Joke of the Week!

Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update:

"66% of Americans now believe that George Bush is doing a poor job as President.

The remaining 34% believe Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to church."

Thanks to lw from the DNC blog!

More on Sc-alito

Some more info on the appropriately nicknamed new nominee to the Supreme Court Judge Samuel "Scalito" Alito:

From People for the American Way

Dude is anti-woman, anti-choice, anti-free speech, anti-worker, anti-equal rights, anti-gay, anti-disabled American, etc.

That's about as right-wing as you can get! One of the last comments on the document mentions that Alito is not quite as passionate as Scalia but just as opinionated. All that means is that he hasn't made his name known yet for being a rabid, vapid, hate-mongering, fundie. Give him time, give him time!

Power Trip

For those who haven't figure out the method to the madness of the far right wing yet, it's POWER!!! Power over our lives. Power over our choices. Power over our options. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about something supposedly as out there as equal marriage rights for gays or something the every day folks get into like raising the minimum wage or taxing the corporate elites.

The bottom line: THEY WANT TO TAKE AWAY AS MUCH POWER AS POSSIBLE FROM US!!!!

THEY WANT TO WEAKEN US!!

THEY WANT TO CONTROL US!!

The nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court is a perfect example of this. We knew this was coming. Bush is weak and floundering. We picks Miers, a lap puppy, sorority chik, Bush fan club roadie wannabe, who no self-respecting hard right-winger would get behind and now he decides for the FLAMING KING OF THE RIGHT WING. You know it's not good when you have the nickname: Scalito. Okay, maybe it's good for some nutcase rightwinger who has their rights and doesn't give a shit about anyone else.

Here's one little tidbit on Alito:

In the early 1990s, Alito was the lone dissenter in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.

So, basically this guy believes men should control women's bodies. That women must defer to their husbands (IF they have husbands; dude, not all women are made THAT way) for decisions to be made about their bodies. Not taking into consideration the fact that if a woman had a good relationship with her husband, she would go to him ANYWAY and discuss her decision with him. Laws shouldn't FORCE anyone to go anyone else to make decisions that personally affect their lives!!!

What kind of world is this when we can't even control the destiny of our own bodies!

Think Terry Schiavo! We could all end up in a place where a court tells us...you don't have the right to make this decision.

These people with their POWER TRIPS and THIRST FOR CONTROL and DOMINATION scare the FUCK out of me!!!

IT'S TIME TO TAKE THEM DOWN!! IT'S TIME TO BE FEARLESS AND UNAFRAID!! THEY WANT CONTROL OF THE BENCH BECAUSE THEY ARE LOSING CONTROL OF US!

1 in 10 Americans Believe Administration is Unethical

Only 1 in 10 Americans, according to a new CNN Poll, believe that the Bush administration did not act unethically or illegally.

So 10% don't think the administration is unethical or criminal. I guess these are the same folks that think porking your intern is grounds for impeachment, but killing 2,000 soldiers for a lie is not, nor is putting your country at risk by leaking the names of CIA agents.

Rosa Parks, a Civil Rights Icon, Passes at 92

Rest in Peace, Ms. Parks, and thank you for showing us true courage in a dark time. May we all learn from your dignity and shining light.

The New York Times article

The Story of Rosa Parks

Yippee!!! Pharmacists Gone Wild! Video Forthcoming!

More updates on Pharmacists Gone Wild

and Here too!!!

Will this mean I'll have to watch out for my fundamentalist co-workers coming to work with bags of rocks so they can stone me to death just because their faith demands it? Will this mean they can't get fired for trying to kill me if they do?

It's getting a little scary out here folks!

Aren't There More Pressing Matters?

While the White House is falling apart due to scandal and indictments and Bush turns his usual deaf ear to trouble, members of Congress are sure to bring up the urgent national matter of queers trying to marry.

Yep, this is what the Senate Committee on the Judiciary concerned themselves with discussing yesterday. Will it or will it not destroy the very fabric of our highly moral and Christian society to allow two committed individuals to marry?

GOOD GRIEF!!!!

