Good evening, it's Thursday! So I'm in my socks and boxers, eating a TV dinner, since my blog twin's not around. :D That's a joke. Let's kick things off with Democracy Now!
Delay: McKinney "Is A Racist"
Meanwhile, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has weighed in on the case. In an interview with Fox News, Delay said McKinney "is a racist." Delay went on to say: "Everything is racism with her. This is incredible arrogance that sometimes hits these members of Congress, but especially Cynthia McKinney." Delay announced his resignation this week after a months of political turmoil that included his criminal indictment, corruption probes and guilty pleas by two key members of his staff.
Thank goodness NACCP chair Tom DeLay is speaking out on the topic of racism! :D Poor Tom DeLay, still under indictment. It probably feels good for him to trash someone else and considering how his policies hurt women and people of color, he's probably thrilled to be trashing Cynthia McKinney. Maybe in prison, DeLay can expand upon his theories on race and racism?
Here's a song Tom DeLay should sing:
I am the bug man
I am the asshole
Cuckoo-Cuckoo-Cuckoo me.
Iraqi Cameraman Acquitted, Yet Remains Imprisoned
In Iraq, an Iraqi cameraman working for CBS News was acquitted of charges Wednesday that have kept him in prison for one year. But despite the acquittal, the judge ordered him returned to his cell at Abu Ghraib. The cameraman, Abdul Ameer, was filming clashes in Mosul when US troops shot him and arrested him a year ago Wednesday. He was accused of incitement and of recruiting for the anti-U.S. insurgency. Ameer's lawyer, Scott Horton, commented after the hearing: "I would like to observe first that this is has been a great day for justice in Iraq I think no one who witness the proceedings this morning would think that justice was served there, but let us think about something else - in a court room almost anywhere else in the world when an accused is acquitted, is to determined to be completely innocent of charges brought against him, he walks free from that court room. That didn't happen today. Abdul Ameer is still in detention by the American authorities. We should all focus on the fact even though he was completely acquitted he remains in prison and we should all direct our question to the Americans forces about his release."
That is disgusting that he was forced to return to Abu Ghraib after being acquitted. The whole case was disgusting. He was targeted and held for a year. What was that? Some might call it kidnapping. And at his trial? C.I. noted this article yesterday but the person C.I. dictated it to must have forgotten to put in the link:
Between appearances on the witness stand, he had to kneel on the floor in the back of the courtroom, facing a wall. A half-dozen American soldiers in full body armor stood nearby, guarding him and other Iraqi defendants, who also faced the wall.
Now that sounds like American justic, right? The person on trial has to kneel on the floor in the back of the courtroom? Facing the wall? While armed men stand watch. That's just disgusting.
His being imprisoned was disgusting, his trial was disgusting and the fact that he was acquitted but has had to return to Abu Ghraib is disgusting.
But we're not supposed to say that reporters are targeted in Iraq so I guess we should also just look the other way and twiddle our thumbs?
Elaine's off tonight but go read her thing from yesterday. "This isn't finished but Blogger's about to go down" was she managed to write in the brief time before Blogger went down yesterday. When it came back up, it didn't for her account. So Rebecca's going in tonight and adding the links for her. (Elaine's got group tonight.) I don't care if it was rushed, it's really incredible. So go read it and go read Rebecca's "Mini Essay" which just lays it on the line about candidates and what so many lack.
Now on Monday, Rebecca wrote that it was too bad I wasn't gay because then she could have phoned me and we could have watched the game together. (Good we didn't, I was rooting for UCLA and they lost -- and played bad -- so I would've been griping the whole time.) Tony pointed that out to me. I usually read Rebecca right away but Monday night, I was actually watching the game and cursing the TV the whole time. Afterwards, I was so mad, I just went to bed.
But Tony brought it up because I was telling him a story about a guy we went to school with. Nina and I bumped into him last weekend. He was like, "This is your girlfriend?" And I was all, "Yeah, why?" And he goes he thought I was gay because I'd written here that people should see Brokeback Mountain. I don't remember when I wrote that but I know I did because that's a great movie. Tony and me were just laughing about that today, about how the guy was convinced that if some guy enjoyed the movie, he had to be gay. That kind of homosexual panic is really something we should leave to past generations, dude.
That's what I told him. It's a good movie and if you watch it, you'll like it, trust me. It's kind of like Ghost cause you don't need to be dead to enjoy that movie! :D
Tony and I were trying to figure out what movie we saw in junior high with some friends and we still can't figure it out. But in it, there was a gay character and maybe two but there may have been a male kiss or maybe just a hug, but when that happened this guy who I won't name but he was on our basketball team in junior high and in high school, starts blowing his top and going, "That is so gross! That is so wrong!" Now I wasn't sprouting a chub at whatever happened onscreen, but I wasn't grossed out. Tony? He says he wasn't.
:D I'm joking.
But this guy wouldn't shut up in the movie or after. And he was like that at other times too. Long story short? He's gay now. He hasn't told his parents. That's why I'm not putting in his name. He was probably gay then too! :D But he put on this whole act. Now he lives with this guy and everybody our age knows that they are a couple. I think his family is the only one who doesn't know. It's two guys, one bedroom, they have to know! But they tell people that "the boys" are really practical and saving money by sharing a one bedroom.
I've only bumped into him once since high school and he was with his boyfriend and embarrassed. I didn't want him to think I was offended or something and I didn't want to embarrass him in front of his boyfriend so I just said "Hi" and made small talk. But if I bump into him sometime and his boyfriend isn't around, I will bring up the movie and I will bring up how me and Tony had to stay on his case junior year to get him to stop picking on this freshman kid who was openly gay. I'd want to ask him if he knew back then? If he did was he putting on an act or was he trying to fight who he was or what?
I wouldn't ask him about that in front of his boyfriend and I sure wouldn't in front of his family but I really would like to know why he always acted like that? Nina just asked who he is and I told her but she goes "Who?"
That's cause he was such a jerk by senior year that I really avoided him. It was all "homo" this and "f*g" that. Tony always said, "He's gay" and I would always go no and go "he's just a creep." But Tony would go, "Dude, if you think it's gross you're not sitting there talking about it all the time." And he would too. He would go how "gross" it was and then launch into these really description filled comments. So Tony knew what was going on.
Then anyway. Now he think the dude was just fronting because he couldn't face it. Tony may be right there too.
He was pretty cool up until about eighth grade and then it was all that "homo" talk where he'd be saying "Oh homos are sick" and worse. And it just got worse and worse each year. If he thought it made him look tough, he was wrong because everyone on varsity got sick of it. Only time guys wanted to be around him was on the court and even then . . .
He'd had a lot of friends and I think if he did know and he'd been honest about it, he would have still had friends. Some people might have been grossed out but if someone's not going to like you because of who you are, they aren't going to like you. You can't spend your life hiding who you are. I think I would've stayed his friend and other guys would have too. Maybe not everyone but the way it ended up, by senior year, he didn't have any friends because his trashing gay people just got on everyone's nerves. You could go, "I think it's going to rain" and he'd launch into "Yeah, and you know some homos are going to be walking in it, pressed up against each other under an umbrella and . . ." It didn't matter what the topic was, he'd take it to trashing gay people.
Be sure to read C.I.'s "NYT: A funny kind of 'balance'." And if you're wondering about Wally, he joined Ava, Jess and C.I. today. I think he's planning to post but he had to fly out there and then it was busy-busy. Tomorrow, I'm probably going to post late because Nina and me are going to the movies. So FYI.
democracy now
tom delay
