WarriorGorilla:Your one stop shop for the latest African money scams

A Ghanan Branch Manager

2006-04-19T23:25:00.000-07:00

Mr. Lawrence N. Norty, a branch manager for Barclay's bank in Ghana, is "expecting my response" to this latest offer of a 30% commission:

Greetings,
My name is Mr Lawrence N.Nortey, the regional manager of Barclays bank of Ghana takoradi branch in the western region of Ghana. I write you this proposal in good faith; I am married with two lovely kids. I have packaged a financial transaction that will be of benefit to us.

As the regional manager of the bank it is my duty to send in financial report to my head office in the capital city Accra at the end of each business year. On the course of the last year 2005 business report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made Six million two hundred and fifty thousand united state dollars
($6,250,000.00) which my head office is not aware of and will never be aware of.

I have placed this funds on what we call escrow call account with no beneficiary. As an officer of this bank I cannot be directly connected to this money, so my aim of contacting you is to assist me receive this money in your bank account and get 30% of the total funds as commission.

There are practically no risks involved, the transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law, it will be simply a bank-to-bank transfer, and all I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor of these funds who made the deposit with my branch so that my head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account under few
working days.

If you accept to work with me I will appreciate it very much as you are the first and the only person I am contacting for this transaction. At this juncture, I wish to tell you what prompted me to package this deal. I have a 9-year old daughter who has leukemia, a disease of the blood, and she needs a bone marrow transplant or she
will die. I want this transplanting to be done in any good childrens hospital in your country if there is one.

Once this fund is transferred into your account, I shall resign from my job and bring my family to start a new life in your country. I would be grateful if you would help me invest my own part of the money in a very profitable business. I
have worked for this bank for the past 15 years yet I have nothing to show for it, I really need your assistance to secure this funds as soon as possible.

You can send me an email as soon as you receive this message if you can assist me so that we can go over the details.

Truly yours,
Mr Lawrence N.Nortey.

This is so sad. He just wants to save his daughter's life by getting her leukemia treated and start a new life in this country. I don't think Michael Savage (ney, Weiner) would like him doing that (the "start a new life" part I mean...or, hell, any part of that. The daughter be damned, he might say, "she's just a drunken slut stripping whore").

But at least he's not a Mexican, Muslim or gay. At least...not that we know of.

The Philippine First Lady

2006-04-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

No, not Imelda Marcos, sadly. Luisa Estrada, wife of deposed President Joseph Estrada (impeached in 2001), and current Philippine Senator! She needs my help and came across my address through "internet browsing." She writes:

My Dear Friend

I got your contact address through internet browsing in my search for a reliable and trustworthy person who will assist me in a business investment venture in your country I am Mrs Luisa Loi Ejercito Estrada the wife of MR.JOSEPH ESTRADA the former president of the Philippines located in Southeast Asia.

My husband was impeached from office by a backed uprising of mass demostrators and the senate. The present government is forcing my husband out of Manila to avoid demonstration by his supporters. During my husband regime as president of Philippines i realised millions of dollars from various contracts projects I executed successfully. I had plans to invest this money for my children's future on real estate and industrial production. My husband is not aware of this because I wish to do it secretly for now.

Before my husband was impeached from office I concretely and secretly deposited this money and declared it as solid Gold bar with a security company that transports valuable goods and consignments through a diplomatic courier service to their adhoc offices. The consignment or boxes I declared owned by my foreign business partner. I am willing to give you 30% out of the total sum if You will be willing to assist me claim this money and invest the money as I assure you 100% risk free business transaction. I am trusting you as a God fearing person that you will not sit on my funds when it gets into your account but rather assist me in this business venture. This business demands absolute secrecy and confidentiality so all communication for now shall be through email because our lines are connected to the philippines telecommunication network services. I will furnish you with more details when I receive your positive response.

Thanks.

Mrs LUISA EJERCITO ESTRADA

- luisa estrada

Wow! I can't even get my senator to acknowledge my emails (Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, for the record) and here a senator and former first lady wants me to help her smuggle money!

The Cancer Patient

2006-04-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Here's the first one. A real tear jerker. Rose Culley (roseculley@virgilio.it), a cancer-stricken widow, is asking for my help in making sure her late husbands money is used for charitable works. She has no children. She writes:

MY BELOVED,

Please read this slowly and carefully, as it may be one of the most important emails you ever get.

I am Mrs Rose Culley from Greece. I was married to Late Roy Culley.The CEO Veekrol Link Nig.Ltd, a seasoned contractor in West African Region.He died on Monday, 31
July, 2000 in Paris.

We were married for eleven years without a child. After his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home.

When my late husband was alive, he deposited the sum of $4.3 Million USD in a bank in Nigeria, which is now waisting there.

My Doctor told me that I would not last for the next three months due to cancer problem. Having known my condition I decided to donate this funds to better the lives of the less privileged. I need honest and trust worthy individual that will utilize this money in accordance with my instruction.

I want the funds to be used in funding religious organisations, orphanages and less privileged propagating the word of God.

I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are very unkind to me and I don'twant my husbands hard earned money to be misused.

I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going
to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that thelord will fight my course and I shall hold my peace.

As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Bank, and my Attorney in Nigeria. For legitimacy, he will also issue you a letter of authority
that will empower you as the original-beneficiary of this fund.

I want you to always pray for me, Any delay in your reply will give me room in
sourcing for another individual for this same purpose.

Thanks,
Yours sincerely,
ROSE.

Now...how could anyone not believe poor Rose Culley's story! She even quotes the Bee-Eye-Bee-Ell-Eee (that's the book for me!)for goodness sakes! She just wants someone to do God's work with her late husbands fortune!

Won't someone anyone please help her?

A Change In Direction

2006-04-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well, as all good intentions go I started out this blog to add my voice to the chorus on important social and political stories. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to continually update nor do I think I have anything particularly new or interesting to say beyond linking to other blogs.

So, a change in direction.

In this space you will see updates on the plight of poor African bankers, lawyer and others who are asking for my help in liquidating the assets of Nigerian bank accounts. I mean, they just want my help. They are entrusting me to help them. The least I can do is give them a wider platform!

(I'll might still occasionally add my voice to the chorus on the original mission of this blog, but for the most part its going to be all about giving voice to need)

At least Bob Barr has some scruples

2005-12-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

Despite being a complete and utter hypocrite (also here, which includes details of how he wanted to undermine church/state seperation) during the 1998 Impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton, former Georgia Republican Representative Bob Barr shows that he actually is concerned with upholding the constitution!

On Friday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," Barr debated Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) about the New York Times expose on President Bush's executive order allowing the National Security Agency to illegally spy on US citizens. Rohrabacher, naturally, has no issue with the illegal act of domestic spying, but does takes issue with the fact that the illegal program was leaked to the press (via Atrios):

BOB BARR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: What's wrong with it is several-fold. One, it's bad policy for our government to be spying on American citizens through the National Security Agency. Secondly, it's bad to be spying on Americans without court oversight. And thirdly, it's bad to be spying on Americans apparently in violation of federal laws against doing it without court order.

...

BARR: Well, the fact of the matter is that the Constitution is the Constitution, and I took an oath to abide by it. My good friend, my former colleague, Dana Rohrabacher, did and the president did. And I don't really care very much whether or not it can be justified based on some hypothetical. The fact of the matter is that, if you have any government official who deliberately orders that federal law be violated despite the best of motives, that certainly ought to be of concern to us.

