Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact. George Eliot (1819 - 1880)
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Hickenlooper - Just Stupid?
What has occurred, however, is that the LEGALLY SANCTIONED parade through the streets of Denver has seen an attempt by the protester folk to deny the First Amendment rights of the Italians by blocking their path, hurling obscenities and other matters of substance at the marchers.
Okay. Fact: The Italian folk traditionally apply for a permit to have their little parade through the streets of downtown Denver on Columbus day. Their parade is legal. Their parade celebrates the First Amendment rights of all Americans.
Fact: Russell Means and Glenn Morris and Ward Churchill and other "ethnic" folk (although I do believe Ward Churchill is full of crap with his assertion that he is part Native American) traditionally attempt to deny the Italian folk's First Amendment right to express their pride in their heritage which, incidentally, isn't so much about Columbus as it is about their ancestor's trek from the Old Country to the fabulous promise of America.
I read recently in our neighborhood newspaper (I live in an old Denver neighborhood that was originally occupied by LEGAL Italian immigrants) that when the Italian kids would--amongst themselves as they played in the front yards of their modest homes--start conversing in Italian, a parent would inevitably burst through the front door of the house and admonish the children to speak English. "We're American, now," the parent would scold. "Speak English."
Well, Hickenlooper believes that the Italians are equally to blame for the conflict which surrounds the Columbus day parade imbroglio caused by the likes of Ward Churchill and Russell Means and Glenn Morris and other gosh, I really need to get my face on t.v., ethnic folk who traditionally attempt to subvert the right of the Italian folk to celebrate the holiday.
Vincent Carroll, an editorial writer for the News, provided this response to Hickenlooper's ridiculous assertions which reads, in part:
With the exception of a few lines, however, the letter promotes the grotesque fiction that the "volatile situations" of the past few years are equally the fault of the parade organizers and those who try to shut it down. In fact, those "volatile situations" are solely the fault of protesters who do not believe in free speech, do not respect the Constitution, and who elevate their political agenda above the rights of everyone else.
However much Hickenlooper deplores the parade, he should at least be able to acknowledge that much.
Congressman David Dreier - Closeted Gay Neocon Rises in the Ranks
Wonder how James Dobson of Focus on the Family views this curious game of musical chairs engendered by the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for campaign sleaze?
I, like many of my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, generally respect any person's decision to remain in the closet. But, quoting from the AlterNet piece:
Is it right to out a closeted gay politician? Doug Ireland follows the openly gay Democratic Congressman Barney Frank's (D-Mass.) rule: "Outing is only acceptable when a person uses their power or notoriety to hurt gay people."
And David Dreier's record fully qualifies him for public exposure. Ireland writes:
He opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would have banned discrimination against gay people in hiring; voted for the gay-bashing Defense of Marriage Act; voted for banning adoption by gay and lesbian couples in the District of Columbia (3,000 miles away from Dreier's district); voted to allow federally funded charities to discriminate against gays in employment, even where local laws prohibit such bias; and voted against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
The AlterNet piece also reports:
It is widely assumed that Dreier's partner is none other than his chief of staff, Brad Smith. Janice Nelson, Dreier's Democratic opponent in 1998 and 2000, was aware that Dreier and Smith were living together at the time, saying, "Brad was like an invisible presence. They really have the routine down slick." As Byrne of Raw Story discovered, Smith makes $156,000 a year -- only $400 less than Andrew Card, who runs George Bush's shop in the White House. It's also been reported that Dreier and Smith traveled to 25 countries together using taxpayer funds. Doug Ireland provided a corollary to this kind of arrangement: "New Jersey Democratic Governor Jim McGreevey was recently forced to resign when it was about to become public that he had put his boyfriend on the public payroll at a salary slightly less than the one which Dreier pays Smith."
No, just become someone shares my sexuality, it is not okeydokey for them to celebrate their hypocrisy, their sleaze, their Roy Cohn mentality, their demagoguery within the safe clutch of the Republican party.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Dumbyer and Dumbyer
Um, let me see now... I do believe Dubya--after having learned the lessons of Katrina--is making his seventh trip to the Gulf...the in-charge President, the visible President, the goofball fratboy who demands bedtime stories from Karl Rove and a little shot of, oh, say Jim Beam before he nods off; yes, Dubya is heading down to the Gulf again in Air Force One which, I heard today, costs about $6,000 an hour to operate (all that fuel, personnel, etc.).
