10 reasons for Nebraskans to caucus for Bernie Sanders

Via Daily Nebraskan live stream

Source. And a bonus: not mentioned below is the fact that Sanders (as he emphatically stated in Lincoln yesterday before Bold Nebraska's Jane Kleeb joined him on stage at the Lied Center) has been against the Keystone XL pipeline "since day one."

1. Bernie Sanders is the only presidential candidate with the foresight to vote against the 2003 Iraq war.
2. Bernie Sanders is the only presidential candidate with the courage to vote against the Patriot Act that legalized massive government spying when it was proposed shortly after 9/11
3. Bernie Sanders is the only major party presidential who doesn’t get big money from billionaires and corporations — he raised $3 million in four days from and 99.4% of these donations were less than $250.
4. Bernie Sanders is the only presidential candidate who thinks the problem of big money in politics is so serious that we should amend the Constitution to stop corporations and billionaires from buying elections.
5. Bernie Sanders is the only major party candidate who supports making tuition at public college and universities free.
6. Bernie Sanders is the only major party presidential candidate opposed to every job-killing free trade measure, from the North American Free Trade Agreement to the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership.
7. Bernie Sanders is the only major party presidential candidate with a plan to prevent future taxpayer bailouts to Wall Street banks that are “Too Big To Fail” — “Too Big To Fail” is too big to exist.
8. Bernie Sanders is the only major party presidential candidate who believes that access to health care is a right no matter how much money you have.
9. Bernie Sanders is the only major party presidential candidate who has never run a negative ad against an opponent.
10. Bernie Sanders is the only major party presidential candidate with bi-partisan appeal; he has a track record of winning significant support among Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters.

Here's H.A. Goodman's list, published in the Huffington Post. He had more to say in addition to his list, so click the link.

1. The Iraq War. Sanders was on the right side of history. Bernie Sanders voted against the Iraq War, using the same intelligence reports as Clinton and Bush. He also foreshadowed the dire consequences of Iraq. In contrast, Hillary Clinton voted for Iraq and now calls her vote a "mistake."
In 2005, Senator Clinton even said the "insurgency is failing" after a visit to Iraq.
I want President Bernie Sanders, who was recently given the Congressional Award by the VFW and stated on CNN that "I'll be damned" if he sends more Americans back to the Middle East as president.
Mass shootings are happening under President Obama, so gun violence can only be solved by Congress, not the president. However, Senators can't send troops abroad unilaterally, but a president can bomb anywhere and deploy troops at will, without Congressional approval. The AUMF gives the president a certain time period to engage in war and send troops anywhere, without Congressional approval.
Regardless of her neoconservative outlook on war and foreign policy, certain "Facebook Liberals" who hate Bush but love Hillary also forget that Clinton and Bush aren't very different in terms of foreign policy.
As Jacob Heilbrunn writes in The New York Times, "It's easy to imagine Mrs. Clinton's making room for the neocons in her administration."
President Obama just sent Americans to Syria, and might even send more American soldiers in the near future. There's no doubt President Hillary Clinton would send more Americans to the Middle East.
I'm not certain we need a president who jokes, "We came, we saw, he died," and then helps usher a devastating civil war in Libya with her decision to oust a dictator.
You can hear Secretary of State Clinton utter the words in this CBS News segment.
2. The Keystone XL Pipeline. Bernie Sanders has always been against Keystone XL. Keystone XL may threaten water acquirers that irrigate much of the U.S. We know President Sanders will continue President Obama's vetoes of Keystone XL. Clinton was once inclined to support Keystone. She has now evolved, along with a number of other issues. I simply do not trust President Clinton to veto Keystone legislation.
3. Euphemisms. Bernie Sanders never uses euphemisms. I trust Bernie because he speaks clearly; English is a means to communicate, not shield from criticism. Clinton, on the other hand, lives by euphemism and I explain why Orwell would vote for Bernie Sanders in a recent YouTube segment. From a "witch hunt" to wiping a server used out of "convenience" with a "cloth," too many words are used to hide the truth.
4. One candidate is the Charles Darwin of politics. The other is Bernie Sanders. Clinton always evolves; usually following Bernie's lead on issues. I wouldn't sign a contract with an "evolving" clause, nor would I want a president who continually evolves based upon reasons unknown to the average voter.
5. Presidential powers. On war and foreign policy, I want a Democrat, not a Republican. I explain this viewpoint in a recent article. Sanders is the Democrat on foreign policy, while Clinton is another Republican in 2016.
6. The TPP. Sanders has always been against the TPP. Clinton supported it 45 times, but now says she's against it. As POLITIFACT states, "It's up to voters to decide how they feel about her changed stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but we rate Clinton's reversal as a Full Flop."
7. Clinton's 3:00 a.m. ad and Racism. Bernie Sanders has a comprehensive racial justice platform. Clinton's 3:00 a.m. ad in 2008 had a "racist sub-message" according to one Harvard sociologist.
8. I want a Democrat in the White House. I don't want a moderate Republican on Wall Street, or a neocon pertaining to war.
9. The DNC needs to end its fear of being too progressive. I'll only vote for Sanders because progressive politics are mainstream. This isn't 1972 and Nixon is no longer with us, unless you equate Clinton to Richard Nixon.
10. Bernie Sanders is a "once in a lifetime candidate." Clinton represents establishment politics. If you're not voting for Sanders in 2016, don't ever again complain about Wall Street, perpetual wars, or money in politics.

