Friday Orchid Blogging

I have NO idea what this is, other than that it should be an orchid as I took this picture recently at an orchid greenhouse. I have an orchid buddy who should know what this is, hopefully she'll weigh in. But it's so damn pornographic, it's just gotta be an orchid. Enjoy.

Update, more info on this particular orchid.

And I've made this photo into a t-shirt, postcards, etc. for sale here.

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Open thread

The orchids are moments away... Read More......

Bush again threatening recess appointment of Bolton to UN

Because lying to Congress means nothing to a guy who has just spent the past five years lying to an entire nation.

Liar.

Liar.

Liar.

Republicans have no respect for the law, or morality. Read More......

Homeland Security Head: Somone Should Protect Mass Transit

Homeland head Michael Chertoff blathers on in a Washington Post op-ed. He tries to defend spending so much more money on airports instead of other mass transit, admits that money should be targeted even more towards the vulnerable posts and cities (which Bush doesn't do enough of), holds up the hope that some fancy new technology will solve all our problems, fobs off most of the responsibility on state and local people and then offers this whopper:

Finally, catastrophic attacks on mass transit infrastructure have the potential to kill thousands -- and preventing them must be a primary focus of federal resources.

A "primary focus?" Then why has Bush done so little about trains and subways and bridges and tunnels? Why is Bush's Congress cutting back on airport security screeners by almost 15%, as we posted below? Thanks to threader aaron for pointing us to this. Read More......

Open thread

Off for drinks. TiVo'g Sci-Fi Friday. Read More......

Military won't tell parents of dead soldier HOW she died

Typical.



God forbid the family of Army Pfc. LaVena Johnson be told how their own daughter was killed in Iraq while serving her country.

Funny how again it's the liberals who are all upset that our troops are being treated like dirt, and it's the Republicans who are trying to hide these stories under the rug. Hmmm... And it's the liberals complaining about our troops not having the appropriate body armor, while the Republicans try to slip the problem under the rug. And it's the liberals who are complaining about our troops not being given an end game strategy to win this war, while the Republicans simply lie while our troops keep getting killed and maimed.

Tell me again how the Republicans are the party of national defense? Read More......

My t-shirts just arrived

I just ordered a slew of t-shirts for myself and they just arrived. I have to say, they're quite funny. Actually even better than I expected. And the mediums are even a bit large - gonna try to wash and shrink em manana.

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Why does Bill Frist hate fetuseseses

Tom DeLay says baby-hater Bill Frist is toast if he ever runs for president. Man, I love it when the party's popularity hits 40% and the inmates start running the prison. Read More......

Tony Blair just caught all suspected London terrorists in one week, George Bush can't catch any 9/11 suspects in four years

Tony Blair REALLY doesn't get it.

It's not about actually CATCHING the terrorists. It's about keeping the fear of terror going for as long as you can in order to use to stay in power, squelch domestic dissent, stifle democracy, and launch an interventionist foreign policy to try to take over the world.

Silly, silly Tony Blair. Dubya is going to be vewy vewy angwy with you.

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The President We Might Have Had

A very good op-ed on Bush vs Gore, pointing out how Al Gore's top priorities were right in line with the needs of America -- Gore touted hybrid cars and energy conservation and renewable sources (Bush mocked the hybrids that are now a huge profit center...for foreign companies), Gore would have used the power of the marketplace to get cheaper prescriptions for seniors (rather than benefitting the pharmaceutical companies), Gore would have used the now-squandered budget surplus to strengthen Social Security, rather than simply trying to destroy it and on and on. Very well done. And here's the kicker on terrorism:

Would a Gore administration have connected the dots and prevented the horror of 9/11? That, of course, is impossible to assess. What is crystal clear: No administration could have done worse than Mr. Bush and his people.

Thanks to threader Laura Bee for pointing us to this. Read More......

Supreme Court Stealth Nominee Roberts: An Update

Loads to discuss about John Roberts.

USA Today says quite simply that Roberts was working for the American people, not the President, and that the records should be made available.

The White House appears far too eager to keep Roberts' record shrouded at precisely the moment when the veil should be rising.

The Dems -- led by Sen. Kennedy -- get serious and make a formal request for documents on 20 issues that Roberts dealt with in the first Bush administration. Kennedy also points out that the more we learn about Roberts, the more extreme his record reveals itself to be.

Sen. Chuck Schumer gets a profile as he girds himself for the questioning of Roberts, probably the most important task he'll face this year. Schumer and Kennedy were two who showed no confidence in Roberts when he last came before the Senate for confirmation.

Here's an article on the questionnaire sent to Roberts. Pretty fascinating what was put in and what left out. In: have you been arrested or convicted of a crime? Out: have you ever hired a clerk who was a woman or a minority?

