Summit on LGBT Rights

Well the secret is out -



The only reason I know about it is because I walked out the door of a meeting at just the right time to overhear a conversation about the upcoming 'Summit".

We will see if we can slow the domestic partnership freight train. Why "they" want to agree to a second class status for Lesbian and Gays is really beyond me.

Update: Please note that the flyer only invites representatives of Organizations not members of the Community to the "Summit" (see the first sentence below the red line). Also, the next sentence is quite telling - its seems the discussion will be aimed at building support for the "next steps" not determining what the "next steps" will be. It seems that we, the little people, need a lecture about what the "next steps" should be.

Dead Meat?

While the main focus of the post was on the NM Democrats State Central Committee meeting Peter St. Cyr dropped a bit of a bomb at the end. It appears that Senator Linda Lopez, the person who voted with Republicans to elect Tim Jennings as President Pro Tem of the NM Senate, the main proponent in the Senate for the Suncal TID (SB 249), one of the Senators who voted to allow sleazy politicians to sue nonprofits (SB 652), the former Bernalillo Democratic Party County Chair who was thrown out because she was so obnoxious is running for the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor.

This is gonna be interesting. While I'm sure the folks at SunCal are thrilled who else cares? The progressive wing of the Democratic Party dislikes her imensily and generally distrusts her. I really wonder what she is thinking.

Stick a fork in it - this candidacy was dead before it began.

I'm pissed!

In an article by David Alire Garcia titled "N.M. Catholic Church, gay activists seek compromise on domestic partnerships" some the internal controversy in the Lesbian and Gay Community that has surrounded these talks starts to erupt. Having been a part of that conversation and knowing that my views and those of other I respect were being ignored I decided to repurpose one of my emails as a comment and throw some fat publicly on the fire.

I fear that there is much more furor about these negotiations in the LesBiGay Community than Ms. Seigal suggests. As she readily admits she is a "professional" and her job is to get a deal done and move on. Those of us that remain in NM will be left to deal with the aftermath of her skills as a "professional lobbyist".

As I have said elsewhere, to Ms. Seigal and others, my problems with these negotiations starts with the fact that my rights are the subject of negotiations with religious leaders that I do not support nor believe have any right to cast me into the pit of second class citizenship. Everything that I have heard since the initial news of these discussions supports my fear that these unappointed and unelected representatives of the LesBiGay community have little interest in its feelings or opinions.

As I understand it these negotiations are aimed at dealing with the Church's objections to use of the word marriage in the Domestic Partnership (DP) bill. They disliked the fact that the DP bill used the word marriage and said that Domestic Partners had the same rights as a married couple. This appears to be based on the fact that the Church opposes the use of the word "marriage" in any way, shape of form that may connote some dignity to a lesbian or gay relationship. Hence all we need to do is yank the word "marriage" out of the DP bill and all would be well.

My underlying problem with this effort is that it simply reeks of the old ploy by the Southern segregationist - separate but equal. I, as a child of the 50's, who grew up in Alabama knows what this means, how it turned out back then and am not excited about revisiting it again. Its as if all the NAACP needed to do was sit down with Bull Conner and change a few words on their signs and in their songs and everything would be just lovely.

Certainly the folks at Legislative Services have their work cut out for them. To enumerate a list of all the rights and responsibilities of marriage while never mentioning the sacred word will be a massive task and its almost guaranteed that "things" will be left out. Whether these will be sins of omission or commission history will never now. I certainly look forward to reviewing this list and wonder how the Bishops will respond to it. Surely the production of the "list" will eviscerate the spirit of the original bill. Under this scheme our "partnerships" will never equal marriage, frankly they won't even equal a Domestic Partnership - they will just be a list of things to be negotiated like how many dozen eggs you get for a dollar or the cost current of an indulgence. Here Lucifer lies with the details. When it lists that a LesBiGay couple has the right to adoption what will the "Church" say? When the howl from the fundamentalist comes up will the Catholic Church be silent, join in or will they defend our rights to adopt children? Wanna make a bet what "they" do?

Moreover and from a tactical viewpoint probably much, much, much worse - this legislation will quickly be seen as a "list", as Seigal herself says, of our rights and responsibilities to be picked apart and ridiculed by our opponents. The production of such a "list" violates the basic principles of Politics 101 and is an out and out disaster. It makes me wonder about the political skill set of those that are suppose to be representing "us".

