Occupy Rachel Maddow?

An interesting discussion has begun on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show Facebook Page:

This week in Hypocrisy: Activist Website Change.org Discriminates Against Gays and Disabled

How on EARTH is it possible that Change.org has fewer non-discrimination policies than Walmart or Target?
This is a total Change FAIL on their part:
http://www.change.org/petitions/changeorg-human-resources-add-more-diversity-to-your-employment-non-discrimination-policy

In other news, the hacktivist group known simply as Anonymous, has apparently decided that they can take down Facebook, Fox News and the Wall Street Tickers all in the same day on November 5th... We'll see... Perhaps they could start smaller and take down Change.org since they are apparently more discriminatory than Fox News... which, let me just emphatically wave my arms around when I say that again... "more discriminatory THAN FOX NEWS!!!"

OccupyWallSt.org Chat Hijacked by Angsty Teenager With Control Issues

This sounds like a headline from the Onion, I know... But for the last week, I've been updating my facebook friends on Occupant News from anywhere I can find it... The OccupyWallSt.org chat function has been a good resource up until an hour ago.

I talked to a moderator named "@usotsuki" this morning who was pretty cool. We both prefer Madonna's old early 80's tracks over Lady Gaga's newer rehash of the same vibe.

Before that another user in Houston (huestonepress) had been desperately trying to get an area newspaper to cover the large-scale occupation going on over there... Here's one of their YouTube videos, reflecting that the streets of Houston, Texas have been uncomfy and loud:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBC0zr9GtE

A few days ago, a user named "SteveJobsZombie" advertised his new easy-to-use "Outsource My Job" App to the barely bemused occupants and we learned that arrests are beginning to slow down.

A plethora of links to Occupy news articles, videos and artwork have been shared over the past week and a half and every 5 minutes a student interrupts the conversation to say "I am writing a report for school and I need to know what this is all about..."

A Ron Paul supporter posted a brilliant and hilarious video that more clearly explains the "End The Fed Bank" philosophy and a group of Democratic Occupants in Chicagoland are pushing the "Move 2 Amend" agenda which would add a consitutional amendment that defines corporations as "not people".

Together, we all decided that we didn't think it was a great idea for our "leaderless movement" to be given "leaders" by the business media... We deciphered which photos of police brutality were really from Occupy Wall Street and which ones were not... And I promoted an Occupation of Boca Raton on Thanksgiving.

The Beginning of the End...

But then, without warning, I was banned by a moderator (and so were my roommates and anyone else on our network) by an overzealous moderator named "@catsup". No more connection to the main chat offered anonymously to Wall Street Occupants... just like that.

I got to where I could chat up the moderator of the service (@catsup) who I'm told was something called an "NT Tech" and asked him why I was banned... His reply was that I was caught "electioneering for Obama" and that I was "an agent of Wall Street"... Which is HILARIOUS if you really know me...

He called me an "astroturfer" and told me that I have a "listening problem" because I had revealed that I wasn't too fascinated by Dr. Cornel West's "I hate Obama because that's so cool these days and I'm black" video.

In short, I was dealing with a 'King Baby' who was DEEPLY relishing this moment - probably his first taste of absolute authority - the power to ban someone and let them appeal to him in order to return. From the leaderless movement, there arose not just a leader but... for a moment... a fascist dictator and anything not sufficiently hateful toward Obama was mere "judenlettern".

Now that @Catsup is in charge over at the OccupyWallSt.org website, there are no Democrats allowed.

What was my grand offense, you might ask?

I simply told other people in the chatroom that Obama tried to tax the 1% for us on Thursday but his plan failed when a couple of "Blue Dog Democrats" joined Republicans in voting it down... Which is true.

Mark Pryor (D-AK) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) are the worst. Here's who they REALLY work for:

Two Democratic Senators On Thursday joined their Republican colleagues (as they always do) to defeat the single aspect of Obama's "Jobs Plan" that would have benefitted out-of-work Americans like Police, Emergency First Responders and Teachers.

Notorious "Blue Dog" Democrats Mark Pryor (Arkansas) and Ben Nelson (Nebraska) are infamous for sabotaging the President at key moments in his 1st term but this time they may have gone too far. The aspect of the Jobs Bill that the two Senators voted against cloture on would have opened up debate on the Senate floor as to the possibility of a relatively small tax directed at millionaires to pay for the job spur.

Americans when polled, overwhelmingly support a tax on the rich and corporations to help our nation's fiscal situation.

It should be noted that Pryor and Nelson voted, essentially, not to even discuss Obama's plan and every Republican agreed with them.

These two Senators have only their campaign donors at heart and stand steadfast against American prosperity and the creation of jobs in the USA.

Contributions to Senator Ben Nelson's Campaign came primarily from the Banking and Insurance industries during the last election cycle. Berkshire Hathaway, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Amgen, Citigroup, Monsanto, Bank of America and the Carlysle Group were some of Ben Nelson's biggest campaign contributors.


The bulk of Senator Mark Pryor's campaign contributions come from Murphy Oil (a petroleum and gas lobbying group), Experian Consumer Credit/Banking, Merill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Wal-Mart Stores, Time-Warner communications, Comcast cable/internet providers and sadly... the American Federation of Teachers (whom he has gravely harmed with this vote).

Brazilian Cops Set To Win Child Macing At 2016 Olympics

Of all the horrific things in this world, photos like this one still catch my attention:

The 2016 Olympic Games are set to be held in Rio De Janeiro and guess who joined the Organizing Committee?
That's right - none other than Luiz Fernando Corrêa (former National Secretary for Public Security, former Federal Police CEO) has just become the "Rio 2016 Security Director" for the Olympics.

Please view these photos of police brutality in Brazil:
http://www.policebrutality.info/2011/04/police-officer-pepper-spray-women-and-children.html

Then send an email to the Olympics telling them that you don't want your children to get maced in the face if you decide to go to their games:
http://www.olympic.org/brazil

You can also make a big stink on their facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/olympicgames#!/rio2016

Then write a letter to the US Ambassador to Brazil (Thomas A. Shannon, Jr.) under our Department of State and express your concerns about supporting trade with a nation that has no respect for humanity:
http://riodejaneiro.usconsulate.gov/contact.html

We'll Tell You When It's Safe For Congress to Go Golfing with Lobbyists In Florida Again.

All the bull you can handle:

Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/245599762156029/

Proposed Thanksgiving Day Occupation of Boca Raton, Florida:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116845861757313

Of Steers and Queers

Perry and a group of Boyscouts at the Boyscouts Of America
Annual Report Conference.

Is The Gay Community Ready For Another Texan Presidency?

"It shaped my view of the area and taking a hint from Lot’s wife, I vowed never to look back. I felt really bad for the entire state. I couldn’t quite imagine a life without culture, diversity or pride. It seemed to me that even the livestock almost looks down their noses at people in Texas."

A Tale of Two Mayors

The Mayor of Lincoln, NE is a Democrat.

His name is Chris Beutler.

