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Wayne Besen
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If failed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would go after the bad guys in Iraq as hard as he goes after the media, we might be doing better. Was it just me, or did he go off the deep end. It is absolutely amazing that he still has a job.
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It is absolutely sickening that George W. Bush and several other Republicans in tough reelection races are trying to use the New Jersey marriage decision to bring out right wing voters. Do these creeps care about anything other than who I have a date with tonight?
While the right has their panties in knot over gays tying the knot, nearly 100 soldiers have been killed this month in Iraq, while the President makes cosmetic and semantic changes to his failed "stay the course" policy. On his watch, North Korea is becoming a nuclear state, while Iran has begun enriching nuclear fuel. There are also concerns over the economy, energy dependence, the deficit and GOP-scandals. Yet, all this right wing crowd gets motivated about is gay relationships. No wonder why even conservatives secretly call them nuts.
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This is what the New Jersey Supreme Court Ruled Today:
"Denying committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. The Court holds that under the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, committed same-sex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes.
The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to same-sex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process....The Domestic Partnership Act has failed to bridge the inequality gap between committed same-sex couples and married opposite-sex couples....The equal protection requirement of Article I, Paragraph 1 leaves the Legislature with two apparent options. The Legislature could simply amend the marriage statutes to include same-sex couples, or it could create a separate statutory structure, such as a civil union....Because this State has no experience with a civil union construct, the Court will not speculate that identical schemes offering equal rights and benefits would create a distinction that would offend Article I, Paragraph 1, and will not presume that a difference in name is of constitutional magnitude....To bring the State into compliance with Article I, Paragraph 1 so that plaintiffs can exercise their full constitutional rights, the Legislature must either amend the marriage statutes or enact an appropriate statutory structure within 180 days of the date of this decision."
Former prescription smack junkie and radio bloviator Rush Limbaugh backtracked today, after taking a political cheap shot at actor Michael J. Fox. Limbaugh was angered that Fox, who has Parkinson's Disease, appeared in a political ad supporting Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill. Limbaugh obnoxiously accused Fox of playing up his disease to attract sympathy and voters for McCaskill, who supports embryonic stem cell research, unlike her arch-right GOP opponent Sen. Jim Talent. The loud mouth hypocrite must have been tripping on OxyContin when he claimed Fox was "either off his medication or acting."
"I think this is exploitative in a way that's unbecoming of either Claire McCaskill or Michael J. Fox," Limbaugh spewed on his syndicated show.
In the ad, Fox makes the case that the nuts on the far right have no interest in protecting life, unless it is a fetus. Once you are actually born, they don't give a shit about you.
"As you might know I care deeply about stem cell research," says Fox in the 30-second spot. "In Missouri you can elect Claire McCaskill, who shares my hope for cures. Unfortunately, Senator Jim Talent opposes expanding stem cell research. Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope."
Limbaugh was blowtorched by the ensuing controversy, that once again put him in the role of moronic, unsophisticated, loutish dolt with an axe to grind. Faced with such public scorn and professional humiliation, he went into cover your fat ass mode.
"All I'm saying is I've never seen him the way he appears in this commercial for Claire McCaskill," says Limbaugh. "So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act, especially since people are telling me they have seen him this way on other interviews and in other television appearances."
If there is a reason that the GOP should go down in flames in the upcoming election is that they gave rise to bitter clowns such as Limbaugh. Hasn't America had enough of these creeps? If they win another election, we may all need to join Limbaugh and take pain killers to get us through to 2008.
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When a devout Muslim taxi driver refuses to take you where you want to go because you have luggage containing alcohol, the only appropriate response is, "shut up and drive."
Such a situation recently occurred at the Minneapolis International airport, with the driver transforming his cab into a mini-caliphate. Following this incident, in the same city, a Christian bus driver demanded that she only drive busses without ads for the GLBT magazine Lavender that read: "Unleash Your Inner Gay." Initially, the Metro Transit acquiesced to the absurd request, but soon reversed course and said that they were "not persuaded that advertising, per se, infringes on religious practices."
We have also seen busybody pharmacists who think they can interfere with the private doctor/patient relationship by refusing to fill contraceptive prescriptions. These puffed-up pill dispensers call this a "conscience clause." Yet, no one forced these nosey nabobs to ingest the pills, thus not violating their personal beliefs.
The taxi driver, pharmacists and bus driver are essentially arguing that when in their presence, the public must submit to their beliefs. They also assert that their personal religious liberty is impinged upon if they cannot impose their will on others. This line of thinking is oppressive, incoherent and dangerous to the cohesion and unity of this nation.
Our duty as American citizens is to support the right for people to believe whatever they want. If they want to pray to aliens that is their right, just as it is the right of a person to have no belief at all. What these spiritual supremacists want to do, however, is go a step further and compel others to respect or give deference to their faith.
Sorry, but it doesn't work that way in America. Why am I obligated to become a temporary Muslim for the ten minutes it takes to drive me home? The ideas of "minding ones own business" and "live and let live" have served our country well. The further we get away from these enduring principles, the more strife and discontent we will confront.
