Thursday, December 09, 2010

Procedural vote in Senate dooms repeal of DADT

Sen. Scott (Brown-Eye) Brown, Asshole
Thanks to Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Scott Brown (D-MA) the vote to proceed to debating the Defense Authorization bill that includes the repeal of DADT failed on a vote of 57-40. Murkowski had signaled earlier in the week that she would vote for cloture and supported the repeal and Scott Brown had said that he supported the repeal as well. Manchin, being a cracker from WV had said nothing. 

All I can say is that Brown had better have a good excuse for doing this. The voters of Massachusetts have long supported equality for gays and lesbians and I suspect that we in the LGBT community in Massachusetts will be fairly well mobilized in 2012 to kick that shit-for-brains out of office for this clearly discriminatory vote. 

They didn't even respect the sacrifices of gay and lesbian service members enough to debate this on the floor of the Senate. I thought that this was at least one point where the people of America had decided not to let bigotry and hatred of us get in the way of fairness and equality for all who want to protect our country. 

This filibuster nonsense has got to stop.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Oh no!

It is being reported that Aretha Franklin, "The Queen of Soul", has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There were two women in my life besides my sainted mother Marjorie, who were a huge influence on me. One was Julia Child who got me interested in cooking professionally and Aretha Franklin who has been my favorite singer throughout my music-enjoying life. 

This is really terrible news. Good luck Re-Re.

And this is who we have deciding our fates in Washington

I'm sure he says this often:

"God! That Michele Bachmann is an idiot!" Or "God! What a moron."

I know I sure do.

Christo-Fascist American "Family" Association says WikiLeaks is the fault of gays wanting the repeal of DADT

Ohhh... I see. 

From RawStory.com:

A senior official at the American Family Association says the political storm over the WikiLeaks cables shows that gays shouldn't be allowed to serve in the military.

Bryan Fischer, the AFA's head of issues analysis, believes he knows what motivated the man thought to be behind the WikiLeaks release of State Department cables: A "homosexual" agenda.

Private Bradley Manning, who has been in US custody since he was linked to a WikiLeaks release earlier this year, "sold out his country in what may turn out to be fit of gay pique," Fischer writes at the AFA's blog.

Fischer, the AFA's director of issues analysis, writes that Manning "was, at a minimum, seriously confused about his sexuality, and at worst, launched the WikiLeaks campaign to strike back at the military for its 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' policy, which he vehemently opposed."

Manning is "a one-man argument for keeping open homosexuals from serving in the military in the first place," Fischer continues. "If the 1993 law -- which flatly prohibits homosexuals from a place in the armed services -- had been followed, there would be no PFC Bradley Manning and no WikiLeaks."

Fischer provided no evidence that Manning was motivated by opposition to the military gay ban, but the soldier's sexual orientation is now a matter of record.

In a profile of Manning published Tuesday, the Globe and Mail reported that Manning "bridled under the military’s 'don’t ask, don’t tell' policy." 

But computer hacker Adrian Lamo, who is believed to be the person who alerted authorities to the source of the leaks, said Manning was evidently “explaining how the first world exploits the third, in detail, from an internal perspective.”

The AFA is one of the US's most prominent conservative groups, claiming some 2 million supporters. Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center cited Fischer's anti-gay writings when it labeled the AFA a "hate group."
The AFA seeks to support “traditional moral values,” but in recent years it has seemed to specialize in “combating the homosexual agenda.” In 2009, it hired Bryan Fischer ... as its director of analysis for government and policy. ... Fischer claimed in a blog post last May 27 that “[h]omosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and 6 million dead Jews.” ... Fischer has described Hitler as “an active homosexual” who sought out gays “because he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough.” He proposed criminalizing homosexual behavior in another 2010 blog post and has advocated forcing gays into “reparative” therapy.
Even if this were true it would be a most compelling reason for overturning DADT rather than to keep it in place. If gays and lesbians were allowed to serve openly the environment that Fischer says that drove Manning to allegedly do this would not exist. 

The verbal vomit that comes out of these fascists is truly remarkable.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Elizabeth Edwards

You probably have all heard that Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Senator and Presidential/Vice Presidential candidate (and heel) John Edwards, has passed away due to breast cancer. I have been really touched by this brave woman who has not only suffered from a hideous illness but was put through a public humiliation by her husband's affair and subsequent spawning with a blonde bimbo. That man put that poor woman through the mill and she braved it out and held her head high. She set her rules and put that creature right in his place. 