He makes $35.00 per hour at his job.

In Lincoln, all municipal employees are screened and their employment is maintained by an idependently operating Personnel Department.

Lincoln, Nebraska has the LOWEST unemployment rate for a metropolitan area in the USA with only 3.6% unemployment.

Recent Quotes:

"Lincoln, Nebraska used federal stimulus funds for an energy-saving lighting project. In just three years, we will recoup the original $227,000 it cost to replace old lighting with energy-efficient lighting. We're doing the right thing and saving money."

"The city expects to save about $2,500 a year in energy costs because of new lights in Gere branch library and $25,000 a year on the Center Park Garage."

The Mayor of Yuma, AZ is a Republican.

His name is Alan L. Kreiger.

He makes $85.00 per hour at his job.

In Yuma, the Mayor is allowed to terminate or suspend any city Employee on the Spot.

Yuma, Arizona has the HIGHEST unemployment rate for a metropolitan area in the USA at a whopping 30% or more Unemployed and receiving benefits as of August 2011.

Recent Quotes:

"I can't believe that a bunch of lacey-drawered, limp-wristed people could do what these men have done in the past. We are currently having problems with homosexuals serving on the front lines in the military. We need solid, strong men... not pacifists to fight those battles."

"Yuma is a safe environment. Hundreds of thousands of families live here and go back and forth across the border. Every day thousands and thousands go back and forth and you know, they have jobs. It's not a wild frontier."

Is Florida's 'Troy Davis' An Old White Dude?

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget
what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

When Dr. Amy Goodman's phone died, she stopped trying to look at the time. Others had huddled around Ben Jealous from the NAACP and began to pray. The execution of Troy Davis in Jackson, GA had been mysteriously delayed by the Supreme Court for hours but ultimately, it happened.

People in every major city took to the streets. The mainstream media soon realized that they were losing viewership with every moment that they were not discussing the possibility that an innocent man was being murdered by his state. Time stood still for just a moment at 11:08 and then resumed again. Part of what we know as "America" died with Troy Anthony Davis... the presumption of our innocence.

Although there were undeniable racial components to the controversy that finally simmered to a boil on September 21st, it was not what any of us would call "racially charged". White people were also deeply concerned - even if they suspected, as the Supreme Court must have, that Troy Davis was guilty. No matter what our race, gender, age or other qualifiers, we all have an uncomfortable suspicion of persecution. It's part of the American DNA... We translate these messages from our government with bits of code that we gathered from the Salem Witch Trials, the Southern Strategy, the McCarthy Era, the Anita Bryant Crusade and the Satanic Panic.

Some of us are more keenly attuned to persecution than others. William Thomas "Tommy" Zeigler is just such a person. He has been sitting on Death Row for 35 years for a crimes that largely stink of being a set-up.

Back in the early 70's, Ziegler owned a furniture store in Winter Gardens just outside of Orlando. He had become friends with the local police cheif and was taking it upon himself to root out corruption in the area caused by the Ku Klux Klan who had begun pulling some kind of sharecropping scam on the mostly black citrus pickers.

On Christmas Eve, he intended to give his wife's parents a reclining chair as a gift. He went to his store to either meet them there or gather the chair and was unable to turn on any lights. Upon entrance, he was beaten unconscious and shot in the abdomen by unseen attackers.

When Zeigler regained consciousness, he phoned his friend (the Police Cheif) and informed him that he had been attacked and needed help. What Zeigler did not know is that his wife, his wife's parents, and an African American customer were all scattered on the floor of the store and riddled with bullets. They had been that way even before he entered.

What followed was the most convoluted and utterly ridiculous cooked up case against a man that you could ever imagine. Investigators decided that Zeigler had massacred his own family on Christmas Eve just moments before he was scheduled to go to dinner with the police cheif and a judge and then shot himself in the abdomen to make it look like a robbery.

The case against Zeigler was sketchy at best. Then, evidence began turning up from strange sources and new motives were "discovered" by investigators with a little help from the FBI. Suddenly, there were two eye-witnesses who just happened to see everything except the actual shooting.

When it came time for a trial, Zeigler was surprised to find out that the judge just happened to be his nemesis from his earlier activism against loan-sharking, sharecropping, or otherwise taking advantage of the migrant workers. A young police officer witnessed that judge and the prosecutor hanging out with each other and discussing the case.

By the end of Zeigler's trial, 72 people testified against him and the jury was utterly confused by the fantastic series of events that the State's Attorney expected them to believe. Both Zeigler and his attorney attested that they felt they were being railroaded. One juror was not convinced of Zeigler's guilt and raised questions during deliberation. She was threatened and intimidated by the jury foreman and this made her even more resolute. She attempted to contact the judge to inform him of how she was being treated and the judge ordered that she be given heavy doses of valium. Once they had her all drugged up, she was compliant with a guilty verdict but still insisted on recommending only a life sentence and not death.
When the verdict was handed down, the judge overruled the jury's sentencing reccommendation and gave Zeigler the death sentence.

Now - this sounds a little crazy, right? Well, the State of Florida's story was even crazier. But what really arouses suspicion is who all these players went on to become during the 35 years that Zeigler has occupied death row.

The blood-spatter analyst who gave a half-cocked testimony which falsely identified the blood on Zeigler's shirt (DNA Evidence later contradicted him) went on to become the nation's leading criminologist of this nature and even worked the OJ Simpson trial and appeared on numerous television shows.

In 2008, when a citizen advocate wrote to Herbert L. MacDonell (the blood-spatter analyst), to question him about the DNA discrepancies, the analyst responded with a brand new, never before heard theory of how all the blood got where it did... by accusing Zeigler of being bisexual and having sex with the body of the customer who was found in the store. That response, aside from its complete randomness and audacity, seemed to be a hostile response to being questioned about the case.

The State's Attorney, Robert J. Eagan was moving up in the world until a 1985 corruption sting fell upon him that involved allegations of bribery on his part. A judge was involved as well as a number of Eagan's informants and the allegations stemmed all the way back to a drug arrest in the late 70's, just after Zeigler's trial. At one point Eagan was quoted in the St. Petersburg Times as admitting that "one of his informants", whom he declined to name, may have accepted bribes without authorization from himself.

One needs only to look at the courtroom transcripts from Zeigler's trial to understand that Eagan is a master of manipulation and will do anything to whip a jury into a senseless frenzy... As long as there's a "guilty" verdict, he's not concerned with the aftermath.

The Judge, Maurice Mitchell Paul, was later promoted by President Ronald Reagan to US Federal District Judge and he still hears cases in North Florida today. Specifically, he decides whether to advance cases against the government for maltreatment of prisoners in Florida's corrections facilities. The Zeigler case is not the only one that Justice Paul is infamous for. In 1995, he intervened in a case that juveniles had against the Florida Corrections System and ruled in favor of the Dozier Training School for Boys. This will ring a bell for anybody who is familiar with Florida's most grotesque tale of child abuse - The White House Boys.

Say Hello To All Your New Supporters. Now Where's My Check?

