Police Raid Ft. Worth Gay Bar - Flashback 40 Years!

Yesterday I spoke at a rally that both commemorated Stonewall and highlighted the lack of progress as far as assuring LGBT rights in this country. Nothing could have been more illustrative of that lack of progress than the raid on the Rainbow Lounge in Ft. Worth, Texas the previous night.

Police and TABC officials raided the bar, arresting 7 patrons and sending one to the hospital with a brain injury. Say what?

Yup, here we are 40 years after the Stonewall Rebellion and we still have police harassing LGBT people. The arrests were for public intoxication, a common charge when police just don't like someone's looks. They were in a bar for crying out loud, and they found people drinking? Shocking!

This raid is obviously some kind of homophobic statement by Ft. Worth Police, who are trying to make a statement. One of the bubbas must have read something about Stonewall and decided to go take revenge for that precieved slight to police authority 40 years ago. (This is conjecture, but we'll see how true it is.)

In the meantime, Chad Gibson is in intnsive care, bleeding in his brain thanks to the Ft. Worth Police.

A protest was held on the steps of the courthouse last night and Ft. Worth's only openly gay councilman spoke and assured the crowd that ther would be in investigation. At least we have one voice in city politics there. Dallas has none at the moment, a situation that needs to be changed ASAP.

Perhaps another Stonewall Rebellion is due, this time in Cowtown.

Daily Show In Iran - Video

Jason Jones trip to Iran turned out to be cutting edge as far as breaking stories are concerned. His intent was to debunk a lot of the myths people in our country have about Iran, and generally poke fun at some of the events happening surrounding the election. He narrowly missed being sequestered as most journalists were just a day or two after he left.

What his faux reports have done is give a really good picture of Iran prior to the unrest as well as a touching tribute to the Iranian people. And then of course there is the Hip-Hop Video.

Enjoy!

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Jackson May Have Died Of Overdose

Now comes word via TMZ that Michael Jackson's family thinks he died from a Demerol overdose. Apparently he got daily injections and had one at 11:30am, just before he went into cardiac arrest.

Jackson had a history of prescription drug abuse and once was admitted to Betty Ford Clinic for treatment. If this story turns out to be true, it is a very sad one indeed.

Jackson was poised for a farewell tour in London where he already had 50 sold out performances scheduled.

UPDATE: Via TMZ:

We've learned law enforcement is looking for a doctor who lived at Michael Jackson's home -- and the doctor is nowhere to be found.

Law enforcement sources tell us a BMW belonging to the doctor was towed from Jackson's home last night.

UPDATE: 911 Tape Released

Just listened to the recording of the 911 tape from Michael Jackson's house to the police. They mentioned that he was not breathing and they could not revive him using CPR, prior to the EMTs arriving. Also, no mention of Jackson's name or his doctor's was made during the call.

Word comes from other sources that his doctor went to the hospital with him and personally administered CPR at the hospital to no avail. One has to wonder if he was not already dead and the doctor was putting on a show for authorities? The fact that the doctor has gone missing and his car was impounded by police seeking evidence is telling.

Man In The Mirror - RIP Michael Jackson

One of my favorite Michael Jackson songs from his later work is as poignent today as it was then.

Michael Jackson |MTV Music

Michael Jackson Dead at Age 50

TMZ is reporting the king of pop is dead.

Michael Jackson Rushed To LA Hospital - Not Breathing

Paramedics arrived at the Bel Air home pa Michael Jackson to find him not breathing. They performed CPR and rushed the pop star to the UCLA Medical Center just a few minutes away.

Jackson was preparing for his latest tour. Word of his condition is still unknown.

Million Gay March - Texas This Sunday!

So though organizers do not expect a million marchers, they do hope for thousands at the event this Sunday, starting at 2:00pm. The million refers to across the nation and doubtlessly there will be that many.

The event commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion which is credited with being the spark that ignited the gay rights movement in the US.

I got an invitation to speak at the rally following the march, so if you are there, say hello! Bring friends and relatives, anyone who can stand the heat. This is no parade, but a real honest to God protest march and boy do we need it now!

Fox News Labels Gov. Sanford As Democrat! He Isn't.

Fox News is about as dishonest a group of alleged reporters as there is. Media Matters caught the liars again. While reporting on Republican Governor Sanford's admission of an extramarital affair, they labeled him as a Democrat. Fair and balanced my ass!

The Other Shoe!

Well Stanford admitted in a press conference he is having an affair! No surprise after the laissez faire attitude of his wife about his disappearance. He is talking live on TV right now.

He claimed he was in Argentina crying for the past five days. Cue Patti LuPone...

Governor Sanford's Excellent Adventure - Listen For That Other Shoe To Drop!

Word comes now that vagabond governor of South Carolina was not alone on his trip to South America. Oh this is sweet!

This could be the reason he ditched his security detail. More here at TPM.

Howard Dean Pulls Out Of Ill-Fated DNC Fundraiser

According to a report on Americablog.com, Howard Dean has pulled out of the LGBT fundraiser for the DNC. The excuse is "scheduling conflicts". Too bad Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank can't have the same calendar issues?

SC Governor Will Have Press Conference at 2:00PM Today.

The elusive governor of South Carolina will have a press conference today at 2:00pm EST. Why do I suspect there will be a surprise announcement during this conference? Maybe something of a scandalous nature?

The Case Of The Missing Governor

And it just keeps getting stranger and stranger. Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R-SC) little "excellent adventure" has taken another turn. First nobody knew where he had gone. Even his wife when contacted on vacation over Father's Day weekend had no clue but strangely didn't seem the least worried.

Meanwhile once the press began hounding the governors office, they told reporters the Governor had gone hiking along the Appalachian Trail to "clear his head." OK, sounds sort of plausible, but then NBC new reported his car was seen at the Atlanta airport and he was seen boarding a plane. Hike?

Now comes new that he was in South America for a short vacation, a seven-day trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now that is a hike! More worrisome is his failure to transfer power ion the state or his notifying his staff or wife where he was.

Now far be it for me to start rumors, but oh what the heck! South America? Sounds like he was getting away for a little illicit activity that he didn't feel safe participating in in the US. Heck if I wanted to clear my head I could go to hundreds of places here in the US before I took off to Buenos Aires, but hey, I'm not the governor of South Carolina. With behavior like this, he might not be for long either!

Barney Frank To Reintroduce ENDA Today

Just got this from Pam's House Blend.

FRANK TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE
ON THE EMPLOYEE NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT (ENDA)

WHERE: Room 2219, Rayburn House Office Building

WHEN: Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 1:00 PM

WHO: Rep. Barney Frank, joined by Rep. George Miller, Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Jared Polis, Rep. Rob Andrews, Rep. Mike Castle, Rep. Todd Platts, Rep. Leonard Lance, and others. Also participating will be representatives of the Human Rights Campaign, the AFL-CIO, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

BACKGROUND: This week, Congressman Barney Frank will introduce the Employee Non-Discrimination Act. The legislation would extend federal employment laws, which currently prevent job discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, age, and disability, to also cover sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill covers both the public and private sectors.

Although some states have passed laws to prevent such discrimination, it is legal in 30 states to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, and legal in 38 states to discriminate on the basis of gender identity. According to research by the Williams Institute, there is an ongoing pattern of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity nationwide.

Over 100 co-sponsors, including members of both parties, have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.

Prison Rape - Fantasy vs. Reality

Though it might be the stuff of a hot adult video, the reality of prison rape is not. Every year over 60,000 inmates are sexually abused while in prison. This startling figure comes from the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission whose report was issued yesterday.

According to the survey 4.5% of all inmates interviewed were raped in the past 12 months. Also surprisingly, more of those rapes were not by other prisoners, but staff of the prison.

