Lawmaker Suggests Gay Marriage Leads to Bestiality

Just saw a link at Pam's House Blend to this story at
365gay.com.

Two Colorado lawmakers got into a shouting match when one of them marched into a news conference the other was holding to denounce same-sex marriage.

Rep. Kevin Lundberg (R-Berthoud) and Rep. Jim Welker (R-Loveland) called the news conference to tout their proposed amendment to bar gays and lesbian from marrying.

Colorado already has legislation that blocks same-sex marriage. But, Lundberg said that it could be overturned by judges. Lundberg called it "the most significant domestic issue of the decade."

At that point, Rep. Angie Paccione (D-Fort Collins) had enough. "We have over 700,000 Coloradans without health care," she said, her voice rising, she yelled as she marched up the podium.

"How could we possibly say that gay marriage is more important than health care?"

Paccione, who is half black, also reminded him that interracial marriage used to be illegal in Colorado. She said denying gay people the right to marry is no different. Lundberg argued that they were two different issues. Welker then interjected saying that gay marriage would open a "Pandora's box".

"Where do you draw the line?" he said. "A year and a half ago a lady in India married her dog." Welker was referring to the marriage of a 9-year-old girl who married a stray dog in 2003 as part of a ritual to ward off an evil spell.

WTF are they putting in the drinking water in Colorado? Or is it being trucked in from Alabama? I wonder what kinds of things are stored in his personal folders on his PC...

Here are some predictable cookie-cutter positions of Rep. Jim Welker on a few recurring issues of the batsh!t brigades:

Family Values

Protection from Internet Pornography Internet filters are needed to protect schoolchildren from accidentally downloading pornography while on computers in our libraries and schools. I co-sponsored legislation on this issue; it did not become law. This issue remains vitally important. I will support all efforts to put commonsense and decent restraints in place to protect our young people.

Federal Marriage Amendment

Coloradoans spoke on this issue before when they passed the Defense of Marriage Act. I also support the Federal Marriage Amendment. I believe that marriage is meant to be between one man and one woman. This amendment needs to be added to the Constitution. It does not diminish the civil rights of gays and lesbians; it protects the definition of traditional marriage, which is the backbone of our great nation.

The Right-to-Life

According to statistics from October, 2003 to July, 2004, every month in the Planned Parenthood clinic in Fort Collins, Colorado, an average of 131 unborn babies are aborted. This practice is legal, but it is not right, moral, or just. Life begins at conception. The decision to make abortion legal in this country should be overturned. We need to value and protect all human life.

Assshattery. You can bet he's staunchly pro-dealth penalty.

Not to be picking solely on Welker, Rep. Lundberg is more of the same:

"2005 Champion of the Family"- Rocky Mountain Family Council

Jeeeesus.

I Don't Like Mondays

"I Don't Like Mondays" - The Boomtown Rats


Bob Geldof was kind of snarly and cute in 1979! This should make you feel old if you remember when this came out. I could live out the rest of my life and if I never saw another pair of those "Flock of Seagulls" glasses, it would be a-ok with me!

HBO Sunday Nights

It took me months to get over the loss of Six Feed Under, Carnivale, and The Comeback on HBO, coupled with the season finale of Entourage last year. HBO on Sunday nights was where I'd be. I tried to get into Rome but that series, while a good one, just never hooked me in.

Things are definitely improving now that Deadwood and Entourage are back for a new season. But it's even better. After Entourage is a masterpiece of racy creativity by Louie C.K. called Lucky Louie. Last night's orgasm-themed episode was brilliant. And the fact that the series is filmed before a live audience in an austere cheap set gives it a 1970s sit-com feel with subject matter and dialogue clearly rooted in the 21st century. The contrast alone generates discomfort.

Afterwards we switched over to Comedy Central for Dog Bites Man, another stroke of brilliance. If you haven't seen any of these, check them out. Incredible entertainment.

Pot News

From this week's Austin Chronicle comes some weed news:

The Texas Department of Public Safety reports that 2005 was another record-breaking year for drug seizures, with troopers collecting more than a ton of cocaine (2,285 pounds, to be exact), 153 pounds of methamphetamine, and nearly 23 tons of marijuana during routine traffic stops. In all, the seized booty is worth a cool $160 million, DPS reports.

Trooper traffic-stop acumen notwithstanding, however, the department's banner year was aided in part by the decidedly less-than-genius smuggling skills of some traffickers – including the driver of a white SUV who stacked the rear parcel area of the vehicle with bricks of marijuana (in plain sight) and then got popped after getting into a one-vehicle accident.

