Is it a requirement that they never know proper English?

From: Helen
Date: January 29, 2007 12:23:52 AM EST
To: americablog
Subject: Response to your articles

How can you live with your self-conscious?
To lye people like this, you will burn in Lake of fire for eternity.
You are evil.

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More reader survey results

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Former "gay liaison" sues DNC

You may recall I've written about this growing battle before. Here is Donald Hitchcock's earlier statement about the issue, and the Democratic National Committee's earlier response. And this is Donald's statement about the law suit. If the DNC has a public response, I'm obviously happy to publish it as well.

STATEMENT FROM DONALD HITCHCOCK

As a lifelong, loyal Democrat I am filing this complaint against the DNC because the road to social justice sometimes demands that our political family and friends be held accountable when they do not act for the common good.

Respecting the Democrats' opportunity to regain the majority in both Houses of Congress, I remained silent throughout the last year about my illegal termination and subsequent ongoing defamation from the DNC. Prior to filing this lawsuit I tried several times to settle this matter in a reasonable and professional manner, but the DNC refused and continues to attempt to discredit me and my political opinions.

Prior to my position at the DNC, I worked for 10 years advocating for equality for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. When I was recruited by the DNC to serve as the Director of its Gay and Lesbian leadership Council, I was told that my professional and activist background would be helpful to achieving Governor Dean's goals. Once I joined the DNC, however, senior staff made it clear that they had no interest in LGBT equality. Instead, Democratic LGBT constituents and employees are treated as second-class citizens, whom the DNC tries to ignore unless fundraising is involved –reducing the community to a little more than an ATM. As a DNC employee, I tried to push the organization to treat the LGBT community with greater respect. The DNC ultimately terminated me after my long-term partner criticized the Democrats' lack of a strategy to combat anti-gay ballot measures - a critique made without my input and which the DNC recently admitted was accurate.

It is clear that the DNC fundraisers have no intention of ceasing their personal attacks against me. Their goal is to keep LGBT money flowing to the DNC, no matter what. For some, if truth is not convenient they find it expendable for the cause. They have spent time researching my political and charitable contributions and even claimed publicly that I was not a loyal Democrat since I did not donate a part of my salary back to the party. Social justice is not for sale, nor should it have to be bought.

The LGBT press has rightly criticized the DNC for its failure to recognize and promote basic human rights for the community. Rather than respond to legitimate questions about DNC policy and strategy impacting the LGBT community, the DNC has retaliated against publications and former employees by attacking the messengers personally. The DNC now has fewer openly gay and lesbian members than before the 2004 election. This is not progress.

I expect my party to embody the Democratic values of fairness and honesty. It is important that the DNC be able to acknowledge its failings and live up to its promise to protect the human rights of the LGBT community as we move forward. To help attain this goal, I cannot remain silent on matters of policy and substance.

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Bush administration negotiating with terrorists in Iraq

The military just said on ABC that they're happy to talk and work out an amnesty for Al Qaeda insurgents and maybe even insurgents who killed US troops - they're actually currently negotiating with a group that attacked US troops only 3 weeks ago. The military spokesman said he thinks 80% of the insurgents can be convinced to lay down their arms, i.e., give them amnesty.

But this doesn't empower the insurgents or Al Qaeda. Uh huh. According to ABC, many suspected insurgent supporters recently negotiated with the US military and indicated they all want jobs with the local police force. Yeah, I bet they do.

I'm not saying this is a bad idea. I just think it stinks that Bush and Cheney and Rudy and McCain and all the rest have the nerve to suggest that any and every Democratic proposal on Iraq "empowers the terrorists" when they're talking about giving all the terrorists amnesty and jobs where they carry guns and enforce the law as they see fit. Yeah, no terrorist victory there. Read the rest of this post...

50 More Years in Iraq?

Froomkin on the White House's comments about us staying in Iraq another 50 years, just like in South Korea.

It's troubling because American troops have been in South Korea for more than 50 years -- while polls show the American public wants them out of Iraq within a year.

