Rove: liberals want troops to die
The SP Times blasts Karl Rove and the White House today for Rove's nasty speech in NYC this week.
Before an audience of cheering conservatives this week, Karl Rove lambasted liberals for their "moderation and restraint" in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war," Rove said. "Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."
What a despicable smear coming from the political right hand of the president of the United States. Democrats are demanding that Rove apologize or resign, but the White House defended his remarks and - get this - accused Rove's critics of engaging in partisan attacks. Only last week Rove was demanding that Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., apologize for comparing U.S. treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to the methods of Nazis, Stalin and Pol Pot. Durbin apologized. But Rove is hanging tough.
The Times gets it partially right: Rove's remarks were outrageous, and the double standards applied to this and the Durbin case are hypocritical, to say the least. Of course, Durbin was right. He apologized anyway, which just energized his detractors, and they continue to tenaciously attack him. This crowd sees an apology simply as a sign of weakness.
But the Times, like many other news outlets, is ignoring the most outrageous of Rove's remarks. Rove said that liberals strive to kill American troops. Not that liberals fail to support the troops or even that liberal policies would put them in danger, but that liberals want harm to come to American soldiers.
"Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year?" Mr. Rove asked. "Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."
The motives of liberals are to put our troops in greater danger. That's what he said, and that's what the White House is defending. They planned this offensive to distract from W's plummeting poll numbers, the Downing Street Memo and the rest of the increasingly bad news emerging from Iraq.
If these vicious clowns had simply dedicated the same energy and forethought to fighting terror, our troops would be safe at home right now celebrating the capture and trial of Osama rather than being sucked deeper and deeper into the Mesopotamian morass.
Now the White Hosue is trying to brush off the controversy as simply philosophical differences. Here's a philosophic reality check.
Democrats
Believe capturing the person primarily responsible for the attack should be a top priority.Republicans
It's been four years, and Osama bin Laden is still free, even though Bush's CIA chief says he knows where he is.Democrats
Investigate the intelligence failures that led to 9/11.Republicans
Do everything in their power to block the 9/11 Commission from doing its work.Democrats
Propose creating the Department of Homeland Security.Republicans
Push tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.Democrats
Believe we should have stayed the course in Afghanistan, not allowing the Taliban to resurge, the warlords to take power, and the opium trade to skyrocket.Republicans
Ignore Afghanistan as the situation worsens.Democrats
Believe that we should be honest with our troops about the reasons we go to war, give them everything they need to be safe, and make sure we go in with an exit plan.Republicans
Manipulate intelligence to trump up reasons to go to war, don't give our troops the support they need, constantly mislead the public about the direction the war is going, and fail to make an exit plan. And turn Iraq into the ultimate terrorist training ground.
Notification law challenged
A new state law requiring physicians to notify parents when their minor daughters seek abortions could endanger the girls by delaying emergency treatment, claims a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America hope to block the law before it goes into effect July 1.
It would affect girls 17 and under unless they are married or have already had a child.
The measure will require doctors to phone or meet with parents 48 hours before an abortion.
If that's not possible, they can use certified mail 72 hours in advance.
In a medical emergency, doctors can bypass those limits to perform an abortion if they judge ``there is insufficient time . . . to comply with the notification requirements.''
That could hurt girls suffering from preeclampsia, ectopic pregnancies and other dangerous conditions, said Janet Crepps, an attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights.
''The Supreme Court has clearly said that minors, and any woman, should be able to get an immediate abortion, if it's necessary to preserve her life or health,'' she said, adding that any delay can ``increase the health risks associated with the procedures.''
David Caton feeds his sheep
David Caton, the sexually obsessed recovering porn addict, is jumping into the Hillsborough homophobia fray.
Caton's group launched a counteroffensive of e-mails late Tuesday thanking commissioners for the new policy.
``Most people believe that homosexual behavior is unnatural, harmful and offensive,'' the e-mails said.
``Therefore, promoting a sense of pride in such an offensive lifestyle would be inappropriate and irresponsible.''
