Why Bush is no Hoover (but Worse!): Unprecendented Do-Nothingness in a President’s Final Days

There have been a number of comparisons of late between FDR and Barack Obama and between Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush. But those comparisons are unfair. Obama may yet turn out to be another Roosevelt, but “W.” is no Hoover, he’s worse.

This is true in part because Hoover’s actions during the 1932-33 presidential transition are often underrated but also because W.’s complete and total abdication of responsibility for leadership in his last few months in office is largely unprecedented.

No president on his way out of office has been as laconic in the face of crisis as is our current president. At the end of his presidency James Buchanan labored mightily (albeit unsuccessfully) to hold the Union together. Truman frantically tried to end the Korean War in his last few months in office as did Lyndon Johnson in trying to end the war in Vietnam.

Grant ordered troops to guard the polls and supervise vote tabulation in three southern states while a congressional commission tried to sort out the mess that was the election of 1876. As it turned out the election wasn’t decided until March 2, 1877, two days before the inauguration, in favor of the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Democrats were so angry and the threat of insurrection so real, that Grant quietly began to beef up the military’s presence in Washington D.C. to fend off a threatened attack on the Capitol.

Even after he lost the election of 1932, Herbert Hoover strove mightily to stem the tide of economic collapse. Hoover, in fact, adopted many of the reforms that were later to become the cornerstone of the New Deal. He chartered the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, designed to prevent banks from going belly up. He had already adopted Keynesian economics by trying to stimulate the economy by running up a huge Federal deficit (mainly by cutting taxes). Hoover founded the Federal Home Loan Bank to prevent home foreclosures. He even encouraged public works projects through the RFC and through the Emergency Relief and Construction Act (both efforts were continued byRoosevelt in the New Deal).

By the time Roosevelt became president many states had already declared bank holidays. In fact, a number of holdovers from the Hoover Department of the Treasury stayed on an extra couple of months to help Roosevelt draft the earliest financial reforms passed by Congress in the new president’s first 100 days.

Roosevelt, for his part, was almost completely uncooperative with Hoover during the transition. Hoover believed that Roosevelt was intentionally trying to tank the economy in order to discredit Hoover and burnish, by contrast, the image of the new administration. Roosevelt believed that Hoover was trying to lock him into policies (many of which FDR ultimately adopted) that would limit his actions after he became president.

None of this seems to be going on in the current transition. Of course, the current crisis isn’t of the magnitude of the Great Depression, yet. And the Bush Administration has supported one of the largest corporate bailouts in history.

But there is a curious lack of thought or follow through in its efforts. AIG is still reeling and there is no direction or form in the Treasury’s handling of the $750 billion in funds that was originally allocated to buy up toxic mortgages from lenders. But now the plan is just to give money to the lenders and hope they will lend it to businesses and consumers (which they aren’t).

Throughout this crisis the President has been largely absent. But leaving the job to an outgoing Treasury Secretary or an incoming president isn’t enough. In the sixty or so days before the Inauguration a lot can go wrong and Bush isn’t trying to prevent it.

That’s why Bush is no Hoover, he’s worse.

* * *

Daniel Franklin

Obama wins historic US election

Democratic Senator Barack Obama has been elected the first black president of the United States, according to projected results.

There were scenes of delight at a park in Chicago where tens of thousands of Obama supporters had gathered.

Mr Obama is expected to address the crowd soon.

His rival John McCain accepted defeat, saying "I deeply admire and commend" Mr Obama. He called on his supporters to lend the next president their goodwill.

Mr Obama captured the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, before passing the essential figure of 270 electoral college votes at 0400 GMT, when projections showed he had also taken California and a slew of other states.

He has so far held most of the states that voted Democrat in 2004, as well as seizing at least six from the Republicans, including Florida and Virginia.

Several other key swing states are hanging in the balance.

In Indiana and North Carolina, with most of the vote counted, there was less than 0.5% between the two candidates.

However, the popular vote remains close. At 0345 GMT it stood at 50.7% for the Democratic Senator from Illinois, against 48.2% for Arizona Senator McCain.

The main developments include:

• Mr Obama is projected to have seized Ohio, New Mexico, Iowa and Virginia - all Republican wins in 2004.
• He is also projected to have won: Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Delaware, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Maryland, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Rhode Island.
• Mr McCain is projected to have won: Kentucky, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, North Dakota, Wyoming, Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, Utah.
• Turnout was reported to be extremely high - in some places "unprecedented".
• The Democrats made early gains in the Senate race, seizing seats from the Republicans in Virginia, North Carolina, New Hampshire and New Mexico.
• Exit polls suggest the economy was the major deciding factor for six out of 10 voters.
• Nine out of 10 said the candidates' race was not important to their vote, the Associated Press reported. Almost as many said age did not matter.

Several states reported a high turnout. It was predicted 130 million Americans, or more, would vote - more than for any election since 1960.

Many Americans said they felt they were voting in a historic election, not least because of the possibility of choosing the first African-American president.

Faton Fall, 40, a black voter queuing at a Baptist church in Chicago, said: "It means a lot to me. I'm overwhelmed. I can't say more."

Congressional race

There are also elections to renew the entire US House of Representatives and a third of US Senate seats.

Democrats are expected to expand majorities in both chambers.

They need to gain nine Senate seats to reach a 60-seat majority that would give them extra legislative power.

In the presidential vote, under the US Electoral College system, states are allocated votes based on their representation in Congress.

In almost every state, the winner gets all these college votes.

To become president, a candidate needs to win a majority across the country - 270 college votes out of a possible 538.

The presidential election has been the most expensive in US history - costing $2.4bn, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Homosexual men have significantly lower personal incomes than heterosexual individuals

A new study in the Canadian Journal of Economics provides the first evidence on sexual orientation and economic outcomes in Canada. The study found that gay men have 12 percent lower personal incomes and lesbians have 15 percent higher personal incomes than heterosexual men and women.

Christopher S. Carpenter of The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California Irvine used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey which includes standard demographic questions as well as self-reports on sexual orientation.

Like previous patterns found in the U.S. and the U.K., results show that gay men have significantly lower personal incomes than similarly situated straight individuals, while lesbians have significantly higher personal incomes than straight women.

Also, similar to gay and straight differences in the U.S., gay men and lesbians in Canada are more likely to live in urban areas and more highly educated than heterosexuals in Canada.

"Slacker Uprising" download link

It is available for free as a gift from me to all of you.

And you have my permission to share it or show it in any way you see fit.

