"We're kicking ass" is the new "Bring 'em on"

George Bush really is a buffoon. A lying buffoon, but a buffoon nonetheless. His new slogan for Iraq is "We're kicking ass." Because "Bring 'em on" worked so well. Read the rest of this post...

Things are getting tense in Fort Lauderdale

Anti-gay Mayor Jim "$250K robo-potty" Naugle has so polarized matters in Fort Lauderdale that press conferences and demonstrations are getting tense, according to Jeff Black of UNITE Fort Lauderdale, which sponsored a Faith Press Conference the other day, featured speakers from many denominations and religions to discuss unity, inclusiveness, and acceptance.

Inclusiveness was not on the agenda on Tuesday as members of homophobic black churches, stood with Mayor Naugle at City Hall preaching they are going to take back the city, removing the sin and sinners. Religious men -- in paramilitary gear -- were also standing aside the mayor bleating that  "the depth of sexual sin in Broward County necessitates an old-fashioned spiritual revival."  From Jeff's email to me:

They escorted me from the front door to the elevator when I entered the building today for this press conference, and stood 'post' at the elevator lobby. The video is frightening, worse was I was standing in the room with these people and worried what was going to happened next.

From the Sun-Sentinel article on the press conference.

Elder Mathes Guice of the Koinonia Worship Center in Pembroke Park said the county tourist council's targeted marketing to gay visitors "led the spiritual community on a collision course with Satan.'' He said "we have no other choice but to step up and do the right thing'' by holding the revival.

"We love the homosexual people,'' said the Rev. O'Neal Dozier of Pompano Beach. "We find them to be precious people. We want them saved.''

One clergyman was not impressed.

"I'm going to be ill if we don't get out of here soon,'' said Archbishop Bruce Simpson, who traveled from Pennsylvania to talk about the mayor at a news conference scheduled Wednesday evening at City Hall. Simpson is the author of "The Gay Face of God.''

UNITE Fort Lauderdale hasn't heard of Naugle's new friends from Koinonia Worship Center before, so Jeff Black tried to find out more about it. From the rest of his letter:

As an organizer of the Unity Press Conference and Prayer Vigil, representing inclusive faiths,  I spoke with Major Carter of the FLDP last night and after  Mayor Naugle paraded this new group out in front of the Mayor's offices and lobby. Major Carter was concerned and is now increasing the police presence at the gathering of clergy at 5:15 this evening.

I've never heard to this group before, the ones in military dress. They concern me a great deal. When I entered City Hall yesterday evening to observe the press conference the Mayor had called with them. Two of them escorted me from the front doors on the north side of the building to the elevators and then stood and took up 'posts' in the elevator lobby.

I tried to find out information on the group but was only able to find a MySpace profile which included an audio track. The audio track is of a military leader talking to a subordinate and explaining how they are in the battle to take back what they have lost for the black man while in the background you hear gun fire and battle sounds.

Koinonia Worship Center in Pembroke Park: Myspace profile page with audio.

What I'm hearing on this page is scary.  "Special OPS (operations) Units" of the church. References to "Exercising Spiritual Authority"?

The audio on the page sounds like a lot of bloviating hot air to me, but why on earth is Naugle associating with fringe churches like this? What a PR nightmare for Fort Lauderdale. The local Tourism Board, which booted Naugle from its board for his unyielding, loony vitriol toward the gay community, has to be roiling as the situation continues to unravel before the media.

Related:

* Attack of the Naugleites
* Blender's letter to Fort Lauderdale City Commission about Naugle
* Robo-potty Naugle: "I have longtime friends in the homosexual community."
* Letter from the Fort Lauderdale CVB disowning Naugle
* Shock jock robo-potty Mayor Naugle torched by FL newspaper editorial
* Images of beach restroom sex vex Ft. Lauderdale mayor, calls for robojohns
* Naugle: is he looking to keep the straight men out of the potty?
* Flushing Naugle
* The 'Flush Naugle' campaign escalates
* Fundie defends homophobic robo-potty mayor Naugle
* Pro-diversity rally in Ft. Lauderdale today to counter the $250K robo-potty mayor.

More Naugle coverage here. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Thread openly. Read the rest of this post...

