Vote no on ALL anti-choice amendments

Once again, women's right to control their OWN bodies are on the line in 2008. And I find that incredibly sad. We'll go from east to west.

In Pierre, S.D.; Leslee Unruh and her misogynistic ilk has managed to put the EXACT same anti-choice initiative on the ballot. It is called IM 11. Make no mistake, the antis claimed to put a health exception for the woman in the measure, but read the whole bill and you will find out that IM 11 is actually a carbon copy of the measure that was voted down by South Dakota voters by a 14-11 margin (56%-44%). If you reside in South Dakota and haven't done so, please sign the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families petition (also contact your friends and family living in the Mount Rushmore State and tell them to sign the petition).

In Denver, there is a measure whose name sounds like it is for equality, but its purpose is EXACTLY the same as South Dakota's IM 11. Amendment 48, also nicknamed the "Equal Rights for All" amendment, is ACTUALLY an amendment that would ban all abortions -- even in cases of rape, incest and, even if the woman's life is in extreme danger, she would not be allowed to have an abortion. Simply put, zygotes would have even more rights than women. Women would have no rights whatsoever in Colorado if Amendment 48 takes effect! So, Colorado voters, DON'T BE FOOLED! Vote NO on Amendment 48!

In Sacramento, Proposition 4 is on the ballot for the third time in four years. People in the Golden State should know by now that it is a measure that would require doctors to notify parents two days before vulnerable people 17 years of age or under can obtain an abortion, even if the parent(s) have been very abusive to the teen. This is another extreme measure that has been defeated twice before. So, Californians, vote NO on Proposition 4 for a third time!

Once again, South Dakotans vote NO on IM 11; Coloradoans vote NO on Amendment 48; and Californians vote NO on Proposition 4. Remember, women's lives are on the line this Election Day.

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Now playing: Black Sabbath - Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B.
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Blogging about domestic violence
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

33.3% of all women and 14% of all men will become a victim of domestic violence in their lifetime. South Carolina has ranked in the Top Ten in fatal domestic violence incidences (for both genders!) for the past 14 years running. In fact, in 2006, South Carolina ranked number 2 in the nation in the number of women and men slain by their partners.

In 2007, 28 women were killed by boyfriends and husbands and 4 men were killed by wives and girlfriends -- a total of 32 people. Both numbers were a decline from 2006 totals of 40 women and 10 men.

Just Tuesday, Eloise Simmons, 40, of Ridgeland, has finally been put to jail after her eighth conviction of violence against her husband. She will spend eight years in jail.

"We were concerned ... that if we didn't do something, she would get out of jail and kill him," said assistant solicitor Meredith Bannon, who prosecuted the case.

"We shouldn't assume they're all men because they're not," Solicitor Duffie Stone said. "She is without a doubt a career criminal and she's also without a doubt a tremendous threat to her husband."

Physical abuse isn't the only type of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse has other types including verbal abuse and sexual assault.

Last year, Safe Homes of Augusta, Ga. took in more than 100 people -- women, men and children -- who were victims of domestic violence.

In my area, there's the Cumbee Center to Assist Abused Persons with offices in Edgefield and Barnwell and it's headquartered in Aiken. There are other women's shelters in South Carolina, but I don't know their names or if they are affiliated with Cumbee.

Unlike female victims of domestic violence, men who are beaten and battered by wives and girlfriends in South Carolina must travel out of the state for a shelter that will accept them, because there are no shelters in South Carolina that takes in male victims of domestic violence (as of October 1).

Adults are not the only ones who are victims of domestic violence. Children (17 and under) can also be victims of domestic violence. Teen girls are the fastest growing segment of our population that are victims of domestic violence. Teen boys have also been beaten and battered by a girlfriend in increasing numbers.

And it is not just sexual relationships that have domestic abuse. Children can also be victims of domestic violence by their parents and other elders.

In any case, there is no excuse for abuse.

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Now playing: Genesis - Home by the Sea/Second Home by the Sea
via FoxyTunes

John McCain and Sarah Palin support terrorists
PHOENIX -- Want more proof that John McCain and Sarah Palin supports terrorists? Well, look no further than their support for domestic terrorists who bomb women's health clinics. Via Think Progress.

