US Rear Admiral says GITMO suicides an "Act of War"

From CBS News:

"They hung themselves with fabricated nooses made out of clothes and bedsheets," Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris told reporters in a conference call on Saturday.

Harris described the suicides as an "act of asymetric warfare" and not one of desperation. He said the three deaths appeared to be a coordinated effort.

Damn these terrorists and their naked aggression!

We must send the strongest message possible to the rest of those wily, sinister, foreign motherfuckers held at GITMO and retaliate in kind!

Rear Adm. Harry Harris (and all true patriots) must respond ASAP by killing themselves.

If they don't, the terrorists win...


(Hat Tip to Califlander, richter & mpc 12 at Daily KOS)

'Godless' author Coulter unknown at church she claims to attend

Raw Story has the story here.

Yet Coulter is curiously reticent in Godless about her own religious convictions. Nowhere in her book, for instance, does Coulter declare whether she belongs to a particular religious denomination, nor does she state where – or even if – she attends religious services. An April 17, 2005 article in Time Magazine by John Cloud provided a rare description of Coulter's attendance of church, as Cloud suggested that she has been a regular attendee of New York City's Redeemer Presbyterian Church, to which "she brings a lot of people…"

[snip]

"The only thing I have heard is hearsay that she is an attender" of Redeemer, Cregan told Raw Story. "Our database shows that she is not a member."

[snip]

"And I don't know anybody that would have seen Ann Coulter. We don't really know her."

Say it ain't so, Ann!

Surely the authoritrix authority on all things Godly and Christian wouldn't lie about her own church attendance, now would she?

Rick Santorum - a subtle attempt to rewrite himself

I picked this up at the Philadelphia Inquirer:

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum seemed to be sending different messages to different audiences on his campaign Web site this week.

English-language visitors to www.ricksantorum.com encountered a home page filled with concern about the "amnesty-ridden proposal" the U.S. Senate adopted to deal with illegal immigration.

But a section of the site for Spanish readers made no mention of amnesty in its discourse on immigration. Nor did it refer to "rewarding criminal behavior" of illegal immigrants, as the English version did.

Gee, I wonder why.

But to be fair (and we are nothing if not fair and balanced here at 2PJ), the Inquirer adds:

But Virginia Davis, the Republican senator's spokeswoman, said Santorum was not deliberately crafting different messages for different people. She said the English version had been updated since passage of the Senate bill May 25 and that the Spanish had not.

"Probably next week we'll have the identical version in Spanish," she said.

Of course, the Senator "was not deliberately crafting different messages for different people." That would be a lie and as we all know, Rick Santorum is always truthful in everything he says. Unless, of course, he's making things up about "Casey Operatives" "stalking" his empty house in Penn Hills.

However, I would be very surprised if the Spanish language version wasn't updated. Now that the difference between the two versions has been discovered, not correcting this would be another huge self-inflicted wound by Senator Man-on-Dog. I just wonder how long the Spanish language version would have remained on-line if the Philly Inquirer hadn't discovered this?

But look at what I found at attytood.com.

Looks like lil Ricky's doing a little post hoc editing with the audio version of his book.

Today, the rival Bob Casey Jr. campaign caught an alteration on one of the book's most controversial passages, the one where the Pennsylvania GOP senator decries the "weird socialization" that he believes that children get in public schools.

That quote is likely one of the many reasons that Santorum is losing by as many as 23 points in the polls to Democrat Casey -- after all, most voters send their kids to public schools and either a) don't think the socialization of learning to interact with a broad and often diverse community is "weird" or b) can't afford to school their kids any other way. In Santorum's case, the whole subject reminds people that his kids were attending an online cyberschool from his now $962,000 McMansion in Leesburg, Va., while working class taxpayers in Penn Hills, Pa. were paying for it.

Soooo...in the audio version, Santorum simply changed the quote -- but not so much. As the Casey campaign is trumpeting today, the auto book now talks of "strange socialization."

Weird = strange. So what's the big deal?

