Michele Bachmann’s problem with gays

Given last night's momentous victory in New York, I'd like to re-visit Matt Taibbi's piece on Michele Bachmann, just to highlight one element — her obsession with gay issues (our first visit was here). This is from near the middle (my emphasis):

Bachmann's anti-gay crusade in Minnesota was born of similar stuff. Right from the start, she made sure that everyone knew the awesome importance of the task she was taking on, trying to outlaw an already outlawed practice. "This is probably the biggest issue that will impact our state and our nation in, at least, the last 30 years," she said. She called gay marriage an "earthquake issue," insisting that failure to pass her proposal would mean that "sex curriculum would essentially be taught by the gay community" and that "little K-12 children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural, and perhaps they should try it." Much as Sarah Palin's actual speeches sometimes melt indistinguishably into Tina Fey's SNL parodies, Bachmann's anti-gay rhetoric at times features a campy, over-the-top quality that makes it hard to tell her apart from a tranny cabaret act. She described the gay lifestyle as "bondage" and "personal enslavement," even claiming that suicide among gay teens is due not to discrimination but to "the fact of what they're doing."

Bachmann's obsession with gay culture led her to bizarre behavioral extremes. In April 2005, after the State Senate refused to even vote on her constitutional amendment, she hid in the bushes outside the State Capitol during a gay-rights rally. A photo shows Bachmann, only the top of her Stepford head visible, crouched alone in an extreme catcher's squat behind the Capitol shrubbery. She later insisted she wasn't hiding at all, but resting because her heels hurt.

Or something. (Here's one shot, from the Minnesota Post. Another here. The google gets you a few more.) Later he retells her story of being "'held against her will' [in a restroom] by what may or may not have been a pair of angry lesbians."

Now from near the beginning of Taibbi's piece:

Bachmann was born Michele Amble in Waterloo, Iowa, to a pair of lifelong Democrats, but grew up in tiny Anoka, Minnesota. By her teen years, her parents had divorced; her mother remarried and brought step-siblings into the home, creating a Brady Bunchian group of nine kids. One of Bachmann's step-siblings, Helen LaFave, would later come out as a lesbian, a fact that Michele, who became famous opposing gay marriage, never mentions on the campaign trail. For the most part, though, Bachmann's upbringing seems like pure Americana, a typical Midwestern girl who was "in a couple of beauty pageants" and "not overtly political," according to her stepbrother Michael LaFave.

Something to keep in mind as her sad star rises. Bachmann's story is nuanced, as the full Taibbi article shows; but a telling detail nonetheless.

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Dog gets four prosthetic paws

This story has a happy ending, but the video still creeps me out a bit. I feel sorry for the dog. But he looks happy.

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NY marriage equality: Where does that leave Perry v. Schwartzenegger?

Just to add to the marriage equality discussion, here's Bmaz (a practicing lawyer) writing at Emptywheel on next steps, in particular, the pending California case of Perry v. Schwartzenegger (my emphasis):

Perry is now, and has been from the outset, the best vehicle for not only bringing marriage equality for all, but doing so in a transcendent and binding legal opinion, and likely with a finding and basis that it is mandated by the Constitutional edicts of Equal Protection and Due Process. That is the holy grail[.] ...

[But] [b]etween last night’s marvelous happening in New York, the clear cut and admirable new policy by the Obama Administration, and the ever enlightened movement of society, I think the writing is on the wall for the California Supreme Court, and I think they will indeed find that the D-Is [Defendant-Intervenors] have the requisite standing, the 9th [Circuit Court] will roll with that and away we go to the United States Supreme Court. I truly believe the New York passage will leave such a marker that will carry all this through, and that is a beautiful thing.

As I am going out on a limb here, let me go one step further out. The Supremes will seal the deal. If you read Lawrence v. Texas, penned by Anthony Kennedy, and are a Kennedy watcher, it is extremely hard to see how he will not maintain consistency with his Lawrence decision and vote for marriage equality. I think that was the case from the start, and the action of New York, and, yes the Obama Administration, makes it almost certain. Justices do not want to look like asses in history, the way things are going, the margin may be even more favorable than 5-4 if we get to that point. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?

There's a lot of if-then buried in that ellipsis above; please do read. But it sure looks promising. And an affirmation from the Supreme Court, given the current climate of acceptance, would put this permanently in the rear-view mirror.

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GOP pulls out of budget talks over taxes for the richest of the rich

This is ridiculous but hey, this is the modern GOP. Their only purpose is to say no to everything, especially when it might impact the wealthiest Americans. The Republicans ought to change their name to the "Screw the middle class party" and show some honesty in advertising. The GOP is already on the ropes with their Medicare-killing plan but the Democrats need to keep going and make it clear to the public that the Republicans don't care at all about the budget nor do they care about the survival of the middle class.

