Check out Pam’s recap and pictorial of rotting cryptkeeper Fred Phelps’ gang of merry miscreants’ visit to her area. She’s also got local news coverage here. Stunning.
Quite a display from the bigots. And once again, I say: You Can’t Claim to Love America if You Hate Americans.
Catholic Archbishop Harry Flynn, head of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has announced that the LGBT community and their supporters who celebrate gay tolerance by wearing rainbow sashes to the Cathedral of St. Paul will no longer be allowed to receive communion as long as their continue to wear their sashes. According to Flynn, the sashes, which have been worn by the group for four years without incident, are symbolic of a protest against Catholic teaching and are unacceptable to the Vatican.
A gay-rights leader said sash-wearers would continue to attempt to receive communion at the cathedral.Charming.
The Rainbow Sash movement is an organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Catholics and their families and friends.
[…]
Last year, a group of Catholic men stationed themselves in the aisles at the Cathedral to disrupt the procession of sash-wearers to receive Communion.
After the recent appointment of the new pope, who is a staunch believer in an alleged “intrinsic moral evil” of homosexuality, I wrote:
I reject this pope, I reject his church, and I reject its teachings. I reject the notion that people I love are evil for being gay, or that any expression of love between two consenting adults is somehow sinful. There’s nothing sinful about love, and there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the way I love Mr. Shakes, and the way Pam loves Kate, and Mr. Furious loves Mr. Curious; I reject all claims to the contrary. And if that consigns my eternal soul to the fires of hell, then off I go, tra la la. I never fucking liked harps, anyway.In reply, someone commented, “I'm sure the Church will be so sad. You were the top recruit.” Such a comment exemplifies the problem with modern Christianity, which has largely become (with a few notable exceptions—I’m talking to you, UCC) a place of exclusion, a place of judgment and scorn.
The things is, I should be the church’s top recruit. By the definitions of just about every Christian denomination, I am a sinner, a soul in need of saving. But I am of little interest to most modern Christians, aside from my convenient position as a target of their blame and ire. I am the face of the secular Left—the believer in evolution, the feminist, the queer appeaser—and I am much more useful as an object of their scorn than a lost sheep to be brought into the fold. They’d much rather hate me than save me.
It’s fine with me, as I don’t particularly want or need saving, but that such an attitude is exacted upon those in their midst, who desire participation in the church, who long for a grace they cannot find in earthly things, is truly indicative of how far the church has strayed from the beliefs of the man upon whose words its foundation rests.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
While America’s Christians wail and moan and organize multicasts to stir their adherents with riveting stories about how they are being oppressed, they busily endeavor within their own ranks to oppress those with whom they disagree. If it is as difficult for a rich man to get into heaven as a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, I can only imagine the contortions required of such shocking hypocrites to reach the pearly gates.
(I almost forgot!)
The Dominionists just won’t abide
Gay equality, marriage, or pride.
On this they are firm:
They don’t want your sperm!
But Microsoft’s back on our side.
Microsoft Changes Position on Anti-Discrimination Law!
| posted by Melissa McEwan | Friday, May 06, 2005And this is why it’s worth making noise, people!!!
From Microsoft’s website (not blockquoted due to length; emphasis mine):
REDMOND, Wash. -- May 6, 2005 -- In response to widespread public interest in the company's position on anti-discrimination legislation, Microsoft Corp. today released the following text of an e-mail sent today from Steve Ballmer, CEO, to all Microsoft employees in the United States:
Date: May 6, 2005
To: All U.S. Microsoft Employees
Subject: Microsoft’s principles for public policy engagement
During the past two weeks I’ve heard from many of you with a wide range of views on the recent anti-discrimination bill in Washington State, and the larger issue of what is the appropriate role of a public corporation in public policy discussions. This input has reminded me again of what makes our company unique and why I care about it so much.
One point really stood out in all the e-mails you sent me. Regardless of where people came down on the issues, everyone expressed strong support for the company’s commitment to diversity. To me, that’s so critical. Our success depends on having a workforce that is as diverse as our customers – and on working together in a way that taps all of that diversity.
I don’t want to rehash the events that resulted in Microsoft taking a neutral position on the anti-discrimination bill in Washington State. There was a lot of confusion and miscommunication, and we are taking steps to improve our processes going forward.
To me, this situation underscores the importance of having clearly-defined principles on which we base our actions. It all boils down to trust. Even when people disagree with something that we do, they need to have confidence that we based our action on thoughtful principles, because that is how we run our business.
I said in my April 22 e-mail that we were wrestling with the question of how and when the company should engage on issues that go beyond the software industry. After thinking about this for the past two weeks, I want to share my decision with you and lay out the principles that will guide us going forward.
First and foremost, we will continue to focus our public policy activities on issues that most directly affect our business, such as Internet safety, intellectual property rights, free trade, digital inclusion and a healthy business climate.
After looking at the question from all sides, I’ve concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda. Since our beginning nearly 30 years ago, Microsoft has had a strong business interest in recruiting and retaining the best and brightest and most diverse workforce possible. I’m proud of Microsoft’s commitment to non-discrimination in our internal policies and benefits, but our policies can’t cover the range of housing, education, financial and similar services that our people and their partners and families need. Therefore, it’s appropriate for the company to support legislation that will promote and protect diversity in the workplace.
Accordingly, Microsoft will continue to join other leading companies in supporting federal legislation that would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation -- adding sexual orientation to the existing law that already covers race, sex, national origin, religion, age and disability. Given the importance of diversity to our business, it is appropriate for the company to endorse legislation that prohibits employment discrimination on all of these grounds. Obviously, the Washington State legislative session has concluded for this year, but if legislation similar to HB 1515 is introduced in future sessions, we will support it.
I also want to be clear about some limits to this approach. Many other countries have different political traditions for public advocacy by corporations, and I’m not prepared to involve the company in debates outside the US in such circumstances. And, based on the principles I’ve just outlined, the company should not and will not take a position on most other public policy issues, either in the US or internationally.
I respect that there will be different viewpoints. But as CEO, I am doing what I believe is right for our company as a whole.
This situation has also made me stop and think about how well we are living our values. I’m deeply encouraged by how many employees have sent me passionate e-mails about the broad respect for diversity they experience every day at Microsoft. I also heard from some employees who underscored the importance of feeling that their personal values or religious beliefs are respected by others. I’m adamant that we must do an even better job of pursuing diversity and mutual respect within Microsoft. I expect everyone at this company -- particularly managers -- to take a hard look at their personal commitment to diversity, and redouble that commitment.
The questions raised by these issues are important. At the same time, we have a lot of other important work to do. Over the next 18 months we’ll release a broader, more advanced and more exciting set of products than at any time in the company’s history. Let’s all recommit to the job ahead, using our diversity as a strength to work together creatively and with respect for each other.
Thanks.
Steve
[Hat tip Pam, who’s also got the Freeper reaction at Big Brass Blog.]
Via Skippy’s Cookie Jill, we find out:
starting three years from now, if you live or work in the united states, you'll need a federally approved id card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect social security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service. practically speaking, your driver's license likely will have to be reissued to meet federal standards.CJ also points out that this icky little piece of legislation was snuck into a bill that provided funding for the troops and tsunami victims.
homeland security is permitted to add additional requirements--such as a fingerprint or retinal scan--on top of those. we won't know for a while what these additional requirements will be.
...the real id act says federally accepted id cards must be "machine readable," and lets homeland security determine the details. that could end up being a magnetic strip, enhanced bar code, or radio frequency identification (rfid) chips.
in the past, homeland security has indicated it likes the concept of rfid chips. the state separtment is already going to be embedding rfid devices in passports, and homeland security wants to issue rfid-outfitted ids to foreign visitors who enter the country at the mexican and canadian borders. the agency plans to start a yearlong test of the technology in July at checkpoints in arizona, new york and washington state. - cnet / npr
And by the way, only three nay votes were from the GOP. I’d like to make a suggestion for their ’06 campaigning: Who’s your Big Brother, baby?
As some of you will recall, I wrote a post a while ago about how much I dislike the Pride Parade. Well, instead of just griping about how the parade is no longer meaningful, I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and do something about it this year.