It seems intended to soften the quote slightly -- although it kind of backfires in that it leads instead to new stories like this one, thus calling even more attention to the original "weird socialization" passage.

But then the real big deal is follows:

The Casey campaign, which listened to the audiobook so that you don't have to, also said that a section in which he extolls the virtue of his kids' cyberschool has simply vanished down the memory hole. This isn't a total surprise. Santorum and his people may have underestimated the book's staying power, which is undercutting his efforts to zig-zag toward the political center, as he does every six years.

Uh-oh. The audio version omitted the part about the cyberschool????

Gee, I wonder why.

Rick Santorum - always completely truthful, unless he's campaigning. And he's always campaigning.

The Death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

It's good he's gone. No question about it. He was responsible for a lot of pain and suffering and his death guaranteed that he would no longer be able to hurt/main/kill anyone anymore ever again.

And that's nothing but good news.

That, of course, does not end the discussion - about the war, about Iraq, about dubya's failed presidency. The war on terror is still going on, Iraq is still a shambles and dubya's presidency is still a complete and utter failure. Killing an important terrorist won't really change any of that. Hey, Bush said Zarqawi's the #1 terrorist - whatever happened to that Osama bin Laden guy? You know the one - the guy resposible for 911.

As John McIntire posted:

Yes, this is a good thing. WE GOT al-ZARQAWI.

We shouldn't have invaded, and since we DID invade, the responsibility for humongous loss of life so far in Iraq is ours, but this guy is still an evil bastard and his sudden removal from the planet (though I am not an advocate of the death penalty per se) is a good thing.

And he adds a little later:

Projectile Vomiting Alert - The smarmy Fox News' John Scott and the rest of the flag waving retards are declaring complete victory with their condescending tone, as if the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians who've died, and the thousands of permanently maimed and/or killed American and Iraqi soldiers now don't matter, because we got ONE bad guy.

But the blind supporters of whatever we do, and the guilt ridden regular folks who still have a conscience but can't deal with the reality that sometimes we screw up royally and tens of thousands of innocents die as a result, are grasping at this straw like Monica on Bill's ceegar.

Exactly.

Compare that to McIntire's fellow KDKA employee Fred Honsberger's take on all this. He spent more than a few minutes yesterday on the radio talking about this:

Zarqawi died inside the house, U.S. officials said, along with at least five other people, including Rahman, a woman and a child of unspecified age.[emphasis added]

And the complaints he'd heard about the death of that child.

He said that since that child was being raised in that house, he was probably being raised to be a terrorist/suicide bomber. So therefore killing the child now is acceptable (or at least complaining about it is unacceptable) because it's ridding the world of a future terrorist and saving the lives of all the people that terrorist would have killed.

The morality of that statement is absolutely appalling.

By the same logic, why doesn't Bush surround Baghdad and just kill all the children? Sure, some of the dead might not have grown up to be terrorists, but with innocent lives at stake should we really be taking that chance?

Nothing explains the morality of the right better than that.

Technorati Tags: Al-Zarqawi, Fred Honsberger, John McIntire

On Ann Coulter (but this time Tony Norman's damned)

Tony Norman's got a problem.

He writes in today's Post-Gazette:

Because her blond mane and feral eyes give her an uncanny resemblance to all four horses of the Apocalypse, the American Jesus has a soft spot for Ann Coulter, despite her hateful shtick.

In her latest best-selling tirade "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," Ms. Coulter demonstrates why she's a "Christian" and her political opponents are the spawn of Satan.

In "Godless," a book that proves there is often truth in advertising as far as titles are concerned, Ms. Coulter proves her love for humanity by questioning the motives of the widows who successfully lobbied for the creation of the 9/11 Commission.

When she's through with her shoddy hit-piece that includes speculation about whether the widows' husbands were planning to divorce them before al-Qaida spared them a visit to divorce court, you can't help but feel you're in the presence of something supernaturally despicable.

