| E-Petition for Overturning Blood Ban |
[Nov. 23rd, 2006|07:09 pm] |
Sign a petition for removing the ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood in the UK
(And, one would assume, removing the ban for women who have had sex with gay or bisexual men.)
It's not the most well-written petition I've seen. I wonder where the statistic that there would be 1/100th more of a risk of blood-borne infection in transfusions if gay and bi men were allowed to donate came from and I don't think that really helps this particular cause, nor do I think it's helpful to have grammatical errors within the details.
I also think that the signatories should be checked better as I doubt "Madonna Ciccone" signed (isn't it Ciccione and doesn't she use Ritchie these days anyway?) and "Everyone has Aids" is not a real name.
Concerns aside, I think this is a worthwhile petition. It certainly can only help remove the National Blood Service (NBS) ban or it will do nothing at all; it's not going to hinder other organisations and individuals who are trying to get the ban overturned. It is something that's long overdue. I personally would like to be able to donate blood without having to lie about it -- which I refuse to do.
So I've signed the petition and I hope you do as well. (As long as you are a citizen or resident of the UK; citizens living overseas do count, so all you British expats should sign as well!) |
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| US Election Results: That's All She Wrote |
[Nov. 10th, 2006|05:12 am] |
As if you didn't already know, Allen has conceded defeat in Virginia which means that the Democrats will now control the Senate.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wendolen has posted some amusing images here (with links to more in the comments).
As an explanation for their "thumpin'", the Republicans blame election losses on Democrats.
Republican officials are blaming tonight's GOP losses on Democrats, who they claim have engaged in a wide variety of "aggressive, premeditated, anti-Republican campaigns" over the past six-to-18 months. "We have evidence of a well-organized, well-funded series of operations designed specifically to undermine our message, depict our past performance in a negative light, and drive Republicans out of office," said Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, who accused an organization called the Democratic National Committee of spearheading the nationwide effort. "There are reports of television spots, print ads, even volunteers going door-to-door encouraging citizens to vote against us." Acknowledging that the "damage has already been done," Mehlman is seeking a promise from Democrats to never again engage in similar practices.
No, I wouldn't have known it was The Onion either if I hadn't looked. And I remember the days when it was a print newspaper, available for free from a green plastic machine in Harvard Square, and nothing it said could possibly have been mistaken for reality...
I'm not a Democrat -- I have no party affiliation and I'm further left-libertarian than they are -- but I am pleased by the events of the past few days and I now have at least some hope that the US can be turned back from the brink of catastrophe. |
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| US Election Results: Almost Over |
[Nov. 8th, 2006|06:50 pm] |
Democrat Jon Tester has been called as the victor in Montana after one recount! That means that the Democrats currently have fifty seats to the Republicans fourty-nine; however, since the tie-breaking vote is the Leader of the Senate which is the Vice President, the Democrats have to take Virginia to have a majority. Democrat Webb has won in Virginia but it is so close that an automatic recount has occurred and there could be more recounts. It'll probably be the end of November by the time we know for certain who is in control of the Senate. It might even be December. That said, I think I shall assume that Democrats have taken both legislative branches.
Donald Rumsfeld has just announced that he is going to resign as Defense Secretary. AWESOME.
Nationally, I found out that ballot questions banning same-sex marriages passed in seven states -- Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. It is too close to call in Arizona. I feel a little bit of sadness for my native country over this; bigotry should never be written into state constitutions. The legalisation of medical marijuana or marijuana as a whole failed in all states which had that on the ballot as well, which is most unfortunate for Nevada given the way their process for ballot questions works. I wish people would see that the only lives they can control are their own.
In Massachusetts, I'm not surprised by any of the results. Democrats for everyone I voted for and no on all the ballot questions, although Question 3 was close. Sometimes I wonder why I bother voting there; people vote no on the questions without knowing what they are and Democrats always win the seats.
Food for thought on the House: if the President and Vice President both happen to die whilst still holding office, the Speaker of the House becomes President. Come January, that will be Nancy Pelosi. Just sayin'.
I think I am somewhat running out of steam. |
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| US Election Results, Take Four |
[Nov. 8th, 2006|07:31 am] |
I can't stay up anymore. The Senate race won't be done for some hours, so I think I'm going to try to take a nap (versus a full night's sleep) and dream of ShrubCo being impeached sometime in the next two years. I do believe the Democrats will get Virginia, Missouri, and Montana -- according to the data here, unless the recount goes awry in Virginia the Dems have already won there, and are in the lead in the other two. But it'll be a while before all the remaining precincts have reported in Missouri and Montana, and that doesn't include the liklihood of recounts.
