open and revolving

Haven't posted for a while -- was volunteering on the Obama campaign, and then, just flat-out exhausted. In fact, I was so anxious about election day that I cried a few times -- man-o-man. We did it! Unbelievable. Everybody, huge cheer. The credit goes to every single person whose energy, whether it was financial, physical, spiritual, or all three, made this happen. America is coming back, we can have pride in our country again.

That is no reason to let up the pressure, though. We are still in the clutches of a fascist dictatorship - Bush is still in power, they are still pumping the war, they've taken over $700 billion of the people's money and transferred it into private hands...our work is not done. I believe President-elect Obama has made that very clear.

Here in Seattle, I found myself wandering downtown on election night to the huge Democratic Party gathering at the Westin ballroom (where I photographed the gorgeous Democrat pictured at right.) I stood around in the intense humidity of hundreds of excited people, until Obama's acceptance speech was over, then went out into the chilly night, with the intention of heading home, however I didn't make it home for hours.

Instead, I was caught up in the huge crowd of primarily young people, sweeping down Pike Street from Capitol Hill, growing by the second until there were hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands, all cheering, shouting for joy. A night to remember.

I want to thank you for using this site as a portal to the Liberal, Progressive Universe on the web - the links are there for you. Don't forget our Gay and Lesbian brothers and sisters in California - their rage is righteous - this is the next frontier of the civil rights movement. How many people out there even know they are living in an America where their neighbors, the people they pass on the street, are living without the same rights, without the same liberties, and paying the price every day?

We need to end this bigotry and discrimination - demand equal rights - demand separation of Church and State!

More to come.

Diamonds and Dung

2008-10-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

"...it seems that the worse McCain is doing in the polls, the more his team is relying on the same gutter tactics. So over the next 15 days, look for the McCain campaign to become even uglier. That's what happens when following Rovian politics is your only strategy -- and Rovian politics isn't working...McCain has stockpiled his campaign with Rove henchmen, including not one but three of the people responsible for the political mugging inflicted on him in 2000." - Huffington Post

Showing You The Money!

2008-10-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

"The Obama campaign has launched its new tax calculator Friday...the calculator “evaluates how much savings individuals and families can expect under both Barack Obama and John McCain’s proposed tax plans.”" - Central Florida News 13

Obama-Biden Tax Calculator - BarackObama.com

Economic Crisis

2008-10-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Greed, hubris, and short-sighted pursuit of political advantage have been placed in the pressure cooker and the heat turned on high." - Huffington Post

GET OUT THE VOTE!

2008-10-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

All across the country volunteers are making a final push to get out the vote for Barack Obama - please volunteer in your city to work on the phone bank or knock on doors. Signing up is easy - the link below will take you to the campaign office in your city.

Click on your state to visit your local online headquarters - Obama for America

Please donate to the campaign - Obama for America

Now - at the top of the News & Information column to the right you can click on Obama for America and make your contribution at any time.

Palin's Anti-Government Extremist Pals

2008-10-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

"The McCain campaign has attempted to make an issue out of Barack Obama's limited connections with former Weather Underground member William Ayers. However, according to a new investigative report, vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin herself has had a far close and more extensive association with Alaska's own political extremists than she has ever acknowledged." - Raw Story

Meet Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing pals - Salon

National Security Crisis

2008-10-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

"The Republicans' elimination of public sector knowledge created a vacuum that was then outsourced to conservative think tanks, political allies and commercial lobbyists. No issue has been more damaged by this cavalier attitude about institutional memory that our nation's security." - Huffington Post

"The Bush administration has found yet another way to waste taxpayer money while providing huge sums to private contractors. According to a survey of activities in 2007 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, about a third of the federal professional intelligence workforce now consists of contractors, mostly in the Washington, DC area." - Global Politician

300 Million Hostages

2008-09-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

The rich are staging a coup this morning ... a message from Michael Moore - MichaelMoore.com

Click here to contact your senator.

Maria Cantwell - Seattle Office - 206-220-6400

Patty Murray - Seattle Office - 206-553-5545

The Mad Dog

2008-09-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

"Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China...none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket." - AlterNet.org

Fascism USA

2008-09-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

"...you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy - but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps." - Guardian UK

"...the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the first time to serve as an on-call federal response...the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds." - OpEdNews.com

Lies and Fakery

2008-09-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

"The assignment is simple: We are going to write letters to the editor and we are allowed to make up whatever we want -- as long as it adds to the campaign. After today we are supposed to use our free moments at home to create a flow of fictional fan mail for McCain. "Your letters...will be sent to our campaign offices in battle states. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Virginia. New Hampshire. There we'll place them in local newspapers."" - Salon

"McCain's lies have ranged from the annoying to the sleazy, and the problem is in both degree and kind. His campaign has been a ceaseless assault on his opponent's character and policies, featuring a consistent—and witting—disdain for the truth. " - TIME

A must read! Forward this link!

