Now this should get interesting.

(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) -The Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, today issued the following statement in response to a Cybercast News Service article that reported: Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) told CNSNews.com that the Catholic Church is doing nothing but fanning “the flames of dissent and discord” by taking the position that it will oppose the health-care reform bill under consideration in Congress unless it is amended to explicitly prohibit funding of abortion.

“Congressman Patrick Kennedy’s statement about the Catholic Church’s position on health care reform is irresponsible and ignorant of the facts. But the Congressman is correct in stating that “he can’t understand.” He got that part right.

As I wrote to Congressman Kennedy and other members of the Rhode Island Congressional Delegation recently, the Bishops of the United States are indeed in favor of comprehensive health care reform and have been for many years. But we are adamantly opposed to health care legislation that threatens the life of unborn children, requires taxpayers to pay for abortion, rations health care, or compromises the conscience of individuals.

Congressman Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church and to the citizens of the State of Rhode Island. I believe the Congressman owes us an apology for his irresponsible comments. It is my fervent hope and prayer that he will find a way to provide more effective and morally responsible leadership for our state.”

Here’s my message to Mr. Tobin:

I wish someone had scraped you out of your mothers twat when you were just a blastocyst. Your mother should have squirted vinegar up there. The result would have been either spontaneous abortion or you would have survived it and become the biggest asshole around. Even if she didn’t do that, you’re still an asshole Mr. Tobin. I shall not call you by your honorary title since I do not believe in the hooey of your religion. Stop hiding behind your non-existent deities for once and realize (much to the chagrin of Governor Carcieri – another 1st class asshole) that abortion should be legal and available until we get our heads out of our asses about sex in general.

Kevin Jennings is the Safe Schools Czar in the U.S. An openly gay man as a matter of fact.

And now the homophobes are using quotes from his own book to justify his removal. If there’s one reason I love the FRC it’s because they allow you to edit the emails you send to the state education people for your state.

So in my case the original FRC message was:

I am writing to urge you to speak out against Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s choice to lead the office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the Department of Education. Mr. Jennings has displayed a long record of fighting AGAINST parental rights in schools. The most dramatic illustration of Jennings’ unfitness for a “safe schools” post involves an incident when he taught at Concord Academy, a private boarding school in Massachusetts. In his book One Teacher in Ten (the title is based on the discredited myth, now abandoned even by “gay” activist groups, that ten percent of the population is homosexual), he tells about a young male sophomore, “Brewster,” who confessed to Jennings “his involvement with an older man he met in Boston.” But at a GLSEN rally in 2000, Jennings told a more explicit version of “Brewster’s” story. Jennings here quotes the boy and then comments: “‘I met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.’ High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people.”

Did Jennings report this high-risk behavior to the authorities? To the school? To the boy’s parents? No — he just told the boy, “I hope you knew to use a condom.” Sex between an adult and a young person below the “age of consent” (which varies from state to state) is a crime known as statutory rape, and some states mandate that people in certain professions report such abuse.

I strongly urge you to contact the Obama Administration to remove Kevin Jennings from his post. Our children deserve better, our families deserve better, and our nation can do better.

Which I changed to:

I am writing to urge you to speak in support of Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s choice to lead the office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the Department of Education.

Mr. Jennings has displayed a long record of support for equal rights. The most dramatic illustration of Jennings’ fitness for a “safe schools” post involves an incident when he taught at Concord Academy, a private boarding school in Massachusetts. In his book “One Teacher in Ten” he tells about a young male sophomore, “Brewster,” who confessed to Jennings “his involvement with an older man he met in Boston.” But at a GLSEN rally in 2000, Jennings told a more explicit version of “Brewster’s” story. Jennings here quotes the boy and then comments: “‘I met someone in the bus station bathroom and I went home with him.’ High school sophomore, 15 years old. That was the only way he knew how to meet gay people.”

Jennings had no duty to report this high-risk behavior to the authorities. He just told the boy, “I hope you knew to use a condom.” Sex between an adult and a young person below the “age of consent” (which varies from state to state) is a crime known as statutory rape, and some states mandate that people in certain professions report such but at the time mandatory reporting was not required. I think what Mr. Jennings did at the time was sage advice and quite proper in the realm of things.