I want to put together a small pamphlet of the best blog writing on gay issues since the re-election. (The shorter the better, as I don't want to do any editing, but I promise not to reject anything due to length.) So, I need your help. In comments, please leave a link to the blog entries, from any blog, that you feel need to be read by the gay community the most. (For obvious reasons, entries that link too much to other web entries won't be easy to use. For links, I'd like to use a footnote, i.e. "Enter this web address into your browser to view the link.) I'd also like a "sites to visit to take action" section at the end.
I'll put it together, make a bunch and hand them out at the parade. I figure it's the least I can do, since I can't carry around a laptop and force people to read blog entries. (Or can I? Hmmm... maybe if I dress in leather and carry a whip...)
My idea for the title: Yes, Your Ass Looks Great. Now Get Up Off It And Do Something.
As we can see daily, the right has decided to make anti-gay, well, everything, it's crusade. And they're not going to get me without a fight.
Feel free to email me with comments and suggestions too... or if you want to volunteer to help at the parade, of course! Hell, I'm forced to go every year anyway, I may as well be productive!
(Cross-Posted from my blog)
Okay, I said no political posts today, but The Liberal Avenger is making me! Rather, he pointed me to this post from Reverend Mykeru. Go see what Pat Robertson says when he doesn't realize the camera is still on.
"It's the homos! The homos, I tells ya! They're out to get me!"
This guy is obsessed.
(Cross-posted from my blog.)
Issued by none other than Shakes contributor Paul:
I was driving home last night and the theme to "The Adventures of the Smart Patrol" by Devo came on the 'ol ipod. I really love that song, so I'm making it the offical theme song of my blog. ... So here's the challenge for my fellow bloggers today:I kind of vaguely touched on something similar the other day, when I used lyrics from James’ Sit Down to wax philosophical a bit about the purpose of this blog. It would probably do as a theme song, too.
What is the theme song for your blog?
Failing that, I think I’d choose Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas.
What do you think Shakespeare’s Sister’s theme song should be?
Shaker and fellow blogger Camera Obscura noted in a comments thread that the Burger King dude reeks with some serious creep-out. I agree.
Watching those commercials doesn’t make me want a Whopper; it makes me want a shower. Eugh.
What do you think of those ads?
Your chance to promote your blog, other blogs, and various things of interest. What's going on?
(Btw, Friday Blogrollin' is below. Did it early today.)
JJ’s got more astonishing dirt on Spokane Mayor Jim West over at Big Brass Blog, including the transcript of an alleged chat between West and an 18-year-old male member of the Gay.com community. What a nutzoid this guy is: cruising Gay.com for hot young tail by night; dedicated GOP homobigot and anti-gay legislator by day. You’ve got to read this shit. It’s truly outrageous.
And while you’re over there, Pam’s pulled together some Freeper reaction to West’s outing. Unsurprisingly, they’re not happy with finding a closeted gay among their ranks.
"Sweet Jesus....I'm originally from Spokane, and this shocks me. Spokane is a conservative town, and this is going to go over like a fart in church. A recall? Abso-stinkin-lutely, followed by his getting run outta town on a rail, tarred & feathered."Say, Log Cabin Republicans, what’s that old line about how the GOP has a big tent?
""I can't tell you why I go there, (gay.com) to tell you the truth … curiosity, confused, whatever, I don't know," the mayor said." … I can: he's a pervert."
Get with the program, conservative queers. They not only don’t want you in their party; they hate you. Have some self respect and get the fuck out of that party.
Looks like John Kerry has decided to take Clinton's advice after all and throw us gays under the bus. He calls supporting gay marriage a "mistake." He also seems to be pretty out of touch with the sentiments of his own state. Looks like he's grabbing early for the conservative vote in '08. I'd say the only mistake would be supporting him for Presidential candidate again (second to Hillary of course). But that is just the lowly opinion of one gay man who is sick of seeing gays become more & more the government-sponsored Public Enemy #1. To Kerry, the FDA, Bush, Focus on the Family, dkos, and all you fence-sitters: fuck you very much. It's time to get dead serious or we don't have a future. Thanks to SS and people like her for the continued love & support. When they start actively persecuting us, we're going to need your help!
There’s a backstory that lurks behind Bush’s decision to stand by DeLay. It involves Greenberg Traurig, the firm that employed the powerful lobbyist who paid for palatial DeLay junkets, and Abramoff staffers, who were footsoldiers in the Florida recount. Greenberg Traurig has yet to receive more than $314,000 in legal fees charged to a Bush committee during the 2000 Florida recount, RAW STORY can confirm.This Abramoff stinks to high heaven, and now we find out his firm was involved in the Florida recount and donated $300,000+ to it in violation of Bush’s committee’s own $5,000 maximum rule. Complete garbage. Rank corruption. And the mainstream media will never, ever report it. Pfft.
As a corporation, Greenberg’s unpaid tab represents a massive in-kind campaign contribution, far larger than anything that went unreported by DeLay. But it appears to be legal: corporations are allowed to donate any amount to the nebulous type of committee employed during the recount. It would, however, violate the committee's self-imposed $5,000 contribution limit from individual donors.
[…]
A White House official, who declined to be named, referred questions to the Republican National Committee.
“These are campaign issues,” the official said. “We work on doing the people’s business. The RNC handles all campaign-related [expenses].”
“We are funded through taxpayer funds, so we don’t deal with any campaign related issues,” the official added.
[…]
Bush has largely ducked the scandals surrounding Abramoff, but he was certainly a beneficiary of the lobbyist’s fundraising: Abramoff was a Bush Pioneer, raising more than $120,000 for the 2004 presidential campaign.
He had the largest lobbyist accounts of any Pioneer, at $26 million.
In his Greenberg Traurig biography, which has since been stripped, the firm wrote, “Jack is directly involved in the Republican party and conservative movement leadership structures and is one of the leading fund raisers for the party and its congressional candidates.”
Those close to Abramoff—including his partner Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay press secretary who is also being investigated for lobbying deals—bragged about their access to the president.
"Jack has a relationship with the President," Scanlon told the New Times Broward-Palm Beach in February 2001. "He doesn't have a bat phone or anything, but if he wanted an appointment, he would have one."
As Skippy would say, say hello to…
The Moderate Voice, where you’ll find stuff of interest from across the political spectrum.
BearCastle Blog, where you’ll find lots of fun stuff, including everything you ever wanted to know about being a bear.
Arse Poetica, where you’ll find a little bit of everything wonderful.
Zen Comix, where you’ll find...oh, just have a look.
Dirty Liberal Words, where you’ll find secularism, science, socialism, and every other dirty liberal word.
Trust Me, You Have No Idea How Much I Hate Bush—and Dick Isn’t That Great Either, which I think speaks for itself, and has been abbreviated on the blogroll to “Trust Me, You Have No Idea…”
Check ’em out!
Okay, we’ve seriously hit a new low. You thought it couldn’t get any lower? Wrong.
The Food and Drug Administration is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor.First of all, if I were to go to a sperm bank, I would assume that all the possible donors’ sperm would have been thoroughly screened, so shouldn’t this be a moot point? There is absolutely no reason for this aside from flat-out bigotry. Something tells me that this has far less to do with HIV than the idea of a “gay gene” being passed on to another generation, for which there is no screening, but a wide acceptance of the theory that homosexuality is genetic. What better way to stop the transmission of a possible gay gene than to ban gay donors at sperm banks?
The FDA has rejected calls to scrap the provision, insisting that gay men collectively pose a higher-than-average risk of carrying the AIDS virus. Critics accuse the FDA of stigmatizing all gay men rather than adopting a screening process that focuses on high-risk sexual behavior by any would-be donor, gay or straight.
"Under these rules, a heterosexual man who had unprotected sex with HIV-positive prostitutes would be OK as a donor one year later, but a gay man in a monogamous, safe-sex relationship is not OK unless he's been celibate for five years," said Leland Traiman, director of a clinic in Alameda, Calif., that seeks gay sperm donors.
[…]
But it is the provision's symbolic aspect that particularly troubles gay-rights groups. Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, has called it "policy based on bigotry."