Oh, hey, Missouri have just called for the Democrat, Claire McCaskill, at 49% of the vote with 85% of precincts reporting! Only two more to go, but as I'm too wiped to talk about the final results of the Massachusetts races with just under 100% of precincts reporting, I'm still going to go to sleep.
However, congratulations to New Hampshire for their upset in both House races, including the surprise of Carol Shea-Porter unseating Jeb Bradley.
More later! Today is a new day in America. And, um, in the UK... but differently. Yes. |
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| US Election Results, Take Three |
[Nov. 8th, 2006|05:56 am] |
The White House has conceded the House of Representatives to the Democrats. Congratulations to Nancy Pelosi, the Congressperson from San Francisco who will soon be the first female Speaker of the House. This may end up being a sizable majority. I think it's twenty-one now, obviously well above the fifteen they needed.
The Senate is too close to call. I just heard that Tennessee has been called for the Republicans. There are four (it's late, I'm getting confused; three now?) states left; the Republican in Virginia has requested a recount. Two who have been elected are Independents that in one case is likely to rejoin the Democrats (Lieberman) and in the other is a Vermont lefty (Sanders) -- or Socalist, if you believe the pundit from the Univerrsity of Virginia on the BBC -- who would count within a Democratic majority. It is basically equal.
It looks like the majority of Governors will be Democrats, although the Governator has been re-elected in California and Charlie Crist has been elected in Florida. At least Katherine Harris lost her House run.
Massachusetts voters have said no to Question 1, which would have allowed wine to be sold in food stores. Question 2 has unfortunately been called for the "no" camp, although there are no articles on it as of yet.
South Dakota has overwhelmingly rejected a state law banning almost all abortions. Four states have banned same-sex marriage, although I'm unsure which ones; does anyone know?
I think it might be time for some coffee. |
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| US Election Results, Take Two |
[Nov. 8th, 2006|04:02 am] |
Holy shit, the main media outlets called the Governor's race for Deval at 8pm -- the instant (most of) the poll closed. What the fuck? Way to combat voter apathy, media. And way to follow through on not celebrating victories until all the votes have been counted, Democrats. Grrrr.
Other instances of madness in this election include poor and homeless people recruited to hand out fraudulent sample ballots in Maryland, a voter smelling conspiracy theory smashing an electronic voting machine in Pennsylvania, telemarketing abuse, and calls to voters in Virginia incorrectly claiming precinct changes.
In happier news, Massachusetts is set to break its turnout record. I feel a slight tinge of hometown pride to read things like "In the bedroom community of Burlington, a little more than half of the city's 14,180 voters had cast ballots by 5 p.m" and "I'm thinking we're probably going to hit 75 percent by the end of the day" from Town Clerk Jane Chew. (Well done to my parents for voting immediately after my mother returned home from work and they had listened to me speak to them about Jill Stein and Question 2.)
Democrat Keith Ellison has been elected as the first Muslim member of Congress as a House Representative from Minnesota. The Democrats have just taken the New Hampshire House seat.
syntheticganesh, your vote really and truly matters -- you better have voted today!
THE DEMOCRATS JUST TOOK CONTROL OF THE HOUSE!!! Yay! Now to wait on the Senate! |
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| US Election Results, Take One |
[Nov. 8th, 2006|03:03 am] |
I am currently sitting and watching the election results come in on BBC News 24 and Sky News. Well, not exactly currently, as the television is in the lounge and I am in the hall at the computer. I am also periodically checking boston.com.
So far, I am elated to hear that Republican Rick Santorum has been unseated as the Senator from Pennsylvania (not that Bob Casey is hugely better, but enough) and pleased that the Democrats have taken the Ohio Senate seat and Rhode Island Senate seat. Joe Lieberman has won as an Independent for his Senate seat in Connecticut. Democrats have gained key House seats in Indiana and Kentucky.
In Massachusetts news, the race for Governor has been called for Deval Patrick at 55% of the vote with 35% of precincts reporting, making him the first black Governor of Massachusetts and ending the Democrats sixteen-year absence from that office.
Sadly, with 28% of precincts reporting, the election for Secretary of State has been called for Galvin with 82% of the vote -- my town went for Galvin. :( And although it has not been called yet, it looks like Question 2 is going to fail. :(
Of course, saying all that, I wonder how they think they can accurately and with certainty call an election when so few precincts have reported, and with such an unexpectedly high turnout -- not to mention the fact that some polling places ran out of ballots and people were still voting when they started calling elections. That may mean this post will require some editing later.