2008-09-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

"HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN IT'S WAR ON CITIZENS? When there are mass arrests, journalists are jailed, the opposition is infiltrated, rights are stripped and leaders start to ignore the rule of law." - Huffington Post

Now is the time to resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine - Huffington Post

Political Vampires

2008-09-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

"...momentum has suddenly shifted to John McCain - that hoary, barnacle-encrusted tub that many Democrats like me thought was full of holes and swirling to its doom in the inky depths of Republican incoherence and fratricide...the McCain vampire just won't die!" - Salon

"Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal...when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high-school classmate...to the $95,000-a-year directorship...one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired..." - New York Times

Palin family shockers: what Sarah's really hiding! - National Enquirer

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

"Hurricane Ike's expected massive storm surge and flooding have prompted National Weather Service officials to issue a rare and chilling 'certain death' warning..." - National Geographic News

Hurricane Ike: Complete Coverage

Hurricane Ike: Photos

Note: National Geographic News has been added to News & Information links on this blog.

8 More Stories

2008-09-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

"...the disturbing revelations about Palin's record as mayor and governor, and her positions on the issues, inexplicably just keep coming...the 8 most recent revelations about McCain's VP pick that the public needs to know." - AlterNet

The Barracuda

2008-09-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

"Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article." - The LA Progressive

"...I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life." - The LA Progressive

Seeking Relief From Bigots

2008-08-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

"The Coquille Indian Tribe on the southern Oregon coast, who are a federally recognised sovereign nation, are not bound by Oregon's constitution, and so allow gay marriage amongst its members." - Pink News UK

'"For me, the important thing wasn't about rights or the benefits... I just wanted the tribe to say 'Yes, we recognize that you are just as important as any other tribe member, and we will treat you and your spouse as we treat all tribal members.'" - All Headline News

"Today, the right-wing American Family Association (AFA) announced a boycott of Hallmark for its decision to start selling gay marriage greeting cards. AFA wants Hallmark to “stop promoting a lifestyle that is not only unhealthy, but is also illegal in 48 states.” - Think Progress

"Latin America's favorite ambiguously gay pop star, Ricky Martin, recently added two new fans to his brood: he is now the father of twin boys, via artifical insemination." - Southern Voice

Stealing America Vote By Vote

2008-08-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

"The patterns had been difficult to discern; seemingly isolated incidents were not reported nationally if at all, and never presented in a coherent way. But now, thanks to Fadiman's artful efforts, we can clearly see what was meant to remain hidden. The full-court press of the media and the powers-that-be to dismiss and demean legitimate questions about the way our elections are run has led citizens to feel helpless." - OpEdNews.com

"Anyone who thinks the GOP is beyond stealing elections using electronic voting machines hasn’t been paying attention. The elections of 2000, 2002, and 2004 were strongly affected, as many studies have shown. Just Google “election theft using electronic voting machines” if you have any doubts." - Online Journal

"If the prospect of reliving 2004's U.S. presidential election -- or any of the other key domestic political races from the last dozen years -- is too much to bear, then Dorothy Fadiman's documentary "Stealing America: Vote by Vote" might seem like homework. Settle in for 90 brief minutes, though, and this persuasive refresher course on our increasingly sketchy electoral process will prove essential viewing for any constitutionally minded American." - Los Angeles Times

They Miss The Point

2008-08-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

"It's baffling that nobody involved in the picture -- from the photographers to the players -- even seemed to consider that this ad would be looked at negatively. Did it not occur to somebody that it might not be a good idea to mock an entire continent before the world's largest athletic competition that, by the way, happens to take place on that continent. Were they not aware of an invention called "the Internet" that allows pictures taken in Spain to be transmitted all over the world for the eyes of everyone?" - Yahoo Sports

Cloned Pets + Sex Slaves = Eww.....

2008-08-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

"A woman who made news around the world when she had five pups cloned from her beloved pit bull Booger looked very familiar to some who saw her picture: She's the same woman who 31 years earlier was accused of abducting a Mormon missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and making him her sex slave." - International Herald Tribune

The Bamboo Closet

2008-08-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

"Now, as the 2008 Summer Olympics open in Beijing, gay tourists and athletes can expect a very different atmosphere in a nation where an international economy and cosmopolitan cities coexist with Communist government oversight and strict cultural traditions

"In March, outspoken AIDS activist Wan Yanhai sent an email to Chinese HIV and gay Internet groups documenting six instances of alleged police raids on gay nightclubs, gathering places and bath houses in Beijing." - Southern Voice

The Internet as Vortex

2008-08-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

"The punishment capped years of festering rage, in which people said he clogged inboxes, ruined Web domains, killed livelihoods, wasted productivity and put innocent people on spamming blacklists...his remorse was sandwiched between rambling speeches about how the U.S. Attorney's Office made an example of him, or vilified him beyond necessary..." - Seattle Post Intelligencer

"Edward Davidson, 35, dubbed the "spam king" after being sentenced to 21 months in prison in May, was found dead by his car on Thursday, four days after he escaped from a minimum security prison in Florence, 50km south of Denver." - National Nine News (Au)

"...between 5 percent and 10 percent of Americans suffer from Internet Addiction Disorder. That's a small percentage, but America's a big country. Other countries, notably in Asia, recognize Internet Addiction Disorder as a public health hazard and offer help to victims." - Houston Chronicle