In other punitive drug-law news, Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski on June 2 got his drug-warrior wish when he signed into law a bill re-criminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana – the afterglow may be fleeting, however, since the state's ACLU has vowed to fight the regressive measure, which clearly conflicts with rulings from the Alaska Supreme Court, which legalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults in 1975, ruling that the right to privacy trumps worries that the drug would be harmful when used by adults at home. The court reaffirmed that position in 2003, striking down a 1990 ballot initiative that tried to recriminalize pot, ruling that it conflicted with the state's constitution, which guarantees that the "right of the people to privacy … shall not be infringed."


Check out these photos from the Texas DPS site.
What a pity and a waste of government resources and your tax dollars.

One reason I'm no longer a Republican

Back during my early college years I was a proud member of the Young Republicans or whatever it was called. I was a student at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. Our group planned to attend a meeting at the main campus in Fayetteville which is at least 3 hours away by car. One of the group leaders had a pilot’s license and a plane so he agreed to fly us up for the meeting to cut down on travel time. It was dark by the time we got to the northwest Arkansas region. I could tell the pilot was getting disoriented and was uncertain about the airport location.

I am not a pilot, and hadn’t been in a private plane since I was about 8 years old. But I’ve studied maps my entire life and I know the shapes of cities and can usually identify them from the air, especially at night with the city lights. I swear I recall flying into Chicago once on a commercial flight and could easily spot Chicago from the surrounding suburbs because the street lights in Chicago were a different color from the surrounding ‘burbs.

Anyhoo, northwest Arkansas is pretty easy to figure out because, at the time, Fayetteville was the largest town at the southern end of a string of towns, with Springdale just a few miles north, and Rogers a few miles north of Springdale. I can’t remember where our destination was, but I think it was Springdale for some reason. The pilot passed over Springdale and was heading towards Rogers. He had no idea, but I knew. We ended up landing at an airport and of course it was the wrong one.

I think that was one turning point for me with the Republicans. These people wanted to control the country and the leader, while blessed with obvious wealth, had no sense of direction or analytical skills. And I haven’t flown in a private plane since.

BLOG DESIGN

My goal this weekend was to tweak my blog to make it more personal. I know as much about html as I know about a car engine. If I have car trouble, I open the hood (because that's what you do when you break down), and I just stare, and then call help. I can check oil levels, that's about it.

So, I made some changes this morning and after a few previews, I felt daring enough to save the template changes. The graphic in the header is a negative photo of some holy java beans I snapped yesterday. Appropriate huh?

For someone who had no idea he would even start a blog until mid-May I am at least making some progress. Give me your feedback. I'm kind of curious to know if this looks OK if you're using a browser other than Internet Explorer particularly.

My 1/10 Catholic Confessional

I used to listen to "Knock on Wood" in the gay disco in Little Rock.

Oh not only did I listen to it, I was in charge of the light show. I kid you not.

I have many stories.

pick your meat right off the pit

something we watched on Food TV last night. It was some outdoor BBQ in Bandera, Texas, not too far southwest of Austin. People were lining up to view the pit and select the meat of their choice. Txrad commented that we're living in the midst of the world's best BBQ and we're both vegetarians.

Oh well.... we have some excellent veggie options in Austin as well, so it works out.

Cynthia McKinney off the hook

Grand jury declines to indict McKinney

AP Link
WASHINGTON - A grand jury declined Friday to indict Rep. Cynthia McKinney in connection with a confrontation in which she admitted hitting a police officer who tried to stop her from entering a House office building.

I wonder if she'll celebrate by getting a new hairdo! Preferably one that shows her "disdain for public office" if I recall the quote I read from some wingnut. I kind of like that photo -- it strikes fear into white men.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I've visited the Family Research Council's website so I'll have to go wash off the slime.

Quote of the Day:

"The Family Research Council is indispensable to those of us in Congress who care about family values."

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint (R) (like you didn't know!)

The Deep South has some mental disease

Hog Dog Fighting: Bloodsport Packaged as Family Entertainment

If you're like most parents planning a weekend outing for your family, you might take your children camping, to an amusement park or a baseball game.
Not so for many parents in rural Louisiana. Or Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, and a handful of other states where feral pigs roam.

A weekend highlight for some families in these areas is the so-called "hog dog rodeo." If you miss the homemade tin signs—"Hog Dog Rodeo Tonight! Turn here"—posted on trees along dirt roads, you can still find one of these events. Just listen for the squeals of terror and pain from the pigs and cheers from the audience of parents and children.


More on
Hog Dog Fighting from the Humane Society website.

More evidence that our deep red South has some serious disorder going on.

George Bush sings Sunday Bloody Sunday

hat tip Dan who posted a link to this at Pam's House Blend. This is too freaky and someone has WAAAY to much time on their editing hands.

McAnus (hat tip Jami) sells bumper stickers too!

What the F&CK does this really mean? And UGLY. But for $2.00 you can get one for your pickup to plaster alongside your Bush/Cheney 04 and "These Colors Don't Run" stickers.

