GOP falling apart at the seams over Gay Bashing Amendment

The latest AP story on the amendment ain't good news for the gay-bashing Republicans (and Zell Miller). It seems their own members are now getting ticked at them for bringing up the amendment.

Some favor the two sentence version of the amendment that will most certainly ban civil unions and possibly rescind every gay rights law and pro-gay corporate policy in the country, while others (like traitorous sell-out Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR)) prefer the one sentence, marriage is a man and a woman, version - a version that no one has a clue what its legal effect would in fact be. Would this ban divorce? Would this ban common law marriages? Would it ban marriages under 18 (kids who aren't men and women)? No one knows because the screwball Republicans just wrote this thing in the past 24 hours, no hearings, nothing.

My two favorite parts of the article:

"There is a master plan out there from those who want to destroy the institution of marriage to, first of all, begin to take this issue in a few select courts throughout this country at the state level," said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo. Pointing to rulings in Vermont and Massachusetts, he said that "once they get their favorable rulings from activist judges ... they want to take it to the federal courts and they'll eventually move it to the Supreme Court."

No word on whether his own gay staffer is part of that conspiracy... A conspiracy that apparently centers around using the democratic process to seek political change. Call in John Ashcroft and take these communists away!

Then there's this from Rick Dog-Sex Santorum:

In a strongly worded speech, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said some criticism runs along these lines: "Marriage is hate. Marriage is a stain. Marriage is an evil thing. That's what we hear. People who stand for traditional marriage are haters, they're bashers, they're mean-spirited, they're intolerant. ... Well, we're not," he added.

First off, huh? Marriage is hate, marriage is a stain? What is he even talking about? Secondly, the man is begging us not to think he's intolerant. Sounds like someone didn't get nearly enough hugs from mommy and daddy when they were a kid and now is acting out against us. Read the rest of this post...

HRC friggin rocks

You know, I've long said HRC is the best gay group we have, in spite of their occasional foibles (hey, we all have foibles). What they did today deserves to go down in the history books of brilliant public relations moves.

Today HRC launched an ad, created in just two days, quoting Mrs. Cheney basically opposing the constitutional amendment. You may recall that Mrs. Cheney did a CNN interview on Sunday in which she seemed to contradict her husband, saying that she agreed with his position he held in 2000, that this was an issue for the states, the feds shouldn't get involved. HRC whipped an ad up in 2 days and has it out there already. The ad itself is great - I saw it being talked about on ABC News this morning.

You can view the ad here.

And you can read HRC's release about the ad here.

This is what great activism is all about. Spotting a blip of a moment, a small little screw up by the bad guys that almost goes unnoticed, recognizing the potential in that moment, then seizing on it to crush your enemy. Yeah, sounds kind of mean, but hey, its politics, and for this ad HRC gets a big gold star.

Here's the transcript of the ad:

Text: Should we change the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage?
Text: Vice President Dick Cheney, October 5, 2000
Dick Cheney [2000]: People should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into.
Text: Lynne Cheney, July 11, 2004
Lynne Cheney [2004]: People should be free to enter into the relationships that they choose.
Dick Cheney [2000]: I think that different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that’s appropriate.
Lynne Cheney [2004]: When it comes to conferring legal status on relationships, that is a matter left to the states.
Dick Cheney [2000]: I don’t think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area.
Text: We agree with what Dick Cheney once said.
Text: And what Lynne Cheney just said.
Text: Call your Senators. 202-224-3121
Text: Don’t write discrimination into the Constitution.
PAID FOR BY THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

Read the rest of this post...

Create YOUR OWN constitutional amendment!

Since the Republicans are now so gung-ho on amending the Constitution with whatever last-minute amendments they can draft in the 11th hour, I thought maybe we all should join in the game. Name YOUR favorite idea for a last-minute constitutional amendment you'd LOVE to see - the best ones I'll print on the blog (well, they'll be in the comments anyway...) JOHN Read the rest of this post...

GOP senators in disarray over gay marriage

An excellent analysis of where things currently stand in the Senate.

My favorite part:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a big amendment backer, hosted a press conference of largely African American leaders denouncing gay activists' claims that marriage is a civil rights issue.

Of course the article fails to mention that after the press conference Frist had the black leaders clean the floor and do his laundry. :-) Read the rest of this post...

Senator "Family Values - NOT" Coleman will vote for gay marriage amendment

Let's just say, there are lots of rumors about Mr. Coleman (R-MN)... Read the rest of this post...

Santorum: Gay marriage is the "death knell of our society"

Well, if that language doesn't get some fag shot by a right-wing lunatic, I don't know what will. After all, we're now responsible for destroying all civilization. Read the rest of this post...

15M children without parents due to AIDS

Staggering...1,800,000 estimated in Nigeria and 1,100,000 in South Africa. How can the pharmaceuticals profit from this level of misery?

"It is a tidal wave of children who have lost one or more of their parents,” Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, told Reuters.

“Fifteen million globally, close to 12 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone,” she said. “It has the possibility of destabilizing societies quite dramatically.”

Without the AIDS epidemic, which has already killed 20 million people worldwide and infected 38 million, the numbers of orphans would be falling because of better health care and nutrition. AIDS has reversed the trend."

Read the rest of this post...

Bush: NAACP called me names, waaaaaaaaaaaaa

The NAACP board chair has come out and called for Bush to be defeated, after Bush refused to speak at the NAACP convention, the first president NOT to speak there since the 1930s. Bush's excuse?

"You've heard the rhetoric and the names they've called me," he said last week.

They called the little boy names.

Yeah, I've got a few names for you.

Someone ought to start a campaign to send the cry-baby baby rattles. Read the rest of this post...

Coalition of the Going continues

Philippines now pulling out troops "as soon as possible." Read the rest of this post...

Lemon juice to fight HIV?

An interesting possibility, should tests show that it can be effective. It has always impressed me how many simple, yet effective solutions there are in the developing world. What's especially exciting about this potential option is that the big pharmaceutical companies would not be able to hold the world hostage by owning a patent, much like the anti-malarial drug made from wormwood.

"In research to be presented on Tuesday at the International AIDS Conference here, a team led by Roger Short of the University of Melbourne says a solution of lemon juice -- when tested on a lab dish, not on humans -- was a mighty slayer of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

"Provided that clinical trials confirm that intravaginal lemon juice is acceptable, safe and effective, it could prove to be Nature's own microbicide," according to a resume of their research.

"We've been looking for the microbicidal Cadillac, when all along we've been overlooking the humble push bike," he told the British science journal Nature last week."

Read the rest of this post...

Film Calls Fox News Biased

From Reuters.

Next up: Hitler, not as nice as you think.

Actually, in that vein, there was a great sign someone held at a protest I was at recently:

"Ein Volk, Ein Fuhrer, Ein News Channel, Fox!" Read the rest of this post...

White House Proposes Lifting Logging Rule

Ah yes, with the smell of one-term-president in the air, the Bushies are going to give away the shop before we throw them out on their asses. Read the rest of this post...