Donald "China is raping America" Trump clothing line made in China

To be fair to Trump, it is a snazzy line of clothes that really let's everyone in the room know that you've made it. I think a few of the dictators attending the royal wedding were even wearing his exclusive line. Salon:

Donald Trump has emerged in recent years as the nation's foremost China basher, going after the Asian superpower for undervaluing its currency and for taking American manufacturing and jobs. So it's at least ironic -- and at most an example of gross hypocrisy -- that Trump's own line of men's wear, the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection, is manufactured in China.

I discovered this after walking from Salon's offices to the large Macy's in midtown Manhattan, where an entire section is devoted to the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection of suits and ties. This particular corner of the store is decorated with an oversize portrait of Trump; the line promises to provide "the pinnacle of style and sophistication" and "the necessities to be boardroom ready all of the time."

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More from the Firefighters Union: We will not "be made to feel like we have no other place to go"

We talked about this here, that the Firefighters union was going to freeze donations to federal (national) Democrats and put all of its money into state races and state initiatives.

Now there's more, from Rachel Maddow and with her, the president of the Firefighters union, Harold Schaitberger.

Note: This is a good segment, but a long one. It has an interesting intro before it gets to the main point about the firefighters. If you're pressed for time, you may want to skip ahead, for example, to 8:20 or 10:20.

To help you, here's a handy guide:

▪ 0:00 to 7:55 — Republicans have screwed up badly in the states, and people are really upset with them.
▪ 7:55 — A great graph showing how low radical Republican governors have fallen in popularity.
▪ 8:20 — Stunningly, Democrats in the Massachusetts House just passed a union-stripping bill of their own. Democrats!
▪ 9:43 — Unions in Massachusetts are shocked and angry.
▪ 10:20 — Summary and lead-in to the Firefighters story and interview.

Schaitberger: National Dems "are not really in our corner":

This is a pattern of disappointments ... We're not going to be taken for granted, and we're not going to be made to feel like we have no other place to go. ... Accountability comes with consequences.

Amen to that. I hope he makes it stick. If Dems want to join with Republicans and take the nation over the cliff, I for one don't want to reward them with access to power and all the goodies that implies. Accountability.

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Romney didn't really mean to say he wanted to hang Obama when he said he wanted to hang Obama

Those Bain consultants always have been known for making enormous gaffes. That's why they're paid the big bucks. CNN:

Using a commonly-said phrase as he was discussing the economy, Romney told the crowd, "You remember during that during the Ronald Reagan/Jimmy Carter debates, that Ronald Reagan came up with this great thing about the 'misery index' and he hung that around Jimmy Carter's neck and that had a lot to do with Jimmy Carter losing. Well, we're going to have to hang the 'Obama Misery Index' around his neck. And I'll tell you, the fact that you've got people in this country really squeezed, with gasoline getting so expensive, with commodities getting so expensive, families are having a hard making ends meet. So we're going to have to talk about that, and housing foreclosures and bankruptcies and higher taxation."

But Romney then said, "We're going to hang him with that, uh, so to speak – metaphorically. You have to be careful these days. I learned that."

Of course, this remark really could cause some serious competition among the Trump crowd who eat up his racist remarks. Trump can't be happy about losing such an opportunity. Read the rest of this post...

Constituent arrested at town hall meeting after questioning GOP Medicare plan

Some people just can't come to grips with staged political events that are meant to be infomercials rather than actual town hall discussions. Freedom is all fine and good until you ask questions about the Republican plan to destroy Medicare by privatizing it. Fortunately the freedom-loving GOP Congressman had a helpful officer of the law on hand who was eager to shut down any fancy-pants lefty who dared to question the latest attempt to enrich corporate America while increasing costs for everyone else. What's corporate America have to do to get a break these days? Why all of the hate? Read the rest of this post...

Your ethics do not trump my civil rights

Our friend Kerry Eleveld, the former Washington correspondent for the Advocate (and a regular gadfly in the White House briefing room), and now with Equality Matters, will be blogging from time to time at AMERICAblog. Kerry is an excellent writer and political strategist. I've often compared her writing to that of Frank Rich - well-written, interesting, insightful, and often stringing together disparate notions in an unexpected way that leaves the reader smarter when they finish the story than when they began. This is Kerry's first piece for us, posted in its entirety over at AMERICAblog Gay.

Today Kerry takes on the recent controversy over the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, and the law firm, King & Spalding, that refused to defend it.

As you may recall, The Obama administration, after two years of defending DOMA in court, even though the President had repeatedly called the law "abhorrent," finally decided to stop defending it. Joe and I led the charge against the president's defense of DOMA, and were the first to report on the infamous June 2009 legal brief in which the Obama administration, literally borrowing an anti-gay brief written by the Bush Justice Department, invoked the state's regulation of incest and pedophilia in an effort to defend a state's right to also regulate gay marriage.

As you can imagine, that comparison, and much more in the venomous 50 page brief, did not go over well with a community that 70% of which voted for President Obama only months before.

After the administration chose to no longer defend the law - just as Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr. and Reagan had also chosen not to defend certain laws - by law it was up to the House of Representatives to decide if they wished to intervene in the case. Never one to pass up the opportunity to legislatively bash a minority, the Republican House gladly took up the case and hired a top Bush administration lawyer, to the tune of $500,000, to defend DOMA in court. The lawyer, Paul Clement, was working at a large law firm called King & Spalding.

To make a long story short, there was an uproar in the gay community, and among King & Spaldings own employees and clients, and the firm quickly petitioned the court to permit it to drop the case only days after accepting the House as a client. The gay community was overjoyed, but the Obama administration was not.

