Saturday, October 01, 2005
Bill Bennett received
scalding criticism from Republicans today for
remarks he made about African Americans. Even the White House got in on the act.
When asked President Bush's reaction to Bennett's remarks, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "The president believes the comments were not appropriate."
Bennett defended his remarks, but it did not stop his GOP friends from bashing him. Michelle D. Bernard, senior vice president of the conservative Independent Women's Forum, said Bennett's remarks highlight why many African Americans distrust conservatives.
"In choosing to use the hypothetical genocide of black children as a way to reduce crime . . ., Bennett shamefully traded on the pervasive stereotype that it is African Americans who are responsible for all of the crime in the United States," she said. "People wonder why black people don't trust . . . notions such as compassionate conservatism, and Bill Bennett just added fuel to the fire the Bush administration has worked hard to put out."
Bill, when your own buddies are disowning you, maybe it is time to say "I'm sorry". Heck, even Bush apoligized after he let New Orleans fall into the lake. If he can do it, you can too.
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The New York Times reports that federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.
I can't say I blame Republicans for their slimy efforts. After nearly five years of creating disasters, hurting America and outright incompetence, good news is hard to come by. So, why not buy the news? There are countless morally bereft moralizing columnists like Williams who are more than willing to sell their credibility for a few bucks.
Money, after all, is what modern conservatism is all about. It is not a movement or even a political party. Republicanism under Bush and DeLay is a giant gravy train, where working families are manipulated to elect politicians who will make the rich even richer. So, it should be no surprise that a GOP based on false premises would resort to phony news.
Finally, if the GOP wants to resort to bogus broadcasting, they should hire John Stewart. He's a heck of a lot funnier than Williams and probably could be bought for a heck of a lot less, saving the taxpayers money.
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Folks, it is getting more difficult with each passing day to keep track of Republican Scandals. The corruption and cronyism is out of control. Here is the latest GOP scandal update.
1) Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has been ordered to appear at an arraignment on Oct. 21 in an Austin courtroom, where he plans to plead not guilty to the charge that he conspired with two associates to funnel corporate donations to Republican candidates for the Texas legislature.
2) Private e-mail between Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and his advisers reflects that Frist began discussing the sale of his HCA Inc. stock in April, months before it became clear that the hospital firm's shares would decline in value, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post. However, this still doesn't change the fact that he dumped the stock at a very beneficial time.
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In his
first appearance in the Houston area since he was indicted and lost his House leadership post, Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, shared hugs, handshakes and, of course, speeches with about 200 people who packed a Galleria-area rally to see him.
One thing you can always count on from modern conservatives is that they care more about Team GOP than America. No matter what corrupt, unethical, immoral or sleazy thing a conservative politician does, the loyal troops rally. And so what if their heroes sully the political system, destroy the moral fabric of our nation, send a bad message to children and bring down America. The only thing that matters is sucking up to the Republican Leadership.
DeLay's supporters remind me of the goons and sycophants that cheer dictators in kleptocracies. It is simply incomprehensible that anyone would stand by this corrupt politician. But, we are talking about braindead Republican cheerleaders -- Ra, Ra Ree - GOP!!!!!
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Friday, September 30, 2005
Morality czar, gambling junkie and virtues peddler Bill Bennet made an interesting statement on his radio show.
Media Matters reports that in response to a caller on
Bill Bennett's Morning In America, the host said:
"I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."
Bennett should apologize for his obnoxious and offensive remarks. How would he like if I suggested that if the babies of conservative parents were aborted hypocrisy would go down?
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When cowardly decision are made, no one is ever happy. This is why both the right and the left are
attacking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today for vetoing a freedom to marry bill in California. The stunt man/actor capitulated to the darker side of human nature and sided with those who would deny GLBT people equality.
He did sign a few pro-gay bills yesterday, but who really gives a damn. He had his chance to erase real barriers and failed. Instead of placing all Californians under one set of laws that apply to everyone equally, he perpetuated a system that sets different laws for different people. For this, history will judge him harshly.
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One of my favorite blogs,
Good As You, has uncovered some highly disturbing news. The ABC network has invited
gay-hating, Creationism-loving
Focus on the Family, to take-part in an episode of the popular television show
Extreme Makeover Home Edition.
Just imagine the oversized hairdos and the washing away of rivers of thick makeup and eyeliner! Think of the awful linoleum floors and the dusty stuffed mooseheads on the wall. And while ABC is at it, will they please tell Focus leader James Dobson to get rid of those
gigantic glasses that make him look like neurotic fly. All kidding aside,
Focus on the Family is a bigoted
hate group. They make money demeaning homosexuals and
unsuccessfully trying to turn gay people straight. One wonders if Hitler were alive, would ABC offer to trim his mustache or vacuum his house? ABC ought to drop this show immediately and stop all future cooperation with Focus on the Family.