Once the "list" is produced then the real negotiations will begin in Santa Fe and I don't expect us to fare well by them. We will be whipsawed from stem to stern and rights will disappear or be limited all along the Legislation's tortuous path from when our "representatives" prostrate themselves before the Catholic Church to seek their indulgence to the numerous and sundry Legislative Committees that the bill will have to move through. Since we will have agreed to tying our basic human rights to a "list" subject to negotiations every Committee that has some jurisdiction over some component of that "list" will have to have its say. Surely adoption will be the topic of some heated hearings. No doubt it will be the first to go or to be "studied later" then other things will follow. All the while what our opponents cannot remove they will poison so that ultimately the "list" dies as a cruel joke or, even worse, we will have our "marriage-less", meaningless "list" passed and be signed into law - a disaster for all to see.

I have no doubt that those running the other side's negotiations understand perfectly what the production of this "list" means and worry that we are fundamentally out gunned at the negotiating table. This added to the fact that the Governor and our negotiator wants a bill passed, any bill will probably do, makes me fear the outcome of these negotiations.

In closing I must ask - why the rush to cement our status as second class citizens in New Mexico? Its quite possible that this bill will be worse than no bill at all. Time is on our side - sometimes the best thing to do is wait.

Vote now! Mary should go!

Heath Haussamen has a poll up at his blog "Heath Hausamen on New Mexico Politics" asking - "Should Santa Fe County Clerk Valerie Espinosa challenge Secretary of State Mary Herrera in next year's Democratic primary?"

Duhhhhhhhhhh! Please go there and vote Yes now. How can she be any worse than Mary "the hair" Herrera?

One question we should all be asking is why hasn't Mary certified more than one voting machine company? Expiring minds want to know.

The war within

Nearing the end of the 2009 Legislative session its time to pull out the crystal ball and make some predictions re: the State of the Democratic Party. The main prediction is obvious to anybody that has been to any Progressive gathering - it is divided and things are moving from bad to worse. Its really easy to sense the absolute rage that Progressives are feeling toward the establishment Democrats in the Senate. The main topic of discussion is how to transform these feelings into actions. The fact that its getting easier to hear and see what happening during Legislative sessions only makes matters worse. From votes on Domestic Partnership to TIDDS, Ethics and Health Care Reform the incredible corruption, homophobia and outright stupidity of members of Democratic Party is horrifying.

What Progressives will do isn't clear today. As a start expect more work to Primary sitting members of the House and Senate and some direct actions against them to shine light on their actions.

Hispanos Unidos - run for cover the Mexicans are comming!

Just saw this ad and its really, really bad - it totally misrepresents what that law would do -

The ad suggests that bus loads of folks, no doubt evil Mexicans, will be showing up at the polls to vote for the nasty Anti-American Democrats.

The truth is that while you can show up and vote you will cast a provisional ballot that won't be counted until you are legally registered as a voter. Now the ad doesn't say this but truth is not the issue here. This ad is meant to scare folks not inform them.

Since there are existing laws that deal with voting illegally anybody that cast a fraudulent ballot would be facing prosecution and jail time for their efforts.

Of course the ad doesn't tell you this but again truth isn't the issue here.

The ad is just an extension of the usual Republican refrain that there is massive voter fraud in New Mexico and all the Democrats want to do is make things worse. It would help the Republican's cause if they could point out a bunch of cases where illegal voting actually had occurred over the last few years but since they can't they just keep the drum beat going.

So what is Hispanos Unidos up to? And frankly who are they? From their web site the Organization's Mission Statement says it exist to:

"To educate citizens about the perils of big government and to support candidates whose platforms include minimization of government interference in the daily lives of Americans."

Below that it goes on to say:

Welcome to Hispanos Unidos, a non-partisian Political Action Committee dedicated to the belief that better government means less government.

I really love the "Non-Partisian" part! Wanna make a bet!

Martin Heinrich does as AIPAC tells him -

Sadly, one of Martin Heinrich's first acts in Congress was to support Israel's war on the Palestinian People by voting for Rep. Howard Berman's (D-Calif.) resolution expressing unequivocal support for the Israeli attack on Gaza. The resolution makes it very, very, very clear that without question and without doubt all the blame for the war and all responsibility to end it rests with Hamas. Ultimately, it encourages Israel to keep up the good work! To Martin it seems that Israel is incapable of doing wrong.

