Seeing Red

ANGER

Many black leaders supported a contested plan to reduce the number of minority voters in several heavily black Senate districts, because shifting some minority voters to neighboring districts would help Democrats beat Republicans.
A lower court rejected those boundaries under the Voting Rights Act. Congress must decide in 2007 whether to renew part of the law which justices are interpreting in this case.

"Maybe if we make it bad enough, they'll think about repealing it," Justice Antonin Scalia said to laughter in the court.

Haha. It was goddamn fucking hilarious when blacks in the South were NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE. That's a knee slapper Scalia! Hahahahaha. Repeal it, so we can go back to the good old days so your colleague Rehnquist can spend his retirement years reliving his youth as a POLL THUG.

These folks are getting out of hand.

Payback

Bush gives Florida felon purge database company $75+ million to create a database of Mexican and Latin American voters.

I don't even know what the fuck that's about.


Damn, how the hell did I miss this story when it first broke.

Bush Hates Women

What more needs to be said:

The American delegation joined with Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Libya and others in efforts to delete a phrase - included in previously agreed-upon UN statements dating back a decade - that calls on countries to condemn violence against women and "refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration" to avoid the obligation to stop the violence.

(via Big Media Matt).

Gay Marriage Will Cause Men to Cheat on Their Wives

So says Stanely Kurtz, which I think says far more about him than anything else.

9/11 Secrets

It is Isikoff, but...

The report names names, gives dates and provides a body of new information about the handling of many other crucial intelligence briefings—including one in early August 2001 given to national-security adviser Rice that discussed Al Qaeda operations within the United States and the possibility that the group’s members might seek to hijack airplanes.

But...Condi said:

I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile.

Of course, because it isn't about blowjob it isn't technically a lie.

The Joys of Capitalism

My good friend makes plus-sized Gothic clothing and one-of-a-kind jewelry. So, if you desire those things go place your orders!

Beat the Press

Matt Taibbi delivers a well-deserved spanking to Times reporter Neil Lewis.

Patriot Raid

Bye bye 4th amendment.

How Convenient

The Silhouette Lounge

523 Linden Street - Scranton, PA 18503 - (570) 344-4259
Named Best Gay Bar in Northeastern Pennsylvania
for 2000, 2001 and 2002
By the Readers of Electric City!

The offices of Rick Santorum in Scranton:

527 Linden Street
Scranton, PA 18503
(570) 344-8799

Never Mind the Pollacks

Our friend Neal gets the CNN treatment.

Bigots (Including Santorum) Have Some Problems

Here:

Not long after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum sent out a letter asking for money for a nonprofit group lobbying against same-sex marriages.

"I know it may sound like a huge exaggeration, particularly in light of the attack on America, but this may truly be the most important letter I ever write you," Santorum wrote.

The letter endorsed Alexandria, Va.-based Alliance for Marriage and its campaign for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. The mailing sought money so the nonprofit could flood Congress with petitions to "protect marriage between a man and a woman against the attacks of the homosexual activists."

This mass mailing has generated a new round of criticism of the senator from gay-rights advocates. Yesterday, they said Santorum, by seemingly equating terrorism and gay marriage, had showed a stunning lack of judgment.

In his letter, the Republican senator characterized Alliance for Marriage as a "political organization." The group, for its part, told donors any contributions were tax-deductible.

Tax experts said yesterday that both statements could not be true. They noted that donations to political groups are not tax-deductible.

As it happened, the recipients of Santorum's letter included Philadelphia gay-rights activist Malcolm La

oops.

Go listen to Mike Signorile talk about this.

Anti-Semitism In My Comments

The idiot parading around my comment boards as Bill Moyers and Walter Cronkite has this to say:

With all due respect to the intent of VCII towards ecumenism and inter-faith healing, to assert that the Jews are NOT responsible for the death of Jesus is quite absurd.

scamper away you bigot.

Boycott South Carolina

This requirement for doctors to report abortions is despicable. If you live there, move.

Kennedy on MSNBC

Dan Kennedy says what needs to be said about Banfield and Savage.

Blog Promotion

I always hate making posts like this, but fortunately Eugene Volokh has provided the basic how-to guide. If you want to promote your weblog, go read his advice.

I Obviously Haven't Had Enough to Drink

Check out what they're proposing in Missouri - a masturbation tax!

I always thought that, um, one of its advantages was, um, the fact that it was free. 5% of nothing ain't gonna solve their budget problems.

Jesus Wept

As if the rumored-to-be highly anti-semitic in ancient languages Jesus movie weren't enough, we have this.

In another symbol of Mel's ultra-conservative faith, he is building a massive church in Agoura Hills, on the western outskirts of the Los Angeles metropolis.

Apparently an exclusive place of worship for the Gibson clan, this £13million temple will not be open to the public

Well, it is a tabloid...but oy...

Update - here's a non-tabloid source. Is he going to pay for his own personal priest? WTF?

Congrats to the Kos Family

Doing their part for the Democratic party by breeding more of them.

Ashleigh Moore is Missing

Our media loves missing girls, though they haven't paid any attention to her.

I'm not a fan of the media circus that surrounds missing kids, except to the extent that it helps motivate law enforcement to find them.

From the Archives

Remember awhile back there was this guy arrested for stockpiling a bunch of warheads in New Mexico? Well, his lawyer has a reasonable question for the prosecutors - if they're going after his client, why aren't they going after the company that sold the stuff to him?

One guess what company it was.

The Great Blumenthal Conspiracy

Charles Pierce is subbing for Alterman today.

Scaife Reporter Accused of Being Drunken Bigot

I can't say I'm shocked.


Just go read the whole thing.

Savage Weiner on Banfield

PRESS: Well, not necessarily. I’m not nice to Pat.
But I’ve got a-here’s my beef, OK? I want to go back to your book, which I read before the last time you were on with us. And I want to read what you said about Ashleigh Banfield: “Turn on MSNBC and you’ll find the mind slut with a big pair of glasses that they sent to Afghanistan. She looks like she went from porno into reporting. What happens, from 20 to 30, they do porno. From 30 to 40, they do weather. Then, from 40 to 50, they do TV news.”
I just want to know, I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think it’s true. Have you apologized...
SAVAGE: No, I wouldn’t apologize.
PRESS: ... to Ashleigh Banfield and are you sorry you wrote that?
SAVAGE: No, I’m not sorry at all and I’ll tell you why. I don’t know the girl personally, but I’ll tell you what she did that pissed me off, if I may. And this shouldn’t have been done on this wonderful channel.
She was on assignment with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is fundamentally a Jewish children’s killing organization. She was on assignment with them in a hidden location as they were out hunting Jewish kids? And I’ll never forget this as long as I live. The lights come on and one of the guys in a head scarf says: “The Israelis, the Israelis. Kill the camera. Kill the camera.” And she looked so excited, as though she was on a Girl Scout cookie-hunting mission here.
They were out killing people. What was she doing with them? Didn’t she understand what she was doing?
PRESS: Well, here’s the question, Michael. Can’t you disagree with her and say that without calling her a mind slut?
SAVAGE: No, I can’t.

I'm still waiting for NBC news to condemn that.

Bad All Around

Hesiod posts about the 13+ Iraqis killed when U.S. Soldiers fired on a crowd of protesters. He makes the point that I would have made - it doesn't really matter what happened, it's still bad bad bad.

MK Ultra Hack

Ailes notes that the Mickster is hitting a new low.

Philly 4 Dean

Dean's coming to town, and you can go meet him. If I can scrape up $50 I'll likely be there.

Journalists, Come Clean

Most news reports of Katrina Leung - particularly those in the Post and the Times - do their best to not mention that Leung was a Republican activist. Obviously we don't know Leung's guilt or innocence, but what we do know is that she was a Republican operative who was deeply involved with the Gore fundraising investigations. While it'll be too much to ask for the FBI to come clean about all this, I think it's perfectly reasonable (though naive) to expect that any journalists who used her as a source to do so. The use of journalists for partisan aims is a valid story, in fact it's THE story of the 90s.

But, I won't be holding my breath.

Hostage Crisis, Day 11

Hostage crisis? What on Earth are you talking about Atrios? What hostage crisis? What? You're telling me that 21 Americans have been held hostage for 11 days in Nigeria and I haven't heard anything about it? How is that possible?

LAGOS, Nigeria — Striking Nigerian (search) oil workers have taken about 100 foreign workers hostage on several offshore oil installations, company officials and union workers said Tuesday. The hostages include 21 Americans.