The Animating Element

2008-08-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

"The most striking thing about the new Batman movie, now smashing the all-time box office records, is its emphasis on sado-masochism as the animating element in American culture these days. It must appeal to the many angry people in our land who want to hurt others, even while they themselves feel deserving of the grossest punishments." - Kunstler.com

All American

2008-08-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

"I invite everyone to join the fun for this vital cause. World peace may seem unattainable, or even ridiculous, as a practical goal, but attempting it is imperative, especially today. Any attempts toward such lofty ideals must begin at home. Hula-Hoop for Peace (HHP) is such an attempt. Because this project was my personal brainchild, I should explain where my "home" is: that is, from where I will be starting this endeavor, and ultimately, where I wish to go with it." - Payvand.com

"...an American Muslim of Iranian descent...finds the people she interviews are horrified that, in a post-9/11 world, they have seen their religion come to be represented, in the minds of many Americans, by terrorism. " - MelodyMoezzi.com

"American Muslim groups have repeatedly issued statements condemning terrorism in all forms wherever it has risen, not because they are asked to, but because of the basic Islamic principle that no one has the right to take innocent life. " - One Nation

Earth to Humans: I'm Melting

2008-07-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

"Giant sheets of ice totaling almost eight square miles (20 square km) broke off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic last week and more could follow later this year, scientists said on Tuesday." - Reuters

War on Consumers

2008-07-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

"Coming to a store near you: Even higher prices. Most inflation this year has come from food and fuel, as retailers resisted passing along to strapped consumers the higher prices manufacturers charged them, but coming increases from companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Hasbro Inc. may leave them with no choice." - Huffington Post

Dining on Bratwurst

2008-07-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

"One wonders if the Republican political machine thinks it's being smart or funny, or they’re just out of touch with reality. While Barack Obama was making a substantial public address in Berlin, John McCain was dining on bratwurst at Schmidt's Sausage Haus und Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, and the RNC was running anti-Obama spots in Berlin, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire...police in Germany estimated the crowd listening to Obama, and cheering his call for global nuclear disarmament, at 200,000." - OpEdNews.com

"McCain is trying hard to get attention during Obama's week abroad. He had planned to visit an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, but rough seas left over from Hurricane Dolly caused him to scrub that trip." - Yahoo News

Obama's Berlin speech: transcript, video - Huffingtonpost Post

McCain gives world's worst press conference at Sausage Haus - Youtube.com

Gay-bashing Sells Candy to Kids

2008-07-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

"Two years ago, Snickers was slammed with charges of homophobia for a Super Bowl ad in which two men react with disgust after kissing one another. You'd think the brand would have learned something from that experience. Apparently not, judging by the following spot featuring Mr. T shooting a speed-walker..." - Ad Age

"Are you so bereft, of ideas and simple humanity, that you must be reduced to stereotyping and bullying? That you must identify an "other" to ridicule, or worse? That you must build a brand on the backs of people who have harmed no one save for challenging a high-school locker-room standard of masculinity?" - Ad Age

"As the guy who launched the first-ever successful boycott of a TV show (StopDrLaura.com), I'm going to suggest to Mars that they had better nip this in the bud quickly, or they're not going to know what hit them." - Americablog.com

The International Candidate

2008-07-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

"Barack Obama arrived, looking much like any other tourist visiting Amman's historic citadel, his jacket slung casually over his shoulder, his eyes sweeping over the ancient Roman ruins, before moving to take in the panorama of old Amman." - BBC News

"'We should be glad that an American is coming who people don't have to demonstrate against...the rest of Europe is jealous that Barack Obama is speaking here in Berlin."" - Associated Press

"President Bush drained a deep spring of goodwill towards the United States. The Democrat presidential candidate carries the hopes of many for rebuilding alliances and trust." - New Zealand Herald

"John McCain gave interviews to all three network television news shows yesterday morning as he sought to suck some of the oxygen from Barack Obama's headline-grabbing world tour." - Times Online

A different lens

2008-07-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

"We're endlessly familiar with the problem Michelle Obama is confronting -- being looked at, as black women, through a different lens from our white counterparts, who are portrayed as kinder, gentler souls who somehow deserve to be loved and valued more than we do. So many of us are hoping that Michelle -- as an elegant and elusive combination of successful career woman, supportive wife and loving mother -- can change that." - Washington Post

Got Fear?

2008-07-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

"European terrorists are trying to enter the United States...and there is no guarantee officials will catch them every time...Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday...as the country is entering a potentially vulnerable period with the presidential nominating conventions coming up next month..." - Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"The nation's terrorist watch list has hit one million names, according to a tally maintained by the American Civil Liberties Union based upon the government's own reported numbers for the size of the list....'members of Congress, nuns, war heroes and other 'suspicious characters,' with names like Robert Johnson and Gary Smith, have become trapped in the Kafkaesque clutches of this list, with little hope of escape...'" - ACLU.org

ACLU calls for probe of Secretary Chertoff’s use of Terrorist Watch List - Bay Area Indymedia

Why are there so many names on the U.S. government's terrorist list? - ACLU.org

BOYCOTT The New Yorker

2008-07-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

"This week's New Yorker cover features an image...of Obama in a turban and robes fist-bumping his be-afro'd wife, dressed in the military fatigues of a revolutionary and packing a machine gun...under a picture of Osama bin Laden above a roaring fireplace, in which burns an American flag." - Huffington Post

The New Yorker's cover crosses the line separating cynical satire from hate speech. Standing alone, detached from its context, the image will circulate endlessly through cyberspace, fueling the anti-democratic, hate-fueled campaigns of the Right. As editor of open and revolving, I am boycotting the The New Yorker, and encouraging as many people as I can reach to do the same.

