JABbering Stooge

Today was another full day of news to report. Let’s go straight to the rundown:

In rare show of backbone, Dems place hold on Bolton nomination:

Amazingly, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) seems to be the sole posessor of all the Democrats’ cajones. She has placed a hold on John Bolton’s nomination (I thought the Rethuglicans had gotten rid of that pesky rule…).

Here’s to hoping the Dems’ newfound spine will hold, and is not simply lip service to the base.

Chaplain who blew whistle on theocrats’ hostile takeover of AFA fired:

The Washington Post is reporting that the Air Force Academy chaplain who complained about attempts by SpongeDob StickyPants’ Jihad Squad to bend the military academy to its will was fired today.

Of serious concern is the following couple of paragraphs:

As part of its response to the sexual assault charges, the academy asked a team from Yale Divinity School to visit the campus during the summer training for incoming freshmen.

"We were asked to study the quality of cadet-centered pastoral care," said Yale Prof. Kristen Leslie. "What we found was this very strong evangelical Christian voice just dominating. We thought that just didn’t make sense in light of their mission, which was to protect and train cadets, not to win religious converts."

Again, I must ask: do we REALLY want the military to become an arm of religious conservatives’ jihad against all things non-Christian?

Federal Judge sides with 14th Amendment - Nebraska constitution’s amendment unconsitutional:

I’ll let the first three paragraphs of the CNN article speak for themselves:

LINCOLN, Nebraska (AP) — A federal judge Thursday struck down Nebraska’s ban on gay marriage, saying the measure interferes not only with the rights of gay couples but also with those of foster parents, adopted children and people in a host of other living arrangements.

The constitutional amendment, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, was passed overwhelmingly by the voters in November 2000.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon said the ban "imposes significant burdens on both the expressive and intimate associational rights" of gays "and creates a significant barrier to the plaintiffs’ right to petition or to participate in the political process."

The thing is though, this amendment, unlike other, similar bans on gay marriage, is very broadly worded - to the point of denying homosexuals other legal rights not generally covered under federal and state marriage statutes, which is why the federal judge threw it out. As fellow Bartcop posters have pointed out, it seems as though the amendment was purposely crafted to be unconstitutional for the purpose of whipping up the theocratic fascist base, and the timing of the ruling seems to bear this out. We’re preparing for a major showdown over the makeup of the federal judiciary, and this kind of ruling can only serve to add fuel to the fire already burning in the hearts of those who wish to turn this country into a twisted version of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Rove shifts tactics:

Don Waller (AmericanStranger), who was kind enough to link to me recently, has a post on blah3.com in which he suggests that the new round of military base closings is yet another ploy by Karl Rove to keep Republicans and Democrats like "Joementum" in line.

The Bush administration: humble workers in the Lord’s American vineyard, or the political equivalent of La Cosa Nostra? You decide.

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted May 13, 2005 11:52 PM)