences... well, you wouldn't extend that protection to a mother who murders her four-year-old child, would you?

* Abortion bans that make exceptions in the case of rape or incest... well, you wouldn't extend that protection to a mother who murders her four-year-old child conceived by rape or incest, would you?

* Opposing contraception and sex education for teenage girls... well, that's how Belgium achieved the lowest abortion rates in the world, and if your goal is fewer abortions... you get the picture.

Molly over at Molly Saves The Day takes a similar tack by posing Twenty Questions - Baby Killing Edition, asking questions that you'd easily say "yes" to if they were asked regarding the murder of a four-year-old child:

1. Should women who abort get life sentences in prison and/or the death penalty?
   
2. If a woman's husband knows she is aborting, should he be charged as an accessory to murder?
   
3. Should abortion doctors receive life sentences in prison and/or the death penalty?
   
4. If a woman smokes during her pregnancy and the fetus dies as a result, should she be charged with murder?
   
5. If a woman eats unhealthily during pregnancy and the fetus dies, should she be charged with negligent homicide?
   
6. If a woman has a serious medical condition that would almost always lead to the death of a fetus, but gets pregnant anyway, should she be criminally liable if the fetus dies?
   
7. If a company manufactures a product which lights a fire in a fertility clinic, destroying 1500 frozen embryos, should they be liable for mass murder?
   
8. If a pregnant woman reports to her doctor that she is smoking during her pregnancy, should her doctor be mandated to report it to the appropriate agency for dealing with child abuse?
   
9. If a woman has cancer and her chemotherapy kills a fetus, should she be given a life sentence and/or sentenced to die?
   
10. Should children who are disabled be allowed to sue a parent for any negligent conduct during pregnancy that may have caused their disability -- for instance, smoking or consuming alcoholic beverages?
    
11. If a government agency determined that a woman was being neglectful to her fetus during her pregnancy, should she be forced by the Department of Children and Families to care for the child and/or have it forcefully removed?

Molly continues on another couple of posts, More questions for people who want to make abortion illegal and Which is it?, as she gets many responses from the anti-woman crowd about how "abortion stops a beating heart" and how we need to do all we can to preserve the "sanctity of life":

If the government wanted to force you to donate blood monthly, would you be okay with this as legislation?

What if the government passed a law mandating that all children who are able to donate blood without dying should donate blood as well as all adults?

If someone living is a tissue match for someone else who needs a kidney, should the government be able to force them to give the kidney to the other person?

If it is okay to commandeer a woman's uterus in the name of preserving a life, why wouldn't it be okay to mandate the use of blood, bone marrow, or kidneys from living people in order to preserve lives?

---

If it was really about life, forced organ donation would be mandatory for living people who had organ matches with other living people. If it was really about life, every single anti-abortion person would have said that 1/3 of American women (that's the number who've had abortions, folks -- and it's worth noting that in the early 20th century this proportion was higher, not lower) are murderers who should be given the penalty for premeditated murder.

But what I did see, over and over, were people saying that there should be "responsibility." That when you have sex, you know there is a finite chance it will result in pregnancy. That was the difference most people complained about in the forced organ donation questions -- that in one case, you are responsible for a life.

Guess what that means? It means it's NOT ABOUT LIFE. If abortions should be illegal but there should not be forced marrow donations from living donors, the distinction isn't one of life, it's one of responsibility.

See, another place where this sort of "sexual responsibility" doctrine comes into play is with the new HPV vaccine, which could prevent cervical cancer almost entirely. You'll note that cervical cancer, by definition, can only happen to women. Well, government officials have been steadfastly opposed to allowing this vaccine or making it part of the rest of the vaccinations we give young people. Why? Because giving them the vaccine would "encourage promiscuous sex." Apparently, people who have sex just need to "take responsibility" for their actions -- which could mean, among other things, getting cervical cancer.

Yes, people do realize that sex can result in disease or pregnancy, in much the same way that a bungee jumper knows the cord could snap. But in the same way we don't deny medical treatment to a bungee jumper and say "hey, look, you knew the consequences, now you can die to take responsibility," we shouldn't deny it for sexual consequences.

It's all about the sex, people, and it always has been. Ever since the birth control pill came out, ever since the SCOTUS decisions that allowed women access to that pill, ever since the women began burning their bras and demanding equality and - gasp! - having sex for pleasure, the ideological descendents of our Puritan ancestors have been hell-bent on returning us to an age of prudishness and covered ankles and fruitfully multiplied families where women who like sex have no choice but to birth a litter. It's hard coded into their religious dogma from the very first book of the Bible and that slut Eve who ruined Eden for all of us by discovering she had a clitoris and it felt good to touch it.

They just can't stand the idea that anyone out there, especially lowly not-men, is having any of the fun they deny to themselves.

[Cross-posted at Radical Writ, which makes the Baby Jesus weep]

From the DNC spambot

The ironies of life...within moments of posting the Dem senators take heat in closed-door session with gay leaders entry, "Howard Dean" spammed my inbox with this today:

Dear Pam,

Never before has our party been more organized in advance of an election. With new staff hitting the ground everywhere from Alaska to Arkansas, we are going to fight for every vote in every corner of every state in 2006.

I almost had to pick myself up off of the floor after reading that sentence I highlighted. Anyway, there is going to be a door-hanger campaign, where you do a little Neighbor-to-Neighbor chit chat to build up the base as part of the Dem "50-state strategy." I didn't have to read too far before I was hit up for the buxxxx.

We estimate that we need to print 500,000 pieces of literature to cover these events. With the cost of printing, plus the cost of shipping, staff time and logistics to make these events happen, we need an investment of $107,000 by Monday in order to kick-start this program.

Can you contribute something right now to help make this unprecedented program a reality?

Here's the bold new direction, the strategy that he wants our money for -- what folks will be hanging on doorknobs at a cul-de-sac near you.



The floor is now open for comments.

Dem senators take heat in closed-door session with gay leaders

"One of our concerns as a group is that they don't necessarily hear enough back from the community on how we hear and perceive the sometimes tortured and hair-splitting positions they try to take. We are tired of being seen as the embarrassment to the party."
-- Lambda Legal's Kevin Cathcart, summing up the whole problem with these clueless, butt-covering, spineless Dems at the national level.

Amen, brother. The meeting wasn't open to the public, but information is trickling out about what went on when the following senators met with gay leaders, according to an article in the Washington Blade:

Harry Reid (D-Nev.) (Majority Leader)

Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)
Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii)
Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)
Tom Carper (D-Del.)
Mark Dayton (D-Minn.)
Barack Obama (D-Ill.)
Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)

Gay activists got to air out some of the frustrations that we've all expressed here about the spineless, gutless, pandering positions that Democrats at the national level have been taking on gay issues.

It's apparent to everyone, particularly Republicans, that the party does not want to take a firm stand on civil equality, choosing to weave and bob or just plain put their heads in the stand rather than make a case for why discrimination is wrong. It sounds like these Dems got an earful.

The question is, what are they going to do about what they've heard?

Eight Democratic senators listened to complaints last week from gay activists that they and their party colleagues have hindered progress on gay rights, according to several participants in the meeting.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was among Democratic senators who met with gay activists last week and heard criticism that their party's positions on gay issues were often 'tortured' and 'hair-splitting.'

The activists say that by remaining passive or by taking ambiguous and "tortured" positions on same-sex marriage and other hot-button gay issues, the senators and other Democrats are hurting the gay rights movement.

The sometimes-blunt remarks by the activists came at a March 16 meeting on Capitol Hill organized by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in her role as chair of the Senate Democrats' Steering & Outreach Committee. The meeting was closed to the media and public.

Exec. Director of Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, Kevin Cathcart was there and laid it out on the line, saying that the standard fig leaf of "we're against gay marriage but for civil unions" that the Dems (Kerry, Clinton, Dean leading the charge) have been hiding behind actually weakens the case for civil equality because it affirms separate and unequal treatment of gay citizens.

"We talked about the way [senators] appear to be largely passive, doing nothing affirmative on LGBT issues … in ways that actually are problematic for us and harmful to the work that we do...Particularly the rhetoric they use around the things like marriage, where instead of advocating for fairness and inclusion, they actually advocate discrimination," Cathcart said.

Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry also made the salient point we've been making here that pandering to the winger voters by abandoning public support of a historically loyal voting bloc is not going to pay off in any more votes from the bigot crowd anyway. It's about framing the issue of same-sex marriage in a way that will move the issue forward as a fairness issue.

"The Democrats are viewed as the party of gay rights because that's part of their historic tradition of supporting civil rights for all Americans," Wolfson said.

"They will never be anti-gay enough to satisfy their opponents" who strongly oppose same-sex marriage, he said.

The meeting was the third time in four years that the Steering & Outreach Committee has met with gay and AIDS group representatives, and this was also an opportunity to discuss the upcoming vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment and Don't Ask Don't Tell.

***

These Dems need to wake up -- the wind is at their backs -- polls released this week indicate acceptance of gay relationships at levels that anyone with a spine should interpret as an opportunity to open the public discussion and make the Republicans look like the bigots they are.

From the March 12 Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll, these are stunning gains in support:
* 51% oppose legalizing gay marriage, a significant decline from 63% in in February 2004 (after the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision leading to the legalization of marriage).

* A 60% majority now favors allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, up from 52% in 1994.

* In the South, the only region in which a majority of residents (55%) opposed allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly, the opposition is at an incredible 35%, with 58% supporting open service.

* Even when you look at Republicans bigotry is losing traction -- 46% favor allowing gays to serve openly and 46% are opposed.

* 46% support gay adoption, up from 38% in 1999.

