On the stand, Choi said the First Amendment provides for the right of people to petition the government for a redress of grievances, which also, he said, is a moral responsibility of patriotic Americans. Choi responded under questioning by Feldman that he believed his actions were a form of speech, and that the government did not have a right to censor them by arresting him.
At times, Choi raised his voice and spoke in such a tone that he almost seemed close to shouting, especially when asked about his arrest. Under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela George, he compared the various protests against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to the 1960 sit-in by students in Greensboro, N.C., at a Woolworth’s department store and said he was “insulted” by his prosecution on federal charges.
“The November 15th arrest is surprising in my mind,” Choi said, comparing the tactics used by police officers to remove him from the fence and transport him to the police wagon to procedures taught to soldiers in war. Choi said his left arm had been twisted and he could not feel his index finger for two weeks afterward, statements he said were reinforced by videos showing his arrest.I'm not a legal expert, but when I looked up "writ of mandamus" I found the following definition:
Mandamus is a judicial remedy which is in the form of an order from a superior court to any government subordinate court,corporation or public authority to do or forbear from doing some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do or refrain from doing, as the case may be, and which is in the nature of public duty and in certain cases of a statutory duty.[2] It cannot be issued to compel an authority to do something against statutory provision.I'm not entirely certain what this means as pertains to the case but I'll take Robert Feldman's word for it: Congrats to Dan Choi on this legal victory.
OutServe Magazine will hit store shelves at Army and Air Force bases on Sept. 20, the day the Pentagon plans to formally end enforcement of the “don’t ask, don'tI tell” policy that bans gays from serving openly.While it will be entirely legal, I'm not sure how comfortable I would have been purchasing this magazine in the PX during my stint in the military ten years ago, even if DADT hadn't been in place. Sign of the times, I suppose, and one I'm happy to see come about.
The publication is published by OutServe, a group of secretly gay active duty service members that says it has hundreds of members currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The magazine, which began publishing in the spring, is currently available in limited supply at some public meeting areas and military physicians offices, the group said.
Pastor Mike compares atheists to “convicted sex offenders , ex-convicts , terrorist cells , hate groups like the KKK , skinheads , radical Islamists , etc..” He claims that the purpose of this organization/website called, "The Christian National Registry of Atheists" is to inform the public of known atheists so that they can be proselytize to and their businesses can be boycotted.
How would a Christian proselytize to an atheist if the atheist’s physical address is not included? This author speculates that this distinction was made more for legal reasons than for practical reasons. Should an address be supplied by such a website, the organization might be held responsible for any violence that “good Christians” might perpetrate on atheists.What's next? Are atheists going to have to walk around wearing armbands with the Flying Spaghetti Monster on them so that they can be easily identified?
Before becoming a Gaypon merchant, businesses are put through a background check of sorts, where they are investigated for any bad marks, like complaints of discrimination from customers and employees, poor hiring practices, etc. Gaypon says it also uses various tools, like the Human Rights Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index” that rates American workplaces on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality.
Gaypon plans to donate a portion of proceeds to charitable organizations, and those that support the gay community, like The Trevor Project, which focuses on crisis and suicide prevention amongst LGBTQ youth, and Affirmations, which is one of the largest LGBT community centers in the United States. The exact percentage of those donations, however, is unclear.All right. It sounds like a well-meaning enough gimmick, and I'm a cheap date (being a broke blogger helps, you can fix that with the donate link to the left) so I'll check it out.
Republicans, who control the House and have driven hard bargains on spending cuts all year, have insisted that there will be enough money for disaster relief. But they also pledged that additional spending will mean cuts in other areas.
“Yes, we’re going to find the money,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Monday in a television interview. “We’re just going to need to make sure that there are savings elsewhere to continue to do so.”I know where to find the money, Eric. How about your salary?
But in doing so, Republicans shifted money from a program that lends money to auto manufacturers to build more energy-efficient cars and cut dollars from other FEMA programs. Both ideas are unacceptable to Senate Democrats.
