Papillion 'Family Values' Sen. Jim Smith sponsors law to make it easier for foreign oil company to condemn land of rural Nebraska families under eminent domain

Sen. Jim Smith, of Papillion, sponsor of
LB1161, which helps TransCanada trample
property rights of Nebraska ranchers and
farmers through abuse of eminent domain.
Smith's law exempts oil companies that apply
during 2012 from complying with Nebraska's
new Major Oil Pipeline Siting act. Smith
claims, with a straight face, that his law
wasn't unconstitutionally written
specifically for TransCanada.

LB1161 would exempt the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline from Nebraska's new Major Oil Pipeline Siting act for a year and would let the company condemn farmer and rancher land under eminent domain without a federal permit for its pipeline.

    Smith is the Nebraska State Chairman of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group funded by the extremist right-wing billionaire Koch brothers, to get bills written by corporate lobbyists passed in state legislatures.

     Smith's bill lets TransCanada dictate terms, conditions and compensation to landowners and if they don't like it — tough luck. Here's the language:

...desiring or requiring a right-of-way or other interest in real estate and being unable to agree with the owner or lessee of any land, lot, right-of-way, or other property for the amount of compensation for the use and occupancy of so much of any lot, land, real estate, right-of-way, or other property as may be reasonably necessary for the laying, relaying, operation, and maintenance of any such pipeline or the location of any plant or equipment necessary to operate such pipeline, shall have the right to acquire the same for such purpose through the exercise of the power of eminent domain...

Above: citizen testimony in May of 2011 about TransCanada's deplorable treatment of Nebraska farmers and ranchers, which would now be aided and abetted by Sen. Jim Smith's pending legislation. (The bills at the end of the video are no longer pending.)

Here's what Bold Nebraska said about LB1161 on March 28th:

This bill IGNORES the laws we just passed during the Special Session and fast-tracks a route approval (before they submit their federal application). Worst of all, LB 1161 grants TransCanada immediate eminent domain authority versus them having to get their federal permit before taking Nebraskans' land which is our state law now.

Despite Jim Smith's ridiculously dishonest denials, the law is obviously boutique legislation to benefit a foreign oil company. Look at the shamelessly specific language in his bill:

...The Major Oil Pipeline Siting Act shall not apply to any major oil pipeline that, prior to January 1, 2013, has submitted an application to the United States Department of State pursuant to Executive Order 13337 or, prior to January 1, 2013, has applied for or is granted international border crossing authority pursuant to federal law.

Ben Gotschall of Bold Nebraska on the LB1161 hearing:

Another frequent phrase used during the hearing by Sen. Christensen was that Nebraska needed to “hold up our end of the deal” with TransCanada. Well, Sen. Christensen, in the Special Session you and the rest of our lawmakers made two deals: one with Nebraskans (LB1), and one with TransCanada (LB4). TransCanada’s deal fell through when their permit was denied. Now, Sens. Christensen and Smith, among others, want to bow out of their deal with Nebraskans and instead stand with a foreign pipeline company, while telling Nebraskans we have to foot the $2 million bill to study their pipeline under the DEQ process.

Reaction from the Nebraska Chapter of the Sierra Club:

The vote by a majority of the Natural Resources Committee to advance LB 1161 disregarded the Nebraska Constitution, the rights of Nebraska landowners and the wishes of all the Nebraska citizens who testified at the committee hearing,” said Ken Winston, Nebraska Sierra Club spokesperson. “The committee had been given a legal memo that raises serious questions about the constitutionality of LB 1161, but disregarded that opinion. They had heard testimony from landowners that the rights of Nebraska landowners needed to be strengthened against eminent domain threats by private pipeline companies, yet they advanced this bill that weakens landowner rights. And every Nebraska citizen who testified on LB 1161 opposed it, yet the majority of the Committee ignored their testimony.

Unicameral Natural Resource Committee members:

• Sen. Chris Langemeier, Chairperson
• Sen. Tom Carlson
• Sen. Mark Christensen
• Sen. Annette Dubas
• Sen. Ken Haar
• Sen. Beau McCoy
• Sen. Ken Schilz
• Sen. Jim Smith

Time-lapse remix of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

Via Towleroad (see bloglist)

Matt Baume on secret National Organization for Marriage memos and the increasing failure of its expensive initiatives

Supreme Court rules 5-4 to allow strip searches for any arrest, without cause

The editorial page editor of the NYT, Andrew Rosenthal, looks askance at the ruling:

Justice Kennedy said courts are not in a position to second-guess correctional officials in this area. Funny, I thought that was exactly what the courts were supposed to do. If the Supreme Court won’t, who will? ...Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that exceptions to the ruling were possible “to ensure that we ‘not embarrass the future.’” Well that’s reassuring. How about not embarrassing the present?

