Nope. It’s not the ’stache. Why, it’s the illegals, of course!

Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, narrowly lost a bid on the House floor to spread statewide a program to give official identification cards to homeless people.

Burch said many homeless people are veterans who need an official ID to collect benefits. He said a similar program has worked well in Jefferson County and would require three people who work at a homeless shelter to verify identity.

But the debate on House Bill 308 stirred up House Republicans. Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, said the IDs could end up in the hands of illegal immigrants.

There are no words. None.

If you’re feeling particularly masochistic, check out this little piece about what happens when we start nouning adjectives. And this one.

The sanctity of all human life, my shiny hiney. In the eyes of Republicans, the only thing more subhuman than a homeless person is an immigrant. Despicable.

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Yesterday morning a German friend emailed me to say that The New York Times Sunday travel section was running a feature on the finer qualities of bourbon and bluegrass in Kentucky.

He’s read much about Kentucky lately, and it’s intriguing him. Just last week, both the London-based Guardian newspaper and The American Prospect magazine ran pieces on the growth of progressive culture and politics in Kentucky. These follow in the wake of Bob Moser’s monumental cover story on Kentucky for The Nation in September.

When Terence Samuel, who authored the Guardian and TAP articles, interviewed me, he made the comment, “Everyone’s talking about Kentucky.”

People around the world are talking about Kentucky because — right here, right now — Kentuckians are offering them hope. In us they see the potential that the American spirit that has inspired so many generations of the past is finally awakening and is ready to take on the wicked specter that is the creation of hate- and fear-mongers like Pres. George W. Bush (R), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R), Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R), and Rep. Stan Lee (R).

They see it in the workers who are out canvassing neighborhoods today. They see it in the peace demonstrators who are agitating to end a senseless war. They see it in the families who are fighting for their children’s health care. They see it in the crusade to protect and restore our environment. They see it in people of faith who are standing up to the bigots and bullies who have dominated Kentucky pulpits for too long.

The evidence is all around that something is happening in Kentucky, and the world is hungry for that something to be a people who are innovative, bold, tolerant, and progressive.

There is not a thing about McConnell, Fletcher, or Lee that’s any of those things. They are instead calculating, rigid, bullying, and conservative.

Soon-to-be Governor-elect Steve Beshear (D) will have the opportunity to communicate to the world what the new Kentucky is all about.

Ernie Fletcher saw “selling” Kentucky as a mere re-branding exercise. Nothing of the substance changed, and the discerning public could see through that. Fletcher’s take on “unbridled spirit” was anything but.

But Beshear can change the substance because he is not beholden to the baser elements of Kentucky society; his opponent will win the vote of every sort of bigot our state has to offer. With Kentucky’s urban center of Louisville poised to enter a sort of renaissance (barring the next Bush recession undermining its growth), Kentucky can become part of a new face for the United States to the rest of the world, one that is dynamic and provocative, welcoming and welcomed.

Kentucky can’t move forward on jobs, education, or other quality of life issues if it doesn’t tackle those elements of its culture that are holding the state back, and Beshear is well positioned to change the conversation and move down a different path.

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First, we know that President George W. Bush has packed his administration with over 150 graduates of a Virginia-based, fundamentalist Christian college, founded by radical cleric Pat Robertson. These Bush hires have been at the center of nearly every scandal to hit the administration.

Second, a “radical Christian activist group” in Texas has been going around bombing other churches that the bombers themselves don’t consider to be pure, holy, and true enough. The group is rather disorganized at the moment, but the trend is nevertheless frightening.

Third, a radical Christian group invaded the U.S. Senate chambers today to interrupt a prayer being led by an American Hindu. They were arrested, and the prayer continued. Here’s the video.

We’re seeing a disturbing trend, I think, and I believe it will only intensify in the coming years as the majority of the nation moves towards a more inclusive, tolerant agenda to replace the one of hate and fear being carried out by the Bush administration. I think these people, while being small in number, will only radicalize more.

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Republican values HARD at work!!!!!!

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This Thursday Dr. James W. Holsinger will appear before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy.

I plan to live blog the appearance.

Democrats are laying a strong foundation to make the case that President George W. Bush will use Holsinger to advance a radical rightwing agenda of hate and fear.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held hearings today that featured Bush’s first surgeon general, and he had not much good to say about the Bush administration. Here’s a report from Think Progress:

Former Surgeon General Was Muzzled, Censored By Bush Administration

Richard Carmona served as President Bush’s first Surgeon General from 2002-2006. Today he spoke before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and revealed that political appointees in the Bush administration muzzled him on key issues such as “stem cell research, contraceptives and his misgivings about the administration’s embrace of ‘abstinence-only’ sex education”:

[A]lthough most Americans believe that their Surgeon General has the ability to impact the course of public health as “the nation’s doctor,” the reality is that the nation’s doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas. Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological, or political agenda is ignored, marginalized, or simply buried.

