Buddha With Thousand Hands

From from China's Disabled People's Performance Art Troupe. Simply wonderful.

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NPR: Justice Souter is retiring. Obama gets to pick a Supreme Court Justice.

Via NPR (which probably means Nina Tottenberg who really does know all things Supreme Court):

NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the court's current term.

The court has completed hearing oral arguments for the year and will be issuing rulings and opinions until the end of June.

Souter apparently won't leave the Court til his replacement is confirmed.

UPDATE: Pete Williams from NBC has the same news. Read the rest of this post...

The DC media elite are squabbling over who gets to sit with whom at their big dinner

Um, does this sound like junior high? It's right out of the movie "Mean Girls," except it's not. It's Washington, D.C. and the White House press corps.

Yes, these are the people who want to inform the public and shape opinion. They are your "media elite." Could they be more petty?:

The battle over A-list guests begins long before the date of the dinner is set and often leaves news organizations complaining — all off the record, of course — about who stole what guest and which celebrity bailed on them.

This year, news outlets are grumbling in particular about ABC’s impressive roster of White House guests — senior adviser David Axelrod, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, adviser Valerie Jarrett, Michelle Obama Chief of Staff Jackie Norris, CIA Director Leon Panetta and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice.

Traditionally, the White House divides its staff among the various news organizations after looking through its invitations. But several people pointed to ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos’s close friendship with Emanuel, and questioned how the network got so many big names.

ABC disputed the questions about Stephanopoulos’s involvement and said it was their hard and early work that resulted in the guest list.

The network pointed out it was ABC senior political editor Virginia Moseley who invited Emanuel, while correspondent Jake Tapper invited Axelrod and anchor Terry Moran invited Jarrett.

“That rumor needs to be ‘shot through the heart,’ but the only guest George booked for this White House Correspondents Dinner was Jon Bon Jovi, and to quote the singer, we weren’t exactly ‘livin’ on a prayer’ booking guests. We started earlier, worked harder, and these are the results,” said ABC News spokeswoman Emily Lenzner.

The White House refused to get involved in the dispute. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told The Hill he hadn’t “seen the lineup of who’s going where.”

Ridiculous. Just ridiculous. Read the rest of this post...

Churchgoers more likely to back torture

Who would Jesus waterboard? And big surprise here - evangelicals are the most pro-torture of any Christians. Read the rest of this post...

Obama admission of "torture" may force inquiry, Nadler says

I have to admit that my legal ears perked up when Obama said during his press conference last night that in fact waterboarding is torture, and our government did waterboard. He was per se admitting, as the president of the United States, that our country committed torture. I started to wonder if legally he might have set something in motion that he didn't intend. Congressman Nadler apparently wondered the same. Read the rest of this post...

H1N1 influenza A

That's the new name according to the WHO. Well, not really new but official/technical name due to misconceptions about the role of pigs in the outbreak.

Thompson said the flu name change comes after the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to order the slaughter of pigs.

"Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," he said.

On Wednesday, Egypt began slaughtering its roughly 300,000 pigs as precaution, even though experts said swine flu is not spread by eating pork.

Not quite as catchy but with silly slaughters as we witnessed this week in Egypt, perhaps it made sense. Read the rest of this post...

Mormon leader of NOM appears to advocate overthrow of US government "by whatever means necessary," and criminalization of homosexuality

UPDATE: Orson Scott Card only joined the board of the National Organization for Marriage a week ago. I'm guessing there's a bit of buyer's remorse going on at the homophobe hotel right about now. Then again, maybe the rest of the NOM leadership agrees that the government is "our mortal enemy" and that gays should be thrown in jail. Perhaps someone should ask them.
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People for the American Way has discovered that in a long rambling article about the ills of gay marriage, reeking of conspiracy theories, Orson Scott Card, a Mormon leader of the religious right's top anti-gay marriage organization, National Organization for Marriage, advocated the criminalization of homosexuality, labeled the US government "our mortal enemy," talked about the "insane Constitution" dying, and then appeared to advocate the overthrow of the US government "by whatever means is made possible or necessary." The article was published in the influential Mormon Times, a publication owned by the Mormon church. (And in all fairness, JoeMyGod spotted this connection a week ago.)