Why would Mitt Romney's #1 fan and designer of his largest support network not want anyone to know who he is?


Perhaps, it is because Brian Armstrong of Eagle Mountain, Utah is a paid shill who is acting as an unofficial OPO (online political operative) for the Republican hopeful.


By now, I'm sure you've noticed that Mitt Romney has a website... or maybe you haven't because you wouldn't even want to visit it. That's a problem that many candidates, even the President have faced over the past few years: "How do we drive traffic to our website?" Another question then becomes, how do we get donations from that traffic once we've got them?


Well, back in 2004, the Republican Party expirimented with using OPO's to get the much coveted "youth vote" for George W. Bush. One of the "bad ideas" that most of the OPO's decided not to go for was an angle that's commonly called Associate Marketing? Why is it a bad idea? Because if you are found out and exposed, you show that your candidate only has support that they are paying for - not REAL support.

A key player in this process of bringing Republicans into the internet age was a girl who later went on to head up the internet-related side of many other campaigns including Mitt Romney's 2008 campaign. Her name is Mindy Finn and she most recently was known to have worked on Tim Pawlenty's "crash and burn" campaign... which is sooo not like her. Is she still REALLY working for Mitt Romney with Zach Moffatt? Who knows... There's afterall, no honor among thieves... or in this case, among associate marketers gone political.

So how does it work? There is a 2nd Mitt Romney website that more people enjoy visiting... it is supposed to be like a hub for "tea party-like" "grassroots" supporters that is supposedly NOT paid for by the Romney campaign. This is where the associate marketers mingle with the real supporters and solicit donations from them and "drive their traffic" to the places Mitt Romney (or whoever has hired them) want them to go. Here, it is important to note that Mitt Romney's official facebook page links to the supposedly disconnected "Mitt Romney Central" as though it is in fact, part of the official campaign.

Associate Marketing techniques are a few steps beyond the pale of what voters and people concerned with ethics are willing permit their candidates to get into... It creates a lot of spam, it's mostly anonymous and it just doesn't speak to the idea that the supporters are there for the right reasons.

Creating a political campaign based on paying per click and driving traffic this way and that might seem lucrative to people who never step away from their computers... But there is REAL life outside the matrix that one must eventually contend with. For Mitt Romney, it's going to be devastating to his REAL supporters that most of their "new friends" are being paid handsomely to get cozy with them.

According to one of Armstrong's many, many websites, he explains it this way: "Targeting social groups with your marketing message may be like tight-rope walking. It also may require some nice social engineering where you have an opportunity to talk about your product or service without it coming across as an advertisement or a “pitch”... the overall concept revolves a bit around SEO (search engine optimization 0r "making your site popular via keywords) being a “popularity contest” with backlinks being the votes. Monetizing that traffic [in this case, getting donations] is probably the topic of a different article."

Mr. Armstrong's mistake - the part that really uncovered this mess... was claiming that the "grassroots" site was designed by amateur volunteers and then not giving those people proper credit for their help... It smelled fishy, and boy was it ever... See the "official page" for the "volunteer" who set them up here. Notice anything strange?

Here, you can watch Brian's videos about Associate Marketing.

Here, you can see his obscure and kind of strange blog/webpage where he recruits business.


Now that you know this much, have fun sorting through the rubble... If you know more than I do about associate marketing techniques and political campaigns, please send me an email at floridasqueezed@gmail.com and don't hack me, bro...

If any of my facts are wrong here and I'm barking up the wrong tree, just let me know - I'm a reasonable guy who only wants politicians to be honest about who their support is coming from and under what motivation. I always welcome new information and correct my mistakes where I can. Don't have a cow and think I'm your biggest enemy just because I don't support being shady.

Allen West and Debbie Wasserman Schultz - Together At Last?

If you're looking for any evidence that the Debt Ceiling Vote was truly a compromise for both Democrats and Republicans, you needn't look any further. Both Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Allen West (R-FL) have both voted in favor of the legislation.

What's ironic about this pair falling on the same side of our nation's most contentious debate this year is that they've been sparring over this very issue with vigor unmatched by any other dueling legislators.

According to the Schultz camp, West is a "sexist" and waging a "war on women and the elderly". According to Allen West himself, Schultz is "not a lady" and therefore doesn't deserve his respect.

Another unlikely pair of legislators to fall in line with each other for obviously very different reasons would be Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Bachmann, a Tea Party member like West, is the legislator who championed the idea of not raising the debt ceiling in the first place. Both Hastings and Bachmann voted against the debt ceiling compromise bill.

If these two (Allen West and Debbie Wasserman Schultz) can agree on a compromise - there is indeed hope for the rest of us... Or is there?

Recently, the Wilton Manors Business Association (WMBA) was forced to cancel an invitation for Allen West to speak at their event on August 8th. The speaking engagement was first championed by Celeste Ellich, the owner of a real estate agency, who is currently President of the association.

A number of association members were unhappy about West being asked to speak at the engagement and a few threatened to withdraw their membership. Some boycotts were haphazardly started and a petition began circulating.

According to sources close to Ellich, she even claimed to be receiving "death threats" over the situation. This claim of death threats has not been verified by anyone.

So why were the businesses so upset? Evidently, a lot of it has to do with West's anti-gay rhetoric and disrespect for women - particularly Schultz. In fact, a non-partisan organization made up of business owners and community activists in the Fort Lauderdale area has been set up to continue carrying the torch against West's rhetoric at future events.

As a disclaimer, I joined this coalition yesterday.

The following is the organization's only official statement to the press thus far:

A non partisan group of community and business leaders was formed
today, entitled 'The Coalition for Equality and Fairness (CEF)', to create
an organization designed to protect citizenship diversity and stand up to public
officials who are bullying the LGBT community in order to advance their
own political and personal agendas.

The first order of business for the CEF will be to conduct an open and public educational rally next Monday, August 8, at 6 p.m., in Wilton Manors, entitled 'Allen West: In His Own Words'. Our purpose is not to censor anyone; it is rather to censure those who attempt to abuse us.

The Coalition will be issuing a mission statement on Wednesday evening defining and
articulating its purpose and objectives, at which time the venue for the community rally and gathering will also be announced.

To participate in the rally or the initial organizing efforts of the CEF, please send an expression of interest to norm@normkent.com, co-ordinating outreach at the present time.

Has Obama Changed Washington (or has it changed him)?

I am writing this note to my friends (and their friends) today because I want you to think about the long arduous battle we have ahead of us in 2012. Thanks to the conservatives on the Supreme Court, there will be an influx of campaign cash in our politics like we've never seen before. In a ruling called "Citizens United V. The Federal Elections Commission", Supreme Court Justices like Scalia, Roberts and Thomas basically opened up Pandora's Box for corruption and propaganda at its worst.

Moderate and Independant voters will be faced with the age old question, "Republican or Democrat?" and conventional wisdom tells us that they are inclined to lean toward Republicans. To make matters more ominous for Democrats, state level politics experienced an influx of hard-right Republicans in the 2010 elections and this includes Governors and State Houses that will be re-rigging the voting laws, the way the districts are drawn and even the processes by which votes are counted in key states.