It's flawed because in South Korea, unlike Iraq, there's something concrete to defend (the border with North Korea); and because Iraq, unlike South Korea, happens to be in a state of violent civil war.

It's dangerous because the specter of a permanent military presence in Iraq is widely considered to be one of the most inflammatory incitements to Iraq's ever-growing anti-American insurgency, and may even be destabilizing to the entire region.

And it's telling because it gives credence to persistent suspicions that establishing a long-term strategic presence in the Middle East was a primary motivation for this misbegotten war in the first place.

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WorldNetDaily: VP's lesbian caption ignites 'sinful' fury

WorldNetDaily, a silly publication that is an important source for right-wing talk radio and FOX GOP operatives, is joining the attack on Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, and her partner Heather Poe for having a baby. More background on this story here. Read the rest of this post...

US soldier in Iraq: "When are we going to get out of here? We don't feel like we're making any progress"

These are the troops on the ground. They know better than anyone what the real situation is in Iraq. And they think it's over. Read the rest of this post...

NH governor signs civil unions law

They had a choice, and they chose to live free.

[New Hampshire] Couples entering civil unions will have the same rights, responsibilities and obligations as married couples. Same-sex unions from other states also would be recognized if they were legal in the state where they were performed.

Several Northeastern states already offer civil unions.

Massachusetts alone among the U.S. states allows gay marriage. Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, Maine, as well as California and Washington allow either civil unions or domestic partnerships, and Oregon will join the list with New Hampshire in January. Hawaii extends certain spousal rights to same-sex couples and cohabiting heterosexual pairs.

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Hillary and Obama trounce Rudy in NY poll

From TPM Election Central. Read the rest of this post...

White House spokesman Tony Snow acknowledged Mary Cheney and Heather Poe as "parents"

I just happened upon this White House press briefing from last December in which White House spokesman Tony Snow referred to Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe, as "parents." At the time, it kind of slipped by me. But in view of the growing brouhaha over the White House Web site officially acknowledging Heather as a "parent" (she and Mary just gave birth to a baby boy), Snow's earlier comment takes on much more meaning.

From the White House Web site:

Q Tony, in an interview with People Magazine, the President was asked about Mary Cheney's pregnancy, and said he's confident -- he believes she'll be a loving soul to her child. In the past, he said that he believes the ideal is that a child be raised in a married family with a man and a woman. Does he still believe that's the ideal?

MR. SNOW: Yes, he does, but he also believes that every human life is sacred and that every child that comes into the world deserves love. And he believes that Mary Cheney's child will, in fact, have loving parents.

Q Does he believe that children who are raised by gay and lesbian parents are at a disadvantage?

MR. SNOW: He does not make comments on that, and nor will I.

Note that Snow also refused to take the bait and knock gay parents. The Web site posting last week takes on a whole new light knowing that Snow acknowledged Heather's legitimacy as a gay parent all the way last winter. Read the rest of this post...

Tony Snow: We're staying in Iraq 50 years

BUMP: This is rather important, I'm bumping this from last night.

50 years is the current thinking for when we'll complete our withdrawal. Certifiably insane. From AP:

President Bush envisions a long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq similar to the one in South Korea where American forces have helped keep an uneasy peace for more than 50 years, the White House said Wednesday.

The comparison was offered as the Pentagon announced the completion of the troop buildup ordered by Bush in January. The last of about 21,500 combat troops to arrive were an Army brigade in Baghdad and a Marine unit heading into the Anbar province in western Iraq....

In South Korea, about 29,500 U.S. troops are stationed...

And a second rather important point, the Bushies keep telling us how all the surge troops won't even be all there in Iraq until July, so it's way too early to talk about success or failure. Now we learn that the combat troops have all arrived - it's only May. Yes, another lie. But just as important, it means that September will be ample time to judge the success or failure of the "surge."

More on this from C&L;, CarpetBagger, and TPM. Read the rest of this post...

US Q1 economic growth slashed to 0.6%

GOP policies hard at work:

The economy nearly stalled in the first quarter with growth slowing to a pace of just 0.6 percent. That was the worst three-month showing in over four years.

