What he said

Langston Hughes. Gay poet. Good stuff. Read the rest of this post...

Cutting through the crap

WHAT HE SAID: "[US Lt. Col.] Ramos predicted that 'freedom and democracy' would prevail in Fallujah within days."

WHAT HE MEANT: "We're about to accidentally kill half the population." Read the rest of this post...

Republican election theft roundup

From BOP News, they've collected links to lots and lots of articles and facts about election irregularities last Tuesday. Read the rest of this post...

Rove says Bush will push for federal anti-gay amendment AGAIN

Uniter, my fucking ass.

Karl Rove said today that Bush is intent on pushing for passages of the anti-gay constitutional amendment in his next four-year game.

And where the fuck is Mary Cheney? Lot of good she did giving Bush cover last week when he gave his acceptance speech. What a traitorous bitch. Read the rest of this post...

Newsmax says Rehnquist tried to throw election for Bush

While I loathe Newsmax - it's a Republican whore publication, even worse than FOX News - they are a solid voice of and for conservatives, and they've just written a piece suggesting that Rehnquist intentionally announced his cancer only days before the election (ran than keeping it a secret until later) in order to give Bush's re-election chances an extra boost.

Now, think about this. A publication that's at least respectable among conservatives is bragging that the chief justice of the US Supreme Court may have tried to throw a US election. Putting aside Rehnquist did or did not, what kind of conservative are you - what kind of American are you - when you crow about the fact that you think the impartial judiciary just THREW an election in a democracy? These are the guys who just took swipes at gay Americans in 11 states because they loathe "activist judges," and now they're actually gleeful that an activist judge may have tried to, in essence, execute a judicial coup of an American election.

I was once a Republican, and I left that party over ten years ago because it was becoming bitter and nasty and seemed only to be focused on who next to hate, rather than having any interest whatsoever in any of the principles that supposedly conservatives believed in. They were overrun by opportunists, and rather hateful ones at that, with no moral or ethical code to their conduct. They preached the Bible while practicing the devil. They waved the flag while destroying what it stands for. And they revered the Constitution while slowly unraveling its protections.

It's good to see Newsmax proving to me once again that I clearly made the right decision in ditching these hypocritical un-American assholes.

Here's what they wrote:

Rehnquist's Clever Boost for Bush

When Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist announced in late October that he had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, we took the news sadly.

Now that the election has taken place and the dust has settled, we think the clever veteran of the Court and Beltway politics may have timed his announcement to give George Bush a small boost before Election Day.

Rehnquist could have waited a few days, until after the election was over -- as John Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, did to announce her breast cancer.

As NewsMax reader Miguel Tuas first pointed out to us, Rehnquist's timing was impeccable.

Though Rehnquist did not say he planned to step down, many media commentators said the ailing chief justice, now 80 years old, may have to leave the court to attend to his health.

And that suddenly injected the judiciary -- and the number of Supreme Court appointments the next president may have to make -- into the presidential campaign.

Can you imagine Kerry's potential court picks: Dershowitz? Tribe? Estrich?

Thankfully, we don't have to.

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Motion to impeach Blair

Glad to see some people have balls these days and are taking action against a liar. Sure it won't go forward but it is making a point. I understand that impeachment is not possible because of our minority status but it's time for the Dem's to get creative and use what powers they have, while they still have a few.

Tony Blair is charged with "gross misconduct" over the war in Iraq in a parliamentary motion to impeach him, published today.

The committee would draw up the "articles of impeachment" and a panel of law lords would judge whether Mr Blair deliberately misled the nation. A guilty verdict would see Mr Blair arrested by the Serjeant at Arms and taken into custody by Black Rod.

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Iran agrees to stop urainium enrichment program!

Mainly because the US had nothing to do with the negotiations.
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Iraq declares state of emergency

Duh.
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More violence and death in Iraq

And it's not just in Falluja. Today 22 Iraqi policemen were lined up and executed the day after 34 people were killed in Samarra. Also 12 Iraqi Guardsmen were abducted and executed. None of that is surprising but what is amazing is that the US troops are waiting to receive orders from Allawi before they attack. Who the hell is in charge of the US military? Didn't Bush make this an issue during the campaign?
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So now we're missing ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES?

Forget the 377 tons of missing explosives. (It's actually a lot more than that anyway.) Now the Washington Post reports that up to 4,000 shoulder-fired missiles are missing in Iraq.

