"I strongly believe that transgender individuals deserve the same rights and the same protections as any other Americans..."Say what you will about the effectiveness of the Democratic congress, but the Speaker of the House of Representatives last night put the credibility of the entire Democratic party behind openly supporting transsexuals. I tend to lean towards the cultural side of things - meaning, cultural change is at least as important as, and is often a necessary precursor to, legislative change. And I think what Nancy Pelosi did was HUGE in terms of advancing change in the culture. It was also rather risky - I can't imagine a lot of Democrats being thrilled that she said that, as they don't want to be asked on the campaign trail, in front of their constituents in Nebraska, whether they agree with their party's leader that they fully endorse trans rights.
“The sales person was saying that they (homes) were going up $1,000 a week,” Dave Gustafson recalls. “So ... we signed right away.”Read More......
Builders made it easy. A downpayment of $2,000 to $5,000 was all it took. Buyers could borrow at low teaser rates, requiring payments of nothing more than interest.
As promised, prices were going up faster than the houses themselves.
By the time the family’s new home was completed, the $179,000 base price had climbed to $220,000.
The Gustafsons opted for Corian counters, a pool and whirlpool, adding more than $50,000 to their loan. Payments were fixed for only two years, but they didn’t worry. With prices rising, they’d refinance. In five or six years, the Gustafsons figured, they’d sell for $500,000.
They were hardly the only ones feeling optimistic.
Kris Rowberry, ecstatic when the value of his home in nearby Gilbert took off, bought a second one in the Villages as an investment.
“I was thinking, man, if I could have 10 properties, I could just kind of retire ... and kick back and live off the income,” he says.
So far, investors have been quick to embrace the writedowns, sending shares of Merrill, Citigroup and UBS higher on the belief that the worst of the credit crisis is behind them.Read More......
Punk, Ziegel & Co.'s Richard Bove labeled that kind of thinking as "deluded." Mortgage and derivatives businesses at many of these firms have taken a wallop and may not recover for several quarters.
"The assumption that by writing off the stuff, these business will turn around and become vibrant is almost insane," said Bove. "It's not going to happen."
ABC's "This Week" - Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt; Gov. Jon Corzine, D-N.J.; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Democratic presidential candidate.Two Democrats on Fox. Huh. Read More......
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CBS' "Face the Nation" - Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Adam Putnam, R-Fla.; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
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NBC's "Meet the Press" - Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., presidential candidate.
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CNN's "Late Edition" - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani; Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol; Susan Rice, foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution; John Prendergast, co-founder of Enough, a project to abolish genocide; former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
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"Fox News Sunday" - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Patti Solis Doyle, Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign manager.
In 2002, then-EPA Administrator Christy Todd Whitman agreed with her team of scientists and physicians working in Libby that a "Public Health Emergency" should be declared because of the severe toxicity of the asbestos contamination in the insulation. The declaration would have authorized and provided money for intensified health studies that would quantify the threat from the Libby asbestos, expand the cleanup of the town and the homes, and conduct an extensive publicity campaign to notify homeowners and workers of the dangers from exposure to Zonolite.Read More......
Thousands of pages of e-mails, letters and reports document intense efforts from the White House to block the declaration, especially the part that would require the government to tell millions of homeowners that they could be living with a toxic threat in their attic and walls.
In May 2003, EPA said it was launching a "national consumer awareness campaign to provide homeowners with important information on vermiculite attic insulation which may contain asbestos."
It promised extensive television and radio ads, a "blitz" of appearances on national and local news show, the distribution of "tens of thousands" of posters and warning brochures in home improvement stores.
It never happened.
Tens of thousands of Medicare recipients have been victims of deceptive sales tactics and had claims improperly denied by private insurers that run the system’s huge new drug benefit program and offer other private insurance options encouraged by the Bush administration, a review of scores of federal audits has found.As I have said before, the system here in France is not perfect but you would simply not hear stories such as this. They have some funny ideas in France regarding health care, where people are treated first and the payment is sorted out later, without insanely ridiculous scams like this.
The problems, described in 91 audit reports reviewed by The New York Times, include the improper termination of coverage for people with H.I.V. and AIDS, huge backlogs of claims and complaints, and a failure to answer telephone calls from consumers, doctors and drugstores.
Medicare officials have required insurance companies of all sizes to fix the violations by adopting “corrective action plans.” Since March, Medicare has imposed fines of more than $770,000 on 11 companies for marketing violations and failure to provide timely notice to beneficiaries about changes in costs and benefits.
The companies include three of the largest participants in the Medicare market, UnitedHealth, Humana and WellPoint.[My emphasis]
The audits document widespread violations of patients’ rights and consumer protection standards. Some violations could directly affect the health of patients — for example, by delaying access to urgently needed medications.
