Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere

Those words, written by Martin Luther King Jr while he was jailed in Birmingham for his role in the protests against racial segregation at the time, serves to remind me that each of us has the responsibility to help build a just world. Ultimately, it's about what is right and what is wrong. Passing any type of legislation that separates, classifies or strips anyone of equal rights is simply wrong. Yesterday President Obama met with gay leaders to mark the 40 year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, an event many consider to be the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. We've seen much progress since then, especially in the last few years, but there's still much to be done. That able service members are being dismissed due to their sexual orientation is a complete embarrassment (and the fact that gay Arabic translaters are still being fired while we are fighting two wars is beyond stupid). The Washington Post's Richard Cohen has an excellent column on the subject today. A taste:

The admirals and generals who oppose repealing "don't ask, don't tell" are out of touch with American society. They live in a cloistered world that has not changed while much of America has. What's more, they ignore or dismiss the lesson of other countries. Britain, Denmark and Israel, among other nations, allow openly gay men to serve in their armed forces. You can dismiss Britain and Denmark if you want to, but Israel is a different matter. Its army does not play games.

History speaks volumes here. It was much harder to integrate blacks into the armed forces than it will ever be to have gays come out of the military closet. Of course, there will be resistance to changing "don't ask, don't tell." So what? It's the right thing to do and the military, of all institutions, knows how to enforce discipline. Will there be incidents? You bet. Will a gay man hit on one who is not? Again, you bet. But does this happen all the time with heterosexual women and heterosexual men? Of course. Come-ons are part of life. Same sex or opposite sex, they are not fatal.

I'll cut President Obama some slack for the lack of progress for now (after all, we're fighting 2 wars and dealing with a terrible economic crisis; he's also the first president to celebrate gay pride in the White House), but I fully expect to see the repealment of DOMA and Don't Ask, Don't Tell during his first term. Obama might want to remember another quote from MLK, "A right delayed is a right denied."

Preaching Idiocy

Crazy on a stick, deep fried and then dipped in crazy sauce:

Man, this makes me miss George Carlin.

Excellent Point

John Aravosis at Americablog hit the nail on the head about the Dem's Congressional leadership. If they were smart, they would:

..immediately bring up for a vote the repeal of DOMA [Defense of Marriage Act--the federal law which defines marriage as the legal union between a man and a woman] while the Republicans are reeling from their second bimbo eruption in a week. Let the Republicans start talking about the protection of traditional marriage. Just let them. If anything, the DOMA repeal FORCES the entire country to keep talking about the ongoing GOP sex scandals.

Calling Harry and Nancy...

Fair and Balanced, My Ass

As you can see in the screen grab on the left, while Mark Sanford was explaining that he had been in Argentina the last 5 days screwing around on his wife, Fox News accidentally put a "(D)" (as in Democrat) after his name (They corrected it in later chryons). Interestingly, Fox had no problem correctly labeling him a Republican when he was still in the good graces of the GOP. Most sane people would think that this is a simply typo. However, this is not the first time Fox has done this. When former congressman Mark Foley admitted to having problems with alcoholism -- after reports that he had behaved inappropriately with congressional pages -- Fox News also identified him as a Democrat. Gee, I wonder why they don't make the same mistake whenever a Democrat screws up..

While we're on the subject, here is more evidence that Fox News are a bunch of dirty bastards (but you knew that already, didn't you?):

Don't Cry For Mark, Argentina

Just as I was writing the post below about the moral bankrupcy of the GOP, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, after disappearing for the last 5 days, held a press conference to admit that he's been cheating on his wife with a woman from Argentina. Mystery solved! "I spent the past five days of my life crying in Argentina," he said, "so I could come back and cry here." Yes, he used crying and Argentina in the same sentence. You really can't make this stuff up.

