Author: Trish

Edwards Press Conference Set for Noon Thursday

Trish

This doesn’t sound too good:

JOHN and ELIZABETH EDWARDS have scheduled a press conference Thursday at noon ET in Chapel Hill. The campaign would not say what they would discuss, but observers have been awaiting an update on Elizabeth Edwards’ latest breast cancer checkup. According to a statement released Tuesday afternoon, she was expected to have a “follow-up medical appointment” Wednesday to a routine test she had on Monday. “She’s had similar follow-ups in the past, and they’ve all resulted in a clean bill of health, but Sen. Edwards has gone with her to these appointments, and he wanted to be with her tomorrow, too,” the statement said. Edwards, who was in Iowa Tuesday on the latest stop of his 2008 campaign, was scheduled to attend a house party in Indianola. He canceled the appearance to fly home and attend the follow-up appointment.

That’s So 2005: Bush Requests “No Strings” Budget

Trish

As George W. Bush celebrated the opening of the fifth year of accomplishing the various missions in Iraq, he showed he can still gall people without breaking a sweat.

Bush at the opening of Year Five: “Just shut up and give me the money”

Bush asked Congress to hand him a blank check with no strings attached. You know, like the good ol’ Republican-controlled legislature always did. Those were the days.

As Bush delivered a speech to inaugurate Year Five, he reached new heights of saying nothing but in a really threatening way.

“There will be good days and bad days ahead as the security plan unfolds.”

…“It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home,” he said. “That may be satisfying in the short run. But I believe the consequences for America’s security would be devastating.”

…[Democrats] have a responsibility to get this bill to my desk without strings and without delay.”

Unfortunately, we have all come to find out that Bush’s beliefs and assessments are usually 180 degrees off from reality, and that his motivations have more to do with greed and religious zealotry than the welfare of people about whom he understands almost nothing. Meaning both the Iraqis and us.

Congress is being entirely reasonable.

The House’s war spending bill includes a troop withdrawal deadline of Sept. 1, 2008. The timeline would speed up if the Iraqi government cannot meet its own benchmarks for providing security, allocating oil revenues and other essential steps.

Blaming the Victim: Portrayal of Florida Man Killed for Being Gay Doesn’t Ring True

Trish
William Brown, left, and Joseph Bearden, after their arrests in the killing of Ryan Skipper
William Brown, left, and Joseph Bearden, after their arrests in the killing of Ryan Skipper

It sounds like the Matthew Shepard story all over again, this time in Florida.

The body of a gay man, 25-year-old Ryan Keith Skipper, was found dumped on the side of the road last week in the flyover country between Tampa and Orlando, stabbed 20 times. Two men have been charged with the killing, which police are investigating as a hate crime.

The local paper, the Lakeland Ledger, quotes Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd as being unequivocal on the victim’s intentions.

“What we do know is that Ryan was out looking to pick up someone that evening,” Judd said.

The scenario doesn’t add up, friends say

Skipper was driving around Wahneta on Tuesday night when he found [21-year-old Joseph] Bearden walking along Sixth Street in Eloise about 11 p.m. Tuesday, and offered him a ride. The two went back to Skipper’s house, where they smoked marijuana and discussed using Skipper’s computer to copy checks, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The scenario from the local news being disseminated to regional and national outlets, is that the victim, himself a lowlife, was out trolling for a hook-up and made a move on the wrong hombres. But almost nothing in that story adds up, according to people who knew him.

That’s where it starts to get kind of Pulp Fiction.

They left Skipper’s house with his laptop and went to another home, at 110 First St. in Wahneta, to meet [20-year-old William] Brown.

“At this time, they decided to rip Ryan off for his car and his laptop,” Judd said…

Judd said Brown and Bearden attacked Skipper inside his own car. His body was left by the side of the road, stabbed nearly 20 times.

The two suspects then drove to another home at 2131 Cypress Gardens Road, where they discarded some papers from the car. Their next stop was at 16 28th St. S. in Haines City to try to clean up the vehicle.

“The car was full of blood because the homicide had occurred in the vehicle,” Judd said.

Eventually, the paper said, after “parading” the car around and bragging to friends, the suspects abandoned it on a dock near a lake in the town of Winter Haven.

After they were taken into custody, homophobia was introduced as the motive for the murder and robbery.

