New EPA regs will force Wisconsin to SCALE BACK its anti-pollution laws

The Bush administration's new EPA regs are actually forcing Wisconsin to allow MORE pollution and SCALE BACK it's already existing anti-pollution laws. Isn't that lovely.

Hope your child enjoys a little mercury in his air. But hey, could be worse - he/she could be drafted. Read More......

FYI: DailyKos.com having problems today

If you're having problems visiting DailyKos.com today, you're not alone. This message from Markos:

Guys, thanks to extraordinarily bad service from GoDaddy.com, my domain registrar, the situation wasn't resolved today. They've promised to take care of it first thing Wednesday morning.

That means the site will be zoning out for more and more of you over the next few hours. By tomorrow morning, no one should have access to the site. I don't know what's going on yet, but we'll be back up as soon as I figure out what happened, and what needs to be done to fix it.

Update: If the site dies on you, you can still view it at:

http://69.9.161.200

Or you can read some other blogs and spend extra time with the wife/husband/kids/girlfriend/boyfriend/mistress, etc.

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Tuesday night open thread

Just me or are the allergies back in full force? Man, my head is spinning. Read More......

What a sad little man

GannonGuckert is now posting "news" stories on his Web site. I'll be curious to see which right-wing sites pick up the news feed of a gay hooker.

I only bring this up because the story itself is just sad. It's about yesterday's lower court ruling in California granting equal marriage rights to gay couples. In it, GannonGuckert quotes "the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign" - the only pro-gay source cited in his story - then he goes on to quote 6 religious right sources opposed to gay marriage. He also notes that "President George W. Bush called for a constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage."

If a heterosexual reporter had written this article it would be considered absurdly biased. HRC is a "pro-homosexual" group? Homosexual? As a straight guy, you MIGHT get away with using that word. As a gay guy, the use of the word homosexual is downright messed up. The word homosexual is now often considered derogatory by gays, partly because the word is used incessantly by the religious right for the express purpose of denigrating gays (the word can sound dirty and clinical). While this can certainly depend on context, in this context no NORMAL gay person would use the phrase "pro-homosexual" for anything. You'd say "pro-gay" because you'd realize the inherent bias and forced and pejorative nature of "pro-homosexual."

Then there's his description of Bush's constitutional amendment as being "to protect traditional marriage." Sure, that's what Bush says, but again, I think it's odd a gay person would describe Bush's amendment as "protecting marriage" without any qualifiers. You don't need to be biased the other way, but don't buy into Bush's language and putative reason for the amendment. No reporter should do that, and a gay reporter doing it is, again, odd.

And finally, he uses 6 religious right sources and one pro-gay source? Huh. For a straight reporter that would be egregiously biased and a major screw up (to wit, our recent brouhaha with the LA Times when they had 6 or 7 sources pro-Gannon in a story and one source pro us - in that instance, the Times gave us an op ed to counter their story). But for a gay reporter, quoting six sources to bash gays and only one source to defend gays is not only biased on its face, but it's creepy as hell. Why? Because when the discrimination/bias is about you, you're more sensitive about noticing it (to wit, the fact that I immediately went "six sources to one?"). There's no way GannonGuckert didn't know he was quoting 6 on one side and one on the other.

The creepy part about all of this is that it's hard to believe GannonGuckert didn't know exactly what he was doing. It seems that he chose to severely bias his story to push the religious right view on gay civil rights - that is, that they don't and shouldn't exist. That kind of bias is disturbing from a straight person, but from a gay person it's seriously messed up.

I'm sure Jeff will be amused that we're writing about him again. Maybe some day when no one remembers his name anymore (like in two months) he'll sit back and look at his life and consider why in order to strike back at his supposed enemies he always feels the need to bash himself. Read More......

Arnold!

HRC's and Equality California's press release about Arnold's recent comments about equal marriage rights for gays. Arnold said that if the California state supreme court rules in favor of gay marriage he will NOT move to have the state's constitution amended to ban gay marriage. Uh oh. The religious right is, I promise you, spitting bullets at this very moment. And all I can say is "ha ha." You elect moderate Republicans to office and they, what, act like moderate Republicans. I love it.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER REITERATES OPPOSITION TO DISCRIMINATION IN THE CONSTITUTION

Governor's Opposition to Discrimination Reflects American Values, Say HRC and Equality California

WASHINGTON - The Human Rights Campaign and Equality California commended California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his unequivocal opposition to putting discrimination in the Constitution. Appearing last night on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, the governor was asked if he would "move to try to change the Constitution" should the California Supreme Court rule that the state can no longer deny marriage to same-sex couples; he replied, "No, absolutely not."