“Does it really make sense to pay response and reconstruction costs for past disasters by reducing our capacity to prepare for or respond to future disasters?” Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) asked in a July letter critical of the cuts the House made to replenish the disaster fund. Landrieu chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds FEMA.This is outrageous. These profiteering charlatans are so concerned with protecting the big business interests that fund their campaigns that they are willing to decimate future disaster relief to avoid levying fair and appropriate taxes on the wealthiest 10% of America. They have utterly lost touch with the purpose of representative government. No wonder they're scared shitless at the idea of talking to their constituents.
Unlike the two history-making cases (Henry & Josh, Doug & Alex) in which Stop The Deportations has won “administrative closure” this year, Anton’s case is significantly further along in the legal process. Anton has exhausted all his appeals and recently received a final denial of his last appeal. Because Anton has a “final order of removal” ICE has the power to put him on a plane and deport him at any time.
Will ICE Deportations and Removals Officers apply the prosecutorial discretion guidelines to protect this married gay couple from being torn apart? As part of the Stop The Deportations campaign, Brian and Anton will use every day that remains to ensure that Anton is granted "deferred action" and to ensure that the Obama administration's commitment to same-sex binational couples facing deportation has tangible results.Indonesia is a fairly conservative country with no protections for LGBT citizens. It is very likely that were he to be deported, he wouldn't just face the heartbreak of separation from his husband, but also discrimination in his daily life.
There were several jaw-dropping moments from the Dan Choi trial today, but none more dramatic than the moment Lt. LaChance of the Park Police admitted he was advised by Solicitor Randolph Myers of the Department of Interior to press federal charges against the DADT protesters on November 15 — three hours before they began protesting.How much clearer does it have to be that these are trumped up charges specifically targeting our group? Since the beginning of the case, it was evident to us that the prosecution was exercising a grudge on behalf of the government against Dan Choi and company. I was unable to attend my first court hearing due to a medical emergency, and the prosecutor immediately asked the judge to issue a warrant for my arrest. He turned it down, of course.
In a video interview posted on YouTube by KAEmpire, Star Wars: The Old Republic developer Corey Butler says (at ~2.30 into the video) that the game will not feature same sex relationships. The Bioware forums are afire with a fifty-one page discussion of the issue and a community poll.That forum actually became closed due to the outrage from prospective buyers of the game.
I’ve been repeatedly asked will I ‘do anal sex’. Let me make it very clear.. Any man I contemplate has to be into anal sex.. It was a family paper so they wudnt have printed it but let me now take time to make VERY clear that yes I ‘do anal’ and in fact I would be deeply unhappy if ‘doing anal’ wasn’t on the menu, amongst everything else$ So if u don’t like ‘the difficult brown’.. Don’t apply… I’ve had reasonable complaints from lesbians that they have been excluded. This was terribly remiss of me and I would now like to make it clear that women will also be very much considered. As will Brians and Nigels.. Since there were complaints there too.I don't think I have anything to add to that.
"Engaging in depraved and unnatural sexual acts will lead directly to the ruin of both the homosexual's body and soul," [Father Michael] Rodriguez writes. "Our very anatomy cries out against the lie that homosexual acts are 'ok.'" Rodriguez closes his screed by saying we live in a "godless society" that condones homosexuality. "Reflect, first there are (a) individuals committing mortal sins of a homosexual nature; next, evil extends its tentacles to (b) society as a whole accepting homosexual and homosexual activity as 'normal"; and finally, iniquity's victory is all but sealed when (c) laws are enacted which impose the putrid homosexual ideology on everyone, while those who, rightfully resist it, are ridiculed, attacked, and persecuted," Rodriguez writes.
