13 Haunted Houses That Will Make You Wet Your Pants in 2007

But if you wet your pants, are you covered by ENDA? Read the rest of this post...

It's the anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death

Mrs. Shepard published an oped in the Blade. Read the rest of this post...

The day the Republicans smeared a twelve year old boy

Krugman does a great job looking about how the Senate Republican leader joined right-wing bloggers and Rush Limbaugh in trying to smear a sick 12 year old boy.

Soon after the radio address, right-wing bloggers began insisting that the Frosts must be affluent because Graeme and his sister attend private schools (they’re on scholarship), because they have a house in a neighborhood where some houses are now expensive (the Frosts bought their house for $55,000 in 1990 when the neighborhood was rundown and considered dangerous) and because Mr. Frost owns a business (it was dissolved in 1999).

You might be tempted to say that bloggers make unfounded accusations all the time. But we’re not talking about some obscure fringe. The charge was led by Michelle Malkin, who according to Technorati has the most-trafficked right-wing blog on the Internet, and in addition to blogging has a nationally syndicated column, writes for National Review and is a frequent guest on Fox News.

The attack on Graeme’s family was also quickly picked up by Rush Limbaugh, who is so important a player in the right-wing universe that he has had multiple exclusive interviews with Vice President Dick Cheney.

And G.O.P. politicians were eager to join in the smear. The New York Times reported that Republicans in Congress “were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance” but had “backed off” as the case fell apart.

In fact, however, Republicans had already made their first move: an e-mail message from the office of Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, sent to reporters and obtained by the Web site Think Progress, repeated the smears against the Frosts and asked: “Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?”

And the attempt to spin the media worked, to some extent: despite reporting that has thoroughly debunked the smears, a CNN report yesterday suggested that the Democrats had made “a tactical error in holding up Graeme as their poster child,” and closely echoed the language of the e-mail from Mr. McConnell’s office.

Read the rest of this post...

JUST IN: Pelosi agrees to hold vote on trans-inclusive ENDA when it has the votes, will move ahead with GLB ENDA next week

As it should be.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi agreed Friday to fast-track a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA) once there are enough votes to pass it, The Advocate has learned exclusively. Although a version of the bill that protects only sexual orientation will be marked up by committee and move to a floor vote next week, the Democrat from California has promised to hold a floor vote on a fully inclusive ENDA without delay as soon as the political support is there.

So basically she's promised the trans-inclusive-ENDA-or-nothing crowd a floor vote once they do their homework and get enough votes to pass their bill. (They don't have the votes, Barney Frank has said the trans-inclusive bill will lose by 50 votes.) In the meantime, she's going to move ahead with the GLB ENDA, which does have the votes. This way both 25 million gays and lesbians benefit, as do a hundred thousand trans community members.

What remains to be seen is whether the NGLTF and its allies will join James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Lou Sheldon and Pat Robertson in trying to kill ENDA.

Here is the statement I just got from the Speaker's Office

Statement
Office of the Speaker
Hon. Nancy Pelosi
H-232, The Capitol

October 12, 2007

Drew Hammill said, "In her 20-year career in Congress, the Speaker has been a strong advocate in the fight to end discrimination against all LGBT Americans.

"The Speaker has committed to passing the broadest ENDA bill possible.

"As the Speaker told the audience at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner on Saturday, ‘Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin and others will do the inside maneuvering. But we cannot succeed without outside mobilization. Working together, we will mobilize, and educate. Each and every one of us must take personal responsibility for passing the strongest possible ENDA – one vote at a time.’

"The House will move forward on H.R. 3685, however the Speaker is committed to passing a fully-inclusive bill once it is proven that the commitments to pass the legislation exist."

Read the rest of this post...

Barney says trans-inclusive ENDA would lose by 50 votes in the House

From the Washington Blade:

“The moral issue is, do you deny protection to millions of people because you can’t give it to millions plus several hundred thousands?” Frank said in his speech on the House floor....

He said an official “whip” count of Democratic House members nearly two weeks ago found that the ability to pass a transgender-inclusive version of ENDA would fall at least 30 votes short. Frank said that if Democrats brought a trans-inclusive bill up for an actual vote, it would likely lose by about 50 votes because more members would likely switch their votes to no once they saw the bill was headed to defeat....

why not take a chance on a vote on the trans-inclusive version or put off a vote until after the 2008 elections, when Democrats hope to elect more gay- and trans-supportive lawmakers?

