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• No Miranda rights, either — ''Get on your stomach or I'm gonna tase you!'" He asked them what he had done, but they wouldn't say. Instead, they asked him leading questions about other people they'd just arrested. "They said, 'so, who was in the white van you were associated with?" "I was like, white van? I don't know what you're talking about...."'
  
  'I asked him if he had been read his rights. "No, they didn't read me my Miranda rights at all. ... They cuffed me, and when I complained to one one guy about the cuffs being too tight, he was like, 'Oh yeah? Well, let me tighten that up for you.'"'
  
  (from pamshouseblend.com)
  2008-09-04 11:16:50
• 'Fascism In MN' — Like I said, we all knew free speech was gone. Just a reminder that that includes freedom of assembly, too:
  
  'Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff’s department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff’s department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.'
  
  (from correntewire.com)
  
  
  2008-09-03 10:20:56
• Goons in riot gear quash the free press at the Republican Convention — We all knew that free speech was history. Now we find that the press gets arrested these days for trying to cover stories:
  
  'Amy Goodman of Democracy Now -- the radio and TV broadcaster who has been a working journalist for close to 20 years -- was arrested on the street and charged with "conspiracy to riot." Audio of her arrest, which truly shocked and angered the crowd of observers, is here. I just attended a Press Conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John M. Harrington and -- after they boasted of how "restrained" their police actions were -- asked about the journalists and lawyers who had been detained and/or arrested both today and over the weekend. They said they wouldn't give any information about journalists who had been arrested today, though they said they believed that "one journalist" had been, and that she "was seemingly a participant in the riots, not simply a non-participant." I'll have video of the Press Conference posted shortly...'
  
  '...A photographer for Associated Press was also arrested today while covering the protests (h/t Edward Champion). An AP spokesman said of the arrest: "covering news is constitutionally protected, and photographers should not be detained for covering breaking news." Democratic strategist and CNN commentator Donna Brazile was hit by pepper spray on her way into the Xcel Center.'
  
  (from salon.com)
  
  Good thing we're so much better than the awful Chinese government, which trundled off all those people trying to ask questions about Tibet. Uh, wait a second...
  
  
  2008-09-03 10:15:23
• Gay-Bashing in Boston's South End — 'Fabio Brandao of Framingham pled not guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and civil rights violations in Boston Municipal Court today. The charges stem from his involvement in an apparent gay bashing in Boston’s South End in the early morning hours of Aug. 24.'
  
  Brandao was reportedly one of four men who drove by a group of four friends, shouted anti-gay slurs, then got out and attacked them.
  
  *sigh*
  
  (from baywindows.com)
  
  
  2008-09-03 10:07:46
• Homophobia at NBC — 'When asked why at no point during the coverage did NBC mention [upset gold-medal-winner and only out gay man to compete] Mitcham was gay or that his partner was in the stands, Hughes said, "In virtually every case, we don’t discuss an athlete’s sexual orientation."
  
  'When it was pointed out that in fact the network does exactly that by telling viewers about Olympic athletes’ various spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, and even in one case a heterosexual “love triangle” Hughes responded, "Not in every case..."'
  
  (from afterelton.com)
  
  
  2008-09-03 10:04:25
• Exxon posts highest quarterly profits *ever* for *any* US company — 'Exxon Mobil reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation.'
  
  Meanwhile, the number of applicants for unemployment benefits is at a 5-year high.
  
  Ah, the wonders of the Bush economy.
  
  (from biz.yahoo.com)
  2008-07-31 09:40:54
• Massachusetts House votes to repeal 1913 antimiscegentation law! — The House voted yesterday to repeal the 1913 law that disallowed people from getting married in MA, if their marriage would be illegal in their home states. Originally used for race-baiting, and then ignored for a few decades, this law was famously enforced again by then-governor Mitt Romney in order to keep same-sex couples from other states from marrying. (So much for people who argue that anti-gay discrimination is nothing like racial discrimination. If the same laws are used to do the same things to minorities of different types, well...) Since then, of course, marriage equality has become law in CA, and RI and (maybe) NY have chosen to recognize MA marriages. The state Senate voted earlier this month for a repeal. The bill now goes to Governor Patrick, who has pledged to sign in.
  
  Many thanks to MassEquality for their work on this!
  
  Update: The link includes the roll-call of who voted how, which I've had trouble finding elsewhere.
  
  (from massequality.org)
  2008-07-30 10:56:57
• A first-hand account of the shooting by a conservative American terrorist at a UU church in TN — 'In the minutes leading up to when the police arrived Jaime and I saw children with escorts looking for their parents. We saw children and adults with blood on their clothes. We saw the worst side of human cruelty we had ever seen. We knew people had been shot but we didn't know who...
  
  'While we were congregated together I noticed our friend. She is a transgender youth. She told us that Greg, her foster father, had been hit. That really hit home.'
  
  This is a pretty heart-rending account, pointedly demonstrating the naivete of assuming that all hateful acts of inhumane terrorism are committed by fundamentalist Muslims. Some are committed by white people who watch O'Reilly!
  
  (from outandaboutnewspaper.com)
  
  2008-07-30 09:01:29
• Barney Frank warns Obama about dissing the gays — 'Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told the Rothenberg Political Report Friday that he "would have a hard time voting for the [Democratic] ticket" if Sen. Barack Obama picks former United States Sen. Sam Nunn as his vice-presidential running-mate...
  
  'The Massachusetts Democrat cites a number of examples of what he calls Nunn's "real record of hostility" toward gays, placing greatest emphasis on Nunn's September 1996 vote against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which failed in the Senate by a single vote...
  
  'Frank argues that adding Nunn to the Democratic ticket would cost Obama support in the gay community and would make it impossible for the Massachusetts Congressman to be a strong advocate for the Democratic Presidential nominee.'
  
  (rothenbergpoliticalreport.blogspot.com)
  
  I'm glad to see someone as powerful as Frank bringing this issue up, and attempting to push it into the mainstream press. However, given what we've seen from Obama regarding gay rights - refusing interviews with gay press; choosing a right-wing preacher who'd formerly called gays murderers to be the key speaker at an Obama campaign event, where, nominally representing the campaign, he said homosexuality was a choice; refusing to appear with pro-marriage-equality politicians; and stating that marriage isn't for gay people - I'd be surprised if Frank's input matters.
  
  Now that Obama has announced his support for Bush's authorizing-unconstitutional-spying bill, it seems like straight people have started realizing he may not be the idealistic politician he sold himself as. I'm disgusted to see prominent so-called progressives like Atrios denouncing him on this, after they downplayed the pseudo-Realpolitik Obama demonstrated with McClurkin. The whole thing demonstrates that if you're willing to sideline the interests of the minorities that make up your base, you'll soon find yourself sidelined as well. That's something I thought progressives were supposed to understand viscerally by now.
  
  What concerns me is that these are the sorts of actions that I believe cost Kerry the election - not that middle America saw him as too far to the left, but that they saw that he wouldn't stand up for the left, and deduced he wouldn't stand up for anything. Which is precisely what it seemed to me, during the primary, that Obama supporters detested about Hillary. I don't think Kerry's vote for war authorization helped him in the presidential campaign. It certainly didn't help Clinton. I see no reason to believe that Obama's anti-gay-marriage rhetoric will help him - it certainly didn't win the White House for either of the last two people who spouted it. I don't think Obama's FISA vote will help, since it just plays into Rove's framing of national security as an area where the Republicans are always right. And I don't think choosing Nunn would be any more useful than Kerry choosing Liebermann. How many failures does it take mainstream Democrats to realize this? How many super-right-wing Democratic VP nominees who oppose the interests of the Democratic base will they choose before the light dawns?
  
  Grow a spine, and you'll win true cross-party respect - just as Bush enjoys, even with a 27% approval rating from the public. Demonstrate that you'll cave on any issue, and not only will your base detest you, your opposition and the undecided voters will as well.
  
  2008-06-23 16:48:25
• Police brutality alive and well in Memphis — 'Surveillance video of the incident shows an unidentified officer hitting Johnson several times with handcuffs wrapped around his knuckles, as another officer holds Johnson's shoulders as she tries to protect herself.
  
  'After being struck repeatedly, Johnson rose to protect herself and was maced in response.'
  
  (advocate.com)
  
  And it's all on video.
  2008-06-23 16:22:15
• Daughters of Bilitis founders, gay rights activists, finally legally wed! — 'Cheers filled San Francisco's City Hall shortly after 5 p.m. as longtime lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, partners for more than 50 years, began their second wedding - and their first legal union.
  
  'Mayor Gavin Newsom, who officiated the ceremony in the reception area of his office, said it was a fitting way to memorialize last month's state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in California, which took effect at 5:01 p.m.'
  
  (sfgate.com)
  
  We need more politicians like Newsom. And more good news about equality and progress, like this.
  2008-06-17 09:42:28
• Willie Brown: Obama refused to be photographed with Newsom because of gay marriage — 'Just four years ago, current Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is said to have declined to have his picture taken in San Francisco with Newsom, who was then at the center of a national uproar over his decision to allow same-sex marriage in San Francisco.
  
  '"I gave a fundraiser, at his (Obama's) request at the Waterfront restaurant," said former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. "And he said to me, he would really appreciate it if he didn't get his photo taken with my mayor. He said he would really not like to have his picture taken with Gavin."'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  I remember Newsom saying what is referred to in the article -- that one of the top Dem. candidates refused to be photographed with him.
  
  Curious.
  2008-02-05 15:25:57
• Krugman on the media and comparisons to Reagan — Just go read the thing.
  
  I continue to be astounded that any Democrat thinks it's a good idea to speak positively about Reagan's leadership. Did these people sleep through the 80s? Do they remember thinking we were all going to die in nuclear armageddon when we started bombing Libya? Do they remember the budget deficit, the crappy economy of the late 80s, the blatant government homophobia involved with ignoring AIDS, the racism of the war on welfare (and the war on drugs, for that matter), the lying to Congress, the illegal arms sales, the propping up of Saddam Hussein, the opposition to the ERA? Seriously, have they forgotten these things? My recollection of the Reagan years is not of an "optimistic" era. It's of a daily dread of fiery death, and a constant war on the poor, on minorities and women, on anyone but rich white businessmen.
  
  Reagan hagiography is not about optimism, it's about revising history. I don't recall Bush speaking reverently about Carter while he was running, so why is it not considered shocking for Obama to talk about Reagan this way?
  2008-01-21 12:37:28
• How did I miss this? Beverly Sills died last year. — She was a great artist and a great advocate for classical music, and for the New York City Opera. Out of the compendious Times obituary, perhaps most notable is this: 'In the spring of 1976 she sang Violetta in “La Traviata” at the Met, having gotten the company to agree to invite her longtime colleague Ms. Caldwell to conduct, making her the first woman to take the Met’s podium.'
  