And look at this -- Pew finds "strong" opposition to gay marriage has ebbed to a new low in almost every demographic group except the bible-beating, Dobson-approved, whining evangelicals (56% of them still strongly oppose legalizing gay marriage, down from 65% two years ago):



What do the numbers have to look like before the Dems grow a spine and begin to do the right thing? They are supposed to LEAD, not follow.

Hat tip, PageOneQ

Who's dysfunctional?

"I am not convinced that just because our foster children desperately need loving homes that we should just place them in homes that are available when research also shows that most homosexual couples have numerous emotional dysfunctions and psychological issues that may not be healthy for children."
-- Tennessee State Rep. Debra Young Maggart (R-Hendersonville)

[Welcome Crooks & Liars readers, sit down and have a cup of fresh Blend...]

Blender James of At Thirty Three sent this heinous one in, saying...

Here we go again with the foolishness. I'm going to write my State Representative today and ask that he put forward a bill to make psychological and emotional testing a prerequisite to conceiving a child in the State of TN. Maybe I'll also ask him to enact a minimum income, education, and age level for all Tennesseans who want to be parents.

The above statement by Maggart was an email response to Sara Dykstra, a master's student in special education at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. Dykstra had written members of the Tennessee House Committee on Children and Family Affairs to ask them not to pursue legislation to ban gays and lesbians from adopting or fostering children.

Tennessee gay news site Out and About has more about the story, Unfit to parent.

Dykstra said she was shocked by the response received from the elected official.

"My initial reaction when I read that was both shock and anger. I was surprised to hear such one-sided, ignorant and false logic coming from someone who is elected for the common good," said explained. "I do believe that Rep. Maggart honestly believes she's doing the right thing by taking this position. She really believes that there is something deviant about being homosexual."

Rep. Maggart went on to write to Dykstra that she had seen "evidence" that homosexuals could not maintain a stable relationship, and that gay couples often sought young men to adopt for, apparently, "unfretted access to subject them to a life of molestation and sexual abuse."

"We also have seen evidence that homosexual couples prey on young males and have in some instances adopted them in order to have unfretted access to subject them to a life of molestation and sexual abuse," She wrote to Dykstra. "Some of the evidence we were presented showed that lesbian and gay couples have a higher rate of breaking up than heterosexual coupes as well as higher rates of promiscuity outside of their relationships."

What was the "evidence"? Lo and behold, it looks like one of Daddy Dobson's people stepped up to the plate with "facts."

ARep. Maggart said "the State Director, Hedy Weinburg of the ACLU and a representative from Focus on the Family," presented information at that study committee.

While Rep. Maggart doesn’t say who "State Director" is, she could have been referring to Linda O'Neal, executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.

According to her House bio, Ms. Maggart is a single mother, and a Goodpasture Christian School Graduate. More power to her, raising a child by herself. I hope she knows that some on her side of the moralist fence might say that it's better for a child to be raised in a two-parent family, according to their belief system.

Out and About has the email exchanges between Dykstra and Maggart.

***

Speaking of Focus on the Family, Blender Rob Thurman did a little research on the FoF site to see if Dobson's flock has its biblical priorities in order.

***

Related:
* Dem senators take heat in closed-door session with gay leaders: the new Pew poll on gay adoption and marriage leaves the party without any excuses for its spineless behavior as these tired, bigoted arguments of folks like Maggart lose steam.

'Motivational speaker' at school compares girls to meat

Who is Justin Lookadoo? I've never heard of this low-rent "Christian author" and abstinence "educator". Blender Lisa sent me a link to this article and his web site and clearly Justin is scoping out the bottom-feeder territory. He's marketing himself as hip and cool and down with today's students as he explains to them how to control those horny desires by insulting them.

Well, he managed to make the news at Merritt Island High School in Florida when he shared his wisdom with juniors and seniors about the dangers of teen relationships and sex. WFTV has the story and the video.

Students and parents were shocked and outraged when, they said, female students were compared to pieces of meat by a Christian author at a Brevard County high school lecture. A group of students said the speech was biased and made them feel uncomfortable.

Tuesday, the controversy over Monday's assembly at Merritt Island High School made its way all the way to school district offices. Meanwhile, students were split over the message some said insulted female students with statements like "you can kick my woman...but you can't kick my dog."

"[The Christian author said,] 'Women shouldn't be surprised, if they dress like a piece of meat, if men want to put them on the barbeque .,'" said student Dana Tarasabage. [He said,] 'Go out and shop a little longer, there's more fashions coming out that cover your entire body,'" said student Shivani Patel.

He also suggested that girls are to blame for boys' adolescent attractions. Are you getting the feeling that Justin has issues? Just wondering.

Guess what? The folks who paid Lookadoo to speak were shocked, shocked that the speech didn't go over well with the young women in the audience.

"Our intention in this foundation is always to affect the lives of young people in a positive way, to equip them to make wise choices," said event organizer Janet Shaffer.

Shaffer heads KLD Foundation, the organization that paid for Lookadoo to speak at Merritt Island High School. She admits he's a bit over the top, but the Foundation believes that drives home the message.

KLD, incidentally, is some sort of religious claptrap org. The Flash-laden web site is so irritating that I couldn't waste more than 30 seconds on it.

Justin is the author of Extreme Encounters ("Devotionals Dare You To Be Extreme"), and this excerpt will give you more of the "flava" that he brings to his school talks on abstinence.

The night has been perfect. Your guy has been a dream. You are sitting in his car. He kisses you good night, then all of a sudden…he's all over you.

You are trying to block all the shots. But, is it OK?

You think that maybe you are being too old-fashioned. No way. This guy just doesn't get it. He is not respecting you, and he for-real isn't following the Bible.

So guys and girls, remember: Don't touch it if it ain't yours, and keep your hands to yourself.

Concerning the things of which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
1 Corinthians 7:1

Shakes Sis weighs in on this turd, as does The Green Knight.

The tragedy of the 9th Ward

Scout Prime, a blogger who has been covering the devastation in NOLA in depth, has a short music video up on First Draft from her recent trip there, which she put together to show her family. Months later, there isn't evidence that anything significant has changed -- aside from the fact that the water was pumped out -- and there are still bodies yet to recover.

Slip of the tongue

“She’s just got a patent resume, of somebody that’s got such serious skill. She loves football, she’s African-American, which would kind of be a big coon, a big coon – oh my God, I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that, OK? I didn’t mean that. That was just a slip of the tongue.”

St. Louis radio personality Dave Lenihan later said he meant to use the word "coup." Even Condi doesn't deserve this one. How does that word just slip out?

A radio personality at 550 KTRS was fired on the spot this morning after using the word “coon” on the air in a conversation about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Dave Lenihan was dismissed after what he called an inadvertent slip of the tongue. Within 20 minutes, station CEO Tim Dorsey apologized on the air to listeners and announced that Lenihan, who had been with the station for less than two weeks, had been let go.

“I don’t know what was in Mr. Lenihan’s mind,” Dorsey said in an interview. “I know what I heard. I know it was reprehensible.”

Flashback to Las Vegas weatherman Rob Blair, who claimed his own "slip of the tongue" when he gave the extended forecast and said, "For tomorrow, 60 degrees, Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Day, gonna see some temperatures in the mid-60s." What made that situation mind-blowing is that Blair's segment was pre-recorded and it STILL went on the air.

Is it just a coincidence that these losers had black folks on their minds when "the slip" occurred? By the way, Lenihan says that he's a big fan of Condi...

Winger bill: no lap dances in Kentucky

The moralists are now entering the strip clubs, attempting to legislate pasties, g-strings and lap dances with SB 250. Really, if you enter one of these establishments, aren't you paying to see the naughty bits?

Pro-family leaders in Kentucky would like to see this final full week of the state's legislative session, accomplish the passage of a measure to restrict indecent activity inside strip clubs. Kent Ostrander, president of the Family Foundation of Kentucky, says his and other pro-family groups are encouraging voters to contact legislators this week about pushing SB 250, a bill dubbed the "Public Decency Act," through the House to become law. The bill has already passed through the state's Senate.

The legislation does two things, Ostrander explains. "It simply makes sure that every performer in a strip bar must have something on," he says. "There cannot be total nudity, which is quite common. And number two, that same performer must remain six feet away from the patrons." Ostrander says supporters have been trying to get such a decency act passed for as many as seven years. The Family Foundation of Kentucky is urging members of the voting public to call 800-372-7181 and leave a message for their state legislators expressing support for this pro-family measure.

I ask you, is there any chance that some of these wingers voting on this bill have patronized these very same titty bars?

Roy Moore's tiny little brain

Kathy @ Birmingham Blues passes on the latest BS coming out of Mr. Ten Commandments himself, Alabama gubernatorial candidate Roy Moore.

Roy gave a speech at the Blount County Chamber of Commerce, and he proved during the Q&A that he doesn't think much about Alabamians and their ability to understand constitutional reform. In fact, he was pretty damn blunt.

A Blount County resident (a senior aged female) asked Mr. Moore about his thoughts on constitutional reform and a people’s convention. Mr. Moore replied by asking the woman if she had read the constitution and all of its amendments. She stated that she had read some, but not all. Mr. Moore then said that he had read the entire document, that it was a good document and the only changes he would support would be to compile the inactive portions into another document.


He then stated that he was opposed to a constitutional convention because special interests controlled Montgomery and would inevitably control a convention. The lady then asked did he not think that Alabamians were smart enough to see through the rhetoric of special interests groups and decide for themselves about a convention and its product. Former Chief Justice Moore quickly, and emphatically shot back, “No.” (emphasis added)

As you can imagine, there was a collective gasp in the room and many were left looking at their neighbor trying to figure out if he had just said what everyone had heard him say.