What seems like an open-and-shut case for the prosecution-- after all, we were all on the fence, right? There's video!-- was called into question by Dan's lawyer, Robert Feldman. During cross examination, he attempted to establish several key points that seem to erode the government's position that Choi had no right to be there:
Choi’s lawyer, Robert Feldman, said he would try to move quickly tomorrow, but because the prosecution has not rested its case, and because of testimony that implicated other potential law enforcement officers who could be called as witnesses, the trial might spill over into a third day.
The prosecutor representing the government, Angela George, called six witnesses, all U.S. Park Police officers, to testify against Choi. George argued that Choi could be found guilty of failing to obey a lawful order because his conduct could be considered disorderly, or because the group he was involved with did not have a permit to demonstrate on the sidewalk in front of the White House. At the close of the day, George said she had at least one more witness to call before finishing her arguments.
I will be speaking to Dan's assistant later, and will hopefully have more information as the trial evolves. Feldman, after the trial ended for the day, stated that he believed the trial may last as long as three days.
On cross-examination, Feldman questioned whether Choi was technically on the sidewalk or a ledge when he was chained to the fence, thereby not disobeying police orders. He also questioned whether Choi’s conduct posed a threat to others, obstructed traffic or prevented emergency responders from doing their job, which would be required for his conduct to be considered “disorderly.”
Okay, fine, Rick. No, we don't like you. Yes, we changed the definition of your name-- not once, but twice-- to mean something real icky. We laugh at your nonsensical "towel, napkin, tree, car" arguments against marriage equality and call you an idiot. All those things are true. But, really? A jihad?
"So the gay community said, 'He's comparing gay sex to incest and polygamy, how dare he do this,' and they have gone out on a, I would argue, jihad against Rick Santorum since then," the former senator said at a campaign stop in Spartanburg, S.C., on Friday.
“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”Of course, her spokesperson, realizing what a complete and utter stupid thing this is to say, now claims that Bachmann was kidding. Duh! Ol' Crazy Eyes would never ever say anything insane and mean it.
While the number of the most intense storms has clearly been rising since the 1970s, researchers have come to differing conclusions about whether that increase can be attributed to human activities.
“On a longer time scale, I think — but not all of my colleagues agree — that the evidence for a connection between Atlantic hurricanes and global climate change is fairly compelling,” said Kerry Emanuel, an expert on the issue at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.I think it far more likely that hurricanes are intensified by greenhouse gases than evidence of God's displeasure over Obamacare. Just sayin'.
Today the NWS justifies itself on public interest grounds. It issues severe weather advisories and hijacks local radio and television stations to get the message out. It presumes that citizens do not pay attention to the weather and so it must force important, perhaps lifesaving, information upon them. A few seconds’ thought reveals how silly this is. The weather might be the subject people care most about on a daily basis. There is a very successful private TV channel dedicated to it, 24 hours a day, as well as any number of phone and PC apps. Americans need not be forced to turn over part of their earnings to support weather reporting.
The NWS claims that it supports industries like aviation and shipping, but if they provide a valuable contribution to business, it stands to reason business would willingly support their services. If that is the case, the Service is just corporate welfare. If they would not, it is just a waste.
As for hurricanes, the insurance industry has a compelling interest in understanding them. In a world without a National Weather Service, the insurance industry would probably have sponsored something very like the National Hurricane Center at one or more universities. Those replacements would also not be exploited for political purposes.Right. Because big business would never ever sacrifice consumers' well-being in order to make a buck. What Fox News won't tell you, of course, is that most weather reports from private news corporations actually get their data from the government.
As East Coasters brace for what some say will be a historic pummel by Hurricane Irene, at least one lawmaker is fuming over a requirement by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) that any potential emergency disaster aid be offset by spending cuts.
Republicans need to stop playing politics with people's lives and their livelihoods. The American people aren't that stupid (really. We're not). Withholding federal aid so that they can cut spending (and avoid charging the rich the same taxes the middle class pays) is beyond sinful. It's disgusting.
"It is sinful to require us to cut somewhere ... in order to provide emergency disaster assistance for American citizens," Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) told The Huffington Post on Friday.