Friday Pussy Blog: Sweet Pea

For those who read last week's blog featuring Sissy, this is her brother Sweet Pea. When his mommie (Big Thumbs) brought the litter to our house, Sweet Pea was clearly the runt and I wasn't sure if he would survive or be a healthy cat.

I must say he turned out to be quite the hefty one, a fine boycat specimen indeed. He's as heavy as a concrete block.

We have let him in the house a few times but after a few minutes he starts HOWLING to go out again. He enjoys catching lizards & snakes during the summer, which keeps me on constant reptile rescue patrol.

In the winter he enjoys sleeping on the warm car hood or on top of the water heater in the garage.

Texas Supermarket Chain Attacked by Homobigot Radio Host

Equality Texas has emailed an "Action Alert" regarding the Texas-based supermarket chain "H-E-B" being under attack by some crazy right-wing AM radio personality in San Antonio where the chain is based.

On Thursday, June 15th, a San Antonio Christian radio talk show host for KSLR radio began an assault on the H-E-B grocery chain for its sponsorship of San Antonio's PrideFest 2006.
Adam McManus urged his listeners to flood the H-E-B website with protests, and to talk with in-store managers and ask them to reconsider sponsorship of PrideFest.

H-E-B has a long-standing commitment to honor the diversity of their partners (employees) and the communities they serve.

This is from the H-E-B website:

"Diversity asks us to understand and respect ethnic cultures and heritage, work and life experiences and personal attributes such as age, education, religion, physical appearance, to name a few. H-E-B's workforce differs by race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, physical abilities, marital status, parental status and in many other ways. We have a Partner (employee)-friendly organizational culture designed to develop the unique talents of each Partner and offer feedback consistent with each Partner's individual goals."

You can link to this crazy batshit
WINGNUT here.

Here's a few of his intellectual gems:

On Safe Sex:
"The best possible protection against sexually transmitted diseases is a wedding ring."

On Homosexuality:
"I've been accused of being 'homophobic'. But I'm not afraid of homosexuals, I'm afraid for homosexuals. The average age of death for a homosexual male with AIDS is 39. And the average age of death for a homosexual male without AIDS is only 42. (Jesus, I'm lucky I'm still alive then!) It seems like the compassionate approach would be to challenge the person to stop participating in unnatural deviant behaviors that lead to his own premature death."

On the Death Penalty:
"When it comes to capital punishment, I'm pro-choice. The inmate can choose the electric chair, the gas chamber or a lethal injection."

He also has a resume posted on his site, and it lists "Education:" Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. (Doesn't say whether he actually got a degree or passed any courses!) I'm sure Pam Spaulding will love hearing about another whackjob coming from her environs.

He also hosted a weekly call-in TV talk show in Raleigh, North Carolina for four years which won The Southern Sunshine Video Festival Award in 1994 for "Best Talk Show" in the Southeastern region of nine states before coming to Texas to inflict his mindless asinine crap on a new audience.

Hijacking PBS from the Right

I've posted earlier about the FCC clamping down hard on broadcasters. Now it's taking a toll on PBS as well.

The Public Broadcasting Service has told all 348 public television stations to edit out coarse language to comply with new Federal Communications Commission rulings. Stations also should obscure images of peoples’ lips as they utter some profane words, the nonprofit organization advised its stations last month.

In a statement Wednesday, PBS said the new guidance seeks “to protect its member stations from the now-catastrophic financial sanctions and expensive litigation associated with FCC indecency enforcement activity.”

Programs that may have to be edited if they are repeated include Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues, a documentary on the blues; Mystery!, a detective adventure series, and A Company of Soldiers, a documentary on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, PBS spokesman Lea Sloan said in an e-mail interview.

“We’re going to start censoring ourselves to pick scenes that don’t have those words in it,” Louis Wiley, executive editor of Frontline, a documentary series produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, said in an interview. “This will make our communications less powerful, less accurate and less truthful.” FCC spokesman David Fiske declined comment.

In March, the FCC proposed a $15,000 fine of KCSM-TV in San Mateo, Calif., for airing the Scorsese film produced for PBS. It included interviews with performers and a record producer that contained numerous uses of words that the FCC said has inherent sexual and excretory connotations. San Mateo Community College District, which owns the TV station, appealed the fine. It was one of a dozen penalties proposed at the time against TV broadcasters for airing indecent material. The biggest among them was for $3.35 million against CBS stations for airing an episode of Without a Trace showing a teen orgy.

Comparing PBS programming to that shlock on commercial networks is appalling. If you want unedited truth, you'll have to move to cable. And whatever the FCC can't accomplish in terms of silencing what they dislike, your trusty congress is capable of finishing off.

Public Broadcasting Targeted By House
Panel Seeks to End CPB's Funding Within 2 Years
Read the full story at the
WASHINGTON POST.

Where is the outrage?