"The part I find most offensive — and a little frightening — is that it isn't based on good science," Cathcart said. "There's a steadily increasing trend of heterosexual transmission of HIV, and yet the FDA still has this notion that you protect people by putting gay men out of the pool."
For all the lip service that the Dominionists give to their alleged belief that homosexuality is a choice, somewhere deep down they know it is not a choice, not for everyone. And that’s what’s driving this policy—an attempt to keep homosexuality out of the gene pool as much as possible. They don’t want gays having kids, even if it’s by way of sperm donation.
I don’t care if they argue HIV from now to eternity; this is about quarantining gays and trying to keep them out of the general population. It’s complete bullshit, and hiding behind some crapass argument about HIV is truly pathetic, especially considering that for a very, very long time anyone of any sexual orientation has been playing roulette with his or her life if they go around having unprotected, anonymous sex. It hasn’t been called the Gay Cancer since Reagan was around (and doing his best to ignore it), and that’s because we’re all at risk. Surely the FDA is well aware of the statistics on the risks among all people, which makes this obvious as the red herring that it is.
Fucking cunts.
And let me just say once again that it doesn’t really matter if being gay is predestined by one’s genes or is the result of a difficult choice or is the consequence of a choice that’s as easy as whether to eat a plate of spaghetti or a plate of shit. I don’t care why you’re gay, because it doesn’t make any fucking difference. Being gay doesn’t infringe on anyone else’s rights and so no one needs to worry their bigoted little heads about it. Go mind your own goddamned business and leave people who aren’t trying to tell you whom to fuck or whom to love or whom to marry the hell alone so they can have the same freedom that you have.
(Hat tip Pam.)
Big Brass Blogger JJ is reporting that Spokane Mayor Jim West, another closeted, self-hating Republican queer who as recently as last week threatened to get rid of newly-instated domestic partnership benefits for Spokane City employees, has been outed. And yowza—this one really takes the cake, having used his position as Mayor to appoint a young and unqualified man to a position with the Spokane HRC and his roles as a sheriff’s deputy and (surprise, surprise) a Boy Scout leader to facilitate sexual relationships with boys and young men.
Go read the rest at Big Brass Blog. JJ’s got the big scoop, and he’ll be keeping the info coming as he gets it.
Today, the Green Knight (who, if he isn’t on your blogroll and/or daily reading rounds yet, seriously should be) quotes and responds to George Will, who’s concerned about the Dominionists’ hold over his party in a column called The Christian Complex:
[M]any Christians are joining today's scramble for the status of victims. There is much lamentation about various "assaults" on "people of faith." Christians are indeed experiencing some petty insults and indignities concerning things such as restrictions on school Christmas observances. But their persecution complex is unbecoming because it is unrealistic...While in some way it’s reassuring that the secular (or at least, non-Dominionist) Right is starting to express some alarm about the ever-tightening chokehold the Dominionists have on the GOP, my overwhelming reaction was pretty much boo-fucking-hoo—you slept with ’em, don’t complain now that they’re still in your bed. No matter how deep down I reach into my reserve of sympathy for those besieged by the Dominionists, I find very little for members of the GOP who were perfectly content to win elections on the backs of the nuts, just so long as they never expected any power within the party. Now that the nuts are tired of being used, and want to collect on three decades’ worth of IOUs in the form of wingnut legislation prohibiting rights that the old guard GOP quite enjoys right along with the Left who fought for them, I’m not about to feel sorry for those who have to pay this suddenly demanding piper.
Religion is today banished from the public square? John Kennedy finished his first report to the nation on the Soviet missiles in Cuba with these words: "Thank you and good night." It would be a rash president who today did not conclude a major address by saying, as President Ronald Reagan began the custom of doing, something very like "God bless America."
The Green Knight adds:
As Thomas Frank has explained, the job of the religious right for the past couple of decades has been to be lower-class, rank-and-file Republicans, fighting the culture wars during election cycles, then quietly demobilizing while their elected representatives did nothing on cultural issues but worked instead to dismantle the welfare state. The role of the religious right was that of useful idiots, and the upper class of their party was content to treat them as such.The hell with ’em indeed. George Will and his ilk deserve neither our sympathy nor our direct support, though of course we ought to continue doing everything we can to counter the influence of the Dominionists on our government. But to offer any kind of condolences to members of a party who have fallen victim to their own opportunism and greed would be foolish, and far more than the guards who let them in the door deserve. This is a bill that’s not ours to pay.
But now, they have all but completely taken over the Republican Party. … That has got to make members of the secular right like Will very nervous indeed.
The Green Knight says, the hell with 'em. They set all this up for themselves back in the late 70s, when they courted the fundamentalists to get Reagan elected. Until then, most fundamentalist American Christians never voted because it was too worldly. Then, the Republican Party convinced them to get politicized -- and man, have they ever gotten politicized. The secular Republicans thought they could ride the tiger; now, they're ending up as tiger chow. Somehow, the Green Knight just can't bring himself to sympathize with their plight.
In talking with people like Will before the election, begging them to vote for the party that actually would pursue fiscal conservatism, state's rights, and an intelligent foreign policy, the reason they cited for voting for Bush was because he gives them tax breaks.
The Democrats might raise my taxes.
I heard it over and over. Sure, they were concerned about the Dominionists' hold on the party, and sure, the Iraq War wasn't really working out as planned, and sure, the deficit was spinning out of control...but they didn't want to pay a single friggin' penny more; they weren’t interested in kicking in their fair share, not to help strengthen the safety net that keeps our country on a strong foundation, not to alleviate our massive fiscal crisis, not even to help pay for the war that they supported. So they voted for Bush. And now some of these same people are freaking out about the Dominionists? Tough. Nothing’s happening now that wasn’t happening during Bush’s first disastrous term, wasn’t patently obvious before the election. The Terri Schiavo debacle, Justice Sunday, and the rest—none of it came without warning. They chose to ignore the signs, so this is what they get, the stingy bastards.
We’re all suffering because of your choices. So suck it up, bitches. You’re on your own.
Brad is really getting me primed and ready for a serious toe-curler:
In the first of several reports from RAW STORY on an expansion of the widening fundraising morass currently plaguing Republican House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, the Whitehouse itself is now being named as a major beneficiary of Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm in dollar numbers that dwarf anything DeLay has so far been tied to!!!That Jack Abramoff sure is a tricky little bugger.
In an effort to reach out to a newer, younger audience, Marvel has spent the last few years updating its now somewhat venerable characters, and have started their stories over from scratch in a new series of “Ultimate” titles. Thus far they have developed an Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates (updated Avengers), Ultimate Iron-Man and Ultimate Fantastic Four. These new titles have proved a great success, and I have enjoyed them thoroughly.
The quality of the writing has been excellent, and the willingness Marvel has shown to use these new titles as a means of tackling head on some of our society’s touchiest subjects is something to be admired. That they have approached many of these issues with an obvious liberal bias is something I have admired even more. Of particular cathartic value was the scene in Ultimate X-Men, where a naked and groveling President Bush was shown cowering on the White House lawn, as Magneto instructed him to “clean his boots.” However, in addition to poking fun at our Commander-in-Chief, they have tried hard to weave a message of tolerance into their stories, and have attempted to instruct their young readers to both question established authority and to be skeptical of biased media reporting.
The Ultimate X-Men title has probably been of the greatest value in this regard, and as anyone who has seen the movies will know, Marvel are drawing many parallels between the persecution mutants face, and the ordeal that gay people encounter in our society – especially during puberty. This theme has been taken even further in the comic books, and they recently developed an entire story arc centered on the tribulations of a teenager who is not only a mutant, but also gay. The compassion displayed by the X-Men toward this kid, and their utter contempt for those that would discriminate against an individual because they are “different” in some essentially superfluous way, is certainly a good example to any teenager. Marvel didn’t stop there, though, and they have added a gay X-Man to the team: Colossus. Not in an overt or showy way, mind you, which is a good thing, since the impression it gave was that the other X-Men don’t care that Colossus was gay, and that his sexuality is not a big deal.
