Saturday, December 15, 2007

GLBT DIGEST December 15, 2007

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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GLAAD'S "THE BEST AND WORST OF NATIONAL NEWS"
DECEMBER 2007

http://www.glaad.org/2007/2007BestAndWorst/BestAndWorstNov.htm

THE BEST
1.) The New York Times Spotlights the Struggle Against Anti-LGBT Hostilityin Newark
In the New York region, media coverage of the LGBT community often focuseson Manhattan and other affluent areas where many gay people can seek outaccepting communities. In a much-needed wake-up call, New York Timesreporter Andrew Jacobs opened readers' eyes to the intense homophobia thatcontinues to pervade Newark, New Jersey. In his Dec. 2 article "In aProgressive State, a City Where Gay Life Hangs By a Thread," Jacobs detailedthe physical violence, the lack of community resources and the policehostility that LGBT people must face on a daily basis in Newark. Moreimportantly, Jacobs took time to sensitively showcase the efforts of LGBTNewark esidents to live openly in the face of violence and harassment.
Jacobs made it clear that much more education and activism is needed beforeLGBT eople in Newark can live openly without fear. This sobering realitywas underscored y the article's conclusion, which featured a quote fromWillie Harden, a homeless ay man. Harden explained, "It sounds crazy, butone day I'd like to walk down the treet holding my boyfriend's hand withnobody saying one bad word."

READ STORY:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/nyregion/02newark.html?ref=todayspaper

TAKE ACTION:
GLAAD encourages you to contact Andrew Jacobs and The New York Times tothank themfor addressing the continuing problem of anti-LGBT violence andharassment in merican cities.

CONTACT: letters@nytimes.com

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2. The Denver Post Shares the Rich Stories of LGBT Elders
Too often, journalists overlook the stories of the thousands of LGBT seniorswho continue to seek acceptance and community. Luckily, Denver Post reporterLisa Kennedy found an occasion to address this topic by penning anexceptionally rich and engaging story about the residents of RainbowVisionSanta Fe, one of the first planned enclaves for aging LGBT people. Weaving aremarkably in-depth discussion of gay history into a tour of the facilitiesand inhabitants of RainbowVision, Kennedy's Nov. 25 story "Living Out TheGolden Years" revealed that many LGBT elders are still hesitant to come outto their heterosexual peers because they grew up in an era when LGBT peoplelacked positive representations in education and in the media. Kennedyconcluded that LGBT-inclusive retirement communities have finally providedgay seniors with an environment where they can be open and where they canshare their histories with others. "People who have been isolated for yearsare coming here," said RainbowVision Vice President Joyce Bogosian. "We havepeople who are just coming out."

READ STORY:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7550872

TAKE ACTION:
GLAAD encourages you to contact Lisa Kennedy and thank her for thoughtfullyspotlighting the lives of LGBT elders.

CONTACT: lkennedy@denverpost.com

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3. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Educates Readers About LGBT Lives Affectedby Workplace Discrimination
When the House of Representatives passed the Employment Non-DiscriminationAct (ENDA) in a historic vote in November, many media outlets covered thestory by quoting lawmakers and non-profit spokespeople. The Fort WorthStar-Telegram went further by telling the stories of LGBT people affected byworkplace discrimination and revealing the importance of ENDA to theirlivelihoods. In the Dec. 4 article "Workplace Measure Faces Tough Road,"Star-Telegram reporter Anna M. Tinsley told the story of Fort Worth residentLynn Johnson, who had been fired for being openly gay and who now works fora company with a non-discrimination policy. "There are some people whoseoccupations don't have that comfort," Johnson explained. "Someone could walkin today to them and say, 'You're gay...and we don't want you here anymore,'and there's not a leg to stand on for it." Additionally, Tinsley exploredthe consequences of the removal of gender identity protections from ENDA byinterviewing Rochelle Evans, a young transgender woman facing workplacediscrimination. By giving a human face to the debates surrounding ENDA,Tinsley educated readers about the significance of this legislation tothousands of lives.

READ STORY:
http://origin.dfw.com/mld/dfw/18077467.htm

TAKE ACTION:
GLAAD encourages you to contact Anna M. Tinsley and thank her for sharingthe stories of LGBT people impacted by workplace discrimination.

CONTACT: atinsley@star-telegram.com

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THE WORST:

Fox News's Hannity & Colmes Lack Balance in Boy Scouts StoryTelevision debate programs can serve as perfect forums for people on bothsides of an issue to argue their case. Fox News' Hannity & Colmes failed toprovide this kind of balance on a Nov. 20 segment about the City ofPhiladelphia's demand that its chapter of the Boy Scouts end its policy ofanti-gay discrimination or else lose its city-subsidized building. Inaddressing this story, co-host Sean Hannity quickly took sides by assertingthat the Boy Scouts “talk about God, faith, family, and country. Andthat’s their views, and they’re keeping kids out of trouble. Why wouldpeople just get involved to try and just destroy the organization?” Whilethe program featured two Boy Scouts representatives to defend theirorganization, it failed to include a guest who could illustrate the harmcaused by the Scouts' policy of barring or removing gay scouts who want tobe open and proud about who they are. Though co-host Alan Colmes brieflyargued against the city's financial support of the Boy Scouts, thisunbalanced program lacked any discussion about the message that thisnational organization's policy of anti-gay discrimination sends to youngpeople across the country.

READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312425,00.html

TAKE ACTION:
GLAAD encourages you to contact Hannity & Colmes with your views about theirunbalanced coverage of the Boy Scouts issue.

CONTACT:
hannity@foxnews.com
colmes@foxnews.com



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The Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs explained what has been done to try toavoid the execution of [Iranian] Makwan Mouloudzadeh.

Prior to the execution the EU informed the Iranian authorities about theirconcerns about the possible execution of Makwan and another minor : SoghraNajaf-Pour. The EU requested annulation of the death penalty. Alsobilaterally the case was taken up in the weeks before the hanging. The Dutchminister gave the same message to the Iranian ambassador in the Haguepersonally, other ministers from EU-member states did the same in theircapitals.

All to no avail.

Below is the EU press release after the execution.

The EU Presidency strongly deplores the execution of Makwan Mouloudzadeh,who was sentenced to death by a judge of Kermanshah Court for a crimeallegedly committed when he was only 13 years old.

The EU Presidency recalls the Islamic Republic of Iran's internationalcommitments, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both clearlyprohibiting the execution of minors or people who have been convicted ofcrimes committed while they were minors.

The EU Presidency reiterates its longstanding position against the deathpenalty in all circumstances and wishes to recall that any miscarriage orfailure of justice in the application of capital punishment represents theirreparable and irreversible loss of human life.

The EU Presidency urges the Islamic Republic of Iran to carry out aninvestigation in order to verify whether the trial of Makwan Mouloudzadehfollowed all legal procedures and if he was granted all the rights providedfor by the penal procedural code, and to ensure that all appropriatemeasures are taken in this regard.

The EU Presidency also appeals to the Islamic Republic of Iran to ensurethat the new law under consideration is approved by the Majlis and theJudiciary and that it should clearly exclude the application of deathpenalty sentences to minors or juvenile offenders.



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Truth Wins Out

http://www.truthwinsout.org/news/truthwinsoutorg-condemns-pat-robertson-and-other-evangelists-for-exploiting-young-man-during-i-35-%e2%80%98purity-siege%e2%80%99/

TruthWinsOut.org Condemns Pat Robertson And Other Evangelists For ExploitingYoung Man During I-35 'Purity Siege'

Dallas Voice Reveals That 'Convert' Was Bipolar - Not 'Ex-Gay'

NEW YORK - TruthWinsOut.org led on the leaders of several major Christianministries to apologize to a family after they took advantage of their son,who suffered from bipolar disorder. The crass manipulation of JamesStabile - and false sexual conversion on television outside of a Dallas gaybar - was deceptive, immoral and unchristian, said TruthWinsOut.org.

"This was predatory coercion, rather than a legitimate conversion," saidWayne Besen, Executive Director of TruthWinsOut.org. "The overzealouspreachers were so intent on proving that gay people could change, that theynever considered the damage they were doing to James Stabile and his family.Pat Robertson, Heartland World Ministries and Pure Life Ministries ought toapologize for dividing this family and fraudulently claiming that Stabilehad become 'ex-gay.'"

The absurd drama began when televangelist Pat Robertson aired a segment onthe 700 Club on a supposed biblical prophecy that claimed the Old Testamentmentioned that Interstate 35 is the "highway to holiness." To fulfill thisbizarre prophecy, Heartland World Ministries Church in Las Colinas stagedso-called "purity sieges" on Friday nights at porn palaces, nightclubs andgay bars off of I-35 in Dallas. The group's favorite hangout is outside JR'snightclub, a popular watering hole for gay men.

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Transdgender Actress Candis Cayne on The View

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdlMD53LNl8

Check out the video on YouTube


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From MoveOn.Org

Jamie Leigh Jones was a 20-year-old woman working in Iraq for subsidiary ofHalliburton when she was drugged and brutally gang-raped by severalco-workers.

The next day, Halliburton told her that if she left Iraq to get medicaltreatment, she could lose her job.1

Jamie's story gets even more horrific: For the last two years, she's beenasking the US government to hold the perpetrators accountable. But the menwho raped her may never be brought to justice because Halliburton and othercontractors in Iraq aren't subject to US or Iraqi laws. They can't be triedfor a crime in any court.2

This is one of the most disturbing stories we have come across in a while.We're calling on Congress to investigate Jamie's case, hold those involvedaccountable, and bring US contractors under the jurisdiction of US law sothis can't happen again. If hundreds of thousands of us speak out againstthis outrageous story, we can force Congress to take action.

Can you sign the petition? Clicking below will add your name.

http://pol.moveon.org/contractors_accountable/o.pl?id=11800-5533006-rlFtuf&t=3



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Kerry, Smith Introduce Legislation To
End Discriminatory, Counterproductive HIV Law

WASHINGTON D.C. - Senator John Kerry introduced legislation today to repealoutdated, misguided provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)that bar HIV positive individuals from entering the United States, includingHIV positive doctors and experts as well as refugees seeking asylum. Thebill is co-sponsored by Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.)