...

ROHRABACHER: And by the way, how do we know who wasn't deterred from blowing up other targets. The fact is --

BARR: Well, gee, I guess then the president should be able to ignore whatever provision in the Constitution as long as there's something after the fact that justifies it.

BARR: Bob, during wartime, you give some powers to the presidency you wouldn't give in peace time. BARR: Do we have a declaration of war, Dana?

ROHRABACHER: You don't have to do that.

BARR: We don't? That makes it even much easier for a president.

...

BARR: Here again, this is absolutely a bizarre conversation where you have a member of Congress saying that it's okay for the president of the United States to ignore U.S. law, to ignore the Constitution, simply because we are in an undeclared war.

The fact of the matter is the law prohibits -- specifically prohibits -- what apparently was done in this case, and for a member of Congress to say, oh, that doesn't matter, I'm proud that the president violated the law is absolutely astounding, Wolf.

ROHRABACHER: Not only proud, we can be grateful to this president. You know, I'll have to tell you, if it was up to Mr. Schumer, Senator Schumer, they probably would have blown up the Brooklyn Bridge. The bottom line is this: in wartime we expect our leaders, yes, to exercise more authority.

Now, I have led the fight to making sure there were sunset provisions in the Patriot Act, for example. So after the war, we go back to recognizing the limits of government. But we want to put the full authority that we have and our technology to use immediately to try to thwart terrorists who are going to -- how about have a nuclear weapon in our cities?

BARR: And the Constitution be damned, Dana?

ROHRABACHER: Well, I'll tell you something, if a nuclear weapon goes off in Washington, DC, or New York or Los Angeles, it'll burn the Constitution as it does. So I'm very happy we have a president that's going to wiretap people's communication with people overseas to make sure that they're not plotting to blow up one of our cities.

BLITZER: We're out of time, but Bob Barr, I'll give you the last word.

BARR: Well, first of all, or last of all, this so-called plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge was bogus because it had to do with a group of idiots who were planning to dismantle it with blow torches.

Gotta give some kudos (begrudgingly) to Barr for at least being (somewhat) consistant.

Still, gotta love the land of wingnuttia. A sitting president issuing an executive order which allows spying on US citizens without a warrant when a warrant could be issued up to 72-hours after spying began: not a crime.

Getting laid in the White House by a former White House intern: A High Crime and Misdemeanor.

Fuckwads.

Boycott Ford Motor Company

2005-12-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

Via John Avarosis' Americablog:

Ford Motor Company caved in to pressure this week from Mississippi-based American Family Association and pulled Land Rover and Jaguar advertisements from gay-targeted media, including The Advocate newsmagazine.

According to advocate.com:

When first contacted, Ford spokesman Moran referred Advocate.com to the AFA statement, suggesting that the company had no disagreement with Wildmon's assertions. In a second conversation he confirmed that the company would no longer advertise Jaguar and Land Rover products in the gay media, saying that the decision was strictly "business."

Don't let Ford off the hook about this "business" decision, which is anything but. Stand up and let Ford know that you will not tolerate this kind of behavior and that you will gladly take your business elsewhere.

Contact Ford Marketing and Public relations people

- Steve Lyons slyons@ford.com
- Mae Smith msmith26@ford.com
- Terri Cavanaugh tcavanaugh@ford.com

Don't be rude or vicious in your comments, just let them know your displeasure and that you will be taking your business elsewhere.

Here's the letter I wrote:

Dear Sir and Madams –

I have always respected Ford and rooted for the blue oval above any other US automaker. Sadly, your recent action in bowing to pressure from extreme right-wing religious groups and pulling your ads from gay-targeted publications has caused me to lose that respect.

According to one of your spokespeople, via The Advocate,
"Ford spokesman Moran referred Advocate.com to the AFA statement, suggesting that the company had no disagreement with [American Family Association President Donald] Wildmon's assertions."

I’m gay and I have purchasing power. I pledge now to use that purchasing power to never contribute to Ford Motor Company’s bottom-line now or in the future.

Sincerely,

WarriorGorilla
Starkville, Mississippi

Also, stay tuned to Americablog for updates this afternoon on who to contact next.

Update: Either Ford has turned off the emails or all three of these PR execs have been inundated with mail from readers of Americablog (and other blogs, who have picked up the story) because I'm getting my emails bounced. I'll update in a bit when Americablog gets more information.

Update 2:Here is the general contact page for Ford Corporate. Overload their email system

Gallery of Unfortunate Greeting Cards

2005-11-30T22:01:00.000-08:00

This is probably my most favorite website, the Gallery of Unfortunate Greeting Cards.

The editors at Amalgamated Humor saw fit to not only feature some of the oddest greetings cards produced in the 20th century, but to - of course - tell the backstory for each one.

The Christmas card section is a good one to read this time of the year, but there are also unfortunate birthday cards, Halloween cards and St. Patrick's Day cards.

The caption for this one reads:

There's nothing that sums up Christmas quite like the eyes of an excited child... unless those eyes are strange black holes with pin-point lights shining from them and set way too far apart. If this were my daughter, I'd be asking the wife if she remembers any strange lights taking her into the sky about nine months before the little one's birth.

Movies I Hated

2005-11-20T23:40:00.000-08:00

AmyH listed the 10 movies she absolutely hated. That got me thinking...what are some movies I hate? I posted a couple in her comments, but thought perhaps I should elaborate futher here...in my forum! "The WarriorGorilla Blog!"

[Cue People's Court Theme]

Some Movies I Hate:

"The Royal Tenenbaums" - Absolutely hated this movie. Did not understand the point, the plot or the acting. The only saving grace was the fact that my friend and I sat right underneath the projection booth (because the entire theatre was filled to capacity!), which gave it somewhat of an 8mm film quality.

"Hedwig And The Angry Inch" - Just a complete, utter, visceral dislike of this movie. I'm sorry, I cannot suspend reality for two hours and believe that no one notices when a rock band starts playing/dancing/singing in all manner of places, then leaves that place in shambles when reality returns. Sorry, not going to happen.

"The MO of MI" - Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad gay movie. So bad, I don't even know where to begin. Lets start with the stereotypes: "Sugardaddy" and "Sugarbaby." Sugardaddy is oblivious to the fact that he is supporting a sugarbaby (aren't they all? Its so very cute...in a well, disgusting, sort of way). Sugardaddy is also an embezzler (but we don't find that out until the end). Sugarbaby is your stereotypical whiney gay "raverboi" who found a free ride. Along comes "street hustler," daddy's former baby. This upsets current Baby and he turns all whiny and, well, sugarbabyish.

But, wait, there's a twist! It's a big set-up all along! Hustler and Baby are actually lovers who set out to embezzle from the embezzler! Throw in bad performance art (from the street hustler), a murder or two and you've got all the makings of...a. really. bad. gay. "suspense/thriller."

Yeah...whatever.

I may add more to this list as I think about it some more. Feel free to leave some of your most hated movies in comments.

The Christian Right and Fascism

2005-11-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

Late last year, I remember seeing a entry on another blog referencing a column written by a man whose ethics professor, circa 1980, warned of the coming rise of Christian Fascism.

What stood out to me was the reference he made to his professor's warning to watch what the Christian Right would do to homosexuals and that it would mirror the rise of fascism in Europe in the early part of the 1900s.