I think Marvel has been very brave to tackle these issues in the way they have; it certainly wasn’t something that they had to do in order to sell comic books, and they are opening themselves up to potentially damaging criticism from the Christ Nazis. It actually surprises me that they haven’t received more heat than they have, especially given the ridiculous furor over Sponge Bob’s supposed role in the “Homosexual Agenda.”
The liberal’s greatest weapon: pop culture, remains sharp and potent, and I find it encouraging that even under the Right’s rabid onslaught, it continues to be uncompromising. Until conservatives develop a sense of humor, we will continue to have an advantage in this area, and with Episode III coming out in a couple of weeks, there is plenty to look forward to.
Elise at After School Snack has declared this De-Lurking Week. So, if there are any silent but loyal Shakers out there, speak up, leave a comment, and reveal yourselves (if you dare)!
(Apologies for the lack of in-depth content today; I’m really busy at work, but I will, with any luck, have some stuff up later today about healthcare, the state of the armed forces, and why RINOs deserve little more from the Left than a kick in the patoot.)
Caption the Photo:
Context
Ooh, this could be good:BREAKING!!! DELAY FUNDRAISING SCANDAL EXPANDS INTO WHITE HOUSE!!! BIG TIME!!!
Brad’s on the case. I’ll keep you posted.
Bush-Cheney Named as Beneficiaries of Lobbying Firm Largesse in Numbers Far Beyond Anything So Far Tied to Embattled House Majority Leader!!!
...DEVELOPING VERY HARD!!!...MORE DETAILS SHORTLY!!!...
So $100 Million just up and fucking vanished in Iraq. Wow. What a shock.
WASHINGTON - U.S. government mismanagement of assets in
Iraq, from the lack of proper documentation on nearly $100 million in cash to millions of dollars worth of unaccounted-for equipment, are setting back efforts to fight corruption in the fledgling democracy, auditors and critics say.
Yeah, because it's their democracy that's corrupt.
The latest indication of that came Wednesday when investigators released a report saying $96.6 million in cash could not be properly accounted for. The total included more than $7 million that was simply gone, according to the report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Seven million. Seven frickin' million. Just... gone.
Part of the problem was a last-minute push to spend millions on reconstruction projects before the interim Iraqi government took over, the report said. One agent got $6.75 million in cash a week before the hand over, with the expectation that the money would be spent before the Iraqis took power, the report said.
Several of these agents "were under the impression that it was more important to quickly distribute the money to the region than to obtain all necessary documentation," the report said.
Controls over the cash were so lax that two of the agents hired to distribute the money were allowed to leave Iraq before they had accounted for all of it, the report said. Between them, those two had been given more than $1.4 million in cash which remains unaccounted for, the report said.
Of course it does. And I guarantee this is the last we're going to hear about it.
Seriously, how can this be so fucking sloppy? The instant the Iraq invasion was discussed, the Bush administration and all of their rich buddies' eyes were replaced with cartoon dollar signs. It's an orgy of money over there, and no one is keeping track.
Do I really need to state the obvious "if we used that money over here" usual comments? I didn't think so.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go fill my car with gas. At $2.55 a gallon.
Cross-posted from my blog.
Via Think Progress:
In honor of Cover the Uninsured Week:
Number of currently uninsured Americans: 45 million
Number of working Americans with no health insurance: 20 million
Percent of uninsured Americans unable to see a doctor when they needed to in 12 month period: 41
Average cost of visit to hospital for Americans with no health insurance: $1,000
Amount the U.S. loses per year on “uncompensated” care for people with no insurance: $41 billion
Cuts in Medicaid passed by Congress last week, over five years: $10 billion
Percent of uninsured Americans who would benefit from President Bush’s proposed Health Savings Accounts: 0.3
Percent of U.S. adults who cite lowering health care costs and health insurance as a top priority for the president and Congress: 63
Percent of Americans who say health care is the “single most important issue” for Congress to address in 2005: 10
Percent who say Social Security is the “single most important issue": 2
Speeches President Bush and Vice President Cheney have given on health care this week: 0
Speeches they’ve given on Social Security: 4
Number of times the words “health care” or “uninsured” appear in transcripts of White House press gaggles this week: 0
Days since President Bush spoke about the issue of health care: 96
More on this later, as time allows.
Looks like Tony Blair's back in.
The only comfort this brings is that my British friends can stop going on at me about how idiotic Americans are for voting Bush back into office.
Mr. Shakes, our pal Mickey Mouse (definitely not his real name), and I like to play a game where we cast the movie of each other's lives. Mr. Shakes would be played by Colin Firth, without question. They don't look alike (although they're both tall and broad-shouldered); it's more the sort of awkward doofus underneath the vaguely uptight veneer that begs the comparison. Mr. Shakes and Mickey can't agree on who would play me. Mickey swears it would be Debra Winger (the neurotic, intelligent, goofy vote), and Mr. Shakes claims it's Natalie Portman's character in Garden State (which I suppose is pretty fair, considering I have spontaneously tap-danced to make him laugh, have a weakness for small, furry creatures, and do other randomly strange things like name my cigarette lighters which he finds inimitably funny). And Pam says I look like Dawn French, so I suppose she's up for this unenviable gig, too.
So, who would be cast to play you in the movie of your life?
…and don’t torch the place where you work. (Unless, of course, you’re Milton Waddams, because having your red Swingline stapler repeatedly nicked really is kinda crappy.) Anyhoo, one would think most people have no trouble heeding either of those suggestions, but, apparently, the Revered Harold Hunter and his wife Patricia aren’t most people.
A pastor and his wife have been charged with arson in a fire that gutted their church last week, authorities said Tuesday.Good Christian serial killers, godly Congressman with lists of ethics violations as long as my arm, ministers who burn down their own churches…yeah, I’m getting convinced more and more every day why being Christian should be the primary requirement for serving on the bench, or as president, or in any other governmental role.
The Monday arrests of The Rev. Harold Hunter and Patricia Hunter came just one day after the pastor gave a sermon in which he said he prayed for the "sick, sadistic" person who burned down the church. No one was hurt in the blaze.
Police would not discuss a possible motive, but said they had suspected that Thursday's fire and three earlier acts of vandalism at the 64-year-old Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church were an inside job.
"We found some gas that was located on the pastor's shoes and we also found clothing in the residence that had gasoline on it," said Summerville Police Capt. Craig Legates.
Hunter, 55, who had been pastor for three years, had dreams of building a new church but no solid plans, said Ruthmae Whitney, a member of the church for 40 years.
During services Sunday, which were held at another church, Hunter had urged parishioners not to talk to the police, saying authorities were looking for suspects and some church members were "spreading gossip" and "telling lies."
How much more of this kind of stuff has to get reported before we can let die the erroneous and prejudiced misperception that simply saying you’re a Christian entitles you to be regarded as a good person, regardless of whether or not you act like one? Pfft.
PSoTD has moved! And they're looking very sexxxxxy. So make sure you update your blogrolls...and if PSoTD isn't on your blogroll, what the heck's your problem? Add 'em!
Bush’s approval rating has fallen to 47%, down from his 2005 high on Feb. 4 of 54%. The only question I have is what have the dingdongs who voted for him come to learn in the past four months that wasn’t already apparent to anyone with a working brain?
The Army’s recruiting woes continue, with its April goal falling short by 42%, leaving its year-to-date recruitment 16% behind the goal. The Army Reserve has also fallen short of its recruitment goal for April by 37%. This marks the first time the Army has missed a monthly recruitment goal since May of 2000. The Marines are 2% behind their year-to-date goal.
Reporters Without Borders reports that 53 journalists were killed in 2004, making it the highest number of deaths since 50 journalists were killed in 1955. In the first four months of 2005, 22 journalists have been killed, nine of them in Iraq, which tops the list of the five deadliest places for journalists, followed by the Philippines, Colombia, Bangladesh, and Russia.
You know how sometimes you read a story and you honestly can’t believe that you’re not reading it in The Onion? This is one of those stories.
A bill approved by the Missouri Senate (which still has to pass the House, where it will hopefully be voted down, if there are any reasonable people left in Missouri) adds to Missouri’s existing policy that no public money can be used to fund abortions an additional rule prohibiting state aid to hospitals, clinics, and counselors who even utter the word “abortion.” (Emphasis mine.)