Here's a link to some of the text from the hearing:

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=1641

I particularly love Senator Leahy's comments (basically, "um, why are we wasting our time with this when we could be worrying about other things?"):

As a nation, we are facing many pressing and problematic issues at this very moment -- the war in Iraq, devastation from flooding and hurricanes, record-high fuel prices, the threat of a flu pandemic, and a burgeoning national debt, to name just a few. This Committee is seeking to conduct expedited proceedings on President Bush’s nominee to succeed Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the United States Supreme Court. Perhaps as a distraction from these important matters, we now are asked to again turn to a divisive measure that will contribute nothing to rebuilding the homes that have been destroyed or saving the lives that are threatened or jumpstarting the economy.

*Bold-my emphasis

Support Walgreens and then tell Target why

You know, all of these anti-gay "family" groups need to get laid REALLY BAD!!! Seriously, if you're having more sex, you don't give a rat's ass about what other people do!

It seems the Illinois Family Institute is in a tiz over the Gay Games being held not only in Chicago but also being openly supported by MAJOR corporations. Kraft was the last to get the boycott threat, now it's Walgreens. According to the Walgreens spokesperson:

Spokesman Michael Polzin told the Tribune that the company is taking part in the games to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. The company's pharmacists have been serving HIV-positive patients since the early 1980s. "Each year, we raise millions of dollars in our stores for research education and building awareness for heart disease, diabetes and cancer," he told the newspaper. "This is one way of giving back to the community."

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid21750.asp

That's in stark contrast to Target who recently had a pharmacist refuse to fill her emergency contraception:

A 26-year-old Missouri woman was refused EC when she handed her prescription to a pharmacist at a Target store in Fenton, MO, on September 30. The woman was told by the pharmacist, “I won’t fill it. It’s my right not to fill it.” She was told that she could go to a local Walgreens instead.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/10/target-refuses-to-fill-womans.html

So fine, if that's the way Target wants it, that we go to Walgreens to get treated equally and fairly, then let's do it!!!!

The link above provides a means to communicate with Target and tell them you are outraged! You don't have to be a woman to be outraged. The VERY IDEA that someone can take a job that serves the public yet refuse to serve ALL of the public because of personal beliefs is OUTRAGEOUS!!!

Being a pharmacist, doctor, dentist, etc. isn't like being in the ministry. There is no RIGHT to pick and choose. If they want to enforce their beliefs through their job then become a missionary.

Where will this stop if we don't stop it now? Will these "family" groups decide that roads shouldn't be repaved, schools provided minimal funds, or appropriate police protection and response in gay-dominated neighborhoods just because they don't like it?

Simply OUTRAGEOUS!!! Make Target a target. Contact them today.

Indictments are Coming and so is Wilma!

Wow!!! Hurricane Wilma, practically overnight, jumped from a Cat 1 to Cat 5! That makes three Cat 5's this season and we've nearly run out of names.

Isn't it funny how fear and joy can sometimes go hand-in-hand?

I'm sure the folks in FL are scared shitless right now, but you know, the Bush administration is WAY too concerned about their own fear of scandal and indictments to be worried about a silly hurricane? Remember: as we are joyful over Bushco's demise, they are afraid of losing control. After all of the fear this administration has inflicted on our country, this seems appropriate. However, we should also be afraid of their destruction. An abuser is most dangerous when you take away their ability to abuse. I'm surprised that Bush is holding up under all of this.

God (or pick your favorite deity) must really be pissed, either at Bush for screwing up a perfectly good country or us for not stopping Bush's bullshit. Either way, hell hath no fury like a god mocked and this administration has done more than its share of mocking...of god, of us, of democracy, of life.

Cultural/Personal vs Political

Okay, I saw this on another site and since this person evidently signed off and I couldn't personally respond, I felt the need to express my thoughts here:

Apparently, a fellow blogger on another site appreciates blogs with "political/significant news" as opposed to "personal stuff" they could get elsewhere. This is an opinion which is fine and dandy.