China bans depiction of gays on TV as its richest tycoon becomes biggest U.S. theatre operator — and owner of "Batman" studio

Chinese censors have banned TV story lines about gay relationships. Directives on "vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content are now posted on the website of the China Television Drama Production Industry Association.

     The popular same-sex themed show, "Addicted Heroin" (right) was yanked from video streaming websites in China although it can still be viewed on YouTube unless you live in China, where it is blocked.

     The edict:

"No television drama shall show abnormal sexual relationships and behaviors, such as incest, same-sex relationships, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and so on," the regulations state.

     China's richest man, Wang Jianlin, is already the largest operator of U.S. movie theatres, having acquired AMC Entertainment Holdings (5426 screens) in 2012 and recently, Carmike (2954 screens).
     He has also agreed to acquire Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion. Legenday made Jurassic World, Interstellar, the Batman series and The Hangover.

Twitter skirmish: LeavenworthSt vs. Lincoln Journal-Star's Zach Pluhacek

We look at LeavenworthSt even less than we did before Jerry Kratochvil referred to John Oliver as a "poofter" (Oliver is straight-married). But it was hard to miss today's twitter skirmish between Kratochvil and Zach Pluhacek (Sweet Jesus please deliver this atheist from Surname Hell.)
     Zach distinguished himself as a "real journalist" and Jerry accused him of publishing "Hillary propaganda."
Here's the exchange. (Give it a few seconds to load completely.

NYC Mayor ends his boycott of St. Pat's parade

Photo: Wikipedia

The Associated Press reports that New York City Mayor

Bill De Blasio, has revealed that he will, for the first time, participate in the St. Patrick's Day parade along Fifth Avenue March 17th.

     He skipped the parade in 2014, when no gay groups were allowed to openly march, and he skipped again last year, when only one small lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group was permitted.

     "The St. Patrick's Day Parade is a New York City tradition, but for years Irish LGBT New Yorkers could not show their pride," de Blasio told the AP a day ahead of a planned formal announcement. "Finally, they can celebrate their heritage by marching in a parade that now represents progress and equality."

Haverhill, MA brother of Cops soundman shot dead on camera by Omaha police, is suing

Bryce Dion, Cops soundman

The brother of the soundman for TV's Cops reality show, shot to death on camera last August by Omaha Police during an air gun robbery of a Wendy's, has, with his family, filed a wrongful death suit.
     The brother of Trevor Dion, of Haverhill, MA, was Bryce Dion, who was shot in the armhole of a bulletproof vest on the North side of Dodge Street across from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He died in 20 minutes. The perp was also shot to death. Police bullets were retrieved from the interior of a tanning salon, open at the time, in the next block.
     From the Omaha World-Herald:

     The officer who fatally shot Dion arrived at the scene after the TV crew and first-responding officers, according to the lawsuit.
     "It is not known whether the newly arriving officer was informed that the first officers at the scene were accompanied by a television filming crew deployed in strategic locations to film events as they occurred," the lawsuit said.
     Three officers involved were placed on leave while an investigation was conducted and returned to work about three weeks later when Dion's shooting was determined to have been an unforeseeable accident.
     The lawsuit also challenges a state law that caps damages against government entities at $1 million, saying it's unconstitutional and that the family seeks more than the cap allows.
     Trevor Dion's attorney, David Domina of Omaha, said Dion and his parents decided to sue after the city ignored a tort claim filed last year.

      KETV has published a link to the 11-page suit.
     AKSARBENT visited the crime scene last August and counted 12 bullet holes near the Wendy's vestibule. The World-Herald said police fired 30 times.

Background:
     The ride-along happened because the Omaha Police Department was trying to rehabilitate its reputation after the Police Union posted a child "thug" video meant to generate sympathy for the difficulties of Omaha police. Instead it inspired contempt.
     The Kid Thug video was itself an attempt to counteract another viral video which put the Omaha police in a bad light nationally after they stormed a house over parking infractions, knocking over a wheelchair-bound woman in their pursuit of the cellphone used to record them.
     They got it and destroyed (or hid) its memory card, but missed another video surreptitiously taken from the second story window of the house across the street.
     The Cops ride-along PR backfired even more spectacularly than the others.
     The Omaha Police Department's killing of Dion was covered by the L.A. Times, TMZ, The New York Times, NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC, as well as hundreds of other news outlets the world over.