The report points to oversight of staff and inmates as a deterring factor. Some facilities report virtually no problems while others seem to be hotbeds of abuse. Jails got a much better report and had fewer rapes than prisons.

I am assuming this report only is referring to rape and abuse, since consensual sex among prisoners is not addressed. It's an eye opener.

House Democrats Urge End To DADT

Cut off the money and you get people's attention. That is what this seems like to me.

77 Hours Democrats are urging President Obama to end discharges in the military under the Don't Ask Don't Tell rules. In fact it will have to be the lawmakers who take the final action, however a boost from the White House would make that easier.

Read more here in the Boston Globe.

Obama Administration Agrees to LGBT Leadership Meeting

Somebody got the message! The Obama administration is having a major sit down with LGBT leaders next week to hash out DOMA and try to find a solution. That is a start. Pity it took such a fuss to get their attention.

I am reminded of my grandfather. He was a crusty old guy, a blacksmith by trade. He once told me how to train a mule. He said, "you roll up a newspaper and tap the mule on the nose but first you hit the mule over the head with a 2X4 to get his attention!"

Now where is that rolled up paper?

DNC Fundraiser A Bust! Gays Pull Out.

What is the Democrats threw a party and nobody came? Well that is the situation for the DNC fundraiser targeted at the LGBT community. The event which was to honor Vice President Joe Biden boasted a list of attendees that was a Who's Who of the LGBT political front. And then there was that brief. You know the on where the Obama Justice Department compaired homosexuality to incest and ...well it's been discussed ad nauseum.

Now the list of luminaries has shrunk to almost nobody. One after another the big names are pulling out including the HRC, GLAAD, Stonewall Democrats, David Mixner, blogger Andy Towle, Lambda Legal, and more. Additionally, the fundraiser looses one of its biggest donors, Bruce Bastian who has dropped mega-bucks on the party before.

All this because Obama is defending the Defense of Marriage Act, or rather his Justice Department is. LGBT activists and politicos want action from Obama, not tokenism as expressed in his lame executive memo this week. He needs to push through some legislation overturning DOMA, DADT and hate crimes and he needs to do it now. Otherwise he and Congress will face a landscape that is noticablly lacking in LGBT funds and some very visible demonstrations.

Enough is enough, and we won't be taken for granted. Time to see some action Mr. President.

Stonewall Democrats Pull Out of DNC Gay Fundraiser In Protest!

Well the Stonewall Democrats certainly have shown they have a pair! They have pulled out of the DNC fundraiser next week along with a host of other gay luminaries and groups. All this is in response to the DOJ brief that the Obama administration filed in defense of DOMA.

Here is a clip of the Stonewall response from Ben Smith's blog:

The members of the Board and our membership put our hopes, our dollars and our time into ensuring the election of Barack Obama because we believed that he supported us. To now have his Administration refer to our relationships in the same terms used by our long time enemies such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson hurts on so many levels. To have our committed and loving relationships referred to as the moral equivalent of incest and pedophilia is not something that any of us ever expected from this Administration considering how hard we worked to be seen and respected. For that reason alone, advocating for attendance at a fundraiser to support the Administration and the DNC, while they have not condemned this hurtful language, is not something our membership will receive positively.

Solomonese on Olbermann - "Obama Went Way Over the Line"

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Schwarzenegger Declines To Defend Prop 8!

Talk about strange bedfellows! I am 100% behind Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and that is pretty strange. The GOP Governor of California is doing what the Democratic President of th US should be doing and that is declining to defend the constitutionality of a bill that denies marriage rights to gays and lesbians.

The Governator has said he will not defend the constitutionality of Proposition 8 in future legal challenges. This decision to remain neutral in a federal challenge to the initiative means no statewide official will be defending the measure in federal court.

My question to President Obama is why couldn't he have done the same with DOMA? Instead the Department of Justice issued a hateful brief that not only defended the law but effectively comnpaired gay marriage to incest and pedophelia. Fir that kind of abuse we could have gone to the Neocons!

Another GOP Politician Caught In Affair

From high in his glass house Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, tossed stones at Bill Clinton for his infidelities and stumped for the Defense of Marriage Act. He would seem to be a poster child for moral decency, at least in the straight white male Republican variety. Not so fast!

Ensign admitted this week that he had an ongoing affair with a campaign staffer for over nine months while he was running against Harry Reid. I guess he figured "what happens in Nevada stays in Nevada."

Another example of duplicity that is rife within the GOP. But to be fair, even though the Republicans rarely are, the Democrats have their share of scandals as well. It is just that the GOP likes to campaign on some imagined ideal of moral decency that they regularly ignore in their own lives.

GOP Continues To Lie About Health Care

Once again the GOP is telling Americans the Big Lie. This "Big Lie" is that we have the best health care system in the world.

Not only is it a lie, but it's just about 180 degrees from the truth. We have one of the most inefficient and poor health care systems of any industrialized country. In a recent study of 6 large democracies, US, Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, we came in dead last for efficiency, safety, access and equity of service.

To hear the GOP talk, as they are today in their attack on President Obama's health care speech to the AMA, you'd think we were number 1.

Even if you have lots of money you'd get a better return on your cash in any of the other countries and if you are broke, well we all know how that works here. No money...no health care. You end up using county emergency rooms as your physician and only then when you have no other choice.

Still the Republicans rail against the threat of "socialized medicine". The problem is for many Americans, that would be more medicine than they get now. The "for profit" model is broken and needs fixing.

The Spirit of Stonewall - Time to March in the Streets Again!

As the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots approaches I wonder if LGBT Americans really understand what second class citizens we really are?

The marriage issue is nice, but it's just one part of a larger picture. Without full rights as citizens, marriage won't really do the trick. I sometimes wonder why some gay activists decided to draw a line in the sand with marriage and not just go for Civil Rights. Gay marriage would be a no brainer if we were assured full rights and protections of the Constitution. Instead we have some rights but not all.

In most states a gay or lesbian employee can be fired just because of their sexual orientation. No protection, no recourse. That would qualify as second class citizenship to me.

An LGBT American can't serve openly in the military simply because of his or her sexual orientations. Sounds pretty second class to me.

An LGBT American can be harassed or even killed because of their sexual orientation with no protection under federal Hate Crimes laws. Why? Because we are second class Americans.

You see we have become complacent because many LGBT people are affluent. Having money does not give you more rights, it just lulls you into a false sense of equality. Just because a gay man is upper middle class in income doesn't buy him any more rights than other Americans.
It just means he can buffer the discrimination with a little more cash.

The cynic in me could go on for hours about the illusion that wealth brings privilege. It does until you run into the legal loopholes that say LGBT Americans are less valuable than their straight counterparts. Don't believe me, just see how money can't buy you access to a loved one who is hospitalized. If you are not "related" in the eyes of the law, you are out of luck.

So my point is that LGBT Americans need to wake up and realize that until we demand full rights we will never get them. Nobody is going to give them to us, we have to demand them and work to educate others to our plight.

We have an administration in Washington who is at least more sympathetic than the previous one, and it's time we made our voices heard loud and clear. On this 40th anniversary of Stonewall, we need to be back in the streets. It was marching and protesting that broughts full civil rights to other minorities in our country and the same will be true for us.

Jon Stewart - Napoleon? Mais non!

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Buh Bye - Carrie Prejean Stripped Of Miss California Title

According to a statement on the NBC website:

The Miss California USA Organization, in conjunction with the Miss Universe Organization and with the blessing of its owner, Mr. Donald J. Trump, announced today the termination of Carrie Prejean as Miss California USA 2009, citing continued breach of contract issues.

Another Domestic Terror Case - Holocaust Museum Shooting

Today, hatred took center stage again. This time at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. A man now identified as James Von Brunn entered the museum and began shooting. He shot a museum guard before he himself was shot. Both he and his victim are in serious condition.