Several more witnesses also were interviewed Friday night, and it was during one of those interviews that Brown’s admission was revealed.

“William Brown told (a witness) that Ryan Skipper was messing with him, that Ryan Skipper was a homosexual, so (he) killed him,” Judd said.

So much for the official story. […]

Friday Afternoon News Dump: Surge Already Growing

Trish

Even more troops than we were told would be are now headed to Iraq as part of the Bush “surge.” I’m shocked that the administration that puts every dollar for the Iraq War through on an emergency basis wouldn’t tell us up front how many troops would be sent in the surge.

No I’m not.

The Bush Team is also master of the Friday afternoon bad news dump, the technique of holding unflattering stories until no one’s paying attention. And what better time to hide a whopper like this than the Friday leading into St. Patrick’s Day weekend?

An article by Reuters posted at 3:36 p.m. Eastern time Friday:

The Pentagon is sending an additional Army brigade of 2,600 troops to Iraq, raising the number of soldiers approved for Bush’s security plan to nearly 30,000

The Pentagon is sending an additional Army brigade of 2,600 troops to Iraq, raising the number of soldiers approved for President George W. Bush’s security plan to nearly 30,000, a senior defense official said on Friday…

Bush approved a plan in January to send 21,500 combat troops to Baghdad and Anbar province to crack down on violence that has been characterized by U.S. intelligence officials as a civil war between Iraq’s Sunnis and Shi’ites.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England told Congress this month that 4,000 to 7,000 additional support troops, including military police, would be needed to augment combat forces.

The numbers released on Friday show the Bush administration has already approved 7,200 support troops. The list includes the Army combat aviation brigade as well as 2,200 detention operations troops and another 2,400 combat and service support personnel.

Liars, liars, liars.

Strip Club Freebie Sweetens Pot for Reluctant Voters

Trish

A Tampa strip club owner and city council candidate is making voters a deal: he’ll trade admission to his Mons Venus gentlemen’s club for an “I Voted” sticker.

Hmmm. I wonder what type of voting demographic this will increase turnout in?

“I hope it helps turnout,” [City Council Candidate and strip club owner Joe] Redner said Wednesday. “And the publicity is good for me, too.”

Yes, the publicity be berry berry good to you, Joe.

Interested voters can obtain the sticker by casting a ballot anytime before March 24, the early voting period. Or they can wait until election day, Tuesday, March 27. And then bring on the girls!

Newt’s Going to Run, Says Former Campaign Manager

Trish

He should know. Newt Gingrich’s former campaign chairman, now a Jacksonville-based political columnist, has analyzed the tea leaves and predicted a presidential run by the porcine one.

Matt Towery says Newt’s admission to James Dobson that he was covering up an affair with an aide while voting to impeach Pres. Clinton for trying to cover up an affair with aide was the capper.

Newt’s admission to James Dobson that he was covering up an affair with an aide while voting to impeach Pres. Clinton for trying to cover up an affair with aide was the capper

It’s time for me to say it: I’m 100 percent positive that Gingrich will enter the battle for the GOP nomination.

Timing is everything, Towery explains, and Newt’s time is running out.

The real issue for Team Gingrich on a presidential announcement is not if, but when. Newt’s original strategy was to sit by and watch earlier-announced candidates flounder and waste money. That might have seemed workable before nearly all heavily populated states with ambition decided to move their presidential primaries to early February…

[Newt’s] problem is that too many of the key Republican activists and campaign contributors are already joining other campaigns. A check with one of Gingrich’s most prominent sources of major funding confirmed that they might be close to opting for another Republican candidate if Gingrich doesn’t give the proper signals soon.

So is Towery trying to “help” by giving the signal for him? The pundit says former Tenn. Sen. Fred Thompson’s possible announcement is an important factor, but the candidate to beat is Rudy Guiliani.

…which candidate would most need to fall on his face in order for Gingrich to enter the fray?

Rudy Giuliani. That’s right. Many say otherwise, that Gingrich needs another right-wing darling to stumble. But the real fall guy is the former New York City mayor.

By making his “confession” to James Dobson last week, and by then receiving forgiveness from major religious-right leaders, Gingrich outflanked Giuliani and his own publicly unacknowledged transgressions.

These scenarios all make sense. But I can’t see Newt making it through a year-long national campaign without getting on everyone’s last nerve, even Republicans.