"It's incredible that the federal government still tolerates a ban that notonly restricts AIDS experts with the disease but also refugees who areseeking asylum in our country," said Sen. Kerry. "My legislation will endthis draconian law. The attempts to fix this law through a complex waiversystem, while admirable, still don't do anything to rectify thediscriminatory underlying problem. That is why I have introduced thislegislation to permanently strike this unfair provision from the books."

Frank Donaghue, Chief Executive Officer of Physicians for Human Rights basedin Cambridge, MA applauded the introduction of the bill. "There have neverbeen public health grounds for denying people living with AIDS admission tothe United States," Donaghue said. "The current policy violates the humanrights of people with AIDS and has stigmatized them for more than 15 years.We welcome the Kerry-Smith bill."

Since 1993, the INA has designated HIV as grounds for inadmissibility to theU.S. A cumbersome waiver option is available to those wishing to enter thiscountry, but the process is incredibly restrictive. These obstacles resultin an almost wholesale rejection of any HIV positive individual from theUnited States, no matter their reason for entry. Kerry's bill would strikethe HIV restrictions from the INA and ask for a full review of the publichealth aspects of travel and immigration restrictions against those withHIV.

President Bush acknowledged that the waiver system was a problem on WorldAIDS Day in 2006 when he asked the Department of Homeland Security tostreamline the process. However, the proposed regulations are arguably morerestrictive and intrusive.

more....



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GayCityNews.com

http://gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19111240&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6

Does Rule of Law Govern Iran?

By: DUNCAN OSBORNE
12/13/2007

Hours before Makwan Moloudzadeh was killed by the Iranian government, ScottLong, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Programat Human Rights Watch (HRW), issued a press release saying the "Iraniangovernment should prevent the execution."

Moloudzadeh, 21, was arrested in 2006 and charged with raping three otheryoung men seven years earlier. Though his alleged accusers withdrew theircharges and Moloudzadeh said his confession was coerced, he was convicted inJune and sentenced to death in July.

HRW, Amnesty International, and the International Gay and Lesbian HumanRights Commission (IGLHRC) had made appeals to senior Iranian governmentofficials and believed that they had won a reprieve, perhaps onlytemporarily, of the sentence.

"I think that was the dominant perception," said Ariel Herrera, director ofthe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Human Rights Program at AmnestyInternational USA. "It was a reprieve, it was not an overturning."

"The chief justice had reviewed the case and had said to the courts that thesentence was not valid," said Paula L. Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executivedirector. "The local court is not required to follow what he said... but thechief justice does have the power to set the parameters of the law."

On December 3, HRW was told by Moloudzadeh's lawyer that the execution wouldgo forward "even though the required judicial review had not beencompleted," the group said in a press statement.

This made the killing that much more shocking because it appeared thatdespite the efforts of human rights groups and a ruling from a seniorgovernment official, a lower level Iranian bureaucrat was able to dragMoloudzadeh from his cell and hang him in the prison court yard on December5.

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Omaha World Herald

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10209131

Gay Lawmaker: Iowa jury acts quickly in absolving state lawmaker

Published Friday | December 14, 2007

DES MOINES (AP) — A federal jury on Thursday found Iowa State Sen. MattMcCoy not guilty of attempted extortion.

McCoy was accused of threatening to use his influence as a lawmaker to forcea business partner to pay him $2,000.

The jury deliberated less than two hours before returning its verdict.

"The length of time the jury was out speaks volumes of this case," saidJerry Crawford, one of McCoy's defense attorneys.

Testimony began in the trial on Dec. 3.

McCoy's co-counsel, F. Montgomery Brown, said 90 percent of federal courtcases result in a conviction and the swift not guilty verdict indicatessomething was seriously wrong with the federal prosecutor's case.

Brown said the problem was that McCoy committed no crime.

"He didn't do it," Brown said. "He was innocent."

more....



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD03POL121407.htm

Ex officer: Marriage amendment would hurt more than gays

By EILEEN ZAFFIRO
Staff Writer
December 14, 2007

DAYTONA BEACH -- Some local gay residents say homosexuals shouldn't be theonly ones concerned about a proposed state constitutional amendment to bangay marriage in Florida.

They say the amendment, slated to be on the ballot next November, threatensto outlaw the legal recognition of any unmarried partners -- homosexual orheterosexual. They say that could mean millions of domestic partners couldlose health insurance benefits and other protections for their families.

"If people would look at what this law really means, no fair-minded, decentFloridian would ever want to see this pass," said David Perreault, a43-year-old Port Orange man who is a former prosecutor and police officer."We all know someone who this law would hurt."

But because heterosexual couples can always choose to get married,homosexual couples would be wounded most, they say.

"It would write hate into the Florida constitution," said Perreault, a localgay rights activist.

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.washblade.com/2007/12-14/news/localnews/11723.cfm

Activists embrace incremental progress on marriage
Many fear congressional intervention, seek DP expansion

By LOU CHIBBARO JR
Dec. 14, 2007

Organizers of a Dec. 6 gay marriage forum in Washington, anticipating apossible heated debate over when D.C. should pass a same-sex marriage law,enlisted the services of a professional meeting facilitator, who was poisedto calm flaring tempers.

But last week’s Community Forum on Marriage Equality in the District ofColumbia played out as a cordial discussion and exchange of information,with most participants agreeing that the threat of congressionalintervention makes it too risky for the city to pass a gay marriage bill atthe present time.

Lane Hudson, a gay Democratic activist and co-founder of D.C. For Marriage,the lead sponsor of the forum, said he expects Congress would try tooverturn a gay marriage law in D.C.

Hudson and other leaders of the new marriage group joined the city’sestablished gay organizations in embracing a strategy of expanding theDistrict’s domestic partners law while seeking to persuade Congress toeventually allow the city to legalize full marriage rights for gays.

The D.C. Center, a local gay group, along with the Gay & Lesbian ActivistsAlliance, the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the gay Asian group AQUA, theD.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian & Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Men & Women,and the Burgundy Crescent Volunteers co-sponsored the event.

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.sovo.com/2007/12-14/news/localnews/7860.cfm

Butch lesbians accuse DeKalb police of bias
Department has no plans for gay liaison officer

By RYAN LEE
Dec. 14, 2007

By the time Torry Reid’s face slammed into the pavement, she says she stillhad no idea why DeKalb County Police Officer Derrick Asberry had pulled herover, let alone why he had cursed at her, handcuffed her and slammed her tothe ground.

It wasn’t until after her teeth were damaged and her face began to swellthat Reid said she was told that she had been driving without her taillightson.

Reid and her partner, Elizabeth Toledo, said they are convinced that theAugust 2005 traffic stop escalated into a case of anti-lesbian policebrutality because of Reid’s masculine appearance, and because Asberry is acop with a history of conduct complaints.

“He thought [Reid] was a man at first,” Toledo said of Asberry initiallystopping the car. “But when he saw it was a lesbian, his whole attitudeseemed to change. It was like, he was going to prove a point.”

Beyond the occasional homophobic joke or remark, Reid never encountereddanger because of her sexual orientation until she was stopped by Asberry.

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.sovo.com/2007/12-14/news/localnews/7879.cfm

Civil rights center unveils proposed gay content
Gay history buffs hope final recommendation is more inclusive

By RYAN LEE
Dec. 14, 2007

While paying homage to widely celebrated civil rights icons and historicalmoments, leaders of Atlanta’s proposed Center for Civil & Human Rights saythe facility aims to teach visitors that the civil rights movement didn’tstart with the Montgomery Bus Boycott, nor was the gay rights movementinvisible before the Stonewall Riots.

Some 23 years before New York’s famous Stonewall Riots, Rev. George Hydeestablished a gay-friendly church in Atlanta, according to a draft ofrecommended content for the Civil & Human Rights Center released Dec. 11.

“I think this really illustrates so many interesting different things: One,it’s a religious institution, and religion is such an important piece whenyou talk about human and civil rights,” said Doug Shipman, executivedirector of the public-private partnership working to bring the Center forCivil & Human Rights to fruition by fall 2010 at an estimated $125 millionprice tag.

“Two, it’s in Atlanta in ’46!” Shipman added.“Why is that happening? What isit that makes a minister undertake that, and what was the communityreaction? Those are the kinds of stories to uncover.”

A 22-member content committee comprised of educators, museum experts, civilrights veterans and media specialists drafted the proposal that mentionsHyde’s gay-friendly church among other specific topics or exhibits. It alsoenvisions the center hosting movies, artistic performances, discussionpanels and workshops.

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19092040&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6

Journalist, Victim's Lawyer Attest to Executed Iranian's Railroading

By: DOUG IRELAND
12/06/2007

State Murder for Sex at 13 in the Islamic Republic

NOTE: This article is an updated version, supplemented by additionalreporting, from that first posted on December 6.

The Islamic Republic of Iran murdered Makwan Moloudzadeh, a lad of 21, onthe cold morning of December 5. Makwan was dragged at dawn from his jailcell in the Kermanshah Central Prison and hanged in secret within theprison, without the required presence of his lawyer and family, for theso-called "crime" of having had anal sexual relations, which the authoritiesclaimed was rape, with boys of his own age eight years ago, when he was 13.

Given recantings by plaintiffs during his trial, it is impossible to knowwhat, if in fact anything, actually transpired during the alleged rape.

Amnesty International released a statement denouncing the execution as a"mockery of justice." The International Gay and Lesbian Human RightsCommission's executive director, Paula Ettelbrick, said in a statement,"This is a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice and internationalhuman rights law. How many more young Iranians have to die before theinternational community takes action?"

And the trial of Makwan, held in June, was indeed a farce.

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6342.html

Policy Exchange stands by report into homophobic Muslim texts

14th December 2007 13:40
Tony Grew

BBC news programme Newsnight has called into question the validity of acontroversial report claiming that extremist texts encouraging hatred ofgays, Christians and Jews are available at Britain's mosques.

