Politicians, please PRIORITIZE!

The State of Idaho is one of many who keep trying to make it illegal for same-sex marriage. My friend Julie at Red State Rebels provided an update about current activities at the state level as well as an address to send letters. This is just MY opinion but I wanted to share. It is important that we protect the freedoms for ALL, because some day "them" may be "us".

If you wish to send your own letter, go to Red State Rebels and see what the "latest" info is, or just e-mail the committee (AND your own reps).

To: HSTA@house.idaho.gov
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 10:08 AM
Subject: Marriage definitions etc.
To Whom It May Concern:

I would really like to know why our government officials are spending so much time, energy, and money on attempting to prevent marriages between gays and lesbians.

Is this REALLY a threat to our morals and sensibilities? Is this the BIGGEST threat to Idaho families and children? To have two adults allowed to officially declare their commitment to each other?

If this is a religious issue (you know, because you think God won't approve or the Bible says "no" or something), then leave it up to the churches to make their own decisions. That is not the business of our government--let churches reinforce God's instructions. Or are you planning on following through on many of the other biblical instructions as well? Because I know quite a few people who have committed adultery, if you want to start throwing them in jail or something.

If this is not a religious issue, then what is it? It cannot be because you truly believe that Idahoans cannot handle the concept of two men or two women being married to each other, could it? We seem to be able to handle "dial 1-800 to flirt" commercials, sexual and pornographic magazines, etc. Please, if you really want to protect Idahoans from "filth", eliminate all of the sexual entertainment/advertisements/etc. which advertise and sell sex without love or commitment before you start attacking adult Idahoans who wish to declare their love and commitment to each other. I find it much more offensive to have "Girls Gone Wild" commercials thrust at me in my home than I would if the two men living next door to me were married.

Actually, I would prefer more adults start celebrating and valuing love and commitment. I think that it would be awesome if Idaho could stand up and say "As Idahoans, we celebrate individuals who honor their commitments and promises." It seems that society is so full of people who steal, cheat, lie, and take advantage of their positions, that it is asinine that our government would spend so much time and energy to prevent a segment of our population making their own commitments to another human being.

Speaking of love and commitment... two same sex adult partners getting married is not a threat to our family lifestyles in Idaho. It's the unbelievable amount of single parents usually women) in Idaho. It's the noncustodial parents who are not paying their child support. It is the struggle to jump through the hoops for what assistance IS available for our working poor and then to find out that your income is $48 over the limit and you aren't qualified after all. It is the poor families who have to live in substandard housing because Idaho does not enforce its own State Codes. We may have low unemployment rates here in Idaho but that says more about the qualities of hardworking Idahoans than it does about the quality of jobs available. People are working for low wages, no benefits, more than one part time job, and they still can't make ends meet. How can same-sex marriage be more offensive than the knowledge that CEO annual incomes have gone up 1000% in the past 20 years? If minimum wage increased at the same rate as CEO incomes, it would be $23/hour! Now THAT should be something to spend your attention on!!!

So why are you spending so much time about this marriage thing? As public servants for the people of Idaho, are you really acting in the best interest of the citizens? Do you not have other areas of concern that could benefit from your time and energy and our money? Please focus our resources on solving problems like teacher's pay, senior citizens in poverty, the war on drugs, health care, employers who pay living wages, water issues, handling the state's population increase in the schools/roads/etc..

When you have all that taken care of and you have extra time and energy, then you can go back to trying to prevent gays and lesbians from legally and officially making lifelong commitments together, if you still really think that is important. Personally, I think that people are just having knee-jerk reactions to loud vocal Christian Conservative agendas.


P.S. If you REALLY want to govern in a Christian manner (again, I'm assuming that the bias against same-sex marriage is based on religious aspects), may I recommend the guidelines from the National Council of Churches (USA)?

Sen. Larry Craig croons for... ALITO?

As usual, I find the greatest stuff at Julie Fanselow's blog, Red State Rebels. She is able to locate and share information that isn't available via Idaho mainstream media... such as Senator Craig's lovefest over Judge Alita, Bush with Spuddy (includes a caption contest... the entries thus far are HILARIOUS!), and more. Bookmark her site and check back often!

