Hearing on Gay Bashing Amendment Thursday

Speaking of gay marriage, the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on to discuss the gay bashing amendment on Thursday. The notoriously anti-gay Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) will chair the hearing on "The National Consensus to Protect Marriage: Why a Constitutional Amendment is Needed."

I'm a little confused about who they are protecting marriage from....and how they are going to protect it. This AP piece from November 2004 hits the nail on the head....what about divorce? Seems that is the biggest problem facing marriage these days:

"When you talk about protecting marriage, you need to talk about divorce," said Bryce Christensen, a Southern Utah University professor who writes frequently about family issues.

While Christensen doesn't oppose the campaign to enact state and federal bans on gay marriage, he worries it's distracting from immediate threats to marriage's place in society.

"If those initiatives are part of a broader effort to reaffirm lifetime fidelity in marriage, they're worthwhile," he said. "If they're isolated — if we don't address cohabitation and casual divorce and deliberate childlessness — then I think they're futile and will be brushed aside."

Don't think all those issues aren't on the theocrats agenda. It's the nefarious, hidden part of the agenda....and they'll use the gays to confuse the issue. But all the straights better realize, it ain't just about us.

And one other thing, Sam Brownback is so rabidly anti-gay...why, you have to ask, why is Sam Brownback such a hateful homophobe? Read More......

First Anniversary of Marriage in Mass....and NCFR can't come clean

Today is the first anniversary of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Decision legalizing same-sex marriages in that state. Since then, several thousand GLBT couples have tied the knot, and they're experiencing the same stressors and events that straight married couples are experiencing, but gay couples also have issues straight couples don't -- homophobia in the workplace, ostracism at church, disapproval by other family members, and so on. Like straight couples, many of them reach out to counselors to help them through this exciting and often difficult time. These counselors often look to the latest research and findings to help new marriages find their way.

However, The National Council on Family Relations and the Administration on Children and Families don't want gay couples to get that help. They're building an online "National Healthy Marriage Clearinghouse" that specifically excludes any research on gay marriage or gay families. Oh, and by the way, they have really been honest.

When NCFR and ACF announced last September they were working together on a National Healthy Marriage Clearinghouse, Administrator Wade Horn said the administration wouldn't use the online resource as a political tool on the issue of gay marriage.

Associated Press reported on Wade Horn:

He also indicated that the center won't take a position in the current debate on gay marriage. "If someone calls us or goes to the Web site, there's not going to be a question, 'What's your sexual orientation?'" he said. "It is not a referendum on gay marriage."

On May 3, NCFR told its members in a letter and fact sheet:

As defined by ACF, the project has an exclusive focus on heterosexual marriages.

Um, folks, when you have an "exclusive focus on heterosexual marriages," that's a referendum on gay marriage. So, in honor of the first anniversary of so many married couples, let's do some outreach.

Here is the list of people NCFR and ACF have decided will work on the anti-gay website:

Alan Hawkins, Brigham Young University hawkinsa@byu.edu (801) 422-7088

Kristin Anderson Moore, Child Trends kmoore@childtrends.org (202) 572-6000

Colita Nichols Fairfax, Norfolk State University cfairfax@nsu.edu (757) 823-9593

Alan Taylor, Syracuse University actaylor@syr.edu (315) 443-1639

Dean Busby, Texas Tech University dean.busby@ttu.edu (806) 742-3031

William Doherty, University of Minnesota bdoherty@che.umn.edu (612) 625-4752

We don't need to call them names. We need to ask them:

How did you hear about the National Healthy Marriage Clearinghouse?

Were you part of a competitive process, or simply invited to participate on this project?

Who decided to specifically exclude research on gay marriage?

Do you agree with this decision?

Does your organization have a non-discrimination policy on gays?

Are you aware NCFR is breaking its own non-discrimination policy?

What's your position on same-sex marriage?

Did you ever work for the Administration on Children and Families?

Have you ever conducted or published research on same-sex relationships?

And of course, there's NCFR executive director Michael Benjamin (mbenjamin@ncfr.org (202) 659-1190) who is clearly breaking NCFR's own rules to produce an anti-gay website for the Bush White House. You could always send him a friendly hello.

On this special anniversary for so many of us, let me just echo Wade Horn of ACF:

"Marriage is not a dirty word to most Americans," he said. "It doesn't work out for everyone, but most Americans aspire to it ... All we're saying is let's be on the side of people's aspirations.

