Tallahassee Democrat reporter Stephen Price

The McCain team swears that race was not an issue when a senior reporter from the Tallahassee Democrat was ejected from a campaign rally in Panama City but they can’t supply an alternate explanation.

[Stephen] Price was among at least three other reporters, and the only black reporter, surrounding McCain’s campaign bus — Gov. Charlie Crist and his fiancee, Carole Rome, were already aboard — when a member of the Arizona senator’s security detail asked the reporter to identify himself. Price had shown his media credentials to enter the area.

Newspaper’s executive editor: “We’re deeply concerned and disturbed that our reporter — of all of those in that area — was asked to move. My understanding is that Stephen was the only reporter approached and asked to leave, and the only reporter in that area who is black.”

Price showed his employee identification as well as his credentials for the Friday event.

“I explained I was with the state press, but the Secret Service man said that didn’t matter and that I would have to go,” Price said.

The big question is, what if anything had Price done to earn his removal?

Tallahassee Democrat Executive Editor Bob Gabordi said the incident was unwarranted.

“We’re deeply concerned and disturbed that our reporter — of all of those in that area — was asked to move,” Gabordi said. “My understanding is that Stephen was the only reporter approached and asked to leave the area, and the only reporter in that area who is black. Another reporter who stood up for Stephen was then asked to leave.”

The McCain team denies Price was removed because he is African-American.

“Access to the senator is tightly controlled,” [McCain advance man Jonathan] Block said. “I would first express regret that your reporter was moved, and I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that race had nothing to do with it.”

And that’s supposed to settle it?

George Bush went out of his way not to use the term “mission accomplished” yesterday when he quietly declared the surge in Iraq to be a success. Bush’s declaration has been ignored by just about everyone, except for Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who used it as an opportunity to trot out one of the tired-est of the GOP Big Lies: that Saddam Hussein’s government was behind the 9/11 attacks.
“[We] are introducing a resolution recognizing the strategic success that the surge has achieved in a central front — the central front of the war on terror against the enemies who attacked America on 9/11/01”
— Lieberman
First, here’s a bit of Bush’s non-declaration of Mission Accomplished II mumbo-jumbo:

BUSH: This has been a month of encouraging news from Iraq. Violence is down to its lowest level since the spring of 2004, and we’re now in our third consecutive month with reduced violence levels holding steady. General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker caution that the progress is still reversible, but they report that there now appears to be a “degree of durability” to the gains we have made.

A significant reason for this sustained progress is the success of the surge. Another is the increasing capability of the Iraqi forces. Iraqi forces now have 192 combat battalions in the fight — and more than 110 of these battalions are taking the lead in combat operations against terrorists and extremists.

A little later, during a press conference held by Lieberman and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to congratulate Dear Leader on his latest triumph, Lieberman said this:

LIEBERMAN: That’s why Senator Graham and I are introducing a resolution recognizing the strategic success that the surge has achieved in a central front — the central front of the war on terror against the enemies who attacked America on 9/11/01, and expressing our thanks to our troops who’ve made that success possible.

The lie that Saddam was behind the Sept. 11 attacks has been knocked down multiple times, most recently on March 13, when the Pentagon said there was no “no direct link between late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda network.” (PDF)

It is beyond outrageous that they’re still out there selling this disinformation five years after the invasion.

Beta Upsilon Chi reject?

The University of Florida is having a hard time keeping out a Christian-only fraternity. The school, recently (and proudly) named America’s top party college by Princeton Review, refused to give Beta Upsilon Chi, also known as Brothers Under Christ or BUCs, status as an official student organization because it requires members to be Christians.

“The University of Florida welcomes all kinds of student groups including those with a religious focus,” said Janine Sikes, UF spokeswoman. “(But) if someone who is a non-Christian wants to join, they should be able to.”

Nah, say the Bucs, who won a partial appeals court victory by forcing the school to recognize the frat while the final ruling is decided.

“All we’re trying to do is get a group of guys who share a common bond in Jesus Christ together,” said Damion Dam, a 20-year-old UF finance/pre-med major and fraternity president.

Is it me, or does that sound…icky?

But anyway, how do guys know if they share your common bond in Jesus if you won’t let them in the door?

Religious groups at UF walk a tightrope between specialization and discrimination. The Christian Veterinary Fellowship, which conducts mission work in other countries, is an example of an officially recognized group with a religious focus.

“That doesn’t mean that we ask everyone who comes to our meetings whether they’re Christian or not,” said Michelle Bellville, a fourth-year vet student and group president. “We’re open to everyone.”