I strongly urge you to contact the Obama Administration to support Kevin Jennings in his post. Our children would be well served by Mr. Jennings.

BTW, in case you’re wondering I edited the homophobic twaddle.

Sometimes they make it too easy.

For some time now the Washington Post has had rss feeds of all vote activity for my congressional representatives. It’s not too easy to setup if you don’t know that XML can be used for rss feeds.

But I’d really love to see our local rag, the Providence Journal start a similar service. As it stands we have no way of knowing how our local critters vote unless we peruse the house journals that get posted occasionally. Of course they don’t make it easy. See here.

The above is from February 24th, 2009. A former co-worker of mine figured out how to scrape the info but the project was quashed by the legislature. What is more galling is that the vote tally system is all computerized. It’d be easy to pull out the info.

But this is RI, they don’t want us to know what they’re doing.

This is obviously an attack against the Democratic party since ACORN was a grassroots organizer.

I think it’s interesting. I wonder if we could do the same with Republican fundraisers and grassroots orgs?

Oh wait, they’re good at outing themselves aren’t they.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Yeah but where did those who called themselves Republican go to? That’s the increase in independents. Which in one respect is good.

Here in RI a new party is rising up, it calls itself the Moderate Party of Rhode Island. They pretty much adopt a liberal social view, and a conservative business view.

Me, I’d like to see about 12 parties. Then it would force the politicians to build coalitions as well as deter the influence of business on government. Right now with just two parties (or three) it’s easy to buy favor. You just fund everyone. But spread it out and it becomes impractical.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Same day as our Marriage Equality march I saw Tea Party idiots getting ready to roll.

One sign read “Ayn Rand was Right – Read “Atlas Shrugged””

I’ve read the book. Rand seems to think that the captains of industry are gods. The reality is that the captains of industry are parasites. For a clear example just look at the Enron scandal. If that’s not enough to make you believe Rand was an idiot then there isn’t any hope for you. Rand is simply a shill for the monied class. She’s right up there with the Straussian conservatives.

Governor Donald “The Asshole” Carcieri came out with this statement about marriage equality:

“It is a not civil right. I get aggravated when it is portrayed that way,” Carcieri said of marriage. “Marriage is a license by the state. It is about a state’s responsibility, which is the reason why states don’t allow a lot of types of marriages.”

Aggravated Mr. Governor? As I citizen I am angered by your stand on my civil rights. I’m aggravated with your religious baloney too. You’re supposed to represent all of us, instead you’ve chose to single us out as a class that in your view doesn’t deserve rights.

And you know what, I’m agitating to get 10 people per week into your Open Door Thursday to tell you what you already know, you’re an asshole!

So I attended the March for Marriage Equality here in Providence this morning and early afternoon.

And as Murphy would promise, the camera battery was dead. I hate when that happens but I need to get into the habit of charging it regularly. I find when I don’t use the flash the battery lasts a very long time. The minute I start using flash, forget it. So no pictures sorry to say.

The rally point was at Burnside Park in downtown Providence.

Burnside was the father of sideburns btw.

Anyhow the march proceeded down Exhange St, turned up on Francis street, did a short loop on Memorial Blvd then continue up to the south lawn of the RI State House. From there we did a lap around the State House perimeter before settling on the south steps of the State House.

Had a few speakers. We heard from one of our perennial supporters, Senator Rhoda Perry, as well as Rep. Frank Ferri, and the ever electrifying Ken Fish.

And it will go on with block parties this evening at the three downtown gay bars, Mirabar, Dark Lady, Alley Cat and even at Downcity Diner. Hopefully it’ll go well.

But I had to go to the bank so as I was walking towards Dorrance St. I noticed a bunch of people with signs, etc. At my vantage point I couldn’t see what was on the signs but then I caught sight of the replica sailing ship.

Dear non-existent deity, they were Tea Party idiots. I’d say there were perhaps 30 to 40 of them. Meanwhile we garnered about 160 people at the MERI event.