Watch it all: http://slackeruprising.com/download/location.php?utm_medium=download&utm_source=32484475

At that link, there are five ways you can watch it free and without advertising:

1. blip.tv is providing streaming right from slackeruprising.com, free of commercials and advertising.
2. Amazon Video on Demand is providing a higher resolution version of the above stream for people with lots of bandwidth.
3. iTunes makes it easy for you to download "Slacker Uprising" on your iTunes, iPod, or Apple TV, and view it there or transmit it to your television. This way, the film can be portable as well as for home viewing.
4. Hypernia is providing bandwidth and servers to host MPEG4 and DivX versions of "Slacker Uprising" online, so you can burn a DVD or download the film to watch on your computer, XBOX, or PS3.
5. Lycos is providing free streaming of the film and an on-demand version.

Stream it, download it, burn it now. It's the first time a major feature-length film is being released for free on the internet. You can be part of this historic moment by logging on now!

Enjoy!!

Michael Moore

P.S. Remember, we're doing something that's never been done, so I have no idea how it will all go! Don't give up if it seems to go slow (like with any streaming, give the downloading a head start before you hit play), and don't forget there are two places where you can actually download it to your hard drive and three ways to stream it. You can get to all of them at the link above.

P.P.S. If you're not yet registered to vote, here's a good link: https://www.voteforchange.com/.

Young Roma boy burnt alive in Sesto San Giova

How much longer are we going to keep ignoring the persecution of the Roma people in Italy? How much longer will we use “caution”

Young Roma boy burnt alive in Sesto San Giovanni (Milan).
The umpteenth victim of brutal racism.

Milan, 24 September, 2008.
How much longer are we going to keep ignoring the persecution of the Roma people in Italy? How much longer will we use “caution” when talking and writing about the cases of arson, fires lit by racists with the intention of killing “gypsies”, or fires caused by dangerous and unsuitable heating and lighting? How much longer are we going to avoid counting the Roma children who die every year of cold, hunger and infection in the camps and micro-settlements?

How much longer are we going to persist in believing that the women, the sick and weak “would have died anyway” and finally admit that they were killed by an Italy rife with racial hatred? How much longer will antiracists speak out so cautiously? How much longer will they allow themselves to be intimidated by the arrogance of those in power? How much longer, in deference of the authorities, will we allow the last hands held out to us for a few coins to remain empty, after choosing the path of intolerance (or “zero tolerance”, which is the same thing), and after abandoning the path of solidarity and charity? How much longer will we be afraid of calling the oppression of the Roman people the new Holocaust?

Last night in Milan, in the ex Falck steelworks of Sesto San Giovanni (Milan) Ciprian, a young Roma boy of 13 was burnt alive. He lived with his family in conditions of intolerable marginalization and poverty. His family were unable to return to Romania, where they own nothing, and were therefore prisoners of marginalization in Sesto San Giovanni. A candle fell on the makeshift bed where the boy slept and he perished in the flames. The Roma families in Sesto San Giovanni have no electricity, therefore no safe heating and lighting. They make do the best they can to avoid freezing to death. They are offered no assistance at all, just repression from the police. The firemen, who arrived at the scene after midnight, found the boy’s charred body. How much longer will we carry on considering these bodies “accidents” and not victims? How much longer will we deceive ourselves we are innocent?

Roberto Malini

For further information:
Gruppo EveryOne
www.everyonegroup.com/it :: info@everyonegroup.com

Alarm about the persecution of the Roma people in Italy.

EveryOne Group is sounding the umpteenth alarm about the persecution of the Roma people in Italy.

The group will soon be presenting a new dossier to the European institutions and authorities concerning the abuse carried out on a daily basis, in violation of EU directives, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ethical and moral laws that should be at the root of civil society.

We will remind you that EveryOne Group is not only made up of activists. Among its ranks are authors of historical essays, research, documentaries, films, educational projects concerning the Holocaust, the persecutions, the genocides and violations of human rights which have characterised the history of man. These members are therefore fully-trained and competent for evaluating the reappearance of racist and xenophobic phenomena, and therefore this analysis, which throws light on a tragic humanitarian emergency and should be considered with due attention and gravity before it is too late.

The declaration of Jacques Barrot, the European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, according to which “The measures being carried out by Italy to tackle the Roma emergency do not violate EU law” (declaration immediately taken up and exploited by the Italian Government) is based on a total lack of understanding about what is going on in Italy. Mr Barrot’s statement represents a dangerous precedent; permitting actions which not only human rights organizations, but also witnesses of the Holocaust consider so inhumane and full of racial hatred as to be comparable to the operations of ethnic cleansing carried out by National Socialism and fascism in the years of the racial laws.

EveryOne, (considering that the social services treat the Roma as invisible people) is at present forced to carry out humanitarian interventions in very difficult conditions, obstructed by both central and local institutions, in order to save human lives that are in danger, and to prevent camp clearances of Roma families. Families whose members are often in poor health or small children, and who more and more are becoming the target of threats, discrimination and racial hatred.

We wish to express our great concern about the methods being carried out by the EU institutions to restore a respect for human rights and the EU laws in Italy. While it is true that the EU Parliament has approved resolutions and has issued warnings in order to oblige the Italian Government and local authorities to respect human rights by stopping their repressive actions and setting up programmes for integration, it is just as true that there has been no follow-up or sanctions of any kind. This has allowed the Italian government and local authorities to continue, without qualms and limits, its operations of ethnic cleansing.

Even more worrying is the difficulty of the EU institutions in monitoring the situation of the Roma people originating from Romania - people persecuted in Italy systematically and with cruelty (often with physical violence, threats, destruction of their ID papers and personal belongings; continually kicked out of makeshift shelters they have set up under bridges, in parks, abandoned buildings, and dumping grounds, without them being offered alternative lodgings or assistance).

So much so, that amidst the indifference of other EU Member States, Romanian EU citizens of the Roma ethnic group have been forced to abandon Italy and take refuge in more democratic countries. The numbers, accurately and unjustly withheld, speak quite clearly: eighteen months ago there were about 40,000 Roma of Romanian origin living in Italy; less than 5,000 of them remain and these are the most vulnerable families, trapped in our countries because they don’t have the means to leave.

We take this opportunity to thank the Spanish Government and local authorities for taking in over 10,000 Romanian Roma fleeing from Italy; and France, Portugal and Greece who have taken in several thousand; as well as Romania which has facilitated the re-entry of thousands of other Roma people persecuted in Italy. We notice, however, that the ill-omened example offered by Italy is having a certain influence on other countries where Roma citizens live, among them Romania itself, a country which is seeing a return of intolerance towards “gypsies”.

We would also like to point out how the Italian Government made a mockery of the European Parliament resolutions (even ridiculing them in public); the warnings issued by the United Nations; the Catholic Church and the major human rights organizations, and has continued its oppressive and discriminatory measures, urging all the local authorities to carry out purges aimed at the Roma people.