  Good for her.
  
  (from nytimes.com)
  2008-01-08 19:43:12
• EPA administrator overruled recommendations of his underlings to block CA's greenhouse emissions initiative — 'Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson overruled the unanimous opinion of his legal and technical staff in blocking California's effort to cut greenhouse gases from cars and trucks - a new revelation that California officials say shows his decision was based on politics, not the law.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  Is the Bush admin. intentionally setting out to portray themselves as comic book villains?
  2007-12-21 08:48:06
• CIA destroys evidence and obstructs investigations to shield itself from consequences of breaking the law — 'The CIA destroyed video evidence of the coercive interrogation of al-Qaida operatives held under its secret rendition programme in order to shield agents from prosecution, it was revealed yesterday...
  
  'Officials from the September 11 commission told the New York Times yesterday they had formally requested from the CIA evidence of interrogations, and had been informed that all materials had been handed over.'
  
  (from guardian.co.uk)
  2007-12-07 11:04:20
• 'Renaissance in plesiosaur research' yields dividends — 'Initial excavation of a site on the Svalbard islands in August yielded the remains, teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae of a reptile estimated to measure nearly 40 feet long, said Joern Harald Hurum of the University of Oslo.
  
  '"It seems the monster is a new species," he told The Associated Press...
  
  '"We are regularly seeing new species of plesiosaurs popping up — in a way because, in the past 10 or 15 years, there has been what we call a renaissance in plesiosaur research," Evans said by telephone.'
  
  (AP via sfgate.com)
  2007-12-04 16:16:46
• Military demands return of signing bonuses from soldiers wounded in the line of duty — 'Fox was seriously injured when a roadside bomb blew up his vehicle. He was knocked unconscious. His back was injured and lost all vision in his right eye.
  
  'A few months later Fox was sent home. His injuries prohibited him from fulfilling three months of his commitment. A few days ago, he received a letter from the military demanding nearly $3,000 of his signing bonus back.
  
  '"I tried to do my best and serve my country. I was unfortunately hurt in the process. Now they're telling me they want their money back," he explained.
  
  'It's a slap for Fox's mother, Susan Wardezak, who met with President Bush in Pittsburgh last May. He thanked her for starting Operation Pittsburgh Pride which has sent approximately 4,000 care packages.
  
  'He then sent her a letter expressing his concern over her son's injuries, so she cannot understand the U.S. Government's apparent lack of concern over injuries to countless U.S. Soldiers and demands that they return their bonuses.'
  
  (from kdka.com)
  2007-11-29 10:57:20
• Poll: most American voters think Bush has committed impeachable offenses — 'A total of 64% of American voters say that President George W. Bush has abused his powers as president. Of the 64%, 14% (9% of all voters) say the abuses are not serious enough to warrant impeachment, 33% (21% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses, but he should not be impeached, and 53% (34% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses and Mr. Bush should be impeached and removed from office.'
  
  (American Research Group via thinkprogress.org)
  2007-11-15 05:54:34
• FBI finds Blackwater unjustified in killing Iraqi civilians — 'Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  2007-11-14 11:17:39
• Poor old Ronnie, always 'inadvertently' becoming a strike-breaking racist thug — 'So there’s a campaign on to exonerate Ronald Reagan from the charge that he deliberately made use of Nixon’s Southern strategy. When he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where the civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that “I believe in states’ rights,” he didn’t mean to signal support for white racists. It was all just an innocent mistake.
  
  'Indeed, you do really have to feel sorry for Reagan. He just kept making those innocent mistakes.'
  
  (from krugman.blogs.nytimes.com)
  2007-11-13 08:33:35
• MIT's suing Gehry over leaky building — 'The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has filed a negligence suit against world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, charging that flaws in his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up.'
  
  (from boston.com)
  
  The biggest issue I've got with Gehry buildings like this one is that they've got far more joints than they need, where walls or planes meet. When you gratuitously project boxes out for windows, or tack on angled doohickeys, this is what you get. The net effect is to increase the overall surface area of the building, making it less energy efficient than it might be, and increasing the chance for leaks and drips. This isn't modernist form-follows-function. It's postmodern form-follows-form -- architecture as sculpture, rather than architecture to create, you know, *buildings*. When you turn your back on centuries of what builders have learned about making leak proof houses for a purely visual effect, you've no right to be surprised at the consequences.
  
  I think his Pritzker bandshell in Chicago is great. But that very nearly *is* a piece of sculpture. The shape of the building at MIT is gratuitous. It's not surprising that it's got leaks. It's not designed for habitation or efficiency, but for visual impact. Bleh.
  2007-11-09 14:03:25
• Bush: Most Unpopular President EVARRR!!! — '[F]or “the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they ’strongly disapprove’ of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.”'
  
  (from thinkprogress.org)
  2007-11-09 13:58:07
• In more gay UAE news, Sheikh to be tried in Switzerland for assaulting man who rebuffed his sexual advances — 'Swiss officials announced Wednesday they will try the brother of the ruler of the United Arab Emirates for allegedly assaulting an American man who rebuffed his sexual advances in a Geneva hotel.'
  
  (from 365gay.com)
  
  Funny how the most anti-gay institutions in the world (e.g., the Republican Party in the states, or the UAE government), seem to be that way because they're simultaneously the most self-hating gay institutions.
  2007-11-03 10:43:33
• Dubai officials blame victim of gay rape, not assailants — 'The authorities not only discouraged Alex from pressing charges, he, his family and French diplomats say; they raised the possibility of charging him with criminal homosexual activity, and neglected for weeks to inform him or his parents that one of his attackers had tested H.I.V. positive while in prison four years earlier.'
  
  (from queerty.com)
  
  In related news, did you know that Barneys New York is now owned by a Dubai company?
  2007-11-03 10:40:28
• Is Clinton as anti-gay as Obama? More on the McClurkin debacle — 'Obama was assailed last week for allowing gospel singer Donnie McClurkin to appear at a South Carolina campaign event, but the endorsement of Clinton by at least two anti-gay black ministers has so far not generated similar outrage...'
  
  'McClurkin claims to be “ex-gay.” According to HRC, McClurkin in 2003 accused gay Americans of “trying to kill our children” and in 2002 called homosexuality a “curse.”'
  
  (from nyblade.com)
  
  My take is that this is apples and oranges. The Obama campaign invited McClurkin to speak at a campaign event. Not to defend Clinton, but her campaign has not denounced an endorsement from a couple preachers -- that's pretty different. The McClurkin thing is offensive and hateful. His comments encourage violence against gay people ("trying to kill our children," for Pete's sake?!) They also don't pass the 'would it be offensive if we substituted the word Jew?' test. The Clinton issue is less than ideal, but she's not recruiting someone who promotes the ex-gay program as a campaign spokesperson.
  2007-11-03 10:29:52
• Breaking news from NJ: 'Separate but equal' still not equal — 'New Jersey’s 8-month-old civil union law has failed to live up to its promise of giving same-sex couples all the protections of marriage by another name, the state’s top official for enforcing civil rights said yesterday.'
  
  (from queerty.com)
  2007-11-03 10:20:02
• So the gays aren't more affluent after all? New study shows straight men make more. — 'Gay men who work in management and male-dominated blue-collar careers make less money than their straight counterparts, according to a study released today by the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics.
  
  'According to the research, men who live with other men earn 23% less than married men and 9% less than unmarried straight men who cohabit with women.'
  
  (from advocate.com)
  2007-11-03 10:18:15
• NY State gets million dollar settlement from Verizon for misleading customers — 'Attorney General's investigation found that Verizon Wireless prominently marketed these plans as "Unlimited," without disclosing that common usages such as downloading movies or playing games online were prohibited. The company also cut off heavy internet users for exceeding an undisclosed cap of usage per month. As a result, customers misled by the company's claims, enrolled in its Unlimited plans, only to have their accounts abruptly terminated for excessive use, leaving them without internet services and unable to obtain refunds.'
  
  (from networkworld.com)
  
  Another reason not to patronize customer-hostile Verizon for anything, if you can help it.
  2007-10-26 09:28:05
• 'In this game, all candidates have been associated with homophobes' — 'Hillary Clinton recently trumpeted her friendship with Harold Mayberry, of the First African Methodist Church in Oakland; her press release on the meeting/endorsement left out the fact that Mayberry believes homosexuality to be comparable to thievery.'
  
  (from huffingtonpost.com)
  
  Unlike the author of this article, I'll note that Obama's on record saying "my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman," and using that to justify marriage discrimination against gays and lesbians. That makes him utterly unacceptable as a candidate to me.
  2007-10-23 17:27:15
• Obama hearts homophobes — 'The Obama campaign is coming under fire for staging a campaign gospel tour that includes gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, an antigay crusader who has railed against "the curse of homosexuality."'
  
  (from tpmelectioncentral.com)
  2007-10-23 17:14:35
• Fascism — And no, I'm not exaggerating.
  
  (from matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com)
  
  2007-10-23 17:10:51
• Fossilized remains of enormous new dinosaur species, "Futalognkosaurus," discovered in Argentina — 'The skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur species — a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs ever found — has been uncovered in Argentina, scientists said Monday.
  
  'Scientists from Argentina and Brazil said the Patagonian dinosaur appears to represent a previously unknown species of Titanosaur because of the unique structure of its neck. They named it Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Mapuche Indian words for "giant" and "chief," and for Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the skeleton's excavation.'
  
  (AP via sfgate.com)
  2007-10-15 14:34:18
• Schwarzenegger once again vetoes legislature bill recognizing same-sex marriage — 'In his veto message, the Republican governor said it is up to the state Supreme Court and then, if necessary, voters to alter Proposition 22, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman in California.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  Funny how when the courts are pro-equality, they're "activist judges" who should abide by the laws written by the legislative branch, and not perform any of that pesky interpretation that the constitution says the courts are for. But when it's the legislature that's pro-equality, then they should wait for the courts.
  
  Oh wait, that's not funny - it's just disgusting Republican hypocrisy.
  
  2007-10-15 14:30:05
• Californian brings anti-trust lawsuit against Apple over iPhone provider monopoly and bricking — 'A civil lawsuit filed in California accuses Apple of creating an unlawful iPhone monopoly and vindictively releasing a software update that turns hacked devices into "iBricks."
  
