Media

Eric Dickerson’s not just slinging Mud

Indy Star Matt Tully’s analysis of the recent polling in the Carson/Dickerson battle for made my jaw drop in shock:

No mudslinging: Carson took hard personal shots at Dickerson last month, but the Republican remained positive. He knows there is nothing to gain by trading potshots and respectfully argues that Carson’s time as an effective politician has simply passed.

WHAT? This campaign is the dirtiest, slimiest one I’ve ever known, and it’s not coming from Carson’s end. I’m sorry — Dickerson is slinging more than any candidate I’ve ever seen, but it’t not mud he’s slinging — it’s shit, plain and simple.
He’s feeding libelous allegations and smear tactics to the IndyUndercover site (which is run not by cops or sheriff’s officers, but by the Republican Party — current investigation points toward Ike Randolph as the responsible party) and to Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana. Go to these site and read what they’re saying about Julia Carson.
They’re alleging she stole someone’s wallet, for pete’s sake. Tell me that’s not shit-slinging. Tell me that’s positive campaigning.

Continue ReadingEric Dickerson’s not just slinging Mud

Mark Foley blames crimes on being abused

Priest comes forward to tell of his inappropriate behavior with Mark Foley when Foley was young.

Let me make it really clear:

I was not molested as a kid. Most of my gay friends were never molested as kids. I have several friends who were molested. Some of them are straight and some are gay, and there seems to be no correlation whatsoever between the gender of the person who molested them and their current sexual orientation.

Many studies over the years have shown that there is no causal relationship between sexual molestation and homosexuality.

Also — I’m a 38 year old woman. The woman I love is 34 years old. I’m really quite tired of having our loving, nurturing relationship being equated with pedophilia, pederasty or predatory sexual behavior of any sort, and I’m really hating that I’m reading tons of that crap coming from the religious right currently.

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Mark Foley, and “real” gay relationships

In an opinion piece for the LA Times, Michelangelo Signorile says that the media should have “outed” Mark Foley as gay soon after his hypocritcal votes in favor of anti-gay legislation. I agree with Signorile about “outing” hypocritical public figures, and always have. But there’s something else in the article that I wanted to highlight…

Foley lived in a glass closet in Washington, where many people, we’re now being told, assumed he was gay, even as he orchestrated a lie for the voters of his district with help from the media both in Washington and at home in Florida.
Foley’s closet wasn’t just about protecting his political career. He seemed to be filled with shame. According to one gay man quoted in the Washington Post last week who challenged Foley on his voting for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, Foley justified marginalizing gay marriage by saying, “I could never compare any relationship I have ever had to the nature of my mother and father’s relationship.”
For Foley, homosexuality meant second-class status.
That kind of self-loathing is bound to play out in harmful ways. Would Foley have made online sexual advances on teenagers if he were openly gay or if he’d been reported on, truthfully, by the media as a gay man long ago, and faced the consequences? It’s quite possible the answer is no.

I find the phrase I highlighted above just heartbreaking, for Mark Foley’s sake as well as for my own.
I love my parents, and the people who are especially my role models for a good marriage — my paternal grandparents, who are just wonderful people. But do they somehow have a more “valid” relationship than mine? Of course not. When I see my girlfriend, I see someone as important to me as the members of my own family; someone that I love, adore, want to become a better person for, to live with and build a life with.
If I can live up to my grandparent’s example even half way (I’ve referred to them in the past as living examples of “happily ever after”) then I will be more successful as a spouse than 95% of heterosexual married couples are. And I love Stephanie so much that I want that for her and for me. I want a relationship like my grandparents have, with love and stability, surrounded by family and friends.
As loathsome as I think Mark Foley’s behavior was, I hope that someday he finds a relationship that moves him in that way, too — an equitable relationship based on respect and honesty and concern for the well being of his partner, and not taking advantage of people over whom he has power.