Internet users are voicing their displeasure with the commission via e-mails from as far away as Britain and Holland. Commissioners' offices had logged upwards of 700 e-mails apiece, most expressing opposition to the commission's stance.
Obviously word is getting around through various blogs and other means through which interest groups keep tabs on issues of concern brewing around the nation. In the past couple of days, commissioners have been getting hammered with form e-mails, to the tune of more than 300 an hour. The county is tracking e-mails from Internet users who contact the county or commission offices through the "contact us" links on the county's Web site. Since June 9, a day after the flap began, the county Web site had received 1,451 e-mails on the topic, all but 98 opposed to the commission's stance.
Of the 98 expressing support of the commission's stance, 68 were received in the past two days, and many of them appeared to have similar or exact wording, suggesting that word is getting around among groups opposed to gay rights.
So, on the one hand, thousands of independent thinkers from around the world have taken the time to search out and use the BOCC email link to express their personal feelings to our 6 bigoted commissioners. Good. On the other hand, the sheep who blindly follow the David Catons of this world are just well enough trained that, when so ordered, they can lift a finger to click a link which will send a pre-written email in their name, but they are apparently entirely incapable of editing the form letter into their own words, much less actually expressing an original thought from scratch.
And that's just fine with Caton, since it's easy to keep the wool pulled over the eyes of folks who are unable to muster even a smattering of intellectual curiosity.
Tom Scott’s out
No, no no... Tom Scott's not OUT out – Tom's a minister, and we all know that a man of faith would never consider sticking his penis into a sinful hole. No, the bigot Tom Scott is being term limited out of his County Commission seat .
Hillsborough County Commissioner Tom Scott said Wednesday he will run for the Tampa City Council seat held by Rose Ferlita.
City Councilman Shawn Harrison announced last month he is seeking the same citywide district post in the March 2007 election. Term limits will force Ferlita from her seat in 2007.
Scott, a Democrat, said he can help ``bridge the divide between county and city government.''
He said his platform will include transportation, affordable housing and more efficient government.
Scott is a member of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority board, Aviation Authority and Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority, among other panels.
He was first elected to the commission in November 1996 but is prohibited by term limits from seeking re- election to his District 3 after November 2006.
Scott, 51, also is senior pastor of 34th Street Church of God.
Good. That's one supporter of Ronda Storms' (R - Homophoburbia) attack against gays that we wont have to bother voting out of a job. 5 more to go.
Ken Hagen
Thomas Scott
Ronda Storms
Jim Norman
Brian Blair
Mark Sharpe
And as for the City Council race: Fuck Uncle Tom Scott. He's voting for the same type of discrimination and hate that has been used against blacks and other minorities in this country for years, and by joining with the haters, he's crawling into bed with the vilest elements of society .
The danger of the Jews/Gays spreading their disease throughout society, their enormous power despite tiny numbers, their ability to pass, their threat to children, their flaunting of their disagreement with the New Testament. It's all so familiar. I think the arguments now made by some Christianists are replicas of the old anti-Semitism, peddled by so many Christians in the past: that Jews are to be loved, but loving them is dependent on their conversion to Christianity; that you can love individual Jews while disdaining Judaism; that Jews' stubbornness in resisting conversion is evidence of their inherent evil; that such evil, at some point, has to be segregated from mainstream society as much as possible.
Anti-Semitism, homophobia, racial discrimination: it's all the same disease.
Gays have become the all purpose repository for American bigotry --- and we have a whole lot of it that needs a place to go. Without being able to use race or religion to assuage their soulless sense of insecurity, racists have found the only group that they feel they are still allowed to openly treat like animals. Gay bashing is the new code for all our lovely homegrown hatreds --- and some European imports like anti-semitism too.
Typically a felony, anti-miscegenation laws prohibited the solemnization of weddings between races and prohibited the officiating of such ceremonies. Sometimes the individuals attempting to marry would not be held guilty of miscegenation itself, but felony charges of adultery or fornication would be charged against them instead.
