Wed. Evening Open Thread

Who should Bush appoint as Secretary of the Inquisition? Pat Robertson? Jerry Fallwell? I'm going for Karl Rove... Read the rest of this post...

Let the New Inquisition Begin

Well, there might be a second coming, but it's not going to be Jesus, it's going to be the Inquisition. From AP:

Police are investigating an informal exorcism at the Cathedral of St. Paul, which was directed at gay Roman Catholics and will cost thousands of dollars to clean up, police and church officials said.

They said the ritualistic sprinkling of blessed oil and salt around the church and in donation boxes earlier this month amounted to costly vandalism and possibly a hate crime.

The damage was discovered Nov. 7 after the noon Mass, and after words were exchanged between members of the Rainbow Sash Alliance, a gay rights group, and the opposing group, Catholics Against Sacrilege.

Personally, I'd like to perform an exorcism on Bush to get out whatever evil has engulfed him, but hey, that's just me... Read the rest of this post...

GAO to Investigate Voting Irregularities

Now this is interesting. Since GAO is the investigative arm of Congress, this is a pretty big deal. Now, that doesn't mean that anything will come to pass if they find irregularities, but if they wind up finding them, it would be a great third party validation of what so many have been reporting. From AP:

The Government Accountability Office, responding to a request from Democratic lawmakers, will investigate the way votes were counted in the Nov. 2 election.

The investigation will study the accuracy of the count and the methods used to count the vote. Investigators will look at the way officials counted provisional ballots, provided to voters whose names did not appear on voting lists but who contended they are eligible to cast ballots.

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What's with the Bush Administration and Breasts?

What is this Bush administration obsession with breasts?

We had John Ashcroft covering up statues of breasts at the Department of Justice. We had Michael Powell and half of Congress working themselves into a frenzy over Janet Jackson's breast.

Now, the TSA is being accused of fondling the breasts of airline passengers. Not sure, but somehow knowing the Department of Homeland Security is fondling breasts doesn't make me feel safer.

The whole sex issue just seems to make the Bush people apoplectic. Perhaps we need their abstinence program applied to the whole government. If you work for Bush, no breast fondling outside of a committed marriage....hell, no sex outside of a committed marriage. And that policy can start in the Bush family and everyone in the Bush White House. Practice what you preach....what a concept.


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Putin calls in a favor after supporting Bush in election

OK, just keep quiet and let Moscow flex a little muscle. Thugs stealing ballot boxes, acid poured onto ballots, threats, the works. I now am starting to see why Putin was so friendly with Bush during the election.

The Central Election Commission on Wednesday declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of Ukraine's presidential election...

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Redistrict Illinois

The elections in Illinois showed a clear mandate for Democrats again. Obama got 70% of the vote. The state has a Democratic Governor and the Senate and House are controlled by Democrats. Yet, because of antiquated districts, the Democrats only have a one seat advantage in their U.S. House delegation.

Is it time to redistrict Illinois? In Texas, the Republicans faced a similar situation. Under the watchful eye of Tom DeLay, the Texas legislature drew new boundaries. Without the Texas seats, the House Republicans probably would have lost a seat this year.

DeLay and Texas set the precedent that there is no reason to wait for the census to redistrict. Power is enough. I bet Illinois legislators could do an even better job and do it without all the illegal activity that apparently took place in Texas.

Dennis Hastert and Henry Hyde are two dinosaours who clearly don't represent the new Democratic trend in the state. I bet there are some creative ways that their districts, which abut one another, could be made much more demographically representative.

Based on the trends, it is clear that Illinois should have more Democrats in Congress. With more appropriate congressional district boundaries, that can happen. Read the rest of this post...

Washington Post defends bigoted anti-gay magazine, blows off concerned readers

NOTE: ONCE AGAIN, PLEASE FORWARD THIS NOTE TO YOUR FRIENDS BY EMAIL, TO YOUR FAVORITE BLOGS, ETC. THANKS, JOHN

Yes, if you had an ounce of respect left for the Washington Post, feel free to let it go now.

Their response to the virulently anti-gay magazine insert - inappropriately called "Both Sides Magazine" - they distributed with last Friday's Post is, quite simply, appalling. Not to mention intellectually dishonest. The way they trivialize our concerns, suggesting we're simply mad because the religious right disagrees with us about gay marriage! Yeah, it had nothing to do with the fact that they printed outright lies about us all dying young, based on studies by a quack kicked out of the major medical associations 20 years ago. Among the man's other studies: one that says 17% of gay men eat feces. He's also the guy who championed the "gays are pedophiles" myth. But no, the Post thinks our concern is our fear of debating gay marriage. Right.

And now this means their ombudsman will likely write some hideous story in next Sunday's Post about how this pamphlet isn't hateful at all! Please feel free to contact him again after reading the update below (his contact info is at the bottom of this email), and also contact Eric Grant, the Post's Director of Communications Affairs. The number is 202 334-6466. These guys need to get the point that this isn't about gay marriage. It's about promoting Mengele-esque science that was debunked 20-30 years ago. Would the Post permit someone to run ads with equally quack science attacking blacks and Jews?

Thanks to all who sent me jpg copies of the Washington Post anti-gay insert. RawStory.com has been kind enough to host the zipped file for us (so you can download it faster) - click here to download. You can also download the set here, courtesy of Gay-Bible.org.

A few of the Post's responses:

- Marc Rosenberg, manager of corporate and public policy advertising for the Post. "The key issue is that it is clearly identified as an advertising message."