Frank and Pelosi have said approval by the House of a sexual orientation-only version of ENDA would improve chances of passing a trans-inclusive version in later years, even if the bill fails in the Senate or is vetoed by Bush.

Pelosi also added that the trans-inclusive ENDA crowd hasn't done their job in lobbying Congress on this issue.

She said wavering House members have told her and other House Democratic leaders that they have not heard much, if anything, from ENDA supporters in their home districts. At the same time, many of these members have heard and continue to hear from those who oppose any version of ENDA, she said.

“I don’t know how anybody can make an argument for discrimination,” Pelosi said. “But the realities of life are none of us has done our job thoroughly enough in the districts of these members.”

And let's not forget that while the gang of 300 gay groups calling for the GLB ENDA to be killed talk of only having two weeks to lobby for their bill, they've in fact had 30 years just like the rest of us. They've also had nearly six months since the trans-inclusive ENDA was introduced. So why are they scurrying for votes now? Read the rest of this post...

The truth about global warming - we know it's real, and we're 90% to 99% sure that man has caused it

Now that Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work on global warming, the FOX News Republicans have gone into overdrive in order to discredit the science on this issue. I decided to go back to some old newspaper articles to find the latest science, the latest facts, here they are:

In a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate scientists has concluded for the first time that global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is the main driver, “very likely” causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950....

The report is the panel’s fourth assessment since 1990 on the causes and consequences of climate change, but it is the first in which the group asserts with near certainty — more than 90 percent confidence — that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human activities have been the main causes of warming in the past half century.

In its last report, in 2001, the panel, consisting of hundreds of scientists and reviewers, said the confidence level for its projections was “likely,” or 66 to 90 percent. That level has now been raised to “very likely,” better than 90 percent. Both reports are online at www.ipcc.ch.

90% certain that man caused global warming. That is the one fact we all need to keep repeating. Global warming itself is a certainty. The notion that man caused it, is causing it, is 90% certain. Even FOX News' lies can't beat that inconvenient truth.

More here:

Last week, in its first major report since 2001, the world’s most authoritative group of climate scientists issued its strongest statement yet on the relationship between global warming and human activity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the likelihood was 90 percent to 99 percent that emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, spewed from tailpipes and smokestacks, were the dominant cause of the observed warming of the last 50 years. In the panel’s parlance, this level of certainty is labeled “very likely.”

Only rarely does scientific odds-making provide a more definite answer than that, at least in this branch of science

Read the rest of this post...

Moving forward on Iraq

All summer long on behalf of a nationwide campaign I lobbied members of Congress from both sides of the aisle to stand up to President Bush and put an end to the war in Iraq. Most of the feedback I received regarding any decisions they would make were directly related to the highly anticipated report from General Petraeus. The report came and went and with no action whatsoever from Congress.

This week I traveled back to Washington to continue my efforts to end the war. But this time I didn’t go on behalf of a campaign. Instead, I went alone as an Iraq war veteran and that is all I needed. I never looked at ending the war in Iraq as campaign work or a political strategy. Contrary to what some people may believe that is not my business. I know what it is like over there and I know the time has long past for this disaster to end.

I wish I could report that I made some progress but all I can say is that nothing has changed but the weather.

If you look at the current legislative action in Congress to force Bush to end the war on his watch it appears that the fight could very well be over on that front.

As it stands now it is highly probable that Bush will get his way for the duration of his tragic presidency and we could very well still have troops in Iraq after he leaves office.

A few nights ago I watched the Republican presidential candidates (who want to carry on Bush’s Iraq policy) debate each other and it totally reinforced my determination to fight for an end to the war and a change of direction in America despite how dismal the situation my appear.


For those who missed it the Republican candidates were challenged with the question of whether or not the President needs Congressional approval prior to taking military action against Iran. With the exception of Ron Paul most of the candidates avoided the question by creating hypothetical scenarios that would not afford the President the time or luxury of consulting Congress prior to a military strike. Sadly, I was not even appalled by their blatant disregard for the Constitution. It’s what I have come to expect from them now.

How could they even contemplate a war with Iran when the Army has been totally disabled by the war in Iraq?

As a Democrat I should ask my party’s frontrunner what she was thinking when she voted to give Bush more leverage to attack Iran.