Was that a real cop or a stripper cop?

Hey, gay rednecks! Kirsti shows you how to make your very own acrid rainbow with a 12-gauge shotgun!

Taste the rainbow, city queers.


(Everydaynodaysoff via Neatorama via BoingBoing)

AKSARBENT quote of the day, from the Iowa City PD

“Do not mention to the public or the media the use of cellphone technology or equipment used to locate the targeted subject.”
It should also be kept out of police reports, the Iowa City Police Department warned officers in one training manual.
(Source: New York Times, ACLU)

Pittsburgh mayor Ravenstahl against marriage equality; probable challenger Peduto in favor

Top: councilman Bill Peduto (photo: Pittsburgh City Paper);
bottom: Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (photo: Peter Diana,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

From a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece on the gulf between between mayoral support of marriage in eastern and western Pennsylvania comes the delineation of the sharp contrast between Pittsburgh's current mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, and probable challenger, City Councilman Bill Peduto:

Joanna Doven, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, said he does not support gay marriage and would not sign the Mayors for the Freedom to Marry statement...

     City Councilman Bill Peduto, a likely challenger to Mr. Ravenstahl in next year's election, said he would support Mayors for the Freedom to Marry.

     "Fairness and equality are the basis of this country," he said. "Supporting same-sex marriage is something I've supported throughout my career."

N. Ireland priest accidentally screens Powerpoint gay porn, bolts from room, recovers nicely; asks for money

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Pomeroy,
Co Tyrone, N. Ireland (photo: Wikipedia)

All kinds of news outlets are reporting the story of Father Martin McVeigh's hapless Powerpoint presentation of gay porn to 26 parents of pupils at St. Mary's School in Pomeroy, Co Tyrone after sticking an unexpectedly frisky memory stick into a computer.

From Pink News:

A statement issued by the parents present said Father McVeigh was “visibly shaken and flustered” after the Powerpoint presentation went awry.

     It continued: “He gave no explanation or apology to the group and bolted out of the room. The co-ordinator and the teachers then continued with the presentation.

     “Twenty minutes later he returned, he continued with the meeting and wrapped up by saying that the children get lots of money for their Holy Communion and should consider giving some of it to the church.”

Lincoln Journal-Star interviews Outsports' Cyd Zeigler on post urging dismissal of coach Ron Brown

Zeigler in a suit

Cindy Lange-Kubrick, of the Lincoln Journal-Star interviewed Outsports founder Cyd Zeigler following the Huffington Post's publication of his call for dismissal of assistant coach Ron Brown to find out why Zeigler wants Brown gone.

Here's an excerpt:

"I have an affinity for Nebraska," said Zeigler, who... followed the Big Red in its glory years. "So it makes me sad."
     Zeigler spent most of a week researching Brown before writing his piece. He read stories and watched two hours of video on YouTube, where Brown shared his religious viewpoint, often using Tom Osborne Field as a backdrop.
     And he came to this conclusion: "There's no way a gay player on his team would feel comfortable expressing himself."
     (It would defy all odds, added Zeigler, to think there have not been gay football players at Nebraska during Brown's 20-year tenure.)
     ...But to Zeigler -- and hundreds who signed an online petition asking the university to let Brown go -- the coach crossed a line when he used his position as part of his platform.
     "In his arguments, Brown suggested it is God's will to discriminate against gay people," Zeigler wrote, "even saying that those who voted to protect gay people would be held to 'great accountability' by God."
     "His remedy for a gay person in the locker room would be to change them with the word of Christ," said Zeigler. "No coach should be allowed to create this kind of hostile environment for anyone he coaches."