Tonight, finally came across that article again and its definately worth a look.

No major publication would print his article. So much for the liberal media.

Trip to New Orleans and Biloxi

2005-10-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was Fall Break at my university. I was able to get time off from work to make a trip to New Orleans to visit a friend who stayed in the city through and after the storm. He lives in the Garden District, one of the few high-and-dry spots in the city of New Orleans.

Driving into the city on Sunday afternoon was a bit surreal. There's always a fair amount of litter along the streets and highways, but nothing compares to the litter that I saw on this trip. Mattresses, couches, chairs and abandoned cars litter the highways (I-10, mostly) in and around the city.

Pulling off I-10 onto US-90 towards downtown, I pass the infamous Superdome with its white roofing shorn off and looking like someone pulled a large section of astroturf off a concrete patio, leaving that yellowish glue used to secure it in its stead. The crumpled roofing an external reminder of the internal scenes of hell that took place for some five days immediately after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the region.

My exit from US-90 dropped me off right in front of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, the other site of so many deaths and much despair in the days after the storm. The beige exterior and concrete sidewalks hiding the stories of so much agony and rage. I turned left,(not knowing my way around the city, not knowing the Garden District was to the right). When I reached Canal Street, I was struck by the scene unfolding before me. Canal, famous for its trolley cars and store front shopping was bustling; not with the usual crowd of tourists enjoying the Big Easy and a lazy fall Sunday afternoon, but with crowds of repair crews going about their task of trying to restore the city back to its pre-Katrina condition.

Instead of trolley's clanging up and down the middle of the street, personal automobiles were parked on the concrete median. Generators hummed as the basements of buildings, and utility access manholes, were pumped out. Some shops already re-opened, the majority boarded up. Some, boarded up not from the storm, but from the looting. Their front windows or doors broken out.

When I finally got directions from my friend on how to get to his apartment, I drove down Magazine and Annunciation Streets into the historic Garden District. Most of the homes and business here were not damaged badly by the storm and it was certainly coming back to life. Restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations lit up and either open or with signs proclaiming they were returning soon.

In the residential neighborhoods on Race, Felicity and Saint Mary's Streets, I could see homes with blue tarpaulins on roofs and boards over windows, the signature look of post-Katrina New Orleans. Also refrigerators - hundreds of refrigerators - taped up and sitting on the street with other damaged property, the smell of rotted perishables lingering in the air long after their contents were disposed of.

We walked by one duplex, its trim gaily painted in neon green, where books lie stacked and thrown on the curb along with a roll-top desk and a couple of chairs. "We're moving," she told us. She didn't have a job, so she was going to Charleston, South Carolina. She said we could pick through the items and keep what we wanted. The rest would go to charity. I picked up some books, like Jeffrey Toobins "A Vast Conspiracy" and George Plimpton's book on Truman Capote, something I knew a religious charity likely would have no use for. My friend took home the roll-top desk.

Later we went out, to the French Quarter. It's supposed to be the busy tourist season for New Orleans, the air is cool and breezes blow through the narrow streets of Bourbon, Royal and St. Anns. That night, a small crowd - mostly repair crews, some tourists, like myself, and residents who did not evacuate or have since returned - roamed the French Quarter. A majority of the bars and gift shops were open along Bourbon.

In the gay section, it seemed the bars might never have even closed. We walked down St. Anne towards Barrone and hit the corner just as six National Guard soldiers were marching past, one holding an AK-47 pointed down at the road. The scene of military presence in an American city surreal to me. The bartender yelled out, "we're having a pool tournament tonight. But you can't bring the gun in." I laughed, more out of fear than enjoyment at his words.

On Monday, I decide to go to Biloxi. Driving out of New Orleans I see more litter and abandoned cars; a small boat laying precariously atop the median. A Toyota dealership with its entire inventory covered in a white grime up to the roof lines, a sure sign of the flooding which devastated the the eastern side of the city.

Usually ones arrival into Mississippi is greeted with billboards advertising the casinos and casino entertainment in Biloxi, Gulfport or Bay Saint Louis - the grandest of which is the Beau Rivage, owned by MGM/Mirage Casinos. The billboards are still there, but their advertisements ripped away and their metal support structure bent at 45-degree angles by the 150 mph hour winds as Katrina plowed ashore. A short way down I-10, a billboard has collapsed but the one across the highway still advertises a factory outlet store in Gulfport, a few miles up the road.

When I pull off at my exit, signs of damage appear in the form of shredded fast food signs and the damaged front of a shopping center. A sign reads "Pops Ferry Road Bridge Out." I make a left and go into D'Iberville, winding my way through this town on the back bay. I make it to I-110, the freeway artery that connects I-10 with the beach casinos.

The State Police force us to exit onto Division street. From there I can go to just about any part of the city, with the exception of US-90/Beach Blvd. I make my way through the back streets and get turned around once by a National Guardsman for getting to close to Beach Blvd.

I drive east towards the narrow tip of the peninsula, where Biloxi is less than a half mile wide, and which has seen the most severe storm surge flooding. What is left of most homes, business and churches amounts to nothing more than a pile of wood splinters. Some of the older, sturdier wood homes are still standing but are probably unlivable. I drive by a brick home, still partially occupied by its owners, who sit in the front driveway strumming a guitar. I suddenly feel a touch of sadness and small amount of shame for being nothing more than a tourist. I want to stop and speak to them, apologize maybe, but I don't. I keep driving.

I come to the far east end of Biloxi. From here I can see what is left of the US-90 bridge: concrete pilings and the occasional concrete road surface jutting up at odd angles from the shallow waters. I make a right and then a left, down another side street towards the beach. Here the homes are in splinters, lifted off their foundations by the rising water. I feel a sense of sadness that there is nothing left but a concrete foundation in some places.

I turn around and go back up the sad street and make a left. Suddenly I come upon it. The hulking superstructure of the Grand Casino barge, lifted from its moorings that late August morning and deposited some 500 feet across the highway and onto the property of a badly damaged Catholic church. How it did not end up inside the church, I do not know; but the juxtaposition of faith in God and faith in the odds is striking to me.

I come upon another National Guard checkpoint and make a right, waving an apology to the two female National guardsman manning this entry. I start my way back up Division, past the Tiger Foods store with the BellSouth phone bank set up for local residents to get in touch with whomever the choose. I drive through a neighborhood close to Keesler Air Force Base that I briefly lived in, it doesn't seem as badly damaged. The storm surge did not reach this far back, thanks in part to the railroad tracks built on an artificial levee. I assume the levee, a sort of floodwall, was built to protect the air force base from just this kind of catastrophe. It appears to have accomplished its mission.

I finally make my way up to Woolmarket Road and turn right, towards I-10. I cross the Tangipohoa River bridge. Here I can see fishing scooners washed up river by the storm surge, laying haphazardly along the banks of the shallow river. All to soon, I am up to I-10 and on my way back to New Orleans and eventually back to north Mississippi, away from the sadness of a once vibrant and beautiful, but now devastated region.

Rest In Peace, friend

2005-09-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I knew anyone who was injured, killed or even greatly affected by Hurricane Rita. There was a somewhat tenuous connection between me and the 20 or so elderly evacuees who died in a bus fire, near Dallas, as they escaped the storm (the brother-in-law of a close friend lost in father in that incident).

Today, I found out that a close acquaintence, and former business associate, of mine was killed, along with two other family members, in an auto accident as they returned to Houston last Sunday.