But she said members are likely to be Christians or searching for religion.

While no one who wasn’t in one cares about fraternities or sororities, there’s a lot at stake here. For starters:

Recognition of the organization will allow it to receive funding from Student Government, use the school’s facilities and advertise on campus.

But it’s more than that.

“It has repercussions for all other religious groups who desire to assemble on university campuses,” [Brett Williams, national board member of BUCs] said.

I hope UF wins.

Okeechobee, Fla., is pretty much what you expect — rural and conservative. Oh, and intolerant of gays, too.

Tuesday, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore issued an opinion that the Gay-Straight Alliance of Okeechobee High School can meet on campus like all other noncurricular school groups, and that its case against the School Board of Okeechobee County is closed. The American Civil Liberties Union called the ruling “ground-breaking.”

It certainly is in Okeechobee County. I was there once, for a football game 30 or so years ago. I have never seen more purple cowboy hats and boots before or since. Purple is one of Okeechobee High’s school colors, so you can understand how they might get a little touchy if some gay people tried to appropriate their color.

Oh, and they call themselves Brahmans — not after the Hindu concept of Brahman as the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space and being — but after the Brahman cattle that are raised in large numbers in those parts. Actually, I remember a bunch of them being raised right across Highway 441 from the football field.

The club was started in the interest of promoting understanding and tolerance, following the school’s act of discrimination:

Yasmin Gonzalez started the Gay-Straight Alliance in 2006 when she learned she couldn’t take another girl to the Okeechobee High School prom. The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of Gonzalez and the Alliance after club members were prevented from meeting on campus and Principal Toni Wiersma refused to officially recognize them as a student group.

In April, Moore ruled the case moot because Gonzalez had graduated and the club had no more members, but he re-opened it upon learning school officials prevented another student, current Club President Brittany Martin, from reviving the group.

Throughout the discovery process, a temporary injunction existed allowing the club to meet, but still the school board put up “roadblocks” like preventing members from using the word “gay” during meetings.

The school administration argued that it was uncomfortable with the club because it was “sex-based” and the school has a policy of teaching abstinence-only sex education. Now how’s that for logic? That’s what happens when lazy people use “sex” when they mean “gender.”

Currently, the club has only six members, most of whom are straight, who say they joined the club to stand up for gay friends and family members.

I wish you good luck, kids.

Thirty-odd years ago when we won the football game, we were cursed, threatened, spat on, showered with soda pop and rocks were thrown at our bus as we left.

They don’t tolerate losing in Okeechobee County.

Rep. Ron Paul, M.D., (R-Texas) the former Republican and Libertarian Party candidate for president, cast the only vote against banning lead in toys in the House of Representatives yesterday:

Alarmed by a year of recalls targeting millions of tainted toys, the House voted overwhelming Wednesday to ban lead and other dangerous chemicals from items such as jewelry and rubber ducks that could end up in kids’ mouths.

The legislation also would toughen rules for testing children’s products and take steps to give more muscle to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which was criticized last year for its feeble handling of a flood of goods from China deemed hazardous to children.

Even flat-earthers like Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the ranking member of the committee that first passed the ban, were in favor of it. “[Our] children’s toys will be tested in the laboratory before they are tested by our children on the living room floors of America,” Barton said, in a prepared statement.

Key to the libertarian philosophy is the idea that citizens should take responsibility for themselves — that government’s role should be limited to protecting the country from its enemies but little else. For example, government should not provide pensions like Social Security or medical aid through systems like Medicare.

Libertarians also believe that in situations like this, when toy manufacturers infuse their products with enough lead to cause brain damage in children, it is up to the market to punish them.

But dealing with a sudden rise in the incidence of lead in toys is a glaring example of how the libertarian approach is impracticable. By voting against the ban, Dr. Paul is saying that toy manufacturers should be free to put whatever poisons they like in their products, and then, after enough children become brain-damaged to cause a panic, the market — the toy-buying public — will exact its punishment by taking away the manufacturer’s revenue.

Dr. Paul has five grown children, and it would be interesting to know whether he really believes the laissez-faire interests of Chinese toy manufacturers are more important than the health and safety of his 18 grandchildren.

On the other hand, Paul has never been an ideologically pure libertarian. While he apparently believes the government has no business protecting children from malfeasant toymakers, he is firmly in favor of passing laws to regulate the pregnancies of American women as well as the exclusion of gays from the civil right to marry.