Dobson compares gay newlyweds to bestiality

Can't you just feel the love of Christ?

'Saying there's a constitutional guarantee for two homosexuals to marry is just a few steps away from saying there's a constitutional guarantee to marry more than one person, or for relatives to marry, or even for people to marry their pets,' [religious right leader James] Dobson said in a press release. - CNS News

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Since when is it ok for "Christians" to be liars?

I'm always amazed when self-annointed leaders of the religious right outright lie in their efforts to attack gays. The latest lie, from anti-gay bigot Gary Bauer, talking about gay marriage:

Agape Press:'A radical political agenda is being forced on the American people by un-elected, left-wing judges who are intent on remaking our country,' he says.

The lie? The courts that have been ruling in favor of civil rights for gay Americans have been predominantly Republican. The first case that freaked the fundies was last year's US Supreme Court decision overturning sodomy laws - decided by a US Supreme Court that includes 7 Republican-appointed judges and only 2 Democrats, and the sodomy decision was written by conservative Republican Justice Kennedy. The other big case, in Massachusetts, again decided by a court that has 6 Republican judges and only one Democrat. So where are all these "left-wing" judges? Apparently, everyone is left-wing who isn't a far-right bigot. Read the rest of this post...

Baptists compare gay marriage to 9/11 & Pearl Harbor

Like mile markers in time, certain calendar dates stand in memory as not only historic, but momentous. Dates like Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001, represent far more than mere days on a calendar. Now, May 17, 2004, must be added to that list....

This is a day that will live in moral infamy. The attacks on Pearl Harbor, New York and Washington awakened the nation to peril and called citizens to action. That must happen once again, as millions of Americans must now awaken to the fact that an out-of-control judiciary and an army of social engineers are forcing their will upon us. If the Massachusetts decision is allowed to stand, this nation faces nothing less than moral disaster. - SBC Baptist Press

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Army cover-up alleged at Abu Ghraib prison

ABC is reporting that the Army is alleged to be involved in an ongoing cover-up of just how bad the problem was at the prison in Iraq. Read the rest of this post...

Dobson is right

News from Agape Press: "'This is not the first time a tyrannical court ... has force-fed the people a liberal agenda disguised as the rule of law,' [Religious right leader James] Dobson points out."

He's right. I think the first time was when the tyrannical court force-fed us integrated schools, followed shortly thereafter by public buses and drinking fountains. Read the rest of this post...

Gov. Romney violates the US Constitution

Funny that a man so hell-bent on amending the Constitution is now trashing it.

The now-very-anti-gay Republican governor of Massachusetts (as compared to ten years ago when he was sucking up to gay voters, big time) apparently is selectively enforcing state marriage laws based on the sexual orientation of the couple being married. Romney is using a racist law from 1913 that Massachusetts still has on the books (good question for Governor Romney: Why is this law, which was passed to block inter-racial marriages, still on the books in your state?) to block out of state gay marriages. The problem? The governor is selectively reviewing all the marriages of out of state gays and not reviewing the marriages of out of state heteros.

Why does this matter? Because the state law simply says you can't get married in Massachusetts if you couldn't get married in your own home state. This doesn't just apply to gay couples who might be going to Mass. to get married when their own home state wouldn't marry them. The law also applies to straight couples who might not be of age in their own home states, but are of age in Massachusetts. It could also apply to straight couples required to take certain medical tests in their home state that are not a requirement in Massachusetts. And perhaps there are other areas in which Massachusetts is more liberal than other states (the marriage of kin?).

The problem is that when a government official decides to selectively prosecute one category of citizens over another, that's a likely violation of the equal protection clause of the US Constitution, which basically says the government has to treat all citizens equally under the law. And when you apply the law to the detriment of only one class of citizens, yet ignore other classes under the same law, that's a violation. It's also one more indication of what a bigot (or a hateful opportunist) Romney is. Read the rest of this post...

Mini-rocket launchers can be bought at gun stores...

...but I can't even buy firecrackers. Maybe if my firecrackers were for my AK-47, hmmmm...

A military rocket launcher was found Tuesday near a rail-transit station, but the FBI said it looks to be a less-powerful model commonly used to train soldiers and would be unable to bring down an aircraft or destroy a train.

The M136 AT4 launcher is used by the Army to destroy light tanks. It will be examined further to be sure it is only a training model, said FBI spokesman Steve Lazarus.

'If it is indeed a training device, it's something you can buy at any gun store,' he said. - AP

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Reuters, NBC Staff Abused by U.S. Troops in Iraq

I am running out of ways to express shock over this never-ending slew of increasingly-nasty allegations. Particularly galling this time around is the ridiculously arrogant (and downright stupid) shrug off the Pentagon is giving to these new allegations.

Reuters: "U.S. forces beat three Iraqis working for Reuters and subjected them to sexual and religious taunts and humiliation during their detention last January in a military camp near Falluja, the three said Tuesday.

The three first told Reuters of the ordeal after their release but only decided to make it public when the U.S. military said there was no evidence they had been abused, and following the exposure of similar mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

An Iraqi journalist working for U.S. network NBC, who was arrested with the Reuters staff, also said he had been beaten and mistreated, NBC said Tuesday.

Two of the three Reuters staff said they had been forced to insert a finger into their anus and then lick it, and were forced to put shoes in their mouths, particularly humiliating in Arab culture.