  'The lawsuit, filed by attorney Damian Fernandez on behalf of a California man, accuses Apple of creating a monopoly by barring US customers from choosing a cellphone service provider other than US telecom giant AT&T.'
  
  (from news.yahoo.com)
  2007-10-10 11:21:53
• Bush vetoes legislation to provide health care to poor kids; of only four vetoes he's ever made, this is the third to restrict health care or health research — 'President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance.
  
  'It was only the fourth veto of Bush's presidency, and one that some Republicans feared could carry steep risks for their party in next year's elections.'
  
  (from boston.com)
  
  Inexcusable.
  2007-10-03 13:44:02
• Lambda Legal on the suspended ENDA bill: Not only allows discrimination against trans people, but adds loopholes for discrimination against other gays and lesbians — 'As a point of clarity for the community: The recent version is not simply the old version with the transgender protections stripped out - but rather has modified the old version in several additional and troubling ways.
  
  'In addition to the missing vital protections for transgender people on the job, this new bill also leaves out a key element to protect any employee, including lesbians and gay men who may not conform to their employer's idea of how a man or woman should look and act. This is a huge loophole through which employers sued for sexual orientation discrimination can claim that their conduct was actually based on gender expression, a type of discrimination that the new bill does not prohibit.
  
  'This version of ENDA states without qualification that refusal by employers to extend health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of their employees that are provided only to married couples cannot be considered sexual orientation discrimination....
  
  'In the previous version of ENDA the religious exemptions had some limitations. The new version has a blanket exemption under which, for example, hospitals or universities run by faith-based groups can fire or refuse to hire people they think might be gay or lesbian.'
  
  (from lambdalegal.org)
  
  Holy crap. The blogosphere has done a terrible job of communicating that this is more than just a bill stripped of transgender protections, but actually cover for the religious right to persecute gays and lesbian employees in ways they cannot currently. I'm shocked and dismayed, but glad that NGLTF and others were able to (at least temporarily) halt this damaging legislation.
  2007-10-02 16:50:18
• Greenwald on the hypocrisy of Fox News in comparing people to Nazis — 'If Jane Hamsher and MoveOn.org are routinely held up on Fox News as "Nazis," and Media Matters and Markos Moulitsas continuously branded as "Hitler" and "the new Gestapo," then isn't the only logical conclusion that these terms signify nothing significant, that they are merely commonplace insults? And isn't that the outcome which these groups -- sitting silently by -- are supposedly dedicated to preventing? Shouldn't the ADL, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and like-minded groups be vigorously condemning Fox News and the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Tammy Bruce and Mark Levin for this reckless and "trivializing" behavior?'
  
  (from salon.com)
  
  Um... Silly question. This is the USA, where everything someone to the left of Reagan does is Evil! and everything a neocon does is perfection itself. Duh.
  2007-10-02 15:59:35
• Civil unions in NJ, shockingly, don't seem to get all the rights and privileges of marriage after all — 'New Jersey's civil unions law has failed to provide all the benefits of marriage to at least one in five same-sex couples, a gay rights group told a panel Wednesday that will report its findings to the governor and state legislature.
  
  'More than 300 of the 1,514 same-sex couples who have joined in civil unions have complained to Garden State Equality, the state's leading gay rights group, about employers denying them benefits under the law, said David M. Smith, the group's deputy director....
  
  'Craig Ross said that when he lost his white-collar job and tried to get benefits on his partner's plan, the couple were denied despite their civil union because they aren't ''married.''
  
  '''Calling our relationship and our legal status a civil union, I believe, gives my company an easy out,'' Ross said. ''Calling it what it is -- a marriage -- makes denial of those benefits obvious for what it is: discrimination.'''
  
  (from advocate.com)
  2007-10-01 12:46:49
• Congress throws trans people to the dogs in effort to pass ENDA — Dems and progressives appear to have learned nothing from the battle over marriage equality. We'd never have that in MA, if we'd settled for civil unions. We'd never have civil unions in NJ, I think, if MA had settled for them. You have to reach far to get anything done. If you compromise right out of the gate, your political opponents (accurately) sense weakness and go for blood.
  2007-10-01 12:44:40
• Shocking: Data indicate that rich people are much more likely to attend Hahvahd — 'Just how skewed the system is toward the already advantaged is illustrated by the findings of a recent study of 146 selective colleges and universities, which concluded that students from the top quartile of the socioeconomic hierarchy (based on parental income, education and occupation) are 25 times more likely to attend a “top tier” college than students from the bottom quartile.'
  
  (from nytimes.com)
  2007-09-27 13:19:59
• Scary list of extensive information tracking Homeland Security performs on all Americans — 'By keeping tabs on what individual citizens read and with whom they associate, the Department of Homeland Security is collecting data on the free exercise of 1st Amendment activities in direct violation of the Privacy Act 1974.'
  
  from unsecureflight.com
  2007-09-27 13:16:56
• Demographics: Party Affiliation and Income Level — Here's a citation for the claim I made when writing about Verizon -- a Pew poll demonstrating the correlation between increasing income levels and Republicanism. (Look at the bottom.)
  
  (from people-press.org)
  2007-09-27 09:48:00
• Verizon: Now they don't just give your data to the Feds, they censor what you can say via text messaging, too! — 'Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a text-message program...
  
  'In turning down the program, Verizon, one of the nation’s two largest wireless carriers, told Naral that it does not accept programs from any group “that seeks to promote an agenda or distribute content that, in its discretion, may be seen as controversial or unsavory to any of our users.” Naral provided copies of its communications with Verizon to The New York Times.
  
  'Nancy Keenan, Naral’s president, said Verizon’s decision interfered with political speech and activism.
  
  '“No company should be allowed to censor the message we want to send to people who have asked us to send it to them,” Ms. Keenan said. “Regardless of people’s political views, Verizon customers should decide what action to take on their phones. Why does Verizon get to make that choice for them?”...
  
  'Texting has proved to be an extraordinarily effective political tool. According to a study released this month by researchers at Princeton and the University of Michigan, young people who received text messages reminding them to vote in November 2006 were more likely to go to the polls. The cost per vote generated, the study said, was much smaller than other sorts of get-out-the-vote efforts.
  
  'Around the world, the phenomenon is even bigger.
  
  '“Even as dramatic as the adoption of text messaging for political communication has been in the United States, we’ve been quite slow compared to the rest of the world,” said James E. Katz, the director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. “It’s important in political campaigns and political protests, and it has affected the outcomes of elections.”
  
  'Timothy Wu, a law professor at Columbia, said it was possible to find analogies to Verizon’s decision abroad. “Another entity that controls mass text messages is the Chinese government,” Professor Wu said.'...
  
  'Professor Wu pointed to a historical analogy. In the 19th century, he said, Western Union, the telegraph company, engaged in discrimination, based on the political views of people who sought to send telegrams. “One of the eventual reactions was the common carrier rule,” Professor Wu said, which required telegraph and then phone companies to accept communications from all speakers on all topics.
  
  'Some scholars said such a rule was not needed for text messages because market competition was sufficient to ensure robust political debate.'
  
  (from nytimes.com)
  
  Keeping in mind that large companies, with boards of directors composed of the very rich, automatically tend towards conservatism (remember, in the U.S., there is a high correlation between increasing wealth and increasing tendency to vote Republican), the idea of communication providers using their "discretion" to decide what messages people are allowed to send should seem a little troubling to anyone not a neocon.
  
  The article is right about the power of texting as a tool for organizing political activism and protests. The immigration rights protest we saw in Tucson was absolutely fueled and coordinated by text messaging.
  
  The bit at the end about competition giving a market niche to providers who don't censor is obvious, blatant, transparent BS. Does anyone really think it's realistic that all of NARAL's subscribers are going to change their mobile provider in order to get text messages?
  2007-09-27 09:40:10
• With his blatant exploitation of 9-11 for political gain, Giuliani looks poised to be our next president — Then again, Romney's displayed the most base hypocritical pandering -- he was for gay rights when he was trying to become governor of Mass., and now that he's running for president, he's against then. I think it's time for McCain to laugh while executing someone, just to put all the Republican contenders on a lever, walking-in-Bush's-footsteps playing field.
  
  'The International Association of Fire Fighters accused Republican Rudy Giuliani of exploiting the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because a supporter is holding a $9.11-per-person fundraiser for the presidential candidate.
  
  'The union — already a vocal critic of Giuliani's — said Tuesday that the fundraiser's "$9.11 for Rudy" theme is an abuse of the image and symbols of the 2001 attacks.
  
  '"It is nothing short of disrespectful to the legacy of the thousands of civilians and 343 brave firefighters who died at ground zero," IAFF president Harold Schaitberger said.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  2007-09-26 12:52:45
• You mean there's still racism in the United States? Jena may reportedly praises neo-Nazi white supremacist counter-deomnstrators — 'The incident capped months of racial unrest after three white students hung nooses from a shade tree at the high school after black students asked permission to sit under it. School officials dismissed the noose incident as a prank, angering black students and their parents and triggering a series of fights between whites and blacks. The whites involved were charged with misdemeanors or not at all while the blacks drew various felony charges.
  
  'McMillin has insisted that his town is being unfairly portrayed as racist—an assertion the mayor repeated in an interview with Richard Barrett, the leader of the Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist group based in Learned, Miss., who asked McMillin to "set aside some place for those opposing the colored folks."
  
  '"I am not endorsing any demonstrations, but I do appreciate what you are trying to do," Barrett quoted McMillin as saying. "Your moral support means a lot."'
  
  (from chicagotribune.com)
  2007-09-25 10:38:09
• Last Friday: The Day the U.S. Dollar Dropped to Equal the Canadian Dollar — 'Responding to a reporter's question that speculation was driving the loonie higher, [United States] Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in the Ottawa area to sign a new bilateral tax agreement, said there were sound economic fundamentals supporting the Canadian currency...'
  
  'The loonie opened at par Friday but moved lower on a disappointing retail sales report that suggested Canada's economy was slowing.
  
  'However, by early afternoon, the loonie was trading well above parity, peaking at US$1.0040 (four one-hundredths of a cent above parity), before closing at 99.91 cents US in Toronto, up four-hundredths of a cent from Thursday.'
  
  (from canadianpress.google.com)
  2007-09-24 09:24:54
• "Goodbye, Habeus corpus:" Tucson Weekly's 10 most-censored stories of the last year — 'Habeas corpus, a constitutional right cribbed from the Magna Carta, protects against arbitrary imprisonment. Alexander Hamilton, writing in the Federalist Papers, called it the greatest defense against "the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny."
  