Judge finds "National Security Letter" section of Patriot act unconstitutional

Could it be that Americans still have constitutional protections despite everything George Bush has done to destroy and limit our rights? A federal judge in New York seems to think so. He ruled a key, nefarious part of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional:

A federal judge today struck down portions of the USA Patriot Act as unconstitutional, ordering the FBI to stop issuing "national security letters" that secretly demand customer information from Internet service providers and other businesses.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York ruled that the landmark anti-terrorism law violates the First Amendment and the Constitution's separation of powers provisions because it effectively prohibits recipients of the FBI letters (NSLs) from revealing their existence and does not provide adequate judicial oversight of the process.

Marrero wrote in his 106-page ruling that Patriot Act provisions related to NSLs are "the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values."

The decision has the potential to eliminate one of the FBI's most widely used investigative tactics. It comes amid widespread concern on Capitol Hill over reported abuses in the way the FBI has used its NSL powers.

Don't get too excited yet. The Bush administration will undoubtedly appeal. And, you know how it goes, if the Bush administration starts screaming about terror, Congress will probably pass a new law. But this is a big development. Hat tip to the ACLU for bringing the case. Civil liberties do still matter. Read the rest of this post...

So, should we just start training our kids for the Iraq war now?

New hard-hitting ad hitting on the reality of what Susan Collins and her GOP colleagues have gotten us into -- an intractable, endless civil war. Versions of this ad are running in Kentucky against McConnell, in Minnesota against Coleman and in New Mexico against Domenici. The way things are going these kids are all going to be drafted, too:
Read the rest of this post...

Michael Medved: DADT provides protection from toe-tappers

Sigh. Poor Michael Medved of Town Hall. He bloviates in his column that lifting Don't Ask, Don't Tell will result in an explosion of toe-tapping cruising in the latrines.

Imagine the impact on morale and unit cohesion if two guys from the same barracks engaged in toe-tapping hanky-panky (and perhaps much more) while occupying adjacent bathroom stalls in the military facilities?

Of course, advocates for gays in the military will insist that any such indulgence would involve a violation of the rules, with offenders facing stiff, severe consequences. But the impact of gay GI’s on bathroom atmospherics doesn’t just stem from the real chance of actual sex acts in the latrine, it involves whole sexualization of one of the most frequented and important conveniences on any base.

Does he not realize that Larry Craig has said he's not gay, and that the Atlanta police department found that the majority of men busted in his stings are married with kids? How, exactly then, will DADT prevent bathroom hookups if self-proclaimed heterosexuals are engaging in public, anonymous homosex? If you read on, it's clear the level of Medved's projection that he will be the target of amorous toe-tapping is, well, extreme.

The problem isn’t just the chance of molestation, it’s the radical change of mood and sensibility if you know you may be checked out as a sex object at a very private moment (of urination or defecation) when most normal people prefer to avoid any and all thoughts of physical intimacy.

...The national shudder of discomfort and queasiness associated with any introduction of homosexual eroticism into public men’s rooms should make us more determined than ever to resist the injection of those lurid attitudes into the even more explosive situation of the U.S. military.

Oh, please. How does the desire to serve one's country without being in the closet now turn into an orgy of bathroom sex? It's about the inappropriate nature and location of a sex act, not the orientation, Medved.

If Craig thinks he's straight and has to cruise public restrooms for same-sex encounters, it says more about homophobia and the pathology of the closet driving men like him to engage in this kind of public, anonymous, illicit behavior, particularly because of the deceit and the pain it causes their families. Read the rest of this post...

Don't miss my friend Marcus' art opening tonight in NYC, 6-8pm

Marcus McAllister will be one of several artists exhibiting at this opening of French artists. He's a great guy, ask for him and tell him you read the blog (he does too). He's wonderful, as is his boyfriend. You won't regret it.

En Plein View - French Artists in New York
Reception: Thursday, Sept. 6, 2006
Exhibition thru Sept. 29

Presented by CAN (Contemporary Art Network) at the New Art Center

580 8th Avenue @ 38 St. 5th Floor
212-354-2999
info@cannyc

Artists Include:

Frederic Amblard
Xavier Barthe
Mo Bantman
Klara Beer
Herve Bourdin
Jean-Francois Callo
Arnaud Cohen
Jane Dreyer
Isabelle Gomond
Laurent Dorchin
Jean-Luc Guin'amant
Habdaphai
Alexandra Kawiak
Pierre Le Cacheux
Martine Porry
Remi Trotereau
Philippe Parrot La Garenne
Isabelle Repiquet
Jordan Samper
Catherine Sirot
Marcus McAllister
Vida Verba
Vinca Read the rest of this post...

