We didn't want you anyway

Wal-mart pulled the plug on donations to gay-friendly organizations due to a threatened boycott by Conservative Christian groups. (article here)

Not that I want the evil Wal-mart empire linked to homosexuality, but you have to admit it could solve the nation's Wal-mart problems. Think about it. Most of Wal-mart's "followers" are in the southern states; most of the Conservative Christian groups are in the southern states. There could be a huge drop in Wal-mart's sales (and thus profits) if a right-wing boycott is put into place.

So, how can we create the sodomy-discount store connection?

Have the Pride parade run through the Wal-mart cosmetic section? No, there are too many toothless distractions to keep the parade on route.

Create a fake news story about Sam Walton's gay affair with a young Strom Thurmond? INGENIOUS! Someone get Katie Couric on the phone... she'll do anything for a ratings boost right now.

Corporate Hall of Shame 2007

StopCorporateAbuse.org has announced the results for the Corporate Hall of Shame 2007.

This year's "Winners" are:

1. ExxonMobil
2. Halliburton
3. Wal-mart

...and people still wonder why I have an issue with Wal-mart.

Check out the flyer entitled "Wal-mart's Political Profits" and draw your own conclusions.

Fox Noise Trifecta

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's Worst people in the world for June 27, 2007:

Worse: News Corp head Keith Rupert Murdoch for allowing the Chinese government censorship abilities on the My Space China website in order to get his foot in the door in China.

Worser: Keith Rupert Murdoch for using Trent Lott (among others) to have Congress not pass a bill stating no one corporation could own more than 35% of the nation's TV stations. The Republicans lobbied and changed the percentage to 39%... the percentage of national TV stations Murdoch owned at the time. And guess who's memoir Murdoch's HarperCollins Publishers just published: Trent Lott's.

Worst: Bill O'Reilly of Fix News... er... Fox Noise for saying Fox News "takes a more traditional stance on news than NBC news." True if traditional means false and right-winged.

Giuliani - Clusterf@#k to the White House

On Guiliani's South Carolina campaign chairman (and the state's Treasurer) getting busted for cocaine to "share with other people, not to sell":

"First of all, why is drug stuff always metric? And secondly, not to sell but to share? And you call yourself a Republican? That is not Capitalism, my friend; that is Welfare."

The Science of Gaydar

Does the hair on your head grow in a counter-clockwise pattern? You're gay.

Is your index finger longer than or the same size as your ring finger? Gay.

Are the fingerprints on your thumb and pinkie finger of your left hand dense? Gay, Gay, Gay.

Are you left-handed or ambidextrous? Yep, Big Homo

Don't believe me? Read the facts here.

The Dick

The Washington Post has created a four-part must-read series on Vice President (and President of the Senate) Dick Cheney.

Part One (6/24/07): Working in the Background

• "Cheney flunked out of Yale but became a highly regarded PhD candidate in political science at the University of Wisconsin -- avoiding the Vietnam War draft with five deferments along the way -- before abandoning the doctoral program and heading to Washington as a junior congressional aide."

• "While lawyers fought over the 2000 Florida ballot recount, with the presidential election in the balance, Cheney was already populating a prospective Bush administration. Brian V. McCormack, then his 26-year-old personal aide, said Cheney worked three cellphones from the round kitchen table of his townhouse in McLean, "making up lists" of nominees beginning with the secretaries of state, defense and the Treasury." Anyone else think Cheney knew something about the election that we didn't?

• "Cheney declines to disclose the names or even the size of his staff, generally releases no public calendar and ordered the Secret Service to destroy his visitor logs."

Part Two (6/25/07): Wars and Interrogations

Part Three (6/26/07): Dominating Budget Decisions

Part Four (6/27/07): Environmental Policy

• Article not yet released... but we can pretty much fill in the blanks on this one. Can you say Exxon?
  

Link to the Main Page of this four-parter here.

This is an AMAZING set of articles that EVERY AMERICAN MUST READ.

Matthew Shephard Act

1 in 6 hate crimes is motivated by the victim's sexual orientation. The Matthew Shepard act can help stop this. This act was passed in the House of Representatives, and is now up for vote in the senate.

Our friends at the Human Rights Campaign have created a video and a quick way to e-mail your senators to let them know you support the Matthew Shepard Act. Check out the video here.

Please take a moment to tell your senators to support the Matthew Shepard Act. (link here)

Colbert on Justice

Classic Colbert.

Who asked? Who told?

In the past 14 years, over 11,000 service members have been discharged from the military for being homosexual.

One of these service members was Stephen Benjamin. He is one of the few servicemen who speaks Arabic, yet there is no place for him in today's military.

