An op-ed for Black Gay Pride from our friend, Alvin McEwen

Over the weekend, The State newspaper, based in Columbia, SC, published an op-ed from our good friend, Alvin McEwen. He runs the blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, where he consistently exposes the fraudulent right wing "research" used to attack gays. Alvin is relentless and cuts through lies and falsehoods.

Alvin's op-ed is titled, "Society needs reminders about black gays and lesbians." Here's an excerpt:

Gays and lesbians of color are being pushed in a psychological closet and muzzled by our own community. We are treated like dog dirt on the front lawn of black America, something to be avoided or eliminated with the utmost efficiency.

Young gays and lesbians of color suffer the most from this treatment.

In his classic novel Native Son, African-American writer Richard Wright demonstrated, through the turbulent life and death of his protagonist Bigger Thomas, that when society works against building the self esteem of youth, it usually creates criminals and those who engage in negative behavior.

In layman’s terms, when young gay and lesbian African-Americans are not given social and psychological support and are constantly bombarded with images of weak, oversexed, pathetically funny or disease-ridden images of themselves or no images at all, how can anyone expect the outcome of their lives to be anything but negative?

Someone must stand in the gap for our gays and lesbian children of color, even if our mainstream African-American leaders won’t.

Whether the rest of the black community approves of gays and lesbians of color is, in the long run, irrelevant. We deserve acknowledgment and respect because homosexuality is a black issue.

It's a very powerful piece from Alvin. And, it's great to see Alvin and his message getting picked up by the traditional media. It's a post that is as relevant in South Carolina as it is in Washington, D.C. Read More......

The view out my window

Around 5pm today...

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Creigh Deeds wins Virginia's Democratic Gubernatorial primary

This really wasn't expected just a couple weeks ago. But, Creigh Deeds won the Democratic primary in Virginia's governor's race tonight:

State Senator Creigh (CREE) Deeds has won Virginia's Democratic primary for governor.

Deeds beat former Clinton White House insider Terry McAuliffe and former state Democratic legislative leader Brian Moran on Tuesday.

The victory sets up a Deeds rematch with Republican Bob McDonnell, who beat him in the 2005 attorney general election by 323 votes.

McDonnell is a conservative with strong ties to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. He was unopposed for the GOP nomination.

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Paging Rachel Maddow

Rachel, we need to talk. Things are far worse on gay rights here in DC than I think even you may know. If you get a chance, or have a producer who can give me a ring, we need to talk, off the record. Let's stay in more regular touch on all of this. MSNBC has me in their database, or you can always email me: americablog@starpower.net

And for the rest of you, here's Rachel last night going off on President Fierce, as she now refers to our illustrious leader:

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Lieberman and Graham threaten to starve the troops

Why do Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham hate America? From Media Matters Action Network:

On June 9, 2009, Senator Joe Lieberman [and Lindsay Graham] threatened to filibuster the Supplemental Appropriations Bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unless it contained an amendment allowing photos of detainee abuse to be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. He was singing a different tune in 2007.

The point here is that Joe Lieberman never missed an opportunity to bash the Democrats over their supposed lack of love for America and the troops, and the most dangerous place in Washington is between Lindsay Graham and an Iraq photo opp. (Well, that's not entirely true. We suspect it's not particularly safe between Graham and an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue either.) But suddenly, Lieberman is doing something he's criticized others for doing - using the war funding bill as a political human shield. We always suspected Lieberman's loyalty to troops and country was only skin deep. Read More......

Oil hits 2009 high - above $70

What a surprise. The dollar lost against the euro as well. The upside for Wall Street though is that they probably made good money selling oil futures. When it rains, it pours. Maybe Timmy can ask them to be nice, because that seems to work out so well. MarketWatch:

Crude oil futures finished above $70 a barrel for the first time in seven months on Tuesday, lifted by weakness in the dollar and Energy Department forecasts of higher fuel prices.

Traders still assessed prospects for this week's data on U.S. petroleum inventories, which showed an increase last week.