GOP Debate Doings

I did not watch the Republican debate last night. I attribute this to the fact that there have already been several debates, that I pretty much know the bullshit each Republican will spout and that if the debate wasn't important enough for 'Ol Fred Thomspon attend, then it wasn't important enough for me to watch. I was going to be snarky and say I missed the debate because I have a life, but I'm married with kids, so no one would really buy that, would they?

The morning after, I am surprised by the near unanimity of opinion - McCain won, Huckabee had a strong showing, and Romney didn't fare well. Here's the view of from the right-wing media forum, Human Events.

McCain was certainly the pleasant surprise of the evening. Just when his political obituary has been written he turns in a good natured, sober and informed performance. On foreign policy he essentially put Governor Mitt Romney in his place -- telling him the surge was working, not just apparently so” -- giving the most authoritative answer on Iran of the contenders. His problems however are clear -- with each moment spent on rehashing the immigration debate he loses votes and momentum and his refusal to sign the tax pledge and “stand on his record” reminds voters he opposed the Bush tax cuts. But on this night viewers could be gratified he is in the Senate and in the race for he raises the level of debate and reminds voters of the benefits of experience.

Romney’s performance raised two key question marks for his candidacy: he lacks a personal touch and is shaky on foreign policy. As to the first, when the military dad in the diner asked for an apology from Romney for comparing his son’s work on the campaign to his own son’s service Romney not only failed to offer his apology but seemed indifferent to the questioner. We like smart presidents but we also like empathetic ones who relate to people as people and Romney needs to show he has a heart and not just a brain. As for foreign policy, the week before the great surge debate, he seemed oddly focused on the Democrats’ goal --how quickly to get out -- without the same dogged concern shown by McCain for getting it “right” -- as best we can -- before we leave. Romney has been on quite a roll in the polls lately but he did not help himself in this outing.

One other item really caught my eye. Ross Douthat, over at The Atlantic, takes his conservative brethren to task for being more interested in attacks than substance. He noted some folks took Sam Brownback to task for not hitting Ron Paul on his plan to leave Iraq. Instead, Brownback, gasp, gave an actual plan (a "soft Partition") on Iraq, rather than just giving the usual Patriotic rhetoric and parroting the Bush talking points.

Look, I get where they're coming from: It's good when the candidates mix it up and actually address what one another are saying, and Brownback generally seems lost in the crowd during these debates, and from a tactical perspective he ought to be throwing more punches. (Or getting out of the race entirely.) But - but - what Brownback did, in his non-response to Paul, was offer an actual strategy for moving forward politically in Iraq, addressing the central problem of our occupation head-on in a way that almost nobody else did during tonight's debate. His plan for partition may be a terrible plan (or at best, a plausible endpoint of a "stay till it burns out" strategy), but it's an infinitely more substantive contribution to the argument over Iraq than, say, Rudy Giuliani's famous slam of Paul a few months back, and Brownback deserved better - as do we all - than to have his response scored a failure because he didn't use it to score cheap points against a fellow also-ran.

Ross ought to save his breath - conservatives are far more interested in scoring cheap political points than they are in finding actual solutions. But I admire his efforts. Read the rest of this post...

False hype of al Qaeda in Iraq

Washington Monthly put its October cover story online today, and it is fantastic. (And not just because I'm quoted.) I'll comment on it and excerpt it briefly, but really, go read the article.

Back? Okay. The author, Andrew Tilghman, is a former reporter for Stars and Stripes, an independent military-focused newspaper, and spent nine months in Iraq in 2005 and 2006. It was clear to me when we spoke that he had an excellent basis of knowledge about the conflict, and he asked all the right questions to get at the specifics of the topic.

And he got fascinating answers from a variety of sources, which he weaved into a solid and damning assessment of the hyping of al Qaeda by military and administration leaders for political and/or careerism aims. To wit:

With disproportionate resources dedicated to tracking AQI, the search has become a self-reinforcing loop. The Army has a Special Operations task force solely dedicated to tracking al-Qaeda in Iraq. The Defense Intelligence Agency tracks AQI through its Iraq office and its counterterrorism office. The result is more information culled, more PowerPoint slides created, and, ultimately, more attention drawn to AQI, which amplifies its significance . . .

