Wesley Clark cuts to the point on port security

The bottom line is that Bush still isn't inspecting cargo coming into the US, and if Osama wanted to just ship a nuke in, he could. And after it goes off, Bush is going to say that no one could have imagined it. We have a president who is incapable of running our country during a time of war.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark, however, called for an overall strengthening of port security on "This Week."

"It's weak, and it doesn't matter who owns it," Clark said. "We're not inspecting the containers that are coming in. We don't have the right radiation monitors out there. We don't know who's in the ports ...

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What he said

"And finally, I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it's probably a good thing. We're the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I'm proud to be a part of this Academy. Proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch."

George Clooney, at the Academy Awards

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Oscare update thread

Hmmmm, a bit overdone, that song... Read the rest of this post...

Murtha calls Chairman of the Jt. Chiefs a liar (or an ignormaous)

Good for Murtha.

There's no other way to characterize what Murtha said this morning about the head of the US military, and he's right. The war in Iraq is not going "very, very well." At some point, our military leaders need to stop acting like they're running some banana republic, and start acting like they care about our troops and our nation. That war is a disaster, and George Bush is in over his head.

From Meet the Press

Murtha expressed skepticism of assurances given by Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on NBC's ?Meet the Press? on Sunday. Pace said the war in Iraq was going ?very, very well."

?Why would I believe him?? said Murtha, D-Pa. ?This administration, including the president, has mischaracterized this war for the last two years ... So why would I believe the chairman of the Joint Chiefs when he says things are going well??

And isn't it funny that the Joint Chiefs had no problem challenging Bill Clinton over gays in the military, they have no problem getting together and challenging the Washington Post over a cartoon that didn't even do what they said it did, but when George Bush is running our military and this country into the ground, where are the Joint Chiefs? Read the rest of this post...

Oscar open thread

George Clooney got best supporting actor for Syriana, the rather confusing movie.

Thoughts about other Oscars? Read the rest of this post...

Colorado Republican House member Marilyn Musgrave facilitates violation of military rules

(Note the uniformed military service member behind Musgrave at the GOP event.)

Josh Marshall informs us that the White House now has a plan to use, and is already using, active-duty US servicemen for partisan political purposes - which is kind of a big deal in a democracy where the military doesn't run the country, and where the war in Iraq and the war on terror are supposedly not political stunts. You can find Josh's accounts here and here.

Well, conservative Republican House member Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado (the lead force behind amending the US Constitution to take away the rights of gay Americans), actively facilitated the use of our servicemembers, IN UNIFORM, at a partisan Republican political function.

Musgrave's use of uniformed military service personnel at partisan political events which is a direct violation of US military rules. Not to mention, you'd think our uniformed service members have better things to do (oh, I don't know, how about win in Iraq?) than appear as props at Republican political events. Then again, Musgrave has already had her share of ethics violations, and has been ranked as one of the 13 most corrupt members of Congress. So it's perhaps no surprise she's breaking the rules again.

More from Josh:

The existence of this ban and the enforcement of it are hugely important both to good order and discipline within the military and to preserving our democratic republic. The military can't be made into an arm of one or the other political party. Nor can the executive be allowed to enlist members of the armed forces, either individually or en masse, willingly or not, as soldiers in his domestic political battles.

This is about preserving a professional military and preserving our system of government. It's a big deal. We need to find out a few more specifics about what happened at the Musgrave event. Perhaps the newspaper account is deeply misleading about what actually happened. But if this thing that looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, is a duck, then it needs to be nipped in the bud.

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Beautiful Sunday open thread

It's sunny and warm, somewhere... Read the rest of this post...

If Ann Coulter were her fans' daughter, they'd call her a slut

It's funny how Ann Coulter gets away with being such a conservative cultural marm when she lives the life of such a skank.

The woman lived in New York City, then moved to Palm Beach, dresses like a slut, and hangs out with gay men like Matt Drudge (a "conservative" closet case who lives in South Beach, where he moved from Hollywood). I'm sorry, but such is not the lifestyle of a raging conservative who has any credibility attacking liberal lifestyles. Ann lives the liberal lifestyle I can only dream of (except the tight slutty clothing).

And the real irony is that while conservatives love Coulter's rants against liberal morality, if she were their daughter and dressed the way she does, they'd ground her.

Thus we lead into Ann's Oscar predictions. They're not really predictions, per se, the article is just another chance for Ann to launch bigoted attacks - this time calling gays "homos" and suggesting that Ang Lee will win an Academy Award for being "Asian."

But the most atrocious and dangerous part of Coulter's article is her, once again, defense of Senator Joseph McCarthy. You see, Ann thinks Senator McCarthy, the guy who launched anti-communist witch hunts against so many innocent Americans based on no evidence whatsoever, well that Senator McCarthy got a bum rup in history, according to Ann.

Here's an excerpt from her most recently article, that I won't be linking to:

The best original screenplay will be "Good Night, and Good Luck" as Hollywood's final tribute to the old Stalinists (Hollywood's version of "The Greatest Generation").

Ah yes, the McCarthy years. The real crime was all the "Stalinist" liberals that the poor Senator had to root out.