Think about it this way. Would ABC get in bed with a group that had a program to turn black people white or make left handed people into right handers? Of course not. So, they have no business partnering with a group that has a failed program to wipe out gays.
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Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, leaving the issue up to voters or judges who will likely face the volatile issue in the next year.
"This bill simply adds confusion to a constitutional issue," the Republican governor said in a veto message.
Schwarzenegger's actions are an absolute disgrace and have stained his legacy. He had his chance to make history, and instead he chose to stand in the way of the future. The GLBT community should spare no expense in making sure he is defeated when he runs for reelection.
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Washington Post Columnist
Eugene Robinson really hit the nail on the head when describing the immoral legacy of Tom "The Hammer" DeLay. "
"Tom DeLay, because he's such a ruthlessly effective bully, has been as responsible as anyone for pushing his party to the end of the political spectrum previously reserved for the anti-everything, loony-bin far right. His comeuppance is an occasion to remind ourselves just what a long, strange trip it's been."
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Following Hurricane Katrina, the whole world knew that the Bush Administration stocked the government with incompetent cronies. However, the true extent of Bush's unprecedented rewarding of political pals is only beginning to come into the light of day.
Time Magazine asks an important question: "How Many More Mike Browns Are Out There?"
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Thursday, September 29, 2005
It's official.
The
Senate confirmed John Glover Roberts Jr. as chief justice of the United States, replacing the late William H. Rehnquist, the mentor for whom he clerked. The vote was 78-22. This is a leap of faith and a journey into the unknown, since Roberts, the consummate politician, failed to say anything substantial during his confirmation hearings. Now we must gear up for the next nomination, which hopefully won't be a right wing zealot - but I'm not holding my breath.
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A
controversy has erupted at The University of Iowa, where the pink visitors' locker room at the school's football stadium is being called sexist and homophobic. Well, actually it is sexist and homophobic. However, it is pretty low on my list of issues to worry about. As far as homophobic storms, this is a Category 1. I'm tend to get more worked up over Category 5 political storms, like anti-marriage Constitutional Amendments.
Finally, pink is a pretty color, unless it's on a car or a house. Thinking back to my days playing competitive football and basketball, we didn't care what color the locker room was. We were just content if the paint wasn't terribly chipped. So get back to playing football and stop whining about the color of the locker room.
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Central Park Zoo's most famous gay penguin couple, Silo and Roy are calling it quits after six years. Silo has reportedly fallen for a female penguin named Scrappy. The same-sex-household wrecker has even begun building a nest with Silo.
Now the really bad news:
Planet Out's Tom Musbach has discovered that Silo may have joined the "ex-gay" ministries.
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The Arctic is melting like an ice cream cone in a Las Vegas June and Bush is finally calling for Americans to cut gas consumption. Of course, if prices drop, he'll likely encourage tax cuts for SUVs. Whatever he does, it may be too late.
The Guardian reports that global warming in the Arctic could be soaring out of control. Scientists warned yesterday as new figures revealed that melting of sea ice in the region has accelerated to record levels.
Experts at the US National Snow and Data Centre in Colorado fear the region is locked into a destructive cycle with warmer air melting more ice, which in turn warms the air further. Satellite pictures show that the extent of Arctic sea ice this month dipped some 20% below the long term average for September - melting an extra 500,000 square miles, or an area twice the size of Texas. If current trends continue, the summertime Arctic Ocean will be completely ice-free well before the end of this century.
Remember that movie,
The Day After Tomorrow? If any President can make that doomsday disaster happen it's Bush. He already let New Orleans become New Atlantis.
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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
According to
Raw Story, Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., who was expected to succeed House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, as majority leader, was dumped by the GOP leadership. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-MO, will instead take up DeLay's post. It is unclear what role his reported homosexually played in his rapid downfall.
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AP is reporting that Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) is expected to at least temporarily succeed House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) as majority leader, following DeLay's indictment. According to
Raw Story, Dreier is as queer as a three dollar bill and lived with his chief of staff last year.
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It is about time.
A Texas grand jury today
indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) on a criminal count of conspiring with two political associates to violate state campaign finance law, and DeLay announced he would temporarily step down as House majority leader.
According to
The Washington Post, the case centers on corporate contributions of about $190,000 that prosecutors allege were essentially laundered by DeLay and his associates through transfers from a federal fund into a state fund.
