Open thread

Say goodnight, Ken.

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Religious right BLASTS Bush over war, says he wants "global hegemony", and says Sup. Ct. rulings should be ignored

From the American Family Association's propaganda organ, AgapePress:

But with 4,000 unborn children perishing daily, Jack Kevorkian knocking on the doors of countless elderly persons, and the celebration of the sexuality explicit on the airwaves of our nation, this question must be posed: where is the Commander in Chief whom this country elected to fight the cultural war? He, my friends, is in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now potentially Iran and North Korea. In a quest for a global hegemony unwanted by the rest of the world, this President has abdicated his post to fight the cultural ills that afflict a weary populace at home, and, even further, may be violating the very doctrine he now espouses.

Oh, and it gets better. The religious right is now urging Bush to outright ignore the power of the Supreme Court. They're saying Marbury v. Madison was decided WRONG! This is downright scary. They are literally saying that because the Supreme Court has no troops and no enforcers, people should just ignore its ruling. That kind of talk you expect from the Taliban, not from an American. These people are dangerous to our democracy. They hate our democracy.

When Chief Justice John Marshall tried to force a national bank upon President Andrew Jackson, Jackson responded, "Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." When the Supreme Court tried to undercut FDR's New Deal, Roosevelt scared the little black robes off the Justices by threatening to pack the Court. The same authority rests with George W. Bush.

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Religious right AGAIN using those hateful protesters as poster boys

Remember those wacked out religious right anti-gay protesters I told you about yesterday? Well, their case is now being used by anti-gay bigots in Pennsylvania in an effort to strike gays from the state's hate crime laws. (This is why I raise these issues - it's not just to bash these morons, but it's because unless we expose them and publicly humiliate them, the religious right will continue to lie about the real story here, and worse, they will continue to lie about these hateful bigots, portraying them as kind innocent Christian "victims," in an effort to pass even more anti-gay legislation.)

Why any politician, or any organization, would side with freaks that walk about with "Got AIDS Yet?" signs, well, it certainly says something about that legislator. Anyone want to do a search for the contact info of these folks quoted in the article below - perhaps we should inform them of who they're defending, and ask why they dare desecrate Christianity by aligning it with these nutjobs:

Legislators in Pennsylvania have introduced a bill designed to remove language from a state "hate crimes" law that was used against Christian protestors in the "Outfest" case in Philadelphia. The arrests of the Christians allowed political opponents of the hate crimes law to say their warnings were ignored.

House Bill 1493 became Act 143 of the Pennsylvania Hate Crimes Law in November 2002 and added "sexual orientation" protection to the law. Legislators and other opponents -- like Diane Gramley of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania -- warned then that the law could be used against the First Amendment rights of Christians, a charge sponsors adamantly denied was the intent. She even recalls one of the measure's supporters accusing opponents of having "an active imagination," and saying the bill was about "thugs, hooligans, murderers, and blood in the street," not about infringing on the rights of Christians.

That was until the pro-homosexual Outfest event in October 2004, when the "ethnic intimidation" charge against the arrested Christians was drawn from Act 143. Gramley says opponents of the measure now have the proof they need -- and 17 of them have co-sponsored House Bill 204.

"[This bill] removes the wording that was added back in November 2002 [when] 'actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity' [were added]," she explains.

State Representative Tom Yewcic was to introduce the new bill today (February 7) at a capital news conference. Gramley calls the lawmakers' move a "bold step in restoring the First Amendment rights of Pennsylvania's Christians."

Five of the Christians arrested at the Outfest event are stilling facing 47 years in prison and fines up to $90,000 each. Those who were arrested committed no violence against homosexuals at the gathering. However, a city prosecutor declared that the bullhorn used by one of the Christians was an "instrument of crime."

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See what happens when you let heterosexuals into the military

Let the mud sling. Read the rest of this post...

Monday afternoon open thread

Geez. No one even noticed the flag I put at the top of the site, per your suggestion. Read the rest of this post...

Roemer, last remaining challenger to Dean for DNC chair, drops out of race

Wow, looks like we actually won. Now begins all the woe-is-me crap from the conservative Dems, and the politics of personal destruction from the GOP. Dean terrifies the GOP, and they're going to come out swinging to discredit him, fast. Of course, with Mehlman as Dean's counterpart on the GOP side of things, it will be interesting to see how much of a precedent the GOP wants to set with regards to smearing the other guy's leader. Because we got a lot more to smear than they do. Read the rest of this post...

The American Spectator hates us

That right-wing rag is calling us "radical left-wing bloggers." Which is funny, because the far-right has already called me a radical homosexual activist. So this now makes me a radical left-wing homosexual blogger activist?

Just imagine what they'd say if a fag was running the RNC. Read the rest of this post...

Bush budget screws veterans too

Gotta love it. Read the rest of this post...

But at least some Iraqi guy, who loathes us, got to vote

If you're a student, or have one in the family, and voted for Bush, you're an idiot (oh yeah, he's cutting Medicaid funding too):

About 150 programs in all would be shuttered or radically cut back to help meet Bush's goal of shaving the budget deficit in half by 2009. One out of every three of the targeted programs concerns education. Medicaid funding would be reduced significantly....

Then there's this:

The spending plan does not include future expenses of the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, nor does it include upfront transition costs of restructuring Social Security as Bush has proposed. The administration will submit a separate supplemental request largely for Afghanistan and Iraq operations in the current fiscal year, which will be reflected in the budget charts, officials said, but war costs in 2006 and beyond will not be. Nor will be the cost of Bush's Social Security plan, which would begin in 2009 and result in $754 billion in additional debt over its first five years.

That's nice. Bush is cutting programs to make up for the deficit supposedly caused by the war/9.11, but Bush won't tell us how much the war/9.11 costs really are, so then how do we know if this budget does or doesn't address those costs?

And then there's this:

the administration plans to cut costly weapons programs such as an Air Force advanced fighter plane, a stealthy Navy destroyer and the next generation of nuclear submarines. Bush's missile defense program would likewise lose billions of dollars in funding in coming years.

So, to put this in the Republican vernacular, Bush is cutting military programs that we were told we needed to guarantee our national defense, all because he spent too much in Iraq? So the Iraq war is now jeopardizing our national defense?

And finally, massive cuts from law enforcement, education, transportation infrastructure, and the environment:

It would slice law enforcement grants to states from $2.8 billion to $1.5 billion. And it would cut 48 education programs totaling $4.3 billion, including $2.2 billion for high school programs, mostly state grants for vocational education.

The budget would cut $440 million in Safe and Drug-Free School grants, $500 million in education technology state grants, $225 million for the Even Start literacy program, $280 million for Upward Bound programs for inner-city youths and a $150 million talent research program, according to the documents.

The budget includes no subsidy for Amtrak and would eliminate $20 million for the next generation of high-speed rail and $250 million for railroad rehabilitation. Several Energy Department programs would be eliminated, as would $100 million in grants for land and water conservation. The budget proposal would cut $94 million in grants for the Healthy Communities Access Program and phase out rural health grants, the documents said. Bush touted his commitment to such programs during his reelection campaign. The president would terminate the Community Food and Nutrition Program, and cut a migrant and seasonal farm worker training program. He would renew his effort to cut a $143 million program for the removal of severely distressed housing.

So basically, Bush lied during the election and now we're all screwed.

How's that purple finger looking now? Read the rest of this post...

Monday morning open thread

Hope that Iraqi election was worth cutting funding for our own police, low-income energy subsidies, education and the enviroment. Next time you're jobless, freezing to death, and get robbed under a polluted sky, take solace that some guy in Iraq got to vote. Read the rest of this post...