Reason 937,321 Hillbot Shouldn’t Be Trusted

She, and her husband, were advised for years by Dick Morris, the slimy political operative best known for a toe-sucking scandal. Fired by the Clintons, he’s emerged as one of their fiercest critics, appearing regularly on the Fox News Channel.

Likewise, Media Matters founder David Brock, author of several sloppy Clinton hit pieces while serving as a far right functionary, is now one of Hillbot’s biggest supporters.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that people with such conveniently fluctuating ideologies (and loyalties) would be so closely linked with Ma and Pa Kettle.

The Christian Right, In Their Own Words

Even scarier than I imagined:

One of the speakers invited to speak at the Values Voters Summit (an outreach of James Dobson’s political organization) said she favored the forced quarantine of all “sodomites.” Meanwhile, neocon Frank Gaffney said George W. Bush had “embraced Islamofascists on several occasions” because he was “not being bigoted and not being racist.”

Bible-thumping shrew Phyllis Schlaffly embraced the new intolerance, declaring there are too many mosques in America.

Click the link above and watch the would-be theocrats in action.

Free the West Memphis 3

If you ever watched the riveting HBO documentary “Paradise Lost” and its sequel, you know the three teenagers convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in a small Arkansas town 14 years ago were most likely framed.

Now there’s conclusive proof: New evidence filed Monday shows there was no DNA from the three defendants found at the scene. Nothing links them to the crime.

Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are serving life in prison while alleged ringleader Damien W. Echols is on death row.

The three victims — Christopher, Steve Branch and James Michael Moore — were last seen riding their bikes on May 5, 1993. They were found the next day in a drainage ditch in Robin Hood Hills, near West Memphis, a low-rent town across the Mississippi River from Memphis. The boys were naked and hogtied with shoelaces.

The police quickly zeroed in on Mr. Echols, then 18, who was familiar to them because he was on probation for trying to run away with his girlfriend. They also believed he was involved in cult activities.

But they could find little evidence against him until Mr. Misskelley, mildly retarded and with a history of substance abuse, came in to speak with them. At the time there was a $30,000 reward.

After hours of questioning, Mr. Misskelley, 17, gave the police a taped statement that implicated himself, Mr. Baldwin, then 16, and Mr. Echols, then 19. Despite coaching by the investigators, Mr. Misskelley was incorrect in several significant details, including the time of the crime, the way the victims were tied and the manner of death. He said the children had been sodomized, an assertion that even the state medical examiner’s testimony appears to refute.

Besides Misskelly’s confession, the prosecution relied on a Satanic cult expert with a mail-order degree, apparently enough to put someone on death row in Arkansas.

The real surprise among the new evidence is who isn’t implicated.

Many viewers who watched the sequel, in fact, concluded that the police should have been investigating John Mark Byers, the stepfather of one of the children, who made seemingly drug-addled, messianic speeches on camera, gave the filmmakers a blood-stained knife, and had a history of violence and run-ins with the police. His child, Christopher Byers, was the most badly mutilated of the three.

But there was a surprise in the new forensic report filed by Mr. Echols’s lawyers: a hair found in one of the knots binding the children belonged most likely to the stepfather of another of the victims, not to Mr. Byers.

Regardless, Byers remains one of the scariest fucks ever captured on film (as seen here, here and here).

We’re left with an enduring mystery and a serious miscarriage of justice. While I’m not completely convinced of their innocence, there’s no denying the West Memphis 3 — social outcasts with a fondness for heavy metal and black trenchcoats — were convicted largely because of who they were, not for what they might have done.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Apparently they’ve chosen a very large man with a butt cut nicknamed “Bunky” to spread their message:

Elwood “Bunky” Bartlett holds one of four winning tickets for the Mega Millions lottery. “Bunky” credits his study of Wicca and his practice of Reiki (RAY’kee) healing for his good luck. He bought the winning ticket on his way to a New Age bookstore. …

Bartlett stated that he had made a deal with the multiple god’s associated with his Wiccan beliefs, and firmly believes that is why he won.