The bill sends state government snooping into places where women have a reasonable expectation of privacy. It sets an impossible-to-monitor standard for what doctors and other health care providers can and cannot say, which intrudes on their obligation to provide essential information about safe, legal medical options for their patients. And it creates cumbersome audit requirements that will add to health care costs and require a larger state bureaucracy.In reality, however, and in spite of Senator Loudon’s insistence, it’s designed to enhance the state’s ability to withhold information about a procedure, which is both safe and legal, that would enable them to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. And since it applies only to state-funded hospitals, clinics, and counselors, it specifically targets poor women. Additionally, the bill demands more stringent requirements for doctors who perform abortions:
Hospitals, clinics, rape crisis lines and domestic violence counselors would be audited every three years to make sure they don't mention abortion or answer patients' questions about how to obtain it. Those affiliated with abortion providers would face annual audits.
The bill is sponsored by state Sen. John Loudon, R-Ballwin, who insists that it's designed to "enhance safety."
Most outpatient surgery centers have arrangements with local hospitals to take patients who suffer surgical complications. But Mr. Loudon's bill goes well beyond that, to require that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. In Missouri, there now are only three places where abortions are performed: Columbia, St. Louis and Springfield. This bill will reduce the number of doctors who can perform abortions, which is exactly what it's designed to do. But it won't necessarily reduce the already low rate of complications.The number of instances we’ve seen in state governments trying to do end-runs around the protections afforded women by Roe v. Wade have been steadily increasing—and getting ever bolder—since the moment Bush strode into office, trumpeting his moral values and his love of Jesus. His alliance with the Dominionists and the alleged mandate they gave him in return have encouraged exactly this kind of anti-choice, anti-woman legislation, and while Bush and his wife blather on about how much they do to free women from tyranny around the world, here at home his devotees do everything in their power to turn women’s bodies into slaves of the state.
Delaying access and gagging health care providers means women will be further along in their pregnancies when they finally get an abortion. That alone increases the risks. And the bill prohibits any abortion provider from distributing sex education material to public school students. Without access to comprehensive sexual education, young people are more likely to have unprotected intercourse, which results in unintended pregnancies.
Ironically, many of the legislators who supported this glorified gag rule also voted to cut subsidies to parents who adopt through the foster care system, and health care to disabled and elderly state residents.
One Hand-Holding Man Date and Look What Happens
| posted by Melissa McEwan | Wednesday, May 04, 2005If you were President of the United States, and the largest terrorist attack on American soil had happened on your watch, perpetrated by 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi Arabian, subscribers to a radical Islamic sect called Wahabbi which has its roots in Saudi Arabia, and members of a terrorist network called al-Qaida led by a Saudi Arabian by the name of Osama bin Laden, and you had repeatedly claimed to support both freedom and women’s rights, yet Saudi Arabia was one of the worst offenders on both counts, what would you do?
Well, if you were President Bush, you would choose to relax travel restrictions between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
US Ambassador James C. Oberwetter says changes in the US visa process would ease travel between the States and Saudi Arabia.Superb. How safe you feelin’ now, all you Bush-voting pricks who were so sure that he was the only one who could protect America? I hope you’ve realized by now that the only thing Bush is interested in protecting is the investments of all his rich fucking pals.
The ambassador’s comments come in the wake of the Saudi-US Summit and before a high-profile, 63-member Saudi business mission leaves for the US next week.
“Last week’s visit by Crown Prince Abdullah to the United States has given a major boost to the bilateral relations,” said Oberwetter. “I am very satisfied with the outcome of the royal visit,” he said, referring to the joint communique issued after the talks held by Crown Prince Abdullah and the US President George W. Bush.
[…]
Oberwetter said once the new system was in place, it will ensure long-term stays for Saudi businessmen or tourists in the US with multiple-entry visas. “It will also reduce the time lag for processing visa applications and interviews,” he said, without detailing the proposed system.
Finally! After the rigmarole Air America went through in Chicago, which has left Chicago without any notable progressive radio programming ever since, we’re finally getting some good news.
Chicago’s Newsweb Radio Group today said it will launch a new local radio station for “progressive talk” at 850 on the AM band.Good man. Thanks, Mr. Eychaner!
WCPT, Chicago’s Progressive Talk, will begin broadcasting Thursday at 8 a.m. with programming that will include talk shows, news on the hour and traffic and weather reports. Among the personalities with shows to air on the station are Jerry Springer, Al Franken, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Ed Schultz. WCPT will also air a show called Morning Sedition.
[...]
Newsweb Radio Group, a division of Newsweb Corp., owns five AM and four FM stations in the Chicago area. Owned by entrepreneur Fred Eychaner, Newsweb also prints foreign-language and alternative newspapers, and in 2002 sold WPWR-TV/Channel 50 to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for $425 million. Mr. Eychaner is a significant donor to Democratic causes, giving at least $1.1 million to groups working to defeat President Bush last fall.
And less locally, The Daily Show’s Stephen Colbert is getting his own show:
If Comedy Central's Jon Stewart is the comic version of Peter Jennings or Brian Williams, Stephen Colbert promises to be the same for Bill O'Reilly and others like him. The Daily Show regular will star each night in The Colbert Report, likely starting in September. Comedy Central is revamping its schedule, recognizing that late-night programming is essentially prime time for its youthful audience.I’m going to miss Jon Stewart struggling to keep from totally cracking up at Stephen Colbert’s antics, but I’m definitely looking forward to The Colbert Report. If it’s half as funny as either The Daily Show or Colbert’s other venture with Amy Sedaris, Strangers With Candy, which made me laugh until my sides ached, then it will be brilliant.
"It's as if my character on The Daily Show got promoted," Colbert told The Associated Press.
He'll be a "very well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot, not unlike some people who have these shows in the real world," he said.
Besides lampooning O'Reilly, the king of the cable TV opinion shows, he's sending up people such as Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough and Anderson Cooper, he said.
Here’s another little funny but unrelated tidbit from the story on Colbert:
Comedy Central … will often have as many viewers at 4 a.m. as it does at 6 p.m., network researchers said.Ha! Something tells me they’ve got the munchies.
More nuttiness in Texas as their House approves a bill to ban “overtly sexually suggestive” cheerleading. (It awaits approval by the state Senate and signature by GOP Gov. Rick Perry.)
The bill would give the state education commissioner authority to request that school districts review high school performances.Ooh, yeah. I can imagine that reviewing high school cheerleading performances to scrutinize them for sexual suggestiveness will become a favorite pastime of fat Texas principals in their too-tight polyester slacks.
"Girls can get out and do all of these overly sexually performances and we applaud them, and that's not right," said Democratic Rep. Al Edwards, who filed the legislation.Is it really the applauding about which Edwards is worried? Or it celebrating their performances later with a masturbatory session in his dank basement that drives him to criminalize the cheerleading bump and grind?
Ribald performances are not defined in the bill. "Any adult that's been involved with sex in their lives, they know it when they see it," he said.That’s right! And I demand to know when they’re going to stop football players from slapping each other on the bums. I find that very gay and therefore offensive.
One critic questioned the legislation's priorities.At least someone’s still got some sense in Texas.
"Have we done anything about stem cell research to help people who are dying and are sick advance their health? No," said Democratic Rep. Senfronia Thompson. "Have we done anything about the mentally ill, school finance or ethics?"
Edwards argued bawdy performances are a distraction for students resulting in pregnancies, dropouts and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.I never knew a cheerleader who got pregnant, dropped out, or had an STD; usually those were the girls who stayed in school (if for no other reason than to be admired) and who were sophisticated enough to be on birth control or demand the use of condoms. Honestly, in my experience, it seems the biggest concern to have about cheerleading is that it can rot the brain.
Former cheerleader George Bush
Damn, it kinda looks like he’s getting a little sexually suggestive with that megaphone, you know what I mean?
"When The President Talks To God"
by Bright Eyes
When the president talks to God
Are the conversations brief or long?
Does he ask to rape our women’s' rights
And send poor farm kids off to die?
Does God suggest an oil hike
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
Are the consonants all hard or soft?
Is he resolute all down the line?
Is every issue black or white?
Does what God say ever change his mind
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
Does he fake that drawl or merely nod?