Towery is also CEO of InsiderAdvantage and is developing his 1998 book, “Powerchicks: How Women Will Dominate America” into a weekly show. Can’t wait for that one.

Florida Rep Says Gay Students Need Psychological Treatment

Trish

A Republican Florida state lawmaker was right on target when he brought up the need for psychological treatment regarding homosexuality in high school students. Somebody does need to see a shrink.

But it’s not the kids.

“After telling him my story he proceeded to say he was repulsed by homosexuals and we needed extensive psychological treatment”

The idiot in question, Rep. Alan Hays (Umatilla), a retired dentist, reportedly implied to students lobbying for an anti-bullying law, the “Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up For All Act,” that being homosexual is fair game for taunts.

The bill named for a Cape Coral teenager who killed himself in 2005 after being bullied at school would define “bullying” and direct schools to set up clear rules for how to handle threatening behavior…

The bill defines “sexual, religious or racial harassment” as bullying, but makes no mention of sexual orientation.

Its sponsor, Rep. Nick Thompson of Fort Myers, said that is because the bill is broad enough to cover all forms of harassment.

But critics said it intentionally left out homosexuals so conservative Republican lawmakers would vote for the bill.

Didn’t work, according to one of the students.

“After telling him my story he proceeded to say he was repulsed by homosexuals and we needed extensive psychological treatment,” said Jessica Osborn, 22, a University of Central Florida student and one of the three coalition members who met with Hays. Hays confirmed Tuesday he met with the students but said he couldn’t recall saying he was “repulsed” by homosexuals.

“I did tell them that they needed some psychological treatment,” said Hays, who said he first asked them if they wanted to hear his views on homosexuality.

The bill’s sponsors say the three biggest topics of derision among high schoolers are gender, race, and sexual orientation. Personal experience by the author bears that out, although I would replace gender with body weight/puberty development issues. Either way, a bill that deals with bullying but doesn’t include homosexuality is a stupid bill.

Privacy: The Newest Battle Cry of Republicans Seeking to Revoke the Constitution

Trish

There is no right to privacy in the Constitution, abortion foes like to remind us. To them, it’s a constitutional stretch to say that a woman has the right to make up her mind about her body, all by herself, without government assistance.

But there will be more privacy than you can shake a very big stick at in Florida if a state lawmaker gets his way. Personnel records of public workers, such as teachers and elections officials, as well as arrest records, civil suits, and just about everything else formerly “public” will forever more be “private.”

In an extreme case, a newspaper could be prevented from printing the name of a killer unless the killer gave permission for the personal information to be disclosed.

The bill requires that personal identification information should always remain private, even when collected legally.

It would give people the option of choosing whether to have personal identification information released to the public when requested by a state agency to supply such information.

Personal identification information is defined as a person’s name and any information that may be used to identify an individual, including an address, telephone number, social security number, date of birth or mother’s maiden name.

The bill is one of the three labeled most egregious by the First Amendment Foundation, a Florida open-government advocacy group made up of newspaper reporters, broadcasters, and other members of the press. The same state representative, William Proctor (R-St. Augustine), made the list twice.

His second (HB 1211) would make it a misdemeanor to distribute personal identification information about someone without first receiving permission from that person, even if the distributors legally acquired the information from public records.

The framers of the Constitution, as we all know but apparently need to be reminded, wanted us to be able to keep a very close eye on the courts, since they alone have the power to deprive us of our liberty. Without knowing who’s been arrested or tried for what by whom, we can’t possibly exercise the oversight a free society requires.

“It would just close the door to a whole host of records that we use regularly to oversee our government,” said Adria Harper, the director of the Florida’s First Amendment Foundation.

In an extreme case, Harper said, a newspaper could be prevented from printing the name of a killer unless the killer gave permission for the personal information to be disclosed.

These same Republicans want us to know the addresses, license numbers, and blood types of sex offenders. How these two initiatives will coexist is an interesting question. Proctor’s explanation of what he is trying to accomplish is, at best, lame.

“The basic question is to what level of privacy is a person entitled,” Proctor said. “There is the problem of identity theft. That’s not a small problem.”

It is and it isn’t. Identity theft, like online child pornography, is being pumped up and used as a rallying cry to either unconstitutionally hide us or unconstitutionally snoop on us. Either way, it’s bad law.