Our friends at Brave New Foundation have created a video telling Stephen's story. (video here) They have also created a petition you can sign and have sent to your members of Congress. Even if you don't have time to watch the video, check out the petition here.

You can read Stephen Benjamin's oped piece from the New York Times here.

Haven't we come far enough as people to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?" The following countries allow homosexuals to actively serve in their military:

1. Great Britain
2. Denmark
3. The Netherlands
4. Czech Republic
5. Italy
6. Australia
7. Norway
8. Lithuania
9. New Zealand
10. Canada
11. Spain
12. Germany
13. Sweden
14. Belgium
15. Israel
16. Austria
17. South Africa
18. Ireland
19. Estonia
20. The Bahamas
21. Slovenia
22. Finland

How can these countries be more progressive than the US of A? Don't Ask... Don't Tell.

Catholicism and Catalytic Converters... who approved THIS marriage?

The Vatican has issued Ten Commandments for drivers. Yes, you heard me correct. Ten Commandments for drivers. Can someone please find something for the Pope to do?

1. You shall not kill.

2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.

5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

7. Support the families of accident victims.

8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.

10. Feel responsible toward others.

What, nothing condemning homosexual behavior, road head, backseat sex, or loud rap music? This could almost be considered liberal...

CNN article here.

Jesus' General

Every once in a while, I find a blog so funny I have to promote it. Today, it's "Jesus' General." The premise of the blog is this: make fun of the right wing conservatives by acting as if you were one.

This posting from Friday, June 14th is hilarious. Here's a snippet:

As if the typical Liberal isn’t crude enough there does seem to be a lot more flaunting of sin and deprivation during a full moon. Aren’t most “Gay Prides” held during a full moon?

What about abortions? Why, I bet that if research studies were conducted we would discover that more little innocent babies are executed during a full moon than any other time.

Libido and promiscuity seems to rise during a full moon. What say you, Slutty Liberal girls and Homosexuals? Do you go into hunt mode and look for more indiscriminate sexual partners than usual?

Read the full posting here.

Do YOU use RNC e-mail?

E-mail scandals -- the new Watergate.

In March 2007, White House spokesperson Dana Perino said only a "handful of officials" had Republican National Committee (RNC) e-mail accounts. In later statements, her estimate rose to "50 over the course of the administration." Actually, the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has learned from the RNC (after two subpoenas were issued) that at least 88 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts.

What's the issue? These e-mail accounts were used for government business, such as communicating with federal agencies about federal appointments. This is a violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978.

Why would people use their RNC account instead of their official .gov account? As Susan Ralston, Karl Rove's former executive assistant, said in an e-mail to Todd Boulanger, one of Jack Abramoff's associates, "I now have an RNC blackberry which you can use to e-mail me at anytime. No security issues like my WH e-mail." In other words, there's no official paper trail. Plus, the RNC e-mails can be easily destroyed without the White House's involvement or knowledge. In fact, only records for 37 of the 88 accounts are available, and the 37 aren't complete.

Sounds like a scandal, huh? Read the official Committee findings here.

6/17/07 - Week in Review

Gay Rights

• Chicago cops are accused of brutally beating, jailing, and starving a man because of his sexual orientation. (article here)

• At a Boston rally for a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a woman from a conservative Christian group is charged with assaulting a gay marriage supporter. WWJD? ATTACK! (article here)

• Massachusetts lawmakers reject anti-gay marriage amendment... in less than thirty minutes. Go Massachusetts! (article here)

• Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), both openly gay members of Congress, are urging Condoleezza Rice to investigate reports that LGBT Iraqis are being rounded up on the streets of Baghdad and murdered. Wow, sounds a lot like WW2, huh? (article here)

• Arkansas group presses for gay adoption ban. (article here)

BBC News and WTC 7

BBC News reported WTC building 7 collapsed 23 minuted before it actually did.

What does this mean? The collapse of WTC7 was planned? The BBC gets the news fed to them? The Bush administration can't even get its act together to blow up a building on time? Yes... and much more.

Here's the BBC's official response to these allegations. (article here)

The BBC's sister channel, News 24, also reported this story early, proven by a timestamp on the broadcast. (article here)

Colbert discusses Holsinger

This is ABSURD!

A "Gay Bomb?" WTF?

I'm speechless. Read the article yourself. (article here)

Is this real?

Bush and JFK?

I recently came across a very interesting site called JFK Murder Solved. Yeah, yeah... another conspiracy theory website.

What really caught my eye is the connection they draw to George H. W. Bush and the Kennedy assassination. The site also gives little-known facts about Preston Bush, George H. W. Bush's father, and his connections to Eisenhower and Nixon as well as many other interesting connections that make you think.

