Liberty and Justice for All!

First he signed a bill allowing creationism to be presented in science classrooms. Then he signed a voucher scholarship bill. Now he has cut $2.5 million from Turn on To Learning.

What is Turn on To Learning?

The TOTL program was instituted by Governor Kathleen Blanco as a research project to measure the effectiveness of 1-to-1 laptop initiatives in the 6th grade classroom.  It is the former governor’s dream that the program will prove to be so valuable that schools, school districts, and whole states would wish to join in such a leading-edge project.

I guess Jindal doesn’t see the need for fancy pants technology in the classroom (since his end goal seems to be an elimination of public schools that would use this technology anyway).

Maybe Jindal just didn’t like the fact that the program was Blanco’s. (You know, cause according to all the Blanco haters she didn’t do anything right as Governor).

And while this has nothing to do with education, $100,000 was also cut from Louisiana’s Habitat for Humanity. You know, because Habitat for Humanity hasn’t done anything substantial for Louisiana at all… especially in the last 3 years or so.

Back in March I discussed how the terrorism card has been played far too many times and that eventually it would backfire. I also questioned when the American public would stop being scared by Bush’s comments on terror threats and start realizing that Bush’s policy on terrorism has failed to make us safer.

Now an adviser in John McCain’s camp stated that a terrorist attack would help McCain’s campaign. McCain backed away from the statement (likely because he didn’t want to look like he actually wanted a terrorist attack to happen). However, this line of thinking falls follows the thinking of the previous post.

If a terrorist attack happened, it would not be a sign that we are still unsafe so we need to elect the Republican to keep us safe. It would be a sign that the Republican policy on keeping us safe has failed us and we need to change our way of thinking.

Now, I am not going to speculate on how the American public would actually vote if we got attacked by terrorists again. However, if the American public is foolish enough to believe that electing McCain (who follows Bush’s failed ideas on keeping us safe from terrorism)  after a terrorist attack will make us safer then God help us all.

Cross posted at Obama for President.

Bobby Jindal is outraged over the Supreme Court decision that deemed Louisiana’s law allowing the death penalty for child rape unconstitutional.

He states:

We will evaluate ways to amend our statute to maintain death as a penalty for this horrific crime.

The Supreme Court said that death is not an appropriate penalty for child rape under the Constitution of the United States. The only change that could be made to alter this is a change to the Constitution. No state level action would be good enough because the ruling would still stand. So does Jindal need to back to school and learn about civics? I’ll get back to that in a second.

Now, Jindal did say this:

The most repugnant crimes deserve the harshest penalties, and nothing is more repugnant than the brutal rape of an eight-year-old child.

I agree. I also agree that the death penalty should be used to punish child rapists. So there you have it, another thing I agree with Jindal on.

However, Jindal needs to understand that there actually are things that the Federal Government gets to trump the State Government on and one of those things is deciding if punishment is cruel and unusual.

So regardless of how much we may disagree with the Supreme Court on the issue, there is nothing that can be done at the state level to allow for the death penalty in child rape cases… period.

I would be tempted to say that Jindal is ignorant of Constitutional law but that probably is not the case. He probably knows full well that no state action will be able to override a ruling by the supreme court. What I think is more likely is that he is playing up to the conservative base who may not realize that Jindal’s disgrace is just a ploy to either distract those conservatives who are angry at him over the pay raise issue or to get more conservative voters behind his possible nomination for V-P.

I have been trying to figure out the exact problem the Democrats are having this election. It shouldn’t be that hard. You have a Republican presidential candidate who is going to follow in the footsteps of President Bush if elected. Well, I figured it out.

This election should have been a referendum on the Bush Administration and those Republicans who continue to blindly follow Bush’s failed policies. However, it has become a referendum on “making history” and how we should do it (by either electing a black man or a woman to be our president).

This is not just a recipe for failure in the 2008 general election. This also loses sight of the main point of fighting for civil rights. We are not supposed to be supporting people because they are a woman or belonging to a minority group. We are supposed to try and treat all people equally regardless of their gender or ethnicity. As Dr. King said, judging people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.

And yes, I completely  understand and accept the argument that a black person is likely to think that a black president would understand the needs of the black community (just as a woman might think that a woman president would understand the needs of women). That is all well and good for the individual. However, for the party as a whole, we need to get off of the idea that electing our candidate will make history. We need to get back to the idea that if John “Bush Wannabe” McCain gets elected, that our rights and civil liberties will BE history.

Even though they claim to that they didn even reach first base, a fan cried foul when two lesbians kissed in public (cue dramatic music) and the couple was ejected from the stadium. The stadium has a “kiss cam” where couples are encouraged to kiss, but I guess this fan (who didn’t want her son exposed to homosexuality) couldn’t just treat this woman like anyone else. Instead of teaching her son the lesson that we need to treat people equally, this fan decided to teach her child to hate. That is sad. And it is sad that we live in a society that treats gay people so poorly.

I plan on going to a Baltimore Orioles game soon with my wife. I will let you know if our kissing causes us to get the boot as well. I bet that we will be fine.