The strikers have been holding 97 foreign workers, including 35 Britons, aboard four offshore drilling rigs owned by Houston-based Transocean (search) since April 19. The events occurred in a remote area off the West African nation's coastline.

The rigs were drilling wells on behalf of oil multinationals Royal/Dutch Shell (search) and TotalFina Elf (search).

Western diplomats said the hostages included 21 Americans and 35 Britons. Their conditions were unclear, although there were no initial reports of injuries or deaths.

Jack Cafferty on CNN

"...the Iraqi war with Osama Bin La....er.. Saddam Hussein."

Savage Calls Banfield a Slut

And NBC is troubled by her remarks.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - NBC News correspondent Ashleigh Banfield has ripped television news networks, including her own, for their "glorious" coverage of the Iraqi war and a lack of focus on international news overall.

In a speech Thursday at Kansas State University, she also attacked NBC News for hiring right-wing radio talk-show host Michael Savage to do a show on MSNBC. Savage recently called Banfield a "slut" after her reports portraying the radical Arab point of view.

Banfield, who won her first notoriety for her coverage from the World Trade Center on 9/11, might be in some trouble for her comments. In a statement issued on Friday, NBC News said, "Ms. Banfield does not speak for NBC News. We are deeply disappointed and troubled by her remarks, and will review her comments with her. In the meantime, we want to emphasize how proud we are of the journalism produced by NBC News and of the men and women who worked around the clock, even risking their lives, to bring this story to the American public."

You know, I'm really just trying to figure out how one can justify NBC's double standard here. Savage says the most foul things - including attacking the media and MSNBC (Banfield) - every day on his radio show. One might argue that Banfield's a "journalist" while he's a "talk show host" - but Banfield was also a talk show host and that distinction has become pretty meaningless on the cable nets.

Sid hits #5!

Order yours now! All the kool kids are!

Disappearing Witnesses

They may not have ever existed at all. Go figure.

Ms. Leung, a donor and fund-raiser for political candidates in California, also played an important role in the investigation of Chinese donations to the Clinton-Gore campaign. A former senior official in the Justice Department said that if Ms. Leung was a double agent, she might have compromised the entire campaign finance investigation. "It raises questions about whether the Chinese knew the details about the whole finance investigation even before Congress or Janet Reno knew them," the official said, referring to the former attorney general in the Clinton administration.

A former prosecutor who was active in the case said several important figures in the investigation whom authorities sought to subpoena disappeared before they could testify. "There were people we never found," the prosecutor said. "There were dead ends. Whether those were legitimate dead ends or artificial dead ends, we don't know."

4th Circuit Shocker

Rules against VMI prayer dinner.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- In an important victory for First Amendment groups, a federal appeals court ruled Monday that the traditional prayers said before evening meals at the Virginia Military Institute are unconstitutional.

The decision upholds a lower court ruling and emphasizes that the extraordinary obedience demanded of VMI cadets doesn't give them the freedom to choose not to participate in what's been called a non-denominational, voluntary dinner prayer.

"In establishing its supper prayer, VMI has done precisely what the First Amendment forbids," a three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously.

"Put simply, VMI's supper prayer exacts an unconstitutional toll on the consciences of religious objectors," Judge Robert B. King wrote in the opinion.

Today on NPR

Cokie Roberts said:

But I think they are trying very hard to get some Democratic voice out there so that the voters see an alternative to the president and to the Republican Party. But the problem, of course, is there's so many of them that there will be lots of Democratic voices out there, and some of the strongest voices are likely to come from Al Sharpton, Howard Dean, people who are not necessarily in the mainstream of the American voting public, and that could be a problem for the Democrats.

Potus Blog

Potus shares his feelings about Santorum.

Where Are the Women?

Jeanne d'Arc wonders why there hasn't been any footage of women among the crowds in Iraq...and why she's the first one to ask that question.

And why there were no women among those gathered to kiss the pinky ring of Jay Garner today.

Even in Afghanistan, where position of women in society was far worse than Iraq, there was at least some token representation of women after we kicked out the Taliban.

(...okay, not the first, but no one in big media appears to be doing it)

Bush Appoints Former Girlfriend

I wonder what Laura thinks about that.

The White House made a number of recess appointments last week as Congress fled for spring break. One was April H. Foley, a "homemaker," according to campaign contribution disclosure documents, from South Salem, N.Y. She was named to the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank. The appointment is good until Congress adjourns next year.

So why a homemaker for this job? Well, "early in her career," the White House announcement says, she was director of business planning for corporate strategy with PepsiCo Inc. and director of strategy for Reader's Digest Association. More recently, she was president of the United Way of Northern Westchester County, N.Y. Not all of it, just the northern part.

Still not locked in on the merits? Did we mention she used to date George W. Bush when both were at Harvard Business School and has remained friends with him?

Howie Tells How He Knows if Something Is Newsworthy

Here.

Silver Spring, Md.: I was amazed to open Sunday's Outlook section and see no mention of the Santorum imbroglio. A U.S. senator claims there is no right to privacy and that the state should have the ability to limit people's wants and desires, and no one at The Washington Post has an opinion about it?

Was this merely a 24-hour story? If it was, then we're in bigger trouble than I thought.

Howard Kurtz: Outlook, which sort of does its own thing, is not necessarily a good barometer. The Post, to its credit, has done four news stories on the Santorum controversy, along with one editorial and one op-ed piece (by Richard Cohen). I write in my print column today about an effort by conservatives to discredit the AP reporter who interviewed Santorum. Since there's been little GOP criticism of Santorum (other than from a couple of moderate senators), it does look like the story may peter out fairly soon.

and Eric Alterman notes that Howie hasn't bothered to discuss the shocking statement by CNN's Eason Jordan that they had the Pentagon give their approval on their war pundits.

Book Titles

Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto
Matt Drudge: The Drudge Manifesto

North Korea

So, when we bribe North Korea to give up their nuke program what will be the top 5 reasons used to justify that it is somehow different than when Clinton bribed North Korea to give up their nuke program...

Democrats Rock!

This study, by Santa-Clara and Valkanov, demonstrates that Democrats are good for the stock market.

Drudge Goes After Sid

Here.

The only thing which comes close to being an actual criticism is the fact that the book is only #23,588 on Amazon. Of course, the fact that it HASN'T BEEN PUBLISHED YET doesn't have much to do with it.

Haven't read it yet, but if it's pissing Drudge off it'll probably be good. Go put your order in...


(thanks to Drudge, it's now up to 117! Good going Matt!)

Tbogg also comments.

Loyalty Oath, Texas GOP Style

Tim Francis-Wright from Bear-Left writes in to inform me of a few things about the Texas GOP.

First, there's a bit of their platform that we're all presumably aware of:

We are opposed to any granting of special legal entitlements, recognition, or privileges including, but not limited to, marriage between persons of the same sex, custody of children by homosexuals, homosexual partner insurance or retirement benefits. We oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values."

But there's a new bit, which while not requiring an oath of adherence, does require the following:

"Any person filing as a Republican candidate for a public or Party office shall be provided a current copy of the Party platform at the time of filing. The candidate shall be asked to read and initial each page of the platform and sign a statement affirming he/she has read the entire platform. The individual accepting the signed statement shall review the initialed platform and maintain a list of those who have complied with this request. This will become effective in the 2002 election. We strongly encourage Republican candidates, officeholders,and Party officials to support the Republican Party Platform and fellow Republican candidates and officeholders. We direct the Executive Campaign Committee to strongly consider candidates’ support of the Party platform when granting financial or other support."

I'm sure our crack press will, during the '04 campaign, ask Bush which parts he agreed and disagreed with (hahahahahahaha).

White House Correspondents' Dinner

This year's dinner was notable for its complete lack of promotion and coverage and its abandonment of the traditional roast of the president by its comedian host - there was neither roast nor comedian host.

At least Al Franken was there, and Salon's Karen Croft reports this lovely exchange between Al Franken and Wolfowitz:

Franken: “Clinton’s military did pretty well in Iraq, huh?”

Wolfowitz: “Fuck you.”

Don't Forget...

The New Harry Potter is coming out soon!

As is Season 4 Buffy!


and Sid's new book!

Secular Government

I don't have the volume on, so I have no idea what's being said, but currently there's a discussion on CNN between the gruesome troll Cliff May and some guy from CAIR about "The New Iraq - Democracy vs. Theocracy." From what I can tell from the little captions, the issue is whether or not Iraq's government should be secular.

Now, I think Iraq's government should be secular. I also think the US government IS in theory secular, as defined by the constitution, and SHOULD BE in practice. But, we have prominent senators, an attorney general, a president, a Secretary of Education, and a Supreme Court justice who feel otherwise.