Crude oil for July delivery rallied $1.92, or 2.8%, to end at $70.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the first time a front-month crude contract closed above $70 since Nov. 4.

The gains in oil came as the dollar moved mostly lower. The dollar index, a measure of the greenback against a basket of major currencies, fell to 79.806 from 80.961 in North American trading Monday afternoon.

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Sarah Palin plans on saving us from Socialism

It's all in a day's work for America's favorite beauty queen. Read More......

Many fundamentalist Christians believe in God because a pastor, minister, priest or some other male figure abused them

Not really. But it's what religious right leader Pat Robertson just claimed about gays. So if Robertson can use science that was debunked nearly four decades ago, in order to slur gays, then we can use the same to brand Robertson and his followers as nothing more than evidence of what sick things happen to your mind and soul when your pastor rapes you. From Media Matters:

Responding to a woman who writes a letter to him asking how she should “handle” her homosexual son

ROBERTSON: I am not at all persuaded that so-called homosexuals are homosexuals because of biological problems. They’re may be a very few but there are so many that have been made homosexuals because of a coach or a guidance counselor or some other male figure who has abused them and they think that there’s something wrong with their sexuality so you need to get deep into why he is what he is instead of just saying “he’s a homosexual so how do I handle him and how do I be Christian?” Well, I think you ought to tell him “Listen, son. Here’s what the Bible says about this and it’s called an abomination before God so I’ve got to tell you the truth because I love you.” That’s what I think.

Dan Savage has more.

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Amazing timing with TARP repayment news

So today the government will accept TARP repayment from ten of the largest banks in the US so they can quickly rid themselves of pay restrictions. At the same time we discover the TARP stress tests really weren't very stressful and that it's doubtful the banks have sufficient funds to withstand the increasing unemployment which will impact the economy and cause more troubles for banks. It's not as though I had high hopes or much trust during this process but this is only going to add to the sagging support the country has for Obama's economic team. Nobody likes to get screwed and this really looks like the public has been lied to and screwed.

U.S. officials Tuesday gave 10 of the nation's biggest banks approval to pay back a combined $68 billion of taxpayer money pumped into them to combat the credit crisis.

The 10 banks are Morgan Stanley, American Express, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, State Street, U.S. Bancorp BB&T;, Northern Trust, US Bancorp and Capital One.

Many banks have chafed at the restrictions on executive pay that accompanied the capital injections. Eight of them were pressed by the U.S. Treasury to take government funds in late October at the height of the crisis.

Once again it's all about their precious bonus money. To hell with the health of the country and tough luck for the smaller banks. The worst of it is that Obama owns this problem now and without a strong economic recovery - a doubtful scenario any time soon - this will not go down well with voters. Read More......

Bronx teenager roasts kitten

17 year old Cheyenne Cherry was angry at her ex-roommate. So Cheyenne broke into her former friend's apartment, slashed the furniture, threw bleach on the walls, stole a bunch of stuff, and then threw the friend's kitten into the oven, shut the door, turned the stove on high, and then left so she wouldn't have to hear the kitten clawing at the oven door and/or screaming in pain. The kitten roasted to a cinder.

This isn't just a prank. It's one seriously sick individual. I don't care how stupid we all were when we were 17, I can't ever imagine roasting a kitten to death as a prank. That takes a serious lack of regard for life. Just imagine what Cheyenne Cherry is going to be like when she finally grows up.

I had jury duty yesterday. After spending 5 hours in the courthouse, I was dismissed after I told the judge, honestly, that the defendant freaked me out. He looked like some thug out of CSI, and in my heart I knew he was guilty as sin. Yes, I know, innocent until proven guilty and all that - but after two teenage thugs tried to choke me to death six years ago outside my apartment in DC at 8 o'clock at night on a busy street, I guess I lost a bit of my innocent impartiality. Spending those five hours in the courthouse yesterday was a real eye opener, and a reminder of that night six years ago. It was a look at the dark side that most of us don't usually have to witness, at least not very often.