Attorney General Eric Holder, incredibly, publicly criticized the gay community and others for speaking out against Republican lawyer Clement and the firm. Holder said that by defending DOMA's discrimination and bigotry, Clement was portraying the "best" of the legal profession. Holder, who up until now has been reticent to say much of anything positive about gay civil rights (even when asked to help us defeat an anti-gay ballot initiative in Maine that took the right of marriage away from gay couples - Holder refused to weigh in with even a simple comment), compared gays - who, mind you, are the victims here - to conservative bigots who don't want Muslims detainees at Gitmo to get their constitutional right to counsel in their criminal tries (as if DOMA, a law, has a constitutional right to an attorney). The White House then publicly agreed with Holder, in defense of the arch-Republican Bush administration lawyer who was to make half a million, and then some, from defending bigotry in court.

Interestingly, both the White House and Holder were silent about John Boehner's blatant efforts to politicize the DOMA defense, and to use the defense as a means of pandering to the far-right hate groups that make up the base of the Republican party.  As usual, the White House and DOJ showed no such reticence when the chance arose to take a slap at a key ally.  President Incest & Pedophilia struck again.  (Some have wondered whether this was part of yet another pollyanna White House effort to pander to Republicans in the naive hope that the GOP might return the pander in a future negotiation - as if this tactic of negotiating with himself hasn't failed the President miserably for two years now and counting.)

In her new piece, Kerry takes on the notion that it was the most "ethical" thing ever for the Republican attorney, and the firm, to defend bigotry. And she also takes on the notion that civil rights advocates should be bound by the legal profession's code of ethics. Here's a snippet - you can read the entire piece over at AMERICAblog Gay. It's worth the read.

Stone advances an important judicial ideal here, but it’s also an unavoidable American truth that, at any given moment, the politics and legalities of a controversial issue like DOMA are often working their way through each system simultaneously. In other words, the case isn’t playing out in a vacuum and, as much as the courts are supposed to be insulated from the atmospherics surrounding an issue, those elements inevitably impact the legal treatment those cases receive.

For that reason, I believe it would have been a mistake for advocates to forfeit the opportunity to make known their views about King & Spalding’s representation. Letting the moment pass without objection would have been a missed opportunity to send a political message, and advocates shouldn’t be expected to approach the legal system the way a lawyer would. We quite simply have different interests at stake – theirs is to preserve the sanctity of the legal system, and ours is to advance the cause of freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.

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Gaddafi forces cross into Tunisia

It was limited, but not a very good sign.

The Libyan civil war briefly spilled into Tunisia yesterday as the west of the country saw heavy fighting on two fronts and Nato reported that Muammar Gaddafi's forces were laying anti-shipping mines in the sea off Misrata.

Pro-Gaddafi troops made incursions over the border into Tunisia in a battle to retake a key crossing from rebel hands, drawing condemnation from Tunis.

Libyan soldiers were captured by Tunisian forces after firing indiscriminately in clashes that lasted about 90 minutes, according to reports. Witnesses said three Tunisians were injured.

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Protests continue in Syria as government violence escalates

If the reports are true, it is at least good news that the number of protesters is at least holding steady and possibly increasing. Violence by Assad's security forces continues as well. The Guardian:

Thousands of Syrians defied their government's bloody attempts to suppress protests, braving gunfire from security forces to demonstrate in Damascus and across the country.

At least 42 people were killed, most of them in the opposition stronghold of Deraa, where villagers tried to break through the security cordon to relieve its besieged population.

Further deaths were reported in Latakia and Homs after the security forces opened fire on demonstrators. There was news of protests in 50 towns and villages including Hama, Aleppo, the coastal cities of Latakia and Banias, Deir Ezzor in the east, and Qamishli in the north-east. Unrest was also reported on the Syria-Jordan border, which is straddled by the Haurani tribes.

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Ian Dury - Hit Me With Your Rythmn Stick

I always liked the sound of the bass guitar on the album Sandinista! (The Clash) which I later found out included Blockheads bass player Norman Watt-Roy. Always a great sound.

So we got the news on Sushi and he's starting medicine that will help control his thyroid problem. It's not great news since he has to take this medicine for the rest of his life, but at least it's not a liver problem. He's still skinny but we're hoping that as he gets over the initial hump with his pills that he will add some weight again. In general, he doesn't mind taking pills which is great news.

Sunshine over here at the moment so a friend of ours is heading over and we're due to ride out to Versailles. Let's hope the rain doesn't come around until late in the day. Read the rest of this post...

Uganda anti-government protests put dictator at risk

Oh dear. The US GOP must be worried since their poster child for loony Christian beliefs is in trouble. The so-called Christian right always loved referencing various nutty policies from Uganda. What loon will they turn to next? The Guardian:

In Uganda there is an inchoate revolution struggling to be born. Protests have spread to several towns, leaving seven people dead and hundreds in jail. The riots, in which roads have been barricaded with burning tyres and vehicles pelted with rocks, mark a new level of defiance. Facebook and Twitter, which the government unsuccessfully tried to block, are reverberating with dissent. Museveni's heavyhanded attempts to put out the fire only appear to be fanning its flames.

The subversion here began on 11 April with nothing so spectacular as an act of self-immolation: rather, a defeated politician and half a dozen allies walking down a street. The walk to work campaign is intended to highlight the soaring food and fuel prices, which leave many Ugandans unable to afford public transport.

If Besigye, who has lost three elections to Museveni, had been ignored the protest might have fizzled out. But instead riot police blocked the group, used teargas and arrested him. At a stroke this waning establishment figure was reborn as a hero of resistance.

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