Can't we at least start owning up to this so we can talk about it?

Ballistics Fingerprinting Study Delayed

I'm not entirely sure if a ballistics fingerprinting database is a good idea, and nor do I have any idea about its possible accuracy. However, it's a bit puzzling that some people would get more outraged about a database for gun DNA than a database for people DNA.

I guess guns have a greater right to privacy than do citizens, although I haven't managed to locate that one in the constitution.

Teaching Backwards

I think I agree with Calpundit that students would like history much more if it were taught backwards. I honestly can't remember if I was ever formally taught any modern history past the Johnson administration, and even that was probably limited to the last few weeks of my senior year in high school. I think I learned about Rome and Greece, the Lynne Cheney version of Colonial/Revolutionary American history and the Civil War multiple times, a couple runs at WW1 and WW2, and then in my senior year a teensy bit on the 60s, but that's it. The required course in college was a grand Western Civ. overview, and I took a bit of Russian history voluntarily.

It isn't entirely clear why this is the case, though I bet that part of the reason is that one can't teach the recent past without being explicitly political. All teaching of history is to some degree political, but it's much more obvious - and controversial - when the subject is recent U.S. history.

I think we could extend this to the teaching of literature also. I really don't get why Milton, Chaucer, and Shakespeare seem to be taught in the earlier years of high school, followed by 19th century Brits and Americans (the latter, in particular, mostly horribly dull), and modern and contemporary literature seem to be relegated to that senior year honors English class. A reasonable guess is that it's partially for similar reasons - in the case of literature, the "naughty bits" of contemporary literature are somewhat more obvious than those in, say, Shakespeare and we wouldn't want little Jane to read a couple of bad words until she's ready to graduate.

But, in both cases the effect is the same. For your average 15 year old, even 20 years ago is the distant past. And, "stories" - history or fiction - from the distant past seem to have little relevance for your typical teen.

Sullivan's Employer on Homosexuality

Here's what he had to say in response to a question about how to deal with gay Moonies:

Tell them that if it really becomes a problem to cut it off, barbecue it, put it in a shoe box and send it to me.

(via exmoonies)

More History II - Barbara Gittings

Here.

A gay activist long before people were even calling themselves gay, Barbara Gittings has been fighting the good fight for almost 50 years. She flunked out of her freshman year at Northwestern because she was spending most of her time in the library trying to find something that would help her understand what it meant to be a lesbian. Her mission ever since has been to tear away "the shroud of invisibility" that allowed homosexuality to be defined in terms of crime and disease. Editor of the pioneering lesbian journal The Ladder in the mid-'60s, she was one of the first-ever gay demonstrators, a member of the group that picketed in front of Independence Hall every July 4 from 1965-69. A founding member of two national gay rights organizations, she also served for 15 years as head of the American Library Association's Gay Task Force, drawing attention to gay literature through such unconventional tactics as setting up a gay kissing booth at a Dallas ALA convention in 1971. After many years in Philadelphia, Gittings, 66, now lives in her native Wilmington, DE, with writer Kay Tobin Lahusen, her partner of 37 years. On April 27 during PrideFest, she will be honored at a reception benefiting the Free Library's gay and lesbian literature collection.

More History

Here's some information about the 60s gay rights movement in San Francisco.

Throughout the early sixties, San Francisco remained a center of gay activism. Police extortion of gay bars became a scandal in 1961 when several bars refused to pay and went to court instead. In the aftermath, gay bar owners formed the Tavern Guild (1962) and worked cooperatively to fight police harassment. In 1964, several liberal ministers became concerned with homosexual rights and formed the Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH). Later that year, CRH sponsored a New Year's ball for the gay community. When the police showed up in force and arrested several of the ministers, the outcry that followed placed an effective restraint on police harassment.

In 1964, a new gay organization was formed in San Francisco, concerned with the development of the gay community, as well as political action. The Society for Individual Rights (SIR) opened a community center in 1966, sponsoring a wide range of social and cultural activities. SIR also held Candidate's Nights, in which local political candidates fielded questions from a gay audience. In New York, similar developments occurred. In 1968, the gay community won important concessions from the Lindsay administra-tion, reducing police pressure on gay bars. These early victories laid the groundwork for the mass coming out of gay people in the early 1970s, neutralizing the greatest, single obstacle to the gay community—police harassment.

More on SIR:

To raise funds for the fledgling organization, the ministers planned a New Year's Eve party for the gay community. In an era when the police arrested citizens and revoked liquor licenses for same-sex touching of the most innocent sort, holding a public gay dance was tantamount to a confrontation.

On the night of the dance, dozens of uniformed officers stalked California Hall, with police cars and paddy wagons parked in front. Police photographers took pictures of each of the 600 guests in a blatant attempt at harassment. Two days later, the ministers held a press conference condemning the police. They accused the police of "deliberate harassment and bad faith" and charged officers with "intimidation, broken promises, and obvious hostility." The police had overplayed their hand. ACLU lawyers, angered by the incident, took the case to trial. According to the Chronicle, "complaining officers sat with mouths agape" as the judge ordered the jury to return a verdict in favor of the gays. The ministers validated the charges of police harassment in a way that the words of a homosexual individual did not.

In August 1966, a Tenderloin cafeteria became the site of a showdown between gays and police. Compton's, at the corner of Turk and Taylor, was frequented by hustlers and queens, One night, a policeman grabbed at one of the queens, and rather than tolerating the harassment, she threw her coffee in his face. Fighting erupted as angry young gays broke out the windows, threw dishes and trays at the officers, and burned down a nearby newsstand. The next day, drag queens were barred from the cafeteria, and a picket line sprang up. That night, protesters smashed the premises' newly installed plate-glass windows.

Thus, almost three years before Stonewall, San Francisco's gay militancy was born.

More Goldberg

Jonah also reveals what a insulated little idiot he is. Check out this statement:

The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s didn't claim nearly as many lives, but it, too, transformed American life, rearranging institutions, public and private, and rewriting the language of the nation. And, you know what? None of it had anything to do with gay people.
Brother didn't fight brother over gay marriage or homosexuals in the military. Men didn't brave police dogs and fire hoses to overturn sodomy laws and the National Guard was never called in to restore order after gays were allowed through the schoolhouse door. Gays weren't kidnapped in Africa and brought to America against their will to toil in our fields.

I'm not even quite sure what that last sentence has to do with anything, but in any case someone should teach Jonah a little history.

The Stonewall riots were a series of violent conflicts between homosexuals and police officers in New York City. The riot began on Friday, June 29, 1969 outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay hangout in Greenwich Village. "Stonewall", as it is often called, is considered the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S. and worldwide. It was the first time any significant body of gays resisted arrest.

Prior to Stonewall, police raids on gay bars and nightclubs were a regular part of gay life in cities across the United States. Commonly the police would record the identities of all those present, which would be subsequently published in the newspaper, then load up their paddywagon with as many gays as it would hold. Kissing, holding hands, or even being in a gay bar at all were used as grounds for arrest on indecency charges at that time.

The Stonewall raid started out just like any other raid on a gay bar. Seven plainclothes policemen entered the bar along with one uniformed policeman, allegedly to investigate improprieties in the liquor license. They cleared the bar, whose clientele remained on the sidewalk and street outside.

Some of the people outside the bar that night began to toss coins at the police, making fun of the system in which regular raids were a part of extorting payoffs from the bar owners. The gay bar system in New York at the time was widely corrupt. Many gay bars were owned by the Mafia, and operated by a form of payola called gayola, paying off the police to look the other way.

Details about what happened next vary from story to story. The situation quickly got out of control, as there were 400 gay people outside of the bar, milling around, so the stories are confused and sometimes contradictory. One story says the situation escalated when a drag queen stood in the doorway and defied the police. Another says a butch lesbian started it. Either way, at some point the situation took a dramatic turn for the worse, and the police began beating people who resisted with their nightsticks. Several were sent to the hospital, and one teenage boy lost two fingers after police slammed his hand in a car door.

The crowd started throwing rocks and bottles rather than coins. The police took refuge inside the Inn, which they trashed. They also beat a heterosexual folk singer, Dave Van Ronk, a man who was present and who has since documented much of the events, says effeminate men were singled out for special treatment.

While the police were inside, someone sprayed lighter fluid through the door and attempted to light it. The crowd used a parking meter as a battering ram. All across the district, residents, many of whom were gay, rushed to the scene and the crowd swelled. They began to chant "Gay Power!"