Von Brunn, an 89-year-old man with ties to white supremacist groups has been in trouble with the law before. He once entered the Federal Reserve and tried to take hostages. He was arrested and convicted and after his sentence was living in Hew Hampshire.

If you have any doubts that hatred had anything to do with this attack, consider this, in a recent blog post, Von Brunn wrote that Hitler's "worst mistake" was that "he didn't gas the Jews."

So how is this not terrorism?

Sometimes the Terrorists Win

When Scott Roeder walked into the Lutheran church in Wichita, Kansas and murdered Dr. George Tiller, it was an act of terrorism.

Now, I am often accused of hyperbole but let me explain. A terrorist by nature of his or her name is intent on instilling "terror" for whatever agenda they may have. In Roeder's case that agenda was to close the Women's Clinic where George Tiller worked. His tactic was to murder Dr. Tiller to instill sufficient fear to force the clinic to close.

It worked.

Women's Health Care Services Inc. is permanently closeing and the family issued the following statement, "Notice is being given today to all concerned that the Tiller family is ceasing operation of the clinic and any involvement by family members in any other similar clinic."

This is the kind of statement that comes in response to one thing, fear. Scott Roeder successfully freightened the family to cease all activities related to the clinic. That is a prime example of how terror can work.

From his jail cell when told of the actions of the family, Roeder said, "Good". What's worse is that according to a report on CNN, Roeder said he is "feeling good," and getting encouraging letters from people around the country, many of whom he does not know.

This is a prime example of how terrorism works, it creates fear in its victims and encouragment for other potential terrorists. Sounds a lot like Islamic extreamists doesn't it?

The lesson of this tragic story is this:

If we fail to treat the violent and violence advocating foes of abortion as terrorists they will continue and more death will occur. We can look forward to more bombings, shootings and other terroristic acts until the authorities stop treating anti-abortion groups with kid gloves. If they advocate violence, they are terrorist groups, no different than any other.

It's time we got serious about radical fundamentalists of any religion when they cause death and destruction.

Protesters Picket Bush's Dallas Residence

It was a scene that made me beam with delight. Driving home through Preston Hollow, the neighborhood where George and Laura live, I ran smack dab into the group of protesters who Cindy Sheehan had lead to the former President's house.

They were a boisterous group and they carried the requisite signs calling for war crime trials and more. Some were residents of the area with signs politely telling Mr. Bush to get out of town. Of the 100 or so who gathered about a dozen additional protesters came to protest the protest. These hapless few held signs at passing cars that said, "Honk if you love George Bush". Traffic was unusually quiet this afternoon. I heard only one honk and I suspect it was an impatient motorist who wanted to make the next traffic light before it changed.

Now if we could just get the former president to pay for all the police that guard his street I would be happy to have him holed up in Preston Hollow. After all, I only have to drive through it, not live there.

David Carradine - Victim of Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation?

News comes from Bangkok that actor David Carradine may not have committed suicide after all. Police say a rope was found tied around his genitals and was naked. They have postulated he migt have been playing a dangerous game of auto-erotic asphyxiation. If this turns out to be true, chalk another one up to carelessness.

Breath play of any kind is dangerous, but doing it alone is way beyond any of my boundries. The whole issue of safe-sane and consensual kind of goes out the window when you try to hang yourself just long enough to almost pass out but not to die. Kind of tough to make that call when you are near blacking out. It's so patently obvious that I still marvel at how many deaths this kind of play causes each year.

I won't cast aspersions on the late Mr. Carradine until we know for sure how he died, but if it was caused by risky sex games, then this tradgedy needs to be used as an object lesson for those who would seek to participate in this behavior.

I am as kinky as the next person, but I sure as hell want to survive to have sex another day!

Stephen Colbert Is In Iraq!

The enigmatic Stephen Colbert has landed in Iraq for a USO tour entitled "Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando." He will perform his shows in front of the troops for the next week, according to Comedy Central.

Colbert and several other Comedy Central notables have traveled to war zones to entertain the troops. Previously Rob Riggle of the Daily Show broadcast reports from Iraq, though Riggle is an officer in the Marine Reserves, Colbert is strictly civilian.

I find it interesting that liberal-leaning comedians like Colbert, Riggle and Al Franken hove done USO tours in war zones, yet outspoken supporters of war like Sean Hannity have not.

Women's Tackle Football - Dallas Diamonds!

Years ago I used to attend the Dallas Diamonds games when they were a women's professional basketball team. Sadly those days are no more, but the name Diamonds has reemerged. This time it's the International Women's Football League team and they are doing very well.

With their win over the Miami Fury, the Diamonds remain undefeated and apparently their games are a blast. The team plays at Pennington Field in HEB and the games look like a fun evening. Check them out here.

Limbaugh Admits He Is Unpatriotic

For the Bush years right-wing talkers on radio characterized anyone who dissagreed with the President as unpatriotic. Now Rush Limbaugh finally admits he is unpatriotic as well.

On Sean Hannity's show he confirmed that by frankly declaring, "I don’t hide from it, I do want and I still want Obama to fail."

That kind of talk would have been classified as treason by the GOP last year, and yet now, the rules seem to change. One more example of just how self-serving and unpatriotic these guys really are.

When The Wedge Dosen’t Work

The news that Dick Cheney, dark lord of the GOP even supports gay marriage, the signals are clear, the old wedge issues held so dear by the GOP operatives are no longer working. Yes abortion still rings a bell for some folks, but the recent murder of Dr. Tiller is a frightening example of just for whom that bell tolls.

No longer can the Republican Party rally its troops with these issues. Even conservatives have begun to understand that same-sex marriage is a basic right of citizenship and that abortion is not so black & white an issue. When states like Iowa make gay marriage legal, and conservative lawyers like Ted Olson (who argued for George Bush in the Bush vs. Gore case), are willing to team up with former opponents to take gay marriage to the Supreme Court, it’s a sign things are changing.

More to the point is the issue of health care. Years ago the GOP and health care insurers teamed up with the “Harry & Louise” ads. They successfully scared voters into resisting efforts to solve the national health care problem. Today, that tactic isn’t working as well.
Many Republicans as well as Democratic lawmakers are willing to take a long hard look at the broken health care system without fear of offending the base.

The playbook of the right-wing is getting pretty thin, and when they loose the tried and true wedge issues like gay marriage, health care and maybe even abortion, there won’t be many pages left.

That is a bad and a good thing. Good because they will have to argue issues based on facts rather than fear. Bad because they will look for other ways to push the panic button.

Terrorism is still a workable tactic. Should another terrorist attach take place on American soil, the GOP will exploit it as robustly as they did 9/11. It is unfortunate that the Democrats don’t remind people that terrorists have already attacked, just this week when Dr. Tiller was murdered in his church. That was an act carried out by a radical fundamentalist, driven by ideology and fueled by hate. The only reason the Democrats won’t call him a terrorist is his religion. For many Americans “Muslim = bad” and “Christian = good” no matter what despicable acts are carried out in their God’s name.

The other remaining wedge is racism. I know some think we live in a post-racial society, but just bring up “illegal immigrants” and the racist language starts flying. Look at how Judge Sonia Sotomayor is being portrayed by the right-wing talking heads. Now that we have an African-American President, brown is the new black.

If a few Democrats in congress would grow a pair and break these last two wedges by speaking the truth we might see a better America where all people really do get to live out their dreams and pursue happiness.

O'Reilly's Hate Speech Fans The Flames Of Terrorism

If you don't think people like Bill O'Reilly have an effect, consider the murder of Dr. Tiller by a domestic Anti-Abortion Terrorist. Wonder where he got that idea?

Terror Suspect Arrested - Claims To Be Christian?

The terrorist who killed the Doctor in Kansas has been identified. Here is a short quote from McClatchey News:

The suspect in custody for the slaying of Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller was a member of an anti-government group in the 1990s and a staunch opponent of abortion.

