Sovereign Citizens Movement and Why It Is Dangerous

This video from Southern Poverty Law Center was intended for police, but it is worth every minute you spend watching it. It details the whole phenomenon of the "sovereign citizens" movement. This may sound new, but it is just the same kind hard nosed folks like Timothy McVeigh. They would be called wackos in most books, but this is something you should take seriously. Watch it. Warning, it contains scenes of real violence.

Reconsidering DADT

As the administration backs away from repealing DADT and just about any other initiative that could benefit LGBT Americans perhaps it is time to reconsider what we want.

Yes I still demand equal rights, but until the time they are granted, (rights that every other American already have) I think the idea of LGBT people serving in the military is essentially wrong headed. Why should we defend a country who systematically denies us equal rights? Why should we risk our lives for a country that has relegated us to the role of second class citizen?

I am waiting for an answer beyond the usual jingoistic patriotic slogans and bumper sticker wisdom. Additionally, I have to wonder why LGBT Americans are taxed at the same rate as straight Americans. We do not share the same rights and services of our government, we do not share the protections of law and we do not rate full representation, so why pay full taxation?

Damn, I am starting to sound like a Tea Bagger!

Here is the crux of the matter. My enthusiasm for patriotism is somewhat dimmed by all the clever little ways my life and rights are used as legal tender in the political process. If someone suggested that women be denied equal protection under the law, there would be such a hew and cry that no one would ever dare suggest it again. Perhaps that is what LGBT Americans need to do. Raise a ruckus!

Every political event, of either party needs LGBT representation. LGBT people who will stand up and ask the tough questions, at least tough questions for politicians.

Every civic event needs LGBT representation. LGBT people who will show up and identify themselves, a visible presence that cannot be ignored. Every newspaper in America needs a daily flood of letter from LGBT people demanding equal rights. Every call-in show needs LGBT Americans to call in and demand to know why we are not getting equal treatment in the press and in the courts and in the military.

Every dollar we spend should be marked with a large red stamp letting people know it is LGBT money that helps power the economic engine of our country. Every check to a creditor or utility should have a notation that it is from an LGBT American so businesses understand how many of their customers are "second class citizens" spending first class money!

Harsh? Perhaps. Maybe I am just tired of fighting the right-wing propaganda machine that is well oiled and working like a big clock whereas the left continues to sputter in disarray, tilting at windmills with the impotent weapons of reason and knowledge. Face it, America is a country that runs on its gut not its mind. Until we can find ways to appeal to that gut, we will always lose. Until we learn to create messages that grab the public by the heart we will lose them to the Sarah Palin's of the right.

Look to our own state to see the proof. Rick Perry, a half baked intellect and frankly pretty much a duffus, won over a very qualified Bill White for governor. Why? Look at the ads. White tried to appeal to our minds, and Perry just smiled and sparkled through a glossy Hollywood filter, with a charming southern drawl and saying nothing of any substance. Damn he looked good! Sounded friendly too!

Wonder why he won? Packaging.

Well, maybe we need to repackage our message. Oh we'll never make it charming enough for most folks, but maybe we can make it look powerful enough to make them pause. Just long enough to make them wonder, heck why not give them rights? How could it hurt?

Who knows? If I had the answer, I'd already be in the Oval Office. Just wondering, you know?

Pee Wee Herman vs WWF!

Whenever I am down and feeling funky about things like "politics" I can always count on one person to cheer me up.  PEE-WEE!

Bush Rewrites History - "I was a dissenting voice" in Iraq War

In one of the most blatant acts of hubris in his political career, Ex President Bush has written his "memoirs.  Now since I feel pretty sure this is a work by a ghost writer, I guess I should cut "W" some slack, but I am not feeling particularly charitable.

In a book promotion interview with Matt Lauer, Bush says in response to a questoin about dissenters in the rush to go to war with Iraq:

I was a dissenting voice. I didn’t want to use force. I mean force is the last option for a President. And I think it’s clear in the book that I gave diplomacy every chance to work.

Strange coming from the man who is quoted as saying "“We need to get Saddam Hussein…that Mother fucker tried to take out my Dad.”

The Republicans feel they can rewrite history with impugnity and unless someone stops them they are right.  It is up to us, the people who lived through that dark era to stand up and call "foul" every time one of the GOP talking heads spouts a party line lie.  Well I am calling FOUL!