UPDATE: Here is the video from the press conference:

I know, I know. The Democrats have had had their share of uh..slip-ups (Bill Clinton, Jim McGreevey, and Eliot Spitzer come to mind). There is a difference, though. Andy Ostroy at Huffington Post explains:

Democrats don't sanctimoniously lecture everyone else from the bully pulpit about ethics. About what's moral. About what constitutes "acceptable" family values. About how to live your life. About right and wrong. Good vs. evil. That's what Republicans do. It's conservatives who want to tell us all how to live, who to marry, who to sleep with, what to do with our bodies, when to let a sick loved one die. But time and time again, they are proven to be living a lie. Creating a double-standard. They're all about "Do as I say, not as I do". They often live in the biggest glass house, yet throw the largest stones. So when they fall, when they sin, when they are exposed as the hypocrites they are, we rejoice. Because that's what they deserve.

Morally Bankrupt

I just love it when hypocrites are exposed:

Senator John Ensign, a well-known social conservative and family-values advocate, admitted on June 16 to an eight-month extramarital affair with a married campaign aide. The Nevada Republican's sober confession, read before a pack of reporters in Las Vegas, doubtlessly dashed the hopes of many in the party who considered Ensign an emerging national leader. The 51-year-old even fanned the flames of presidential speculation earlier this month with a trip to the key presidential-primary state of Iowa. Beyond embarrassing the second-term Senator, the revelation opened him to charges of hypocrisy: he had previously called on both President Bill Clinton and former Idaho Senator Larry Craig to resign after their own sex scandals.

Ensign, who has earned a reputation as one of Congress’ most active and ardent social conservatives, is also a born-again Christian and member of Promise Keepers, a male evangelical group that promotes fidelity. Add him to the ever-growing list of "moral" Republicans who constantly tell us how to live our lives and deny the rights of gays to marry, yet keep getting caught up in scandals like these. Let's take a look back at some of the more memorable examples from the past few years, shall we?

• Mark Foley, US Congressman from Florida. Engaged in sexually-explicit text-messaging with 17-yo former male pages. He had been chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
• Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House. Married three times. Gingrich campaign worker Anne Manning admitted that she gave Newt oral sex while he was still married to his first wife. Informed one wife he was filing for divorce while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer treatments.
• David Vitter, Senator from Lousiana. His number was included in the telephone records of an escort service run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, a woman dubbed by the news media as the "D.C. Madam." Since then, other prostitutes have come forward saying that he was a former client.
• Larry Craig, former Idaho Senator. Voted yes on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, he voted against a bill that would have banned job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and against expanding the definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation. Pleaded guilty to "lewd" disorderly conduct after an undercover police officer interpreted his actions in a men's rest room at Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport as a solicitation for sex.
• Rudy Giuliani, former NYC Mayor and candidate for President. Married three times. Accused by his fomer wife of "notorious adultery." Several examples of cross-dressing. He plans to use his opposition to gay marriage as a central plank in his run for NY Govenor in 2010, although he used to live with a gay couple.
• Bob Barr, Republican Congressman from Georgia. Sponsored the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, saying "The flames of hedonism, the flames of narcissism, the flames of self-centered morality are licking at the very foundation of our society, the family unit." Was married three times. Although he has called abortion murder, he paid for his second wife's abortion. Failed to pay child support to the children of his first two wives and while married to his third and present wife was photographed licking whipped cream off of strippers at his inaugural party.

AWOL

My favorite story this week is the strange disappearance of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (you know, one of those guys who was talking tough about rejecting federal stimulus funds). Accounts of Gov. Mark Sanford’s six-day absence from his public duties remain unclear and, in some instances, contradictory. A timeline of events:

Thursday

Sanford leaves the Governor’s Mansion in a black State Law Enforcement Division Suburban assigned to his security detail. A precise time is unavailable.

A mobile telephone tower in Atlanta near Hartsfield airport picks up a signal from Sanford’s phone. It is the last signal before his phones are turned off for days.

Friday

Law enforcement officials get no response to phone and text messages sent to Sanford.

Saturday

The governor’s office reports to police that there is no reason for concern but provides no details.

State Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, calls SLED [State Law Enforcement Division] chief Reggie Lloyd about rumors that no one knows where Sanford is and no one can reach him. Lloyd confirms that Sanford’s whereabouts are known.

Sunday

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer learns Sanford’s whereabouts are unknown.