Scott P. Roeder, 51, of Merriam, Kan., a Kansas City suburb, was arrested on Interstate 35 near Gardner in suburban Johnson County, Kan., about three hours after the shooting. Tiller was shot to death around 10 a.m. inside Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita.

In the rear window of the 1993 blue Ford Taurus that he was driving was a red rose, a symbol often used by abortion opponents. On the rear of his car was a Christian fish symbol with the word "Jesus" inside.

Those who know Roeder said he believed that killing abortion doctors was an act of justifiable homicide.

Now it's time to call a terrorist organization a terrorist organization. The anti-abortion groups who advocate murder must be considered armed and dangerous. We should treat them just like any other radical fundamentalist group. That means surveillance and arrest when necessary.

They cannot hide behind an the mask of religion forever. What part of Jesus teaching says "kill people"? As a Christian I am appalled at the kind of folks who adorn themselves with crosses and fish and claim to follow the Prince of Peace. They are not followers of any Jesus I know.

Domestic Terrorist Attacks Church - Kills One

A domestic terrorist attacked a man in a church in Wichita, Kansas, killing him in the lobby of the building. The victim, a member of the Reform Lutheran Church, was George Tiller, age 67. Tiller worked with Women's Health Care Services at 5107 E. Kellogg and was targeted because he provided abortion services.

The terrorist who shot him is in custody. The clinic where Tiller worked was bombed previously in 1986 and has been the target of terrorist threats before. Today's killing is a sad example of why militant anti-abortion groups should be included as domestic terrorist organizations.

No arrests were made in the 1986 bombing.

Anti-abortion organizations, though they do not specifically endorse violence, use high powered rhetoric when characterizing abortion service providers as "murderers".

Free speech is one thing, terroristic hate speech is another!

Right Wing Scare Tactics on Health Care

Get ready to be scared! That is the message the right wing is rolling out about health care. They are trotting out a pack of lies to convince us that having the government oversee our health care system will bring disaster. Here is the truth: THEY ARE LYING!

American health care is already a disaster. We are suffering under one of the worst health care systems in the industrialized world. The bottom line governs all aspects of our health care in this country and that is just plain STUPID.

Right now I have two very close relatives in the hospital. My aunt who is in her 80's needed surgery, and her insurance/Medicare supplemental tried to force the doctor to shove her out the door in a "day surgery" scenario. That would be fine for a healthy 40 year old, but a woman who has had multiple heart attacks and myriad other health problems needs to be monitored after surgery, plain and simple. Why the bums rush? Bottom line concerns not doctor's advice is behind it.

I was visiting Canada recently and I asked the group I was speaking to for a satisfaction rating on their health care. They all said it was just fine. Yes they had to wait sometimes, but it was better than what we have...no coverage for millions of Americans, and high deductibles and pencil pushers making health care decisions not doctors. So, I know it was an informal poll, but at least it was a real answer, not just a bunch of scare tactics.

We need government provided or at the very least overseen health care in our country. It is painfully obvious to everyone except the insurance companies who are making a killing, and that pun was intended, in profits! How about turning most of those pencil pushers into civil servants whose prime concern is the health and welfare of citizens, not corporate profits. That makes so much sense I feel sure most of the GOP and the right wing corporate mouthpieces will be screaming "socialized medicine". Socialized Medicine would be a quantum leap from the lousy care we have now.

Think about it.

Alec Baldwin Defends Gay Marriage Rights

I always liked Alec Baldwin as an actor. His stint on 30 Rock has confirmed his ability to play both drama and comedy, but I didn't think much about him as a columnist until recently when reading Huffington Post.

Baldwin's piece on Gay Marriage really hits back hard at the supporters of Prop 8 who use the "marriage is between a man and a woman and for the purpose of creating a family" argument.

It is very good and worth your time to read.

Civil Disobedience in San Francisco - 175 Arrested In Anti-Prop 8 Demonstration

From the Mercury News:

San Francisco police arrested about 175 protesters who were part of a group that blocked a major intersection for hours today in response to the state Supreme Court's ruling upholding Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.

Hundreds of people filled the intersection of Grove Street and Van Ness Avenue late this morning after word spread of the ruling. The court also ruled that roughly 18,000 existing same-sex marriages in California remain valid.

It's moving to the streets. Unfortunately, that kind of action is what finally moved Civil Rights for African American's into the national limelight. It may take more protests and many more arrests to get our civil rights!

California Supreme Court Upholds Prop 8!

The California Supreme Court has upheld Prop 8 but stated that marriages already in place can stay. They have essentially created two classes of LGBT citizens, those who have the right to marry and those who don't. That in itself should seem unconstitutional, but hey, it's California!

Now the protests begin and a fight for a new ballot initiative in 2010 to toss out Prop 8 or at least make it legal for same sex couples to marry.

Rallies are being held in cities across America. Dallasites can gather at Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs for tonight's rally and protest.

California Supreme Court Decision on Prop 8 Due Today.

The California Supreme Court's decision on the constitutionality of Prop 8 is due out today. LGBT organizations are standing in wait with plans for either celebrations or protests. The decision seemed like a sure thing for Prop 8 proponents a while back, but since the Iowa ruling some observers are wondering if it might not be overturned. We will see soon enough.

If you are available at 7:00pm today, join the rally at Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs.

More info here.

Conservative Talker Admits Waterboarding Is Torture!

Conservative talk show host Mancow Muller consented to waterboarding. He expected to be able to last about 30 seconds and had dismissed waterboarding as just "getting water on your face".

After a very mild demonstration with medical personnel standing by and the ability to stop it at any time, he lasted about 7 seconds before calling it quits. In his own words, this former critic of waterboarding concedes it is "absolutely torture".

Now, having performed this little experiment on friends in a consensual BDSM scene, I can tell you he got off even lighter than anyone I have ever played with. Now when the hell will Sean Hanity try this?

National Health Care - Don't Let The Insurance Companies Scare You!

As the health care folks start making noise about how "we can do better than government run health care", I have to wonder why they haven't? I am not alone. Paul Krugman asks the same question in his column in the NYT today.

It's a valid question and the answer is simple as I see it. Private industry cannot provide health care an efficiently and cheaply as a government run system. Why? They have to factor in the "profit" to any cost they incur. Without that "profit" they are out of business, and they get that by marking up costs and denying procedures to sick people. Not a very nice thing to do.

Jon Stewart asked the real question on his program last week when he grilled Newt Gingrich as to why we couldn't trust the government to run health care but we could trust them to run the military. That reframes the issue in a way anyone can understand.

We have one of the least effective health care systems in the world, and we have millions of American's without any insurance or access to health care at all. How difficult is it to see that the private insurance industry has no incentive to do anything about this? Remember that "profit" item?

American businesses suffer under the weight of providing health insurance for their employees and that cost goes up every year without any predictable limits. Our country's competitiveness is being hindered by our poor system of providing health care and other countries do not have to deal with this. Yes their taxes may be higher, but they can predict those and factor them into their cost.

It's time we got serious and ignored the propaganda being spewed by the insurance industry and start listening to small businesses and the citizens of the country. A government provided health insurance or health care is both practical and efficient. It works for every other industrialized country and it can work here. All we need is politicians with a set of balls who can turn down contributions from the health insurance industry and make a change.

Back in the 1950's the doctors and hospitals teamed up with insurance companies and scared the public with threats of "socialized medicine". That planted a seed of fear that still persists long after most doctors see that the current system is broken.

As a citizen without health insurance, this is of vital interest to me and I admit that from the start. Our great system of health care has consistently denied me coverage as an independent worker because of "pre-existing conditions", in other words just about anything at all that has ever affected my health. I am tired of waiting for some kind of affordable health care and tired of avoiding the doctor to prevent adding any more reasons to deny me coverage in the future.