In the same way, the Italian institutions, authorities and media (in Italy the press receives large sums of money from the Government which leads to heavy control over information) have deliberately ignored the racist alarm from figures of a certain repute and elevated morality, such as Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia, Piero Terracina, Nedo Fiano, Tamara Deuel, Marcel Courthiade, Moni Ovadia, and Jeanne Gamonet, Saimir Mile, who are experts in the dynamics of racism and persecutions through history.

The fact that the instruments the EU has at its disposition – resolutions and warnings – have proved ineffective, has raised serious concerns about the moral strength of the Union itself, and its ability to preserve democracy, civil attitudes and a respect for the basic human rights. Soon a delegation from the European Parliament will be returning to Italy for the umpteenth time, to visit some Roma settlements. These visits, in our opinion, should take in other places in Italy and not just Rome, where the families are subjected to all kinds of intimidation and blackmail.

The representatives of the European Parliament should also be allowed to listen to the testimony of some witnesses of this cultural genocide: testimonies chosen from the Romanian Roma, victims of the abuse; Roma citizens from the former Yugoslavia (who have never been inserted into serious integration programmes or been offered help in obtaining legal papers); testimony from Italian “gypsies” – Roma and Sinti – constantly subjected to injustice and discrimination; Roma parents who have had their children taken off them unjustly; Roma who have suffered physical injury and inhumane treatment; the stories of the Roma who have fled Italy and been taken in by more welcoming countries.

An appeal for emancipation and justice which the European Union has to reply to

EveryOne Group is able to collaborate in the organization of a visit to Italy, or in a meeting at the European Parliament of Roma witnesses, victims of the persecution in Italy, or even an interview of the witnesses through telephone link-up (teleconference).

Very little has been done in Italy to help the Roma people, in fact their average life-span is less than 40 and their infant mortality rate is 15 times higher than the European average. Over the last two years, however, their marginalization has turned to tragic persecution. A persecution being carried out by the institutions, the police force and groups of racists, all taking place on a national level, but which is branching out into local areas, supported – as it is easy to see – by the press, the TV and local and national radio stations. The damage this long-term oppression has brought about to the Roma people is horrifying, and it is no exaggeration to speak and write about crimes against humanity which last year we officially reported to the International Criminal Court of the Hague.

There were between 150, 000 to 180,000 Roma living in Italy a year ago, today there are fewer than 70,000.

EveryOne Group will continue to fight with all its energy to protect the Roma people from a humanitarian tragedy which is worsening all the time, in the hope of seeing the day of emancipation and justice. Our organisation often intervenes in the field to provide assistance in individual human cases, lives saved from desperation. At the same time the group is fighting for the social recognition of Roma citizens in Italy and the European Union (through the approval, we hope, of the “Frame Charter of the Roma People in the European Union”, (we will be sending you a copy of the charter shortly).

Nevertheless, we fear that the barbarization of the institutions and a large majority of the Italian people (influenced by a long political and media campaign of racist propaganda) and the indifference shown by the European union may lead to more widespread racist phenomena: the return of the Samudaripen, the Holocaust of the Roma people.

We feel it necessary to repair this serious crisis in human rights by introducing clear laws to protect a people that has been persecuted for too long.

It is necessary to prevent – at the source – politicians and parties with racist or fascist leanings being able to carry out an electoral campaign based on racial hatred, passing their measures off as a “security emergency” – otherwise what happened in Italy could be well be repeated in other Member States of the Union.

It is necessary to ensure the Roma people have equal rights along with other nations, and that – as happened with the Jews – Europe recognises its role in their persecution and takes measures to ensure true emancipation.

It is necessary to punish severely the racist propaganda underway, because if the newspapers and the Italian TV channels were to write of the Jews or other ethnic minorities the way they write about the Roma, offering public opinion all kinds of prejudice and lies, then public opinion, political parties and civil society would rise up from all corners of the world. It is important to remind each and every one of you of what happened in darker times, a period we have to break away from in order to progress. It is important not to underestimate that racism and persecution always thrive off the indifference and lethargy of the world.

We hope this message, which sums up a reality that anyone is able to verify, in every city and every town of Italy, reaches you quite clearly. If some of you are able to understand the gravity of the situation we find ourselves in, a situation that risks questioning European civilization itself; then help us, help the Roma people; listen to a heart-rending cry for justice, join in the appeals for emancipation and brotherhood and prevent our continent sinking once more into darkness where human rights and public spirit are concerned.

Gruppo EveryOne

Roberto Malini, Dario Picciau, Matteo Pegoraro

For further information:
Gruppo EveryOne
Tel: (+ 39) 334-8429527 - (+ 39) 331-3585406
www.everyonegroup.com :: info@everyonegroup.com

Gay Iranian man loses asylum plea

Iran has regularly executed people it has convicted of homosexual acts

An Iranian homosexual man who has said he will be executed if he is deported from the Netherlands has had his claim for asylum overturned.

Mehdi Kazemi has said his life is in danger if he is returned to Iran, where he says his boyfriend named him as a partner before being executed.

Homosexual acts are illegal in the Islamic republic.

A Dutch spokesman said Mr Kazemi would now be sent to the UK, the first European country he entered.

A claim for asylum in the UK had already been turned down.

Application turned down

His case has become a campaign cause for gay rights activists across Europe.

Mr Kazemi, 19, said he had travelled to Britain in 2005 to study English, and learned that his lover in Iran had been executed for sodomy, his lawyer Borg Palm said.

After his asylum application was turned down, he fled to the Netherlands in 2006, having narrowly avoided being sent back to Iran.

Dutch immigration authorities are more lenient towards homosexual Iranians, who are afforded special status because of the regime's hard line against them.

'Life in danger'

The Dutch are refusing to consider the case. Under the EU's 2003 Dublin Regulation, the state the applicant first enters is responsible for processing their application.

Mr Kazemi says his life will be in danger not only because he has been named as a homosexual, but also because of the extensive media coverage of his case,.

Mr Kazemi's uncle - who is in the UK - said the family was considering an appeal to the European Court.

A statement from Britain's immigration service said: "We examine with great care each individual case before removal and we will not remove anyone who we believe is at risk on their return."

Iran executed two teenage men in 2005 after authorities convicted them of raping a young boy.

BBC Europe

Homosexual intolerance thrives

by: Bailey Singletary

A few weeks ago, a 14-year-old boy fired two bullets into the head of a 15-year-old fellow male student in the computer lab at their school. It has been rumored that the boy was shot because he was gay and asked the shooter to be his valentine earlier in the week.

Hate crimes happen every day with no national media coverage, but this was a headline on most U.S. newspapers. I was appalled when I read the story, even though I've read stories before about people being killed because of sexual orientation.

The question that must be asked is this: Who or what is teaching this young boy to hate someone because of whom that person chooses to be with in life?