The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, also known as Hays Code; explicitly stated that the depiction of "miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races) is forbidden."
Even though anti-miscegenation laws were ruled unconstitutional in the United States by the Supreme Court in 1967, those laws were not completely repealed in some states until November 2000 when Alabama became the last state to repeal its law. According to Salon.com: "In November 2000, after a statewide vote in a special election, Alabama became the last state to overturn a law that was an ugly reminder of America's past, a ban on interracial marriage. The one-time home of George Wallace and Martin Luther King Jr. had held onto the provision for 33 years after the Supreme Court declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. Yet as the election revealed -- 40 percent of Alabamans voted to keep the ban -- many people still see the necessity for a law that prohibits blacks and whites from mixing blood."
An example of how anti-miscegenation laws were enacted can be seen during the 1930s, when the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws were enacted by the Nazis in Germany against the large German Jewish community, forbidding marriages between the Jews (deemed as Untermenschen - "lower people") and German Aryans (deemed the Übermenschen - "higher people"). "Rassenschande" (lit. race-disgrace) meaning "miscegenation" was a Nazi term for sexual conduct or liaison between an Aryan and a Jew, either of creed or ethnic status. Many interfaith and intermarried couples committed suicide when these laws came into effect.
Businesses fight for fairness
The fallout from Hillsborough's homophobia continues.
Last time there was a fight like this in Tampa, back in the 1990's, the Chamber of Commerce was among the groups supporting equal rights for all, so it's not surprising to see businesses of all types stepping up and proclaiming the wrongheadedness of a policy that will accomplish absolutely nothing and that may well spark an economic boycott and further this area's growing reputation as a backward, fearful region ruled by superstitious moralizing fools.
The Democratic Party would do well to use this as a wedge issue with the moderate fiscal conservative types who are open minded and realistic enough to see the huge economic downside to alienating a group of people in which (pdf link)
97% Took vacations in the past 12 months (national average is 64%)
86% Took at least one short (1-3 nights) US domestic vacations, 46% took 3 or more short (1-3 nights) US domestic vacations
81% Took at least one long (4+ nights) domestic US vacation; 50% took 2 or more long US vacations
82% Spent 5+ nights in hotels
72% Rented cars, 18% with 15+ days of car rentals
20% Took at least one cruise (national average is about 2%)
40% Traveled on business, and 57% of those book known “gay friendly” airlines, hotels, etc. when on business trips
36% of those who traveled on business flew first class; 39% flew in business class; 47% spent 11 or more nights in hotels
76% have household incomes above the national average ($40,000+)
30% have household incomes of $100,000+
84% Hold a valid passport (national average is 29%)
67% Belong to frequent flyer programs (national average is about 25%)
53% Spent $5,000 or more per person on vacations in the past year
32% Plan to increase their vacation spending in the coming year; only 16% indicated a planned decrease
Only 7% reduced travel over the past year due to terrorism/security concerns, and only 3% due to SARS
82% Are college/university graduates (national average is 29%)
72% of those who took the 2003 survey are gay male, 23% are lesbian; 61% are in a committed relationship; 5% have children at home
55% Hold professional/executive/management positions
An economic boycott is called for and likely to happen. Ronda Storms and her bootlicking lackeys will be responsible for lost jobs, lost revenue, and maybe even a lost Super Bowl, thus pissing off workers, sports fans, and the business community.
On Monday night, in a small room down the hall from a church sanctuary draped in rainbow banners, several dozen business people, some gay, some straight, flexed muscles in the growing fight over the Hillsborough County Commission's ban on promoting gay pride.
A lesbian financial planner vowed to contact Jay Feaster, the Tampa Bay Lightning general manager.
"I go to his church, St. Stephen's Catholic in Valrico," said Catherine F. James, controller of Priority One Financial Services.
A gay clothing store owner, some of whose customers play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said he'd try to work them for access to owner Malcolm Glazer.