Perhaps that's why Cherry Jubilee, or whatever her name is, roasting the kitten strikes me as something more sinister than just a stupid teenage prank. The people walking around that courthouse scared the hell out of me. As does anyone who would throw a kitten into an oven as a prank.

PS And the minor who was Cherry's accomplish hasn't even been arrested. Unless the minor is under the age of 6, the cops have some explaining to do too. At the very least, they should "arrest" the minor to scare the hell out of them. Read More......

Boehlert: "Militia-style vigilante rhetoric has become a cornerstone of the conservative media movement in America"

Eric Boehlert at Media Matters on O'Reilly's incendiary rhetoric and the abortion doctor murder:

Please note what you did not hear from virtually anyone on the far right who addressed the Tiller story last week. Yes, they tried furiously to distance Bill O'Reilly from the controversy or suggest there was nothing problematic with the "baby killer" rhetoric he used. But what you did not hear was anyone condemn, or even take issue with, O'Reilly's on-air crusade.

Why the silence? Because militia-style vigilante rhetoric has become a cornerstone of the conservative media movement in America, and it's now proudly championed by Fox News on a nearly hourly basis.

Eric raises another point that I've heard mentioned repeatedly:

Noise Machine leaders claimed that liberal commentators do exactly what O'Reilly and Beck have been accused of: using violent political hate language that puts people's lives in danger. That claim has been made over and over, yet conservatives can't actually produce any proof -- can't find any hateful liberal quotes -- to buttress the claim.

That's because both talking points are complete fabrications.

Republicans, when pressed about how hateful their intellectual leaders like Limbaugh, Savage, Medved, Beck, and Coulter are, like to respond by claiming that liberals are just as hateful. They then cite Michael Moore, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton. Yes, Jesse Jackson made some pretty hateful statements about Jews... back in the 1980s. He's now never even heard from in Democratic circles. He's hardly a leader of the party. Al Sharpton? Funny man, but same as Jackson, irrelevant on the national scene. Which leaves us Michael Moore. First off, Moore doesn't keynote Democratic party events across the country. He's hardly the intellectual leader of the party that Limbaugh is to Republicans. (You won't be seeing the chair of the Democratic party reflexively apologizing to Michael Moore any time soon.) Second, when has Michael Moore said anything hateful? Sure, you may not like his criticism of Republicans, but we're not talking simple criticism. We're talking the sexism, racism, homophobia, and overall hate and rage that pours forth from Republican intellectual leaders on a daily basis. There simply is no one on the Democratic side to compare. Read More......

TARP stress test figures were a joke

How shocking. Geithner's stress tests were pretty much as expected and probably manipulated by the banks themselves. Heaven forbid anyone gets tough with the banks. This game is getting old. CNBC:

The Congressionally-appointed panel overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) recommends running again the stress tests on US banks, as economic conditions have worsened, its chair, Harvard University professor Elizabeth Warren, told CNBC Tuesday.

"We actually make recommendations to do it all over again right now," Warren told "Squawk Box."

"We've already blown past the worst-case scenario on unemployment," she added.

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The public option in health care reform: Why it matters and why we absolutely need it

From his newish perch at the Washington Post, Ezra Klein explains, in very clear language, the most controversial aspect of the health care debate: the public option. Without it, health care reform won't really be reform and the insurance industry will still control our lives. Ezra is a gem. He really gets this stuff and his explanation is very helpful:

Enter the public insurance option. It doesn't replace the insurance individuals already rely on. But it provides an alternative. It lets them make the decision. It's the health care equivalent of being pro-choice. And it thus serves two purposes. The first is to act as a public insurer. To use market share to bargain down the prices of services, much as Medicare does. To lower administrative costs. To operate outside the need for profit, and quarterly results. The Commonwealth Fund estimated that this would result in savings of 20%-30% over traditional private insurance:

The second is to apply competitive pressure to the rest of the insurance industry. If the public plan is ruthlessly lowering its administrative costs and garnering a reputation for decent, good-faith service, it will take market share from the private insurers. The private insurers will have to respond in kind to retain their customers. If they fail to adapt, the system could become something resembling a single-payer structure.