Here's the deal: if a cabbie doesn't like booze, don’t drink. If a Christian fundamentalist doesn't want to drive a bus with gay ads, quit and drive a church bus. If a pharmacist has a problem with dispensing contraception or Plan B, don't use the products. If an Orthodox Jew doesn't like bacon, instead of seeking to close down the deli, order lox from the Kosher restaurant next door. If you are against gay marriage, don't have one.
If your beliefs are so austere and uncompromising that normal interaction with the public is considered a contaminant, then get a job with a religious institution. There are plenty of churches or mosques that need health providers or bus drivers. But don't expect the public to do flash conversions each time they need your services.
The long-term key to societal harmony is embracing the concept of "private faith," which allows an individual to pursue personal virtue, without forcing compulsory beliefs on others. Many of the world's most intractable problems stem directly from "communal faith," in which individual liberty is trampled in the name of cultural values that can only exist if propped up by a fist. This version of faith is coercive as it is corrosive, wickedly dangerous and always volatile to a nation's stability.
Communal faith breaks the social contract that binds us together and pits one group against another. It is anti-American and should not be confused with legitimate claims of religious liberty. If a person can pray where he wants and to whom he wants, than such theological freedom has been achieved. To move beyond this basic definition invites friction and even the calamitous wars that infect other parts of the world.
While those who subscribe to communal religion fancy themselves pious, they often strike me as having the least faith among us. Their belief systems appear so fragile that unless they create a monolithic universe of like-minded clones, their ideas crumble.
Common courtesy and respect for the beliefs of others does not require disrespecting our own beliefs and principles to make fanatics comfortable. If we shrink from our duty as Americans and appease zealots in busses and cabs, they may take us to our destination, but it will, in the end, put this nation way off course.
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U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, officials said. The Democrat's full name appears on the page where voters choose for whom to vote. The error shows up only on the summary page, where voters are asked to review their selections before hitting the button to record their votes. In such a tight race a few confused voters could put Allen in the winner's circle. This is inexcusable and the election should be held off until the glitch is fixed.
It amazes me that none of these "honest mistakes" ever benefit Democrats.
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Uber-Obnoxious, ultra-right wing Ohio GOP gubernatorial nominee J. Kenneth Blackwell had blasted Democrat Ted Strickland for employing an aide who committed a misdemeanor. Now we come to find that Blackwell once had a felon on his payroll.
As state treasurer, Blackwell unknowingly hired a man with a long record of arrests and kept him on the payroll even after his office discovered the man's record and brought it to Blackwell's attention. Under Blackwell, who was treasurer from March 1994 to January 1999, Michael A. Toomer received two pay increases before leaving the treasurer’s office in 2002 and landing in prison for the next four years.
In another shining moment for the GOP, Florida State Rep. Ralph Arza found out over the weekend that another legislator had filed a complaint claiming he used a racial slur to describe the black chief of Miami-Dade's schools. Arza was so angry, he hit the bottle and in a stupor he called colleague, Rep. Gus Barreiro, and left him an angry message on voice mail, cursing him out and calling Miami-Dade Superintendent Rudy Crew the N-word.
Arza explained that he has a temper problem - especially when he is shitfaced - and will seek "immediate counseling." Maybe he will share a room at Betty Ford with Mel Gibson or Mark Foley? Am I the only one fed up with every asshole who screws up running to rehab or the shrink?
Exactly how did these clows ever get elected in the first place?
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A big shout-out goes to Sean Hannity, who spends his hard earned money on a website so that like-minded and same-sex couples can meet, chat, and fornicate. Keep up the good work Sean. I'm sure most of your fans would totally approve.
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Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois) on "Meet the Press":
TIM RUSSERT: It's fair to say you're thinking about running for president in 2008?
SEN. OBAMA: It's fair, yes.
MR. RUSSERT: And so when you said to me in January, "I will not," that statement is no longer operative.
SEN. OBAMA: The—I would say that I am still at the point where I have not made a decision to, to pursue higher office,but it is true that I have thought about it over the last several months.
MR. RUSSERT: So, it sounds as if the door has opened a bit.
Things for the GOP are now so bad that in Kansas, a state that voted nearly 2 to 1 for President Bush in 2004, nine former Republicans will be on the November ballot as Democrats. Among them is Mark Parkinson, a former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, who changed parties to run for lieutenant governor with the popular Democratic governor, Kathleen Sebelius.
"I'd reached a breaking point," Parkinson said, preparing for a rally in Wichita alongside Sebelius. "I want to work on relevant issues and not on a lot of things that don't matter."
It seems the obsessive focus on issues like same-sex marriage and Darwin have finally disgusted moderate Republicans. However, having allowed the right wing lunatics to take over the party, these moderates have to become Democrats to stay part of the political process. In any case, Kansas is a little less "red" than it was in 2004, and the insanity of the Dobson right can be blamed for splitting up the party.
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