This is priceless. I have a feeling Judge Walker may just be a little peeved by the Prop 8 supporters.

But this quote rocks:

Walker made clear that he wants to examine other issues that are part of the political rhetoric surrounding same-sex marriage but rarely surface in courtrooms. Among the questions he plans to entertain at the trial are whether sexual orientation is a fixed or immutable characteristic, whether gays are a politically powerful group, and if same-sex marriage bans such as Proposition 8 were motivated by anti-gay bias.

I can answer those for the judge. It is an immutable characteristic. Just look at the APA studies on the damage that is caused by reparative therapies. Or look at how many ex-gay people are now once again gay. Look at two of the founders of Exodus who left the movement and lived together. Look at all the ex-gays who have been caught in gay bars, in truck stops, bathroom stalls, etc. It’s immutable.

We are not yet politically powerful but I and others (Notably Cleeve Jones and Equality Across America group.) are working to make us more politically astute. I’ve done my part by stressing the importance of district organizing so that we can effectively lobby legislators, and our governor. Nothing says power like being able to park 300 people from a district in a legislators office.

As to whether Prop 8 was motivated by anti-gay bias, I ask, does a bear shit in the woods? There is no doubt that the whole anti-equality crowd is motivated by a base fear, one that takes the Levitical passage where “A man shall not lie with another man as with a woman” and turns it into misogynistic act since a man would under thinking of the time debase himself by acting like a woman. We see the same thing with the transsexual community today.

So one could say this was motivated by religion and that is most certainly the case with the Mormon churches in CA, and the Catholic churches here in the northeastern U.S. You have asshats like Bishop Malone spouting the same old platitudes, or idiots like Maggie “The Loathsome” Gallagher, or Brian “Pumpkin Head” Brown, or even Christopher “The Whore” Plante right here in my back yard.

It is interesting that NOM gets its funding from whack job religious groups like Focus on the Family, et al. And it gets very little of its funding from individuals.

Hate doesn’t sell and I’m very surprised that Prop 8 actually passed in California. And I hope that the issue in Maine defeats Proposition 1.

One of the things I need to point out is that for the most part, the United States and all it’s territories and possessions is a Representative Republic.

In some states they have a citizen initiative process. Most notable among them California. The original intent of the initiative process in California is that during the mid to late 19th century, corporations were throwing their weight around. A notable court case from 1886 in which Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad is pretty much acknowledged as the spark whereby corporations adopted the notion that they had the same rights as a human being.

So the citizenry of California managed to insert an initiative process into their constitution. Lets examine what the initiative process has given the state.

Tax caps. And look at the effects of that one. You have government issuing IOU’s, schools collapsing, just a general mess. While the original intention was good since property taxes were getting crazy, the benefit of it has long since been lost.

Then lets look at human rights. Proposition 8 was a horrible initiative from the beginning. To deny a class of people rights is in a word, unconstitutional. You understand how a bill of attainder cannot be submitted to the U.S. Congress, a similar measure should be enacted for the states. Any inititiative that attempts to take away the rights of a class of people should not be allowed on an initiative ballot.

Then of course we have Question 1 in Maine which asks “Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?”

My reading of that question in essence says it’s a non sequitur. They could eliminate the last part and just ask if you want to reject the new law that lets same sex couples marry. The law already has the provisions for the religious bigots.

Of course I fall in the camp that doesn’t want this referendum to pass.

It’s interesting, the government in RI may be a cesspool that is thoroughly infected by the Roman Catholic Church, but at the very least we do not have an initiative process. Instead we must lobby our legislators to put questions on the ballot. It’s a little more difficult than signature gathering.

That’s the other thing, signature gathering. I bet if you de-duped the lists their actual number of signatures to get these measures on the ballot falls short by thousands. I’ve seen this just doing some postcard work for Marriage Equality RI. People will fill out more than one postcard. Luckily the system used de-dupes so we have a definite membership with literally no duplicates.

But what is the perfect form of government? A benevolent dictator of course. :)