McCain has voted against making terrorist attacks against OB/GYN clinics a crime in 1993 and 1994. As the Jed Report notes, McCain voted in 1993 and 1994 against making “bombings, arson and blockades at abortion clinics, and shootings and threats of violence against doctors and nurses who perform abortions” federal crimes.

McCain opposed the Colorado buffer law known as the Bubble Law, a law designed to protect OB/GYNs from terrorists such as those at Operation Save America (then known as Operation Save America). McCain said he opposed Colorado’s “Bubble Law,” which prohibited abortion protesters from getting within 8 feet of women entering clinics [Denver Post, 2/27/2000]. The law was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

McCain voted to allow terrorists declare bankruptcy in order to avoid paying penalties levied against them in court for attacking OB/GYN clinics. NARAL Pro-Chioce America notes that McCain “voted to allow perpetrators of violence or harassment at reproductive-health clinics to avoid paying the fines assessed against them for their illegal acts by declaring bankruptcy.”

That is John McCain (and Sarah Palin for that matter) for you. McCain and Palin values the rights of terrorists more than they value the rights of women. That is wrong. And another reason why they are unqualified to be president and vice president of this nation.

John McCain is friends with a terrorist
PHOENIX -- Over the weekend, Sarah Palin made a racist attack against Barack Obama, one that has been refuted over and over again -- by both the Obama camp and responsible journalists -- in the past 11 months.

Looks like her running mate, John McCain, has been a friend of a radical terrorist for the past 36 years -- exactly one half of McCain's lifetime.

Until Saturday, I've never heard of Gordon Liddy, which tells you how irresponsible today's jounralists are. I would like to thank Media Matters for pointing this out.

Mr. Liddy masterminded the initial break-in of the Dem National Committee's headquarters way back in 1972 and served 54 months in jail for it. And that is only a tiny fraction of what McCain's longtime friend would admit to.

Mr. Liddy also broke into the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist and threatened to kill the someone at that break-in because Mr. Ellsberg leaked military documents. Mr. Liddy also plotted to kill a journalist named Jack Anderson, plotted to kill Howard "Howie" Hunt with "gangland figures" to prevent him from cooperating with investigators. Mr. Liddy threatened to firebomb the liberal think tank Brookings Institution and he even threatened to kidnap progressive protesters at the 1972 GOP convention, the convention plan he outlined to the Nixon admin. Sometime between 1993 and 2000, Mr. Liddy also instructed his radio audience on how to shoot ATF agents and said that he named his shooting targets after the Clintons.

Here is some more about Liddy from Media Matters:

•Felony convictions. As The Washington Post wrote in its online section about the Watergate break-in scandal, "Liddy was convicted for his role in the Watergate break-in, for conspiracy in the Daniel Ellsberg case and for contempt of court, spending about four and a half years in prison. In 1986, a federal appeals court found Liddy liable for $20,499 in back taxes on Watergate slush-fund money, rejecting his claim that his benefits did not exceed $45,000. As one of the White House 'plumbers,' Liddy spent about $300,000 engineering political dirty tricks and the Watergate break-in."

•Liddy plotted to murder journalist Jack Anderson. In a 2004 article in the British newspaper The Independent, Liddy was quoted discussing his never-implemented plans to kill Anderson:

He [Liddy] is famous in the US as the most fiercely loyal of Richard Nixon's "plumbers", one of the agents sent to illegally burgle, drug and libel the President's internal opponents. "The war in Vietnam was fought on the streets of America too," he says. "It was lost here at home, by people who didn't have the Will to win. We had to get the people who wanted America to lose." Including killing columnists? "If they were traitors as Jack Andersen [sic] was, directly helping the enemy, then yes."

In his 1980 autobiography, Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (St. Martin's Press, November 1996), Liddy wrote that he and GOP operative Hunt had become convinced that Anderson had compromised an overseas intelligence source's safety and must be assassinated:

I took the position that, in a hypothetical case in which the target had been the direct cause of the identification and execution of one of our agents abroad, halfway measures were not appropriate. How many of our people should we let him kill before we stop him, I asked rhetorically, still not using Anderson's name. I urged as the logical and just solution that the target be killed. Quickly.

