Friday Orchid Blogging

A nice little assortment today, from a recent show I went to in Richmond, Virginia. You can click the photo to see a larger version. Enjoy. Read More......

The DC Madam speaks

ABC's transcript is up from the 20/20 broadcast about the DC Madam. Alas, no White House officials. Though I think she was running a heterosexual service. Read More......

Excellent new John Edwards ad on the war

You can even post your own video snippet that might get included in the ad - read more about it here. Neat idea.

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NRA demands that suspected terrorists be permitted to buy guns

To deny AK-47s and Uzis to terror suspects is downright un-American according to the National Rifle Association:

The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms. Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.

In a letter this week to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, NRA executive director Chris Cox said the bill, offered last week by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., "would allow arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights based on mere 'suspicions' of a terrorist threat."

Think of all the things the Bush administration has done, all the laws they've broken, all the rights they've taken away, in order to "fight terror." They've tapped our phones, read our emails, thrown us in jail without the right to an attorney or even a trial, assumed that we're guilty until proven innocent. But all of that, we are told, is necessary if we are to stop suspected terrorists from killing another 3,000 Americans, or worse, killing 1 million Americans with a nuke.

But God forbid a suspected terrorist isn't permitted to buy an Uzi. Oh no, we wouldn't want to take away the constitutional rights of a suspected terrorist to buy the weapons he needs to kill us all. No, that would be un-American. Will the anti-gun movement in this country finally come back from its extended vacation in obscurity? Will Democrats finally realize that permitting suspected terrorists to buy Uzis so they can then go to shopping malls and kill mom and little Jimmy in a hail of bullets just might be a losing issue for George Bush and the Republicans? Don't bet on it. And don't bet on George Bush ever saying no to the NRA. They're working out of his office:

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Does the British royalty really deserve this?

I don't like the royal family either, but it's a bit mean spirited to send Cheney. Read More......

Take a look at the religious right's latest hero

The top religious right groups constantly cite, as their best example of someone who has suffered from hate crimes laws, a group called Repent America. They say that the group was arrested under hate crimes law, among other things, while staging an anti-gay protest in Philly. Let me walk you through just who the religious right is embracing as their hero.

First off, here's what Repent America had to say about Hurricane Katrina.

"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. "From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge," he continued.

And here is a photo via CNN.com of one of Repent America's members protesting:



Funny, can't quite see Jesus in that sweatshirt.

Here's one more from Repent America's own Web site:



Again, these constitute heroes to the religious right.

Then again, considering the religious right is now embracing white supremacists and known hate groups, lauding a guy wearing an "anti-homo" shirt as a hero is downright Christian. Read More......

Cliff's Corner

The Week That Was 5/04/07

Another Week. More preposterousness to report.

Well, that illustrious group of geriatric honkeys known as the Republican presidential wannabes disembarked last night in what is for them the political equivalent of Taj Mahal, The Torture Museum in Amsterdam and a night out in Bangkok trolling for "massages" all rolled into one: Ronnie's Library. Also known as The House That Illicit Funds From Iran-For-Hostages Built. So what did we learn from this inevitably regal event?

1) Being a Republican means not only that Bin Laden is "Wanted Dead Or Alive" but also that "Bin Laden Is Going To Pay And He Will Die" (Romney) and you'll "Follow Bin Laden To The Gates Of Hell" (McCain). Because among your atavistic-anthropoid base, talking like you're in a John Wayne movie makes up for the fact that you guys couldn't catch The West Nile Virus--while sunning on the banks of The Nile, in the Full Monty and more sweat-drenched than Bill Bennett dreaming about the Bellagio.

Is the Mission Accomplished yet?

2) Being a Republican means 30% of your candidates for Leader Of The Free World (or so it used to be) don't believe in evolution, even though all you have to do is look at James Inhofe to know that Intellgent Design is simply not possible.

3) Being a Republican means you one day find yourself thinking, you know what, I need a massage. Should I go with the Swedish or perhaps the deep-tissue? Nah, I think I'll go with the hooker.

6) Being a Republican--ahem McCain--means the only Democrat you can think of to name to a cabinet position is Joe Lieberman, a guy who's not a Democrat, and has the same ridiculous position you have on the War in Iraq. But hey, you're a bipartisan guy who gets things done by working with the other side.

5) Being a Republican means you think it's a pretty good idea to send confidential Interior Department materials to a guy you met and "role-played with" on the Internet, but Democrats are the ones not to be trusted running our government.