Michael Alexander, his son Omar and daughter Amal were killed when a tire blew-out on I-45 near Madisonville, Texas. His wife, Rima, and eldest daughter, Dawlat, survived the accident.

Mike was a good guy. He had a very easy going manner, and was a bit talkative at times. I believe he was born in Egypt, but he worked in Houston as an accountant. That was how I met him.

My former boss hired Mike - a close friend of his - as the accountant for a restaurant where I was employed as the office manager and accounts payable person. We developed somewhat of a friendship working together in this capacity. The last time I visited with him, on a trip back to Houston earlier this summer, we spent about two hours just talking (and figuring out my late taxes).

It saddens me to know that Mike is no longer with us. It saddens me more that his wife, whom I met twice, is without a husband and their eldest daughter with out a father. They will both be in my prayers and thoughts as they recover, not only from their physical injuries, but from the emotional loss as well.

Rest in peace, my friend.

Dodged A Bullet

2005-09-23T23:10:00.000-07:00

As Hurricane Rita storms ashore, I am very thankful that Houston and Galveston is being spared the direct fury of the storm. And I pray that Port Arthur, Beaumont and the Southwest Louisiana coast come through landfall safely.

Here we go again...

2005-09-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

NOAA's National Hurricane Center is forecasting that Hurricane Rita will make landfall along the Gulf Coast, probably along Galveston, Texas sometime early Saturday morning.

Galveston is already ordering a voluntary evacuation of the island and is considering a mandatory evacuation as early as Thursday or Friday. According to the Houston Chronicle, they will not force people from their homes.

Of course, it is still to far out to make an accurate prediction. Early forecasts are calling for Rita to be a Category 3 storm when it makes landfall. However, current Gulf of Mexico temperatures are still in the mid-to-upper 80s, similar to Hurricane Katrina when it emerged over the Gulf from Florida.

If the storm slows over the warm waters, it could build just as quickly as Katrina did...and become just as deadly.

In February, the Houston Chronicle did a series of reports predicting the damage from a Category 5 storm if one were to strike just southwest of Galveston Island (in other words, the majority of Galveston Island and the Houston Ship Channel would be in the Northeast Quadrant, the most damaging section of the storm. It was this quadrant of the storm that did the most damage to the Mississippi Gulf Coast).

Interesting reading. I hope and pray my former hometown is spared the wrath of Rita.

So Evil It Makes My Head Hurt

2005-09-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Southern Illinois, right across the river from the 8th District of Indiana.

I remember when John Hostettler was first elected, defeating incumbent Democrat Frank McCloskey. He ran, according to this Wikipedia entry because he was dissatisfied with Bill Clinton's Presidency and the "direction of the country."

Over the last couple of years, he's made some outrageous remarks and generally just showed what a true fucktard Republican he is. I believe all of it pales in comparison to his vote last week on approprations for the reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina.

He voted no.

He voted no to providing help and aid to those displaced by the hurricane.

He voted no to helping rebuild New Orleans, Biloxi and Gulfport.

He voted no to helping Americans get their lives on track.

Why?

According to this interview with Evansville, Indiana television station WEHT-TV:

I think that we're going to see incident after incident of fraud and waste in this system, so what we need is: we need smaller aid packages with accountability; Coming back to congress and saying, 'This is what we spent your $10 billion on this week, and this is what we're going to spend the next five,ten billion on'. We're not going to get that, because, once again, we've already spent $62 billion on this situation.

Accountability. For the money spent on rebuilding an American city and helping Americans.

I understand wanting accountability. I want accountability too. Three cheers for accountability.

Unfortunately, Mr. Hostettler, your hypocrisy is showing. Might want to check that.

That's right, the "Honorable" Mr. Hostettler voted for the $87bn "Emergency Supplemental Approprations for Iraq and Afghanistan Security and Reconstruction Act, 2004"

Yeah, that little piece of pork barrel spending on reconstructing Iraq. That little blank check that Congress wrote to rebuild another country. The one they brow beat John Kerry with last year. Kerry had the good sense to vote against it - in part - because it contained no accountability provisions.

Yeah, he voted for that.

But rebuilding an American city? That's just wasteful, according to the "Honorable" John Hostettler.

I can only hope the good people of Indiana's 8th Congressional District reward him for his good deed by sending him packing come November 2006.

Some People Will Believe Anything: The Sequel

2005-09-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo is working on a In-depth Katrina Time-line that's provides more information than the one I linked to earlier.

It's good stuff.

If you've lost the comics page, you've lost middle America.

2005-09-12T04:30:00.000-07:00

I kind of expected to see this in my morning comics:

Boondocks is kinda like that.

But if you've lost FoxTrot, you might as well pack it in:

Some People Will Believe Anything

2005-09-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

Even when the facts are staring them straight in the face.

It saddens me that there are people in this country that believe the White House spin that Louisiana's Governor did not ask for assistance from the Federal Government in the hours before Katrina made landfall. Even when an exact timeline has been established and the White House's own website declares:

Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Louisiana

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.

The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

Representing FEMA, Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Department of Homeland Security, named William Lokey as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.

"But they said on Meet The Press that the Government couldn't do anything until Louisiana asked."

Louisiana Asked.

Read it. Re-read it. Digest it.

This President showed no leadership in this disaster.

But some people will continue to believe that the world is flat and the Government really couldn't do anything without being asked. Even when the facts are staring them straight in the face.

I didn't think it could, but it does.

2005-09-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Get worse that is.

Every new piece of shit that comes out about this storm paints this administration in an even worse light.

Here are some examples:

-- (From Josh Marshall, via Daily Kos)

On the Al Franken show this afternoon I mentioned this article from today's Salt Lake Tribune which tells the story of about a thousand firefighters from around the country who volunteered to serve in the Katrina devastation areas. But when they arrived in Atlanta to be shipped out to various disaster zones in the region, they found out that they were going to be used as FEMA community relations specialists.

Operation "Make The President Look Like He Actually Gives a Shit" in action, diverting needed resources from rescue and relief operations to form a human backdrop for the Fucktard-In-Chief.

Hideous.

-- (From Salon, via Atrios)

On Monday, the Tribune says, some firefighters began to take off their FEMA-issued T-shirts in protest. A FEMA spokesman responded by questioning the firefighters' willingness to help in a time of need. "I would go back and ask the firefighter to revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country," FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak told the Tribune.

Well, at least some of the men and women realized they had been had by this President and showed their disgust. Not that the spokesbitch at FEMA noticed or cares. Gotta make the President look "compassionate." Whatever.

-- (From the Los Angeles Times via Atrios)

The U.S. agency leading Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts said Tuesday that it does not want the news media to photograph the dead as they are recovered.

No, don't dare print anything that might remind Americans how bad this President completely and utterly fucked up and allowed men, women and children to die while he played Gee-tar and ate cake like Marie Antoinette.

-- (From Think Progress)

The Katrina Timeline:

8/26 - Governor Blanco (D-Louisiana) declares a State of Emergency
8/27 - Governor Blanco asks President Bush to declare State of Emergency

8/27 - FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.” [White House]

Sorta puts a wrench in that whole "Louisiana didn't ask for help, so we couldn't send it" bullshit, doesn't it?

I'm getting so sick of this. Thank the gods the media is actually doing their job for once.

