The more one reads about the way Republican’s are attempting to get their way, it makes one wonder how any person can support a party so riddled with cheats, liars, and outright criminals. Take the latest nonsense from Cincinnati where a group tried to use fake names to get a measure on the ballot to repeal the city law, protecting Gays from discrimination.

State Rep. Tom Brinkman, who was the head of the organization was never charged, but at a hearing the judge in the case suggested he was involved and knew that Lois Mingo, 48, and Precilla Ward, 32, had falsified the petitions by crossing out names and addresses of signers and replacing them with addresses of registered voters in order to make them appear valid. (source)

What I don’t get, is why does any political party seek to deny protection to any group? I mean what is it about the Republicans and their faithful that they are even willing to resort to lies, and other dishonest methods to insure that some minority they hate, is denied equal rights? Seems to me, given how they all profess such high ideals, such high morals, that to lie, cheat, and steal, as they are doing, that be rather hard to justify in one’s conscience, but then maybe that is it. I am assuming they have one, when the reality is, they simply don’t.

This whole issue of ethics, of morality has me totally confused. You get the Democrats who say they support such laws, then attach them to bills they know will be defeated, if not Vetoed. Republicans who propose bills to specifically deny rights to Gays, and yet both sides try to claim the Moral Path. And people buy into it.
Like okay, so the legislators and such are tempted by the money, the power, but what is the excuse for those who follow them? I mean if you believe in God, in Freedoms, how can you go out to get petitions signed, or vote for them? I mean where are YOUR ethics, YOUR morality?

I won’t vote for Stephen Harper simply because he will not support equality for all. Whether his education policies, his health care policies, or whatever were to be top notch, the fact he cannot support the very basic rights of all to be safe, to be treated equally, makes me support anyone else but him.

So why don’t American’s practise what they preach?

I am confused. The Hate Crime Legislation was attched to the War Spending Bill that Harry Reid pulled, after being unable to garner sufficient votes to pass the bill. The defeat was about the war, but somehow the Hate Crime Bill, dubbed the Mathew Shepard Act, was attached to a war spending bill, that the Democrats knew wouldn’t be passed.

Huh?

Democrats were seven votes short of passing the defense bill, which called for the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq by spring 2008.The hate crimes statute was one of several dozen amendments attached for easier passage; a statement from the White House after the House passed an identical hate crimes measure, the “Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007″ seemed to indicate that the proposed law would be vetoed were it to be a freestanding bill. (source)

You have to love Politicians. In thinking that Bush would VETO a free standing version of the Hate Crimes bill, the Democrats thought it would make it easier to pass if they attached it to another bill.  So like, they selected attaching it to a war spending bill, they knew would be defeated, somehow is going to get the hate crime bill passed?

Who they kidding?

It would seem to me, that if they truly believed in the bill, then attach it to a bill they KNOW that is going to get passed, that BUSH will have to ACCEPT.  Instead they are using it as a means to get votes from the GLBT community, by pointing to a bill they passed, but can’t get into law, for which they’ll blame the Republicans.  Neat little political trick there, and damn devious.

Which makes me wonder, do the Democrats really want to pass this bill, or is it simply being used as a way to claim they support our equal rights, claim to care about protecting us, when the truth is, they have the same concept as the Republicans, but are unwilling to at least be honest about their Homophobia?

So Congress is about to decide, whether to spend 141 Million dollars on Abstinence Only Programs, that is an increase of almost $28 Million. Now with all the crap going on, about how schools are in such poor shape, how books are so old they are no longer valid, it seems that this program is simply another example of government waste.

Since 1996, the federal government has spent over a half a billion taxpayer dollars on abstinence-only programs, despite federal, state and independent evaluations showing the programs to be counterproductive and fiscally wasteful.  (source)

To begin with, Abstinence Only type of education is racist. It promotes racial differences, making being different unacceptable. It uses religion as its basis, in the worst possible way really. It creates differences, that shouldn’t be in schools.

Schoold need teachers who can teach kids to read, to write, and to add. Schools need books that are up to date, that show there are other countries in the world than just the United States. They need to establish music classes, and other activities, if they truly want to make a dent in juvenile use of drugs and gangs. This is what schools should do, not encourage drop outs, not encourage violent behavior. Abstinence programs do not promote health, but a way of life that is not everyone’s belief. IT is forcing a religious viewpoint on all kids, yet they won’t allow School Prayers? So instead we screw up the kids with warped information about sex?

Sex is beautiful, when it means something.

These programs make sex dirty, and that isn’t of any help. Abstinence, is a preferred method for kids, but let’s be honest. Kids are hormone crazed without the judgment skills that adults have. Teaching them those skills would go a lot further than trying to tell them not to have sex.

Congress should not only refuse to fund this increase, but actually eliminate it. Give the Schools the money, for what is needed, like more teachers? 