Researchers for the centre-Right think tank Policy Exchange claimed to havefound such publications in a quarter of the 100 mosques and Islamicinstitutions they visited, including London Central Mosque in Regent's Park,which is funded by Saudi Arabia.

Many of the publications allegedly called on British Muslims to segregatethemselves from non-Muslims and contained repeated calls for gays toexecuted and for women to be subjugated.

However, an investigation shown on Newsnight earlier this week found seriousinconsistencies in some of the receipts for the purchases of the texts whichform part of Policy Exchange's report.

Several of the receipts had been printed on laser-jet printers, as opposedto being commercially produced, which would be normal practice.

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6344.html

Castro's girl seeks legal protection for Cuban LGBT

14th December 2007 16:05
Joe Roberts

A Cuban sexologist has shocked her communist country by suggesting thatgays, lesbians, transsexuals, transvestites and transgender people should begranted legal protection under forthcoming reforms.

Mariela Castro, director of the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX),is calling for new measures including non-discrimination on the grounds ofsexuality or gender identity.

She also advocates the introduction of same-sex unions and adoption rights,and major reforms relating to health care and treatment of trans people.

Speaking to www.IPSnews.net, Miss Castro, who is the niece of Cuban LeaderFidel Castro and daughter of current president, Raúl Castro, admitted reformwas necessary to address the country's poor history on gay rights.

Speaking of the 1960s, she criticised the Communist party saying: "Arevolutionary ideology should be truly revolutionary throughout, not just insome aspects. But the ideology of that era was deeply prejudiced againsthomosexuals."

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

UK

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6341.html

Premier league club commits to fight homophobia

14th December 2007 13:15
PinkNews.co.uk staff writer

Reading FC have pledged their support to The Football Association's campaignto ban homophobia from the terraces.

The start of the 2007/08 season saw a change in football ground regulationswith homophobic abuse now deemed punishable.

Richard Howgill of the Gay Football Supporter's Network recently discoveredthat the Madejski Stadium outfit are top of the league when it comes totraining their staff.

"I met the Stadium Safety Officer and the Chief Steward and outlined what weare trying to achieve and they were very supportive and positive about thecampaign.

"I saw many practical aspects of stewarding and how they’re trained tohandle homophobic chanting outside the ground on match days," said Richard.

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-6337.html

Peru urged to protect LGBT youth

14th December 2007 12:05
PinkNews.co.uk staff writer

The Peruvian Congress is under pressure from gay rights activists to becomea party to a convention on the rights of young people.

The Ibero-American Convention on the Rights of Youth seeks to promote andsafeguard the rights of young people and remedy the inequality thatthousands of young people confront for a variety of reasons, including forhaving a sexual orientation different from heterosexuality.

But the Foreign Relations Committee of the Congress of Peru has raisedconcerns in this respect, and opposes the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexualand transgender (LGBT) young people.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and theHomosexual Movement of Lima (MHOL) are asking people to write to thePeruvian lawmakers about the convention.

In a letter to Dr. Luis González Posada Eyzaguirre President of the Congressof the Peruvian Republic, IGLHRC said:

"Far from promoting same-sex unions, the only right that the conventiongrants to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people involvesnon-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.themonkeycage.org/2007/12/did_moral_values_and_the_gay_m.html

Did "Moral Values" and the Gay Marriage Backlash Play a Key Role in Bush's2004 Victory?

Journalists (via political pundits)** and political scientists haveconflicting accounts of the 2004 elections. Both are very convincing. Let mefirst start with the journalists’ account. Twenty-two percent of the voterstold election pollsters that “moral values” were their top issue (and ofthat group 80 percent voted for Bush) and thirteen states voted to bansame-sex marriages. The NY Times backs up that account in their article,Same-Sex Marriage Issue Key to Some G.O.P. Races, with interviews withpolitical consultants:

[T]he ballot measures also appear to have acted like magnets for thousandsof socially conservative voters in rural and suburban communities who mightnot otherwise have voted…In Ohio, for instance, political analysts creditthe ballot measure with increasing turnout in Republican bastions in thesouth and west, while also pushing swing voters in the Appalachian region ofthe southeast toward Mr. Bush.

The (logical) conclusion is that “moral values” and the gay marriagebacklash played a key role in Bush’s victory.

Political scientists believe the exact opposite. In an article byAnsolabehere and Stewart III, appropriately titled, Moral values and thegay-marriage backlash did not help Bush, they argue that, the “Marriagereferenda mobilized voters on both sides, not just the conservatives, andthe net result may have been to John Kerry’s benefit.” Here are the factsfrom Ansolabehere and Stewart III:

Eleven states—Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan,Mississippi, Montana,North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah—had measures before thevoters that would prohibit gay marriage, and in some cases civil unions.Nine of the 11—all but Michigan and Oregon—had gone for Bush in 2000, andonly three—Michigan, Ohio, and Oregon—were battleground states.

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.washblade.com/2007/12-14/view/editorial/11737.cfm

A disappointing year
Giddy 2006 predictions of gay rights advances gave way to a more soberingreality in 2007

By KEVIN NAFF
Dec. 14, 2007

HERE WAS A lot of celebrating when Democrats took control of both houses ofCongress in the 2006 mid-term elections, followed by ebullient predictionsof historic gay rights advances that would surely follow in 2007.

The conventional wisdom among Hill observers went something like this:Democrats would quickly push through the hate crimes bill as a thank-you toa loyal gay constituency. And there was some talk of scheduling hearings onrepealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” But we were told not to get toooptimistic because other interest groups were also in line for payback.Introduction of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act was a possibility, butmight require too much “heavy lifting” in the end.

The caveat was that all this would have to get done in 2007, because no onewants to touch gay issues in a presidential election year. The Republicansare desperate to use the old marriage wedge again, given the sorry state oftheir party and the pathetic lot of standard bearers seeking the GOPnomination. The old white rubes and hucksters running for the Republicannomination are too busy debating creationism and blathering about their“faith” to realize most Americans have had their fill of God in governmentand are ready for leadership instead of sermons.

This week’s flurry of stories about former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’sviews on AIDS serve as a reminder of just how out of touch the RepublicanParty can be.

In 1992, Huckabee told the Associated Press in a questionnaire: “We need totake steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague. … It is the firsttime in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuineplague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which thisdeadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rightsissue instead of the true health crisis it represents.”

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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.washblade.com/2007/12-14/view/columns/11732.cfm

OPINION | washingtonblade.com

Separating state from the church: For gays, keeping Huckabee out of theWhite House is a must.

Dec. 14, 2007

THIS COUNTRY, AND specifically the LGBT community, does not need anAyatollah sitting in the White House. And that’s exactly what we would getif the current flavor-of-the-week, Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansasshould, in comeback fashion, meander his way through the primaries to winthe GOP nomination and then upset the Democratic candidate in November of2008.

We have already experienced a devastating seven years with George W. Bush atthe helm, who some have dubbed the “minister-in-chief. While the federalgovernment is technically secular, this president has seen to it thatadministration policies and personnel meet with the approval of theChristian conservatives who, in no small way, helped to elect him twice andembraced him as one of their own.

You can point to the disproportionate number of Department of Justiceemployees who have graduated from none other than Rev. Pat Robertson’s lawschool as an example of this influence. Then there was the inappropriateWhite House-backed intervention in a personal family matter in the TerriSchiavo case. Add that to the successful appointments of two veryconservative Supreme Court justices as well as other anti-gay administrationappointees who were the darlings of the religious right.

Not to be forgotten and just as egregious for gays was the cynical use offaith-based dollars and other incentives to influence church leaders,including African-American ministers, to rail against “gay marriage” duringthe 2004 campaign, especially in the battleground state of Ohio to helpbolster Republican turnout.

After this Bush presidency you would think the electorate would yearn for areturn to secular and competent governance. But on the strength of afriendly persona that contrasts with an immigrant-hating, terrorism-obsessedangry field of GOP competitors and a well-timed but not necessarily funnyquip during the recent CNN-YouTube Republican debate, Huckabee, an ordainedminister, is seeing his stock rapidly rise.

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.towleroad.com/2007/12/ex-gay-camp-har.html

Gay Man Goes Through "Ex-Gay" Hell After Christian "Purity Siege"

by Jason Stratham

Some of you may remember the piece I posted about Pat Robertson and thenutty evangelical "purity sieges" that have been going on aroundInterstate-35 in the midwest.

According to Robertson, God is using superhighway I-35 that runs from Canadato Mexico to purify America from sin. He says "I-35 is the highway spoken ofin Isaiah 35:8 - "And a highway will be there; it will be called the way ofholiness." So, evangelical Christians have set aside 35 days to use thecities around I-35 to rid America of sin, meaning "abortion clinics, gaybars, strip joints, and porn shops." God is using "purity sieges" to setAmerica free.

One of the main people featured in the clip posted below is James Stabile,who was apparently "cured" of his homosexuality by a minister at one ofthese purity sieges.

John Wright of the Dallas Voice attempted to track down Stabile anddiscovered what had happened to him after talking to Joe Oden, the midwestevangelist who has been organizing the "purity sieges" and who "touched"Stabile, allegedly transforming him from gay to straight in an instant:

Writes Wright: "Oden told me Stabile had been shipped off to Pure LifeMinistries, which operates a residential treatment program in NorthernKentucky. 'It’s a program for people who’ve lived alternative lifestylesjust to get totally clean,' Oden told me. Upon further investigation, Idiscovered Pure Life Ministries is also the place where Mike Johnston —remember him?! — is director of donor and media relations. Johnston’s theguy who contracted HIV before swearing off homosexuality and becoming aposter child for the ex-gay movement in the late 1980s. Then, in 2003, itwas revealed that Johnston was living a double life — cruising men onlineand organizing unsafe sex parties while failing to disclose his HIV statusto partners. Johnston eventually checked into Pure Life and later re-emergedin his current position. 'With good reason, people would question what I’msaying now,' Johnston told me recently during what he said was the onlyinterview he’s given on the subject in four years."

more....