We've been doing a lot of blogging about LGBT issues at the national level, specifically ENDA and all the political schisms erupting here and elsewhere, but it's good to remind ourselves that the rubber often hits the road at the local level, where our advocacy organizations do a lot with not a lot of resources.Over half the respondents thought preventing the anti-gay marriage amendment was top priority. North Carolina remains the only Southern state to legislatively stop a constitutional amendment to reduce gay folks to second-class citizens who cannot marry.Just a few weeks ago, I was in Birmingham speaking at Alabama's Day of Equality and Gala (put on by Equality Alabama), where hundreds of grassroots activists (LGB and T) came together to attend workshops and support the local advocacy organization.
A close second was preventing anti-gay bullying in our schools (something Equality NC is working hard to do next session with our Safe School legislation). Many people also expressed concern that the trans community isn't included often enough in pro-LGBT legislation -- a particularly relevant issue given the recent attempts to remove trans-inclusion from the federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act, efforts which ENC strongly opposes.
Employment nondiscrimination, both statewide and national (including repeal of the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy), was also cited.
I serve on the conference committee, and was pleased as all get-out to confirm that Alabama Representative Patricia Todd is going to join us to speak about her journey to become the first openly gay elected official in that state; and Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) President Neil Guiliano will also bring his perspective to attendees. What's exciting is that we will have several member of the North Carolina General Assembly there. Remember, in this state, being an open advocate of LGBT rights can be no small feat in some circles, and we look forward to educating more elected officials about moving forward in support of equality. In fact, the first Equality North Carolina Award for Legislative Leadership will be given to Representative Rick Glazier for his strong work on the School Violence Prevention Act.
Washington Mutual - 75% dropCan you imagine the rubbish they would be pushing on average Americans who are trying to build and maintain their social security plan? If they can't even practice common sense in banking - their profession - why should the American public trust them to take care of something as important as Social Security? With this news it's no surprise that Bush and the GOP have been quiet on this subject. If you think we have problems because of the subprime failures, just wait until this group - including Republicans in Congress and Greenspan types - get their hands on Social Security. Read More......
Merrill Lynch - $5 billion write down
UBS - $3.4 billion loss
Citigroup - 60% decline.
Deutsche Bank - $3.12 billion write down.
If Hillary Clinton wins the US presidency, Bill Clinton will be given the job of repairing America's damaged international reputation, the former president tells the Guardian in an interview today.Read More......
Mr Clinton, 61, reveals that his wife has said she would ask him to "go out and immediately restore America's standing, go out and tell people America was open for business and cooperation again" after eight years marked by unilateralist policies that have "enrage[d] the world".
For the first time in his political life, Mr Clinton says, "ordinary US voters in the heartlands are concerned about who would be most likely to restore America's standing in the world" in the wake of the Iraq war, lack of action on climate change and other policies.
"The average American knows instinctively that we have almost no problems in the world that we can solve all by ourselves," he says. "And that, I think, is helping her candidacy, because people believe - I think rightly - that if she were elected she would quickly move to restore our standing in the world, and tell people there may be a few occasions when we have to do something on our own, but our strong preference is going to be to be cooperative."
Read More......
My take is: I support equality for transgender people. I think transgender people and anyone who cares about transgender equality should work to pass laws to protect transgender people and give them equal rights. I also think politics is politics. I think if Barney can get an LGB bill through Congress, he should do it, and we should let him. If Barney and whoever else can then get a T bill through Congress, they should do that, too. Nixing an LGB job-protection bill, which would directly affect in the neighborhood of 30 million Americans, because we can't simultaneously protect an unknown, vastly smaller number of T Americans doesn't seem reasonable. In a perfect world, of course we'd include the T folks. But we don't live in a perfect world. We're trying to make it more perfect. But that takes time, it takes process, and it means grabbing opportunities when they are available....Read More......
I'm also not convinced that homosexuality and transsexuality are the same thing, and I really don't think there is such a thing as "the LGBT community." Gay men and lesbians are the same thing (homosexuals) -- and bisexuals, when they're not exercising their heterosexual option, are then exercising their gay or lesbian option. Many transsexuals I've known have had surgery and then partnered with someone of the opposite sex, at which point they are, I'd imagine, heterosexual.
The four leading Republican presidential candidates have aligned themselves with President Bush’s veto on Wednesday of an expanded health insurance program for children, once again testing the political risk of appearing in lock step with a president who has low approval ratings and some critics of the veto within their party.Doesn't matter what the GOP candidates say about Bush's judgment or leadership. Their actions show their fealty to Bush. Read More......
It is yet another issue — like the Iraq war, North Korea’s nuclear program and the management of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina — where the Republican contenders are treading delicately as they gauge how to position themselves with an unpopular president on contentious issues. While all four are defending the veto, some in full-throated language, the candidates are at the same time forgoing praise of Mr. Bush’s judgment on the issue or of his leadership in general.
Noting the TV interview, he told the campaign crowd, "I said, you know what, I probably haven't worn a flag pin in a very long time. After a while I noticed people wearing a lapel pin and not acting very patriotic."Read More......