The Louisiana Democrat pointed out that this weekend is the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated his district and cost the federal government more than $100 billion. That recovery effort would have been delayed "by years" if Congress had required the same kind of spending cuts to offset aid, he said.
During his tenure, the Human Rights Campaign has become a bedrock institution that has played a role in successes -- a hate crimes law passed, the legislative repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- the extent of its leadership and success also depends on your point of view and knowledge of the back stories related to the hard work to make these gains happen.Pam is correct in that there are mixed views on his tenure as leader of the nation's premier LGBT advocacy organization. Solmonese has been roundly criticized by many, to include myself, as being a Democratic apologist willing to throw the B and T of LGBT under the bus in order to forward the goals of the L and G. However, what I find more compelling are the possible changes that could come from this shakeup.
Rep. Webster’s Winter Garden, Florida district office gave out a “Watch List” of six Floridians who had asked questions at Webster’s previous town halls. The list, with the header “For the Media,” included names, photographs, and questions that members of the media should ask them.
The Watch List itself doesn’t contain any information on who wrote it or where it comes from. The memos surfaced in Arkansas in connection to the office of Rep. Tim Griffin, and were traced back to Rep. Webster’s office.
With black and white photos that resemble police surveillance, some of them pulled from the individuals’ Facebook profiles, the memo is clearly meant to intimidate these six people and anyone else who might stand up and ask a question of their elected representative. At a Griffin town hall, staffers were handing out the Watch List to attendees, calling it their “homework.” Griffin staffers were also spotted taking photos and shooting video of attendees, creating an extra layer of intimidation.So let me get this straight: people are asking Congresspeople to explain their policies and they are being photographed and intimidated for their troubles? This is beyond disturbing.
Because it changes the definition of an intrinsic element of society in a way that minimizes what that bond means to society.
Marriage is what marriage is. Marriage was around before government said what it was.
It’s like going out and saying, ‘That tree is a car.’ Well, the tree’s not a car. A tree’s a tree.
Marriage is marriage.
You can say that tree is something other than it is. It can redefine it. But it doesn’t change the essential nature of what marriage is.
Marriage is a union between a man and a woman for the purposes of the benefit of both the man and the woman, a natural unitive according to nature, unitive, that is for the purposes of having and rearing children and for the benefit of both the man and the woman involved in that relationship.His arguments are getting even more nonsensical and only seems to highlight how irrelevant he actually is. His entire argument, of course, is that same-sex marriage will lead to a slew of social disasters such as interspecies nuptials:
And for the benefit of society because we need to have stable families of men and woman bonded together to raise children. That’s what marriage is. You can say two people who love each other is marriage. But then why limit it to just two people? Why not three people? Why not 10 people?
If it’s just about love and everybody needs to be treated equally, then why not 10? Why not allowing nieces and aunts to marry? Why not? If marriage means anyone who is in love, well, then, let everybody who is in love get married. But it’s not what marriage is.
Anybody who does not recognize what the state says is good and right is a bigot. We don’t give licenses for adoptions to organizations that won’t do gay adoptions because they’re bigots. And a lot of those are faith-based organizations.
Will we go into pulpits and tell preachers they can’t preach that gay marriage is wrong? Well maybe not right away but maybe tax-exempt status is next.
There’s a conflict here because we’ve created something that is not what it is.Rick Santorum is, by this time, the laughingstock of the GOP in his insistence on running for President. He can't raise money and is a shoe-in for "worst GOP candidate for 2012." Basically the only thing he's getting for his pains is yet another Google bomb from Dan Savage.
Bivens did change his clothes and went to the principal to explain why he felt his rights as a student were being violated. Female students, he argued, dress like boys all the time. When he didn't receive what he felt was a satisfactory answer from administration, he changed back into his skirt and was arrested."He was all like come with me sir and I am like what did I do wrong, I am in dress code, I checked and he is all like we need to make sure you can wear this because it is nerd day not cross dress day," says Bivens.
