Friday, October 28, 2005
Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff,
was indicted on Friday, charged with making false statements to the grand jury and obstruction of justice. This is a huge development that leads directly to the White House. The question is, who will be next? After years of lying and deceit, Bush & company are reaping their comeuppance.
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Earlier this month, I wrote a
disturbing column on J. David Enright IV, a New York man who
The New York Post claimed was suing the Catholic Church for $5 million because a priest that molested him supposedly turned him gay. I interviewed Mr. Enright and he now claims that the Post got it wrong, saying he was "devastated" by the article.
"I'm a proud gay man. I'm out to do good."
Indeed, Mr. Enright has had his hand in gay issues in the past, usually behind the scenes. I have obtained his letter to the Editor that he sent to
The New York Post. Here is the text:
Dear Editor,
I wish to make it perfectly clear that I never said or implied that Father Joseph Romano "made me gay." My issues with Father Romano and the Holy Roman Catholic Church are considerably larger.
Although the New York Post reporter, in a two-three hour taped interview, made every effort to sensationalize the story by blaming Father Romano for my sexual preference, he ignored my true response to this matter. I said: I don't believe that the finest psychiatrist in the world could responsibly say that Romano "made me gay."
I am taped stating this twice. I admit that Romano may have caused an important introduction to such deviate behavior given his acts and stature at the time.
There exists far more significant blame on Romano for pedophilia and his collar and subsequent continued cover-up by a knowing Bishop.
J. David Enright IV
New York City
I spoke to a source at
The New York Post who stands by the story. In any case, I think this is a story worthy of further examination. It is good to see that Mr. Enright has publicly clarified that he does not believe the myth that pedophilia causes homosexuality. He also says that:
"I abhor everything that the Religious Right stands for and it would break my heart to see them twist my words to hurt a movement that I have been a part of."
Mr. Enright says he is suing because of the sexual abuse, not because the priest made him gay. "I want to counter this misconception," he told me. I'm glad that Mr. Enright has moved forward and taken key steps to clear his name and get to the bottom of his lawsuit.
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The Boston Globe ran a really
good article today on a sexual conversion group invading Boston. Brenna Simonds, who runs a small ex-gay ministry, has the audacity to tell the reporter that she doesn't care who wins the political battles over same-sex marriage.
However, if you read further it says that her "ex-gay" ministry is less than
one block from the State House. Well, how convenient. For a person who claims not to care about politics, her prime location sure makes it easy to lobby at a moments notice. These slick "ex-gay" political lobbyists who say they aren't involved in lobbying against gay rights, remind me of the 400 lbs. man walking out of an all-you-can-eat buffet saying that he doesn't like food.
Later in the article, spokesvirgin Randy Thomas, an "ex-gay" who is still so grossed out by naked women that he hasn't had a date or sex in at least a decade (the last time was with a man), blatantly lies about Exodus, his ex-gay organization.
"We don't cure people," said Randy Thomas, membership director for Exodus International, which has more than 100 ex-gay ministry chapters nationwide. "The goal is Christ, not a particular orientation."
Maybe Thomas is too busy looking at Internet porn to read his own group's webpage, so I'll remind him that Exodus claims to offer "Freedom From Homosexuality Through The Power of Jesus Christ". Um, sounds like a cure to me, or a deceptive word game to trick clients into thinking they have a chance of becoming heterosexual. And let's not forget Exodus' billboards that scream "The Truth Brought Freedom!"
Clearly, the goal of Exodus is turning people straight, not simply making them Christians. If sexual conversion has nothing to do with the group, what is the point of them existing, when regular churches can handle the task of converting people? Exodus is a scam and Randy Thomas is a liar who spews out so much doublespeak, he probably has a forked tongue.
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Thursday, October 27, 2005
Only a day after the right wing flipped out over a
1993 speech where Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers appeared to be against legislating morality,
she withdrew under a firestorm of criticism from the president's right wing base. As I speculated yesterday, she was on the way out. Unfortunately, it was just when I was starting to like her.
Now comes the bad part. Bush will be forced to nominate a right wing ideologue to satisfy conservatives. The Democrats will filibuster. With the nutty base screaming and yelling, the GOP will use the "nuclear option" taking away the right for the Democrats to filibuster judicial nominees. The divisive right wing will have once again taken American politics into the gutter and spit on national unity. They should be proud!