But that's not the most likely outcome. Rather, the theory here is simple: If you can't replace them, convert them. If the public plan works, then private insurance will work better as well. In this telling, the simple existence of the public plan forces a more honest insurance market: Private insurers need to offer premiums closer to their marginal cost, and they have to cut administrative costs, and they have to work on their reputation for cruelty and capriciousness. The existence of another option changes the market. Individuals will have access to private insurers, but they'll no longer be stuck with them.

That's very, very important.

Ezra also breaks down the various proposals on the public plan. Congress being Congress, there will be lots of proposals for gimmicks on the public option, like the "trigger" idea. So many of those clowns up there on Capitol Hill just can't do the right thing. No, they've got to complicate it. And, then members become ardent advocates for the gimmicky idea.

Ezra explains why he supports the public option and the true purpose of the "trigger":

As someone who thinks cost control and efficiency are important in health reform, I'm most interested in the strong public plan. Folks who are more interested in preserving something that looks like the current private insurance market tend to fall behind the trigger public plan, largely under the theory that it would be pretty much the same as no public plan at all.

That's the essence of the "trigger" plan. It's not plan at all. And, those folks who want to preserve the current system either work for the insurance industry or have amazingly good health insurance (i.e. members of Congress and their staffs and we pay for for their insurance.)

The health care debate is going to get really ugly and intense. The insurance industry and its lobbyists will do anything and everything to prevent real reform. Obama is going to really have to step up if we're going to get the change he promised. Without a public option to keep the insurance industry, there will be no change.

Our mantra through this debate should be the words of Paul Krugman:

1) Don’t trust the insurance industry.

2) Don’t trust the insurance industry.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

We just had a wild and intense thunderstorm here in DC. We get them often in the summer, but usually in the afternoon. Very cool, but no doubt screwed up the morning commute.

Today at the White House, Obama is doing an event with the House Blue Dog Democrats on the subject of fiscal responsibility. While that crew is at the White House, Obama better get commitments from them not to screw up health care reform. Because, they're just the kind of Democrats who will sell out to the insurance industry.

Let's get it started... Read More......

Panel raises serious issues over TARP stress tests

Somehow this Congressionally appointed panel is much more believable than Geithner. The so-called stress tests have always been a question mark, with many wondering if they were stressful enough or watered down to make life easier for the banks. The big question has been whether the banks could withstand another tough round. Unemployment is very likely to increase in the near term and with credit problems remaining very high the panel's findings are not comforting news for a program that is already enormously unpopular, secretive (just like Paulson) and flawed. CNBC:

In particular, the report says "unanswered questions" about the details of the tests, make it impossible to "replicate the tests to determine how robust they are or to vary the assumptions to see whether different projections might yield very different results."

The report also cites potential shortcomings of the assumptions used for the two economic scenarios because of worsening conditions in some cases and the relatively short time frame used in the models, which "may fail to capture substantial risks further out on the horizon."

The tests, for instance, used worst-case scenario data for economic yardsticks such as the unemployment rate and mortgage delinquencies.

The report notes that the jobless rate is now 9.4 percent, with a 2008 average of 8.5 percent. "If the monthly rate continues to increase during the remainder of this year, it will likely exceed the 2009 average of 8.9 percent assumed under the more adverse scenario," the authors note.

For this reason and others, the tests should be repeated, as much as necessary, partly because "banks continue to hold large amounts of toxic assets on their books".

The short term confidence boost from the initial round of tests is going to be much more difficult the next time, if there is a next time. The stress tests still sound too close to the edge for comfort but we won't really know until later this year whether the gamble worked. Read More......