Doris Day gives rare interview to Fresh Aire's Terri Gros aired on eve of singer/actress' 88th birthday

Doris Day, who turns 88 Tuesday, was the biggest female box-office star in Hollywood history when, after 40 movies, she retired to Northern California in 1968 to rescue dogs (and cats). She is even notable for what she didn't do — having turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate.
     The animal-loving star, who is down to her last six dogs and 10 cats, released My Heart last year, her first commercial recording since 1967 and is the subject of a new four-DVD box set of her films as well as TCM's star of the month for April. Twenty-eight of her movies will air during prime time this week on the cable network. Day's interview with Teri Gross on NPR's Fresh Aire is below.

Dan Savage's Savage U MTV teaser

Get More: MTV Shows

(Via Towleroad)

Rick Santorum tries to catch up with Mitt Romney's lies; tells whopper in WI about California colleges

From ThinkProgress:

In fact, of the 10 UC system schools, just one (San Francisco) doesn’t offer American history courses. But that’s because it doesn’t offer any humanities courses at all — it’s a medical school.

     Meanwhile, Berkeley, Irvine, Davis, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz all offer numerous American history courses. All require students to take U.S. history before they can graduate.

Goldman Sachs owns 16% of biggest forum for sex trafficking of underage girls in US

The New York Times is reporting that private equity financiers (including the 16% stake owned by Goldman Sachs) own the biggest forum for sex trafficking of under-age girls in the United States — a web site called Backpage.com, owned by Village Voice Media.
     In one recent case in New York City, prosecutors say that a 15-year-old girl was drugged, tied up, raped and sold to johns through Backpage and other sites.
     Perhaps this is a small indication of why Warren Buffet's 2008 $5 billion Berkshire Hathaway investment in Goldman Sachs has yielded a 50% return. Yeah, we know Warren invested to stabilize the economy (and to enrich himself via the VERY favorable terms of his investment at a time when Goldman Sachs was pretty desperate), not to encourage teenage girl white slavery, but geez. Ewww.

BPI puppet, Iowa GOP Gov. Terry Branstad, at pink slime dog-and-pony show, gets testy at ABC reporter who asks about the $150,000 he got from Big Beef

Most of the video of this event (last week) seen around the country was from KCCI, but this clip, from the Sioux City Journal, is a bit more illustrative of the tension between Branstad and ABC senior correspondent Jim Avila. Branstad successfully pressured Hy-Vee to reverse its decision to stop selling the finely textured "beef product." Branstad, a beneficiary of BPI's largesse, appeared indignant that a reporter might raise doubts about his impartiality, saying "I will always fight for what's right and I will never be intimidated by anybody in the press."
     Branstad's spokesman, Tim Albrecht, said that the governor has received $150,000 in the last two years from people tied to BPI, whose employees (mostly top executives) have given all but $28,400 of $820,750 to congressional and presidential candidates over the last decade.
     At his weekly press conference, Branstad called for a congressional investigation into how what he called "a smear campaign" against finely textured beef product (aka "pink slime") originated.
     Food safety advocate Nancy Donley, whose son died from 3-coli poisoning, was livid when Avila asked her why acknowledgement of BPI's $250,000 donation to her organization, half its budget, was recently removed from her website. Here's more from Radio Iowa.
     The Omaha World-Herald was uncharacteristically more skeptical about the proceedings in its reporting than was the Des Moines Register.

Branstad, who on Wednesday helped persuade West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee Inc. to reverse its decision to scrap products containing the beef additive, turned combative during the event after he was questioned about a $150,000 campaign donation by BPI. He said it had no impact on his support for the company.

     After the press conference, Branstad told The World-Herald that he would support other grocery chains doing as Hy-Vee is and using signs to show what products contain the additive and which do not.

     "Instead of using these charged words . if you describe what it is — it is really lean beef, and people want lean beef — I don't think (signage) hurts it," he said.

     Asked why the product isn't sold as a stand-alone product, a BPI spokesman said consumers would not respond positively to the fine texture of the product.

Gay school board member wants NU coach Brown fired; in radio response to HuffPost article, Brown alarmed at names like "Pat" or "Stacy"

Above: Ron Brown, inside NU's Memorial stadium, hard at work on a side job with Justen Wack promoting an anti-porn initiative and cross-promoting his evangelical effort by wearing a FreedMen tee shirt in front of the television camera. The YouTube video is here.