Bush is lying in his memoir and he lied in office.  He should have been impeached, but the Congress then as now has no balls.  If the talk show hosts let him continue to lie to the public, we will look back on his disastrous presidency with fond remembrance, and that would be a travesty to our children and to history.

I Remember - Watch This Video Before You Vote!

Michigan Assistant AG May Loose Law License Over Anti-Gay Bullying

The coarseness of discourse in this country is at an all time high.  Consider the case of the Assistant Attorney General of Michigan who is alleged to have spent the last six months harassing and bullying a gay college student leader.

U-M student Chris Armstrong was serving on the Michigan Student Assembly during his senior year.  During that time the complaint filed alleges that Assistant AG Andrew Shirvell has taken it upon himself to lead a one-man campaign against Armstrong. On his blog he posted a picture of Armstrong, a swastika across his face, calling him "Satan's representative" on the student assembly and said he was promoting a "radical homosexual agenda" as president.

Read more here at the Detroit Free Press .

Personally, I find it disturbing that a state official would engage in this kind of childish and brutish behavior.  Appropriately, it could cost him his job and his law license.

Tropical Storm Tomas Headed for Haiti

As though Haiti hasn't had enough disaster, now a powerful tropical storm, Tomas is bearing down on the earthquake ravaged country.  The storm is expected to become a Category 1 Hurricane before making landfall and though Haitian authorities are trying to prepare, I have to wonder how bad this will be. Already a cholera epidemic has been spreading on the island and now the promise of torrential rains and flooding don't bode well.

From a Wall Street Journal interview: "We've been planning hurricane preparedness for months, but to cope with that on top of cholera is hugely complex and demanding, and placing massive pressure on resources already stretched," said Imogen Wall, a spokeswoman for the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "We need to move supplies quickly and our logistics are concentrated on cholera right now."

Arkansas School Board Bigot Offers To Resign

Looking somewhat contrite Midland School Board member Clint McCance has apologized and offered to resign over the hate filled diatribe he posted on his Facebook page. In that screed, he actually encouraged LGBT teens to commit suicide.  As I wrote before, this guy is why there are stereotypes of redneck hillbillies from Arkansas.

You can see his apology here on CNN.

My guess is that if there hadn't been such a ruckus in the blogosphere about his hatred, the Facebook page would still be up.

Update:  Here is the video from Anderson Cooper 360.

New Robot from Japan. Life like? Very much so!

I found this on Joe My God and it amazed me and creeped me out a little.  For all you robotic fans, take a look!


The caption translates roughly to this:"Was introduced in 2010 Open Lab, AIST Actroid-F 2 of the state's behavior. Actroid-F introduction and basic operation."

More Hate from the Right. Tony Pekins Also Urges Kids to Kill Themselves

Right wing bigot Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has add his shrill voice into the matter of LGBT teen suicide.  Of course he comes down on the side of "go ahead and commit suicide, you know you are abnormal!"

His despicable quote is below:

Tony Perkins, president of the evangelical Family Research Council, says gay activists are exploiting the concern over bullying — and twisting the facts. "There's no correlation between inacceptance of homosexuality and depression and suicide," he says. Rather, Perkins says, there is another factor that leads kids to kill themselves. "These young people who identify as gay or lesbian, we know from the social science that they have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict." Homosexuality is "abnormal," he says, and kids know it, which leads them to despair.

Arkansas School Board Officials Tells Gay Teens To Commit Suicide! Really!

I guess I should have expected this from Arkansas, but I just have been resistant to believing the stereotypes.
A really mean man named Clint McCance is on the board of the Midland school district in northern Arkansas.

I call McCance mean because he really is.  Consider this statement from Mr. McCance:

"Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE."

Really people indeed!  McCance is beyond being bigoted, he as a member of the school board, a group whose purpose is to protect the children they are trying to educate goes way beyond being mean.  His calous remarks are the worst kind of bullying and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't actually contribute toward anti-gay violence or more suicides.

When elected officials say these kinds of things they are using the public forum to oppress and degrade the very people they should be protecting.

So here is an open letter to Mr. McCance:

Dear Mr. McCance,

Your hate filled posting on your Facebook page shows just how little you care for the very children you should be protecting.  To espouse encouragement for teen suicide is unconscionable and if your constituents don't call for your resignation, let me do it for them.  Now in words you can understand, "Yer a damned asshat and need to shut yer trap.  Now either get out or apologize or even better, both."