The young boy, Lawrence King, began to show his feminine side by wearing makeup and women's clothing to school. When people made fun of him, he simply said they couldn't change the person he was.

Teasing is a normal part of junior high school. I was teased because I looked somewhat like a bird due to my skinniness, but no one put a gun to my head because of it.

But when it comes to violence that reaches beyond a bully pushing the nerdy kid around, there is a huge problem in the school and in the home of the violent child.

Some people have gone so far as to say that the killer is just as much of a victim as King. The media is claiming that the shooter, Brandon McInerney, is simply a victim of homophobia. That's like saying James Earl Ray, who shot and killed Martin Luther King Jr., is simply a victim of racism, as well as members of the Ku Klux Klan.

It is hard to convince me that this child of 14 wasn't taught somewhere in his life that gay people shouldn't be alive. Normal 14-year-old boys don't bring guns to school and shoot another student in the head just because he's gay. Although violence is never the answer, I can understand the bully waiting for the boy outside of class to beat him to a pulp, but the idea of intentional murder at such a young age is absolutely terrifying.

Thankfully, McInerney will be tried as an adult. But his parents also should be brought into the mix at some point in time, because they have probably taught him that being gay isn't OK.

I know some people take the Bible very literally, and there are many people who do not agree with homosexuality, so this case is somewhat being blown to the side.
But if a 14-year-old was killed because of the color of his skin, this would be a much bigger deal.

My question is this: Why is homophobia not on the same level as sexism, racism and anti-Semitism? It seems to me that there are too many people in this world teaching children that not everyone is created equal and that it's OK to hate someone because of whom he or she loves.
© Copyright 2008 The Reflector

Don't send me back to Malaysia, gay man pleads

Montrealer scheduled to be deported today fears he will be imprisoned in homeland

ELIZABETH THOMPSON

His voice cracking and his eyes filling with tears, Montreal resident Kulenthiran Amirthalingam made a last-ditch effort yesterday to avoid being deported today to his native Malaysia, saying he fears he will be thrown in prison simply because he is gay.

But his trek through a driving snowstorm to Ottawa in a bid to persuade Immigration Minister Diane Finley to grant him a ministerial certificate to allow him to stay in Canada appears to have been for naught.

An Immigration Department spokesperson simply said people are expected to leave once their options have run their course.

Finley's office didn't return a phone call from The Gazette.

Amirthalingam's case highlights what some say is an emerging trend by homosexuals who face imprisonment or danger in their home countries to claim refugee status in Canada.

Amirthalingam said he first arrived in Canada in July 2002, then applied for refugee status in January 2003 after he returned to his home country on a visit only to be harassed by the family of his former lover and thrown into jail.

"For five days, I was physically, verbally, sexually harassed by the police there," Amirthalingam told reporters.

His refugee claim was rejected, however, on the ground the panel hearing his claim did not believe it was credible.

Outremont MP Thomas Mulcair of the New Democratic Party called on Finley yesterday to allow Amirthalingam to remain on humane and compassionate grounds. Amirthalingam was learning French and volunteering with local community groups, he noted.

"In Parliament, despite the profound differences that sometimes exist on issues involving our society or the economy, there are some human values that unite us. And stopping somebody from being deported to face imprisonment and possibly torture, not for anything he has done but because of who he is, goes against Canadian values," Mulcair said, a tremor in his voice.

In addition to the problems Amirthalingam faces because of his homosexuality, he is diabetic, has a heart condition and is blind in one eye, Mulcair added.

Mulcair wrote a letter to Finley last week and received a verbal response Monday in which her office refused even to consider the request not to deport Amirthalingam.

Amnesty International and Montreal lawyer Julius Grey have also written letters to Finley, asking her to use her ministerial powers to stop the planned deportation.

In its travel report for Malaysia, the Canadian government warns Canadians that homosexuality is against the law in that country.

"Homosexuality is illegal," the department's website says.

"Convicted offenders may face lengthy jail sentences and fines."

Matthew McLauchlin, co-chairman of the NDP's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender positive action committee, said Amirthalingam's case illustrates an emerging trend in refugee issues and highlights the shortcomings in Canada's refugee system in evaluating their cases.

"There is a young man in Toronto who was told the judge didn't think he was gay because he wasn't having sex at age 14 when he was living non-status with Seventh-day Adventists," McLauchlin said.

"There have been women told they couldn't be lesbian because they have long hair and showed up for the interviews in high heels.

"These people have no training whatsoever in how to deal with these issues."

There were an estimated 2,000 gay and lesbian refugee claimants in 2004, McLauchlin said.

Immigration and Refugee Board officials did not return a phone call from The Gazette.

Daniel Weintraub: State Supreme Court weighs gay marriage question

Gay marriage supporters have time on their side. Public opinion is shifting in their favor. Eventually, California's ban on same-sex marriage will be lifted.

But many gay couples, activists and lawyers say they have waited long enough. They are ready for change, and they think California is, too. So they are taking a calculated risk.

By pressing the Supreme Court to strike down the laws banning gay marriage, they are gambling that the voters who are now slowly moving in their direction will not retreat in anger in a backlash against what would be portrayed as an activist court legislating from the bench.

We may soon find out. The seven-member court heard the case Tuesday and appeared to be closely divided. One or two justices seemed to be leaning toward overturning the ban. But the same number appeared sympathetic to the status quo. It's not clear which outcome, in the long run, would be better for the gay community.

Justice Joyce Kennard, appointed to the bench by former Gov. George Deukmejian, a conservative Republican, asked both sides how they thought the court would react to a law banning mixed-race marriages. The lawyers for the state had to admit that the court would strike down such a law, since it already did, decades ago. And when Kennard asked the same question to Therese Stewart, a deputy city attorney for San Francisco, Stewart slammed it out of the park like a batter who knew what pitch was coming.

"I think this court would strike it down in a heartbeat," she said.

Would you apply that same reasoning to this case? Kennard asked Stewart. Another softball. Yes, she would, Stewart replied, though she was careful to add that she would never try to predict whether the court would share her view.

Several justices seemed dubious about some of the arguments offered by lawyers for a conservative Christian group fighting to preserve the status quo.

Mathew Staver, attorney for the Campaign for California Families, said same-sex marriage would undermine traditional marriage.

"It would lose its meaning," Staver said. "It would create a new system that is no longer recognizable as marriage."

It is difficult to understand why a legal union of two people who love each other and want to express their love as a mutual commitment recognized by the state – with all the responsibilities that entails – would undermine marriages between men and women. Isn't it just the opposite? Doesn't the proliferation of unwed partners undermine the institution of marriage?

Chief Justice Ronald George – appointed by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson – put the question in a legal rather than cultural context, asking whether same-sex marriages would violate any rights of heterosexuals. It wouldn't.

