Headlines - Wednesday July 13

 

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Caterpillar Exec to Congress in May: "Make Our Crime Legal" 

 

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In a political gift to anti-gay groups nationwide, the cast of the reality show Sister Wives plans to file a federal lawsuit challenging Utah's law against polygamy.

 

The polygamist family portrayed on the TLC reality show "Sister Wives" said all along its main goal in going on national television was to gain public acceptance of its lifestyle. Now family patriarch Kody Brown, his four wives and 16 children and stepchildren are moving from the court of public opinion to the court of law, arguing that criminalizing their lifestyle is unconstitutional. On Wednesday, the Browns are expected to file a federal lawsuit to challenge the polygamy law in their home state of Utah, where they came under investigation for violating the state law that prohibits polygamy. Brown and his four wives -- Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn -- moved their family to Las Vegas earlier this year, in part, they told ABC News, to escape the criminal investigation.

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The Real Costs Of "Ex-Gay" Therapy

Think Progress comments on the real cost of "ex-gay" therapy like that performed by Marcus Bachmann:

Beliefs that gay people need to be "cured" of their sexual orientation also contribute to harassment and violence against gay people and anyone else who doesn't conform to rigid stereotypes of gender and sexuality. In 2008, more than 2,400 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people were victims of crimes perpetrated against them on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Significant underreporting means that the actual number of hate crimes against gay and transgender people is probably much higher than the statistics show. Ex-gay therapy tears at the mental health of gay people while contributing to the poisonous attitudes that mark them as targets for violence and discrimination. And for this "therapy," it's society as a whole that foots the bill: every blow at the ability of gay people to take care of themselves and their families has its costs, whether in the loss of a job because of harassment, days missed at school because of bullying, or medical bills for dealing with depression or the aftermath of violence.

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Literal trailer trash:

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Dirty tricks in Wisconsin.

 

Update: Yesterday, six "real" Democrats easily won primary elections in the first of Wisconsin's recall elections, which were prompted by the state's contentious anti-union bill. They defeated six "fake Democrat" protest candidates that were supported by the GOP in an effort to sabotage the recall effort.

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Don't hurt yourselves with all those concessions, Republicans.

At his weekly press availability House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said the key Republican concession is "the fact that we are voting — the fact that we are even discussing voting for a debt ceiling increase." He claimed this was a significant move. "What I don't think the White House understands is how difficult it is for fiscal conservatives to say they're going to vote to pay for a debt ceiling increase."

The Republican leadership, McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor, voted to raise the debt ceiling five times during the Bush years when the nation debt grew from $5.95 trillion to $9.815 trillion. Good job on the national debt, boys. You're great.

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Midwestern oil tychoon Warren Buffett, pictured here adorably eating a parfait, presented his quick and easy solution to America's debt problem today on CNBC:

"I could end the deficit in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than three percent of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.

Hmm, that's just crazy logical enough to work!

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House republicans want to slash funds for the EPA and oil spill prevention. "In a bold response to the recent oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and Yellowstone River, House Republicans are marking up a FY 2012 appropriations bill today that would cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency to 1999 levels, slash the agency's oil spill prevention budget, and fail to provide additional resources for Deepwater Horizon victims."

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Need facts to debate climate change denialists? start here.

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Why are US taxpayers giving News Corp a free ride? Taxpayers shouldn't be supporting the filth that is produced by that company. 

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Taibbi: Obama Doesn't Want a Progressive Deficit Deal

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Legistorm, annual salaries:

Chaplain: $150,698
Chief of Staff: $129,223
Director of Communications: $86,056
Executive Assistant: $52,828

I've often wondered why God doesn't answer all my prayers. And now it's hit me: I don't have an $86,000 a year communications director helping me grease the celestial wheels.

I get that that religious politically correctness won't permit the Congress to entirely phase out the Chaplain's office, but give me a break.  The guy opens up the day with a prayer and he's getting $150k a year, and need a chief of staff, a publicist, and a secretary to pull it off?  One of the more pious members of Congress could simply offer the prayer themselves.

Check out the "other" responsibilities of the Senate chaplain:

In addition to opening the Senate each day in prayer, Chaplain Black's duties include counseling and spiritual care for the Senators, their families and their staffs, a combined constituency of six thousand people. Chaplain Black's days are filled with meeting Senators about spiritual and moral issues, assisting Senators' staffs with research on theological and biblical questions, teaching Senate Bible study groups, encouraging such groups as the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, and facilitating discussion and reflection small groups among Senators and staff.

Let's walk through this a moment.

1. He offers spiritual counseling to Senators, their families, and staff. Why? They don't have their own priests, preachers, rabbis and mullahs? Seriously, how many Americans get, need, a priest on the job because they can't just pick up the phone and call the head of their church if they have a question?

2. What do you mean he's helping staff research theological and biblical questions? If the research is for the staff's own personal religion then the taxpayers shouldn't be paying for it. And if the research is to influence legislation, then that's just creepy.

3. Bible study? Because, again, Senators and staff can't just go to church on Sunday like everybody else?  If they want to hold a bible study at work, they can pay for it themselves.  No one is subsidizing my personal bible study on the job.

4. "Encouraging the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast." At $150k a year, that had better be a lot of encouraging.

This office seems superfluous at best.  But this is America, and we dare not suggest that the line item for God be cut.  God forbid. Read the rest of this post...

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McConnell's plan is to give the president the power to raise the debt ceiling on his own without congressional approval so then the Republicans could scream like raped chickens every time the President raises the debt ceiling while, at the same time, avoiding any responsibility for the process.

That's pretty damn cowardly of him. But it's worth remembering that is the GOP mantra, "ideology uber alles". If these current clowns were running the Congress in the fall of 2008, the banking system would have collapsed.

Meanwile, the real masters of the GOP, the business community, are starting to tell them to shut the fuck up, start acting like grown-ups and get to work getting out of this crisis of their own making.

I don't know how the Republicans walk this one back.

 

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Dead on but two and a half years too late - torture is embedded in U.S. foreign policy. "Human Rights Watch has called on Barack Obama, the current US president, to order a criminal investigation into alleged detainee abuse by his predecessor, George W Bush, and senior figures from his administration. "There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, [former vice president Dick] Cheney, [former secretary of defence Donald] Rumsfeld, and [former CIA director George] Tenet for authorising torture and war crimes," Kenneth Roth, HRW's executive director, said. In a 107-page report entitled, "Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees," the rights watchdog said inaction was denting America's standing in the world."

 

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Fukushima has not taught Japan humility. "Japan intends to send its whaling fleet back to the Antarctic this year, a senior official has told BBC News. There has been speculation that campaigns by activists, financial problems and new maritime regulations might persuade Tokyo to call time. But at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting, Japan's Joji Morishita said the plan was to return. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which forced the last hunt's early closure, says it will be back too."

 

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House Rejects Tea Party Effort To Screw Up Light Bulbs | Tea Party conservatives fell far short of the two-thirds majority required to pass Rep. Joe Barton's (R-TX) BULB Act, which would have revoked lighting efficiency standards that are already reducing pollution, creating jobs, and spurring technological innovation. The 233 to 193 vote, although a majority, rejected the bill because it was being considered under suspension rules that allowed Republicans to avoid regular order. The five Democrats who voted in favor of this Republican joke were conservative Reps. Dan Boren (D-OK), Jerry Costello (D-IL), Jim Matheson (D-UT), Colin Peterson (D-MN), and Nick Rahall (D-WV). Ten Republicans voted against their party and for clean energy manufacturing, and one voted present.