A treaty banning the use of cluster-bombs was passed by 111 nations. Guess a nation that wasn’t part of the ban? That’s right, the good ole U S of A. The reason?

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States remained committed to United Nations-sponsored talks that seek voluntary codes of “best practice” among leading makers of cluster bombs.

Yeah, because I am supposed to trust this administration to voluntarily do the right thing? I think not!

We have many ways to kill people in America. I find it hard to believe that our signing onto a treaty that bans one form would hurt us in anyway. And by not using cluster bombs, we would prevent things from happening like small children picking up unexploded shells from the cluster-bomb and blowing off their arms. I guess when you are war profiteering, you want to make sure that you can cause as much death as possible to prove you give more bang for your buck.

Since we passed a gay marriage ban that does not recognize the legal relationship created by legal gay marriages in other states, the American Political Science Association is considering a ban on holding events in New Orleans and cancelling an already scheduled event here planned for 2012.  

One of the arguments made is that if one of the associations gay members fell ill, his/her partner would be unable to make medical decisions for him/her because the law would not recognize the legal authority for him/her to do so. Others in the article disagree and believe they are taking the argument too far. However, if I was in a situation where I had doubts as to whether the law would allow my spouse to make medical decisions for me, would I really want to risk travelling to that state?

Mark Vail, an assistant professor at Tulane, called Pinello’s argument about health care “at best, overblown.” Vail said there is little risk of a circumstance arising that would jeopardize the members’ civil rights. He added that the law leading to the amendment did not originate in New Orleans and passed here by a small margin.

Notice the “little risk” and not “no risk”. And why does the fact that this bill only passed by a small margin make any difference? So what, we are supposed to be happy that just over half of the people who voted here support the law? People should be happy that New Orleans, while less intolerant than the rest of Louisiana, is still intolerant when it comes to civil rights for gay people? Mr. Vail’s argument is flawed and I am shocked that Tulane would have someone teaching political science who would make such a flawed political argument. That doesn’t say much for the department.

“We feel that the fears expressed by Mr. Pinello really, fundamentally misunderstand what New Orleans is about,” Vail said. “We think that its incredibly unfair to punish New Orleans.”

Mr. Pinello is not making a statement about what New Orleans is about. He is making a statement about the legal climate in Louisiana for homosexuals. Perhaps Mr. Vail should work on changing the law that is unfair to people who are GLBT instead of complaining that one convention is refusing to come here because a super-majority of the people who voted feel that gay people are second class citizens.

Mary Beth Romig, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, said her organization has been in touch with the political science association to assure its members that New Orleans would be welcoming to gay members of the group.

I’m sure that New Orleans would welcome in any group that brings money in. This is not the concern here. Perhaps Mary Beth could get on the phone to the A.G. and determine whether the concerns raised are valid and if a partner in a homosexual relationship would be unable to give consent to a medical procedure for his/her partner based on current Louisiana law.

“I hear time and again that New Orleans is gay-friendly,” Pinello said. “I simply don’t understand what the basis of that is. To say that a street fair makes the city gay friendly is turning to the worst stereotypes of gays and lesbians. I think that’s offensive.”

I couldn’t agree more. If half the city voted against gay marriages, that doesn’t speak to highly of the city and its willingness to accept gay people as equal.

… not that I expected him to.

A bill passed the Senate that would provide additional spending at home for another year’s worth of funding of our troops in the middle east. Bush said:

Our troops deserve better than having essential war time resources held hostage to billions in unrelated spending

No. Our troops deserve better than having an idiot for a President who pretends to “support the troops” and instead supports those who profit from this war. A real supporter of our troops would make sure that the veterans of his failed wartime policies (and other veterans as well) would be taken care of. What was in this awful bill that Bush promised to veto?

Some 25 Republicans abandoned Bush to endorse money for grants to local police departments, repairing roads damaged by natural disasters and boosting health research. Just 22 stood with him.

Domestic programs included money for Louisiana and Mississippi for projects including levees and coastal restoration.

Oh no! Not money for police officers! Not funding for coastal restoration! You mean Bush, and the 25 Republicans who support him on this issue, are going to make our troops suffer because Congress dares to fund police officers and coastal restoration projects? The horror!

The California Supreme Court just struck down the gay marriage ban! Now there are two states where gay people are not treated as second class citizens.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in striking down the ban.

Absolutely right. Of course, the California GHEL plan on striking back.

A coalition of religious and social conservative groups is attempting to put a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine laws banning gay marriage in the state constitution.

I hope they fail. The tyranny of the majority should not get to treat people like second class citizens. PERIOD. If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t have one. It is really just that simple.

Because our idiot President distracted us from the people who caused 9/11 to people that had nothing to do with 9/11, Al Queda has gained back some of its pre-9/11 capabilities.

Here is a question to those people who chose Bush again in 2004. What happened to Republicans being the party that would be more likely to protect us from terrorism? It seems to me that by distracting us from the actual problem, President Bush has done NOTHING to make us any more safer from “turrists”. Are you happy with your choice now?

It is abundantly clear that the Republican middle east policy has failed. Vote for another one in the name of security and you are an idiot. Period.