George also bristled when Staver suggested that same-sex marriages should be banned because children are meant to be raised by their biological parents.

"Do you mean adoptive parents are not as adept at raising their children?" George asked.

In fact, as one of the lawyers challenging the ban pointed out, California prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in adoption, foster care and custody battles – so it's a legal stretch to argue that the marriage law must do just the opposite in order to protect children.

Some of the arguments offered by the attorney general's office were not much better. One of them: Current marriage laws don't discriminate against gays because, just like heterosexuals, gays are free to marry someone from the opposite sex. There's justice for you.

When the state tried to argue that domestic partnerships, which gays can use as a substitute for marriage, were just as good as the real thing, Justice Carlos Moreno raised the specter of "separate but equal," the infamous justification for segregated public schools that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 1954.

And when the deputy attorney general waxed eloquently about the virtues and value of marriage, Justice Ming Chin turned to Stewart, the San Francisco lawyer, and asked whether the state hadn't just "made your argument for you?"

Justices Marvin Baxter, Kathryn Werdegar and Carol Corrigan, meanwhile, all seemed troubled by the idea of the court intervening in what they suggested might be an issue best left to the electorate or the Legislature. And if they hold to that position and are joined by, say, the chief justice, they could preserve the status quo.

Another possibility is that rather than rewriting the marriage law, they could strike down the entire thing and force the Legislature or the voters to start over from scratch. The end result would probably be the same: legal same-sex marriages. But the court's fingerprints would not be quite as clear.

That approach would also leave open one other avenue that is actually quite attractive: the privatization of marriage. Marriages, after all, are just contracts between individuals that the state has decided deserve a special place in the law. We could best avoid the entire debate over traditional vs. gay marriage by leaving the decision of how to structure marriage to the people involved – and leaving the government out of it.

But that's probably too much to ask.

Is America Ready for a Gay 'Idol'?

LOS ANGELES - No finalist has ever been portrayed as openly gay during the past six seasons of "American Idol." With more details about contestants' personal lives being exposed — both on the show and unofficially online — that could change, and soon.

Or will it be "Idol" business as usual?

"It feels like we're closer now than ever to having an openly gay contestant on the show," says Jim Verraros, who came out after his run as a finalist on the first season of "Idol."

"I'm not here to name any names, but I feel like there are some definite possibilities for this to happen this year," he said. "Do I think it'll happen? I don't know. I hope it does."

On Thursday, the current 16 semifinalists will be narrowed down to 12 finalists, who will perform live each week until the seventh winner of "American Idol" is selected by the voting public. At its core, "Idol" is a singing competition, but finalists' popularity has always seemed to play a big role in who moves forward.

When reached for comment about this story, Fox and "Idol" producers issued the following statement to The Associated Press: "We do not comment on the personal lives of the show participants." None of the current contestants have been made available for comment.

Over the years, however, "Idol" has devoted plenty of screentime to participants' personal lives, ranging from asking intimate questions of the contestants (this week it's "What was your most embarrassing moment?") to aiming the camera at their sobbing significant others in the audience, to airing fully edited segments about their backgrounds.

"The show hasn't seemed very conducive or gay friendly to contestants coming out," says Michael Jensen, editor of AfterElton.com, a Web site about gay and bisexual men in entertainment and the media. "Simon and Randy have not hesitated to mock effeminate contestants and crack the occasional gay joke. It has not communicated to contestants that it would be a good place to come out."

Every season, blogs and message board users endlessly speculate about the sexuality of contestants. Online clues hinting at their sexual orientation often emerge, but Fox and "Idol" producers have never addressed such rumors or depicted openly gay finalists as such on the show or on AmericanIdol.com.

Such speculation isn't new.

Will Young, the first champion of "American Idol's" British predecessor "Pop Idol," was rumored to be gay — then publicly came out following his win. In 2005, a gay personal ad featuring U.S. season-four finalist Anwar Robinson was discovered on BlackPlanet.com. And second-season runner-up Clay Aiken continues to be a constant source of "is he or isn't he?" gossip — though he's always maintained that he isn't.

"Gay people, like everybody, want to see themselves reflected on television," says Jensen. "I think that when a show hasn't reflected that, and goes on and on not reflecting that, it sort of raises the ante, and each season people begin speculating even more intensely about who may be gay."

This week, a video of flamboyant current semifinalist Danny Noriega lashing out against Santa Claus appeared on MySpace and was posted on several blogs. Another video of Noriega singing Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools" and rapping about being gay — all while wearing a do-rag — was also posted on YouTube.

"Yeah, I'm gay," raps Noriega in the video. "But you eat hay for dinner, 'cause you look like a horse ... ."

Last week, "Idol"-bashing VoteForTheWorst.com posted photos of scantily clad semifinalist David Hernandez working at gay nightclub Burn, as well as rumors that he was a stripper at Dick's Cabaret in Phoenix. Club manager Gordy Bryan told the AP on Monday that Hernandez did indeed dance fully nude and perform lap dances for the club's "mostly male" clientele.

Club manager Bryan says he did not know anything about Hernandez's personal life while he was stripping at Dick's Cabaret. Hernandez's MySpace profile lists his sexual orientation as straight.

First-season finalist Verraros, who says he was out to fellow contestants and "Idol" staff but not on the show, was publicly outed when an online journal he kept in college, which included comments about dating guys, was discovered. "Idol" producers later asked Verraros to take down the LiveJournal.

"The message boards were so homophobic. The gay-bashing was awful," says Verraros. "It was horrible. They said a faggot would never win 'American Idol.' It was pretty intense. I think it's something you have to expect in this industry, whether it's 'American Idol' or a sitcom or Broadway. It's going to happen the more exposed you are."

Verraros decided not to come out until after the show and the subsequent tour, doing so in the pages of gay magazine The Advocate. Since then, Verraros released his first album, starred in the gay-themed indie film "Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds" and his currently working on his second album.

"Regardless of whether or not a contestant is gay, the talent is there," says Verraros. "That should always come first and foremost."

On the Net: http://www.americanidol.com

Israel keeps its promise of a 'Holocaust' in Gaza

'Barbarous' siege

The Gaza Strip, with a population of some 1.5 million, has been placed under a total siege by the Israeli army since June 2007, shortly after Hamas took control over the strip from Fatah. Later that year, in September, the Israeli government declared Gaza a "hostile entity" and stepped up its military attacks. In January 2008, Israel decided to further reduce the amount of fuel, electricity, food and water supplies into Gaza, justifying the collective punishment as a 'response' to the Palestinian resistance firing home-made shells at the nearby Israeli town of Sderot (see this report about the humanitarian implications of the siege).