But Bivens put the skirt back on later in the day, and that got him in trouble.
Principal Greg Tanner says Bivens was being defiant and that's why he was suspended.
"From freshman year to senior year they pulled all my referrals and apparently I had 24," says Bivens.
Due to Bivens's discipline history and being insubordinate to administrators and faculty, he was arrested and charged.
"Cost me my education, my future," says Bivens.
Regardless of whatever disciplinary problems Bivens has had in the past at Coffee High, I find it sad that the principal of that school was able to do what he set out to do: Stifle one student's chosen mode of expression.Bivens says he just wants to get back in school so he can graduate on time and if he could do it over again he would stick to wearing pants.
Having begun the drug testing in mid-July, the state Department of Children and Families is still tabulating the results. But at least 1,000 welfare applicants took the drug tests through mid-August, according to the department, which expects at least 1,500 applicants to take the tests monthly.
So far, they say, about 2 percent of applicants are failing the test; another 2 percent are not completing the application process, for reasons unspecified.I wonder how many poor people (to include people stricken with the disease of addiction) haven't even attempted to collect needed benefits because of this policy?
The issue of Steele being a lesbian didn’t arise until one weekend in June during a camping trip to Assateague Island. The camping trip was from a Saturday to a Monday, and Steele needed to work Monday so she asked Funk to pick her up from the campsite.
After both departed, one of the other assistant scout masters, Skip Inabinett, started questioning who the woman was who had picked up Steele.
After discovering that Steele’s partner had picked her up, Inabinett felt that she should be removed as an assistant scout master. In an email that Inabinett sent to a close personal friend of Steele’s and whose son was also in the troop, he stated, “If what you said about Denise Steele being an active [homo]sexual is true, do you feel comfortable talking with her about stepping down/resigning as an ASM … as her friend, this may be an opportunity for you to share with her about Christ’s love and the need to believe that as sinners we cannot get to heaven on our own and that we need a savior.”This is pretty sad. Steele reports that she wanted to be involved in BSA so she could bond with her son. Now she is no longer allowed to go on Scout camping trips and the like.
"We pissed off Glenn Beck, and that was amazing. I don't think Glenn Beck is an idiot because he's a conservative. I literally think he's just an idiot. Regardless of his belief system, he's just a lunatic. So that was hilarious. Not that I'm going out of my way to find ways to piss people like that off, but boy is it so nice when you do it by accident. I told my wife that she doesn't have to get me anything for my birthday because nothing will make me happier than this made me. I was happy all day.*sigh* I dream of the day Glenn Beck blames me on Michelle Obama.
OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.Another super rich guy has now joined the debate, and he supports Buffett's position. What's more surprising is that he's a Republican.
Another multi-millionaire says the rich should be paying more taxes. Registered Republican and co-founder of H&R Block, Henry Bloch knows his opinion is not popular with many in his party.
Like Warren Buffet, Bloch believes current tax code gives too many breaks to the rich.This is another blow to the Reaganomically-minded Tea Party and the GOP at large, with "moderate" Republican candidate Mitt Romney scoffing at Buffett's remarks earlier:
He also has strong opinions about how much these tax breaks really contribute to job creation.
"That's so baloney," Bloch said. "Rich people don't create jobs. Companies create jobs."
Republican presidential nomination front-runner Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire ex-businessman, said Buffett had failed to take into account corporate taxes paid by his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway.
"The problem with rich people is that many of them are smart," Romney said in the key primary state of New Hampshire.
"High taxes on entrepreneurs and investors dissuade them from putting Americans to work," he said.It's time these knuckleheads gave up the ghost on this "trickle down theory" bullcrap they are trying to shove down our throats to line their own pockets.
In a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) today, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano explains that the case-by-case approach was first detailed in March 2010 and recently reiterated in a memorandum from June, 2011. She argues that the process will enhance public safety and allow immigration judges “to more swiftly adjudicate high priority cases, such as those involving convicted felons.” “This process will also allow additional federal enforcement resources to be focused on border security and the removal of public safety threats,” she argues.
