Shakesville

Not One More Goddamned Thing

Paul, at his own website, commenting on Dr. Strangelove, says:

You know something? I don't want to hear one more goddamned thing about Clinton's blowjob. Not until these Republicans can manage to keep from raping their wives, cruising websites for sex, and engaging in pedophilia.

No shit. Not to mention having sex with farm animals, attempting to coerce their wives into exhibitionism in sex clubs, advertising their services as male escorts on the internets, having illegitimate children, and sexually harassing female coworkers, among others.

And you know what else? Here are some other things I don’t want to hear one more goddamned thing about, either:

Any negative reference to any consensual sex between two adults, married or not, of the same sex or opposite

Criminalizing any legal method of terminating a pregnancy or punishing any federally funded agency that performs, refers, educates about, or utters the word abortion

Banning or refusing to fill the prescription for any legal drug used to prevent pregnancy

Refusing to teach children proper sex education, including contraceptive options

Any further claim that the GOP is the party of moral values

Please feel free to contribute the things you don’t want to hear one more goddamned thing about in comments.

Senfronia for Pres!

Fellow bloggrrl Pam, who is not only a great blogger, but also is just generally a supercool chick, generously answers my endlessly stupid tech questions, and has been superbly supportive with her encouragement of my being a straight ally to the LGBT community, has posted the transcript of an amazing speech by Texas State Rep Senfronia Thompson, who regular Shakers will remember was also the voice of reason on the Texas cheerleading bullshittery. Pam notes:

The important thing to remember in this fight for gay rights, is that we do need the support and action of our straight allies. … The words of Representative Senfronia Thompson are brave and meaningful, especially so because she is black, given the rampant homophobia in the religious black community -- a group that should be supportive, given civil rights history.

Go check it out. It really is a powerful speech, and Pam’s also got Rep. Thompson’s contact info so you can thank her for being the kind of public servant we should be so lucky to have in every state and at every level of government.

Good News for Nebraska

If you’re not a bigot, that is.

A federal judge has overturned the gay marriage ban that was passed by Nebraska voters during the 2000 election. This was one of the bans that was particularly punitive, banning more than just marriage, including all of the associated benefits and legal protections of marriage. And it was exactly because it went so far overboard that the judge found it unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon ruled Thursday the ban "imposes significant burdens on both the expressive and intimate associational rights" of gays "and creates a significant barrier to the plaintiffs' right to petition or to participate in the political process."

Bataillon said the ban "goes far beyond merely defining marriage as between a man and a woman."

[…]

The judge said the "broad proscriptions could also interfere with or prevent arrangements between potential adoptive or foster parents and children, related persons living together, and people sharing custody of children as well as gay individuals."

This is good news, an encouraging precedent for Lambda Legal and the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Project which bought the challenge in Nebraska, because many other states are trying to pass exactly the same kind of legislation, so Lambda and the ACLU have lots of work ahead of them—even in Nebraska, where State Attorney General Jon Bruning has already noted he will appeal the ruling.

It’s no wonder Bush is so determined to stack the federal courts with his wingnut appointees. As long as there are reasonable men and women on the bench who interpret the law fairly, there will never be a way to stop the steady march of progress, because those of us who believe in equal rights for all aren’t about to sit down on the job.

Dance, McClellan, Dance!

Ohmigod, this is priceless: Editor & Publisher has posted some choice selections from yesterday’s daily press briefing, where the reporters actually started mocking the idea that not notifying ~~Lance Armstrong~~ President Bush until after he had finished his bike ride that the White House had been evacuated was perfectly normal. You must read the entire thing, and if you’re drinking this time of the day, might I suggest a drinking game where you take a swig each time Scotty-boy says the word “protocol.”

Here are some of my favorite questions:

Q: Isn't there a bit of an appearance problem, notwithstanding the president's safety was not in question, protocols were followed, that today, looking at it, he was enjoying a bike ride, and that recreation time was not considered expendable to inform him of this.

Q: But has the President even indicated that even if everything was followed that he would prefer to be notified, that if the choice is: tell the commander in chief or let him continue to exercise, that he would prefer to be informed?

Q: Might there be something wrong with protocols that render the president unnecessary when the alarm is going off at his house?

Q: Scott, to follow on the same line of questioning, if there is a possibility that a plane may have to be shot down over Washington, doesn't the President want to be involved in that type of decision?

Q: Uh, Scott—can you please tell us who’s really running the country while the chimp is off riding his bike like a circus sideshow act?

Who gave George the matches?