The decision by the Israeli government to reduce electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip came after the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition against the plan filed by ten Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups. The human rights groups said the measures "violate international laws" as they deliberately cause harm to the civilians and deprive them from the basic energy they need to run vital services. The cut of diesel supplies had already contributed to 20% electricity deficit in Gaza, with power outages of over eight hours a day and directly affecting hospitals, medical centres, water pumps, public transportation and other vital services.

On February 17th, the ambulance service in Gaza announced a complete halt of work due to what the Health Ministry described as "severe shortage of fuel." Many patients have also been denied necessary medical treatment outside due to the siege, in what some described as "a matter of revenge". According to Palestinian medical sources, well over a hundred Palestinian patients, including many children, have so far died because of the siege [ 1 2 3 ].

As Gazans scrambled for supplies, Palestinian resistance fighters blew open the Israeli-built steel walls that make the borders between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on January 23rd. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured into Egypt's Sinai peninsula, breathing a collective sigh of relief following a half-year of total closure of all Gaza border crossings. However, the Egyptian border guards soon started sealing off the iron border again. The Rafah crossing, south of Gaza, is the sole outlet to the outside world for Gaza's 1.5 million residents since June last year.

On February 20th, several European Union lawmakers urged Israel to refrain from inflicting "collective punishment" on the Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip. In a press conference titled "Coming back from Gaza and Sderot", with the participation of members from different political groups of the European Parliament who took part to the fact-finding mission to Israel and Palestine between 2 and 7 February, 2008, Jill Evans MEP (Green) affirmed that "the situation in Palestine is reaching breaking point. The siege is an inhuman and illegal collective punishment of the people in Gaza and is causing huge suffering. It has to be stopped. There has to be international action to lift the siege, end the occupation and resume peace negotiations."

Concluding a visit to Palestine and Israel, the United Nations' Undersecretary General for humanitarian affairs John Holmes made similar remarks and called for reopening the borders of the Gaza Strip in order to relief the suffering of the residents.

Earlier that year, a report authored by the UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard concluded that "Palestinian terrorism" is the "inevitable consequence" of Israeli occupation. While "Palestinian terrorist acts are deplorable," it added, "they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation."

On February 26th, just before the escalation started, the report was briefly flagged up by Associated Press. Israel was quick to reject the 'claims' as "inflammatory" and the report has since been ignored by the Western corporate media in a continuation of their biased reporting on the Israeli aggression against Palestinians (see this MediaLens alert).

'Holocaust' in Gaza

On February 29th, the Israeli deputy Defense Minister provoked outrage after threatening Palestinians with a "holocaust". Matan Vilnai told the Israeli army radio that "the more [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves." The same twisted logic is used by the far-right and Holocaust deniers to blame Jewish people for the Nazi Holocaust.

However, preparations for a large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip seem to have been under way long before that provocative comment. The Israeli government had reportedly already approved a military plan, similar to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. According to the Jewish Press website, Israeli sources said that a plan, drafted by the Israeli military's general staff, had been endorsed by the Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak.

On February 7th, during a visit to an Israeli military base in the south of Israel, Barak said the Israeli army will "intensify its military operations" in the Gaza Strip, allegedly to stop Palestinian home-made Qassam rockets that continue to be launched from Gaza at Israeli targets. He added that Israel will eventually "put an end" to the attacks by continuing its military operation and imposing punishments and fortifying the nearby Israeli communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. On February 10th, the Defense Minister confirmed that his army will carry out more strikes on Gaza.

Meanwhile, another Israeli minister called for the "total annihilation" of some Gaza neighbourhoods. Me'air Shetrit called for responding to what he termed "sabotaging operations" by "totally annihilating some Gaza neighbourhoods" so that "the residents of the Gaza Strip will understand how serious the Israeli threats are." Other Israeli politicians have made similar comments.

On February 11th, Barak stated that he had ordered the Israeli army to start preparing for the wide-scale offensive in Gaza. He told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that his troops are "attacking the Palestinian coastal region day and night, with a high chance for those attacks to expand." On February 17th, he again vowed to strike back heavily against Palestinians, particularly the ruling Hamas in Gaza, as home-made shells continue to hit Israeli areas adjacent to Gaza. At the same time, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, while giving a speech at a conference of Jewish agencies leaders, granted the Israeli army the "upper hand" in deciding how to strike what he called "perpetrators of terror", first and foremost those who belong to Hamas.

Since coming to power after the 2006 democratic elections, the Islamist group has repeatedly proposed a long-term truce with Israel. Israel, however, has repeatedly shunned such offers, branding Hamas a "terrorist group". In June 2007, Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza after Hamas took over the coastal territory, amidst a power struggle with Fatah, president Mahmud Abbas's party, which has been committed to 'peace negotiations' with Israel (see this interesting Vanity Fair article).

Last year, after killing more than 300 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in air strikes and ground offensives, Israel still failed to stop the home-made shells fired by Palestinian fighters into adjacent Israeli towns.

'Full-scale war'

Since the siege started in June 2007, Israeli air strikes and ground incursions, allegedly targeting Palestinian militants, have become an almost daily occurrence, often killing civilians and destroying residential buildings.

For example, on February 7th, Palestinian medical sources reported that six Palestinians, including one teacher, were killed and several residents were injured in three separate Israeli air strikes that were supposed to target groups of Palestinian militants in different areas in the Gaza Strip. On February 15th, eight Palestinians, mainly members of one family, were killed and nearly eighty others injured when the Israeli air force fired missiles at the house of one of the leaders of the Islamic Jihad in Al-Boreij refugee camp in central Gaza. (Many more incidents can be found on the IMEMC, PNN and IE websites.)

On February 14th, an undercover Israeli force attacked several Palestinian homes in the eastern side of Rafah, southern Gaza, and rounded up 30 men, aged between 15 and 50, and took them to a nearby military base at the Rafah-Israel border. The area located near the Gaza International Airport has suffered frequent Israeli attacks since the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada (uprising) in September 2000.

On Wednesday, 27 February, 2008, the Israeli army stepped up its air strikes and ground 'incursions' in what many observers described as a "full-scale, one-sided war". According to the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem), 106 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip between February 27th and March 3rd, and at least 54 of them, including 25 children, did not take part in any fighting. Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights put the number at 107, including 55 civilians, of whom 27 were children and 6 women. The Israeli Chief of Staff had claimed that 90 percent of those killed were "armed".

On Wednesday evening, an Israeli strike on the northern part of Gaza killed three Palestinian children, bringing the death toll within 24 hours to 12. Palestinian medical sources confirmed that the three children's bodies reached hospital dismembered, while at least 17 others were wounded, including 6 children. By Friday, the Israeli government announced that its army has completed preparations for a wide-scale offensive against Gaza (more).