I'll be here all night; not necessarily posting, although I will aim to do so, but I am going to stay up as late as can to watch how this unfolds. |
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| 2006 Mid-Term Elections |
[Nov. 7th, 2006|04:09 am] |
I got my ballot late this year due to the incompetency of the Massachusetts Elections Division, but was able to send it back on 20 October due to excellent time management (ie, spending a couple of days not doing much else in my free time) and being known well by the Burlington Town Hall. (This does not explain why it then took me over two weeks to post about it, especially since I made notes, but blame being busy.)
Of thirteen state and federal offices for which to vote this year, five were uncontested; that is actually better than usual in a state which has had a Democratic majority for longer than anyone alive can remember and where most opposition candidates come from third parties. It also explains five of my votes for Democrats, although in fairness I would still have definitely voted for one of them.
Special note must be made of the shameful, disgusting mockery of the race for Governor's Councillor 6th District. Those elected to the position are in charge of making lifetime appointments to the judiciary and parole board, amongst other potentially life-altering decisions. However, of the four candidates (Democrat, Repubublican, and two Independents) only the Independents bothered to create websites. Neither gave information about their values -- one seemed to act almost solely as an advertisement for her real estate company. Democracy requires the citizenry to be able to know pertinent details of all candidates in order to make an informed decision and that has not occured in this race.
I am breaking from tradition this year regarding my feelings of the secrecy of the ballot to discuss who or what I've voted for -- and in one case, to perhaps publicly flagellate myself. You see, I feel slightly dirty for my Governor and Lieutenant Governor vote. If I had voted my true conscience, which I normally do as I'm not one for tactical voting, then it would have been Grace Ross and Martina Robinson of the Green-Rainbow Party; hello, left-wing small-l libertarian lesbian and mixed-race disabled bisexual welfare-receiving freelance journalist, how can I not vote for you? However, I wanted to make sure to avoid the unmitigated disaster of Kerry Healey and Reed Hillman so I held my nose and voted for Deval Patrick and Timothy Murray. I do agree with some of the Patrick / Murray ticket -- but if I could have been sure that the sizable gap in the polls between Patrick and Healey would stick several weeks before the election, I would have voted for the two people with the best policies for the state of Massachusetts.
It's not all breaking with tradition because my little radical heart feels guilty. I'm actually endorsing a candidate this year. Vote Jill E. Stein of the Green-Rainbow Party for Secretary of State! William Galvin has abused and made a mess of his position too long; he was supposed to be the watchman of the democratic system, but can't even respect the will of the people. His inadequacies include but aren't anywhere near limited to bringing in untested Diebold voting machines, screwed up postage on absentee ballots (a simple task which may now disenfranchise many voters), believes his office handled the Big Dig well, is responsible for Massachusetts getting sued by the Department of Justice for multiple voting rights violations, and failed to meet the deadline for compliance with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) after four years to prepare and will miss it for the 2008 election as well. After intense pressure he only agreed to debate Jill Stein for five minutes in an undisclosed location, which turned into fifteen minutes of him refusing to answer questions and attacking her party affiliation. Alternately, Jill Stein has a platform of open and transparent government, clean elections, greater voting rights, fair districts, and Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). For these and other reasons, I'm proud to support Jill Stein as my candidate. Vote Jill, not Bill!
In addition to my complete support of the fantastic Jill Stein, I am endorsing the Yes campaign for Question 2: Cross-Party Candidacy. This would bring back the cross-endorsement voting made illegal in Massachusetts by the two main parties in 1912 and which currently exists in both New York and Connecticut. Far from being confusing -- a statement made by the "No" camp which I find particularly patronising, especially as it seems to be mostly made up of those on Beacon Hill -- it combats voter apathy by giving a real say to marginalised voters. It is simple to choose whether to vote for a mainstream, cross-endorsed, or completely independent candidate. A mainsteam candidate who has cross-party candidacy means that they substantively agree with the policies of the other parties and will have to make those issues a priority for those that vote on the cross-endorsed line and will introduce new parties that way as well as new faces by allowing smaller parties to team up for a real chance at winning more seats. I do not believe it would stifle more substantial electoral reform that would bring in Proportional Representation as some seem to fear; indeed, by more parties other than the main two getting "official" recognition in the state, I think that it would increase public knowledge of the options available to them which would itself lead eventually to PR.