Let's conserve folks. Yeah. Right!
Monday, September 26, 2005
Coors Field - Just Before Dusk
This was Saturday. Colorado Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants. (WE WON!!!)
Sweet Melisa Smiles
For your Monday... A Sweet Melissa smile. Note the maple leaves on the grass. I think we're actually going to have a real fall this year.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Aspens changing
David and I took his parents to Central City today to do a little gambling. On the way back, we stopped and took some shots of the Aspens turning color. In about a week, they'll be even more beautiful, giving us reds and oranges and yellows.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
The Shame of Pork (As in Barrel)
Paul provides, in part, that:
This is the story of two pieces of pork. The first is a sausage that Merlene Maten, a 73-year- old grandmother and church deaconess, is accused of stealing from a deli in a New Orleans suburb the day after Katrina struck.
The second piece of pork is in the process of being looted from the U.S. treasury. It's a $231 million slice of taxpayer money, which is going to be used to build Ketchikan, Alaska's infamous Bridge to Nowhere - a structure that will be nearly as long as the Golden Gate Bridge, and several hundred times less busy.
Ketchikan is a small town (pop. 8,000), with a tiny airport that handles seven commercial flights per day. The airport is on an island that's now reached by a seven-minute ferry ride. Ketchikan is also in the district of U.S. Rep. Don Young, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, which this summer spit out a $285 billion highway bill, packed with more than 6,000 "earmarked projects," some of which are just as outrageous as building a $300 million suspension bridge that will be used by a couple of hundred people daily (if users of the bridge were charged fees that covered its cost, they would have to pay more than $100 per trip. The ferry ride costs $6).
Monday, September 19, 2005
Monsignor Clark - Hetero Highjinks From A Prince of the Catholic Church!
National Debt
Does it bother you that the US is now a debtor nation, owing roughly $7.9Trillion dollars to the People's Republic of China, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia?
It bothers me. It bothers me a whole lot.
And, dare I ask, where is Dubya going to get the $200Million to rebuild New Orleans?
Um, I believe that $200Million will put us over the $8Trillion mark.
Democrats, where are you? Do you realize Dubya's spending has not been equaled even by Lyndon Baines Johnson who gave us Guns and Butter--neither of which succeeded?
Is Dubya Evil? From Bill Maher
Sunday, September 18, 2005
This Morning on the Lake
David and I hiked about six miles through our neighborhood this morning, hitting both Rocky Mountain Park (Lake) and Berkeley Park (Lake). This is a shot of Berkeley Lake.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Presidential I.Q.
The President: "Well, I really don't care how people get out of New Orleans!"
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Couple "Gay" Things
He said employees at the Christian Broadcasting Network had put together a list of 283 nominees, presenters, and invited guests at the Emmys known to be of sexually deviant persuasions.
If you don't remember Joseph McCarthy and what came to beknown as McCarthyism, please take a look.
This story from the New York Times reminded me, once again, of that very dark and dangerous period of American history when the drunken, disturbed Senator from Wisconsin destroyed so many good and decent lives. The Times story reads, in part:
Investigators appointed by the Vatican have been instructed to review each of the 229 Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States for "evidence of homosexuality" and for faculty members who dissent from church teaching, according to a document prepared to guide the process.
Experts in human sexuality have cautioned that homosexuality and attraction to children are different, and that a disproportionate percentage of boys may have been abused because priests were more likely to have access to male targets - like altar boys or junior seminarians - than to girls.
But some church officials in the United States and in Rome, including some bishops and many conservatives, attributed the abuse to gay priests and called for an overhaul of the seminaries. Expectation for such a move rose this year with the election of Pope Benedict XVI, who has spoken of the need to "purify" the church.
Two points: Pedophiles are sick human beings who steal the innocence of the young. It doesn't matter if they're priests or t-ball coaches. To suggest that all gay men are pedophiles is as absurd as suggesting that all straight men are pedophiles.
If the Catholic Church wishes to purify itself, a McCarthyistic witch hunt , in my humble opinion, ain't the way to do it.
Another question: Ya'll ever hear of the Inquisition?
**
Massachusetts uber alles!