China Says US Impeded North Korea Arms Talks

I’m shocked… shocked!

Beijing - A senior Chinese diplomat on Thursday accused the Bush administration of undermining efforts to revive negotiations with the North Korean government and said there was "no solid evidence" that North Korea was preparing to test a nuclear weapon.

The comments by Yang Xiyu, a senior Foreign Ministry official and China's top official on the North Korean nuclear problem, were noteworthy because the Chinese authorities very rarely speak to journalists about the issue. The comments reflect growing frustration in Beijing with the Bush administration.

Even as the White House presses China to find a solution to the nuclear issue, Chinese officials say, it has hurled insults at North Korea and given its leaders excuses to stay away from the bargaining table.

Regardless to whether you agree with, or believe the Chinese officials or not, we're playing with fire here. Not everyone in the world is going to respond to tough words, a swagger, and a sock stuffed in the crotch of your air force uniform. Diplomacy and negotiation are words we should be keeping firmly in mind, otherwise the word that's going to suddenly become very important to us all is "hubris."

Go read the rest.

(Crosspost it, Crosspost it good)

The Bolton Saga Continues

Once again, Barbara Boxer proves she’s got a serious set of brass ones:

Democrats in the US Senate have made a fresh bid to derail the appointment of John Bolton, the embattled White House pick for UN ambassador, after a Senate panel declined to back him ahead of a floor vote.

Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer "put a hold on the nomination" of Bolton as US ambassador to the United Nations, her spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz said without indicating how the process could be delayed.

The move is intended to either force further negotiations or ultimately to prevent his nomination from reaching the Senate floor.

[…]

Democrats promised they would continue to fight tooth and nail against the nomination as it moves to the chamber.

"If this comes to the floor, we're going to have a fight," Senator Barbara Boxer said during the committee meeting.

Love Boxer. Love her!

At this point, any president who had the best interests of the country in mind would withdraw his nomination of Bolton, explain that he was too controversial a figure, and that too much of our legislators’ time was being spent on this confirmation. But of course Bush would rather tie up the entirety of the Senate indefinitely rather than concede he had made a bad choice.

Friday Limerick

Oh, how hands did wring and teeth gnash
When they feared a White House plane crash!
But like a good little tyke,
The Pres just rode his bike
And day-dreamed about Bolton’s moustache.

Question of the Day

The Rude Pundit wants to know:

Why the fuck was the President of the United States biking on a wildlife preserve in Maryland in the middle of the goddamn day? Isn't there a fuckin' gym in the White House? And why the fuck wasn't he notified until after "the danger" had passed about a suspected attack on Washington, which caused evacuations, including his own wife? Wouldn't you wanna know if your wife was being threatened with death? Did they know it wasn't really a threat? Was it a show? Or did they just not want to face that stomach churning blank stare of his as he tries to figure out what the fuck to do, stuck sweaty in his shorts in the suburban wetlands?

I think perhaps it has something to do with the latter hypothesis, combined with a mad but ultimately futile scramble to locate a copy of My Pet Goat, which is said to carry mystical calming properties for the president in times of great crisis.

Bloggin’ Note

I’ve been remiss in pointing out that Suburban Guerrilla has moved to www.susiemadrak.com. Update your blogrolls!

Bolton

The nomination of Mr. Moustache has been sent by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the Senate Floor without recommendation. The vote was a party line 10-8, with the AP reporting that Voinovich withheld support for Bolton’s nomination, but agreed to send it to the floor without a recommendation of approval or disapproval. This may well mean some snarky debating which could conceivably back the White House into a corner, forcing them to defend the flawed (to put it nicely) or unrelentingly demented (to put it bluntly) boss, coworker, husband, and nominee that is John Bolton.

That we’re even still considering this guy for a position, his nomination to which ought to have garnered no more than a snide, dismissive chuckle followed by an derisive sniff, is completely beyond me. It’s quite amazing, really. If we could somehow figure out how to use New Lows as an alternative energy source, we’d never need worry about depleting our resources as long as the unholy alliance between the Neo-Cons and the Dominionists is running the joint.

Cracked System

A homeless man lost his life in Florida this week after interceding in an attack on restaurant owner Melida Murillo for whom he worked sporadically in exchange for food. The restaurateur’s life was saved when Kelcy Ruiz jumped in between Murillo and her attacker, Tyrone Daniel Clark, who instead turned on Ruiz instead, stabbing him to death.

Clark, who is also homeless, was among about 2,000 registered sexual offenders who had skipped out from monitoring required by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He was arrested in Miami on drug charges in March but was released, apparently because officials did not realize he had absconded from the registry.