Morgan Tsvangirai to meet with Obama today

If anyone would know a few ways to get around Robert Mugabe and his criminal regime, it ought to be Tsvangirai. Asking the US and other countries to invest in what's left of Zimbabwe is no small task because of pillaging of anything with a value in Zimbabwe. Regardless, the power-sharing PM needs to find investments, food, assistance to stop the bleeding in that country. While many at home complain of the failure of the Mugabe-Tsvangirai unity government compromise, there is not much that can be done as long as the healthy looking 85 year old Mugabe remains alive and in power.

Until Mugabe is gone, nothing will change quickly so Tsvangirai can only ask for help and hope for the best. Washington Post:

MDC officials insist they have made progress. Now in control of the Finance Ministry, the party has stabilized the previously astronomical inflation rate. Store shelves are stocked, gas stations have fuel and public teachers and health workers are back on duty, thanks to new a $100 monthly stipend.

But much remains unchanged. The media cannot report freely, though Tsvangirai has said restrictions would be scrapped. The attorney general and the central bank governor are still in their jobs even though Mugabe appointed them in violation of the power-sharing agreement and MDC leaders have called for their ouster.

At least 170 farmers have been taken to court recently for "illegally" occupying their land in a continuation of a decade-long campaign by Mugabe to reclaim white-owned land despite a regional tribunal's order that it stop.

MDC officials say human rights abuses have declined, but many observers disagree. In recent months, opposition and civil society activists have been dragged in and out of courts and prison cells on charges -- widely considered fabricated -- that they plotted to overthrow Mugabe.

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Shell settles on Nigerian human rights case

The payout is small by American standards but it is still encouraging news for human rights. The process was slow but it's amazing to think it even came to this point. The Independent:

The company, which has run lucrative oil-exploitation operations in Nigeria since the 1950s, was facing a potentially difficult trial arising from the lawsuit filed by Mr Saro-Wiwa Jr and the relatives of five other civilians hanged by the then government in 1995.

The suit accused Shell, its Nigerian subsidiary and a former head of operations of colluding with the authorities to thwart Ogoni tribesmen trying to expose alleged human rights and environmental abuses by the company. It asserted that the multi-national supplied the authorities with weapons and asked police to shoot protesting villagers.

Shell said last night it had settled to begin a "process of reconciliation" in the area of southern Nigeria where its operations and the Ogonis coincide. "This gesture also acknowledges that, even though Shell had no part in the violence that took place, the plaintiffs and others have suffered," Malcolm Brinded, Shell's head of exploration and production, added in a statement.

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Pirate Party wins in Sweden

But do they have costumes and greet each other with "ahoy" or not? Maybe this will help raise some level of awareness with the EU parliament. You know what they say about PR.

Sweden's Pirate Party, striking a chord with voters who want more free content on the Internet, won a seat in the European Parliament, early results showed Sunday.

The Pirate Party captured 7.1 percent of votes in Sweden in the Europe-wide ballot, enough to give it a single seat. The party wants to deregulate copyright, abolish the patent system and reduce surveillance on the Internet.

"This is fantastic!" Christian Engstrom, the party's top candidate, told Reuters. "This shows that there are a lot of people who think that personal integrity is important and that it matters that we deal with the Internet and the new information society in the right way."

Previously an obscure group of single-issue activists, the party enjoyed a jump in popularity after the conviction in April of four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing website.

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The new scandal that isn't

It didn't take long for the British right wing press to create a new scandal related to Obama so it's only a matter of time before American right wingers pick it up. The story is about Obama snubbing Sarkozy and choosing to visit a few sights in Paris instead of having yet another lunch with president Sarkozy. What an outrage! Never mind that Sarkozy insulted Obama and other world leaders after the last event only a few months ago.

Anyway, what France wanted more than another stuffy meeting was the enormously popular US president doing a few tourist sites. For those who are a bit thick, tourism is down even in Paris. Tourism is a critical part of the economy and people are not traveling or spending the way they were in the past. Anyone who can't grasp how helpful the Obama visit was is hopelessly clueless and creating an problem that does not exist. Nobody would really care of Gordon Brown or Nicholas Sarkozy went sightseeing in New York but whether they like it or not, Obama is different. Read More......