What Democrats need right now is a strategy and a clear message... We need to be on the offense and the defense simultaneously. Mostly, we have to bring something to the table. Voters are no longer interested in Kennedy's sentiment that they should "ask what they can do for their country". They now sing a tune more akin to the Janet Jackson song, "What have you done for me lately?"

We must attempt to answer this question for voters because it just happens to be the Achilles Heel for conservatives and Republicans... The truth is, what little the Democrats have been able to accomplish has aired on the side of the working middle class... the side of the voters. Republicans cannot truthfully claim anything of the sort. Here are a few examples that are actually quite impressive:

• 1) Barack Obama is the first American President to issue a "Taxpayer's Reciept".


• 2) The United States under leadership of Obama captured and killed the terrorist responsible for collapsing the World Trade Center.


• 3) Democrats alone trailblazed a path for making healthcare a fundamental aspect of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.


• 4) Thanks to President Obama and the Democratic Party, Gays & Lesbians can openly serve in the armed forces while knowing that they are protecting true freedom without exceptions made for personal prejudices.


• 5) Thanks to President Obama and the Democratic Party, the mother of a hate crime victim will have her anguish validated by the law when she buries her son or daughter. The Government will not tell her that it's her fault.


• 6) President Obama has given options to Native American Women who are the victims of rape and violent attacks on their reservations so that they may access law enforcement and see justice for the first time.


• 7) It is Democrats, NOT Republicans, who continue to insist that the Government protect consumers from predatory banks, lenders and credit card companies.


• 8) Both civilian casualties and armed services casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are (from what I can tell) about 30% of what they were yearly under the leadership of George W. Bush. The ongoing occupations seem to be slowly turning into the "peace-keeping" missions that Republicans promised but could never manage to deliver.


• 9) Women who do the same work as men at their jobs must now be paid equally according to the law for the first time in America's History and once again... that was Democratic legislation.


• 10) For the first time since the crisis began, our Federal Government has a strategy to treat HIV/AIDS in the United States and to prevent new infections from increasing in frequency.

Rick Santorum Is A Mortal Sinner by Vatican Standards

My hope for gay rights activists going into 2012 is that we can focus our protests and actions on those who richly deserve to be protested and acted against.

Too many activists, it seems, are going off on tangential facebook rants about Barack Obama’s lackluster non-support of gay marriage. This ignores the culpability of Congress in not passing legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which Bill Clinton signed into law not too long ago. DOMA is an unconstitutional law because it dictates standards for marriage to all of the 50 states – a power that the Federal Government cannot have. The United States Constitution says verbatim:

Amendment 10 - The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people.

Since marriage is not one of the enumerated powers of the Federal Government, it MUST belong to the States or the People. It is the responsibility of the Congress to admit their mistake and pass a repeal law. When they do this, it will be Obama's responsibility to sign the repeal law as he did with repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). Many people in Congress are failing us right now because they are disobeying the Constitution every moment that they do not repeal DOMA.

One such person is former Senator Rick Santorum who frequently cites the Constitution of the USA in other debates. He relies on his Catholic upbringing for his argument against gay marriage, however.

Interestingly though, Santorum’s allegiance to Catholicism might be his downfall in his current run for President of the United States. Why? It is because in the process of campaigning, he has already committed two mortal sins.


In 2008, The Holy See under leadership of Pope Benedict XVI added seven “new sins” to the list of mortal or “deadly” sins to make a total of 14. While such a decision strikes non-Catholics as somewhat arbitrary, the Holy See is not to be disrespected or defied by practicing Catholics and the rules stand. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into Hell”.


The Vatican made it quite clear that “promoting torture” is a mortal sin because “torture, which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity.” Thus, in respect to the 5th Commandment, the verbal promotion of torture or cruel experiments by a Catholic media person or politician creates what the church calls “scandal”.

Scandal, in Catholic terms, is about as bad as it gets – it means that you are “wolf in sheeps clothing”. The Bible says of one who creates religious scandal that they’d be better off to tie a stone around their neck and drown themselves than to deal with the Lord himself.

Here is a link to Rick Santorum being disingenuous about and promoting torture: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55140.html

Another mortal Sin that Santorum has flippantly ignored his culpability in is promoting pollution of the environment.

According to Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti of the Holy See, “environmental blight” is a particularly grave sin because it affects so many people globally who cannot defend themselves. The Archbishop cited climate change specifically on this matter.

Here is a link to Rick Santorum shamelessly denying that Climate Change (Global Warming) even exists at all:
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/06/24/253389/santorum-theres-no-such-thing-as-global-warming/

Now, obviously, some will argue that the mere promotion of policies which may or may not lead to such sins is a murky area in moral law and that the Santorum should not be held religiously accountable for his words… Its fine for a non-Catholic to hold that opinion but the Catholic leadership totally disagrees.

It goes back to the Holy See’s staunch refusal to support Scandal… Sins which are promoted on a mass scale via media or social networking are considered Scandal and for a Catholic to commit these acts… Well, there’s always the stone-around-the-neck routine…

Catholic Democrats have been denied Communion in the United States on more than one occasion due to their perceived “promotion” of abortion and stem-cell research. Being denied Communion is basically the Catholic Church’s way of saying “Go to hell”. John Kerry, a Presidential candidate like Santorum was one such person in 2004.

Nazi-owned Newspaper in UK Calls Anthony Weiner a Secret “Cross-Dresser”

Daily Mail Uses Old College Prank Photos To Evidence Lies and Distortions

Just when you thought “weinergate” had finally been laid to rest by the Congressman’s resignation – you would be wrong. The Daily Mail ran a big outlandish spread of text with two photos allegedly from Anthony Weiner’s college days where a young man is parading around in women’s underwear and charges that his poor unsuspecting wife must now contend with the humiliation of accepting that he is a closeted "cross-dresser", implying that he sends out kinky fetish pictures to other women.

Only when carefully gleening the article can a person discern that the photos have nothing to do with the recent non-scandal that was cooked up by Andrew Breitbart and Ann Coulter.

So who is the Daily Mail and why would they care to attack a Jewish Congressman in another country across the pond? Well, that’s the really awful part.

The Daily Mail has a long history of attacking Jews and gays and liberals. This is because they are (and always have been) owned by real Nazis. Harold Harmsworth, (known to the Brits as Lord Rothermere) was their creator and publisher prior to WW2. He wrote such columns as “Hoorah For The Blackshirts” and was a close friend of Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The Daily Mail is still owned by his descendants.

Fox News and the National Enquirer frequently look to the Daily Mail for marketing gimmicks to copy and for outlandish quotes that they can attribute to an outside news source. Sadly and shamefully for the UK, the Daily Mail is the 2nd best selling newspaper in their little "empire".