Microsoft Corporation now taunting users with live bugs in TV ads

Is this real life? Is the world's biggest software company so tone deaf that it's running ads with the following imagery:

No kids, the above screencap is NOT from the Onion, though they're probably kicking themselves. Here's Microsoft's actual ad. And below is the first of what are sure to be many parodies:

Unexpected Apple support from former CIA/NSA chief: FBI's request for backdoor 'harms American safety and security'

On Tuesday, protesters in 30 American cities demonstrated against the FBI's attempts to force Apple to break the security it has built into iPhones. From the The New York Daily News:

     Even retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of both the CIA and the NSA, has questioned whether the FBI is overreaching.
      “(FBI director) Jim (Comey) would like a backdoor available to American law enforcement in all devices globally,” Hayden told USA Today. “And, frankly, I think on balance that actually harms American safety and security, even though it might make Jim’s job a bit easier in some specific circumstances.”

NE Sen. turns tables on antiLGBT law backers; wants faith-based adoption agencies investigated for bias

Democrat State Senator Adam Morfield of Lincoln wants backers of antiLGBT adoption bill, LB975, to be investigated for violation of President George W. Bush's 2002 order prohibiting discrimination in adoption. The antiLGBT Nebraska Family Alliance says that order only applies to beneficiaries of adoption agencies and that they are free to kick prospective parents who don't meet religious or sexual orientation litmus tests to the curLin

The Lincoln Journal-Star has more:

     A state senator from Lincoln is calling for an investigation into whether faith-based adoption agencies in Nebraska are violating federal law by discriminating against potential adoptive or foster parents based on religion.
     The move by Sen. Adam Morfeld comes after three Nebraska child placing agencies said they would refuse to work with families who are not active in their local churches. 
     "All of these admissions raise serious questions about whether these contractors are in violation of state law, federal law and executive orders," Morfeld wrote Monday in a letter to Courtney Phillips, CEO of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
     Morfeld said he plans to notify the federal government of his concerns as well.
The three agencies are supporting a measure (LB975) by Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward which would protect them from adverse action by the state — including denials of funding — if they decline to serve certain people based on the agencies' sincerely held religious beliefs.

     We found an incisive comment in response to the Journal-Star's earlier story about the LB975 hearing, which starkly illuminates the scope of immunity being proposed for discriminatory private adoption agencies in Nebraska by LB975:

      Morfield, a staunch supporter of LGBT rights, will try again to pass LB586, an antiLGBT bias measure he had to table last year. During that legislative session, he had a heated exchange with an LGBT rights opponent during a hearing for LB647, a bill giving LGBTs more rights in state adoptions:

Trump tweets veiled threat against family of Nebraska Governor

Marlene Ricketts, who lives in Nebraska, is the wife of TD Ameritrade founder and billionaire Joe Ricketts, who lives in Wyoming. She has contributed millions to a SuperPac which excoriated Trump in Iowa and probably contributed to his loss. After Trump found out, he tweeted this, misspelling the family's name:

      The Ricketts family is, except for lawyer and gay activist daughter Laura, solidly and actively Republican. A son, Pete, is the governor of Nebraska and has been brazenly trying to illegally import death penalty drugs into the state. He and his father are the principle backers of a referendum to bring back the death penalty following the Unicameral's override of Ricketts' veto of its abolition of capital punishment.

Antigay KS Sec'y of State says League of Women Voters are ACLU's "fellow Communists"

Kris Kobach, KS Secretary of State, exposer of rampant
Communism in the League of Women Voters, and graduate
of Harvard and Yale universities.

AKSARBENT wrote about antigay Republican Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in January of 2015 when he  turned up in Lincoln to lobby for a GOP voter suppression bill (later blocked), sold in the guise of Voter ID legislation to help solve the nonexistent problem of fraudulent voting. (Here's Kobach's favorite voter disenfranchisement software.)
     Last weekend at a Kansas GOP state convention, Koback went off on the ACLU and all their Communist fellas at the League of Women voters because both groups (and others) are suing over the proof-of-citizenship voting law he championed in 2011.
     Talking Points Memo adds:

     The ACLU filed a separate lawsuit against Kansas' requirement that residents present proof of citizenship to register to vote. The lawsuit also challenges the state's plans to remove 30,000 voters from the registration roles because they did not provide proof of citizenship during a required 90-day period.
     The Department of Justice indicated that it will side with voting rights groups when the agency on Monday filed a brief arguing that the EAC's decision should be temporarily blocked while the courts assess the case.

Here's what the Lawrence Journal-World said Kobach said:

"The ACLU and their fellow communist friends, the League of Women Voters — you can quote me on that, the communist League of Women Voters — the ACLU and the communist League of Women Voters sued."

Tea Party Senator reads mean tweets from Trump Supporters

Senator Ben Sasse is a freshman, antigay, Tea Party favorite from Nebraska who lambasted Donald Trump recently in a series of twitter fusillades, eliciting some pushback from The Donald's fanboys and girls.



Before his election, some folks in Nebraska had a lot of fun saying Senator Sasse's name.

