Friday, October 6, 2006
View the full time-line for the Foley scandal: Chronology: The Foley-House page scandal - Politics - MSNBC.com
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Via the HRC:
With all that’s going on in Washington this week, I felt it was important to update all of you on the role that HRC has played in this unfolding story concerning Mark Foley.
Congressman Mark Foley’s sexually-charged communications with young congressional pages was reprehensible and we have strongly condemned it. We have also been equally quick to condemn some in the GOP for their attempts to blame this scandal on the GLBT community.
Just hours ago, following Speaker Hastert’s press conference, I sent a letter to him expressing outrage at the efforts of some in his party to scapegoat gay people for this unfortunate situation. You can read the full letter here.
At the beginning of the week, I issued the following statement to the press:
“Gay or straight, Democrat or Republican, it is completely inexcusable for an adult to have this kind of communication with a minor. Congressman Foley brought shame on himself and this Congress by his horrible behavior and complete lack of judgment. We strongly condemn his behavior.”
On Tuesday, we issued a press release condemning the Republican leadership for avoiding responsibility and for trying to blame our community. You can read the press release here.
On Wednesday, HRC Vice President, David Smith, appeared on MSNBC to combat Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council. Her group has been saying that the House Republican leaders were afraid to investigate the Foley matter because they were afraid of being labeled “homophobic.” That’s right! - the same members of Congress who have been trying to write our community out of the Constitution were supposedly unwilling to stop Foley because they were worried about their image as gay bashers. This is some of the most convoluted nonsense out there. David did an excellent job of going after FRC’s illogical and inflammatory statements. You can watch the clip here.
Yesterday, I also submitted an editorial to Huffington Post, the popular online website run by Arianna Huffington. We need to get the focus of this debate back on topic. It has nothing to do with Mark Foley’s sexual orientation and everything to do with the fact that the pages were teenagers entrusted to the care of Foley and the entire House of Representatives. You can read my column here.
Last night, I continued HRC’s full-on offense against the scapegoating and half-truths permeating this debate, when I appeared on CNBC’s “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.” Donny had an excellent show looking at how the media continues to perpetuate and exacerbate the more outlandish excuses for the scandal. (Foley was molested as a child; he was in the closet; and, so on. All of these issues are beside the point.) Click here to watch a clip of the show.
Keep up-to-date on developments and HRC’s aggressive response to the smearing and vilifying of our community by visiting www.hrc.org and please feel free to forward this message.
Sincerely,
Joe Solmonese
President, Human Rights Campaign
Friday, September 29, 2006
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former male page.
Foley, who represents an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page in August 2005. The page had worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., and Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were originally released by ABC News.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15063977/
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Anyone seen this before?
It was first introduced as the Universal National Service Act of 2006 (H.R. 4752) by Rep. Charles Randel (D-NY).
To provide for the common defense by requiring all persons in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.
It seems to be hugely unpopular among members of both the House and Senate and many critics are calling it simply an Anti-War maneuver. Bringing back the draft would be certain death for the Iraq campaign among the general public.
Call it what you want, but it sounds like a draft to me.
Read more at:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h109-4752
http://www.globalresearch.ca
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Tomorrow is the big day: thousands of MoveOn members from Nashville, Tennessee to Phoenix, Arizona will come together at more than 300 rallies across the country to demand an “oil-free” future.
Tomorrow’s National Day of Action is really important because this weekend is the 4th of July holiday and gas prices are on everyone’s minds. We need to seize this moment to make sure the media and the public know that the Republican addiction to oil money is keeping gas prices high and holding America back from the clean energy future that we desperately need.
Can you join us at a rally near you?
National Day of Action for an “Oil-Free” Congress
Where: 5 Star Parking across the street from Bob Stivers Shell Station at 10th and A
1011 A St.
San Diego, CA
When: Wednesday, 28 Jun 2006, 4:00 PM
Link to RSVP: http://political.moveon.org/event/oilfree/9551?id=8139-4350126-l5TwvpSTl1nApWx_ZMUtlA&t=3
National Day of Action for an “Oil-Free” Congress
Where: Mobil Station Hwy 67 (aka Main St)
16992 Sky Valley Rd
Ramona, CA
When: Wednesday, 28 Jun 2006, 4:00 PM
Link to RSVP: http://political.moveon.org/event/oilfree/9650?id=8139-4350126-l5TwvpSTl1nApWx_ZMUtlA&t=3
Or click here to search for events near you:
As we write this email, Republicans are using the national frustration with gas prices as an excuse to push through even more giveaways to Big Oil instead of getting serious about clean energy alternatives that can move us away from oil.