But don't think the USA is totally off the hook on this... Ann Coulter, one of the architects of "Weinergate" is rather antisemitic herself, having made statements on Meet The Press that she wished for a purely Christian, White, Republican America and that Jews "still need to be perfected".

Today in Hypocrisy Part 1 – Dan Savage is a Cyber-bully.

This is the kind of story that reminds me of why I started a blog… A lot has happened in the last year but not much of it takes precedence over the 3 points at which my fellow so-called liberal Democrats have decided to play “Republican for a day” and began drafting their plans for the first semi-automatic glass-housed stone launcher…

First, let’s start out with the possibly the most neglected hypocrite of them all: Dan Savage… Yes, I’m talking about the “It Gets Better” guy…

You see, It Gets Better aims to foster warm-fuzzy feelings not in the bullying victims themselves, but rather the people who made the videos. Sadly, the videos made by concerned citizens are largely ignored on YouTube while everyone really only cares to hear from their favorite celebrity… However well intentioned it was to start, it’s becoming a PR tool to tap into the gay market. But the irony of this movement is that Dan Savage himself is a cyber-bully.

There. I said it.

Was he not the person who designed the nauseatingly vulgar and intentionally humiliating website which attacks a Catholic Republican candidate named Rick Santorum? This action fits squarely within every definition of cyber-bullying on Wikipedia. So what is Dan Savage REALLY teaching kids about bullies? If you can’t beat them, join them?

I wish it ended there - I really do. But (ahem!) it gets better…

Dan Savage is serophobic and rather hateful about it too. In case you’re not familiar with the term “serophobia”, let’s call it somebody who hates people with HIV or fears them. It is serophobia that lead to proposed legislation in Uganda that would effectively put all gay people in prison or have them killed (even though the majority with HIV in Uganda are heterosexual or “straight”).

Have you ever read one of those articles by a right-wing flamethrower that tries to connect the dots between homosexuals and pedophilia? Do you remember wondering how hateful a person would have to be to make that connection in their mind and try to convince others that it was true?

Dan Savage has never done that to gay people in general. But he’s done it to people with HIV… specifically gay men whom enjoyed bareback pornography or got HIV from practicing condomless sex. You see, Dan Savage wanted to make a case against “bareback” pornography. This was presumably to gain favor with Democrats who were concerned about a “gay sex columnist” joining their ranks as “the Ann Coulter of the Left”.

So, with his usual flair for the obscene, Savage chose to equate condomless pornography with child pornography. His writing on the subject assumed that young boys were being victimized by the California above-ground porn industry and being intentionally infected with a deadly virus by predatory men with HIV who want nothing more than to harm your little boy… You think I’m making that up? Read it here (as he’s never had the shame to take it off his blog).

Speaking as someone who has worked in the adult entertainment and novelties industry, I can say with some certainty that the producers of condomless pornography go to great lengths to make sure their models are tested for a wide array of STD’s and that those with HIV (the least problematic of the main ones) are only paired up with partners of the same status. If anyone disagrees with my rose-colored view, they can feel free to leave a comment.

Child pornography, on the other hand, is some SERIOUS shit. I’ve also been witness to the absolute terror that is child pornography and I’ve suffered effects of PTSD from only having viewed what I did. I imagine that not too many of the children I witnessed being raped managed to live through the ordeal. That is all discussed in other places on my blog.

If Dan Savage thinks it's ok in any way to try to connect condomless (natural) sex with such crimes... he's not the person you want to leave your kids to look up to. The fact that this scare-tactic laiden and bullying propaganda came from a so-called Democrat astounds me to no end. But lest you think Savage is just a prude - he's all about using images of children in explicit content without the permission of their parents.

All of this brings me to my next blog post – where I will be highlighting the recent hypocrisy of some other audacious Democrats including President Obama, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Nancy Pelosi who all seem to have "sex issues" because of Congressman Anthony Weiner's penis.

Until then, I’m just “keeping ‘em honest” as Anderson Cooper says… but I’d like to end on this note: If Dan Savage is willing to take down the Santorum website that made both he and the homophobic Republican famous in the first place, and if he is willing to take down his article comparing condomless pornography to child pornography, I will in turn remove my criticism of him from my own blog and congratulate him on taking the necessary steps to not be such a bully himself.

My Complicated Situation & How Allen West Might Be Able To Help

The Situation
For any of you who have been following my blog or are my friends on facebook, you should already know a little bit about the issue at hand.

The short version of it goes like this: During a tough time in my life, I became friends with some unsavory characters, a gay couple that I met up with for sex. In the course of my friendship with them, I discovered that they collected, dealt and possibly even produced their own child pornography. After some serious consideration, I decided to take this issue to the FBI. The FBI launched an investigation and I was considered a “CI” (confidential informant).

Since that time, the case has seemingly been dropped. But this is over a year after I risked everything (and lost) by stealthily soliciting a DVD/CD with over 30 disgustingly hardcore videos and images of children being abused in ways that I will not describe on this blog. The FBI and Fort Lauderdale Police raided the men’s home while they were supposedly away on vacation as part of the investigation and recovered even more evidence against these men.

Since then, week after week and month after month went by and nothing else happened. The FBI stopped being as forthcoming with information as they had been. They changed my contact agent on me two different times and returned my calls less frequently. I have not been contacted by the FBI in about 4 months. I feel like I was basically hung out to dry.

I went before the Broward Human Trafficking Coalition and told of my case to anyone there who would listen to me. The Dolphin Democrats invited me to speak at one of their monthly meetings so that I could direct people to my blog and give them more information about the case.

I spoke to child safety advocates from around the country online and on the phone about the issue and discussed it with the Broward County Sheriff’s Department as well. An interesting conversation with an anonymous (only because I can’t remember his name) Sheriff’s Office employee, revealed something that I think everyone should know. Evidently, according to this unnamed source, there are only 6 or 7 “processing centers” in the United States where law enforcement can take recovered computers and electronics to have them probed for evidence in child pornography cases. These places are supposedly like warehouses and they are all back-logged for years because child pornography is THAT prevalent in our society and they just don’t have the manpower or funding to process all of these computers!

That being said, this particular case is probably NOT being held up for that reason. The FBI officially released me from CI status in a phone call a few months ago and told me that their investigation was complete. My contact agent told me the same thing: “The investigation is over and we have plenty of evidence to convict at least one of the two men. We know we have enough to get David [, the one who handed you the disc.]”

The question remains: Why would it take YEARS longer to indict one or two men for AT LEAST the possession of child pornography when there is plenty of solid evidence against them AND eye-witness testimony that can be used in court?

The Media

I’ve also spoken to reporters and publishers about this issue. The first person I discussed this issue with was my publisher, Norm Kent. At that time, I was the News Editor at South Florida Gay News. I was on thin ice with him at the time because of another issue and he seemed concerned that I was showing up to work sporadically and not performing at full capacity. I explained to him that I wasn’t getting any sleep and told him why. I even offered to write the story up for the paper when the investigation was complete. He responded by bringing in my replacement, Jason Parsley, and then firing me.