Dirty little secret?

There is a column by Maureen Dowd in today's Times-News which included something that surprised me... I thought for sure that she had to be making it up!!

So I did some Google research (they are coming to take me away, ha ha!) and actually found documentation that proved that Ms. Dowd wasn't "telling stories"... it's TRUE! It's even listed in her bio at Wikipedia!

Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Sex Novel
If you look around hard enough on the Web you find some humorous stuff. Everyone knows that our Vice President, Dick Cheney, has a lesbian daughter, Mary, about whom he rarely speaks openly even though the poor girl has to work for his re-election committee. But did you know that Dick’s wife Lynne, wrote a sizzling western novel called “Sisters” which is filled with hot, steamy stuff like lesbian love, prostitution and rape, and supports a sweeping pro-feminist agenda?

“Sisters” was penned in 1981. It’s hard to find a copy today, but Amazon says they will give it a shot for you if you want a copy. [Download your FREE copy HERE.] Like most of the indiscretions of the Bush administration that they don’t want you to know about, “Sisters” will be kept from public scrutiny wherever possible.

P.S. From the excerpts I've scanned and from reading the "reviews" of others, it's probably being kept secret because it is poorly written!

Kempthorne responds...

I’ve received a response from the governor regarding my opinions about alternate ways to assist Idahoans with the increasing costs of energy.

Kempthorne states he wants to help "every resident in the State of Idaho". His mindset must be that families who are building 6000 square foot homes and bringing home six-figure incomes need their $50 as much as those who live in 50+ year old homes and don’t even have health insurance.

He also stated he has established a “clear path” to set aside monies for the future (whose future? children? educators? seniors? Idahoans in poverty? WHO?) and invest in infrastructure. I admit to my mental limitations, because the only thing clear to me is if Idahoans get warm and fuzzy with $50 refunds, then maybe we won’t notice where the rest of the surplus monies go. Am I the only one who isn’t “clear” on his “path”? Am I the only one who struggles with faith in our government’s decisions on how they spend our money?

He also stated that by putting this money back in our hands, we can "control its destiny"... what control do we have if we pay it right back to Idaho Power, Intermountain Gas, and put it in our fuel tanks? That doesn't help us for very long at all. It only helps the CEOs of those corporations. The families who suffer most will continue to suffer after their $50 per person has been spent.

He states people can get assistance for rising energy costs by going to Community Action. Does he not realize that Community Action Agency has such limited funds that they are not able to help all of the families who are considered low-income? Families who ARE eligible to have Weatherization Assistance are on waiting lists for YEARS because of the lack of funding. Ten percent of Idaho citizens live in poverty... but Kempthorne wants the remaining 90% benefit from his plan. Who needs help more? (He must realize low income residents aren’t as likely to vote as the rest of the Idahoans…)

Kempthorne closes by telling me that if I "believe that the money is better spent in another area", I can donate it to whatever cause or charity I choose.

Well, Mr. Kempthorne, I "choose" to have my government cut out the "middleman" and take care of our neediest residents to help them meet their energy costs.



If you want a copy of Mr. Kempthorne's letter, e-mail me and I will send it to you. SUBJECT: "Kempthorne" so it doesn't get confused with spam!

Horse Sex Porn Candy Teens!

I can just picture us Googling "hot topics" and having a swarm of men in black suits invade our homes... Maybe if they needed to increase the numbers of homefront security personnel, they might decide to bring some of our military home from Iraq? It would be worth it!
-drp

Inside! Fresh Google search terms to confound Dubya and the FBI. Also: Is Bush a fascist?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Attention, all who are reading this column right now, please put down your drink and leap up off the couch and put your pants back on and log in to Google and type the words "hot bunny terrorist fluffer banana" into the comely and world-beloved Google search engine. Do it. Do it now.