  'The Military Commissions Act has been seen mostly as a method for dealing with Guantánamo Bay detainees, and most journalists have reported that it doesn't have any impact on Americans. On Oct. 19, 2006, editors at The New York Times wrote, in quite definitive language, "this law does not apply to American citizens."
  
  'Investigative journalist Robert Parry disagrees. The right of habeas corpus no longer exists for any of us, he wrote in the online journal Consortium. Deep down in the lower sections of the act, the language shifts from the very specific "alien unlawful enemy combatant" to the vague "any person subject to this chapter."
  
  '"Why does it contain language referring to 'any person' and then add in an adjacent context a reference to people acting 'in breach of allegiance or duty to the United States'?"'
  
  (from tucsonweekly.com)
  2007-09-21 09:14:02
• Krugman on pro-Republican media subjectivity — From his newly-accessible blog. I can't believe I actually like something that's on the NY Times!
  
  'After the 1994 election, the cover of Time showed a charging elephant, and the headline read “GOP stampede.” Indeed, the GOP had won an impressive victory: in House races, Republicans had a 7 percentage point lead in the two-party vote.
  
  'In 2006, Time’s cover was much more subdued; two overlapping circles, and the headline “The center is the new place to be.” You might assume that this was because the Democrats barely eked out a victory. In fact, Democrats had an 8.5 percentage point lead, substantially bigger than the GOP win in 1994. Also, the new Democratic majority in the House isn’t just larger than any the Republicans achieved over their 12-year reign; it’s much more solidly progressive than their pre-1994 majority.'
  
  (from blogs.nytimes.com)
  2007-09-21 09:10:17
• But remember, there's no such thing as global warming, right? — 'Shattering previous records, the sea ice in the Arctic shrank 1 million square miles more this summer than the average melt over 25 years, an area larger than Alaska and Texas combined, according to NASA satellite data released Thursday.'
  
  (sfgate.com)
  2007-09-21 09:07:02
• The Luminous Landscape on a new fiber-based, baryta-coated inkjet paper for prints — This guy's saying that it's the baryta coating that gives traditional silver gel fiber prints their look, and that applying that to inkjet prints is revolutionary:
  
  'The reason this paper felt familiar is that Harman gloss is made with the same fiber base, baryta coating, and glossy surface as Ilford darkroom papers. In fact–– it is produced in Ilford’s coating facility. Baryta (barium sulfate) is a familiar term to traditional photographers. All fiber-based, gelatin-silver papers consist of natural fibers coated with baryta, silver and gelatin. Baryta’s presence whitens the paper base and provides a smooth surface and has been in photographic papers for over one hundred years, with a proven record of archival permanence. When baryta is used in an inkjet paper, it dramatically improves the look of the paper. Prints made on this paper exhibit a classical elegance. They look like traditional photographs. The baryta layer offers an unexpected surprise. It improves the image structure. The baryta inhibits the ink droplets from spreading on the paper which creates sharper dots and sharper looking prints. When the same image was printed both on Harman Gloss and a plastic paper, viewed side by side, the Harman gloss print looked sharper.'
  2007-09-20 12:59:00
• Cheney voted against a 1986 resolution for the release of Nelson Mandela, calling Mandela a "terrorist" — From 2000, but a heady reminder:
  
  'Yet Republican vice presidential candidate Cheney still defends his vote, saying on ABC's ``This Week'' that ``the ANC was then viewed as a terrorist organization. . . . I don't have any problems at all with the vote I cast 20 years ago.'' What, then, does this tell us about what information Cheney considers before he takes a decision? And what the long-term consequences are likely to be, and on whom?'
  
  I didn't hear about this back in 2000. Not so shocking, of course.
  
  Also notable is that Reagan vetoed this resolution. Funny the people the American media choose to glorify.
  
  (from commondreams.org)
  2007-09-20 12:50:45
• "The Cult of Leica" — Article on Leica history over at the New Yorker. Anthony Lane seems to get what it is that's so attractive about rangefinder cameras.
  2007-09-20 12:47:09
• Pavarotti died today — 'Luciano Pavarotti, whose glorious, unforced tenor voice and gusto as a performer helped redefine tenor stardom at a level scarcely seen since Enrico Caruso, died today at his home in Modena, Italy, after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer, his manager said. He was 71.'
  
  Not sure about the "unforced" part - he was, after all, an Italian tenor - but he certainly was (and remains) a major figure in Opera. I love that recording of Turandot.
  2007-09-06 15:13:42
• Coolest Digital Camera Ever — Man, I want one of these. A digital F4, fer pete's sake!
  2007-08-10 16:42:15
• Wake up people - Republicans are trying to change the electoral rules to be even more in their favor — 'Two weeks ago, one of the most important Republican lawyers in Sacramento quietly filed a ballot initiative that would end the practice of granting all fifty-five of California’s electoral votes to the statewide winner. Instead, it would award two of them to the statewide winner and the rest, one by one, to the winner in each congressional district. Nineteen of the fifty-three districts are represented by Republicans, but Bush carried twenty-two districts in 2004. The bottom line is that the initiative, if passed, would spot the Republican ticket something in the neighborhood of twenty electoral votes—votes that it wouldn’t get under the rules prevailing in every other sizable state in the Union.'
  
  (from newyorker.com)
  
  This will make battles like the last two elections' over Florida and Ohio simply unnecessary, and make it possible for Republicans to hold the White House indefinitely, even if their candidates (continue to) lose the popular vote by spectacular margins. Think about that.
  2007-08-09 15:10:41
• Executive Director of the NGLTF on Democratic leaders as fair-weather friends of gay and lesbian Americans — 'Time and again, we’ve been thrown under the political bus by politicians either in the White House or those who want to get there....
  
  'All of this misery has been exacerbated exponentially by the spinelessness or unwillingness of all but a few national leaders to take a stand for us and denounce the animus unleashed on us. Many of our “friends” have simply looked the other way.
  
  'We bear our scars and yet remain unbowed. But, we are still waiting for the country’s political leadership to defend our right to live and thrive as a matter of principle, not parse our dreams as a matter of misguided political calculation....
  
  'But, what of the Democrats? Sadly, mostly silence. You can find our issues explicitly referenced on only three candidates’ sites (Kucinich, Richardson and Gravel). Frontrunners Clinton, Obama and Edwards carefully parse their support of our people into specific reforms. We find no evidence that the Democratic frontrunners counter Republicans’ anti-LGBT speech with routine and positive inclusion of LGBT people in their visions for a whole and healthy society....
  
  'We deserve and we must demand from the Democratic 2008 presidential candidates the simple and straightforward statement that our humanity requires full respect and fair treatment by all and, further, an equally simple and straightforward condemnation of those who seek to use our lives for political gain. This needs to be said in front of all audiences — not just in front of us.'
  2007-08-09 15:07:07
• 'DOUBLE STANDARD: Bush's leniency for Libby doesn't jibe with administration's push to enforce mandatory minimum sentences' — 'President Bush's rationale for sparing Lewis "Scooter'' Libby from prison -- that his 2 1/2-year sentence was more severe than the former vice presidential aide deserved for lying to a grand jury -- is at odds with his support of new legislation that, by the administration's description, would make such sentences mandatory....
  
  'The administration is now proposing to toughen sentencing rules. The Justice Department announced legislation last month that it said would require federal judges to sentence criminals to at least the minimum term provided by federal guidelines -- the term that Bush found too harsh for Libby in commuting his sentence July 2.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  Like everything else with this administration, laws are things for other people to abide by.
  
  2007-08-09 15:02:23
• Iraq's costing $12 billion a month now. — (from sfgate.com)
  2007-07-10 18:44:02
• Republican Senator David Vitter, bitter gay marriage opponent, on DC Madam's phone list — Vitter is one of the sponsors of the Federal Marriage Amendment, the Republican plan to write discrimination against gays and lesbians into the U.S. Constitution. I guess the institution of marriage faces a greater threat from women marrying women than it does from hypocritical senators writing discriminatory laws who cheat on their wives. With hookers.
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  I'm really having a tough time keeping up on the complicated set of rules that describes Family Values. It's okay to be gay, as long as you're an antigay preacher, or a gigolo who spends his days being an undercover administration operative in the White House Press Corps, or the President's chief political advisor. It's only okay for you or your wife to have an abortion if you lie about thinking abortion is always wrong. And it's only wrong to cheat on your wife if you lie about it to Congress, but no problem if you try to write laws that make it illegal for other people to get married at all. So, what if I'm a lesbian hooker who's cheating on my husband, while writing laws to make it hard to get abortions, and I want to lie to Congress? Is that okay, or do I have to make sure my girlfriend is an antigay hooker-preacher?
  
  Hell, I need to start drawing some truth tables to figure this all out.
  2007-07-10 18:42:38
• UPS: NJ Civil Unions don't count; NJ Legislature: Um, yes they do — 'In its letter denying coverage, UPS said it does provide health benefits to its employees’ spouses, including spouses of the same sex who are married in Massachusetts. But it said New Jersey’s decision to recognize same-sex relationships as civil unions rather than marriages tied its hands.…
  
  'In its letter, UPS said the New Jersey Legislature, in enacting the state’s civil union law, “did not go as far as Massachusetts and afford same-sex couples the ability to marry. Had the New Jersey Legislature done that, you could have added Ms. Aurand as a spouse under the plan.”
  
  'The letter concluded that “New Jersey law does not treat civil unions the same as marriages.”'
  
  'One of the laws sponsors, Democratic Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, can’t seem to understand UPS’ rationale, "We made it clear through the language and the intent that when it came to issues like this, we fully expected civil-unioned couples would be covered"'
  
  (from queerty.com)
  
  2007-07-09 21:41:20
• Bush threatened to veto appropriations bill unless anti-gay language was reinstated — And Congress capitulated. Our wonderfully "progressive" House of Representatives at work.
  
  (from 365gay.com)
  
  2007-07-02 19:58:26
• Straights don't get to vote down our marriages after all: Legislators defeat MA ballot initiative — 'A proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was swiftly defeated today by a joint session of the Legislature by a vote of 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008. The measure needed at least 50 votes to advance.'
  
  (boston.com)
  
  2007-06-15 18:04:13
• Fundamentalist Mormons, Continued: 'Polygamist community faces rare genetic disorder' — 'The twin border communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, have the world's highest known prevalence of fumarase deficiency, an enzyme irregularity that causes severe mental retardation brought on by cousin marriage, doctors say....
  