The police sent additional forces in the form of the Tactical Patrol Force, a riot-control squad originally trained to counter anti-Vietnam War protesters. They were completely unsuccessful at breaking up the crowd, however, who sprayed them with rocks and other projectiles. At one point they were presented with a chorus line of mocking queens, singing:


We are the Stonewall girls
We wear our hair in curls
We wear no underwear
We show our pubic hair
We wear our dungarees
Above our nelly knees!

Rabid Anti-Gun Economist Wins Bates Medal

Those liberal commie statist economists have awarded the rabidly anti-gun Steven Levitt the Clark Medal.

Decent Republicans Like Jonah Goldberg

Poor Andy - he has so few allies in this he has to pretend that Jonah's on his side on the whole sodomy thing. As Roger Ailes points out, Jonah Goldberg actually thinks Andrew Sullivan should be arrested and imprisoned, but says we shouldn't bother because it fails a cost/benefit test.

With friends like these...

Oh, and Josh Marshall discovers that George Will is dishonest. Next week Josh will inform us that water is wet.

Dean Blog

You know, Howard Dean (and his people) really do have the right idea about what a candidate's blog should look like.

Hate Radio

I used to consume a minimum weekly dose of this stuff, if for no other reason than the fact my apartment used to be located in a valley and the 40 billion watt hate radio station was the only thing which came in clearly. But, I no longer listen to it. I'm curious what will happen this week - either they will obey Karl Rove's gag order they will make some delightfully bigoted comments. Either way...

Bush Loves Bigots

He keeps nominating them: Two things are amazing here - both the fact that our media keep treating Jesse Helms as that cuddly uncle for all these years and that they've forgotten all of this (or failed to do a Lexis search).

From :Samizdat

In the October 19, 1984 New York Times, Allen was reported to have charged Hunt with the unpardonable crime of having links with "the queers." Allen was reported to have apologized shortly thereafter, but that apology - its text being unavailable - seems terribly insincere in light of a later Times piece:

Mr. Allen said he made the remark after the Hunt campaign ran television commercials saying Mr. Helms was supported by ''right-wing nuts,'' as Mr. Allen put it.

Asked yesterday about his remark, he explained, "I said at the time that we could say the same thing about queer groups" supporting Mr. Hunt.

Those words were recorded March 12, 1985. Sensitivity training is a many-life-long process, it seems.

The media seems largely to have forgotten about Mr. Allen's animus toward the "queers" exercise of their right to support whomever they want. The last article I found mentioning it was a November 18, 194 Washinton Post item on Uncle Jesse's 1984 campaign. The relevant passages:

Helms shamelessly mined the race issue. He called Hunt a "racist" for appealing to black votes on the basis of his support of civil rights measures. His press secretary Claude Allen, a black, tried to link Hunt with "queers." Allen later apologized.

But Helms didn't waver. On election eve, he accused Hunt of being supported by "homosexuals, the labor-union bosses and the crooks" and said he feared a large "bloc vote." What did he mean? "The black vote," Helms said.

Outrage

mmmmm.....ammonia tastes good....

CHICAGO (AP) - State documents show Illinois education officials failed to notify schools that some food shipped to them had been contaminated with ammonia, even though some cafeteria managers had complained for a year, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Dozens of children were sickened.

The food was contaminated when a ruptured pipe leaked 90 pounds of ammonia refrigerant at Gateway Cold Storage in St. Louis on Nov. 18, 2001.

State education officials have said they assumed a plan to treat the food had worked, but documents showed the state Board of Education knew in early 2002 that ammonia-laden food was still showing up in schools, the Tribune reports in Sunday editions.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector was present around the time of the leak but the agency did not notify schools or other agencies, and the department later allowed food to be shipped out of the Gateway warehouse despite a quarantine, the newspaper said.

Nearly a year after the leak, 42 children at Laraway Elementary School in Joliet were rushed to a hospital after eating chicken tenders from the warehouse that state health officials said contained up to 133 times the accepted level of ammonia.

The Constitution

I was perusing the Bill of Rights earlier and I came across #7:

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

So, I was curious about a couple of things. Is this $20 limit still observed? And, either way, what would a strict constructionist say about this? A textualist? An originalist? Or, whatever. Is it the real or nominal $20? What's the real value of late 18th century $20? Did they think about inflation when they wrote this? If not, why not?

Oh Brad, I think this is one for you on the economic history side. And, maybe constitutional scholar Ann Coulter can help us with the law side.

Stupid Wingnuts

Ken Adelman blamed Toronto's SARS problem on Canada's health care system.

GOP Gag Order

White House says "don't say a thing about Santorum!"

National and statewide Republican officials willing to comment are supporting U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., as he defends comments equating gay relationships with bestiality and with priests molesting teens.

...

Santorum's defenders are under a gag order. Officials at the White House and Republican National Committee told GOP insiders yesterday, by conference call, voice mail and e-mail not to comment about Santorum's comments, letting him speak for himself.

The Slippery Slope Goes Both Ways

Mostly because people love saying "pedophilia, incest, polygamy, and beastiality" in the same sentence as "homosexuality" every time they get a chance, the slippery slope consequences of a right to privacy are often disingenuously cited as arguments against it. However, even more powerful are the slippery slope arguments of there NOT being a right to privacy. That is if, despite the language in the 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th amendments, the states DO have the power to regulate private consensual sexual behavior then slippery slope reasoning - given credence by Santorum's views - should scare us all. As Steady Eddie says in comments below:

Atrios, both Democrats and anyone interested in expanding personal liberty against the anti-Enlightenment forces of theocracy should be appreciative of what Santorum has done.

Politically, you and commenters have been talking about the benefits for days; this post hints at our basis for appreciating his little rant legally.

The difference you cited between the Texas case (Lawrence) and Bowers is critical. Bowers was decided on a straight (no pun intended) rejection of applying the right of privacy to homosexual conduct. While the Court could change its mind given the changes in both Court membership and the states' political changes in sodomy laws, it's far likelier to look at this as a violation of equal protection for gays, precisely because Texas' anti-sodomy law does not apply to the same practices between heterosexuals.

For the Court to not reject Lawrence as a violation of equal protection, it would indeed have to take Santorum's view, that sodomy is inherently bad. The slippery slope that Santorum's list of behavior that government should actively proscribe has laid out for the Court is surely going to be repugnant to at least O'Connor and Kennedy, and maybe even Thomas (though he may choose dishonestly to deny and repress his past affinity for Long Dong Silver).

In other words, Atrios, Santorum's statement has clarified that (a) and (b) are indissoluably connected. If you do not find Lawrence to be a violation of equal protection under (a), Santorum is saying that indeed you will get some substantial (b). What his little rant has done is make it impossible for at least O'Connor and Kennedy to pretend that (b) is an improbable, theoretical possibility.

Knowing how intensely political those two Justices are, they'll see that upholding Texas' law will do far more damage to Republicans, via an active fight on the extension and enforcement of anti-sodomy laws, than striking it down would be. The great thing about this case, and how Santorum has clarified the stakes in it, is that the Republicans can't get out without substantial damage in the latter case either, because the Christian theocrats are going to be pissed at the Supreme Court and the Republican libertarians who will be celebrating the decision.

It's Okay If You Are a Republican

Imagine the outcry if this was a Clinton administration official. Wait, did I say outcry? I meant to say imagine the $30 millliion investigation.

Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) criminal agents are being diverted from their normal investigative work to provide security and drivers for agency chief Christie Whitman — and getting long lists of do's and don'ts to keep her happy.

EPA agents assigned to investigate environmental crimes have at times been ordered to perform more personal tasks, such as returning a rental car for Whitman's husband after a trip or sitting at a table until the administrator arrived for a restaurant reservation, according to interviews with several EPA senior managers.

The lists of do's and don'ts instruct agents who chauffeur the EPA administrator to ensure they rent only a Lincoln Town Car, tune the radio to smooth jazz or classical music and set the volume low, and keep an eye out for a Starbucks coffee shop or Barnes & Noble book store.
...
With agents already designated for homeland security tasks, the regional offices sometimes are left without investigators for days at a time when Whitman is in town.

I need a drink.

Media Self-Censorship

Bob Harris, who is subbing for Tom Tomorrow, tells us a little story about the kind of thing which goes on all the time in the media - reporters suppress the truth to retain their access. Every single journalist out there working today knows it, and it's time they stop pretending otherwise.

Story time: I had the opportunity to cover the 2000 GOP convention when I was the morning guy on Working Assets' RadioForChange.com. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) was the first Out homosexual ever to address a GOP convention. He wasn't talking about gay rights or civil liberties, of course -- he was actually discussing Free Trade with China -- but right in front of him, just below the stage, were several GOP activists, including a nice chunk of the Texas delegation, visibly and demonstratively praying for his Eternal Soul to release its wickedness.

