Senator Ted Kennedy Diagnosed with Brain Tumor

Ted Kennedy

I really wanted to write about this yesterday as the news came out but didn’t have time. As you probably know Kennedy was taken to the hospital after having seizures on Monday. Obviously a malignant brain tumor was not the news the nation was hoping to hear. We are all pulling for him and his family.

Kudos to Kathleen Sebelius!

I feel kind of embarrassed that I haven’t been covering this as well as I should. I have a project in the works for a local Kansas news site so I apologize. As a Kansan I am incredibly proud of our Governor. She has consistently made the right choices even when they were not the most politically expedient. Since I have dropped the ball on her recent acts here are links to others who are picking up the slack.

Kathleen Sebelius Vetoes Voter ID Law. Read Think Progress and Crooks and Liars. Everything I said about the SCOTUS ruling on the Indiana law applies here. Reading local news and blogs it is apparent that most Kansans are unaware of the true effect of these kinds of laws. Either that or their a bunch of assholes. The jury is still out on that distinction.

All the Rest of the News thats Important

• A federal appeals court has ruled Virginia’s late term abortion ban unconstitutional!
• Openly gay Sam Adams has been elected mayor of Portland making him the first openly homosexual mayor of a major American city. It seems like every day I get to write about another accomplishment in LGBTQ equality.
• On the other hand LGBTQ hate crimes rose by 24% in 2007 over the 2006 rates. This just proves that there is still a long way to go. It also shows how needed hate crime protection is.
• A top aid for McCain has stepped down out of respect for Barack Obama. I haven’t followed politics long but can anyone remember this happing before? More at The Carpetbagger Report.
• Tim Haab has a good piece up at Environmental Economics about what we as consumers can do about $4 gas. Read the comments.
• Bush has issued a formal apology after a soldier apparently shot a Koran. Keep telling yourself that its our freedom that they hate.
• I have found out why American schoolchildren compare so poorly to children from other countries. 16% of biology teachers are young earth creationists. The same survey shows that 48% of the general population believes that “God created human beings pretty much in their at one time within the last 10,000 years or so”.

Video of the Day

Henry Waxman Threatens to Have Rep Issa (R-CA) physically removed from hearing. Awesome.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thats all for today folks. I’ll try to have something up over my lunch break. Also Summer finally had a chance to comment on a story yesterday. If you havn’t been reading long it may surprise you to know that this is a multi-author blog.

In fact we accept story submissions from anyone with a progressive viewpoint. Writing for us couldn’t be easier. Just sign up for an account then when you log in you will have the ability to write a story. We will then post it assuming that its appropriate for our viewers.

Have a wonderful day

William ~ WWJV4.com

We’ve made it past the first vote — and we’re gearing up for round two in the Senate on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would have a major impact on the lives of women who’ve been subject to pay discrimination.

With 57 Senators voting in our favor, we are now just 3 votes away from moving the bill forward. And we need your help to make fair pay a reality for women.

Here at the National Women’s Law Center, we’re reaching out to Senators in key states who voted the wrong way the first time around. If you live in one of the following states, at least one of your Senators voted against the bill: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia. Please e-mail that Senator now.

If you don’t live in one of those states, please forward this eCard to your friends, family, and contacts who do.

Thank you again for your support on this key bill. We couldn’t have made it this far without you.

Please, if you live in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, or Virginia please email your senator and try to get them to support fair pay for women.  This is one of those issues where our congress has the opportunity to address a serious injustice, we just need to help them along.

I know people who know people in Nebraska and my wife has family in Texas so we will be sending a few of these cards out.  I wish there was more to be done but maybe this little bit will make the difference.  They are only needing 3 more votes.  You never know your call or email may be the one that makes it happen.  Isn’t this what makes our Nation great?

Thanks once again

William ~ WWJV4.com

Mildred Loving, whose challenge of Virginia’s law forbidding interracial marriage led to a landmark civil rights case, has passed away at the age of 68. Mildred will be remembered forever for Loving v. Virginia in which the Supreme Court declared Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924 unconstitutional. We all owe Mildred Loving a debt of gratitude. Thank you.

