After dumping Slate last December, now Microsoft is also bailing on its foray into television. I guess NBC will have to crappily deliver bad programming all by itself now.
Don’t worry, NBC. You’ll be as bad as Fox someday!
Microsoft Ditches MSNBC
Tougher Punishments for Sex Offenders in Florida
Florida Governor Jeb Bush has signed the Jessica Lunsford Act into law, which not only strengthens sentencing for child sex abusers who prey on children under the age of 12, but also includes a provision allowing the state to track such offenders for life.
The bill was quickly drafted after Jessica's body was discovered in March, and sped through the legislative process, pushed by outraged lawmakers.I honestly don’t know how I feel about this. I was raped when I was 16, and although I truly wish the situation had been handled differently, I wouldn’t support my attacker having been subjected to being tracked for the rest of his life and possibly hauled in for questioning each time a rape was reported in the area. But that said, I know that child molesters are even more likely to be repeat offenders than rapists, who themselves have a high recidivism rate. Pedophiles and serial rapists are notoriously hard to rehabilitate, and by some accounts, they are, in fact, not rehabilitatable at all.
Bush said Florida's sex offender laws are already tough, and "this bill will make our laws even tougher. It think it is right and just."
[...]
The bill would require 25-year minimum prison terms for people convicted of certain sex crimes against children and lifetime tracking by global positioning satellite once they're outside of prison.
The bill also requires more monitoring of people convicted of molesting older children.
The new requirement only affects people convicted in the future, but it also has a provision that provides for GPS tracking of sex offenders who violate probation.
Advocates for the satellite monitoring say that in addition to warning authorities when a sex offender is someplace he shouldn't be - such as near a school - it also will allow for quick pinpointing of suspects if a child is abducted.
The new law also could open the door to the death penalty for more murderers, saying someone's status as sexual predator can be considered as an aggravating when judges and juries weigh capital punishment.
From everything I’ve read and studied on the topic, I support the latter theory, and yet there’s still something that makes me uncomfortable with tagging a sexual predator like a wild animal (despite their many similarities). I can’t even really explain why this bothers me quite so much, especially as I am keenly aware of how devastating these crimes are and how difficult they are to effectively prevent. Part of me feels that nothing is too cruel and unusual for these monsters, and yet there’s another part of me that recoils at the notion of a serving one’s time and being released into a freedom that is never truly free, no matter how likely an offender may be to offend again.
Question of the Day: Lies and the Lying Liars Edition
Which lie told by any member of the Bush administration, and subsequently repeated by our useless media, most infuriates you? (And just to keep it interesting, let’s assume everyone would say the lies told about WMDs and take that particular lie out of contention.)
(By the way, if you're looking for Monday Blogwhorin', it's lower on the page - I posted it earlier in the day than usual.)
Social Security and Neocon Dreams
The Dark Wraith breaks it all down.
To those who claim that this plan by the neo-conservatives could destroy the Social Security system, the response is almost too obvious to state: The point is not that this could wreck the system; the point is that, by its very nature, Mr. Bush's plan will.Read the rest. Good stuff.
One Less Reason to Watch ABC
Which, according to my calculations, brings their tally to —1.
Max Blumenthal reports that last night ABC ran ads placed by supertwat and major homobigot James Dobson’s Focus on the Family during its season finale of some television show I’ve never seen (but it sounds disastrous), “Supernanny.” The ads were promoting Focus on the Family’s
"Focus on Your Child" program, which advises parents on how to implement the parenting principles outlined in his best-seller, "Dare to Discipline." These include spanking with "sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely." Children have to be taught respect for authority at an early age, Dobson preaches, or they'll never develop respect for governmental authority or God.In and of itself, that’s not really a strike against ABC—after all, networks need cash, so although taking money from a religious-based group advocating corporal punishment may be distasteful, whatever, it’s capitalism, gotta make a buck, right?
See, the problem is, last December, ABC, along with NBC and CBS, rejected an ad from the United Church of Christ because its message was one of tolerance and inclusion. The UCC’s press release described the ad as:
part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ (UCC) seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.Not particularly controversial, one would think, but it was too controversial for ABC, who would only run the ad on the ABC Family Channel, but not the primary network. For some inexplicable reason, however, they find an ad promoting a religious-based program that endorses spanking, a decidedly controversial topic, and devised by a virulently anti-gay religious leader, perfectly acceptable for airing during primetime programming.
