This diary began as a comment, but "Metz" interwove with my own personal activism in a way that deserved a small diary entry. I was born and raised an Ohio girl, after all.

***

What I believe to be my very first public political action was marching in my hometown's Fourth of July parade with other local Democrats (which in some small way meant something, just being that visible presence, considering the Republican machine that my county was overrun by at the time.)

We wore baseball hats, and carried baseball paraphernalia, pennants and  gloves, balls and bats and wore stickers proudly slapped on stating "Go Metz!" (Somewhat ironic in retrospect, considering his threatening to repeal the exemption from antitrust laws Major League Baseball enjoyed.)

I was 7 years old at the time, but even I knew how important he was to Ohioans.

Cross-posted from Baby Love Child

A Screenplay: Juno 2
******************

[As credits roll]

Images of "baby's scrapbook." The book opens and inside we see,  neat little photo corners holding hand lettered cards each dated month by month. As the pages turn we see letters from June, July, August, September.

Scene 1

[Camera focuses on a mail slot in a front door, then pans down to a pile of mail beneath it, a hand rifles through and stops when it comes to an envelope matching those in the scrapbook.]

J, holding a letter to her heart with a broad smile on her face. She sets the letter down on a table and picks up a phone.

"L! You'll never guess what I got in the mail today! She invited me to his first birthday party!" (pause) "of course I'm conflicted, but how could I not? I have to be there!"

[Fade to black.]

[Title] JUNO 2: WHEN YOU'RE REALLY SCREWED

Not written by an ex-stripper

Shame on dKos.

The number one recomended diary about the Obama-McClurkin 69ing (a mutual deep throating clusterfuck) is by pastor Dan?

No folks, it's time Queer voices were heard about this, not religious apologists. (Then again, you may not find too many of us Queers commenting around here 'cause one look at the rec list tells us everything we need to know.)

It is long past time to stop giving these assholes a fucking pass.

In the long lead up to the Obama announcement, we’ve watched as some Democrats, many of them religious, some of them politically inexperienced, have begun the ‘great effort’ to push the a-religious - atheists, nonbelievers, etc. - ‘over there’ somewhere, in a completely misguided attempt to somehow gain ‘respectability’ from some mythical ‘moderate middle mainstream America’. I’ve watched the non-stop praise for a man  who has essentially made secular Americans and non-believers out to be (the usual) conspiratorial boogeyman du jour. (See Fred Clarkson’s analysis of how Obama is buying into a frame damaging to us all.)

Hi. That would be me so many seem to think is a problem. One of THE problems, not just with the Democratic Party, but with America itself. And why? Merely because I am not a believer.  

This does not bode well, not merely for nonbelievers, but for the work ahead of all of us and the direction this country may take.

SusanG's diary last night singing Gerald Ford's praises as having allegedly kept his faith and his political acts separate finally crossed some threshold that pushed my partner, Mike Doughney and I, into commenting. We wrote for the first time about an event we were present for where Ford threw the full weight of his status as Former President behind one of many key groups in the Biblical American, or what some might term the "dominionist", youth movement; by personally appearing at Teen Mania's "Stand Up" event in Michigan, back in 2000.

This diary, then, are some of the details of that, and unlike almost most every other piece of writing I've seen since Ford's death, this is based on a first hand experience, it reflects an event that happened almost 7 years ago, not during the 1970's.

This has been exceptionally difficult for me to write out, the gravity of what we saw and how to bring information forward; ourselves, holding to some value of civility even as we have seen incredibly uncivil things. But ultimately, I think it's critically important to look at Ford's 'legacy' in light of his actual actions. So at this point, I'm just going try to write 'what I know', while incorporating some quotes from my partner, Mike.

Guess what?

I hate world AIDS day.

I hate the compression of empathy into a 24 hour period. To really understand AIDS you have to get this simple fact through your skull- there is not a single day that is not 'world fuckin' AIDS day'. If you compartmentalize, taking annual notice December first then slumber on through 'til next December you don't know a damn thing about AIDS.

I hate 'they live as long as you remember them'.