Why? Because the oil industry has bought the majority stake in the Republican party. Big Oil has given hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Republicans and in return, Big Oil has received billions in subsidies from Congress.
We can’t afford Congress’ addiction to oil money anymore. It keeps gas prices high, keeps us dependent on the Middle East and is blocking progress on a clean energy future,
Congress needs to know that we’re paying attention. We need them to start working for us, not Big Oil. Tomorrow we’re going to make it clear that we want an oil-free, clean energy future and we want it now.
Can you join us on our National Day of Action for an “Oil-Free” Congress?
Renewable and alternative energy sources, like biofuels, hybrids, solar and wind power are ready today, but Congress’s addiction to oil money is holding us back. Breaking the addiction to oil is the first step towards energy independence and the clean energy future we all want.
Thanks for all you do,
–Nita, Matt, Tom, Eli and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.3 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you’d like to support our work, you can give now at:
http://www.moveonpac.org/donate/email.html?id=8139-4350126-l5TwvpSTl1nApWx_ZMUtlA&t=6
Friday, November 11, 2005
As a veteran myself, I just want to wish all those who have served in our military a happy Veteran’s Day. With so much going on in the world, it’s important to say thanks to those who are still fighting the fight. It’s also important to recognize the contributions of ALL veterans, not just the straight ones. There are over 65,000 gay and lesbians currently serving in the armed forces but they are not allowed to serve openly. The Service Members Legal Defense Network (SLDN.org) states,
According to the Pentagon, it has discharged more than 10,000 service members for being gay, including nearly 800 with skills deemed “mission critical” by the Department of Defense. Those who have been discharged include linguists, combat engineers, pilots, medical professionals and others. According to statistician Gary Gates, the armed forces could attract as many as 41,000 new recruits by repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” in addition to the 65,000 lesbian and gay Americans already on duty in the active duty, reserve and national guard forces.
This session of congress has finally introduced legislation to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, with 100 members of congress co-sponsoring the bill. The bill is called the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (H.R. 1059). If you want to learn more about the legislation you can check out the SLDN website.
Some may say, “hey this is Veteran’s Day, don’t hijack this holiday to push your own gay agenda, it’s about the veterans not about being gay”. Well it is about the veteran’s but it’s about all of us who served. Have you served? Did you get off your ass and stand up and do your time? If you didn’t, then don’t talk to me about hijacking Veteran’s day. I earned it. I served for 4 years and lived a misserable lie just because I felt being an officer was more important than being gay. With the ban on gays in the military, Veteran’s day is merely a holiday for “everyone else”. Gay veterans have served, fought and died to protect a way of life they could not themselves enjoy and until we are all equal under the law with the same opportunities to pursue our own careers along side everyone else, then there is no such thing as a nice quiet Veteran’s day.
You can take action and tell your representative in congress that you support the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Visit the Human Rights Campaign website for information on sending an email. You may not have served in the military yourself, but you can at least get off your ass this time around and send a simple email. As they say, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
And if you think the ban on gays and lesbians is justified and should continue, then head on down to your local recruiters office and sign up. There’s plenty of room in line for those allowed to serve.
We are a nation of smart, talented and skilled people. Imagine what we could accomplish if we were also equal.
Friday, November 11, 2005
ExxonMobil recently announced the largest quarterly profits—$9.9 billion—of any American corporation in history. Of course nobody is going to condemn the right of a business to earn profit, it’s the reason businesses exist and is the cornerstone of a healthy capitalistic society. We are not, after-all, a socialist state. But there are currently congressional hearings going on regarding the recent oil industry profits and whether ExxonMobil is unfairly raising prices while at the same time crushing any and all attempts to fund alternative energy research.
Via MoveOn:
During yesterday’s hearings on recent record oil industry profits, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) told the oil executives, “People are concerned about fairness and justice at a time of sacrifice. Your sacrifice appears to be nothing.”….
The only answer to the current energy crisis is energy independence. That’s something we’ll be working on together in the next few weeks—one of the big positive things progressives stand for. And we’re starting with ExxonMobil, the biggest obstacle in the way.
Exxon owes much of its lobbying success to close ties to Republican leaders. Over the last decade, Exxon has given more than $5.2 million to Republicans, while giving less than $650,000 to Democrats.3 This year 91% of Exxon’s political contributions have gone to Republicans.4 In turn, Republican energy policy has amounted to a series of massive handouts to the oil industry. Even now, with Republicans grandstanding with show hearings on television, they refused to make the oil executives testify under oath.5 Together with the coalition, we’ll deliver your petition signature to ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, and we’ll send a copy to Congress to help break Exxon’s stranglehold on our government.