Email The New Yorker at: themail@newyorker.com and let them know you will not accept this racist, anti-democratic, propagandistic assault on Barack Obama, his family, and his campaign.

Food War

2008-07-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

"With food and energy prices soaring around the world, a constant supply of high-quality, affordable food is no longer guaranteed, the officials are warning Britons. That could mean an era of scarcity like Britain's 1940-54 food rationing, during the war and its aftermath." - Associated Press

"...the dismal state of affairs in the global food situation underscores the need for U.S. leadership in addressing a world agricultural system that is facing new challenges and a painful transition." - International Herald Tribune

"Thirty countries have already seen food riots this year. The ever higher cost of food could push tens of millions of people into abject poverty and starvation." - New York Times

Thank you for visiting this blog

2007-04-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

open and revolving is on hiatus - please visit in the future for new information and resources

Another Candle In The Wind

2007-02-13T01:14:00.000-08:00

"Along with the hypothetical millions, Anna Nicole got a supersized dose of instant notoriety which so many women, then as now, mistake for fame...the odds were stacked against her. New York magazine once put her on its cover — she was pictured squatting, wearing a short skirt and cowboy boots, eating a jumbo bag of crisps. The headline was “White trash nation."" - Times Online, UK

Scared Of The Gays

2007-02-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

""Well, it seems that the military has gone around and fired a whole bunch of people who speak foreign languages — Farsi and Arabic, etc...for some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are against terrorists, but they're very brave with the terrorists. ... If the terrorists ever got a hold of this information, they'd get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad."" - The Front Lines

Straight As A 3-Dollar Bill

2007-02-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

"Fresh from de-Gayhab, the Rev. Ted Haggard says he's not gay anymore...who is Ted Haggard? Remember the disgraced preacher who liked to snort meth off the buttocks of a gay hooker? That Ted Haggard. " - Monsters And Critics

Ted Haggard - Wikipedia.com

A Catastrophic Attack

2007-02-03T13:18:00.000-08:00

"The United States is planning what will be a catastrophic attack on Iran. For the Bush cabal, the attack will be a way of "buying time" for its disaster in Iraq. In announcing what he called a "surge" of American troops in Iraq, George W. Bush identified Iran as his real target. "We will interrupt the flow of support [to the insurgency in Iraq] from Iran and Syria," he said. "And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."" - AntiWar.com

Barebacker Bug

2007-02-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

"Four men in King County have tested positive for a similar strain of HIV that is highly resistant to drugs, public health officials said Thursday, raising the concern that others who had sex with them could also be infected with this aggressive and often untreatable infection." - Seattle P-I

War On Wages

2007-01-26T13:08:00.000-08:00

"When does the greed stop? ...what is the price, we ask the other side? What is the price that you want from these working men and women? What cost? How much more do we have to give to the private sector and to business? How many billion dollars more, are you asking, are you requiring? ...what is the price that the workers have to pay to get an increase? What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?" - Huffington Post

Shrub Snub

2007-01-24T17:05:00.000-08:00

"In a calculated snub of President Bush, the Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed plans for a troop buildup in Iraq on Wednesday as "not in the national interest" of the United States." - Yahoo! News

Spreading Super Bug

2007-01-22T15:38:00.000-08:00

"A drug-resistant bacteria that is infecting wounded US soldiers in Iraq -- and has spread to civilian hospitals in parts of Europe -- accidentally evolved in US military hospitals in Iraq..." - Raw Story

At The Core

2007-01-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

"From the standpoint of domestic politics, George W. Bush's current trajectory is baffling. The pol with the killer instinct appears not only to be committing slow-mo political suicide, but to be digging the grave ever deeper and wider to accommodate other Republicans." - Huffington Post

"We face the worst foreign policy debacle in our history in Iraq, the largest trade deficits in the annals of time, the worst inequality since the Gilded Age, record family debt burdens, a health care system that is broken, an education system in dire need of basic investment, an energy policy that undermines our security and fosters catastrophic climate change, 13 million children raised in poverty and the worst budget deficits ever." - Huffington Post

Rubbing Her Nose In It

2007-01-20T12:12:00.000-08:00

"Political storm clouds gathered again over the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina as former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown said party politics influenced decisions on whether to take federal control of Louisiana..."Unbeknownst to me, certain people in the White House were thinking, 'We had to federalize Louisiana because she's a white, female Democratic governor, and we have a chance to rub her nose in it...'" - Yahoo! News

The Speaker's Blog

2007-01-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

"Bully for the Democrats...They did what we didn't have the guts to do when it matters."