While the real reason for the Israeli attack on Gaza was to continue the Iron Wall Policy in effect since the 40's (essentially a long-term policy to subjugate the Palestinian People to Israeli will, for more on this see Another War, Another Defeat by John J. Mearsheimer) the supposed cause of this round of genocide was the 6,000 or so rockets that Hamas has fired at Israel over the last several years. These rockets resulted in the deaths of approximately 10 Israelis. Since the Gaza carnage began Israel's military has to date killed more than 1,300 Palestinians. No doubt Martin would approve the kill ratio for this excursion - a bit over 100 to 1. One wonders how Martin feels about Israel's habit of killing defenseless Palestinians - the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) seem to especially enjoy culling young Palestinian schoolchildren as an especially effective means of ethnic cleansing.

Ultimately, Martin looks to be yet another mindless tool of AIPAC. Certainly he is not alone - see Glen Greenwald's article Unanimous Consent in the Jan. 26th, 2009 issue of The American Conservative. It appears that AIPAC owns both parties and both houses of Congress which now supports the consensus view that the Palestinians are just another sub-human race best left to the tender mercies of Israel's Government. Sadly, on this point, I doubt Martin will stray too far from the fold in the future.

Certainly, one thing is for sure - it didn't take Martin long to get blood on his hands.

Something real to do about Rick Warren

Finally something to do besides bitch about Obama's choice of the homophobe Rick Warren to give the invocation at his Inauguration.

Please go to Turn Back Hate and sign the petition.

This is certainly an excellent starting point for the Progressive Community. Hopefully more ideas and actions are on the way.

Obama's obscene pick, the homophobe Pastor Rick Warren to do the invocation for the Inauguration

Back again!

So Obama has gone and gotten himself the out and out homophobe, Pastor Rick Warren, to do the invocation for the Inauguration. If you don't know much about the good Pastor well YouTube and CNN will inform!

Lets see - a gay relationship is like beastiality, pedophilia, pologamy and then he laughs when someone suggest he might be a homophobe.

What should we do - how about holding alternatives to the official homophobic Inaguration all over the country morning what could have been and asking for better? Above all we shouldn't be quiet about the fact that we are pissed and have been fundamentally insulted.

Albuquerque Republican Journal endorses Darren!

Well this is a shocker! ((Not!))

This morning, Albuquerque's Republican paper, the Journal endorsed White for CD1, Tinsley for CD2 and Lujan for CD3. They have followed their old, established pattern - they endorse Republicans except when the Democrat is gonna win by a huge margin. The same will hold true for the Senate and Presidential races - expect an endorsement for Udall and McCain. Udall because he is fixing to trash Pearce and McCain because that is just who they are.

The fact that the Albuquerque Journal is a Republican paper isn't a surprise to anybody interested in NM politics. They work hard to get Republicans elected and to keep them in office - proof of this comes easily from a quick review the coverage they gave/give Heather Wilson and Saint Pete. Their reporter in DC routinely gushed all over himself in praise for the pair. Beyond this coverage headlines and articles were routinely constructed as setup pieces to unfairly tarnish their opponents. Heather has made heavy use of them in the past. Who can forget all those advertisements over the years that have featured Journal articles to slam her opponent.

For the life of me I simply can't understand why any Dem subscribes to the Journal. Its a filthy rag and we can only hope that one happy day it will disappears and die. Who needs another spokesperson for the Republican Party? They already have Fox News.

Where are the Albuquerque Journal endorsements?

The title says it all - where are the endorsements?

We are a bit over 8 days or 201 hours till the polls open Nov. 4th and the Journal still hasn't endorsed anybody? My bets were on:

McCain
Udall
White

They would endorse Udall because they knew he would win and Pearce is dead meat. The other two are just the default choices for the Journal. They always endorse Republicans except when they are really, really hopeless - for example Pearce.

Maybe they don't like their choices - guess its not a good year for a Republican paper.

La Raison d'entre for the bailout bill

So, the Bushies lied once again - that's to be expected. Nobody but the perma stupid crowd should be surprised.

