You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
-------------------------
Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
The Rev. Pat Robertson says God has told him that storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America's coastline this year.
The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network has told viewers of "The 700 Club" that the revelations came to him during his annual personal prayer retreat in January.
"If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms," Robertson said May 8.
He added specifics in Wednesday's show.
"There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest," he said.
The scary thing is that he is bound to get it right one day out of pure dumb luck. When this happens, all of the idiots in America will think he is a phrophet. I can see the headlines now: "IS PAT GOD?"
7 Comments
A Senate committee approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage Thursday, after a shouting match that ended when one Democrat strode out and the Republican chairman bid him "good riddance."
"I don't need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., shouted after Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record) declared his opposition to the amendment, his affinity for the Constitution and his intention to leave the meeting.
"If you want to leave, good riddance," Specter finished.
"I've enjoyed your lecture, too, Mr. Chairman," replied Feingold, D-Wis., who is considering a run for president in 2008. "See ya."
Isn't it nice to have a senator who stands up for what is right and just?
7 Comments
To protect out border from illegal nannies, Bush is launching a $115 million (this year) program called Secure Border. At least five so-called system integrators — Lockheed, Raytheon and Northrop, as well as Boeing and Ericsson — are expected to submit bids. However, skeptics think this might just be another big example of corporate welfare. Past efforts at employing high technology to police a 6,000 mile border have proved futile.
Because of poor contract oversight, nearly half of video cameras ordered in the late 1990's did not work or were not installed. The ground sensors installed along the border frequently sounded alarms. But in 92 percent of the cases, they were sending out agents to respond to what turned out to be a passing wild animal, a train or other nuisances, according to a report late last year by the homeland security inspector general.
A more recent test with an unmanned aerial vehicle bought by the department got off to a similarly troubling start. The $6.8 million device, which has been used in the last year to patrol a 300-mile stretch of the Arizona border at night, crashed last month.
With such a dismal record in the past, I have no confidence that Bush will be the one who gets it right.
3 Comments
The "First Lady of the Press" Helen Thomas rightfully demolished younger reporters in her new book, "Watchdogs of Democracy." According to Thomas:
"I have observed that the new generation of reporters have little knowledge or institutional memory of either their country or their profession. For all the unhappy trends I have witnessed - conservative swings on television networks, dwindling newspaper circulation, the jailing of reporters and 'spin' - nothing is more troubling to me than the obsequious press during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq."
Opponents of the abortion pill RU-486 are mounting a renewed campaign to force the Food and Drug Administration to pull the drug from the market, arguing that it has proved to be unexpectedly dangerous to women.
The sad fact is, this has nothing to do with stopping abortions or womens' health and everything to do with a puritanical war on women and contraceptives. The extreme right hates sex more than they dislike abortions and this is why they are attacking RU-486. These neo-puritans want to create unnecessary "consequences" for sex, because they are dysfunctional and find pleasure anathema to their rigid beliefs.
Indeed, fundamentalism has become a risk factor for STD's and increased abortions. The nations that have the toughest anti-abortion laws, for example, have the most abortions. The countries that preach abstinence-only, have higher STD rates. This is because the right wing's choice of ignorance over education always produces disastrous results.
6 Comments
According to an exciting new Washington Post-ABC poll, the Democrats are poised to take control of Congress and everyone hates the Republicans. Well, all I can say is: "IT IS ABOUT TIME." At least we learned that the average time it takes for the American public to get their heads out of their arses is 6 years.
Look for the GOP to use gays, immigrants and even another war to distract the American public. If they rely on their policies, they will continue to sink. A worn out smoke and mirrors routine is all they have, but the public is finally tired of coughing and is suffering from smoke inhalation.
5 Comments
(Weekly Column) Like her father's misbegotten war in Iraq, Mary Cheney's book is backfiring. Just as Dick thought the Iraqis would throw flowers at our troops and greet them as liberators, Mary imagined her tome would liberate her from being perceived as a lesbian lackey. But instead of roses, people are roiled and "Now It's My Turn" makes Mary appear more sycophantic than sympathetic.
Time and again, Mary is confronted with opportunities to educate America and voice her opposition to President Bush's promotion of the Federal Marriage Amendment. Like clockwork, each possibility is squandered with aplomb and justified with solipsistic rationalizations.
For example, at the 2004 GOP Convention in New York, right wing activist Alan Keyes called Mary Cheney a selfish hedonist. At the same time, George W. Bush was stumping for the Federal Marriage Amendment. During this whole gay bashing debacle, Mary Cheney was completely silent.
In her book, she justifies not responding to Keyes by claiming that she was more "baffled" by his statement than "offended." This reaction was odd, because in the Vice Presidential debate, John Edwards merely said she was a lesbian, and Mary looked right at him and mouthed the unmentionable.
Implausibly, Mary dismisses Keyes as a "fringe player in Republican politics" and says she chose to remain muffled because, "Everyone already knows it was a completely bizarre and inappropriate comment for him to make."