- Republican Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), January 5, 2007

"That is what one of my Republican colleagues had to say about the first act of the Democratic majority, clamping down on corruption, lobbying, and earmarks.

"His sentiment was echoed in editorial pages across the country, along with many Republicans and millions of Americans, who are fully awakening to the optimism and possibility of a new direction in our government." - Read Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Blog at Huffingtonpost.com

Bush's War Mania

2007-01-18T13:43:00.000-08:00

"A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday pushed legislation to prohibit a U.S. attack on Iran without Congress' permission...The effort, led by Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican who in 2005 joined calls from many Democrats for a phased U.S. withdrawal from the Iraq war, came as lawmakers voiced concerns that the Bush administration might provoke a confrontation with neighboring Iran." - Washington Post

Your Money Is Tracking You

2007-01-13T11:53:00.000-08:00

"The Defense Department is warning its American contractor employees about a new espionage threat seemingly straight from Hollywood: It discovered Canadian coins with tiny radio-frequency transmitters hidden inside...mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada." - Seattle Times

More Bloodshed

2007-01-12T14:10:00.000-08:00

"Activists angered by President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq staged anti-war demonstrations in several major cities Thursday, protesting that the buildup will cause more bloodshed and give insurgents new American targets." - SF Chronicle

One In Four

2007-01-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

"Nearly one in four servicemembers knows definitively that a member of his or her unit is gay or lesbian, according to a survey released last month...Twenty-three percent of the 545 servicemembers surveyed...said they knew "for certain" they were serving with someone who is gay..." - Military.com

Lesbian Bollywood

2007-01-06T12:59:00.000-08:00

"Earlier this month in India, the opening of the Hindi film Girlfriend, which contains a brief erotic scene between two women, was marred by violent protests, as critics, conservative Hindus, and lesbian Hindus alike decried the film. But the movie is still playing, and another lesbian-themed Bollywood film is in the works. Is Bollywood finally ready to deal with lesbianism?" - AfterEllen.com

The Natural World: Totally HOT

2007-01-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

"Up to a fifth of all king penguin couples kept in captivity are gay, we learn from a display of stuffed penguins wearing pink scarves. Hooded seagulls, sea otters, fish, kangaroos, fruit bats, blue jays, storks, pine martens and owls make guest appearances. So does the lowly hedgehog...Male and female bighorn sheep apparently unite during the rutting season, but the rest of the year the males stick together and homosexuality flourishes...Insects, spiders, molluscs, crustaceans — they’re all at it." - Times Online, UK

Poor Judgement On The Bench

2007-01-03T13:37:00.000-08:00

"A former judge convicted of exposing himself while presiding over jury trials by using a sexual device under his robes was denied parole on Tuesday...The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 5-0 against granting early release to former Judge Donald Thompson, who was sentenced to four consecutive one-year jail terms in August for indecent exposure. Prosecutors claimed Thompson used a device called a penis pump while presiding over trials between 2002 and 2003." - Forbes.com

Soldiers Call For Withdrawal

2006-12-15T22:45:00.000-08:00

"After appearing only seven weeks ago on the Internet, the Appeal for Redress, brainchild of 29-year-old Navy seaman Jonathan Hutto, has already been signed by nearly 1,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, including dozens of officers--most of whom are on active duty. Not since 1969, when some 1,300 active-duty military personnel signed an open letter in the New York Times opposing the war in Vietnam, has there been such a dramatic barometer of rising military dissent." - The Nation

Nasty Business

2006-12-08T12:25:00.000-08:00

"A House ethics panel has concluded that Republicans failed to adequately respond to warnings about a lawmaker blamed for the Internet sex scandal that shook the U.S. Congress this year, a source said on Friday." - Reuters

The War For Oil

2006-12-04T22:53:00.000-08:00

"George W. Bush, who proudly claimed the mantle of “war president,” was keenly rebuked in the recent mid-term election. The event was notable, but it merely continued the surreal politics of premeditated war—a politics that has dominated the last six bizarre, hideous years of our nation’s history." - Common Dreams

World AIDS Day 2006

2006-12-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

"Confronting the epidemic "requires every one of us help bring AIDS out of the shadows, and spread the message that silence is death," United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today at a ceremony in New York. Annan said the key to overcoming the epidemic was personal accountability." - USA Today

"This disease does not discriminate. It has afflicted every corner of our globe, crossing cultural, geographic, governmental, racial, ethnic, gender and socioeconomic boundaries. In the United States alone, 1.6 million people have been infected to date and our Nation's capital, Washington, D.C., ranks as number one in the AIDS case rate in the United States according to a 2004 CDC report. The illness has had a particularly staggering impact on the African continent where life expectancy has declined to what it was in medieval times in some hard-hit countries such as Botswana." - Huffington Post

"Where women are most disadvantaged, and where social mores stand in the way of open acknowledgement of the epidemic... HIV spreads most rapidly." - Open Democracy, UK

Soldier's Coffin

2006-11-30T11:09:00.000-08:00

"A woman says she saw a soldier's flag-draped coffin put into a cart with passengers' baggage last month at the Greater Rochester International Airport, shocking her and other onlookers...The coffin was put into a baggage cart with other luggage and driven off with the uniformed soldier in the cart." - Democrat & Chronicle