[...]

I submitted that the target should just become a fatal victim of the notorious Washington street-crime rate. No one argued against that recommendation and, at Hunt's suggestion, I gave [then-CIA deputy director of Medical Services] Dr. [Edward] Gunn a hundred-dollar bill, from Committee to Re-Elect the President intelligence funds, as a fee for his services. I took this to be to protect Dr. Gunn's image as "retired."

Afterward Hunt and I discussed the recommendation further. It was decided to include the suggestion that the assassination of Jack Anderson be carried out by Cubans already recruited for the intelligence arm of the Committee to Re-Elect the President. [Pages 208-209]

According to Liddy, when Hunt worried that his superiors would not trust those operatives to carry out the assassination, Liddy said he would be willing to carry out the plot himself:

I thought about the damage Anderson was doing to our country's ability to conduct foreign policy. Most of all, I thought of that U.S. agent abroad, dead or about to die after what I was sure would be interrogation by torture. If Hunt's principal was worried, I had the answer.

"Tell him," I said, "if necessary, I'll do it." [Page 210]

Hunt confirms the murder plot in his own book, American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond (Wiley, February 2007):

Liddy and I, feeling that Anderson had done such harm to the country by exposing foreign-based CIA agents who might be imprisoned and/or killed, spent a lot of time concocting ways to get rid of the pesky journalist, even trying to cook up a way to get him to ingest LSD through his skin from his steering wheel so that he would crash his car. A CIA specialist, however, assured me that skin was an inadequate delivery system, so the plan did not move forward. Still, Liddy was primed and ready to go it alone, planning an assassination if [Attorney General John] Mitchell would just give the word. Ultimately, the attorney general aborted the operation and the muckraker in question outlived most of his adversaries, dying in December 2005 at the age of eighty-three from Parkinson's disease. [Page 199]

•Liddy participated in Ellsberg psychiatrist break-in, prepared to kill someone "if necessary." After military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times, Liddy and Hunt organized a break-in of Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in an attempt to obtain files on Ellsberg. Liddy wrote in Will:
I can run for miles, and there were numerous deeply shadowed hiding places in the area from which I could pause to warn the men inside with the transceiver. Only if there were no other recourse would I have used the knife, but use it I would, if I'd had to; I had given my men word that I would protect them.

For the period of the actual breaking and entering, I posted myself in a narrow space between two buildings concealed by more shrubbery, from which I could see clearly the area of the break-in, all of the private, and much of the public parking lot. [Page 167]

[...]

I was completely candid with him [Egil (Bud) Krogh] in my report, showing him everything: the suitcase, tools, even the knife I had carried. He asked me, incredulous, "Would you really have used it -- I mean, kill somebody?"

"Only if there were absolutely no other way. But yes, I would, if necessary to protect my men. I gave them my word I'd cover them." [Page 169]

Liddy also wrote in Will that he and Hunt plotted to drug Ellsberg:

According to Hunt, Daniel Ellsberg was scheduled to speak at a fund-raising dinner to be held in Washington, and [Nixon chief counsel] Chuck Colson thought it an opportunity to discredit him. The dinner would be well attended by media opinion-shapers and the speech would get wide coverage. Could ["[o]ur organization"] ODESSA drug Ellsberg enough to befuddle him, make him appear a near burnt-out drug case?

Hunt and I studied the matter and developed a plan to infiltrate enough Cuban waiters into the group serving the banquet to be able to ensure that one of our people would serve Ellsberg at the dais. One of the earliest dishes on the menu was soup. A warm liquid is ideal for the rapid absorption and wide dispersal of a drug, and the taste would mask its presence. Hunt was certain that he could provide men from the Miami Cuban community who'd worked at major Florida hotels; the drug, a fast-acting psychedelic such as LSD 25, he said he could get from the CIA together with a recommendation of the dose necessary to have Ellsberg incoherent by the time he was to speak. [Page 170]

The drug plan was not carried out because, according to Liddy, "our superiors had waited too long" to approve it and "[t]here was no longer enough lead time." [Page 170]