All this is fine. But when he gets to the end, he paints himself into a metaphysical corner. Here's the set-up:

Recently, I realized that Ann Coulter's gall in calling herself a "Christian" isn't any of my business. The problem is my own stupidity in identifying myself as a "Christian" when the word is devoid of its original meaning and has even come to stand for its metaphysical opposite.

And now the problem:

I wouldn't mind being called a Jew of some sort, but I don't think those good people will have me. Since they're only 3 percent of the population, you'd think a brother could catch a break. Alas, I bring too much baggage to the table.

Sorry, Tony. As I wrote yesterday, to Ann Coulter Jews are already Christians.

Councilman Doug Shields Responds

Councilman Doug Shields responded to this blog entry via email. He said that it was OK to post his reply, and so we have:

All of this is unfortunate. It opens this council to attacks from repubs and others that would love to roll up the city (a democratic bastion) and have it blow away. We offered an amendment that is responsive to the public's demand for accountability. It was voted down and a hammer is now provided to pound the Council et al. We have real issues here with the budget, with pension, with infrastructure capital costs and health care costs. Bill and I have been accused of posturing. I respectfully disagree. There is an old saw in this business "when you have reached the limits of your logical argument resort to name calling." So far the logic has gone out of the window and the name calling has begun. I presume those who launch personal attacks have reached the limits of any logical argument.

We should not lose focus on the matter of ethical behavior on the part of elected officials but in fact we have. Carlisle brought the house down with questionable spending. So much so that upon a review of that spending that the city solicitor referred the entire matter to the State Ethics Commission and the District Attorney. That is now being investigated. I hope the DA acts appropriately and expeditiously to get this matter resolved. The spin has been effectively deflected from Ms. Carlisle's problems and now it is "everyone" else too. Fortunately, my name is Doug Shields - not "Everyone." I have provided detailed accounting on my web page.

Here is his web page

Here is a link to his spending report (.PDF file)

Last 6-6-6 Post!

The Carbolic Smoke Ball reminds us of Pittsburgh's unique connection to the Number of the Beast.

The Anti-Christ DID arrive on 6-6-6. Her name is ANNE COULTER

For those of you who don't watch Keith Olberman, he did his best to smite the beast last night. Crooks and Liars has the video and a transcript. Some highlights. Keith Olberman starts with this:

Honestly, if you were Ann Coulter's attorney at a sanity hearing where could you possibly start? Our #2 story on the Countdown, eclipsing even Bill O'Reilly and Malmedy, the Connecticut Screech has continued her assault on 9/11 widows. After calling them "witches who acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them" she has now told Reuters news that they are, quote, "professional victims." All as part of the promotion of a book in which she claims *liberals* are, quote, "godless."

Then follows with this:

Let's return to *this* planet. To recap Coulter's argument: The wives of those who died in the worst attack in this nation's history enjoyed their husband's deaths and profited off them, they have politicized 9/11, their positions as widows immunize them from any criticism or debate over their opinions. All of this stated by a commentator much of whose income in the last four and a half years has derived from *her* speeches and writings about the deaths of those same men on 9/11. All this stated by a commentator who has staunchly, repeatedly, and enthusiastically defended an administration that began to politicize 9/11 within a month of the nightmare and has never paused for a moment since. All of this stated by a commentator who has called those who have criticized her and her party "un-American" and now, "godless." All of this stated by a commentator who is bitching that these 9/11 widows can't be criticized while she is writing a book and going on TV and venomously criticizing them.

On the rhetorical front, bravo to Olberman. The use of anaphora ("All of this stated by a commentator who...") accompanied a crescendo of sorts that led to the very obvious point of his paragraph - the word "bitching."

I wish I could do this half as well - a quarter of a quarter as well.

Olberman ended the segment with this:

And lastly, back to my allusion about having to defend Ann Coulter in a sanity hearing, that was inappropriate -- because it was insufficient. Imagine, in fact, defending her on Judgment Day -- and trying to find her soul.