Somehow the networks didn't manage to include that in their coverage.

The next morning, I interviewed the guy in person, live on the air. And just before we started, one of the GOP's media handlers let me know that for the purposes of the following discussion, Jim was not gay.

Here's the self-censorship thing you don't see in the media, and it happens all the time: right then, I had a choice: either push the issue, watch the interview end abruptly, guarantee I wouldn't have another GOP guest for the duration, and face down an hour of empty air time to fill... or just go along.

I decided to play along, and then tell the audience about the entire handling process right after the interview was over, and why I made that choice, which I figured would probably tell the listener more than they'd ever hear otherwise. I'm still not sure it was the right call, but there it is.

Santorum Again

You know, I really am a bit confused about some of Santorum's defenders. Leaving aside some associated issues, such as his view that priests raping 7 year olds can be accurately described as consensual homosexual relationships, which are actually even more disturbing than his feelings about homosexuality, here is a summary of the legal/political opinions Santorum made.

a) Sodomy isn't constitutionally protected, and therefore the Supreme Court cannot strike down state laws outlawing it. It is true that this was the gist of the Bowers v. Hardwick decision, and as such is the current state of affairs. (However, one reason the Supreme Court is revisiting this general issue is that the law in question in Texas does not outlaw sodomy outright, but same-sex sodomy).

b) Santorum has expressed his opinion that he would vote for and otherwise support efforts by states to criminalize behavior such as sodomy, adultery, etc.

Now, even if one wants to stake out a supposedly principled view of constitutional law and say that he has a point in a), I have little or no understanding why so many people aren't incensed about b). Sure, the Jeebofascists among us live to do nothing but control sex and women, but I have a hard time believing that there are that many Republicans who have never had sex outside of marriage and/or engaged in sodomy (yes, that includes oral sex boys and girls!) within marriage.

If you want to claim that Santorum is simply a theocrat and not a bigot - as if a religious belief cannot be bigoted regardless of what it is - feel free to nurse that little fantasy. But, Jeebus, I didn't know so many people were happy about politicians who want to tell them what they can and can't do with their bodies.

Weird.

CalPundit and Virginia Postrel have similar thoughts. As Virginia says:

The policy question is also the one to which Andrew Sullivan has primarily addressed his remarks. It's far more interesting--and, in my view, much easier--than the constitutional question. But it's the question conservative pundits mostly want to dodge.

Put a Fork In Him

Resolved: John Lott is a liar and a fraud, and anyone who promotes him as an honest objective researcher is a liar or a fool. This of course includes his current employer, the American Enterprise Institute, home to such other luminaries as Charles Murray and Dinesh D'Souza. This also includes our media who often provide "balance" by presenting research provided by this organization and are complicit in the promotion of their crap.

Hatch vs. Santorum

Orrin Hatch:

.
"I'm not here to justify polygamy," he said. "All I can say is, I know people in Hildale who are polygamists who are very fine people. You come and show me evidence of children being abused there and I'll get involved. Bring the evidence to me."
Hatch said he could not take unsubstantiated claims and enforce law, and he would not "sit here and judge anybody just because they live differently than me. There will be laws on the books, but these are very complicated issues," Hatch said.

Santorum:

You say, well, it's my individual freedom. Yes, but it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones behavior that's antithetical to strong, healthy families. Whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, where it's sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family.

And, here's an editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune:

I suppose the Republican party is a "big tent" after all.


Shame on Congressman Kolbe for having 'no comment' on Santorum. I don't think that a gay congressman is obligated to take a vocal stand on every gay issue, but Santorum has said that he should be in jail.

Football or Bush

Football wins!

Pfc. Patrick Miller is relaxing this weekend in seclusion with his wife and two children at their home in Park City.

Tired from travel and media attention, the former prisoner of war who grew up in Valley Center has only one scheduled appearance this weekend: today in Manhattan.

He will present the game ball to team captains at Kansas State University's annual spring football scrimmage. At halftime, Miller will be honored along with other military personnel and their families.

They include James and Cynthia Butler, parents of Sgt. Jacob Lee Butler, who was stationed at Fort Riley and killed during the conflict.

Miller chose the game over an invitation to meet President Bush today in Washington, D.C.

"It was the president or the game," said Mary Pickering, Miller's mother, "and the game won out."

Shorter John Derbyshire

Over at BusyBusyBusy.

Teach Me Enlighten Me

Wampum and Bean have posts up about the tendency to put the onus of educating "the rest of us" about feminism or racism on the victims of bigotry. Anyway, I know exactly what they're talking about and I think there's more to be written on this subject though I think I'll let the women and the people of color take care of that.*

*poor attempt at humor

Nice Going, Fred

The plot thickens on Leung and the GOP:

WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- Sens. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called Friday for a Senate inquiry into the latest FBI espionage scandal as the implications of the penetration of the bureau by an alleged Chinese spy spread to the 1996 presidential election campaign finance investigation, United Press International has learned.

According to congressional sources, the two prominent senators have written to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, asking for hearings on the growing crisis of espionage failures at the FBI.

...

-- Senate investigators in 1996 suspected Leung as being a conduit for secret Chinese government payments to the Republicans, but the committee, headed by former Tennessee Republican Sen. Fred Thompson, dropped the inquiry before a report could be written. "The money came out of Macao," said one former congressional investigator, and "was funneled through Taiwan."

...

Some Senate investigators suspect that Leung was the Republican opposite number to Chung. She is a major contributor to GOP candidates, including, indirectly through political action groups, the 2000 campaign of President George W. Bush.

I Love Libertarians

Especially Clayton Cramer and his enabler IP Ultrahack.

For more on the bigot cramer see Usenet post #1, Usenet Post #2, Usenet Post #3, Usenet Post #4.

methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Scary

Hard to believe that even Joan Walsh is writing a reasonable article about gay rights.

Newt Gingrich Bitch Slap

It's all been a bit weird. I'm shocked at just how many people have kicked him back into whatever hole he crawled out of.

James Baker.

Former Secretary of State James Baker, who has close ties to President Bush, blasted former House Speaker Newt Gingrich yesterday for trashing Secretary of State Powell's efforts before the Iraq war. Gingrich's comments "were totally inappropriate," Baker told the Daily News. "They came from someone with no foreign policy or national security experience, and who was in effect forced to resign."

Richard Armitage and Karl Rove.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage opined: "It's clear that Mr. Gingrich is off his meds and out of therapy."

Word is that the White House, in the person of counselor Karl Rove, also had a little chat with the former speaker after the Tuesday foray.

One wonders if he had been getting uppity in recent weeks so they decided to hand him a rope.

Secretary White Resigns

Hmm...

It Hurts Him to Say It

and it hurts me to do it, but Andy's still being mostly sensible about Santorum so I'll link to him.

One thing he brings up is Santorum's criticisms of JFK for separating his faith from his politics. This kind of thing drives me batty. It really wasn't that long ago when American catholics were indeed a second class minority, both due to their religion and the fact that they were part of more recent waves of immigration to the U.S. Catholic politicans were accused of being more loyal to the pope than to the constitution. Historically, catholics were some of the staunchest defenders of the wall between state and religion, and the harshest critics of things like religious involvement in public education, precisely because they did have minority status and weren't too thrilled with the prospect of being told how to worship by a bunch of Protestants.

Of course, Rick Santorum probably is one of those catholics who doesn't think too much of the Pope, so maybe he isn't too worried about the loyalty charge. Santorum supports the death penalty, supported the war in Iraq, belongs to a church which has ignored the Vatican II reforms, has praised Opus Dei, an order which forbids giving alms to the poor, and has criticized Catholic Charities for not being Catholic enough.

MSGOP Doing Just Fine

Love those ratings:

OLBERMANN - 0.5
SCARBOROUGH - 0.5
MSNBC 9 PM - 0.5


Actually, I like Olbermann most of the time, but I seem to remember Donahue pulling a 1.5

Oops.

Dems Debating in Confederate Landmark

As if you can spit in the South without hitting one. But, as Wyeth reminds us, Reagan, Bush, Baker, and Connally debated there in 1980.


OOPS, drudge got it wrong apparently. Never mind.

The People Need to Know

Given Santorum's views on privacy, it seems utterly consistent that the American people, especially his constituents, are entitled to know every detail about his sex life. The Rubber Nun has called to enquire about his oral sex habits.