Upon reading this story, I was immediately reminded of the recent sex offender legislation in Florida about which I wrote recently:

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.

I said at the time that I believed such legislation, though admittedly attractive in some ways on its face, will be less helpful in preventing sex crimes (because sex offenders are nothing if not clever about finding victims no matter how difficult), than useful to the government in making its job easier, which is simply not a reasonable argument for lifetime tracking, regardless of the heinous nature of the crime.

That the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lost track of Clark, and that even an arrest did not trigger some sort of notice to police that he was wanted for existing monitoring violations, seem to be evidence that the Jessica Lunsford Act is not legislation of last resort, but instead a bandage intended to cover existing cracks in the system. And while I have not a shred of sympathy in my heart for sex offenders, I’m still not convinced that taking additionally punitive measures against any felon is warranted when part of the problem is clearly a failing system.

Recommended Reading

Everything you wanted to know about the “nuclear option” by Salon’s Tim Grieve. (You may have to watch an ad if you’re not a subscriber.) There’s not a lot of new stuff here for wonks who have followed this thing closely, but if there are holes here and there in your understanding of the issue, this is a great piece that covers all the bases—including the possible outcomes, which we could be discussing any day now…

Miller Time No More

I knew it was over when Bush's fawning sycophant, Dennis Miller, tried to pass himself off as a libertarian on Jon Stewart's show a couple of weeks ago. In fact, I found that little moment quite uplifting. There is nobody more trendy, more "finger in the wind," more faddish than the Rant man himself. If he's climbing off the conservative bun-boy train, then the zeitgeist has definitely shifted.

And his show's finally been put out of its misery, too.

Ha.

Dennis Miller represents the worst of America trend-voters. His whole outlook changed after 9/11, he claimed. In other words, he pissed his pants because he’s an unstable hyperreactionary and then convinced himself that anyone who was “smart” did the same thing. So he threw his weight behind Bush and his band of warmongering psychos who were all too happy to confirm the self-justifying hypothesis that abject fear was rational. Now he sees that he (or, more accurately, his vote) was used not to better protect and secure America, but to rape its land and its citizens for every ounce of resource possible, while the reprobates running the show lined their pockets with the spoils and laughed all the way to a bank in the Caymans. Oops.

So now he’s a libertarian. Bullshit. He’s a regretful sissy who didn’t bother to inform himself of the facts, preferring instead to let President Daddy take care of everything. Well, fuck you, Dennis Miller, and all the idiots like you, for being lazy and scared and complacent. There was an opportunity for each of us to be heroes after 9/11, by refusing to succumb to panic, by refusing to be terrorized, by either the plane-into-buildings sort of terrorist or the new domestic breed we find at the head of our State, who seek to inflame our worst fears and turn our cowering into their gain. You blew your chance to be smart and strong, and you mocked those of us who were. Now you’re trying to distance yourself from the Pres, but try all you might, you’re inextricably linked to him forever, and to every bit of damage he does to our country, because it was your misplacement of faith in him when you should have dug deep to find faith in yourself to not be afraid, it was your vote, that consented and empowered his darkest motives, and so the dreadful results are your responsibility, too.

Second-Class Statushood, Here We Come!

In a stunning article by Ayelish McGarney in The Nation, we learn about the curious case of Dr. Hager and his former wife, Linda Davis:

By 1995, according to Davis's account, Hager's treatment of his wife had moved beyond morally reprehensible to potentially felonious. It was a uniquely stressful year for Davis. Her mother, dying of cancer, had moved in with the family and was in need of constant care. At the same time, Davis was suffering from a seemingly inexplicable exhaustion during the day. She began exhibiting a series of strange behaviors, like falling asleep in such curious places as the mall and her closet. Occasionally she would--as she describes it--"zone out" in midsentence in a conversation, and her legs would buckle. Eventually, Davis was diagnosed as having narcolepsy, a neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to regulate normal sleep-wake cycles.

For Davis, the diagnosis spelled relief, and a physician placed her on several medications to attain "sleep hygiene," or a consistent sleep pattern. But Davis says it was after the diagnosis that the period of the most severe abuse began. For the next seven years Hager sodomized Davis without her consent while she slept roughly once a month until their divorce in 2002, she claims. "My sense is that he saw [my narcolepsy] as an opportunity," Davis surmises. Sometimes she fought Hager off and he would quit for a while, only to circle back later that same night; at other times, "the most expedient thing was to try and somehow get it [over with]. In order to keep any peace, I had to maintain the illusion of being available to him." At still other moments, she says, she attempted to avoid Hager's predatory advances in various ways--for example, by sleeping in other rooms in the house, or by struggling to stay awake until Hager was in a deep sleep himself. But, she says, nothing worked. One of Davis's lifelong confidantes remembers when Davis first told her about the abuse. "[Linda] was very angry and shaken," she recalled.