•Liddy plotted with "gangland figure" to murder Hunt, a government witness. While in prison, Liddy came to the conclusion that White House officials might want his partner, Hunt, killed rather than risk Hunt cooperating with the Watergate grand jury. Liddy wrote in Will that he made plans to carry out such an assassination order:

By now I knew that the fee for a killing in the D.C. jail was two "boxes." I'd be an immediate suspect were Hunt to be killed, so it would have to be a contract sanction and I'd have to arrange an airtight alibi. That would be easy; just have myself put back in deadlock prior to the event. It wouldn't do, however, to go around soliciting Hunt's execution. Prisons are filled with informers. For that reason I sought the advice of a gangland figure I knew and could trust.

My friend was sharp and as soon as I began to broach the subject, he nodded his understanding but jumped to the conclusion I was referring to [James] McCord, now free on bond. He offered immediately to have McCord shot. I had to explain that I appreciated his offer but had someone else in mind.

[...]

I explained carefully to my friend that I had not yet received orders to kill Hunt, and that under no circumstances was he to be harmed without my specific authorization, which I would not give in the absence of unequivocal orders from my superiors. [Page 309]

Liddy wrote that after Hunt cooperated with investigators, he awaited an order to kill him, but "because the message never came, Hunt lives" [Page 311].

•Liddy plotted to "firebomb[]" Brookings Institution. Liddy and Hunt believed that because of Ellsberg's past association with the Brookings Institution, classified or sensitive documents might be stored in the organization's security vault. Their plan to retrieve these supposed materials involved firebombing the building:

We devised a plan that entailed buying a used but late-model fire engine of the kind used by the District of Columbia fire department and marking it appropriately; uniforms for a squad of Cubans and their training so their performance would be believable. Thereafter, Brookings would be firebombed by use of a delay mechanism timed to go off at night so as not to endanger lives needlessly. The Cubans in the authentic-looking fire engine would "respond" minutes after the timer went off, enter, get anybody in there out, hit the vault, and get themselves out in the confusion of other fire apparatus arriving, calmly loading "rescued" material into a van. The bogus engine would be abandoned at the scene. The taking of the material from the vault would be discovered and the fire engine traced to a cut-out buyer. There would be a lot of who-struck-John in the liberal press, but because nothing could be proved the matter would lapse into the unsolved-mystery category. [Page 171-72]

According to Liddy, the plan was not approved by the White House because it was deemed "[t]oo expensive" [Page 172].

•Liddy borrowed terminology from Nazis in outlining plan to thwart "attack" by "leftist guerillas." Before the 1972 Republican National Convention in San Diego, Liddy met with a group of White House officials, including Attorney General John Mitchell, to discuss ways to thwart an "attack" on the convention by "leftist guerrillas":

I proposed to emulate the Texas Rangers by identifying the leaders through intelligence before the attack got under way, kidnap them, drug them, and hold them in Mexico until after the convention was over, then release them unharmed and still wondering what happened. Leaderless, the attack would be further disrupted by faked assembly orders and messages, and if it ever did get off the ground it would be much easier to repel. The sudden disappearances, which I labeled on the chart in the original German, Nacht und Nebel ("Night and Fog"), would strike fear into the hearts of the leftist guerrillas. The chart labeled the team slated to carry out the night and fog plan as a "Special Action Group" and, when John Mitchell asked, "What's that?" and expressed doubt that it could perform as I had explained, I grew impatient.

[...]

With [then-Nixon deputy campaign director Jeb] Magruder and [then-associate deputy attorney general John] Dean out to lunch, I felt obliged to impress Mitchell with my seriousness of purpose, that my people were the kind and I was the kind who could and would do whatever was necessary to deal with organized mass violence. Both Magruder and Dean were too young to know what I was talking about, but I knew that Mitchell, a naval officer in World War II, would get the message if I translated the English "Special Action Group" into German. Given the history involved, it was a gross exaggeration, but it made my point. "An Einsatzgruppe, General," I said, inadvertently using a hard g for the word General and turning it, too, into German. "These men include professional killers who have accounted between them for twenty-two dead so far, including two hanged from a beam in a garage." [Page 197-98]

•Liddy's advice for shooting ATF agents. According to an April 26, 1995, CBS News transcript (retrieved from Nexis), Liddy said on his August 26, 1994, radio show:

LIDDY: Well, if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests.