WE have aspirations, too. And it's our legal right. Don't let them forget that. Read More......

Open Thread

Chat please.... Read More......

Two weights, two measures

Keeping in mind the wingnut rants about Newsweek, let's take a look at the GOP allegations against Britsh MP George Galloway. Galloway was so vocal in his criticism of (new) Labour and their poodle Tony Blair that he was thrown out of the Labour party. (Galloway recently won his seat again in Parliament.) The British MP came to DC today with a backbone that Washington hasn't seen in years, standing up to the bullies who have publicly dragged his name through the mud using quality sources from the puppet government in Iraq. Apparently ideas such as innocent until proven guilty are out of fashion these days in Washington but what the hell, the GOP is throwing away other silly traditions such as minority rights so why not just toss the whole thing into the garbage dump while they're at it.

I have no idea if any of the allegations against Galloway are true or false but in the America that I once knew we used to be innocent until proven guilty. I also know that the Rupert Murdoch rag in the UK, the Daily Telegraph lost a $1.4M libel suit to Galloway last year when they tried making similar allegations. Looking at the lot we propped up in Iraq such as Chalabi (yes, he's baaaaccckkk) I seriously have my doubts. How about we just try it the old fashioned way and deliver proper evidence instead of having just more GOP-run lynch mob smear campaigns? Read More......

Calvin College professors to protest Bush commencement speech

From the Washington Times, no less, apparently a third of the professors at the Christian college will take out an ad in the local paper.

"As Christians, we are called to be peacemakers and to initiate war only as a last resort," the ad will say. "We believe your administration has launched an unjust and unjustified war in Iraq."

Read More......

They're after your children

From the radical right propaganda organ, AgapePress:

...A Pennsylvania school district that's being sued by a parent who was barred from reading the Bible in her son's kindergarten class is vowing to "vigorously defend" itself. In a letter sent home to parents, the superintendent of the Marple Newtown School District says it "upheld the law and did not discriminate against anyone or any religion." Donna Busch was invited to her son's elementary school in October as part of an activity in which the class learns more about a particular pupil, including having the pupil's parent read from a favorite book in class. She says her son was upset that she was not allowed to read from the Bible. Her federal lawsuit accuses the district of infringing on her right to express her religious beliefs and discriminating against Christianity.

Imagine if someone had come into class and read the Koran to her Christian 5 year old kid, unaccompanied by his radical right mommy. Read More......

Ohio GOP's Coin-gate keeps on giving

Toledo Blade has another update on the Ohio GOP's coin-gate scandal:

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation acknowledged yesterday that Tom Noe has paid far less to the state from rare-coin investments than previously reported.

Bureau officials said they decided last year to allow Mr. Noe, a prominent Republican fund-raiser and local coin dealer, to reinvest $5.4 million in alleged profits from two coin funds established with $50 million from the state, rather than take a payment from him.

For the past several weeks, bureau officials have told reporters that Mr. Noe had turned over $13.3 million in rare-coin profits.
Copies of checks provided to The Blade — and signed by Mr. Noe — add up to $7.9 million.

Bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson said yesterday that Mr. Noe was allowed to retain $5.4 million in profits and reinvest them in his rare-coin funds.

$5.4 million....man, it's good to be Tom Noe in Ohio. Well, it must have been good to be Tom Noe. It was good before the Toledo Blade started investigating...and before the US Attorney started investigating....and before the Ohio Inspector General started investigating. Now even State Auditor (and Republican Candidate for Governor) Betty Montgomery has started investigating....although she had to be shamed in to it.

All this investigating can't be good for Noe and the Ohio GOP. Read More......

Cannes Film Festival: Americablog Is There

I'm attending the Cannes Film Festival as part of my other life as a freelance entertainment journalist. Here's some of the political news from the fest:

*Kevin Bacon was in one European magazine in what was either a feature or an ad (it was hard to tell). It featured a picture of the beautiful Cannes beach and below it was a postcard addressed "From Kevin Bacon to George W. Bush. 'The weather is here...wish you were beautiful! Love, KB." Unquestionably, this endeared him to Europeans.