Monday

Monday morning — Reporters hear rumors that Sanford’s location is a mystery.

2:30 p.m. Knotts issues a statement raising questions about Sanford’s absence, asking who is in charge of the executive branch of S.C. government.

2:40 p.m. The State newspaper posts an online article saying Sanford has been out of reach for four days.

2:50 p.m. The governor’s office issues a statement that Sanford “is taking some time away from the office this week to recharge after the stimulus battle. ... We are not going to discuss the specifics.”

3 p.m. The Associated Press reports that first lady Jenny Sanford says she does not know where her husband is, but he is taking time away from their four boys, “to write something.” She says she is not worried.

Midafternoon Sanford security officials are told by the governor’s office that he is OK. No details are provided.

3:40 p.m. The lieutenant governor’s office says Sanford’s office says it has spoken to Sanford and knows where he is.

About 5 p.m. Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer denies that staffers told Bauer’s office that someone had spoken with the governor.

5 p.m. As media inquiries escalate to include national news outlets, Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer issues another statement. It says in part, “Before leaving last week, (Sanford) let staff know his whereabouts and that he'd be difficult to reach.” He declines to elaborate. Sawyer also doesn’t know whether Sanford is still in the country.

10:05 p.m. The governor’s office issues a statement saying Sanford is hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Staff members do not know where Sanford is on the trail and will not say whether he is hiking with anyone.

Tuesday

9:42 a.m. The governor’s office issues a statement saying staffers have spoken with Sanford and he will return to work today.

[As of 9:00PM last night, Lt. Governor Bauer still did not know where he was. Rachel Maddow did an interesting interview with the bewildered Lt. Governor last night.]

Wednesday

Gov. Sanford arrives in the early morning at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for the drive back to Columbia.

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but what kind of person takes off at a moment's notice to Argentina without telling his wife or family (on Father's Day weekend, no less)? He says he was alone on the trip. He declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline. When asked why his staff said he was on the Appalachian Trail, Sanford replied, 'I don't know.'

This all sounds VERY fishy to me. I'm taking bets that we will find out that he was with another woman (or man..he's a Republican, after all). The Daily Show has its own theory. But all kidding aside, Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic raises an important point:

..as the executive officer of a government, he has, in essence, a formal and probably legal responsibility to the people of his state to be in office at all times, and short of that, to find a way to responsibly and transparently and temporarily transfer power to a subordinate. That's a basic, and usually obvious, cost of seeking public office. Even if South Carolinians support his choice to check out, it is rather arrogant of him to presume that his executive authority is untethered to his interactions with other human beings.

ABC/WaPo Poll: Obama Still Strong

New poll numbers from ABC News/Washington Post on some of the big issues. To me, the last set of bars is most surprising.

Obama-San

You may have heard that Obama flashed his ninja-like reflexes to kill a bothersome house fly during an interview with CNBC last week (funny enough, PETA complained about it, and then it was mocked by Stephen Colbert). Naturally, the clip has spawned a bunch of parodies. One of my favorites:

We Need a Public Health Care Insurance Option

The hot topic in Washington over the past few weeks has been healthcare reform. Of course, this is an intensely divisive issue among Democrats and Republicans. What Obama and many (but not all) Congressional Democrats are arguing for is a public option (this would not be free, but would be more affordable coverage and no one would be turned away for preexisting conditions). The Dems aren't even trying to push for a "single payer" health care system (ie. the government runs the entire system). In other words, if you are lucky enough to get private healthcare coverage from your job and you are happy with it, then keep it. Nothing changes for you. But there are nearly 50 million people that do not have coverage. According to a Harvard study, someone goes bankrupt every 30 seconds because of medical costs. Uninsured people with a medical emergency simply go to the ER, which of course, is the most expensive way to get care and costs taxpayers billions.

Howard Dean explains why we need a public option:

The New York Times editorial staff agrees:

There is no serious consideration in Congress of a single-payer governmental program that would enroll virtually everyone. Nor is there any talk of extending the veterans health care system, a stellar example of “socialized medicine,” to the general public.