Lase year marked the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia. NPR has a good piece on it here. Mildred also released a public statement that I wanted to share. (h/t Positive Liberty)

Loving for All
By Mildred Loving

Prepared for Delivery on June 12, 2007,
The 40th Anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia Announcement

When my late husband, Richard, and I got married in Washington, DC in 1958, it wasn’t to make a political statement or start a fight. We were in love, and we wanted to be married.

We didn’t get married in Washington because we wanted to marry there. We did it there because the government wouldn’t allow us to marry back home in Virginia where we grew up, where we met, where we fell in love, and where we wanted to be together and build our family. You see, I am a woman of color and Richard was white, and at that time people believed it was okay to keep us from marrying because of their ideas of who should marry whom.

When Richard and I came back to our home in Virginia, happily married, we had no intention of battling over the law. We made a commitment to each other in our love and lives, and now had the legal commitment, called marriage, to match. Isn’t that what marriage is?

Not long after our wedding, we were awakened in the middle of the night in our own bedroom by deputy sheriffs and actually arrested for the “crime” of marrying the wrong kind of person. Our marriage certificate was hanging on the wall above the bed. The state prosecuted Richard and me, and after we were found guilty, the judge declared: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” He sentenced us to a year in prison, but offered to suspend the sentence if we left our home in Virginia for 25 years exile.

We left, and got a lawyer. Richard and I had to fight, but still were not fighting for a cause. We were fighting for our love.

Though it turned out we had to fight, happily Richard and I didn’t have to fight alone. Thanks to groups like the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and so many good people around the country willing to speak up, we took our case for the freedom to marry all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And on June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that, “The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men,” a “basic civil right.”

My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.

I think today of all days it is important to remember that this landmark civil rights case was only 41 years ago. Our mainstream media makes it easy for those of us who were not alive during this time to forget that the fight for racial equality happened during our parents lifetimes.

While we have made great strides over the last 40 years, thanks to those like Mildred Loving, there is still a long way to go to make America a land where everyone has equality under the law. I wonder how that case would have gone had they been faced with our current Supreme Court Judges?

Thanks again,
William ~ WWJV4.com

Tony is defending his actions saying that “I’ll speak before any group that invites me, I’ve spoken on an African-American radio station in Atlanta.”

Yes, apparently to Tony Zirkle talking to African-Americans is exactly the same thing as celebrating Hitler’s birthday with a bunch of racist Neo-Nazi’s. Of course he did suggest segregating blacks to their own states away from everyone else so celebrating Hitler’s birthday is probibly to be expected.

I expect someone will quickly try to dismiss Tony Zirkle as a nutjob (he is) and not representative of Republicans (he is). Of course I expected Republicans to try to disown the hateful and intolerant views of Sally Kern and they defended her so maybe I will be wrong again. I just can’t seem to let go of the notion that deep down Republicans are good people no matter how often they prove me wrong.

Support The Fair Pay Restoration Act

Equal pay day is the day of the year in which women catch up to men in earnings from the year before. This year Equal Pay Day is recognized on Tuesday, April 22nd. Currently in America white women working full time jobs make on average make only 77 cents to the males dollar. For minorities the disparity is even greater. African American women earn 63 cents per dollar while Hispanic women are making a mere 53 cents on the dollar.

At WWJV4.com Summer and I strongly believe that our nation needs to recognize this difference and work to correct it. In its recent Ledbetter v. Goodyear ruling the Supreme Court made it virtually impossible for women to fight against this pay discrimination.

This ruling imposed the unreasonable requirement that women discover pay discrimination and file suit within 180 days. Sadly Pay is almost always confidential and the effects of pay discrimination are generally incurred over a long period of time. Therefore this ruling effectively eliminates any possibility of a successful legal solution to pay discrimination.

This is why we are supporting The Fair Pay Restoration Act (S. 1843) which will return women’s ability to fight for fair pay. Please join us in supporting equal pay for women by contacting your Senators and spreading the word about this bill.