And the most important article details his views based on the files that have already been released. It doesn't look good for people opposed to sex discrimination, supportive of immigrants' rights, the separation of church-state, etc. And I was really annoyed by this comment on Affirmative Action.

Mr. Roberts held that affirmative action programs were bound to fail because they required "the recruiting of inadequately prepared candidates."

"Under our view of the law," he wrote in 1981, "it is not enough to say that blacks and women have been historically discriminated against as groups and are therefore entitled to special preferences."

Actually, only a racist or misogynist should think that women and blacks were denied jobs throughout our country's history because they were "inadequately prepared." Certainly no program encouraging the employment of women or blacks or other groups denied a fair chance to succeed would depend on scrounging up the unqualified. Affirmative action was about ending that discrimination and making sure that the people who WERE qualified got a chance. People who were never allowed to walk in the door and therefore could never gain the experience to move up even higher based on their skills got placed on an equal footing with everyone else. Does Roberts think the symbolically affirmative action hiring of Sandra Day O'Connor was wrong or simply that she was the first woman in the history of this country who was qualified to be a Supreme Court justice?

It's not about helping people with shortcomings -- it's about ending the prejudice that held down people who could have performed just as well or better as everyone else. It's about giving them the chance to prove themselves and succeed on merit rather than be held back because of the color of their skin or their gender. It's not a "special preference" to pull down barriers that hold people back. It's the "special preference" for white males that affirmative action was designed to end. Read More......

Bill Frist caves on stem cells, screws religious right and Bush

Not to mention, read the article, you don't see George Bush bending any arms to help the religious right on this one (you've got vote your conscience, he told Frist). What? If that's the response Bush gives to every religious right priority then almost no one in Congress is going to support them.

Bill Frist, why do you hate American's Taliban? Read More......

Nobody knows I'm a man-whore

For some strange reason I felt inspired to create this t-shirt today....

Buy 'em now, at the AMERICAblog store :-)



We've got LOTS more merchandise over the past week, check it out at your leisure. Read More......

Anyone interested in helping the special congressional election in Ohio next Tuesday

Go here. Read More......

One-third of Humvees in Iraq Still Not Properly Armored

One out of every three Humvees is not factory-armored. Imagine your son and daughter pulling the short straw. So what do you think of Bush? It's two years into the war and he's still incapable of properly equipping a third of the soldiers in Iraq using armored vehicles. A real commander in chief would have solved this problem ages ago. But of course a real commander in chief wouldn't run from military funerals just because he thought it might make a bad photo-op. I mean, really, it's not like Bush is running for reelection. Can't he at least do that for the troops? Show the fallen a little respect? Read More......

Jeff Gannon, $200 an hour man-whore, says AMERICAblog and you crazy radicals are giving aid and comfort to the enemy

Yeah, well, I suppose Jeff knows a thing about giving aid and comfort.



I know I swore I wouldn't mention Jeff again since his 15 minutes have long since passed, but you do have to read this oped in the Atlanta gay paper (but don't call him gay!). I picked a few choice paragraphs you have to read.

After mentioning AMERICAblog and me by name, Jeff, who you'll recall is a fake Marine - yes, the man lied about being in the military service - says we're giving aid and comfort to the enemy, we seek to compromise America's security and cripple its economy (huh? oh, that's right, we ruined his prostitution business), we're filled with blind rage and conspiracy theories (yeah, that $1200 a weekend prostie thing never panned out, did it Jeff), and apparently we have ties to Cuba and Norh Korea, which is news to me. I mean, I think Cuban guys are hot, though I'm not really into North Koreans - does that count?

The aim is to focus on incidents that may sap the will of the American people to remain on the front lines in the war on terror. But it doesn’t have as much impact on the Pentagon as it does the men and women in harm’s way.

Either way, undermining support for the war in Iraq gives aid and comfort to those who have no regard for life, liberty or diversity. Losing this battle in the war on terror won’t bode well for anyone in the U.S.

THE WEB SITES of these activists are populated with extreme elements who seek to compromise America’s security and cripple its economy. Intelligent debate over issues and strategies is crushed by expressions of blind rage and conspiracy theories.

With rhetoric so shrill, all but the most partisan readers are repelled. The operators of these sites and the opinions expressed therein are often represented to the rest of America as the core constituency of the gay community.

Only a few degrees of separation exist between these activists and some dangerously radical groups. Clinking just a few links will transport one to the Web sites of International ANSWER, Code Pink, United for Peace and Justice or Queers for Peace.

All of these “antiwar” groups are part of a global anti-American movement that supports totalitarian regimes like Cuba and North Korea. History has shown how well despots treat gay members of society.