Health care in this country is only for those with the money to afford it. Even the insured have to fight to get treated properly and that is just WRONG! So write your alleged representative in Washington and tell them to do the right thing, we need national health care NOW.

Jon Stewart Spears Gingrich On Health Care

Last night on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart interviewed Newt Gingrich and presented one of the best re-framing moments I have ever seen. Gingrich was disparaging a national health care system as socialized medicine and putting forth the old GOP argument that big government can't do anything. Steward abruptly changed the subject.

"Why would you believe that a Washington based military program can work?"

To that Gingrich could only return to more "taxation" rhetoric. The framing is brilliant and hard to dispute especially when you are a hawk. Sometimes comedians can see things in a perspective others can't. Great interview.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Newt Gingrich Pt. 2
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Michael Steele Threatens to Resign As RNC Head

I guess it's finally dawning on Michael Steele that he is a "front man" for the GOP. He is the "new face" of the Republican Party...but nothing else. In reality he is the mask of the party that underneath is still the same old one it's always been.

Steele is finally realizing a fact that I have been blogging about for months. He is a figurehead.

As the RNC strips him of any power bit by bit, he finally got the message. In response to the news that the RNC is contemplating taking away the power of the purse from Steele he said, "they can contemplate all they want to, but the reality is if they want a figurehead chairman you can have a figurehead chairman, but it won't be Michael Steele."

Sounds like he is threatening resignation. We'll see.

American Airlines Sucks At Customer Service

Why the strong headline. Well still stuck in DFW waiting for qa flight to Calgary. The airline has not given any reason for the delay, changed gates without telling anyone and now is trying to find an airplane to fly us there. All with no explanation appology or anything.

Damn I hate flying. I remember when it used to be fun.

More Airport Blogging

Ah, the joys of being stuck in an airport. Having spent $20 already on coffee and sodas, I am wired and feeling a bit testy. Supposedly we are leaving around 2:30pm, a full 4 and a half hours late. I will believe it when I am on the plane and off the ground.

Airport Blogging

Bad weather is always fun when you are stuck in an airport. Sitting on uncomfortable chairs and trying to make productive use of time while looking over your shoulder at the status board hoping to see your flight boarding! Long sentence, but it's pretty accurate.

Even in the newest terminal here at DFW there is little to do other than pay per minute to surf the net, get yet another bad airport shoeshine or suck down more coffee. Did I mention the coffee! Guess I have had too much already.

On my way to Calgary, Alberta today for the weekend. I am glad I left a day early since it looks dicey if I will even get out of here before afternoon.

Meanwhile I will wander around and find another Starbucks...you can never have enough caffeen!

New York Assembly Passes Gay Marriage Bill

From a press release by the Empire State Pride Agenda:

By a bipartisan vote of 89 to 52, the New York State Assembly today passed a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry in New York. This is the second time that the Assembly has voted on and passed marriage equality legislation. The Assembly first passed the bill in June 2007 by a vote of 85 – 61. Today’s vote saw an increase in four supporters over 2007, including three additional Democrat votes and one additional Republican vote, for a total of 84 Democrats and five Republicans voting to support marriage equality for same-sex couples. Five Assembly members who voted “no” in 2007 voted “yes” today.

Now on to the New York State Senate. The governor is expected to sign the bill if it is approved.

Pope's Spokesperson Denys Benedicts Involvement With Hitler Youth

Apparently the Vatican has been taking lessons from the old Bush Administration playbook. While on his trip to the Middle-East, the Pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, vehemently denied that the Pope was in the Hitler Youth. The problem is Pope Benedict XVI haws freely admitted that he was drafted into the Hitler Youth in 1941.

"The Pope was never in the Hitler Youth, never, never, never,'' Father Federico Lombardi, told a press conference in Jerusalem.

I guess they believe if you keep saying it it eventually becomes true?

Personally , I find the fact that he was a member of the Hitler Youth and yet now has become pope an example of grace. He joined unwillingly at a time when all young people in Germany were effectively drafted into the organization. That he has put that behind him and gone on to become Pope is a testament to how much a person can change and to the strength of the human spirit.

Do I agree with the Pope very often, oh heck no! He is an ultra-conservative whose views on Christianity I do not share, but I certainly don't hold his past against him.

The New GOP?

Wanda Sykes At The White House Correspondents Dinner

Wanda smacks Rush and Hannity. You go girl!

Scribd.com Allows Users To Steal My Book Again!

OK so I don't make a fortune from the books I have written, at least I get a few bucks now and then in royalties for my hard work. I am no J.K. Rowling and I never will be writing the kinds of non-fiction that I do, but at least I get the knowledge that some folks find what I write and publish to be worth buying.

That brings me to the website Scribd.com. This site is to literature and intellectual property what Napster was to music. Their high and mighty mission is about making information available etc, etc...but what the site does is post and steal intellectual property. Now the owners will say that is not their intent, yet the allow folks named "anonymous" to put anything at all online and claim they are the owners of the copyright. Funny, I have never read a book published by "anonymous" except the Big Book of AA.

One of my books has shown up on this pirate site 3 or 4 times. Now, granted they do remove it after I send them a stern legal notice, but that is lame. If they are going to continue to allow "anon" to keep putting it up there then they are complicit in the intellectual theft. Funny how no publishing house has sent this before a Congressional Committee like the music industry did to the pirates at Napster?

I am for the free and open exchange of information, but I am not for putting something written by another author online and claiming I own the copyright. Doing that is what is called THEFT and just because its a book doesn't mean you can steal it. Of course these are the same folks who "share" files over the internet and essentially steal movies and music as well.

Enough rant. Now I have to see if Scribd.com will really take my book off their site or not. Wonder if J. K. Rowling has seen Harry Potter on this site? I did find Angels and Demons a few months ago and I know that surely wasn't written by "anon627". Go figure!

GOPosauric Park!

New Film Outs GOP Governor Charlie Crist

Here is the trailer:

Maine Becomes 5th State To Allow Same Sex Marriage

The State of Maine has become the latest to allow same sex marriage. The governor signed the bill into law today making it the 5th state to allow equal rights for LGBT people.

I can only hope the Supreme Court of California realizes how wrong Prop 8 was! Now if Texas can only figure this out!

Bristol Palin - Spokesperson For Abstinence?

The Bizarro World of the right wing keeps popping up on TV lately. The latest glimpse into the cognitive dissonance of the right is Bristol Palin promoting the virtues of "abstinence" on Good Morning America. Say what?

Yes the poster child/unwed mother whose unexpected pregnancy was trotted before the media as part of her mothers political campaign is promoting abstenince as the best form of birth control. Of course this ignores the reality that premarital abstinence pledges among teens are ineffective and often counterproductive -- teens are just as likely to have sex but less likely to use condoms or other forms of birth control according to a major study.

Of course Palin said back in February that abstinence is "not realistic at all." Apparently she had not yet seen the media opportunity as an abstinence proponent. Like her mother, Bristol is showing all the signs of becoming a media whore. (This is not a reference to her unexpected pregnancy with her boyfriend!)

Ford Announces New Electric Car

The guys at Ford apparently really do have a better idea. They announced the rollout of the Ford Focus...Electric Model!

Scheduled to appear sometime in 2011 the electric Focus will run 100 miles between charges and be an ideal car for city dwellers and folks with short commutes. This morning news came that a former SUV plant in Wayne, Michigan will get a $550 million makeover to produce the new electric cars.

Ford is leveraging technology from Magna International to produce the car. Meanwhile, GM is struggling to produce the Volt completely in-house. With a proposed $40,000 price tag I seriously doubt if I will be driving a Volt in the future, but a reasonably priced Ford? Might happen.

Dom DeLuise Dies

A man who made me laugh more than just about anyone has passed away. Dom DeLuise star of TV and Movies passed away this morning. Dom was lloved by everyone who worked with him and his death will be felt throughout the industry.