If you’d like to ask ABC what the fuck they’re thinking, here’s their contact info:
ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
Phone number: (818) 460-7477
You can also ABC's Audience Relations Department at netaudr@abc.com.
And while you’re at it, give a shout to the FCC, too: fccinfo@fcc.gov.
Yikes
Okay, maybe we don’t need to worry about George Allen after all. From Meet the Press:
SEN. ALLEN: The reality is at that some point, whether it’s 2017, 2018 or you may think it’s 2041, that the number of people working and the revenues coming in from Social Security taxes will not be sufficient to pay those who are on retirement. … Now, at some point–and I agree with you, I don’t think we ought to be cutting benefits for those middle income and low income. …Damn, what a disaster. If he can’t even smoothly dissemble on Social Security, he’s just not GOP nominee material.
MR. RUSSERT: Stop right there. Stop right there, Senator Allen. President Bush has said 40 percent reduction [in benefits] for those making $90,000. And a 30 percent reduction for those making $59,000.
SEN. ALLEN: Got it. Right.
MR. RUSSERT: You disagree?
SEN. ALLEN: I think that…
MR. RUSSERT: And you oppose the president? Be clear.
SEN. ALLEN: Don’t put words in my mouth. Understand what I’m trying to get…
MR. RUSSERT: Do you support or oppose the president? That’s fair.
SEN. ALLEN: I support what I’m for and my own ideas. And my ideas are those of middle-income, working people ought to have better retirement security in addition to what Social Security has provided.
Monday Blogwhorin'
Your chance to promote your blog, other blogs, and various things of interest.
What's going on?
Tough Girl
You’ve probably heard about the 13-year-old Florida girl who’s being denied an abortion, with the state stepping in because she’s a minor. Well, Bitch PhD points out, it may be time for a lot of people to “re-think that idea that women—including 13-year old girls in foster care—can't be trusted to think through the realities of abortion on their own.”
L.G.: Why can't I make my own decision?Frankly, it sounds like the only one who knows what the hell they’re talking about is the girl who supposedly can’t make her own decisions. Brave girl.
Judge Alvarez: I don't know.
L.G.: You don't know? Aren't you the judge?
* * *
Department of Children and Family Services: The Department of Children and Families has the custodial responsibility to do what is in the best interest of the child.
L.G.: I think if I want to make the decision, it's my business and I can do that. It would make no sense to have the baby. I don't think I should have the baby because I'm 13, I'm in a shelter and I can't get a job. DCF would take the baby anyway [but] if I do have it, I'm not going to let them take it.
* * *
L.G.: Since you guys are supposedly here for the best interest of me, then wouldn't you all look at that fact that it'd be more dangerous for me to have the baby than to have an abortion?
Judge Alvarez: A good point.
OBGYN: At her age and at her stage of gestation ... her risk of death from an abortion procedure is about 1 in 34,000. The risk of death in pregnancy is about 1 in 10,000.
* * *
Judge Alvarez (paraphrase): Who is the father?
L.G.: That's not really necessary.
Random Sunday Afternoon Blogging
I’ve just returned from having lunch with my oldest girlfriend, Cecil (not her real name), who has been someone who can make me laugh until I snort since we were 11 years old. A lovely afternoon musing about life and such.
In the car on the way to the restaurant, I was listening to James’ greatest hits, and one of my favorite James songs is Sit Down. There’s been some discussion over the past few days about just what this blog is, and it’s still a baby, really—I’m not sure what it will grow up to be—but as I sang along (yes, I’m one of those nuts who sings along in the car, all by herself, even at stoplights, and doesn’t particularly care if I look like an asylum escapee), I realized that some of the lyrics from Sit Down sum up what kind of place I want this blog to be.
That you’ve been to some far out places
It’s hard to carry on
When you feel all alone…
Those who feel the breath of sadness
Sit down next to me
Those who find they’re touched by madness
Sit down next to me
Those who find themselves ridiculous
Sit down next to me
Love, in fear, in hate, in tears…
Oh sit down
Sit down next to me
Sit down, down, down, down, down
In sympathy
We’re all a bit mad, in our own ways, and we’re all in this together. Pull up a chair.
Miss Pissypants
You know, I’m really getting pretty fucking sick of this shit.
Two men convicted of beating a Seattle man because he is gay were sentenced yesterday to just under a year in jail.Seattle, huh? Hey, Microsoft—isn’t that your neck of the woods? What’s your opinion about this story? Let me guess. You’re feeling a bit…neutral.
