Pearl Harbor Day

Though there are only a hand full of survivors left to observe the "day that will live in infamy" they still gathered in Honolulu for the observance.  It is still one of the most amazing events in history for me.  In this day of radar and GPS and satellites it seems inconceivable that the Japanese fleet could sneak up on Pearl Harbor and almost succeed in wiping out the US Navy in the Pacific.

I have been to that historic location and the USS Arizona memorial is sobering.  Though it has been 69 years, an oil slick still seeps from the wreckage of that battleship.  The memorial is a wonderful historic site and a gathering place for generations who come to try to understand what happened.  Surprisingly, a good number of Japanese tourists visit as well.  The souvenir books are printed in English and Japanese, a somewhat surrealistic touch.

The reality of the present would seem surrealistic to people who fought and died that day.  Both Americans and Japanese would marvel at the thriving trade and enduring friendship that have been established between our two countries. 

I hope someday people will visit the 9/11 memorial and wonder how such a tragedy happened and how countries who are now such good allies could have ever been so cruel.  That remains a dream, but perhaps it can come true if we have really learned the lessons of the past.

GOP Backed Subsidy for Millionaires Disguised as Tax Cuts

So even as the Republicans are spouting blather about deficits, they are behind the extension of the immensely expensive subsidy for millionaires that has come to be called the Bush Tax Cuts.  The Democrats have relented in opposing these because the GOP held unemployment benefits hostage until the subsidies were extended.

Meanwhile they will rail about spending and deficits while creating an even bigger hole to dig out of.  I sincerely expect they are planning to get the nation so deeply in debt that the only way out will be to cut all Social Security and Medicare to make ends meet.  The GOP is relentless and they will do anything to get their way, and they hate both programs, even though the American people love and need them.

The GOP is a party of the rich, by the rich and for the rich and don't believe them when they say anything different.  They will talk about class warfare and how bad it is, but they have already won the class war.  All of us are working and paying taxes to support the wealthy of this country and it's getting worse.

Meanwhile the Democrats try to reason and negotiate with the Republicans.  It hasn't worked in the past decade why should it work now? 

Texas Tea Party Starts Anti-Semitic Push

The Texas branch of the Tea Bagger movement is really starting to look like a bunch of brown shirts.  The recently elected tea party candidates to the Texas House are now trying to oust fellow Republican, Joe Straus.  Why?  Because he is a Jew!

In an email between two members of the Texas State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) — Rebecca Williamson and John Cook. “We elected a house with Christian, conservative values. We now want a true Christian, conservative running it."

Cook who was interviewed by phone concerning the emails said, "I got into politics to put Christian conservatives into office. They’re the people that do the best jobs over all.”

When asked if he was being anti-Semitic he responded, "They’re some of my best friends...."

Yeah, right!

Bernanke: "America is...creating two societies." Ultra Rich and The Rest of Us

This is a quote from a 60 Minutes interview with Ben Bernanke.  It's very important and really doesn't mince words.

Pelley: The gap between rich and poor in this country has never been greater. In fact we have the biggest income disparity gap of any industrialized country in the world. And I wonder where you think that's taking America.

Bernanke: It's a very bad development. It's creating two societies. And it's based very much, I think, on educational differences. The unemployment rate we've been talking about. If you're a college graduate, unemployment is 5 percent. If you're a high school graduate, it's 10 percent or more. It's a very big difference. It leads to an unequal society, and a society which doesn't have the cohesion that we'd like to see."

TSA Musical Tribute - Kinsey Sicks Video!

DADT Repeal Officially Dead?

I hate "I told you so" moments, but as I said in my column last week in the Dallas Voice, I sincerely believe DADT repeal is dead, and so does Harry Reid.  In his floor schedule for the week of Dec. 6 there is no mention of debate on the Armed Services Bill to which it is attached.

The Senate will busy itself with the myriad of other important work they neglected to take care of during the past session, like Strategic Arms Reductions, the Dream Act and funding government so it doesn't shut down.

They have successfully kicked the can down the road so many times they only have one week left to do all the work and something gets sacrificed...namely LGBT rights.

So, what can we do?  Well for me calling or writing my Senator is hopeless.  My representatives in the Senate are the most dogmatically ideological Republicans in the bunch, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Pete Sessions.  I have called and written many times and get nice polite form letters explaining how important "family values" are and how essentially I can go jump off a cliff.

My answer for now is this, put my money where my heart is.  I am spending at as many LGBT merchants for Christmas this year as I can, and have suspended all political contributions until I see some movement on LGBT  rights.  Of course I still get requests for funds from every Democrat in Congress and to them I say, "show me the rights and I'll show you the money"!

McCain Refuses To Help 9/11 Responders

Yet another reason to thank God that McCain didn't win the election for president.

Yesterday a 9/11 first responder approached McCain in the capitol and told he who he was and asked Senator McCain to support the Zadroga bill that provides $7.4 billion in aid to workers who were sickened or injured in the response to 9/11.  McCain thanked him for his service and then said, "I can't help you."

Nice from a man who used 9/11 as a rallying cry for his reelection and for a variety of political goals and now a veteran who benefited from government aid refuses to help these guys.  Once again McCain proves his "dickishness".  It's time for this old codger to retire and maybe he could take Anton Scalia along with him.

The New York Daily News had it right, McWeasel!

Vote in Facebook Poll - Is John McCain a Bigot?