Hearing on LB975, NE bill to reward religious anti-LGBT bias with tax subsidies; Chambers: 'It's not your job to protect freedom of religion. It's your job to protect the welfare of children.'

The New Civil Rights Movement wrote about LB975 last month:

Via Ballotpedia

     Republican State Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward, 64, recently introduced LB 975, a bill that would allow adoption agencies to refuse to place children in the homes of qualified LGBT parents, while preventing the state from taking away any agency's funding or limiting its contracts. All the agency would have to do is claim they refused a qualified couple based on the agency's "religious objection."
     The anti-gay bill is cleverly named the “Welfare Services Preservation Act” as a way to disguise the fact that the bill’s sole purpose is to discriminate against LGBT families. 

Watch KETV's hearing coverage here

     Yesterday the bill had a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee and Sen. Ernie Chambers was fit to be tied (skip to the 1:14 mark in the video link.)
     Mark Kolterman, the bill's sponsor, is apparently quite offended that some people are outraged by his attempt to guarantee that private agencies practicing discrimination should continue to get public money from Nebraska taxpayers:

     Despite all this I have received a number of attacks on my character. This saddens me for a number of reasons. First, that anyone would refer to me as “homophobic” and that my legislation “is a violation of human rights and also an indication of [my] lack of understanding among [my] constituents” is highly offensive. I have close friends and family who identify as members of the LGBT community. In fact, I have discussed this bill with some of those friends and family from District 24. One particular close friend of mine who is openly gay, after understanding the true intent of the bill, supports the idea for people to be able to ensure their religious liberty.
     Additionally, if one’s intent is to stop hateful and hurtful behavior, it is beyond reason to engage in hateful and hurtful dialogue. I realize the issue of discrimination against the LGBT community can be a heated one. Although I assure that my intent is not to single out any group of people, I understand the objections before me. It is unfortunate that reasonable people in the midst of a heated issue get caught in the crossfire of unreasonable dialogue. If those who take issue with LB975 took the time to get to know me, I think they would realize that there isn’t a hateful or homophobic bone in my body.

     Yeah, whatever. Below, Sen. Kolterman portrays as victims the religious agencies practicing discrimination  — the same religious adoption agencies who are also playing a placement extortion game with strapped state governments — subsidize us and exempt us from the rules everyone else must play by, or we'll dump the kids on you and walk away:

     No agency should be forced to choose between abandoning their faith or abandoning the children and parents they serve. Unfortunately, in the states of Massachusetts and Illinois, and in the District of Columbia, faith-based agencies have been forced to make that exact choice.

     Want to know what really happened in Massachusetts, uncolored by Sen. Kolterman's disingenuous spin in the previous paragraph? Read the following by Laura Kiritsy.
     Pay particular attention to this: the bishops simply elected to shut down Catholic Charities of Boston’s adoption services – despite a unanimous vote by the agency’s 42-member board to continue facilitating adoptions by gay people.
     Remember that the next time you hear Senator Kolterman complain about being misunderstood, that he isn't really homophobic that Massachusetts forced Catholic Charities out of the adoption business, yada yada yada and then decide whether he's just playing anyone he thinks can be had.

---

     ...Lastly, this is an issue I followed closely not for just professional reasons – I was on staff at the LGBT newspaper Bay Windows when the saga unfolded – but deeply personal ones. I and my four siblings were all adopted through Catholic Charities, so I know firsthand the immeasurable value of their good work. In 2006 I wrote an essay about my own experience and the impact of the agency’s decision to quit the adoption business.
     So here’s a little reality check. Catholic Charities of Boston was not forced out of the adoption business... The organization voluntarily ceased doing adoptions after the state’s four Catholic Bishops got wind that gay parents had been adopting kids through Catholic Charities from an October 2005 Boston Globe story. Not surprisingly, all of this happened as the Massachusetts Legislature was wrestling with whether to put an anti-gay marriage amendment on the statewide ballot, which the local Catholic hierarchy supported wholeheartedly.
     The Globe reported that over the course of about two decades, Catholic Charities placed 13 children with gay parents, out of about 720 adoptions they facilitated during those years. For the record, those 13 children were considered hard to place with adoptive parents because they were older or had physical or emotional difficulties, meaning had they not found loving parents who happened to be gay, they’d likely not have parents. Catholic Charities was accepting state funds to provide adoption services and was thus bound by the state’s gay-inclusive anti-discrimination law not to reject qualified adoptive parents based on sexual orientation...
     The Globe also reported that though Catholic Charities President Bryan Hehir didn’t love the idea of placing children with same-sex couples, he saw it as “a legal accommodation in the name of a greater social good.” The story later states that, “Hehir said that to his knowledge, his agency has never sought an exemption from the nondiscrimination language.”
      At least not until the four bishops, led by Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, decided that Catholic Charities should be exempt from the state’s non-discrimination law, a move that was detailed in a March 11, 2006 Globe article about Catholic Charities decision to stop doing adoptions. When that proved to be a non-starter on Beacon Hill, the bishops simply elected to shut down Catholic Charities of Boston’s adoption services – despite a unanimous vote by the agency’s 42-member board to continue facilitating adoptions by gay people. As the Globe reported on March 11, Hehir and Catholic Charities board president Jeffrey Kaneb said the decision stemmed from their inability “to reconcile church teaching that placement of children in gay homes is “immoral” with Massachusetts law prohibiting discrimination against gays.”