6) Being a Republican means you absolutely detest the "culture of Hollywood." Even though if you'd played a drinking game last night for every time those silly sycophants on the stage mentioned Ronald Reagan, you'd have become Paula Abdul. You also slobber over the mere sight of the "Governator" in the audience and spend much of your time publicly fantasizing that lobbyist Fred Thompson will jump in the race and ride his white horse to victory, which is appropriate, because you believe black or Hispanic horses aren't quite up to the job anyhow.

In summary, you don't just embrace the "culture of Hollywood" for your party, Hollywood provides the only people anyone even likes in your party. And last night certainly did nothing to change that, at least among those of us who don't down Oxycintin like it's Cream Soda and shed our skin a half-dozen or so times a year.

For more on this and other stories, go to cliffschecter.com. Read More......

Tommy Thompson says employers shouldn't be permitted to fire gays, compares homophobia to racism

Good for him. It'll probably be the kiss of death for his primary race, but GOP presidential primary challenger Tommy Thompson deserves our praise for saying the right thing. You'll recall that there was some confusion after the debate last night when Thompson first said that it would be okay for an employer to fire an employee simply because they're gay, then after the debate he appeared to backtrack. Well, now Thompson has come clean and said that it is not okay for an employer to fire someone simply because they're gay, that Wisconsin (where he was governor) has a law on the books banning such employment discrimination, he supports the law, and then he went on to compare prejudice against gays to prejudice against blacks (Coretta Scott King agrees with him).

The question still remains whether, at the federal level, Thompson supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would ban discrimination against gays in the workplace. But either way, Thompson just signed his death warrant with the religious right. Not that that means he can't win the election. He's an underdog, to be sure, but I think Republicans are going to start realizing two things:

- First, the bigots running the religious right do not represent the majority of evangelical Christians (i.e., most Christians in America don't spend their days figuring out who next to hate); and

- Second, the religious right is quickly becoming the third-rail of American politics. Embrace them and die at the general elections. They're kind of nutty, and definitely mean - and people have had enough of nutty, mean leaders.

Here's Thompson's clarification to CNN this morning:

THOMPSON: I made a mistake. I misinterpreted the question. I thought that I answered it yes when I should have answered it no. I didn't hear, I didn't hear the question properly and I apologize. It's not my position. There should be no discrimination in the workplace and I have never believed that. And, in fact, Wisconsin has one of the first laws, which I supported.

ROBERTS: Right.

THOMPSON: So, I just made a mistake and that's all I can say. I'm sorry and I misinterpreted the question and I answered yes, when it should have been no.... It's not my position, it never has been. I have always been against discrimination and prejudice. In fact if you would have listened to the debate, they asked me a question about racism and I said that the president of the United States, whoever he is, has to take the point and has to be the person that does not allow discrimination or racism in any degree, whatsoever.

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Democrats not backing down on Iraq

From AP.

Give the man enough money through September 31 and tell him he'd better show progress by then or else. Read More......

Big Oil polluting Amazon

And to think that some don't understand why people are against drilling in sensitive areas in Alaska and offshore near the coast in the US. The track record for Big Oil is not very strong, to say the least.

A US oil company has been accused of contaminating an area of the Peruvian Amazon where it and its successor company have drilled for oil for the past 32 years, creating misery for the local Achuar people and widespread lead and cadmium poisoning.

A report issued by a coalition of protest groups including Amazon Watch and EarthRights International yesterday accused the company, Occidental Petroleum, of violating Peruvian and international law by dumping an estimated 9 billion barrels of toxic waste in the area since it started prospecting in the early 1970s.

The "produced waters", as the waste is technically known, were allegedly dumped directly into rivers and streams used by the Achuar for drinking, bathing, washing and fishing. Medical research documented in the report showed dangerously elevated levels of lead and cadmium in the Achuar population.

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Bush got mentioned exactly ONCE in the GOP debate

The ten GOP candidates combined mentioned the name of their current party leader, George Bush, exactly once during the big debate last night. Once:

Republican White House hopefuls Thursday night frequently invoked the name of former President Ronald Reagan during the first GOP presidential debate but avoided mentioning the current president by name.

Until the final question, which specifically asked the ten candidates how they would be different from President Bush, the name of the commander in chief was uttered only once by a candidate, according to a transcript of the event. In fact, they mentioned Bush’s brother Jeb and his father George H. W. Bush as many times as the current chief executive.