By whatever means necessary

Faithful sexual monogamy, persistence until death, male protection and providence for wife and children, female loyalty to children and husband, and parental discretion in child-rearing.

If government is going to meddle in this, it had better be to support marriage in general while providing protection for those caught in truly destructive marriages.

Because when government is the enemy of marriage, then the people who are actually creating successful marriages have no choice but to change governments, by whatever means is made possible or necessary.

Conspiracy theories

And you can guess how long it will now take before any group that speaks against "gay marriage" being identical to marriage will be attacked using the same tools that have been used against anti-abortion groups -- RICO laws, for instance.

Overthrow of the government

Why should married people feel the slightest loyalty to a government or society that are conspiring to encourage reproductive and/or marital dysfunction in their children?

Why should married people tolerate the interference of such a government or society in their family life?

If America becomes a place where our children are taken from us by law and forced to attend schools where they are taught that cohabitation is as good as marriage, that motherhood doesn't require a husband or father, and that homosexuality is as valid a choice as heterosexuality for their future lives, then why in the world should married people continue to accept the authority of such a government?

What these dictator-judges do not seem to understand is that their authority extends only as far as people choose to obey them.

How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

Biological imperatives trump laws. American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die.

Putting aside the fact that the Mormons have a little history when it comes to violently opposing a government that disagrees with them about marriage - the Mormons also seem to have a belief about the use of violence to defend property (in the original piece, not quoted here, the writer talks about making marriage more like property) - does anyone else read this and wonder if some day, something big will happen, and someone will re-read this article and say "the signs were all there"? Read the rest of this post...

Republicans increasingly admit Franken has won Senate race in Minnesota

First the media admitted it, and now GOP politicians. It's over Norm. And another major blow to the Republican brand. Read the rest of this post...

Jobless claims surprise, in a good way

The market ignored the horrendous GDP drop for the first quarter and seems to like the jobless decline. Reuters:

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 631,000 in the week ended April 25 from a revised 645,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast 643,000 new claims versus a previously reported count of 640,000 the week before.

Also, employment costs rose by the lowest amount on record in the first quarter, government data showed Thursday, as the country's severe recession dented compensation amid soaring unemployment.

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GOP chair Steele agrees with Rush Limbaugh, it's a good thing Specter left the party and became a Dem

Well, then maybe we can make a good thing even better. Olympia, you're always welcome, glyka-mou.

So, come on, all you guys over at the DNC, you're paying Steele off, right? I mean, invoking Limbaugh and agreeing with him that moderate Republicans are "dead weight" that are better off being run out of the party - I mean, seriously. It's difficult to overplay how significantly stupid of a move this is for party chair Michael Steele, and the GOP overall. Now, granted, there aren't too many moderates left in the GOP, so maybe Steele and Limbaugh think there's no point in worrying about moderates leaving when they've already left. But still. I would think the Republicans aspire to more than a 20% share of the electorate.

So then Steele is saying that he agrees that the Democrats gaining another seat in the Senate, their 60th in fact, is a good thing, and what's more, he agrees that John McCain should leave the party too? That's what Rush said. That's what Michael Steele agreed with, in his sycophantic effort to suck up to the remaining extremists in the GOP. Let me remind you of what Rush said exactly:

"A lot of people say, 'Well, Specter, take [Sen. John] McCain with you. And his daughter [Meghan]. Take McCain and his daughter with you if you're gonna…" he told listeners, dissolving in laughter.

"…..It's ultimately good. You're weeding out people who aren't really Republicans," he said.

I'm sorry, but this is all just too delicious. To think a year ago we had the chimp as president, global warming denialism as the state religion, and now the Republicans are in ruins, and going south fast. Absolutely delicious. Read the rest of this post...