Joe The Plumber - Your 15 Minutes Is Up!

So who gave this guy a microphone? Joe the Plumber, (not really a plumber nor a "Joe" since his legal name is Samuel Wurzelbacher), has opened his big mouth again and this time he is slurring me and my friends. In one of his rants he invokes some very bad theology and claims that God was very specific that he wanted none of this "queer" stuff. Then he says he would never let his children near any homosexuals, even though some of them are his friends.

Earth to "Joe". Your 15 minutes of fame is up!

Michael Savage Banned From UK

Well our old friend Michael Savage, aka Scumbag, has been banned from entering the United Kingdom because he is considered to be fostering extremism and hatred. What could they be thinking. After all this is the humanitarian who says an autistic child is just "a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out."

Extreme? Savage calls the Quran, the sacred Muslim holy book, a "book of hate". (Obviously he has never read it.)

OK, most of that was intended as ironic, I know my conservative readers don't do irony, but I just can't help myself. Michael Savage is a loud-mouthed provocateur in the same league as Ann Coulter. If he has a genuine well considered opinion, it is so clouded with his hate filled rants that no one can hear it.

The UK realizes this and classifies him in the same league as Fred Phelps and Egyptian cleric Safwat el-Higazi. Thes efolks are really cut from the same cloth. Savage is just another extremist. His difference is he wears an American flag pin insteas of a turban, but he is just as dangerous. It's time US radio stations realized that and turned him off. The air would be so much clearer.

Closing The Offshore Tax Loophole

When US companies like Halliburton or Caterpillar change their corporate headquarters to the Cayman Islands, they don't move their offices, just their legal mailing address for tax purposes. Why? So they don't have to pay taxes in the US. It's a complicated loopholes and I am simplifying the technique, but you get the idea.

These corporations are making their profits in the US and then stealing the tax dollars they should be paying on their gains.

President Obama has proposed changing the tax laws to close this loophole. In the process the US will get several billion in taxes in the next few years, and we need that.

It's about time!

Cowboys Practice Structure Collapses On The Team

The line of thunderstorms that just passed through Dallas left a swath of wind damage in their wake. The most visible damage was the training facility at the Cowboys Valley Ranch facility. The team was on the field during a training exercise as the 60 mph winds tore the walls and cause the entire football-field sized structure to collapse.

Just saw the video from cameramen on the scene as it happened. The whole building began buckling and lights swayed just prior to the collapse. About 10 people are reported to be injured from the falling structure.

Severe storms continue in the area.

N1H1 May Have Started In The US

N1H1 is hardly as catchy as "Swine Flu" but every bit as serious, and contrary to the shouts of the right wing who have tried to make this an "immigration issue", this strain probably started in the US.

The CDC is now saying it looks like the strain began back in 1998 in US hog farms. The cases found in Mexico may have actually paralleled some here, but it's too early to tell.

The CDC is taking this very seriously, and comedians ridiculing the situation aside, the folks in Virology are not amused. The virus is a hybrid of a swine/avain/human influenza and that means it can travel from human to human.

"We're in unprecedented territory really," said Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., which operates a laboratory that works with the World Health Organization. So far, the virus is treatable with antiviral medicines. It appears less deadly than first thought, as long as good medical care is within reach.

The outbreak was detected early in Mexico and that may be a saving grace. A worldwide pandemic on the scale of the Spanish Flu has been expected for a long time. Let's hope this isn't the one.

Hannity Still Silent On Waterboarding Demonstration

Sean Hannity, far-right standard bearer and media whore, has yet to make good on his boast that he would volunteer to be waterboarded for charity. He claimed this would prove it wasn't torture.

Since then Keith Olbermann has posted a $1000 per second prize for Hannity for every second he can endure the torture. So far no word from Hannity.

I'll help out. Since I have experience waterboarding people (albeit in a consensual SM sense as part of an interrogation role-play) I will galdly volunteer to perform the duites. I suspet I will not be taken up on my offer, and it's a good one too. My version of the turture is much milder than the kind indulged in by the CIA and other rogue government agencies. They bring their victim to the verge of drowning, a potentially deadly practice that risks getting water in the victims lungs. That often leads to pnuemonia.

So Mr. Hannity, my offer is this. I will assist in whatever capacity needed to help you raise funds for charity. I assure you that I won't do any permanent damage, but that you will gleefully confess to just about anything to get me to stop.

Sounds sadistic? You betcha.

Danny Gans Dies In Las Vegas

If you have never been to Las Vegas you might not have heard of Danny Gans. Gans was voted entertainer of the year numerous times in Las Vegas and had his own theater at the Wynn Encore Hotel & Casino.

Gans died unexpectedly last night at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 52.

Maine Senate Passes Same Sex Marriage Bill!

Word just came in through Americablog that the Maine Senate has passed the Gay Marriage bill. Same sex marriage in Maine is one step closer to reality. Now it moves to the House where an easier time is expected.

Republican Virginia Foxx - Certified Idiot! - Calls Mathew Sheppard Murder A Hoax?

Republicans love to rewrite history. Take Rep.Virginia Foxx, who tried to tie the swine flu to a democratic administration. She said it's "interesting that it happened before under Carter in 1976."

If she had bothered to look at the dates, she would find it happened under Ford. But let's not let reality get in the way of the GOP agenda. She also blamed the Smooth Hawley act on FDR, an act written by Republicans and enacted under Herbert Hoover! Of course she also called it the "Hoot-Smalley" act. Face it Foxx is an idiot!

Then this walking bag of misinformation went on to call the Mathew Sheppard murder a hoax! Someone needs to put duct tape over her mouth before she says something even more outrageous.

Keith Olbermann has the details!

Swine Flu - Redux?

In 1976 I caught the Swine Flu. It was a real ordeal and I spent a week stuck in a hotel room during my travels getting various medications from a local doctor in Agawam, Massachusetts.

Now I figured I would be naturally immune to the newest strain but the doctors tell me differently. Apparently the crafty virus has mutated into a novel form of the virus and just like everyone else, I am vulnerable.

Living in Texas, the state with the largest border with Mexico, the launching point for this wave of pandemic, does make me a bit nervous. The best consolation comes from people taking precautions seriously and schools closing to avoid spreading the disease. Schools are a breeding ground for diseases. Lots of kids, sneezing, coughing and in close contact spreading whatever they have to each other. Share and share alike?

My hope is that parents who keep their children at home will not decide to bring them to work with them. If they do, the same problem will persist, but this time it will be adults who spread it.

The flu in Mexico seems to be more deadly than other countries, and that is a mystery. The fact that this flu is killing the young and strong is also a mystery. It bears a frightening resemblance to the Spanish Flu epidemic that decimated the worlds youth in 1918. Let's hope that isn't repeated.

So what to do? Listen to the recommendations of the CDC and be reasonable. Avoid close contact with large crowds, but don't hide at home and shiver.

Wash your hands and cover your coughs and sneezes, and just maybe we can nip this in the bud.

The Long, Slow Demise Of Michael Steele

It's like watching a slow motion train wreck. Michael Steele, the token minority chairperson of the GOP has steadily had his power extracted by the ultra-conservative faction that runs the party now. The latest slap in Steele's face is a resolution, calling for a new set of checks and balances on the chairman's power to dole out money including new controls on awarding contracts and spending money on outside legal and other services.

Steele is the "dead man walking" of the GOP and apparently he doesn't know it yet.

Arlen Specter Switches Parties!

If I were looking for a real indicator of a "sea change" in American politics, this would be it. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is switching parties. The longtime moderate voice of the GOP has thrown in the towel and says freely that the party has moved away from his beliefs.

"Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans."