[T]he bar for labeling an attack the work of al-Qaeda can be very low. The fact that a detainee possesses al-Qaeda pamphlets or a laptop computer with cached jihadist Web sites, for example, is at times enough for analysts to link a detainee to al-Qaeda. "Sometimes it's as simple as an anonymous tip that al-Qaeda is active in a certain village, so they will go out on an operation and whoever they roll up, we call them al-Qaeda," says Rossmiller. "People can get labeled al-Qaeda anywhere along in the chain of events, and it's really hard to unlabel them." Even when the military backs off explicit statements that AQI is responsible, as with the Tal Afar truck bombings, the perception that an attack is the work of al-Qaeda is rarely corrected.

The author actually talked to regional and intelligence experts -- not to be confused with "political" or "military" commentators -- including names you probably recognize, like Juan Cole, Pat Lang, and Larry Johnson, as well as some you won't but should, like Malcolm Nance, a twenty-year intelligence veteran and Arabic speaker. Nance is also the author of The Terrorists of Iraq, which is easily the best book written on the Iraq insurgency and a must-read for anybody seriously interested in the issue.

The size and impact of al Qaeda in Iraq is hugely overblown by the media, elected figures, and military officials. Further, and perhaps even more importantly, its purported strength is essentially the only security-related reason claimed by the administration for maintaining our occupation. Political manipulation by government and military leaders -- combined with a lack of knowledge of situational specifics on the part of commentators and the public -- results in a profound general misunderstanding of the facts on the ground.

Incidentally, according to General Petraeus the surge is aimed at al Qaeda, a group about which he is severely deluded. It's all such a debacle. Read the rest of this post...

Another Craig update -- now he probably is leaving the Senate

The soap opera continues. Another day, another update from the Larry Craig show:

Sen. Larry Craig has all but dropped any notion of trying to complete his term, and is focused on helping Idaho send a new senator to Washington within a few weeks, his top spokesman said today.

“The most likely scenario, by far, is that by October there will be a new senator from Idaho,” Craig spokesman Dan Whiting told the Associated Press.

The only circumstances in which Craig might try to complete his term, Whiting said, would require the overturning by Sept. 30 of his conviction for disorderly conduct in a men’s room at the Minneapolis airport, as well as Senate GOP leaders’ agreement to restore Craig’s committee leaderships posts taken away this week.

Those scenarios are unlikely, Whiting said.

Read the rest of this post...

Dear Larry Craig (R-Sodomy)

Please, Senator Craig. Stay in the Senate and make my day. Prove to the religious right that the Republicans only pay lip service (oops) to all their talk about family values. We're not just talking about you "possibly" being gay. We're not just talking about you "possibly" having gay sex. We're talking about you "possibly" cruising public toilets in order to have sex with anonymous men who, for all you know, could have been 12 year old boys (are you sure none of them were underage boys - I mean, how would you know if you never saw their faces?). Now that's family values chutzpah for a guy who claims to be a conservative Republican.

Please, Senator Craig, stay in the Senate. I don't have a problem with you if you're gay. I have a wide stance on gays in the Congress - hell, I'd love to finally have an openly gay Senator - and all the better that he's a conservative Republican. I also don't have a problem with you if you're finding consensual adult outlets for your sexual desires. I do, however, have a problem with you bashing gays and lecturing others on morality while "possibly" trolling for gay sex in public toilets (something that doesn't just make you gay, it makes you uber-gay). You don't get to bash gays by day then suck up to them by cover of darkness.

Stay in the Senate, Senator Craig, and every time you or one of your Republican buddies in the Congress or in the religious right hate groups tries to talk about gays, or family values, or any other kind of moral judgment, we're going to be talking about GOP Senators who give blowjobs to anonymous men (and boys?) in public toilets. You're the best thing to happen since Mary Cheney.

So seriously, Senator Craig, where do we contribute to your defense fund?

PS I can already see the protests following you around the Hill and your home town now. People tossing toilet paper in the air, like a Rocky Horror midnight show. Oh, trust me, this is going to be fun. Read the rest of this post...