I think Kathy nicely sums it up:

I’m not surprised that Roy thinks the people of Alabama are stupid. After all, a majority of voters elected him Chief Justice, and many of them still send him money to support his crusade to force his version of Christianity on the rest of us. I just hope his statement is widely circulated so those who might consider voting for him will know what he really thinks of them.

Iraq religious death squads targeting gays

Following up on Iraqi Shia leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's call to kill gays, Doug Ireland reports in tomorrow's Gay City News that religious death squads are out in force now, and the horror is unimaginable. (PageOneQ):

"The Badr Corps is committed to the 'sexual cleansing' of Iraq," a 33 year old gay Iraqi exile in London told Ireland. Since the SCIRI's spiritual leader, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistni -- the highest Shia religious authority -- issued a fatwa ordering gays assassinated in "the worst, most severe way of killing," the Badr Corps in Iraq has begun to use the Internet to hunt down and kill Iraqi gays.

The murdered Iraqi gays "are usually discovered with their hands bound behind their back, blindfolds over their eyes, and bullet wounds to the back of the head," Iraqi exile Ali Hili, coordinator for the London-based Abu Nawas Group, an organization of gay Iraqis in exile -- tells Ireland. In one case, the article explains, a transsexual was beaten and burned to death in an area of Baghdad.

Hili explains that, "intimidation, beatings, kidnappings and murders of gays have become an almost daily occurrence.”

Sadly, none of this is surprising, -- do we want to take bets that no stories on this will appear in the MSM? And what about our military presence there -- will the violence of this sort be addressed? Don't hold your breath.

More of the article will be available on Doug Ireland's blog, DIRELAND.

Spared from the death chamber

Kirk Bloodsworth was charged with the killing and sexual assault of a nine year old girl and served on death row for eight years before he was cleared by DNA evidence as part of the Innocence Project. He was the first person on death row to be exonerated through postconviction DNA testing. His story:

The victim was found dead in July of 1984. She had been strangled, raped, and beaten with a rock. Bloodsworth was arrested based on an anonymous call telling police that he was seen with the victim that day and an identification made by a witness from a police sketch that was based on the recollections of five eyewitnesses. At trial, all five witnesses testified that they had seen Bloodsworth with the victim. Also presented at trial was testimony that Bloodsworth had said that he had done something terrible that day that would affect his relationship with his wife. Additionally, he mentioned a bloody rock during the investigation. A shoe impression found near the victim matched his size.

This evidence was challenged in Bloodsworth's appeals, which asserted that the bloody rock was mentioned because the police showed him a rock during the interrogation. The incident he mentioned regarding his wife amounted to his failure to buy the food she had requested. Moreover, the police failed to inform the defense that there may have been another suspect. Bloodsworth's conviction was overturned by the appellate court and he was retried. This time, he was convicted and sentenced to two life terms, to run consecutively.

In 1992, the prosecution agreed to DNA testing to be performed by Forensic Science Associates. The victim's shorts and underwear, a stick found at the scene, and an autopsy slide were compared against the blood standards of the victim and Bloodsworth. Using PCR based DNA testing, FSA determined that the amount of spermatozoa on the slide was insufficient for testing. Testing on the panties excluded Bloodsworth. Replicate testing performed by the FBI yielded the same results.

Blogger Jay Lassiter of Lassiter's Space and BlueJersey.net has an opportunity to sit down with Bloodworth, and and make the case why the death penalty moratorium is necessary, and that working to its abolishment is equally essential. He plans to post the interview as a podcast on the Bluejersey.net to rally public support against the death penalty.

There is a request Jay has for Blenders and it's a question of the day:

What would you ask Kirk Bloodsworth about his experience?

You can post your questions here or over at Jay's place.

"There is no leadership in the Democratic Party"

...and the Pope is still Catholic and bears still sh*t in the woods.

A must-read from Chris Lehmann in the New York Observer in an article about Sen. Russ Feingold and his censure resolution:

“There is no leadership in the Democratic Party,” said Terry Michael by phone on March 20. He’s a former Democratic National Committee press secretary who now heads the Washington Center for Politics and Journalism. “If only the Democratic Party leaders were alive, they could accept a debate on this. But instead, their strategy is focused on how best to muddle through.”

This goes double, in Mr. Michael’s view, for the party’s funereal flight from debate on the war in Iraq. Indeed, he said, the cower-duck-and-run maneuvers that party eminences conducted in the wake of Mr. Feingold’s announcement was almost identical to the drear chorus of prim disapproval when Pennsylvania Congressman John P. Murtha disavowed his early support of the Iraq war and called, last November, for rapid draw-downs of the U.S. troop presence.

Heavyweight aspirants to the ’08 Presidential nomination—people like Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware—clucked their disapproval and stressed how Mr. Murtha only spoke for himself. For her part, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi mewled that she didn’t cotton to Mr. Murtha’s resolution but respected him as a veteran and part of the Democratic Party’s grand mosaic of opinion.

Then, when Republican attacks on Mr. Murtha went haywire and addled freshman Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R.-Ohio) called the decorated Vietnam vet a coward on the House floor, Ms. Pelosi managed to stir herself to an endorsement—when all was assuredly safe and the Murtha resolution was good and doomed anyway.

“A voice like a Jack Murtha or a Russ Feingold literally cannot be heard,” Mr. Michael said, “when you have a so-called opposition party colluding with the party in power.

“The fear factor inside the Democratic Party is appalling,” he added. “You’ve got these small-minded Democratic-consultant-driven political leaders, and then you’ve got real neocons who refuse to listen to the base of the party …. You have these voices of unbridled ambition—Hillary Clinton first among them—who are asking the base to nominate them, when they’re not even listening to the base when it comes to the most important issue in American politics today.” Look at the 2004 convention in Boston, Mr. Michael said: “Ninety percent of the people in that nominating hall wanted to end this war, and they wound up voting in a ticket where both candidates voted for it—and said they still supported it.”

In a related development, evolutionary scientists researching today's Democrats are confused, as there is no evidence in the fossil record of a vertebrate species ever de-evolving into an invertebrate.

[Retroactively cross-posted at Radical Writ]

Gay 16-year old mops the floor with Sen. George Allen

I would have loved to be in the room when this went down.

Rethug Virginia Senator (with presidential ambitions) George Allen was at a public event and young gay man stood up and politely asked questions that showed Allen his ass. Remember, Allen supported FMA. He also at first backed the addition of sexual orientation to federal hate crimes legislation, then famously retracted his support, his spokesman citing the Senator's concern about "a chilling effect on First Amendment rights" and the "elevation of sexual orientation to civil rights status.

Yes, that lunacy would confirm that he's running in '08. Anyway, here is part of the brave, brilliant takedown by Tullysatre:

"I wanted to speak with you in regards to a Hate Crimes bill that was introduced in Congress not too long ago." He nodded at me as I continued, "This bill sought to add 'sexual orientation' to the country's list of types of people that are victims of hate crimes. I myself have been victim to threats and assaults of hate crime based on the fact that I am gay, and I am a Virginian. Only two weeks ago my friend was in Richmond when he walked out of a restraint with his partner another person called him a 'faggot', drew a knife, and attacked my friend. Luckily, my friend lived - others are not so lucky. Last year, you supported legislation which sought to add 'sexual orientation' to the nation's hate crime list, and for that I thank you - but later this year you said that you regret your support for this bill and would not support this bill in the future, why is that?"


Allen got caught with his pants down, defending that slavery was OK because the majority of the public was in favor of it at the time - majority rule, civil rights be damned.

Senator Allen kept his smile, kept his poise, and prepared one of those typical political responses. He told me a story, that once he was at a Gay Pride Festival in Philadelphia, and there was a peaceful group reciting verses from the Bible across the street. They were arrested for assault. He believes in religious freedom, and believes religious freedom of expression is ideal in this country. I agree. Senator Allen continued to say that he believes sexual orientation is not a civil right Everyone broke into thunderous applause. I doubt the crowd understood - Senator Allen seemed to turn the table making my statement appear as if I was advocating for "special" rights, which of course is far from the truth.

"Well Senator," I began. "I too believe religious freedom of expression is part of what this country was founded upon - it is a beautiful thing to be able to express your views, however sexual orientation is not a civil right, it is a part of someone, and gay citizens are being denied basic civil liberty, very basic rights that most citizens are granted." The Senator said something along the lines of disagreement. "If you believe that this is how gay citizens should be treated," I continued, "I am assuming that is why you supported the Federal Marriage Amendment."

Senator Allen seemed a bit tense. He continued to say that his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment was merely the passing of legislation that the people of this country wanted - to protect the values that this country upholds. Senator Allen was consistent with repeating this message at least five times in about ten different ways, including citation of statistics and specific references. Senator Allen even began to speak of what was and what was not constitutional - including actions from activist judges, as well as a separate case where Massachusetts became the first and only state to approve same-sex marriage...which according to him was in contrast of what the people believed.

"Senator Allen," I began, leaving a bit of a pause, "I think we both can agree that what the majority may think, is not necessarily always constitutional. Take a look at history - slavery for example, that was supported by a majority of our citizens at one time, but it by far was not constitutional, and it by far was invading the basic freedom of citizens in this country. We can not say that majority rule is necessarily constitutional when it comes to issues of human rights and basic civil liberty.

You have to go read the rest.

Allen continued trying to defend his position, and then got spooked when he saw a NYT reporter in the room. Tullysatre was swamped with reporters after stepping down from the podium.

Bravo.

Hat tip, AmericaBlog

Turning against the war

Check out a insightful essay by Michael Stickings (of The Reaction), Fantasy and reality after three years in Iraq. It's a great piece on his personal political journey from reluctant supporter of the war to the realization that the lies and deception of this administration led him and most of America astray.