"My attitude is that I'm less concerned about what you're wearing on your lapel than what's in your heart. You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve. You show your patriotism by being true to our values and ideals. That's what we have to lead with is our values and our ideals."
An e-mail from a federal inspector confirms the U.S. Department of Agriculture knew that millions of frozen hamburger patties could be contaminated with E. coli in early September but waited 18 days before concluding Topps Meat Co. should issue a recall, a lawyer for a teen sickened by the beef said Thursday.If this is what the US Agriculture department thinks is the "safest in the world" (said only on Monday), someone needs to get their butt out of the office and out of the country because that is simply false.
The recall came Sept. 25, and was soon expanded to comprise 21.7 million pounds of hamburger produced by Elizabeth-based Topps, the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history.
The Florida teen was hospitalized with kidney failure in August and the meat her family bought was tested by the USDA.
"I think the American meat supply is the safest in the world," Raymond said in an interview on CBS's "The Early Show." "A recall like this does show that we are on the job, we are doing our inspections, our investigation, and we respond when we find problems to make sure that supply is safe."Interesting in light of the emails that have surfaced. Where I come from, we call people like this a liar. With the risk of serious illness or death from eating contaminated beef, how can people like this sleep at night? Read More......
The FBI and the Justice Department are working with the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to probe whether HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson arranged for nearly half a million dollars worth of work to go to a golfing partner and friend, according to the National Journal magazine.Read More......
"My job is a decision-making job. And as a result, I make a lot of decisions," the president said.Read More......
He elaborated on that point later.
"I delegate to good people. I always tell Condi Rice, `I want to remind you, Madam Secretary, who has the Ph.D. and who was the C student. And I want to remind you who the adviser is and who the president is.'
"I got a lot of Ph.D.-types and smart people around me who come into the Oval Office and say, `Mr. President, here's what's on my mind.' And I listen carefully to their advice. But having gathered the device (sic), I decide, you know, I say, `This is what we're going to do.' And it's `Yes, sir, Mr. President.' And then we get after it, implement policy."
I support full transgender rights. However, when I have been invited to legal weddings of some of my transgender friends, not one of them has said "we will not get married until Diane and you and other same gender couples can get married". They did not sacrifice their legal rights on the alter of political correctness to give up the State and Federal benefits of marriage.Read More......
And yet, with regard to ENDA, the lesbian and gay community is expected to do so, leaving millions and millions of us in the majority of States, once again, unprotected.
Robin Tyler
The images were taken down, but not before other students snared the video. In subsequent Facebook postings, Smith said:
A group of white Louisiana college students dressed in blackface and reenacted the "Jena 6" assault while a friend snapped photos and videotaped the staged attack, images that were later posted to a participant's Facebook page. The photos, which you'll find on the following pages, were taken late last month on the bank of the Red River, where students from the University of Louisiana at Monroe giddily acted out the racial attack. The photos (and the short video clip at right) were posted to the Facebook page of Kristy Smith, a freshman nursing student. The album of images was entitled "The Jena 6 on the River." In the video, three students with mud smeared across their bodies stomp on a fourth student, while two of the participants are heard to say, "Jena 6." One man can also be heard saying, "Niggers put the noose on."
"We were just playin n the mud and it got out of hand. I promise i'm not racist. i have just as many black friends as i do white. And i love them to death," she wrote. She added in a later message that her friends "were drinking" and things "got a lil out of hand."The Smoking Gun also points to similar racially charged images placed on Facebook by college students in Texas, Connecticut, and South Carolina.
"I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this," Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself.How is this not racist:
"Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f------ fork up your a--...Throw his ass out. He's a nigger! He's a nigger! He's a nigger! A nigger, look, there's a nigger!"Those comments obviously indicate that Richards either must have been possessed by a racist demon or he was just "playing one" onstage that night, right?
From: Rep. Eric Cantor, Chief Deputy Republican Whip website@nrcc.orgRead More......
Date: Oct 4, 2007 2:19 PM
Subject: Rush Needs Your Support
Friends,
One failure after another, Washington Democrats have built a record of legislative failure; one disappointment after another, Washington Democrats have failed to deliver results to the people who got them there.
This must be why, just nine months into their tenure, the Democrat-led Congress hit an 11% approval rating – that is the lowest in recorded history. Facing their record of failure, Washington Democrats decided to try and distract – and so they took a man's words out of context, then they went on the attack.
That's why I'm encouraging you to click here to "Stand With Rush" and sign this petition.
It is at moments like these when we need to band together as conservatives and fight back.
This issue is bigger than you or me, it is bigger than Rush Limbaugh. With the recent liberal effort to resurrect the "fairness doctrine," we have to recognize that free speech -- conservative free speech is under direct attack. These are issues that speak directly to the core of the modern conservative movement – are we going to allow ourselves to be pushed around by liberal extremists, or are we going to fight back?
I want to send Washington Democrats a message that their attempts to distract aren't working – I stand with Rush Limbaugh against liberal attacks.