"The Governor's unequivocal opposition to putting discrimination in the Constitution reflects the values of most Americans," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "We commend the Governor for ensuring that the Constitution enshrines freedom and fairness. It's clear that the American appetite for equality knows no partisan boundaries."

"Fair-minded people understand the importance of the judicial system as a separate, equal branch of government, and the Governor understands and values the need to respect the courts," said Executive Director Geoffrey Kors of Equality California. "Equality for all Californians is fundamental, and LGBT families should be afforded the same equal treatment." The statewide LGBT civil rights organization is a plaintiff in the case.

On Monday, Judge Richard Kramer - a California Superior Court judge who is a Catholic Republican and was appointed to the bench by Gov. Pete Wilson, another Republican - ruled that same-sex couples can no longer be denied marriage and the rights and protections of marriage under state law. The case will now likely go to an appeals court.

In March 2004 on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Gov. Schwarzenegger rejected amending the Constitution to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, saying "I think those issues should be left to the state, so I have no use for a constitutional amendment or change in that at all." He also said it would be "fine with me" were California law to change so that same-sex couples were no longer denied the right to marry.

The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political organization with members throughout the country. It effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support and educates the public to ensure that LGBT Americans can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.

Founded in 1998, Equality California is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots-based, statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to ensure the dignity, safety, equality and civil rights of all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Californians. Equality California is one of the largest and fastest growing statewide LGBT organizations in the country. We can be contacted through our website at www.eqca.org.

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Trouble in wingnut land

Pam reports that some family-values types are considering voting for conservative Dems over Republicans, now that the GOP has embraced family-unfriendly (i.e., not bigoted enough) politicians like Condi, McCain and Rudi. Read More......

And she's OUUTTTTTTTT!

Italy just announced it's going to start withdrawing its troops from Iraq this fall.

Moral of the Story: You bitch slap countries for four years and when you need them the most they tell you to go to hell. It's called normal human relations, chimpy. Read More......

The Advocate on Gannon

Not a bad synopsis on the story, and ads more fuel to the "why didn't he get a hard pass" debate. And I have to give a shameless promotion to my quote at the end of the article. :-) Read More......

GannonGuckert resolution to be taken up in US House tomorrow

He's baaaaaack.

And even better, the discussion and vote will be broadcast live on the Internets at 10AM Wednesday. Read More......

Why does America hate Social Security privatization?

New poll shows opposition is growing to Bush's privatization scheme. Uh oh. Read More......

Sinclair TV still obsessed with Kerry

This morning I was at a press conference in the Russell Senate Building. The purpose of the event was to oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The speakers included Senator Maria Cantwell, Senator John Kerry and Senator Joe Lieberman. This week, the Senate will be voting on Cantwell's amendment to remove drilling in the Arctic Refuge from the Budget.

After the speeches concluded, press questions began. And that's where things got weird.

Initially, the questions were, of course, about the Arctic Refuge.

Then, a reporter, in a booming voice, said he needed to ask Kerry a question. He began to ask a bizarre question about Kerry's opponent challenging his military record. Didn't hear the whole question because the whole room started booing and hissing. I have never seen a reporter shut down by the audience like that.

Clearly, the reporter had a right wing agenda. I did a little snooping and found out he was Don Hammond who said he was from News Central. His bio on the News Central web page notes he is "Sinclair's Washington Bureau Chief."

Yes, Sinclair. They apparently cannot get over their obsession with John Kerry's military record. Last year, we all remember, they wanted to air the anti-Kerry movie, Stolen Honor, in the heat of the campaign.

They were shameless then, and based on the performance (or I should say attempted performance) by Hammond today, they are still shameless.

The fun thing today was how quickly the audience responded to a reporter who was acting with a political agenda. And if there were ever a news organization with a political agenda, it's Sinclair. Read More......

Confused Greenspan can't make up his mind, yet again

While it can sometimes be entertaining to listen to the guy talking out of both sides of his mouth, I wish he would just go away because he can't seem to decide whether to go completely up Bush's ass or only halfway. He's more of an embarassment every day. Read More......

Help Senator Kennedy in this poll

Vote Read More......

Pro gay marriage judge in California is a Catholic Republican

And the religious right was saying what again about those activist liberal judges who don't believe in God? Read More......

Morning open thread

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