  'The community of about 10,000 people, who shun outsiders and are taught to avoid newspapers, television and the Internet, is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a sect that broke from the mainstream Mormon church 72 years ago over polygamy.
  
  'The group, who wear conservative 19th-century clothing, is led by Warren Jeffs, who was arrested in August and charged as an accomplice to rape for using his authority to order a 14-year-old girl against her wishes to marry and have sex with her 19-year-old cousin...
  
  '"Once you get people within in the same community marrying, then the chances grow of having two people carrying the exact same mutation."
  
  (Reuters via Yahoo News)
  2007-06-15 18:02:22
• 'Nuremberg Prosecutor: Guantanamo Trials Are Unfair' — '“I think Robert Jackson, who’s the architect of Nuremberg, would turn over in his grave if he knew what was going on at Guantanamo,” Nuremberg prosecutor Henry King Jr. told Reuters in a telephone interview.
  
  '“It violates the Nuremberg principles, what they’re doing, as well as the spirit of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.”'
  
  (Reuters via crooksandliars.com)
  2007-06-15 17:58:46
• 'Fundamental[ist] Mormons seek recognition for polygamy' — 'Polygamy, once hidden in the shadows of Utah and Arizona, is breaking into the open as fundamentalist Mormons push to decriminalize it on religious grounds, while at the same time stamping out abuses such as forced marriages of underage brides.
  
  'The growing confidence of polygamists and their willingness to go public come at an awkward moment for mainstream Mormons, who are now in the spotlight as Republican Mitt Romney, a prominent Mormon, seeks the U.S. presidency.'
  
  (Reuters via Yahoo)
  2007-06-13 08:13:51
• Have you heard the one about the Pentagon trying to build a 'gay bomb?' — This has made the rounds before, but...
  
  'Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.
  
  'As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."
  
  'The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.'
  
  (from cbs5.com)
  2007-06-11 21:58:26
• Federal Appeals Court: Bush can't ignore law — 'A divided panel from a conservative federal appeals court delivered a harsh rebuke to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism strategy [sic] Monday, ruling that U.S. residents cannot be locked up indefinitely as "enemy combatants" without being charged.
  
  'The three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government should charge Ali al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident and the only suspected enemy combatant on American soil, or release him from military custody.'
  
  (AP via Yahoo)
  2007-06-11 21:55:45
• Thimerisol Court Convenes — 'Nearly 5,000 families will seek to convince a special "vaccine court" in Washington that the vaccines can cause healthy and outgoing children to withdraw into uncommunicative, autistic shells -- even though a large body of evidence and expert opinion has found no link. The court has never heard a case of such magnitude....
  
  'Economics and politics intersect in the case with questions of health and the deepening mystery of soaring autism rates. Advocates of the vaccine theory have argued that the increase in cases was triggered by a mercury-based preservative in vaccines that, they say, is toxic to children's brains.
  
  'Under pressure from the advocates and to keep the issue from disrupting vaccination programs, U.S. officials began phasing out the additive, thimerosal, in children's vaccines around 1999, while maintaining that there was no hard evidence that it was dangerous. But thimerosal is still used in vaccines across much of the developing world.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  2007-06-11 21:52:34
• Larry's at it again - seeking documented evidence of lawmaker malfeasance — '"Hustler" publisher Larry Flynt -- just days after posting a $1 million bounty for verifiable information on the sexual exploits of U.S. Congress members and political leaders -- says he's already been deluged by more than 200 leads pouring in from around the country, "80 percent of them on Republicans."
  
  '"I'm not interested in exposing anyone's sex life," Flynt said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It's the hypocrisy I'm after."'
  2007-06-11 21:49:10
• Strange bedfellows - Lieberman and... gay rights?! — 'Two U.S. senators introduced legislation Wednesday that would end federal tax inequities that apply to employer-provided health insurance for domestic partners. Independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Gordon Smith from Oregon are the Senate sponsors of the bill, a version of which was introduced into the House in March by Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington State.'
  
  (from advocate.com)
  2007-06-11 21:47:55
• Pelosi Scores One for CA's Environmental Limits on Greenhouse Gases — 'House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, responding to pressure from California officials and environmentalists, has slapped down a new proposal by top House Democrats that would have wiped out California's ability to regulate greenhouse gases from cars and trucks.
  
  'In a brief but pointed statement Tuesday night, the San Francisco Democrat said, "Any proposal that affects California's landmark efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or eliminates the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions will not have my support."
  
  'Her message was a shot at two House Democrats -- Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., both leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee who have been crafting new energy legislation that would have thwarted the state's ability to set tougher-than-federal standards to cut vehicle emissions.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  2007-06-06 20:24:26
• Democrats in CA legislature pass gay marriage law, again — 'For the second time in three years, the state Assembly approved legislation Tuesday allowing same-sex marriage in California...
  
  'On a party-line vote, Democrats supported San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno's effort to make California the first state in the country to legislatively end the prohibition on gay marriage. The bill advances to the state Senate, but even if it is approved there, it's likely to face a veto from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  2007-06-06 20:21:33
• 'Prison for Libby in Leak Case' — 'Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation....
  
  '"People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem," U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  2007-06-06 20:17:35
• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Mourns 'Leader of America's Anti-Gay Industry' — 'The death of a family member or friend is always a sad occasion and we express our condolences to all those who were close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America’s anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation’s appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation.'
  
  2007-05-16 18:35:46
• Another Republican senator calls for Gonzales to resign — 'Sen. Chuck Hagel on Wednesday became the latest Republican to call for Alberto Gonzales' resignation, saying revelations about a sick bed visit to his predecessor have undermined his moral authority to lead the Justice Department...
  
  'At issue in 2004 was Bush's no-warrant wiretapping program, which Comey described as so questionable that Ashcroft refused for a time to reauthorize it as required in March, 2004.
  
  'Senior government officials had expressed concerns about whether the National Security Agency, which administered the program, had the proper oversight in place. Other concerns included whether any president possessed the legal and constitutional authority to authorize the program as it operated at the time.
  
  'Days before the program's required recertification in March, 2004, Ashcroft suddenly fell ill enough with pancreatitis that he transferred the powers of the attorney general to Comey. Acting Attorney General Comey, too, refused to certify the program's legality.
  
  'On March 10, Gonzales, then White House Counsel, and Bush's former chief of staff, Andy Card, took the matter to Ashcroft as he lay in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital. Tipped to their impending visit, Comey raced there with the sirens of his security detail blaring, he told the committee Tuesday.
  
  'Comey arrived at Ashcroft's bedside moments before the president's aides walked in, Gonzales holding the presidential order of recertification.
  
  'Ashcroft rebuffed them, pointing out that Comey held the powers of the attorney general at that moment. Gonzales and Card left the room without acknowledging Comey.
  
  'Card later demanded that Comey come to the White House. Comey said he demanded a witness accompany him after the conduct he'd seen at Ashcroft's bed side.
  
  'Card "replied, 'What conduct? We were just there to wish him well,'" Comey recalled.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  2007-05-16 18:33:50
• Bush threatens to veto popular hate crimes bill — 'The White House issued a veto threat Thursday against U.S. legislation that would expand federal hate-crime law to include attacks motivated by the victims' gender identity or sexual orientation.
  
  'The hate-crimes bill, with strong Democratic backing, passed the House of Representatives Thursday. Similar legislation is moving through the Senate.'
  2007-05-16 18:27:07
• Gingrich admits to hypocritical marital infidelity while he was leading the Clinton inquest — 'Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.
  
  '...His first marriage, to his former high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, ended in divorce in 1981. Although Gingrich has said he doesn't remember it, Battley has said Gingrich discussed divorce terms with her while she was recuperating in the hospital from cancer surgery.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  2007-03-30 08:34:08
• 'Justice Dept.: FBI Misused Patriot Act' — 'The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.
  
  'The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct.'
  
  Baloney. Everyone knew at the time that doing this was unconstitutional. They just didn't care.
  2007-03-30 08:32:21
• 'Bush administration's account of the firings... has shifted repeatedly' — 'More than two weeks after a former U.S. attorney in New Mexico alleged he was fired for not prosecuting Democrats, the White House and Justice Department are still struggling to explain the roles of President Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other key officials in the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors late last year.
  
  'On Friday, the White House retreated from its 4-day-old assertion that former counsel Harriet Miers had started the process two years ago by proposing the firing of all 93 U.S. attorneys.
  
  '"It has been described as her idea ... but I don't want to vouch for origination," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. "At this juncture, people have hazy memories."
  
  'In addition, Kyle Sampson, who resigned Monday as Gonzales' chief of staff, disputed the reasons given for his departure in a statement issued through his attorney Friday night.
  
  '"The fact that the White House and Justice Department had been discussing the subject for several years was well known to a number of other senior officials at the department, including others who were involved in preparing the department's testimony to Congress," said the statement by Sampson's lawyer, Bradford Berenson.
  
  'Snow's comments mark the latest revision of the Bush administration's account of the firings, which has shifted repeatedly over the past week as new e-mails and other evidence have come to light. The precise roles of Gonzales, presidential adviser Karl Rove and Bush himself remain unclear, even as calls for Gonzales' resignation mount.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  2007-03-30 08:30:48
• NY Times opinion page explains why what the Bushies and their friends did was illegal — 'The Bush administration has done a terrible job of explaining its decision to fire eight United States attorneys. Story after story has proved to be untrue: that the prosecutors who were fired were poor performers; that the White House was not involved in the purge. But the administration has been strangely successful in pushing its message that the scandal is at worst a political misdeed, not a criminal matter.
  
  '...It is illegal to lie to Congress, and also to “impede” it in getting information.
  
  '...As part of the Sarbanes-Oxley reforms, Congress passed an extremely broad obstruction of justice provision, 18 U.S.C. § 1512 (c), which applies to anyone who corruptly “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,” including U.S. attorney investigations.'
  
  Shocking to see this laid out in the Times, of all places. Where were they when it came to spelling out the lies that got us into Iraq? Cheerleading Bush, that's where.
  2007-03-30 08:27:05
• 'Tony Snow says president must let his senior advisers testify under oath' — Only, that was then, this is now. During the Clinton impeachment, Snow said:
  
  '"Evidently, Mr. Clinton wants to shield virtually any communications that take place within the White House compound on the theory that all such talk contributes in some way, shape or form to the continuing success and harmony of an administration. Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything. He would have a constitutional right to cover up."'
  
  There's a joke in here someone, but it's a sick joke, and it's on the American people...
  