Continue ReadingMark Foley, and “real” gay relationships

Homophobia and anonymity online

Kim Ficera of Afterellen.com does some research on anonymous posters and homophobia on youtube.com and in online sites like myspace.com, after reading the story of a woman who had a fake myspace page created by her disgruntled students, who falsely claimed she was gay. After delving deep into the world of anonymous webspaces and open displays of anti-gay prejudice, Ficera admits she feels pretty squicked out.

It’s very hard to find words to adequately describe how I feel at the moment. Glad to be in a loving lesbian relationship? Happy to be committed to a woman who can spell? You bet! Betrayed? Sad? Soiled? Beaten ? Yes, all of the above, but to the power of hundreds of clicks and thousands of degradations. I am dispirited, broken by a combination of meanness, vulgarity and ignorance.
I know that there are very dangerous, damaged and just plain mean people in the world. I thought them scattered, though. You know, a Jeffrey Dahmer here, an Osama bin Laden there, and tiny clusters of Ann Coulters, James Dobsons and Mel Gibsons everywhere. I never imagined that I’d find so many crude bullies and emotionally retarded cowards, all feeding off of one another on the web.

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Ben Stein is fucking batshit crazy

Former Nixon speechwriter and Ferris Bueller actor Ben Stein weighs in on the Foley scandal in the American Spectator, illustrating that he’s not only homophobic as hell, but off his damned rocker.

We have a Republican man in Congress who sent e-mails to teenage boys asking them what they were wearing, and an entire party, the Democrats, whose primary constituency, besides the teachers’ unions, is homosexual men and lesbian women. I hope it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that a big part of male homosexual behavior is interest in young boys. (Take a look at anyone renting Endless Summer next time you are at the video store.)
Don’t get me wrong. My very best friend is gay. I have many gay friends and they are great people. But how the Democrats, the party of gays, can be coming down this hard on a MC who’s gay is simply beyond belief. One of my top, favorite congressmen, Barney Frank, is openly gay. Might he say a word in defense of his fellow gay MC right about now? Hmm, I thought not.

On what fucking planet is that the case? I know hundreds of gay men. None of them are interested in young boys. I’ve been to their houses, seen their movie collections (including the porn), paged through their magazines. No young boys anywhere in them. And no Endless Summer movie, either. I had to look that movie up to even see what it was, and I don’t see anything gay or pedophile-related about it.
I hope your “very best friend” is kicking your anti-gay ass right now, Stein, because I don’t want to have to.

Continue ReadingBen Stein is fucking batshit crazy

Simply Naughty Emails

The White House referred to Republican Representative Mark Foley’s sexual contact with underage congressional pages as “simply naughty emails.”

SNOW: Yes, look, I hate to tell you, but it’s not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails.

Does this seem like “simply naughty emails” to you (of course, it’s a chat, not an email)?

Maf54: I miss you lots since san diego.
Teen: ya I cant wait til dc
Maf54: 🙂
Teen: did you pick a night for dinner
Maf54: not yet…but likely Friday
Teen: ok…ill plan for Friday then
Maf54: that will be fun

And another message:

Maf54: I want to see you
Teen: Like I said not til feb…then we will go to dinner
Maf54: and then what happens
Teen: we eat…we drink…who knows…hang out…late into the night
Maf54: and
Teen: I dunno
Maf54: dunno what
Teen: hmmm I have the feeling that you are fishing here…im not sure what I would be comfortable with…well see

Looks to me like he met the kid, at least once. And the other chats he asked them to describe their masturbation techniques, measure their penises, etc.

The coverup is really entertaining — House Speaker Dennis Hastert is currently pulling press releases from his website about his efforts to “Keep Kids Safe in Cyberspace” from his website, because he knew about the scandal, possibly as early as 2001, and didn’t do anything.

Check out Think Progress’ timeline about which Republicans knew about Foley’s predatory behavior, and when they knew it. It’s like a Who’s Who of GOP Leadership — aside from Hastert, NRCC chairman Tom Reynolds, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Chairman of the House Page Board, House Majority Leader John A. Boehner, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA).