If the Republicans go nuclear, the Democrats should walk out of the Senate in a staged protest. They have the moral and political high ground having supported John Roberts Supreme Court confirmation and held their powder dry on the Miers nomination. The GOP is in a very weak position. This is the Democrats chance to take back the House and Senate because this will, once again, be a "government shutdown moment". The petty GOP, having scuttled their own president's nomination, will be cast in the 1995 obstructionist role of Newt Gingrich.
One other possibility exists. That is that the stubborn Bush is so mad at the stunning disloyalty of his base that he snubs them and nominates a person that the right hates. With support from Democrats and the few remaining moderate Republicans, this person narrowly gets confirmed. It is an unlikely scenario, but we all know that Bush doesn't like to be shown up, and his base has attacked him for weeks. In his second term, he could do something unpredictable, but I doubt it.
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In a 1993 address by Harriet Miers to Executive Women of Dallas, a nonprofit organization of professional women and those in upper management the Supreme Court nominee said:
"Abortion clinic protesters have become synonymous with terrorists" and that the courts were being "besieged" by cases challenging a woman's right to choose abortion."The ongoing debate continues surrounding the attempt to once again criminalize abortions or to once and for all guarantee the freedom of the individual woman's right to decide for herself whether she will have an abortion. The underlying theme in most of these cases is the insistence of more self-determination. And the more I think about these issues, the more self-determination makes the most sense. Legislating religion or morality we gave up on a long time ago."
Understandably, this has
pissed off the right wing. Bush has apparently nominated someone, based on this speech, who thinks they are a bunch of busybody losers who want to put their nose where it doesn't belong. Concerned Women for America, a large, nutty, radical group of homo-hating fanatics, were so angry they told Miers to get lost.
The speeches "indicate a radical feminist worldview, a penchant for judicial activism, race and sex quotas, a liberal characterization of the abortion debate and government spending, and an inability to articulate her positions clearly," the group said in a statement."We do not think there is anything she could say at her hearing that would satisfy our concerns," Jan LaRue, chief counsel of Concerned Women for America, said in an interview with the L.A. Times.
My guess is that Concerned Women may get their wish. I suspect that other right wing leaders will reconsider their support. If Focus on the Family's James Dobson or the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land defects, the party is over for Miers. She's done.
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Iranian hard-liner
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that Israel needs to be "wiped off the map".
"There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world. As the Imam (Khomeini) said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad.
I'm sorry, but Iran just simply can't be allowed to possess nuclear weapons under any circumstances. America or Israel must bomb their reactors before they turn into the next North Korea. These religious nuts simply can't be negotiated with or trusted with weapons of mass destruction. If the U.S went after Saddam because of supposed WMD and ignores the genuine threat of nukes in Iran, then we stand for nothing and our foreign policy is a joke. (Well, a much worse joke than it already is)
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Wednesday, October 26, 2005
"Being gay has nothing to do with the three gold medals or the three MVPs or the four championships I've won. I'm still the same person. I'm still Sheryl."
The Most Valuable Player of the Women's National Basketball Association has
come out as a lesbian. Sheryl Swoopes, the Michael Jordan of the WNBA, said that she wanted to be free and was tired of living a lie. Additionally, she will be the spokesperson for Olivia, a cruise ship company catering to lesbians.
"To me, the most important thing is happiness. I could have all the endorsements and all the money in the world, but if I'm not happy with who I am, that other stuff is not going to make me happy either. I know I've got to deal with the consequences of coming out, but I feel like I'll be able to be free. To be me."
Swoopes's coming out is all the more important because she is African American. Recently, GLBT activist Keith Boykin was banned from speaking at the Millions More March, an African American rally. Most of the major figures who have come out have also been white, leading to an invisibility for GLBT African Americans, that makes it easier to discriminate.
"I mean, you have Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell, but you don't have your well-known gay African-American who's come out, Not to my knowledge," Swoopes said. "I know it's not accepted in the black community. I know I'll probably take a lot of flak. But in all honesty, that's not my biggest concern. "
The only thing irritating about her coming out is Swoopes insisting that her homosexuality was not inborn.
"I didn't always know I was gay. I honestly didn't. Do I think I was born this way? No. And that's probably confusing to some, because I know a lot of people believe that you are."
I must admit that female sexuality sometimes baffles me. You would never hear a guy say he didn't always know he was gay, unless he had a birth defect and his equipment wasn't working. Although the vast majority of lesbians I know believe they were born gay and always knew, I have heard several say they had no idea until they fell in love. All I can do is scratch my head in bewilderment.