Reporting on Liddy's October 19, 1994, radio show, The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz recounted in an October 24, 1994, article:

Ursula from Millerton, Pa., tells Liddy she's afraid the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is coming after her gun-owning friend. Liddy calls the bureau "bottom-dwelling slugs ... a pack of nitwits out to make war on those Americans who take seriously the Second Amendment." Liddy allows that calls to "hunt down and kill" such agents is "going too far." But, he says, "shooting back is reasonable... . I have counseled shooting them in the head."

According to Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, on September 15, 1994, Liddy stated:

If the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms insists upon a firefight, give them a firefight. Just remember, they're wearing flak jackets and you're better off shooting for the head.

According to FAIR, Liddy said to a caller later in the show:

When the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms thugs come to kill your wife and children, to try to disarm you and they open fire on you. When they come at the point of a gun, force and violence, when you're going to defend yourself, use that Gerand [sic] [M-1 rifle]. That thing is 30-06, and it'll take 'em right out.

According to an April 25, 1995, Associated Press article:

Talk show host G. Gordon Liddy said Tuesday he gave listeners bad advice when he told them to shoot for the head if attacked by federal agents. Instead, he said, go twice for the body and then the groin.

[...]

Last August, Liddy counseled "head shots" to respond to an encounter with agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, because, "They've got a vest underneath."

On Tuesday, he told a news conference held as part of his WJFK program that people should cooperate if authorities come to their homes with search warrants. But they should shoot back if agents shoot their way in, he said.

He said experts have told him shooting for the head was a bad idea because heads are hard to hit.

"So you shoot twice to the body, center of mass, and if that does not work, then shoot to the groin area," he said.

"They cannot move their hips fast enough and you'll probably get a femoral artery and you'll knock them down at any rate."

Asked about his ATF comments by right-wing blogger John Hawkins in December 2003, Liddy argued they had been misinterpreted:

LIDDY: [A]s usual, people remember part of what I said, but not all of what I said. What I did was restate the law. I was talking about a situation in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes smashing into a house, doesn't say who they are, and their guns are out, they're shooting, and they're in the wrong place. This has happened time and time again. The ATF has gone in and gotten the wrong guy in the wrong place. The law is that if somebody is shooting at you, using deadly force, the mere fact that they are a law enforcement officer, if they are in the wrong, does not mean you are obliged to allow yourself to be killed so your kinfolk can have a wrongful death action. You are legally entitled to defend yourself and I was speaking of exactly those kind of situations. If you're going to do that, you should know that they're wearing body armor so you should use a head shot. Now all I'm doing is stating the law, but all the nuances in there got left out when the story got repeated.

•Liddy acknowledged naming shooting targets after Clintons. According to the April 25, 1995, edition of NPR's All Things Considered (retrieved from Nexis), during a press conference, Liddy admitted that he named shooting targets after then-President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton. From the press conference, as aired by NPR:

LIDDY: I did relate that on the 4th of July of last year, when I and my family and some friends were out firing away at a properly-constructed rifle range and we ran out of targets, and so we -- I drew some stick figure targets and I thought we ought to give them names. So I named them Bill and Hillary, thought it might improve my aim. It didn't. My aim is good anyway. Now, having said that, I accept no responsibility for somebody shooting up the White House.

•Radio America's The G. Gordon Liddy Show. McCain has made appearances on Liddy's radio show, including as recently as May of this year. An online video labeled "John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07" includes a discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as an "old friend." During the segment, McCain praised Liddy's "adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great," said he was "proud" of Liddy, and said that "it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program." From the program:

LIDDY: Your experience in the Hanoi Hilton is remarkable. I mean, I put in five years in a prison, but it was here in the United States, and they didn't torture -- the only torture that I had was being forced to listen to rap music from time to time.