From yesterday's NYT, found via TPM, an article by Joe Nocera gives the real reason for Paulson's bailout bill - it's to finance the consolidation of the US financial industry into a few large chosen banks. As Nocera notes:

In point of fact, the dirty little secret of the banking industry is that it has no intention of using the money to make new loans.

Here "the money" refers to the money contained in the bailout bill.

All was revealed during an Oct. 17 conference call for JPMorgan Chase employees when the following question was asked:

“Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business side and will it change our strategic lending policy?”

Amazingly, one of the executives actually answered the question honestly:

“Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase,” he began. “What we do think it will help us do is perhaps be a little bit more active on the acquisition side or opportunistic side for some banks who are still struggling. And I would not assume that we are done on the acquisition side just because of the Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns mergers. I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way and obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop.”

Nocera goes on to explain:

Read that answer as many times as you want — you are not going to find a single word in there about making loans to help the American economy. On the contrary: at another point in the conference call, the same executive (who I’m not naming because he didn’t know I would be listening in) explained that “loan dollars are down significantly.” He added, “We would think that loan volume will continue to go down as we continue to tighten credit to fully reflect the high cost of pricing on the loan side.” In other words JPMorgan has no intention of turning on the lending spigot.

It is starting to appear as if one of Treasury’s key rationales for the recapitalization program — namely, that it will cause banks to start lending again — is a fig leaf, Treasury’s version of the weapons of mass destruction.

In fact, Treasury wants banks to acquire each other and is using its power to inject capital to force a new and wrenching round of bank consolidation. As Mark Landler reported in The New York Times earlier this week, “the government wants not only to stabilize the industry, but also to reshape it.” Now they tell us.

Indeed, Mr. Landler’s story noted that Treasury would even funnel some of the bailout money to help banks buy other banks. And, in an almost unnoticed move, it recently put in place a new tax break, worth billions to the banking industry, that has only one purpose: to encourage bank mergers. As a tax expert, Robert Willens, put it: “It couldn’t be clearer if they had taken out an ad.”

Friday delivered the first piece of evidence that this is, indeed, the plan. PNC announced that it was purchasing National City, an acquisition that will be greatly aided by the new tax break, which will allow it to immediately deduct any losses on National City’s books.

As part of the deal, it is also tapping the bailout fund for $7.7 billion, giving the government preferred stock in return. At least some of that $7.7 billion would have gone to NatCity if the government had deemed it worth saving. In other words, the government is giving PNC money that might otherwise have gone to NatCity as a reward for taking over NatCity.

Next Nocera says:

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to feel as if we’ve been sold a bill of goods.

Well that's two of us.

Nocera then concludes with a conversation he had with Senator Chris Dodd:

Late Thursday afternoon, I caught up with Senator Dodd, and asked him what he was going to do if the loan situation didn’t improve. “All I can tell you is that we are going to have the bankers up here, probably in another couple of weeks and we are going to have a very blunt conversation,” he replied.

He continued: “If it turns out that they are hoarding, you’ll have a revolution on your hands. People will be so livid and furious that their tax money is going to line their pockets instead of doing the right thing. There will be hell to pay.”

Let’s hope so.

Its nice to think that "There will be hell to pay" but, based on previous experiences, I seriously doubt it. The Washington establishment, both Dem and Republican, are way too owned to ever do much about another big bank atrocity.

Sweet Home Alabama - welcome to the surreal state

Perhaps the ultimate version of this song. Its really, really real - love the "dos", the shoes, and the chicks on stage. Checkout the expressions of the choir members, they either seem to be simply amazed or amazed and yucking it up at the same time. Also, don't miss how the lead singer and choir pronounce "AlaBama" - very cool.

The Leningrad Cowboys backed by the Red Army Choir.

While I'm not sure what Lenin or George Wallace would think I'm absolutely sure Lynyrd Skynyrd would approve.

Found via naked capitalism.

"their God is bigger than you"

Here you equals the Christian God
From a McCain rally in Iowa, found at TPM. This has to be watched to know how sick these people really are.

Here's my transcript of this clip:

"I'd also add Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November because there are millions of people around this World praying to their God, whether its Hindu, Buddha, Allah that his opponent wins for a variety of reasons and Lord I pray that you would guard your own reputation because they are gonna think that their God is bigger than you if that happens. So I pray that you would step forward and honor your own name in all that happens between now and the election day."