Around 1am on Saturday, at least 30 tanks and bulldozers, supported by a battalion of infantry troops attacked the Jabalyia refugee camp in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medical sources reported that at least 26 Palestinians killed and 62 injured, bringing the death toll since Wednesday to 56. Eyewitnesses said Israeli troops and tanks invaded Jabalyia and opened fire at resident homes, while Israeli helicopters were firing missiles at civilians homes and cars (more).

Even civilian facilities, such as medical centres, were not spared. On February 28th, for example, an Israeli air strike aimed at the Ministry of the Interior building in Gaza also destroyed the nearby Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) head office. PMRS is one of the largest non-governmental health service providers in Palestine, reaching 1.4 million Palestinians in over 490 cities, towns and villages. The attack also hit a nearby residential building, killing a five-month-old baby. The The disability rehabilitation sector in Palestine, part of the Network of the Non-governmental Organizations, also reported that the Israeli army had targeted several facilities that deal with rehabilitation and killed Hammad Mirshid, 47, who suffered a hearing impairment. The army also broke into a rehabilitation facility, causing a lot of damage, and used it as a military post.

By now, the war in Gaza had attracted the international community and media's attention. The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that some hospitals in Gaza could no longer provide medical care because they have no electricity or medical supplies. Medical crews reported that they came under fire as they tried to evacuate the injured from Jabalyia refugee camp. The Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent in the Gaza Strip, Hiba Abu Shamalih, also reported that she came under fire along with her camera crew as they were covering the events in Gaza. The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza were "more than a holocaust."

Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced that Palestinian militants killed two Israeli soldiers and destroyed a military vehicle on Saturday. Palestinian resistance groups also fired 13 home-made shells at nearby Israeli areas, injuring three civilians in the southern Israeli town of Sderot that borders the Gaza Strip. The Al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, said that 8 of its fighters were killed on Saturday during armed clashes with the Israeli army. The Al-Quds brigades of the Islamic Jihad also said that three of their fighters were killed in clashes on that same day.

'Not over'

Israeli forces pulled out on Sunday-Monday overnight after five days of bloodshed. But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that the withdrawal of troops from Gaza does not mean Israel's military operation there is over, adding that "what happened in recent days was not a one-off event."

Indeed, just after the Israeli army announced ending its offensive in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources reported that 8 Palestinians, said to be Hamas fighters, were killed by Israeli shells on different parts of Gaza on Monday dawn (more).

Later on, a senior Israeli official, quoted by Reuters, said Israel had called a "two-day interval" while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Jerusalem and the West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday, which is meant to move Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations forward. Rice, however, has already told reporters in Egypt that Hamas is "trying to destroy the peace talks." Hamas's spokesperson, Sami Abu Zuhri, said Rice's statement was part of her intention to "give the green light" to the ongoing war on the Hamas movement and the Palestinian resistance. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had formally suspended contacts with Israel in protest at its attacks on Gaza.

Protests and solidarity

Since the start of the siege in June 2007, there have been many mass protests inside Palestine and Gaza itself. A massive demonstration was held at the Erez Checkpoint in Beit Hanoun, north Gaza, on January 26th, where people assembled on both sides of the fence to protest against the siege and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On February 11th, flower farmers in the city of Beit Lahiya, north Gaza, decided to destroy about 500,000 square meters of flower plants in protest at their inability to export their produce due to ongoing Israeli blockade on Gaza. On February 14th, a large number of Gaza vehicles stopped engines for half an hour in protest at the continued Israel cut of fuel supplies to the region. On February 25th, thousands of women, children and men formed a human chain around the Gaza Strip in protest at the Israeli siege (more). Peaceful demonstrations also took place in Bethlehem, Nazareth and other places in Palestine and Israel.

Many defiant actions by Israeli activists have also been reported. For example, a convoy of food supplies, provided by a group of Israeli peace activists, entered Gaza on February 19th through the Israeli-controlled commercial crossing of Sufa in southern Gaza.

More recently, the entirety of the West Bank was on strike on Sunday, February 2nd, in solidarity with the mourners and lost souls of the Gaza Strip. The streets of Jenin and Nablus were filled with protesters, while in Ramallah Hamas and Fateh called a joint demonstration. Kids were seen at the Wall in Ramallah throwing stones, and the same happened in Bethlehem at Rachel's Tomb. The air was said to have been full of acrid smoke as children set tires on fire and dumped out garbage cans and set them ablaze (report).

Palestinian protests were often violently attacked by Israeli forces. Seven Palestinian teenagers were injured on February 2nd when Israeli troops attacked a demonstration organised by the villagers of Bil'in, a village near Ramallah known internationally for its non-violent protests (more). On the same day, one Palestinian boy was killed and at least 45 were injured when the Israeli army attacked protests standing in Hebron, south West Bank, in solidarity with the people of Gaza. On February 3rd, Israeli forces imposed a curfew on a western Jenin village, which saw a non-violent demonstration against the Israeli aggression in Gaza. A Palestinian teenager was killed and several others injured on the same day when Israeli army troops attacked a protest organised by school students in the village of Al-Mazra'a Al-Sarqiya, near Ramallah.

Since the start of the siege, there have also been numerous solidarity demonstrations and actions throughout the world. To list only a few of those reported on Indymedia sites worldwide, the past few months have seen protests in Israel, Portland, Washington DC, St. Petersburg (FL), Seattle, Berkeley, Dublin [2], The Hague, Berlin, London [2 3 4 5] , Manchester, Sheffield [2], Wales and elsewhere.

Called by the Popular Committee Against the Siege (PCAS), February 23rd saw a global day of action against the Israeli blockade on Gaza. Mass demonstrations and protests took place in around 30 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and the two Americas. In many cities, lights also went off for half an hour in solidarity with the people of Gaza (see also the End Gaza Siege website). As the chairman of the Gaza Committee Jamal al-Khudari put it: "The demonstrations we saw on TV screens in many countries indicate a genuine support for the Palestinian people."

Afghan mothers give children opium

Afghanistan is the world’s leading producer of opium. Villagers in remote areas of Badakhshan Province, north-eastern Afghanistan, have been using opium as a substitute for medicine for years. They are oblivious to the harm it can do to their health.

There is no official data about the number of drug addicts in Badakhshan. However, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) says one million people are addicted to drugs there, 45,000 of whom are women.

This video short shows a women’s opium smoking session in the village of Jukhan, tucked away in mountainous Badakhshan. While efforts are being made to rehabilitate drug addicts in the village, Bibi Mulla, her relatives and friends smoke opium at home and give it to their children up to three times a day.

Obama, Clinton battle for LGBT vote

Hillary Clinton holds conference calls to reporters on LGBT papers in Ohio and Texas where Barack Obama bought ads as the race enters its critical days.