Michael Brill, an associate vice president at Raymond James, said he made it clear to his co-workers that "if you're working with people who discriminate against me, then don't come to me for help. They need to know how upset we are."
Moral outrage has driven opposition to the commission's 5-1 vote that requires government to "abstain from acknowledging, promoting or participating in gay pride events."
But in the wider business community, the outrage is linked to a fear that the region's economy may have been irreparably harmed.
"What happens when we don't have the Super Bowl here?" said Scott Farrell, a Tampa lawyer who is running for the congressional seat that Jim Davis will vacate. "Don't kid yourself. It could happen.
"That's a language that people understand," Farrell told the business people, part of a 700-strong gathering at Metropolitan Community Church on Monday. "They're not buying the human rights/civil rights issue, but they do understand economics."
......Hillsborough Commissioner Mark Sharpe, who ran for his commission seat on a probusiness platform, was among those who voted in favor of the measure last week.
He said Tuesday he didn't think the plan would have any impact on the business community.
"I wouldn't do anything that would harm our ability to compete economically," he said.
Some business leaders aren't so sure.
"It sends a terrible message both inside and outside the community," said Peter Kageyama, 40, president of CreativeTampaBay Inc., a nonprofit grass-roots group dedicated to promoting economic and community development. "This is the stuff companies find absolutely repugnant. "Why would I want to bring myself or my company there?' "
......Ben Wacksman, president and CEO of Capital Realty Investors LLC, said Monday, "Lifestyle is more important now than tax incentives to relocating companies."
A former Hillsborough County commissioner, Wacksman is a current member of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce's board of directors, which will meet Thursday. "The chamber needs to take a leadership role in seeing that our community is seen as tolerant and inclusive," he said.
Mark Sharpe was elected last year on a pro-business platform.
There's Sharpe, the Republican Party favorite who supports lower impact fees and other business incentives to build a "strong economic engine" in Hillsborough County. He said his priority as commissioner would be luring new companies and businesses to the area, and helping the ones already here.
Did he even consider the impact this policy might have on local business, or is he so cowed by the wicked witch that he simply flew after the friends of Dorothy on the evil one's command?
Schindlers pissed
Michael Schiavo can't do anything right. He remained a loyal husband, fighting against rabid opposition to ensure that his helpless wife's wishes were carried out. He endured libelous personal attacks and to this day faces new investigations that seek to tie him to his wife's health problems.
Now, his wife's family, who have been complete assholes during the long fight to let Terri Schiavo die, are complaining that they weren't invited to her interment and are whining about the inscription on her marker. Fuck these people – they have absolutely zero legal or moral standing to complain.
Diane Gale placed the flowers at the grave marker, kissed her fingers and touched the bronze engraving. But amid the tranquility of Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park, something bothered her.
It was the last line inscribed on Terri Schiavo's grave stone: "I KEPT MY PROMISE."
"He didn't have to do that," Gale said Tuesday, referring to Schiavo's husband, Michael. It was the "meanest thing he could do ... a vindictive unkind thing."
The Palm Harbor woman kept daily vigil outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo lay until she died following the court-ordered removal of her feeding tube in March. Gale said the words were a slap to Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, who disputed their son-in-law's contention she did not want to be on artificial life support.
Yet Michael Schiavo's brother said Tuesday the line was not intended to hurt the Schindlers or their supporters. "It's a statement to his wife," Brian Schiavo said.
"It has absolutely nothing to do with them," he added. "The Schindlers need to come down off their high horse. Believe me, Michael is not thinking of the Schindlers that much."
......Brian Schiavo defended the decision not to notify the Schindlers of the Monday afternoon burial, which was overseen by a priest. "After the way he was treated by them, do you think the first thing on his mind is to invite them?"
......David Gibbs III, attorney for Terri's parents, said Tuesday the gathering was "clearly" a breach of a court order that Michael Schiavo notify the Schindlers of any memorial service. Brian Schiavo countered that it was not a memorial service and that his brother does not plan one.