The GOPers made George Bush. They let him launch the Iraq war. They never did any oversight. Now, they can't even say his name. The 2008 election will be about George Bush and his disastrous legacy. The Republicans own George Bush and his legacy. Read More......

Wait . . . Syria? But I thought . . .

Talking to Syria is treason! Pelosi's visit undermined the U.S. effort to isolate those terrorist Arabs! The Democrats are . . . wait, what? The Secretary of State is meeting with the Syrian foreign minister? Secretary Rice asked Syria for help??

Well, then.

After all, I read WaPo, I watched CNN, so I know Pelosi was killing our foreign policy! The media told me so. So is Rice a traitor, or was Pelosi actually doing the right thing? Even, I dunno, helpful to U.S. interests?

In all seriousness, I applaud Democratic leaders for doing the right thing even in the face of massive stupidity from Republicans and the media. As the Times reports,

In April, the White House sharply criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat of California, for visiting Damascus and meeting with President Bashar al-Assad, even going so far as to call the trip "bad behavior," in the words of Vice President Dick Cheney.

But less than a month later Ms. Rice walked through the cavernous hallways of a conference center in this desert resort town today and into the Sun Room to sit down with Mr. Moallem. An excited buzz went through the throngs of diplomats milling around. After the meeting, Mr. Moallem was mobbed by reporters and camera crews, while Ms. Rice quickly escaped back to her hotel.

"This is a marked improvement in the administration's ostrich policy approach, and a tacit admission of how wrong it was last month in criticizing the Speaker of the House and congressional colleagues, including myself, for going to Damascus," Representative Tom Lantos, Democrat of California, said in a statement.

Yes. Precisely. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Made it through the first GOP debate. Not sure I can watch too many more of them. I thought the question about Bill Clinton back in the White House was one of the dumbest debate questions ever. Chris Matthews was on the Today Show this morning explaining why that was such a brilliant question. This is going to be a very, very long campaign.

Start threading the news. Read More......

Bush aware of student loan problems in 2001

Were they ever proactive on any looming problem?

The Bush administration killed a proposal to clamp down on the student loan industry six years ago following allegations that companies sought to shower universities with financial favors to help generate business, according to documents and interviews with government officials.

The proposed policy, which Education Department officials drafted near the end of the Clinton presidency and circulated at the start of the Bush administration, represented an early, significant but ultimately abortive government response to a problem that this year has grown into a major controversy.

Now, as the $85 billion-a-year student loan industry faces an array of investigations into questionable business practices that some officials believe could have been curtailed by the 2001 proposal, the Education Department has embarked on a new effort to set rules for the industry to prevent conflicts of interest and other abuses. If approved, the rules would be implemented in summer 2008, a few months before Bush leaves the White House.

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Polls heavily pointing towards Sarkozy victory on Sunday

The debate on Wednesday night was not the winning performance that Royal desperately needed to catch right wing candidate Sarkozy. Sego arrived on Wednesday down by a significant margin and the most puzzling moment of the night was her decision to make her mark was on the subject of assisting the handicapped. I am quite aware of such problems in France as I have a family member who struggled due to the archaic policies that offer very little (the US clearly has more advanced programs across the board for special needs people) but if you are losing beyond the margin of error, you need to reach out to enough people and pick your subject where you will shine. Her decision to stake her future on this subject while running for the President of the Republic, was strange.

Also strange is the culture war overtones of the Sarkozy campaign who wants to battle against the images of the May 1968 revolt. Haven't we seen this battle before in the US? I'm less impressed with arguments against Sarko because of his "American-style" policies because I can see the benefits and downsides to both systems.

At a high level, it's refreshing to hear a candidate such as Sego talk about optimism and love. A bit corny, but still, compared to the doom, gloom and fear from the other side, I appreciate it. If only she could have developed actual ideas and avoided putting her foot in her mouth so often. So unless something dramatic happens, the world will get to know Sarkozy after Sunday. Will he be as scary and brutal as many here fear?

Meanwhile, the final installment of France 2007 political jokes, this time, poking fun at Sego and her countless gaffes. "Boulettes" can be either meatballs or bloopers, so in this case, the couscous Royal is full of bloopers and the subtitle says "with a chickpea in the head". I still say the anti-Sarko jokes are funnier but that is what's out there.

So now that Bush's best friend and subservient little lapdog Blair leaves, it looks as though he has a new friend coming into the scene who is not afraid to be seen with him. Lucky, lucky. Read More......