MY RESPONSE: No, the key issue is not whether it's clearly identified as advertising. The key issue quoting fallacious "scientific studies" proving blacks are inferior to whites and therefore not deserving of civil rights. The Post wouldn't. Hell, the Washington Post wouldn't even publish my online ad going after Dick and Mary Cheney because it included a cartoon-swear-word - you know, #^$&* Yes, cartoon swear words were too much for the Post, even though it was clearly an ad that I paid for, but saying that gays die at the age of 41 while straights die at 69 or 75 is a-okay.

- "We will not allow something hateful to go in the paper," Post Publisher Boisfeuillet Jones Jr. said, indicating he did not believe this incident involved a hateful message. "Gay marriage is a public issue and matter of public debate, and we believed its point of view has a right to be expressed."

MY RESPONSE: Not a hateful message? Really? How do you feel about the studies showing blacks to be phsyically inferior to white people? Ads for skin creams that can make black people white, making civil rights legislation unnecessary since black people who choose not to use the cream have "chosen" to be black? Any views on Hitler's scientific theories on Jews? What an absolute crock to suggest that the problem with that pamplet is that it simply "talks" about gay marriage. The problem with that pamplet is that it promotes Nazi-esque quack science claiming gays are somehow inferior physically to straight people and therefore don't deserve civil rights. For the Post to suggest otherwise is intentionally intellectually dishonest. They know damn well what our complaint is about.

- Post Ombudsman Mike Getler: "They might have insisted more that this be in a format that was clearly not a magazine. You could argue that the disclosure could have been larger. But the Post did not commit a sin by accepting it."

MY RESPONSE: Ah, gotcha. So the trick is that David Duke just needs to use a really large font that says "THIS IS AN AD" when he runs an ad-magazine denouncing your black and Jewish readers as racially inferior. That's really your position? Because you're about to inspire someone to raise some cash to run such an ad. And if you kill the ad, you're going to get a civil rights law suit. And if you run the ad, you're going to have a riot from DC's black community on your hands, and no more black subscribers.

Yes, it was quite gracious of the Post to ignore the question of whether they would print an attack on affirmative action (a valid public policy discussion) that included passages from the Bell Curve, the 1990s book that argued blacks were less intelligent and thus committed more crime, etc. Bet the Post would NO PROBLEM with that kind of logic being printed. Or are lies about those inferior gays all dying in their 40s somehow less offensive than lies about blacks all being stupid?

ACTION:
Contact the Post's ombudsman, Mike Getler. Try to explain to him why you consider this flyer (below) hateful, and be sure to ask him how the Post would feel about a similar ad about Jews or blacks and their physical inferiority to other races and peoples, and how that relates to those minorities not deserving civil rights:
- ombudsman@washpost.com
- (202) 334-7582

1. Download a 1.2 meg file of the entire 16 page magazine here. This server is much quicker, and you can download the entire magazine at once (albeit a blurrier version) thanks to our friends at RawStory.com: http://rawstory.com/images/pdf/BothSidesSmall.pdf

2. Download the individual pages here (4 pages per link - 16 pages total), still as pdf (I need jpgs of these if anyone can help). These are from a FASTER server, so should be much easier to download (thanks to FrankenHooker.com). http://www.frankenhooker.com/images/arsenal/posthate/bothsidesmag1.pdf http://www.frankenhooker.com/images/arsenal/posthate/bothsidesmag2.pdf http://www.frankenhooker.com/images/arsenal/posthate/bothsidesmag3.pdf http://www.frankenhooker.com/images/arsenal/posthate/bothsidesmag4.pdf

If those links are slow, try these as well (Thanks to DuGard.org): http://dugard.org/~dave/bothsides/bothsidesmag1.pdf http://dugard.org/~dave/bothsides/bothsidesmag2.pdf http://dugard.org/~dave/bothsides/bothsidesmag3.pdf http://dugard.org/~dave/bothsides/bothsidesmag4.pdf Read the rest of this post...

Pelosi's Playing Hardball

The AP reported that Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi refused to allow a pro forma vote to fix the Republican's income tax snooping provision. In reality, Pelosi is keeping the issue alive for a couple more weeks. Her money quote:

The assault on taxpayer privacy was not a simple mistake, and Democrats will not let Republicans sweep it under the rug.

This is a good sign. It shows that Pelosi is beginning to understand the role of the minority. Think back 12 - 15 years about the way Newt Gingrich and his cabal used every tactic and opportunity to focus attention on the missteps of the Democrats....and look where it got them.

Now, of course, the trick will be for the rest of the Democratic caucus and their friends to keep up the drumbeat. If the actions over the past couple weeks are any indication, the Republicans in Congress are going to give us all plenty of fodder.
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Wed. AM Open Thread

Dreading the trip home or looking forward to it? Going home to a Red State or a Blue State? What kind of creative civil disobedience can one really get away with at the Thanksgiving table? Read the rest of this post...

The Republicans are eating their own

Just days after watching Specter cower to the wingnuts, northeastern moderate Republicans are taking a thrashing at the hands of Rep. Istook, the democracy loving Congressman who slipped in that charming piece about giving free access to IRS information. Josh Marshall has the story.
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Blair now using Republican scare tactics for upcoming elections

For those Blair apologists out there who convinced themselves that poor Tony Blair has been completely manipulated by the clever George Bush, maybe you can help me understand this new move to make the upcoming election all about fear, fear, fear. (You can explain again to me how sending Black Watch troops was not a political move as well.)

Yesterday we were treated to sensational stories about the UK defeating a 9/11-like attack (Orange Alert anyone?) so it appears more and more likely that Blair will be rolling out a Bush-like campaign. Maybe the Guardian can pitch in and ask Blue State voters to send letters to British voters in the Midlands, telling them how they've been manipulated by the snake oil salesman.
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Cingular to cut 7,000 jobs

Sure, things are really looking up these days.
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