From MoveOn.org:

Did you see the news? President Bush let Scooter Libby, the one man who was convicted for the lies around the Iraq war, go free. Paris Hilton served more jail time than he will.

And the obstruction of justice doesn’t stop there. The Senate recently subpoenaed documents from the Vice President’s office around the illegal wiretapping program and so far he has not complied. It’s clear this administration thinks it’s above the law. That’s un-American, and I think it’s time for Congress to hold them accountable.

I just signed a petition urging Congress to force Vice President Cheney to respond to its subpoenas. If he doesn’t, Congress has to begin impeachment proceedings against him. Can you join me by clicking the link below?

Petition: Stop Executive Overreach

Thanks!

P.S. If you’re on Facebook, join the group “I am outraged over Bush’s pardon of Lewis “Scooter” Libby!”.

Everyone expected House Republicans to give up efforts to kill NPR and PBS after a massive public outcry stopped them last year. But they’ve just voted to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS—unbelievably, starting with programs like “Sesame Street.”

Public broadcasting would lose nearly a quarter of its federal funding this year. Even worse, all funding would be eliminated in two years–threatening one of the last remaining sources of watchdog journalism.

Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS again this year:

http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

Read the Boston Globe story on the threat to NPR and PBS:

GOP takes aim at PBS funding

“Should the President be allowed to kill kittens with hammers in the interest of national security?” Finally, an insightful analysis of this important issue.

While I initially found the alleged illegal wiretapping authorized President Bush very troubling, it seems much more so after reading Bruce Schneier’s blog on The Security Threat of Unchecked Presidential Power:

… the president’s wartime powers, with its armies, battles, victories, and congressional declarations, now extend to the rhetorical “War on Terror”: a war with no fronts, no boundaries, no opposing army, and — most ominously — no knowable “victory.” Investigations, arrests, and trials are not tools of war. But according to the Yoo memo, the president can define war however he chooses, and remain “at war” for as long as he chooses. This is indefinite dictatorial power.

I definitely recommend reading the entire article, as well as the preceding article on the subject, NSA and Bush’s Illegal Eavesdropping.

Unless you’re totally xenophobic, you should consider voting for the Europeans of the Year, organized by the European Voice magazine, which “casts a spotlight on 50 individuals who have most influenced the European legislative and political agenda during the preceding year”. (They have to be European, but you don’t.)

I took interest in this poll because one of the nominees, Florian Müller, is the founder of NoSoftwarePatents.com, which is a cause very important to me. In addition to recognizing his efforts, a win for Müller would also do much to promote the cause. Because the poll requires voting in all 10 different areas, I found the NoSoftwarePatents.com voting guide helpful.

A TV news station site in Houston has a story about the KKK coming to Austin to rally for the Gay Marriage Amendment. (Apparently sites like the Austin American-Statesman don’t find it newsworthy…) My favorite part of the story is the protest of a Baptist Pastor they interviewed:

Rush said that a group that would come in that is characterized as hateful and bigoted is not welcome in this city. He said he doesn’t want the Klan as a partner on any cause.

Apparently the Baptists like to pursue hateful, bigoted causes on their own…

We were discussing Texas Proposed Constitutional Amendment 2 (of 9) at lunch today.

“The constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman and prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

While obviously just a hateful, unnecessary, hypocritical attack on the rights of homosexuals, and merely a diversion away from the multitude of failures of our legislators to do anything beneficial this session, it does pose an interesting question: Are corporations gay?

Under United States law, a corporation is treated in many ways as a person, having many of the same constitutional rights as a human being. In the 1886 Supreme Court case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite announced: “The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.”

Okay, so according to the Supreme Court, corporations are persons. It’s a well-known fact that a person has a gender, male or female, so this would imply that corporations have a gender. But which gender? Given that a lot of people have been fucked by corporations (just ask an Enron employee), I think it’s pretty safe to consider them male. Furthermore, I know a lot of people, men and women, that would say they’ve been totally fucked in the ass by a corporation, making corporations not only sodomitic, but also bisexual, and when it comes to men, gay. So there you have it: Corporations are gay. Q.E.D.

So, to corporations in support of this amendment, such as for the purpose of denying insurance coverage to domestic partners, I’ll just say that I hope you’re not planning any mergers…

To all other Texans, please go vote against this stupidity. Early voting is going on now, and the official vote is Nov. 8.

Thanks, Julian, for making sure I didn’t miss National Santorum Awareness Week! Evil, liberal Austin must have blinded me with a blissfully ignorant veil of unawareness! [Hmmmm… E-V-I-L. V-E-I-L. Coincidence or liberal conspiracy? We know what you’re up to!]

And thank you, Conservatives for American Values, for declaring this Holy week of Observance, and for your reverent review of Senator Santorum’s seminal book, It Takes a Family. It does indeed Take a Senator Named Santorum.

Holy shit, I thought Pat Robertson had flipped when he called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,

“If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it … It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.”

which Chavez humorously dismissed with offers of medical and fuel aid to the U.S. poor,

“The level of poverty in the United States also worries us. We offer not only to cover 6 million people with medical care over the next ten years, but to train over 200,000 doctors over the 10 years.”

and for which Robertson later offered a half-assed “apology”.

“I didn’t say ‘assassination.’ I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’ And ‘take him out’ can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time.”

Riiiight… [I also enjoyed William F. Buckley’s editorial on the matter, including a look at the U.S. government’s involvement with assassination of foreign leaders in the past.]

But apparently Robertson was only warming up, because now he has publicly claimed that Hurricane Katrina was God’s way of expressing its anger at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for its selection of Ellen Degeneres to host this year’s Emmy Awards.

“By choosing an avowed lesbian for this national event, these Hollywood elites have clearly invited God’s wrath. Is it any surprise that the Almighty chose to strike at Miss Degeneres’ hometown?”

Wow. If that weren’t enough, apparently the 9/11 attacks are Ellen’s fault too.

“This is the second time in a row that God has invoked a disaster shortly before lesbian Ellen Degeneres hosted the Emmy Awards. America is waiting for her to apologize for the death and destruction that her sexual deviance has brought onto this great nation.”

Well, if Robertson is right, things don’t look good for America. A recent study indicates that more women are experimenting with bisexuality than a decade ago, paving the way for even more lesbian celebrities.

Just watched the video clip of the MSNBC Countdown with Keith Olbermann editorial smackdown of our government - at all levels - for its handling of the Katrina disaster. I’ve never watched the show before, and imagine it’s highly sensationalized, but he makes several excellent points, such as:

• “this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.”
• “Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, ‘I’ll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die’?”