Now comes the fun part, where DeLay does what Republicans always do, which is blame others - especially liberals or the media - for their own moral failings. Has there ever been a group in politics who takes less personal responsibility and demands less accountability than modern conservatives?
Everyone in Washington has long known DeLay is a sleaze who shakes down corporations and demands that they support his right wing agenda. Now, the rest of the world will see the face of corruption behind the phony "Family Values" agenda. DeLay likes to say he rules through his fundamentalist "worldview". Well, I hope his "worldview" from his prison cell is a brick wall.
Under Newt Gingrich the new Republican majority in 1994 promised to clean up morals and government corruption with its "Contract With America". Well, they've done a fine job. Newt left the House after an affair with a younger woman. And DeLay is stepping aside after an indictment.
The question is, will the Red State suckers continue to vote for a bogus conservative agenda, which is nothing more than a fraud? The Right Wing MO is to talk about morals while picking the pockets of Middle Americans. Ten years after the "Republican Revolution" working class Americans have no money, and it is clear that the leaders they elected have no morals. The rise and fall of Tom DeLay is a cautionary tale of why placing hopes and dreams in the hands of politicians who say they are on God's side is dangerous.
As for Delay? He'll do just fine in prison. There is always a need for exterminators in those rat infested hell holes.
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According to the site
Ex-Gay Watch, on a September 27, Focus On The Family radio broadcast, James Dobson slipped up and told the truth about so-called intelligent Design.
"And creation versus evolution or intelligent design versus evolution, it's been nuanced, it's changed a little bit, but it's the same basic issue."
Thanks James, for finally telling us that Intelligent Design is a sleazy, underhanded way for fundamentalists to slip their unconstitutional agenda into public schools.
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Last night I watched the new ABC television drama "
Commander In Chief". It stars Geena Davis as a the first woman president. First, I think the show was excellent. Second, I like the way it portrays the creationism Speaker of the House as a backward savage.
The most important thing this show will do is help the fortunes of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Don't laugh, fiction often sets the stage for reality. A few years of watching a woman rule the world on television will make it easier for many Americans to accept a woman in the White House. In my view, this show, if it takes off, might be the most important thing that has happened to her campaign. After rooting for a fictional woman president, electing a real one won't seem like such a stretch.
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Former Playboy playmate and stripper Anna Nicole Smith will get her day at the U.S. Supreme Court. She is locked in an
ugly dispute over the will of her late husband, J. Howard Marshall II., a wealthy Texas oilman, with his son E. Pierce Marshall.
With a former Playboy Bunny coming to court, Clarence Thomas can finally leave his stash of porn at home. We just have to watch his hands when they are not visible from the bench. Maybe now he will actually stay awake and ask questions. Just some advice to Anna: If Justice Thomas offer you a soda, make sure there are no pubic hairs.
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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
(Weekly Column)From San Francisco's Castro District to Provincetown, the hard bodied and cool are displaced in favor of cold hard cash. Gentrification is having a dramatic impact on everything from the GLBT bar scene to politics. The question is, can the GLBT Community survive and thrive without the cocoon of the traditional gay ghetto?
TO READ MORE CLICK HERE
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In the trial known as
Scopes II, the school board members who want to force "intelligent Design" into the classroom are being represented by a nonprofit
Christian law firm based in Michigan. The content of intelligent Design is really Creationism by another name. Yet, these phonies are actually trying to trick the court into believing that this is not about imposing religious beliefs.
"This case is about free inquiry and education, not about a religious agenda," Patrick Gillen, a lawyer for the board said in his opening statement.
Sure - this isn't about religion and teens drink beer because it's less filling. Who do these idiots think they are kidding? Wouldn't it be nice if these fundamentalists told the truth and simply said, "We think we are superior and turning America into the Christian version of Iran would be good for the nation."
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A Spanish court on Monday
sentenced a Syrian man to 27 years in prison for conspiring to commit the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This was a pretty light sentence for this sleaze, considering prosecutors had sought a sentence of more than 74,000 years. Now, that is what I call by definition a good lawyer. May the rest of the terrorists get stuck with the public defenders offered death row inmates in Texas.
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(Brownie Making Excuses)
Michael Brown, the ex-FEMA chief, today had
an explanation for his failures to save lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
: It's the media's fault.
Yes, he actually told a House committee that the pictures we saw and the screams we heard were really just the fault of the liberal media for turning on their cameras.
"You can't believe everything that you read in the newspapers, or everything that you see on television," Brownie whined.
Of course, the fact that Bownie had no experience with storm management had nothing to do with his problems. Why is it that Republicans preach personal responsibility when it comes to poor people, and all about rich people avoiding responsibility when they hurt poor people?