Petraeus will say violence is down in Iraq because he's not counting the violence in Iraq

Read the article about the "Experts Doubt Drop In Violence in Iraq: Military Statistics Called Into Question" in today's Washington Post, which confirms a very important point: General Petraeus and his toadies are lying about the level of violence in Iraq. It's incredibly craven, but that's what is happening.

Basically, in the Petraeus view, to count the amount of violence means excluding from that count many incidents and forms of violence. For example, not included in the Petraeus count as Ilan Goldenberg at Democracy Arsenal points out are:

1) Sunni on Sunni violence. 2) Shi'a on Shi'a violence 3) Car bombs 4) Getting shot in the front of the head.

Despite all that, the Bush/Petraeus message, as Ilan concludes is "But violence is down. Trust me." If mayors in America could choose how to count violence, there would be no crime in any major city in the country. But that's not how it's done in the real world -- only in Bush/Petraeus world.

From the Post:

The U.S. military's claim that violence has decreased sharply in Iraq in recent months has come under scrutiny from many experts within and outside the government, who contend that some of the underlying statistics are questionable and selectively ignore negative trends.

Reductions in violence form the centerpiece of the Bush administration's claim that its war strategy is working. In congressional testimony Monday, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is expected to cite a 75 percent decrease in sectarian attacks. According to senior U.S. military officials in Baghdad, overall attacks in Iraq were down to 960 a week in August, compared with 1,700 a week in June, and civilian casualties had fallen 17 percent between December 2006 and last month. Unofficial Iraqi figures show a similar decrease.

Others who have looked at the full range of U.S. government statistics on violence, however, accuse the military of cherry-picking positive indicators and caution that the numbers -- most of which are classified -- are often confusing and contradictory. "Let's just say that there are several different sources within the administration on violence, and those sources do not agree," Comptroller General David Walker told Congress on Tuesday in releasing a new Government Accountability Office report on Iraq.

General Petraeus works for George Bush. In Bush world, lying is standard operating procedure. And, let's not forget, Bush lied to get us into this war. Why would anyone think he wouldn't lie to keep us in his war? Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Just because George Bush and John McCain say the surge is working, doesn't mean it's true. The "surge is working" is just an updated version of "stay the course." It's another Republican slogan with deadly consequences.

Watching that Republican debate last night was just brutal. Brutal. None of them should be President -- nor should Fred Thompson. There should be some good intra-GOP battling amongst them over the next couple months. That could be fun to watch.

Start threading the news. Read the rest of this post...

ConAgra to drop fake butter flavor one month before EPA study release

Amazing timing considering the EPA study - yes, EPA and not FDA - has been available to the industry since 2005 since the Big Food industry insisted on reviewing the report before it was released. Diacetyl, the butter flavoring chemical, is believed to be connected to serious lung disease among factory workers and more recently even to at least one consumer.

She said the delay was due to the time needed for scientific peer review and submission to a scientific journal. The research also required industry cooperation, she said, and part of the agreement was that companies got to see the report before it was published to ensure that no trade secrets were violated.

The study will probably be published this month in a "major scientific journal," Ackerman said, but she would not name the publication.

"No trade secrets were violated"...uh huh. And here I was thinking it had more to do with covering themselves and preparing a legal defense before the study is released, but I must be wrong since they say so. Read the rest of this post...

OECD cuts US growth rate, warns of possible recession

GOP economics are coming together to build the perfect storm. Not so surprisingly the easy credit system that the financial market wanted and the GOP delivered has turned out to be a major problem and is dragging down the economy. Add to that the brilliant GOP plan to cut taxes during a war plus the black hole of spending in Iraq (including heavy payouts to GOP-friendly businesses) and you have just about all you need for a soft economy. While Greenspan never saw this coming, plenty of others did but were swept aside because everyone had houses and money was falling from the sky.

The OECD is suggesting bank rate cuts though any action today is likely much too late. We needed leadership a few years ago when common sense should have prevailed over the hysteria of a growing real estate market, but since when have we seen common sense from either Greenspan or the GOP Congress who helped build this financial mess? If the economy does go into recession, wait until we hear the excuses and the blame game from the GOP who will refuse, again, to accept any responsibility for their failed economic policies. Read the rest of this post...

Pavarotti has died

The incredible Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti has died after battling pancreatic cancer at the age of 71. What a loss for music lovers around the world.

Read the rest of this post...