Coulter would be pathetic if she weren't so widely admired by Republicans. She goes to their dinners and gets paid a pretty sum to spew her venomous bigotry. And the Republicans have no problem with it.

Personally, Coulter can be as skanky as she wants, that's her business (well, if America were the way Coulter and her buddies on the far-right want it to be, she'd probably be stoned for the way she dressed and talk). But if she's going to pretend to be a culture marm, while continuing to use her column and her pulpit to promote bigotry and, of all things, McCarthyism, then someone should let the papers that run Coulter's un-American bile know exactly what kind of filth they're distributing in good family newspapers. Read the rest of this post...

GOP style DeLay bashing

Tom DeLay has his GOP primary on Tuesday, March 7th. It hasn't been that much fun for him....it's always good sport to watch the GOPers turn on each other:

Campbell has gone straight for DeLay's ethics jugular. In one television ad, he contends DeLay was distracted by his legal troubles. In another, residents of DeLay's district repeatedly describe Campbell using the word "integrity."

"Mr. DeLay is unelectable and Republicans in our district have a choice. They can either elect a conservative that doesn't carry the baggage Mr. DeLay carries or one that Nick Lampson has the ability to beat," Campbell said. "It's time for Mr. DeLay to come home."

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Lead gay activists ask Oscar winners to speak out in favor of equal marriage rights for gays

N E W S R E L EA S E
For Immediate Release: March 5, 2006

Can Oscar Marry Oscar?
Same-Sex Couples Suing for California Equal Marriage Rights Ask Academy Awards Recipients to Come Out in Support When They Receive Their Oscars

Los Angeles - Robin Tyler, with her partner, Diane Olson, and The Reverend Dr. Troy D. Perry and his husband, Phillip Ray De Blieck, the first couples to file suit in California for equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians, today called on actors, producers, directors and anyone who accepts awards based on gay, transgender, or progressive-themed movies, to come out publicly in support of same-sex marriage during the 78th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 5, 2006..

"The Hollywood community has given us a tremendous gift by nominating great achievements such as Brokeback Mountain, Capote, and Felicity Hoffman in TransAmerica. Despite the cultural recognition, gay people are still second-class citizens in the United States. We ask the tremendously talented people involved in these movies to come out in support of same-sex marriage to the tens of millions who will be watching the Awards," Tyler and Perry said in a joint statement today.

"Nobody will be hurt if Thelma gets to marry Louise, or Oscar holds hands with Oscar," said Robin Tyler, plaintiff in the lawsuit Tyler vs. County of Los Angeles. "In the United States, the "L" word means 'Lesbians' -- but it also means 'Less' rights."

The Reverend Dr. Troy D. Perry, the first openly gay member of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission and founder of the 43,000 member Metropolitan Community Churches, said, "The Hollywood community has a great Academy Awards' tradition of speaking out for social justice issues. This year's Oscar recipients have an opportunity to honor movies with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender themes by speaking out for full legal equality, including marriage equality, for LGBT people."

Perry's Metropolitan Community Churches perform more than 6000 same-gender marriages each year. "These marriages are blessed by God and our communities, but are still denied recognition by our government."

(END)

For Additional Information or Press Interviews, Contact:
Robin Tyler (818) 893-4075
The Reverend Dr. Troy Perry (310) 625-4177 Read the rest of this post...

West Virginia police chief orders man to stop giving CPR to someone suspected of being HIV+. The guy wasn't. He died.

Almost heaven. Almost. Read the rest of this post...

White House cracking down on leaks -- except their own, of course

Could the White House be any more hypocritical? The Bush team has launched a massive crackdown on leaks:

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

Prosecuting reporters as spies -- how perfectly Soviet. The traditional media really is in an abusive relationship with the Bush administration.

According to the Bush White House, leaks are bad --- unless, of course, the Bush White House is using leaks of national security information for their own nefarious purposes like destroying their political enemies:

...Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), complained in a letter to the national intelligence director last month that "damaging revelations of intelligence sources and methods are generated primarily by Executive Branch officials pushing a particular policy, and not by the rank-and-file employees of the intelligence agencies."

As evidence, Rockefeller points to the case of Valerie Plame, a CIA officer whose identity was leaked to the media. A grand jury investigation by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald resulted last year in the jailing of Judith Miller, then a reporter at the New York Times, for refusing to testify, and in criminal charges against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who resigned as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff. In court papers, Libby has said that his "superiors" authorized him to disclose a classified government report.

And as long as Libby's co-leaker, Karl Rove, is working at the White House with his top-level security clearance, Bush and company have no credibility on this issue. Read the rest of this post...

Army now investigating Tillman death for possible negligent homicide

Well, so much for the official story of the hero's death. From day one the family said something was up, the military said no, and now we find out maybe the family was right. What's worse, the military will NOT be investigating how Tillman's case has been handled. Meaning, if there was a cover-up of a "hero's" death, the Pentagon couldn't give a damn and doesn't want to know (which, officially, counts as yet another cover-up).

The political hacks running the Pentagon don't give a damn about our troops, or their families. Read the rest of this post...

Late night open thread

Another good week of Bush going down the tubes... Read the rest of this post...