While pondering that I recalled a very disturbing incident during my tour in Iraq. A scout platoon in my unit was conducting a routine patrol when they were hit by a roadside bomb in a narrow Baghdad alley. My squad was called to respond. When we arrived we were told by some local Iraqis that the people who planted the bomb were in a house about 50 yards away. My squad entered the home to find a family sitting on the floor in the main room. As other troops in my squad searched the home I remained in the room with the family. I noticed a teenage boy looking right at me with a venomous stare. I looked into his eyes thinking he would look away but he kept looking right back at me as if he wanted to kill me. My rifle was locked and loaded with my finger on the trigger. Even though he could do me no harm at that moment just the way he looked at me scared me enough to have him arrested. Later that evening I received word that his hands tested positive for the highest reading of bomb making material of any Iraqi we had arrested up until that point.

That teenage boy wasn’t a terrorist, a member of the Baath party, or a member of Al-Qaeda. That incident had nothing to do with so called "Islamofascism" as Bush and the neocons love to use to defend their hopeless war in Iraq. That boy just hated that the American military was occupying his country and he wanted to kill us for it.

That is was these idiot politicians in Washington don’t understand when they continue to play politics with people’s lives by allowing this war to continue. I don't mean that as a partisan statement either. This type of politics is clearly being practiced by both Democrats and Republicans.

Frustrated by my inability to influence members of Congress to change their position I called my friend Ron Kovic to vent. We spoke about how important it is for veterans to educate people to the harsh reality of war. I told him of the difficulties I often encounter being that the sacrifice is so unshared causing a total disconnect between Americans and the reality of the situation. If it were not for me most of my friends and family would not even know anyone who served in Iraq. This is all the more reason why I need to keep raising awareness and I'm so glad I made the call.

Hopefully when this war is over those of us who fought to end it will have succeeded in establishing a precedent that never again will we allow our leaders to recklessly plunge our great nation into a needless war and use the lives of our troops for their personal agenda.

On election day of November 2008 we must go to the voting booths and hold those we elected in 2006 to end the war accountable for their failures. We can't allow ourselves to be fooled again by hollow promises from politicians who didn't live up to their word.

Somehow we must make politicians from all political parties realize they need to work together to end this war and take care of our troops when they return home.

It is our responsibility as Americans.

John Bruhns
Iraq Veteran Read the rest of this post...

CNN headline: Al Gore's Nobel prize splits opinion

What the hell is that? It's only been announced this morning and CNN is already attacking Gore with their headline story? I would expect a hit piece like this from Fox, but CNN is bottom feeding with this.

Ahh, if only there was a new war that CNN could help the country leap into as they did with Iraq we would all be better off. Then we wouldn't have to bother reporting on someone who made it his mission to improve the planet and win a Nobel Peace Prize. Read the rest of this post...

Welcome to your community

Hypospadias: Hypospadias is a congenital defect of the penis in which the urinary tract opening, or urethral meatus, is abnormally located away from the tip of the penis.

I'm just wondering if anyone in Congress, or the community, outside of the "groups" and the activists-who-speak-for-everyone, realizes that ENDA (the gay employment discrimination bill) supposedly covers this condition as well (it sounds like a horrible condition, don't get me wrong, but I'm just a bit surprised to find out that this child is covered under ENDA, a gay rights bill).

Here's a letter from a parent, recently posted on Salon.com in response to the ENDA debate:

as the father of a "severely" hypospadic boy (his pediatrician's characterization, not mine) on of the first things i was told was (1) his penis is going to me really small (2) he was probably going to be gay (3) he had to have surgery starting right away. A few years of frustrating research and half completed surgeries later i'm still confused and i want so much to be able to give my son the firmest foundation possible as he heads into high school and has to deal with the locker room (a decade yet away, but still).

A reply to the letter, posted in Salon's comments:

yes in all the kerfuffle [over ENDA], neither "side" (and how bad is it when there are "sides") - has mentioned the Intersexed.

My son is mildly Intersexed, not severe but moderate hypospadias. Really bad chordee too, so genital reconstruction was needed before his gender became apparent, to avoid pain. We hope we guessed right. We opted for the minimum needed, to allow him to decide on further surgery later.

A T-inclusive ENDA would prevent your child from being fired, or prevented from using either restroom at work because of his non-conforming genitalia. ADA doesn't cover everything.

Your child is no more likely to be Gay than any other kid, and only 10% of IS people have significant issues with gender. (2 separate issues there, one sexual orientation, the other gender).