Panasonic extends benefits to gay couples, bars LGBT discrimination among its 250,000 worldwide employees

The change will happen this April.

According to the Mainichi Shinbun (click English Version), the company has received numerous requests for this policy change from employees in addition to facing pressure as an Olympics sponsor — the Olympics Charter forbids discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on sexual orientation.

AKSARBENT was one of Panasonic's 2013 critics:

     Today, Towleroad published a post based on Buzzfeed's survey of the reaction of Olympic sponsors to the threats Russia has made to arrest gay athletes and the International Olympic Committee's threats to disqualify athletes who self-identify as gay, which it evidently considers a political "statement."
     Olympic "marquee sponsor" Panasonic's statement on the controversy was that the company “has no involvement in, and is not in a position to comment on political and social matters related to the Olympic Games or specific governments in any country or region.”
     Contrast Panasonic's "Go screw yourselves — not only won't we defend you, we won't acknowledge that homos exist" attitude with GE's public statement: “...we expect the IOC to uphold human rights in every aspect of the Games.”
     Remember that when you go camera shopping, boys and girls.

     This is wonderful news, as Pansonic's GH line (current model: GH4) includes the best moderately priced video-capable cameras sold in this country in the last several years.
     They regularly garner better reviews for their video quality than Nikon and Canon DSLRs which cost three or more times the purchase price of the Panasonics.
     Below is video from a discontinued GH2. You really can't buy a better video-capable digital camera with a decent-sized sensor for anything close to the money, and now you can do so from a company which has (finally) committed to do right by its gay employees.



     Sometimes the sound in these Lumix wonders eclipses even the exemplary video:



Below, bathtub buddies Chris and Jordan reviewed the GH4, which they really, really like.

PBS reveals Lord Grantham's Downton Abbey codeword for Tom's nipples

From the Downton Abbey podcast in which Allen Leech (Tom Branson) talks about fellow prankster Hugh Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham:

Hugh is also a big prankster but Hugh does something in scenes that absolutely throws you where he’ll walk up to you and say, “Of course in Downton,” and then he’ll say this word means something else. And he came up to me in one scene and he said, “Of course in Downton, politics means nipples,” and he walked away. And I was like, “What? I don’t-- what?” And then we said, “And action.” And he walks up to me and he goes, “Branson, Sybil tells me your politics are hardening.”
     So that was the end of that day of filming for me. So Downtonisms has become a great a game, at the dinner table especially.
     Jace: Speaking of mischief: True or false, did you once drunkenly break into Highclere Castle after a night out with Rob James Collier?
     Allen: There’s a couple of disclaimers here. I may have got very drunk on a cider called Old Rosy, which is 7%. And as myself and Rob say, “Old Rosie’s a cruel mistress.”
     I left Rob’s hotel and got in a car to go back to mine but it was a terrible foggy night. The taxi dropped me off at my hotel which was all closed up because I had forgotten to check in. So in my wonderfully inebriated wisdom, I thought I would walk back to Highclere and sleep in my trailer. It was a 2 and a half hour walk in the fog. I had to climb the gates and I turned into MacGyver; I used my bag anyway as some kind of footrest, got over...I did. So I technically broke into the grounds, I did not break into the house, and I slept in one of the trailers. It was-- By the time I got there I think it was about 5 AM and we were on set at 7:30. So I didn’t look my best that day. I gave hair and makeup a bit of a challenge. And Rob James Collier, it’s his fault because he refused to wake up, he didn’t answer his phone and if he had I could have gone back to his hotel and had a good night’s sleep. So, yeah, it’s actually all Rob’s fault.
     Jace: It usually is Thomas’ fault.
     Allen: It is! It is! Yeah. Rob is very, very mischievous.

Pro basketball players showing more leg as they inch away from baggy shorts

Laker Jerry West (right), the unacknowledged model for the NBA's logo, wore high, tight shorts which gave way in the 90s to 20 years of ultra-baggy, loose-fitting replacements.
     Now the worm has turned; the Washington Post reports that younger players are rolling up waistbands or putting on newer, briefer styles.
     Interestingly, there are on-court disadvantages to wearing shorts which seemingly allow more freedom of movement but often don't:

“Those uniforms were never built for the athlete’s body,” said Nguyen, who added he believes basketball shorts will never grow as baggy as they once were. “It was almost contrary. If you see that from an aerodynamic perspective, those uniforms aren’t really conducive. It’s not aerodynamic at all. And now the fashion, for the last few years, really, has been going to the slim[-fitted]. It’s suiting. It’s jeans. Even for hip-hop guys.”
     Some players attest to making the switch for practical reasons. In 2011, Will Cummings, then a freshman guard at Temple, began rolling up his extra-large shorts simply because they were too big on him. They settled above his knee, and he quickly grew accustomed to them. The following year, he downsized to a large but still rolled up his shorts.
     “I really was just thinking, ‘Man, if I’m able to do a crossover through my legs without the ball hitting my shorts, I’m going to keep it like this,’ “ said Cummings, who now plays for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the D-League, the NBA’s minor league. “It didn’t even matter. I was just trying to get my shorts shorter so I can play.”