WOWT, the NBC affiliate in Omaha, and Kevin Abourezk of the Lincoln Journal-Star are reporting that Barbara Baier, an openly gay member of the Lincoln Board of Education, wants NU to fire assistant football coach Ron Brown for his public comments against an Omaha proposal (subsequently passed) to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Below, the Journal-Star:

"When some people seek to camouflage their hatred under the cloak of their faith, their professed religious beliefs should not shield them from the consequences of their actions," Barbara Baier wrote in a letter to NU leaders.
      Baier said she decided to send the letter out of concern for gay NU athletes who may fear Brown's beliefs that homosexuality is a sin threaten their well-being. She said her own 12-year-old son is considering attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, but that she isn't encouraging it right now. She said she was expressing her opinions as a private individual and not as a Lincoln school board member.
     "I would like to see them go and seriously change the culture in their athletics program across the board and make sure that the university is a welcoming place for people of all backgrounds, including the gay and lesbian community," she said. "That's going to take some work."

On Friday, NU Chancellor Ron Perlman said:

"I am personally offended by the comments of Coach Brown with regard to gays and lesbians," Perlman said Friday. "Whether intended to do so or not, they reflect poorly on the university, on our athletic programs, and I am certain they cause pain and discomfort among a valued and productive segment of our community."

Perlman also said Brown had the right to express his personal views and hadn't done anything to warrant his dismissal.
     The Omaha World-Herald, which is never amused when persons other than its editorial writers — especially persons from Stinkin' Lincoln — tell the city council how to run Omaha, liberally quoted both Perlman's and Baier's sharp disapproval of Brown:

"Unless and until I have evidence that coach Brown has engaged in conduct beyond speech that many of us find offensive, I do not intend to do more than seek to assure that he speaks only for himself and to disassociate myself and this university from his position," Perlman said.

     "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever," he [Brown]said Friday. "I have no fear of any man or any thing."

     Baier said she saw Brown speak at a Champions Club event last fall. She said he made clear his UNL connection and spoke in terms of faith as he attacked gay and transgender individuals and discussed a "mysterious but undefined 'homosexual agenda.'"

     "At the conclusion of the speech, I was deeply troubled and, as a person of the attacked minority group, I felt psychologically and socially threatened, so I left the event," she said.

     Perlman said he was sorry Baier felt intimidated, but he noted it was not a university event. He said Brown's views on gay rights do not reflect the views of most of the UNL community.

     Right-wing talk radio station KLIN in Lincoln aired a puffball interview with Brown here (unearthed by The Friendly Atheist) in which Brown responded to Outsports' Cyd Ziegler's 3/22/2012 Huffington Post column calling for Brown to be fired.
     In the radio interview, Brown expressed his alarm that some parents are choosing gender neutral names like "Stacy" or "Pat" and railed against the ACLU and Planned Parenthood.

The YouTube boxed set — it arrives in a lot of boxes

(Via JMG and Forbes)

Ask reddit: "I think my brother is spreading rumors about me being gay."

The Internet, as Gene Pitney would have said had he been prescient, is a town without pity. But just for fun, without looking, please rate the following responses as to their reddit popularity as of noon today. No cheating.

1. Punch him right in the dick with your mouth.
2. Fuck his girlfriend
3. Spread a rumor that you're straight.

Spoiler/answer below, in white on white. Click and swipe to reveal.

The answers are listed in reverse order of popularity.

Who is Good Guy Greg? AKSARBENT has an interview with him!

Please note the day before getting all mad and stuff.

Advertising: Batchelor's Peas and the best gay ad never broadcast

The Olgilvy museum has been uploading some of the agency's classic ads (including a beautiful, pristeen copy of the gay Guiness ad which was never aired, and which is probably the best gay commercial ever made.)

But first, the ad for Batchelor's Wonderful Peas:

And In Westminster lately one sees

That scaffolding all 'round Big Ben is a sight

But whatever it is that they do at that height

You can be sure that the time's always right

For those Batchelor's wonderful peas

CommercialCloset (now part of GLAAD) had this to say about the Guinnes ad:

Artfully shot with the help of maverick California-based British producer Tony Kaye, the UK tabloid press widely reported the planned ad before it aired, to much scandal. Pubs and consumers were shocked that the traditional brand would air a gay ad.

     Fearing greater backlash by straight consumers, the TV spot was ultimately dropped by Guinness. Later, the company tried to deny that this spot even existed.

     "There was a desire by the agency and Guinness to have a certain ambiguity about it," Kaye told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in 1997 about the ad he created. "So that when you watch the spot, you said, 'Well are these guys gay or not?' These guys are gay -- the storytelling, to me, needed him to give the other guy a little peck on the cheek."