“You let me win the lottery and I’ll teach.” he said

I’m pretty sure I attended Film School with this guy.

The Least Anticipated Matchup Since Sly Stallone Fought the Guy With the Mullet In the Fourth “Rocky” Sequel

Ignore the national polls — they don’t matter. Momentum is everything in the nomination process, and right now Hillbot and The Anchorman are poised to present Americans with the worst choice since New Coke vs. Pepsi, leading by comfortable margins in the first three primary contests.

Iowa

Democrats:
Clinton 32%
Obama 22%
Edwards 15%

Republicans:
Romney 27%
Huckabee 19%
Giuliani 16%
McCain 14%

New Hampshire

Democrats:
Clinton 40%
Obama 22%
Edwards 10%

Republicans:
Romney 30%
Giuliani 23%
McCain 17%

South Carolina

Democrats:
Clinton 41%
Obama 19%
Edwards 18%

Republicans:
Romney 29%
Giuliani 23%
McCain 13%
Thompson 10%

It ain’t over yet, but I’m getting nervous. Perhaps Sam Nunn will come to our rescue. Hell, I’d take Ross Perot or an embalmed Admiral Stockdale over Clinton or Romney.

I Agree With Duane

Common sense, from the Moody one?

I would happily take a civil union any day; so long as it afforded me EQUAL rights. I don’t give two shits about calling my partnership a “marriage” vs. calling it a “civil union”; so long as we are treated equally under the law of our government. I personally think that should be more of the focus, as this issue will always be used as more of a wedge than anything, and no person in their right mind is going to go up against the juggernaut that is the Christian church.

How appropriate that I finally discovered common ground with Duane just hours before Halloween.

If a 14-Year-Old Boy Is Hanged In Iran, Does Anybody Hear it?

Another homosexual is about to be executed in Iran. This time it’s a 14-year-old boy, sentenced to death by a judge even though two of the people who pressed charges against him withdrew their claims.

Child offender Makwan Moloudzadeh, an Iranian Kurd, is believed to be at risk of imminent execution. He has reportedly been convicted of anal sex for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old boy. Makwan Moloudzadeh was aged 13 at the time of the alleged offence. His death sentence has been passed to the Office for the Implementation of Sentences and he is due to be executed in public, near his home. …

Prior to his trial and conviction, on or around 7 October 2006 Makwan Moloudzadeh was reportedly paraded through the streets of Paveh riding on a donkey, with his head shaved. People in the street shouted abuse and threw things at him.

(More on this from Amnesty International, which calls Iran “the last executioner of children.”)

Predictably, the Petty Queer Establishment is silent, ignoring Amnesty’s call for urgent action. The Human Rights Campaign, America’s “preeminent” gay rights organization, doesn’t even mention the story on their Web site. Apparently they’re more concerned that an anti-gay gospel singer appeared at an Obama rally.

Shouldn’t they at least acknowledge the total absence of human rights for gay Iranians? Just asking.

(Also found no mention on the International Lesbian and Gay Association site — plenty about diversity seminars, however. A Google search on Makwan Moloudzadeh turned up no mentions by any gay and lesbian organization; only Amnesty and a handful of bloggers seem interested.)

Reason 937,321 Hillbot Shouldn’t Be Trusted

She, and her husband, were advised for years by Dick Morris, the slimy political operative best known for a toe-sucking scandal. Fired by the Clintons, he’s emerged as one of their fiercest critics, appearing regularly on the Fox News Channel.

Likewise, Media Matters founder David Brock, author of several sloppy Clinton hit pieces while serving as a far right functionary, is now one of Hillbot’s biggest supporters.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that people with such conveniently fluctuating ideologies (and loyalties) would be so closely linked with Ma and Pa Kettle.

The Christian Right, In Their Own Words

Even scarier than I imagined:

One of the speakers invited to speak at the Values Voters Summit (an outreach of James Dobson’s political organization) said she favored the forced quarantine of all “sodomites.” Meanwhile, neocon Frank Gaffney said George W. Bush had “embraced Islamofascists on several occasions” because he was “not being bigoted and not being racist.”