If you are American, please vote tomorrow (er, today) regardless of your political stripes. Participate in the democratic process and give yourself the ability to bitch about it for the next two years -- if you don't bother to use your vote, you have no place complaining about the outcome.
Thanks to all the resources I used this year: boston.com Massachusetts Elections 2006, ontheissues.org: Massachusetts Politicians, Wikipedia, Blue Mass Group (which I syndicated some time ago at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) bluemassgroup and which was also used for news watch pre-vote), Mass.Gov, and many candidate websites. |
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| I was in such a good mood earlier today. |
[Feb. 1st, 2006|05:34 am] |
1. Confirmation of Samuel Alito as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court
I weep for my native country. Majority control of SCOTUS was a main goal of ShrubCo and his supporters, especially the neo-conservatives and the Religious Right; it means decades of legal tampering and bad decisions by authoritarian, (neo-)conservative judges. Where is the rest of America, those who truly do value the Constitution, their freedom, their civil liberties? Have they gone to sleep[1]? There should have been a massive campaign by every progressive organisation in the country. There should have been a filibuster[2]. This was the decision of a generation and it just... happened. How can real change occur now?
2. 2006 State of the Union
It has become traditional for me to watch it live on the BBC and have a running commentary[3] of increasing volume[4], often getting drunk[5]. I always think I'll get around to writing up a big post about it but I never do, so one highlight: if you take the fourth and fifth paragraphs[6] and insert "by impeaching me" or "is to impeach me" in the appropriate part of nearly every sentence, that section of the speech works even better.
3. Coretta Scott King dies of ovarian cancer aged 78
I'm deeply saddened by Mrs. King's death and have had trouble writing my usual blurb. I deeply admired and respected her; I did fair few reports on her for Black History Month and Women's History Month. Coretta Scott King began her public life as the wife of one of the figureheads and icons of the civil rights movement, but became a figurehead and icon herself. Her experience, skill, and very personalised knowledge of history was unparalleled. Her tireless activism to advance the cause fairness and equality in the US and around the world has helped achieve genuine change. With Mrs. King's passing, we have lost an important advocate of justice; a light of truth that is desperately needed in a very difficult and dangerous time.
[1] Bueller? Bueller?
[2] Consisting of all Democrats, Independents, and moderate or libertarian Republicans.
[3] About an equal mix of belligence and humour.
[4] Actually, that part is a family tradition. Try it on C-Span sometime!
[5] Which I sadly couldn't do this year.
[6] For you lazy bastards: ( That section of the transcript. ) |
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| A very bad week for ShrubCo. |
[Oct. 28th, 2005|07:14 am] |
Harriet Miers withdraws her name for consideration as Supreme Court Justice to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. Ostensibly this was to prevent the release of confidential Executive Branch documents and muddying up Executive privilege (never mind that her nomination itself arguably caused an issue with separation of powers). In reality, it was due to being cannibalised by other neo-Conservatives for her lack of adequate answers within the confirmation process coupled with her lack of credentials, and a perception of both contradictory views and not being enough of a fascist religious extremist. This has the potential to cause a fair few fractures -- or at least fissures -- in Conservative America, which has largely been successful due to its ideological unity and collective purpose. It also holds the worrying possibility of a candidate tailor-made for the love of the Religious Right, but for now I'm laughing.
Meanwhile, today is the deadline for Special Criminal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to bring charges of treason criminal charges against high-level members of the Bush administration for involvement in the Valerie Plame affair after a two-year investigation; if you have the attention span of a gnat or have been frying with your brain with Fox News, Plame was a CIA operative whose name was leaked in retaliation for her husband's article for contradicting administration claims (which were already known as false in the UK due to the dodgy dossier) about what was to become known as the Yellowcake forgery. Although I find it doubtful that Dubya himself didn't know about it, the chances that could be proven are close to nil, and the likely heads on the chopping block are Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and presidential political adviser Karl Rove. Given that Fitzgerald has the option to ask for a grand jury extension, I think the best case scenario would be if Libby and Rove were indicted today and Fitzgerald received approval to keep VP Dick Cheney and others under continuing investigation for a second round of indictments; Bush would have to reconsider his decision to reneg on his public promise to fire anyone involved in the leak and Cheney would inevitably have to consider whether his position continues to be tenable and might resign in advance of being indicted later. Keep your fingers crossed and send thoughts of karma towards Pennsylvania Avenue.