On Today: Omaha lawyer Clete Blakeman talks about newfound social media status as Superbowl 50's "#hotref"

Storycorps interview revealed a gay secret separating father from son

Andy Goodling didn't tell his father, Scott, that Andy's friend, Bryan, was really his boyfriend until after Bryan died. Storycorps interviewed both Goodlings in a piece broadcast nationally by PBS.
      The founder of Storycorps, a traveling project that records personal reminiscences for posterity, is Dave Isay, who won 2015's TED Prize of $1,000,000.
     During his prizewinning talk (which you may view here), Isay talked about his gay father's coming out and about the 1969 Stonewall incident in which gay bar patrons revolted against being pawns in payoff negotiations between the NYPD and the mafia owners of gay bars in the big Apple.
     (In San Francisco, because of the formation of the Tavern Guild, which provided a united front against police harassment of gay bars, such a flash point never occurred.)
     Storycorps has a subproject, OutLoad, to specifically document LGBTQI stories of those who lived before Stonewall. It is here: https://storycorps.org/outloud/

WGN scores again! 2nd shirtless jogger video goes viral for Chicago station

Back in 2013 a sportscaster for Chicago's WGN, Pat Tomasulo, did a snarky video about male joggers running gratuitously shirtless ("Gratuitous"is an adjective AKSARBENT simply cannot reconcile with the phrase "shirtless male jogger.")
     Anyway, here's that report, complete with Tomasulo's mock sexual harassment of various dudes with his impressive repertoire of repurposed construction worker come-ons:



     The other day another WGN did it again.
     Sunday, reporter Tahman Bradley caught up with shirtless Coloradoan Ethan Renoe jogging along Lake Michigan in a global-warming adjusted December night in Illinois. The report went viral, so WGN coaxed a unseemly cooperative Renoe into its studios where Pat Tomasulo and Paul Konrad both got a crack at him. Renoe, a self-described Christian evangelical virgin who lives with his parents, is still looking for the right girl but is willing in the mean time to tease horny babes and cougars by shucking his shirt to protect it from a light rain.
      AKSARBENT thinks he should get out of his 'rents house! Maybe Tim Tebow could use a stone fox fishing buddy to help him reel in the girls and then help throw them back in the water!



     If you've read this far, your reward is the below video of Pat Tomasulo in drag. This kind of thing never happens on Omaha TV where sportscasters are such squaresville wusses.

60 Minutes: Gay U.S. Drug Czar Botticelli, who used to be a drunk, isn't crazy about marijuana legalization

Michael Botticelli, President Obama's new Director of National Drug Control Policy  used to be a drunk, but has been sober 27 years.
     He hates the sobriquet "drug czar."
     Neither is he a fan of marijuana legalization and thinks that industry, with its "Buddy" mascot, is copying Big Tobacco's Joe Camel playbook.
     Botticelli also is disenchanted with what the U.S. has to show for its 40-year, trillion dollar war on drugs.
     "We can't arrest and incarcerate addiction out of people. Not only do I think it's really inhumane, but it's ineffective and it cost us billions upon billions of dollars to keep doing this," he told 60 Minutes.
     In Massachusetts as Director of Substance Abuse Services, he started a high school for teens in recovery and expanded drug courts, where offenders can choose treatment over jail and get their charges dropped.
     Botticelli told CBS's Scott Pelley that he became comfortable talking about being a gay man before he was comfortable talking about being an alcoholic.

View More: Newsmakers News|60 Minutes News|Live News|More News Videos

Exclusive: 13 NE counties use ripoff jail telco busted by hacker for illegally recorded atty-client calls

Here's Securus's game: It and other price-gouging phone companies collude with jail and prison authorities throughout the U.S. to overcharge inmates and their families for phone calls and "in-person" video conferencing even when visitors travel to the jail.

     Since mid-2014, three separate lawsuits have been filed against Securus, directly pertaining to its practice of requiring jails to eliminate in-person visits in favor of video visits. The video visits cost as much as $20 for a 20-minute video call -- and the jails typically receive a commission on each call.
     In a statement on Monday, Securus chief executive Richard Smith said the company has amended its contract language so that it will no longer obligate jails to remove “person-to-person contact” in favor of its video technology.