However, there is a form of study that views the personal/cultural as political (i.e. that with one, you inevitably have the other). For instance, culture influences politics and politics influences culture. A good example would be the role the religious fundamentalists are taking in politics currently. Religion is a strong personal and cultural force that has an impact on politics. Vice versa, our current conniving and fanatical government that has a propensity for denying civil rights has created a culture of fear and hate that has had a significant impact on people's personal lives. Can we not say that the debate of a woman's choice to choose intersects the cultural, personal, and political?

Everyone has their right to personal opinion in the blogs they visit. I tend to visit Americablog.org more these days than Democrats.org because I feel like I get a mix of political and personal. Besides, I see myself reflected in the comments and thoughts on the blog. I hope it's not a coming trend that is reflective of the party, but I find less of ME reflected by the Democrat website.

A quote from Adrienne Rich to leave you with on the cultural/personal and political intersections (from the book "Cultural Politics-Queer Reading" by Alan Sinfield):

"When someone with the authority of a teacher describes the world and you are not in it"-when your subculture is not acknowledged-"there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing. It takes some strength of soul-and not just individual strength, but collective understanding-to resist this void, this nonbeing, into which you are thrust, and to stand up, demanding to be seen and heard." To develop that "collective understanding" is a project for cultural materialists (foreward viii).

Shameless Plug

A shameless plug for an excellent organization. This was an interview in Mother Jones with Evan Wolfson who is Executive Director of Freedom to Marry, perhaps one of the largest, if not THE largest, gay rights organizations on that issue.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2005/10/evan_wolfson.html

I highly recommend reading the interview, checking out his book, and/or going to the Freedom to Marry website (http://www.freedomtomarry.org/). If you ever have to engage anyone in the discussion of what Evan calls the case for “ending same-sex couples’ exclusion from marriage”, not "gay marriage," then all of these should be helpful.

A couple of historical tidbits from the interview:

MJ: Your book notes that acceptance of the verdict in Brown v. Board of Education really took decades. Won’t the public’s acceptance of same-sex marriage take just as long?

EW: When the Supreme Court struck down race discrimination in marriage in 1967—in the best-named case ever, Loving v. Virginia—the polls showed 70 percent of the American people opposed interracial marriage. In fact it was not until 1992 that a majority of the American people expressed a majority acceptance for interracial marriage. From this, we learn that courts, leaders, and civil rights advances don’t wait for the polls in our system. We don’t have to have majority support for some states, some courts, some politicians to stand up and do the right thing. Full majority public acceptance of a major civil rights change—whether it be ending race discrimination or some of the other things I’ve talked about—may indeed come after the legal changes, and after by quite some time.

...

MJ: Yet the governor of Massachusetts says he supports a constitutional amendment against marriage equality, and in the 2004 elections 11 states passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage—

EW: No, no, no. Most of those 11 states were not just banning marriage, they passed sweeping anti-gay measures. They deny any level of protection to gay families, large or small. Virtually all of those states are solidly Republican, have never led the country in any civil rights struggle, and would have passed pretty much any anti-gay measure that had been put on the ballot. In this case, it happened to be marriage and family relationships. This was a right-wing wave of attacks.

In this stampede against gay people wrapped in the hot button of marriage, the right wing was smuggling in their sweeping anti-gay, anti-unmarried heterosexual agenda. In Ohio, for example, two courts have now ruled that the sweeping discriminatory measure there block the issuance of domestic violence orders of protection to anybody other than a married couple. So women living with abusive men that they’re not married to can’t get an order of protection because of this measure. Again, that was part of the right-wing agenda because they’re agenda is not just anti-gay and anti-marriage, it’s anti-choice, anti-civil rights, anti-separation of church and state, and in fact antediluvian.

7 out of 10

A recent Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll finds that "seven in 10 said they want the next president to offer policies and programs that are different from the Bush administration's."

Poll Link

This is NOTHING new!!! Dude, the American people have been saying this since WELL BEFORE Bush stole office. Some people voted for Bush ONLY because they felt he had a solid policy and program that the Democrats did not.

Never mind that his policies and programs were based on lies. They didn't and don't care about that. It's sad to say. One would hope that Americans would care more about honesty and integrity in the highest office than that, but they don't. They want ROCK HARD leadership! They want someone to stand up and say "This is our plan to end poverty! This is our plan to cut the national debt! This is our plan to get the troops out of Iraq! This is our plan to put food on your table, increase jobs, and help your kids get a good education!"