The Schindlers planned to visit the burial site this week, Gibbs said, but have decided to wait. "They're hurt," he said. "It had been their hope that Terri's grave marker would have celebrated her life rather than memorializing her husband's decision to end her life. That's a decision that will forever remain a heartbreak to them."
Harris got big donations from defense contractor
Josh Marshall reports on Katherine Harris' ties to a defense contractor and his company who are in the middle of lots of slimy looking deals.
"A defense contractor who took a $700,000 loss on the purchase of Rep. Randy Cunningham's Del Mar residence in 2003, and provided a yacht for his use in the nation's capital, forced his employees to make political contributions that benefited the San Diego Republican and other members of Congress, according to three former senior officials of the company."
There's also this intriguing nugget: "A third former employee of MZM described being rounded up along with other employees one afternoon in the company's Washington headquarters and told to write a check with the political recipient standing by. The former employee didn't give the name of the politician receiving the donations."
......In the 2004 cycle the MZM political action committee gave out $34,000 to House candidates. The totals go like this ...
Cunningham, Randy "Duke" (R-CA) $6,000
Forbes, J Randy (R-VA) $5,000
Goode, Virgil H Jr (R-VA) $10,000
Harris, Katherine (R-FL) $10,000
Hunter, Duncan (R-CA) $1,000
Renzi, Rick (R-AZ) $2,000So Katherine Harris got $10,000 from the MZM Pac. And during the same cycle she got another $32,000 from employees of MZM.
Actually, not just during the same cycle. If you look at this read-out from OpenSecrets.org you'll see that that $32,000 came in 16 checks for $2000 each. And 14 of those $2,000 checks were written out on one day -- March 23rd, 2004, a Tuesday.
The two other were written out on April 1st, 2004 a Thursday by MZM owner Mitchell Wade's wife: Christiane Wade.
With Cunningham and Goode, Mitchell Wade had some very specific piece of business he wanted help with. What was his angle on Katherine Harris?
Hmmmm...
Jeb! and GOP simply hate democracy
The Republicans are all about suppressing voter turnout and driving their own partisans to the polls. They don't give a shit about democracy – it's all about winning and holding on to power .
Early voting proved to be so popular in its first test in Florida last year that election supervisors wanted to expand the hours and add more locations.
But the Republican-controlled Legislature rejected both requests, and on Monday Gov. Jeb Bush signed a law limiting the hours of early voting and confining it to election offices, city halls and libraries.
The new law limits early voting to no more than eight hours a day, changing the old law that allowed early voting at least eight hours a day. Early voting also cannot be held more than eight hours on any weekend, and it must end the Sunday before the election.
Legislators defended the eight-hour limit as a way to bring uniformity to a new way of voting. Democrats accused Republicans of trying to suppress turnout in Democrat-leaning counties with working-class people who can't leave work to vote during the day, such as in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
The changes would apply to the 2006 elections, when voters will choose a governor and U.S. senator.
Elections officials in four diverse Florida counties reacted with disappointment.
"It is going to be a little bit more limiting," said Lori Hudson, deputy elections administrator for Pinellas County. "We have to decide what are the eight hours that are going to be best for serving the citizens."
A year ago, Pinellas offered early voting sites for 10 hours a day, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Miami-Dade, the state's largest county, offered early voting in 12-hour sessions from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., to allow people to vote before or after work.
"Early voting was extremely popular here, and we wanted to give people the flexibility to vote when they wanted to," said Seth Kaplan of Miami-Dade's elections department. "It's the law, and we'll comply."
Hillsborough County Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson took a different tack from his colleagues and praised the early voting law as a positive step.
"There is a desire among everybody to be more consistent among the counties," Johnson said, echoing the sentiment of the bill's sponsors. "My own personal view is that early voting in Florida is still new and some caution moving forward is good."
Buddy Johnson is a partisan shill.