     Securus shares the revenue with generous kickbacks to keep greedy county sheriffs happy and under contract. The legalized swindle has gotten so bad that in October the Obama Administration convinced the FCC to cap the cost of phone calls between prisoners and their families, which can cost as much as $14 per minute.
     But as one outrageous action by Securus was nullified by the government, another huge one has come to light. On November 11, an enormous cache of phone records was leaked by a hacker to The Intercept, revealing a major breach of security:

     The materials — leaked via SecureDrop by an anonymous hacker who believes that Securus is violating the constitutional rights of inmates — comprise over 70 million records of phone calls, placed by prisoners to at least 37 states, in addition to links to downloadable recordings of the calls. The calls span a nearly two-and-a-half year period, beginning in December 2011 and ending in the spring of 2014.
     Particularly notable within the vast trove of phone records are what appear to be at least 14,000 recorded conversations between inmates and attorneys, a strong indication that at least some of the recordings are likely confidential and privileged legal communications — calls that never should have been recorded in the first place. The recording of legally protected attorney-client communications — and the storage of those recordings — potentially offends constitutional protections, including the right to effective assistance of counsel and of access to the courts.
     “This may be the most massive breach of the attorney-client privilege in modern U.S. history, and that’s certainly something to be concerned about,” said David Fathi, director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “A lot of prisoner rights are limited because of their conviction and incarceration, but their protection by the attorney-client privilege is not.”

     To make matters worse, the 14,000 calls in Securus's database between lawyers and prisoners may not be the complete extent of Securus's likely illegal behavior. Those calls were identified by the hacker by cross referencing lists of call records kept by Securus and lists of law firms and do not include calls made to lawyers on their personal cell phones.

    AKSARBENT has discovered, via Securus's own web site, that 13 county jails in Nebraska have phone services contracts with the dubious firm. (Securus is apparently so sloppy that the Dakota County Jail is listed twice on its website.)
     Any of the recorded (or monitored) conversations which took place between an inmate at those 13 Nebraska facilities and is documented in the hacked records could be the basis of a suit by the ACLU or anyone else on behalf of a prisoner or attorney with standing.
      All of which could prove to be very expensive to taxpayers in the jurisdictions of quick-buck Nebraska county sheriffs who play ball with a predatory corporation at the expense of a captive audience of impoverished inmates and their families.

SNL rips Houston haters for slurring transgenders to torpedo LGBT rights bill

Days after Houston voters overwhelmingly repealed that city's LGBT protections, 77% of Dallas voters approved such protection. Convention planners should take note.

Three GOP Presidential Candidates attended Hy-Vee Hall 'Kill the gays' Religious Liberty confab in Iowa

The headline is not click bait exaggeration. Three pastors in attendance have a history of endorsing capital punishment of LGBTs and the event's host, Pastor Kevin Swanson, doubled down on his threats last weekend in the video below, obtained by Right Wing Watch and telecast on the Rachel Maddow Show (Skip to the six minute time mark.)

Screencap of Pastor Phillip Kayser's web site, promoting
his disturbing rhetoric at Omaha's "beautiful Legacy Hall"

     One of the other religious hustlers who spoke was Pastor Phillip Kayser, another kill-the-gays supporter who used to hold forth at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Alumni Center and now shares his lethal vitriol at Bill and Jan Janzen's Legacy Hall at 6104 Irvington Road in Omaha (402-573-8864.)
     Legacy Hall also solicits wedding receptions, so if you and your spouse-to-be really, really despise homos, consider yourself informed of a primo, local, hater-friendly venue at which to celebrate your forthcoming nuptials.
     Below, at last weekend's Des Moines conference, Kayser engaged in some more class slander, comparing homosexuality to murder and issuing a sinister warning that this "cannot be ignored."
     Three GOP candidates, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz, attended the conference. When asked by ABCs Jake Tapper about Kevin Swanson's violent rhetoric, Cruz claimed (or feigned) ignorance about what Swanson "did or didn't" say.



     Below: Omahans protesting UNO's hosting of Pastor Kayser in 2012.
     When pressed, UNO disassociated itself with the actions of the UNO Alumni Center, despite the fact that UNO's logo appears on signage designating the alumni center and despite the fact that AKSARBENT's video clearly showed a UNO campus security truck guarding Kayser and his violent religious rhetoric from half a dozen protesters who were a block away, across Omaha's busiest street.


      In 2012, the Heritage Coalition, an organization of right-wing churches lobbying against the addition of LGBTs to Omaha's equal protection classes, published a roster of supporting clergy and dishonestly included Phillip Kayser among those who "condemn violence or hatred perpetrated against anyone based on their sexual preference."

Plagiarism goes transgender

Male/Male romance novelist Laura Harner, who has had published 75 books in five years spanning 7-8 genres, probably didn't think there was much overlap between "her" romantic fiction and more mainstream titles, but...

     Becky McGraw, a New York Times bestselling writer, was alerted by one of her readers about the similarities between her own novel My Kind of Trouble, in which Cassie Bellamy falls for bad boy Luke Matthews when she returns to her hometown of Bowie, Texas, and Laura Harner’s Coming Home Texas, in which Brandon Masters falls for bad boy Joe Martinez when he returns to his hometown of Goldview, Texas.
     “She emailed to ask if I’d started writing gay romance under a pen name,” said McGraw, whose editor subsequently reviewed both books, and highlighted the similarities.

