Ironically, the Republican party, and this Republican Executive Administration has effectively transformed the United States from democratic republic into an authoritarian police state today.
Any American citizen, or anyone at all, can be deemed by the President or the American military as an "enemy combatant" and tortured and made to disappear forever without any rights whatsoever.
Al-Qaida has won.
This is the end.
Another great party.
Let me put it this way - PRIDE is a celebration - with both gay and straight people partying their glorious asses off - of that one thing you thought was horrible about yourself for most of your life. I'll never take that for granted.
I did miss most of the Castro parties Saturday night though, instead seeing Radiohead perform at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. It was worth it.
Setlist -
01 Airbag
02 2+2=5
03 Where I End And You Begin
04 15 Step
05 Kid A
06 Dollars And Cents
07 Down Is The New Up
08 Nude
09 Paranoid Android
10 No Surprises
11 The Gloaming
12 All I Need
13 Climbing Up The Walls
14 Go Slowly
15 Myxomatosis
16 Bangers And Mash
17 How To Disappear Completely
Encore 1:
18 Fake Plastic Trees
19 Arpeggi
20 Black Star
21 Everything In Its Right Place
Encore 2:
23 Bodysnatchers
24 The Tourist
This is what I, and of course, many others, hoped would happen when Hamas was elected to power. That they would moderate for the sake of pragmatism, and the well-being of the Palestinians. Hopefully this new agreement will hold.
Israel must reciprocate and end the assassinations.
Five years after 9/11, cargo is still not screened for explosives before it is loaded onto passenger airplanes. First of all, that's fucked. Secondly, why didn't the Democrats use that as a campaign issue in '04? Why won't they use it now?
Oh, and, don't expect security to improve anytime soon.
Looks like a plane will have to explode before so-called 'homeland security' will actually secure them. Of course, that's a conscious decision they and the Bush administration have made.
By the way, why no color-coded terror alerts since Bush got re-elected? I wonder...
White. Fat. Bloated. This picture is worth a thousand adjectives. This is your government, or, rather, theirs.
UPDATE on Fat Bastard Dennis Hastert. Bloated indeed.
My new band, Rentboys, is up at myspace. Have a listen.
The second song is dedicated to the two gay teenagers who were publically executed in Iran last July - for being gay.
From Sully today:
Just to note that Senators Gregg and Specter turned against the FMA this time in the cloture vote. The Senate is more Republican than last time around, and the vote barely budged. If the Senate shifts to the Dems this fall - a likely scenario - this amendment will be pining for the fjords. That's a victory for conservatism and federalism against fundamentalism and hysteria. One more time: Let the states decide.
* * * *
It is victory, but I'm confused with Andrew's advocacy of federalism with regard to marriage rights. So I recently wrote him a letter:
A few years ago you posted my melodramatic (but honest) email to you about my ex-boyfriend who is from and is currently living in small town Brazil, suffering oppressive machismo, and unable to immigrate here because he’s poor and we cannot marry. I insisted that federal legalization of gay marriage was the only just resolution of the gay marriage debate, specifically because immigration is a federal issue, and reducing marriage law to the states would continue discrimination. You responded by telling me you were “with me” on the immigration issue, reminding me that you were an immigrant. I fail to see how you reconcile opposing immigration discrimination for bi-national gay couples while supporting the relegation of marriage rights to individual states. Would you please clarify?
* * * *
I have yet to receive a response or a clarification on his website. I'll keep asking...
This is great.