Agree which convicts should be killed?
Where prisons should be built and filled?
Which voter fraud must be concealed
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
I wonder which one plays the better cop
We should find some jobs. the ghetto's broke
No, they're lazy, George, I say we don't
Just give 'em more liquor stores and dirty coke
That's what God recommends
When the president talks to God
Do they drink near beer and go play golf
While they pick which countries to invade
Which Muslim souls still can be saved?
I guess god just calls a spade a spade
When the president talks to God
When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he's not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God?
I doubt it
I doubt it
All right, all you green thumbed Shakers. It’s about time that Mr. Shakes and I get out in the garden and decide what we want to do with it. Both of us have been urban apartment dwellers our entire adult lives, and so we’re open to suggestions from people who know what they’re doing.
Our house is on a double lot, with the second lot consisting of a beautiful but chaotic garden behind the house that was created by the former owner, who also owned a nursery. It’s very Secret Gardenish, complete with arbors and ponds and all kinds of cool stuff, and it’s one of the main reasons we bought the house. These are pictures I took last summer before we moved in (which wasn’t until August, by which time it was too late to start a project). What are your favorites in your gardens?
Side entrance to garden
Walkway at very back of property
Oasis in middle of garden
My favorite pond in the garden
(those are tiny lilypads, not pond scum)
Arbor in center of garden
Larry Cochell, head baseball coach at Oklahoma since 1991 and winner of a College World Series with the Sooners, used a racial slur in two off-camera interviews with ESPN journalists last Tuesday. Here's what Mr. Cochell, who is white, said, in reference to black outfielder Joe Dunigan Jr.: "There's no n----- in him." And: "There are honkies and white people, and there are n------ and black people. Dunigan is a good, black kid."What do you think? Was what Cochell said reflecting an intolerance toward people, or an ignorance about the power of language? Both? Was his resignation warranted?
Mr. Dunigan -- whom Mr. Cochell was trying to compliment -- and his father forgave the coach, as did many others with the program who said they had never seen any signs of racism from the man. But on Sunday Mr. Cochell resigned in the face of widespread criticism of his remarks and apparent pressure from the university.
Two back-to-back posts at Upon Further Review… that totally cracked my shit up. John Howard is one seriously sarcastic dude, which means I’d totally dig him even if he hadn’t been the first person ever to leave a comment at Shakespeare’s Sister who wasn’t Mr. Furious.
Cheney says al Qaeda is still 'very active'And check out this post, too, which is the best commentary I’ve seen on how our completely retarded government doesn’t know how to classify info in .pdf documents.
I wonder how the administration manages this, really. That's one fucking delicate balance they've got to maintain. On the one hand, we have to believe that we've wiped out 70% of Al-Qaeda and that we're winning the War on Terror and that the fact that we haven't been attacked since 09/11/2001 is a testament to the great job they are doing with Homeland Security, but on the other hand they want us to know that Al-Qaeda is still "very active" and that we should constantly be in fear of the next attack. I don't know how they manage to reconcile these two conflicting positions, or how the freaking media doesn't call them out on it, or how half of the country buys this bullshit without subjecting it to at least a little fucking common sense first.
The homophobes are right, after all
I hate to say it, but this is what happens when kids are raised by same sex parents. They grow up to be...Major League Baseball players. Oh, the horror. The next thing you know this guy is going to be taking steroids, and it all could have been avoided if people had just believed in the sanctity of marriage.
Q: What do you call someone too radical for even the Freepers?
| posted by Melissa McEwan | Tuesday, May 03, 2005A: Pat Robertson.
Ooh, boy. Pam, in another one of her brave forays into Freeperland, has culled some Freeper quotes in response to Robertson’s recent assertion that federal judges are a greater threat to America than terrorists. Wow—she really found some beauties this time. A couple of favorites:
"Man oh man..this is SURE to raise the credibility of the Republican Party and conservatives in general. Get a grip, Pat."
"His statement is incendiary and self-defeating. Nothing positive comes from rhetoric like this. It does nothing more than feed the agenda of the Left."
"Pat Robertson is hereby promoted from "Idiot First Class" to "Supreme Moron." He and his faculty teach this crapola at that aslyum for dull normals they call a law school."
Damn! As Big Brass Blogger Scott noted, “Hey, when the freepers know you are out of your friggin' mind, it is time to check into Camp Rubberroom.”
It should be noted, however, that a lot of the Freepi agree with his sentiment; they just wish he’d made the point a bit more delicately. Yeesh.
The rights of women and all human beings can be assured only within the framework of freedom and democracy. If people aren't free, it is likely that women will be suppressed. Human rights are defined by a constitution; they're defended by an impartial rule of law; they're secured in a pluralistic society. The advance of women's rights and the advance of liberty are ultimately inseparable.
—President Bush, March 12 in a speech recognizing International Women’s Day
The bodies of three Afghan women, including one who was working for a Bangladeshi non-governmental aid group, have been found by authorities. The women had been raped, strangled with a rope, and dumped, with responsibility for the murder of the aid worker being claimed by a group calling itself Afghan Youths Convention.
Aid workers in Afghanistan have been the target of Taliban insurgents, especially in the insurgency-plagued south and east of the country, but the three women were found in the northern province of Baghlan, where Taliban rebels are not active.
"This is retribution for those women who are working in [non-governmental organizations] and those who are involved in whoredom," said a Western security official, citing the warning, a copy of which he had obtained.
The note was found attached to the chest of one of the dead women, he said.
President Bush is firmly committed to the empowerment in education and health of women around the world. The President knows that women are vital to democracy and important for the development of all countries. And he has three very strong women at home who won't let him forget it.
—First Lady Laura Bush, introducing her husband on March 12
Mrs. Bush, it’s time to remind him that abandoning Afghanistan before anything resembling a real democracy took hold was as good as leaving its women for dead. And if he’s not going to do anything to stop the madness that leaves women who try to help other women mutilated and murdered, then the very least he can do is stop claiming a success on behalf of Afghani women.
W is not for women. Warmonger, maybe.
Regular Shaker and contributor to Julien’s List Holly gave me the heads-up re: this story in today’s NY Times, which I wrote about on Sunday:
A judge has ruled that a 13-year-old girl at the center of an abortion fight with the state may terminate her pregnancy.Excellent news. The girl, known as LG, proved herself smart, tough, independent, and quite sure of what would be best for her. It’s really too bad she had to take the state to court to make them aware of these things, especially considering she’s been in their care for almost a third of her life.
Juvenile Judge Ronald Alvarez on Monday ruled that the teen, who has been in state custody for four years, would not be physically or emotionally harmed by the procedure. Last week, Alvarez blocked the girl's abortion until a psychological evaluation was completed.
''He ruled that she is competent, that she has made a decision and that she has a right to act on that decision,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the girl.
[UPDATE: An appeal has been filed. Lauren's got the lowdown at Feministe. Fuck.]
[UPDATE2: Jeb Bush may be calling off the appeal.]
This political advertisement manages to be hysterical and chilling at the same time. Damn. Someone from the Democratic Party needs to get these people on the payroll, pronto.
Boo-scary ads and nasty attack ads don't work. Time and time again polls show that people are sick of them. I know I, for one, lose a little respect for my canditate each time I see a blatant attack ad complete with scary music attacking the opponent. It's cheap politics, whether you "approve of that message" or not. Something along these lines would be much more effective.
I'm rambling. Go view the advert. It's great.
(via applecidercheesefudge. Cross-posted from my blog.)
If American politics were a movie, I guess this would be the part where the nerdy guy (played by Karl Rove) would be driving down a costal highway in a convertible wearing a pair of Ray-Bans, while “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” takes over the soundtrack.
U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the area's Republican congressman, said that Rove and Bush go back 30 years and that Rove is perhaps Bush's closest confidant.Once again, I must reiterate my hope that when Bush’s two terms are up and he moseys back to Crawford (or the executive board of some oil company or wherever the hell he goes), Rove goes, too. If he gets his hooks into some other GOP douchebag and they manage to pull out another “win,” we could be looking at Rove being our behind-the-curtain president indefinitely.
"Karl Rove will always be sitting there on the president's right," Boehner said.