I thought the religious allusion interesting given something else Coulter said. Get a gander here. Mediamatters.org quotes her as saying in a footnote in her new book:

Throughout this book, I often refer to Christians and Christianity because I am a Christian and I have a fairly good idea of what they believe, but the term is intended to include anyone who subscribes to the Bible of the God of Abraham, including Jews and others.

Hmmm. So Jews are Christians. Wow - I can't even begin to parse that one. But it gets better later in the book. In a swipe (of course) at Howard Dean, Coulter says (again according to Mediamatters.org):

Howard Dean left the Episcopal Church -- which is barely even a church -- because his church, in Montpelier, Vermont, would not cede land for a bike path.

Ok. So according to Anne Coulter, a trustworthy theologian if ever there was one, Jews are Christians but Episcopalians (who, of course, claim to be Christians) have some work to do. They're Christians alright - but just barely.

Please someone - get this woman some therapy.

Pittsburgh City Council and the Elephant in the Room

"I don't need to worry about other council members and their spending."

That statement was made yesterday in a Pittsburgh City Council meeting by District 3 Councilman Jeff Koch. Unfortunately, Koch was not alone in expressing that sentiment. It was echoed in one form or another by other council members when it came to continuing criticisms of an amendment to create more accountably and transparency in council spending sponsored by District 8 Councilman Bill Peduto and District 5 Councilman Doug Shields.

Others suggested that they were only accountable to the voters in their districts, seemingly forgetting that all city residents pay for the budgets of their offices.

Certainly it is the responsibility of council members to concern themselves with all spending -- that is their job. And to somehow try to equate authorizing CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) monies with handing out popcorn to constituents in a park when the former is vetted and voted on by all council members and the latter is not is ridiculous. It's particularly galling when you brag in the media that the walking around money (WAMs) that you've spent has made campaign supporters out of non supporters (as District 4 Councilman Jim Motznik did here).

And, speaking of the media: let's do. Charges were made that some council members are only concerned with getting good press and that the whole issue of Council spending was more media driven than not.

Addressing the former, it should be noted that the same day that Bill Peduto appeared on Honsberger Live, District 1 Council President Luke Ravenstahl was busy having a letter to the editor published in the Post-Gazette "defending" his bill against the Peduto/Shields amendment. And a tip to Motznik: you're probably not going to get on a show anytime soon when you repeatedly refer to the host in a council meeting as "Fat Freddie." Also, Honsberger was not the only show to play clips on the radio of District 6 Councilwoman Tonya Payne which led to the Peduto appearance on Fred's TV show. They could also be heard on the local programming portion of NPR.

And if some council members truly believe that the interest in their spending habits is "media driven," they do so at their own peril. Plenty of people who usually have only a passing interest in anything that City Council does are now extremely interested in how Council spends their -- "their" meaning the people's -- money.

As regards to the issue brought up in public comments where it was stated that Tonya Payne did not personally attack anyone last week, while there's no official transcript that I know of, here's some of her comments from my own notes:

"This is crap to me...I'm calling your behavior 'crap'."

"...not one council person trying to trump another..."

"...not one council person trying to look like the reformer of the city..."

"...you think the rest of us aren't bright enough to sit in a room with you and come up with real reform."

"Look at me: I'm the biggest, and the baddest, and the brightest."

The personal criticisms continued yesterday with Motznik, Ravenstahl, and District 7 Councilman Len Bodack all using some form of the phrases "political posturing" and "political grandstanding" when referring to Peduto and Shields and their amendment.

And all this to defend what? The "right" to have walking around money? Motznik even went so far as to suggest that if only Shields would use WAMs, less people would use heroin in his district. Christ!

Bodack's (good) call for invoices to be put online is being done, but somehow, that escaped any criticism of being "political."

It must be noted that at no time did Tonya Payne actually defend WAMs. She seemed to be more upset that she was not included in with the writing of the bill and the amendment. Her take continues to be that all nine council members should work for reform together and also that she was receiving calls with racist overtones lumping her in with misusing taxpayer money. (It probably does not help that twice in as many weeks her fellow councilmen have confused her by name with District 9 Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle -- something that they never seem to do with each other.)