Thanks.
William and Summer
WWJV4.com

Vomit by Eric at RedState

Only CNN and the Democrats would put together a “Compassion” forum. Isn’t the Democratic Primary already a compassion forum where Hillary and Obama express their compassion for the little guy while doing their best to avoid actually touching them?

Amazing. He managed to pack hypocrisy, racism and sexism into two sentences all the while being condescending to one of the main messages of Jesus. Pretty amazing. Not surprisingly the conservatives who comment on RedState failed to connect compassion to the teachings of Jesus as well so I decided to help them out.

My Comment (Adammair)

Liberals are weenies. HaHa! Compassion is something that Jesus guy would talk about.

While I doubt my comment will make any difference as conservatives have an amazingly strong ability to filter out any bits of reality that differs from their own opinions. It did brighten my Monday morning though. Eric at RedState declared that an open thread so please head on over and remind them about the teachings of their professed religion.

William
WWJV4

However while Rob Sherman may have accepted her apology Rep. Davis still has a lot of making up to do. Personally I think its probably too little too late but I don’t live in Chicago. Ultimately it will be up to those she represents to decide if she is the type of Democrat they want in office. At least she isn’t using her bigotry as an opportunity to raise money though.

Rep. Davis still needs to apologize to the great number of people who she offended. Saying that “This is the land of Lincoln where people believe in God” is an attack on everyone who does not adhere to Christianity(1). If Rep. Davis cannot bring herself to do this, or does not feel that it is necessary, then I am certain the people of Chicago can find a better Democrat to represent them.

William
WWJV4.com

1: There is a lot of historical evidence that Lincoln, who never joined a church or defended himself against accusations of being a deist or atheist, wasn’t a Christian. Most likely Lincoln believed in Deism, the belief in a creator that is not personally involved in peoples daily lives. Not really important as I don’t expect Rep. Davis to know this but it’s important to bring up as the fundamentalists keep trying to push the myth that America was founded as a Christian nation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Download the video here

Here is a short transcript of the conversation, you can read the rest here. They also have audio. From listening to the audio I can say that Rob Sherman stayed calm and polite through the conversation.

Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!

Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court—

Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.

What makes this more disappointing than the bigoted words of Sally Kern is that Rep. Davis is a Democrat with a strong voting record on reproductive and civil rights and the environment (see voting record here). I have come to accept this kind of religious intolerance from Republicans. I guess these things just go to show show just how deeply the religious right has embedded their intolerance into our society.

If you would like to let Rep. Davis know how you feel about her words here is her contact information. As always please be polite. I would expect an apology will be made shortly. For more reading check out Eric Zorn and PZ Meyers posts on this.

Father and Daughter

Thomas Beatie, the transgendered pregnant man from The Advocate, was on Oprah telling what I feel is a beautiful and romantic story. Thomas became pregnant himself instead of his wife as she is unable to become pregnant for medical reasons. The more I watch and read about the couple the more I am drawn to admire their decisions. I hope that their story helps others who are struggling to come to terms with their sexuality and body image.

Watch Oprah’s promo on this story below, and for clips from the show check out Melissa McEwan’s coverage on Shakesville .

Click here to view the embedded video.

I don’t have much more to add to this story except to say that I am very happy for the couple and I wish them and their daughter the best. Hopefully them taking the brave steps to go public with their story will progress the dialog on equal rights for everyone. It should defiantly put into question our society’s shallow view of gender and sexuality.

Not surprisingly the mainstream media has been pretty quiet about all this, with the unfortunate exception of Fox News. Never one to approach a story with tact Fox ran it with this lead “A transsexual woman who has undergone reconstructive surgery and testosterone therapy, and who calls herself a “man,” claims to be five months pregnant with a baby girl.” There is so much wrong here but what’s most offensive is the fact that Fox understands their audience and this is written perfectly for them.

By contrast The Guardian, a UK based news outlet, ran the story the following day with “An American married man, who used to be a woman before having gender reassignment surgery, has sparked shock and disbelief after claiming to be five months pregnant with a baby girl.” Notice how much more respectful and unbiased that sounds? I guess its all in how you write for your target audience.

Please let me know what you all think on this story.