And may I just say that some closet case man-whore who wrote article after article sucking up to the religious right on gay issues, and who still denies he's gay, has a lot to make up for before he lectures any of us on who represents the gay community. Jeff's concern for our well being is touching.

PS You'll notice the difference between a closet case man-whore and a real journalist. Jeff bitches about the fact that I didn't cover the Irani hanging of two gay youths. Well, had Jeff done his research rather than simply regurgitated what he read on the Internet he'd know that that story has a few holes in it. And as an aside, since when did Jeff become the big international human rights advocate? I welcome him to the cause, but give me a break. Read More......

Open thread

Sci-Fi Friday is here Read More......

Frist to Flip Flop on Stem Cells

Flip flop alert! Reporting it as a break with Bush, Frist is supposed to be changing his mind on supporting stem cell research. From the NY Times:

"I am pro-life," Mr. Frist says in the speech, arguing that he can reconcile his support for the science with his own Christian faith. "I believe human life begins at conception."

But at the same time, he says, "I also believe that embryonic stem cell research should be encouraged and supported."

Last time I checked Dr. Frist, an embryo, by definition, comes AFTER conception. These guys are just a bunch of clowns... Read More......

Hey, Did Bush Just Cave To The Terrorists?

I posted earlier about our top general in Iraq saying they could start a major pullout in the spring (just in time for the 2006 elections oddly enough). Mostly, I made fun of the fact that the only condition he was really trying to set was that the insurgency not get any worse. That seems a pretty pathetic standard since the insurgency is stronger than ever.

But lots of threaders pointed out the obvious: Bush had just set a deadline. He certainly can't pretend conditions in Iraq have improved -- more people are dying this year than last year and more people were dying last year than the year before. And Bush insisted it was heresy to set a deadline to pull out -- if you do that, all the insurgents have to do is wait you out. Now they know they can hunker down (or even keep killing our men and women at the record levels they've been achieving) and we'll still be out in the spring of 2006.

How can Bush justify setting a deadline when Iraq is worse off now than it was a year ago? How can Bush justify setting a deadline when he insisted this would help the insurgents? How can Bush justify talk of pulling out when the Iraqis only have about 12,000 troops even minimally trained -- and most of them are only capable of fighting with our help? How can Bush justify going back on his word? Read More......

Longer Lines At Airports? Thank Bush And The Republicans!

The Republican-controlled House and Senate are getting ready to cut up to 15% of the entire country's checkpoint screeners at airports. The Senate wants to cut 6000 of the 45,000 screeners; the House wants to cut 2000. USA Today details which airports are hit hardest with cuts. (Some, in fact, gain). Among the big losers: Detroit (black people), Puerto Rico (dark-skinned people and Ricky Martin) and JFK in New York (lots of liberals and besides, it's in Queens and that makes them feel icky). Among the big winners: Arnuhld's Los Angeles, Houston (naturally) and -- no surprise here -- Washington-Dulles. Shameless.

Airport officials say travelers can forget about breezing through in ten minutes -- which should be great for the beleaguered airline industry. But forget convenience -- how can this POSSIBLY be a good idea in a post 9-11 world where security should be a top priority?

Has Bush done ANYTHING lately to improve national security? Bush won't even pretend to worry about oil consumption, Bush doesn't guard our borders, Bush ignores the backlog of untranslated intelligence, Bush wants to DELAY upgrading the Coast Guard (which is charged with inspecting ports) until 2030, Bush can't even upgrade the computers at the FBI (he's leaving that up to the NEXT President), we STILL don't have a combined terrorist watch list to check against the names of people on airline passenger lists and now Bush wants to cut back on airport security. What else can we add to this list? Read More......

Kudos To "Paula Zahn Now" For Second "Conversion" Story

Okay, so Thursday night "Paula Zahn Now" did another story on the snake oil scam of "conversion therapy." (If you're interested, the show is rerun at 2 a.m.) Suddenly Zahn was touting Part Two of their special report -- though I rechecked part "one" and there's no hint they planned a followup. Either the story generated so much attention they decided to squeeze another segment out of the footage or -- best case scenario -- they were as unhappy with the first one as we were. Certainly they improved a good deal. It's late and I lambasted them the first time around, so forgive this lengthy analysis.

Reporters have to be instant experts on every issue they deal with and the show clearly came up short on night one. Either internally or based on feedback from viewers and the web (which Zahn even referenced), they listened and responded to some of the factual complaints. Yes, it could have been even better -- but their response was certainly far more admirable than simply ignoring the criticism or defending the original piece. Though of course I assume mainly they did another piece because the first one generated talk.