Oh no wait, make it "Osama butt pancake lube explosives yay." Or better yet, try "homemade nuke porn lollipop kiddie nipple bomb!!!" (Be sure to include extra exclamation points because as we all know, Dubya isn't the brightest of presidents and these will add zing and personality to your entry and make your
search terms -- the very ones the Bush administration is right now subpoenaing the Google corporation to gain access to -- really stand out to the FBI and the Department of Justice, which are always in need of a little zing).

It shall be a mini-movement. It shall be called "Operation Screw With the DOJ and Make Lynne
Cheney Squirm." It shall be a big national gigglefest as we watch George W. Bush's gummint work to force and coerce the search engines of the nation to turn over their massive logs of search terms, all in an effort to see what perverted and criminal-minded people like you are really searching for, and sure you can defend yourself and claim it's pictures of Brangelina or recipes for blood orange/vodka body shots or just what the hell is wrong with Samuel Alito to make him look so wan and malicious, when we all know you're really looking for, of course, massive amounts of porn. And so are your kids…

BushCo's latest move against the citizenry is indeed a new and disturbing salvo, sending a shiver down the spine of civil rights proponents everywhere. Are you concerned? No?

Then try this: Simply couple this latest move with BushCo's outright love and defense of torture, along with Dubya's recent enthusiastic declaration that his team of flying monkeys has been secretly wiretapping whomever it wants in this nation for the past four years without any sort of warrant and, well, you've got yourself one hell of a big sticky taste of happy neofascism.

What, not enough? Fine. How about how Bush's insane rate of issuing those now-infamous "signing statements," those little firebombs of judicial misprision wherein your mumbling president gets to reserve for himself the right to ignore any law he signs -- yes, any law he desires: anti-torture, surveillance, you name it -- whenever he feels like it, if he deems that law
unconstitutional. Screw Congress. Screw the system of law. And screw, well, you…

Want to know if the government is spying on you?

Use www.FOIArequest.org to find out.

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), anyone has the right to request information from the government. Last strengthened by Congress in response to the Watergate scandal, FOIA gives citizens a way to demand transparency from the Bush administration -- and take the government to court if necessary.

The Bush administration is trying to keep the details of its illegal domestic surveillance program under wraps, even refusing to say how many Americans they've eavesdropped on. Many Americans -- especially those with family and friends abroad -- are wondering whether government agents have been listening to their phone conversations or reading their email.

If you're worried this has happened to you, People For the American Way has created a new tool: www.FOIArequest.org

You can file a Freedom of Information Act request quickly, accurately, and easily.
We can't guarantee that the Bush administration will disclose all this information in compliance with the law, but we can help you through the process. By filing a FOIA request, you will send a strong signal that American citizens believe in the rule of law and aren't afraid to stand up to the President when he violates the Constitution!

The New Red, White and Blue

The New York Times January 6, 2006
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

As we enter 2006, we find ourselves in trouble, at home and abroad. We are in trouble because we are led by defeatists - wimps, actually.

What's so disturbing about President Bush and Dick Cheney is that they talk tough about the necessity of invading Iraq, torturing terror suspects and engaging in domestic spying - all to defend our way of life and promote democracy around the globe.

But when it comes to what is actually the most important issue in U.S. foreign and domestic policy today - making ourselves energy efficient and independent, and environmentally green - they ridicule it as something only liberals, tree-huggers and sissies believe is possible or necessary.

Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil, and basically saying that a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months is somehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence - that is for sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American values eroded at home and abroad.

Living green is not just a "personal virtue," as Mr. Cheney says. It's a national security imperative.

The biggest threat to America and its values today is not communism, authoritarianism or Islamism. It's petrolism. Petrolism is my term for the corrupting, antidemocratic governing practices - in oil states from Russia to Nigeria and Iran - that result from a long run of $60-a-barrel oil. Petrolism is the politics of using oil income to buy off one's citizens with subsidies and government jobs, using oil and gas exports to intimidate or buy off one's enemies, and using oil profits to build up one's internal security forces and army to keep oneself ensconced in power, without any transparency or checks and balances.

When a nation's leaders can practice petrolism, they never have to tap their people's energy and creativity; they simply have to tap an oil well. And therefore politics in a petrolist state is not about building a society or an educational system that maximizes its people's ability to innovate, export and compete. It is simply about who controls the oil tap.