Check out the site and form your own opinions. (website here) Share your opinions with me in the "Comments" section.

Gonzie, you're doing a heck of a job.

"They can try to have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to determine who serves in my government." -George W. Bush

In a comment reminiscent of a defiant two-year old, President Bush shows his true colors; he's going to do whatever he wants. Everyone look surprised.

Shall we go to video to remind people of the issue at hand here? Video 1 Video 2

A special thanks goes to our friends at ImpeachGonzales.org for the videos.

If you are not sure how impeachment works, check out Wikipedia for a great description, including a list of people who have been impeached throughout history and why. (article here)

McGovern Amendment

On May 10, 2007, the McGovern amendment was voted on by the House of Representatives. This topic of this amendment was to redeploy U.S. troops and contractors OUT of Iraq. Unfortunately, this bill failed; 171 were in favor and 255 opposed.

How could this happen with a Democratic majority in the House? 59 Democrats voted against pulling the troops out of Iraq. Why?

There one question I can answer is Who. Here is a listing of the 59 Democratic Representatives that voted against pulling out the troops. (article here) Our friends at Democrats.com are calling for these incumbents to be challenged in the 2008 primaries.

Read the list of who voted against pulling out the troops in Iraq, and take a look at the candidates Democrats.com are endorsing in the 2008 primaries.

Remember, if 43 of these 59 Democrats had voted to pass the McGovern Amendment, the troops could be coming home.

Miss'n a Conscience

"Mission Accomplished."

Who could forget May 1, 2003 when Bush appeared in a green flight suit on the USS Abraham Lincoln with that "Mission Accomplished" banner above him and stated the Iraqi war was coming to an end? (article here)

Today marks the 1,500th day since that photo opportunity. To honor that great day in American history, I would like to share a video from our friends at Robert Greenwald's website Tell Us the Mission.

The video is a poem called "King George (Mission Accomplished.)" (video here) (words to poem here)

On the bottom of Tell Us the Mission's homepage, there is also a petition to the US Congress asking that the US Flag Code be amended to fly flags at half-staff for one day whenever an American service member dies at war. This idea came from an op-ed piece of an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Take a minute to think about how often the US flag would have been flying at half-staff for the past 1,500 days.

Makes me want to ask "WHAT mission was accomplished?"

6/8/07 - The week in review

Gay Rights:

• Isaiah Washington's contract isn't renewed by Grey's Anatomy. I guess homophobia isn't as popular as it once was... Bye, Bye, Burke! (article here)

• Domestic Partner Tax Reform was introduced to the Senate this week to provide the same tax treatment to Domestic Partnership Insurance as is given to Spouse insurance. (article here)

• Maine passed legislation changing the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow gay and lesbian workers to take time off to care for a sick child or partner. Go, Maine! (article here)

• A Nashville, TN teacher gets suspended for equating calling something "gay" to using the N word. (article here)

• HRC, Truth Wins Out, Soulforce, and gay medical groups call for the rejection of Bush's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. James Holsinger. Could it be because Holsinger thinks gays can be "cured" with religion? (article here)

• Gen. Peter Pace, the man who called homosexuals "immoral," will be replaced as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (article here)

Politics & Activism:

• Democrats want a law against voter deception. It seems organizations have been telling people the wrong day or place to vote, saying voting if you have outstanding traffic tickets could get you arrested, etc. Most of these deceptive practices were targeted to minorities and lower income persons, people who typically don't vote Republican. (article here)

• A British arms company secretly payed in excess of $1.5 billion over a decade to Saudi Prince Bander bin Sultan in connection with a defense contract. (article here)

• It is suspected that the U.S. imprisoned and interrogated some of its top terrorism suspects in jails in Poland and Romania between 2003 and 2005. Both countries are dependent on U.S. support for their strategic development. (article here)

• Wal-mart admits to selling counterfeit products. (article here)
  

Elisabeth's "View"

The following link is a video from May 2007 of Elisabeth Hasselbeck in an interview with Will Wikle (from "Big Brother" and Logo's "Roundtrip Ticket") discussing Gay Rights.

I find it very interesting how Elisabeth, in true Elisabeth form, never really answers the questions in a way that would give the religious right a reason to go after her...

Check out the video: Elisabeth's "View"

"In Politics, nothing happens by accident..."

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

FEMA was in New York the night before 9/11/2001. (article here)

This fact was stated by Tom Kenney in an interview with Dan Rather on Wednesday, 9/12/2001 in this quote: "We're currently one of the first teams that was deployed to support the city of New York for this disaster. We arrived on late Monday night, and went into action on Tuesday morning. And not until today did we get a full opportunity to work the entire site."

