comes to a vote in the Senate as early as June 5th, 2006. Your Congress has already passed it. Don’t allow the travesty to pass!

On the surface, the amendment will limit marriage to those between a man and a woman. Beneath the troubled waters, however, lie the sharks waiting to pounce. Should such an amendment pass, LGBT people will lose all rights. The courts will be forced to support the following; 1)LGBT people will not be able to have families, 2) Children of a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual parent can and will be taken away from that parent, 3) Partners will not be able to inherit one another’s assets when one partner dies, and 4) Partners will not even be allowed to be present in a dieing partner’s hospital room because they will by definition not be married ( that is family)!

And, the amendment will make it all the more reasonable to harass GLBT people at work and at their homes.

What can you do?

Write to your senator to state your position against THE AMENDMENT to limit the freedom of an entire class of people. Go to Free Speech Coalition Inc. to find out how.

God bless everyone, even the conservative and evangelical bigots and any Democratic Senators who allow this travesty to take place!

So, Madonna is prejudiced against Catholics (?), Jesus Christ (?), the Catholic Church (?), - because she crucified herself (well sort of) during a concert. As a result of the incident which took place during the opening concert of Madonna’s new world tour, “Confessions, ”Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League called her a “pathetic bigot.”

So, let’s turn the whole thing on its head.

Bill Donahue is prejudiced against female pop stars who portray themselves as being crucified because he can’t stand the thought that Jesus Christ may have just died on the cross to save women as well as men, or perhaps to save women from being used by bigoted men in ways that disrespect them. Of course, these are just two of many possibilities, and perhaps Madonna wanted to provide us with a trop for a culture in which women are once again seen increasingly as work horses, and unimportant except as bread winners (something that men seem less and less able to do) and as the bearers of men’s children.

Did Bill think to ask Madonna what she wanted to say metaphorically by standing in for Jesus on the cross? No, of course not. So, who is really pathetic, the worldly pop star, or the entrenched dogmatic practitioner of the Christian Catholic faith?

By the way, Bill. You just crudified Madonna!

I know this is way off the mark of my usual political diatribe. Never the less, I just couldn’t stand by and idly read the stupidity of Donohue’s remarks. You can find more about the incident at "Madonna Draws Ire of Catholic League" at MSNBC.

Reports in fall of 2005 indicated that the United States has a secret network of detention centers including one Soviet era compound in Eastern Europe. These are used to transfer foreign nationals, perhaps even U.S. citizens, to foreign territory to interrogate, and possibly torture those suspected of terrorism by the Bush administration. Such activities are illegal under our own legal practice and International Law. Other reports indicated that Guantanamo base in Cuba is little more than a prison (opened in January 2001) used to interrogate and torture prisoners held incognito by the United States government. United States Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales has stated that neither accusation is true. Never the less, the United States has refused to close the Guantanamo prison camp, and all 490 plus suspected terrorists continue to be held there incommunicado and with no legal protections or defense with but several exceptions.

In February of this year more photographs were released of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq being tortured and some forced to participate in sex acts against their will.

Last week, on May third, a report issued by Amnesty International reiterated, “Torture and inhumane treatment are ‘widespread’ in U. S. run detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba and elsewhere (10).”

President Bush has stated, and I am paraphrasing, that the war against terror is just that and therefore normal legal procedures do not apply. Representatives of this administration including Alberto Gonzales have stated that we do not transgress the Geneva conventions. However, the reports of abuse and torture continue to accumulate.

I repeat the old adage, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Many nations including our own allies view us as a nation that considers itself above the law, while demanding that other nations adhere to our very personal vision of world order. After the Bush administration leaves office, it will take many years and a great deal of effort to convince the nations of the world that we, the United States of America, are not a rogue nation.

