could jokingly refer to bad interior design choices or the election of pro-gay elected officials.
Here's what it apparently means to the Rendell Administration:
Gov. Ed Rendell has terminated what he called a horribly misguided state contract with a Philadelphia firm that led to wrongful and improper reports being disseminated about environmental groups, tax protesters, people at gay and lesbian rallies and even supporters of more funding for education.
At a news conference Tuesday evening, Mr. Rendell said he hadn't known until Tuesday about a one-year, $125,000 contract between the state Office of Homeland Security and the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response.
"I am appalled that this contract was entered into without my knowledge," he said. "I am appalled that information was disseminated about groups that were exercising their constitutional right to free speech and to protest. They shouldn't be on any list [of possible security threats]. This is extraordinarily embarrassing."
The contract started last October and was due to expire next month. Its original purpose was to inform state police and homeland security officials about "credible threats to critical infrastructure" around the state, meaning potential attempts by terrorists to destroy roads, bridges, buildings, power facilities or other important facilities.
Rest assured, Pgh queers, because apparently our PrideFest isn't as exciting as Washington County Marcellus Shale meetings or anything homo-Philly flavored.
It should make you think twice about our slavish loyalty to the status quo folks. Sigh.
Capitol Ideas debunks Corbett's ridiculous mocking of his working class citizens ....
Kevin Silva, a senior vice president with the Warrell Corporation of Camp Hill, Cumberland County, said the company had been told by one applicant for a machine operator's position that, after factoring in travel costs, that he could make more money while receiving unemployment benefits.
Silva told Capitolwire that he did not know where the applicant lived. The position pays between $11 and $15 an hour, plus benefits.
Silva said the company did hire 50 foreign college students for seasonal work, not full-time positions, as Corbett told the online news service last week.
He lied? This is precisely why we need to continue pushing for LGBT economic issues on a local level as well as statewide --- statewide does not look too promising. I bang my head on the table when a die hard conservative friend tells me Onorato is the man.
Always good news to see grassroots efforts to push for equality.
Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County is on the path toward establishing protected class status for the LGBT community. You can find out more about this effort through their Facebook Page.
It really is hand to hand combat to win over the hearts and minds of elected officials. That won't happen without our full participation in the struggle for equality. Join the Facebook Page to get yourself educated and be humbled that Pittsburgh has a twenty year start, plus domestic partnership benefits for City employees and a domestic partner registry. Progress can happen with dedication, careful planning and the unrelenting pressure to hold our electeds accountable for the equality they profess to support.
Congrats to the folks in Lower Merion. I'll be watching and hoping for the best.
LezGetReal.com has something up on the Pentagon pushing back on the LGBT community's outcry over the ridiculous survey the Pentagon has mailed to 400,000 members of the military.
Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said about the stories that have resulted from the leak of the 103-question survey that many ?have been inflammatory in the worst case, and misleading in the best.? The survey was suppose to remain confidential, but the distribution of the survey to the 400,000 active duty and reserve military personnel ended up without that being achieved.
Morrell stated that ?Outside influence is not helpful to the process.? Of course, given that several groups outside the process have already tried to influence the process by pushing the statements of retired chaplains out in order to try and stop the repeal, and that there was no punishment for a general who decided to issue an op-ed trying to preserve the policy, it is hard to believe that the outside influence was not going to occur anyway.
?We thought it would be breaking the faith with them for us to be proactively sharing the survey because what we are trying to do is preserve the credibility and integrity of the answers that it elicits from the force.?
?The survey is designed to get the attitudes of the force on how to proceed if Congress repeals the so-called ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? law, and is not a referendum on whether or not the law should be repealed. The answers will inform the working group?s deliberations,? Morrell stated. The LGBT Community has been very leery of the commitment to repealing DADT. Right now, repeal rests on the shoulders of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and President Barack Obama and not Congress since an interim repeal is in the Defense budget for this year.
Morrell misses much of the reason behind the uproar when he states ?Pentagon officials worked with a professional and reputable polling firm to produce the survey. Roughly the first third of the 103 questions seeks demographic information. The second third asks about professional and military experience. The third asks how the law?s repeal might affect the individual being surveyed.? Part of the problem is the wording. The more clinical word ?homosexual? tends to elicit a more negative reaction than ?lesbian or gay? does.
Confidential? No outside influence? No torture took place? Ooops.
Let us remember that no such survey took place when the armed forced were integrated or when women began assuming combat roles. They figured it out without using inflammatory rhetoric to stir up bias, bigotry and fear.
The military really sucks. This is yet another farcical move in the long line of delays and pandering to homophobes who don't want the repeal.
It is really hard to determine what is making my head spin more this morning, Pennsylvana politics or national politics.
Tom Corbett is a major ass. If this is his view of Pennsylvania's labor force (the "working man"), just IMAGINE what he thinks about people relying on the safety net for survival.
From Capitol Ideas:
According to our podcasting pal, Scott Detrow, of Pennsylvania Public Radio,the two-term attorney general told reporters that "the jobs are there," but that many people are purposely remaining unemployed to to collect benefits.
According to Detrow's report, Corbett said he's heard a similar message from business owners across the state.