Watch it part of Carmona’s testimony:

Carmona revealed that when he tried to explain the science of stem cell research to the American public, he was “blocked at every turn, told a decision had already been made, stand down, don’t talk about it.” Additionally, political appointees were specifically assigned to “vet his speeches” and “spin [his] words in such a way that would be preferable to a political or ideologically pre-conceived notion that had nothing to do with science.” He was also barred from speaking freely to reporters.

The politicization of “America’s doctor” fits with broader White House efforts to politicize faith-based initiatives, global warming, contraceptives, and the Justice Department.

On Thursday, the Senate will consider the nomination of Dr. James Holsinger to be the next Surgeon General. Perhaps not surprisingly, Bush has this time nominated someone who has repeatedly put ideology over sound science, peddling views of homosexuality that have been rejected by the medical community.

Here’s a press release today from Senator Kennedy:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Laura Capps/Melissa Wagoner
July 10, 2007
(202) 224-2633

STATEMENT OF EDWARD M. KENNEDY ON THE HOUSE’S OFFICE OF THE SURGEON
GENERAL HEARING

WASHINGTON, D.C—Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement in response to the U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the Surgeon General nominee, Dr. James Holsinger, Jr.

“Dr. Carmona’s strong testimony is yet another disturbing account of how the Bush Administration has put ideology ahead of the health needs of the American people – this time in the Office of the Surgeon General. Americans want their families to be safe and healthy. As we consider the President’s nominee for Surgeon General this week, we owe it to the American people to be sure that he will base his policies on sound science and best medical practices, and not the politics and ideology that have put our health care at risk.”

###

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Well, the gratuitously calculating government welfare special session called by Gov. Ernie Fletcher fortunately appears to be dead and gone. Especially displeased must be the opportunist homophobe Stan Lee, who would have loved to try to block UK and UL’s domestic partnership benefits. Stan was surely hoping to give rousing floor speeches and press releases about how the gays were trying to destroy marriage and corrupt our youth with their filthy ways. Following that, he would have opened up the coffers to every fundamentalist extremist/gay hater in the state, rallying them to fight Teh Gay behind their mustached crusader.

Fortunately, the House Democrats stood their ground and nixed the Peabody-Gov’t welfare session. And Ned Flanders will have to find some creative new way to fleece the fundies of their money.

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

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I’m not really sure how many supporters John Edwards had in Lexington on Friday morning, but I know that he has a lot more now. The line on John Edwards that is making the rounds is that his best asset in the campaign to win the presidency is not his humble Southern background, health-care platform or charm, but his wife, Elizabeth Edwards. After watching her performance during Friday’s Small Change for Big Change event in Lexington, I think that statement isn’t too far off base.

Elizabeth Edwards performed a rather spectacular hour+ Q & A session with over 200 contributors, fans, and potential voters. And due to the online outreach efforts of the Edwards campaign (thanks to Tracy and Amy, via DMKY’s Shawn Dixon) and the southern charm of DMKY’s own Jim Pence, Jim and I were able speak with Elizabeth face to face for roughly 10 minutes before her public Q & A session.

Though the Edwards staff thought we had a decent chance of chatting with her for a couple of minutes, shortly after we entered the venue and set up our cameras (Jim and fellow film guru Erica), we were told that there was no time for an interview. After Jim disappeared for a few minutes to chat up the Edwards folks, he came back saying that she might be doing a short “meet and greet” with some people.

“What’s a meet and greet?”

“I’m not sure”

“I’ve never been to a meet and greet”

“Yea, me neither”

Ten minutes later, Jim pulled me backstage and one of the staff stopped us and asked if we were the guys from DitchMitchKY and told us that we could speak with Mrs. Edwards in a few minutes, but not on camera or on tape. So while all of the slick, dolled up TV reporters waited for Elizabeth to come out for the Q & A, the blogger in ratty Chuck Taylors and ripped pants, and the hillbilly with the Acapulco shirt were whisked upstairs to meet her.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports that the Supreme Court has struck down race-based public school integration programs in Louisville and Seattle:

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Roberts wrote. On the two school plans, the majority found that the districts have “failed to provide the necessary support for the proposition that there is no other way than individual racial classifications to avoid racial isolation in their school districts.”

This is great news because Louisville children are no longer adversely affected by Jim Crow practices that ended decades ago.

Snarkiness aside, I don’t have a dog in the fight, really. I didn’t grow up in Louisville and don’t have kids. Living in the country, long bus rides to and from school were a way of life.

Part of being a big-mouthed know-it-all is asking questions. What will be done to ensure that de facto segregation doesn’t happen again? Whatsmore, what, if anything, will be done to ensure that all public schools and communities are provided with the resources they need to help students achieve academic success? Where does our dialogue about poverty, housing, education, and race go from here? Does this court decision effectively shove cotton in the ears of those who continue to say that the playing field was leveled long ago?