Notes

1. Associated Press (May 4, 2006) UN to Review U.S. Record on Torture Ban, FOXNEWS.com. Retrieved May 4, 2006, 11:11 AM EDT from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194200,00.html

2. Associated Press (March 22, 2006) Pentagon to Formalize Ban on Evidence Obtained Through Torture, FOXNEWS.com. Retrieved May 4, 2006, 11:14 AM EDT from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188806,00.html

3. Associated Press (March 7, 2006) Gonzales Defends U.S. Treatment of Terror Suspects, FOXNEWS.com. Retrieved May 4, 2006, 11:21 AM EDT from http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,187073,00.html

4. CNN, Washington (November 2, 2005). Report: CIA operates secret prisons, CNN.com. Retrieved May 3, 2006, 9:56 AM EDT from http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/02/terror.suspects/index.html

5. CNN, United Nations (February 17, 2006). Annan: Shut Guantanamo prison camp, CNN.com. Retrieved May 3, 2006, 10:00 AM EDT from http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/16/un.guantanamo/index.html

6. CNN (February 15, 2006). More images of abuse at Abu Ghraib, CNN.com. Retrieved May 3, 2006, 10:02 AM EDT from http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/15/abughraib.photos/i...

7. CNN, Washington (May 3, 2006). Report: Detainee abuse claims not investigated in full, CNN.com. Retrieved May 3, 2006, 9:17 AM EDT from http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/26/detainee.report/index.html

8. Fox News, Washington (July 15, 2005) Millitary Lawyers Testify to Abuse at Gitmo, FOXNEWS.com. Retrieved May 4, 2006, 11:30 AM EDT from http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,162581,00.html

9. Kuro5hin, technology and culture from the trenches (October 7, 2005, 1:52 AM EST). McCain passes amendment to end torture of detainees; Bush threatens veto. Retrieved May 4, 2006, 11:06 AM EDT from http://www.kuro5hin.org/print/2005/10/6/43412/4301


10. Reuters (May 3, 2006). Amnesty: Torture 'widespread' in U.S. custody, CNN.com. Retrieved May 3, 2006, 9:53 AM EDT from http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/02/amnesty.report.reut/index.html

George W. Bush certainly has chutzpah! His nominee for CIA Director, former director of the National Security Administration, Air Force General Michael Hayden designed the warrantless surveillance program in which the Federal government spied and continues to spy on Americans making international and domestic telephone calls and e-mails. Additionally, many critics voiced immediate concern that this military man will not be able to maintain independence of the CIA from the military establishment, though it is known in the intelligence circle that the Bush administration broke the CIA’s power under Porter Goss. Nevertheless, with Hayden’s appointment, active military or retired military persons would be in charge of all the major intelligence agencies as well as the National Counterterrorism Center, all at a time when lawmakers have expressed major concern over possible coercion of military personnel by Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

Thank goodness for Senate Judiciary Chairman, Arlen Specter (R-PA) who upon hearing of General Hayden’s nomination twelve days ago said, and I paraphrase, that he would use it to revisit the controversy over the NSA eavesdropping program. In the questioning that resulted yesterday, the most damning statement made by General Hayden was that warrantless spying by the NSA was feasible, successful, and legal. First, the successful gathering of information on billions of American’s telephone calls is not in doubt. Second, the ability of NSA or any intelligence agency to make sense of the information gathered is in doubt. After all, the terrorist jihad is international, and not domestic, though aimed at the USA as well as all the other nations of the world. And, third, wire tapping by the Federal government (and I stress) is not legal - no matter the controversy – the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act banned domestic espionage without warrant by the NSA. Additionally, the question must be asked whether or not the billions spent by General Hayden as director of NSA on the illegal wiretapping program makes fiscal sense. Our government is digging itself into an immense financial hole of which General Hayden’s spendthrift practice is but one example.

Perhaps, in 2006, these Senate hearings give evidence that, no matter our party affiliation, we are finally waking up to the facts that we are spending money flagrantly on the wrong “war against terror”, and that we have been losing our legal rights in bits and pieces because of the “climate of fear” generated by this president and his administration.

One can only hope.

First, what plan? President Bush is the worst president in our history, but even he would not plan on Nuking Iran. He is, however, planning on possibly bombing strategic nuclear sites where Iran might be manufacturing heavy uranium, but nuking them – NO!

Second, the idea of bombing any site in Iran is stupid at this point as Iran’s reaction is unpredictable. The United States is buried up to its nose holes in Iraq, and therefore Iran is emboldened to take action she might not have engaged in pre Iraq II.

Third, the neo-cons and President Bush picked the wrong enemy and the wrong war as I’ve so often said. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, whereas Iran plans on making WMD as soon as it can manufacture enough U238 to do so.

In short, Jack Straw made a major mistake in reading the United States as possibly nuking Iran, and it cost him his job.