Understand?

HRC Writes Obama on DADT

The Human Rights Campaign president, Joe Solmonese has issues an open letter to President Obama encouraging him to end actions to appeal a federal judge's decision the DADT was unconstitutional. That is a good thing, but the letter is way too long and far to detailed.  Though it is a nice gesture, I would prefer the following.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear Mr. President,

After a federal judge has declared the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy unconstitutional, perhaps you should use the power of your office and decline to appeal that decision.  Why?  Well first off, it's an unconstitutional law and clearly was designed to garner votes, not as sound policy.  Second, you yourself have promised time and time again that DADT will be repealed "on my watch".  Well Mr. President, the whole world is watching.

Sincerely,

Hardy Haberman

GOProud Actively Working Against Gay Candidates

First of all in the interest of full disclosure, I am a Democrat. Second of all I sincerely believe the alleged LGBT organization GOProud is a hoax.  Otherwise, why would they be going after one of the few openly gay politicians in the Senate, Barney Frank.  OK,  Frank is a Democrat, but these alleged LGBT folks see his fiscal policies as more important than his record on LGBT issues.

This kind of cognitive dissonance is not that rare from Republicans, but for people who are supposedly openly gay to take this kind of stance makes me wonder at their grasp of reality or their veracity as a genuine LGBT organization.  Personally, I think they are fake.  These are the insane people who invite Ann Coulter to their events.  If they were Jews in Germany in the 1930's they would be inviting Dr. Joseph Mengele over to give a talk on eugenics.

Bully and Bullied Team For Teen Talks

If there were ever a story that at least partially restored my faith in humankind, it is this one. 

Imagine being a 13 year old boy who is being bullied at school for being gay.  You seek help from your mother and instead you get tossed out of the house and end up living in the streets at 14.  Then years later, after turning your life around you decide you need to speak to teenagers about the repercussions of bullying.  It's a good cause and you find you have an ally who wants to help, a former skinhead and bully, the same one who had even tried to kill you as a teen!

This is not the stuff of made-for-TV moves but the real life story of Matt Boger, who at 13 was kicked out of his home and Tim Zaal, the skinhead who had been on e of his attackers.  Both, now in their 40's have teamed up to work with at risk kids in schools.  Read it and get inspired...and then do something good.

Obama does HMS Pinafore!

Fucking hilarious!

Rangers Head to World Series!

OK, my inner jock just came out.  I am not much of a sports enthusiast, but I do enjoy watching baseball, especially live at the ballpark.  If you have only seen it on TV you are not seeing baseball!  Anyway, our local team, the long suffering Rangers has finally made it to the series.

After beating the New York Yankees 6-1 in game 6 last night they won the AL pennant.  Now hey will go up against either San Francisco or Philadelphia.  I am rooting for SF since I would love to see the Rangers play in San Francisco.  That dream will have to wait, since tickets are sure to be impossible to get. 

Go Rangers!

Christine O'Donnell Claims To Be Constitutional Scholar - Has No Idea What's In The 1st Amendment

In an amazing show of ignorance and complete air-headedness Christine O'Donnell can't recall the First frigging Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America?  In this segment by Anderson Cooper she gets an education.

"Hoot Man" - Scots Support Gay Marriage!

An article in the Harborough Mail shows results of a recent poll in Scotland.  Scots support the rights of same-sex couple to marry.  A majority, 58%, support the idea while only 19% are against.  Read more here.

Gay Bashing Increasing in NYC, too!

I am not sure if the statistics bear this out, but anecdotal it seems that the number of gay bashing s has been on the increase in Dallas.  Now after three separate cases in NYC, one at Stonewall Inn and two more at other local gay bars,  it looks like it might be a nationwide trend.  I have to believe this is due to the increased rhetoric from politicians and talk shows who during an election cycle use LGBT rights as a punching bag. Again, the level of crazt talk has gotten out of hand and I suspect it is having real-world effects.

More reason than ever for the Rally to Restore Sanity.

Carly Fiorina - Can't Name One Spending Cut to Pay For Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich

On FOX News, no less, Carly Fiorina babbled and babbled but refused to give Chris Wallace a single idea for cutting spending that would reduce the $4 trillion deficit and continued to defend the Bush era tax cuts for the rich.

Like most Republicans they can spout rhetoric, but don't really have any ideas.

Watch and be as confused as I am. She was asked 7 times and never answered.