The debate is really over whether to open the door a crack for a new public plan to compete with the private plans. Most Democrats see this as an important element in any health care reform, and so do we.

A public plan would have lower administrative expenses than private plans, no need to generate big profits, and stronger bargaining power to obtain discounts from providers. That should enable it to charge lower premiums than many private plans.

It would also provide an alternative for individuals who either can’t get adequate insurance from private insurers or don’t trust the private insurance industry to treat them fairly. And it could serve as a yardstick for comparing the performance of private plans and for testing innovative coverage schemes.

The Republicans have been working hard to paint this is as "socialized health care"..eeekkk! Scary! However, they are simply trying to scare people (as usual). It's not working, though. A number of polls conducted in recent weeks have shown overwhelmingly strong support among Americans for a public option (here and here too). Could this be why? What's more, a majority of Americans are even willing to pay more taxes to make sure that all are insured.

The hilarious thing about the poll results is at least half of self-identified Republicans support a public option. So why would their leaders (and some conservative Dems) fight against it? If you guessed campaign contributions from the insurance companies, you'd be right.

If you support a public option and want to do something about making it happen, click here.

Waaaahhhhh!!!

All these guys do is bitch and moan. I thought they were supposed to be the tough guys?

GOP: A Party of Racists?

When President Lyndon B. Johnson helped pass Civil Rights Act in 1964 he commented that, "Well, there goes the South." He meant, of course, that now the South, which was traditionally a Democrat stronghold, would become Republican as they now saw the Democrats as the party standing up for the blacks. What has followed since then is a 4-decade addiction to race-baiting by the Republicans. As you can imagine, the election of the country’s first black president has only made matters worse. Some recent examples:

• A GOP activist in South Carolina compared Michelle Obama to a gorilla.
• A staffer for a Tennessee state senator e-mailed this composite picture of the country’s 44 presidents, which represents President Obama with only a set of eyes.
• Another Republican activist in SC posted this gem on Twitter: “Just heard Obama is going to impose a 40% tax on aspirin because it’s white and it works.“
• Chip Saltsman, a candidate for national Republican Party chairman, distributed a holiday CD with the parody song “Barack the Magic Negro.”
• When Obama was running for president, a Republican congressman referred to Obama by using the derogatory term “boy“.
• A Republican newsletter in California showed candidate Obama surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon, and ribs on a food stamp.
• A Washington Republican group was found to be selling “$3 bills” that showed Obama in Arab dress and a camel.
• At the Texas Republican convention, many attendees wore the button shown the pic.

Some would argue that these are the statements and acts of individuals and it is unfair to paint the entire GOP with such a broad brush. I'm not so sure. When a growing swath of elected officials and party officers hold these views and feel confident enough that their peers share these views that they aren’t afraid to share their racist views with them, it's a problem. It also begs a few questions. Why is the nearly all-white Republican party (there hasn't been an African-American member of Congress since J.C. Watts retired in 2002) a home for racists? When will national Republican leaders denounce this series of racist attacks against the President of the United States?

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Vitamin Myth

There's a reason why every product at your local GNC or Vitamin Shoppe is labeled with, "These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to treat, cure, diagnose or prevent any disease." Yet Americans spent more than $23 billion on vitamin, herb and other supplements in 2007. As I noted a few months back, you might as well flush your money down the toilet:

Ten years ago the government set out to test herbal and other alternative health remedies to find the ones that work. After spending $2.5 billion, the disappointing answer seems to be that almost none of them do.

Echinacea for colds. Ginkgo biloba for memory. Glucosamine and chondroitin for arthritis. Black cohosh for menopausal hot flashes. Saw palmetto for prostate problems. Shark cartilage for cancer. All proved no better than dummy pills in big studies funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The lone exception: ginger capsules may help chemotherapy nausea.

There is one other exception that I'm aware of: Fish oil (omega-3 fatty acids). Although the link between omega-3 fatty acids and cardiovascular disease risk reduction are still being studied, research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids may decrease risk of arrhythmias (which can lead to sudden cardiac death), decrease triglyceride levels, and decrease growth rate of atherosclerotic plaques. The best way achieve these benefits is by eating fatty fish (salmon, mackeral, sardines, albacore tuna, and herring), but considering that overfishing may leave us without fish in a few decades and concerns of mercury contamination, fish oil tablets may be an acceptable alternative.