Other Republican spin on the Foley scandal:

1) “It’s just like Clinton!” — except that she was an adult, not a 16 year old kid.

2) “It’s a GAY thing! Let’s ban gay marriage to keep this from happening!” — No, it’s a child predator thing. It doesn’t (and shouldn’t) matter what the sex of the kids were… they were teenagers, and he was a 50 year old guy.

You know that ain’t right. And Foley has nothing to do with my loving relationship with another consenting adult.

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The “dangerous” gay community

From today’s Indianapolis Star:

But lawmakers and judges are a different matter. Legislators have been carrying guns into the Capitol for years, exercising what they say is their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Twenty-five of Indiana’s 150 senators and representatives had permits to carry concealed weapons in 2003, according to a study published by The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne.
Sen. Brent Waltz is among the elected officials licensed to carry a sidearm under his coat. He supports the security measures and does not plan to bring his gun to the office after the new steps are implemented.
“I’d probably check it at the door,” Waltz said. “I think it is not a bad thing to have fewer firearms in the Capitol.”
Waltz, R-Greenwood, said he is not worried about his safety inside the Statehouse, but his trip to and from the building sometimes makes him a little nervous.
Lawmakers, Waltz said, vote on emotionally charged issues — such as proposals to ban gay marriage or abortion — and occasionally receive death threats from those who disagree with their positions.
“Certainly there’s a level of risk anyone involved in public life takes,” Waltz said. “It’s important for government to try to reduce those risks as much as possible.”

I sent this email to Senator Brent Waltz’ office:
Since you brought up gay marriage as one of the “emotionally charged issues” that must mean you’ve received a death threat from someone in the gay community, right?
I’ll be giving your office a call in the next few days to get more information on the death threat you received. I write for an online paper, and I’m going to do a story on this. I’d like to talk to Senator Waltz, and with any police that investigated the threat to find out more about where it came from and what follow up occurred.

Continue ReadingThe “dangerous” gay community

Polar bears drown amid Arctic thaw

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters, Via Scotman.com News:

OSLO (Reuters) – Polar bears are drowning and receding Arctic glaciers have uncovered previously unknown islands in a drastic 2006 summer thaw widely blamed on global warming.
Signs of wrenching changes are apparent around the Arctic region due to unusual warmth — the summer minimum for ice is usually reached between mid-September and early October before the Arctic freeze extends its grip.
“We know about three new islands this year that have been uncovered because the glaciers have retreated,” said Rune Bergstrom, environmental adviser to the governor of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago about 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole.
The largest is about 300 by 100 metres, he told Reuters.
On a trip this summer “We saw a couple of polar bears in the sea east of Svalbard — one of them looked to be dead and the other one looked to be exhausted,” said Julian Dowdeswell, head of the Scott Polar Research Institute in England.
He said that the bears had apparently been stranded at sea by melting ice. The bears generally live around the fringes of the ice where they find it easiest to hunt seals.

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Rosie O’Donnell and Christian Terror Cells in the US

The American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Faith and Action and World Net Daily are all busy bashing Rosie O’Donnell for saying “Radical Christians are no different than murderous radical Muslims.”

God damn it. What she said is way tamer than what I said in the recent past with a big fat list of armed, dangerous Christian Terror Cells in the United States.

Why the heck aren’t all these people crying out against me?!! Huh??! I’m doing far more than my share to piss of the religious right, and I’m just not getting any credit. Harrrumph.

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Princeton Researchers Break Voting Machine Security

Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy have proven that they can easily, undetectibly hack Diebold voting machines and alter votes and the outcome of elections, and they’re publishing a paper on their findings.

Abstract This paper presents a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software. We obtained the machine from a private party. Analysis of the machine, in light of real election procedures, shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks. For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities — a voting-machine virus. We have constructed working demonstrations of these attacks in our lab. Mitigating these threats will require changes to the voting machine’s hardware and software and the adoption of more rigorous election procedures.

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