Wacky Letters

My usual sources of wacky letters have been remarkably quiet for the past week or so. But did find this one today:

"I am no longer associated with the Democratic Party. I’m not Republican, either. I have chosen to be a part of the Constitution Party. We are conservative because we believe in the Christian principles of the U.S. Constitution. School prayer and displaying the Ten Commandments in public buildings and Nativity scenes on public squares are what we are in favor of. We must humble ourselves and pray. Our president and our troops need all the prayer they can get. When 9/11 happened, we humbled ourselves in prayer. However, it seems that we have drifted away from that. I encourage you all to watch Dr. D. James Kennedy of “The Coral Ridge Hour.” He keeps us informed on what the ACLU is wanting to do, like remove “In God We Trust” from our money. This slogan has been on our coins since the Civil War and Reconstruction. In the 1950s, it was put on our dollar bills. It’s important that we elect Christian leaders. Most of all our country needs Jesus Christ very badly. "

The writer got one thing correct: "Our president and our troops need all the prayer they can get." Yep, all that and a shitload of morals wouldn't hurt either.

And yep, the 1950s were certainly an enviable time to be an American, and let's remember why
IN GOD WE TRUST was put on our currency.

It had to happen sooner or later

It's been over 5 years since the (s)election of George W. Bush. There's always so much to complain about and very little positive news. If asked to name anything the Bush Administration has done that I applaud, I'd scratch my head and remain silent.

Read the full story at the

Washington Post.

Bush to Create Largest Marine Sanctuary

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is creating a vast new marine sanctuary Thursday, extending stronger federal protections to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and its endangered monk seals, nesting green sea turtles and other rare species.

The nation's newest national monument, which will be given a native Hawaiian name based on suggestions from state residents, covers an archipelago stretching 1,400 miles long and 100 miles wide in the Pacific Ocean. It's home to more than 7,000 species, at least a fourth of them found nowhere else.

It is only the second time that Bush has invoked the 1906 National Antiquities Act, which gives the president authority to create national monuments to preserve the nation's ancient cultural sites and unusual geological features.

In February, Bush used the antiquities law for the first time when he declared part of the African Burial Ground in the lower Manhattan section of New York City a national monument. The site, covering less than half an acre, marks where an estimated 20,000 slaves and free blacks were buried in the 18th century.

President Clinton used the act to create 19 national monuments and expand three others to set aside 5.9 million acres of land, mainly in the West, and he drew widespread criticism from conservatives.

Hmmm, I guess there's no oil around that 1,400 miles of archipelago.

Blogging Issues

Lately I've been having problems uploading pictures. As soon as it uploads and I click "done" the entire window closes down. It happens so quickly I don't have time to save as a draft before I lose it.

I thought this was a Blogger problem so I set up an account for a blog at eponym.com and tried uploading a picture and the same thing happened.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

UPDATE: Apparently the problem is with my desktop PC. I can upload pics from the laptop. That's Sissy. :-)

Bush Makes Surprise Visit to 51st State

...and the taxpayers will foot the bill. How much do you think that 5-hour meeting cost us?

"Good to see you," exclaimed al-Maliki, who didn't know Bush was in Baghdad until five minutes before they met.

"Thanks for having me," Bush responded. They smiled broadly and gave each other a two-handed handshake in the high-domed marble room.
The trip was known only to a handful of aides and a small number of reporters sworn to secrecy because of obvious security threats for Bush and members of his entourage.

The prime minister had been invited to the embassy on the pretense of taking part in a video conference with Bush, supposedly at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountins. The videoconference was to go on as scheduled, but with Bush appearing alongside al-Maliki.

SURPRISE!

UPDATE: There's more:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - President Bush assured Iraqis in a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday that the United States stands with them and their new government. "It's in our interest that Iraq succeed," he said, seated alongside newly named Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The dramatic trip came as Bush sought to bolster support for Iraq's fledgling government and U.S. war policy at home.

Who is "our"? For some reason, I'm not feeling that I personally, not do 99% of Americans, have an interest in this, other than a desire for those people to get on about their lives without fears of being blown up on a daily basis. So it must be somebody else's interest that he's referring to.

Oh, and the other interest we have is...
WASHINGTON - The House passed a $94.5 billion bill Tuesday to pay for continuing U.S. military operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan, hurricane relief, bird flu preparations and border security at home.

Remember Ross Perot and that "giant sucking sound?" It's the sound of BILLIONS (doing my best Carl Sagan impression) and BILLIONS of dollars being sucked over to the Middle East.

The House-Senate compromise bill contains $66 billion for the two wars, bringing the cost of the three-year-old war in Iraq to about $320 billion. (that's 1/3 trillion dollars people!) Operations in Afghanistan have now tallied about $89 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The bill, which passed by a 351-67 vote, had only minimal debate Monday night.