To dismiss this quote, FEMA simply stated Mr. Kenney had his days mixed up, and denied that FEMA was in NYC on 9/10/2001.

But, Rudy Giuliani confirmed FEMA was in NYC on 9/10/2001 when he testified before the 9-11 Commission in May 2004. Giuliani stated a FEMA drill was scheduled for 9/12/2001, and this biochemical attack drill had hundreds of people in NYC from FEMA, the federal government, the state, etc.

So, why did FEMA deny being in NYC on 9/10/2001, when they were? They had a perfect excuse to be there. And why wasn't the bioterror drill ever mentioned?

Loose Change

"Loose Change" is an independent documentary about 9/11/01 that questions the government's involvement in the WTC and Pentagon attacks. For those of you who automatically dismiss this theory, I encourage you to watch the first 8 minutes of the documentary, and do your own research (and no, "research" coming from Fox News doesn't count).

The facts given at the beginning of "Loose Change" 2nd edition are very interesting. Here are a few of the facts with my comments in italics:

• 8/1997 - The cover of FEMA's "Emergency Response to Terrorism" depicts the World Trade Center in crosshairs. Coincidence? Perhaps.
  
• 1999 - NORAD begins conducting exercises in which hijacked airliners are flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
• 6/2000 - The Department of Justice releases a terrorism manual with the World Trade Center in crosshairs. Coincidence again? Probably not.
  
• 9/2000 - The Project for a New American Century, a neo-conservative think tank whose members include Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush, and Paul Wolfowitz, releases their report entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses." In it, they declare "...the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor." Wasn't Pearl Harbor where the US got attacked on it's own soil? Wasn't this "similarity" brought up in the press conferences after 9/11/2001 as emotional ties and propaganda for a war?
  
• 10/24/2000 - The Pentagon conducts the first of two training exercises which simulate a Boeing 757 crashing into the building. A former Navy pilot who worked in the Pentagon for 17 years took part in an earlier version of this exercise in 1989 before retiring to take a job at American Airlines. He was the pilot of the 757 that allegedly crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. Wasn't 1989 the first year of George H. W. Bush's only term of presidency? How can someone retire from the Pentagon and still be young enough to work 16 years as a pilot for AA? Does the Pentagon allow retirement at an age earlier than 49? (65 - 16 = 49)
  
• 7/4/2001 - Osama Bin Laden, wanted by the United States since 1998, receives medical attention at an American hospital in Dubai, where he is visited by a local chief of the CIA. Why wasn't this wanted criminal taken into custody? Or was he?
  
• 7/24/2001 - Larry A. Silverstein, owner of WTC 7, signs a $3.2 billion 99-year lease on the entire WTC complex. Included in the lease is $3.5 billion insurance policy specifically covering acts of terrorism. Wow, a terrorism clause that pays more than the lease is worth, signed 6 weeks before the 9/11/2001 tragedy. Was he psychic?
  
• 9/6/2001 - 3,150 put options (more than 4 times the average daily) were placed on United Airlines stock. A "put option" is a bet that a stock will fall.
• 9/6/2001 - Bomb sniffing dogs are pulled from the WTC, and security guards end two weeks of 12 hour shifts. What made the bomb-sniffing dogs no longer needed?
  
• 9/7/2001 - 27,294 put options are placed on Boeing, more than 5 times its daily average.
• 9/10/2001 - 4,516 put options are placed on American Airlines stock, nearly 11 times its daily average.
  
• 9/10/2001 - Per Newsweek, a number of high-ranking brass cancel their flights for the next morning.
• 9/10/2001 - San Francisco mayor Willie Brown receives a phone call telling him not to fly the next morning.
• 9/10/2001 - In Pakistan at a military hospital, all of the Urologists are replaced by a special team in order to host their guest of honor, Osama Bin Laden, who is escorted inside to be watched carefully and looked after. Maybe they were going to arrest him after he got better...
  

Check out the Loose Change website and the videos at http://www.loosechange911.com/

See you in church on Sunday?

Someone recently sent this story to me, and it made me laugh. This sums up how I think of the religious right:


A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing by stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, 'I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life' License plate holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper Sticker, And the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.'

And then there was light...

Here it is: the beginning of an era. I have decided to create a blog to share my favorite things: humor, politics, TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) info, and whatever else suits my fancy. Isn' t about time the Gay, Metaphysical, TCM student/activist/smartass had a voice worth hearing?? Move over Jesse Jackson! Kinda gives a new meaning to "Rainbow Push," huh?

My goal? To educate, communicate, and offer a sarcastic point of view on everything from politics to television.