The GOP is fast becoming a fringe party and none too soon for me. The radical far-right factions that have kidnapped the GOP are pushing it into irrelevance. Once Al Franken is seated as Senator from Minnesota, Specter will give the Democrats a filibusterer proof majority and the real work of rebuilding our country can begin.

Iowa Gay Weddings Start Today

Wedding bells will be ringing in Iowa starting today for same-sex couples. Though there is a three day waiting period after getting a license, a judge can grant an immediate license.

Iowa has not state residency requirements for marriage!

Stop The Madness

Hatred Kills Again - 11 Year Old Suicide

The next time someone defends anti-gay bigotry as a religious issue, ask them if they believe in killing children. That's the sum total of what hatred can do.

In the case of Jaheem Herrera, an 11 year old from DeKalb county Georgia, the hatred he experienced in school was too much. He hanged himself rather than continue to suffer the bullying he received because students perceived him as gay.

He was discovered hanging in his room by his 10 year old sister who tried in vain to rescue him.

According to a story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Jaheem was bullied relentlessly, his family said. Keene said the family knew the boy was a target, but until his death they didn’t understand the scope.

Bullying has made the news lately from another case in Massachusetts when another 11 year old boy hanged himself after relentless bullying for his preceived sexual orientation.

What these cases point to is a need to recognize that hatred can kill. I know lots of people will say, it was the boys fault he died, after all it was suicide. To them I can only say, until you have experienced being the target of a vile hatred so strong that it makes your every waking hour a nightmare, shut your mouth!

Parents and preachers and politicians are the villans here. They are the ones who carefully teach their children to hate anyone different from themselves. They instill the prejudices well and their offhanded remarks often are taken as absolute truth by impressionable children.

There is a song in the musical South Pacific called "You've Got To Be Taught". Perhaps everyone should read them?

"You've got to be taught to hate and fear,
 you've got to be taught from year to year,
 it's got to be drummed in your dear little ear---
 you've got to be carefully taught!

 You've got to be taught to be afraid
 of people whose eyes are oddly made,
 and people whose skin is a different shade---
 you've got to be carefully taught.

 You've got to be taught before it's too late,
 before you are six or seven or eight,
 to hate all the people you relatives hate---
 you've got be carefully taught!"
   ---You've Got to be Taught, from South Pacific

The Gathering Storm

Thanks to McBlogger for finding this one:

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) Advocates Assassination

If I were to make the remark that this Bozo made, the FBI would be at my door in a minute. His threat was against the governor of Illinois and was not at all veiled. In an article in the Chicago Tribune he is quoted as saying:

“I think that the decision to raise taxes by 50 percent in Illinois is political suicide,” Kirk said of Quinn’s proposal to raise the tax rate to 4.5 percent from 3 percent, coupled with an increase in the personal deduction. “I think the people of Illinois are ready to shoot anyone who is going to raise taxes by that degree.”

The Republicans are playing with fire when they try these kinds of hate based rallying cries. There are enough wackos out there that one or more of them are going to take these statements as permission to go on a shooting spree and then we will all be in a mess of #*@t.

CWA In Financial Hot Water

I am concerned! The CWA, Concerned Women of Ameirca are broke. Their financials this year show them with a deficit of $767,716. Seems the recession has hit them too.

No before you get too concerned, this group is not about women, nor is it much about women's concerns. It is really a front for anti-gay hate mongering spearheaded by Beverly LaHaye and her son. That's the same Lahaye family of the "Left Behind" series, some really bad fiction and even worse theology.

Seems the group has a serious addiction to telemarketing. They spend more than half of all the funds they raise for marketing. Now that's a cause for concern.

Wouldn't it be a pity if they went broke alltogether? (holding my tongue firmly in my cheek)

Pam's House Blend has more.

Glen Beck, Succession & Texans

Last night I saw a clip of Glen Beck, the wingnut to end all wingnuts, talking about Texas succession. Now let's put this in perspective. A demonstration organized and promoted by Fox News and masquerading as a grassroots thing took place yesterday at the Alamo.

Those in attendance, a few hundred mostly white, fringe folks who would be better suited to a Ron Paul rally than the GOP listened to some odd speeches about tyranny and oppression. Funny, not a single one of them looked oppressed and most hadn't a clue what tyranny really meant.

Amidst all this faux-drama were a couple of signs calling for succession. Mr' Beck took this as a great groundswelling of public opinion and postulated on the topic endlessly on his show and others.

Beck is a fool. Succession is not by any means something people are demanding and he and his network are just using this as a launching pad for some kind of panic to drive people to the GOP and away from reality. Those two are mutually exclusive.

Can someone please tell him to shut the hell up and go back to wherever he is from and leave us peace loving Texans alone?

Teabaggaing Protests Were Flacid

Watching Rachael Maddow tonight, I saw the videos of the "teabagging" protests that happened around the country. One word: pitiful!

What Fox News is claiming was the largest grassroots protest in the country looked like a few hundred rain soaked middle aged loonies. The signs were racist and the message was very mixed. Considering nobody check to get permits for the "dumping of the teabags" they had to immediately scoop them up and leave. And then some brain donor tossed a box of tea over the fence at the White House. Throwing powdered substances at the White House will get the Secret Service on you faster than a duck on a June bug, and the protest became a robot inspected terrorist scare.

Teabagging indeed!

Japanese Robot Suit - Real Life Ironman?

File this one under "Gee Wiz". A company in Japan called Cyberdyne® starts selling a new robotic suit. The device called a HAL® (Hybrid Assisted Limb® device) is a wearable robot that senses your body's movements and increases your strength from 2 to 10 times normal.

Designed for people with disabilities and for heavy labor support at factories, rescue support at disaster sites, as well as in the entertainment field. A real live "Ironman" suit minus the bullet proof part!

According to the company it has a 5 hour battery life and is virtually weightless, since the suit supports itself. We are moving into Robocop territory folks and it's getting exciting...and a little weird.

*CYBERDYNE*, *ROBOT SUIT*, *ROBOT SUIT HAL*, *Hybrid Assistive Limb*, and *HAL* are trademarks (TM) or registered trademarks (®) of CYBERDYNE, Inc. protected by Japanese and Foreign trademark Laws.

Governor Perry Invites Rush Limbaugh To Move To Texas

Here in the Great State of Texas, our esteemed governor, Rick Perry has made a proclamation. Seems the Guv has opened his arms to the head of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh. Perry has invited the right wing gas bag to move to Texas. Damn I love this crazy state sometimes!

According to the Dallas Morning News, Perry stated:

"He's not unlike other people who want to go to a place that's got low taxes and fair regulations and a balanced legal system and a skilled work force. Excellence in Broadcasting hires a lot of people. So if he wants to go somewhere where he works hard and keeps more of what he makes, Texas is the place to do that."

Well if that isn't ass-kissing I don't know what is and Gawd knows Rick Perry is good at GOP ass-kissing. Rumor has it he's good at a lot of things but that is a different story.

So, if Rush does move to Texas it will make our state the home of two certified idiots, Bush and Rush. Sort of seems fitting doesn't it?

Spain Will Prosecute Bush Administration Attorneys

According to The Daily Beast, Spanish prosecutors have decided to press forward with a criminal investigation targeting former U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales and five top associates over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo.

South Pacific - Restored Roadshow Version on Blu-Ray

I don't review movies here very often, much less ones that are 50 years old, but South Pacific is a different story. I remember loving this musical as a child and was delighted when it became available on Blu-Ray disc in HD.

First of all, if you never saw the film during it's original roadshow engagement, which I did, you haven't seen the full film. It was a 3 hour event that had about 18 minutes trimmed from it for general release. That 18 minutes might not seem like much, but it was far from fluff material.

In the restored Blu-Ray version, the film gets a letterbox treatment even with an HD monitor. Shot in Todd-AO, once billed as the successor to Cinerama, it is spectacular in it's scope. The crystal clear vistas of the South Pacific are stunning. Shot in 65mm, any visible film grain is almost imperceptible except in scenes with a very low light level.