In June, Micah Painter was beaten and cut with a broken bottle in an assault by a group of men, one of whom first asked whether he was gay before attacking him.
This is why it’s important for the Left to be vocal and visible in our support of gay rights, because when we skulk around mumbling about respecting the views of those who find homosexuality objectionable, instead of saying, “Fine, asshole—find it objectionable all you want, but that doesn’t preclude a guarantee of equal rights,” loud and definitively, it creates the sense that perhaps gays don’t need to be protected at all, even from getting beaten and cut with a broken bottle by a couple of homophobic fuckwits.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, we should recall the March meeting of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish leaders to denounce the upcoming Jerusalem WorldPride 2005 event, which, under the banner “Love Without Borders” was to be a celebration of LGBT pride for the community and its supporters. Their commentary on the event included such tolerance-reflective gems as:
"They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable. It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it."Now it’s being reported that:
-- Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi
"We can't permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem."
-- Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik
[It's] "the spiritual rape of the Holy City. This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land."
-- Rev. Leo Giovinetti, an evangelical pastor from San Diego's Mission Valley Christian Fellowship, author of the petition against the festival, "Homosexuals to Desecrate Jerusalem"
[It's an] "offense to the Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics across the world."
-- Pope John Paul II, in reference to the first WorldPride festival, held in Rome five years ago.
Police are investigating a fire at Jerusalem's only LGBT bar as extreme Orthodox rabbis and Christian evangelical groups ratchet up the rhetoric in opposition to World Pride celebrations scheduled for the city this summer.Cause. Effect.
Sa'ar Netanel, a member of Jerusalem's city council and the owner of the bar, Shushan, said that Sunday night a man entered the doorway of the club and threw a burning rag inside.
Flames spread quickly but patrons escaped without injury.
No one has claimed responsibility but relations have worsened between city's gays and conservative rabbis, Muslim clerics, and Christian fundamentalists in recent weeks.
We need to stop pretending that hate speech doesn’t matter, or that it’s somehow acceptable if it’s cloaked in religion. No one with the merest capacity for logic can claim to be surprised when inflammatory rhetoric results in fires being set.
In this case, literally.
(Hat tip to Daily Mendacity.)
They're One Year Old!
The Fixer and Gordon of the Alternate Brain also author another blog called, imaginatively enough, The Fixer and Gordon, which is less politics and more auto repair. It’s celebrating its one year blogiversary in May. Congrats, guys!
Felch You
Okay, this is really beyond the pale.
Pam reports on a North Carolina County Commissioner, Bill James, whose hatred for homosexuals is only matched by his apparent obsession with their sexual behavior. She posts an entire email he sent on the subject, in response to some of his fellow commissioners’ advocacy of extending domestic partner benefits. Here’s an excerpt from that email:
You really think that a pool of people (homosexuals) where 45% of them eat feces from the rear end of another male is "normal"? If you do, you are frankly nuts.Okay, aside from his vitroilic attitude, I’d like to point out that the correct spelling is felching, and the definition which he attributes to it is not its common usage. (I’m very impressed, by the way, that Wikipedia has an article on felching! Who knew? I thought I might have to send you to some weird site, but nope!) And I’d love to know what schools his kids are going to that they’re being taught about felching. I had to learn about it the old-fashioned way—from John Waters’ films and gay porn.
A lifestyle where one of their past times is buying gerbils and hamsters from the pet store and cramming them up their rears in an activity called feltching? A group of people who like to urinate on their partners and call them "golden showers"? Where one of the honored members of the Gay Alliance is an organization called the "Man-Boy Love Association" that promotes sex with underage boys?
That behavior is worthy of protection? That behavior is worthy to be taught in our schools? to our children? You are one sick "Independent, white, married-heterosexual, presbyterian" if you do.
In one study, two homosexual researchers found that 73% of adult male homosexuals had had sex with boys age 19 or younger.Oh, heavens to Betsy! You mean adult male homosexuals were actually having sex with other adult male homosexuals???!!! The horror!
Somebody please inform Mr. James that once you reach 18, you’re not “a boy” anymore. And while you’re at it, let him know that any study of adult male hetersexuals having sex with “girls” age 19 or younger would probably produce similar results. In fact, I would imagine that most people having sex at, say, age 20, are having sex with people in that same age range, give or take a couple of years, so I can’t for the life of me figure out what’s shocking about this statistic.