[…]

As disturbing as they are on their own, Linda Davis's allegations take on even more gravity in light of Hager's public role as a custodian of women's health.

Yep. As it happens, Dr. Hager, spousal rapist and all-around sick fuck, is a well-known OB/GYN and appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration. A Bush appointee, he is a favorite among Dominionists for:

his staunch opposition to emergency contraception, abortion and premarital sex. Through his six books--which include such titles as Stress and the Woman's Body and As Jesus Cared for Women, self-help tomes that interweave syrupy Christian spirituality with paternalistic advice on women's health and relationships--he has established himself as a leading conservative Christian voice on women's health and sexuality.

Hager’s role on the FDA Advisory Committee Panel seems to have primarily been to raise hell over issues like the morning-after pill, which is, of course, a useful drug particularly for rape victims. While I should be surprised by the blatant and galling hypocrisy of a man who repeatedly rapes his wife sitting on a panel arguing against a drug that may bring peace of mind to rape victims, I am so jaded by the nonstop parade of conservative fuckheads who want to roll back the rights of women and gays as punishment for their “deviant” behavior (such as having the unmitigated temerity to fuck someone without the express purpose of making a baby), but end up being revealed as perverted in ways of which most people wouldn’t ever begin to dream, that I can barely muster shock, no less outrage.

Hager’s term on the Panel expires June 30…unless he is reappointed, which looks to be a done deal.

I don’t expect that anyone in the mainstream press will have the balls to ask old Scottie at the next press briefing whether the President, who purports to be a defender of women’s rights, doesn’t find the appointment of a compulsive and serial rapist to a federal panel that makes decisions regarding women’s health a bit of a slap in the face to American women.

Swing Staters... flex yer dialing fingers...

Bob Harris has a post up today, with phone numbers, for people in "swing states" (i.e., with undecided representitives). RI, ME, OH, SC, NE, AZ, AK, OR, PA, and VA, this means you. Click over, get the number, and give your rep a call.

I've been calling my senators and bitching a lot lately. It actually feels pretty good. Of course, I'm talking to some phone jockey and not, say, Barack Obama, but at least I get a small sense of accomplishment during the day.

And that's a good thing.

UPDATE: As Shakes pointed out, I should have said that this is about the filibuster, not Bolton. Sorry! I am filled with shame. I'm sure Bolton is relieved that at least one thing isn't focused on him right now. Ha!

(Viva El CrossPosto!)

Bleary Eyed

Well, The Killers show was awesome. Some of the material off their new album seemed a bit shaky, like it needed more rehearsal, but the songs themselves were good, and I’m looking forward to their sophomore effort, which should avoid the dreaded curse.

Not awesome: the 50-something bartender at The Green Mill, where we all met before the show, who asked how we had heard about The Killers since they were a “new band” and we looked “old.” Thanks, bitch!

Much enjoyable fun was had in the company of my dear Mr. Shakes, Mr. Furious, Mickey Mouse, Miller, and Buns o’ Steel (who came in Mr. Curious’ stead, since he was ill). And what fun to finally get to meet the infamous Dr. Finger, also known as Paul the Spud, who regularly graces Shakes’ Sis with his sassy posting presence! It was hard to tear ourselves away. If only it had been a Friday night…surely we would have closed down Crew (the strangest confluence of sports and gayness ever to be found within four walls).

And thank you all for your birthday wishes yesterday—that made my day all the better!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming of all manner of analysis, punditry, and complaint…

Question of the Day: Boithday Edition

What's the best birthday you've ever had and why?

Must Read

Dr. B and Elise both say just go read this. I say so, too. Please.

And pass it on.

Sweet Zombie Jesus

Looks like I spoke about writer's block too soon. I headed over to A Perfectly Cromulent Blog, and saw this:

And the worst thing is, it doesn't look like a joke.

The whole post is here, along with a link to the website, which I can't bring myself to post.

As noted in the comments at APCB, notice how Bush gets top billing over God. And a much bigger font.

(Viva El CrossPosto!)

From the Duh Files

Ridge admits Department of Homeland Security played politics with terror warnings. Shocker.