Because my friends are not alive- no matter how much I remember them. That's what AIDS really means, and no amount of the endless wallowing in our second hand 'stories', or 'prayers', etc can ever fix that simple reality- that those we loved are really gone, and are not 'alive'.

I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of the annual ritual- lighting candles and reading names, and all of it.

Tears, and 'prayers' and candle wax mean so little in the face of not just who and what we've lost, but who and what slips through our fingers every minute of every day due to this obscene plague.

What's the point of diarying this? Reid's convinced the Supreme Court will fix it. Dems are whining, and Kossaks are diarying everything from "obits" on through to casket metaphors, how poetic.

The facts are simple enough, it passed. No need to dress it up in with metaphors, parables, or any other cutesy writer's gizmos.

If Reid and the other dems actually BELIEVED the first sentence of his statement,

The Framers of our Constitution understood the need for checks and balances, but this bill discards them.

then we would have at minimum seen fist fights break out on the Sentate floor.

The bit below the fold was written in response to this diary, but I found the subject at hand diary worthy all by itself.

Ben Cardin has associated himself with John Hagee, the San Antonio, TX megachurch pastor, televangelist, and  National Chairman of "Christians United for Israel", a group of the usual wingnut suspects, (Falwell, Parsley, Bauer, etc.) and involved in the Ken Blackwell campaign in Ohio, that is backing Bush's Iran entanglement folly.

Hagee also, once upon a time, back in 1996 managed to piss off African Americans by announcing a "slave sale" as a fundraiser- an event he was forced to apologize for and change the name of.

Hagee's certainly not the kind of fellow I want my next Senator sharing podiums with.

Yes, I watched it, and TIVOed it. Guess that makes me public enemy #1 around here at the moment, but if you'll bear with me for half a second, I'll lay out the barest of bare bones of why.

In short, I'm an oppositional researcher- it's what I do. I've been studying the tactics and cognitive undermining work done by those who are determined to gut the America we know and love for several decades at this point.

But tonight? Well, the Mouse must pay. Rat-fucking of this order must trigger consequences- and that means arguing from a position of strength and knowledge- not just blowing smoke out one's ass.

Follow me over the flip.

Foxnews.com had already announced the start of work on "The Path to 9/11" (PT 9/11) by May 2, 2005.

The various religious groups boycotting 'ended' (or some varriation on 'ended') their boycotts starting the next month, with among others;

* American Family Association 'ending' thier boycott at the tail end of May with the publication of their June Newsletter.

* Southern Baptist Convention ending thier boycott June 22nd, 2005

Filming on "The Path to 9/11" began July 7th, 2005, as pointed out in this
JULY 8th, 2005 piece from Foxnews.com.

From the beginning, all the way back in the May 2nd, 2005 Foxnews.com piece, PT 9/11 was referred to as "fictionalized";

Nevertheless, ABC seems to be readying a major and secret "fictionalized" multi-parter about the history of terrorism, from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to the disasters of Sept. 11, 2001.

This will be a very brief diary entry, as I wanted to draw additional attention to both a specific article and the ongoing work of a researcher.

Marley Greiner, a researcher, activist, writer for the Columbus, Ohio Free Press and blogger behind
Theoconia: a Central Ohio Theocon Report has written an important initial article in the Free Press on Ron Luce and the Teen Mania Ministries Battlecry initiative:

photo credit: Marley Griener

And the article itself-
Teen Mania: Lift the Banner by Marley Greiner

   

Ok, so why were there kids as the backdrop setting for Bush's remarks following his veto of the stem cell research bill?

Because these kids are not merely cute props, they are emblematic of, and the end product of one particular corner of the so-called 'culture of life' that Bush and his allies are attempting to remake America into.

These kids, in evangelical adoption parlance, are referred to as "snowflake children", so named after the "Snowflake Embryo Adoption" program of Nightlight Christian Adoptions.

For Bush, thousands of couples' frozen embryos are not their individual genetic material to make their own decisions about. No, the cryogenically preserved embryos, to Bush, constitute a unique national resource. One which must be appropriately handled and appropriated, a national resource in a zero sum game tug of war between stem cell research and thousands of potential snowflake children reparented into couples deemed appropriately Christian.

