Year: 2005

It’s official. A federal court enacted a temporary restraining order to allow gay pride pride flags to fly downtown in the nation’s oldest city. (See above.)

St. Augustine Record:

Local gay pride groups have the right to fly their flags on the Bridge of Lions starting today, a district court judge ruled Tuesday. The 49 rainbow gay pride flags will fly today through June 13th on the Bridge of Lions for St. Augustine Pride’s annual event this weekend.

After three years of the City Commission denying Gays the right to fly the rainbow gay pride flag on the bridge, St. Augustine Pride Committee and others filed a suit Monday against the city, the mayor and other administrators…

U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams of Jacksonville, granted the temporary restraining order on Tuesday afternoon…

The City Commission had denied the flying of the pride flag on the bridge because the majority of its members voted that it did not represent a “historical landmark or event in the city,” the criteria for approval.

In his ruling, the judge said the City Commission’s argument did not apply because the city has given permits in the past for groups to fly flags on the bridge that did not have “historical significance associated with the city.” He specifically cited Flagler College, which was founded in the 1960s.

He also said the Gay Pride group would “suffer irreparable harm and loss” if they were prohibited from flying its (sic) flag during the week of the annual gay pride celebration.

City Commissioner Errol Jones said he is concerned that the judge’s ruling will open a “Pandora’s Box.”

“Tomorrow, we could get an anti-gay group wanting to fly their flag,” Jones said. “I don’t want to be expressing everyone’s personal opinion” with flags flying on the bridge. “We could end up flying flags every week. That’s not appropriate for the city or the bridge.”

I am a little conflicted on this. I do not believe the mayor and fellow commissioners are acting from homophobia. I campaigned for the mayor, one of the last Democrats in public office in these parts. He is also my neighbor and our dogs play together at the dog park. That said, I’m glad the flags are flying.

On the other hand, Randall Terry, anti-abortion terrorist and possible candidate for state senate, lives in nearby Ponte Vedra. I would prefer not to have right-to-life or similar flags flying (especially for an obnoxious publicity stunt) but, as we used to say before Bush took office, I guess it’s a free country.

I doubt this will be the end of the story locally. I have a feeling before the day is out, some marriage-is-only-for-straight-people clam diggers will be holding a protest. Expect more coverage soon.

Recruitment into the all volunteer U.S. Army has gotten so bad that even though the service revised its recruitment goals downward for May, it missed the lowered goal by 25 percent.

The New York Times is reporting that on Friday, the Army will announce that only about 5,000 new troops were recruited last month. Their original goal was 8,050 for May, but the Pentagon quietly lowered the goal to 6,000 earlier this year.

The issue hits home even to Americans who don’t read a newspaper or watch the news. Anyone with a teenaged boy in the family or among their friends knows that registering for the draft is still a requirement for every young man in the United States on his 18th birthday.

In fact, last year, the Selective Service registered 15.6 million young men between 18 and 25 years old.

As crises heat up in and around Iraq, in North Korea, Africa and around the world, the Administration faces an increasingly skeptical public when it issues its denials that a draft is in the works. When asked about the issue at a recent , Secretary of Defense gave this typical response:

“Some people are running around saying we ought to go back to the draft. …. I’ll tell you, that is one of the worst ideas I can imagine. We don’t need to draft people. We’ve got plenty of people,” he said during the April trip. “We sure as the dickens don’t need a draft.”

Shorter: Who are you going to believe, America – me or your lying eyes?

Did you see this AP blurb?

A maverick Republican congresswoman has gained a symbolic victory over the House leadership and the Bush administration on the issue of drug reimportation.

Lawmakers gave voice-vote approval to an amendment introduced by Rep. Anne Northup of Kentucky. It would prohibit the administration from negotiating future trade agreements that would thwart imports of lower-cost medicines.

Northup fears trade agreements could be used as a “back door” way of trying to stop Congress from passing a bill to legalize the reimportation of U.S.-produced drugs from other countries.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay predicted Northup’s amendment will be dropped “somehow.”

Can somebody tell me why Tom DeLay lives and breathes? Or why he does it in the frickin’ House of Representatives?

Anyway, looks like continuing evidence that Bush’s idiotic policies are losing their blind appeal among the Republican elected officials who have to do the heavy lifting for them.

More bad news for President Bush in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll:

The survey found that 58 percent of those interviewed said Bush is concentrating mainly in his second term on problems and partisan squabbles that these respondents said were unimportant to them. Four in 10 — 41 percent — said the president was focused on important problems — a double-digit drop from three years ago.

Wow! That sounds pretty bad. But then, incredibly, there’s this:

Overall, the president’s job approval rating stood at 48 percent, virtually identical to where it was last month. Currently 52 percent of the public disapproves of the job Bush is doing as president, the first time in his presidency that more than half of the public has expressed negative views of the president’s performance.

That is just astounding. How can this man have a 48 percent approval rating? It’s more evidence of the waffling by the voters in the middle, the Swingsters. They are really conflicted about Bush. They say he’s doing a good job on one hand, and on the other, it appears they are waking up:

Ominously for Bush and the Republicans, a strong majority of self-described political independents — 68 percent — say they disagreed with the president’s priorities. That suggests Bush’s mixed record in the second term on issues the public views as critical — particularly on Iraq and the economy — may be as much a liability for GOP candidates in next year’s mid-term election as his performance in his first term was an asset to Republican congressional hopefuls last year and in 2002.

Well, my Independent friends, you didn’t “like” Kerry so you went with the team who had the demonstrably bad record. A box of hammers could do a better job running the country – and they’re not done yet screwing things up.

A federal court in Jacksonville, Florida will decide today if the City of St. Augustine will be flying gay pride flags this weekend.