As I said in earlier posts, the media and this administration cannot talk about the deaths of the people in the abstract because they are dying right here within our borders because of the lack of response from the federal agencies tasked with giving them aid in the time of disaster.

It's sickening, it's hideous and they will pay in spades for the way they have acted and reacted.

Olbermann's Weighs In: "[The Government] has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water."

2005-09-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Atrios and Can O' Fun

Keith Olbermann weighs in. Like Atrios, I'm going to reproduce it in full:

SECAUCUS — Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."

Well there's your problem right there.

If ever a slip-of-the-tongue defined a government's response to a crisis, this was it.

The seeming definition of our time and our leaders had been their insistence on slashing federal budgets for projects that might’ve saved New Orleans. The seeming characterization of our government that it was on vacation when the city was lost, and could barely tear itself away from commemorating V.J. Day and watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, to at least pretend to get back to work. The seeming identification of these hapless bureaucrats: their pathetic use of the future tense in terms of relief they could’ve brought last Monday and Tuesday — like the President, whose statements have looked like they’re being transmitted to us by some kind of four-day tape-delay.

But no. The incompetence and the ludicrous prioritization will forever be symbolized by one gaffe by of the head of what is ironically called “The Department of Homeland Security”: “Louisiana is a city…”

Politician after politician — Republican and Democrat alike — has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the "I-Me" switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated they were — congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a supermarket.

And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded — even the internet's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural... and government-made.

But now, at least, it is has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana (the state, not the city). And, having given our leaders what we know now is the week or so they need to get their act together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned, should come to an end.

No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.

But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, 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.

Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. 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'?

I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant.

For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government — our government — "New Orleans."

For him, it is a shame — in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response." Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have foreseen," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."

In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself — it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.

As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break, dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility.

Somewhere, in the City of Louisiana.

"[E]ither you are with us, or you are with the people who abandoned the residents of New Orleans"

2005-09-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

The It Affects You blog has a good post up about the Republican noise machine and the New Orleans disaster:

The Republican Noise Machine, as powerful as it is, cannot not work in a vacuum. It works because people give it “safe harbor.” It works because the Washington Post and the New York Times and the cable news networks carry Bush’s water. It works because these institutions reprint deliberately false information. It works because they apply a ridiculous sense of “balance” which means if they print a hard fact condemning a Conservative, they must also print any fiction created to defend that Conservative. It works because the press continues to print whatever they are fed and, even after repeatedly getting burned, they return for more.

The Ugly Truth

2005-09-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

Errol Louis gets it right in the New York Daily News:

By almost every statistical measure, New Orleans is a bad place to be poor. Half the city's households make less than $28,000 a year, and 28% of the population lives in poverty.

...

Adjusted for population size, [Louisiana] ranks third in the number of elected officials convicted of crimes (Mississippi is No. 1).

...

Ten billion dollars are about to pass into the sticky hands of politicians in the No. 1 and No. 3 most corrupt states in America. Worried about looting? You ain't seen nothing yet.

"Our people deserved rescuing"

2005-09-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

The New Orleans Times Picayune writes a letter to the Fucktard-In-Chief that needs to be distributed far and wide and shoved down the throat of every Bush apologist that attempts to defend the federal government's handling of the hurricane:

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

Thanks to Atrios for the tipoff

President Bush, this is shameful

2005-09-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has an excellent editorial in its online edition, the last graf being the meat

The president's admission of his administration's mistakes will mean nothing unless the promised help is deployed immediately. Each life is precious, and there isn't a second chance to save a single one of them. No more talk of what's going to happen. We only want to hear what is being done. The lives of our people depend on it.

Read it here

Heh Heh Fix Trent Lotts House Heh Heh

2005-09-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

So says the only President Fucktard in the White House we've got.

Now go fuck yourself and your heh heh too.

My roommate and I had a long long argument last night. He wants to blame the people who stayed behind. Or - alternately - the gunman who shot at the National Guardsman yesterday for the refugees not getting supplies.

I came unglued on him.

Every hour and every minute that was wasted by these fucktards not getting supplies into the region was an hour and minute that the situation got more desperate.

We can get food and water to the bombed out victims of Baghdad within 24 hours, but we can not do it in our own goddman backyard?

Pissed at the government?

You bet I'm pissed!

New Orleans is no more than an 8 - 10 hour drive from nearly every major city in this country...and we cannot get food and water and supplies in until 3 days later!?

They should have been mobilized the the moment Bush declared a state of emergency. They should have been prepared to drop food and supplies the moment the skies cleared enough to make it in safely.

If the government had done their goddamn jobs they way they were fucking supposed to, food and water would have been on the ground (either trucked in or by air) LONG L-O-N-G before there was enough water in the streets from the breeched levees to cut off access.

So fuck you, Bush.

Fuck you, Brown.

Fuck you, Chertoff.

You have no excuse. None.

Then we wants to complain about why no one in the Superdome (or Convention Center, whichever), where there were reports of rapes, did anything to stop the rapes.

I said to him: Lets you and me go down to the Humphrey Coliseum (the basketball arena at Mississippi State University) on a game day (preferably when OleMiss is playing, because it will be completely full) and find a broom closet and go in and scream at the top of our lungs during the second half of the game and see anyone comes to see what the racket is about.

A woman's screams while being raped sounds like a baby's cries 3 sections away on one end and the laughs of small children playing 5 sections away to the other. When there is that many people in a small enclosed area the background noise becomes secondary.

But again, if this godforsaken government had been doing their job the way they were supposed to, that woman (or women, as the case may well be) might not have happened. The same way the gunfire at the National Guardsman might not have happened.

If you or they do not think this is going to be their undoing, just you wait. Americans have a long memory when its comes to their backyards.

The Coming Disease

2005-09-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

I'm not an epidemiologist or a health advocate, this is my own ranting.

They say if one person, infected with the Ebola virus in Kenya, were to board a plane to London there would be a global epidemic in a matter of hours or days.

If one person in New Orleans, wet and sniffling boards a bus to Houston, can we not extropolate that the same might happen?

There are dead bodies floating in the water. There are petrochemicals floating in the water. There are people walking through the water. It's hot. It's wet.

In any natural disaster, its the disease that kills the most. It's the mutating of the bacteria and the viruses in close, hot conditions. But this isn't some disaster in the third world, this is happening right here.

And it isn't just New Orleans and Biloxi and Gulfport that are going to be affected. The people they are moving from the Superdome to Houston and elsewhere are going to be carrying this bacteria and/or viruses with them - in close, confined busses - because they have not bathed or washed the clothing they waded through the contaminated water in.

There is going to be major disease outbreaks and its not going to stay contained to New Orleans...its going to affect the entire country.

Dennis Hastert: Fucktard

2005-09-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed

- Dennis Hastert

What a fucktard. I'll say it again: WHAT A FUCKTARD.

Because federal aid is involved, we should just bulldoze the whole city.

We ought to take a second look at it. But you know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures and they rebuild too. Stubbornness.

Stubborness!!! You want your home rebuilt, you're stubborn! You want to return to some semblance of normalcy after in a city you grew up in, you're stubborn.

These people make me sick. This emergency is their undoing and I hope the Democrats get enough balls to politicize this and politicize this good.

The Republican party - the party in charge of this travesty - needs to be spanked and spanked hard come 2006 and 2008. This isn't Iraq, 5000 miles away. The death toll in this disaster isn't like when we bombed Iraq. We can't talk about these deaths in the abstract. This is in a city that is no more than a good 6 - 8 hour drive from much of the US.