There are four main areas in which Exxon needs drastic change:
1. With gas prices near $3 a gallon, it’s outrageous to watch ExxonMobil rake in record profits while refusing to support greater fuel economy or invest significant amounts in cleaner, healthier energy.
2. ExxonMobil is the only oil company that remains part of Arctic Power, the group lobbying Congress to open the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Congress will cast the final vote on drilling in the Arctic shortly.
3. ExxonMobil has spent over $15 million since 1998 to deny the existence of global warming by funding junk science groups to cloud the debate. The company lobbies against efforts to fight global warming even as it alone is responsible for 5% of the world’s output of the main type of global warming pollution.
4. Remember the Exxon Valdez tragedy? Exxon’s tanker killed hundreds of thousands of seals, otters, birds, fish and whales when it spilled 11 million gallons of thick, deadly crude oil into the waters of Alaska’s pristine Prince William Sound. Yet despite making a record profit of $25 billion last year, ExxonMobil is still shirking payment of the full amount it owes fishermen and natives hurt by the spill 16 years ago!The Exxpose Exxon campaign includes a dozen leading environmental and public interest groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), True Majority, the Alaska Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Defenders of Wildlife, and more.
If you want to learn more about his issue and sign a MoveOn.org petition to ExxonMobil, you can click on this link: http://political.moveon.org/exxon/?id=6320-4350126-2Vyr_9mTzR32AKYeWNjb5g&t=3.
Technorati Tags: ExxonMobil, Movon.org, energy, global+warming
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
News travels fast, so I’m sure everyone has already heard, but it’s worth repeating. House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, was indicted by a Texas grand jury on charges of criminal conspiracy. DeLay was indicted along with two other political associates. I briefly discussed these allegations awhile back. At that time most people thought it was just liberal democrats posturing and changing the subject.
Now I’m sure everyone will stomp up and down and say “hey, people are innocent until proven guilty”. Yeah, true but nobody was saying that when President Clinton was going down in flames. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Power corrupts… absolute power corrupts absolutely.
House Republican rules require DeLay to give up his leadership post because of the indictment.
Read more at:
MSNBC.com
Political Animal - Delay Update
Yahoo! News - Indicted DeLay leaves House leadership post
Technorati Tags: Tom+DeLay, House+Majority+Leader, Republicans, Democrats, DeLay, House+of+Representatives, Corruption, political+corruption
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Blogwatch Via Proceed at your own risk: WHILE ROME BURNS….
“If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents.”
Technorati Tags: flag+burning, american+flag, congress, constitutional+amendment
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Via CNN.com.
The House on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment that would give Congress the power to ban desecration of the American flag, a measure that for the first time stands a chance of passing the Senate as well.
I’m an Army veteran and loyal patriot so I am, of course opposed to burning the American flag. I was in the Military Police company in our Corps of Cadets in college and my unit was responsible for raising and lowering the flags on campus 365 days a year. We were the guardians of the flag and flag etiquette. That being said, however, I have also found myself on the side of the argument that allows people to freely express themselves however they choose, which includes their right to burn the flag in opposition to the people who wave it. The whole reason I served in our military was to protect free speech, our democracy and the rights of all Americans. We can’t have a culture where you are free to support the institutions of America all you want but it’s illegal to protest them. That’s called Communism.
Something about the image of seeing police officers wrestle an American citizen to the ground as he burns a flag in protest just makes me think of the Middle East.
We all practice our freedom individually.
Read the entire article at CNN.com.
Technorati Tags: flag+burning, constitutional+amendment, flag, American+flag, patriotism, Congress
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Via CNN.com.
“The House voted Wednesday to block the FBI and the Justice Department from using the Patriot Act to search library and book store records.”
Members voted 238 to 187 to block part of the law.
Read more at Via CNN.com.
Technorati Tags: Patriot Act, Anti-terrorism, Veto, terrorism, Congress, FBI, Justic Department, library records
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Via Yahoo! News.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is angry at NBC for airing a recent episode of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, that made a reference to his name.
DeLay’s name surfaced on Wednesday night on the show’s season finale, which centered on the fictional slayings of two judges by suspected right-wing extremists.In the episode, police are frustrated by a lack of clues, leading one officer to quip, “Maybe we should put out an APB (all-points-bulletin) for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt.”
DeLay sent a letter to NBC President accusing the network of manipulating his name and trivializing the issues of judicial security.
It’s ironic that the whole reason NBC used the reference to DeLay was because of DeLay’s inflammatory statement during the Terri Schiavo case. DeLay said, “The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.”
The Producer and creator of “Law & Order”, Dick Wolf, responded to DeLay’s accusations by saying, “I … congratulate Congressman DeLay for switching the spotlight from his own problems to an episode of a TV show.”
Honestly, how can DeLay get angry at this? NBC was just following his lead. If it weren’t for his violent rhetoric and outspoken position on rouge judges, then NBC would never have had anything to talk about in the first place.
You reap what you sew.
Read more at Yahoo! News.
Technorati Tags: Tom DeLay, Judiciary, NBC, Law & Order, Terri Schiavo, Majority Leader
Thursday, May 26, 2005
A follow-up to a previous post on a proposal in the US House to limit the role of women in combat support jobs. Via MSNBC.com.
Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, under pressure from the Pentagon and lawmakers of both parties, moved to abandon a proposal that would have required the Pentagon to get congressional approval before opening additional jobs in combat zones to women….
Instead, Hunter, Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, planned to propose that the Pentagon be allowed to continue deciding what positions women can serve in as long as they tell Congress about any proposed changes 60 legislative days beforehand.
“This puts Congress in a position where we have enough time to evaluate a policy change and react to that policy change,” the Californian said in an interview.
At least common sense prevailed in this situation. As I said before, with recruitment at an all time low and our armed forces spread too thin already, this is no time to be further reducing the pool of qualified people needed to get the job done, whether they be male, female, gay or lesbian.
Read the full article at MSNBC.com.
Technorati Tags: military, recruitment, women in combat, Armed Services Committee, combat
Friday, May 20, 2005
Last Saturday we made a post that laid out the evidence that George Bush lied about the justification for the war with Iraq. We said that the Bush administration engaged in a elaborate charade to convince the world that we had to invade Iraq because of the urgent need to get rid of his nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons of mass destruction, which was a huge let’s-fool-the-public lie.
Today’s New York Times reports that 89 members of the House have sent a letter to the White House asking for an explanation of the facts that were reported in Britain two weeks ago, which we laid out in Saturday’s post. The White House has brushed off the letter, but I forecast that this is going to become a major scandal. Lying to Congress. Lying to the United Nations. Lying to the American people. This is going to be George Bush’s $200 Billion Watergate.
Technorati Tags: Iraq War, George Bush
Monday, May 16, 2005
Decades after America became seemingly selfaware and confronted the civil rights issues facing our country, it seems that discrimination and segregation are getting worse. The Blog, Kicking Ass, for the Democratic National Committee has posted a new report that Republicans in the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee have supported a last-minute amendment to ban women from combat support roles. Women are already banned from direct combat jobs and now they are extending the policy to include support roles.
The Army currently has a ban on women in direct combat roles — this amendment would mean women assigned to combat support roles — like maintenance, supply, or food service specialities would not be able to travel with their units if deployed to the front lines where direct combat could occur.
At a time when recruiting is at an all time low across all services, do we really need to be scaling back the pool of people who are available to meet our military committments around the world? Why can’t our government allow equal access to jobs if those who are qualified can handle the work? Let the merits and qualifications of the people doing the work be the disqualifier, not just a blanket rule to discriminate against an entire population. If a man is unable to perform the duties of his job, then he is removed from that position. He is fired or demoted and kicked out of the service. His job performance is the measure of his success and his ability. Why can’t we afford women, and gay people for that matter, the same chance to prove themselves. If they can’t cut it, then get rid of them, just like the real corporate world of adult America. We are causing an even greater shortage of people in an already overworked and overdeployed military.
The article makes reference to the move as being yet another part of the efforts of Republicans to cater to the right-wing special interests.
Where is the evidence to support these close-minded decisions?
Read the full article at DNC: Kicking Ass - Republicans vote to ban women from combat roles in the Army.
Technorati Tags: combat, women in combat, republicans, armed services committee, civil rights, womens rights
Thursday, April 28, 2005
“The House and Senate Republican leaders have reached a tentative agreement on a budget.” via CNN.com
The plan calls for $10 billion in “savings”. By savings, they mean program cuts. Savings in the context of this article means savings for the government. That translates into loss of benefits for the poor and ederly.
The Blogging of the President has more analysis and insight about the tentative agreement.
Read the original article on CNN.com
Technorati: budget, medicaid
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Via CNN.com
With a vote of 406-20, the House overwhelmingly voted to reverse Republican-written rules in the ethics committee.
What is at issue is . . . whether the House is going to continue to have a credible ethics process. Nothing less than this is at stake here tonight.
Read the full article at CNN.com
Technorate: ethics, Democrats, Republicans
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