Remember those fast-paced days, the days of the embedded reporters capturing the rapid and relatively easy march into Baghdad?

But it didn't take long for things to change. I celebrated the removal of Saddam -- and, even today, whatever our negativity, whatever the easy allure of relativism, we ought not underestimate the significance of removing him from power; even Task Force 6-26's Black Room prisoner abuse is minimal compared to what Saddam did -- but I had obviously had far too much confidence that the war's architects knew what they were doing, that they were prepared for the occupation, that they would do whatever it took to guide Iraq, now their ward, towards democratic self-government, preferably towards liberal democracy. That was very much my defence when challenged by my students: America will make this work. Sure, it won't be easy to reconstruct Iraq, but failure simply isn't an option. I vehemently opposed Bush in 2000, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. After 9/11, we were all together, weren't we?

I turned against it when it became abundantly clear that it was being grossly mismanaged. I had high hopes for the removal of Saddam, regime change, and the possible democratization of Iraq and, beyond that, the Middle East. And that may still happen -- whatever our skepticism, let's at least acknowledge it as a possibility, however remote. But it's clear that the Bush Administration is very much to blame for what has gone wrong -- and that includes well over 2,000 American deaths. Yet, upon this third anniversary of the start of his war, a war of choice, President Bush won't even use the word "war" to describe what's going on in Iraq. There's no civil war. Apparently, there's no war at all. The war must have ended with the conclusion of major combat operations.

Americans are being led by a cadre of the delusional.

Another note: congrats to Michael, who is a featured blogger on John Edwards's OneAmericaBlog, where this essay is cross-posted.

Freepers take Myers-Briggs, weigh in on End Times

Some enterprising Freepi have been polling the knuckle-draggers, trying to figure out who trolls around in the swamp of Freeperland.

One thread has the results of those who took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator/Personality Test. A landslide of the participating Freepi fell into type RT (rational), subgroup "Coordinators," and specifically iNTj, which is labeled "The Masterminds."

iNTj, by the way, is Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging, you can read the description here.

I think I will just leave this one out there for you all to comment on.

***

Another entertaining bit of research is the Survey of Freeper Views of "How it all Ends" thread. I had to pull a couple of selections here...

Actual Freeper Quotes™

"Cvengr - Pre-trib, pre-mil ... I don't see anything in Scripture that would preempt God in His grace, disciplining a wayward Christian nation to the point of total destruction by fire, if it repeatedly displays it will not return to Him and in so failing is considered in divine perspective as simply being good for nothingness.… the US isn't shown directly in Prophecy as critical to things to come. We have an opportunity to provide a pivot for other believers and nations to return to Him and play important roles as He has planned. Those roles aren't as dependent upon a brotherhood as much as they are upon our remaining faithful in Him. The demise of the west doesn't mean the failure of His plan, merely our rejection of Him and consequence of evil."

"hope - Christ will withdraw His Church (Those who have accepted the gift of salvation through Jesus) prior to the judgment that will come upon the earth which will end the age of grace. After a period of judgment Christ will return with His bride, the church and set up His Kingdom as promised to David that his seed will rule forever and ever, sun up to sun down. After a thousand year reign Satan is released for a final judgment on the earth and then Satan and his minions are cast into the lake of fire forever and ever. Those who have accepted the promise of Gods covenant with His Son, will remain with Him forever and ever with the establishment of a new heaven and earth..."

Bush's faith-based cash keeps flowing

One of the infamous black pastors on the faith-based tip: President Bush with Sedgwick Daniels, whose church got $1.4 million from the government. Photo: Morry Gash/AP

The WaPo has a lengthy article on the administration shell-out of cash grants to socially conservative religious organizations and non-profits. The hungry fundie hogs have slopped up $157 million in grants.

Among other new beneficiaries of federal funding during the Bush years are groups run by Christian conservatives, including those in the African American and Hispanic communities. Many of the leaders have been active Republicans and influential supporters of Bush's presidential campaigns.

Programs such as the Compassion Capital Fund, under the Health and Human Services, are designed to support religion-based social services, a goal that inevitably funnels money to organizations run by people who share Bush's conservative cultural agenda.

One wishes that Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Wade F. Horn and other Bushies had Pinnochio's noses when the notion that that the allocation of grants by the administration might be political is raised.

Horn and other officials said politics has not played a role in making grants. "Whoever got these grants wrote the best applications, and the panels in rating these grants rated them objectively, based on the criteria we published in the Federal Register," he said. "Whether they support the president or not is not a test in any of my grant programs."

...H. James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said politics plays no role in grant-making decisions. "We don't have that kind of calculation," he said.

Jamie-Andrea Yanak/Associated Press
The article also notes that Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing took in $23.5 million, and five organizations run by black and Hispanic leaders who endorsed Bush have received more than $2 million each from the administration's "compassion fund." The abstinence-ed and anti-choice folks get to belly up to the bar as well.

The Door of Hope Pregnancy Care Center in Madisonville, Ky., a small outfit of four part-time employees committed "to the belief in the sanctity of human life, primarily as it relates to the protection of the unborn," operated on an annual budget of $75,000 to $79,000, most of it raised from an annual banquet and a "walk for life." Last year, Door of Hope got an abstinence education grant of $317,017, allowing it to hire staff and expand.

In Dyersburg, Tenn., the Life Choices Pregnancy Support Center, where the staff believes "without reservation or qualification that the Scriptures teach that human life begins at conception," had revenue of $81,621 and could pay Executive Director Natalie Wilson $12,247 in 2001. Two years later, the center got a $534,339 grant for abstinence education. By 2004, annual revenue totaled $617,355.

Bishop Sedgwick, pictured at the top of the post (and ready to tap dance for The Man), of Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ in Milwaukee, was awarded $626,598 in 2003 and $824,471 in 2004 from the Compassion Capital Fund. Daniels is a strong supporter of Dear Leader -- he was a 2004 Republican National Convention delegate. A little more on how Sedgwick was turned on by Bu$$$h.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for example, Bishop Sedgwick Daniels, one of the “city’s most prominent black pastors,” who supported both Bill Clinton and Al Gore in past presidential elections, switched to Bush. His “face appeared on Republican Party fliers in the battleground state of Wisconsin,” and he endorsed President Bush “as the candidate who ‘shares our views.’” Two weeks before the election Bishop Daniels “turned over the pulpit to Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, one of Bush’s most prominent African American advocates.”

“We know what faith-based can do every single day,” Steele told the congregation, drawing head nodding and remarks of “yes” and “Amen” from more than 1,000 in the vast sanctuary.

The Times also reported that Bishop Daniels met “with top administration officials” and also met with “the president himself.” Later, his church received $1.5 million in federal funds through Bush’s faith-based initiative.

This gravy train won't end any time soon. What kind of oversight is there in these programs? Is the money actually going to help people in need or to line pious pastor pockets, build churches and organize partisan politicking from the pulpit and "get-out-the-GOP-vote" campaigns?

Also:
* posts on black pastors and faith-based buyouts
* Securing the homeland on a wing and a prayer: Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the Department of Homeland Security

Tidmus on the homo fatwa

Last week, news came out that Iraqi Shia leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for a fatwa on the homos, urges followers to kill gay folks in the "worst, most severe way".

Mike gives him the appropriate P'shop tribute...

Unpretentious at heart, Ayatollah Al, as his close friends call him, likes nothing better than to relax at home with a good book while savouring the simple pleasures his exalted position affords. It's said that Ali has a real weakness for a warm Danish and a special fondness for delectable girl drinks!
(View the source photo at Wikipedia).

School discipline begins with a noose

Out of Newark, NJ, the story of a substitute teacher, Albert Coleman Jr., whose interesting disciplinary techniques ran afoul of the law. The lynching symbolism is a nice touch.

Coleman, 61, of East Orange, had been charged with aggravated assault for the March 29, 2004 incident during an after-school program. When a grand jury declined to indict him on that charge, prosecutors tried him on reduced charges of assault and disorderly conduct.

...Prosecutors said Coleman wanted to punish Reyes for not following instructions to do his homework. Ali said the substitute asked the boy if he knew what "strangulation" was and made him stand on a chair.

Coleman took the looped end of a decorative string that was hanging from a light fixture, put it around the boy's neck and pulled it tight by kicking the chair on which the child was standing. In his testimony to a grand jury, Coleman said he was only playing with Reyes and that the string was never around his neck.

He was convicted of disorderly conduct and assault, and given a year probation. Since he had no priors, Coleman avoided jail time, but this conviction ensures that he can no longer work as a teacher.

Hat tip, King Cranky

Koufax finalists are up

Go vote, friends. The Blend didn't make it to the finals in any of the six categories it was up in, but many great blogs made the cut.

Pandagon is up for Best Blog and Best Group Blog.

Shakespeare's Sister, co-bloggrrrl on B3, is also up in the Group category; I'm voting for that slamming blog.

***

One of the Best New Blog entries is Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald. He gets my thumbs up simply because he's brilliant, persuasive and it shows in the meteoric rise and exposure of his work on the NSA scandal. And he has stiff competition in this category, including the excellent DKos spinoffs, Street Prophets and My Left Wing, and the always on top of breaking political news, Think Progress.

Glenn is also up in the Best Writing category, and Best single Post category for Bush's Unchecked Executive Power v. the Founding Principles of the U.S..

Quite appropriately, he's publishing his first book on that topic, How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok. Glenn says he's 80% done, and it will be on Amazon pre-order soon -- then I have to figure out how to get Glenn to autograph it for me, lol. :)

Marriage bigots lose in NH

Not even close. The House vote defeating a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was 207-125.

The vote ends this year's campaign for a constitutional ban of same sex unions; it takes a 60 percent majority in the House and Senate for any proposed amendment to reach a public vote, where it needs approval from two-thirds of voters.