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Backers of Gay Marriage Ban Find Tepid Response in Pews

This is really a must-read article from the NYT about how anti-gay marriage homophobes are finding it very difficult to rally their troops in support of an anti-gay federal constitutional amendment. I think the article is legit - meaning, apparently the fundies really are having a hard time getting traction on the marriage issue (probably as much due to the ongoing and growing disaster in Iraq stealing all the news, as anything else). The thing I don't believe, and here I disagree with the fundies' analysis, is that people won't get worked up on this issue over the coming month or two. We've seen Congress and this administration railroad lots of legislation that wasn't even on the radar screen of the public (like tax cuts, more tax cuts, and even more tax cuts). It's not a done deal simply because the public isn't already up in arms.

I really do hope I'm crying wolf here, but so help me God, if the shit hits the fan on this issue (like I've been predicting), all those foundations out there that are supposed to be funding these battles on our side, and aren't, will have their heads offered up on a platter for ignoring the gravest threat to our community since the advent of the AIDS crisis. Read the rest of this post...

For Conservatives, Mission Accomplished

The NYT ran an op ed today by two writers from the Economist (one was my old editor there for a short while). They argue that the right is winning in part because it stands for something positive, rather than simply running on a platform of "throw the other guy out."

It still seems that liberals are purely reactive. Barry Goldwater may have been strong meat, but at least he had ideas. By contrast, Americans Come Together's entire raison d'etre (like that of the John Kerry campaign) remains negative: to send Mr. Bush back to Texas.

'There is no such thing as spontaneous public opinion,' Beatrice Webb, the great British leftist, once said. 'It all has to be manufactured from a center of conviction and energy.' The American Conservative Union is just one of many such centers on the right; it's a lesson that liberal America seems unable to learn.

I think they have a point, though I also think their analysis is somewhat naive. Many of the right's "causes" are for show - be it tax cuts and flag burning - or are sops to the far right of the party (opposition to abortion and gay rights). Don't get me wrong, these are all serious issues (save flag burning), but the Republican party leadership's motivation in raising these issues is anything but serious. I simply don't believe the party honchos care a lick about any of these issues. They care about winning office, and the recipe for success, they've found, is to always tout a few standard straw-man issues, like tax cuts, then spend 90% of their time demonizing their opponent by linking him/her to either of the Clintons, flag burners, or the French. To suggest that the conservatives win elections and legislative battles based on their affirmative message, or their clear-cut stance in favor of something - is simply wrong, or at the very least, not nearly nuanced enough an explanation. The conservatives tend to win based on throwing a few bones to the electorate (again, tax cuts), then scaring the hell out of the public that the other guy is coming to get them, and he's probably wearing a dress.

That's why, I think, that new liberal groups like David Brock's Media Matters, and others, will be incredibly successful, if they do their jobs well. They are carbon copies of the kind of smart attack-dog organizations that the conservatives have been running successfully for years. The only question that remains, and the NYT article alludes to it, is whether we have it in our heart to be as take-no-prisoners-ish as the bad guys. In Brock's case, I know he does. Hopefully the rest of our new groups do as well. Read the rest of this post...

New Iraq jail horrors

Notorious Abu Ghraib leash girl Lynndie England told investigators that male Iraqi prisoners were forced to wear women's 'maxi pads' and crawl on their hands and knees through broken glass.

In a sworn statement, she also said that Cpl. Charles Graner, by whom she is pregnant, would sew up prisoners' wounds with a needle and thread - after inflicting the damage during beatings, The Los Angeles Times reported.

'Cpl. Graner would personally stitch up detainees if the wounds weren't too bad,' she said. 'He would take pictures of his work. [In] one particular incident, Cpl. Graner ran a former Iraqi general into a wall and split his lip. Cpl. Graner stitched up his lip.'

England said 'everyone in the company, from the commander down,' knew about the abuse, which she described as 'basically us fooling around.'

'Personnel from MI [military intelligence] . . . would tell us to keep it up, that we were doing a good job,' she said. 'I was just told we were doing a good job.' - NY Post

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Worried Republicans Glad Election Not Until Nov.

Well, it's good to see they're worried - these guys usually never show fear. I particularly like Bill Kristol's point:

"If they believe we can win in Iraq, I think they'll re-elect Bush. If they think we just have to get out of there, well, why not make the change to (Democrat John) Kerry? 'Bush is the guy who got us in the mess,"' he said.

Yep. Bush is the guy who got us into this mess. That's all the slogan we need. Read the rest of this post...

Man becomes ill after gorging on cicadas

At least he used butter and garlic. Read the rest of this post...

Actor Tony Randall of 'Odd Couple' Fame Dies

Sad. Read the rest of this post...

Iraq war weakens bond between Bush, evangelicals

Interesting Reuters article. Even the evangelicals are going sour on Bush. Having said that, I've done lots of reading on these folks, and it's a conservative lie to say that they're all Republican and all fire-breathing nazis. A lot of it comes down to how you define an evangelical, a conservative Christian, a born-again Christian, a fundamentalist Christian, etc. The Jerry Falwell types like to pretend that they represent whichever group has the biggest numbers, but in fact, polls show that a lot of these folks aren't not in lock-step with uber-conservatives like Falwell. Read the rest of this post...

Institutionalized racism in France hits a speedbump

The French government policy of forbidding conspicuous religious symbols and attire has caused outrage just about everywhere and now the government appears to be going back on their word to the Sikhs that they can wear their turbans. If the French government actually had a plan of action for bringing the Arab population into the fold I might have an easier time accepting this plan but clearly this is a racist policy against the French-Arab population, regardless of the spin. The French-Arab population in France is 7% of the population but you would never know it looking at the who's who of the political and business world. As we hit the anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, it looks like a lot of countries have a long way to go to fight racism and bias. Yesterday's start of gay marriage in Massachusetts was a positive sign in that direction. Read the rest of this post...