General J.C. Christian Patriot Defends Santorum

Maybe he's right.

Torture Wolf

Wolf wants to know whether we should launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korea - something which would inevitably lead to war on the peninsula and the destruction of Seoul.

Banfield Admits Media is Crap

I guess she'll be looking for a new job soon.

Sex Advice From Santorum

Go give Santorum's office a call like this person did and ask them exactly which kinds of sexual behaviors are and aren't appropriate. Apparently oral sex between husband and wife isn't actually sodomy.

I honestly think Santorum has made these kinds of questions fair game. Reporters should be asking them. He's taken the personal and made it into a legal and political issue, and it's fair to ask him about it.

Who Wrote This?

"It is enough for a legislature to reasonably believe that commerce in the pursuit of orgasms by artificial means for their own sake is detrimental to the health and morality of the State."

click the link for the answer.

Signorile

Is having a great show today. One of the hilarious things is that since it's a satellite radio show, a disproportionate number of the listeners/callers are truckers - gay and straight. It provides a bit of a different perspective than you'd expect to hear on a show that would be expected to be more urbanite-oriented.

It's definitely one of the interesting things about satellite radio.

CNN Gets Pentagon Approval for War Pundits

This is absolutely incredible.

"I went to the Pentagon myself several times before the war started and met with important people there and said, for instance, at CNN, 'Here are the generals we're thinking of retaining to advise us on the air and offabout the war.' And we got a big thumbs-up on all of them. That was important."

-CNN's Eason Jordan on Howie's Suckfest.

Capozzola for Senate!

Check out Arlen Specter's comments on Trent Lott:

Asked if this episode might cause problems for Mr. Santorum in future elections, Mr. Specter responded with obvious concern. "It depends on how it plays out," he said. "Washington is a town filled with cannibals. The cannibals devoured Trent Lott without cause. If the cannibals are after you, you are in deep trouble. It depends on whether the cannibals are hungry. My guess is that it will blow over."

Thought Crimes

Rick Santorum has claimed that he sure loves those homos, as long as they aren't actually doing the nasty. This is a standard "defense" of this kind of bigotry, which allows said bigots to pretend that it's a religious/moral issue.

Late last night, Texas House Rep. Talton proposed a Bill which would "prevent the placement of a child in a foster home with any homosexual or bisexual individuals." This is clearly directed at what people are, and not what people do. So much for the "lifestyle" nonsense.

(via tbogg)

Bush on Santorum

"The president believes the senator is an inclusive man. And that's what he believes."

Indeed. Heh.

White House Admits Exaggerating Threat

You know, lying. War was just about proving to the world we had the biggest dick, as if they didn't know that already.

Reason for War?
White House Officials Say Privately the Sept. 11 Attacks Changed Everything

By John Cochran

W A S H I N G T O N, April 25
— To build its case for war with Iraq, the Bush administration argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but some officials now privately acknowledge the White House had another reason for war — a global show of American power and democracy.


Officials inside government and advisers outside told ABCNEWS the administration emphasized the danger of Saddam's weapons to gain the legal justification for war from the United Nations and to stress the danger at home to Americans. "We were not lying," said one official. "But it was just a matter of emphasis."

Officials now say they may not find hundreds of tons of mustard and nerve agents and maybe not thousands of liters of anthrax and other toxins. But U.S. forces will find some, they say. On Thursday, President Bush raised the possibility for the first time that any such Iraqi weapons were destroyed before or during the war.

Hey, they didn't lie about blowjobs or anything REALLY important.

Well, it was nice to be right about this all along. I'm so thrilled that 150+ soldiers had to die before I was validated.

Inefficient

Stupidly forgot the laptop power cord so I'm on the emergency backup computer here.

Old Arguments Become New

From the Nashville Banner, 1930, provided by the farmer:

"If the city council can rightly repeal our Sunday gas law to accomodate tourists, why should they not repeal our laws against stealing, murder, lewdness, bank robbery, arson and kidnaping? If we are going to let tourists, good and bad, violate the Sabbath here, why not let them also steal, break our banks, kidnap our children, violate our girls, murder our wives, or do any other wickedness that might suit their fancy? According to God and Anglo-Saxon civilization, Sabbath-breaking is just as wicked, and just as great a menace to our safety, as stealing, murder, rape, or perjury.

Gratitude

Thanks to all who contributed following my little car accident. It's back and good as new.

But, damn you Ben Affleck! I'm still waiting for my $100,000 donation.

Sully

While I appreciate that Andy's sticking to his guns on this issue, I'm a bit confused about the fact that he's shocked, no SHOCKED, about all of this. In his latest post he seems surprised that his cowboy hero Bush hasn't taken a stand on this. Those of us who actually follow politics on planet Earth, as opposed to politics in AndyLand, know what Bush's view of homosexuality is. When asked about Texas's sodomy law, which is limited to same-sex sodomy, Bush said "I think it's a symbolic gesture of traditional values."

As governor, "Bush supported a measure that banned gay couples from becoming foster parents or from adopting foster children."

Andy has to know this stuff, so why is he pretending otherwise?

Protesting a Bigot

Watching protest outside of Santorum's office on local news. Not far from me, woulda gone had I known.

MSNBC becomes MSGOP

Greg Beato thinks it might be his fault. I'm not so sure - they seem to have pretty much followed the advice that 'the farmer' gave them a few months back.

Ok, I'm no network program exec, but......
Listen up MSNBC,
Please keep up the good work.
I really enjoy the weekend "news" stories. Especially the exposes on fat people who aren't fat anymore.
Please make more dieting documentaries. For instance; I'd like to see Al Rocher's arms and legs surgically removed on television. Is that feasible?

Also..... I would like to see more stories about cats. Any kind of cats will do. (Enough with the pretentious inbred dog shows.) And more car chases ....with car chases, you can't go wrong.

Here are some more subjects/ideas I think MSNBC should consider.
Especially on weekends, when there is no actual news because everyone goes home and stops making up news.

1- More shows about designer penis enlargement medications like the old ones starring Bob Dole. I know, prostate surgery is in this season. But I miss the hearty old time bounders.

2- More shows about prostitutes and strippers. Especially child prostitutes. America loves child prostitutes!
Doesn't really matter about the kinds of strippers or prostitutes actually, America likes them all. Housewife prostitutes?
Strippers for God? Obese lesbian prostitutes on diets! You know what I mean? Fancy Lady stories. More Fancy Lady stories.

3- More celebrities gone bad shows. Like those former child-star exposes about once popular and beloved personalities who grow up into rogue adult miscreants and prostitutes. America likes celebrity prostitutes too. People are sick of Michael Jackson. People are beginning to think that you are paying Michael Jackson to act weird just so you can report that Michael Jackson is acting weird. Its getting old. What's Gary Condit up to? Can't you go bother Gary Condit some more. Does Gary Condit know any prostitutes?

4- Any story that can possibly involve the name 'Kennedy' and the word 'criminal' or 'drunk' in the same sentence. I think you know what I mean here. Big market for this in the hookworm and Bible belt.

5- Spring Break coverage. Doesn't matter if Spring Break is long over with or not. Watching moronic teenagers drinking draft beer from plastic cups and showing their titties is always a weekend crowd pleaser. Even during Thanksgiving!

6- Shark attack stories! Where are the shark attack stories?! Especially if the sharks are eating moronic drunken teenage prostitutes!

7- Serial killer stories. (Yes, the old reliable serial killer yarns). Unfortunately we need some new serial killers. At least one with a new flashy gimmick or new tantalizing modus operandi. America is bored with the same old serial killer with the hacked up prostitutes in the barrel in the garage and the sneaky satanic cults and the frustrated cop who has been working on the case for 16 years and so on.... know what I mean? Maybe work the name 'Kennedy' into a few more of these serial murderer stories. Eh?

8- More tawdry and salacious British royalty stories and bios. (self explanatory) Perhaps focus on Spanish royalty? (is there any Spanish royalty these days?) ... or some Monte Carlo sex-capade gambling stories!... some French fiddle faddle might be just the ticket! Or some steamy avant garde Iraqi playboy auto theft sex ring of virgin prostitutes for Allah investigation story! Very chic.... very current. Very MSNBC.

9- Jack Welch "Regular Guy" stories and interviews! What happened to the Jack Welch regular guy stories and interviews? Ya know.. maybe some interviews with Jack and his regular guy buddy/neighbor pals telling us all about what a regular buddy neighbor guy Jack is. Like his neighbor Bud, the auto-body paint shop guy, who hangs out on weekends and plays horseshoes with regular guy Jack. Or Marsha, the cashier at WalMart who greets Jack each morning when hes out on the sidewalk with his GE leaf-blower, or out tending the marigolds planted around the base of his ceramic virgin Mary lawn ornament.
How 'bout an afternoon with regular guys Jack Welch and Brain Williams as they reseal the a driveway or go shopping for a new neckties? Well?