Sen. Jack Barnes, R-Raymond, a ban sponsor, said the House had spoken and he would not pursue a similar amendment in the Senate. He said the result was neither surprising nor disappointing.

"We knew that right off, I mean it was a done deal," he said. "The people is the third rail in politics and obviously the people that voted against it didn't want to hit the third rail."

Shreveport man accused of molesting dog

Yes, it's the bestiality post of the week. Louisiana gets the honor this time.

After covering lambs, hogs and horses on the run from members of The Base here, it comes down to Little Ricky's worst nightmare -- man on dog. (KTSB has video):

Shreveport Police have arrested a man and charged him with an unusual form of animal cruelty. 56-year old David Powell was taken into custody Friday afternoon at his apartment in downtown Shreveport. Animal control officer Rick Quillen says witnesses say they saw Powell being "unusually affectionate" with a neighbor's dog and saw pictures on Powell's computer of him having sex with the animal. Powell was taken to Caddo Correctional Center and booked on one charge of simple animal cruelty. A misdemeanor.

Kaballah guru: gays brought on bird flu

The whack jobs just keep on coming. I thought we homos expended all our natural disaster capital on the tsunami and Katrina. We apparently had enough left over to squeeze out a little plague upon the Holy Land.

A prominent Kabbalah leader says that gays have brought a plague of bird flu on Israel.

...Rabbi David Basri, head of the Magen David Yeshiva in Jerusalem, on Tuesday lashed out at the left of center Meretz Party for running election ads supporting same-sex marriage. Israelis elect a new government this month and Meretz is the only party supporting gay marriage.

With at least two cases of deadly bird flu reported in Israel, Basri said the outbreak was God's punishment for the promotion of same-sex marriage.

"The Bible says that God punishes depravity first through plagues against animals and then in people," Basri said in a religious edict. In an interview with the Reuters news agency Basri's son quoted the rabbi as saying the bird flu outbreak stemmed from the leftist pary "strengthening and encouraging homosexuality."

Gee, What Would Madonna Do?

Unmet winger needs and September bed buddies

They have the White House, the Hill and two new conservative justices on the high court, but it doesn't matter. The bible-thumpers are not getting their values needs met. And they are pissed according to Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.


He is holding a September summit (the "Washington Briefing") for all the sheeple who can't seem to find a way to control enough wombs, create enough chastity promise rings, and chase enough homos back into the closet.

As we began preparing for this fall's Washington Briefing: Values Voter Summit, we asked the question: how do the values voters feel about Congress two years after the election of 2004? As we head into the midterm elections this year, what are the values voters' thinking about politics and public policy?

To find out, we put a poll in the field and the answer came back: Values voters remain interested in politics, but their expectations remain unmet.


The National Omnibus Riehle-Tarrance Poll surveyed over 1,000 adults last weekend, March 9-12. A sizable percentage -- 41 percent of poll respondents -- were self described evangelical Christians. These are a major bloc of the values voters.

All meals for the Washington Briefing, in case you feel like attending, are sponsored by Americans United to Preserve Marriage, Focus on the Family Action, American Family Association Action and Alliance Defense Fund.

Preliminary topics include:

* Does Religion have a Prayer in Public Schools
* Larger than Life: How the Abortion Debate Continues to Shape American Politics
* The Preservation of Marriage: Why Children Need It
* Liberal Sisters of Doom: Are They a Thing of the Past?
* Courts Gone Wild: The Rightful Place of Judges in Our Republic
* Left Out: Exposing Liberal Groups
* Hollywood in the Heartland: The Passion v. The Da Vinci Code
* Why Can't Hollywood 'Get It'?
* The New Media's Impact on America's Political Climate Democracy in Action: Voting at the Polling Booth and With Your Pocketbook
* The Role of the Church in Political Issues

***

In our continuing effort to show you that these social control freaks are bed buddies with the GOP with a hotline to Dear Leader and his minions, here's just a sampling of the speakers and politicians that Tony's invited to speak and mingle with the Christofascists...


President George W. Bush; Rev. Don Wildmon, Chairman, American Family Association


Senator George Allen, U.S. Senate (R-VA); Gary Bauer, President, American Values; Congressman John Boehner, House Majority Leader (R-OH)


Brent Bozell, Founder and President, Media Research Center; Senator Sam Brownback, U.S. Senate (R-KS); Pat Buchanan, Author and Syndicated Columnist


Dr. James Dobson, Founder and Chairman, Focus on the Family; Senator Bill Frist; Senate Majority Leader (R-TN); Sean Hannity, Author and Radio Talk Show Host


Senator (Holy F*cking) Joe Lieberman, U.S. Senate, (D-CT); Michelle Malkin, Syndicated Columnist; Author


Senator John McCain, U.S. Senate (R-AZ); Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA); Michael Steele, Lt. Governor, Maryland; Congressman Tom Tancredo, U.S. House of Representatives (R-CO)

War in Iraq through 2009... at least

Chimpy ain't'a gonna let nobody tell him he was wrong to invade Iraq. Cleanin' up that mess is gonna be some other president's problem. You know, like the deficit, global warming, port security, and so forth. Why should he worry? BushCo Int'l (a division of The Carlyle Group) will have siphoned off enough of the treasury by then to be livin' large, and the rest of the Administration rats will have cushy K Street lobbying jobs.

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday the decision about when to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq will fall to future presidents and Iraqi leaders, suggesting that U.S. involvement will continue at least through 2008.

Acknowledging the public's growing unease with the war — and election-year skittishness among fellow Republicans — the president nonetheless vowed to keep U.S. soldiers in the fight.

"If I didn't believe we could succeed, I wouldn't be there. I wouldn't put those kids there," Bush declared.

He also stood by embattled Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"I don't believe he should resign. He's done a fine job. Every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy," he said.

Well, every war plan looks good when it is devised by chickenhawks who never went to war in the first place and ignored all of the analysis by the generals who said we'd need 300,000 troops and many, many years.

...the president defiantly defended his warrantless eavesdropping program, and baited Democrats who suggest that he broke the law.

Calling a censure resolution "needless partisanship," Bush challenged Democrats to go into the November midterm elections in opposition to eavesdropping on suspected terrorists. "They ought to stand up and say, `The tools we're using to protect the American people should not be used,'" Bush said.

Yeah, and then the Democrats ought to stand up and say, "We love Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush is a doo-doo head who loves to torture puppies!" Seriously, where does this guy get time to rest with all the strawmen he's constantly setting up and knocking down?

Here's a question: if this is supposedly a program to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists, and then it's shown that you've monitored Quakers and anti-war protesters for potential terrorist sympathies, and it's shown that you've rounded up hundreds of innocent people in Gitmo and Abu Ghraib simply because you call them "terrorists", despite any evidence to back that up, then by golly, who ISN'T a potential eavesdropping target?

And the gall to talk about protecting the American people when the two biggest failures of intelligence in American history (9/11 and WMDs) happened on YOUR WATCH and New Orleans is still wiped off the map on YOUR WATCH and our ports are still woefully unprotected on YOUR WATCH... man, how do you walk with balls that big?

But Bush is sticking with his Magic Tiger Rock theory that breaking the law by spying on Americans is what's going to protect us. For Bush, admitting a mistake is more horrendous than losing American civil liberties and American lives.

The president said he did not agree with former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who told the British Broadcasting Corporation Sunday, "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

Bush said others inside and outside Iraq think the nation has stopped short of civil war. "There are other voices coming out of Iraq, by the way, other than Mr. Allawi, who I know by the way — like. A good fellow."

"We all recognized that there is violence, that there is sectarian violence. But the way I look at the situation is, the Iraqis looked and decided not to go into civil war."

"Hey, Ahmed, ya wanna go into civil war?" "Nah, Ali, let's just go blow up a few Sunnis." "Yeah, good point. Starting a civil war would take away from all the time we need to kill the rest of our countrymen who a different from us."

Where is this magical fantasyland that Bush lives in? Apparently not the same place as a vast majority of Americans:

Nearly four out of five Americans, including 70 percent of Republicans, believe civil war will break out in Iraq, according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll.

Bush said he's confident of victory in Iraq. "I'm optimistic we'll succeed. If not, I'd pull our troops out," he said, warning that abandoning the nation would be a dangerous mistake.

"So failure in Iraq, which isn't going to happen, would send all kinds of terrible signals to an enemy that wants to hurt us and people who are desperate to change the condition in the broader Middle East," Bush said.

And that terrible signal is... once we make a decision to illegally invade a sovereign nation, if we don't stick to it, no matter how many people die, no matter how much money we spend, then we'll never be able to bomb the Middle East into a stable democracy that likes to sell us oil.

War in Iraq through 2009. At the current rate, that will be 4,655 dead American soldiers, 31,918 seriously injured American soldiers, and maybe up to half to a three-quarters of a trillion dollars spent. Do you think Iraq will be a shining beacon of democracy by then? Well, sure, because Bush & Cheney & Rummy say so! why, they've been so spot on with all their previous prognostications!

[Stubbornly cross-posted at Radical Writ, because to do otherwise would send a terrible signal to our enemies.]

'A sexual-agenda bomb dressed up as a child-caring Easter egg'

That headline, my friends, is the overheated rhetoric that came out of the mouth of California apesh*t Dobson wannabe Randy Thomasson of Sacramento-based Campaign for Children and Families.

What was he losing his cookies over? Two anti-discrimination bills targeting schools in the state legislature. AFA "news" site AgapePress call them Twin Bills of Destruction that threaten family values. Read the hilarious hellfire...