Excessive Force

2006-11-27T22:17:00.000-08:00

"Mayor Michael Bloomberg, saying he was "deeply disturbed," sought to contain community outrage on Monday after New York police killed a black man on his wedding day by firing 50 bullets at three unarmed men." - Reuters

"Some policies appear to have been violated...when undercover officers fired 50 bullets at Mr. Bell’s car after he drove into one of the officers and an unmarked police van." - NY Times

"A female dancer at a Queens, N.Y. topless club told investigators that it was the police who rammed the car the young men were in, not the other way around." - MSNBC

Double Trouble

2006-11-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

"Amid a growing barrage of front-page headlines, U.S. embassy officials "strongly suggested" President Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara Bush, cut short their trip to Buenos Aires because of security issues, U.S. diplomatic and security sources tell ABC News." - ABC News

Global Warming

2006-11-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

"...business executives and regional planners are responding to climate changes that are rapidly recalibrating their chances for survival, for profit and for effective delivery of public services...Butterflies are voting with their wings...Flora and fauna are migrating north or climbing to higher ground...some are disappearing altogether." - Washington Post

Thanksgiving 2006

2006-11-23T12:41:00.000-08:00

"We could have faced a dark thanksgiving where the elections were totally stolen instead of just partially stolen...We could have faced a dark thanksgiving where right wing extremists had consolidated their power, probably permanently, taking the US inevitably down the path to fascism... We could have faced a dark thanksgiving where corporatists had finally broken the will of the American voter... But instead, we now face a hopeful future, not a sure one, not one that we can be certain is rosy for the USA and its great masses of regular people." - OpEdNews.com

Most Ethical

2006-11-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

"...their election is a mandate for more sweeping changes, and many newly elected candidates — citing scandals involving several Republican lawmakers last year — made Congressional ethics a major issue during the campaign. After winning the House on election night, Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, promised “the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.”" - NY Times

Bad Religion....

2006-11-15T13:27:00.000-08:00

"The nation's Roman Catholic bishops adopted new guidelines for gay outreach Tuesday that are meant to be welcoming, while also telling gays to be celibate since the church considers their sexuality ''disordered.'...Gay Catholic activists said the approach was so contorted and flawed that it would alienate the very people it was trying to reach." - NY Times

In Need Of Repair

2006-11-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

"President Bush's wax likeness is taking a thumpin' these days at Madame Tussaud's celebrity waxworks in Las Vegas...Bush's head suffered about $25,000 in damages when a Madame Tussaud's visitor attacked it the day before last week's elections." - Las Vegas Review-Journal

Investigation And Prosecution

2006-11-11T00:21:00.000-08:00

"Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." - TIME

The Naughty Preacher

2006-11-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

"On November 3, all-American family man Ted Haggard resigned as head of the 30-million strong National Association of Evangelicals after a male prostitute named Mike Jones went public as the preacher's former lover and drug dealer. Jones claims he had monthly, crystal meth–fueled sex sessions with Haggard over the span of three years...For the first time, Mike Jones shares the intimate details about his "working" relationship with one of the evangelical community's biggest national figures. " - Radar Online

"...Focus on the Family founder James Dobson withdrew Tuesday from the team overseeing counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who was fired amid allegations of gay sex and drug use." - Washington Post

Beating Back Fascism

2006-11-08T10:45:00.000-08:00

"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld stepped down Wednesday, one day after congressional elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican Party losses." - CNN.com

"Democrats swept Republicans from power in the House of Representatives and moved to within one seat of victory in the Senate on Wednesday in a sharp rebuke of President George W. Bush that led immediately to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation." - Reuters

"Pelosi’s first steps as speaker will be to carry out what is being referred to as her 100-hours plan...implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations...a phased redeployment of troops out of Iraq...increasing the minimum wage, rewriting the Medicare prescription drug benefit... pass renewable energy initiatives...cut student loan rates and expand Pell grants and pass pension reform legislation..." - TomPaine.com

YEAH!!!!!

2006-11-07T20:23:00.000-08:00

"Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the 1994 Republican Revolution, CNN projects...Democratic challengers have also picked up three seats in the Senate...need a net gain of six seats to take the Senate..." - CNN.com

The end of one party rule - CNN.com

A Seamy World

2006-11-03T09:33:00.000-08:00

"Enter the world of electronic voting machines, the "cure" to hanging and dimpled chad...It is a seamy world of secrecy, proprietary software, partisan executives "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President", politicians asking programmers to design software to flip vote totals, and lots and lots of money." - Huffington Post

Solar Subterfuge

2006-11-01T22:09:00.001-08:00

"Two federal agencies are investigating whether the Bush administration tried to block government scientists from speaking freely about global warming and censor their research, a senator said Wednesday... He said the investigations "will uncover internal documents and agency correspondence that may expose widespread misconduct." He added, "Taxpayers do not fund scientific research so the Bush White House can alter it."" - SF Examiner

Policing Adult Sex

2006-10-31T11:11:00.000-08:00

"The federal government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore... Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007... The government says the change is a clarification. But critics say it's a clear signal of a more directed policy targeting the sexual behavior of adults." - USA Today

