Rice Gets Schooled by 4th Grader on Torture

Schools don’t seem to be a safe place for former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It appears even the littlest kids understand that torture is wrong and that the Bush Gang — Condi included — have blood on their hands.

Days after telling students at Stanford University that waterboarding was legal “by definition if it was authorized by the president,” former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was pressed again on the subject yesterday by a fourth-grader at a Washington school. …

Rice, in her first appearance in Washington since leaving government, was at the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital before giving an evening lecture at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. …

Misha Lerner, a student from Bethesda, asked: What did Rice think about the things President Obama’s administration was saying about the methods the Bush administration had used to get information from detainees?

… ”Let me just say that President Bush was very clear that he wanted to do everything he could to protect the country. After September 11, we wanted to protect the country,” she said. “But he was also very clear that we would do nothing, nothing, that was against the law or against our obligations internationally. So the president was only willing to authorize policies that were legal in order to protect the country.”

She added: “I hope you understand that it was a very difficult time. We were all so terrified of another attack on the country. September 11 was the worst day of my life in government, watching 3,000 Americans die. . . . Even under those most difficult circumstances, the president was not prepared to do something illegal, and I hope people understand that we were trying to protect the country.”

Misha’s mother, Inna Lerner, said the question her son had initially come up with was even tougher: “If you would work for Obama’s administration, would you push for torture?”

“They wanted him to soften it and take out the word ‘torture.’ But the essence of it was the same,” Lerner said.

via Washington Post:  4th-Grader Questions Rice on Waterboarding

Three cheers for Misha Lerner for doing Maryland proud.

Imagine: Rice pulled out 9/11 and the Nixon defense (which was lame in the 1070s) to defend her unconscionable acts to a child. Sorry, these are not good people — they are war criminals who must be held accountable.

Maine House to Vote on Equality

We have a unique opportunity: Today, the Maine House of Representatives is slated to vote on marriage equality. The issue, of course, is of massive importance to equality seekers there, as the AP explains:

For GLBT people in the Pine Tree State, a life saddled by legal inequality is “unbearable.”

Diane Sammer and her partner, Pam Dennis, were careful to sign papers giving Sammer power of attorney over Dennis’ affairs. Yet after Dennis died of a heart attack and her body was to be cremated, the undertaker refused to accept Sammer’s signature.

After some legal wrangling, Sammer signed a document to free the undertaker of any potential legal liability for taking away the remains of the woman with whom she had lived for 28 years.

“It was humiliating and just made an unbearable situation that much more so,” said Sammer, who’s from the coastal Maine town of Harpswell. …

While Maine law has evolved to treat male and female spouses equally, there are distinctions in key areas of wills and probate between married couples and same-sex couples, according to a memorandum by family law attorney Michael Levey.

In traditional marriages, for example, a portion of the deceased’s estate goes to the surviving spouse if there’s no will. Even if the will excludes the surviving spouse, he or she is still entitled to about a third of the estate. Neither provision applies to same-sex couples.

Surviving spouses are protected from creditors. Maine law also requires spouses to support each other when in need, and a partner who fails to do so can face a court order. This doesn’t apply to same-sex couples. …

_When a worker suffers a job-related death, workers’ compensation law says the surviving spouse shall receive 80 percent of the employee’s average weekly wage for nearly 10 years. That provision doesn’t apply to same-sex couples.

_State law says a spouse is considered appropriate to be a guardian for a disabled person, but same-sex partners have no such priority to appointment.

_State laws treat gay and straight couples who have children differently. For same-sex couples, there’s no assumption that the couple’s child is theirs.

Does this make you as sick as it makes me? This disparity should not be in the so-called Land of the Free. Would Jesus approve of the way his gay and lesbian children — and their children — are treated under state law? Which makes it all the more cool that, thanks to techonology, we can watch the proceedings and see the vote. Enjoy, and hopefully, you will see history made and justice finally won.

 

View the proceedings here — the debate is under way as of 10:30 a.m.

