Even as the mighty rightwing fascist talking points organizations try to paint John Kerry as a ‘flip-flopper,’ « CNN takes note (amazingly) of the Boy Emperor’s notable flip flops »:

‘Some previous Bush reversals in the face of criticism:
» He argued a federal Department of Homeland Security wasn’t needed, then devised a plan to create one.
» He resisted a commission to investigate Iraq intelligence failures, but then relented.
» He also initially opposed the creation of the independent commission to examine if the 2001 attacks could have been prevented, before getting behind the idea under pressure from victims’ families.
» He opposed, and then supported, a two-month extension of the commission’s work, after the panel said protracted disputes over access to White House documents left too little time.
» He at first said any access to the president by the commission would be limited to just one hour but relaxed the limit earlier this month.’
—CNN

Exactly. And those aren’t the only ones, just the ones related to 9/11. The Boy Emperor, when faced with a fight, runs like a scared rabbit hightailing it to a hole in Nebraska. He’s not only a flip-flopper, but a coward. Like with any bully on the block, if you just stand up to him and say, ‘Boo!’ he’ll run home to mommy. It’s time we Amurricans grew spines and tossed this ignorant weakling back to Texas where he belongs.

« Here’s why it’s a matter of civil rights »:

‘Prudential Financial has been accused of discrimination after refusing to provide benefits to the legally married spouse of lesbian retiree. After her marriage in Canada, Laurel Awishus, a retired Prudential Financial employee who worked for the company for 20 years, sought to enroll her spouse of nearly 22 years, Kathy Adelsheim, in the medical benefits program offered to the company’s retirees and spouses. Prudential Financial, headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, offers benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees, but says that it only offers those benefits in retirement if the employee retired after January 1, 2000 when it implemented the program. Straight spouses are entitled to benefits regardless of their retirement date. “We are a married couple and should be treated as such. I worked for Prudential for 20 years and have a lot of respect for them, but I can’t respect they way they are treating us right now,” Awishus said. “One of the reasons I’m in this precarious spot is that 19 years ago I moved with Laurel to New Jersey when the company transferred her. I left a promising career behind—that included benefits. I wasn’t treated like a spouse then because we weren’t married. Now we’re married, and that should be respected,” she said.’
—365Gay.com

Do NOT tell me it doesn’t matter or it’s not about civil rights. Stuff that.

Last week, I received a snarky notice from the Michigan Teachers Retirement system which said that Frank was a ‘non-eligible’ beneficiary and any retirement benefits due would be paid to someone else upon my death. We face discrimination like this every single day, thanks to organized religion-induced fear and loathing in Amurrica. It’s a daily slog through a mine-field of finding ways around institutionalized bigotry in order to protect my family and it’s past time for it to stop.

Listening to the debut this afternoon of « Air America Radio » (the only alternative to the massive fascist domination of the airwaves) on XM167. So far, mildly entertaining. My first listen to Ed Schultz, who strikes me as an exact mirror-image opposite of Rush Limbaugh. At first I thought it was the hillbilly heroin pill-popper himself, in fact, and I almost changed the channel.

Still, it’s lovely to hear a contrarian viewpoint on radio for the first time in 25-20 years of having to listen to the fascists. This is the best I’ve felt since 12-Dec-00 … you can feel good too, if you have XM Satellite Radio … or visit the website and use RealPlayer (although « Atrios » readers are reporting some streaming problems this afternoon due to high demand).

Many people noticed yesterday a report on a « Houston man who was injured in a crash and lay paralyzed on a freeway for 36 hours before he was found »:

‘A motorist injured in a crash lay paralyzed in the middle of a freeway with a broken neck for 36 hours before he was rescued. Ed Theisen’s body was blocked from view by Gulf Freeway traffic barricades in this Houston suburb. The 46-year-old survived a night alone on the concrete, unable to move or summon help. “Someone riding in the back of a pickup truck spotted him and called police,” Debora Rodeffer-Theisen, his wife, said Monday after her husband emerged from surgery. “The officer poked him with a nightstick thinking he was a dead body, but he was there and he was very much alive.”’
…
‘Police wrote an accident report after Theisen disappeared, saying he had walked away from the scene, his wife said. She said the tow truck driver who hauled off Theisen’s car did not see him. Rodeffer-Theisen, relatives and friends were plastering their neighborhood with fliers when they got word that he was alive. Rodeffer-Theisen called Memorial Hermann Hospital. “They said, ‘We have him here and he is alive and he saying he loves you,’” she said. “He was covered in Houston pollution—it was coming out of every pore—but he was alive.”’
—Local6.com

While it is remarkable that the man was just lying there for 36 hours, it is understandable (somewhat), the unfortunate chain of events that produced the situation.

What is not understandable and even more appalling to me is that last sentence, ’He was covered in Houston pollution—it was coming out of every pore …’ Well, oh my lord! I knew folks needed lights sometimes to drive at noon (my aunt among them), but I had no idea it was this bad. Am I the only one who is sickened by this?

George W. must be so proud …

Meanwhile, just down the road from Muskogee in Henryetta, an Okie ‘democrat’ (in the same vein that Zell Miller is a ‘democrat’) is spitting mad because the « Oklahoma Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban on cockfighting »:

‘The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of the cockfighting ban approved by Oklahoma voters in 2002. The ruling ends a battle, at least for now, that began in 1999 with the circulation of an initiative petition to prohibit cockfighting in Oklahoma. An effort will be made in the Legislature to lessen the penalties for cockfighting. … In a 7-0 opinion, the Supreme Court upheld the ban’s constitutionality.’
…
’[Frank] Shurden, D-Henryetta, said he still is working on SB 835 for presentation to the Legislature this session. Last year he sent it back to conference, apparently because he needed to make changes to obtain enough votes to pass it in the Senate. Shurden said the opponents of cockfighting are taking away American traditions. “Next it will be hunting, fishing and rodeos,” Shurden said.’
—The Daily Oklahoman

That’s right, Frank. Blasted activist judges! Yup, they’re goin’ after our bloody roosters, then our babies, then our bulls, then our guns, then our god and all we’ll be left with is flamin’ homos getting married in our churches while we weep as Communist Red Army troops hold AK-47s to our heads and make us watch.

If ever there was a clueless Okie, Frank Shurden is surely it.