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/343602_faith15.html?source=rss

Articles of Faith: Christian stereotypes detract from ability to help others

By ANTHONY B. ROBINSON
GUEST COLUMNIST
Last updated December 14, 2007 9:30 p.m. PT

NOT LONG AGO, I spent an afternoon visiting with a small group of Christianswho work for the Seattle-based Lifelong AIDS Alliance. Listening as theyspoke of their work and their faith, and the challenges to which thatcombination sometimes led, my mind flashed on the wry quip of writerFlannery O'Connor: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make youodd."

One woman, who asked that her name not be used, described growing up in aconservative Christian family. "We went to church all the time." Still, herfamily took seriously the words of Jesus to care for the afflicted, feed thehungry and welcome the stranger. "My family," she said, "really did that.Our home was a welcoming place for people in trouble."

But when she went to work for Lifelong, an agency serving people withHIV/AIDS, many of them gay, her family had doubts. "But isn't this," theyoung woman asked her parents, "what you taught us growing up -- that asChristians we are to help people in need?"

The answer seemed to be "yes, but maybe not those people." ConservativeChristian friends were worse, saying with looks and words, "What are youdoing?"

For other Christian Lifelong workers, the challenge hasn't come from churchor family, but from those they serve and sometimes the colleagues with whomthey work. They find themselves bumping up against stereotypes that allChristians are people who don't drink or dance and who believe all gaypeople are going to hell.

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com

http://www.washblade.com/2007/12-14/arts/feature/11736.cfm

Behind the times: Despite shifting Hollywood landscape, some stars opt tostay in the closet

By KATHERINE VOLIN
Dec. 14, 2007

Gay internet gossip sites were all abuzz last week after Jodie Fosterappeared to come out as a lesbian during a speech at an awards banquet.

Foster, who has long been the subject of gay rumors and who refuses todiscuss her personal life with reporters, concluded her speech at the Womenin Entertainment Power 100 breakfast on Dec. 4 in Los Angeles by thanking“my beautiful Cydney who sticks with me through all the rotten and thebliss.” Los Angeles media outlets reported that the Cydney in question wasCydney Bernard, a film producer thought to be Foster’s partner of 14 years.

Adding to the controversy was a rumor about another female star who won’tdiscuss her personal life — Queen Latifah. The New York Post’s Page Six, ina blind item, hinted last week that she was planning to wed her femalepersonal trainer.

Publicists for both stars did not respond to requests for comment for thisarticle, but Latifah did respond to the rumors to the Chicago-Sun Times.

“When you’re famous these days, it’s just part of the deal — unfortunately,”Latifah told the paper. “People will make up all sorts of things that arenot true. There ain’t going to be no wedding.”

more . . . . .



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Gay & Lesbian Leadership
SmartBrier
http://www.smartbrief.com/index.jsp

Go to the website, above, for the following articles:
--
Oped: Leaders failed to advance issues in 2007
Kevin Naff, editor of the Washington Blade, looks back on the unfulfilledpromises of a Democrat-controlled Congress. From hate-crime legislation toHIV, national politics in 2007 has left much to be desired, affirming theneed for more accountability, he writes. Washington Blade (12/14)
--
Huckabee boasts "consistent" stance against marriage rights
The presidential hopeful is leading Iowa polls, but he faces renewedcriticism for statements calling gays and lesbians sinful and for hissteadfast opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples. Huckabee alsohas come under fire for calling for the quarantining of AIDS patients in the1990s. The Boston Globe (12/12)
--
Trans pol won't join Maryland legislature
Dana Beyer, a transgender Montgomery County political aide who soughtappointment to the Maryland House of Delegates to serve out the term of thelate Democratic Delegate Jane Lawton, withdrew her name from consideration.
Had she been appointed by the Montgomery County Democratic CentralCommittee, Beyer would have been the first transgender person to serve as astate legislator, according to this article. Washington Blade (12/14)
--
GOP weighs marriage stance in New Hampshire primary
Republican candidates have yet to rally their forces against the state'srecent passage of a law granting civil unions. The party's strategy remainsunclear as candidates try to court the state's independents without losingthem to overly conservative rhetoric. MSNBC/Associated Press (12/13)
--
Iowa state Sen. Matt McCoy acquitted on federal extortion charges
The Des Moines Register (Iowa) (12/14)
--
Are you ready to lead?
The Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute (GLLI) doesn't just bring you thisSmartBrief twice a week. It's the training and professional developmentorganization for openly LGBT public leaders in government, politics andadvocacy. From training candidates to run for office to building the skillsof LGBT movement leaders, GLLI is making sure those on the front lines inthe fight for equality are equipped for success. Learn more about how we canhelp you get ready to lead.
--
Queerty: Haters are "psycho"
Queerty draws attention to the violent side of intolerance, spotlighting aquote from a blog for self-described white supremacists that advocates thelynching of openly gay politicians. Click here for more from the blogQueerty.
http://www.queerty.com/news/anti-gay-white-supremacists-are-totally-psycho-20071212/



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To Form a More Perfect Union: Marriage Equality News

Information, news, and discussion about the legal recognition of same-sexcouples and their families, including marriages, domestic partnerships,civil unions, adoptions, foster children and similar issues.

http://samesexmarriage.typepad.com/weblog/

Go to the website, above, for the following articles:
--
A lesbian seeking a divorce has returned to court despite a ruling by RhodeIsland Supreme Court that said same-sex divorce cannot be decided by FamilyCourt. This time Margaret Chambers is trying to get her divorce in SuperiorCourt.Last week in a split decision the high court ruled that laws governingFamily Court do not include same-sex couples. The case involved Chambers andCassandra Ormiston who were married in Massachusetts in 2004. Because RhodeIsland has no specific law banning same-sex marriage gay and lesbian couplescan go to assachusetts to marry.But those marriages are not recognized inRhode Island.Last year the Chambers filed for divorce in Providence, citing"irreconcilable differences".
--
It was a strikingly different scene in the Bellows Free Academy auditoriumon Monday, Dec. 10, than was seen in the same room seven years ago, whenmany raised bitter, angry, and sometimes threatening voices in opposition toVermont’s then-pending civil unions law. This week the 60 people who turnedup in that same auditorium spoke for 90 minutes in nearly unanimous supportof expanding the law to allow same-sex couples in Vermont to legallymarry.Testimony given to the Vermont Commission on Family Recognition andProtection on Monday was full of heart-felt calls for civil rights andreligious freedom and asking legislators to move Vermont beyond theseparate-but-equal status of civil unions.Following the din of oppositionheard seven years ago, the absence of opponents this week was striking.While some might attribute this to a boycott by opponents, resident SherryCorbin had a different explanation.
--
It doesn't matter whether you're gay or straight, you can't get legallymarried at Lyndale United Church of Christ. The small, liberal church insouth Minneapolis was the first of several Twin Cities congregations lastyear to stop performing civil marriage ceremonies as long as gay marriage isillegal. These churches, and a handful of others around the country thattook the same step, will still have a religious ceremony to bless the unionsof straight and gay couples -- but straight couples must go separately to ajudge or justice of the peace for the marriage license."If you feel that gayand lesbian people are loved and credited by God, then how can we continueto discriminate against our brothers and sisters?" asked the Rev. DonPortwood, the Nebraska native who's been lead pastor at the 120-memberLyndale United Church of Christ for 27 years.The churches in questionminister to only a handful of the most-liberal churchgoers in Minneapolisand St. Paul, and most have large contingents of gay members.



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National Gay News

http://nationalgaynews.com/

Go to the website, above, for the following articles:
--
If There Was a Gay-Straight Switch, Would You Switch?
Is there a switch that turns you gay? That's the startling question raisedagain by a recent experiment in which scientists said they were able to turnon and off homosexual behavior in fruit flies. Researchers at theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago said they discovered what they call a"gender blind gene," or GB, in male fruit flies. A mutation in this GB genespurred the males flies to start courting other males, as well as females.
--
Sales Up After Becks Underwear Ad
SHOTS of David Beckham posing in tight white pants have sparked a 50 percent increase in sales of similar briefs, a retailer says.The footballer'spublicity shots for Armani underwear have prompted a huge increase in salesof white pants at Selfridges. They are currently outselling boxer shorts bytwo to one.
--
The Year in Gay Books:
Mouse Soars, J.K. Scores and More!
For gay books, 2007 was the best of times and the worst of times. Setbacksin the gay publishing industry did not keep good gay books from beingpublished or good gay writers from doing what they do best, but several gaypublishers and one gay book club went, or are going, out of business. Hereare the literary highs and lows of the year along with our choices for theauthor of the year, the top five books of the year and other assorted honorspassed out with bright, shiny holiday bows.
--
Brazilian Congressman Targeted by Homosexual Activists
Henrique Afonso is a member of the House of Representatives in Brazil. Hewas elected to office as a member of the Brazilian Workers' Party. He is nowan evangelical Protestant Christian. In keeping with his convictions,informed by his faith, he has become an ardent opponent of efforts to givehomosexual paramours equal status with marriage. He also openly supports theright to life for all human beings from conception to natural death.
--
Countering Fanaticism
It is clear to nearly everyone that fundamentalists — Christians who believein biblical inerrancy — are the chief obstacle to equality under the law forgays and lesbians. It would not be so irritating if they limited theirreligious practice to their own lives not participating in homosexual acts,not inviting known gays into their homes, praying privately for thesalvation of homosexuals, etc. But they generally try to go much further andimpose their anti-gay religious doctrine on society at large.



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/12/121507evita.htm

Can Clinton Follow In Steps Of Argentina's 'New Evita'?

by The Associated Press
Posted: December 15, 2007 - 7:30 am ET

(Buenos Aires) Cristina Fernandez was sworn in this week as Argentina'sfirst elected female president, completing a rare husband-wife transfer ofpower that the nation hopes will ensure continued recovery from an economicmeltdown.