Anyway, read the rest. It’s really appalling to think this is what we’re dealing with. Pam notes:
This redneck bumf*ck is in desperate need of therapy, and I would add, a bit more literacy, sex ed and access to factual information. His obsession with real or perceived sex acts is, well, insane.So true. If you’d like to help Mr. James by offering him some help in the literacy, sex ed, and/or factual information departments, his email is Wjames@carolina.rr.com.
Gannguckerton on Real Time
Crooks and Liars has the video up of Jeff Gannon on Real Time with Bill Maher.
They note, “Pretty tame questioning for Bill after he has lambasted Jimmy/Jeff in the past.,” and I agree. It was pretty tame. Better than most, though. Still, I’d love it if one single stinking interviewer would respond to Gannon’s boilerplate reply about his past as a rentboy—“Those allegations aren’t relevant”—with the obvious follow-up question, “But aren’t they true?” It’s not like his reply is unexpected; he answers the same way every time. Ditto to the follow-up to his assertion that this whole thing started because he asked a question “liberals didn’t like.” When will someone call his ass out on the fact that his question was not objectionable because of its blatant conservatism, but because it contained a blatant lie, attributing a quote to Harry Reid that was not accurate, but instead an imaginary concoction conjured by Rush Limbaugh? Given the opportunity, wouldn’t any of us be willing to ask the tough questions no interview will? Why are they so pathetic?
But he only wants good schools, and fuzzy puppies for all
And yet another slug oozes out of the woodwork. Well, at least they didn't say "Alleged White Supremacist" in the headline.
McGuire, who calls himself a "European American activist" and rejects the label of white supremacist, says he believes he has more support in the community than many think. And he says he is committed to reforming Bozeman schools.
He says the schools promote homosexuality, strip parents of control over their children, ignore white students and promote other cultures at the expense of figures like George Washington and other founding fathers.
"White children are often installed with guilt and a feeling of being ashamed because of the way that whites have dealt with minorities in the past, such as black slavery and the killing of Indians," McGuire said in a telephone interview. "Past discrimination should not result in present-day reverse discrimination against white kids."
Ah, reverse discrimination. The bigot's favorite excuse. It's those dirty dark skinned folk that make us look bad! We didn't do nothin'!
Human rights advocates say McGuire is running only to promote National Alliance beliefs and attract new members.
"What he wants here is to stir up the pot and get some visibility," said Ken Toole, director of the Montana Human Rights Network. "The political arena presents a chance for him to get out and present his views as he wants."
Nationally, the National Alliance is "really on the ropes" since the 2002 death of leader William Pierce, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. Pierce's novel "The Turner Diaries" is believed to have inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
And yet, the Bush Administration doesn't label them as a Terrorist Organization. Wonderful.
I'm sure this sparkling example of humanity will never get on the school board, but then again, I never thought Bush could get re-elected, either. Look how easily he duped people into signing his petition.
How many of these maniacs are in that woodwork, anyway?
(All emphasis mine, cross-posted from my blog)
Last Chance Saloon Update
G.C. has been banned.
As I stated when I made the decision:
My policy is the same across the board: your rights here will be terminated as soon as you start infringing on the rights of others. I believe G.C. has crossed that threshold with his continued insistence on making the same inflammatory comments over and over that serve no other purpose other than to harass and annoy.Some people took issue with my decision and have threatened to leave this site because I chose to ban someone. Some people think it’s censorship. Some people will continue to complain about how unfair I am, and repeatedly assert that I try to squash dissent...
Well, today's your lucky day, kiddies! I’ve made a place for just such criticisms: Shakes Sis Sucks, a brand new blog for anyone who has a grievance against the big, mean, horrible, poopyhead that is me—including G.C. And the best part is, it's yours to run however you want.
The username is poutypuss and the password is bigbaby. Feel free to do whatever you like with it. Turn it into Blog of the Flies for all I care.
Just don’t say I never gave ya nuttin’.
Ciao.
[UPDATE: Mike from Running Scared has taken advantage of my offer. I have been deemed the Ann Coulter of the Left.]
[UPDATE AGAIN: Shakes Sis Sucks has now turned into a blog titled “Tax and Business Law Commentary,” authored by someone called Stuart Levine. I read it; it’s pretty interesting. If Stuart happens to drop by, he ought to introduce himself.]
President George Allen?