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Couple Things - John Roberts -Dubya
Romer vs. Evans involved a statewide referendum that was passed by the electorate in 1992, with the result that several anti-discrimination ordinances which included sexual orientation in their verbiage were, via the referendum, ordered to be modified. Several Colorado cities-- including Boulder, Aspen and Denver-- had established these ordinances and the referendum, Amendment 2, wiped out the verbiage in these ordinances relating to sexual orientation.
Amendment 2 read: "No Protected Status Based on Homosexual, Lesbian or Bisexual Orientation. Neither the State of Colorado, through any of its branches or departments, nor any of its agencies, political subdivisions, municipalities or school districts, shall enact, adopt or enforce any statute, regulation, ordinance or policy whereby homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships shall constitute or otherwise be the basis of or entitle any person or class of persons to have or claim any minority status, quota preferences, protected status or claim of discrimination. This Section of the Constitution shall be in all respects self-executing."
Amendment 2 was overturned in the Denver District Court and the Colorado Supreme Court. It was taken up by the US Supreme Court with the conclusion of the majority, written by Justice Kennedy: We must conclude that Amendment 2 classifies homosexuals not to further a proper legislative end but to make them unequal to everyone else. This Colorado cannot do. A State cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws. Amendment 2 violates the Equal Protection Clause, and the judgment of the Supreme Court of Colorado is affirmed.
The dissent from the Supreme court was led by Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas. The dissent begins: "The Court had mistaken a Kulturkampf for a fit of spite." Lawd give me strength. (Kulturkampf)
You can make your own judgment about John Roberts' really non-committal response to Senator Arlen Specter's question with regard to Roberts' pro bono work on behalf of the queers in the Romer vs. Evans case. For me--even though I believe Roberts to be a superb Supreme Court scholar and very, very smart judge--he scares the bejesus out of me. I mean, look who he, as Chief, would be working with on the Court. Scalia and Thomas aren't going anywhere. And, besides that, Roberts is only fifty. His influence could be exerted on our lives for the next thirty or more years.
**
AlterNet this morning provides a good read by Robert Scheer entitled, "Finally Fooling Most of the People None of the Time." Just a couple paragraphs:
Unfortunately, what the Bush White House is good at when it comes to national security is providing flash over substance, as Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana found out the hard way. After riding in a helicopter with the president and seeing machinery apparently working on the breached 17th Street levee, she was shocked the next day to find the work mysteriously stopped. "Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment," said the senator in a press release.
For far too long, this kind of shenanigan worked well for Bush, allowing him to narrowly win a second term. His administration was asleep at the switch on 9/11 even though "the system was blinking red," according to the then-CIA chief. Bush grabbed a bullhorn at ground zero and remade himself as a "war president" -- and suffered no real political damage from the failure to either capture Osama bin Laden or find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Scheer is right on. But, then, a whole lot of us have known Dubya's game for years. Funny how a war that has no end and a hurricane named Katrina can--as the polls are showing--open a whole lot of folk's eyes to the incompetency extant in the White House.
But, what the hell, the damage is done. The Rocky Mountain News printed an article this morning warning pretty much of the inevitability of a recession...SOON. Hundreds of billions of dollars (which the government DOES NOT HAVE) are, once again, enriching the rich in the rebuilding of the Gulf. One of Haliburton's subsidiaries was the first to pop up down there, foaming at the mouth and ready and willing to loot to an extent no poor, desperate, hungry black folk in the Big Easy ever imagined.
"...and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right..."
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, I Am Waiting
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Sweet Melissa
Since Sweet Melissa just had her 12th birthday, I thought I'd post this "baby" picture that never ceases to crack me up. She's asking, "What the hell do you expect me to do with this?" She never really did get into playing with stuffed toys.
Oh My... Pat Robertson At It Again. Alzheimer's or Just Another Good Christian Act?
Dateline Hollywood provides this story that reads, in part:
In order to avoid further tragedy, Robertson called not only for the Television Academy to find a new heterosexual host, but to bar all homosexuals and bisexuals from taking part in the ceremony.
He said employees at the Christian Broadcasting Network had put together a list of 283 nominees, presenters, and invited guests at the Emmys known to be of sexually deviant persuasions.
“God already allows one awards show to promote the homosexual agenda,” Robertson declared. “But clearly He will not tolerate such sinful behavior to spread beyond the Tonys.”
Hmmmm... Do ya'll remember Senator Joseph McCarthy?