Rove's blueprint for winning elections still emphasizes traditional values, education, low taxes and a word he stressed Monday - compassion.Euphemism: Traditional Values
Translation: Homophobia, Xenophobia, Racism, Sexism, and Conservative Christianity
Euphemism: Education
Translation: Voucher programs serving as a backdoor means to circumvent Brown v. Board of Ed
Euphemism: Low Taxes
Translation: Continued redistribution of taxation from corporations to individuals composing the American middle class
Euphemism: Compassion
Translation: Continuing to exploit those we can fool into believing we give a shit about them until we have taken away every social safety net, thereby making it impossible for them to be anything but obedient worker drones, while we roll around naked in piles of their money they dutifully handed over to a Social Security privatization scheme
"We defend time-tested values," Rove said, adding that the Republican Party is determined to reform and update 20th century programs such as Social Security that will be confronted by demographic upheavals in the decades ahead.See?
"We're shaping history," he said.
Their pomposity is so grandiose as to be mind-blowing. Shaping history. Pfft. How about you pay a little more attention to the present and the immediate needs of the American people? Of course, I suppose if a legacy of bringing the world’s sole remaining superpower to its knees is what you’re gunning for, then keep on keeping on, my Machiavellian friends.
I heard a vague news item on the radio this morning regarding Sean Hannity's fear of going to work due to an alledged "stalker." My searches have come up cold. Does anyone know anything about this?
Chicken hawk... frothing at the mouth to send more people to war... afraid to go to work over one person... even with restraining order.... urgh... *head explodes*
Wow, this story is just amazing. PBS is basically being destroyed by Republicans:
Last November, members of the Association of Public Television Stations met in Baltimore along with officials from the corporation and PBS. [Board Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson] told them they should make sure their programming better reflected the Republican mandate.I can’t even begin to imagine how such a comment could be construed as a joke, but whatever. It’s the least of Tomlinson’s sins when it comes to pushing his agenda at PBS.
Mr. Tomlinson said that his comment was in jest and that he couldn't imagine how remarks at "a fun occasion" were taken the wrong way. Others, though, were not amused.
"I was in that room," said Ms. Mitchell. "I was surprised by the comment. I thought it was inappropriate."
The story itself is more of the same, where it treats the conventional wisdom of liberal bias at PBS as truth, and if you accept that assessment, then you might not find Tomlinson’s actions terribly objectionable—he’s just trying to find a balance, that’s all. But the content of PBS isn’t liberal, in that it pushes a liberal agenda. Masterpiece Theater and reruns of Are You Being Served? and dry news series on immigration and organic farming might well appeal more to liberals for one reason or another, but to suggest that PBS is hostile to the conservative movement is disingenuous. Reporting that Tom DeLay is facing censure for ethics violations isn’t indicative of a liberal bias; it’s simply reporting important news which isn’t favorable toward the GOP (how radical), and if the GOP doesn’t want that kind of reporting done, the solution isn’t to replace a ‘Bill Moyers’ with a ‘Bill O’Reilly,’ but to stop filling their ranks with corrupt, duplicitous turds.
Dear Panera,
Please stop making your Texas Black Bean and Chicken Chorizo soup so delicious. I keep eating it even though I know it will give me a sore stomach.
Sincerely,
Shakespeare's Sister
* * *
Dear Mother Nature,
What the fuck is with the temp? It's May. Can we at least see 50 degrees? I'm tired of the cold. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Shakespeare's Sister
Kenneth B. Clark, a pioneer in research of the effects of racial discrimination on black children, has died.
Kenneth B. Clark, an educator and psychologist who spent his life working for improvement in the education of black children and influenced the Supreme Court's decision to strike down school segregation, has died at age 90, his son said Monday.Though Clark was a psychologist, much of the research he did had a sociological element that was of interest to me. If you’ve never read any of his work, I highly recommend it.
Hilton Clark said his father died early Sunday morning at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson after a long battle with cancer.
[…]
In the 1950s, Clark conducted a study he had devised years earlier which showed that school segregation marred the development of black students. The Supreme Court cited those findings in its unanimous 1954 decision [on Brown v. Board of Education].
In his research, Clark showed black schoolchildren black and white dolls and asked what they thought. Most preferred the white doll and said the black doll looked "bad." When asked which doll looked more like themselves, some said the white doll. Others refused to answer the question or cried.
Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that separating black children from white "solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone."
Thirty years after that landmark ruling, Clark described himself as "bewildered" at the persistence of de facto segregation and inferior education for many blacks.
[…]
He never abandoned his belief in the importance of education in overcoming racism. "I think that white and blacks should be taught to respect their fellow human beings as an integral part of being educated," he said.
"A racist system inevitably destroys and damages human beings; it brutalizes and dehumanizes them, blacks and whites alike," he wrote.
After dumping Slate last December, now Microsoft is also bailing on its foray into television. I guess NBC will have to crappily deliver bad programming all by itself now.
Don’t worry, NBC. You’ll be as bad as Fox someday!
Florida Governor Jeb Bush has signed the Jessica Lunsford Act into law, which not only strengthens sentencing for child sex abusers who prey on children under the age of 12, but also includes a provision allowing the state to track such offenders for life.
The bill was quickly drafted after Jessica's body was discovered in March, and sped through the legislative process, pushed by outraged lawmakers.I honestly don’t know how I feel about this. I was raped when I was 16, and although I truly wish the situation had been handled differently, I wouldn’t support my attacker having been subjected to being tracked for the rest of his life and possibly hauled in for questioning each time a rape was reported in the area. But that said, I know that child molesters are even more likely to be repeat offenders than rapists, who themselves have a high recidivism rate. Pedophiles and serial rapists are notoriously hard to rehabilitate, and by some accounts, they are, in fact, not rehabilitatable at all.
Bush said Florida's sex offender laws are already tough, and "this bill will make our laws even tougher. It think it is right and just."
[...]
The bill would require 25-year minimum prison terms for people convicted of certain sex crimes against children and lifetime tracking by global positioning satellite once they're outside of prison.
The bill also requires more monitoring of people convicted of molesting older children.
The new requirement only affects people convicted in the future, but it also has a provision that provides for GPS tracking of sex offenders who violate probation.
Advocates for the satellite monitoring say that in addition to warning authorities when a sex offender is someplace he shouldn't be - such as near a school - it also will allow for quick pinpointing of suspects if a child is abducted.
The new law also could open the door to the death penalty for more murderers, saying someone's status as sexual predator can be considered as an aggravating when judges and juries weigh capital punishment.
From everything I’ve read and studied on the topic, I support the latter theory, and yet there’s still something that makes me uncomfortable with tagging a sexual predator like a wild animal (despite their many similarities). I can’t even really explain why this bothers me quite so much, especially as I am keenly aware of how devastating these crimes are and how difficult they are to effectively prevent. Part of me feels that nothing is too cruel and unusual for these monsters, and yet there’s another part of me that recoils at the notion of a serving one’s time and being released into a freedom that is never truly free, no matter how likely an offender may be to offend again.
Question of the Day: Lies and the Lying Liars Edition
| posted by Melissa McEwan | Monday, May 02, 2005Which lie told by any member of the Bush administration, and subsequently repeated by our useless media, most infuriates you? (And just to keep it interesting, let’s assume everyone would say the lies told about WMDs and take that particular lie out of contention.)
(By the way, if you're looking for Monday Blogwhorin', it's lower on the page - I posted it earlier in the day than usual.)
The Dark Wraith breaks it all down.
To those who claim that this plan by the neo-conservatives could destroy the Social Security system, the response is almost too obvious to state: The point is not that this could wreck the system; the point is that, by its very nature, Mr. Bush's plan will.Read the rest. Good stuff.
Brad Plumer on Darfur (truly a must-read).
Mahablog goes beautifully apeshit about the 13-year-old being denied an abortion. Love it.
Jeanne d’Arc explores how cancer is a now apparently a family value to the religious right.
The Heretik on our staged interrogations of terrorism suspects and the sorry state of our souls. Also check out his post on the burning desire of Laura Bush.
Lance Mannion on what a huge geek he is Star Wars, and I love this post because I have a keen interest in the deconstruction of pop icons I am a huge geek.