Activism: Another Reason to Skip Wal-Mart

The CEO of Wal-Mart, just like Mormons, can exercise his right to free speech and expression however he sees fit. I too have that right — and will exercise it by refusing to give the company that pays him my business and by saying so.  Why? Well, I have many reasons for not shopping Wal-Mart, but here is the newest kick in the rubber parts: The Advocate tells us that the already-suspect discount chain’s new CEO has a problem with gay people adopting children. That being the case, Wal-Mart should expect GLBT people and their allies to have reservations about spending their money there

The new CEO of Wal-Mart was among those who signed a petition to place an initiative on the Arkansas ballot last November to ban adoption and foster parenting by gay couples, reports the group KnowThyNeighbor.org.

A signature from Mike Duke, with an address that matches the known residence and birth date of the Wal-Mart head, was verified by the state and counted to place Act 1 on the ballot. The initiative, which passed with 57% approval among voters, makes it illegal for unmarried cohabitating couples — gay or straight — to adopt or foster children.

Opponents of Act 1 charged that the true intent behind the measure was to limit the family rights of same-sex couples. The proposal included straight couples to ensure its constitutional viability, given that a previous ban targeting only same-sex couples had been struck down.

Last week, KnowThyNeighbor.org posted online the names of more than 83,000 Arkansas residents who signed the petition to place Act 1 on the ballot. The public data, which was provided by the Arkansas secretary of state, can be found here.

Act 1 is evil. No melodrama or hyperbole here: Fifty-seven percent of Arkansans hate GLBT people so much, they chose to throw unmarried hets under the bus in order to keep gays from even approaching equality in their state. Let’s call it what this is: evil.

Some advice for Arkansas do-gooders from a Baltimore progressive: Get to work on a repeal effort. And KnowThyNeighbor has a huge list of folks who could stand to endure a little free expression in return.

For Baltimoeans, Wal-Mart is here too. So are bigots. And we too can send a message to the Arkansans who took such pains to stick it to the queers by boycotting bigoted people and institutions in Arkansas. Be kind and dignified — do not do a Perez Hilton, please — but, from the high road, let the bigots of Bill Clinton’s home state know in no uncertain terms: The final day for legalized discrimination in this country is coming sooner than they think. Let them know that decent people will not support the discriminators with gay and allied dollars. In other words, until this evil wrong is redressed, boycott Wal-Mart. Boycott bigoted Arkansas.

Feminist Author Marilyn French Dies

Heartbreaking news it is to lose another of one’s heroes…

 Marilyn French, the feminist writer from Queens, NY, who is said to have “captured the quest of the modern feminist movement” in her highly acclaimed 1977 novel The Women’s Room, died from heart failure over the weekend at the age of 79. 

French also wrote books and essays with a common theme of male subjugation of women. Other works include Her Mother’s Daughter, a semi-autobiographical exploration of several generations of women in one family; A Season in Hell, the story of her fight with esophageal cancer (she was a smoker for 40 years); and the four-volume From Eve to Dawn, A History of Women, published by The Feminist Press, which [covers] the condition of being a woman in the world [from] the beginning of time.

via Women on the Web:  Feminist Author Marilyn French Dies at Age 79

GOP: Jeb Bush to the Rescue

After losing the White House and control of the House and Senate, the Republican party is now turning to Jeb Bush for help.

The former Florida governor took part Saturday in the first town hall meeting for the “National Council For A New America” in Arlington, Va. The goal of the event was to help chart out a new direction for the GOP.

Joining Bush was former Gov. Mitt Romney and U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor. The group discussed national security, health care and the economy. …

Bush … laid out the group’s goal — to take the GOP in a new more inclusive direction.

“It’s a chance to create a forum for people to truly listen and then create a consensus around 21st century ideas that truly matter for the American families, present them to the American people in elections and all sorts of other ways and lead,” he said.

via WPLG Miami:  GOP Turn To Jeb Bush For Help