MSM on rights rally
Not much new in the SP Times and Tampa Tribune reports on the Equality Florida meeting last night.
I did forget to mention the afternoon march this Sunday which starts at the downtown library. More info coming soon.
Hillsborough: Ban brings new energy, group says
More than 700 people crammed into the Metropolitan Community Church of Tampa on Monday night, waving rainbow flags and unleashing thunderous applause in opposition of the commission's recent stance against gay pride.
Announcing that "pride is back in Hillsborough County," the group pledged to work to repeal a ban passed by the commission last week that prevents the county government from acknowledging gay pride, or from promoting or participating in gay pride events.
Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, which organized the rally Monday, said she wanted to thank the county commissioners for handing the group an issue that breathed life back into a community that had turned apathetic.
"Thank you for waking us up," she said to a crowd that filled the church so that people lined the walls and stood in rows in the back. Many who were seated fanned themselves with fliers that had been distributed as temperatures climbed. Participants spilled over into the church's chapel and smaller rooms.
Gay Rights Supporters Rally, Assail County Policy As Hurtful: From The Tampa Tribune
``They believe gay people shouldn't exist, and if we exist we should be forced to hide,'' said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, a gay and lesbian rights group. ``What they are trying to do will have the exact opposite effect.''
A large wooden cross behind her was draped with rainbow bunting, symbolizing the gay community.
``Pride is back,'' Smith said. ``Thanks for rousing us.''
Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena and Clerk of the Circuit Court Pat Frank, a former county commissioner, joined the call to reinstate the sexual-orientation provision rescinded in 1995.
``We are going to walk and talk and work against discrimination,'' said Frank, removing one of her red shoes and shaking it in the air, to the delight of the audience.
A downtown ``Pride is Back'' rally and march from the John F. Germany Library to the County Center is planned for 3 p.m. Sunday.
Banned in Hillsborough
Memo to Ronda Storms (R – Homophoburbia): Don't piss off the fags
Tonight, a large, enthusiastic crowd gathered in a Seminole Heights church to discuss strategic response to Hillsborough County's newest anti-gay policies. Ronda Storms and the Hillsborough Board of County Commission (BOCC) have lit a fire under the gay and lesbian community in Tampa, and the energy that is being released may just lead to real and lasting change.
Over 500 people crowded into the large main hall, and as church ladies sold homemade lemonade under the disco ball in the back, and TV cameras jockeyed for position, hundreds more packed two overflow rooms and the hallways.
Standing ovations greeted the speakers, all of whom were brief and to the point.
Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida acted as host. Equality Florida was born in Hillsborough County and fights for equal rights throughout the state.
The Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee had a conflicting meeting already scheduled, but many left that meeting to attend this one, and the Committee passed a resolution condemning the Hillsborough Commission's recent discriminatory actions.
City Councilperson Linda Saul-Sena Represented Mayor Pam Iorio and Tampa City Council. She urged those present to “Take Back Hillsborough County,” and re-pass the human rights ordinance.
“Take Back Tampa” was the name of a group in the 1990's that fought against the Tampa human rights ordinance. (More on that fight and the rescinding of the sexual orientation section of the Hillsborough County human rights ordinance coming soon right here at BlogWood.)
Pat Frank, who held the line against discrimination for many years as a member of the county commission and is now the Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court, said simply “I've always fought against discrimination. It's wrong.”
The lone sane voice on the county commission, Kathy Castor was busy at the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee meeting, but she was represented by her aide Pat Kemp who reminded the crowd that the next BOCC meeting is July 20 and open comment starts at 9:00.
The meeting broke up into smaller affinity groups tasked with brainstorming and planning responses by different sectors of the community. Arts, business, and librarians are all represented, as are groups of educators, direct action aficionados, legal types, and more.
Tonight's event was very well organized and heavily attended. Ronda Storms may well have done the the progressive community in Hillsborough a huge favor by supplying the motivation for the creative classes to speak up and enact meaningful change.
To find out what you can do, contact Equality Florida right now.