Rep. Eric Cantor (R - VA)
Chief Deputy Republican Whip
EricCantor.com
P.S. Please remember to Stand With Rush and sign the petition.
Well, John, you make a number of things very clear.Dana,
You think the trans community was able to enter the LGB community not as a natural evolution of the community, as you pointed out happened with women and bi's, but through shame and fear. Fear? You're afraid of what, our political power? I don't think so. But maybe some folks in our community are afraid that trans people will highlight the gender nonconformity in the gay community and drag straight-acting gays into the sunlight.
Shame? Maybe, and if so, then for good reason. They should be ashamed of themselves. That they feel so privileged and so righteous is shameful.
I agree with you that there are "senior" gay journalists - among others - who don't get it. Barney Frank is apparently one such; Tammy Baldwin is not. Evidently the old school is not old enough to have read Susan Stryker's history of gay America to realize that it was the gay guys who were added to the trans community at the dawn of the "gay" rights revolution. We were at Dewey's Compton's and Stonewall. I celebrate the fact that gays and lesbians were depathologized in 1973; I mourn the ensuing turnabout, when newly "mainstreamed" gays and lesbians turned on the gender nonconformists, including gay drag queens, and piled on to psychiatry's pathologization of us. Jim Fouratt spewed his vile notion that trans women are nothing more than cowardly gay men who couldn't accept their homosexuality, and Janice Raymond and her 2nd wave radical lesbian feminists characterized us as the surgical construct of the patriarchy to be used as an avant garde to invade women's spaces.
You're right - there hadn't until this past week been an up swelling in the non-trans queer community to be trans-inclusive, just an evolution of adding one more letter to the alphabet soup - a change in nomenclature which has mirrored our own improved understanding of who we are and how we can identify to be as inclusive within our sub-community as possible. It saddens me that you ridicule that evolution.
Yet there had never been any kind of mass gay action in support of sexual minority rights until Stonewall, run by trans women, and then little thereafter until death started to sweep the gay community.
I have pointed out repeatedly that surveys, including those of HRC, show there is as much support for a trans-inclusive ENDA as a non-trans-inclusive one. Just because most Americans have never met one of us (or at least not outside of Oprah) doesn't mean Americans don't understand discrimination when they see it.
If Barney can't get the bill passed, then he should leave it to Tammy to get the job done. I can speak to the wavering Congresspersons in half an hour and give them enough of an understanding to respond effectively to any hate speech from the Republicans. Instead we show our cowardice again and run.
The bottom line is that when we're in the equation, the LGBT community can't hide from gender nonconformity and all the sub-issues that raises. You're right - let's deal with it. Generalized fear of transgender people can be overcome just as so many Americans have overcome their generalized fear of gay men. We can make this a better country together, and do so without sacrificing anyone.
Please feel free to post this response on your blog.
Dana Beyer, M.D.
HRC Board of Governors nominee
[I]n presenting his recent assessment of the Iraq War and in describing the “way forward,” Petraeus demonstrated that he is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes.The entire piece is simply -- and rightly -- devastating.
Petraeus has chosen a middle course, carefully crafted to cause the least amount of consternation among various Washington constituencies he is eager to accommodate. This is the politics of give and take, of horse trading, of putting lipstick on a pig. Ultimately, it is the politics of avoidance.
A political general in the mold of Washington or Grant would have taken a different course, using his moment in the spotlight not to minimize consternation but to stir it up to the maximum extent. He would have capitalized on his status as man of the hour to oblige civilian leaders, both in Congress and in the executive branch, to do what they have not done since the Iraq War began—namely, their jobs. He would have insisted upon the president and the Congress making decisions that wartime summons them—and not military commanders—to make. Instead, Petraeus issued everyone a pass.
There is only one plausible explanation for Petraeus’s terminating a surge that has (he says) enabled coalition forces, however tentatively, to gain the upper hand. That explanation is politics—of the wrong kind.Indeed. It's really amazing that he has gotten such a pass on all of this; history, I think, will not be so kind. Read More......
Given the current situation as Petraeus describes it, an incremental reduction in U.S. troop strength makes sense only in one regard: it serves to placate each of the various Washington constituencies that Petraeus has a political interest in pleasing.
EditorialRead More......
Susan Ryan-Vollmar
Editor-in-Chief, Bay Windows
Rep. Barney Frank is right
If only we’d seen the passion, the blog posts and the last-minute organizing by LGBT organizations around a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) last year. And the year before that. And the decade before that. Just yesterday, a coalition called United ENDA unveiled its website featuring talking points for a trans-inclusive ENDA; legal analysis showing that an ENDA bill that only protects lesbians, gay men and bisexuals will be too weak to actually protect lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (the bill’s failure to protect actual transmen and women is conspicuously absent from the analysis); and an impressively lengthy list of national and state LGBT organizations demanding an all-or-nothing approach to passing ENDA.