Fernandez, whose husband Nestor Kirchner is credited with leading Argentinaout of its 2001-2002 economic meltdown, vowed to increase his center-lefteconomic programs, create jobs and reduce high poverty levels.

During her hour-long inaugural speech, Fernandez's voice rose in anger asshe demanded faster progress from dozens of slow-moving court investigationsof human rights abuses of the country's 1976-83 dictatorship.

"I expect that in the four years of my term, trials that have been delayedmore than 30 years will be concluded. We must try and punish those who wereresponsible for the greatest genocide" in modern Argentine history,Fernandez, 54, told a packed Congress after taking up the blue-and-whitesash from Kirchner, who gingerly adjusted it on her shoulders.

Nearly 13,000 people are officially listed as missing or dead under a "dirtywar" crackdown on dissent by past military governments. Activists estimatenearly double that number died.

more . . . . .



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/fashion/16meangirls.html

When the Bullies Turned Faceless

By CHRISTOPHER MAAG
December 16, 2007
DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo.

LIKE most mobs, the one that pursued Megan Meier was cruel and unrelenting.Its members gathered on the social networking site MySpace and called Megana liar, a fat whore and worse.

Megan, 13, fought back, insulting her tormenters with every profanity sheknew. But the mob shouted her down, overwhelming her computer and her shakyself-confidence with a barrage of hateful instant messages.

“Mom, they’re being horrible!” Megan said, sobbing into the phone when hermother called. After an hour, Megan ran into her bedroom and hanged herselfwith a belt.

“She felt there was no way out,” Ms. Meier said.

Megan Meier’s suicide made headlines because she was the victim of a hoax.Lori Drew, another mother in the neighborhood, said in a police report thatshe had created a MySpace profile of a boy, an invention named “Josh Evans,”and that she and her daughter had manipulated Megan into thinking that thisfabricated person liked her.

more . . . . .



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/us/14brfs-RULINGAGAINS_BRF.html

National Briefing | West
California: Ruling Against Marijuana Clubs

By CAROLYN MARSHALL
December 14, 2007

A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld an 2002 injunction barringthree California marijuana clubs from giving the drug to medical patientswith a prescription. The ruling by judges on the United States Court ofAppeals for the Ninth Circuit sided with the Justice Department, which firstsued the dispensaries in 1998 to stop sales of medical marijuana to patientswith a doctor’s approval, as allowed under a California law approved byvoters in 1996. The law has been at the heart of a series of legal battlesover state and federal drug laws, which categorize marijuana as illegal. Theruling was likely the last legal recourse for the clubs. In 2001, the UnitedStates Supreme Court heard the case and ruled against the Californiacooperatives.



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365gay.com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/12/121507huck.htm

Huckabee Bashes Bush Bunker Mentality
by The Associated Press

Posted: December 15, 2007 - 7:30 am ET

(Concord, New Hampshire) Mike Huckabee, who has joked about his lack offoreign policy experience, is criticizing the Bush administration's efforts,denouncing a go-it-alone "arrogant bunker mentality" and questioningdecisions on Iraq.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor now running for the Republicanpresidential nomination, lays out a policy plan that is long on optimism butshort on details in the January-February issue of the journal ForeignAffairs, which is published by the Council on Foreign Relations. A copy ofhis article was released Friday.

"American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, andreach out," Huckabee said. "The Bush administration's arrogant bunkermentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administrationwill recognize that the United States' main fight today does not pit usagainst the world but pits the world against the terrorists."

In one specific criticism, Huckabee said Bush did not send enough troops toinvade Iraq. And he accused the president of marginalizing Gen. EricShinseki, the Army chief of staff, who said at the outset of the war that itmight take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after theinvasion. "I would have met with Shinseki privately and carefully weighedhis advice," Huckabee said.

He said this year's troop increase under Bush has resulted in significantbut tenuous gains, and he said - much as Bush has - that he would notwithdraw troops from Iraq any faster than Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S.commander there, recommends. The military has now slowly begun to reversethe troop increase.

more . . . . .



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HuffingtonPost.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/christ-not-again-antig_b_76877.html

Christ, Not Again. Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment Puts Florida in Play

Chris Kelly
Posted December 14, 2007 | 03:04 PM (EST)

Florida4Marriage sounds like the worst boy band of all time, but it turnsout it's not. It's a Republican front group, run by a personal injurylawyer, to lure gay-hating boobs into the voting booths next November.

Florida4Marriage, and its chairman, John Stemberger (a recognized leader inrental car accident law) are the people behind Florida's new MarriageProtection Amendment, and yesterday they finally got the signatures theyneed to put it on the 2008 ballot.

So come on down! And while you're in there, marking the magic X that provesyou're not a homo -- and that your life wasn't a squalid waste of everyone'stime, because at least you got yerself hitched -- why not also vote for aRepublican president?

Something for you. Something for the GOP. It's a get-out-the-vote win/win.

Anti-gay amendments are the Happy Meal toy of Republican politics.

more . . . . .



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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org

December 13, 2007
(202) 328-3244, ext. 116 / sralls@sldn.org

CBS Newsmagazine 60 Minutes to Feature
Out, Active Duty Army Sergeant

Correspondent Lesley Stahl Looks at SLDN Report on Growing Trend of OpenlyGay Troops

Washington, DC - This Sunday's edition of the award-winning CBSnewsmagazine 60 Minutes will include a story by correspondent Lesley Stahl about reportsfrom Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) of a growing number ofopenly lesbian and gay troops in the United States armed forces. Thesegment will also feature an exclusive interview with SLDN client and openly gay Army
Sergeant Darren Manzella, who has served a tour of duty in Iraq and is nowserving inside Kuwait. Manzella tells Stahl that he has receivedoverwhelming support from both his fellow soldiers and superiors sincecoming out last year. Stahl's report also looks at SLDN's work in assistingservice personnel such as Manzella, and the organization's campaign torepeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." In addition to Manzella, Sunday's segmentalso features SLDN board member Cholene

Espinoza, an Air Force Academy graduate and the second woman to fly the U-2reconnaissance aircraft.

"Sergeant Manzella's story illustrates the arbitrary and uneven enforcementof 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'" said SLDN executive director Aubrey
Sarvis. "Many commands, like Manzella's, recognize that their lesbian andgay troops are instrumental in the work of defending our country. Thosecommanders, who want to do the right thing and retain good troops, shouldnot have their hands tied by this unfair law. Our nation's commitment tofairness and civil liberties demands an end to this law, and our nationalsecurity interests are best served by repealing it."

more....



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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org

Ban on sex toys targeted: Rogers tries again to revoke ban

By BRIAN LYMAN
Capital Bureau
Tuesday, December 04, 2007

MONTGOMERY -- A Birmingham legislator has filed a bill that would revoke thestate's 10-year ban on the sale of sex toys, a prohibition that has drawnnational attention and led to lengthy court battles.

It's the second attempt by state Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, to strikethe 1998 prohibition on the sale of such devices.

"A shower head could be considered a sex toy," he said. "It's just bringingthe state into the 20th century."

Dan Ireland, executive director of the Alabama Citizens' Action Program, aBaptist group, said it would oppose any effort to overturn the law.

"Laws are made to protect the public," he said. "Sometimes you have toprotect the public against themselves."

The 2008 regular session is scheduled to begin Feb. 5.

The law prohibits the sale and manufacture of items "designed or marketed asuseful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." It does notprohibit the possession of those items and provides an exception for devicessold for medical purposes.

The statute drew national attention and led to a nine-year court struggleover its enforcement. A series of lawsuits were filed against the state bycivil libertarians, store owners and women who said the law violated privacyrights.

more....



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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org

http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=&sc3=&id=53583

LGBT leaders question Dems on hate crimes by Ethan Jacobs staff reporterThursday Dec 13, 2007 The decision last week by U.S. House and Senateleaders to remove a hate crimes amendment from a Department of Defenseauthorization bill currently before Congress prompted strong criticism fromvarious quarters ranging from the New York Times editorial board, whichharshly criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the move, to LGBT groupsincluding the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which pronounced itself"deeply angered and disappointed."


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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####

NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST December 15, 2007

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.

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NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/us/15lsu.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1197720668-YgRj0glIWAIZ/DehXH2Anw&pagewanted=print

2 L.S.U. Students Shot Dead Inside Campus Apartment

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 15, 2007

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Two graduate students were found shot to death lateThursday at a Louisiana State University apartment, and officials decided tokeep the campus open on Friday while the police searched for three killers.

The victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both Ph.D.students from India, were found inside an apartment at the Edward Gaycomplex late Thursday night after the authorities received an emergencycall.

Police patrols were increased on the 28,000-student campus on Friday. Thedecision not to lock down the campus was made by the police after theydetermined that the shooting was an isolated attack, said Sean O'Keefe, theuniversity chancellor.

Mr. Allam's pregnant wife called 911 at 10:37 p.m. Thursday after findingthe men dead, campus officials said. Mr. Komma, a biology student, had beenvisiting Mr. Allam, who was in the chemistry program.

The men were each shot once in the head, said Charles Zewe, a universityspokesman. Mr. Komma, 31, was bound with a computer cable, and Mr. Allam,33, was found near the door. Mr. O'Keefe said that nothing appeared to bestolen, leaving the police unclear about a motive.

Three men were seen leaving the area, and the police searched for them onFriday, Mr. Zewe said.

The apartment building where the shootings occurred is designated formarried and graduate students and is on the edge of the campus, close to oneof Baton Rouge's highest-crime areas. The complex has a tall fenceseparating it from the off-campus neighborhood, but it has no gates orsurveillance cameras.



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Abstinence-only? Abstain

Palm Beach Post Editorial
Saturday, December 15, 2007

Twenty-thousand more babies were born to teenagers in 2006 than in 2005. Theincrease in the teen birth rate was the first in 15 years - proof,obviously, that abstinence-only education is working.

Stunningly illogical, right?