Even as Sen. Barack Obama's campaign finalized an ad buy for four full-page ads in local gay weeklies in Ohio and Texas, Sen. Hillary Clinton was conducting a conference call on LGBT issues and answering the questions of local reporters from the Dallas Voice, Outlook Weekly and Gay People's Chronicle. Altogether, Clinton has done interviews with six LGBT outlets, including The Advocate, Logo and The Washington Blade.

Obama has given one interview to an LGBT news outlet, in October to The Advocate. On Thursday, he published an open letter to the LGBT community on the blog Bilerico Project, the second such post he has made to that site.

Obama makes gay ad buys in Ohio, Texas

Full-page ads are set for Friday in four queer papers as the campaign lavishes some of its cash advantages on LGBTs in the days before critical March 4 primaries.

The Obama campaign is lavishing some of its cash advantage on the LGBT community with targeted ad buys in Ohio and Texas leading up to the critical March 4 primaries in both states (Rhode Island and Vermont also vote that day).

According to Eric Stern, a member of the Obama LGBT steering committee, the campaign has just completed an ad buy with queer newspapers in the four largest LGBT markets of those two states -- Columbus, Cleveland, Dallas and Houston.

Full-page ads will appear starting Friday in Outlook Weekly of Columbus, the Gay People's Chronicle of Cleveland, the Dallas Voice and OutSmart, which is based in Houston. Buying a full-page, four-color ad that appears one time typically costs anywhere between $1,000 and $2,000 in weekly publications. In the Gay People's Chronicle, for instance, the ad cost about $850, according to the paper's advertising manager; the same ad went for about $1,500 in the Dallas Voice.

Stern called the coordinated buy "the icing on the cake" in terms of the Obama camp's outreach to the gay community in Ohio and Texas.

"It's a direct appeal to LGBT voters asking for their support," he said, adding that the ad includes information about how people can get involved with the campaign.

The Obama campaign has actively been trying to cut into the long-standing ties between gay men and lesbians and Hillary Clinton. Stern paraphrased the message of the ad as a "call for the country to come together and unify around creating national progress toward equality for LGBT Americans."

(Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate)

Gay Travels in the Muslim World

Michael T Luongo

Homosexuality doesn't officially exist in Muslim countries. These stories beg to differ

Like many Westerners, my knowledge of the Muslim world is limited. My only direct experience is of visiting Dubai, where homosexuality is illegal and homophobia is rife. I can't say it's a place I'd revisit in a hurry. Like everyone else, I've the heard the horror stories emanating from Iran and Saudi Arabia. So I must confess that my first thought when faced with a book called Gay Travels in the Muslim World was "Why?". Why travel to places where attitudes towards homosexuality are still stuck in the dark ages? Why pay your pink pounds into enconomies where gay rights aren't recognised? Why risk discrimination and worse in countries where gay men and women are locked up, publicly hanged or flogged to death? Why not go somewhere else instead?

The reailty, of course, is that what we commonly refer to as "the Muslim world" isn't monolithic. As this collection of true-life stories shows, there are many ways to be a Muslim. Editor Michael T Luongo was prompted to put this book together after calling for submissions for an earlier book, Between the Palms, and being surprised at the number of stories involving gay men's travels in the Middle East and experiences with Muslim men who had migrated to other countries. So there's the story of a nice Jewish boy who settles down in Mauritania, West Africa, and enjoys sex with local men, none of whom identifies as gay. There's the man in Bangladesh who takes a tour of the local cruising spots and discovers a world of prostitution and rooms rented for less than a dollar an hour. There's the editor himself in Afghanistan, where he's surprised to learn that, even under the Taliban, gay wedding ceremonies were taking place in Kandahar. And there's the gay soldier's tour of duty in Iraq, and touching encounter with a man he calls "The Gay Iraqi".

Luongo would probably take issue with the idea of a "gay Iraqi". In his introduction, he stresses that "a tremendous difference exists between how homosexuality is expressed in the Western world and the Islamic world... To simplify a very complex issue, in Europe and America and places under Western influence, homosexual desire and acts become the very definition of a person, they create an identity that separates him or her from the rest of society.

In much of the Islamic world, homosexual desire and acts are simply one aspect among others, something people do but not something that defines a person above all other traits". I must say I'm not entirely convinced by this argument. People who identify as gay are not necessarily guilty of separating themselves from the rest of society, any more than people who are Muslim are automatically guilty of separating themselves from those who are not. Many gay people are happily integrated with their heterosexual friends and family, just as many Muslims are integrated with the wider communities in which they live. And in cities like London at least, there are men and women who are both Muslim and openly gay.

Among the most cheering sights at Gay Pride recently were the gay Muslims with a banner proclaiming "Allah Doesn't Make Mistakes". On the other hand, there are large numbers of people in Europe and America who regularly have homosexual sex but do not identify as gay, either because they're genuinely bisexual or, more often, because they're riddled with guilt and have internalised homophobia. The refusal of a gay identity isn't an expression of free choice but a symptom of oppression. I dare say a similar thing occurs in countries more repressive than ours, where Pride marches are outlawed and homosexuality is so taboo that its very existence is denied. It was only a few months ago that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared to the audience at a university in New York: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like you do in your country." And maybe they don't. Maybe they have homosexuals who are far too terrified of ever coming out the American way, and who choose to see themselves as "men who have sex with men" because, quite frankly, it's their only chance of survival.

But survive they do, and their tales make illuminating reading. This book hasn't prompted me to change my holiday plans, but it has made me think seriously about what it means to be gay and Muslim. And that, surely, is a step in the right direction.

Pentagon Charges Sept. 11 Suspects

The Pentagon has charged six detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and officials said Monday the United States will seek the death penalty.

Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann said the charges lay out a long-term sophisticated plan by the al-Qaida terrorist network to attack the United States of America. The attack over six years ago killed nearly 3,000 people.

Hartmann, the legal adviser to the U.S. military tribunal system, said the six include Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the attacks, in which hijacked planes were flown into buildings in New York and Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed in the fields of western Pennsylvania.

The military will recommend that the six men be tried together before a military tribunal. But the cases may be clouded because of recent revelations that Mohammmed was subject to a harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding -- which critics call torture.

Asked what impact that will have on the case, Hartmann said it will be up to the military judge to determine what evidence is allowed.

Prosecutors have been working for years to assemble the case against suspects in the attacks that prompted the Bush administration to launch its global war on terror.

The other five men being charged are: Mohammed al-Qahtani, the man officials have labeled the 20th hijacker; Ramzi Binalshibh, said to have been the main intermediary between the hijackers and leaders of Al Qaeda; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi, a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been identified as Mohammed's lieutenant for the 2001 operation; al-Baluchi's assistant, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi; and Waleed bin Attash, a detainee known as Khallad, who investigators say selected and trained some of the hijackers.