  (from americablog.blogspot.com)
  2007-03-30 08:22:56
• ACT UP still acting up, because people still dying from AIDS — 'Nearly 30 people were arrested in an act of civil disobedience Thursday after 50 body bags were lined up on a New York City street to represent the number of people who die of AIDS complications every day. Venerable activist group ACT UP—AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power—commemorated its 20th anniversary by reenacting its first protest, which took place 20 years ago, also in New York City's financial district. Upward of 800 people showed up to march down Wall Street, calling out to health care providers and pharmaceutical companies.'
  
  (from advocate.com)
  2007-03-30 08:19:50
• Google AdSense has double standard for risque straight and gay content — Do no evil my ass.
  
  Meanwhile, hosting blogs inciting hate crimes, not so much a problem for Google.
  
  (from queerty.com)
  
  2007-02-23 12:09:35
• NJ to import Mass. same-sex marriages as civil unions — Note the misleading headline - "N.J. to recognize gay marriage." No, NJ does not recognize Mass. marriages as such. Tell me again what this so-called liberal media consists of?
  
  'Attorney General Stuart Rabner of New Jersey said that same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts, which is the only state in the country to allow them, will be considered as civil unions in New Jersey.'
  
  2007-02-23 12:01:32
• So much for tool use separating us from other animals — 'Chimpanzees living in the West African savannah have been observed fashioning spears from sticks and using the handcrafted tools to hunt small mammals -- the first routine production of deadly weapons ever seen in nonhuman animals.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  2007-02-23 11:57:47
• The brave new world of data sharing makes it harder to travel — 'There, in a room he estimates was filled with 60 other concerned travelers, he was told he was "a person who was inadmissible to Canada.'' The problem? A conviction for marijuana possession.
  In 1975.
  
  'Welcome to the new world of border security. Unsuspecting Americans are turning up at the Canadian border expecting clear sailing, only to find that their past -- sometimes their distant past -- is suddenly an issue.
  
  'While Canada officially has barred travelers convicted of criminal offenses for years, attorneys say post-9/11 information-gathering, combined with a sweeping agreement between Canada and the United States to share data, has resulted in a spike in phone calls from concerned travelers.
  They are shocked to hear that the sins of their youth might keep them out of Canada. But what they don't know is that this is just the beginning. Soon other nations will be able to look into your past when you want to travel there.'
  2007-02-23 11:52:06
• 31 — 'President Bush's job approval rating has fallen to just 31 percent, according to the new NEWSWEEK Poll. Bill Clinton's lowest rating during his presidency was 36 percent; Bush's father's was 29 percent, and Ronald Reagan's was 35 percent.'
  
  (from msnbc.msn.com)
  
  2006-11-13 09:43:35
• War crimes charges for Rumsfeld? — 'A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo'
  
  (from time.com)
  2006-11-10 15:56:41
• 'Democrats take control of the Senate' — 'Jim Webb's squeaker win over incumbent Sen. George Allen... gave Democrats their 51st seat in the Senate, an astonishing turnabout at the hands of voters unhappy with Republican scandal and unabated violence in Iraq. Allen was the sixth Republican incumbent senator defeated in Tuesday's elections.'
  
  (AP via news.yahoo.com)
  2006-11-09 11:26:16
• Rumsfeld's stepping down — What more is there to say?
  2006-11-08 13:58:15
• 'Same-sex marriage ban rejected in Arizona in historic first' — The Advocate's also reporting the ban died in AZ. I haven't read any update on the absentee ballots. Here's hoping.
  
  Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin have all embraced consitutional bigotry, though, which is sad. Apparently by smaller margins than previous marriage bans. There's lots of work to do, but people seem to be, slowly, coming around.
  2006-11-08 10:20:27
• AZ may be first state where voters defeat an anti-marriage amendment at the polls — 'In a triple setback for conservatives, South Dakotans rejected a law that would have banned virtually all abortions, Arizona became the first state to defeat an amendment to ban gay marriage and Missouri approved a measure backing stem cell research.'
  
  (ap via myway.com)
  
  The latest I'd heard elsewhere on the AZ thing was that there was a large number of absentee ballots still to be counted, so that was still undecided. I'm particularly concerned about that one, as those ballots can tend to push things towards the right wing. Still, it would be fantastic, and revolutionary, news, if this turned out to be true.
  2006-11-08 10:12:15
• 'A Sharp Rebuke of President Bush' — 'The political pendulum in American politics swung away from the right yesterday, putting an end to the 12-year Republican Revolution on Capitol Hill and delivering a sharp rebuke of President Bush and the Iraq war.'
  
  (from washingtonpost.com)
  2006-11-08 09:32:18
• Republican House Majority Leader blames the U.S. military for failure in Iraq — 'Wolf, I understand that, but let's not blame what's happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld... But the fact is the generals on the ground are in charge...'
  
  Way to support the troops, you hypocritical, evil liars.
  
  (from americablog.blogspot.com)
  2006-11-02 11:42:29
• Keith Olbermann on Bush, the root of political incivility — 'This President must apologize to the troops - for having suggested, six weeks ago, that the chaos in Iraq, the death and the carnage, the slaughtered Iraqi civilians and the dead American service personnel, will, to history, quote "look like just a comma."
  
  'This President must apologize to the troops - because the intelligence he claims led us into Iraq proved to be undeniably and irredeemably wrong.
  
  ''This President must apologize to the troops - for having laughed about the failure of that intelligence, at a banquet, while our troops were in harm's way.'
  
  Read the whole thing.
  
  (from MSNBC, via Crooks and Liars)
  2006-11-02 11:37:35
• NJ Court: Marriage for all, but the Legislature can decide what to call it — 'Denying committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. The Court holds that under the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, committed same-sex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes. The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to same-sex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process.'
  
  (from judiciary.state.nj.us)
  2006-10-25 15:23:14
• Former Bush Administration golden boy brings out most damaging charge yet: Rove refers to evangelical leaders as 'nuts' — 'The book, "Tempting Faith," not out until Monday, but in our third story tonight, a Countdown exclusive we've obtained a copy and it is devastating work.
  
  'Author David Kuo's conservative Christian credentials are impeccable; his resume sprinkled with names like Bennett and Ashcroft. Now, as the Foley cover-up has many evangelical Christians wondering whether the G.O.P. is really in sync with their values, "Tempting Faith" provides the answer: No way.
  
  'Kuo, citing one example after another of a White House that repeatedly uses evangelical Christians for their votes while consistently giving them nothing in return;
  
  'A White House which routinely speaks of the nation's most famous evangelical leaders behind their backs, with contempt and derision.
  
  'Furthermore, Faith-Based Initiatives were not only stiffed on one public promise after another by Mr. Bush - the office itself was eventually forced to answer a higher calling: Electing Republican politicians.
  
  'Kuo's bottom line: the Bush White House is playing millions of American Christians for suckers.'
  
  (from crooksandliars.com)
  2006-10-12 09:40:33
• She gets it! Rep. Pelosi charts out House's actions for the first 100 hours of Democratic rule — 'Day One: Put new rules in place to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation."
  
  'Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
  
  'Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.
  
  'Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds — "I hope with a veto-proof majority," she added in an Associated Press interview Thursday.'
  
  Finally, a Dem learns from the Republicans. If this is the new Contract with America coming from House Democratic leadership, I'm all for it. After all, who can argue with implementing the suggestions of the 9/11 commission?
  2006-10-06 08:45:04
• MA court rules that RI residents can wed in Mass — 'In a significant victory for gay rights advocates, a Superior Court judge ruled today that a lesbian couple from Rhode Island may wed in Massachusetts, finding that Rhode Island’s laws do not explicitly prohibit same-sex marriages.
  
  'The ruling by Judge Thomas Connolly is the first to find that same-sex couples from outside Massachusetts may wed under the Supreme Judicial Court's 2003 ruling that legalized same-sex weddings in the Bay State.
  
  'Wendy Becker and Mary Norton of Providence, R.I., had argued in court that a 1913 law that forbids out-of-state residents from marrying in Massachusetts did not apply to them because Rhode Island does not specifically ban gay marriage.
  
  'In a 9-page ruling, Connolly agreed with the couple.
  
  '"No evidence was introduced before this court of a constitutional amendment, statute, or controlling appellate decision from Rhode Island that explicitly deems void or otherwise expressly forbids same-sex marriage," he wrote.
  
  'Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who had defended the 1913 law in court, said officials in Rhode Island could challenge the decision, but said his office would not appeal.
  
  '"In Massachusetts," Reilly said in a statement, "pursuing this matter further in the courts would be a waste of time and resources."'
  
  (from boston.com)
  
  It's so odd to see logic and equality prevailing in the courts these days. A welcome change after the disgraceful arbitrariness of the WA decision.
  2006-09-29 13:55:15
• Executive, Legislative branches pass law suspending write of habeas corpus; whither America? — 'The removal of habeas corpus came under particular criticism, from both sides, with even some Republicans who voted for the bill nonetheless predicting it likely that the Supreme Court would strike down the legislation because of its scrapping of the right of prisoners to challenge their own detention.
  
  'Democrats also criticised the sanctioning of harsh interrogation techniques which they said would border on torture. "This bill gives an administration that lobbied for torture exactly what it wanted," said Senator John Kerry
  
  '"I’m convinced that future generations will view passage of this bill as a grave error," said Harry Reid, a Democrat and Senate Minority Leader.'
  
  (from timesonline.co.uk)
  
  2006-09-29 10:48:06
• Bush falsely claims National Intelligence Estimate draws politically favorable conclusion, calls Iraq war opponents (including majority of US) "naive" — 'In announcing yesterday that he would release the key judgments of a controversial National Intelligence Estimate, President Bush said he agreed with the document's conclusion "that because of our successes against the leadership of al-Qaeda, the enemy is becoming more diffuse and independent."
  
  'But the estimate itself posits no such cause and effect...
  
  'In describing Iraq as "the 'cause celebre' for jihadists," the document judges that real and perceived insurgent successes there will "inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere," while losses would have the opposite effect. It predicts that the elimination of al-Qaeda leaders, particularly Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed after the estimate was completed in April, would probably leave that organization splintered into disparate groups that "for at least a time, pose a less serious threat to U.S. interests" than the current al-Qaeda structure.'
  
  Of course, we've failed to go after or capture bin Laden, and Bush has described capturing him as not a priority.
  2006-09-27 10:34:19
• Dude lists Bush's lies in his UN address — Like shooting gimp fish in a toy-sized barrel:
  
  '"This morning, I want to speak about the more hopeful world that is within our reach, a world beyond terror, where ordinary men and women are free to determine their own destiny, where the voices of moderation are empowered, and where the extremists are marginalized by the peaceful majority. This world can be ours if we seek it and if we work together."
  
