Did You Remember?

Memorial Day is over. Did you remember to mourn for the dead, both of this war and of past wars. Did you remember to think good thoughts for our troops who are fighting the unnecessary war in Iraq?

For those of you "Support Our Troops" car-magnet people out there, here is something you can really do to support our troops. Give some money to Army Emergency Relief. The AER funds are made available to commanders to provide emergency financial assistance to soldiers - active & retired - and their dependents when there is a valid need. The AER is a private, non-profit organization - your $$ wont be going to George Bush and his cronys.

This is truly helping to support our troops. So rip that fucking car-magnet ribbon off your SUV and write the AER a check! I gave $100 last Christmas, and I am going to give another $100 soon.

If you are interested in the relief organizations for the other branches, here they are:

The Air Force Aid Society

Navy - Marine Corps Relief Society

Coast Guard Mutual Assistance

Good for Senfronia Thompson!!!

This is the kind of crap the Colorado Legislature under the Republicans would have passed. Thank God that the Dems took over the legislature.

Senfronia Thompson is a Texas state representative from Houston.

Address to the Texas House of Representatives

by Senfronia Thompson
Apr 29, 2005

I have been a member of this August body for three decades, and today is one of the all-time low points. We are going in the wrong direction, in the direction of hate and fear and discrimination. Members, we all know what this is about, this is the politics of divisiveness at its worst, a wedge issue that is meant to divide.

Members, this issue is a distraction from the real things we need to be working on. At the end of this session, this Legislature, this Leadership will not be able to deliver the people of Texas, fundamental and fair answers to the pressing issues of our day.

Let's look at what this [proposed constitutional] amendment does not do: It does not give one Texas citizen meaningful tax relief. It does not reform or fully fund our education system. It does not restore one child to CHIP, who was cut from health insurance last session. It does not put one dime into raising Texas' Third World access to health care. It does not do one thing to care for or protect one elderly person or one child in this state. In fact, it does not even do anything to protect one marriage.

Members, this bill is about hate and fear and discrimination. I know something about hate and fear and discrimination. When I was a small girl, white folks used to talk about "protecting the institution of marriage" as well. What they meant was if people of my color tried to marry people of Mr.[Wayne] Chisum's [R-Pampa] color, you'd often find the people of my color hanging from a tree. That's what the white folks did back then to "protect marriage."

Fifty years ago, white folks thought inter-racial marriages were a "threat to the institution of marriage." Members, I'm a Christian and a proud Christian. I read the good book, and do my best to live by it. I have never read the verse where it says, "gay people can't marry." I have never read the verse where it says, "though shalt discriminate against those not like me." I have never read the verse where it says, "let's base our public policy on hate and fear and discrimination." Christianity to me is love and hope and faith and forgiveness - not hate and discrimination.

I have served in this body a lot of years - and I have seen a lot of promises broken. I should be up here demanding my 40 acres and a mule because that's another promise you broke. You used a wealthy white minister cloaked in the cloth to ease the stench of that form of discrimination..

So, now that blacks and women can vote, and now that blacks and women have equal rights - you turn your hatred to homosexuals - and you still use your misguided reading of the Bible to justify your hatred. You want to pass this ridiculous amendment so you can go home and brag. Brag about what?

Declare that you saved the people of Texas from what? Persons of the same sex cannot get married in this State now. Texas does not now recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions, religious unions, domestic partnerships, contractual arrangements or Christian blessings entered into in this State - or anywhere else on this planet Earth.

If you want to make your hateful political statements, then that is one thing - the Chisum amendment does real harm. It repeals the contracts that many single people have paid thousands of dollars to purchase to obtain medical powers of attorney, powers of attorney, hospital visitation, joint ownership and support agreements. You have lost your way - this is obscene.

Today, you are playing to the lowest common denominator - you are putting aside the real issues of substance that we need to address so that you can instead play on the public's fears and prejudices to deceive and manipulate voters into thinking that we have done something important.

I realize that gay rights are not the same as civil rights - but I can guarantee you we are going in the wrong direction. I can not hide my skin color. In fact, in most of the South, people as pink as Rep. Wayne Smith were still Black by law if they had a great grandparent who was African. I was unable to attend an integrated and equally funded school until I got my Master of Laws degree. There were separate and unequal facilities for nearly everything.