10- How about an honest serious investigative news report about the collapse of Argentina's economy or Dick "Pink Puffer" Cheney's locked box of energy task force secrets curries and favors. Especially the "secrets" concerning Iraq's oil boodle. (Heh, you ain't fooling just anybody ya know.) Ha - Just kidding!..... scared ya didn't I?

11- Asteroid scare stories.... what happened to the asteroid hitting the earth stories.... or did I miss something? And how bout all those live helicopter car chase feeds MSNBC runs. (weekdays only) Why not on the weekends?
Don't they have freeway car chases in LA on weekends? We never do get to find out what exactly those were all about or why they were being chased.... But who really cares...they sure are fun to watch and that Lester Holt guy and that Rick Sanchez guy sure know how to anchor an afternoon LA freeway chase!

(how come only LA has all the cool car chases? Now there's an "investigation" for you.)

12- Stories about rich guys in air-balloons being shot out of the sky by the North Korean Air Force. Boy, that would be something.... especially considering all the edge of the chair white knuckle news video that usually accompanies rich guys in hot air balloon stories!

13- Here's an idea.... how about assigning a film crew to follow around the Bush twins and their cousins while they get drunk and try to buy expensive reefer during this years Spring Break. So they aren't in college anymore. Who cares, this is a time for sacrifice! I'd like to see some nice wet T-shirt Bush twin booby closeups with that too. And draft beer. Don't forget the draft beer.

14- How about a little help with a segment that includes Lynn Cheney hurling dodge-balls at lazy senior citizen layabouts in Sarasota! Can someone please run over Dennis Miller in a car? I'll buy the gas and cigarettes. Whatever, anything you want MSNBC.

I have more ideas.... but until I get my own corner office with a window and an employee handgun you're gonna have to settle for shitty ratings and whatever neo-Nazi you can pry away from the Free Congress Foundation.

call me MSNBC.... you need me.

Spring is Here

Time to start doing some exercise.

Oh god I'm in pain.

Remix Challenge

Awhile back Dan Savage suggested that someone get ahold of the audio of Bill O'Reilly repeatedly saying "I want to go to a gay bathhouse!" and make a nice techno song out of it. If only we could get the audio of the AP interview with Santorum. I think "man on dog" would provide a nice little sample for a rap song. Whaddya say, Snoop?

Bush Likes Gays

At least, he likes former gay porn stars.

More on Republican Child Pornographer

From Joe Conason.

hahaha.

New Blitzer Poll

Go tell him what you think.

Incest Laws

For all the talk about how worried we have to be about incest laws being overturned if the Supreme Court were to declare that it generally isn't really anyone's business where I put my penis, people seem blissfully unaware that in many states criminal incest between parent and child carries a much lighter sentence than does "standard" child rape or molestation. In other words, the law is much gentler when you rape your own kid as opposed to when you rape someone else's.

I guess incest isn't such a big deal after all.

Iraqi Information Minister Backs Reynolds

This is good.

(from Wyeth)

Haha - as is this. Who knew the PDN had it in them?


Go vote in their poll!

Republican Unity Coalition Speaks Up

They aren't entirely useless.

WASHINGTON, April 23 — A Republican group whose officials include former President Gerald R. Ford and Mary Cheney, the daughter of the vice president, demanded today that Senator Rick Santorum apologize to gays for his remarks equating homosexuality with bigamy and incest.

Good News in Florida

It's so rare I thought I should share:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A Florida court struck down a law Wednesday that required mothers who want to give a child up for adoption to publicize their sexual histories in newspaper ads.

The 4th District Court of Appeals said the law, passed two years ago, violates privacy rights and substantially interferes with a woman's independence in choosing adoption.

Poor Wolf

I bet he needed a drink yesterday.

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our "Web Question of the Day." We've been asking you this question.

Were the anti-war critics right or wrong? Look at this, 65 percent of you said they were right, 35 percent said they were wrong. You can continue to vote and get more result on the website, cnn.com/wolf. This is of course not a scientific poll.

Polygamists Condemn Santorum

Poor guy can't catch a break.

Santorum has been under fire for comparing homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery.

Owen Allred, 89, head of the United Apostolic Brethen, based in the Salt Lake City suburb of Bluffdale, agreed with Santorum in part.

"He is absolutely right. The people of the United States are doing whatever they can to do away with the sacred rights of marriage," Allred told The Salt Lake Tribune.

But Allred said Santorum's inclusion of polygamy in his list tarnishes a religious tradition whose roots are traced to biblical figures such as Abraham, Jacob and Moses — defiling them as "immoral and dirty."

Thursday is New Jobless Claims Day

And they're soaring.

Last week's revised upwards, as usual.

Lottsapundit Continues

Tim Lambert has the update.

He links to this piece by ArchPundit which really seems to get to the heart of the matter - Instapundit is a hack, therefore he thinks all people are hacks. Glenn has gone all postmodern on us - there is no truth, just competing ideologies.

Howard Dean Says the Obvious

"We Don't Know' If Iraqi People Are Better Off Without Saddam."

Well, duh.

Another Evildoer Down

One by one:

A prominent Republican fund-raiser who once said former President Bill Clinton was "a lawbreaker and a terrible example to our nation's young people" pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court to production of child pornography.
Richard Anthony Delgaudio, who was sentenced to two years' probation before judgment, admitted to taking lewd photographs of a 16-year-old girl he met in East Baltimore's Patterson Park in 2001. In some of the photos, he was engaged in sex with her, court records show.

Delgaudio, 50, of Burke, Va., is a frequent talk-radio guest and national figure in conservative politics. He is president of the Legal Affairs Council, a group that helped pay the legal bills of former Reagan administration officials Oliver L. North and Caspar W. Weinberger after they were charged in connection with the Iran-contra affair.

In his pornography case, there was additional evidence that Delgaudio took erotic images of at least one other, younger teen-ager, but that evidence was not admissible in court because police improperly stopped and searched Delgaudio, a judge ruled.

William Saletan Can Bite Me

David E. explains.


And, as far as I can tell, he has yet to justify his heterosexuality to me. So, I must say that while I think that heterosexuality is okay, Saletan hasn't been able to explain why.

Theocracy Rising

Rick Santorum blasts JFK's embrace of the separation of church and state, and claims that George W. Bush is the first Catholic president.

You can buy their CD here.

Buy These Books

Joe Conason's forthcoming book:

which isn't being released any earlier than September, is currently #944 on Amazon's bestseller list.

But, Sid's new book:



is coming out soon!

Dan Rather Better than Fox News!

Says the conservative Media Research Center.

The veteran CBS anchorman has been a frequent target of the Washington-based Media Research Center, which keeps an eye out for any signs of liberal bias on television. But the group gave Rather a B-plus for his war work, while Fox News got a B.

Eschaton Assignment Desk

Some perfectly valid questions for Mr. Santorum:

1) Were you a virgin on your wedding night?

2) Have you ever committed adultery?

3) Have you ever committed an act of sodomy?

4) If it were up to you, would Mary Cheney be in jail now? Would you give that answer personally to her father?

5) If it were up to you, would Congressman Kolbe (R-AZ) be in jail right now?

6) What is your honest opinion of Ass Clowns 3?

Thug Watch

In lovely Orange County

An 18-year-old Lebanese-American teenager filed a civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against a group of Orange County teens who allegedly assaulted him with bats and golf clubs while shouting racial slurs.

Rashid Alam and his lawyers filed the lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court. The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, as well as legal fees from four named defendants and 29 unnamed defendants and their parents.

"I am a human being. Just because I am Arabian or Muslim does not mean that I am bad or evil," Alam said

Alam suffered multiple head injuries, a broken jaw and stab wounds as a result of the Feb. 22 attack. Metal plates were inserted in his face during reconstructive surgery and his jaw until last week was wired shut.

A Basic Homosexual Relationship

This is what Santorum thinks of the victims of John Geoghan:

SANTORUM: In this case, what we're talking about, basically, is priests who were having sexual relations with post-pubescent men. We're not talking about priests with 3-year-olds, or 5-year-olds. We're talking about a basic homosexual relationship. Which, again, according to the world view sense is a a perfectly fine relationship as long as it's consensual between people. If you view the world that way, and you say that's fine, you would assume that you would see more of it.