From Facebook page:
 I bet we can find 1,000,000 people who think John McCain is a bigot We've found over a thousand people who think John McCain is a bigot. But I know there's more. Tell all your friends to go to http://www.facebook.com/JohnMcCainIsABigot (that's this facebook page by the way). It's time to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and stand up to bigots like McCain.

Chappy Chanukkah - Chow About Some Cham?

I found this on the Joe My God blog.  Apparently it's an image from Balducci's in New York.  Amazing!

Pravda Calls Sarah Palin a Traitor and an Oaf - Refreshing!

It is rare that I have ever agreed with Pravda, the former Soviet Era wire service from Russia, but this commentary by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey is something the US press should read and consider.  See the quote below:

“By attacking the democratically elected President of the United States of America at a sensitive time in her country’s history, she shows the tact of a boorish drunkard bawling obscenities at a funeral….


And now she turns not only against the fiber and backbone of her country, but against its democratically elected President, accusing him of being incompetent for not stopping Wikileaks. Where was she and where was her GOP before and during the 9/11 attacks? She accuses President Obama of not taking “steps” to assure the leaks were not published. What “steps”?……

If anything is a threat to the national security of the United States of America, it is this screaming, unrefined oaf with as much class as a searing release of flatulence followed by hysterical giggling at a state banquet. Is this what the people of the USA deserve?

To attack the President of the country at a time when the USA needs to close ranks and stand together to consolidate the enormous strides his (President Obama’s) intelligent and respectful approach has achieved in building bridges, when her party’s period in government bombed them, Spankin’ Sarah Palin comes across as a pitifully inadequate anachronism from the times of the Far West.”

 Way to go Pravda!

Bush Era "Millionaire Subsidies" to Continue?

Once again the Democrats fail to frame the debate and the Republicans will win on the issue of the Bush Era Tax Cuts.  If Democratic Senators would start calling these things what they are, instead of tax cuts they would wini the day.  These are "Millionaire Subsidies", plain and simple.  Yes there are minuscule tax benefits for the middle class, but whopping subsidies for folks who don't need it. 

The myth that these subsidies stimulate business is silly.  It might add a few more dollars to the coffers of Tiffany and Company, but on the whole the money just sits there. 

Meanwhile the GOP is holding hostage the much needed extension of unemployment benefits that actually do stimulate the economy.  Those unemployment checks get spent and that helps move this sluggish recovery forward and keeps the large number of unemployed from going hungry. 

Come on Dems!  Start calling things what they are and stop letting the GOP frame the debate!

McCain Thinks Military Should Be Governed by Internal Consensus - Again, Dickish!

Listening to the DADT hearings still...

Senator McCain would have the military conduct it's business by referendum.  He has repeatedly insisted that the military should ask service members whether DADT should be repealed.  He forgets that Truman integrated the Armed Forces during the Korean War and didn't take a poll of the service members to do it.  He forgets that the military is not asked if they are comfortable going to war.  He forgets that the military is directed by civilian authority and the Commander in Chief.  He forgets that he apparently was a soldier himself and I seriously doubt if there was an opinion poll prior to going into Vietnam.

That word "forget" keeps coming up.  Considering he has pretty much reversed his position on DADT I have to wonder if he has a memory problem.

In response to McCain's ludicrous suggestion that the military troops make decisions by some kind of consensus Gates said:

I can't think of a single precedent in America history of doing a referendum of the American Armed Forces on a policy issue. Are you going to ask them if they want 15-month tours? Are you going to ask them if they want to be part of the surge in Iraq? That's not the way our civilian-led military has ever worked in our entire history . . . I think in effect doing a referendum of the members of the Armed Forces on a policy matter is a very dangerous path.

McCain Proves He is a Dick Again!

Watching the hearings before the Senate today where the Secretary of Defense is giving his report on the repeal of DADT.  As I watch, it becomes clear that John McCain is a certified dick and a crotchety old fart. 

He asks the opinions of the generals and then contradicts them with his trying to spin the report as negative when it was positive.  Thank God he wasn't elected president!  He would have made a disastrous Commander in Chief.  Not that President Obama is doing that sterling a job, but I can take some comfort fomr knowing that McCain would have been far worse.

Sad state of affairs.

I Am Tired of World AIDS Day!

I am tired of World AIDS Day.  I am tired of watching friends get sick and die.  I am tired of listening to small talk about meds and side effects and t-cell counts.  I am tired of hearing about the latest "not quite cure".  I am tired of watching drug companies spin AIDS as the new Diabetes.  I am tired of seeing more and more bareback videos pop up online. I am tired of seeing the AIDS Quilt and having to bring extra tissues because of the flood of tears it causes for me and my friends.

I am tired!  When are we going to find a cure?  When are gay men and the ephemeral "MSMs" going to listen to the message that unsafe sex is UNSAFE!  When is World AIDS Day going to stop being a big trade show for drug companies and start being a time to look back and be grateful that the disease is no longer around.

Can you hear the frustration in my voice? 

I still wear my red ribbon in honor the memory of my brothers and sisters who have fallen to this pandemic, but I would like to retire it.  I would like to see it gather dust on a shelf.  Maybe some day that dream can come true.

Until then, I will continue to support the many organizations that desperately need funds and volunteers to fight the epidemic.  I will continue to emphasize the importance of safer-sex and I will continue to remind the next generation that AIDS/HIV is not just a disease of the Baby Boomers, it is alive and spreading through Gen-X and Y and beyond.

Until then I will continue to pray that an end is in sight.