Bible-thumping shrew Phyllis Schlaffly embraced the new intolerance, declaring there are too many mosques in America.

Click the link above and watch the would-be theocrats in action.

Free the West Memphis 3

If you ever watched the riveting HBO documentary “Paradise Lost” and its sequel, you know the three teenagers convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in a small Arkansas town 14 years ago were most likely framed.

Now there’s conclusive proof: New evidence filed Monday shows there was no DNA from the three defendants found at the scene. Nothing links them to the crime.

Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are serving life in prison while alleged ringleader Damien W. Echols is on death row.

The three victims — Christopher, Steve Branch and James Michael Moore — were last seen riding their bikes on May 5, 1993. They were found the next day in a drainage ditch in Robin Hood Hills, near West Memphis, a low-rent town across the Mississippi River from Memphis. The boys were naked and hogtied with shoelaces.

The police quickly zeroed in on Mr. Echols, then 18, who was familiar to them because he was on probation for trying to run away with his girlfriend. They also believed he was involved in cult activities.

But they could find little evidence against him until Mr. Misskelley, mildly retarded and with a history of substance abuse, came in to speak with them. At the time there was a $30,000 reward.

After hours of questioning, Mr. Misskelley, 17, gave the police a taped statement that implicated himself, Mr. Baldwin, then 16, and Mr. Echols, then 19. Despite coaching by the investigators, Mr. Misskelley was incorrect in several significant details, including the time of the crime, the way the victims were tied and the manner of death. He said the children had been sodomized, an assertion that even the state medical examiner’s testimony appears to refute.

Besides Misskelly’s confession, the prosecution relied on a Satanic cult expert with a mail-order degree, apparently enough to put someone on death row in Arkansas.

The real surprise among the new evidence is who isn’t implicated.

Many viewers who watched the sequel, in fact, concluded that the police should have been investigating John Mark Byers, the stepfather of one of the children, who made seemingly drug-addled, messianic speeches on camera, gave the filmmakers a blood-stained knife, and had a history of violence and run-ins with the police. His child, Christopher Byers, was the most badly mutilated of the three.

But there was a surprise in the new forensic report filed by Mr. Echols’s lawyers: a hair found in one of the knots binding the children belonged most likely to the stepfather of another of the victims, not to Mr. Byers.

Regardless, Byers remains one of the scariest fucks ever captured on film (as seen here, here and here).

We’re left with an enduring mystery and a serious miscarriage of justice. While I’m not completely convinced of their innocence, there’s no denying the West Memphis 3 — social outcasts with a fondness for heavy metal and black trenchcoats — were convicted largely because of who they were, not for what they might have done.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Apparently they’ve chosen a very large man with a butt cut nicknamed “Bunky” to spread their message:

Elwood “Bunky” Bartlett holds one of four winning tickets for the Mega Millions lottery. “Bunky” credits his study of Wicca and his practice of Reiki (RAY’kee) healing for his good luck. He bought the winning ticket on his way to a New Age bookstore. …

Bartlett stated that he had made a deal with the multiple god’s associated with his Wiccan beliefs, and firmly believes that is why he won.

“You let me win the lottery and I’ll teach.” he said

I’m pretty sure I attended Film School with this guy.

The Least Anticipated Matchup Since Sly Stallone Fought the Guy With the Mullet In the Fourth “Rocky” Sequel

Ignore the national polls — they don’t matter. Momentum is everything in the nomination process, and right now Hillbot and The Anchorman are poised to present Americans with the worst choice since New Coke vs. Pepsi, leading by comfortable margins in the first three primary contests.

Iowa

Democrats:
Clinton 32%
Obama 22%
Edwards 15%

Republicans:
Romney 27%
Huckabee 19%
Giuliani 16%
McCain 14%

New Hampshire

Democrats:
Clinton 40%
Obama 22%
Edwards 10%

Republicans:
Romney 30%
Giuliani 23%
McCain 17%

South Carolina

Democrats:
Clinton 41%
Obama 19%
Edwards 18%

Republicans:
Romney 29%
Giuliani 23%
McCain 13%
Thompson 10%

It ain’t over yet, but I’m getting nervous. Perhaps Sam Nunn will come to our rescue. Hell, I’d take Ross Perot or an embalmed Admiral Stockdale over Clinton or Romney.

