Open Thread

From John Kerry this morning to Microsoft tonight...what a day.

It's all yours. I'm going to bed. Read the rest of this post...

Microsoft's switch: what's it mean?

This is a big deal. John was doing some traveling today, so anxious to get his thoughts.

But here's my initial take:

We showed that you can't screw with us. Microsoft picked this fight...and they have backed down.

What are the immediate implications? Unfortunately, not so much for Washington State's GLBT community. They still are without state-wide protections.

But, there are major implications. All of us were concerned by the message that Microsoft was sending when they screwed us. It had the potential for serious ramifications nationally. Given the political climate created by the gay-bashing theocrats, the private sector was, in many ways, the only safe harbor we had.

This whole experience sends a signal to other corporations. Don't try to fuck over the gays. If Microsoft had to back down, the rest of you don't stand a chance. Don't think that other corporations weren't watching to see how this played out.

And don't think elected officials weren't watching, too. Now, we have to use this same energy on elected officials.

Kudos are due to the Microsoft employees who took a stand to make their company do the right thing...again.

This episode shows once again the power of the blogs...the progressive blogs...YOU....

And, it shows once again the political skill of John Aravosis. (and I am not just saying that because he is my good friend and gives me the great privilege of writing on Americablog.) John got this immediately. He understood what it meant and, with your help, he kept it alive....and, helped push it in to the mainstream media.

Think about it. Microsoft, the corporate behemoth that doesn't take any crap from anyone, just had to publicly admit they screwed up. That doesn't happen every day. Read the rest of this post...

BIG NEWS: MICROSOFT CHANGES POSITION

The Associated Press reports that Microsoft has changed its position back on the gay rights bill in Washington State:

After being criticized for quietly dropping support for a state gay rights bill, Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer told employees Friday that management would publicly back such legislation in the future.

Ballmer's commitment came two weeks after activists accused the company of caving to pressure from an evangelical pastor who had threatened to launch a nationwide boycott of the software company.

''After looking at the question from all sides, I've concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda,'' Ballmer wrote in an e-mail.

Wow. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Finally the weekend... Read the rest of this post...

G.M. and Ford "awarded" Junk-bond Status

Ok, I am not an economist, or even that good with money, but the fact that two of the biggest companies in America have had their debt ratings reduced to junk bond status doesn't seem all that good. From the New York Times:

General Motors and Ford Motor lost their investment grade ratings Thursday, pushing two of corporate America's biggest borrowers into the ranks of junk bonds and rattling the financial markets with the message that the collective fortunes of the remaining two domestically owned automakers have sunk to their lowest points yet.
The downgrading by Standard & Poor's, the credit agency, reflects the inability of G.M. and Ford to make enough cars that people will buy without $5,000 rebates and other sales incentives, as well as worries that the two automakers may not emerge anytime soon from their troubles, starting with eroding earnings and sliding sales.

S.& P. said it was especially concerned about declining sales of the large sport utility vehicles that Ford and G.M. have depended on for profit, particularly as Japanese automakers step up their interest in the pickup truck market.

So this is the Bush economy....are junk bonds one of the choices for Bush's private accounts? Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Chat please Read the rest of this post...

Kerry Smacks his own state's Married Gay couples

Thanks to Patrick O'Neill for pointing us to today's Boston Globe article which reports that while in Louisiana, John Kerry bashed gay marriage in his home state. This is ridiculous:

US Senator John F. Kerry said yesterday that he believes it's a mistake for the Massachusetts Democratic Party to include a plank in its official platform in support of same-sex marriage, saying that such a statement does not conform with the broad views of party members.

Kerry, who opposes same-sex marriage but supports civil unions, said in an interview with the Globe that he would prefer that the party not mention gay marriage in its platform, because Democrats continue to disagree on how to handle the issue.

''I'm opposed to it being in a platform. I think it's a mistake," Kerry said shortly after hosting a forum on his universal children's healthcare bill in Baton Rouge. ''I think it's the wrong thing, and I'm not sure it reflects the broad view of the Democratic Party in our state."

Maybe if John Kerry would take a stand on an important social issue, his stature might increase....and, for crying out loud, Masssachusetts already has gay marriage. Hundreds of gay couples have been married. And John Kerry doesn't think the Democratic Party should support their rights?

Note to John Kerry: you didn't lose because of gay marriage. Maybe if anyone understood your position on Iraq, things would have turned out differently. (I voted for it before I voted against it???????) Read the rest of this post...

FDA gets in on the gay bashing

The FDA is going to issue rules the will basically prohibit gay men from donating their sperm, according to AP:

To the dismay of gay-rights activists, the Food and Drug Administration is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor.

The FDA has rejected calls to scrap the provision, insisting that gay men collectively pose a higher-than-average risk of carrying the AIDS virus. Critics accuse the FDA of stigmatizing all gay men rather than adopting a screening process that focuses on high-risk sexual behavior by any would-be donor, gay or straight.

"Under these rules, a heterosexual man who had unprotected sex with HIV-positive prostitutes would be OK as a donor one year later, but a gay man in a monogamous, safe-sex relationship is not OK unless he's been celibate for five years," said Leland Traiman, director of a clinic in Alameda, Calif., that seeks gay sperm donors.

Hey, what else would you expect from the Bush FDA? Just another opportunity to stigmatize the homos. The quote from Leland Traiman is especially frightening.

And, I know this will come as a surprise, but the new FDA policy is not based on sound policy...big surprise, huh?

But it is the provision's symbolic aspect that particularly troubles gay-rights groups. Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, has called it "policy based on bigotry."

"The part I find most offensive - and a little frightening - is that it isn't based on good science," Cathcart said. "There's a steadily increasing trend of heterosexual transmission of HIV, and yet the FDA still has this notion that you protect people by putting gay men out of the pool."

In a letter to the FDA, Lambda Legal has suggested a screening procedure based on sexual behavior, not sexual orientation. Prospective donors - gay or straight - would be rejected if they had engaged in unprotected sex in the previous 12 months with an HIV-positive person, an illegal drug user, or "an individual of unknown HIV status outside of a monogamous relationship."

This is a two-fer for the Bush crowd. They get to ignore sound science and beat up on the gays. Good work. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Orchid Blogging

This is a picture of one of the show orchids in NY. I don't recall which one, but I like the way it's screaming - "Get me the hell out of this screwed up country!" Or for the pervs among you, yess, it's another erotic orchid, sheesh. Read the rest of this post...

"The slow, sad political extinction of Tony Blair"?

I don't know, it's not really all that sad that his majority has been cut from 167 down to around 70. I was hoping that more voters would turn to the Liberal Democrats who ran on an anti-war campaign but they still picked up 59 seats which is an improvement. The Tories really had no valid argument against Blair because it's not like they were against the invasion of Iraq. OK, they could criticize Blair for getting caught in a web of lies about the war but they were even more enthusiastic about it then Labour. Read the rest of this post...