Chordee: Chordee is a condition in which the penis curves downward (that is, in a ventral direction). The curvature is usually most obvious during erection, but resistance to straightening is often apparent in the flaccid state as well. In many cases but not all, chordee is associated with hypospadias.

How many members of Congress know that this is what they're supposedly voting for in a trans-inclusive ENDA? If the "GLBT community" now covers boys who are born with a messed up urethra and a penis that bends the wrong way, then I guess I really am behind the times. Read the rest of this post...

Would you vote for Nobel-Peace-Prize winner Al Gore in the Democratic primary?

I'd be hard pressed not to. Your thoughts? More from TIME.

Read the rest of this post...

The Republican economic machine works

For some, at least. Mission Accomplished.

The richest one percent of Americans earned a postwar record of 21.2 percent of all income in 2005, up from 19 percent a year earlier, reflecting a widening income disparity among different classes in the nation, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing new Internal Revenue Service data.

The data showed that the fortunes of the bottom 50 percent of Americans are worsening, with that group earning 12.8 percent of all income in 2005, down from 13.4 percent the year before, the paper said.

It said that while the IRS data goes back only to 1986, academic research suggests that the last time wealthy Americans had such a high percentage of the national income pie was in the 1920s.

Read the rest of this post...

ALERT: Senate may cave to Bush and give spying-telcos immunity

That's what Christy at FDL is reporting. So help me God... Read the rest of this post...

Putin blasts U.S. missile defense leaving Condi "visibly taken aback"

U.S. diplomacy in action.

This morning, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported on a tough diatribe from Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed across the table at the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense. According to Mitchell, Condi Rice was "visibly taken aback by Putin's threatening tone..."

Here's the AP report on the ugly meeting:

In a tense start to talks on a range of thorny issues, President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned U.S. officials to back off a plan to install missile defenses in eastern Europe or risk harming relations with Moscow.

Addressing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Russian president appeared to mock the U.S. missile defense plan, which is at the center of a tangle of arms control and diplomatic disputes between the former Cold War adversaries.

U.S. foreign policy is mockable. And, as the leader of our foreign policy, Condi is certainly mock-worthy.

Condi and Gates are in Russia to sort out the Iran situation. Like that's going to happen. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Congratulations to Al Gore. It's just great to wake up to some good news for a change. Read the rest of this post...

Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

Fantastic!

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their work towards raising awareness about global warming.

The Nobel committee cited them "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

The IPCC and Gore will each receive a gold medal, a diploma and split about $1.5 million. The award ceremony will be held Dec. 10 in Oslo, Norway.

"Through the scientific reports it has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming," Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the Nobel committee, said in making the announcement.

"Thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming."

The Nobel committee praised Gore as being "one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians."

He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," said Mjoes.

Read the rest of this post...

China budges on Myanmar

It's a small step but still very positive. China dives in to the international PR game and does the right thing.

China turned against the Burmese government last night and supported a UN security council statement rebuking the military regime for its suppression of peaceful protests, and demanding the release of all political prisoners.

The security council statement, which also called for "genuine dialogue" with the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, marked the first time that Beijing had agreed to UN criticism of the junta.

The statement did not threaten sanctions, but the significance of its unanimous support by all 15 members of the security council would not have been lost on Burma's generals, who had hitherto been able to count on China, a neighbour and key trading partner, to block UN censure.

Read the rest of this post...

The Republican economic revolution in action

Foreclosure filings double in September from last years results. In September 2007 there were 223,538 filings across the US. This is what McCain and the other GOP candidates think represents a booming economy. If you are unable to recognize a problem - and Americans definitely see problems with the economy - how are you supposed to fix it? Could this group of nitwits be any more removed from the concerns of the American middle class? They just yuck it up, talking about how wonderful everything is and saying "USA #1" instead of seeing the problems that Americans see and offering a plan. Keep it up guys and run with that in the election. I'm sure it will be a real winner.

Not so surprisingly Countrywide Financial, the largest mortgage lender in the US, just announced a 44% decline in mortgage loans in September.

What an impressive display of Republican economics. At least we all still have eBay. Hooray! We'll all be rich! Read the rest of this post...

Winning hearts and minds in Iraq

Gosh. And there weren't even any new bogus reports about some big shot al Qaiada leader that nobody ever heard of before that was killed in the attack or captured. The brutal bombing campaign killed nine children. Who plans moronic attacks like this? Read the rest of this post...