The outcry has been strong enough to convince House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who supports a trans-inclusive ENDA and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, who has been lobbying House members on the trans-inclusive ENDA, to back off of their controversial plan to put forward two ENDA bills: one that is trans-inclusive and one that would make it illegal to fire an employee based solely on his or her sexual orientation.
In a lengthy statement outlining his rationale, Frank said that after House Leadership took an official count of the votes, it became clear that the trans-inclusive ENDA bill wouldn’t pass. Even worse, Frank wrote, a trans-inclusive ENDA would also be vulnerable to anti-trans amendments from Republicans: “[I]t became clear that an amendment offered by Republicans either to omit the transgender provision altogether or severely restrict it in very obnoxious ways would pass.”
LGBT organizations from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network are demanding that either a trans-inclusive ENDA be put forward or none at all.
This is madness.
The House is on the verge of passing groundbreaking workplace protections for millions of Americans. It’s the first piece of legislation Congress has seriously considered since the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was passed in 1993 that offers American workers protection from arbitrary firings. It’s not perfect. Few pieces of civil rights legislation are. But it would provide a concrete base upon which to expand ENDA protections not just to transmen and women but to also add provisions to the bill that would require employers to offer domestic partnership benefits to the partners of their LGBT employees if they offer such benefits to their heterosexual employees — a provision that is not in the current bill. As it happens, that’s exactly how Congress dealt with the FMLA. It was a nine-year fight of submitting bills, amending them and persevering through two vetoes of the bill by President George H.W. Bush. The bill that was eventually signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993 was much more comprehensive than the one first approved by Congress. This is not unusual; it’s how the legislative process works.
There is much concern that if a bill protecting employees solely on the basis of sexual orientation is passed then protections for transmen and women will be forgotten. It’s hard to take that concern seriously given the flurry of support that’s been forcefully expressed for trans rights now that we know a trans-inclusive ENDA simply will not pass in the House as its currently configured.
Claiming that Frank has betrayed the trans community, as some are now doing (Los Angeles Times sportswriter Christine Daniels wrote this week that he was engaged in a strategy to “throw the transfolk overboard”) is breathtakingly ignorant of the facts.
The targeting of the Human Rights Campaign for its failure to align itself with the LGBT organizations that have promised to work to defeat a non-inclusive ENDA is equally ignorant of reality. Who can seriously expect the nation’s largest organization working to pass legislation on our behalf to refuse to work with Pelosi and Frank?
This petulant insistence on purity, principle and perfection is a hallmark not just of the LGBT community, but of American politics in general. Just look at James Dobson’s and the Christian right’s demands that the Republican Congress take up an overly broad Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when a much narrower provision that would have allowed for civil unions stood a much better chance of passage.
Not that I’m comparing progressive LGBT activists with the Christian right. After all, the Christian right is capable of delivering votes, huge sums of money to candidates and hundreds of thousands of phone calls to lawmakers when an issue is deemed important enough to warrant it. Progressive activists? Not so much.
An aide to Collins, speaking on background, said that before last week, the senator’s campaign had polled on the issue of Allen’s missed votes twice, and both times, “and not surprisingly, it’s an issue that polls really well for us.”Audible gasps? Tom Allen has a 98% voting record over the past 10+ years. Now, of course, Collins doesn't want to talk about her own votes -- like her unwavering support for George Bush and the war in Iraq. Susan doesn't want to compare the votes she's taken with Tom, hence the diversion tactic.
The aide said that the senator includes a line in her stump speech when addressing Republican-only crowds that mentions her perfect attendance.
“That’s the biggest applause line that she gets every time,” the aide said.
In front of mixed crowds, Collins adds a line about Allen’s 129 missed votes, and there are “audible gasps” from the crowd.
"October 2, 2007Maine's got a strong hunting tradition. I've always been told that you never take a shot unless you know what your target is. Never, ever. So, talk about shoot first, ask questions later. Susan's toadies at the Maine GOP later got the answer to their "Where was Tom?" question when they found out that Tom Allen was actually attending a funeral of a family member. Yes. Collins and the GOP attacked Tom for missing votes because he was at a funeral. The state GOP had to issue another statement, notably lacking an apology:
"Congressman Tom Allen missed each of the three votes the House of Representatives held yesterday, bringing his missed votes total to 132. He also missed three days of votes for a fundraising [sic] trip to California two weeks ago. Over the last three weeks the House has only held votes on ten days -- Congressman Allen has missed four of those days completely, for a total of 22 votes.
"Maine Republican Party Chairman Mark Ellis said, "Congressman Allen really seems to have lost interest in showing up to work. At the very least, he should tell his constituents why he is choosing to leave them unrepresented in Congress less than a year after he was reelected. For these and the many other days that Tom has skipped votes, Mainers deserve to know the answer to the question: Where was Tom?"
"October 2, 2007Collins' Director of Internet Strategy, who also works for Fox News, detailed the episode here.