Legislation, however, does not get written by a legislative body en masse. But, it's also good legislative practice for legislatures to try to drum up support for a bill or amendment prior to submitting it -- something that Peduto has acknowledged.

Who else called for all nine members to work together? That brings us back to the title of this piece. Twanda Carlisle glommed on to Payne's call for unity at the same time that she claimed special circumstances in that, "Some districts are totally different than other districts. Mine, in particular, is."

As everyone knows by now, all the calls for reform were sparked by Carlisle's spending nearly $30,000 for an extremely questionable report. The real pity is not the report itself, but that there was nothing illegal about her spending that money on a report which was little more than a copy of a prior report and that the money for that report went to a man that lives with her mother and who has a degree from a diploma mill.

For Carlisle to defend WAMs by saying that she's serving her district and claiming that the money that she spends benefits her district just shows how bad WAMs are and why they have no place in government.

6-6-6 Edition: Stonewall Dems Pics are the Devil (according to Rethuglicans)

Here are some pictures from Gov. Dean's keynote address Saturday at the Stonewall Democrats National Convention (blogged on here by David):


Wall banner


Stonewall Dems Board Co-Chairs Steve Driscoll and Laurie McBride


Allen Kuckovich (Gov. Rendell's Regional Director for Western PA)


DNC Chair, Gov. Howard Dean


More Dean


Dean gets fiery!


Janice and Zuri heart Dean


The scene after the speech: Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields and Nish Suvarnakar (former Field Director for Valerie McDonald Roberts for Lt. Governor)

More Santorum Campaign/Peeping Details

I've dug up some more intruiging details on the alleged intrusion by the Santorum Campaign into a private residence.

As I wrote this weekend, someone snuck into the National Stonewall Democrats VIP reception (a private party held in a private residence) and tried to digitally record the proceedings. When asked to stop, this person walked to the door and once outside ran away down the street.

I have more details. Last night I spoke to another source (another boardmember of the NSD) who was at the party and who also saw the guy. He said the man (who he described as about five feet, eleven inches tall with black hair wearing an anti-Santorum button) was first seen standing alone in a corner with a small palm-sized digital camera in his hand.

In the course of the party, a few suspicious guests chatted with the guy (who said his name was "Caleb"). When they asked what brought him to the party, this "Caleb" pointed to his button and said, "Well, this guy."

And last night on John McIntire's radio program (and check out the yapper's blog - it's the funniest in town), McIntire told Scott Safier (of the Steel City Stonewall Democrats) that he talked to a spokesperson at the Jason Altmire campaign who said the man who identified himself as "Caleb" looked an awful lot like the guy who accompanied "Bobby the Duck" to Casey events earlier this year. McIntire also talked to a Santorum spokesperson who said the campaign has nothing to do with this.

Now I'm looking for a picture of "Bobby the Duck." If anyone has one, please e-mail it in.

As I wrote before, if this turns out to be true, then what does it say about the Santorum Campaign? He absolutely explodes when he thinks (even though he was wrong) that someone might be peeking into a house he admits to not spending much time in, but has no problem with "Caleb" digitally recording a private party in a private residence?

If it's true, Lil Ricky would have to be considered completely unbalanced.

Or perhaps he's living the line from Animal Farm: All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.

Technorati tags: Rick Santorum, Stonewall Democrats

6-6-6 Edition: Wall Street is the Devil

Dow Jones Industrial Average drops nearly 200 points yesterday. My retirement plans are in line with ivorybill at Daily KOS:

...I'm counting on hard working immigrant labor paying social security taxes they will never collect. That, plus working at a convenience store until well into my 80's should I live that long.

