Tomorrow is Live Earth day

Not to be confused with Dead Earth day, which is today, George Bush's birthday. More from the Post. Read More......

Friday Orchid Blogging

Odontocidium Wildcat

I'm quite proud of this one. I nursed it back to health from near death about 3 or 4 years ago. It finally bloomed a week ago. I love this plant. It's quite an ordinary orchid, among orchid growers, but it's such a beauty. I mean look at this thing - it looks like, well, a wild cat. Enjoy. Read More......

Giuliani didn't talk about his support for national handgun licensing today in Georgia. Wonder why?

Last month, I went to a breakfast meeting of progressives with right-wing guru Grover Norquist. One thing we learned is that Rudy Giuliani's biggest problem with the GOP base would be his very, very strong record on gun control. Norquist is on the Board of the National Rifle Association so he knows. Actually, Grover's quote was "Rudy's biggest problem is guns."

Today, in Georgia, we saw Rudy's strategy for downplaying his pro-gun control record:

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, a strong proponent of gun control during his years as New York mayor, told a Southern audience Friday that he supports the constitutional right to bear arms.

During a town-hall style meeting, Giuliani focused on combatting terrorism, cutting taxes and ending illegal immigration. Several in the audience of some 200 raised questions about issues at the forefront for some conservative Southerners: gun rights and embryonic stem-cell research.

"It doesn't matter if I believe in it or not — and I do — it is the Second Amendment," Giuliani said. "I'm a strict constructionist. The Second Amendment says you have an individual right to bear arms."

Giuliani earned a reputation for strictly enforcing gun laws while New York mayor.

To say Rudy was a "strong proponent of gun control" is an understatement. He was a leader on the issue and never missed a chance to tout his pro-gun control credentials. Rudy's got some serious spinning to do if he's going to win over the gun crowd. He's basically going to have to do a complete 180.

Rudy earned a reputation for trashing the weak gun laws in states like Georgia. He literally blamed Southerners for New York's gun crime. It's true, but the pro-gun forces aren't going to like it. Here's one of the best passages (from an March 7, 1997 archived NY Times article:

The city's crime reductions cannot continue much further, [Giuliani] said, especially if guns continue to flow freely into New York from elsewhere in the country, where gun laws are more lax. The five southern states that account for 60 percent of the guns in the city are Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and North and South Carolina, he said, and if Congress would only impose handgun licensing on those states and the rest of the country, New York's crime rate would plummet even further....

For months, the Mayor has tried to prepare the electorate for the possibility that the city's dramatic reductions in crime will at some point level off. Though there are some initial signs that this year's crime rate could fall below last year's low, it obviously cannot continue to fall forever, a looming reality that has revitalized the Mayor's campaign against out-of-town guns.

The strategy, which he does not hesitate to disseminate in speeches and national television interviews, operates on two levels: By reviving his 1994 proposal to license guns, he trumps his more liberal Democratic opponents on an issue popular in New York City, especially among the nonwhite voters he is trying to court, an important effort for a former prosecutor whose best-known achievements are in the area of law enforcement. And he now has an entire region of the country to blame when a high-profile shooting blemishes his crime statistics, as the Empire State Building incident did last month. The gunman, who shot eight people, killing two -- including himself -- bought his gun in Florida.

Giuliani was always blaming that Southern region of the country for having weak guns laws. And, as he travels around that South, those pro-gun folks should know that Rudy wanted them to get licenses to own guns, just like they do in New York City. They'll love that. Read More......

School district outs gay teens to parents

Wild story.

A girl caught kissing her girlfriend on a school security camera says the videotape should have never been shown to her friend's parents.

Read More......

GOP/Dem coalition of Senators to offer legislation to keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely

A bipartisan group of Senators has prepared legislation that they want to offer in the next few weeks that would keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely. What's worse, they're claiming that the legislation implements the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, when in fact, the legislation codifies George Bush's current failed policies in Iraq.