Maine senate passes gay marriage

UPDATE from Joe: My sister, Sharon, was in the State House sending text messages with updates. After the vote, she said people were overjoyed and weeping in the hallways. I can't imagine Governor John Baldacci won't support this legislation. He's been a longtime supporter of LGBT equality. John and I did an event with him back in October 2005 when we were working to defeat the right wing's referendum was to overturn the legislation adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the Maine Human Rights Act. Our side won that election. I imagine those same gay haters will try to overturn marriage, too.

Kudos to Equality Maine for their amazing work on this issue. And, a personal thanks to my good friend and former boss, Senator Barry Hobbins, for his leadership and helping to get the bill out of the Judiciary Committee.
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The Maine Senate just passed legislation legalizing marriages for gay couples in that state. The state House would have to pass the legislation as well, though Joe says it should be an easier fight than was the Senate, then it would go to governor Baldacci, a Democrat who hasn't said what he'll do. A vote to send the issue up for a statewide referendum failed. (We wanted that to fail.) Yet another major advance for civil rights advocates. Read the rest of this post...

Religious right now trying to punish pro-gay speech

On the heels of the hate crimes vote in the House - a vote where the religious right claimed that laws against murder would somehow stop them from verbally criticizing gays - the religious right has just launched a campaign against Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus simply for saying that Jesus loves everyone, including gay people.

Talk about intolerant. Now we're going to threaten TV shows because their stars aren't homophobes? Because they believe that Jesus loved everybody? Should we throw her in jail too?

It's also ironic that the religious right was just all up in arms a week ago when blonde bimbette Miss California lost the Miss USA beauty pageant. They claim she lost because the judges didn't like her answer to a question on gay marriage (she's against it, but her answer also showed a decided lack of knowledge of the English language). The religious right has claimed that since Miss California lost, it shows that all of America is now in danger from the gay agenda. I know, it's all a bit weird, but what's important is that the religious right just launched a well-funded ad campaign featuring Miss California (paid for by the Mormon bigots?), talking about how intolerant the world is for not picking Miss California over Miss Arizona, and then the next day they launch a campaign against a TV star for simply saying she's pro-gay.

Here's what the intolerant homophobes just emailed out to their action-alert list. First here is what Miley Cyrus said that is so offensive:

"Everyone deserves to love and be loved and most importantly smile."
"Jesus loves you and your partner and wants you to know how much he cares! That's like a daddy not loving his lil boy cuz he's gay and that is wrong and very sad!
"Like I said everyone deserves to be happy."
"God’s greatest commandment is to love. And judging is not loving."
"I am a Christian and I love you - gay or not - because you are no different than anyone else! We are all God's children."

Wow, pretty nasty stuff. Love. God's commandments. We are all God's children.

Stone that woman.

And here is how the bigots at the American Family Association reacted:

Such statements will send the wrong message to our children who are influenced by this teenage megastar. Parents need to realize that Cyrus is not the positive role model she was once thought to be.... Clearly she is confused and does not understand the Bible.

Seriously, these people are evil. They clearly don't worship the same God as you and me. They don't even think Catholics are Christians. And just as their philosophical forbears would do anything to stop blacks from gaining equal access to the American dream, today's religious bigots will stop at nothing - even calling Matthew Shepard's brutal murder "a hoax" - in order to bash the gays one more time.

And the GOP wonders why it's only at 20% in the polls. With people like these extremists controlling the Republican party, God help the Republicans - 20% may be their high point for a long time coming. Read the rest of this post...

Palin, Gingrich and Steele cut out of new group meant to revitalize GOP

UPDATE: Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring says Palin was invited to join the group, but they haven't heard back.

The group is meant to highlight promising GOP presidential candidate. It includes John McCain and Mr. Volcano in Louisiana. It doesn't include Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich, two of the top GOP presidential candidates in 2012, or Michael Steele, the head of the RNC and himself a potential GOP presidential candidate.

The lawmakers' group includes Jeb Bush, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain....

Notably absent from either group's rosters are the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has his own policy group. Others mentioned as potential 2012 candidates and missing are South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, although the latter is a close McCain ally.