Nevertheless, Swoopes took a brave step and the GLBT community should be thankful for her courage. To come out after an MVP season makes her announcement even more gutsy. Thank you Sheryl, you are an inspiration to millions of people and you will surely help thousands of people and even save lives. The most important thing a GLBT person can do is come out, and you have made it easier for people still struggling with living honestly and openly.
Finally, when will a guy who is
still playing in one of the major sports leagues have the balls to come out of the closet? I know it will be difficult, but guess what, you are still rich and have it a lot easier than working class folks who come out every day at the factory or police department. In the coming out battle of the sexes, us guys are getting our whimpering little asses kicked. Come on, we need to provide role models for millions of young men! The time to come out is now.
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The prosecutor in the CIA leak case was preparing to outline
possible charges before the federal grand jury as early as today, even as the FBI conducted last-minute interviews in the high-profile investigation, according to people familiar with the case.
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(Mary Cheney)....he tells special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that he only outed Valerie Plame so he could get a date for his lesbian daughter Mary.
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The number of U.S. troops who have died in the Iraq war hit 2,000. If you add the number of Iraqi dead and troops that have been maimed, the toll from this terrible war of choice has been staggering. These were brave and courageous men and women and we owe them our deepest gratitude and utmost respect. We remain a free nation because of the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform. Let us take a moment to remember these heroes.
Unfortunately, our civilian leaders have let our military and our nation down. They fixed intelligence to get us into a war that we had no business being in. Bush & Friends concocted bogus stories of WMD with the intension of scaring moderates, Independents, Democratic members of Congress and even the subservient media into believing war was necessary.
The level of deceit is alarming, the lack of evidence damning and the loss of life tragic. What the Bush Administration did is unforgivable. When historians look back, they will judge Bush as perhaps the worst president ever, and much of this has to do with his lethal misadventure in Iraq.
All Americans, especially the parents of the fallen and injured, hope something positive comes from this sandy and bloody mess. No one wants to believe that their child died in vain. However, lack of vision and proper planning has left us in a quagmire with no exit in the foreseeable future. If we blindly "stay the course", the awful stench of death will continue. If we simply leave, a civil war will likely break out and America will have to return within ten years with twice as many troops. This means that our fifth graders may end up in coffins in a decade because of the poor choices Bush made today.
The 2,000 figure is shocking because the administration hid the coffins of the dead in an effort to spin the war. Bush wanted the vast majority of Americans to enjoy their lousy $200 tax cut and go shopping, and leave the war mostly to the children of our nation's poor. The more Bush could keep the ugly truth about Iraq off the television screen, the better. Today's sobering body count is a rude, frozen glass of water thrown in the face of denial, that says Americans better wake up. We are fighting a war, and unless something dramatic happens, we may lose.
Well, in many ways, America has already lost. We have run up a huge deficit, destroyed our standing in the world, weakened our military, created new terrorists, diverted money to Iraq that could be used to fight terrorism and caused 2,000 American deaths.
Why is our great nation on this hideous suicide mission? Are we insane? Does
anybody have a clue why we are fighting this war? You know you are fighting a bad war when you walk into a pub and ask ten people why we are in Iraq and get ten different answers. The truth is, only a small "cabal" of people in the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) know and they aren't telling us.
In Iraq, we have not been good, so let's hope we can at least be lucky. Let us pray that our valiant men and women died for something other than a twisted Neo-Con fantasy gone horribly awry. They deserve better, and so does our nation.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2005
(
Michael Johnston)
Angry that Walgreens is supporting the 2006 Gay Games, the American Family Association has launched a
smear campaign to pressure the drugstore chain into dropping its sponsorship. The hate group has resorted to the most vile stereotypes and malevolent misinformation:
Imagine the sales pitch in Walgreens' corporate board room went something like this: "We know people are going to be spreading communicable diseases and a lot of them will eventually become very sick. If we show support for gays now, we stand to reap a ton of business in the not-too-distant future. Let's call it 'Walgreens' HIV/AIDS Awareness' so they'll think of us first when they need drugs."