Between these events, DeLay and others under investigation for corruption and/or fraud, three hurricanes with poor federal response, and the 2000th soldier killed in Iraq, I'd hate to be a power-mad narcissistic ex-cokehead President right about now. |
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| Beautiful. Just beautiful. |
[Oct. 6th, 2005|05:45 am] |
From the Liberator Songbook via softfruit:
Star-Spangled Missile
(Words: David Senior, Tune: Star-Spangled Banner)
Oh say can you see, by the night's eerie glow,
Where once proudly we camped on the roadside's green verges.
While broad streets and bright homes in the valley below
Are burnt on the altar of NATO's mad urges.
And the rocket's red glare, mushroom clouds in the air,
Gave proof to the world that the base had been there.
Oh say must that star-spangled missile yet cruise,
O'er this land of the free, who that fate would refuse.
---
I must now proceed to commit every last word of this song to memory and then sing it repeatedly in America whilst trying not to get arrested for it. |
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| On the road to a third world country. |
[Oct. 2nd, 2005|06:47 am] |
I have a particular hate-on for mercenaries. I have a special hatred of Blackwater; what they do in Iraq, in Afghanistan, especially in Colombia and so many other countries.
But now they've been sent into New Orleans. Along with other choice paramilitaries such as DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut (yes, of the rent-a-cops), Bodyguard and Tactical Security (BATS), and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI).
It seems that ShrubCo's initial response to... well, anything, is to invade. The mercs of Blackwater were on the ground armed with automatic assault rifles while Red Cross workers trying to provide aid in the form of food and medicine were held back for days. Only law enforcement personnel were supposed to have weapons -- civilian arms were forcibly confiscated -- but it meant that these professional killers, justifiably feared around the world, were allowed to operate with impunity.
Their press release (first link above) states that they were contracted to provide services including search and rescue, helicopter support, security services, and critical infrastructure protection. What this actually meant is that they had the run of the city; cleaning out someone's apartment to provide themselves a headquarters, patrolling the streets in SUVs with tinted windows or unmarked cars with no licence plates, shooting looters, protecting petrochemical operations and wealthy peoples' homes, etcetera. They may have been contracted by Homeland Security and / or deputised by federal or Louisiana state officials (which remains unclear), but they are private forces answerable to no one who were hired to be little more than vigilantes, just like they are internationally. I could go on for some time about what they get up to internationally, particularly in the Andes region of South America -- but I'm too sleepy, so it's going to have to be another post for another time.
Apart from the issues of military privitisation and the military-industrial complex, Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, is a right-wing Christian with familial and corporate connections to ShrubCo and who gives quite a lot of money to Republicans and the Republican National Committee. (I've never seen him, but I keep imagining him as Prince from Lexx. It seems apropros.) With his access, he has been advocating greater use of private security in international operations, and with the difficulty Bush is going to have trying to get rid of Posse Comitatus, we will only see more use of paramilitary groups acting as law enforcement within the domestic United States.
In case I haven't made it clear enough, folks, that's really really really bad. |
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| "I'm sorry" doesn't cut it. |
[Jul. 24th, 2005|04:12 am] |
I suspected very quickly that the shooting which took place in London on Friday outside of Stockwell Station was a massive mistake. Something seemed off about how it went down and the media reports about it. Sure, he ran from the police, but people run from cops for any number of reasons -- possession of drugs, carrying a knife, etc. He may have had wires on his person but telephony workers carry wires. He may have been wearing a coat but the British summer can feel quite chilly to people from other climates. There was just something off about it.
Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed as true. The man was a Brasilian electrician. I have heard unsubstantiated rumours that he wasn't fully fluent in English and that he may have been involved in car theft (country unknown) at one point; regardless of whether those rumours are true or not, or whether there were other reasons why he ran and didn't heed warnings, the Met gunned down an innocent man.
BTW, if he had been a suicide bomber he could have had a kill-switch anyway. I'm quite sure any future suicide bombers in the UK will after this incident.