Harner told The Guardian that she...

     had “made mistakes”. “I own them, and I will deal with the consequences. In transforming two M/F romance stories into an M/M genre, it appears that I may have crossed the line and violated my own code of ethics.”

I write about certain concerns related to military service for a reason; however, I am not offering that as an excuse. I just think whenever someone acts so out of character, it’s helpful to ask why.”

Harner is also accused of ripping off a hetero biker romance and changing the gender of one of the principals:

Did antigay Mets player cost NYC a World Series title?

Mets' second baseman Daniel Murphy's bat propelled his post season team into the 2015 World Series with a record seven home runs, but once there, his eighth-inning game four error let KC tie the game it went on to win — the 6th costliest fielding screw-up in Series history, wrote August Fagerstrom.

Murphy’s error, in terms of single-game win expectancy, was the most costly fielding mistake by any player in World Series history, save for Boston’s Bill Buckner... In the blink of an eye, Murphy’s error reduced the Mets’ odds of winning the World Series by 13%.

Here's what Murphy told N.J. Advance Media after gay former MLB player(and current MLB "inclusion ambassador") Billy Bean visited Mets Spring Training earlier this year:

"I disagree with his lifestyle," Murphy said. "I do disagree with the fact that Billy is a homosexual. That doesn't mean I can't still invest in him and get to know him. I don't think the fact that someone is a homosexual should completely shut the door on investing in them in a relational aspect. Getting to know him. That, I would say, you can still accept them but I do disagree with the lifestyle, 100 percent."

Heineman administration made African despot who vowed to slit throats of LGBTs a NE Navy Admiral

Above: post by Joe Jervis of JoeMyGod.com

In October of 2010, the Omaha World-Herald reported that then-governor Dave Heineman (an intractable foe of LGBT civil rights) bestowed a title on ruthless Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh. The Herald story claimed that Heineman

     ...never intended to honor [Gambian Dictator Yahya] Jammeh. Instead, a San Francisco man requested the admiralship, and Heineman's staff processed it with little scrutiny...
     Heineman has said it wouldn't be a good use of time or money to investigate each nomination, especially since the vast majority are legitimate.

Former Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman
pictured with a weasel, at left

    An Admiralship in the mythical navy of Nebraska, a landlocked state, confers authority over "seamen, tadpoles and goldfish."

NE judge slaps down antigay GOP AG, says Doug Peterson's request "defies common sense"

     Lancaster County District Judge John Colborn clarified an earlier ruling striking down the state's 1995 ban on gays and lesbian foster parents and in so doing has sharply rebuked Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, who has repeatedly squandered tax dollars by pursuing various legal maneuvers to forestall gay marriage.
     Peterson unconvincingly argued that Colborn had erred in overruling the state's LGBT ban, since the state discreetly stopped enforcing the prohibition in 2012.
     Colborn's amended order said it “defies common sense” for a government agency to adopt a new policy without rescinding or replacing a previous policy that was at odds with the new one.

Lipstick and a pig: AD Shawn Eichorst talks about Nebraska football's win/loss record so far this season

KETV actually got the Husker''s athletic director to sit down in front of its camera where he said stuff like this:

The results, sometimes, aren't always in wins and losses... I like what's going on behind the scenes... I think we've really played well, at times, throughout this season... You can't always get caught up just watching the scoreboard....

Matt Damon and JImmy Kimmel go to couples therapy

This is exquisitely funny.

Alex Lewis, Husker offensive lineman, smiles, blows kisses, says "Sorry we suck" to crowd after defeat by Illinois

This is different. No, not Big Red's downward spiral in college football, but the attitude of Alex Lewis, one of six Husker co-captains this year, who takes the game in stride (Former powerhouse Nebraska is 2-3 this season.) Coach Riley is scheduled to talk to Lewis about his behavior.
     Maybe he should talk to his assistant coaches about their behavior. At least Lewis is now only blowing kisses, which was not what he was doing two years ago:

On May 11, 2013, the former transfer from Colorado and a fellow CU teammate were involved in an altercation in Boulder, Colo., that left one man unconscious. Lewis was convicted of misdemeanor assault and sentenced to 45 days in jail, though it was delayed until last summer so he could complete his spring classes.

     The Lincoln Journal-Star is worried that Lewis's sarcastic gesture was disrespectful to Nebraska fans. (Regarding that, one can almost hear the laughter from the office of former Nebraska Coach Bo Pellini in Youngstown, Ohio.)
     The account we read, at CollegeSpun, was written by Andrew Holleran. No, not that Andrew Holleran, who wrote this novel which is being made into a movie.

Linoma Mashers, together 30 years, will appear Wednesday at the Barley St. Tavern in Omaha's fabulous Benson district

Here they are in 2010, performing "Oh, Betty!"



And here's their reggae cover of A Summer Place: