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Published on Thursday, July 2, 2009 by The San Francisco Chronicle Confirmed: God is Slightly Gay Just ask the animals. As soon as they stop having all that homosexual sex God does not do shrill homophobia. by Mark Morford ............. God's motto: Look, life is a wicked inscrutable orgy of love and compassion and survival instinct, shot through with pain and longing and death and suffering and far, far too many arguments about who did or did not pay the goddamn mortgage. Life on Earth ...

Source: AFP Indian court rules gay sex legal By Elizabeth Roche – 8 hours ago NEW DELHI (AFP) — New Delhi's highest court issued a landmark ruling Thursday that decriminalised gay sex between consenting adults in India by declaring a colonial-era ban on homosexuality unconstitutional. The decision by the Delhi High Court was hailed by gay activists here as a historic step in their struggle to achieve equal rights in a conservative society that largely regards homosexuality as a taboo illness...

I'm still reading these reports, but for the moment I'm interested in a paragraph from the June 11 Conversation (it is mislabeled June 1 in the NSA list). (Link) Hussen commented he allowed the UN inspectors back into Iraq to counter allegations by the British Government. Hussen stated this was a very difficult decision to make, but the British Government had prepared a report containing inaccurate intelligence. It was this inaccurate intelligence on which the United States was making their...

Source: Raw Story As gay discharges continue, gay soldier is murdered By John Byrne Published: July 2, 2009 Updated 6 minutes ago A 29-year-old soldier was found dead at a Southern California military base Tuesday in a suspected homicide that activists say may have been related to his sexuality. A unnamed individual is being held as a “person of interest” in the case. Seaman August Provost of Houston, Texas, reportedly complained to his family that was he being harrassed; his sister told ...

Source: Politico Washington Post sells access, $25,000+ By MIKE ALLEN | 7/2/09 8:04 AM EDT For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist sa...

Yes: this is an official photo of the ballots recounted by the Khamenei junta. As one of Nico's readers notes, you will notice that the name Ahmadinejad is written on the ballots in exactly the same handwriting on many of them. Are they really this dumb? Or just brazen? Another photo shows crisp unfolded ballots. The official photos are here. (Link) The recount also increased Ahmadinejad's margin in some areas. And Ahmadinejad canceled a foreign trip at the last minute. Hmmm. (Image) (Link) (...

Source: Huffington Post Bernie Sanders Demands Democrats Commit To Stopping Health Care Filibuster Posted by Sam Stein, Huffington Post on July 1, 2009 at 3:16 PM. One of the Senate's most vocal progressives is demanding that the Democratic Party commit to voting against filibustering health care legislation now that, with the impending arrival of Al Franken, the party has 60 caucusing members. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), called on the White House and Democratic leadership in Congress to en...

Source: New York Times Wal-Mart Says It Backs a Mandate on Insurance By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Published: June 30, 2009 WASHINGTON — Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, joined hands with a major labor union Tuesday to endorse the idea of requiring large companies to provide health insurance to their workers, a move that gives a boost to President Obama as he is pushing for health legislation on Capitol Hill. “Not every business can make the same contribution, but everyone must make ...

"Accountability for torture is a legal, political, and moral imperative.” Please, go read the entire article (Link)/ Andy lays out the case on ten murders in US custody in Afghanistan, taken mostly from his book "The Guantanamo Files," but also including testimony by released Guantanamo prisoner Omar Deghayes and research by John Sifton. It is a damning read. more: (Link)/ When Torture Kills: Ten Murders In US Prisons In Afghanistan Andy Worthington 1.7.09 .....it’s clear that they...

Rush: Jackson ‘flourished’ under Reagan, ‘died’ under Obama By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer Published: July 1, 2009 Updated 12 minutes ago Did Democratic presidents kill Michael Jackson? It appears that Rush Limbaugh may think so. “I have an observation about this Jackson thing,” Limbaugh began on his radio show Wednesday. “Jackson’s success paralleled the rebound of the United States under Reagan. Jackson’s biggest successes took place the in 80s … He flourished under Reagan, he languis...

Source: San Francisco Chronicle Federal judge taking long look at Prop. 8 Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, July 1, 2009 (06-30) 19:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge said Tuesday he's inclined to leave California's ban on same-sex marriage in effect for now, but wants an early trial to determine whether the voter-approved prohibition violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equality. More News In his first response to the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8, Chief U.S...

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Source: Minnesota Independent Pawlenty, Ritchie sign election certificate for Franken By Chris Steller 6/30/09 7:25 PM Al Franken’s election certificate was signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie early Tuesday evening, only hours after the state’s high court turned down Norm Coleman’s appeal of Franken’s win. Read below what the document says, or see the full document, seal and all, along with a cover letter, in this pdf. (Link) (Image) Read more: (Link)

* OPINION: THE TILTING YARD * JULY 1, 2009 How Dysfunction Helps the GOP The party says its own mistakes prove government can't work. By THOMAS FRANKr 'Remember the $400 hammer? How 'bout that $600 toilet seat?" asks a Conservatives for Patients' Rights TV commercial criticizing President Barack Obama's health-care plan. "Seems when Congress gets involved, things just cost more." As it happens, I do remember the incident of the $436 hammer, the one that made headlines back in 1...

Source: Associated Press Calif. Democrat Henry Waxman hospitalized © 2009 The Associated Press July 1, 2009, 9:41AM WASHINGTON — A powerful House committee chairman with a central role in President Barack Obama's global warming and health care legislation has been hospitalized. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., was not feeling well Tuesday and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for "routine testing," spokeswoman Karen Lightfoot said Wednesday. She said that Waxman, 69, ch...

Source: Raw Story Inflamed CNBC host calls bloggers ‘digital dickweeds’ By John Byrne Published: July 1, 2009 Television is a place of maturity and thought. The blogosphere is a place of dickweeds. That’s according to CNBC host Dennis Kneale, who’s declared the recession over, and went postal on critical financial bloggers Tuesday. A livid Kneale described bloggers who he alleges have dubbed him “irritating,” “unwatchable,” “Beaker,” “super dipshit” and “clueless” and purportedly compare...

Coleman Concedes: The good news and the bad news By Ken Silverstein From the New York Times: Nearly eight months after Election Day, Al Franken, a former comedian and an author, appeared certain on Tuesday to become the next United States senator from Minnesota, giving the Democratic Party at least symbolic control over Senate filibusters. Outside his St. Paul home, the incumbent, Norm Coleman, a Republican who had held the seat for one term, conceded the election to Mr. Franken, bri...

Boy, aren't you glad you don't have socialized medicine? (Link) .............. During my time in Venezuela, I developed a cough that went on for three weeks and progressively worsened. Finally, after I had become incredibly congested and developed a fever, I decided to attend a Barrio Adentro clinic. The closest one available was a Barrio Adentro II Centro de Diagonostico Integral (CDI) and I headed in without my medical records or calling to make an appointment. Immediately, I was ushered...

Source: Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top security adviser has told U.S. military commanders there are no plans to send more troops to Afghanistan for now and that the focus instead will be on economic development and reconstruction, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. National Security Adviser James Jones delivered that message last week in Afghanistan, where Marine Brigadier General Lawrence Nicholson hinted he could use more "thousands more" troops, the newspa...

On June 25, 1996, a massive truck bomb exploded at a building in the Khobar Towers complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, which housed United States Air Force personnel, killing 19 airmen and wounding 372. Immediately after the blast, more than 125 agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were ordered to the site to sift for clues and begin the investigation of who was responsible. But when two US Embassy officers arrived at the scene of the devastation early the next morning, they fo...

Source: Seattle Times Ex-Ala. Gov. Don Siegelman asks for new trial Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman is asking for a new trial following his convictions on bribery and other government corruption charges a few years ago. MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman is asking for a new trial following his convictions on bribery and other government corruption charges a few years ago. Siegelman claims in court documents filed late Monday that the government's key witness at his 2006 t...

 
i can't support paul, i just can't

Bishops, Baptists Organizing Against Contraception It’s precisely because of stances like this that it’s very hard to take the “abortion is murder” crowd seriously when they say abortion is murder. Their revealed behavior indicates that they don’t actually find abortion especially problematic, but just place it on a spectrum containing a general aversion to women controlling their own sexuality: But more conservative religious groups working with the White House Office of Faith-Based and N...

McCain Staffers Trash Palin A blockbuster Vanity Fair piece by Todd Purdum quotes many senior members of John McCain's presidential campaign team trashing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R). "They can't quite believe that for two frantic months last fall, caught in a Bermuda Triangle of a campaign, they worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be." Said one ...

Source: Guardian UK Five-year-old rescued after Yemeni plane crashes in Indian Ocean Search teams also recover three bodies after Airbus with more than 150 on board comes down near Comoros archipelago A five-year-old child has been rescued from the sea after a Yemenia Air plane crashed in the Indian Ocean, near the Comoros islands, with more than 150 people on board, Comoros officials said today. Search teams have also recovered three bodies and debris from the plane, but no other survivors...

The Beating (Link) According to the autopsy report (PDF), Habibullah was not injured when he first arrived at the Bagram detention facility: MEDICAL RECORD REVIEW: Copies of the inprocessing evaluation are reviewed in full. The clinical portion documents the decedent as "appearing well", without injuries and offering "moderate resistance to inprocessing". The decedent was "dead on arrival" per the Medical Treatment Facility (MTF) Emergency Room record which was otherwise non-contributory. ...

Source: PR News Wire Oregon Passes Hemp Bill Becomes Sixth State in 2009 to Take Action State Pressure to Grow Hemp Continues to Mount as Business Booms SALEM, Ore., June 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, by a vote of 46 to 11, the Oregon House passed SB 676, a bill that permits production and possession of industrial hemp and trade in industrial hemp commodities and products. "I am glad that Oregon has joined the list of states that have agreed that American farmers should have the ri...

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Bush DOJ Hunted for Democrats, Panel Finds WASHINGTON (CN) - The Department of Justice under the George W. Bush administration took off the blindfold and aimed the sites of prosecution on Democratic officials, a panel of experts has concluded. The report announced Friday was filled with examples of a justice department that had become little more than a weapon with which to pursue political opponents and those not sufficiently on board with the right-wing policies of the administration....