The film's director, Joshua Logan, tried a risky technique of using multiple colored filters on the camera to approximate the theatrical effects of stage lighting. Later he regretted this decision, and since it was an in-camera effect, it was permanent. Personally, I have always liked the color shtick. The rich hues accentuate the emotional tone of the songs and give the musical numbers a surrealistic quality.

I won't go into the plot, since everyone knows it well, however I did find why this film was one of my favorites as a prepubescent yet-to-be-out gay kid. The abundance of bare chests and hunky male physiques are astounding. Today this film might get a PG rating for all the man-skin. Back then people figured it was just hot on the islands and guys never wore shirts.

Add that to the musical numbers where the guys are dancing with each other or even more obviously dressed in drag, and it's a homoerotic treat! I have yet t9o watch the numerous extras included with the two disk set, but I feel pretty sure they will be good.

The only distracting thing was the replaced scenes from the roadshow version. This cut had been lost. No negatives or printing elements were known to exist, and so the restoration relied on an old print found in London and scraps of workprint to replace the missing scenes. Because of this, the quality of these scenes is obviously of poorer quality. Still once I got used to this anomaly, it became invisible.

The sound track is a treat. Multi-channel digital sound reproduces the multi-track analog sound used for Todd-AO to perfection and I found myself singing the songs days after watching the film.

If you have never seen South Pacific, or if you only remember it from Television, you should not pass up this restoration. Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi and Ray Walston never looked or sounded so good!

The Train Station Dance - Sound Of Music!

Sometimes I think there is not enough magic in the world, and the I find this video. It was a publicity stunt for a TV program, and T-Mobile also has used a similar gag in a British train station, but it is still magic. Imagine being just anywhere and suddenly a Hollywood musical starts happening around you complete with hundreds of dancers. Now that's entertainment!

It's A Bird, It's A Plane, No It's A Zeppelin!

Call me a romantic, but I love the idea of Zeppelins! My partner and I had tried to get a ride when we were in Germany a few years ago, but the season was already booked up in Frederickshafen, but now there is a Zeppelin in the US.

An enterprising couple in San Francisco have brought one of the huge airships to the bay area. When the weather is good, they offer sightseeing rides over the city and surrounding area. The trips leave from Moffeft Field and last around 2 hours.

I really can't imagine anything quite as spectacular as floating over the Golden Gate at sunset in the modern descendant of the 1930's airship. More here.

Betty Brown And Those Darned Asians

I love Texas. It's a great state to live in except for the idiots we have as our representatives.

Case in point: Rep. Betty Brown. Seems Betty has trouble pronouncing the names of people of Asian descent. So to save her actually having to learn how to say the names correctly, she feels those pesky Asians should Americanize their names instead. This is what she actually told Chinese American representative, Ramey Ko the following:

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?”

So by that standard, I guess "One Stone" would be better than Einstein and someone named Abercrombie should be called "Swamp Land " a loose translation of the Celtic surname. Maybe folks named Buckingham should Americanize their names by using the root meaning, "Beech Tree Town". Kind of flows off the tongue doesn't it?

Betty is an idiot. Let's not mince words here. She is a bigot disguising her bigotry as some kind of semantic simplification exercise. What she is really saying is, "Wouldn't it just be easier if everyone was just like me?"

Well Betty (by the way you have a Dutch name originally "Beatrice"), how about taking a few moments to use the education you got in school and learn how to pronounce the names correctly. You don't have to know Chinese, since everyone's name in this country is already "Americanized" by the fact that it is phonetically spelled in our alphabet, or actually the "Latin" alphabet. So why not just shut up and go crawl under an Einstein.

This Night Is Indeed Different From All Other Nights - Passover At The White House

Talk about change! President Obama will attended a Seder Thursday night, making him the first US president to attend a White House Passover. The event will occur on the second night of Passover which begins at sundown on Wednesday to allow those in attendance to spend the first Seder with their families.

The guest list was not immediately available, though it is likely to include top Obama advisors David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, both of whom are Jewish, as well as some of the key Jewish donors to Obama's presidential campaign.

I just wish I was there to see the Obama children look for the afikomen!

Jack Wrangler Dies

Once the first "name" porn star, Jack Wrangler died peacefully at age 62.

Wrangler was a gay icon in the 1970's and his films, yes then they were film not video, really put gay porn in the spotlight. Masculine and rugged looking Wrangler's look spawned the "Marlboro Man gay clone". His films were wildly successful. Later Jack moved into straight porn and finally into acting on stage and directing.

He was married to singer Margaret Whiting in what was perhaps one of the most happy and to many inexplicable couplings of all time.

Gay Marriage Now Legal In Vermont!

From the Human Rights Campaign:

The state Senate voted 23-5 and the House of Representatives voted 100-49 to override Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto, making Vermont the first state to recognize marriage for committed lesbian and gay couples through the legislative process. The Vermont legislation goes into effect September 1.

“This historic vote in the Vermont legislature reminds us of the incredible progress being made toward equality. Less than five years ago, lesbian and gay couples began marrying in Massachusetts. Now, with the Iowa court decision last Friday and today’s vote in Vermont, there will be four states recognizing the right to marry for loving, committed lesbian and gay couples,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “We congratulate Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, Speaker of the House Shap Smith, the other legislators who voted for marriage, the Vermont
Freedom to Marry Task Force, and MassEquality for ensuring that all couples will now enjoy the freedom to marry in Vermont. This is a law that will strengthen families and give meaning to the promise of equal rights for all.”...

Vermont becomes the first state to recognize marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples through legislation. California’s legislature has twice passed similar legislation that was vetoed and not enacted into law. Vermont is the fourth state, after Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa, to extend marriage equality to committed lesbian and gay couples. Iowa’s state supreme court unanimously ruled on April 3, 2009 that the state constitution guarantees lesbian and gay couples the equal right to marry.New York recognizes marriages by lesbian and gay couples legally entered into in another jurisdiction. California recognized marriage by lesbian and gay couples between June and November of 2008, before voters approved Proposition 8, which purports to amend the state constitution to prohibit marriage equality. The Proposition 8 vote has been challenged in court; a decision by the state supreme court is expected by June.

Lesbian and gay couples do not receive federal rights and responsibilities in any state. To learn more about state by state legislation, visit here.

Focus On The Family Employee Target Of Underage Sex Sting

It seems the right wing fringe group, Focus on the Family is the focus of an investigation of an underage sex scandal. A Colorado man who works as a Bible narrator for the group was arrested by police after he solicited sex online from an investigator posing as a teenage girl.

This is not the first far right evangellical group to have sex scandals, and considering Colorado is a hotbed (no pun intended) for these groups, it is just one more shocking incodent. Last year the Colorado evangellical community was rocked by Rev. Ted Haggard's sex and drug scandal.

More from Page OneQ.

Activists Push For A Harvey Milk Stamp

Activists are an optomistic group. They can see what the world should be like and believe they can actually make a change in the right direction. That's what the group of kitchen-table activists in San Francisco are doing in their quest for a Harvey Milk US Postage Stamp.

Artist Jim Leff has been creating stamp artworks since the 1980s. His works depict just about any subject you can think of, including a few far too racy for the real USPS. However, his artwork depicting slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk fits right in with a push by another group to have Milk commemorated on a stamp.

According to a story in the Bay Area Reporter:

Daniel Drent, an openly gay man who lives in Cincinnati, is coordinating the effort to convince the U.S. Postal Service’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee to issue a Milk stamp. He would like to have approval of the stamp to coincide with what would have been Milk’s 80th birthday on May 22 in 2010. Should the committee select the Milk stamp next year, it would not be released until 2012 at the earliest.

For a chance to buy one of these stamps, I might even take up philately again!