It is the 70th Anniversary of Buchenwald, the concentration camp that was one of just many injustices performed by the Third Reich. Yet it is interesting to note, that in one of the comments about this horror, that many still refuse to accept, is one that makes one look around at today’s world.

“The Nazis tried to reduce humans to numbers, to rob them of their identity,” said Jens Goebel, culture minister for the state of Thuringia, upon handing copies of the book to representatives of survivor groups. “That should not be the last word.” (source)

Look at how today’s world has been reduced to numbers. You are identified by your Driver’s License number, your Social Security Number, your Bank Account Number, and on the lists goes. I mean the Nazis tried to make it so people were just numbers, reducing the impact in their minds as to what they were doing to fellow human beings. Is that any different today?

Watch the news, and you hear nothing but numbers. 12 to 20 million Illegal Immigrants seeking Amnesty, or the latest death toll in Iraq. You hear the reporter say 3 more or 2 more soldiers were killed in this province or this city in Iraq, and it is just a number. Yet the truth is, these are people. Those Immigrants crossed borders, broke laws, so they could earn a better living to help their families back home. They aren’t just criminals, but people.

Those three or two or five soldiers killed in the latest attacks in Iraq, aren’t just numbers. They had families who cared for them, who will never see them again. They had children who will grow up without them, not some number, but their father, their mother. Yet when you hear the death tally on the news, you don’t hear their names. Rarely do you hear if they had children, or even their ages. All you hear is the numbers.

We are what the Nazis wanted just a scant 70 years ago. To be reduced to nothing but numbers. You listen to Politicians oppose Gay Rights, or Support them, but you don’t know a thing about the people being effected. You dont know about the young teenager that is gay who locks himself in his room and blows his brains out, because of the bullying. You only hear the numbers, of how many gay teens are threatened. You don’t see that they cared for the environment, or loved baseball. You don’t know them, you never do.

We are just a number, a statistic, and one has to wonder. Who won WWII? 

I am torn, about wanting to watch the ‘Gay Debate‘ on LOGO or not. (see comment ‘Will You Watch?‘)

While there appears to be just two candidates from the Democratic Party side that won’t be attending, the front runners will. Obama, Clinton, Edwards, are all going to be there, but to what end?

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich have confirmed they will participate.  Gov. Bill Richardson has not responded to the invitation  and Sen. Joe Biden declined the invitation due to scheduling problems. (source)

See, to me I want a debate that is going to be hard pressed, where answers are forced, and not set to stupid time limits. I want to hear a candidate squirm as they are called to account for their policies, or lack of them. Let’s face it, so far only Richardson has actually supported Real Gay Rights, along with Gavel. (who is attending).

And I’d like opposing views, from all sides, and the Republican Candidates should be included. Or at least be given a separate forum, to answer the same questions that the Democratic Candidates face. That should be a given, and if they refuse, they refuse, but at least fair play will have been satisfied.

And what about the Independent Party Candidates?

The debate, is expected to be 90 minutes, and is to happen on August 9th 2007.

The debate will take place in Los Angeles and will be broadcast on LOGO at 9:00 pm ET (6:00 pm PT) and through live streaming video at LOGOonline.com. (source)

In some respects, you have to feel sorry for Senator McCain and the troubles his campaign seems to be getting into these days. I mean first off, his inability to raise a lot of cash, and the mismanagement of what he’s raised has seriously hurt his campaign efforts.

Then there was the scandal about  his NC chief, under indictment for drugs, and now one of his co-hairs in Florida is busted for offering himself for sex in a public restroom.

State Rep. Bob Allen (R), a foe of LGBT rights in Florida, is charged with offering the cop $20 for oral sex in a washroom at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Titusville. (source)

All this comes on the heels of his top aides resigning as well, which leads one to wonder how much longer can the Senator seek the Presidential Nomination for the Republican Party. (see comment ‘John McCain – Can He Last?‘)

However, it also raises some serious questions about the Republicans, and others too, who try to actively deny homosexuality as being a natural act. It leads to desperation, or so it would seem, when you take this into account, the recent Foley incident. Both who actively deny their homosexuality for political gains, for political use actually. I mean this recent one is a guy who was pushing anti-gay legislation, making him a treasure to the party faithful.

Kind of makes you wonder about the warped values that people have. To attack your own kind, to gain power, prestige, is just wrong. Yet it is being encouraged by the type of nonsense that Bush, Romney, and others are pushing. John McCain has shown he’s no friend of the GLBT community, so his woes aren’t cause for tears.

As much as I am not enamored by his policies, I also believe that many of these incidents really have nothing to do with him, nor should they be construed as that. I mean this one, the campaign official with the drugs, are facts of life, not indicitive of any candidate. Now if either of these were close personal friends, maybe some speculation would be warranted, but this is politics. I rather doubt there aren’t other campaigns where the people at the top are all Saints.