A California pro-family activists is warning against two education bills in the state legislature that advance a radical pro-homosexual agenda. One of the bills would make school textbooks gender-neutral, while the other threatens schools financially if they choose not to promote homosexuality.

Assembly Bill 606 would allow the state schools chief to defund schools that do not support the homosexual agenda in textbooks, presentations, and instructional materials. The measure also calls for school districts to "establish and publicize an anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy" that prohibits discrimination and harassment based on specified characteristics, "including, but not limited to, actual or perceived gender identify and sexual orientation." Introduced by State Assemblymember Lloyd Levine, AB 606 has already passed the California Assembly.


Senate Bill 1437, sponsored by lesbian activist Senator Sheila Kuehl, declares that public school curriculum could not "reflect adversely" on homosexuality, trans-sexuality, or bisexuality. This measure would amend three sections of existing state education code to prohibit instruction, textbooks, or material that reflect "adversely upon persons because of their race or ethnicity, gender, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, or religion." The bill has yet to receive a hearing.

Thomasson is asking Golden State residents to get on the horn to the Governator to veto both bills if they manage to get to his desk.

San Francisco Archdiocese halts same-sex adoptions

Newsom on the church's position: "Somehow inherently that two people of the same sex can't be loving parents to me is patently offensive because it belies fact and it belies any sense of sensitivity or capacity of understanding."

You'll recall that last week, S.F. Mayor (and official Blender hottie) Gavin Newsom stuck it to the Vatican by deciding to take a pass on a trip to the installation of Archbishop William Levada as Cardinal as a protest on the church's anti-gay adoption position.

The Prada Pope said in 2003 that allowing children to be adopted by same-sex couples "would actually mean doing violence to these children" and was "gravely immoral."

What was that? And what about the morality of the men raping and molesting innocent children and covering it all up? The mind boggles.

Anyway, as expected, Papa Ratzi's stooges at the Archdiocese of San Francisco brought the hammer down on the homos who wished to adopt through its Catholic Charities agency.

Catholic Charities has placed five children with same-sex couples since 2000, but a statement from Archbishop George Niederauer makes clear there will be no more, said Maurice Healy, spokesman for the archdiocese.

"These kinds of adoptions are not in sync with church teaching, and we've committed ourselves to being in sync with church teaching," Healy said.

The issue now is whether Catholic Charities can continue providing adoptions without losing its public funding. Catholic Charities received $800,000 from the state and $5 million from local governments, including the city of San Francisco, last year. Diocesan officials are reviewing that matter.

The archbishop released a statement last week that read, in part, "We fully accept and faithfully teach what the Catholic Church teaches on marriage and family life. In light of these convictions, we currently are reviewing our adoption programs to determine concretely how we can continue to best serve children who are so much in need of a home."

Then it gets weird. There is a major break in the anti-gay communication chain because the head of Catholic Charities isn't taking no as the final answer from

Brian Cahill, executive director of Catholic Charities for San Francisco, said Niederauer did not explicitly ban same-sex adoption.

"This is an outright statement that is false," Cahill said of Healy's assertion. "Mr. Healy is, A, mistaken, B, doesn't speak for Catholic Charities and, frankly, it's clear to me that he's not speaking for the archbishop these days."

...Cahill said Niederauer's statement, instead of indicating a ban, shows that the archdiocese and Catholic Charities are reviewing the program to determine how to serve the best interests of needy children, Cahill said.

"We are trying for a different solution than Boston," Cahill said.

He's referring, of course, to Boston's Archdiocese pulling out of adoption services. The church there is awaiting Gov. Mitt the Sh*t to come through with a religious exemption to allow them to keep operating -- and discriminate against gays.

Sounds like there's about to be a rumble between the church heads and Catholic Charities over this.

In case you're curious, NY Catholic Charities has been stalling regarding a response to the Pope's new initiative.

“We don’t discriminate and agencies that contract with us have to comply,” Kali Holloway, a spokeswoman for the City’s Administration for Children’s Services, said. She cited state adoption regulations that read, “Applicants shall not be rejected solely on the basis of homosexuality,” even though the wording is hardly a ringing affirmation of nondiscrimination.

Jacqueline Lo Faro, spokeswoman for Catholic Charities, refused to say whether Catholic adoption agencies here allow gay people to adopt. The only thing she was authorized to say was, “We’re aware of the Boston situation and we’re reviewing it.”

...In New York, informed that Catholic Charities refused to certify that it does not discriminate against gay people in adoptions, Sheila Stainback of the Administration for Children’s Services said that state regulations and case law are clear that discrimination against gay parents in adoption is illegal. “If they are contracting with us, they understand that is the policy,” she said. “We’ve seen no evidence that any religious organization is discriminating,” but that the agency would take action if that comes to their attention.

Other states where the church may have to take a position include Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and the District of Columbia -- all allow same-sex couples to jointly adopt children. (As commenter shirky noted, if the states don't subcontract adoption services out to CC, or don't have non-discrimination policies, it's moot.)

Hat tips to Fritz and Paul.

North Carolina not keen on religious right

Chris Kromm over at Facing South points to a good article by political reporter Rob Christensen in the Raleigh N&O about NC's strange mix of politics that has made it difficult for the wingers to make legislative headway on the hot-button social issues roiling many states.

The South Dakota legislature recently banned abortions, and lawmakers in many other states are considering abortion-related bills. School boards in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Iowa have made headlines debating whether to teach intelligent design along with evolution. Florida was divided over the Terri Schiavo case last year involving right-to-die questions.

But so far the contentious social issues have largely remained off North Carolina's legislative agenda.

...Part of the explanation is in which party controls Raleigh. The agenda of the religious right has been pushed largely by Republicans. But North Carolina is one of the few Southern states where Democrats have controlled both the state legislature and the governor's mansion throughout this decade.

Most North Carolinians go to church and believe in the Bible, polls show. But North Carolina has always been a more nuanced state on social issues than many imagine. Take abortion.

In 1968, North Carolina became the second state to legalize abortions. Until the mid-'90s, North Carolina was the only state in the South -- and one of just 13 in the country -- to fund abortions for poor women.

Christensen notes that Jesse Helms had great difficulty getting his constituents to understand his anti-choice position. Chris tosses out a theory:

This is an interesting update on V.O Key's thesis about North Carolina in his legendary 1949 book "Southern Politics," where he argued the state was a "progressive plutocracy" -- tolerant on social issues like race relations, and conservative and subservient to business interests when it came to economics.

It's why we've been able to dodge the marriage amendment bullet so far, with the bills dying in committee. It will take work to keep it that way, because the wingers will keep submitting that f*cker. Much of the Tar Heel state is still quite Red, and the AmTaliban keeps trying to make headway in the past by importing wingers to stir up trouble.

A work in progress

Harris tells Christian group she believes God wants her in public service.

Finding inspiration from God, The Last of the Mohicans and The Lord of Rings, Katherine Harris told hundreds of conservative Christians Saturday that she is "a work in progress."

Harris, who told a national television audience Wednesday that she would be spending $10 million to win Florida's U.S. Senate race, said she never would have entered politics if she did not believe that God wanted her to make public service part of her life.

And this quote for the ages, when she announced to Hannity that she wasn't dropping out of the race for the Florida U.S. Senate seat.

"Let me tell you what the truth is. I’m staying. I’m in this race. I’m going to win. And let me tell you how. I’m going to put EVERYTHING on the line. Everything, not just my future and my reputation, my father’s name. I’m gonna take his legacy… Everything that I have and I’m gonna put it in this race. I’m going to commit my legacy from my father, $10 million… This is everything that I have.”

Fun stuff: Make her spend it all.

Hat tip, Adrian.

Unitarian pastor protests NC's stance on gay marriage

An Asheville pastor won't perform any civil marriage ceremonies until NC allows same-sex marriage. (Citizen-Times):

The Rev. Mark Ward, pastor of the 540-member Unitarian Universalist Church in Asheville, announced his decision in a sermon Sunday. Ward said he still will perform religious ceremonies for heterosexual couples but will direct them to public officials for civil ceremonies and marriage licenses.

“As ministers, we are sort of de facto agents of the state in that we have the ability to legalize marriage of couples we deal with,” he said. “I will choose not to perform that function as long as the state’s laws are unjust.”

Ward said he already has been performing what are essentially marriages for same-sex couples.

“I accept the responsibility and believe that it is a good thing for people in a committed relationship to come together and join in an intentional joining of their lives,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing religiously. I think it’s a good thing civilly. I think we as a society benefit by having people who are in committed relationships. I think it’s a more stable society.”

Ward is the second pastor to take this stand. Rev. Joe Hoffman last month announced that he would no longer perform civil marriage ceremonies to his congregation.

I wonder what the unhinged bible beaters who staged that anti-gay "gospel rally" in Asheville the other weekend feel about this (see my post, Fundamentalist hatefest held in Asheville).

Pennsylvania pastors' get-out-the-vote 'training' testing IRS rules

The IRS rules prohibit direct support or endorsement of a political party or candidate and a number of churches were cited with violating these rules in the 2004 presidential election. Jeopardizing a church's tax-exempt status can occur in several ways, including singling out a particular candidate's pet issues, or only inviting one candidate to speak at a forum (look at what's happening in Ohio).

In Pennsylvania, a group of pastors have banded together, forming the Pennsylvania Pastors Network, and started up an extremely fishy get-out-the-vote training program that was recorded by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, clearly intended to help out poll-sagging Little Ricky Santorum and to push the marriage amendment effort in the state. (NYT):

The first training session, on March 6 in Valley Forge, included a videotaped message from a single candidate, Senator Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican who faces a difficult re-election fight.

"I encourage you to let your voices be heard from the pulpit" on vital issues, Mr. Santorum said, urging the pastors to champion a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, according to a recording made by a person at the session.