This must have been news to Rev. Jerry Falwell and the legions of Federal Marriage Amendment supporters that packed the Madison Square Garden convention hall. What she insouciantly called "bizarre," Karl Rove cynically refers to as "the base" and he exploited and rode people who hold such views to victory.
At this incredibly tense moment, the GLBT community desperately needed Mary and her partner Heather Poe to say something -- anything. Instead, they chose not to go onstage following Dick's acceptance speech. The entire family was there -- except the lesbian couple. Clearly, it gave the appearance that Keyes' statement, combined with intensified efforts to energize the right, had kept the lesbians out of the limelight.
In her book, Mary claims it was her choice to stay off the stage and she tries to brush off critics by lamely saying, "I was happier and more comfortable staying behind the scenes."
Give me a break. In the history of presidential politics, there have certainly been shy family members who dreaded mugging in front of the national media. However, only the diffident duo of Mary and Heather failed to actually take to the stage, thus sending a terrible message to the rest of America: Gays are not part of the family.
One of the more telling moments of her book comes right after President Bush announced his support of the Federal Marriage Amendment. Following a brief tantrum, Mary considered quitting her father's reelection campaign. She ultimately decided to stay because she "loves her father" and presumably all the Halliburton money that is only a heartbeat away.
Remarkably, in the midst of the most anti-gay campaign in memory, Mary writes, "in the days and weeks afterward, many campaign staffers, including members of the senior staff, came into my office, shut the door, and told me that they disagreed with the President on this issue...They were troubled by the amendment."
And this attitude is why Mary Cheney and the Republican Party trouble me. In order to gain and maintain power, they will use and abuse, goad and scapegoat gay people and other minorities. Instead of telling the truth about this ugly constitutional Amendment, they will cheer it in public and condemn it in private -- always locked behind a closed door.
Another shining moment in her book comes when a closeted GOP donor frantically calls Mary to say that he is about to be outed by gay activists, and this could lead to him losing his job. Mary tells her father who admirably replies that if this man gets hassled he will "take care of it."
However, there is no introspection by Mary on the anti-gay climate created by the GOP that helps put people like her friend in a precarious situation. She offers no such sympathy, understanding or remedy for the rest of us who simply can't call on the VP if our boss is a homophobe.
The final insult comes when the President relays that he understands if Mary makes a public statement denouncing his decision to back the Federal Marriage Amendment. And, of course, she makes the ultimate statement -- stony silence. "I didn't think it was appropriate for me as a campaign staffer to issue a statement."
Yeah, right, just a lowly staffer -- who happened to get a million dollar book deal.
The new memoir by Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of the U.S. vice president, drew pointed retorts Wednesday from Democratic Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards, as well as mixed reactions from the LGBT community.
2 Comments
When he was asked about the National Security Agency's controversial domestic surveillance program last Monday, U.S. intelligence chief John D. Negroponte objected to the question and said the government was "absolutely not" monitoring domestic calls without warrants.
"I wouldn't call it domestic spying," he told reporters. "This is about international terrorism and telephone calls between people thought to be working for international terrorism and people here in the United States."
Three days later, USA Today divulged details of the NSA's effort to log a majority of the telephone calls made within the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- amassing the domestic call records of tens of millions of U.S. households and businesses in an attempt to sift them for clues about terrorist threats.
Friends, this cute game of musical explanations is all too typical of the Bush administration. It seems they often confuse national security with thier own job security. I think we all know that when the final chapter is written about Bush's record on surveillance it will be quite shocking and ugly.
This Summer, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will offer new guidelines for AIDS testing. The proposed recommendations suggest that doctors offer the tests not just to people at risk, but as part of routine medical care for all patients ages 13 to 64.
The C.D.C. will also address two current obstacles to treatment. First, the agency will recommend that health care providers shorten and simplify a counseling session that often takes place before the person is tested. In addition, the new guidelines will suggest that patients be allowed to give oral consent to testing — rather than being required to sign a separate permission form.
Under normal circumstances this might fly. But can we trust a government that keeps secret foreign torture chambers and illegally collects our phone data to responsibly handle sensitive information about our health? All this would sound conspiratorial, if it were not for the fact that with the Bush Administration, the conspiracies are actually real.
Furthermore, we alredy know that the Bush crowd cares about politics more than people. They have consistently compromised the health and welfare of millions of people to promote a right wing dogmatic agenda. They would, for example, prefer to see tens-of-thousands of women die from cancer than approve an HPV vaccine. They would rather people suffer than invest in stem cell research. They would rather have the abortion rate soar than have the FDA approve Plan B. They would rathher see people infected with HIV than admit that their abstinance-only education plan is dangerous and useless.
With such an awful record on public health, Bush wants us to trust him?
While the CDC might have the right plan, they have the wrong man as president. This is not the right time to ask Americans to divulge, yet more personal information to moralistic, Nixonian-style political hacks.
Laura Bush simply can't admit that she married a loser. The Fox News-watching First-Lady is blaming the media for George's woes and says she does not believe public opinion polls showing that Americans think Bush is an awful president. The funny thing is, she had no trouble believing the polls when Bush was popular.
5 Comments