"It has come to our attention that Congressman Tom Allen was in Bangor on Monday attending the funeral of a family member. Without question, the most difficult times in our lives are those in which we grieve the loss of family or friends. Our thoughts are with Congressman Allen and his family during this difficult time," said Maine Republican Party Chairman Mark Ellis."
And, the If Ellis had instead said something to the effect of, "Hey, Maine Republicans including myself and Susan Collins tried to manufacture a sleazy, misleading attack against Tom Allen and it blew up in our faces. We are real jerks and apologize profusely," I might be more content with Ellis' fake remorse. In fact, nowhere in the addendum is there an apology for the attack! No, "Sorry we tried to exploit for cheap political gain a few missed votes while you were at a family funeral." Nothing. Ellis should immediately lose his job and Susan Collins should immediately repudiate Ellis and the Maine Republican Party for this. Otherwise, since it was her sleazy, misleading attack that Ellis was simply advancing, we can take it as Collins' tacit approval for Ellis' disgusting remarks and subsequent lack of apology.AMERICAblog has an Act Blue page for Tom Allen. Every dollar will help Tom defeat Susan and her pro-Iraq war, pro-Bush agenda. Read More......
When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.Read More......
But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.
Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.
Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.
The first recall was bad enough: A million-plus "Thomas & Friends" toys pulled because of lead paint. The second was surreal: The maker of the smiley-faced trains sent customers "bonus gifts" so they'd stay loyal — and now some of those toys have been recalled, too.The good thing is that RC2, the company in question, probably was able to save a lot of money by outsourcing to the cheapest supplier and ignoring quality controls. The brilliant corporate strategy is working so well, customers are throwing away all of their toys and vowing never to buy their products again. You just can't buy PR like this. Read More......
Even if you're not 3-year-old Zoe McGaha-Schletter, it's yet another mind-bending episode in a cascade of recalls that already had parents fretting what toys were safe for their kids.
"This is so exactly what the villain in a children's movie would do," said Zoe's father, Eban Schletter. "It's just ridiculous."
Veteran Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) is expected to announce tomorrow that he will retire from the Senate in 2008, according to several informed sources, a decision that further complicates an already difficult playing field for Republicans next November.And besides Virginia, Nebraska and Colorado, Democrats have real opportunities in Maine, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Oregon, Alaska (because Ted Stevens is in some serious trouble), Kentucky (the Minority Leader's approval ratings are tanking) and North Carolina (if the Dems. can find someone to run against the hapless Liddy Dole). Even Texas is looking better. And, who knows what will unfold with South Carolina's Lindsey Graham.
Domenici has struggled with health problems over the last several years and has been dogged by questions about the role he may have played in the firing of U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias in Albuquerque. As a result, he had been long been rumored as a potential retirement. He joins Republican Sens. John Warner (Va.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Wayne Allard (Colo.) on the sidelines for 2008.
1. I feel empathy for transgendered people, and support their struggle for civil rights.What I'm hearing is a message far different from what you hear from NGLTF and some of the louder activist claiming to speak for the enlightened masses. I think that a lot of gay people never truly accepted the transgender revolution that was thrust upon them. They simply sat back and shut up about their questions and concerns and doubts out of a sense of shame that it was somehow impolite to even question what was happening, and fear that if they did ask questions they'd be marked as bigots. And now, that paper-thin transgender revolution is coming home to roost.
2. I want ENDA to pass this year even if we can't include transgendered people.
3. I don't understand when transgendered people became part of the gay community?
And then there's always #4: Please don't tell anyone I told you this.
With the departure of so many people, the local economy suffered. Hair salons, restaurants and corner shops that catered to the immigrants saw business plummet; several closed. Once-boarded-up storefronts downtown were boarded up again.Second, and perhaps more importantly, it shows that for all the hysteria about illegal immigrants, it's actually pretty easy to solve the problem, at least at a local level:
A little more than a year ago, the Township Committee in this faded factory town became the first municipality in New Jersey to enact legislation penalizing anyone who employed or rented to an illegal immigrant.Not surprisingly, if you penalize *the people who employ* illegal immigrants, the job market dries up and they go somewhere else. As we saw when the Congressional immigration debates last year nearly split the Republican party in two, businesses are in no hurry to see a major workforce (and even, to some degree, customer base) evaporate. But hey, if people want it done, it can be done.
Within months, hundreds, if not thousands, of recent immigrants from Brazil and other Latin American countries had fled. The noise, crowding and traffic that had accompanied their arrival over the past decade abated. The law had worked. Perhaps, some said, too well.
Fox News, launched with such high hopes 11 years ago as the "fair and balanced" network, apparently hasn't lived up to its billing. CNN never had a chance. The other networks? Please. No citizen could dare trust the agenda-driven print media -- The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times -- to figure out, let alone accurately tell, the "real" story.Okay, DipNotes? Karen Hughes? Seriously, these people are too much. Read More......
But now the State Department is in the blogosphere, and says it "offers the public an alternative source to mainstream media for U.S. foreign policy information." The blog, launched last week and called "Dipnote," is "taking you behind the scenes."