The new process is a result of a long-standing administration policy to ensure that the nation is “not clogging the system with folks who are not maximum priorities,” a senior administration official explained. Lower-priority deportation cases “are being set aside so we can focus more on our more serious cases of convicted criminals and other high priority categories.”Pando's attorney, Levi Soloway, explains from his blog Stop the Deportations:
"Today Denver Immigration Judge Mimi Tsankov halted the deportation of Sujey Pando and scheduled a new hearing to consider an application based on her marriage to her U.S. citizen wife, Violeta Pando. Because today's hearing was intended to be a final decision day on Sujey's deportation, the judge's action was unusual; she spent 45 minutes methodically considering the procedural posture of the case. In the end, the Judge set aside the intended purpose of the hearing, citing developments including the Attorney General's intervention in a similar case in May (Matter of Dorman) and noted that the issues involved in this case existed in a context that was "fluid" and "in a state of flux." The Judge referred to events that occurred as recent as yesterday as having an impact on how to proceed. Yesterday, the DHS Secretary Napolitano ordered a review of all pending deportation cases for possible closure, including those involving LGBT families."So basically, the administration has set a precedent that confuses the issue enough that it is no longer crystal-clear that these undocumented immigrants require deportation. Whatever the reason, Sujey and Violeta have much to celebrate. Congratulations to them.
During the fight over the removing the state law from the books, Republicans insisted the wage law not only makes it harder to create jobs, it kills them.
"With this veto, the governor is sending the wrong message to employers that New Hampshire is going to make it harder to create jobs," Republican House Speaker William O'Brien said in June. Voters, he said, have sent "a clear message that they wanted more jobs, not job-killing regulations, like the minimum wage."
House Republicans also killed a Democratically sponsored bill that would have raised the wage. Democrats argued the 75 cent proposed hourly increase would put $30 more each week in the pockets of the state's 4,000 lowest-paid workers, money that would be spent boosting the economy.Give me a break. Why waste the state's money voting on this nonsense? It's clear that this action-- which would have gotten them Rick Perry's grades were they taking Economics 101-- was merely intended to spit in the eye of Democratic lawmakers in this state. Because now is the perfect time for meaningless gestures.
The 84-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church had to cut short the speech, when powerful winds and sheets of rain struck at a vast air base, whipping off his skullcap, shaking the stage and knocking over at least one tent.
Though he was unable to complete the homily, Vatican officials said on Sunday that the content of his entire speech the previous evening was still valid and could be published.
In the address, he attempted to give at the airbase of Cuatro Vientos Spanish for Four Winds the pope struck at the heart of social reforms in countries like Spain.
"The Lord calls many people to marriage, in which a man and a woman, in becoming one flesh, find fulfilment in a profound life of communion," he told the young pilgrims.Thanks, Pope, for your words of wisdom.
“I have hydrochloric acid and 50 bottles of benzyl bromide, with that we can make a good asphyxiating mixture. We have less than eight days to get organised, to kill queers and in the name of God. Come on mates, we need some fertilizer, I repeat we do not need money, just bring fertilizer, naptha, gunpowder or matches or a lighter will do. The only aim is to kill these dirty queers. On their anti-pope march is a good time to get them together and impale them and then burn them as queers.”Of course, the nutjob didn't have the acid or any of that other crap and is now claiming the statement to be a joke.
The girl was first raped at Republic Middle School in the spring of 2009, according to the lawsuit. After the mother notified the school, the girl described the rape and "multiple sexual assaults" she'd experienced at school that year to Duncan, Mithelavage and Ragain [school officials who are named in the lawsuit]. They then told the mother that they thought that her daughter made it all up.
Following instructions from the school, the girl wrote an apology to the boy she accused of raping her and had to personally give it to him, according to the lawsuit. She was then expelled for the remainder of the 2008-09 school year. The school also told "juvenile authorities" that she filed a false report.