  'Under President Bush, the United States has seriously undermined the ability of the international community to work together to empower voices of moderation and marginalize extremists. For example, the Bush administration has gone to great efforts to undermine the International Criminal Court, which could play a critical role in bringing to justice extremists responsible for crimes against humanity. Similarly, with bipartisan support in Congress, the Bush administration attacked the International Court of Justice for its landmark 2004 ruling on the obligations of signatories to enforce the Fourth Geneva Convention. The United States, the world's number one arms supplier, has also blocked UN efforts to curb the trade in small arms used by terrorists. Currently, the United States sends more arms and security assistance than any other country to autocratic regimes and other violators of universally recognized human rights in the Middle East and elsewhere.
  
  '"Recently a courageous group of Arab and Muslim intellectuals wrote me a letter. In it, they said this: 'The shore of reform is the only one on which any lights appear, even though the journey demands courage and patience and perseverance.' ... Together we must support the dreams of good and decent people who are working to transform a troubled region ..."
  
  'What President Bush failed to mention is that that letter... also stated that it "is our belief that the main problem with U.S. policies in the Middle East (in particular in Iraq, Palestine, and elsewhere) is precisely their failure to live up to America's democratic ideals of liberty and justice for all."
  
  '"To the people of Iran: The United States respects you; we respect your country ... The United Nations has passed a clear resolution requiring that the regime in Tehran meet its international obligations. Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions ... We're working toward a diplomatic solution to this crisis. And as we do, we look to the day when you can live in freedom -- and America and Iran can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace."
  
  'Given that the United States was responsible for the coup that overthrew Iran's last democratic government back in 1953 and subsequently backed the Shah's brutal dictatorial regime for a quarter century, platitudes regarding respect for the people of Iran and hope that they may live in freedom do not carry much weight. Indeed, though Iran's electoral process is seriously flawed on many levels, elections there have tended to be freer and more representative than those in the seven U.S.-backed regimes praised by President Bush.'
  
  (from zmag.org)
  2006-09-25 16:06:28
• 'Judge overturns Bush policy on new forest roads' — 'In a rebuke of one of the Bush administration's first environmental policies, a federal judge has overturned a rule that would have allowed roads to be built through nearly 60 million acres of national forest land, including 4.4 million acres in California.
  
  'The decision, announced Wednesday, came as several states were preparing to allow road construction on untouched wildlands, opening them to activities like logging, mining and driving off-road vehicles.
  
  'U.S. District Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte ruled that the policy ignored both the National Environmental Policy Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Laporte reinstituted a Clinton administration policy implemented in 2001 that prohibited new roads on some pristine wildlands, including large swaths in the Inyo and Stanislaus national forests...
  
  'Conservationists said the decision vindicated their contention that the Bush rule was an attempt to log and mine public lands by illegally overturning the Clinton policy.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  2006-09-21 08:46:57
• Dylan's Modern Times at Number 1 in the charts — 'Bob Dylan reached the top of the U.S. pop albums chart for the first time in 30 years on Wednesday, becoming the oldest living person to launch a new disc at No. 1....
  
  'Dylan last reached No. 1 in 1976 with his album "Desire," which led the field for five weeks.'
  
  (from cnn.com)
  2006-09-12 13:52:18
• Bank of America has innocent man arrested — 'Earlier this month, a bank vice president, William Minnes, wrote to Shinnick's lawyer to say that "Bank of America can certainly understand that your client is angry at the bank."
  
  'However, he said, BofA has no legal liability in the case because of the 2004 Supreme Court ruling. Minnes warned that "litigation would not prove financially beneficial" to Shinnick.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  2006-08-30 12:53:58
• More than 46 million Americans without health insurance — 'Nearly 1 in 6 Americans, or 15.9 percent of the country, was uninsured for some or part of last year, compared with 45.3 million, or 15.6 percent, in 2004.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  2006-08-30 12:52:29
• Decent overview of geothermal heat pumps — Geothermal is vastly more efficient than alternatives, doesn't have to rely on fossil fuels, and has low operating costs. Unfortunately, installation is expensive. The big question is whether heat pumps make sense.
  
  'Managing director Andrew Sheldon points out that 97% of all new buildings in Sweden are powered by heat pumps.'
  
  There's your answer.
  
  (from guardian.co.uk)
  
  2006-08-29 10:20:39
• U.S. Gov't continues to play terrorism plot story for political gain, even when it hurts the U.K.'s ability to stop the terrorists — 'Anti-terror police in Britain have made an angry request to their US counterparts asking them to stop leaking details of this month's suspected bomb plot over fears that it could jeopardise the chances of a successful prosecution and hamper the gathering of evidence.
  
  'The British security services, MI5 and MI6, are understood to be dismayed that a number of sensitive details surrounding the alleged plot - including an FBI estimate that as many as 50 people were involved - were leaked to the media.'
  
  (from guardian.co.uk)
  2006-08-27 19:20:07
• Stories damaging to Republicans that the Times delayed — 'This Sunday the New York Times' Bill Keller got dressed down on the paper's letters page, with scores of readers taking the executive editor to task for being evasive in his previous explanation regarding why--and for how long--the Times held back publishing its December 2005, Pulitzer Prize-winning scoop about the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program under president Bush. A program recently deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge. At the time of publication in 2005 readers were told the story, which the White House pleaded the Times not to publish, had been delayed for "a year." But last week Times public editor, Byron Calame, confirmed the story had been held for 14 months, which, as many had suspected, meant the Times could have published the scoop during the height of the 2004 presidential campaign...
  
  'According to the reporting of David Lindorff, writing for Fairness and Accuracy in Report's Extra!, Nelson was told by a Times reporters that the bulge article, complete with his compelling imagery, would run Oct. 28, five days before the election. Instead, on the night of Oct. 27 the story was killed. In an email the next day, one of the Times reporters apologized to Nelson: "Sorry to have been a source of disappointment and frustration to you." Two months later, executive editor Keller explained, "In the end, nobody, including the scientist who brought it up, could take the story beyond speculation. In the crush of election-finale stories, it died a quiet, unlamented death." In other words, the Times article would have easily proven there was a bulge underneath Bush's jacket during the debates, which would have undercut all his campaign's public denials and thereby raised questions about Bush's credibility. But because the story could not authoritatively say what the bulge was (and because Bush aides still refused to acknowledge its existence), the article was not worth printing.
  
  'As for Keller's insistence the story died a "quiet, unlamented death," that was not true. At least one of the reporters assigned to the article, Andrew Revkin, publicly expressed his frustration with the decision to kill the story, noting the oddity of accepting the Bush campaign's flimsy explanation about a tailor's mistake over the word of an esteemed scientist who produced images that were impossible to ignore. The Times' public editor later said he also thought the paper should have run the bulge story.
  
  'Meanwhile, can anyone think of a single bad-news-for-Kerry story that news outlets politely sat on during the 2004 campaign?'
  
  (from huffingtonpost.com)
  2006-08-27 19:16:17
• Detroit federal district court rules that Bush violated FISA, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, separation of powers doctrine, orders halt to warrentless surveillance — A quick scan of the ruling indicates it is lucid and thorough. Highly recommended reading.
  
  Some extracts:
  
  'It is undisputed that Defendants [i.e., the NSA] have publicly admitted to the following: (1) the TSP [i.e., secret surveillance program] exists; (2) it operates without warrants; (3) it targets communications where one party to the communication is outside the United States, and the government has a reasonable basis to conclude that one party to the communication is a member of al Qaeda, affiliated with al Qaeda, or a member of an organization affiliated with al Qaeda, or working in support of al Qaeda. As the Government has on many occasions confirmed the veracity of these allegations, the state secrets privilege does not apply to this information....'
  
  'Finally, Defendants assert that they cannot defend this case without the exposure of state secrets. This court disagrees. The Bush Administration has repeatedly told the general public that there is a valid basis in law for the TSP.9 Further, Defendants have contended that the President has the authority under the AUMF and the Constitution to authorize the continued use of the TSP. Defendants have supported these arguments without revealing or relying on any classified information. Indeed, the court has reviewed the classified information and is of the opinion that this information is not necessary to any viable defense to the TSP....'
  
  'Consequently, the court finds Defendants’ argument that they cannot defend this case without the use of classified information to be disingenuous and without merit....'
  
  'Here, Plaintiffs are not asserting speculative allegations. Instead, the declarations asserted by Plaintiffs establish that they are suffering a present concrete injury in addition to a chill of their First Amendment rights. Plaintiffs would be able to continue using the telephone and email in the execution of their professional responsibilities if the Defendants were not undisputedly and admittedly conducting warrantless wiretaps of conversations. As in Friends of the Earth, this damage to their interest is sufficient to establish a concrete injury....'
  
  'These cases constitute acknowledgment that substantial burdens upon a plaintiff’s professional activities are an injury sufficient to support standing. Defendants ignore the significant, concrete injuries which Plaintiffs continue to experience from Defendants’ illegal monitoring of their telephone conversations and email communications. Plaintiffs undeniably have cited to distinct, palpable, and substantial injuries that have resulted from the TSP.
  
  'This court finds that the injuries alleged by Plaintiffs are “concrete and particularized”, and not “abstract or conjectural.” The TSP is not hypothetical, it is an actual surveillance program that was admittedly instituted after September 11, 2001, and has been reauthorized by the President more than thirty times since the attacks.21 The President has, moreover, emphasized that he intends to continue to reauthorize the TSP indefinitely.22 Further, the court need not speculate upon the kind of activity the Plaintiffs want to engage in - they want to engage in conversations with individuals abroad without fear that their First Amendment rights are being infringed upon. Therefore, this court concludes that Plaintiffs have satisfied the requirement of alleging “actual or threatened injury” as a result of Defendants’ conduct....'
  
  'The President of the United States, a creature of the same Constitution which gave us these Amendments, has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders as required by FISA, and accordingly has violated the First Amendment Rights of these Plaintiffs as well....'
  
  'In this case, the President has acted, undisputedly, as FISA forbids. FISA is the expressed statutory policy of our Congress. The presidential power, therefore, was exercised at its lowest ebb and cannot be sustained....'
  
  'Finally, in the case of Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997), the separation of powers doctrine is again discussed and, again, some overlap of the authorities of two branches is permitted. In that case, although Article III jurisdiction of the federal courts is found intrusive and burdensome to the Chief Executive it did not follow, the court held, that separation of powers principles would be violated by allowing a lawsuit against the Chief Executive to proceed....'
  