?One of the issues, and I hear it repeatedly ? one of the individuals said, ?I can?t get workers. People don?t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment.? They?re literally telling him, ?I?ll come back to work when unemployment runs out.? That?s becoming a problem.?
Corbett added, ?The jobs are there. But if we keep extending unemployment, people are just going to sit there ... I?ve literally had construction companies tell me, I can?t get people to come back to work until?they say, 'I?ll come back to work when unemployment runs out.'?
Capitol Ideas has links to soundbytes.
I don't know anyone who wants to be on unemployment. I interview probably 5-10 people per month and receive dozens more resumes from people who want to work. Unfortunately, most of them are not qualified for our jobs, but it is amazing to see the breadth of their backgrounds. Ironically, a LOT of folks are people who were laid off from a human services position and took up a laborer job to feed their families. They want back into their field (and probably want health insurance).
Would you make more from uninsurance than we can pay? In some cases, probably yes -- but I've yet to meet someone who sees it as a good tradeoff if for no other reason than they realize that the job might be gone when they are "ready".
Can you imagine what this man will do to human service funding if has this sort of contempt for Pennsylvania's workers?
EQuality Giving, an LGBTQ equality campaign fund, has included two Pennsylvania candidates among their lists. This project is a viable complement to the ongoing call for LGBTQ persons to stop donating to the party, from the DNC to the ACDC, and focus on the candidates who support equality, rather than a party which is wishy-washy at best.
These candidates are the top priority for funding:
The outspoken Pennsylvania Congressman (and the first veteran of the Iraq War to serve in Congress) has made the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" a hallmark of his career. His passion on the issue has helped to provide cover for the Commander in Chief, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Secretary of Defense, all of whom now call for repeal of the blatantly discriminatory policy.
"As the lead sponsor of the House's bill to repeal the deeply flawed Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, I am fully committed to ensuring equal rights to those in the LGBT community. We must redouble our efforts to repeal discriminatory laws and improve the health and welfare of all, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity."
GIVE TO CONGRESSMAN JOE SESTAK (D-PA) FOR US SENATE
This 3 star retired Navy admiral supports all equality goals and has been an outspoken advocate for repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." As a Senator, he would co-sponsor equality legislation, just as he has done in the House.
"My position on the civil rights issues of the LGBT community is born out of my 31 years of service in the US Navy. I went to war with brave servicemen and women, where it was known - because of public surveys -that a certain percentage were gay. How can you come home and say 'you went to war for my country with me, but you don't deserve equal rights?' "
I try to support candidates, but I keep getting invited to $250 events and that's just not doable for this little social worker/blogger. So I make my small contributions and do my best.
Kudos to Sestak and Murphy for being at the top of the list. Note that these are competitve races hence the absense of some of our long time advocates.
In an enormous victory for same-sex marriage, a federal judge in Boston today (Thursday, July 8) ruled, in two separate cases, that a critical part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.
In one challenge brought by the state of Massachusetts, Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that Congress violated the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when it passed DOMA and took from the states decisions concerning which couples can be considered married. In the other, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, he ruled DOMA violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
In Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Health and Human Services, Tauro considered whether the federal law's definition of marriage -- one man and one woman -- violates state sovereignty by treating some couples with Massachusetts' marriage licenses differently than others. In Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), a gay legal group, asked Tauro to consider whether DOMA violates the right of eight same-sex couples to equal protection of the law. Both cases were argued, separately, in May, and the decision released today is a relatively quick turnaround, given that some judges take almost a year to decide cases.
Fascinating turn of events. First, a victory for State's rights which will please the rightwingers, but the topic isn't very palatable to them. Second, a victory for LGBT families who will now be able to access federal benefits previously denied to legally wed same sex couples. From the NYT.
"The Constitution isn't about political ideology," said Michael Boldin, the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center, a group based in Los Angeles. "It's about liberty, and limiting the government to certain divisive issues -- I applaud what I consider a very rare ruling from the judiciary."
Others, like Steve V. Moon, a software programmer and founder of States-rights.org, a group founded in Utah in 2008, said the judge's decision was both right and wrong.
"It's unconstitutional for the federal government to pass laws superseding state authority -- and the judge did affirm states' rights in this area," he said. "But I personally believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman and support any state passing laws affirming the sanctity of marriage."
Mr. Moon said he feared that what might look like a states' rights victory could backfire. If judges in other states, drawing on Judge Tauro's reasoning, start throwing out marriage definition laws that were passed by residents or legislatures, "that could be detrimental to states' rights."
I truly do not understand City Council. How can only two of our electeds want to keep drilling out of the City?
The Gulf Oil Spill is still gushing. The corporation and the bureaucrats are bungling the heck out of it. People's livelihoods are drying up. And the environment is dying.
How a man as learned as Councilor Patrick Dowd thinks regulations are the way to go --- in spite of very recent history --- staggers the imagination. How Councilors like Burgess and Lavalle who represent the economically vulnerable that are always screwed by these situations can not stand up and say that poor Pittsburgh residents deserve safe water undermines their credibility as legitimate students of the history of environmental racism. But maybe they never claimed to be so.
Lady Gaga addresses the crowd at the #4the14k Rally in Portland, Maine