Yet despite overwhelming evidence that abstinence-only-until-marriageprograms do not work, the United States spends $176 million on suchprograms. Last month, a study commissioned by the nonpartisan NationalCampaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy concluded: "At present,there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delaysthe initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence, or reduces thenumber of sexual partners."

The study did find success, however - with comprehensive sex educationprograms.

With the nation's sixth-highest rate of teen pregnancy and second- highestrate of annual HIV infection, Florida, in particular, should make it apriority to replace ineffective abstinence-only programs with comprehensiveeducation about reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases andcontraception.

At the urging of Superintendent Michael Lannon and with the support ofcommunity leaders, the St. Lucie County School Board on Tuesday approved acurriculum that will teach students about condoms. The board approved theGet Real About AIDS curriculum for fourth through 12th grades in response tothe county's near-epidemic rates of HIV infection among African-Americans -the highest in the state. "I have to ask myself," board member Judi Millersaid, "what the numbers will be in the future if we don't adopt thiscurriculum."

more....



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NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/us/15episcopal.html?pagewanted=print

Anglican Archbishop Faults Factions

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
December 15, 2007

The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, sent a lengthyletter to the members of his warring Anglican Communion on Friday, sayingthat both sides had violated the Communion's boundaries and put the churchin crisis.

He criticized the American branch, the Episcopal Church, for departing fromthe Communion's consensus on Scripture by ordaining an openly gay bishop andblessing same-sex unions, "in the name of the church."

But the archbishop faulted conservative prelates in Africa, Asia and LatinAmerica for annexing American parishes and an entire California diocese thathave recently left the Episcopal Church, and for ordaining conservativeAmericans as bishops and priests.

"There can be no doubt that these ordinations have not been encouraged orlegitimized by the Communion over all," the archbishop wrote, contradictingthose conservatives who said they were acting with his approval.

Of all the new moves, he wrote: "On the ground, it creates rivalry andconfusion. It opens the door to complex and unedifying legal wrangles incivil courts."

more . . . . .



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WashingtonPost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402160.html

BRITAIN
Anglican Leader Reaffirms Exclusion of Two Bishops

The archbishop of Canterbury said Friday he would not reverse his decisionto exclude a gay U.S. bishop from joining other bishops at a global Anglicangathering next year.

The office of Archbishop Rowan Williams said he also had not changed hismind about refusing an invitation to Martyn Minns, a traditionalist who wasconsecrated as a bishop in the Anglican Church of Nigeria to minister todisaffected Episcopalians in the United States. He is a former rector ofTruro Church in Fairfax City, Va.



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Forwarded from Susan Frishkorn
frishkorn@bellsouth.ne

Published on Friday, December 14, 2007 by WexlerWantsHearings.com
A Case for Impeachment Hearings

by Robert Wexler (D-FL), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

On November 7, the House of Representatives voted to send a resolution ofimpeachment of Vice President Cheney to the Judiciary Committee. As Membersof the House Judiciary Committee, we strongly believe these importanthearings should begin.

The issues at hand are too serious to ignore, including credible allegationsof abuse of power that if proven may well constitute high crimes andmisdemeanors under our constitution. The charges against Vice PresidentCheney relate to his deceptive actions leading up to the Iraq war, therevelation of the identity of a covert agent for political retaliation, andthe illegal wiretapping of American citizens.

Now that former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has indicatedthat the Vice President and his staff purposefully gave him falseinformation about the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert agent toreport to the American people, it is even more important for Congress toinvestigate what may have been an intentional obstruction of justice.Congress should call Mr. McClellan to testify about what he described asbeing asked to "unknowingly [pass] along false information." In addition,recent revelations have shown that the Administration including VicePresident Cheney may have again manipulated and exaggerated evidence aboutweapons of mass destruction - this time about Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Some of us were in Congress during the impeachment hearings of PresidentClinton. We spent a year and a half listening to testimony about PresidentClinton's personal relations. This must not be the model for impeachmentinquires. A Democratic Congress can show that it takes its constitutionalauthority seriously and hold a sober investigation, which will stand instark contrast to the kangaroo court convened by Republicans for PresidentClinton. In fact, the worst legacy of the Clinton impeachment - where theGOP pursued trumped up and insignificant allegations - would be that itdiscourages future Congresses from examining credible and significantallegations of a constitutional nature when they arise.

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Columbus Free Press

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2920

Departments; Election Issues
Ohio Secretary of State confirms 2004 election could have been stolen

by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
December 14, 2007

Ohio's Secretary of State announced this morning that a $1.9 millionofficial study shows that "critical security failures" are embeddedthroughout the voting systems in the state that decided the 2004 election.Those failures, she says, "could impact the integrity of elections in theBuckeye State." They have rendered Ohio's vote counts "vulnerable" tomanipulation and theft by "fairly simple techniques."

Indeed, she says, "the tools needed to compromise an accurate vote countcould be as simple as tampering with the paper audit trail connector orusing a magnet and a personal digital assistant."

In other words, Ohio's top election official has finally confirmed that the2004 election could have been easily stolen.

Brunner's stunning findings apply to electronic voting machines used in 58of Ohio's 88 counties, in addition to scanning devices and centraltabulators used on paper ballots in much of the rest of the state.

Brunner is calling for widespread changes to the way Ohio casts and countsits ballots. Her announcement follows moves by California Secretary of StateDeborah Bowen to disqualify electronic voting machines in the nation'sbiggest state.

In tandem, these two reports add a critical state-based dimension to thegrowing mountain of evidence that the US electoral system is rife withinsecurities. Reports from the Brennan Center, the Carter-Baker Commission,the Government Accountability Office, the Conyers Committee Task ForceReport, Princeton University and others have offered differing perspectivesthat add up to the same conclusion.

Coming in the state that decided the 2004 election for George W. Bush,Brunner's confirmation of the electoral system's vulnerabilities adds hugenew weight to the charge that the Buckeye State's vote count was stolen.

In a series of investigative reports dating to well before the 2004election, the Columbus Free Press and Freepress.org have documented severaldozen different means used by the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign to stealthe official 2004 vote count.

The final official tally for Bush---less than 119,000 votes out of 5.4million cast---varied by 6.7% from exit poll results, which showed a Kerryvictory. Exit polls in 2004 were designed to have a margin of error of about1%.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/world/16climate.html?hp

Timetable Is Set to Revive Climate Treaty

By THOMAS FULLER and ANDREW C. REVKIN
December 16, 2007

NUSA DUA, Indonesia - Delegates from nearly 190 countries wrapped up twoweeks of intense and at times emotional talks here on Saturday with atwo-year timetable for reviving an ailing, aging climate treaty.

The deal came after the United States, facing sharp verbal attacks in afinal open-door negotiating session, reversed its opposition to alast-minute amendment by India.

"We've listened very closely to many of our colleagues here during these twoweeks, but especially to what has been said in this hall today," PaulaDobriansky, who led the American delegation, told the other assembleddelegates. "We will go forward and join consensus."

The Bush administration had earlier made a significant change in policy,ending its long-held objection to formal negotiations on new steps to avoidclimate dangers. This time, the United States agreed to set a deadline foran addendum to the original treaty, the Framework Convention on ClimateChange, which was signed by President George H.W. Bush during his final yearin office in 1992.

The agreement notes the need for "urgency" in addressing climate change andrecognizes that "deep cuts in global emissions will be required."

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/washington/15intel.html?hp

Delay Is Sought by Justice Dept. on C.I.A. Inquiry

By DAVID JOHNSTON and MARK MAZZETTI
December 15, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department asked the House Intelligence Committeeon Friday to postpone its investigation into the destruction of videotapesby the Central Intelligence Agency in 2005, saying the Congressional inquirypresented "significant risks" to its own preliminary investigation into thematter.

The department is taking an even harder line with other Congressionalcommittees looking into the matter, and is refusing to provide informationabout any role it might have played in the destruction of the videotapes.The recordings covered hundreds of hours of interrogations of two operativesof Al Qaeda.

The Justice Department and the C.I.A.'s inspector general have begun apreliminary inquiry into the destruction of the tapes, and Attorney GeneralMichael B. Mukasey said the department would not comply with Congressionalrequests for information now because of "our interest in avoiding anyperception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to politicalinfluence."

Over all, the position taken by Mr. Mukasey, who took office last month,represented what Justice Department officials described as an effort tocaution Congress against meddling in the tapes case and other politicallyexplosive criminal cases.

The Justice Department request was met with anger from both Republican andDemocratic members of the House Intelligence Committee, who said thedepartment was trying to interfere with their investigation. The committeehad summoned two C.I.A. officials to testify at a hearing next week, asession that will now almost certainly be postponed.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/opinion/15sat1.html?ref=opinion

Editorial: A Long Time Coming

December 15, 2007

It took 31 years, but the moral bankruptcy, social imbalance, legalimpracticality and ultimate futility of the death penalty has finallypenetrated the consciences of lawmakers in one of the 37 states thatarrogates to itself the right to execute human beings.

This week, the New Jersey Assembly and Senate passed a law abolishing thedeath penalty, and Gov. Jon Corzine, a staunch opponent of execution,promised to sign the measure very soon. That will make New Jersey the firststate to strike the death penalty from its books since the Supreme Court setguidelines for the nation's system of capital punishment three decades ago.

Some lawmakers voted out of principled opposition to the death penalty.Others felt that having the law on the books without enforcing it (NewJersey has had a moratorium on executions since 2006) made a mockery oftheir argument that it has deterrent value. Whatever the motivation ofindividual legislators, by forsaking a barbaric practice that grievouslyhurts the global reputation of the United States without advancing publicsafety, New Jersey has set a worthy example for the federal government, andfor other states that have yet to abandon the creaky, error-prone machineryof death.

New Jersey's decision to replace the death penalty with a sentence of lifewithout parole seems all the wiser coming in the middle of a month that hasalready seen the convictions of two people formerly on death row in otherstates repudiated. In one case, the defendant was found not guilty followinga new trial.