The Met would have been better served shooting themselves in the foot. A perception that they will shoot any person with dark skin and a backpack would be understandable now. That creates more suicide bombers, not less. |
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| What happens when petty politics is prioritised. |
[Jul. 15th, 2005|05:24 pm] |
From Informed Consent via mmaestro:
The question is whether Bush played politics with terror around the time of the Democratic National Convention in late July, 2004. Jim Lobe reminded us at the time that ' The New Republic weekly quoted Pakistani intelligence officials as saying the White House had asked them to announce the arrest or killing of any "high-value [al-Qaeda] target" any time between July 26 and 28, the first three days of the Democratic Convention. At the time, former CIA officer Robert Baer said the announcement made "no sense." "To keep these guys off-balance, a lot of this stuff should be kept in secret. You get no benefit from announcing an arrest like this." '
In response to White House pressure, the Pakistanis were in fact able to make an arrest, which was announced during the Democratic National Convention. That arrest, of a Tanzanian named Ahmad Khalfan Gheilani, in turn led to the capture of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a young computer expert who had old al-Qaeda documents on his laptop as well as a more recent archive of email correspondence with al-Qaeda in the UK. Among the old data were pre-9/11 plans for attacks in New York and elsewhere.
The Bush administration issued a heightened security alert just as the Democratic National Convention was ending. Many at the time suspected that this announcement was an unsubtle attempt to play to the general public's perception of Bush as better at fighting terrorists than the Democrats.
...
The information reported by Ridge was based on data that was three years old, raising real questions about how urgent such an announcement could possibly have been and raising further suspicions about the timing.
The announcement set off a frenzy of press interest in the basis for then Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge's alarm. Either from a Bush administration source or from a Pakistani one (each government blames the other), they came up with the name of Muhammad Naeem Khan, a recently arrested al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan, and published it. But it turns out that the Pakistanis and the UK had "turned" Khan and were having him be in active email contact with the al-Qaeda network in the UK so as to track them down.
On August 3, the Bush administration released the name of Abu Eisa Khan, a suspected al-Qaeda operative in the UK who had been arrested. The motive for this shocking lapse in security procedure appears to have been the desire to trumpet a specific arrest.
All of these public pronouncements by the Americans infuriated the Pakistani and British police.
For the sake of three year old intelligence, the Bush administration had helped blow the first inside double agent the Pakistanis and the British had ever developed. The British had been preparing a set of indictments and pursuing the investigation, in part by using Khan. They were forced to move before they were ready. Some suspects escaped on hearing Naeem Khan's in the media. Of those who were arrested, several had to be released for lack of evidence against them.
Muhammad Sadique Khan, one of the July 7 bombers, was apparently connected to one of the suspects under surveillance in early August, 2004.
------
It would seem that to get the DNC off of the news and therefore off the average American's radar, ShrubCo played a particularly dangerous game of petty politics that resulted in the cover of the first and only double agent in Al-Queda -- who was connected to a London bomber. Would the bombings have been averted if the British had been allowed to continue their investigation? No one can ever say for sure but the possibility is there.
Regardless, it says volumes that ShrubCo is even willing to damage their own trump card, the war on terror, in order to achieve positive publicity against the Democrats and keep their power base intact. |
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| Grrrrrr. |
[Jul. 12th, 2005|08:29 pm] |
I just participated in the Human Rights Campaign's online chat entitled "The Supreme Court and You: What Does This Mean for the GLBT Community?" with their Legislative Director Christopher Labonte and their Senior Counsel Lara Schwartz.
Did they answer questions about the Supreme Court and how the nomination process works? Yes.
Did they answer questions about possible nominees to replace Justice O'Connor and potentially Justice Rehnquist? Yes.
Did they answer questions about how it impacts gay and lesbian rights? Yes.
Did they answer questions about what other mainstream progressive organisations they intend to work with to ensure a moderate nomination? Yes.
Did they answer questions about how it impacts bisexual and transgender rights? No.
Did they answer questions about working with bisexual and transgender organisations rather than just LGBT and civil rights/liberties organisations? No.
Did they answer questions about working with poly-political organisations? No.
Did they answer questions about working with The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom? No.
Did they actually say that one of the criteria they'd be looking for in a nominee was a record on gay and lesbian (not GLBT) rights? Yes.
Did they simply answer the same questions over and over? Yes.
I don't expect anything better from the HRC at this point. For an organisation supposedly existing on the basis of protecting and advancing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Americans they have never been capable of looking outside the duality of heterosexual / homosexual and indeed constantly ignore any commentary or criticism about that, whether minor or major. Their former director, Cheryl Jacques, publicly denounced polyamory on CNN's Crossfire not too long ago. I'm not surprised that they continue to ignore anyone and anything outside of monogamous gays and lesbians but I'm still dissappointed. Of all the points in history when they must stop running from being labeled by the neo-conservative right-wing as deviants or perverts or whatever -- where "we're just the same as you" cannot help advance any cause -- one that will impact us and future generations of Americans for decades to come... now is it.
What a bloody waste of my time. |
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