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Pfc. Lynndie R. England, a 22-year-old Army file clerk whose smirking photographs came to personify the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, was
convicted Monday of joining in the abuse when she posed next to detainees who had been stripped and put into humiliating poses.
It is gratifying that the symbol of American abuse is probably going to the hoosegow. She should get an extra six months just for looking so damn mean. However, this awful abuse could not have occured if the Bush Administration had not gone soft on torture. While it feels good to see thugets like England get put away, justice will not be served until America punishes those higher up on the food chain. Someone gave England free reign to let her inner-sadist run wild. This person also needs to be put in stripes and sent upstate.
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Monday, September 26, 2005
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon beat back a campaign led by Benjamin Netanyahu to
oust him as Likud Party leader, narrowly defeating a proposal to hold the next primary as early as November. Members of the party's central committee last night voted 1,433 to 1,329, or 52 percent to 48 percent, against moving up the contest from its scheduled date in April.
I'm glad that Sharon won this tangle. Netanyahu is very much like Republicans in the U.S. He lies, he's deceptive and he uses fear to win votes. Sharon has made hard choices for Israel, such as pulling out of Gaza, under constant attack from his party's right. He should be applauded for doing what is in the best interest of all Israelis. Netanyahu, on the other hand, offers no positive vision for Israel. I'm relieved that his dark ambitions have been put on the backburner, at least for a few months.
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Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan
was arrested today at the White House for demonstrating without a permit. She was joined in her civil disobedience by 200 brave protesters who chanted "stop the war now!" She carried a photo of her 24-year-old son Casey, a U.S. soldier who was killed in an ambush in Iraq last year.
If we stop the war now, as protesters want, we leave Iraq in chaos or possibly even civil war. If we stay, the same thing will likely happen, yet more Americans will die. We can thank President Bush for giving our nation no exit strategy, because he lied about our entrance strategy. America has a really sorry hand of cards to play in this game. Whether we hold or fold, it is increasingly likely we will achieve the same depressing outcome.
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(Jeff Berkowitz, left)
Activist Mike Rogers today outed yet another gay man carrying water for the anti-gay Bush propaganda machine.
Jeff Berkowitz, President Bush's liaison to the Jewish Community, is apparently a homosexual, according to Mike's website Blogactive. Jeff's job includes tricking Jews into believing that Republicans serve their interests.
My mother once told me to meet a nice Jewish boy and Jeff Berkowitz clearly doesn't pass the "nice" test.
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Today, the important case known as
Scopes II begins. A Federal District Court in Harrisburg, Penn., will hear the first direct challenge to a school district that has tried to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design".
Anyone who isn't brainwashed understands that so-called intelligent design is nothing more than repackaged creationism. Here is a real question for science: What defect is in the DNA of fundamentalists that compels them to shove their religion down the throats of others?
If one wants to believe that evolution doesn't exist, then go to a backwoods church on Sunday. However, do the civilized world a favor and stop trying to get public schools to teach sermons instead of science.
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Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney wants to be president and he is traveling the nation dissing
his own state in order to win the job. Is it just me, or is this guy
absolutely pathetic ? His aspirations are little more than a pipe dream. What strength would he bring to the ticket other than helping the Republicans recapture Utah, already the most Republican state in the nation.
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Enough is enough. My sympathy has ended.
As we all know, gay people have faithfully played an integral role in the Catholic church. Over the years I've been very supportive of gay Catholics and even gay priests. I have admired their courage to stand and fight the forces of darkness in Rome, who used their talents, even while demeaning and degrading their humanity.
But the Vatican's new
war against gay priests has simply taken the persecution too far. Pope Benedict XVI is planning to purge the seminary and
falsely equate homosexuality with child molestation. Of course, he seems to care little about the girls who were sexually abused at the hands of priests. The Vatican's smear campaign will have dangerous repercussions around the world. Bigots will use the Pope's purge as a signal that it okay to discriminate.
In light of this war against all homosexuals, it is time for the LGBT community to stop coddling the poor gay priests and their supporters who continue to think the situation in Rome is salvageable. Gay Catholic groups and these jilted priests should consider taking advice from the band REM: Lose Your Religion.
There are many other faiths that will not treat you like a dog at the pound and would be happy to welcome Catholic refugees. While it was once admirable to stay within this faith and fight, that time has ended. To continue as a priest or supporter is to be the abused wife who keeps returning home to bake brownies and take a beating. The new Pope has spoken and he thinks you are a perv. It is time to grow up and move on. As for the gay Priests, I know it will be painful to lose your careers. Try Monster.com, it has helped many unemployed people find new jobs that actually respect them for who they are.
Look on the bright side, at least you will finally get to go on a date.
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