It's a turf thing. They gotta mark 'their' territory. Gotta tear down that other tribe's stuff and replace it with the latest from the tribe-o-the-fish.

Ok, so church pisses away $260,000, film at 11. Nothing new in that. No story there- happens all the time. Except this story is just a bit different.

It seems Memphis, TN's own 12,000 member "World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church" has become the construction site for the soon to be unveiled (today, July 4th, naturally) "Statue of Liberation through Christ" aka "The Christian Statue of Liberty" or "Lord's Lady Liberty".

Nope, apparently secular interpretations of the word "liberty" and symbols thereof, such as France's nice gift are to be rejected, replaced instead with SCRIPTURAL interpretations of the word "liberty"- as has 'kindly' been spelled out for us here, on the as of yet rather skeletal version of a webpage about the monstrosity.

Or use the slightly different take over on a link off the World Overcomers page.

The Baltimore Sun has just posted an article about a man who was preparing to bomb the Greenbelt, Maryland clinic (this is near College Park/University of Maryland).

Article

Also note the bomb construction- "filled with nails", this points towards the possibility of eventual use against people, not merely an unoccupied building. (A tactic not altogether dissimilar to the bombing in Birmingham Eric Rudolph was sentenced for, which killed police officer Robert Sanderson and horrendously wounded Emily Lyons.)

This is a long biographical rant- blame Bush, he earned it.

So today, me and my friends get to play punching bag dujour for Bush and his pals. I feel so ~special~. Not that there's exactly any other day we Queers get the day off, but today, we get an extra helping of hatred, how nice. He gets to demand we be treated inequitably outta one side of his mouth, while blathering about 'tolerance and respect for all Americans' outta the other. We're a cheap and easy, historically disadvantaged target that even our supporters sometimes can't seem to get beyond their own 'ick!'s over. 'Gay equality- sure, but gay sex? Euwwwwwwie!'

Call me crazy, but I recognize certain realities here. It always seems to come down to us Queers to write the 'they're Queer bashing' diaries. So here I am again, 'educating'.

Of course, it's really your 'job' to care, folks, not mine to remind you to.

But, by way of a long hard nudge in the empathy department, I'll "educate", 'cause odds are, my "marriages" don't look like yours.

Vengeance can be Randall's, so sayth William Greene, President of Rightmarch.com.

Last month, Greene sent out an e-mail to those on the "Christian Response" mailing list soliciting support for Randall Terry's State Senate campaign in Florida's Eighth District.

Mr. Terry, playing off his previous visiblility as the founder of Operation Rescue and more recently in the Schiavo case (he was a spokesman for Schiavo's parents at the time), is now working a right flanking maneuver against Republican State Senator Jim King, whom www.RandallTerry.com characterizes thusly:

Mr. Terry's opponent is a liberal, left wing Republican who is responsible for the death of Terry Schiavo.

or as Greene puts it in the e-mail:

PLEASE, let's do everything we can to KICK OUT the man in the state Senate who is the most responsible for the death of Terri Schiavo.

Also quoting Greene from the e-mail:

Now -- with your help -- Randall can avenge Terri's death by defeating Jim King in the upcoming Republican primary.

That would be high hopes for the former used car salesman.

(more below the fold)

Consider this one for the 'stranger than fiction' files, or perhaps the 'couldn't make this up if I tried' files.

Tony Blair, was quoted in two different publications on Saturday as crediting his entree into politics to both Christianity and a sympathetic biographical work on Trotsky.

The history I'm about to share is somewhat personal for me, as in the mid 90's this is one of the events I was focused on, back when very few other people were paying much attention.

I'm going to focus on two events, but there are many other aspects I could write on. (As well other other similar incidents The medical literature turns up at least 4 other counts of womyn shooting themselves in attempts to end their pregnancies post 1976, as Federal Medicaid funding was being strangled off by the Hyde Ammendment.)

This is the reality of reproductive freedom and abortion access in this country, far beyond SD, or MS. Womyn are shooting themselves in desperate attempts to end their pregnancies.