I can’t pretend to know exactly why Norm fired me. I have my suspicions but this is just the nuts and bolts of it.

The next reporter that I discussed the case with (after I was told the investigation was complete) was a woman who showed up at the Broward Human Trafficking Coalition meeting. Her name was Lisa Lucas and she claimed to be writing an in-depth article for Boca Magazine. She said she had written extensively about Human Trafficking and child abuse and that she was very interested in covering my story and that it had to be done quickly. My experience with her was rather ridiculous and unhelpful.

First Lucas said she wanted to interview me – I agreed to be interviewed at any time. Then she said the magazine would let me write my own story as a sidebar and that since I was previously a News Editor, it could lead to a permanent job at the publication. Speaking from her illustrious experience as a member of the “Society of Professional Journalists”, she told me that in order to get some press (and in turn, advocacy) around this issue, I would have to go into all the gory details and write a heart-wrenching piece for her. So that’s exactly what I did… and then she disappeared.

It was only later that I found out that Lisa Lucas was not operating as a writer for Boca Magazine as she claimed, but rather as a friend of Jason Parsley – the guy who replaced me at SFGN (South Florida Gay News). When I finally got her to call me back and respond to what I had written for her, she claimed that she was recovering from an aneurism and that my story would go to press very soon… Of course, it never did. If Ms. Lucas was indeed suffering from an aneurism, I apologize and hope she makes a speedy recovery.

Lastly, I spoke to Jay Weaver at the Miami Herald. He had written an article about the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for South Florida who was discovered to have received child pornography via email on his home computer. I remembered that the two men whom I had reported to authorities told me that they had “friends everywhere” and could take trips to Cuba and Prague where they could “pay little boys five dollars to do whatever [they] wanted”.

When Mr. Weaver called me back, he seemed more interested in the fact that AOL had reported this ICE agent to authorities. He was interested in whether or not I knew anything about AOL’s method of intercepting illegal emails. What Mr. Weaver was apparently NOT interested in was the likely possibility that my story and his could share a connection.

So, the Miami Herald has a story about a man who’s only known to have received 4 pictures via email and this is “big news” to them. Meanwhile, they neglect a story about two men who owned hundreds of high quality videos of children, toddlers and even infants being sexually abused when I’m telling them that I was a witness to these events… The news is apparently not the news until the government says it is…

The Government

So far, Government has been about as helpful as a sharp stick in the eye. I’ve spoken to Congressional Aides, Sheriff’s Officers, FBI Agents, State-Level leaders of efforts to combat Human Trafficking, and City Police and have come up empty-handed on all counts. The ONLY thing I NEED TO HAPPEN is for the two men that I turned in to authorities to see the inside of a courtroom. Once that happens, my good samaritan task is completed and I can go on with my life… Until it does happen, I am left wondering what happened to my country and my faith in humanity.
After I coaxed a response from the offices of Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) I received a call from Jon Pyatt, Mrs. Schultz’ Deputy Chief of Staff. I was pleasantly surprised that he took time out of his hectic schedule to discuss my concerns with me. The congresswoman sits on the Intelligence Oversight Committee and her district is right next door, so this, in my mind, makes her the person who could see to it that whatever went wrong goes right. To further identify Mrs. Shultz as the perfect candidate to help me resolve my issue, child safety and the capture of predators is an issue that she has introduced legislation on and sought funding for.

Mr. Pyatt explained to me that if the congresswoman were to look specifically at my case - or to “cherry pick” as they say – it could be perceived as a lapse in ethics. Evidently, members of an oversight panel in congress can only look at an aggregate of investigations or Federal cases and can’t ethically zone in on a specific case… unless of course, the issue is specific to THEIR constituents. This brings me to my next attempt at ensuring that justice is served.

I contacted the offices of Allen West (R-FL) who was freshly elected in 2010 as part of the Tea Party revolution. Anybody who has been reading my blog or following me on facebook will know how I feel about conservative Republicans and thus what a stretch it is for me to go to these lengths. But as I explained to my friends – I refuse to draw a political line in the sand when it comes to the safety and protection of children. I need help from Mr. West because the criminals that I reported and helped to investigate happen to live in his district.

The offices of Allen West directed me to their website where I downloaded a form that authorizes him to investigate me and my situation as it pertains to the US Attorney’s Office. If he looks into this case and can determine that an indictment should have been handed down to these two men – we may finally have this ball rolling…

I have filled out Mr. West’s advocacy request form and he should be receiving it shortly. I only hope that my incessantly partisan blogging for Team Obama will not prejudice him against me. I hope at least that his desire to create a safe environment for kids in South Florida will rise stronger than any disfavor of liberal Democrats he might harbor.

Wish me luck – and as always, I’ll keep you updated!
-Jarrett Terrill
floridasqueezed@gmail.com

UPDATE (01-08-2012): DAVID BARCENAS GUILTY PLEA! (Now how about Stephen R. Morse?)

Classic Right Wing Liars Return To Familiar Territory

Part 1 – Newt Gingrich and Harold Camping




Newt Gingrich – Amongst such whoppers as “Gay marriage is against the Constitution” and “Indiana has the lowest unemployment rate in the region”, Gingrich should always be remembered for the sleeziest political lie in American history. It all started when a South Carolina woman named Susan Smith drowned her children in her car and infamously blamed the crime on a mysterious black man.

Susan Smith’s stepfather had been a prominent Republican fundraiser for Newt Gingrich and so Gingrich put himself front and center with the scandal to fabricate a new reality for the American people. “I think that the mother killing the two children in South Carolina vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we need to change things,” Gingrich said.

This was of course, after it had come to light that a black man was not to blame for the crime. Susan Smith’s sickness, Gingrich said, was symptomatic of the kind of society that Clinton-era Democrats had created in America. "We need very deep change if we're going to turn this country around." Never once did Gingrich mention that the man who helped Susan Smith cook up the story about an evil black kidnapper was her own step-father… a preacher and a Republican.

Also missing from Newt Gingrich’s spin on the story was the fact that Susan Smith had desperately tried to escape her family since she was 15 years old with no success. Why had she tried to escape? According to her ex-husband, it was because she had been repeatedly molested by her stepfather, the preacher and Republican Gingrich campaigner. Of course, all of this information only came to us after Laura Bush was already hanging curtains in the newly Republican White House.

Harold Camping – Another big fat lie from right-wing Christian Republicans during the Clinton era might sound very familiar to us in 2011. This one goes: “The world is going to end tomorrow and it’s all because of the gays”. The architect of this perennial lie is Harold Camping, the multi-millionaire from Southern California who owns more than 135 radio and television stations in America and other parts of the world. He has tens of thousands of followers globally and they don’t leave his side no matter how many lies he tells them. His followers are gluttons for usury.

What’s really amazing about Camping is the way the American media refuses to portray him as anything but a pitiful, crazy old man with silly ideas. The reality of the situation is that Camping is an angry homophobe who commands that his followers protest homosexuality as a full-time job. It’s basically like giving the Westboro Baptist Church access to thousands of daily listeners in places like New York City, Boise, Tampa, San Francisco and other metropolis’ throughout the United States.