This is our backyard...and trying to do it on the cheap isn't working.

Peter Jennings: 1938 - 2005

2005-08-07T22:19:00.000-07:00

Peter Jennings, long time anchor of ABC's World News Tonight broadcast has passed away from lung cancer at the age of 67.

I grew up watching ABC News and have nurtured a life-long love of the network's news division. I always felt that Peter Jennings was talking to me, instead of at me, when he was at the anchor desk. He never pandered, or preached, to his audience.

I have very vivid memories of watching World News Tonight when they were utilizing the tri-anchor broadcast, with Peter in Frankfort, Germany (I believe this might have been during the Iran Hostage Crisis), Frank Reynolds in Washington and Max Reynolds in Chicago. I remember watching news coverage of Frank Reynolds' funeral, when he passed away of cancer.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, my second cousin was an employee of ABC News in New York. He would send me any and everything that he could get ahold of: scripts, press passes, stickers, folders and one of my most prized possessions...a signed photograph of Peter Jennings.

May he rest in peace and live long in the memories of his family, friends, colleagues and viewers.

Orientation

2005-07-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

Today I begin my acedemic journey anew. It's been roughly eight years since I dropped out of college and moved to Texas and today, I attend Orientation for the fall semester.

I'm really rather excited.

When I went through my Warrior Weekend, I had no idea that this would be the product. Once I set my mission statement ("I will create a world of personal fulfilment by living my dreams") it was only a matter of time before I made it here. In this case, it was approximately eighteen months.

Eighteen months. Eighteen months after deciding on those 12 words, I packed up and moved from my comfortable life in Houston. Away from the friends that I had made and the family that supported me and helped me focus in on my dreams.

And today, I attend orientation. In six weeks I will step into a classroom again - at 28-years-old! And if all goes according to plan, in about two years, I will have my degree and be moving again.

And I'm afraid.

If I learned anything from my Warrior weekend, is that it is okay to be afraid as long as I do not allow that fear to dictate my life. I have spent far to many years allowing fear to lead my life, I overcame a lot of fear when I moved up here.

Fear is still with we, but when I walk out that door this morning and into Orientation, I will be overcoming a little more. When I walk into my first day of classes, a little more.

Wish me luck.

"Logo" Premieres

2005-07-01T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well Gay & Lesbian Pride Month has come and gone, and MTV Networks has premiered the first ad-supported channel aimed at Gay and Lesbian viewers, titled Logo.

Four years ago, I was involved in focus group when the idea of a Gay and Lesbian cable network was being bandied about at Viacom. In fact, I taped a two or three minute inteview piece that was to be sent out to cable companies urging them to pick up the network. I went at the request of a friend, who was dating one of the focus group leaders. It was an interesting experience and I am proud to be a part of it.

The result of that effort, however small on my part, premiered yesterday and so far has lined up mainstream Madison Avenue advertisers like Orbitz, Tylenol, Motorola, Subaru, Saab. This is a good start. I've seen lots and lots of promos and teasers filling ad spots, but obviously with a network this new, its to be expected.

They've also lined up quite a few mainstream gay-themed movies (Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert) and original series (Scott Thompson, formerly of The Kids In The Hall, hosts a series on gay weddings).

Yes, its taken four years, but from what I can see it was worth the wait.

Ghosts in Mississippi

2005-06-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

Another part of the old racist past was hopefully buried today when Edgar Ray Killen was found Guilty of Manslaughter in the 1964 slayings of Civil Rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

Today marks the 41st Anniversary of the slayings.

Yesterday, the jury of eight whites and four blacks was deadlocked 6-6. The judge sequestered them overnight and they came back this morning to deliberate. It did not take long, by 11:25 this morning, the verdict was being read.

I was not around during the Civil Rights era, having been born in 1977. But that period in America's history has always intrigued me. Even more so since moving to Mississippi. What happened in the southern states was a travesty, but trials such as this might help to heal old wounds.

Sadly, it may not. Just last week, the two Republican Senators from Mississippi refused to co-sponsor a symbolic measure of apology for not outlawing lynchings. So far as I know, they still have not retroactively co-sponsored the measure.

One step forward and two steps back, somtimes.

8 Years and 30 Days

2005-06-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

It's been 8 years since the Federal Minimum Wage was raised to $5.15 an hour, notes documentarian Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me"), so he and his fiancee move to Columbus, Ohio to live 30-days on minimum wage.

Right now, I'm living on minimum wage, making $2.13/hour (plus tips) waiting tables and preparing to go to school. In actuality, I make more than $5.15 when you include my tips, but I'm one of the lucky ones who was able to find such a job.

Growing up, my family (Mother, Stepfather, 3 kids) lived on minimum wage jobs, going on and off federal assistance from the time I was 5 or 6 until I graduated High School in 1995. My mother still works minimum wage jobs and is barely able to support herself.

I don't see how Congress can sleep at night when, as "30 Days" points out, they have taken a cost of living increase of $27,000 over the last 8 years while doing nothing about the minimum wage.

You owe it to yourself to watch "30 Days: Minimum Wage" when it reruns sometime in the next week on the FX cable network. Sadly, the documentary is showing on second tier cable network and not on one of the big four over the air.

Breaking News: Nancy Grace has a coronary

2005-06-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Nah. Jackson was just acquitted on all counts, but the bleach blond frizzy headed commentator is sure to be blinking her eyes like crazy tonight.

"Left Behind"

2005-06-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

So...I decided, after reading a Gene Lyons feature article on the "Left Behind" series about the apocolypse, to attempt to read some of the books myself.

I would be lying if I didn't say that I have been intrigued about the series since I first saw one of the books in a B. Dalton Booksellers store a few years back. But there was no way I was going to spend my hard-earned money on it.

I would also be lying if I said that I don't believe in the apocolypse. I also believe in reincarnation, so yeah. I guess the reason I believe in the apocolypse is that I have faith in Jesus Christ. As anyone who has read this blog is aware, I'm gay. ConservaFundies no doubt think I'm evil and have turned away from God...but I don't see it that way. If I'm to believe (and indeed this is taught from the pulpit) that I am created in the image of God, then it is no stretch to believe that God created me to be gay.

However, as Gene Lyons points out in the article, "[T]heirs is an embattled faith, which requires an ever evolving list of enemies to keep its focus." I think Atrios or Josh Marshall pointed out sometime back that a conservative writer in the 1960s or 1970s warned that if the religious right got ahold of the Republican Party that they would waste no time in making gay men and lesbians the enemy. Pretty darn prescient for the 1970s, eh?

So, back to the point of this post. I have never read such unbelievable tripe as what I am reading right now. The only thing that comes close is a Harry Turtledove alternate history novel about an alien invasion at the height of World War II.

The first book is somewhat believable, with the "raptured" leaving everything behind but their bodies (contact lenses, hearing aids, clothing, etc), which inevitably leads to auto accidents, plane crashes and fires as people are raptured in the middle of doing their daily business. Mind you, not everyone is raptured. Only those that believe in a special kind of fundamentalism are raptured (this, apparently, includes the newly elected Pope John XXVI, but - of course - not the Cardinal of Cincinatti, who is on the short list to become the new Pope, post rapture. The book somehow manages to attack both Judaism and Catholicism in equal measure. Catholics are fundamentalist enough, it seems, and Jews are happy to skip along to the AntiChrist believing he's the messiah).