The misnamed "Iraq Study Group (ISG) Recommendations Implementation Act of 2007," is being offered by Senators Ken Salazar (D-CO), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Bob Bennett (R-UT), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Robert Casey (D-PA), John Sununu (R-NH) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). Probably the most offensive thing about the legislation is that it outright calls for the continuation of the status quo policy of keeping US troops in Iraq until the day that Iraq is 100% ready to stand on its own - namely, never. Specifically, the legislation buries a little nugget on page 18 of the bill. In a section entitled "Sense of Congress on Redeployment of United States Forces from Iraq," the legislation spells out the following preconditions to withdrawing US troops:

1. A massive list of suggested policies need to first be accomplished before the US withdraws. These include transferring the Iraqi National Police to the Ministry of Defense, reorganizing the Iraqi security forces, upgrading Iraq's police communications equipment, establishing courts, training judges, prosecutors and investigators, drafting oil legislation, implementing metering at the oil pipelines, reorganizing the entire Iraqi oil industry, and more. But that's not all that has to happen before our troops are permitted to withdraw from Iraq. Oh no. Read on.

2. Additional Iraqi brigades need to deployed. Meaning, the exact same policy we have now under George Bush. No withdraw until the Iraqi security forces are up to par. And our military people on the ground in Iraq say this could take 40 to 50 years, if ever.

3. The eventual withdrawal of US forces is "subject to unexpected development in the security situation on the ground." Meaning, if things don't get better, we don't leave. That's the current policy. And things aren't getting better.

The legislation then says that if ALL of those things I listed above are met, THEN we can possibly consider to maybe redeploy some of the troops next spring, 2008.

Are they kidding?

Oh but that's not all. The legislation also says that the Iraq Study Group never ever said that we should actually withdraw from Iraq by next year. And put aside the fact that the entire legislation is written as a "sense of the Congress" - meaning, it has the same legal weight as National Ice Cream Day.

You are witnessing a congressional covering-their-asses of the highest order. They're offering legislation that they claim will get us out of Iraq, that they claim will change the course in Iraq, when in reality the legislation not only reiterates George Bush's current plan for Iraq, but the legislation specifically says that we should not leave Iraq until the security situation improves and the Iraqi Army and police forces are fully trained (some time next century).

The Senators are hoping that no one will read the fine print, and their constituents will all be wooed by their grandiose press releases about embracing the Iraq Study Group report. In fact, in twelve months, if this plan is adopted, more US troops will be dead and dying because Congress didn't have the backbone to stand up to our incompetent commander in chief. Read More......

The Washington Post's homosexual agenda, Part II

It seems the Washington Post violated its own style guide by repeatedly using the word "homosexual" as a noun in yesterday's editorial. My original post on this issue is here. And more on the larger issue from GLAAD. Read More......

DC will get a Live Earth concert after all

Senator James Inhofe and the other global warming deniers thought they had blocked Al Gore's Live Earth concert in DC. Wrong. This morning, Gore announced that there will be a concert on the mall:

Washington has been added as a host city for this Saturday's worldwide series of Live Earth concerts, former Vice President Al Gore, a co-organizer of the shows, said on Friday.

The concert to raise climate change awareness will be on the Mall, a vast park located between the Capitol building and the Lincoln Memorial, and will include married country singers Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, Gore told the "CBS Early Show."

An earlier bid to stage the concert in Washington fell through when other music groups had already obtained permits for the Mall and some Republicans in Congress blocked an effort to move it to the Capitol grounds.

That's the way the GOPers play ball. They actually thought blocking this concert was some kind of victory. Bizarre, but that's what we're up against. Read More......

Oh sure. Iraq is Senator Susan Collins' top priority now. But, it wasn't two weeks ago. And, she's still not doing anything to stop the war.

Iraq wasn't the top issue of concern for Senator Susan Collins before it was. And her flip-flop took only two weeks.

As John wrote late last month, Susan Collins' team was telling the Maine press that Iraq wasn't her top concern:

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Iraq is a big concern, but not the top one.

Unlike the other three [members of Maine's Congressional Delegation], Collins' office said the consensus from constituents isn't to get out of Iraq right away, or even soon. Her constituents have many different opinions about the war, said spokesman Kevin Kelley.

Of course, a little over two weeks ago, top Iraq war supporter Joe Lieberman was hosting a fund raiser for Collins, so there was no way she would bad mouth the war effort in any way, shape or form.