Furthermore, even gay activists have been slow to uncover the fact that the last time Camping made his "end of the world" prediction, he was joined up with the full force of "Focus on the Family" (although someone has edited their wikipedia page to indicate that the break between the organizations happened way back in 1985). Focus on the Family were the principal architects of California's Proposition 8 and Florida's Amendment 2 against both gay marriage and civil unions and it was Harold Camping who really put them on the air in the first place.

With a lack of irony, Camping’s two end-of-days predictions both came about in times that a Democratic President was seeking re-election. Both of his predictions relied heavily on “gay pride” being seen as an absolute sign from God that the end was near. Lastly, both of his predictions were lies. But they were useful lies to tell because both times, a renewed interest in FamilyRadio.com was born with hits to the website increasing by thousands of times their original traffic virtually overnight. Family Radio fans donated their life savings to Camping’s anti-gay efforts and in 1999 sixteen Family Radio cult members were sent on a mission to Kingston, Jamaica to distribute copies of this anti-gay tract in French and English. This was around the same time that CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network began really setting up camp there. Since this time, Jamaicans had grown steadily and increasingly homophobic and fanatical in their beliefs about the rapture. It would take an entire decade before a woman came into my office to tell me that Camping’s spell had finally been broken and Jamaica had its first ever gay pride parade.

Florida vs. Florida - Republicans and 1 Democrat Lawyer Up Against Voters

Rick Scott has stuffed himself into a hat and now pulls himself out as a “defendant” in his own war against voters in Florida.

When you think of the way political lines are drawn, you may want to picture Florida as being shaped like a ballet shoe doing a pirouette because Florida has gently danced around the idea of a fair election for more than a decade now.

Let’s review this ballet & magic show, shall we?

Act 1
V is for Voters
In 2008, voters in Florida overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton in the Presidential Primary. However, the Republican powers that be decided that they would rather run against Barack Obama and successfully invalidated the votes of Democrats in both Florida and Michigan. Barack Obama, to the dismay of many Republican tricksters, won the election anyway and resurrected Hillary Clinton as perhaps the most effective Secretary of State the USA has ever known.

Republicans are still sore about that. Especially in Florida.

Act 2
V is for Vendetta
In 2010, Republicans saw an opportunity to harness the anger, racism, homophobia, resentment and economic turmoil that voters were experiencing and re-package it as a revolution. Through a complex and manipulative marketing strategy, they birthed the “Tea Party” with funding from the Koch Industries and Florida’s own Amway.

(As a quick side note: Lady GaGa has broken her promise from the National Equality March for the 6th time by performing at an Amway Arena on Tax Day in Orlando. This is also after signing exclusive deals with Target and being the first to break the Arizona boycott.)

Once again successful, the Republicans elected a new leader for Florida… a billionaire proponent of privatization named Rick Scott. Since 2008, Republicans in Florida are keenly aware that racism and sexism, if made too obvious, can both come back to bite them in the ass. Therefore, Rick Scott was flanked throughout his campaign by a pretty black woman named Jennifer Carroll who satisfied both under-represented demographics for Republicans. She is rarely heard from since Scott won the election.

Intermission – A Puppet Show in the Lobby
V is for Ventriloquism

Believe it or not, Tea Party rhetoric was useful beyond what Republicans had originally anticipated. As it turns out, liberals gained traction with talk of “fighting the elitist cronyism at play in our big government”. Of course, the liberals were speaking of state-level politics which have been gerrymandered to benefit the Republican Party for as long as anyone can remember in the Sunshine State.

So it came to pass that the same puppets who denounced the validity of our President’s birth certificate could be used to promote the passage of Amendments 5 & 6 which would end the practice of re-drawing district lines to favor incumbent career politicians. Like naked emperors, Tea Party Republicans had proudly marched around Florida complaining of cronyism, nepotism and suppression of their fair representation. The unintended result was a window of opportunity to finally castrate Florida’s Republican machine – the machine that delivered George W. Bush to the United States of America.

Act 3
V is for Voodoo

In order to understand someone like Corrine Brown (D-FL), in my opinion, you need to see a movie called ‘Just Cause’ with Lawrence Fishburne. Fishburne plays a Sheriff in rural Florida who is one of the few black people permitted by the well-oiled establishment to hold a position of power. For this reason, he nearly terrorizes his own black community for the purpose of self-preservation.

Corrine Brown is a member of the US House of Representatives from North Florida and as such is situated in the same uncomfortable position (although, to my knowledge she has never terrorized anyone). She is one of the few Democrats in Florida who has systematically been permitted to win reelection for the last 17 years in a row. But Brown’s status as an incumbent comes at a steep price.

The district lines are re-drawn (gerrymandered) every year to capture almost every black voter in North Florida’s 3 largest cities (Orlando, Jacksonville and Gainsville) and throw all of them into her district so that other legislators needn’t worry about appeasing “those people” during their Republican campaigns. So, the tradeoff is that we get 1 black female Democrat in the House but we have to take as many as 3 hard-right Republicans in the area who don’t have to answer to a single black Democratic voter in their own districts.

Ultimately, this sort of injustice is what brings Corrine Brown to the rescue of Republican Governor Rick Scott as he tries to do away with Fair Districts Florida’s Amendments 5 & 6 (which have now become Article 3, Section 20 of the Florida Constitution). Corrine Brown has even called former leaders from the NAACP to her side and asked them to go against the current majority of civil rights figures (including President Obama) who support the new re-districting laws.

In what seemed like an alternate reality for Florida Democrats, Corrine Brown turned on a dime and sided with Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) (who voted against protecting minorities in every other situation) and the Republican establishment to sue the State of Florida in Federal Court for her perceived “right” to retain an unfair advantage in future elections. When Rick Scott purchased his way into election by the slightest margin ever, he became “the defendant” (along with the ACLU) in this case by default. The ACLU might be of some help in defending our new law, but Rick Scott will throw everything he can into stopping it.

It's confusing to voters because it makes it appear that Rick Scott is now defending fair districting practices in Florida against a black woman and a Hispanic man who want special treatment… That view of the situation is exactly how Rick Scott wants it to go down in the papers. But in reality, all 3 have been on the same side and wasting your tax dollars to fight against the Amendments that you voted into law. These three pirates have seized the throne and refuse to accept that they’ve already been outmoded.

In a time when teachers are being laid off by the thousands and medication for working-class people with HIV is no longer provided by Florida, it’s comforting to know how many tens of millions of dollars these 3 career politicians are willing to spend on their own job security.

Mark Pryor - A Spoiler Turncoat

Enough cannot be said about Mark Pryor, a so-called Democrat from Arkansas who manages to defeat his own party on every single issue, every single time.

Consider that he is one of just 3 Democrats who held up the battle to repeal DADT for over a year. One of his partners in crime, Blanche Lincoln, already paid the ultimate political price for that... She was not re-elected and a Republican is now keeping her seat warm.