*Director Lars Von Trier held forth on US politics during the press conference for his American slave allegory "Manderlay" (the second part of a US trilogy that began with the excellent "Dogville"). Von Trier said that 60% of his brain is taken up with the US and he hates it but there's nothing he can do -- we dominate the world. He said, "Bush is an asshole" and insisted this wasn't controversial but a simple fact since the US is "shitting on the world." His movie, unfortunately, was far less entertaining than his interview.

*"The Power of Nightmares" is a three-part BBC doumentary that proved the most entertaining and provocative. It aired in the UK in 2004 and created quite a stir. Now it's been updated and merged into one film that's 137 minutes long. The basic premise: the neocons in the US and the fundamentalist radicals developed side by side and use similar tactics -- they create a boogieman enemy far more dangerous than the facts suggest to enthrall people, instill fear in them and win their allegiance. Strongest when it sticks to facts and weakest when it deals with broad sweeping issues (like the fall of the USSR), this documentary doesn't break new ground but does a terrific job of stringing together the public record and reminding people of recent history. There's damning but funny footage of Rumsfeld in the 70s making hysterical claims about the tottering Soviet Union and even better footage of him on "Meet The Press" talking about a James Bond-like underground bunker that Bin Laden supposedly had in the mountains of Pakistan/Afghanistan (seen away from the fear of those days, the claim looks absurd and of course no real evidence for the bunker exists). It details the numerous legal "success stories" in the war on terror in the US and UK and reminds everyone that most of the cases completely fell apart and even the ones with a little substance were blown radically out of proportion. Dirty bombs? Our own government has done tests showing they simply don't work under the best of circumstances and that the total deaths from a dirty bomb would be...zero. And on and on it goes, very wittily jumping from the 70s to the 80s (when the CIA was ordered by head William Casey to develop a report claiming lies it spread about the USSR in an attempt to smear the Soviet Union in the media were actually true) and right up to today. It's a shame they didn't include Tom Ridge admitting that those endless terror alerts were based on flimsy evidence most of the time, but perhaps they'll still fiddle with it. US distributors are afraid to pick it up (and think the Moveon.org crowd has moved on since the election) and if PBS tried to air it, the right would simply torch the place and move on. But keep your eyes open for it: it's very fun and catnip for the left.

*"Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" -- it doesn't completely suck, but it certainly isn't good. By the way, the attempt by some to turn it into a dig at Bush (political figure uses fear to seize power and end democracy) has fallen apart under its own silliness. Really, Lucas is about as political as an Ewok.

If you're interested, I have more entertainment-oriented coverage at www.michaelgiltz.com with updates every day or so. Read More......

New York Times & Raw Story confirm that Koran story has been reported by numerous witnesses for years

Let's not forget that numerous witnesses have reported that US troops have been trashing the Koran, the story is hardly new. We deserve to know why this story keeps popping up, though God knows we can't trust Bush to tell us the truth about any of this. He wants to stop the riots - resign.

From the NYT:

In fact, complaints from released inmates that the Koran had been thrown into a toilet go back at least two years.

Among the more detailed accounts of United States soldiers mishandling copies of the Koran were depositions from three Britons who were released from Guantánamo in the summer of 2004. Asif Iqbal, one of the men, who were from Tipton, England, and had been captured in Afghanistan, said that guards "would kick the Koran, throw it in the toilet and generally disrespect it."

Military officials dismissed the complaints as commanders at Guantánamo conducted media tours of the facility during which they emphasized steps taken to demonstrate respect for Islam. Inmates, they noted, were given copies of the Koran along with a cloth surgical mask, which they used as a kind of sling to suspend the book from the wire mesh walls to ensure it did not touch the floor.

The official accounts of Guantánamo began fraying in later months, as the International Committee of the Red Cross charged in a confidential report in November that the procedures at Guantánamo amounted to torture, and F.B.I. memorandums disclosed in December portrayed harsh and abusive treatment by interrogators. The F.B.I. memorandums, disclosed in a lawsuit, did not mention any mishandling of the Koran.

Last month, a former American interrogator confirmed to The New York Times an account given in an interview by a former Kuwaiti detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, who said that mishandling of the Koran once led to a major hunger strike. The strike ended only after a senior officer expressed regret over the camp's loudspeaker system, which was simultaneously translated by linguists at the end of each cell block, the former interrogator said.

In that case, the accusations were of copies of the Koran being tossed on the floor in a pile and treated roughly, but there was no assertion that any had been put in the toilet.