     When asked why the company would deny the existence of the ad he shot, Kaye offered, "Most of them have the vision of a dead rat. I think it was charming and it was very funny and would sell a hell of a lot of beer."

     It is deeply unfortunate that the spot never aired, as it regularly gets standing ovations at live Commercial Closet screenings to gay audiences.

Worcester, MA bishop stops commencement speech by Ted Kennedy's widow

McManus (Diocese photo)

Worcester Bishop Robert McManus has successfully pressured Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts to cancel a commencement speech by Vicki Kennedy, widow of the late senator from Massachusetts.
     The school issued a statement in which it said,  "As a small, Catholic college that relies heavily on the good will of its relationship with the bishop and the larger Catholic community, its options are limited."
     Kennedy’s widow said in her own statement that she was “disheartened” by the decision.

“I hold no public office nor am I a candidate for public office. I have not met Bishop McManus nor has he been willing to meet with me to discuss his objections. He has not consulted with my pastor to learn more about me or my faith. Yet by objecting to my appearance at Anna -Maria College, he has made a judgment about my worthiness as a Catholic,”

McManus' Diocese spokesman, Ray Delisle, explained McManus' interference by referring to an eight-year-old statement by the U.S. Conference of Bishops, in which the bishops said "Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles." Presumably this refers to Vickie Kennedy's support of Planned Parenthood and marriage equality, now the law in Massachusetts.

Dominica arrests of Celebrity Summit gay cruise passengers: incriminating photo

This is why you can't always jump to conclusions. Yeah, Dominica is homophobic (although not nearly so much as Jamaica, to which gay North Americans should never venture) but as a photo published yesterday in Queerty shows, happy couple John Hart and Dennis Mayer, fined in court earlier this month, stepped way off the curb. Geez.
(Via JMG.)

HRC: Mitt Romney funded National Organization for Marriage through obscure Alabama PAC

From the Human Rights Campaign:

Financial documents obtained by HRC reveal that Mitt Romney donated $10,000 to the National Organization for Marriage in 2008 – essentially funding NOM’s strategy of using racial division and unfounded scare tactics to attack LGBT equality, at the same time that NOM was fighting for Prop 8 in California.

     The money came via Romney’s “Free and Strong America” PAC during a time when NOM was heavily engaged in passing Proposition 8
     HRC reviewed copies of Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC’s filings with the Federal Election Commission – and no contribution to NOM was disclosed in those documents. The filings are available from the FEC. But, HRC did discover an Alabama-based “Free and Strong America” PAC that in 2008 does disclose the $10,000 contribution to NOM.

And no respect, no respect...

Former Jay Leno gag writer Brad Dickson wrote about a stolen vehicle and a robbery at the same Lincoln Airport rental car agency in his Wednesday Omaha World-Herald "Breaking Brad" column:

You know the best thing about stealing something at the Lincoln Airport?  No witnesses.

Fred Karger vs. Maggie Gallagher on MSNBC live

GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger was the first person to really look into the secretive finances and lack of adequate financial disclosure by NOM.
     The best part of the video is when Gallagher attempts to explain NOM's strategy of recruiting "non-cognitive elites" (translation: beauty queens like NOM's airhead flameout Carrie Prejean and football players) and only digs herself in deeper. "Whether you're smart people like Professor Robbie George or impressive athletes like David Tyree."







(Via EQUALITYMATTERS)

Lloyd Guerrero describes homophobic cane attack by grandmother of his roommate

(Video may take a few seconds to load.)

(Via Towleroad)

Paul McCartney's new release, 'My Valentine': a video tailor-made for NPR

AKSARBENT listened to Teri Gross' Fresh Aire interview with Paul McCartney yesterday and we really like the song McCartney was promoting better than anything he's done in years. But the video... ugh. Do a 1/2-performance 1/2-concept video and hire some actors, Sir Paul. Spend some of your vast hoard.

DNC rips GOP budget

(Via JMG)

Hy-Vee bows to pressure from Iowa Gov. Branstad and Ag Sec'y Vilsack; will keep selling 'pink slime' to its customers; McDonalds, Kroger (Baker's) will not

Watch here.

Michelle Malkin website admits publishing phony pic of Trayvon Martin; Fox News Queen of Mean busted by tweet sent by Eric Boehlert of Media Matters