I got second-hand textbooks even worse than the kind you're trying to pass off on every public school student next year. I had to ride to school on the back of the bus. I had to quench my thirst from filthy coloreds-only drinking fountains. I had to enter restaurants from the kitchen door. I was banned from entering most public accommodations, even from serving on a jury.

I had to live with the fear that getting too uppity could get you killed - or worse. I know what third-class citizenship feels like. In my first term, one of my colleagues walked up and down this aisle muttering about how 'Nigras should be back in the field picking cotton' instead of picking out committees.

So, I have to wonder about Rep. Chisum's 3/5 of a person amendment. Some of you folks hid behind your Bible then, too, to justify your cultural prejudices, your denial of liberty, and your gunpoint robbery of human dignity.

We have worked hard at putting our prejudices against homosexuals into law. We have denied them basic job protections. We have denied them and their children freedom from bullying and harassment at school. We have tried to criminalize their very existence.

But, we have also absolved them of all family duties and responsibilities: to care for and support their spouses and children, to count their family's assets in determining public assistance, to obtain health insurance for dependents, to make end-of-life or necessary medical decisions for their life partners - sometimes even to visit in the hospital, even to defend our own country. And then, we can stand on our two hind legs and proclaim, "See, I told you homosexual families are unstable." And nearly every one of you on this Floor has a homosexual in their extended families.

Some of you have shunned and isolated these family members. Some of you, even some of the joint co-authors, have embraced them within your own family, for the essence of Christianity is love. Yet, you are now poised to constitutionalize discrimination against a particular class of people.

I thought we would be debating real issues: education, health care for kids, teacher's health insurance, health care for the elderly, protecting survivors of sexual assault, protecting the pensions of seniors in nursing homes. I thought we would be debating economic development, property tax relief, protecting seniors pensions and stem cell research, to save lives of Texans who are waiting for a more abundant life. Instead we are wasting this body's time with this political stunt that is nothing more than constitutionalizing discrimination. The prejudices exhibited by members of this body disgust me.

Last week, Republicans used a political wedge issue to pull kids - sweet little vulnerable kids - out of the homes of loving parents and put them back in a state orphanage just because those parents are gay. That's disgusting. Today, we are telling homosexuals that just like people of my like, when I was a small child, they too are second class citizens. I have listened to all the arguments. I have listened to all of the crap.

Mr. Chisum is a person who I consider my good friend and revere. But, I want you to know that this amendment is blowing smoke to fuel the hell-fire flames of bigotry. You are trying to protect your constituents from danger.

Sadly, even after this great speech, the bill passed.

Further Proof That Cheney Runs the U.S.

We all know about the massive amount of time bush takes for vacation. We have also heard of the small plane that flew within three miles of the White House on May 11th, prompting the evacuation of the Capitol and the White House. bush, who was out on a bike ride, was not notified at the time of the evacuations.

And now we have the resumption of the Social Security "town halls" tour, which sends bush around the country, selling his SS shakedown to adoring crowds.

Has any other president in the past traveled and vacationed away from the White House this much? Of course not, as those presidents actually ran the country (yes, even Reagan). bush is able to do all this because Cheney is actually running the country. It's as simple as that.

First Picture From My Vacation

This is one of my favorite pictures of my time in Hawai'i. It is a picture of Diamond Head taken while walking down the beach in Waikiki. 

Republican Shithead Watch

During the Senate debate about the Shrub nominees that the Democrats find ultra-radical (which may bring about the "nuclear option" (or "nucular" if you are the president)), Rick Santorum (R-PA) said:

"It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942." He said Democratic protests over Republican efforts to ensure confirmation votes would be like the Nazi dictator seizing Paris and then saying, "I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city. It's mine."

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT - that would be a "red state", people) rebutted thusly:

Mr. President, last week, on Wednesday, we evacuated the Capitol. At the instruction of the Capitol Police, more than a few Senators and staff actually ran from this building and the surrounding offices in the very real fear that a plane was carrying a bomb to attack this building, the center of our democracy.