Link:
A National Journal poll to be released tomorrow of "congressional and political insiders" finds Sen. George Allen (R-VA) ranked first among 2008 GOP presidential candidates and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) ranked first among Democrats. Each of 215 insiders were asked to rank their top five choices.George Allen?! Well, I had to do some research on this guy. (Does anyone know anything about him? Is he a former professional athlete or something?) We’ll get back to that in a moment.
On the Republican side, Allen finished with 229 combined points, while Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) finished second with 217, Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) third with 184, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani fourth with 129 and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney fifth with 109 points.
On the Democratic side, Clinton led all Democrats with 388 points, followed by former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) with 192, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner with 166, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) with 125 and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) with 90.
A couple interesting points to note. The GOP top 5 slots eluded both Santorum and Jeb Bush, but not Frist. Huh. Also interesting is that Clinton is the first choice for Dems by a much larger margin, considering she’s actually a rather divisive figure among rank-and-file Dems. No real conclusions to be drawn, considering the results are from a fairly vaguely-defined source, but still worth noting. Make of it what you will.
Now, back to this George Allen character. He’s pretty much our basic nightmare.
He’s rated 20% by the ACLU, likely because of voting NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes (Jun 2002), YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping (Oct 2001), and supporting an anti-flag desecration amendment (Mar 2001). On the upside (if you’re a wealthy Republican fucknut), he’s got a 100% approval rating from the US Chamber of Commerce and he supported the bankruptcy bill.
He supports trying juvenile felons as adults, tougher sentencing for drug crimes, allowing the FCC to approve larger media conglomerates, and requiring minor mothers to live at home and forcing them to identify their children’s fathers. He’s rated 100% by the Christian Coalition, but 0% by NARAL (abortion rights), APHA (public health advocacy), ARA (rights of seniors), and SANE (anti-war advocacy).
And those are pretty much his good attributes.
I haven’t even covered his stances on tax reform, energy and oil, free trade, government reform, healthcare, or poverty. If you’re interested, go here.
And I think you should be. George Allen: All of the wingnuttiness of Frist and Santorum, but none of the well-known baggage. Watch out.
Sic ’Em!
Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) is my new hero.
[Bush] wants to dismantle a program [Social Security] that defines what the Democrats are proudest of. That’s what this is about. The Republicans—almost all of them—opposed Social Security when it was proposed by Franklin Roosevelt. Almost all of them opposed Medicaid. They voted against Medicare in 1965. So these are programs that provide a safety net for the poor and I think the Republicans basically resent the poor and they figure if we can get the poor investing in the stock market, maybe they’ll start thinking like Republicans. God help us.Yowza! You tell ’em, Jimmy-boy! But here is the best part:
Except for the religious fundamentalists, most of the hardcore Republicans have incomes over $90,000. I don’t think it’s the taxation system that bothers them, it’s the safety net. They believe in survival of the fullest. The people who are best off in this society are the ones who have been the beneficiaries of all of their policies. And now if they can get people to invest in—the more money you put into the stock market, the higher the average value, [the more] it accrues to the owners of our society. The people who have enough means to own stock, to own the means of production.
I think the Social Security thing is all about ideology. It’s certainly not about fiscal responsibility. If he wanted to get us excited about a crisis, he’d talk about healthcare, and how Medicare is actually going bankrupt, and how 45 million people don’t have health insurance.
Raw Story: Do you really think the president is sheltered from those he’s pitching his plan to?Slam!
Moran: The only actual news that he reads is the sports section. All the national news, all the opinions that he gets have been filtered, and it goes to his daily briefing that has already been pre-screened to give him what he wants to read. He doesn’t read any books, and he doesn’t talk with people that don’t already agree with him. He’s surrounded himself with ideological sycophants. And the biggest ass-kisser of all is Dick Cheney.
Awesome. Well done, Mr. Moran. Big Brass Balls of the Day Award to you, my good fellow.
I'm shocked. No, really!
I have to admit, this takes balls. Jimmy/Jeff/Gannon/Guckert/Jacob/Jingleheimerschmidt is making an appearance on Bill Maher's show Friday night.
Man, I wish I had cable. Will anyone be liveblogging this?
(Insert "taking balls" joke here.)
(Tip 'o the Energy Dome to AmericaBlog)
Spidey Sense
Donald Rumsfeld certainly seems rather enamored with Spidey’s plonker.
“Does looking longingly at Spidey’s webspinner make me gay? Perhaps. Would I look that good in tights? Sure.”
(Hat tip to Paul for this one.)