In petrolist states like Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Sudan, people get rich by being in government and sucking the treasury dry - so they never want to cede power. In non-petrolist states, like Taiwan, Singapore and Korea, people get rich by staying outside government and building real businesses.

Our energy gluttony fosters and strengthens various kinds of petrolist regimes. It emboldens authoritarian petrolism in Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Sudan and Central Asia. It empowers Islamist petrolism in Sudan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. It even helps sustain communism in Castro's Cuba, which survives today in part thanks to cheap oil from Venezuela. Most of these petrolist regimes would have collapsed long ago, having proved utterly incapable of delivering a modern future for their people, but they have been saved by our energy excesses.

No matter what happens in Iraq, we cannot dry up the swamps of authoritarianism and violent Islamism in the Middle East without also drying up our consumption of oil - thereby bringing down the price of crude. A democratization policy in the Middle East without a different energy policy at home is a waste of time, money and, most important, the lives of our young people.

That's because there is a huge difference in what these bad regimes can do with $20-a-barrel oil compared with the current $60-a-barrel oil. It is no accident that the reform era in Russia under Boris Yeltsin, and in Iran under Mohammad Khatami, coincided with low oil prices. When prices soared again, petrolist authoritarians in both societies reasserted themselves.

We need a president and a Congress with the guts not just to invade Iraq, but to also impose a gasoline tax and inspire conservation at home. That takes a real energy policy with long-term incentives for renewable energy - wind, solar, biofuels - rather than the welfare-for-oil-companies-and-special-interests that masqueraded last year as an energy bill.

Enough of this Bush-Cheney nonsense that conservation, energy efficiency and environmentalism are some hobby we can't afford. I can't think of anything more cowardly or un-American. Real patriots, real advocates of spreading democracy around the world, live green. Green is the new red, white and blue.

Dear Mr. Kempthorne

Regarding your proposal to spend some of the surplus tax money on Idaho citizens to assist with the higher costs of energy. Our own family would receive $300 under your proposal. $300 for one year.

The $300 you want to send us would be NICE, but it really wouldn't be much help for our family's financial and energy problems.

What I would suggest is that instead of sending a one-time "bonus" to Idahoans to assist with high energy bills, a better investment would be to appropriate the funds to Community Action Agencies to assist low-income families to weatherize their own homes with better windows, insulation, system repairs/upgrades, etc., so their energy costs can be lowered (for this year AND years to come!).

Even if it won't help my family, it will help many other families who really DO need the assistance for high energy expenses, and I would prefer our taxes to be invested in that way instead.

I also would like to see Idaho to appropriate some of those funds to ENFORCE Idaho State Code so landlords would be required to repair the windows, insulation, heating systems, etc. for the homes and apartments they collect rent from. I am not talking landlords in general (many are honest and ethical), but the OTHER ones... with the broken windows, leaking roofs, inadequate insulation, etc. Why should taxpayers be subsidizing the additional heating costs and repairs for properties which provide income to landlords? They should be responsible for maintaining their income property but nobody enforces the law.

The people who NEED energy assistance should be able to receive it... I'm sure we can all think of people who NEED the money ($300 is a LOT of money) vs. people who may not need it as desperately ("pocket change", country club dues, etc.).

I would much prefer our TAX dollars assist with a long-term fix, rather than a short-term "band-aid". I truly doubt that our energy costs will get any cheaper in the years to come... wouldn't it be wiser to help the people who won't be able to afford it next year either?

Sincerely,
Diana Rowe Pauls
Gooding, ID

Write your OWN letter to Mr. Kempthorne here...

Why, why, Mr. President, why?

New lyrics sung to the tune of American Pie that one "car" of people came up with on the way to the action.

Why, why, Mr. President, why?
The levees all broke...
Now the water's too high...
Spent all our cash on a war that's a lie...
You don't care if poor people die...
You don't care if Iraqis die...
You don't care if our soldiers die...
Just as long as your profits are high...

CODE PINK!