Our defense department responds by saying they really don't know how many missiles are actually missing and their intelligence officials have found "no evidence" they've left Iraq.

So, let me get this straight -- we know some highly portable anti-aircraft missiles are missing, we really don't know how much, but nobody told us they've left Iraq. Do I have that right? I'm really not trying to be flip, but how much more of this bullshit are we expected to believe? How does this make me safer?
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Darwin Schmarwin

Following up on Michael's post about textbooks in Texas -- now they're trying to re-establish creationism as an "option" to be taught in Wisconsin.

The spin now is that school systems shouldn't be forced to teach one theory of how life began -- even though evolution - which is a "theory" just as gravity or relativity are "thoeries" - has volumes of evidence to support it, and creationism is basically a story from the Bible.

I like reading the Bible. But this book claims certain people lived to be hundreds of years old, says Noah fit of millions of species of animals on a boat the size of a three-bedroom house, and intimates that the earth is flat. So my tax dollars should now go to force a science teacher to say, "Well, you've got all these books and pictures and fossils and records over here that say life has evolved over millions of years. Or maybe the world was created in six days and on the seventh God took a nap, like the Bible says. We don't know for sure. You decide."

Look, I understand that people honestly believe in a literal translation of the Bible, and that's their choice. And I understand that when evidence is shown that contradicts some of those beliefs, they may feel insecure or threatened. But the evidence shows the earth isn't flat, and we shouldn't teach our kids in public schools that it might be. Same goes for evolution.

But let's just use the spin of these fundies and see what happens. if "options" and open-mindedness are really the intent of these folks, we should fully expect them to include the "theories" of other, older religions with hundreds of millions of followers -- like, say, the Hindu Rig Veda. But I guess the idea that the atmosphere came out of the navel of a giant with a thousand eyes and a thousand feet would be just silly.
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Darwin Schmarwin II

I thought David's idea of encouraging school boards to incorporate a Hindu creation myth was a great idea. Anyone going to one of these meetings should be armed with all sorts of tales they might teach the kids.

How about an Aztek creation story? Coatlique, the Lady of the Skirt of Snakes, is first impregnated by an obsidian knife. (Ouch!) Then she gets pregnant again, which is shameful for a god and her children plot to kill her so she gives birth to a god of war who -- with the help of a fire serpent -- slaughters her children and the heavens shuddered and fell to destruction and Coatlique fertilized the earth after she fell and the world was born.

Or jump to this page for a summary of a whole slew of creation myths, such as the Iroquois belief that the world was formed on the back of a giant turtle. (Familiar to any fans of science-fiction humorist Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series.) Maybe you prefer the Greek myth that Prometheus -- one of the Titans -- created people just to show up his brother, who had created animals.

But whatever we do, we can't teach the dangerous, hateful creation story of Islam. That's a hateful, anti-Christian religion of godless heathens.

And what does the Qur'an teach? It teaches that, um, God created the entire universe and gave Man dominion over it and that God created Adam and told him to live with his wife in a very nice garden and said, 'Do what you want, but don't eat from this tree or you'll become wrongdoers.' And Adam and Eve ate from the tree and they were banished but God, who is the Most Merciful, forgave Adam and Eve and said, Go, but don't worry; I'll give you guidance and as long as you do what I say you'll be fine and those who don't believe in Me and what I say will be the inhabitants of fire and there they'll remain.

Why are they trying to teach the Islamic faith in our schools?
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Rape, it's a good thing... in red-state America

UPDATE: Hey, it's John. I just read this story, and bless David's little heart, but it's much worse than even he says.

A military woman is raped by a coworker at her Army base in Mississippi, they give her two weeks off, which the Army suggests is almost too generous, she's still totally flipped out over being raped by a coworker, and isn't quite so ready to return to the very workplace where she was raped. Too bad, the military says. She even offers to work at another base, ANY other base, they say no - you're AWOL for not returning to the rape base. And after her rape, Army investigators seclude her for FIVE YEARS in a hotel room and make her feel like she's the criminal, she never should have reported it, etc.

But hey, worrying about rape victims is very blue-state thinking. This is now red-state America where men and men and women are raped, and they'd better well enjoy it, damn it.

Now for David's commentary:

My wife saw this in the NY Times:

A lieutenant in the New Jersey National Guard has been accused of going AWOL because she has refused for the last two months to return to an Army base in Mississippi where, she says, a fellow officer raped her.

As always, there's SO much more. 1st Lieutenant Jennifer Dyer's own words can be found here. Read the rest of this post...