6-6-6 Edition: Allegheny County's voting machines are the Devil

Read Richard King's (http://www.votepa.us ) letter to Allegheny County Board of Election about:

1) Uncertified Hardware
2) Uncertified Software
3) Lack of Process for Verification of the Software
4) Zero Print Tapes as safeguards to e-ballot stuffing
5) Discrepancies between poll books and eVotes cast ("Missing Ballots")
6) The lack of safeguard in the optical scan central count process
7) The absence of Voter-Verified Paper Ballots with Routine Audits to
safeguard the reliability and security of eVoting
8) The Opportunity: Renegotiate the County’s Voting Machine Contract

here.


Read "Robert Kennedy Jr: Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" in Rolling Stone magazine here.

Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House

6-6-6 Edition: Verizon is in league with the Devil

I still do not have service on my Verizon DSL line, as I did not have Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

Verizon told me yesterday that the problem was occurring on a line outside my home and would be fixed late last night or early this morning. Now they are telling me that it will be fixed between 8:00 AM and 7:00 PM today because they have a "heavy workload."

I think they are a load.

6-6-6 Edition: I do not expect to be raptured up today

Despite any expectations on the part of my readership, it does not look like I will be birthing the Antichrist today (Damien Justin Satan if a boy, Whore of Babylon Britney Satan if a girl).

However, as I have yet to actually see any pictures of Baby Brangelina (Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt), I'm going to assume that all reports of her birth last week were false and that she was actually born at 6 am this morning and is the Antichrist (but only because Britney Spears and K-Fed somehow failed to live up to their pact with the Devil).

dial-up sucks...so does verizon

FYI: The phone line that I use for my DSL modem has been dead since Thursday morning and Verizon can't be bothered to come out to fix it until later today. I'm blogging now only because I've connected my PC to my other phone line and used its built-in modem. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon.

BREAKING NEWS: Santorum Campaign Caught Peeking in Someone's House!

I was contacted by a National Stonewall board member about an incident that occurred this past friday at the private VIP Reception for this weekend's Stonewall Democrats Convention.

My source informed me that he was approached during the reception by a local Democratic candidate's staff member. This local staffer told my source that someone from the Santorum campaign was "wandering around" the private reception. Please note that this was a private function in a private residence.

This alleged Santorum Staffer (my source calls him "the infiltrator") brought with him a video camera to the reception and once the speeches started, allegedly began taping them. This is how my source put it:

As the speeches started, the staffer started to tape, but was asked to stop by a member of Stonewall's national staff. The infiltrator then moved toward the door, and was followed by an NSD board member. When he reached the door, he began to run away from the house and down the street.

Wow. If all this turns out to be true, what do we have here? We'd have a United States Senator who's gone way round the bend at the mere thought (unsubstantiated as it turns out) of someone peeking into the windows of a house he doesn't occupy, yet doesn't seem to have a problem with his staff sneaking into a private house in order to videotape a private party.

Is that even legal?

Developing...

Technorati tags: Rick Santorum, Stonewall Democrats

Howard Dean At the Stonewall Democrats Convention

I attended Gov. Dean's keynote address yesterday. He was addressing the convention of the National Stonewall Democrats.

Here's a press release with excerpts from the speech. If I can find a more complete copy, I'll post it here.

Joe Smydo covered it for the Post-Gazette. I wasn't able to find any coverage (though it's still early) at Dickiecougermellonscaife's Trib. If anyone can find any mention over there at the little paper that could, please let me know.

I thought Smydo's coverage was OK, but he missed a few big points and, unfortunately, the overall tenor of the speech. Nor did he mention the its context. Take a look here. Dean made a huge blunder while speaking to (and I am holding my nose as I type this) the 700 Club a short while back. He appeared to contradict the Democratic Party's platform on gay marriage. He said the platform defined a marriage as between a man and a woman. Though as Joshua Lyson of Washingtonblade.com points out:

That statement contradicts the Democratic National Committee's official stance, adopted in 2004. The '04 party platform indicates that marriage is an issue that should be left to the states to resolve, taking no position on whether or not states should marry same-sex couples.

"We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families," the platform says.