The Courier-Journal offers local coverage of the SCOTUS decision, and if article comments are any indication, I’d say the answer to that last question is, “yes.” Daily Kos and Think Progress offer opinion on the court decision. I think that both sides of the busing debate make compelling arguments, but in the end, I can’t help that this decision makes me extremely uneasy. Makes you wonder who those “activist judges” really are.

Addendum: Check out the C-J’s editorial response to the Supreme Court ruling.

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Our favorite mustached bigot writes an editorial in the Courier-Journal about how domestic partner benefits will destroy, I say DESTROY traditional marriage.

I think I’ve finally figured this out, correct me if I’m off base. We have Stan Lee, who obviously has had some issues growing up about his sexuality. In order to defend himself from anyone who might catch on to his sexual confusion, he puts on a lifelong front of virulent hatred of homosexuals, so that no one will question his hetero manliness. But why this fear of something as innocuous as health benefits for domestic partners? As Ned says, the universities are trying to "systematically dismantle marriage in our society". I think what Ned fears is that sexually ambiguous married folk like himself, when presented with the public and visible acceptance of homosexual couples, will be unable to resist their urges. Therefore, waves of such men will be forced to divorce their wives, now presented with the option to follow their repressed sexual urges.

Well, at least that’s the only explanation that makes sense to me. Maybe I’m wrong. That, or he’s just a crude, hateful and immoral politician that is making political gain by tapping into hatred of unpopular people.

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

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In order to comply with the Kentucky constitution, UK has creatively amended its plans to offer Domestic Partner Coverage. Under the new plan, a UK employee may extend coverage to one qualifying adult and/or children in their household. Such a broad definition should comply with AG Stumbo’s earlier decision.

The full text of UK’s news release is here.

And that sound you hear? That’s Stan Lee’s head exploding.

(h/t Sandlestraps)

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

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So I vaguely remember hearing about the “gay bomb” some time ago, and figured it was probably one I needed to Snopes. As it turns out, it was for real:

As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, “One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior.”

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

I may be way off base here, but do you think the the “gay bomb” conversation preceded the Pink Floyd/Wizard of Oz discussion and subsequent run for the border.

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I went to the truly insane “Creation Museum” last Saturday and have my full report up on BlueGrassRoots.

I’m a big fan of dark, unintentional humor, and that’s exactly what I got in my visit. What’s certainly not funny is that I could definitely see certain “Christian Academies” across the State (that teach Creationism in their school) bringing their students here on field trips. To call that child abuse would be appropriate in my opinion.

It also reinforces many, many negative stereotypes about Kentucky.

Another relevant question is how do our representatives stand on the museum? Do they endorse its views? Would they take their children there? Is this an appropriate field trip for students?

I haven’t heard any politicians take on this yet, and I’d be interested to hear it.

Anyway, I leave you a picture of Pebbles Flintstone and her pet Velaciraptor, Dino.

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Polwatchers blog is reporting that a conservative blogger posted this statement today in regards to the growing furor over Dr. James Holsinger and his consistently homophobic agenda:

And who are we supposed to believe about the health effects of homosexuality anyway: some guy with a list of medical credentials a mile long? Or the medical geniuses over at places like the Fairness Alliance, Soulforce, and the Human Rights Campaign?

As an historian of medicine, I can tell you that the past of the modern American medical profession is littered with people who had all sorts of nice degrees and credentials but who carried out terrible injustices and painful experiments against other human beings. In the United States, these sorts of medical horrors were usually carried out against slaves, blacks, the mentally ill, and very much so homosexuals.

The most extreme example in history of this sort of phenomenon was no doubt the Nazi doctors, like Dr. Josef Mengele, who did a number of medical experiments using twins at Auschwitz. None of the twins came out alive. Or there was Dr. Carl Clauberg, who in his experiments aimed x-rays at people’s sex organs until they were cooked. Or Dr. Herta Oberheuser, who injected toxic chemicals into the bodies of patients to the point of death. Or Dr. Karl Brandt who carried out executions of invalids that he “medically” diagnosed as a burden on the Nazi machine.

Just because a person has an education and credentials doesn’t mean that he or she can’t be driven to dangerous extremes by ideology or religious fervor.

Take for instance Kentucky’s most rabid bigot in elected office: Republican State Senator Richard “Dick” Roeding, who had this to say about homosexuals when the University of Louisville was discussing overing domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples in order to be unfettered in its ability to attract and retain top academic talent:

I don’t want to entice any of those people into our state. Those are the wrong kind of people.

Yes, Dick Roeding is a churlish bigot, but he’s also a churlish bigot with a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry.

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