Suddenly, a Romanian legislator rises from no-where to become Secretary-General of the UN (nay, "Global Community"). Behold, it is the AntiChrist promising world peace and universal disarmament. Everyone falls under his enigmatic spell - even the Press (HA! Want to relate this to today? Look no further than the SCLM and the Bush Administration).

Eventually, the story focuses on four characters. An airline pilot, his college-age daughter (their wife/mother and son/brother were raptured, as was - apparently - every child under the age of 13...including the unborn (Take that, pro-choice activists!), a lay minister at the fundamentalist church the pilot's wife attended (apparently, he wasn't fundamentalist enough. Take that, liberal Christians!), and a well-travelled thirtysomething "star" reporter for a newsweekly.

Of course, now that the pilot's wife and son were raptured he converts to that special band of christianity "before its too late." His daughter takes some more convincing as does the news reporter. Apparently, though, the pilot is not only an ace airman, he's a damned good preacher too! He gets the reporter and his daughter to convert in the span of about 3 pages.

Oh...did I mention that the reporter is a "close, personal acquaintance" of the AntiChrist? No? Well, he's a "close, personal acquaintance" of the AntiChrist. However, he converts to the special brand of Christianity just before he comes under the spell of the AntiChrist's mind meld. After returning to tell the story of his run-in with the AntiChrist, the four main characters go off skipping towards the apocalypse.

Okay, so I'm with them, up until this point. I can see the rapture. I can see the star reporter being befriended by one of his interview subjects. I can the see the pilot drinking the koolaid after losing his wife and son. And the reporter converting as well. However, the second book...that's where the series loses all contact with reality and ventures into the realm of pure fantasy.

You see, in the second book the pilot is approached about being the pilot of Air Force One (nay, Global Community One - after the President of the United States comes under the spell of the AntiChrist he donates AF1 to the UN. Apparently, without the convservafundies around to make trouble, there is no one left to protest when the a one-world government and religion are established. Take that, liberal anti-globalist demonstrators!). The reporter is approached - by the AntiChrist himself - to be the AntiChrist's journalistic buttboy by offering to buy the Chicago Tribune (From the Wrigley family, no less. Apparently the authors, LaHaye and Jenkins, aren't aware that the Trib is owned by Tribune Communications and has never been owned by the Wrigley's. I guess they assume because the Cubs are owned by the same company and the Cubs play at Wrigley Field, the Tribune must be owned by the Wrigley's), install him as publisher and rename it "The Midwest Tribune" as a house organ for the "Global Community" (apparently the Schlessinger's aren't willing to part with the New York Times in this alternate reality fairy tale).

I'm still debating on whether to read the third book in the series...I just don't know if I will be able to stand (a) the preaching and (b) the god-awful writing and plotting.

Sex In The White House

2005-06-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Got to thinking tonight...(which isn't usually a good thing)

Wasn't life ever so much more entertaining discussing the President's sex life than, say, discussing the lastest casualty report out of Iraq?

I mean, seriously, one could be a liberal and make a joke about Clinton diddling an intern (or, say, Paula Jones). I feel sick if I make a joke about this White House because...well...because it is a sick joke. A 1590-day sick joke.

I mean, sure, we had the JimmyJeff incident. Sadly, it didn't have the staying power of Gennifer, Paula or Monica. Which is interesting, because Gay is the issue du jour, at least according to the fundamentalists.

Speaking of which...Avedon, subbing, over at Eschaton pointed me to the Slacktivist who blogged about the May Harpers Magazine article on New Life Church of Colorado Springs.

I'm still trying to think of words to describe how shocked an appalled I was by this article. It - literally - caused me to lose sleep the night I read it. As soon as I can collect my thoughts, I'll post more.

JimmyJeff GuckertGannon victim of "Government Conspiracy"?

2005-05-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

KWWL-TV (Waterloo, IA) is reporting that a local private investigator looking into the September 1982 kidnapping of a West Des Moines, IA paperboy, Johnny Gosch, believes Johnny may shamed White House softball pitcher and male prostitute Jeff Gannon (aka James Guckert).

Sayeth KWWL:

Rothstein is a former New York City police detective, now a private investigator working the case for Johnny's mother, Noreen. And within the last couple weeks, Rothstein has uncovered new evidence linking Johnny's kidnapping to child prostitution. "It basically came down to one thing and one thing only. You know, it was money. These kids were being grabbed to satisfy the malignant, twisted, you know, evil depravity of very powerful individuals who have the money," he says.

and

Last month, people on the internet and investigators like Rothstein began to believe a man who passed himself off as a White House reporter and known male prostitute Jeff Gannon could be Johnny Gosch. And while Gannon's true idenity still can't be confirmed, Rothstein says the more clues he uncovers, the possibility Gannon may be Gosch increases, "When you look into the whole abduction of Johnny, what happened, the cover-up that took place, the way the kidnapping was done, this was a professional job and it fits the profile that I have seen over the years as a professional investigator."

This gives the JimmyJeff story a whole new dimension...

Down the Memory Hole

2005-05-26T21:13:00.000-07:00

No, this wasn't taken from Orwell's 1984, these things happen to many times to count in the conservative press:

From Media Matters for America:

In a commentary in the May 30 issue of The New Republic devoted to excoriating Newsweek for failing to confirm the veracity of claims by an unnamed Pentagon source claims of that U.S. military interrogators had desecrated the Quran, editor-in-chief Martin Peretz baselessly claimed that, unlike rioting in Afghanistan and Pakistan purportedly fueled by Newsweek's story, "[s]eventeen people did not die at Guantànamo or Abu Ghraib." When Peretz's article appeared in The New Republic's online edition (subscription required), the line was deleted.

Just What Liberal Media are you referring to again?

Bush Makes Seven-year-old Cry

2005-05-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

Priceless.

Remember how the SCLM always shows the baby spitting up on Candidate Bill Clinton in 1992? Well, at least the child didn't cry:

"Apparently Bush launched into a rather long-winded speech about the significance of the Oval Office. Brittany - usually a bundle of giggles - got antsy, complained she was bored, then started to cry, he said."

Thanks to Wonkette for the heads up.

Christians in Iraq to American Evangelicals: Stuff It

2005-05-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

Clicked through fromAtrios to The Green Knight and eventually here, where the subject of American Evangelical missionary work in Iraq is discussed thusly:

U.S. bombs and missiles destroyed the physical portion of Iraq. Now, zealous missionaries are trying to destroy the belief system of Iraq. Fortunately, for the Iraqi people, neither ploy has worked to destroy their will. Resistance works at many levels.

If people only knew and read history, they would understand the roots of both Christianity and Islam. Christianity has been well known in the Middle East for about 10 times longer than in the United States, so we're not teaching them anything they don't already know! Also, Islam does not deny the miracle of Jesus' virgin birth or his death on the cross and resurrection. Islam teaches that he was a prophet in the mode of Moses or Abraham - and who should be revered as such - instead of God on Earth.

This is a travesty:

A dubious Iraqi girl being helped to hold a bible

No Small Feat

2005-05-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

As Kos notes, the up or down votes on the handful of judicial nominees is a small price to pay to protect the filibuster for the Supreme Court nominee(s).

"Something like a draw."