Once that hit the internets, all hell broke loose. Dean quickly released a statement explaining himself:

I misstated the Democratic Party's platform, which does not say that marriage should be limited to a man and a woman, but says the Party is committed to full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and leaves the issue to the states to decide. The Democratic Party remains committed to equal protection under the law for all Americans. How we achieve that goal continues to be the subject of a contentious debate, but our Party continues to oppose constitutional amendments that seek to short circuit the debate on how to achieve equality for all Americans.

My guess (and this is just a guess) is that Dean spoke to the Stonewall Democrats to "make the peace" or otherwise smooth things over. In very general terms, Dean seemed to be saying that the Demcoratic Party needs the LGBT community and the LGBT community needs the Democratic Party.

While he didn't address the 700 club statement directly he did say a number of times that the Democratic party will oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment. For the one or two of you that don't already know it, here's what the Wikipedia says about the FMA. Our "compassionate conservative" president has already just declared his support for it.

Dean accused the Bush administration of scapegoating the LGBT community for political gains and added that that's morally wrong. A quotation:

We live in a time when our President thinks it is OK to fire Arabic translators in the military who happen to be gay, even though the 9/11 Commission said we don't have enough translators to fight the war on terrorism...

Dean spoke of an 82 yr old man he'd met who'd thanked him for signing Vermont's civil unions bill. The man's a veteran and stormed the beaches at Normandy on D-Day. The man's also gay. Dean pointed out to the audence that "here's a guy who did everything that Dick Cheney didn't do." Referring, of course, to our current chickenhawk VP.

In discussing the FMA, Dean asked rhetorically whether the timing of it had anything to do with the debacle in Iraq or any of the other failed programs of this failed administration. And if you don't know that the answer to that rhetorical question is, "Well duh!" then you haven't been paying attention. Dean said the FMA is an attempt to divert attention away from Bush's "multiple failures" and to scapegoat LGBT Americans in the process.

He said it's time to end the politics of fear and divisiveness.

The main point, I think, of Dean's speech (and thus the general position of the Democratic party) is that:

...every taxpayer should have the same government services and benefits as any other American.

And here's the biggie that our conservative friends (and you know who you are) just don't seem to understand:

LGBT Americans are Americans first.

It's too bad that we live in a country that can't seem to get that.

UPDATE: Be sure to check out the comment/clarification from Scott Safier, the event organizer. Gov. Dean's speech was scheduled months before the event.

Brief Announcement

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Due to some technical glitches, the Other Political Junkie won't be able to blog until Monday, at the earliest.

Enjoy your Saturday!

An update on Santorum's respect for Free Speech

From John Grogan at the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Rick Santorum, the Republican senator from Pennsylvania, is not exactly a shrinking violet.

Lobbyists court him and opponents fear him. He has at his disposal what might be the world's most influential and intimidating bully pulpit: the floor of the United States Senate. He doesn't hesitate to use his position to advance his beliefs, which include opposition to abortion rights and homosexuality, and the opinion that mothers are meant to stay home.

And yet, those who handle his affairs apparently don't believe this influential and powerful man is up to the task of defending himself against a few mild-mannered college women.

Good beginning. Here's the meat of the story:

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday on behalf of the young women, who claim their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly were denied when they were ordered to leave the event last August at a Barnes & Noble in Wilmington.

One of the women, according to the lawsuit, wore a gay-pride pin; another wore a T-shirt proclaiming, "Radical feminist." They were overheard discussing their disagreement with Santorum's far-right views. That apparently was enough to win them a one-way escort out to the parking lot.

Dissenters, go home

When two of the women questioned why they were being ejected, the suit claims, Sgt. Mark DiJiacomo told them they were under arrest, took them outside to his car, ran their driver's licenses through a police computer and threatened them with a trip to prison.

All for the crime of showing up for a book "discussion" open to the public.

...and the kicker:

This is democracy? This is free and open assembly? "Public" gatherings opened only to the chosen?

No thanks, comrade.

Haha. Thanks, Rick. Thanks for standing up for the principles the country was founded on.