The momentum to repeal capital punishment has been building in New Jerseysince January, when a 13-member legislative commission recommended itsabolition. The panel, which included two prosecutors, a police chief,members of the clergy and a man whose daughter was murdered in 2000, citedserious concerns about the imperfect nature of the justice system and thechance of making an irreversible mistake. The commission also concluded,quite correctly, that capital punishment is both a poor deterrent and"inconsistent with evolving standards of decency."

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/opinion/15sat2.html?ref=opinion

Editorial: The Court That May Not Be Heard

December 15, 2007

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the special court that reviewsgovernment requests for warrants to spy on suspected foreign agents in theUnited States, seems to have forgotten that its job is to ensure that thegovernment is accountable for following the law - not to help the Bushadministration keep its secrets.

Last week, the court denied a request by the American Civil Liberties Unionto release portions of past rulings that would explain how it hasinterpreted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. There arelegitimate national security concerns at stake, but the court should shareits legal reasoning with the public.

After the 9/11 attacks, the National Security Agency for years engaged indomestic spying that violated both FISA and the Constitution. Earlier thisyear, after a court ruled that the program was illegal, the Bushadministration said that in the future it would conduct surveillance withthe approval of the intelligence court. At the same time, it announced thata judge of the court had issued orders setting out how the program couldproceed.

The administration has repeatedly referred to these orders, but has refusedto make them public. As a result, it is impossible for the American people -and even some members of Congress - to know how the court reached itsconclusions, or the state of the law with respect to domestic surveillance.

Much of the information the intelligence court handles must be kept secret.If the government seeks a warrant to spy on a suspected terrorist it iscritical that the suspect not know. Even more general information about whatgroups the government is looking at, or what targets it believes to bethreatened, could be of enormous value to people who mean to do the UnitedStates harm. The public should not be given this information.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pakistan.html?hp

Musharraf Lifts Pakistan's State of Emergency

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 15, 2007
Filed at 11:11 a.m. ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- President Pervez Musharraf lifted a six-week-oldstate of emergency Saturday and said in a nationally televised address thathe imposed it as a last resort to save Pakistan from destruction from anunspecified conspiracy.

Musharraf said unnamed conspirators had hatched a plot with members of thejudiciary to derail the country's transition to democracy. Parliamentaryelections, scheduled for Jan. 8, will determine who will form the nextgovernment.

''Against my will, as a last resort, I had to impose the emergency in orderto save Pakistan,'' Musharraf said. ''The conspiracy was hatched todestabilize the country. I cannot tell how much pain the nation and Isuffered due to this conspiracy.''

Musharraf has previously said he imposed the state of emergency to halt a''conspiracy'' by top judges to end his eight-year rule and ward offpolitical chaos that would hobble Pakistan's efforts against Islamicextremism. He has also insisted that the Supreme Court, which had beenpoised to rule on the legality of his October re-election, was acting beyondthe constitution.

''Now the conspiracy has been foiled, and the election will be held on Jan.8 ... in a free and fair manner,'' he said in the 20-minute address.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/world/americas/15bolivia.html

Bolivians Now Hear Ominous Tones in the Calls to Arms

By SIMON ROMERO
December 15, 2007

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia - "Against narco-communism," reads one line of graffitiin this city in the lowlands of Bolivia. "To arms, Cruceños," reads another,calling on residents to fight the government of President Evo Morales, whoput the armed forces on alert this week as four eastern provinces movetoward greater autonomy.

Elsewhere in South America, such calls might be dismissed as mere bombast.
But not in Bolivia, where fears of political violence are intensifying inSanta Cruz, a bastion of opposition to Mr. Morales, a former coca grower andthe nation's first indigenous president.

Those tensions may reach a crest on Saturday. That is when leaders of SantaCruz province and three other provinces - Tarija, Beni and Pando - areexpected to declare their autonomy before tens of thousands ofantigovernment protesters. Santa Cruz's assembly has already taken a step inthat direction, passing a resolution on Thursday giving the province abigger share of tax and petroleum revenues and allowing it to constitute itsown police forces and create its own television network.

"They call us reactionaries, but we have a lot to react against," saidWilson Salas Pinto, 43, a director of the Bolivian Socialist Falange, aright-wing group here whose members wear black berets and parade with theirhands in the air à la Mussolini. "Evo wants to transplant Cuban Communism toBolivia. We're prepared to resist that project."

Upon first glance at the ethnic tensions here, it is easy to focus onincreasingly vocal fringe groups like the Falange. A counterpart on the leftis the Ponchos Rojos, or Red Ponchos, indigenous activists from the highplains who recently slit the throats of two dogs before television camerasas a warning to those who resist Mr. Morales's plans.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121401229.html

A Conversation With Pervez Musharraf

By Lally Weymouth
Sunday, December 16, 2007; B1

An angry President Pervez Musharraf defended imposing a state of emergencyon Pakistan and blamed the Western media for many of his problems -- fromincreased attacks by Islamic extremists to lawyers who have taken to thestreets to protest his suspension of the constitution and firing of thecountry's chief justice. In an interview with Newsweek-Washington Post'sLally Weymouth, the Pakistani president reiterated that he would lift thestate of emergency Saturday but will not reinstate judges who opposed him.Despite his opponents' doubts, Musharraf insisted he will ensure a free andfair election in January. But he refused to say whether he would endorse aconstitutional amendment to allow former prime minister Benazir Bhutto toserve a third term.

Q. Is there a difference now that you have shed your uniform andrelinquished your post of army chief of staff?

A. On a personal note, I loved my uniform. From the national point of view,I don't think there is a difference. I think the overall situation will bebetter and stro nger. The army is being managed by a chief of staffdedicated to the job, and I will be president of Pakistan, and if the twoare totally in harmony, the situation is better.

Q. You will appoint the heads of the army?

A. I will appoint the chief. The security services report to the presidentand the prime minister. . . . The ISI [military intelligence service]reports to the political leaders.

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The Washington Post


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121401495.html

Medvedev's Russia vs. Putin's

By Sam Greene
From the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Saturday, December 15, 2007; 12:00 AM

Russia-watchers breathed a sigh of relief Monday with the news that VladimirPutin had selected his successor. Finally, we knew the name of Russia's nextpresident: Dmitry Medvedev. The initial consensus was, it could have beenworse. But what we learned on Monday is dwarfed by what we still do not knowabout Russia's immediate future.

To be fair, we know a lot more about Medvedev than we did about Putin in1999, when Boris Yeltsin unveiled him as Russia's second president. A lawyerwith a strong grasp of market economics, Medvedev has a proven knack forsoothing Russia's Western partners and international investors; Russia'sstock markets soared on the news of his anointment. Within Russia, he isseen as a relative liberal. Liberal because he has not been an outspokenproponent of strong-armed government, but a relative liberal, because he hasbeen more than willing to take part in massive state intervention into theeconomy.

Thanks in large part to his long friendship with the outgoing president --dating back to law school in Leningrad, followed by a stint together in St.Petersburg's city hall -- we know also that Medvedev is very much Putin'sman. Unlike other heirs apparent, such as Sergey Ivanov, with deep roots inthe security apparatus, Medvedev has very little power base of his own. Hisrise through the government, as well as his place atop Gazprom's board ofdirectors, is owed exclusively to Putin. As a result, any loyalty Medvedevcommands hinges entirely on the trust Putin has invested in him.

Medvedev's résumé, though, tells us very little about what Russia'spolitical future will look like. Yet if, as Medvedev has suggested, Putinsimply moves over to the prime minister's chair, Medvedev becomes littlemore than a lieutenant, and we continue to live with Putin's Russia.

It is pretty clear that Medvedev will not come to power through legitimatedemocratic elections. The support he enjoys from Putin and the Kremlin'sUnited Russia Party -- not to mention three other Kremlin-linked parties --is sufficient to ensure that the Russian political establishment, news mediaand bureaucracy will truly countenance no other candidate. Those who do runnonetheless, including opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov, will get notraction.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121401706.html

Baseball on Steroids
The Mitchell report is stronger on diagnosis than on prescription.

Saturday, December 15, 2007; A20

A LONG-AWAITED report from former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchelldeserves credit for establishing, once and for all, that steroid use inMajor League Baseball is a serious and widespread problem. Dozens of playersand all 30 teams were implicated in the 409-page report, which includedextensive documentation such as courier receipts, canceled checks anddetailed individual accounts of the purchase and use ofperformance-enhancing drugs.

But the report falls short on solutions. Mr. Mitchell, for example,recommends that Commissioner Bud Selig establish an independent departmentunder the auspices of Major League Baseball to investigate allegations ofthe use of performance-enhancing drugs. That department would be led by asort of drug czar who would be required to report every significant allegedimpropriety to the commissioner. This would be an improvement over thecurrent system, which delegates investigation of performance-enhancing drugsto MLB's labor relations department (primarily responsible for overseeingthe collective bargaining agreement with the players) and the divisionresponsible for providing security for the players. Mr. Mitchell alsorightly calls for a hotline for anonymous tips, a program to educate playersabout the health effects of performance-enhancing drugs and unannounced,random drug tests, among other recommendations.

But the report is silent on a number of critical points. One glaringomission concerns the involvement of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA),the U.S. arm of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which administers the Olympicdrug testing program. Any serious push to abolish the use of such substancesas anabolic steroids and human growth hormone must include a trulyindependent overseer; the

USADA is such an organization and offers a more robust drug-screeningprogram. For example, baseball identifies 30 substances as banned from use;the USADA lists 60, giving athletes with a desire to artificially pump upperformance fewer options. The report also does not address the need forblood tests. Human growth hormone -- an increasingly popular drug amongprofessional and amateur athletes alike -- cannot, like steroids, bedetected through urinalysis.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has scheduled a hearingnext week with Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Selig and Donald Fehr, executive directorof the players union, to discuss the report's results. Lawmakers shouldpress the league and the players on USADA involvement and the incorporationof blood tests. And they should insist on prompt results or recall thewitnesses repeatedly to Capitol Hill to explain their inaction.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121401711.html

Waiting on the EPA
It's time the agency allowed California's tougher tailpipe emissionsstandards to take effect.