And kudos to Raw Story for reporting on all these other allegations last night. Read More......

McClellan caught lying about impact of Newsweek article

Like this was the first time that the US did anything to hurt its image in the Arab world. Give me a break. The reason they're rioting isn't because of Newsweek - hell, even their own general said the riots were unrelated to Newsweek (funny how Bush has suddenly forgotten this nice little fact). From the NYT:

Mr. McClellan and other administration officials blamed the Newsweek article for setting off the anti-American violence that swept Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The report had real consequences," Mr. McClellan said. "People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged."

But only a few days earlier, in a briefing on Thursday, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said that the senior commander in Afghanistan believed the protests had stemmed from that country's reconciliation process.

"He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine," General Myers said.

The riots are the result of 5 years of neglect and disdain from an administration of liars who launched a war based on a lie, killing thousand of their and our citizens. Then Bush decided to start torturing innocent Muslims in Cuba and Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan. Gee, I'll bet none of that has anything to do with the riots. Read More......

The "Surprise Visit" Phenomenon

How much longer is the mainstream media going to treat visits by U.S. officials to Iraq as these great, bold "Surprise Visits"? For Christ sakes, the President said "mission accomplished" over two years ago.

Since then, every time a major U.S. official sneaks in to the country, the whole media oohs and aaahs.

Give me a break.

Weren't the Iraqis supposed to be having parades for Bush?

But, now, all we hear is how dramatic it was for the Secretary of State to show up in the country we invaded.

Apparently, Rice is an expert on insurgencies....she was there giving advice left and right. Here's an idea, Condi. If you know so much about it, stay there and solve it. Bring the rest of the chickenhawks with you. Read More......

Speaking of single, anonymous, unreliable sources

From ThinkProgress:

QUESTION: Does it concern the President that the primary source for the intelligence on the mobile biological weapons labs was a guy that U.S. intelligence never every interviewed?

MCCLELLAN: Well, again, all these issues will be looked at as part of a broad review by the independent commission that the President appointed? But it's important that we look at what we learn on the ground and compare that with what we believed prior to going into Iraq.

Yeah, it really sucks that by relying on a single, anonymous, unreliable source Newsweek got us into a war that was based on a lie, has killed over 1,500 US servicemembers and untold numbers of innocent Iraqi civilians, and has put America at further risk from terrorism.

Oh. Read More......

Open Thread

Lots swirling around out there...what do you know? Read More......

White House: It's all Newsweek's Fault

Well now we know why the Muslim world hates us. It's all because of Newsweek. And, according to the Associated Press, Scott McCLellan says they better do something about it:

"The report had real consequences," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Monday. "People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged. There are some who are opposed to the United States and what we stand for who have sought to exploit this allegation. It will take work to undo what can be undone."

McClellan said a retraction was only "a good first step" and said Newsweek should try to set the record straight by "clearly explaining what happened and how they got it wrong, particularly to the Muslim world, and pointing out the policies and practices of our military."

So, it's all Newsweek's fault. Nothing else has caused problems for the U.S. But, Scott, what specific policies and practices of the military are you talking about? Before you answer, read the Associated Press story today about Spc. Sabrina Harman:

Harman, a former pizza shop manager from Lorton, Va., appeared in several of the most notorious photos taken at Abu Ghraib, and she was found guilty of taking other pictures.

The photos showed prisoners chained together in sexual poses, piled on the floor naked and forced to form a nude human pyramid.

In one picture, Harman posed with Graner behind a group of naked detainees. In another, she was shown with a prisoner on whose leg she is accused of writing "rapeist."

In closing arguments Monday, prosecutors said Harman and other guards conspired to physically hurt and sexually humiliate the prisoners under their watch.

"They were all acting together for their own amusement," Capt. Chris Graveline said.

Be careful what you ask for, Scott McClellan. Read More......

Talk is cheap, follow the money

Yesterday Bush visited a production facility for alternative energies and talked the talk, but when is he going to walk the walk? In the bloated energy bill that throws middle class taxpayer money and US land at anything related to petroleum there was very little money for alternative energies. If you're not pumping oil, you're not important to these people. Now Bush wants to somehow show that he is supporting something other than oil but forget about the talk. Follow the money.

I'd also like to see something of substance about conservation besides just saying the word. Please tell me that people are not actually falling for these photo ops. Read More......