Let's remind ourselves about Geoghan:

Since the mid-1990s, more than 130 people have come forward with horrific childhood tales about how former priest John J. Geoghan allegedly fondled or raped them during a three-decade spree through a half-dozen Greater Boston parishes.

Almost always, his victims were grammar school boys. One was just 4 years old.

Hey, Rick Santorum's son is old enough for just such a basic homosexual relationship.

I felt a little funny about it," McSorley recalled in an interview. "I was 12 years old and he was an old man."

Riding home after getting ice cream, McSorley says, Geoghan consoled him. But then he patted his upper leg and slid his hand up toward his crotch. "I froze up," McSorley said. "I didn't know what to think. Then he put his hand on my genitals and started masturbating me. I was petrified." McSorely added that Geoghan then began masturbating himself.

....

During his assignment in Hingham, Geoghan found victims far afield, befriending Joanne Mueller, a single mother of four boys who lived in Melrose. There too, according to depositions, the priest became a regular visitor, a spiritual counselor to Mueller and a helpmate to her boys, who were between 5 and 12.

One night, she testified, her second youngest son came to her, insisting that she keep Geoghan away from him. "I don't want him doing that to my wee-wee, touching my wee-wee . . ." Mueller recalled the boy saying.

No Comment

Bush 01/15/03

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in a case about admission policies and student diversity in public universities. I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education. But the method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this important goal is fundamentally flawed.

At their core, the Michigan policies amount to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes perspective students, based solely on their race. So, tomorrow my administration will file a brief with the court arguing that the University of Michigan's admissions policies, which award students a significant number of extra points based solely on their race, and establishes numerical targets for incoming minority students, are unconstitutional.

Ari Fleischer, Today:

Q Just one other thing, if I can. Does the President know more about what Senator Santorum said? Does he have any feelings about his comments? Do they think they were inappropriate or appropriate?

MR. FLEISCHER: I haven't personally talked to the President about it, so I don't have anything direct from the President to share.

Q So you all are just making a conscious decision to just keep clear of this one?

MR. FLEISCHER: Let me put it to you this way. The President typically never does comment on anything involving a Supreme Court case, a Supreme Court ruling or a Supreme Court finding -- typically. And in this case, we also have no comment on anything that involves any one person's interpretation of the legalities of an issue that may be considered before the Court.

Next?

Torture Wolf!

Go!

On a related note, Howard Dean calls on Santorum to resign his leadership position. He'll also be on with Wolfie today.

Boots and Coots

Major Barbara catches Slate and the New York Times in a bit of an, um, error.

Canadian Safety Boss, Inc.'s president and CEO Mike Miller doesn't mince words about the hellfighting business.

He doesn't have to.

Safety Boss put out more oil well fires than any other company in Kuwait in 1991 -- more than Red Adair, more than Boots & Coots, more than any American company. They're
Canadian, and they're proud to have secured more oil wells in the wake of Operation Desert Storm than anyone else.

"We were the top team," Mr. Miller typed in an e-mail to this writer. True to his word, he backed that statement up with the facts.

But they're not the facts -- make that the alleged facts -- that the New York Times reported on March 30 -- and they certainly don't jibe with what was tossed around in Christopher Hitchens' recent piece for Slate.

The New York Times said that "Boots & Coots International Well Control... put out about a third of the fires set in Kuwait in 1991 and earned perhaps as much as $100 million in the process."

That's simply not accurate -- and Mike Miller knows it.

As proof, here are some statistics from the 1994 book Advanced Blowout and Well Control, from industry-leader Gulf Publishing (from Table 3, p. 390). (The stats might have helped the
Times' fact-checker, too.) Here's how many wells were "secured" by the top teams, out of author Bob Grace's total of 727:

Safety Boss - 176
Boots & Coots - 126
Wild Well Control - 120
Red Adair - 111
Kuwait Oil Company - 41
Cudd Pressure Control - 23

Click the link for more.

Selective Outrage

Santorum's comments can be broken down as follows:

a) He believes there is no constitutional prohibition on states' regulating the entire range of sexual behavior.

b) He would support and vote for such prohibitions on a wide range of behavior - including, but not necessarily limited to, homosexual sexual relations.

c) He believes that the post-pubescent male victims of sexual abuse and statutory rape by catholic priests were simply engaging in normal consensual homosexual relationships.


Why has point c) not gotten any attention by the media? Points a) and b) are pretty standard stuff from the theocratic sex-obsessed crowd, if disturbing, while c) is quite horrifying. I mean, if Johnny and Daniel Santorum became the victims of sexual abuse by priests would he decide that they were simply participating in normal consensual homosexual relationships?

Signorile is talking about this now. Go listen!

(Update: Just wanted to add that I'm actually being rather charitable to Ricky. What he actually said was that the priest abuse cases were simply post-pubescent males having relationships with priests. There were of course pre-pubescent victims as well. )

Reporters Loot Iraq

This guy should be fired. (links broken, scroll down)

UPDATE: More looting from the Fair and Balanced gang:

Fox News Engineer Charged With Smuggling

WASHINGTON -A television news engineer faces smuggling charges after attempting to bring into the United States 12 stolen Iraqi paintings, monetary bonds and other items, federal officials said Wednesday.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., charges that Benjamin James Johnson, 27, tried to bring the paintings into this country last Thursday. They were contained in a large cardboard box that was examined by Customs agents at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.

An affidavit filed with the criminal complaint says that Johnson, who accompanied U.S. troops in Baghdad, gathered up the paintings at a palace that belonged to Uday Hussein, one of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's sons. The paintings depict Saddam and Uday.

Johnson, who initially told Customs officials he was given the paintings by Iraqi citizens, said he had planned to keep them "for decoration" and to PROVIDE ONE TO HIS EMPLOYER, the affidavit says. It is U.S. policy that all such items belong to the Iraqi people.

Link to Sully

Oh I'm so ashamed, but he has a few decent posts on the Santorum issue here.

Specter to the Rescue!

Specter says:

I have known Rick Santorum for the better part of two decades and I can say with certainty he is not a bigot.

Oh, give me a break Arlen. Santorum just consigned an entire group of people to a lifetime of celibacy because he thinks what they do is icky. He's a bigot, and so are you.

Santorum Calls Priest Abuse Cases "Consensual"

Pretty incredible.

SANTORUM: You have the problem within the church. Again, it goes back to this moral relativism, which is very accepting of a variety of different lifestyles. And if you make the case that if you can do whatever you want to do, as long as it's in the privacy of your own home, this "right to privacy," then why be surprised that people are doing things that are deviant within their own home? If you say, there is no deviant as long as it's private, as long as it's consensual, then don't be surprised what you get. You're going to get a lot of things that you're sending signals that as long as you do it privately and consensually, we don't really care what you do. And that leads to a culture that is not one that is nurturing and necessarily healthy. I would make the argument in areas where you have that as an accepted lifestyle, don't be surprised that you get more of it.

AP: The right to privacy lifestyle?

SANTORUM: The right to privacy lifestyle.

AP: What's the alternative?

SANTORUM: In this case, what we're talking about, basically, is priests who were having sexual relations with post-pubescent men. We're not talking about priests with 3-year-olds, or 5-year-olds. We're talking about a basic homosexual relationship. Which, again, according to the world view sense is a a perfectly fine relationship as long as it's consensual between people. If you view the world that way, and you say that's fine, you would assume that you would see more of it.

p.s. If anyone knows a decent boston globe reporter or columnist to send this to, please do.

p.p.s. kos is on this too.

Newt vs. Daschle

Over at Wyethwire.

I'm saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country."
Tom Daschle, 3/18/2003


"The last seven months have involved six months of diplomatic failure and one month of military success. The first days after military victory indicate the pattern of diplomatic failure is beginning once again and threatens to undo the effects of military victory."
Newt Gingrich, 4/22/2003

You should contact Tom DeLay and ask him to condemn the treasonous comments of Newt Gingrich.

The Rule of Law

I don't understand why the Republicans in Alabama want to give George Bush "special rights."

Unless Alabama's election law is changed, President Bush could be left off the state's presidential election ballot in 2004.

The problem is that the Republican National Convention is being held later than usual to avoid conflict with the Olympics and the GOP won't choose a candidate until Sept. 2 - two days after Alabama's Aug. 31 deadline to certify presidential candidates.

Republicans are asking the Democrat-controlled Legislature to change the law and extend the deadline until Sept. 5. That bill is on the work agenda in the House for Thursday, but some Republicans say they are concerned the bill has been placed behind several controversial issues and may not come up for consideration.