She will be remembered unfortunately for that nightmare, but she should also be remembered for raising 4 children, for her work as an attorney for the Office of the Attorney General in North Carolina and the administration of the Wade Edwards Foundation, named for her son who was killed in a tragic automobile accident. The woman had it tough but when you saw her on TV she was always brave, fearless and determined to live every day. 

I was very sad when I heard the news.

I am so disappointed today

I am so disappointed in President Obama today I can hardly write this. I supported him for President. I supported him when he caved on the public option in the healthcare reform legislation. I supported him when he caved on deep-water offshore drilling. I was even ready to be disappointed on the DADT policy. But this... adding $800 billion to the deficit to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires because the big, bad Republicans are holding their breath and refusing to budge is beyond belief. WHERE ARE YOUR FU@%ING BALLS Mr. President? Call their bluff. EVERYONE knows these tax cuts will not stimulate the economy. They haven't for the last ten years. These creatures will just take that money and invest it in putting more Republicans into office in the next election so they can rip us off for even more money later. Let them try and pass these tax breaks when they are in the majority in the House and let them take the heat for this travesty. 

Well Barry... now you own this mess. In two years you will be having this disgusting circus all over again.

I am so disappointed in you Mr. President.

Viber for iPhone

I have just discovered Viber for iPhone. Let me walk this back a little for you.

A couple of weeks ago Mr. B was traveling outside the US and as we have been socked with outrageous cell phone bills while he has been traveling I investigated solutions for reducing the cost of communicating with home. Skype? That works but voice calls from Skype require a microphone and speakers for your notebook/computer. Plus if you were calling a non-Skype equipped cell phone you were charged for the call. Google Voice? Same thing. Plus you have to input all of your contacts into those programs and send out notices to everyone to "hook-up" with you on those services.

Enter Viber. It is currently for iPhone only (soon Android and Blackberry). It is a true VOIP program. You install the program/app on your iPhone. It searches your contact manager for anyone else in the world who has a Viber account and the Viber contact book puts a Viber icon in their listing. Then you can make a Wi-Fi/3G call to that person from anywhere for free. No fees at all. And the app is free. The other plus is that it can run in the background and will not drain your battery like Skype and Google Voice do.

From Lifehacker.com:

iPhone: Viber is a free app that's basically Skype meets Google Voice. It can make regular voice calls from your iPhone, but upon calling another Viber user it'll automatically route the call over VOIP and cost you absolutely nothing.

Sage advice

Christo-Fascists in Texas and their war on anyone not Christian

In the interest of disclosure I have relatives that live in Texas. They are lovely kind, generous and hard working types who are the best of what Texas has to offer. That being said The rest of that state is just plain bat-shit crazy!

While going through the news today I was struck by a piece that reports on the tsimes going on in the Texas legislature because the crazy Christian Conservatives object to the Speaker of the House in the Legislature is Jewish. These morons say that Texas is a Christian state and should be run by Christians. 

From ThinkProgress.Org:

Last month, several Tea Party activists formed a right-wing coalition to oust Rep. Joe Straus (R) as Texas House Speaker. They began circulating emails with anti-Semitic messages against Straus, who is Jewish. The groups ran robo-calls and sent out e-mails demanding a “true Christian leader,” and calling Straus’ opponent, Rep. Ken Paxton (R), “a Christian Conservative who decided not to be pushed around by the Joe Straus thugs.” 
 
Last week, the Texas Observer’s Abby Rapoport reported that she had obtained an email exchange between two members of the Texas State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) — Rebecca Williamson and John Cook. “We elected a house with Christian, conservative values. We now want a true Christian, conservative running it,” Cook said in one of the emails. “Since the SREC governs state Republican Party affairs,” Rapoport wrote, “this marked the first time an elected party leader had semi-openly called for a ‘Christian conservative’ Speaker.” Cook then explained his views to Rapoport in a subsequent telephone interview:
“When I got involved in politics, I told people I wanted to put Christian conservatives in leadership positions,” he told me, explaining that he only supports Christian conservative candidates in Republican primary races.
“I want to make sure that a person I’m supporting is going to have my values. It’s not anything about Jews and whether I think their religion is right or Muslims and whether I think their religion is right. … I got into politics to put Christian conservatives into office. They’re the people that do the best jobs over all.”
Cook insisted he is not prejudiced against Jews:
“They’re some of my best friends,” he said of Jews, naming two friends of his. “I’m not bigoted at all; I’m not racist.” [...]
“My favorite person that’s ever been on this earth is a Jew,” he said. How can they possibly think that if Jesus Christ is a Jew, and he’s my favorite person that’s ever been on this earth?”
“Ah, I see,” the Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen observed, “It’s not ‘about Jews,’ it’s just that Cook doesn’t think Jews can do the job well because they’re Jews.” Benen addded, “Someday, folks will have to understand that ‘some of my best friends are [fill in the blank with a minority group]‘ is a cliche repeated by bigots. I would have hoped that was obvious by now.”