...After the tape, organizers offered participating pastors copies of the senator's book "It Takes a Family."


Colin A. Hanna, founder of the conservative advocacy group Let Freedom Ring and master of ceremonies, called the book "thoroughly and soundly grounded in Christian doctrine and Scripture as the revealed word of God," according to the recording.

...The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, invoked the prophet Ezekiel, whose voice brought a field of bones to life. "You and I are standing before a field of dry bones, aren't we?" Father Pavone told the training session. "Dead consciences. Destroyed life."

Without mentioning Mr. Santorum or Mr. Casey, Father Pavone emphasized how important control of the Senate would be if another Supreme Court vacancy opened soon, potentially tipping the court against abortion rights.

This year, the IRS says it plans to scrutinize church political activity even more closely. Note that Bush's IRS has been investigating the NAACP and a California church whose pastor gave a generic anti-war sermon as well, so it remains to be seen what will actually come of this -- will the unfettered politicking by the wingers continue? They certainly seem bold and confident in that training session.

Jeebus, this is out of control. But wait, it gets better (or worse, depending on your perspective).

Mr. Santorum spoke on the tape for about seven minutes. A spokesman for the senator, Robert Traynham, said his statement was "generic video greetings about a public policy initiative that will be pending before the United States Senate," referring to the debate over the proposed ban on same-sex marriage.

"You are the leaders of the flock," Mr. Santorum told the pastors. "You have a responsibility to be informed and to inform" and "to help guide those who seek your counsel," especially about the importance of banning same-sex marriage.

Whoa...whoa...do you all remember Robert Traynham? The out gay spokesperson for Santorum? How can this man continue to stand up there are support Man-on-Dog? Is the paycheck that good, man? If you don't want to marry, fine, but don't work on behalf of one of the most anti-gay politicians on the planet who wants to make you and the rest of gay folks second-class citizens. I can't wrap my mind around the pathological level of self-loathing we're talking about here. It treads into Vernon Robinson territory of delusion.

Rick's clearly not your friend -- he's just a paycheck -- and you can sleep like a baby at night? Damn.

Hat tip Holly.

Related:
* Man-on-dog Santorum has an out communications director
* Little Ricky's bobbing and weaving about his gay communications director

Update on the Soulforce Equality Ride

"These wonderful students have done a great service by wiping away the stain of homophobia from our bus. Let's hope they can go back to their school and wipe away the stain anti-gay discrimination that still goes on every day at Lee."
-- Jacob Reitan, Equality Ride co-director, on the removal of the "Fags-Mobile" paint job from the Soulforce bus by Lee University students

Even the bigots can't stop good people who are willing to come forward and start a dialogue about LGBT rights at the conservative religious schools on the 51-day Soulforvce Equality Ride. (Soulforce):

On Friday evening several Lee students gathered to clean the Equality Ride bus, vandalized with spray paint the night before. When they were finished, the words "Fags-Mobile" were erased, leaving the original message "Learn from history. End religion based discrimination".



...The Riders formed close relationships with several students who were closeted, had been expelled from Lee because of their sexual orientation, or who came out after graduation. Among them was Matthew, a student who was expelled from Lee after administrators found a posting on MySpace.com that indicated his sexual orientation as gay. "I was planning to stay in the background during the Equality Ride visit," said Matthew, who preferred that his last name not be used because he has not yet come out to his family. "But I have told my story to so many people in the last two days - students, professors, administrators. I never would have done that if it wasn't for the Equality Ride." Matthew added, "I woke up this morning, and it just felt like a new day."

The Hands of Jesus, welcoming visitors to Oral Roberts U.

Also in the Equality Ride news, today's stop at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK, resulted in more arrests, as the riders were barred from campus. (365gay):

The university created by televangelist Oral Roberts will not enroll openly gay students and students already enrolled that are found to be gay can be expelled.

All students are required to sign an honor code that says, "I will not engage in or attempt to engage in any illicit, unscriptural Sexual Acts, which shall include ... any homosexual activity."

One by one members of the Soulforce crossed the street. As they reached the gate to the school they were warned by ORU public safety director Gerald Isaacs that if they tried to enter the campus they would be arrested for trespassing.

About seven of the riders kept on walking were arrested by Tulsa police.

The riders will be at ORU tomorrow, and then will head over to Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee. This school not only used to ban LGBT students, but also straight allies of queer folks. That policy was lifted last year, and now only the out homos get kicked out.

Related:
* The Equality Ride Route
* Falwell's legal bootlicker: Equality Riders are 'militant gay activists'
* Soulforce gets the 'Christian' welcome in Tennessee
* AFA's Don Wildmon on the Equality RIde
* Update on Soulforce Equality Ride - Liberty and Regent stops
* Crazy Pat wants Soulforce Equality Riders arrested
* Falwell calls the fuzz on Soulforce

Body slam for Jeebus

My, the faith is weak if this is what they call Christian outreach these days.

Small bands of masked evangelists, clad in tights and armed with biblical names, argue it is. The violence and intensity of wrestling, they claim, can be the perfect way to attract the alternative, younger crowd.

At the beginning of some "Wrestling for Jesus" shows, wrestler Chase "Darkness" Cliett is strapped to a massive wooden cross on stage as piercing music is played. A group of evil wrestlers beats and bloodies him before the good guys dramatically come to his rescue. Later, after a horned fellow in a red suit is knocked out, the preaching begins.

But it's not for everyone; many churches won't even consider letting them perform. One performance ended with real fighting, real cursing and a repentant participant stretched-out face-down in the ring weeping.

Just so you know, you can catch the WFJ show at the Johnston J.C.'s Peach Blossom Festival in Johnston, S.C. on April 1 -- and that's no April Fool's joke.


Darkness
From: The Hills of Golgotha
Weight: 178lbs
Height: 6'9"
Finishing Move: Lights Out
Quote: "Whatever your mind can conceive and believe your body can achieve"
Entrance Music: "Metal is Forever" (Primal Fear)
Titles Held: Current Tag Team Champions, United States Champion, Cruiserweight Champion


Zion
From: Nagasaki, Japan
Weight: 185lbs
Height: 6'2"
Finish Move: Fall of Zion
Entrance Music: "Your Powerful" (Skillet)
Titles Held: Cruiserweight Champion

Hat tip, to Blender Pam, big Blonde.

Afghan faces death penalty for converting to Christianity

How's that "bringing democracy to the Middle East" thing going, anyway?

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 20, 2006 — Despite the overthrow of the fundamentalist Taliban government and the presence of 22,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a man who converted to Christianity is being prosecuted in Kabul, and a judge said Sunday that if convicted, he faces the death penalty.

On the bright side, at least he'll get to meet Jesus earlier.

A number of Christian nonprofit groups do humanitarian work in Afghanistan. Dominic Nutt of Christian Aid calls the Rahman case a step backward for the country, especially if Rahman is executed.

Nutt, who has spent time in Afghanistan, tells ABC News "few practitioners are used to the concept of democracy and toleration … [many] are educated only in Islamic law."

Hell, few Americans are familiar with democracy and toleration! I wonder how Dominic feels about gay marriage or women's reproductive freedom?

The post-Taliban constitution recognizes Islam as Afghanistan's religion, and decrees that Islam's Sharia law applies when a case is not covered by specific legislation. The prosecutor says under Sharia law, Abdul Rahman must die.

The judge, however, holds hopes for a solution.

"We will ask him if he has changed his mind about being a Christian," Mawlazezadah says. "If he has, we will forgive him, because Islam is a religion of tolerance."

...and if he has not, then off with his head! There's your Islamic tolerance for ya!

Rahman's case contradicts Article 7 of Afghanistan's constitution, which assures that "the state shall abide by … the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." That declaration states that "everyone has the right to freedom of thought … to change his religion or belief."

Would that be that horrible document of secular humanism, the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as Adam is always referring to in his Ten Commandments arguements?

However, the constitution also states that Islamic law takes precedence over secular law and international treaties. Furthermore, the supreme court of that country has the right to veto certain provisions and interpret compliance with such treaties.

One expert in Islamic law explains that Afghanistan's penal code divides into two parts: the religious "huduud" dictated by the Koran and secular "ta'zir," which is regulated by the state. Conversion to another religion is a crime under religious law, which takes precedence over the secular and more tolerant policy.

Well, there you have it, Christians. Live by the Crusade, die by the Crusade.

[Hat tip: AMERICAblog] and crossposted at Radical Writ by the will of Allah

Another Dem spine confirmed

Senator Russ Feingold plans to speak at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Leadership Awards. (Out for Democracy):

Likely 2008 Presidential Candidate Senator Russ Feingold will be speaking at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Leadership Awards on May 6th. Feingold has been a consistent voice in Congress for LGBT equality, and for the civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans. Feingold was the only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001.

Feingold is also the most likely of the potential 2008 candidates to come out in full support of marriage equality for same-sex couples, but his recent appearance at the Stonewall Democrats Capitol Champions Fundraiser and his participation in this event show that he is definitely reaching out to our community for support.

Let's hope Russ finds the language and framing of fairness to teach some of his fellow party weasels that they don't have to hide and cower from a public discussion of civil equality. We'll be paying attention.

***

Meanwhile, Shakes Sis has a few questions for the spineless Dems and Feingold's move to censure Bush.

Is it too much to ask, at this point, not why Feingold has introduced a censure resolution without getting permission from his party, but instead why his party didn’t introduce it a long time ago? Is it too much to ask, rather than castigating Feingold for making a bold move without his party’s support, that instead we look at his party and demand to know why their support wasn’t assured?