St. Augustine Record:

For three years in a row, the City Commission has denied the St. Augustine Pride Committee the right to fly the rainbow gay pride flag on the Bridge of Lions during their June celebration.

Monday, they filed a federal suit against the city, its mayor and other administrators.

The city requires that any flag flown on the bridge “relate directly to a not-for-profit event that is in direct correlation to a historical landmark or event in the City and has historical significance associated with the City.”

“Quite frankly, we’ve met their requirements,” said Rev. Ruth Jensen, SAPC co-chair. “We tried to compromise with the mayor, but he wouldn’t budge. He left us no alternative.”

SAPC decided to sue in conjunction with Equality Florida, and is represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Mayor George Gardner said his position is the same as it has been since the issue came up.

“The application is a social concept wrapped in a historical argument,” he said. “I’m uncomfortable representing on any public facility social causes of one kind or another. We’ll leave it in the hands of a judge now.”

Check out Pensito Review’s earlier coverage of this story.

Here we go again, performing hari-kari so all the Republicans have to do is step on our pointy little heads and put us out of our misery.

An A.P. story that ran all over the place, including USA Today is quoting Joe Biden and John Edwards (for whom I voted in 2004) as saying Doktor Howard Dean (hey, if it’s good enough for Condi, why not use it for a real M.D.?) went too far when he made the shocking observation that the GOP is the party of wealth and privilege.

Edwards responded that Dean “is not the spokesman for the party.”

Dean is “a voice. I don’t agree with it,” Edwards, a former senator and the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in 2004, said Saturday at a party fundraising dinner in Nashville.

Well, let’s see, Johnny. Howard Dean is the chairman of the Democratic Party. That makes him pretty much the guy who speaks for Democrats, aka, the Spokesman for the Party.

What really burns me is while we’re so busy throwing ourselves on the flames of penance for “going too far,” the Killer Whales of the Republican Party (great name for a rock band) are gloating and coming out smelling like roses.

Asked about Dean’s remark about Republicans and honest living, GOP chairman Ken Mehlman told NBC’s Meet the Press: “I’m not sure the best way to win support in the red states is to insult the folks who live there. I think that a better approach might be to talk about the issues you’re for.”

Hey Ken, would you like some sanctimony with that hypocrisy?

I can’t remember a single campaign since I’ve been able to vote (lo these many years) when the Republicans took pains to paint the opposition as anything but moronic, tax-and-spend, Ivy League, Commie, feminist/homosexual/anti-nukular family, bleeding heart liberals.

It’s our own fault that sleezebags like Ken Mehlman look noble and pure. We do this to ourselves. Joe, John, what do you think you gain by throwing Howie under the bus? Yes, he can’t be trusted with a microphone. Yes, he says stupid things. But he’s our idiot and we have to stand behind him. Did the Repugs get where they are today by saying W. needs to attend a Toastmasters meeting? Hell no! They watch his remote-controlled, microphone-humped backside. When are we going to wake up and start doing the same?

Why is Washington making sure Florida’s draft board is at capacity?

The Gainesville Sun:

What the federal government is looking for are at least 78 Floridians willing to serve on draft boards even though the nation has not had a draft for 25 years.

“These local folks would decide cases that involve individuals who may be claiming a hardship, or that they are a conscientious objector, or ministerial student, or member of the clergy, or have some other reason why they believe they should not be drafted,” said Dick Flahavan, associate director of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Selective Service System.

Hmmm. Doesn’t sound good. And, the government wants you to know, you’ll need to available for extra hours in the remote chance the draft is re-enacted. Remote. Right.

The time commitment is minimal during peacetime, Flahavan said…However, the time commitment could increase significantly during a draft.

Have no idea if the government is trying to make sure all draft boards are ship-shape but I’d be very interested to hear if the call is going out nationwide. Please make a comment if this is happening in your state.

Republicans are floating the idea in the media that California could flip to Red in the next presidential elections. The population in the state’s Red counties is growing, Republicans say, therefore the number of GOP voters will rise.

They made the same wild claim recently about the rising population in southern states. If the population in Red states grow, so will the number of Republican voters.

It is logical to assume that when populations rise, the number of voters will also increase. But to assert that new voters moving into Red states or counties will increase Republican rolls more than Democratic numbers implies that more Republicans than Democrats are moving in. And that factor is not necessarily true in the case of either California counties or the Southern states.

For example, most new arrivals in the South emigrate from Blue states like New York, New Jersey and Michigan and Purple states like Pennsylvania. In California, many, if not most, of the emigrants to the Red counties are moving to escape the high cost of living in the vastly more desirable Blue counties.

Here is an example of writer for the Associated Press buying into the Republican’s wishful thinking about taking California:

California is home to nearly 37 million people — one of every eight Americans — and is projected to add as many as 11 million more in the next two decades, roughly the equivalent of the state of Ohio. But while population growth is slowing in left-leaning coastal areas like Los Angeles and San Francisco, it is accelerating in more conservative regions such as the Central Valley and the Inland Empire area east of Los Angeles.

The state’s large Hispanic population, long staunchly Democratic, has become somewhat less so in recent years. Bush won 32 percent of California’s Hispanic vote in 2004, up from 28 percent in 2000. Schwarzenegger won about a third of Hispanic voters in the 2003 recall election even though Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Hispanic, was also on the ballot.

To buy this you have to believe 1) only Republicans will move to Red states or counties – or 2) when Democrats move to Red states, they quickly drink the Kool-Aid and become Republicans.

Since most of the voters are Democrats in the states and counties these people are leaving, why wouldn’t the majority of the people moving also be Democrats?

Here in the reality-based world, the decision to uproot and move to another place is a serious and stressful undertaking. Statistically, the top reasons people move are financial/job-related and to be near family. I’ll bet the number of people who move primarly in order to live in a more politically amenable area is zero.