And of course the racist Cook uses the phrase that  most clearly spells out the fact that he in fact is a lying racist bigot "Some of my best friends" are Jewish. I think there must be something in the air or water in the Texas/Oklahoma area that turns folks into xenophobic half-baked morons who scream out that they are "good God-fearing Christians" that hate everyone and everything that isn't Christian.

Disgraceful!

Monday, December 06, 2010

Holy Crimes

And in honor of Hanukkah we have an especially nasty "winner" this week. From my favorite website JoeMyGod.com:

Over the last seven days...

Colorado: Pastor Joshua Amoroso charged with sexual assault of a 14 year-old girl.
Germany: Report implicates more than 250 priests and staffers in child abuse scandal at school in archdiocese once headed by the Pope.
Kentucky: Pastor Currie Pat Clark charged with 296 counts of sodomy of a 12 year-old boy.
Georgia: Pastor Brian Richard Gray charged with 58 counts of child molestation, statutory rape, and sexual assault of a 15 year-old girl.
New Jersey: Newspaper reveals documents proving Archbishop John Myers shielded at least four pedophile priests from prosecution.
Michigan: Pastor Curtis Burkhardt charged with exposed his erection to an 11 year-old girl at a campground. Burkhardt has a previous conviction for the same crime with a 3 year-old.
Australia: Father Brian Spillane found guilty on nine counts of molesting preteen girls. Spillane faces four more trials on 135 similar charges.
Oklahoma: Pastor Baron Hopgood charged with fraud in $200K check-kiting scheme.
Ontario: Father William Marshall charged with two counts of sexual assault. Marshall faces similar charges in several other cases.
Ohio: Pastor David Thompson sentenced to five years in prison for embezzling more than $1M from his church.
Britain: Father John Shannon convicted on 16 counts of producing child pornography.
Texas: Pastor Terry Nesmith on trial for molesting 9 year-old girl.
Australia: Father Kevin Philips pleads guilty to multiple counts of child molestation.

This Week's Winner
New York: An unnamed Hasidic rabbi and his son have fled to Israel after being accused of sexually molesting at least four underage female relatives. At least two of the alleged victims are the rabbi's daughters, one of whom says her father has been molesting her since the age of five. Two of the rabbi's other sons were arrested in New York and charged with the sexual abuse and rape of their sisters. One of the arrested sons, age 15, is accused of molesting his 8 year-old sister. Police note that the rabbi and the escaped son were driven to the driven to the airport by the rabbi's wife, who is his first cousin. The two have fourteen children and all names are being withheld to protect the victims.

If you'd like to get a feeling for why I am an atheist you need look no further than this group of "good God-fearing men" to understand. If this were an isolated blog item that ran once in a while on Joe's site I would say "Meh!" and think it wan an aberration (it wouldn't change my views on atheism/agnosticism though), but he puts out a list like this EVERY WEEK!   The only group that is only slightly less hypocritical is the Republican party and that's only because they take their marching orders from the deviants, frauds and thieves described above.

Ugh!

Proposition 8 Appeal is today!

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing oral arguments today on Proposition 8, the California Proposition that outlawed same-sex marriage in California. You may remember that on Aug. 4, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker held that Proposition 8 violated the federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection of the laws and due process of law, which protects "fundamental" rights -- including marriage.

The oral arguments before the Ninth Circuit are being telecast on C-Span at 1PM EST. This is our government in action folks, deciding on the constitutionality of denying rights to a minority. You may not think that this will be riveting TV but I can assure you that nothing (with the exception of Neil Armstrong's moon walk or Krystle Carrington giving Alexis Colby a bitch-slap in the koi pond) could be of more interest to me. You can also watch here.