Sadly, Wednesday was not the first time. And Wednesday will likely not be the last time, that we guard against threats to our democracy by plane and bomb.

But there are other threats to our democracy and our freedoms, just as menacing, equally as dangerous.

Abraham Lincoln said: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

Former Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin said: “It is not slogans or bullets, but only institutions, that can make, and keep, people free.”

And Baron Montesquieu wrote in The Spirit of the Laws: “There is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and the executive.” …

Mr. President, in ancient Rome, when the Senate lost its power, and the emperor became a tyrant, it was not because the emperor abolished the Senate. In ancient Rome, when the Senate lost its power, it continued to exist, at least in name. But in ancient Rome, when the Senate lost its power, in the words of the Senate’s historian, Senator Robert Byrd, the Senate became “little more than a name.”

In ancient Rome, when the Senate lost its power, the Roman Senate was complicit in the transfer. The emperor did not have to seize all the honors and powers. The Roman Senate, one after another, conferred greater powers on Caesar.

It was not the abolition of the Senate that made the emperor powerful. It was the Senate’s complete deference.

Like the Roman Senate before us, we risk bringing our diminution upon ourselves. We risk bringing upon ourselves a hollow Senate, a mere shadow of its past self. And we risk bringing upon ourselves a loss of the checks and balances that ensure our American democracy. …

Mr. President:

This is the way democracy ends;
This is the way democracy ends;
This is the way democracy ends;
Not with a bomb, but a gavel.

Would the good people of Pennsylvania please throw this ass-pipe out of office??!!

P.S. In case you were wondering, an ass-pipe is the hollow pole that doctors use to do rectal exams.

Back from Hawai'i !!!

And boy am I tired. I took the 9:00 PM flight out of Honolulu, and didn't arrive in Denver until 9:45 the next morning. And I didn't have my bag on top of that. The connection I made in LA was too short to get my bag transferred between airlines. LAX SUCKS!!!!!!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it really hard to sleep on an airplane. I feel like I am only semi-unconscious. When I finally got home, I slept between noon and 6:00, and then went back to sleep at 10:00. They did deliver my bag - thanks for asking.

I will have details of my awesome trip later - along with some photos, if I can figure out how to post them here. I know my millions of fans will be waiting in anticipation...

14%!!!

I am: 14% Republican.

"You're a tax-and-spend liberal democrat. People like you are the reason everyone else votes for guys like Reagan or George W."

Are You A Republican?

I Couldn't Have Said It Better...

The state to the east of mine is full of a bunch of retards.

Children of the Corn

But damn there are a lot of hotties in Kansas!

SIDEWAYS and the Generation Gap

It's sad, but at 38, I am the second oldest person in my department at work (the oldest co-worker is only 2 years older than I am). The rest of my co-workers are in their early 20's.

I overheard two such co-workers today discussing the movie "Sideways" - starring Paul Giamatti (nominated for an Oscar) as Miles and Thomas Haden Church as Jack, with Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh. The movie is about two friends who are going on a wine tasting vacation before one of them (Jack) gets married. Miles is a school teacher who is still depressed over his divorce and trying to get his novel published. Jack is out to try this wine-tasting "thing" while getting his rocks off before tying the knot. The movie is about each of these characters (especially Miles) and how they are dealing with the isues in their lives. A very funny and thoughtful movie.

Anyway, one of the dudes said, "'Sideways', I heard that was good." The other said that he saw it, and though it sucked. When asked to describe it, he said "These two guys go on this bachelor party trip, and the guy getting married fucks a couple of chicks and then gets married. It was boring."

I just shook my head. Both these "kids" (god that makes me feel old saying that) are smart. The "reviewer" is married, and has a little girl. He is of the video-game generation, and usually talks about nothing else (as do most of the "kids" in my dept.) He doesn't have any of the traditional higher-education (four years of college). He started at my company out of high-school. He is making good money and has never seen unemployment. (And it is the same with the rest of the "kids".) Did I mention that all the "kids" are Republicans?

So I don't know whether it is the life-experience that I have (I have been divorced twice), or my "liberal-arts" ecucation, but I just again have to shake my head. When I was that age, I was a "geek", but I could appreciate a movie like "Sideways". Why can't they?