Harvey Fierstein, You’ve Been Usurped

Meet the new gay stereotype.   

Xenophobia and the Right

It’s their secret weapon in the upcoming presidential election. Some candidates, like McCain and Rudy, have largely resisted irrational bully mode when it comes to illegal immigration, but talk radio has spoken — loudly — and a desperate GOP is likely to follow.

Hearing the passionate opposition, you’d assume the just-defeated “Dream Act” would’ve granted Mexicans the right to enslave whites. Not surprisingly, specifics were absent from the discussion.

Under the proposal, men and women who fulfilled several conditions —- they had to be under 30, had to have been brought into the country illegally when they were younger than 16, had to have been in the United States for at least five years and had to be graduates of U.S. high schools —- would have been given conditional legal status. If they went on to complete two years of college or two years of military service, they would have been eligible for permanent residency.

Let’s see. Here was a way to encourage a bunch of kids to go to college rather than melt into the shadows as off-the-books day laborers —- or maybe even gang members. And here was a way to boost enlistment in our overtaxed armed forces. Aren’t education and global competitiveness supposed to be vital issues? Aren’t we fighting open-ended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Perhaps, but exploiting prejudice is a proven winner (see Nixon’s “Southern strategy”). 

   

On Saggy Pants, Obama and the Petty Queer Establishment

What’s the connection between fashion, a presidential candidate and an ineffective special interest group? I’ll do my best to navigate.

Item One: Song Links Saggy Pants to Being Gay

A new campaign by the city of Dallas targets the hip-hop style of wearing your pants low enough that your boxers are showin — and part of your posterior, too.

The campaign has a signature song, “Pull Your Pants Up,” by Dooney Da’ Priest, that links so-called saggin’ with being gay. …

An accompanying billboard says it’s rude to be “walking around showin’ your behind to other dudes.” The song’s refrain is “Be a real man — pull your pants up.”

In an interview with a local television station, Dooney explained that saggin’ comes from jail, where he argued that showing your boxers has a very particular meaning. “You’re letting another man know that you’re available,” Dooney said.

Homophobia is a major problem in the black community, one that’s largely ignored. It presents a real dilemma for the PC crowd, and for Democrats, as African-Americans and gays are among the party’s most loyal constituencies.

Item Two: A black preacher campaigning for Barack Obama believes gays can be converted.

This has caused quite an uproar among liberal bloggers, and it’s certainly an issue worth addressing. But why now, and why Obama?

Item Three: The Human Rights Campaign (which conveniently shares an acronym with its in-house candidate for president) issues ultimatum to Obama: Cancel the event with gospel singer/minister Donnie McClurkin, or else we’ll get really, really mad.

There’s not much the HRC should, or could, do. However, they’ve put Obama in an uncomfortable situation, which is fine, but why were they silent when Hillbot touted an endorsement by a homophobic preacher? (Note that Obama didn’t attend the event where McClurkin appeared.)   

“In this game, all candidates have been associated with homophobes. For instance, Hillary Clinton recently trumpeted her friendship with Harold Mayberry, of the First African Methodist Church in Oakland; her press release on the meeting/endorsement left out the fact that Mayberry believes homosexuality to be comparable to thievery.”

Rest assured, the HRC is deep in HRC’s pocket. Any credibility they might’ve had is sullied; besides, no organization should claim to speak for an entire group, particularly one as feckless and conflicted as the Human Rights Campaign.   

Regardless, the gay community should ask — or, in indignation-speak, demand — why the HRC supports a candidate intimately aligned with the administration responsible for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and The Defense of Marriage Act. Obama’s record on gay rights is more progressive and consistent, though he shouldn’t take the HRC’s snub personally — the fix was in long before he entered the race.

If you’re fine with powerful lobbyists telling you how to vote, then by all means, choose Hillbot. Just don’t be so brainwashed to think you’re voting for change.