They want good solid and sound plans that include the things they care about. They want to get not just this country, but themselves, back on track, and they want a strong leader to stand up and say it. We need a Democrat to stand up and say it. We can say it as those in the trenches all day long that our party is capable, but until a leader stands up in our ranks and puts it before the people on behalf of all of us, it will mean NOTHING!!!

I speak as a person with the heart of a Democrat but the discouragement of an American. I speak as a person who needs this kind of leader, like I need air to breath. When you know the country is out of control and life isn't far behind (and you know you are not the only one), this is what is needed.

Remembering Matthew

October 12th 2005, is the seventh anniversary of my son Matthew's murder.

http://www.matthewshepard.org/

While it may not be today's "hot" news to pay respects to a gay man's memory, just remember one day it could be someone you love.

NEVER FORGET!

Seven years later...I regret to disagree with Mrs. Shepard but the world hasn't changed much. How can we say it's changed when you visit a blog like Americablog and a question about leaving the country is posted and well over 75% of the respondents have or are considering leaving?

This is America???

THIS IS AMERICA where supposedly liberal politicians sign declarations saying gays can serve in the military as long as they shut up and sign marriage protection acts yet cheat on their own wives. THIS IS AMERICA where a gay California man is trying to run for Congress but his own Democratic party is telling him to drop out (http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/10/101105calDem.htm). THIS IS AMERICA where gay college kids can be killed and easily forgotten, then demonized as a drug addict in an ABC special. THIS IS AMERICA where we defend ourselves from state-to-state, city-to-city from amendments and attacks on our very dignity and personal freedoms, but our President can start illegal wars and the highest members of his Cabinet can face indictment and treason.

THIS IS AMERICA????

Happy National Coming Out Day!!!

Yes, it's National Coming Out Day, and while you may not be GLBT, maybe you know someone who is (or maybe you just suspect). Today would be a good day to say something nice about gay people to someone else, whether they are gay or not. Talk to someone else about the importance of gay marriage and basic civil rights for all people (why shouldn't that extend to gay citizens as well?). Even if you are not gay, do something GREAT today and COME OUT as a supporter of gay rights. Today, you can make a difference.

Thank you from all of us!

Now, in other news, this Miers thing is just, well...kinda creepy. Check out these comments Miers made to/about Bush published today in the NY Times:

"You are the best governor ever - deserving of great respect," Harriet E. Miers wrote to George W. Bush days after his 51st birthday in July 1997. She also found him "cool," said he and his wife, Laura, were "the greatest!" and told him: "Keep up the great work. Texas is blessed."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/politics/politicsspecial1/11archive.html?hp&ex=1129089600&en=025c849e781015f2&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like I'm sitting in 7th grade study hall and the geeky chik with the glasses is fawning over the star quarterback.

He's SOOOOOO COOL just the GWEATEST EVER!!! Mmmmm, she's so horny, she wuv him wong time.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just being sensitive, but it seems like odd and quite frankly childish behavior for a potential SC Justice.

Here's a link to some posts from Americablog on this topic (TOO HILARIOUS!!!):

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/10/harriet-really-hearts-george.html

I've Seen God and He's a Blathering Idiot

Bush spoke on C-SPAN this morning and it was lauded by the MSM as a MAJOR announcement, but basically it was...

Murder, war, kill, murder, more war, more killing, um, murder?, oh what the hell, war, war, war, kill, kill, kill!!!!!!!!!!!!

God bless America!

Now, he is either a blathering idiot, insane, or he is the anti-Christ. None are good when his finger is on the trigger, but idiot is the lesser of the evils. Unfortunately, a recent report is leaning away from idiot.

President George W. Bush told Palestinian ministers that God had told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - and create a Palestinian State, a new BBC series reveals.

Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/10_october/06/bush.shtml

I don't think it's God at all talking to him, but Karl whispering to him when he's tripped out on a binder. Still scary as hell though because he thinks he's the Chosen One.