Looming Economic Disaster

2006-10-29T00:17:00.000-07:00

"From the hustings and the airwaves this campaign season, America's political class can be heard debating Capitol Hill sex scandals, the wisdom of the war in Iraq and which party is tougher on terror. Democrats and Republicans talk of cutting taxes to make life easier for the American people...What they don't talk about is a dirty little secret everyone in Washington knows, or at least should. The vast majority of economists and budget analysts agree: The ship of state is on a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of economic disaster if nothing is done to correct it." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Fleeing The GOP

2006-10-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

"So-called "principled" conservatives -- the faux libertarian voices of the Big Business elite that's always been the real base of the Republican Party -- are in full flight from the flaming wreck the Bush administration has become...But make no mistake: Underlying their dissent lies a massive deceit. Read between the lines, and you'll find that what really motivates them is a desperate attempt to save modern "conservatism" itself from going down with this administration." - AlterNet

"Less than two weeks before the Nov. 7 election, the latest Associated Press-AOL News poll found that likely voters overwhelmingly prefer Democrats over Republicans. They are angry at President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, and say Iraq and the economy are their top issues ... At the same time, fickle middle-class voters are embracing the Democratic Party and fleeing the GOP - just as they abandoned Democrats a dozen years ago and ushered in an era of Republican control." - Raw Story

The Republican Race Card

2006-10-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

"In one week, Republicans ran not one, not two, but three racist to borderline racist television and radio ads about Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee, the Democrat who's trying to become the first black Senator elected from the South since Reconstruction." - The Nation

"The pathetic ad has been denounced not only by the NAACP, but also by former Republican senator William Cohen ("overt racist appeal"), Vanderbilt Prof John Greene (says it makes Willie Horton look tame), and, not least, Ford's Republican challenger, Bob Corker." - AlterNet

"Ken Mehlman, still asserting that he does not see racial overtones or racism in a national Republican ad against Representative Harold Ford Jr. in the Tennessee Senate race, announced late this afternoon on CNN’s SitRoom that the ad had been taken off the airwaves." - NY Times

Possibility

2006-10-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

"Sen. Barack Obama opened the door to a 2008 presidential campaign Sunday, saying he has begun to weigh the possibility of a candidacy and will make a decision after the November elections." - SF Chronicle

Crocodile Tears

2006-10-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

"In all the coverage of the Foley Republican child predator scandal, we almost overlooked the key role of Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM). Wilson, who you may recall literally wept for the cameras after the Janet Jackson/Super Bowl episode, served on the House Page Board at a time when pages were warned about Foley." - AMERICAblog.com

"In 1995, just three days into her tenure as Secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, Wilson removed a routine working file alleging that her husband had engaged in inappropriate contact with a minor. The file was then transferred to the department's attorney in her own Albuquerque office, where it soon went missing." - Raw Story

...STOLEN...

2006-10-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

"The FBI is investigating the possible theft of software developed by the nation's leading maker of electronic voting equipment, said a former Maryland legislator who this week received three computer disks that apparently contain key portions of programs created by Diebold Election Systems." - Washington Post

"An urgent letter has been sent today to the Governors, Secretaries of State and State Election Directors of all 50 states urging them to immediately create and implement plans and procedures for allowing the use of Emergency Paper Ballots..." - BradBlog.com

A Felony Punishable

2006-10-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

"State investigators have linked a Republican campaign to letters sent to thousands of Orange County Hispanics warning them they could go to jail or be deported if they vote next month, a spokesman for the attorney general said." - CTV.ca

"It is a federal and state crime to threaten or intimidate voters. Under state law, threatening voters is a felony punishable by 16 months to 3 years in prison. The same penalty applies to anyone who "who hires or arranges for any other person" to make such threats." - SF Chronicle

Tip of an Iceberg

2006-10-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

"In the two years since the fraudulent defeat of John Kerry, we've unearthed an unholy arsenal by which that election was stolen. They include: outright intimidation, wrongful elimination of registered voters, theft, selective deployment of (often faulty) voting machines, absentee ballots without Kerry's name on them, absentee ballots pre-punched for Bush, absentee ballots never mailed, touch screens that lit up for Bush when Kerry was chosen, lines for black voters five hours long while white voters a mile away voted in fifteen minutes, tens of thousands of provisional ballots pitched summarily in the trash, alleged ex-felons illegally told they could not vote, Hispanic precincts with no Spanish-speaking poll workers, deliberate misinformation on official web sites...and that's not even the tip of an iceberg whose bottom we may never see." - OpEdNews.com

"There is no prototype. There are no standards. There is no scientific research that would guarantee any election district that there’s a machine that can be used to answer these very serious questions. And so, my sense is that the politicians in Washington have concluded that the system can’t be all that bad because, after all, it produced them. And as long as an elected official is an elected official, then whatever machine was used, whatever device was used to elect him or her, seems to be adequate. But there’s an erosion of voting rights implicit in our inability to trust the technology that we use and if we were another country being analyzed by America, we would conclude that this country is ripe for stealing elections and for fraud." - BradBlog.com