Saturday, December 15, 2007; A20

THE ENERGY BILL that overwhelmingly passed the Senate late Thursday willhelp curb America's addiction to oil. Its crown jewel is a hike in thecorporate average fuel economy for cars and light trucks from 25 miles pergallon to 35 mpg by 2020, the first boost in 32 years. Gone are the taxprovisions that riled Senate Republicans and President Bush, who now sayshe'll sign the bill when it reaches his desk. With the House all but certainto pass it next week, a significant piece of environmental legislationfinally is close to becoming law.

Mr. Bush had been pushing for the bill to designate the TransportationDepartment as the sole agency to regulate both fuel economy and tailpipegreenhouse gas emissions, in order, he said, to guard against "regulatoryuncertainty, confusion and duplication of efforts." Tailpipe emissions arethe provenance of the Environmental Protection Agency. If the EPA had beenstripped of that authority, California would have been blocked frominstituting its stringent tailpipe emissions standards. Now that Mr. Bushhas backed off, we urge him to light a fire under EPA Administrator StephenL. Johnson to grant California the waiver it needs.

In 2002, the California legislature mandated a 30 percent reduction inglobal warming-enhancing tailpipe emissions from cars and light trucks by2016, starting with the 2009 model year. The Golden State has the authorityto do this under the Clean Air Act, and other states can follow, as Marylandand 15 others intend to do, as long as the rules are not arbitrary and areat least as tough as federal regulations. All that's missing is a waiver,which the EPA has granted to California more than 40 times over threedecades but which has been slow in coming this time around.

The first request was made in 2005. Hearing nothing, Gov. ArnoldSchwarzenegger (R) wrote to Mr. Bush in April 2006 and October 2006. Stillnothing. In April this year, he threatened to take the EPA to court if adecision wasn't made by October. Mr. Johnson said he would make a judgmentby the end of the year. Mr. Schwarzenegger went to court on Nov. 8. Whatwill happen now is anybody's guess.

In addition to the foot-dragging at EPA, e-mails released in Octoberrevealed an aggressive lobbying effort against the waiver earlier this yearby the secretary of transportation. But the courts have been clear in theirsupport of the California tailpipe emissions law. On Wednesday, a federaljudge in California threw out an automaker lawsuit against the emissionsregulations. He buttressed his opinion by citing a September decision thattossed similar litigation in Vermont and the Supreme Court ruling inMassachusetts. v. EPA in April that affirmed the EPA's authority andobligation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402212.html?hpid=topnews

Bush's Budget Wins May Cost Him
Victories Over Democrats Could Increase Debt and Impede His Own Agenda

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2007; A01

As Congress stumbles toward Christmas, President Bush is scoring victoryafter victory over his Democratic adversaries. He has beaten back domesticspending increases, thwarted an expansion of children's health insurancecoverage, defeated tax hikes, won funding for the war in Iraq and pushedDemocrats toward shattering their pledge not to add to the federal deficitwith new tax cuts or rises in mandatory spending.

But the cost of those wins could be high, both for the federal debt and forthe president's own priorities.

Bush's steadfast stand against Democratic spending, coupled with his equallyresolute opposition to tax increases, could raise the federal debt thisfiscal year by nearly $240 billion. As Democrats struggle to meet hisdemands, they are jettisoning renewable-energy and conservation incentivesthat Bush championed, and they may ax some of his most cherished programs.

Even some Republicans bristle at the president's inflexibility. Bush haspledged never to sign bills with tax increases, even tax increases that heonce supported.

"I see the president trying to play catch-up in two years for not vetoinganything in the first six years, and probably regretting that he treated theRepublican Congress with softer gloves than he did a Democrat Congress,"said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), the conservative ranking Republican onthe Senate Finance Committee. "He's kind of waking up to the necessity ofhaving a certain policy that ought to be consistently followed, even if it'sirrational."

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402214.html?hpid=topnews

Sealed Off by Israel, Gaza Reduced to Beggary

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 15, 2007; A01

GAZA CITY -- The batteries are the size of a button on a man's shirt, smallsilvery dots that power hearing aids for several hundred Palestinianstudents taught by the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza City.

Now the batteries, marketed by Radio Shack, are all but used up. The fewthat are left are losing power, turning voices into unintelligible echoes inthe ears of Hala Abu Saif's 20 first-grade students.

The Israeli government is increasingly restricting the import into the GazaStrip of batteries, anesthesia drugs, antibiotics, tobacco, coffee,gasoline, diesel fuel and other basic items, including chocolate andcompressed air to make soft drinks.

This punishing seal has reduced Gaza, a territory of almost 1.5 millionpeople, to beggar status, unable to maintain an effective public healthsystem, administer public schools or preserve the traditional pleasures ofeveryday life by the sea.

"Essentially, it's the ordinary people, caught up in the conflict, payingthe price for this political failure," said John Ging, director of the U.N.Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, which serves the majority refugeepopulation. "The humanitarian situation is atrocious, and it is easy tounderstand why -- 1.2 million Gazans now relying on U.N. food aid, 80,000people who have lost jobs and the dignity of work. And the list goes on."

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402257.html?hpid=topnews

Crackdown on Child Pornography
Federal Action, Focused on Internet, Sets Off a Debate

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2007; A01

Lewd photographs of children were disappearing from adult bookstores. Childporn magazines in plain brown envelopes were no longer reaching customersthrough the mail. It was the early 1990s, and experts believed that federallaw enforcement efforts were ending child pornography.

"We thought this was one of those rare forms of social deviance, of criminalbehavior, that had been eradicated," said Ernie Allen, president of theNational Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "Except for a fixatedgroup of hard-core pedophiles, we thought it was gone."

But an increase of Internet-fueled child pornography has triggered a newfederal crackdown. Cybercrime, the majority of which involves childpornography, is now the FBI's third-highest priority, behindcounterterrorism and counterintelligence.

In the past 11 months, federal prosecutors in Virginia and Maryland havehelped convict or send to prison on child pornography charges the formerhead of the Virginia American Civil Liberties Union, an Ivy Leagueprofessor, a sheriff's deputy, a Transportation Security Administrationemployee, an Army sergeant, a former Navy cryptologist, a contractor workingat Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, a National Institutes of Health researcher anda U.S. Capitol Police officer.

"The problem is as bad as it appears," said Arnold E. Bell, unit chief ofthe FBI's Calverton-based Innocent Images National Initiative. "There arenot enough badges out there to cover all the people to be had in terms ofoffenders."

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121401844.html?hpid=moreheadlines

U.S. Now No. 2 Donor To Fund for Poor Nations

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2007; D01

Forty-five rich and middle-income nations agreed yesterday to provide arecord $25.1 billion to the World Bank for generous-term loans and grants tothe world's poorest countries. But for the first time since Dwight D.Eisenhower pushed for the creation of the bank's arm for helping the poorestof nations, the United States will no longer lead its anti-poverty charge.

After 47 years as the biggest donor to the World Bank's InternationalDevelopment Association (IDA), the United States will take a back seat toBritain in funding an organization whose efforts have helped build 8,500miles of roads in Ethiopia and tripled the number of girls in secondaryschool in Bangladesh.

Overall, the contributions pledged by the 45 nations were up 42 percent fromthe IDA's previous global fundraising effort, in 2005. Britain's donation of$4.3 billion over three years -- 49 percent higher than its 2005 gift -- wasthe single biggest pledge, boosted in part by the stronger British pound anda stepped-up foreign aid policy. The United States pledged $3.7 billion, 30percent more than its 2005 amount.

U.S. officials stressed that the increase in their pledge was the biggest inthree decades. The United States, which provided $22.7 billion indevelopment assistance last year, remains the world's most generous nationin foreign aid. But analysts and some critics described the U.S. fall to No.2 in IDA pledges as part of a trend, particularly during the Bushadministration, of emphasizing bilateral channels that provide greateraccountability and more flexibility in promoting U.S. interests overseas.Some have pointed to the Millennium Challenge Corp., the federal agencycreated in 2004 to lend to poor countries determined to have solid recordson "good governance" and "economic freedom."

"This is our biggest increase we've had since the Carter administration andit shows we believe strongly in this institution," said Clay Lowery,assistant Treasury secretary for international affairs. "We think the WorldBank is a strong way to get results, but we don't think it's the only way.We will always and continuously look for the best opportunities to getresults for the American people."

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402028.html?hpid=moreheadlines

U.S. Immigration Agents Fell Short of Probe Goal

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2007; A02

U.S. immigration agents investigated only 139 suspected fraud cases referredby the main anti-fraud unit of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Serviceslast year, or less than 1 percent of 1 percent of about 6 millionapplications for citizenship, green cards and other benefits, federalinvestigators reported yesterday.

The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, Richard L. Skinner,blamed a DHS policy set in February 2006 requiring that 100 percent ofsuspect applications be investigated, saying it overwhelmed claims officersand immigration investigators with work, rendering the policy all butuseless.

"The current USCIS strategy for addressing immigration benefit fraud yieldslittle measurable return," Skinner's office reported. Instead, agentsdiverted resources to higher priority national security and criminalbackground checks. DHS officials want to change the blanket policy but havenot decided how, Skinner said.

Agency spokesman Christopher Bentley said that "USCIS remains committed" toimproving anti-fraud efforts along with its sister investigative agency,U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Neither ICE nor USCIS can helpthe fact the volume of potential fraud cases significantly exceeds thecapability of both agencies," USCIS Director Emilio T. Gonzalez wroteSkinner in a formal response.

The inspector general's report, dated Oct. 29 and released yesterday,underscores problems dating to the March 2003 launch of DHS, whichreorganized U.S. immigration agencies and expanded their duties. The reportalso highlights one of myriad hurdles to tougher U.S. immigrationenforcement, a subject of heated national debate since Congress failed topass a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws this summer.

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Video: Giuliani firm 'made millions' off data mining

http://ronnmills.blogspot.com/2007/12/video-giuliani-firm-made-millions-off.html



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