Gordon’s got a few words for Tom DeLay. Ouch! (Well said, G.)
Mustang Bobby gives some space to Leonard Pitts, Jr. discussing the signature lesson of the Holocaust, and what we should be remembering about its beginnings as we address the attack on the LGBT community.
Skippy’s Cookie Jill gets bummed out about the administration’s incredible determination to rev up the Cold War again, then bums us out, too.
Ezra on Gore in 08? (Oh, lawdy, I hope so!)
Which, according to my calculations, brings their tally to —1.
Max Blumenthal reports that last night ABC ran ads placed by supertwat and major homobigot James Dobson’s Focus on the Family during its season finale of some television show I’ve never seen (but it sounds disastrous), “Supernanny.” The ads were promoting Focus on the Family’s
"Focus on Your Child" program, which advises parents on how to implement the parenting principles outlined in his best-seller, "Dare to Discipline." These include spanking with "sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely." Children have to be taught respect for authority at an early age, Dobson preaches, or they'll never develop respect for governmental authority or God.In and of itself, that’s not really a strike against ABC—after all, networks need cash, so although taking money from a religious-based group advocating corporal punishment may be distasteful, whatever, it’s capitalism, gotta make a buck, right?
See, the problem is, last December, ABC, along with NBC and CBS, rejected an ad from the United Church of Christ because its message was one of tolerance and inclusion. The UCC’s press release described the ad as:
part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ (UCC) seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.Not particularly controversial, one would think, but it was too controversial for ABC, who would only run the ad on the ABC Family Channel, but not the primary network. For some inexplicable reason, however, they find an ad promoting a religious-based program that endorses spanking, a decidedly controversial topic, and devised by a virulently anti-gay religious leader, perfectly acceptable for airing during primetime programming.
If you’d like to ask ABC what the fuck they’re thinking, here’s their contact info:
ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
Phone number: (818) 460-7477
You can also ABC's Audience Relations Department at netaudr@abc.com.
And while you’re at it, give a shout to the FCC, too: fccinfo@fcc.gov.
Okay, maybe we don’t need to worry about George Allen after all. From Meet the Press:
SEN. ALLEN: The reality is at that some point, whether it’s 2017, 2018 or you may think it’s 2041, that the number of people working and the revenues coming in from Social Security taxes will not be sufficient to pay those who are on retirement. … Now, at some point–and I agree with you, I don’t think we ought to be cutting benefits for those middle income and low income. …Damn, what a disaster. If he can’t even smoothly dissemble on Social Security, he’s just not GOP nominee material.
MR. RUSSERT: Stop right there. Stop right there, Senator Allen. President Bush has said 40 percent reduction [in benefits] for those making $90,000. And a 30 percent reduction for those making $59,000.
SEN. ALLEN: Got it. Right.
MR. RUSSERT: You disagree?
SEN. ALLEN: I think that…
MR. RUSSERT: And you oppose the president? Be clear.
SEN. ALLEN: Don’t put words in my mouth. Understand what I’m trying to get…
MR. RUSSERT: Do you support or oppose the president? That’s fair.
SEN. ALLEN: I support what I’m for and my own ideas. And my ideas are those of middle-income, working people ought to have better retirement security in addition to what Social Security has provided.
You’ve probably heard about the 13-year-old Florida girl who’s being denied an abortion, with the state stepping in because she’s a minor. Well, Bitch PhD points out, it may be time for a lot of people to “re-think that idea that women—including 13-year old girls in foster care—can't be trusted to think through the realities of abortion on their own.”
L.G.: Why can't I make my own decision?Frankly, it sounds like the only one who knows what the hell they’re talking about is the girl who supposedly can’t make her own decisions. Brave girl.
Judge Alvarez: I don't know.
L.G.: You don't know? Aren't you the judge?
* * *
Department of Children and Family Services: The Department of Children and Families has the custodial responsibility to do what is in the best interest of the child.
L.G.: I think if I want to make the decision, it's my business and I can do that. It would make no sense to have the baby. I don't think I should have the baby because I'm 13, I'm in a shelter and I can't get a job. DCF would take the baby anyway [but] if I do have it, I'm not going to let them take it.
* * *
L.G.: Since you guys are supposedly here for the best interest of me, then wouldn't you all look at that fact that it'd be more dangerous for me to have the baby than to have an abortion?
Judge Alvarez: A good point.
OBGYN: At her age and at her stage of gestation ... her risk of death from an abortion procedure is about 1 in 34,000. The risk of death in pregnancy is about 1 in 10,000.
* * *
Judge Alvarez (paraphrase): Who is the father?
L.G.: That's not really necessary.
I’ve just returned from having lunch with my oldest girlfriend, Cecil (not her real name), who has been someone who can make me laugh until I snort since we were 11 years old. A lovely afternoon musing about life and such.
In the car on the way to the restaurant, I was listening to James’ greatest hits, and one of my favorite James songs is Sit Down. There’s been some discussion over the past few days about just what this blog is, and it’s still a baby, really—I’m not sure what it will grow up to be—but as I sang along (yes, I’m one of those nuts who sings along in the car, all by herself, even at stoplights, and doesn’t particularly care if I look like an asylum escapee), I realized that some of the lyrics from Sit Down sum up what kind of place I want this blog to be.
That you’ve been to some far out places
It’s hard to carry on
When you feel all alone…
Those who feel the breath of sadness
Sit down next to me
Those who find they’re touched by madness
Sit down next to me
Those who find themselves ridiculous
Sit down next to me
Love, in fear, in hate, in tears…
Oh sit down
Sit down next to me
Sit down, down, down, down, down
In sympathy
We’re all a bit mad, in our own ways, and we’re all in this together. Pull up a chair.
You know, I’m really getting pretty fucking sick of this shit.
Two men convicted of beating a Seattle man because he is gay were sentenced yesterday to just under a year in jail.Seattle, huh? Hey, Microsoft—isn’t that your neck of the woods? What’s your opinion about this story? Let me guess. You’re feeling a bit…neutral.
In June, Micah Painter was beaten and cut with a broken bottle in an assault by a group of men, one of whom first asked whether he was gay before attacking him.
This is why it’s important for the Left to be vocal and visible in our support of gay rights, because when we skulk around mumbling about respecting the views of those who find homosexuality objectionable, instead of saying, “Fine, asshole—find it objectionable all you want, but that doesn’t preclude a guarantee of equal rights,” loud and definitively, it creates the sense that perhaps gays don’t need to be protected at all, even from getting beaten and cut with a broken bottle by a couple of homophobic fuckwits.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, we should recall the March meeting of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish leaders to denounce the upcoming Jerusalem WorldPride 2005 event, which, under the banner “Love Without Borders” was to be a celebration of LGBT pride for the community and its supporters. Their commentary on the event included such tolerance-reflective gems as:
"They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable. It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it."Now it’s being reported that:
-- Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi
"We can't permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem."
-- Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik
[It's] "the spiritual rape of the Holy City. This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land."
-- Rev. Leo Giovinetti, an evangelical pastor from San Diego's Mission Valley Christian Fellowship, author of the petition against the festival, "Homosexuals to Desecrate Jerusalem"
[It's an] "offense to the Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics across the world."
-- Pope John Paul II, in reference to the first WorldPride festival, held in Rome five years ago.
Police are investigating a fire at Jerusalem's only LGBT bar as extreme Orthodox rabbis and Christian evangelical groups ratchet up the rhetoric in opposition to World Pride celebrations scheduled for the city this summer.Cause. Effect.
Sa'ar Netanel, a member of Jerusalem's city council and the owner of the bar, Shushan, said that Sunday night a man entered the doorway of the club and threw a burning rag inside.
Flames spread quickly but patrons escaped without injury.
No one has claimed responsibility but relations have worsened between city's gays and conservative rabbis, Muslim clerics, and Christian fundamentalists in recent weeks.
We need to stop pretending that hate speech doesn’t matter, or that it’s somehow acceptable if it’s cloaked in religion. No one with the merest capacity for logic can claim to be surprised when inflammatory rhetoric results in fires being set.
In this case, literally.
(Hat tip to Daily Mendacity.)