If saying, “I’m bloody grateful that someone is trying to do something” makes me unsophisticated, shows my simple mind for what it is, that’s fine with me. Call me crude; call me a dullard; call me a radical; call me anything you like. I don’t really give a flying shit. Because if after spending my days immersed in news and politics, my vacant, irrational mind can’t wrap itself around the intricate processes of politics that makes doing nothing the smart thing, and my woefully inadequate powers of perception can’t help me translate what appears to be slack-jawed passivity into the brilliant political strategy it actually is, then the Dems have a real problem on their hands.

Earlier Blend on spineless, triangulating, Repug-lite Dems:
* Dems -- there's nobody home
* Dems to homos: re-closet yourself in 2006
* Images of the Dems and Repugs, courtesy of Democracy Corps
* Dem lobbyist to left blogosphere: generate money and shut your piehole
* My god...why didn't I think of Joe Biden?
* Tim Kaine tapped for response to SOTU
* Bye Blue, hello Green? / Bloggrrrl: Bye, Blue? (redux)
* I am sick of the Dems having no balls, afraid of the Religious Right

The 'abortion of marriage'

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has the knickers of David R. Usher of Men's News Daily in a big knotted twist.

Usher's tag says he is "Legislative Analyst for the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, Missouri Coalition," a state that voted to not resume funding birth control and wants to prevent access to abortion.

Given that, this essay is not surprising in the least.

VAWA is predicated on the notion that domestic violence is a sex-related problem. Yet, no major study proves that men cause domestic violence more than women do.

VAWA drives the majority of serious family violence

VAWA pretends that men are dangerous in the intact family and should be immediately removed for nothing more than a statement of “fear” or “emotional distress”. If most serious family violence actually occurred in intact families, this would be useful policy.

Here is the truth about domestic violence in married families: Only 4% of serious domestic violence occurs in the intact family. ”[i] The other 96% occurs after the date of separation.

Why would we see nearly all serious domestic violence occur after the date of separation? Liberals often pretend that divorce is a minor surgical procedure. It is not. Abortion of marriage is often a very serious and messy procedure. When one is faced with complete loss of life savings and children in the combative and expensive divorce system, serious spousal conflict can be easily predicted.

If we would not stop forest fires by dumping gasoline on them, we must not pretend we can reduce domestic violence by destroying families as a matter of presumed public policy.

I love that use of "abortion of marriage." Please. I sense a really unhappy guy here -- perhaps you all have some suggestions about how he might feel better about himself.

Ironically, Usher inadvertently makes the case for same-sex marriage, if the stability of the institution itself, as he cites, is key to lowering domestic violence.

If we would not stop forest fires by dumping gasoline on them, we must not pretend we can reduce domestic violence by destroying families as a matter of presumed public policy.

Marriage is the key predicator of low domestic violence rates. Domestic violence rates are higher in cohabiting relationships and non-intact families than in married families.

He later tries to catch himself on this point:

An abundance of evidence proves that women’s centers and radical advocacy groups cover up women’s violence, drive “divorce for the hell of it”, and break up many more families than they actually help. They recommend policies that line their own pockets with billions federal dollars, some of which are misused to lobby for anti-family feminist initiatives such as same-sex marriage, gay. For this reason, no politician who truly cares about the family and the future of marriage could possibly support the Violence Against Women Act.

Is it time for the tiny violin?

Unhinged homobigot Lou Sheldon's off to Atlanta

[Welcome, Raw Story readers. You can read more fresh Blend after reading about Ken, Karl and Lou sittin' in a tree...]

Blender Lee H emailed me this bit of news and said "I've never been in a protest in my entire life, but I may have to park myself outside this office park with a "God = Love, Sheldon = hate" sort of sign next weekend."

The Atlanta area will be polluted with the presence of hate-monger Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, who will be appearing at Kingdom Builders Christian Center in Norcross, at the invitation of Apostle Jamie T. Pleasant and his flock. From the KBCC calendar:

Kingdom Builders welcomes Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. Rev. Sheldon will speak on Biblical and Family Values Forum: Protecting the Biblical Institution of Marriage and Family Values on Saturday, March 25 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. and Sunday, March 26 at the 9 a.m. service.

Apostle Jamie T. Pleasant, Ph.D. Senior Pastor, Kingdom Builders Christian Center. Blender Lee took the picture of the sign in an office park announcing Lou's event next weekend .

Rev. Lou, remember, is part of the spiritual leadership of the Republican Base, who also has Congress, Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove on his speed-dial. From an LA Times article on a February 2005 meeting Sheldon organized with the GOP to court black churches:

["Black Contract With America" honcho Bishop Harry] Jackson's enthusiasm for working with Washington's Republican power structure is shared by the party's leading strategists. Today's Los Angeles meeting is sponsored in part by the Traditional Values Coalition, headed by the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, a white evangelical Christian with close ties to White House political strategist Karl Rove, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and other senior Bush administration officials.



Mehlman said Monday that he was in close contact with the organizers of each group and was coordinating with Gingrich and other party leaders.

Sheldon is an advocate of "ex-gay" therapy, spouts junk discredited science, and it's no surprise that he ties gays to pedophilia whenever possible. Lou also teamed up with equally homo-infatuated Tim Wildmon, of the American Family Association on a radio show where Lou advocated exorcism as "reparative therapy." What on earth can you make of this deliciously insane statement, from the broadcast:

I've talked to many psychotherapists who are Christian, and they say once you enter into that lifestyle -- Now, you may have gender identity conflict -- that's the medical-scientific name for homosexuality -- where you're attracted to the same-sex person, but once you enter into the culture, into the music, into the gay bars, into the gay literature, into the gay theater, and all of that kind of -- and gay travel -- once you immerse yourself into that, you have really put yourself into a groove that only a sort of an exorcism can release you from.

Hatecrime.org pulled a few gems from Rev. Lou's archive:

Gays are like Hitler and Gestapo
"The Rev. Lou Sheldon, president of the Traditional Values Coalition, said the 'hate crime' designation is increasingly going to be applied against those who believe homosexuality is wrong. 'What Hitler began to build against the Jews is now being built against people of faith who believe the Scriptures are valid for today and their injunctions against certain sexual behaviors is correct,' he said. Several years ago, homosexual activists disrupted a similar conference of his in Sacramento, he said, 'but I didn't have the finances to get a lawyer. For a long time we were the target of their wrath. Now other people are surfacing against them, thank God. If you don't agree with [homosexual activists], they use Gestapo tactics to stop you.' - Washington Times, Tuesday, October 27, 1998, Page A2

"Reverend Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition has come out in favor of quarantining AIDS patients in what he calls 'cities of refuge.' " - Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph,  March 10, 1995.

And here's a refresher on some of Lou's scare tactics on his site, look at the green-tinted pedophile in the banner...:

Homosexual activists deny that they target children for seduction into the homosexual lifestyle, but the evidence is overwhelming that this is a lie.

There is an ever-increasing effort among homosexual organizations to target public school children, to abolish age of consent laws, and to publish “studies” that purportedly show that adult/child sex is not harmful.


This is Lou's depiction of your average homo behavior.

The following reports provide clear and convincing proof that homosexual pedophiles (called pederasts) want children. Homosexuals should not be given special federal protections under “hate crime” laws; they should not be free to promote homosexuality in public schools; nor should they be allowed to marry or adopt children. Many homosexuals are sexual predators who prey on children.

* Exposed: Homosexual Child Molesters
* Exposed: Homosexual Urban Legend: NAMBLA And Homosexual Activism
* Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse
* Child Molestation And The Homosexual Movement
* Homosexuals Recruit Public School Children
* Pedophiles/Sex Torturers Seek Normalization
* Exposed: The Next Phase Of The Homosexual Movement...

It goes on, each article worse than the one before it. You have to be worried about this father of four children and the grandfather of nine, and for those who support him.

Mike Tidmus gave Lou the ace P'Shop treatment last year...



Maybe some of the Mighty Men Of Valor and Women Of Purpose serving Kingdom Builders might want to share how they feel about Lou's efforts in this arena and his appearance at their house of worship.

Email: info@kingdombuilders.org

Protect Marriage Illinois launches amendment petition drive Tuesday

Peter LaBarbera and his homo-obsession continues, pushing for a Marriage Protection Referendum in Illinois through his Protect Marriage Illinois organization.

On Tuesday -- primary day in the state, he's putting the call out for volunteers to collect 100K signatures of known registered voters. Read the tired-ass rhetoric in the plea (if you go to the site, there are also multiple requests for the open wallet, of course).

...We must act now to permanently protect marriage in Illinois! Since the forced legalization of same-sex "marriage" in Massachusetts in 2004, fifteen states have adopted constitutional amendments preserving traditional marriage through ballot initiatives, averaging a winning percentage of over 70 percent. That brings the total to 19 states that have added marriage amendments to their state constitutions. Another 11 states are currently pursuing similar measures.

Illinois does not want to become another Massachusetts. We simply cannot afford to sit on the sidelines while other states move quickly to defend marriage.

Illinois citizens who want to permanently protect marriage have until April 20, 2006 to gather 283,111 valid signatures in order to put an Advisory Referendum on the ballot calling on political leaders in Springfield to pass a state constitutional amendment protecting marriage as one man and one woman.

If we do not push for an Amendment to the Illinois State Constitution, liberal activist judges will redefine marriage forever. If we allow that to happen, what would prevent further redefinition of marriage to include polygamy, group marriages, etc.? If marriage is redefined it loses all meaning.

Take a look at the endorsements in favor of the amendment. The usual suspects are on there, like Peter LaBarbera's hub, the Illinois Family Institute, Concerned Women of America, Eagle Forum, etc. Sorry to say yet again, a number of black organizations and pastors are right there in the bigot fold.

Bill Beutel passes away

I lived in NYC from 1976-1989, and we tuned in