"...a new Diebold voter registry system had been installed over the last year. The last week of July and the first week of August a "test run" was made of the systems ability to purge ineligable voters. The purge generated names and test letters sent out to 1.2 million Ohio addresses with a focus on University's, Apartment addresses with high turnover. He claims they made the letters seem just functionary, but they have an action component to avoid being purged from the rolls.... they believe the purge has probably caught up "hundreds of thousands of students, activists and wanderers with no real job" would show up at the polls and have to vote provisionally." - Daily Kos

"National Character Counts"

2006-10-17T15:07:00.000-07:00

"Of every president in United States history, how hypocritical is it for George W. Bush to talk about integrity and honesty? This is a guy who ran for president saying that "it’s time to restore honor and dignity to the White House" and then proceeded to set new records for lying to the American people, while making the United States the most despised, disrespected country in the world." - Democratic Underground

"George W. Bush got what he wanted, ostensibly as a tool in his unfocused "war on terror": By signing into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Bush has made it legal for the C.I.A. to continue operating torture facilities in undisclosed, foreign countries ... During the bill-signing ceremony yesterday, religious groups protested outside the WhiteHouse. Demonstrators declared, "Bush is the terrorist" and "Torture is a crime."" - SF Chronicle

Seduced By Neocons

2006-10-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

"The Christian political leaders have been seduced...That’s one of the reasons I call for this fast from politics...Christians should take a fast from giving their money to political causes ...Take that money that is currently fueling all those wonderful hate-filled ads, the hundreds of millions being spent, and spend that money on the poor and inner-city kids." - Newsweek

"Last night on CBS’s 60 Minutes, David Kuo, a former White House deputy on faith-based issues, explained that the Bush White House has consistently subverted its so-called “values” agenda in favor of crass political gain. “This message that has been sent out to Christians for a long time now: that Jesus came primarily for a political agenda, and recently primarily a right-wing political agenda - as if this culture war is a war for God. And it’s not a war for God, it’s a war for politics,” said Kuo." - Think Progress

Happy, Sad

2006-10-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

""The conventional wisdom says that the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives next month, but only by a small margin...I've been looking at the numbers, however, and I believe this conventional wisdom is almost all wrong."" - Raw Story

"A new Gallup poll finds that with control of the U.S. Congress at stake next month, Republicans have lost significant ground with religious whites." - Monsters and Critics

"...Ohio Republican Congressman Bob Ney pleads guilty in federal court to conspiracy charges and prepares to resign from Congress, while at the same time a former Bush Administration official faces a possible two-and-a-half year prison sentence." - Raw Story

"Air America Radio, a liberal talk and news radio network that features the comedian Al Franken, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection..." - Yahoo News

Used, Abused and Confused

2006-10-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

"...evangelical Christians have simply been used by the Bushites. While adopting postures of pious devotion to the values and concerns of the evangelicals, according to this book, the Bushites have privately spoken of these people with contempt and derision. Behind their backs, Karl Rove has apparently called the leaders of this religious faction --the people whose support they need and cultivate-- "nuts."" - OpEdNews.com

"Tonight on Countdown–David Kuo, who was the number two guy at the Office of Faith Based initiatives in the White House writes a scathing account of how the administration used Christians to grab and maintain power. This story validates Tucker Carlson's admission that: "The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power."" - CrooksAndLiars.com

"""National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy'..."" - AlaskaReport.com

National Coming Out Day

2006-10-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

"This year, the Coming Out Day observance is particularly poignant in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal. Some members of the media, along with anti-gay pundits on the radical right, have been trying to blur the lines between Foley's repugnant behavior and his sexual orientation -- which are two very different things." - Huffington Post

"As gays and lesbians celebrate another National Coming Out Day on Wednesday, a new survey reports seven out of 10 straight adults in the United States say they know someone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The nationwide online survey of 2,932 U.S. adults also found that 83% of those who self-identify as gay or lesbian consider themselves out." - The Advocate

"There's a list going around. Those disseminating it call it "The List." It's a roster of top-level Republican congressional aides who are gay... Is it possible to support a party because you adhere to most of its tenets--even if that party refuses to recognize you as a full citizen? The men on The List might want to think hard about these questions--as they probably already have--for if I have a copy of The List, there's a good chance it will be appearing soon on a website near everyone." - DavidCorn.com

Mark Foley doesn't represent me: A gay Republican speaks - Donklephant.com

Outing Gay Republicans

2006-10-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

"Mike Rogers, the nation's top gay activist blogger, says he will out more Republicans on Capitol Hill each day for hypocritically opposing gay rights for political reasons when they themselves are gay -- starting with staff members, then turning to members of Congress and finally the leadership of the Republican Party.

"Last night, Rogers posted the first two names of GOP staffers on what he says is his list of closeted hypocrites -- including one high in the office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) -- on his blog at http://www.blogactive.com. Rogers also wrote to the House Ethics Committee asking them to investigate the two men because as highly compensated staffers, they had "a vested interest in protecting closeted men like Mark Foley so the majority can remain in power."

"A year and a half ago, Rogers blogged on Rep. Mark Foley's conflicted position as a secretly gay man who was voting and working against the gay community's interests." - usnewswire.com