McCAIN: Well, you know, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of your family. I'm proud to know your son, Tom, who's a great and wonderful guy. And it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon. And congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.

LIDDY: Senator, congratulations on your surge -- I guess we can call it that. You're coming back with a vengeance. And thank you so much for sharing time with us. Really appreciate it.

McCAIN: Thank you. Thanks Gordon, great to be with you.

LIDDY: Good to be with you, Senator.


Also, Mr. Liddy has donated $5,000.00 McCain's campaigns, including $1,000.00 to the McCain/Palin campaign.

And through all of this, what has McCain done? Praised Mr. Liddy, that's what.

That's right, readers. McCain has actually praised this terrorist. And it is disgusting.

And yet another reason why McCain and Palin are totally unqualified to be president and vice president of this great nation.

Casualties of the Bush-McCain economy: grocery stores in Jackson
Topic: News
JACKSON -- There are no grocery stores standing in Jackson, meaning that citizens will have to go at least eight miles to Ralph's or Reid's in New Ellenton for produce or meat. (Via the Aiken Standard.)

What does Dollar General have that the citizens of this town of 1,680 need? Very little, unless they are going to drink whole milk and eat Pringles and Toast-It pastries. Dollar General doesn't have meat, produce, organic foods, or boxed pizza for that matter.

And with gas prices still hovering near $3.99, people 20 and younger and those 55 and older can ill-afford that kind of unnecessary road trip, even to New Ellenton.

The town of Jackson have some knowledge on the subject of grocery stores. Three years ago, they commissioned a market study on the issue and concluded that there was widespread support.

"It came back overwhelmingly that Jackson could support it," Etherredge said. "I definitely know the people will support it. The town is willing to do its part. Hopefully there is someone out there. The potential is there; it's just got to be the right person."

The owners of both Brinkley's and the Jackson Super Market are willing to work with anyone interested. In the meantime, Etherredge said Jackson could also use a full-time pharmacy and a dry cleaners.

Anyone who is interested in opening a grocery store or any other business in Jackson is encouraged to call Etherredge at 471-2229.

One thing I can say about the closings of Jackson's grocery stores is this: it is the direct result of the failed economic policies of President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain. Their support for permanent tax cuts for the richest 3,030,000 people has contributed to the closures of Brinkley's and Jackson Super Market. And now the poor people in Jackson are starting to learn exactly what voodoo economics look like, even as Bush and McCain continues to ignore the problems happening in all of our communities -- both big and small.

That is one more reason why the Town of Jackson -- and the American people for that matter -- can ill-afford a McCain-Palin Administration. One more reason to vote against the GOP ticket on November 4.

A big thank you to Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson for calling Palin a homophobe
Topic: LGBTQ

LOS ANGELES -- Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson, everyone's favorite lesbian couple, sear Sarah Palin for the VP nominee's homophobic views.

"I really cannot bite my tongue anymore when it comes to Sarah Palin," wrote Lohan. "Is it a sin to be gay? Should it be a sin to be straight? Or to use birth control? Or to have sex before marriage? Or even to have a child out of wedlock?"

While taking the governor to task over her positions on the environment, oil drilling and for having apparently aspired to be a television anchor, Lohan directed most of her ire at what she perceives as the candidate's position on homosexuality.

Lohan included a portion of an Associated Press story stating that Palin's Wasilla church was hosting a conference that hoped to convert homosexuals to heterosexuality through the power of prayer.

Lohan wrote: "I have faith that this country will be all that it can be with the proper guidance. I really hope that all of you make your decisions based on the facts and what feels right to you in your heart? Vote for Obama!"

And as the Sen. Barack Obama supporter (along with pal Samantha Ronson) took pains to write, "I am not against Sarah Palin as a mother or a woman," she looked to another celebrity female for an inspirational quote.

"In the words of Pamela Anderson, 'She can suck it.'"

Way to go Lindsay and Sam!

Sad hit: Richard Wright 1943-2008
LONDON -- Some sad news I want to share with you.

Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright died of cancer Monday at 65.

He also was the writer of "Us and Them" and "A Great Gig in the Sky". He also co-wrote the 23.5-minute epic "Echoes".