This is what we've all been waiting for! No more media filters and distortions. Unbiased news directly from the federal government, a news source long noted for truthful, unbiased reporting. The Clinton administration and most all its predecessors vowed to end-run the media, and they finally have the new electronic media to help them to do it.
Soldiers announced that they were hunting pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar's largest city Wednesday and the top U.S. diplomat in the country said military police were pulling people out of their homes during the night.UPDATE: CNN has video of the repressive security forces in action. This is what China and India are supporting? China is no stranger to this but India? Disappointing to say the least. Read More......
Military vehicles patrolled the streets before dawn with loudspeakers blaring that: "We have photographs. We are going to make arrests!"
Shari Villarosa, the acting U.S. ambassador in Myanmar, said in a telephone interview that people in Yangon were terrified.
Yesterday, Mike Leavitt, secretary of health and human services and chairman of a panel established by President Bush to study the safety of imported food, reflected that point of view when he said: "We simply cannot inspect our way to safety."This quote pretty much says everything we need to know about how the Bush administration plans to make food safer. There is no interest whatsoever in protecting consumers. The only interest is in protecting the businesses and their failed system. They can also quit blaming China because many, if not most of the problems are with American companies, unless the beef and spinach is suddenly being imported from China. Read More......
The conference, attended by more than 20 countries, including China, India, Britain, France and Germany, broke up with the US isolated, according to non-Americans attending. One of those present said even China and India, two of the biggest polluters, accepted that the voluntary approach proposed by the US was untenable and favoured binding measures, even though they disagreed with the Europeans over how this would be achieved.Just like Iraq. Just like Katrina. Just like the economy. You name it, everything Bush and the GOP has tried to tackle has become a disaster. Read More......
A senior European diplomat attending the conference, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the meeting confirmed European suspicions that it had been intended by Mr Bush as a spoiler for a major UN conference on climate change in Bali in December.
"It was a total charade and has been exposed as a charade," the diplomat said. "I have never heard a more humiliating speech by a major leader. He [Mr Bush] was trying to present himself as a leader while showing no sign of leadership. It was a total failure."
John Ashton, Britain's special envoy on climate change, who attended the conference, said: "It is striking here how isolated the US has become on this issue. There is no support among the industrialised countries for the proposition that we should proceed on the basis of voluntary commitments.
Tomorrow was supposed to be a shining moment for gay men and lesbians in the state. For the first time since a gay rights bill first surfaced in Albany 31 years ago, the State Senate plans to bring the measure to a vote, and the bill stands a chance of passing. Matt Foreman, the executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, called the long-awaited event ''simply extraordinary for our community.''Read More......
But at the 11th hour, dissent over the bill has caused some to question exactly who Mr. Foreman means when he says ''our community.''
The bill, which forbids discrimination in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, and which has consistently been opposed by right-wing groups like the Conservative Party, is now under siege by those who feel that it does not go far enough because it does not explicitly protect transgendered people....
Mr. Foreman takes a pragmatic view, saying his organization has done the near-impossible by steering a gay rights bill -- any gay rights bill -- to the floor of the conservative Senate. ''No one's denying that transgendered people need protection. We're certainly not,'' he said. ''We're a political advocacy group. For us this isn't a morality play. This is about winning rights for people as quickly as we can.''
But, he said, it was too late to change the bill, largely because Senator Joseph L. Bruno, the majority leader, had committed only to allow the existing version of the bill to go to the floor, and has suggested that even that is a one-time offer. The Assembly has repeatedly approved the bill in its current form. If the Senate passes Sonda tomorrow, Gov. George E. Pataki has said he will sign it into law.
''The notion that you just suddenly and quickly and easily insert a whole new protected category, and that the State Senate that has clearly been reluctant to act on this would just accept it blindly, is beyond naïve,'' Mr. Foreman said.
Obey also came out in favor of Rep. James McGovern’s (D-Mass.) war tax proposal.I'd love to see Bush and the Republicans say that they aren't in favor of funding our troops. Of course, I don't believe for a minute that the Democrats have the balls to do anything of the sort. The old David Obey wouldn't have stood for Bush's ongoing shenanigans, the man was a terror to behold (I actually got to debate him once during a House-Senate conference, it was rather weird, I was whispering the words in a Senator's ear as he was repeating them to Obey as his own, very very weird - but I won :-). The new David Obey is just another Democratic sheeple. I miss the old Obey. Read More......
“If you don’t like the cost, then shut down the war,” Obey said in a news conference.
The tax would be intended to raise roughly $150 billion for the war. It would be a surtax of 2 to 15 percent of income tax. A 2 percent surtax means that a person who would otherwise pay $100 in taxes would pay $102.
