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LGTB 
Wed May 11, 2011 at 06:31:05 AM MST
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What do you do when you have been caught breaking civil service rules left and right as a Presidential Appointee and consequently been forced out of that job? Why of course you sue everyone in sight under the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization) Act. Which is exactly what the former href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-special-counsel-bloch-sues-rove-davis-and-others-for-202-million/2011/05/10/AFuKHtkG_story.html">Office of Special Counsel chief, Scott "I got no clue" Block is doing.
Let's back up a little bit so everyone can remember the facts about Mr. Block. The Office of Special Counsel is charged with protecting federal whistleblowers. That is actually the mandate of this office, to make sure that when someone notices illegal or improper acts happening in the federal government and comes forward, this office looks into the it and they make sure that the person reporting the misdeeds is not retaliated against. Or at least that is what they are supposed to do. This is also the office that is supposed to enforce the Hatch act, which prohibits using government resources for electioneering purposes.
Now you have to remember that this was the criminal Bush administration, so they were not really keen on having any kind of actual enforcement neither of the Hatch Act nor, for that matter having whistleblowers come forward. This was the Administration filled with John Yoo and Monica Goodling after all. It was a place where Karl Rove went to Executive branch departments and gave Power Point presentations on helping Republicans win new seats and defend old ones.
So, there is good ol' Scotty at the helm of the office that would get any complaints. He was, until recently that is, a "good Bushie" and did what you might expect. He started out purging his office of anyone who disagreed with him on summary dismissal of whistleblower claims. He is also started to retaliate against people in his own office for disagreeing or complaining about his actions. Real nice from the guy who was supposed to protect whistleblowers.
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Thu Feb 03, 2011 at 07:40:25 AM MST
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It is the first Thursday in February, which means that "The Family" or as they like to be known publicly The Fellowship Foundation is holding its National Prayer Breakfast. As has been the case since the 1980's there will be a wide variety of leading political figures at the this event. Including President Obama.
For those who have not read "The Family; The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" by Jeff Sharlet, or seen the very good work done by Rachel Maddow on this group let me give just a little primer.
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Wed Dec 29, 2010 at 08:03:31 AM MST
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The Nuns used to say that doing the right thing was its own reward. If they were indeed right it is a good thing, as in this political climate there have been very few rewards for doing the right or just thing. Specifically I am talking about the Justices of the Iowa Supreme Court.
Back in April of 2009 the Supreme Court found that the ban on gay marriage, which had been enacted by the legislature, was unconstitutional. This opened the way for full marriage rights for gay citizens in the Hawkeye State. It also set the rabid anti-equality forces into overdrive mode.
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Thu Sep 30, 2010 at 05:56:30 AM MST
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Tyler Clemeti, was by all accounts a fairly shy freshman at Rutgers University. He may or may not have been gay, but we know for sure that he had at least one sexual encounter with a man. How do we know that? Well after the spy video that his roommate and another student made was released to the internet it became a matter of public record. Tyler had sex with some guy. Surely he thought it was a private thing, but there it was on the internet and would always define him.
This seems to be the proximate cause of his suicide by jumping off of a bridge. This is what the so-called "family values" conservatives railing against the "radical homosexual agenda" leads to. Yesterday I posted a slightly light-hearted look at what they claim this agenda is. The reality is that they don't want any cultural acceptance of gay folks. It all comes down to that, they want to be able to use gay people as a stalking horse for all the ills of society.
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Wed Sep 29, 2010 at 06:22:14 AM MST
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Okay, call me a dope if you must but I just can't figure out what the hell the "radical homosexual agenda" that so many conservatives talk about actually is. Yeah, yeah, you could insert a lot of sexual identity jokes here, but really that just plays into stereotypes about our gay citizens. The fact is, and most of you will be able to confirm this from your own experience is that gay, lesbian, bisexual citizens span the same range of good, bad, conservative and liberal as those who are heterosexual.
Just take a look at the Log Cabin Republicans (a group who has the best ability to compartmentalize and segregate concepts that I have ever seen), here is a Republican gay rights group. Almost a oxymoron in and of itself. Yet these are conservative gay citizens who support most of the Republican agenda.
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Mon Sep 13, 2010 at 06:00:54 AM MST
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There are times in the life of a nation when ideas and attitudes that have been part of the conventional wisdom shift and there is very little that the forces of intolerance and the status quo can do about it. It seems we are reaching that point with the issue of full rights for our gay citizens. The recent decisions in the Proposition 8 case and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) policy in California point are good indicators of this change.
While neither of these cases are finished by any means (though the issue of standing is one on Prop 8 is likely to end it at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals) the rulings by the judges in each case have been devastating to the premise that our gay citizens are some how so different from the rest of us that they can be treated with a different standard of law.
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Thu Aug 05, 2010 at 06:15:01 AM MST
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Depending on what study and what definitional criteria one wants to use the number of LGTB citizens is between 4% and 20%. It does not matter at all to me what this number is as I have had gay and lesbian family members, close (best) friends and acquaintances all my life. They were never "my lesbian friend" or "my gay cousin" they were just the people in my life and that they were family or a good friend has always been a hell of a lot more important than who they liked to frolic under the sheets with.
Still the fact of their sexuality was always an issue. Even if I didn't care, the rest of the world seemed to and this made them have to lead their lives differently for fear of being attacked or just legally discriminated against. It still breaks my heart on a daily basis to see good people who just want to live their lives like every other citizen having to hide or downplay what and who they are because of the irrational prejudice against them.
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Thu Jun 24, 2010 at 06:20:56 AM MST
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The conservative obsession (and I think it is fair to call it an obsession) with the sex other people are having is beyond my capacity to understand. Call it self-involved if you must but I just can't muster any interest in sex which I am not involved in. If your kink is that you like to dress like Shirley Temple and have your partner spank you with a hockey stick, as long as you are both adults and are into it, go for it. I. Don't. Care.
Sadly the Religious Right in this country does. Whether they are just being incredibly cynical and found a relatively small group to use to whip up a frenzy among their base or they have a genuine (and let's never forget deeply bigoted) objection based on an interpretation of their holy books, they feel like it is their job to police the actions of their fellow citizens when it comes to sexuality.
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