  'In this case, if the teachings of Youngstown are law, the separation of powers doctrine has been violated. The President, undisputedly, has violated the provisions of FISA for a five-year period....'
  
  'Under Hamdi, accordingly, the Constitution of the United States must be followed. The AUMF resolution, if indeed it is construed as replacing FISA, gives no support to Defendants here. Even if that Resolution superceded all other statutory law, Defendants have violated the Constitutional rights of their citizens including the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and the Separation of Powers doctrine....'
  
  'The Government appears to argue here that, pursuant to the penumbra of Constitutional language in Article II, and particularly because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself.
  
  'We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all “inherent powers” must derive from that Constitution....
  
  'We have seen in Hamdi that the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution is fully applicable to the Executive branch’s actions and therefore it can only follow that the First and Fourth Amendments must be applicable as well.51 In the Youngstown case the same “inherent powers” argument was raised and the Court noted that the President had been created Commander in Chief of only the military, and not of all the people, even in time of war.52 Indeed, since Ex Parte Milligan, we have been taught that the “Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace. . . .” Ex Parte Milligan, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 2, 120 (1866). Again, in Home Building & Loan Ass’n v. Blaisdell, we were taught that no emergency can create power....'
  
  'The argument that inherent powers justify the program here in litigation must fail....'
  
  'For all of the reasons outlined above, this court is constrained to grant to Plaintiffs the Partial Summary Judgment requested, and holds that the TSP violates the APA; the Separation of Powers doctrine; the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution; and the statutory law.
  
  'Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss the final claim of data-mining is granted, because litigation of that claim would require violation of Defendants’ state secrets privilege.
  
  'The Permanent Injunction of the TSP requested by Plaintiffs is granted inasmuch as each of the factors required to be met to sustain such an injunction have undisputedly been met.59 The irreparable injury necessary to warrant injunctive relief is clear, as the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Plaintiffs are violated by the TSP. See Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479 (1965). The irreparable injury conversely sustained by Defendants under this injunction may be rectified by compliance with our Constitution and/or statutory law, as amended if necessary. Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution.'
  
  Word.
  2006-08-17 13:50:30
• Tolerance blossoms in the Middle East (or not) — 'Chief rocket coordinator for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank of Israel' wants to defeat 'Israeli army full of gay soldiers.'
  
  (from queerty.com)
  
  2006-08-17 10:12:29
• Chairman of Oregon Christian Coalition is an admitted child molester — 'The longtime leader of the Oregon Christian Coalition and staunch opponent of gay rights in the state admits in a newly released police report that he sexually touched three underage girls years ago, despite denials of such behavior to a newspaper.'
  
  (from advocate.com)
  
  2006-08-17 10:06:40
• Border skirmish between Japan and Russia kills a fisherman — 'A Russian patrol boat opened fire on a Japanese vessel in disputed waters Wednesday, killing a fisherman and triggering a harsh protest from Tokyo. Moscow reportedly urged Japanese boats to stay out of its waters.'
  
  (AP via sfgate.com)
  
  2006-08-16 08:35:01
• Bush exploited terrorism plot for political gain — 'LONDON - NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.
  
  'British officials knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.
  
  'In contrast to previous reports, one senior British official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports....
  
  'The official shed light on other aspects of the case, saying that while the investigation into the bombing plot began "months ago," some suspects were known to the security services even before the London subway bombings last year.'
  
  So, just to gather some threads... The Brits wanted to collect more evidence to take to trial and convict these guys, and, presumably, to find more conspirators. Meanwhile, in the U.S., there was this primary election taking place in Connecticut, and the Bush Administration was pressuring for an earlier arrest, though there was, according to this report, no urgency, and though it may have weakened the case British Authorities had against the terrorists. So Bush potentially sacrificed some degree of progress in prosecuting terrorists, in a maneuver which just happened to be politically convenient, distracting domestic press attention from the wholesale shift in voters' attitudes on his supporters in Congress. Talk about wag the fucking dog. This is irresponsible, despicable, craven, reprehensible, and supremely immoral.
  2006-08-15 10:18:10
• Fundamentalist terrorists attack parade, make bomb threat — 'A group of unidentified assailants attacked a gay pride parade in the Estonian capital of Tallinn on Saturday, beating participants and throwing stones and sticks at them, injuring about 15 people, organizers said. The start of the parade was also delayed by some 20 minutes due to a bomb threat made before the event.'
  
  Sad. Tallinn's a pretty city, and seemed pleasant enough, if a bit on the cheap-and-rowdy side, when I was there about a year ago. I wonder whether we will hear the Bush Administration denouncing this act of terrorism. Or is terror only bad when it's used by mostly non-white political enemies of the Administration and its policies, and A-OK when it's for gay-bashing? (Sorry, that was a rhetorical question.)
  (from advocate.com)
  
  2006-08-14 12:51:36
• US helped plan Israeli invasion of Lebanon? — 'The US government was closely involved in planning the Israeli campaign in Lebanon, even before Hizbullah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross border raids in July. American and Israeli officials met in the spring, discussing plans on how to tackle Hizbullah, according to a report published yesterday.'
  
  (from guardian.co.uk)
  
  2006-08-14 12:42:33
• Eric Boehlert's cogent analysis of the media propaganda about Lamont — 'Beltway mainstay Stuart Rothenberg was in a tizzy that Lamont's win would "only embolden the crazies in the [Democratic] party," the "bomb-throwers." (Like Broder, Rothenberg opted for terror terminology to describe the democratic process unfolding in Connecticut.)...
  
  'But what I think is essential to understanding the Lieberman media phenomena is that, for the most part, the pundits who assailed Lamont's rise during the campaign were the same ones who signed off on the disastrous war in Iraq and now appear spooked that voters in Connecticut finally decided to hold Lieberman, the de facto Democratic co-sponsor of the invasion, responsible for that foreign policy debacle. They're spooked because for the last three-plus years there's been something of a gentleman's agreement that nobody inside the Beltway, whether at the White House, Congress, the Pentagon, or inside the corporate media world, has been asked to pay any sort of professional price for backing the disaster that is Iraq. But suddenly Democrats in the Nutmeg state have decided enough's enough. That's not a trend Beltway insiders want to see spread nationally, which is why so many pundits were eager to marginalize Lamont and his anti-war backers as "crazies" and "elitist" "bomb throwers."'
  2006-08-11 13:19:24
• Winning hearts and minds: Our Iraq misadventures are causing more Iraqi gays to be brutally killed; UK asylum seekers increase — 'Hardline Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq are targeting a new type of victim with the full protection of Iraqi law, The Observer can reveal. The country is seeing a sudden escalation of brutal attacks on what are being called the 'immorals' - homosexual men and children as young as 11 who have been forced into same-sex prostitution.
  
  'There is growing evidence that Shia militias have been killing men suspected of being gay and children who have been sold to criminal gangs to be sexually abused. The threat has led to a rapid increase in the numbers of Iraqi homosexuals now seeking asylum in the UK because it has become impossible for them to live safely in their own country.'
  
  (from observer.guardian.co.uk)
  
  2006-08-11 08:42:14
• The melting of Greenland's ice cap is accelerating — 'According to the scientists' data, Greenland's ice is melting at a rate three times faster than it was only five years ago....
  
  'According to the researchers, surface melting of Greenland's ice cap reached 57 cubic miles a year between April of 2002 and November of 2005, compared to about 19 cubic miles a year between 1997 and 2003.'
  
  (from sfgate.com)
  
  
  2006-08-11 08:39:21
• Rove reportedly calls to offer support to Lieberman. So how much did the Bush Admin. pay Lieberman for his fearless support? — 'According to a close Lieberman adviser, the President's political guru, Karl Rove, has reached out to the Lieberman camp with a message straight from the Oval Office: "The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do."'
  
  'Independent Democrat' my ass.
  
  (from abcnews.com)
  
  2006-08-09 14:51:52
• Gays: to teens disenchanted with commitment, we're the only positive role models for getting married? — 'Not all messages teens receive about relationships are bleak. Glass has an uncle who's lived with his partner for 25 years; the only married people Glass says he knows are a gay couple who live across the street . But Glass has gotten good advice from his aunt on how to make a relationship work.'
  
  (from boston.com)
  
  2006-08-09 09:18:07
• Lamont defeats Lieberman — 'With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Lamont led with 51.79 percent of the vote, to Lieberman's 48.21 percent...
  
  '``They call Connecticut the land of steady habits. Tonight we voted for a big change," Lamont said last night to cheers at his campaign celebration in Meriden. ``Stay the course -- it's not a winning strategy for Iraq, and it's not a winning strategy for America."...
  
  'Turnout topped 40 percent, breaking the state's 36-year-old record for a non-presidential year despite predictions that turnout would be low because the primary was held in the middle of vacation season...
  
  '[Lieberman] said his campaign will offer an alternative to the bitter partisanship that he said has gripped Washington, and described himself as an ``independent Democrat."' That part's funny. Lieberman doesn't seem to believe in partisanship, except when he's acting like a member of the Republican party, and lecturing Democrats, admonishing them not to criticize Bush on the war in Iraq -- which most Americans now oppose. Further, running as an independent and causing the Democrats to lose a seat in the Senate doesn't make you an "independent Democrat," it makes you a not-Democrat. What else have you learned from Karl Rove today, Joe?
  
  (from boston.com)
  2006-08-09 09:07:46
• Fidel Castro temporarily steps down, for health reasons — 'For nearly half a century, the CIA and Cuban exiles in Miami have been trying to assassinate Fidel Castro but have never been able to remove him. Today came the news that the world's longest-serving leader was, at least temporarily, relinquishing power to his brother, Raul, because of ill-health caused by an "intestinal crisis" necessitating an operation.
  
  'Raul Castro, the 75-year-old first vice-president and armed forces minister, has been cited as the likely successor to his brother for years.'
  
  Don't we have laws against assassinating heads of state?
  
  (from guardian.co.uk)
  2006-08-01 09:12:15
• Mel Gibson, allegedly a drunken bigot — 'The report forwarded to prosecutors cites Gibson as making disparaging comments about Jews, according to the law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
  
  '[TMZ.com] reported that Gibson said, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked the arresting officer, "Are you a Jew?"'
  
  In case anybody wasn't sure, after the Passion of the Christ, that this homophobic son of a Holocaust-denier was a bigot.
  
  Note to Israel: perhaps, with those airstrikes over Lebanon, you guys are going after the wrong folks.
  (AP via sfgate.com)
  2006-08-01