Among the improvements: they made clear that Love in Action Refuge (yes, as numerous threaders pointed out, this makes them LIARs) is NOT a registered mental health clinic -- only one counselor is licensed. (And I assume that counselor could be reprimanded or lose their license for engaging in therapy that the APA has condemned. Perhaps they're only licensed by the state?) Since it ISN'T a mental health clinic, I still take issue with CNN describing chat sessions as "group therapy." Shouldn't group therapy be reserved only for sessions led by a professional? Is the only licensed therapist always present at every session? If not, it doesn't deserve this patina of professional respectability -- especially since what they practice has been condemned by every reputable medical and mental health organization in the country as dangerous, wrong, and potentially extremely damaging.

They still incorrectly describe the leader Rev. Smid [what a name!] as "rejecting homosexuality," a claim these fringe groups know they can no longer pretend to make -- even Rev. Smid doesn't claim he's now straight, just that he won't act on those desires. Again, it's important to note that just a few years ago they lied and said people could choose to be straight and that being gay was merely a choice. Society is so far beyond such idiocy, today even the far right doesn't trot that lie out anymore. Even the IDs of the people who went through the program are poorly thought out: two young men interviewed are labeled "graduate," which again gives this sketchy organization that is seriously condemned by the entire medical community an air of seriousness it doesn't deserve. You can't graduate from a scam.

All the footage used was presumably shot the first time around. But what a difference a day makes. With the new emphasis on facts and the overwhelming medical opinion about this fraud, they even used a better quote from Dr. Drescher of the APA than the one they used the first night. "These people [the teens being told by their parents they should be ashamed of the way they were born] are in a lot of pain and desperate," says Drescher. "This movement preys on that desperation."

The real zinger: LIARs only claims that 24 people have gone through the program since it began three years ago. That tells us a lot. There's very little demand, it's extremely fringe and wildly ineffective. We know just from the two men interviewed that at least three of those 24 are happily gay and the one mild success story says he'll be attracted to men for the rest of his life and may simply try to be chaste. That's far different from their wild claims 10 years ago that being gay was a choice and anyone who wanted to could marry a woman, settle down and be happy. Of course, like all the other scams that have popped up over the years, LIARs refuses to keep track of the people it has abused by teaching them to hate the way they were born. So you can bet that out of the remaining 20 that most are happily gay or desperately miserable. Or, God forbid, dead. The charlatan running it -- Rev. Smid -- says he "doesn't know" how many have succeeded by his standards. He can't keep track of 24 people? That's either complete callousness on his part or more obviously he doesn't want to know.

Oh and the one young man they offered up to the media -- Ben Marshall -- had to spend EIGHT MONTHS with LIARs and even he doesn't consider it a success based on what he expected -- which was to "become" straight. Good luck to Ben and I hope five years from now he'll be telling the media how he learned to love himself and love God at a UU or UCC or some other house of worship and what a joke this group was. Certainly I think the chances of him being happy by spending his life ashamed of the way he was born are not good.

But the heart of the segment was a live one-on-one interview between Zahn and another "graduate" Gerard Wellman, who now works for LIARs. (Another Dickensian and ironic name for a clean-cut nice young guy -- dude, you are a well man AND a gay man; it's a pity you think you have to be ashamed of yourself).

Zahn was polite but pretty darn on target. She emphasized how he is and always will be gay and that the best the program can hope is to get Wellman and others to SUPPRESS themselves. She emphasized how it's one thing for an adult like Wellman to choose to go through this and a very different thing for a minor to be forced into it. LIAR's line is that the parents have the right to raise their children any way they choose. But the response is that you have no right to assist a parent in shaming and emotionally damaging a child by telling them to be ashamed of their skin color or gender or sexual orientation. Zahn talked a lot about the vulnerability of the children being pushed through LIARs. When Wellman tried to compare this program to a parent's right to have their children take music lessons, Zahn shot him down and said that music lessons never lead to suicide attempts.

My favorite moment:

Zahn: But in a way, aren't you denying who you are?
Wellman: Aren't we all?

Uh, no. We're not. Only people abused by their parents and their misguided religious leaders try to deny who they are. Lead a good Christian life by being in a faithful monogamous relationship with a nice Christian guy, Wellman, not by trying to suppress who you are and second-guess God.

Kudos again to Zahn for doing a much better job the second time around. Read More......

US to pull troops out of Iraq in 2006: been there, done that, heard it all before

How many times are they going to repeat this story? The Iraqi troops are hardly trained and the ones that are trained and can operate on their own make up a small minority of the overall numbers. Besides Fox News and their loyal viewers, who really buys this garbage? No matter what the Iraqi government says, they know that when the US troops go, so goes the money and focus so this is not going to happen any time soon. Read More......