2005-05-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

Josh Marshall makes a good point about the GOP/Dem judicial nominees/filibuster agreement:

So this isn't a pleasant compromise. But precisely because the Republicans -- or their leading players -- are absolutists in a way the Democrats are not, I think this compromise will batter them more than it will the minority party, which is after all a minority party which nonetheless managed to emerge from this having fought the stronger force to something like a draw.

Wedding Bell Blues

2005-05-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

Well, folks. Don't know if anyone is reading this, but if you area please comment.

I just got back from a wedding in Southern Illinois, so I apologize for the lack of posts over the weekend.

Got a lot shaping up this week, with the Owen nomination and the vote on the "nuclear option" and the showdown over stem cell research (see previous posts).

I'll post more later.

A Red State Homosexual

2005-05-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

I wanted to explain a little more about me than what is posted in my profile, which you can link to at the right side of the page.

I'm 28-years-old and eight years ago, I dropped out of college in Kentucky and moved to Houston, Texas. Now, this was one of the most important things I did for myself - and it has led me, full circle, back to school here in Mississippi. I start Mississippi State University in the fall, studying for a degree in Broadcast Meteorology. Yeah, I wanna be your weatherman...just don't throw a Wendy's Frostyat me.

Anyway, I grew up in Southern Illinois, the reddest part of a blue state, moved to a red state to go to college, then to a redder state to grow up and now I live in an even redder state, preparing to return to college. Fair to say, I've lived in the red most of my life.

I took my first steps at coming out while I was in college in kentucky. I was still close enough to home in Southern Illinois, and there were students at the University whom I had grown up with and gone through elementary and high school with, so I had to be somewhat careful about being "outted."

When I lived in Houston, I didn't have to worry about being out or fear being outted. I was 800 miles away from my family - who, when I moved did not know I was gay. Some still don't - so that played no role. All - or most - of my friends were gay and I worked for a restaurant company located in the gay neighborhood of Houston.

Now I'm back in a small city near the buckle of the what is known as the "Bible belt." How do I act? I'm used to being able to do whatever I want, acting how I want. Acknowledging friends and acquaintences without fear of upsetting them by outting them. I fear being outted at work and losing privelege and status amongst my peers. I fear being outted on campus and being attacked - both physically and verbally - because of my sexual orientation.

After eight-years of freedom, I now suddenly have to bottle all that up and watch what I do. How does one do that?

Cupid-1 // Social Convservatives-0

2005-05-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Ellen Goodman has a thought-provoking column on the one-year anniversary of Gay Marriage in Massachusetts.

Support for gay marriage has grown from 40% to 60%...and Boston won the World Series.

...Maybe Kansas should allow gay marriage. I hear the Royals could use a pennant win.

Yes, Virginia, this is what Sam Walton would have wanted.

2005-05-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

Maryland's Republican Governor (who else) has chosen to veto a bill , passed by the Legislature and supported by union groups, that would require employers (including non-profits) who employ more than 10,000 people to spend at least 8-percent of their payroll on health care benefits, or pay more into the state's Medicaid fund...

...So of course it's Anti-Business, sayeth the Guv:

"We are here to enthusiastically veto a bad piece of public policy," Ehrlich told local members of the Chamber of Commerce, lawmakers and commissioners from Somerset County and several nearby counties. "The reason we are vetoing this bill is that it threatens the economic health of this terrific county."

Protestors, as usual, were not permitted to demonstrate, but stood silently at the rear of the conference with the backs turned to Erlich.

Supporters say "[i]t's outrageous that they believe Maryland taxpayers should foot the cost of Wal-Mart health care."

My father works for Wal-Mart in Southern Indiana, I'm not totally cold to the plea that rising healthcare costs are bad for the bottom line, but the state shouldn't be picking up tab for the non-fulltime hourly employees, especially when - last I checked - Wal-Mart was listed as the #1 Fortune 500 Corporation.

Stem Cells

2005-05-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post, this morning, is reporting that a moderate Republican from Delaware, Michael Castle, has co-sponsored a bill with 201 other members of Congress to ease the Bush restrictions on Stem Cell Research.

Castle is boasting that if a vote were held today, the measure would pass. The Post says there are 218 committments to vote for the bill if it were to come up:

The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 would permit federal money to
fund research on stem cells taken from days-old embryos stored in freezers at
fertility clinics and donated by couples who no longer need them. The cells show
great promise in treating a variety of diseases and injuries because they are
able to morph into all kinds of tissues, but they are controversial because the
embryos must be destroyed to retrieve the cells.

The wingnuts are already rattling their chains about this, going so far as to preparing to parade children "adopted" as embryos.

And the measure is apparently splitting the party...Rick Renzi of Arizona (opposes) and Mark Kirk of Illinois (supports) nearly came to blows during floor debate. Other moderater Republicans, who support the measure, have reportedly commissioned polls in the districts of those opposed to show that opposing the bill would be unpopular.

Interesting...

Nifty, This Technology Stuff

2005-05-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm a little behind the times on XML and RSS. I'm 28-years-old and a little afraid of technology sometimes (probably the paranoia...they're watching, you know...)

Anyhoo...when I decided to start this blog, I realized I didn't have time to sift through all the top stories in all the newspapers in the world. And spending more than a brief moment at the Drudgery is, well, drudgery.

Found this at Cnet. It's an RSS/XML ticker. You can run more than one ticker (which can be customized) and it pulls RSS feeds from many sources. I have two running at the moment, one set to top stories and one set to politics. It also pulls from blogs that have an RSS feed. (note: there isn't any spyware/adware downloaded surreptitiously, but it does contain sponsored links. They are set apart from the regular stories by using a different color.)

Congress Critters Unpopular

2005-05-18T23:47:00.000-07:00

Political Wire reports on a new Wall Street Journal/NBCNews poll showing that only 42% of Americans want their representative to be re-elected with 45% saying they want someone new.

Higher than in 1994, when the congressional majority last changed hands.

[Congressional Republicans]

But...but...Terri Schaivo! Filibustering judicial nominees! Don't these people know we're trying to protect...no, no, that's not it. Don't these people know we're trying to...(pause, while we figure out what we're doing besides turn the country into a theocracy).

[/Congressional Republicans]

Filibuster, or Pity the Poor Republicans

2005-05-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

What is it with Republicans and constant victimization? Oh the SCLM used a "fish-eye" lens in taking my picture or even worse...pity us, the poor put-upon Christian minority, its always something with these people.

Now they're blocking the preschoolers Sunday school teacher. Pity us!

NO! No more pity. You want to talk about preschoolers, how about federally funded preschool programs for poor children? No? Then shut it up about how much your conservative activist judges do for preschoolers.

Welcome to WarriorGorilla

2005-05-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

So...apparently this blogging thing has taken off. I've been reading blogs for a couple years now, I think I started off reading Josh Marshall, but don't remember how I came about finding his blog. After that it was on to Atrios and Eric Alterman. I don't really even know if I have that much to add to the discussion, but we shall see.

I will attempt in this blog to discuss current events in both politics, television and pop culture.

Okay, enough with that. A little about me: I'm a 28-year-old college student in Mississippi. Just moved up here from Houston, TX where I lived for 8 years. I'm a liberal in the middle of bible-belt-thumper country (read: Red state). Two years ago I went through one of the most life-changing experiences I can imagine. I highly recommend it to any man who feels lost in today's shuffle. I only wish I could force Bush and his cabel of flackies to take a look at it.