Democrats, Van Hollen said, had offered Republicans “a menu of options” on how to reform the tax code to achieve the desired target of $4 trillion in savings over the next 10 to 12 years, but that none of those choices were palatable to the GOP.

On that so-called “menu” of revenue options were oil subsidies, corporate jet taxes and “phasing out” of deductions and tax preferences for Americans who make more than $500,000, which Van Hollen said was “along the lines” of last winter’s bipartisan deficit commission recommendations.

“What we’ve seen on the Republican side, overall, is all take and no give. Any serious approach requires compromise and that’s going to be required to achieve the adult moment Speaker Boehner called for,” Van Hollen said. “Until the Republicans are more worried about reducing the deficit than they are about Grover Norquist, then we’ve got a problem.”

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House votes to criticize Obama on Libyan war

As much as I support the criticism, it would have been nice to see the GOP show such sentiment when Bush was invading countries and sending hundreds of thousands of troops into wars that we didn't need. What a bunch of frauds.

The House of Representatives has voted down a measure that would have granted congressional consent for American involvement in military action in Libya.

But the House also rejected a subsequent bill, which threatened to halt US air strikes in the embattled country by cutting off funds for military operations.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the House's decision not to cut the funding.

"We are gratified that the House has decisively rejected efforts to limit funding for the Libyan mission," Clinton told reporters at the State Department.

While the first vote is unlikely to affect US involvement in the NATO-led campaign, the rejection of congressional approval represents a symbolic blow to US President Barack Obama.

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Study on corruption in Afghanistan to be published this week

Corruption being taken to an even higher level thanks to the US presence is an old story. When I visited Vietnam almost a decade ago, I heard tales of corruption everywhere in the south that were related to the US military presence. One restaurant owner in Hoi An talked about weapons being brought in the front door of an ARVN camp and heading straight out the back door to be sold to the Viet Cong. He knew because that's what his business was back in the day. It was a free-for-all cash machine that many hated to see leave because it was a profitable business until the US left. There's never been any question that a country like Afghanistan was ripe for the same kind of corruption.

In a poor country, the corruption that exists will easily increase to even more outrageous amounts when you inject billions upon billions into the market. In our own system, we're already used to big, gaudy numbers and the corruption is much more legitimized for polite society. See campaign contributions, foot dragging with half assed financial reform, failing to hold Wall Street accountable for trillions of dollars of losses and the latest winner, the Supreme Court giving the keys to your health history to Big Pharma. This is all corruption so we shouldn't get too much on our high horse about corruption elsewhere.

Back to Afghanistan though, there is little doubt that the injection of US tax dollars has compounded an already serious problem. The cash grab can only get worse now that the US has indicated it will be leaving eventually. That said, there really are no good options other than getting out of Afghanistan sooner rather than later.

These are some of the elements, large and small, that together form the elaborate organized crime environment Afghans contend with daily. And despite the hoped-for success of the U.S. military surge and President Barack Obama's claims of significant progress, Afghanistan's resemblance to a mafia state that cannot serve its citizens may only be getting worse, according to an upcoming report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.

The 46-page study, to be released next week, looks specifically at Afghanistan's heartland: the rural areas of Ghazni, Wardak, Logar and other provinces just beyond the periphery of Kabul. Unemployment is high, government presence is low and the insurgency operates with impunity. Corruption and cooperation with the Taliban reach the highest levels of local governance.

"Nearly a decade after the U.S.-led military intervention little has been done to challenge the perverse incentives of continued conflict in Afghanistan," the research group says. Rather, violence and the billions of dollars in international aid have brought wealthy officials and insurgents together. And "the economy as a result is increasingly dominated by a criminal oligarchy of politically connected businessmen," the report concludes.

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Springsteen - Rosalita

Another great one by Springsteen and the E Street Band. The sax really rounded out this song to help make it the classic that it became. There were a lot of great bands out in the 70's that used the saxophone and horn sections in addition to guitars. Pity we don't hear much of that these days.

The rain stopped again and it's warming up so the garden should be on the move again. Our dipladenias are starting to bud and should be in bloom later this week. Every year I choke at the prices here in Paris because when we hit the south, they are practically giving them away. Read the rest of this post...

Report: Iran encouraging prison rape of activists

Shocking, though believable, if true.

Prison guards in Iran are giving condoms to criminals and encouraging them to systematically rape young opposition activists locked up with them, according to accounts from inside the country's jail system.

A series of dramatic letters written by prisoners and families of imprisoned activists allege that authorities are intentionally facilitating mass rape and using it as a form of punishment.

Mehdi Mahmoudian, an outspoken member of Iran's Participation Front, a reformist political party, is among those prisoners who have succeeded in smuggling out letters revealing the extent of rape inside some of the most notorious prisons.

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