Our community must continue to weigh in with every member of Congress, letting them know of our insistence that a fully [transgender] inclusive ENDA must pass the House this year.The reason gender identity (i.e., transgendered people, e.g., transexuals) got dropped from ENDA wasn't because Dem leaders didn't want trans in there. It's because we don't have the votes to get ENDA passed if it includes job protections for transexuals. No amount of "insistence" is going to change that fact; all the pressure in the world on Democratic leaders isn't going to convince Republicans and conservative Dems to support transexual rights. Pressuring Dem leaders to add the T back into ENDA is addressing the symptom but not the cause. The Dems dropped the T because we don't have the votes when we include the T. Forcing them to put the T back in does nothing to change the vote count.
Clinton's total includes $22 million that she can spend on the primary race. She has to save the rest for the general election and will have to return it if she doesn't win the nomination.Money raised for the general election can't be used for the primary. It's good spin to include it in the total, I guess. But, it's actually annoying. Read More......
Obama's total included $19 million for the primary, meaning in total this year he's still outraised her in primary dollars _ $74.9 million to $72.6 million.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Monday defended the construction of a fence along the southwest border, saying it's actually better for the environment than what happens when people illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico line.So in that fight to save the environment and bash illegal aliens in one fell swoop, Rudy was pandering at an infamous cheesesteak stand:
"Illegal migrants really degrade the environment. I've seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas," Chertoff said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment."
Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani campaigned Monday at a landmark South Philadelphia cheesesteak stand that grabbed headlines when it posted signs telling customers to speak English.The Republicans can't find enough ways to alienate the minority vote. Read More......
In June 2006, Geno's Steaks garnered national attention for posting two small signs stating, "This is America: When ordering 'please speak English.'"
There is broader public agreement on how Congress should approach war funding. Only about a quarter of adults want Congress to fund fully the administration's $190 billion request; seven in 10 want the proposed allocation reduced, with 43 percent wanting it reduced sharply or entirely. About seven in 10 independents want Congress to cut back funds allocated for the war effort, as do nearly nine in 10 Democrats; 46 percent of Republicans agree.Read More......
LEE Iacocca is no fan of President Bush. "I campaigned for him because I knew his mother and dad for 30 years, and I figured he was from pretty good stock," the auto-industry legend tells Details magazine. "But Jeb was being groomed, too. They got the wrong kid. There's something wrong philosophically with how Bush's brain works. I feel sorry for him. I used to think [Al] Gore was nuts in his worrying about global warming, but he was ahead of his time."Here's the link to the interview in Details. Read More......
This is what happens when BushCo contracts out his military misadventures. Your tax dollars are being burned on this:Private security contractor Blackwater USA has had to fire 122 people over the past three years for problems ranging from misusing weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct, and violent behavior, according to a report released Monday by a congressional committee.The North Carolina-based Blackwater has been paid over $800 million dollars by the State Department to perform security work. In the 15-page report detailing Blackwater's record, the firm had more shooting incidents that the other two security firms (Dyncorp, Triple Canopy) combined.
That total is roughly one-seventh of the work force that Blackwater has in Iraq, a ratio that raises questions about the quality of the people working for the company.
Several investigations are already under way because of Blackwater's role in an incident on September 16 when 11 Iraqis were killed in a shoot-out involving Blackwater guards. The company claims the guards acted in self-defense; Iraqi witnesses said Blackwater rent-a-cops opened fire without provocation. Hearings are being planned. Read More......Previously undisclosed information reveals (1) Blackwater has engaged in 195 “escalation of force” incidents since 2005, an average of 1.4 per week, including over 160 incidents in which Blackwater forces fired first; (2) after a drunken Blackwater contractor shot the guard of the Iraqi Vice President, the State Department allowed the contractor to leave Iraq and advised Blackwater on the size of the payment needed “to help them resolve this”; and (3) Blackwater, which has received over $1 billion in federal contracts since 2001, is charging the federal government over $1,200 per day for each “protective security specialist” employed by the company.
Iceland just had one "troop" on the ground in Iraq, (actually a press aide, not a soldier--Iceland has no standing army), but that didn't stop Bush from counting them as an equal member of his disappearing "coalition."Read More......
We aren't hating on you, Icelanders. We're jealous of what you enjoy--a lack of military entanglements, a terrific standard of living, and a genetic predisposition for high cheekbones.
Welcome home.
Alarmed at the possibility that the Republican Party might pick Rudolph W. Giuliani as its presidential nominee despite his support for abortion rights, a coalition of influential Christian conservatives is threatening to back a third-party candidate.This "secretive conservative networking group" really is comprised of the most influential religious right leaders. They are sending a message to the GOP powers-that-be. Read More......
The threat emerged from a group that broke away for separate discussions at a meeting Saturday in Salt Lake City of the Council for National Policy, a secretive conservative networking group. Participants said the smaller group included James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, who is perhaps its most influential member; Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; Richard A. Viguerie, the direct-mail pioneer; and dozens of other politically oriented conservative Christians.
Almost everyone present at the smaller group’s meeting expressed support for a written resolution stating that “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third-party candidate,” participants said.
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