Sad hit: Del Martin 1921-2008

LOS ANGELES -- Remember the couple that made California history by becoming the first LGBT couple to legally wed? Well, I have some really sad news to report.

Del Martin, 87, died on Wednesday night.

Mrs. Martin was a trailblazer in the fight for equal rights for LGBT couples. She was fighting for equality for LGBT couples not only in California, but also in the other 49 states. Many LGBT and straight people who are fighting for LGBT equality in every state today was influenced by Mrs. Martin -- either directly or indirectly.

Mrs. Martin was also an author. She wrote the book Battered Wives. She also founded the very first LGBT rights group way back in 1955.

"Del emphasized the need to unite as never before and face the grip that the extreme right wing holds over our country," said National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy.

Thank you for fighting against injustice for 87 years, Mrs. Martin. There is a very special place in heaven for you.

[cross-posted from Aiken Area Progressive]

Five years ago today: Williston-Elko 19, Barnwell 9
Topic: Sports
WILLISTON -- It was five years ago today when a determined Williston-Elko squad entered their season debut with a 33-year losing streak against their Class AA rival Barnwell.

The Blue Devils were cramping, their then-team leader had a trip to Barnwell County Hospital, and Barnwell was looking for more blood.

But that night, August 28 of the year 2003, belonged to the Blue Devils.

That night, Rafael Bush ran for 202 yards and Orry Kennedy recorded two interceptions as the Blue Devils snapped a 33-year losing streak to the War Horses, then the longest in the state, by a final count of 19-9.

Their coach that day, Justin Gentry, did something that Charlie Combs, Dean Boyd, and even the great James Hewitt couldn't do: beat Barnwell.

"This takes a load off our back," Gentry said. "It's been a long time coming."

"I've never felt this good in my life."

After the game ended, fans stormed the field, with the players, cheerleaders and fans all jumping up and down at midfield in celebration.

Mr. Bush put the Devils up 12-0 after a 52-yard scamper into the end zone when he took the handoff from Tony White, then the backup quarterback to Randy Robinson. Mr. Bush also added a late score.

The War Horses was trying to mount a comeback in an attempt to silence the Blue Devil crowd. But, War Horses quarterback Ryan Grubbs threw two interceptions to Mr. Kennedy to seal the fate.

And to also end one of the longest losing streaks against a particular team in South Carolina history.

This Friday, W-E will be traveling to W.W. Carter Field to take on the War Horses, a venue where the Blue Devils haven't won in since 1970 (the 2003 victory was in the Devils Den, Williston-Elko's home stadium). Let's hope that they can finally win in Barnwell's place.

(NOTE: For those who don't know, I am a 2002 graduate of Williston-Elko High School.)

Arizona State honchos drop national champion cheer squad, a call to students to root against Sun Devils
Topic: Assholes in the news

 

TEMPE, Ariz. -- This story is about five months old, but I'm reporting on this now because college football season is about to begin.

If you ever heard of the saying "without cheerleaders, it is just not football", then that will be oh so true (at least this year) at Arizona State.

The fascists at Arizona State University completely cut its championship winning cheerleading squad from football and basketball.

They say it is for budget reasons. That is bullshit and everyone at ASU should know that their college board is blatantly lying about the reasons they cut the cheerleading suqad.

This blog will give the ASU people outraged over the cutting of the cheer squad the naked truth.

The college board cut the cheerleading squad because they were partying. The pictures are up on Asylum for the world to see.

These women are of legal age and they did nothing wrong that warranted ASU to cut the entire cheer program. The excuse ASU came up with for cutting the cheer squad is absolutely pitiful and because of that, I am urging the entire student body to show up at ASU's home games and root against the Sun Devils in every last one of them. Make the university pay the price for cutting their cheer program.

And for those who are in Tempe but don't attend the school, organize a protest of the school's outrageous decision to cut the cheer squad. And for those who are planning to transfer to a school in Arizona, don't transfer to ASU. Don't stop there. Don't shop there. If you are planning to transfer from ASU, then put rival Arizona near the top of your list.

Hitting the honchos at ASU where it hurts will send a strong message that cheerleaders are part of football and basketball.