McCain and Bush, promising presidential candidates in 2012? Is there nothing new in this party, ever? But more important, the GOP civil war is alive and well. Read the rest of this post...

Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews go off on GOP rep who called Matthew Shepard murder "a hoax"

As you'll recall, yesterday we wrote about the Republican House member in charge of opposing the hate crimes amendment, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who referred to the brutal murder of young gay college student Matthew Shepard as "a hoax." Well, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews both had a few things to say about Ms. Foxx.





And just to remind everyone, America already has a hate crimes law. We've had it for decades. But it only covers race, religion and national origin - in other words, it covers the religious right. It doesn't cover everyone else. The amendment, which passed in the House yesterday, would add gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity to the already-existing law. Regardless of your feelings towards hate crimes laws, if America is going to have one on the books - and it does already - the law should cover everyone, and not just give special rights to the Christian fundamentalists at the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, and the men at the Concerned Women for America. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

So, we're on day 101 of the Obama presidency. Looks like he surpassed expectations for the overly analyzed first 100 days. The American people, with the exception of the wing nut Republicans, are satisfied. And, Obama is what he is. There have been no surprises.

I thought he was masterful at the press conference last night. He can go pivot from issue to issue with no hesitancy. I also thought the caliber of the questions was better last night. Obama doesn't just call on the same news outlets every time. It's not a given that the usual suspects will get called on, so when they do get a question, they can't blow it. Quality questions from the not-so-usual reporters have really upped the ante. Competition works in the East Room. (It probably helps that so many of us critique the dumb questions, too.)

Let's get it started... Read the rest of this post...

WHO raises flu pandemic to 2nd highest level

As expected, cases are growing around the world and the Boston Globe has a few good maps of where it has been identified in North America and the world. Again, yesterday reports from Mexico were that it may have peaked and was starting to come under control which is positive news assuming that remains the same. CNN:

Dr. Margaret Chan, the U.N. agency's director-general, said the decision to raise the alert on the 6-point scale indicated that all countries should "immediately" activate pandemic preparedness plans.

"This change to a higher phase of alert is a signal to governments, to ministries of health and other ministries, to the pharm industry and the business community that certain actions now should be taken with increased urgency and at an accelerated pace," Chan said.

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London banksters still raking in billions

They refuse to get it and they refuse to care that they caused the global recession. The US bonus money reserves have been shockingly high so far for the year as well, not that Wall Street cares either. These spongers are living quite well and have been for years even when they were generating all of the paper money that was wiped off the books. Whatever they do they win. Great work, when you can get it and you have no conscience for screwing the world. The only part that's even more annoying is to see politicians who make the rules do absolutely nothing to change the system.

The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: "Given the havoc that the City has wreaked on our economy, pegging back bonuses to a mere £7bn a year falls short of the value for money taxpayers should expect after bailing out the banks."

In 2008, bonuses suffered their first fall in five years as the early months of the credit crunch took their toll – but the fall was small, to £13.7bn from £14.1bn in 2007, after a 30% rise from 2006.

The low point in recent years was £5.2bn in 2003, as the financial sector recovered from the dotcom bust in the stockmarket. This year's payout will be broadly similar to that of 2004, when financial markets were in good shape.

Wow, scaling back to 2004 bonuses. How will they ever survive? Read the rest of this post...

Obama references Churchill

Brilliant. The right loves using Churchill references but with this one, they'll probably dismiss Churchill as a commie pinko. The Guardian:

Obama has been criticised, in particular by Cheney, for making public four secret Bush administration memos detailing interrogation techniques approved for use by the CIA, including waterboarding. Cheney has called on Obama to release other classified documents he claimed would show that valuable intelligence was gained from detainees interrogated in this way.

Obama responded by pointing to the example from the Blitz: "I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British, during World War Two, when London was being bombed to smithereens, had 200 or so detainees. And Churchill said 'we don't torture', when all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat. And the reason was that Churchill understood you start taking shortcuts, and over time, that corrodes what's best in a people. It corrodes the character of a country."

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