The new reading on the gross domestic product, released by the Commerce Department Thursday, showed that economic growth in the January-through-March quarter was much weaker. Government statisticians slashed by more than half their first estimate of a 1.3 percent growth rate for the quarter.

As a side note to the GOP, France was twice this number. Read the rest of this post...

Religious right furor over Mary Cheney's baby grows

Now a religious right news service is jumping on the bandwagon. The Bushies, with Mary's help, created this religious right monster by happily embracing these bigots into the GOP. Now they'll have to deal with the consequences of their own actions. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's going to be a hot, humid day in D.C. with bad air quality. And Congress isn't even in session. They're all back home -- where any member who voted last week to give Bush the blank check for Iraq should really be hearing about it. Their recklessness has to end.

All right, get it started. Read the rest of this post...

2,000,000 Iraqi refugees or Lieberman/Cheney

Who are you going to believe? If the war is going so well, why are so many running away from Iraq?:

After months of agonizing delays and withering criticism from advocacy groups and lawmakers, the Bush administration has finalized new guidelines to screen Iraqi refugees, including those seeking asylum because helping the Americans has put them at huge risk.

The 2 million-plus people — the fastest growing refugee population in the world — have left Iraq, but Washington has balked at allowing them into the United States for security reasons.

So Bush creates this disaster and then hides behind the security issue - always a winner with the pro-fear crowd - to block the refugees from coming to America. With Chertoff at the helm, it's true that expectations should be pretty low for managing this process but to accept fewer people than Sweden is simply pathetic. Read the rest of this post...

Ethanol trickle down continues - expect higher costs

The Big Farm payday from the government continues to have a negative impact, now with the price of dairy rising. Alternative energy research and development makes all the sense in the world but corporate welfare like this, without planning and without researching the full impact, is just another example of the Bush administration hard at work. The GOP has a belief that if you throw millions and billions of dollars at a problem, it will somehow all work out. The fly in the ointment has consistently been that they never think about the full consequences of their policies beyond wads of cash to friends.

U.S. retail milk prices have increased about 3 percent, or roughly a dime a gallon, this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But University of Illinois dairy specialist Michael Hutjens forecasts further increases of up to 40 cents a gallon for milk over the next few months, and up to 60 cents for a pound of cheese.

Again, it's the middle class footing the bill for another failed GOP program.

Hutjens and others said higher gasoline prices have increased the costs of moving milk from farm to market, and corn — the primary feed for dairy cattle — is being gobbled up by producers of the fuel-additive ethanol. The USDA projects that 3.2 billion bushels of this year’s corn crop will be used to make ethanol, a 52 percent increase over 2006.

Ethanol has increased the average American's grocery bill $47 since July, and Iowa State University study concluded.

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Pfizer being sued for testing new drugs on children

The Washington Post has been covering the subject of Big Pharma testing in the developing world for years. In Africa it is not unusual to hear rumors of such testing and distrust of Big Pharma is widespread. If people volunteer for experimental treatment, perhaps, but the allegations in this lawsuit are horrifying not to mention illegal, with a complete disregard for human rights.

The panel said Pfizer administered an oral form of Trovan that apparently had never been given to children with meningitis. It said there were no records documenting that Pfizer told the children or their parents that they were part of a drug trial. And it said an approval letter from a Nigerian ethics committee, which Pfizer used to justify its actions, was a sham concocted long after the trial ended.

"The families of the children who [Pfizer] used as laboratory guinea pigs were led to believe and in fact understood that the Defendants were providing their children with volunteer relief, clearly focused humanitarian medical intervention and nothing more," the lawsuit says.

Parents were not told that alternative treatments were available, it adds.

The suit charges that parents were barred from Pfizer's ward and that the company's own lab tests had shown Trovan's life-threatening side effects. Researchers allegedly administered the comparison drug, Rocephin, in dangerously low doses to make Trovan look more effective.

This is very troubling. Read the rest of this post...