Operation Funny Bone

It's officially Stephen Colbert week. Not only is he doing his show from Iraq (and shaved his head!), but he's the guest editor for this week's issue of Newsweek. Although it's a serious issue about Iraq (Fareed Zakaria's piece is very good), he included a few comedic nuggets for us:

I know what you're thinking: "Isn't the Iraq War over?" That's what I thought, too. I hadn't seen it in the media for a while, and when I don't see something, I assume it's vanished forever, like in that terrifying game peekaboo. We stopped seeing much coverage of the Iraq War back in September when the economy tanked, and I just figured the insurgents were wiped out because they were heavily invested in Lehman Brothers.

Turns out there are still 135,000 troops in Iraq, which I don't understand because we've already won the war. And we've won it so many times. We should win something for the number of times we've won it. We eliminated the weapons of mass destruction by having them not exist. We took out Saddam Hussein—or a really convincing and committed Saddam Hussein double. We helped write the Iraqi Constitution and clearly gave Iraqis the right to bear a lot of arms. And by August of next year we'll withdraw every single one of our troops, leaving behind only memories and 50,000 troops.

Here's a clip from his show in Iraq:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Stephen Strong: Army of Me - Basic Training Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

Global Pandemic

I know the 24 hour news media is on to the next shiny thing, but this is still a story (and a source of important lessons if the Big One ever hits):

The World Health Organization raised its alert on swine flu to the highest level on Thursday, in its first designation of a global pandemic in 41 years.

Calling further spread of the virus “inevitable,” the organization’s director general, Margaret Chan, said, “We are at the earliest days of a global pandemic.” The new H1N1 strain, she said, is “spreading easily from one person to another, and from one country to another” in more than one region of the world.

But the pandemic is “moderate” in severity, she noted, with the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the absence of any medical treatment. And scientists are painstakingly tracking its every movement.

Science Can Be Fun

Really?

As usual, Hannity is high on crack (or telling blatant lies):

The Socialists are Coming!

Since Obama's election, the Republicans have been desperately trying to warn us that the Democrats are taking us towards socialism. Connor Clark, a reporter for The Atlantic, shows us how far we've gone:

Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage

I loved this video! Not only does it show how ignorant of history people who are against gay marriage are, but also why the Bible should not be our all-encompassing guide to morality:

A Giant Falls

Wow, we own a failing car company now (to go along with our "nationalized" insurance and financial companies):

General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as part of the Obama administration’s plan to shrink the automaker to a sustainable size and give a majority ownership stake to the federal government.

According to GM's bankruptcy filing , the company has assets of $82.3 billion, and liabilities of $172.8 billion. That would make GM the fourth largest U.S. bankruptcy on record, according to Bankruptcydata.com, just behind the 2002 bankruptcy of telecom WorldCom.

Three of the largest bankruptcies in history - GM, Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers and savings and loan Washington Mutual, have occurred in the last nine months.

So what's it gonna cost us?

As it reorganizes, the fallen icon of American industry will rely on $30 billion of additional financial assistance from the Treasury Department and $9.5 billion from Canada. That’s on top of about $20 billion in taxpayer money GM already has received in the form of low-interest loans.

What does it mean for everyone involved?

The plan is for the federal government to take a 60 percent ownership stake in the new GM. The Canadian government would take 12.5 percent, with the United Auto Workers getting a 17.5 percent share and unsecured bondholders receiving 10 percent. Existing GM shareholders are expected to be wiped out.

GM will use the trip into bankruptcy court to shed plants, dealerships, debt and other liabilities it can no longer afford. Emerging out of bankruptcy quickly will be a "new GM," made up of the four brands that GM will keep in the U.S. market -- Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick..

More than 650,000 retirees and their family members who depend on the company for health insurance will experience cutbacks in their coverage, although their pension benefits are unaffected for now.