It's easy to understand that he's homophobic when his buddies like Georgia's Saxby Chambliss are busy sending death threats to gay bloggers, but his party is just not down with that... We wanna class it up a bit. In a recent budget discussion, Mark Pryor recently referred to Saxby Chambliss as being "like one of the brave men who flew those airplanes over Great Britain to stop Nazi Germany from invading and defeating the English people."

Also consider that he loves pollution/profit more than he loves mother nature.

Mr. Pryor was one of only 8 Democrats to vote against allowing Healthcare reform to include the option of abortion.

But perhaps worst of all... Pryor is a total tool for the corporations of America. He voted to block a bill that would tax corporations in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Now, Pryor will say that he always does what's best for Arkansas... That he always "puts Arkansas first"... But let's explain what he really means by that... He puts INFLUENTIAL Arkansans first... like Hillary Clinton. When Hillary Clinton drafted a bill to give federal funds to border states to offer healthcare to illegal immigrants, Pryor sure signed onto that one right away! Sure, that would help New York, California, Florida and Arizona, but what does that do for taxpayers in Arkansas?

Why I "perceive" Rep. John Kline to be a Total D!ck

As we all know, Barney Frank (D-MA) is going to re-introduce ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act). Initially, the bill was attacked by both liberals and conservatives alike for different reasons.

The first few rounds were met with frustration from transgender advocates and anti-bullying advocates because it only covered "sexual orientation" as its LGBT protection. Therefore, some transgender persons felt vulnerable because employers would likely claim that transgender persons could be discriminated against under the notion that it's not really their "orientation" or their "gender" that is being scrutinized.

Some were also dissatisfied because a person who is only perceived to be gay or straight by their peers should be protected equally as well. You know... some people might get fired just because of their mannerisms.

Barney Frank and other Democrats finally gave in and said 'no more half measures' so now the new ENDA bill specifically protects transgender people and "perceived sexual orientation" as well... In a nutshell, this means that if an employee SEEMS like a gay person to you, that's not an excuse to fire them either.

This is not the first law to protect people on the basis of their "perceived" sexual orientation - the Mathew Shepard Act features the same language.

Now, the biggest problem that conservatives say that they have with measures like ENDA is their fear that Religion will be affected adversely and their morals will be compromised. That's gone now too - because the new bill exempts religious organizations from having to hire LGBT persons if they don't want to.

But this time, the big hurdle that ENDA must cross is Rep. John Paul Kline (R-MN) who said as part of his campaign that "Job creation is his #1 priority".

Kline is now painting the new additions as "vague language" which are meant to confuse the matter. He pretends not to know what "perceived sexual orientation" means and claims that exempting all religious organizations from this law is still just too risky for Christians... because, well, you know... it's totally against everyone's religion to have to work with people they don't like.

Here's an excerpt from the Windy City Times:

Kline said back then that ENDA "creates an entirely new protected class that is vaguely defined and often subjective." Specifically, he objected to the language of the bill prohibiting discrimination based on "perceived sexual orientation."

"Attempting to legislate individual perceptions is truly uncharted territory," said Kline, "and it does not take a legal scholar to recognize that such vaguely defined protections will lead to an explosion in litigation and inconsistent judicial decisions."

Kline also said he thought legislators should consider the "consequences" ENDA might have on "religious and family-based organizations."

Why I Question Governor Rick Scott's Sobriety...

Is Rick Scott the Charlie Sheen of Governors?

Many people know that I am, among other things, a recovering addict. I've had my ups and downs with drugs and I've voluntarily subjected myself to various treatment options before I was ever in trouble with the law.

Now, before we get too deep into this, you should also know that I support decriminalizing all drugs. Yes, even the really nasty stuff like crack-cocaine and crystal meth. I think that when the status quo tries to take away voting rights from people who are stricken with addiction problems (like Rick Scott is attempting to do), our Democracy crumbles.

Given my intimate experience on the matter, I can recognize what we call "addict behavior" in others. I see this behavior in Governor Rick Scott.

In short, I would not be at all surprised to find out that Rick Scott is an alcoholic. He displays all the tell-tale signs as I know them. In the recovery community, it is referred to as "King Baby Syndrome" and Governor Scott epitomizes this.

Let's flash back to a night before the Republican Primary Election in West Palm Beach, when a handful of wealthy GOP donors were waiting anxiously to hear the first debate between Gubernatorial hopefuls Rick Scott and Bill McCollum. Members of the Boca Raton Republican Club never got to hear that debate. What they got instead was a weird political/religious sermon from Esther Scott (Rick Scott's mother).

According to anonymous sources:

"Scott should have been finished right then and there. You should have seen it... This guy [Rick Scott] never even showed up!"

"Bill McCollum was there and ready to speak. Hell, even Rick Scott's own MOTHER was sitting there waiting for him. She had to get up in front of all the wealthiest Republicans in South Florida and make excuses for her son not being there. The best thing the old woman could come up with was "God has chosen my son to become Governor of Florida."... She REALLY said that! Can you believe it?"

According to both anonymous eye-witnesses, the only explanation they heard for Rick Scott's absence came when he called 15 minutes after the debate had been scheduled to start and reported that he was either lost or stuck in traffic somewhere in the Florida Panhandle!

If you've ever looked at a map of Florida, you can clearly see that the Panhandle is absolutely as far away from West Palm Beach and Boca Raton as you can get in Florida. Some Scott supporters reportedly threw their hands in the air, tore up their signs and shouted obscenities on their way out the door.

This is not something that a sober person does.

But of course, there's more. Rick Scott will also not entertain any questions from the media about essential issues regarding his life prior to being elected Governor. In fact, he gets downright hostile when he's asked to explain his past.

For me, there is no greater annoyance than someone who wants to believe that I'm high on drugs when I'm completely sober... I get that. But years of fending off these kind of questions can create a nasty character defect in a not-so-recovering addict. This character defect will eventually bleed into all other areas of their personal and professional lives and ultimately consume them in one final gulp. This "final gulp" was just on the verge of happening when the media caught wind of the fact that Rick Scott had swindled thousands of elderly persons out of their Medicare dollars.

See Rick Scott's "don't you DARE Question me" attitude in this video:

So, why am I questioning Scott's sobriety in the public square? That's the easy part... I'm calling him out on his hypocrisy because he's questioning the sobriety of all the little people under him... Another hallmark of addiction left unchecked.

Rick Scott wants all public employees to be subject to random drug tests... But so far, he's been unwilling to subject himself to the same rule. Had there been a breathalyzer lock on his car, maybe his mother wouldn't have been forced to embarrass his party. Had he done the first 3 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, he might have learned to focus on himself before worrying about the other addicts in the room...

Governor Scott, please... get help. We will gladly part with some tax dollars for your treatment (as well as for those who are unfortunate enough to have landed in jail) because we need honor and productivity to be restored to your office and throughout Florida. I'm totally sincere in saying that.