This is a draft - but I don't care, people are gonna get what they voted for

There's no other word for it when they order someone to report for duty 13 years after he LEFT the military. This guy fought in the first Gulf War, finished his duties, got an honorable discharge, did his required time with the reserves, and now has been a civilian for 8 years. Out of the blue, they suddenly send him "orders" to report for duty. Amazing. He's suing, and thank God he is. This is called a D-R-A-F-T people. Telling a guy with a wife and kid who runs his own business that he HAS to go fight a war because he made the mistake of trying to help his country 13 years ago, it's outrageous.

I sure hope the red states like guns as much as they say they do. Cuz their sons and daughters are about to own their very own M-16s. Read the rest of this post...

Dump The Electoral College

The New York Times calls for dumping the electoral college. Maybe it will resonate with Bush because he came within 150,000 votes in Ohio of winning the popular vote comfortably but watching another man become President. Since he is also on his way out, no one could accuse Bush of partisanship or trying to gain undue advantage. In fact, he's the perfect person to push for this, since Bush has been on both sides of the issue.

That reform -- I believe it would be a constitutional amendment -- would fly through both Houses and the States as long as it's unencumbered by any other addendums. It would end the absurd practice of politicians running for President ignoring 3/4s of the population to focus on folks in a minority of states. Smaller states with fewer voters would still have the leverage of two senators. And since political ads would now be national buys, they'd still be able to get sick of all that campaigning in Iowa. And naturally it would be a great encouragement for civic duty since people living anywhere in the country -- Texas or California (red or blue) -- would know that their vote really did matter.

Other common sense reforms are desperately needed:

1. Optical scanners have the highest accuracy and lowest default rates of any machines. But choosing one system nationally might be tricky. Let's stick with this, at the very least: it must be against federal law for votes to be cast on machines that don't produce a paper trail and don't provide for a recount. That paper trail must be available for the voter to verify before leaving the booth. It must also be against federal law for a state to provide different voting machines in different counties. One standard must apply to all voters. Cheaper, older machines tend to be located in poor neighborhoods and have a much higher reject rate, disenfranchising those voters. Your ability to vote and the likelihood of your vote being valid should not depend on what neighborhood you live in.

2. All voters must provide some form of state or federal id. (Copy of birth certificate, driver's license, state id, passport, voter registration card, Social Security card, Medicare card, Veteran's card, welfare card, etc.) It need not have a photo. If a voter does not have that, proof of residence -- a cable or phone or electric bill -- will allow them to vote if they swear to their identity. If they don't have that, the voter will be given a provisional ballot and ten days to meet those standards set out above. I voted in New York City and I came with a driver's license (which had a different address than where I am registered), a voter's registration card, a cable and electric bill and about a dozen other forms of id and they asked to see nothing. I told them my name, scrawled my signature and voted. That's ridiculous.)

This will be a problem for the elderly and the poor -- all of whom are less likely to have what most of us would consider a given, such as a driver's license or state id. But including this will bring aboard many Republicans (who have been pushing for a crackdown on voter fraud) and frankly it's a very reasonable step. The Democrats will simply have to make a major push to make sure their constituents obtain one of the necessary IDs.

3. There must be an automatic recount for any statewide or federal office under the following circumstance -- in any race where the total of absentee ballots, provisional ballots, overvotes (ballots rejected because it included a vote twice) undercounts (ballots automatically rejected because it didn't register a vote for any candidate) and other ballots rejected for whatever reason are equal to or greater than the margin of victory. If this were in place in 2000, Al Gore would have been President.

4. And of course the number of voter machines must be consistent statewide based on the number of potential eligible voters (say 1 machine per 1000 voters, or whatever makes sense) -- not based on voting in the previous primary or previous presidential election, etc. People should not have to wait eight hours in line to vote and not surprisingly this happens in poor neighborhoods, again meaning they are disenfranchised.

It is our representatives' fault nothing was done about this after the last fiasco in 2000. It is our fault if nothing is done after this one. Again, sending a letter to your Congressperson and Senator letting them know the value you place on this issue is an important step you can take right now. On your local level, do the machines in place meet these standards? When will they replaced? By what? Get involved. (NYC is replacing their decades-old machines with electronic ones, but I have no idea what type. I intend to find out.)

If we can spend $225 billion (and counting) in Iraq to get them the right to vote, surely we can spend $2 billion to throw out all the antiquated machines in this country and ensure WE have the right to vote.
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