Remember folks, this is the same American Family Association that sponsored "ex-gay"
Michael Johnston, who was accused of having bareback gay orgies even though he was HIV +. Johnston did not tell his partners about his HIV status. The American Family Association presumably knew what Johnston was up to and did not seek to warn his partners that they might be infected. The AFA's irresponsible
"ex-gay" program, which promotes lying and deceit, has certainly done nothing to help slow the spread of HIV. That is why it is sickening for this group to say the awful, hateful things that they are now spewing about Walgreens and the Gay Games. It is time the AFA practices what they preach and stops concealing their role in the Michael Johnston cover-up.
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Weekly ColumnThe bone chilling air is what I remember most about the day I slouched on my snow speckled front lawn in Bangor to pawn my new furniture. Only months earlier I had moved from Florida to work at a television station and my body was still adjusting to the frigid weather. I was shivering that afternoon, but I had no choice because this was about survival. The rent was due, I was hungry and parting ways with the dinner table would at least earn me enough to buy dinner.
I was fired in Maine for being gay. This is my story.
TO READ MORE CLICK HERE
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Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday evening. She was 92. Let us take a moment of silence to remember this brave woman who had the courage to do what is right in the face of tyranny. We owe this hero a tremendous amount of gratitude for making America a better, freer place.
Thank You Rosa. We will never forget you.
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Monday, October 24, 2005
With Karl Rove and "Scooter" Libby on the brink of possible indictment, Republicans are
floating trial spin balloons to see how they can work their way out of this mess. It seems their first line of defense is saying that lying under oath no longer matters. On NBC's
Meet the Press, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, called perjury a "technicality:
Ms. Hutchison said she hoped "that if there is going to be an indictment that
says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some
perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to
something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of
time and taxpayer dollars."
If I recalled, when Bill Clinton lied about sex the Republican moralists were up in arms and ready to impeach him. But apparently, values and morals have shifted since Republicans took power. Rove and Libby are in trouble for much more than a blow job. They may have outed a CIA agent, smeared her husband for political gain and started a bloody war under false pretenses.
Of course, lying about such serious charges is merely a technicality, in the eyes of loyal Republicans. Friends, have you ever seen such a batch of sleazy, despicable, underhanded worms in your life? Modern conservatism has to go. Our nation simply can't afford another day of living under this immoral corruption.
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My mom, dad and grandma a about to get slammed by
Hurricane Wilma. Please keep them in your thoughts as they ride out the storm in Boca Raton. I also have many close friends preparing for the destructive monster in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. We can only hope if they are in trouble that FEMA has its act together and my family won't be at risk because incompetent cronies are running around without a clue.
Hurricane Wilma is a perfect storm in that both Bush brothers, Jeb and George, are in charge. For some reason, this dynamic duo of dunces makes me very uneasy.
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For years, I had gone to clubs where Madonna was rumored to be a "special guest". More than once I was let down, as the club owners, who raked in the money, seemingly mocked the disappointed patrons. So, with great skepticism I stood in the frigid rain on Saturday on the "word" that Madonna might be appearing at the mega-club Roxy. (It wasn't that bad, I had a hot boy visiting from Ohio sharing my umbrella!)
After umpteen annoying teasers, such as smoke and confetti, the music finally stopped, and Madonna pranced out to the delight of the roaring crowd. She did not sing, but she did dance to a few songs. She brought on-stage several screaming star-struck queens from the audience to dance with her. I thought more than one might faint from the overwhelming excitement.
I prayed that she wouldn't ask me to come up and do a jig. I was sure my clumsy ass would have tripped her and she would have tumbled off the stage and broken her neck. Imagine the horror! As the man who killed the Diva, I would be banned for life from every gay bar in the world. I'd have to move to the moon to get laid.
All I can say is that Madonna was fucking fabulous! She was in spectacular shape, looked magnificent and still shakes her thang like she's a teenager. She also had the intangible "It" that makes one a mega-superstar. I've never seen a person take command of the room like Madonna. After a close-up, I can see why she is a star among stars. I've enjoyed her music and act since high school. But, I love her more than ever. She is one of the rare stars who keeps getting better with age.
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Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, on NBC's
"Meet the Press" said:
"I think if you were to hold the vote today, she would not get a majority either
in the Judiciary Committee or on the floor. The hearings are going to be make or
break for Harriet Miers in a way that they have not been for any other nominee.
Right now, she has a rough row to hoe."
Personally, I think she is going to go down. There is too much fire coming from too many directions. If you are getting sniped at from the left and shot at with a bazooka from the right, you are in quite a mess.
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