But now, two weeks later, Iraq is the top issue, Collins tells the New York Times:

“When you have senior, well-respected Republican senators like Dick Lugar, John Warner and Pete Domenici all calling upon the administration to pursue a new strategy, it is significant,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican also up for re-election next year.

She said her talks with voters convinced her that the war remained the top issue. And she joined Mr. Domenici in saying the patience of many Republicans with the Iraqi government was virtually exhausted. “It is very troubling to many of us that the Iraq government appears to be making little or no progress toward political reconciliation,” she said.

Remains the top issue? Since when? The Iraq war is the top issue for voters. It just hasn't been for Collins. And, she still does nothing to end the war.

Collins has been a lap-dog for Bush and for her best friend, Joe Lieberman. She can't distance herself from George and especially from Joe. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Well, it's Friday. What a week. The Libby pardon continues to reverberate. Bottom line is that George Bush is implicated in Libby's case. Josh Marshall summed it up yesterday:

Setting aside whether Scooter Libby should spend 0 days in jail for what most people spend from 1 to 3 years in jail, the key here is that it's inappropriate for the president to pardon or commute a sentence in a case in which he (i.e., the president) is a party to the same underlying crime. Because it amounts to obstruction of justice.

It's really not that complicated.

Its really not that complicated.

Thread, please. Read More......

Immigration policies costing US skilled jobs

Just a few months ago a colleague from Eastern Europe had a similar experience, when he was denied an H1B visa and instead of working in the US, it was an easier solution to move to Canada. It's silly that the US loses out on highly educated people like this and forces jobs to move abroad when they could just as easily be in the US. This has been a major problem for years and has pushed aside time after time.

Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it will open a software development center in Vancouver, giving it a place to employ skilled workers snagged by U.S. immigration quotas.

It may signal the start of a new hiring trend, with other U.S. high-tech firms following in Microsoft's footsteps to Canada, where lawyers say it is easier for foreign nationals to obtain work credentials.

When is the US going to have a grown up discussion about immigration instead of what we have today? Read More......

Americans have no faith in DHS

Only in the Bush administration can a program be botched so badly which is why Americans have limited support for DHS. DHS manages to twist the results of the new poll into an actual show of support for the latest police state program they want that nobody else supports but the fact remains, DHS has been one of the bigger failures of this administration.

The public has little faith the government is adequately screening visitors to the country or could cope with an outbreak of an infectious disease, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.

Only one in five surveyed said the government is doing enough to scrutinize people crossing the border into the U.S., the poll found. Just two in five expressed confidence the government is ready for an epidemic.

Once again showing how incompetent Bush is with actually protecting Americans. Read More......

Overwhelming majority in US see two Americas

When I think of what has changed in the since I moved overseas, what stands out the most for me has been the derailing of the American dream. People still talk about the American dream both in the US and abroad and, heck, even Sarkozy alluded to this in his successful political campaign here in France a few months ago in his hopes of bringing it to France. Ten years ago, twenty years ago, I might have agreed but listening to Sarkozy talk about it in 2007 only made me laugh because that dream has been shredded by the greed of powerful special interests for the select few. Greed may be a traditional, even necessary, aspect of capitalism but left unchecked, you have the America of 1900 or so many developing world countries of 2007 and besides New Gingrich and his lot, I don't see Americans begging to have the clocks turned backwards.

It should come as no surprise that most Americans see the gap as a problem. Corporate executives continue to not only take care of themselves rather handsomely but they also exert too much power on the political system to create an even greater lack of opportunity for new players to break in. Let's see if 2008 is the year America moves back to the traditional value of fairness and equality of opportunity and discards the current trend of mean spiritedness.

About seven in 10 said discrepancies between income levels are too large, a sentiment voiced by nearly two-thirds of those from households earning at least $80,000 a year, the survey said. Three-fourths of people earning less than $80,000 agreed.

Eight in 10 said the gap between the rich and the middle class has worsened over the last 25 years, said the survey by the University of Connecticut's Center for Survey Research and Analysis.

Take note that this issue has only been recognized by the Democratic candidates, while the GOP presidential candidates are noticeably quiet. Americans want fairness and opportunity for everyone. Read More......