This is so wrong and so sick I can't even begin to dissect it. From my brief readings of the King James version of the Bible I am reminded of the following:

• Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

These people are using God for their purposes not following the Bible to achieve its purposes. One wonders who exactly they are worshiping these days!?!

A P.S. on this - I never realized that God had an ego - its news to me that that God cares one way or the other what anybody thinks. That's a concept that should put the Theologist into a tailspin for years to come!

Truth!!!!

Truth and from a Republican no less .......

From Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican:

"It forces innocent taxpayers to bail out government policies and Wall Street mistakes. It asks the American people to take a leap of faith and trust people who have consistently misled them, ..."

raping america

Guess its just one indignity piled upon many others but what the US Senate did tonight makes me sick.

The Bushies have succeeded in taring the Democrats with the same shit that has covered the White House for so long. To make matters worse the Democrats were willing participants. The Dems have no excuses now - they along with their Republican friends are blameable for all that will come. May Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the other Democratic Bush sycophants that so willingly came to Wall Street's aid burn in hell for what they have done to the United States and the Democratic Party.

Anybody that actually believes the citizens of the United States will ever see more than a few pennies out of that 700 billion that the American people will soon owe is simply out of their minds. Wall Street has already figured out 7,777 different ways to steal it all.

Below is a list of the filthy bastards that have helped Wall Street rape the USA yet again. I'm sad to see Obama on that list - guess he's just another shill for the corporate world after all.

Akaka
Alexander
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Brown
Burr
Byrd
Cardin
Casey
Chambliss
Clinton
Coburn
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Corker
Cornyn
Craig
Dodd
Domenici
Durbin
Ensign
Feinstein
Graham
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hutchison
Inoye
Isakson
Kerry
Klobuchar
Kohl
Kyl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson, NE
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Salazar
Schumer
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Sununu
Thune
Voinovich
Warner
Webb
Whitehouse

Wall Street to handle our Social Security?

When will the Dems start screaming about McCain and the Republicans who want to privatize Social Security? They want the same crooks, creeps, and thieves that brought us the mess on Wall Street to save Social Security. All the Streeters will do is steal every cent the average person has -

So why haven't we gotten that attack? Its simple and sad - the Dems are just as owned by Wall Street as the Republicans so they won't attack the criminals on Wall Street. That's the Real Reason we won't get an attack on the Republicans about Social Security Privatization.

love the ad - hate the ethanol policy

While I certainly wish Scott Kleeb well in his run for Senate, think his recent ad is great however his love for corn based ethanol leaves lots to be desired.

she should know ..........

Carly Fiorina, a women who knows and personally demonstrated how not to run a large Corporation, does the old foot and mouth routine about Sarah Palin and then goes on to extend the idiocy to McCain in the clip below.

I'm so glad McCain has friends like her - he certainly deserves them.

Clinton sycophants at it again-

I'm furious.

I always wondered how long it would take the Clinton sycophants to crawl out of this toilets and try to sabotage Obama's candidacy once the going got rough. Well obviously not long.

Over at Huff Po we are treated to the post "Why Replacing Biden With Hillary Makes Perfect Sense for Obama" by Andy Ostroy saying Obama should trash Joe Biden to replace him with the sainted one - Hillary Clinton - and all will be well. With friends like this Obama needs no enemies.

Over at Another White Female for Barack a newly minted web site that seems intent on doing what it can to support this "swap" and elect John McCain we find more of this nonsense. The blog's second post "Maybe this Hillary/Biden Swap Idea Isn't Crazy" focuses on this idea. My comment on that post is below:

This is amazing.

Obviously you want to destroy Obama's candidacy - I don't know if you are some crazed reverse sexist Clinton sycophant or a Republican operative.

Doesn't really matter - the damage you are doing is the same.

If you are another Clinton creep please understand that she lost - she couldn't even run a successful campaign against a young black guy. She had the money, she had the connections and she still lost. Now you want to do everything you can to make sure Obama looses so the perfect one, Saint Hillary, can try again.

Please leave!

Told you I am pissed.

By-the-by, need to add this to my list of reasons why its perfectly OK to hate the Clinton's. I expect Obama will win in November but if he does loose we all need to remember the treachery of the Clinton's and their supporters. They are not our friends - they care nothing about the issues and God knows the Clinton's have never cared about the Democratic Party. Its just a tool to use for their personal glory.